Toxicity of sediment cores from Yangtze River estuary to zebrafish (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Danio rerio</Emphasis>) embryos

Toxicity evaluation is an important segment in sediment quality monitoring in order to protect aquatic organisms and human health. The purpose of this study is to assess the toxicity of sediments from three sediment cores in Yangtze River Estuary, China, using the zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryo tests. Fertilized zebrafish eggs were exposed to both whole sediments and sediment organic extracts prepared from collected sediments, in order to provide a comprehensive and realistic insight into the bioavailable toxicity potential of the sediments. As end points, development parameters (mortality, hatching rate, and abnormality) in the developing embryos were recorded during the 96-h exposure. The results showed that some samples increased mortality, inhibited the hatching of embryos, and induced morphological abnormalities. The embryonic toxicities presented serrated changes and irregular distribution with depth, which may be related to hydrodynamic effect and unstable environmental input. However, lethal and sub-lethal effects were more significant at the sub-surface sediments (10～40 cm), which indicated that the pollution is more serious in recent decades.     

The influences of pH and ionic strength on the sorption of tylosin on goethite

As one of the widely used antibiotics in the world, the environmental risks of tylosin (TYL) received more and more attention. In order to assess its environmental fate and ecological effects accurately, it is necessary to understand the sorption properties of TYL on the soils/sediments. The sorption of TYL on goethite at different pH and ionic strength conditions were measured through a series of batch experiments and the sorption data of TYL were fitted by Freundlich and dual-mode sorption models. It was obvious that sorption was strongly dependent on pH and ionic strength. Sorption capacity of TYL increased as the pH increased and ionic strength decreased. The pH and ionic strength-dependent trends might be related with complexation between cationic/neutral TYL species and goethite. The sorption affinity of TYL on goethite decreased as ionic strength increased, which only occurred at higher TYL concentrations, suggested that inner complex might have dominated process at low concentrations and outer complex might occur at higher concentrations of TYL. Spectroscopic evidence indicated that tricarbonylamide and hydroxyl functional groups of TYL might be accounted for the sorption on mineral surfaces. The experimental data of TYL sorption could be fitted by surface complexation model (FITEQL), indicating that ≡FeOH with TYL interaction could be reasonably represented as a complex formation of a monoacid with discrete sites on goethite. The sorption mechanism of TYL might be related with surface complexation, electrostatic repulsion, and H-bounding on goethite. It should be noticed that the heterogeneous of sorption affinity of TYL on goethite at various environment to assess its environment risk.     

Influence of soil and hydrocarbon properties on the solvent extraction of high-concentration weathered petroleum from contaminated soils

Petroleum ether was used to extract petroleum hydrocarbons from soils collected from six oil fields with different history of exploratory and contamination. It was capable of fast removing 76–94 % of the total petroleum hydrocarbons including 25 alkanes (C₁₁–C₃₅) and 16 US EPA priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from soils at room temperature. The partial least squares analysis indicated that the solvent extraction efficiencies were positively correlated with soil organic matter, cation exchange capacity, moisture, pH, and sand content of soils, while negative effects were observed in the properties reflecting the molecular size (e.g., molecular weight and number of carbon atoms) and hydrophobicity (e.g., water solubility, octanol–water partition coefficient, soil organic carbon partition coefficient) of hydrocarbons. The high concentration of weathered crude oil at the order of 10⁵ mg kg^?1 in this study was demonstrated adverse for solvent extraction by providing an obvious nonaqueous phase liquid phase for hydrocarbon sinking and increasing the sequestration of soluble hydrocarbons in the insoluble oil fractions during weathering. A full picture of the mass distribution and transport mechanism of petroleum contaminants in soils will ultimately require a variety of studies to gain insights into the dynamic interactions between environmental indicator hydrocarbons and their host oil matrix.     

The adsorption process during inorganic phosphorus removal by cultured periphyton

To explain the detailed process involved in phosphorus removal by periphyton, the periphyton dominated by photoautotrophic microorganisms was employed in this study to remove inorganic phosphorus (P _i ) from wastewater, and the removal kinetics and isotherms were then evaluated for the P _i removal process. Results showed that the periphyton was capable of effectively removing P _i that could completely remove the P _i in 24 h at an initial P _i concentration of 13 mg P L^?1. Furthermore, the P _i removal process by the periphyton was dominated by adsorption at initial stage (~24 h), which involved physical mechanistic process. However, this P _i adsorption process was significantly influenced by environmental conditions. This work provides an insight into the understanding of phosphorus adsorption by periphyton or similar microbial aggregates.

微波再生载苯酚活性炭过程中再生产物分析

研究了载氮气和无载气2种条件下,微波再生载苯酚活性炭过程中再生产物的成分和苯酚随再生过程的去向分布。结果表明,无载气时,微波功率越高,再生反应器内温度越高,吸附质的高温裂解反应越彻底,再生产物以挥发性气体为主,有机质种类很少;而当微波功率较低或载氮气再生时,反应器内温度相对较低,苯酚难以被彻底分解,再生产物中含多种复杂的链状或环状有机物。此外,载氮气时,经气提、挥发而去除的苯酚量约占总吸附量的一半,再生炭上无苯酚残留,活性炭吸附性能可完全恢复乃至优化;无载气时,经挥发而去除的苯酚量只有19.9%,其余大量苯酚则在微波作用下裂解或缩合为其他物质随尾气而去除,且再生炭上仍有少量苯酚未被解吸出来。因此,前者活性炭再生的效果优于后者。     

Effects of methamidophos on the community structure,antagonism towards Rhizoctonia solani,and phlD diversity of soil Pseudomonas

A microcosm incubation study using an aquic brown soil from northeast China (a Cambisol in the UN Food and Agriculture Organization FAO Soil Taxonomy) was conducted to examine the effects of different concentrations (0, 50, 150, and 250 mg kg^?1) of methamidophos (O,S-dimethyl phosphoramidothioato) on Pseudomonas, one of the most important gram-negative bacteria in soil. Amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis (ARDRA) was performed to study the Pseudomonas community structure, an in vitro assay was made to test the antagonistic activity of isolated Pseudomonas strains against soil-borne Rhizoctonia solani, a major member of the pathogens highly related to soil-borne plant diseases, and special primer amplification and sequencing were performed to investigate the diversity of phlD, an essential gene in the biosynthesis of 2, 4-diacetylphloroglucinol (2, 4-DAPG), which has biocontrol activity in phlD ⁺isolates. With exposure to increasing methamidophos concentrations, the total number of soil Pseudomonas ARDRA patterns decreased significantly, but with less change in the same treatments over 1, 3, and 5 weeks of incubation. The number of isolated Pseudomonas strains with antagonistic activity against R. solani as well as the diversity and appearance frequency of the strains' phlD gene also decreased with increasing concentrations of methamidophos, especially at high methamidophos concentrations. Applying methamidophos could increase the risk of soil-borne plant diseases by decreasing the diversity of the soil Pseudomonas community and the amount of R. solani antagonists, particularly those with the phlD gene.     

Kinetics study of fermentative hydrogen production from liquid swine manure supplemented with glucose under controlled pH

Kinetics of H₂ production from liquid swine manure supplemented with glucose by mixed anaerobic cultures was investigated using batch experiments under four different pH conditions (4.4, 5.0, 5.6, and uncontrolled). The temperature for the experiments was controlled at 37 ± 1°C and the length of experiments varied between 50 and 120 hours, depending upon the time needed for completion of each individual experiment. The modified Gompertz model was evaluated for its suitability for describing the H₂ production potential, H₂ production rate, and substrate consumption rate for all the experiments. The results showed that the Gompertz model could adequately fit the experimental results. The effect of pH was significant on all kinetic parameters for H₂ production including yield, production rate and lag time, and the substrate utilization rate. The optimal pH was found to be 5.0, at which a maximum H₂ production rate (0.64 L H₂/h) was obtained, and deviation from the optimal pH could result in substantial reductions in H₂ production rate (0.32 L H₂/h for pH 4.0 and 0.43 L H₂/h for pH 5.6). The results also showed that if pH was not controlled for the batch fermentation process, the substrate utilization efficiency could steeply decrease from 98.8% to 33.7%.     

The Autothermal Pyrolysis of Waste Tires

Abstract

The growing amount of rubber waste, such as that from tires and cables, has resulted in serious environmental problems. Since rubber waste is not easily biodegradable even after a long period of landfill treatment, material and energy recovery is the preferable alternative to disposal. The potential offered by waste tire pyrolysis for solving both energy and waste treatment problems is widely recognized. Pyrolysis is one method of inducing thermal decomposition without using any oxidizing agent, or using such a limited supply of the agent that oxidization does not proceed to an appreciable extent. The latter may be described as autothermal pyrolysis and will be studied in the present work.

The main objective of this research was to study the operating parameters of autothermal pyrolysis of scrap tires in a laboratory-scale fluidized bed reactor with a 100-cm bed height (10 cm I.D.) and a 100-cm freeboard (25 cm I.D.). Scrap tires were pyrolyzed in a limited oxygen supply, so that the heat for pyrolysis of the scrap tires was provided by combustion of some portion of the scrap tires. The operating parameters evaluated included the effect on the pyrolysis oil products and their relative proportions of (1) the air factor (O.O7–O35); (2) the pyrolysis temperature (370–570 °C); and (3) the catalyst added (zeolite and calcium carbonate). The results show that: (1) the composition of the liquid hydrocarbon obtained is affected significantly by the air factor; (2) the higher operating temperature caused a higher yield of gasoline and diesel; (3) the yield of gasoline increased due to the catalyst zeolite added, and the yield of diesel increased due to the addition of the catalyst calcium carbonate; (4) the principal constituents of gasoline included dipentene and diprene.     

Relationships Between Nitrogen Transformation Rates and Gene Abundance in a Riparian Buffer Soil

Denitrification is a critical biogeochemical process that results in the conversion of nitrate to volatile products, and thus is a major route of nitrogen loss from terrestrial environments. Riparian buffers are an important management tool that is widely utilized to protect water from non-point source pollution. However, riparian buffers vary in their nitrate removal effectiveness, and thus there is a need for mechanistic studies to explore nitrate dynamics in buffer soils. The objectives of this study were to examine the influence of specific types of soluble organic matter on nitrate loss and nitrous oxide production rates, and to elucidate the relationships between these rates and the abundances of functional genes in a riparian buffer soil. Continuous-flow soil column experiments were performed to investigate the effect of three types of soluble organic matter (citric acid, alginic acid, and Suwannee River dissolved organic carbon) on rates of nitrate loss and nitrous oxide production. We found that nitrate loss rates increased as citric acid concentrations increased; however, rates of nitrate loss were weakly affected or not affected by the addition of the other types of organic matter. In all experiments, rates of nitrous oxide production mirrored nitrate loss rates. In addition, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was utilized to quantify the number of genes known to encode enzymes that catalyze nitrite reduction (i.e., nirS and nirK) in soil that was collected at the conclusion of column experiments. Nitrate loss and nitrous oxide production rates trended with copy numbers of both nir and 16s rDNA genes. The results suggest that low-molecular mass organic species are more effective at promoting nitrogen transformations than large biopolymers or humic substances, and also help to link genetic potential to chemical reactivity.