Comparison of titania nanotubes and titanium dioxide as supports of low-temperature selective catalytic reduction catalysts under sulfur dioxide poisoning

A series of iron–manganese oxide catalysts supported on TiO₂ and titanium nanotubes (TNTs) were studied for low temperature selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NO with NH₃ in the presence of SO_2. The results showed that the specific surface area and the amount of Brønsted acid sites were highly correlated. The results also demonstrated that higher Mn⁴⁺/Mn³⁺ ratios and larger specific surface areas might be the main reasons for the excellent performance of MnFe-TNTs catalyst after SO₂ poisoning. The SO₂ poisoning effect could be minimized by reducing the GHSV, increasing the reaction temperature, or increasing the [NH₃]/[NO] molar ratio. The results also indicated that the formation of ammonium sulfate had a stronger effect on the NO conversion efficiency as compared to the formation of metal sulfate. Thus operating the low temperature SCR at above 230 ^oC to avoid the formation of ammonium sulfate would be the priority choice when SO₂ poisoning is a concerned issue.?Implications: Low-temperature selective catalytic reduction (SCR) has attracted increasing attention due to that it can reduce the energy consumption for the SCR process employed in industries such as steel plants and glass manufacturing plants. However, it also suffers from the sulfur dioxide (SO₂) poisoning problem. This study investigates the possibility of using titania nanotubes (TNTs) as the support of Mn/Fe bimetal oxide catalysts for low-temperature SCR to reduce the SO₂ poisoning. The results indicated that the MnFe-TNT catalyst can tolerate SO₂ for a longer time as compared with the MnFe-TiO₂ catalyst.     

The development of stream temperature model in a mountainous river of Taiwan

Formosan landlocked salmon is an endangered species and is very sensitive to stream temperature change. This study attempts to improve a former stream temperature model (STM) which was developed for the salmon’s habitat to simulate stream temperature more realistically. Two modules, solar radiation modification (SRM) and surface/subsurface runoff mixing (RM), were incorporated to overcome the limitation of STM designed only for clear-sky conditions. It was found that daily temperature difference is related to cloud cover and can be used to adjust the effects of cloud cover on incident solar radiation to the ground level. The modified model (STM + SRM) improved the simulation during a baseflow period in both winter and summer with the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient improved from 0.37 (by STM only) to 0.71 for the winter and from ?0.18 to 0.70 for the summer. On the days with surface/subsurface runoff, the incorporation of the two new modules together (STM + SRM + RM) improved the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient from 0.00 to 0.65 and from 0.29 to 0.83 in the winter and the summer, respectively. Meanwhile, the contributions of major thermal sources to stream temperature changes were identified. Groundwater is a major controlling factor for regulating seasonal changes of stream temperature while solar radiation is the primary factor controlling daily stream temperature variations. This study advanced our understanding on short-term stream temperature variation, which could be useful for the authorities to restore the salmon’s habitat.     

Application of a variable-speed ground-coupled liquid desiccant air-conditioner to multi-story office buildings in temperate regions

A new variable-speed ground-coupled liquid desiccant air-conditioner was proposed and applied to a multi-storey office building in a temperate city of Kunming in China. Dynamic system simulations were performed to compare its performance with a constant-speed ground-source heat pump system. It was found that the use of the new system for a single-floor office reduced the annual unbalanced load to the ground heat exchanger borefield by nearly 70% together with a borehole depth reduction of up to 30%. For the case of a multi-storey office building, the number of floors served could be increased by 144% together with a reduction of CO₂ emission by 43%. The results highlighted the merit of the new hybrid system with enhanced applicability when it was applied to a multi-storey office building in a temperate city.     

Influence of upstream land use on dissolved organic matter and trihalomethane formation potential in watersheds for two different seasons

Different land uses of upstream catchments may affect the quantity and the quality of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in watersheds, but the influence may differ by season. In this study, we examined concentrations and selected spectroscopic properties of DOM and the propensity to form trihalomethanes (THMs) for 19 different middle-sized watersheds across the Han River basin in Korea. Sampling was conducted for non-storm events during pre-monsoon (May) and monsoon seasons (July). The anthropogenic land uses including agricultural and residential areas occupied 2.3 to 49.4 % of the upstream catchments of the watersheds. Non-aromatic, labile, and less condensed DOM structures were more abundant in the monsoon season. Parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) modeling with fluorescence data demonstrated that a combination of three different fluorescence components could explain the seasonal and the spatial distributions of DOM characteristics. Terrestrial humic-like fluorescence was the most abundant component for all the DOM samples, while protein-like fluorescence became more pronounced for the monsoon season. THM concentrations did not differ between the two seasons. Observed seasonal differences in the concentrations and the characteristics of DOM suggested a greater contribution of groundwater to the streams in watersheds in the monsoon versus the pre-monsoon season. Significant correlations among anthropogenic land use, microbial humic-like fluorescence, and the propensity to form THMs were found only for the pre-monsoon season. Principal component analysis (PCA) demonstrated that, regardless of the season, anthropogenic land uses increased the concentrations of DOM and nutrients but that their effects on the DOM properties were not evident for the monsoon season.     

Effect of substrate feeding frequencies on the methane production and microbial communities of laboratory-scale anaerobic digestion reactors

Even though full-scale digesters have been designed based on laboratory-scale tests, the substrate feeding modes of laboratory-scale tests might be different from those of full-scale digesters. The effect of substrate feeding frequencies on the performance and microbial community of laboratory-scale anaerobic digestion reactors was investigated. Feeding frequencies of twice a day, once a day, and every two days were tested in three 2-L reactors with an organic loading rate of 0.5 g-glucose/L/day under mesophilic condition. According to the results of this study, all the reactors showed similar methane production rates and SCOD removal efficiencies after sufficient time of acclimation, but frequently feeding promoted more stable digestion. Although there was no significant difference in microbial diversities from pyrosequencing analyses, the changes of archaeal community composition were observed. The decrease in feeding frequency appeared to cause shifts from acetoclastic methanogens affiliated with Methanosaeta to H₂-utilizing methanogens. The increase of Methanosaeta at a frequently feeding might contribute to the stability of reactor operation. Since this study uses glucose as the substrate, there is still possibility of different results for more complex substrates, such as sludge, food waste, etc.     

Interpreting complex geochemistry of groundwater in a coastal paddy field near a mine using isotopic signatures of sulfate and water

Environmental Geochemistry and Health - In the area around the abandoned Seoseong mine, South Korea, coastal paddy fields undergo seawater intrusion and possible sulfate reduction. Here, channel...     

Biogas productivity of algal residues from bioethanol production

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - The purpose of this study was to investigate biogas productivity of algal residues from bioethanol production. Pre-treatment based on enzyme was...     

Sediment quality guidelines: challenges and opportunities for improving sediment management

During the International Conference on Deriving Environmental Quality Standards for the Protection of Aquatic Ecosystems held in Hong Kong in December 2011, an expert group, comprising scientists, government officials, and consultants from four continents, was formed to discuss the important scientific and regulatory challenges with developing sediment quality guidelines (SQGs). We identified the problems associated with SQG development and made a series of recommendations to ensure that the methods being applied were scientifically defensible and internationally applicable. This document summarizes the key findings from the expert group. To enable evaluation of current SQG derivation and application systems, a feedback mechanism is required to communicate confounding factors and effects in differing environments, while field validation is necessary to gauge the effectiveness of SQG values in sediment quality assessments. International collaboration is instrumental to knowledge exchange and method advancement, as well as promotion of ‘best practices’. Since the paucity of sediment toxicity data poses the largest obstacle to improving current SQGs and deriving new SQGs, a standardized international database should be established as an information resource for sediment toxicity testing and monitoring data. We also identify several areas of scientific research that are needed to improve sediment quality assessment, including determining the importance of dietary exposure in sediment toxicity, mixture toxicity studies, toxicity screening of emerging chemicals, how climate change influence sediments and its biota, and possible use of new toxicity study approaches such as high throughput omic-based toxicity screenings.     

Effects of chaotic acclimation applied on performance of microbial fuel cells

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are one of the bioreactors that produce electrons by metabolizing substrate from microorganisms, and have the ability to both degrade waste solution and produce electrons. Recently, the activity of microorganisms has limited the power performance of MFCs. Chaos has been used to stimulate activity of microorganisms, but it has not been used previously in MFCs. In this study, three types of acclimations – native acclimation (NA), MFC acclimation (MFCA), and MFC embedded with chaotic electric field acclimation (CMFCA) – are applied to realize their performance and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal in MFCs, respectively. Results show that the current density and the power density of CMFCA were improved by 1.33 and 1.25 times than MFCA, and the COD removal of CMFCA reached 85% after five days. In addition, the acclimation stage at the condition of CMFCA appeared after 10 days, but was not found for the MFCA system. These observations would provide positive information for improving the performance of MCFs in the future.     

Gasification characteristics of sewage sludge combined with wood biomass

The gas products from gasification processes have been considered to have some limitations in gas composition and heating value from the previous studies. Gasification characteristics of sewage sludge and wood mixture were investigated using different mixing ratios with the purpose of better quality of gas product suitable for energy/power generation. The gasification experiment was performed by an indirectly heated fluidized bed reactor. As reaction temperature increased from 600 to 900 °C, the yield of gas product increased with higher generation of CO, H₂ and CH₄ by more activated gas conversion reactions. As the equivalence ratio increased from 0.2 to 0.4, composition ratio of CO₂ increased while CO, CH₄, H₂ decreased as expected. Several operating variables including mixing ratio of wood with dried sludge were also tested. From this initial stage of experiment, optimal operating conditions for the bubbling fluidized bed gasifier, could be considered 900 °C in temperature; 0.2 in equivalence ratio and 40 % in wood mixing ratio within test variables range. These results will be more thoroughly investigated for the application to the larger scale pilot system.