Biodegradation of Thermoplastic Polyurethanes from Vegetable Oils

Thermoplastic urethanes based on polyricinoleic acid soft segments and MDI/BD hard segments with varied soft segment concentration were prepared. Soft segment concentration was varied from, 40 to 70 wt%. Biodegradation was studied by respirometry. Segmented polyurethanes with soft segments based on polyricinoleic acid degrade relatively slow losing about 11% carbon after 30 days, but faster than corresponding petrochemical polyesterurethanes. Since biodegradation proceeds mainly through the soft segments, higher soft segment content polymers displayed slightly higher biodegradation. Polyurethanes with dispersed hard domains in the soft phase displayed slightly faster biodegradation than those with co-continuous morphology. Polyester diol degrades slower than castor oil but significantly faster than the polyurethanes with built in soft segments from the same diol. Castor oil biodegrades slower than soybean oil.     

The spatial relationship between human activities and C,N, P,S in soil based on landscape geochemical interpretation

The development and formation of chemical elements in soil are affected not only by parent material, climate, biology, and topology factors, but also by human activities. As the main elements supporting life on earth system, the C, N, P, S cycles in soil have been altered by human activity through land-use change, agricultural intensification, and use of fossil fuels. The present study attempts to analyze whether and how a connection can be made between macroscopical control and microcosmic analysis, to estimate the impacts of human activities on C, N, P, S elements in soil, and to determine a way to describe the spatial relationship between C, N, P, S in soil and human activities, by means of landscape geochemical theories and methods. In addition, the disturbances of human activities on C, N, P, S are explored through the analysis of the spatial relationship between human disturbed landscapes and element anomalies, thereby determining the diversified rules of the effects. The study results show that the rules of different landscapes influencing C, N, P, S elements are diversified, and that the C element is closely related to city landscapes; furthermore, the elements N, P, and S are shown to be closely related to river landscapes; the relationships between mine landscapes and the elements C, N, P, S are apparent; the relationships between the elements C, N, P, S and road landscapes are quite close, which shows that road landscapes have significant effects on these elements. Therefore, the conclusion is drawn that the response mechanism analysis of human disturbance and soil chemical element aggregation is feasible, based on the landscape geochemical theories and methods. The spatial information techniques, such as remote sensing and geographic information systems, are effective for research on soil element migration.     

Tailoring the simultaneous abatement of methanol and NOx on Sb-Ce-Zr catalysts via copper modification

● Cu addition enhances CH₃OH oxidation and alleviates its inhibitory effect on SCR. ● Cu addition improves the activation of SCR reactants in the presence of methanol. ● Damaged structure by more Cu addition decreases specific surface area and acidity. ● Excessive Cu addition would lead to the narrowing of SCR temperature window. Simultaneously removal of NO_x and VOCs over NH₃-SCR catalysts have attracted lots of attention recently. However, the presence of VOCs would have negative effect on deNO_x efficiency especially at low temperature. In this study, copper modification onto Sb_0.5CeZr₂O_x (SCZ) catalyst were performed to enhance the catalytic performance for simultaneous control of NO_x and methanol. It was obtained that copper addition could improve the low-temperature activity of both NO_x conversion and methanol oxidation, where the optimal catalyst (Cu_0.05SCZ) exhibited a deNO_x activity of 96% and a mineralization rate of 97% at 250 °C, which are around 10% higher than that of Cu free sample. The characterization results showed that copper addition could obviously enhance the redox capacity of the catalysts. As such, the inhibition effect of methanol incomplete oxidation on NO adsorption and NH₃ activation were then lessened and the conversion of surface formamide species were also accelerated, resulting in the rising of NO_x conversion at low temperature. However, excessive copper addition would damage the Sb-Ce-Zr oxides solid solution structure owing to Cu-Ce strong interactions, decreasing the surface area and acidity. Meanwhile, due to easier over-oxidation of NH₃ with more Cu addition, the temperature window for NO_x conversion would become quite narrow. These findings could provide useful guidelines for the synergistic removal of VOCs over SCR catalyst in real application.     

Electrokinetic enhancement removal of heavy metals from industrial wastewater sludge

An enhanced electrokinetic process for removal of metals (Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, Zn) from an industrial wastewater sludge was performed. The electrokinetic experiments were conducted under a constant potential gradient (1.25 V cm(-1)) with processing fluids of tap water (TW), sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) and citric acid (CA) for 5 days. Results showed that metal removal efficiency of heavy metals for EK-TW, EK-SDS and EK-CA systems are 11.2-60.0%, 37.2-76.5%, and 43.4-78.0%, respectively. A highest metal removal performance was found in EK-CA system. The removal priority of investigated metals from sludge by EK process was found as: Cu > Pb > Ni > Fe > Zn > Cr. The results of sequential extraction analysis revealed that the binding forms of heavy metals with sludge after electrokinetic process were highly depend upon the processing fluid operated. It was found that the binding forms of metals with sludge were changed from the more difficult extraction type (residual and sulfate fractions) to easier extraction types (exchangeable, sorbed, and organic fraction) after treatment by electrokinetic process. Results imply that if a proper treatment technology is followed by this EK process to remove metals more effectively, this treated sludge will be more beneficial for sludge utilization afterwards. Before it was reused, the risk associated with metals of more mobile forms to the environment need to be further investigated. The cost analysis was also evaluated for the investigated electrokinetic systems.     

Land use change analysis in the Zhujiang Delta of China using satellite remote sensing,GIS and stochastic modelling

Rapid land use change has taken place in many coastal regions of China such as the Zhujiang Delta over the past two decades due to accelerated industrialization and urbanization. In this paper, land use change dynamics were investigated by the combined use of satellite remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), and stochastic modelling technologies. The results indicated that there has been a notable and uneven urban growth and a tremendous loss in cropland between 1989 and 1997. The land use change process has shown no sign of becoming stable. The study demonstrates that the integration of satellite remote sensing and GIS was an effective approach for analyzing the direction, rate, and spatial pattern of land use change. The further integration of these two technologies with Markov modelling was found to be beneficial in describing and analyzing land use change process.     

风沙区农田防护林带生态规划设计研究

通过观测和研究 ,得出风沙区农田防护林带的走向与主风方向的交角 ,不能小于 45° ,主林带间距 15 0m——— 2 0 0m ,副林带间距 2 3 0m——— 70 0m ,林带结构以疏透结构为最好 ,主林带一般由主林木 5— 6行组成 ,副林带由 2— 3行组成 ,再在迎风面和背风面配置 1行— 2行灌木和针叶树     

Supported transition-metal oxide catalysts for reduction of sulfur dioxide with hydrogen to elemental sulfur

This work is for the purpose to find a high performance catalyst for the catalytic reduction of SO2 with H2 as a reducing agent. NiO/gamma-Al2O3 catalyst was found to be the most active catalyst among the seven gamma-Al2O3-supported metal-oxide catalysts tested. With NiO as the active species, of the supports tested, gamma-Al2O3 was the most suitable one and the optimal Ni content was 16 wt%. Using this NiO/gamma-Al2O3 catalyst, we found that the optimal feed ratio of H2/SO2 is 2:1 and the catalyst presulfided with H2 + H2S exhibits a higher performance than that pretreated with H2 or He. XRD patterns reveal that the nickel oxide experienced a transformation to Ni3S2 and NiS, and then to NiS2, the most active nickel sulfide, during the reaction process. The reason for the highest catalyst activity of 16 wt% Ni was attributed to the largest amount of NiS2. Water vapor in the feed gas reactant caused inhibition of catalyst activity, whereas H2S promoted the reduction of SO2. These phenomena were rationalized with the aid of Claus reaction.     

Surface properties and catalytic performance of La(1-x)Sr(x)FeO(3) perovskite-type oxides for methane combustion

La(1-x)Sr(x)FeO(3) (x=0.0-1.0) perovskites were prepared and tested for the combustion of methane. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns revealed the presence of a single perovskite structure for substitutions 0x0.3, however Fe(2)O(3), SrCO(3) and SrFeO(3) phases were observed for substitutions x>0.3. The results of activity test indicate that with La(1-x)Sr(x)FeO(3) as the catalyst, the combustion of methane can take place at low temperatures around 400 degrees C. Partial substitution of La with Sr increases the activity and an optimal substitution fraction (x=0.5) exists in the La(1-x)Sr(x)FeO(3) catalysts. Catalyst activity can be well correlated to the product of the specific surface area and atomic ratio of Fe to La+Sr on the catalyst surface. Experimental results of O(2)-TPD and CH(4)-TPD in the range of 350-500 degrees C indicate that the amount of oxygen desorbed from the La(1-x)Sr(x)FeO(3) catalysts is far larger than that of methane. Therefore, it can be proposed that the catalytic oxidation of CH(4) over these catalysts proceeds with the surface reaction between CH(4) in the gas phase and the adsorbed O(2). Addition of water vapor or CO(2) to the feed inhibited catalyst activity, but the inhibition was reversible and became negligible at high reaction temperature.     

Effect of temperature on anoxic metabolism of nitrites to nitrous oxide by polyphosphate accumulating organisms

Temperature is an important physical factor, which strongly influences biomass and metabolic activity. In this study, the effects of temperature on the anoxic metabolism of nitrite(NO-2) to nitrous oxide(N2O) by polyphosphate accumulating organisms, and the process of the accumulation of N2O(during nitrite reduction), which acts as an electron acceptor, were investigated using 91% ± 4% Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis sludge. The results showed that N2O is accumulated when Accumulibacter first utilize nitrite instead of oxygen as the sole electron acceptor during the denitrifying phosphorus removal process. Properties such as nitrite reduction rate, phosphorus uptake rate, N2O reduction rate, and polyhydroxyalkanoate degradation rate were all influenced by temperature variation(over the range from 10 to 30°C reaching maximum values at 25°C). The reduction rate of N2O by N2O reductase was more sensitive to temperature when N2O was utilized as the sole electron acceptor instead of NO2, and the N2O reduction rates, ranging from 0.48 to 3.53 N2O-N/(hr·g VSS), increased to 1.45 to 8.60 mg N2O-N/(hr·g VSS). The kinetics processes for temperature variation of 10 to 30°C were(θ1 = 1.140–1.216 and θ2= 1.139–1.167). In the range of 10°C to 30°C, almost all of the anoxic stoichiometry was sensitive to temperature changes. In addition, a rise in N2O reduction activity leading to a decrease in N2O accumulation in long term operations at the optimal temperature(27°C calculated by the Arrhenius model).     

由太湖蓝藻危机引发的对环境监测领域中生物生态监测发展的思考

生物生态监测是环境监测的重要组成部分,具有综合反映环境问题、敏感性强等优点。本文从应对太湖蓝藻危机出发,分析了当前环境监测领域中生物生态监测所面临的形势和存在的问题,提出了其发展的新理念,并从五个方面提出了环境监测领域生物生态监测发展的具体思路,以此来推动生物生态监测的进一步发展。