• Energy is needed to accelerate the biological wastewater treatment.• Electrical energy input in traditional technology is indirect and inefficient.• Direct injection of electricity can be a game changer to maximize energy efficiency.• Microbial electrochemical unit for decentralized wastewater treatment is proposed. It has been more than one century since the activated sludge process was invented. Despite its proven stability and reliability, the energy (especially the electrical energy) use in wastewater treatment should evolve to meet the increasingly urgent demand of energy efficiency. This paper discusses how the energy utilized in conventional biological wastewater treatment can be altered by switching the indirect energy input to a direct electricity injection, which is achieved by the electrode integration providing extra thermodynamic driving force to biodegradation. By using electrodes instead of oxygen as terminal electron acceptors, the electrical energy can be utilized more efficiently, and the key of direct use of electrical energy in biodegradation is the development of highly active electroactive biofilm and the increase of electron transfer between microbes and the electrode. Furthermore, the synergy of different microbial electrochemical units has additional benefit in energy and resource recovery, making wastewater treatment more sustainable. 相似文献
Journal of Polymers and the Environment - Heavy metal pollution stems from the modern industry is a severe environmental problem. In this work, a highly efficient adsorbent based on starch-graphene... 相似文献
• The NPs aggregation in the electrolyte solution is consistent with the DLVO theory.• In NaNO3 and low Ca(NO3)2, EPS alleviates the NPs aggregation by steric repulsion.• In high Ca(NO3)2, EPS accelerates the NPs aggregation by exopolysaccharide bridging.• Ag2S NPs have stronger stability compared with Cit-Ag NPs in aqueous systems. Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in activated sludge from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) could affect interactions between nanoparticles and alter their migration behavior. The influence mechanisms of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) and silver sulfide nanoparticles (Ag2S NPs) aggregated by active EPS sludge were studied in monovalent or divalent cation solutions. The aggregation behaviors of the NPs without EPS followed the Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory. The counterions aggravated the aggregation of both NPs, and the divalent cation had a strong neutralizing effect due to the decrease in electrostatic repulsive force. Through extended DLVO (EDLVO) model analysis, in NaNO3 and low-concentration Ca(NO3)2 (<10 mmol/L) solutions, EPS could alleviate the aggregation behaviors of Cit-Ag NPs and Ag2S NPs due to the enhancement of steric repulsive forces. At high concentrations of Ca(NO3)2 (10‒100 mmol/L), exopolysaccharide macromolecules could promote the aggregation of Cit-Ag NPs and Ag2S NPs by interparticle bridging. As the final transformation form of Ag NPs in water environments, Ag2S NPs had better stability, possibly due to their small van der Waals forces and their strong steric repulsive forces. It is essential to elucidate the surface mechanisms between EPS and NPs to understand the different fates of metal-based and metal-sulfide NPs in WWTP systems. 相似文献
• A Passive Aeration Ditch was developed to treat decentralized wastewater.• A model was developed to describe the process performance.• A high C/N ratio facilitates microbial growth but nitrification deteriorates.• A high salinity decreases both organic and nitrogen contaminants removal. Decentralized wastewater containing elevated salinity is an emerging threat to the local environment and sanitation in remote coastal communities. Regarding the cost and treatment efficiencies, we propose a passive aeration ditch (PAD) using non-woven polyester fabric as a feasible bubbleless aerator and biofilm carrier for wastewater treatment. Consideration has been first given to PAD’s efficacy in treating saline decentralized wastewater, and then to the impact of chemical oxygen demand-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratio and salinity on biofilm formation. A multispecies model incorporating the salinity effect has been developed to depict the system performance and predict the microbial community. Results showed that the PAD system had great capacity for pollutants removal. The biofilm thickness increased at a higher C/N ratio because of the boost of aerobic heterotrophs and denitrifying bacteria, which consequently improved the COD and total nitrogen removal. However, this led to the deterioration of ammonia removal. Moreover, while a higher salinity benefited the biofilm growth, the contaminant removal efficiencies decreased because the salinity inhibited the activity of aerobic heterotrophs and reduced the abundance of nitrifying bacteria inside the biofilm. Based on the model simulation, feed water with salinity below 2% and C/N ratio in a range of 1 to 3 forms a biofilm that can reach relatively high organic matter and ammonia removal. These findings not only show the feasibility of PAD in treatment of saline decentralized wastewater, but also offer a systematic strategy to predict and optimize the process performance. 相似文献
• Oxidation of methotrexate by high-valent metal-oxo species was first explored.• Fe(VI) presented a higher reactivity to MTX than Mn(VII) at pH 8.0.• Ketonization and cleavage of peptide bond were two initial reaction pathways.• Products of MTX were not genotoxic, neurotoxic, or endocrine-disrupting chemicals.• The less biodegradable products exhibited developmental and acute/chronic toxicity. Accompanying an annual increase in cancer incidence, the global use of anticancer drugs has remarkably increased with their worldwide environmental prevalence and ecological risks. In this study, the oxidation of methotrexate (MTX), a typical anticancer drug with ubiquitous occurrence and multi-endpoint toxicity, by ferrate(VI) (Fe(VI)) and permanganate (Mn(VII))) was investigated in water. Fe(VI) exhibited a higher reactivity with MTX (93.34 M−1 s−1) than Mn(VII) (3.01 M−1 s−1) at pH 8.0. The introduction of Cu(II) and Fe(III) at 1.0 mM improved the removal efficiency of 5.0 μM MTX by 100.0 μM Fe(VI) from 80% to 95% and 100% after 4 min, respectively. Seven oxidized products (OPs) were identified during oxidative treatments, while OP-191 and OP-205 were characterized as specific products for Fe(VI) oxidation. Initial ketonization of the L-glutamic acid moiety and cleavage of the peptide bond of MTX were proposed. Additionally, a multi-endpoint toxicity evaluation indicated no genotoxicity, neurotoxicity, or endocrine-disrupting effects of MTX and its OPs. Particularly, serious developmental toxicity in zebrafish larvae was observed in the treated MTX solutions. Based on the acute and chronic aquatic toxicity prediction, OP-190, OP-192, OP-206, and OP-208 were deemed toxic or very toxic compared to harmful MTX. Furthermore, the reduced biodegradability index from 0.15 (MTX) to −0.5 to −0.2 (OP-192, OP-206, and OP-468) indicated the formation of lower biodegradable OPs. Overall, this study suggests that Fe(VI) and Mn(VII) oxidation are promising treatments for remediating anticancer drug-contaminated water. However, the environmental risks associated with these treatments should be considered in the evaluation of water safety. 相似文献
Judiciously engineering the electrocatalysts is attractive and challenging to exploit materials with high electrocatalytic performance for hydrogen evolution reaction. Herein, we successfully perform the interface engineering by alternately depositing Co–P and Ni–Fe–P films on nickel foam, via facile electroless plating and de-alloying process. This work shows that there is a significant effect of de-alloying process on alloy growth. The electronic structure of layered alloys is improved by interface engineering. The multilayer strategy significantly promotes the charge transfer. Importantly, the Co–P/Ni–Fe–P/NF electrode fabricated by interface engineering exhibits excellent electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity with an overpotential of 43.4 mV at 10 mA cm-2 and long-term durability for 72 h in alkaline medium (1 mol L-1 KOH). The innovative strategy of this work may aid further development of commercial electrocatalysts. 相似文献