Development and validation of a spectrophotometric method for soil adsorption study of malathion on three Indian soils

In view of the widespread use of pesticides in agriculture and its associated toxic effects on environment and human beings, the fate of these chemicals in soil is of major concern. The pesticide adsorption process is one of the major factors affecting its persistence and movement in the soil. With a view of studying the fate of malathion in soil, the adsorption of this insecticide was studied on three Indian soils by using batch equilibrium method. To carry out the adsorption study, a new simple, sensitive, and rapid method was developed, based on microwave-assisted alkaline hydrolysis of insecticide to the dimethyl dithiophosphate and its subsequent reaction with copper(I) perchlorate in acetonitrile. On mixing the reagents, a yellow color developed, which was stable for 120?min and was measured at 419?nm. The adsorption of malathion was studied by using Freundlich's adsorption equation and n _f values were observed less than 1 in all the soils. The leaching behavior of the insecticide was studied in terms of ground ubiquity score, which was below 1.8, classifying malathion as non-leacher pesticide, and hence it is not hazardous.     

正交实验选择纤维素酶产生菌的最优综合培养条件

在复合碳源、30℃恒温培养条件下,用正交实验法对影响纤维素酶产生菌降解纤维素的5种单因素培养条件进行了优化,并将优化得到的条件应用于厌氧-好氧废水处理系统.结果表明,MgSO4用量等单因素对纤维素酶活性以及纤维素降解率有不同程度的促进作用;正交实验得到厌氧菌和好氧菌的最佳培养条件不完全一致;在废水处理系统中,5种单因素的最佳综合水平为:30mg/L MgSO4,20mg/L CoCl2,CNP配比为400:5:1,氮源为NH4Cl (28.7mg/L), pH=7.0,此时厌氧菌及好氧菌酶活性分别为4801U/L和4794U/L,酶稳定性分别达到91.0%和95.5%,纤维素降解率为31.9%和28.4% .     

河流湿地土壤芘的降解和生物有效性模型与酶活性动态变化(Model of Pyrene Degradation and Bioavailability and Dynamic Changes of Enzymatic Activities in the Riverine Wetland Soil)

在淹水和非淹水条件下,在河流湿地土壤中加入高浓度(10mg·kg-1)和极高浓度(200mg·kg-1)芘,研究了芘降解过程、芘生物有效性和土壤酶活性的长期动态变化.结果表明,培养91d后,高浓度芘处理的土壤中芘的残留率在淹水和非淹水条件下分别为79.0%和51.4%,而极高浓度处理的芘残留率在淹水和非淹水条件下分别为61.1%和33.9%.利用Tenax-ta树脂提取快速解吸态生物有效芘,结果发现,有效芘浓度在高浓度芘处理的两种土壤中的值比较接近,分别为1.01mg·kg-1和1.23mg·kg-1;而有效芘浓度在极高浓度处理的两种土壤的相应值差别较大,分别为20.31mg·kg-1和9.44mg·kg-1.采用四参数Logistic模型能够精确地拟合芘降解过程和生物有效性变化过程(p<0.0001).土壤蔗糖酶、脲酶和多酚氧化酶对芘污染敏感,而过氧化氢酶对芘污染不敏感.实验结果揭示了河流湿地土壤芘在淹水条件下降解活跃阶段持续时间短和芘生物有效性高的特征以及土壤蔗糖酶、脲酶和多酚氧化酶活性可以作为评估芘污染影响的候选指标.     

Increasing the performance of anaerobic digestion: Pilot scale experimental study for thermal hydrolysis of mixed sludge

The performance of a pilot plant operation combining thermal hydrolysis (170°C, 30 min) and anaerobic digestion (AD) was studied, determining the main properties for samples of fresh mixed sludge, hydrolyzed sludge, and digested sludge, in order to quantify the thermal pretreatment performance (disintegration, solubilisation, and dewaterability) and its impact on the anaerobic digestion performance (biodegradability, volatile solids reduction, and digester rheology) and end product characteristics (dewaterability, sanitation, organic and nitrogen content). The disintegration achieved during the thermal treatment enhances the sludge centrifugation, allowing a 70% higher total solids concentration in the feed to anaerobic digestion. The digestion of this sludge generates 40% more biogas in half the time, due to the higher solids removal compared to a conventional digester. The waste generated can be dewatered by centrifugation to 7% dry solids without polymer addition, and is pathogen free.     

Accessibility of starch to enzymatic degradation in injection-molded starch-plastic composites

Most of the starch in starch-polyethylene-co-acrylic acid (EAA)-polyethylene (PE) composites prepared by injection molding was not accessible to starch-hydrolyzing enzymes. Even when these composites were treated with enzyme in the presence of Triton X-100 for 96 h, little starch hydrolysis was observed. However, when the starch-plastic material was pulverized, both the extent and the rate of starch hydrolysis increased dramatically, with about 70% hydrolysis of the starch within 18 h. Reactions carried out for up to 96 h showed that, while the enzyme was active, the reaction reached a plateau, achieving a total of 80% starch hydrolysis. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy revealed that only starch, and not EAA or PE, was affected by enzyme in pulverized samples. Results indicated that while 80% of the starch in these composites was transiently inaccessible, perhaps due to EAA and PE forming an impermeable barrier to the enzyme, the other 20% remained inaccessible to enzymes. Also, the rate of starch digestion as determined by solubilized reducing sugar correlated with the particle size of the pulverized material, suggesting that a large available surface area is critical for rapid starch degradation in such composites.The mention of firms names or trade products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture over the firms or similar products not mentioned. All programs and services of the U.S. Department of Agriculture are offered on a nondiscriminatory basis without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, marital status, or handicap.     

水解-气浮-接触氧化处理草浆造纸废水

本文介绍了采用水解-气浮-接触氧化法对某草浆造纸废水原有废水处理工艺改造，经过一年多的运行监测，结果表明：处理后出水COD、BODs、SS等各项指标均优于《造纸工业污染物排放标准》（GWPB2-199）的要求。     

Enzyme-Mediated Reactions of Oligosaccharides and Polysaccharides

Two types of enzymatic reactions are given here as examples of synthetic problems encountered in industry. In the first case, commercially available -D-galactosidase from Escherichia coli was used as a catalyst to transfer galactose from -lactose to oligosaccharides. A preference for galactosyl transfer to the 3- or 4-position of the sugar moiety of the oligosaccharide was observed for the products. As expected, only the -anomer was produced. A wide variety of sugars, including disaccharides, trisaccharides, cellotetraose, and maltodextrins, has been shown to act as acceptors, yielding oligosaccharides. In the second example, -galactomannan that had been previously treated to contain cationic groups (cationic guar gum) was subjected to treatment with a series of inexpensive commercial enzymes such as lipases, protease, and cellulases. Some enzyme preparations showed significant changes in the viscosities of 1% cationic guar solution. For example, lipases from Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus saitoi and protease XIII from Rhizopus niveus produced a substantial viscosity reduction (0–20% of original viscosity). These examples demonstrate the utility of low-cost enzymes in manipulating polymer structures.     

烷基多苷促进污泥水解产酸的研究

采用向污泥中投加生物表面活性剂烷基多苷(APG)的方法,研究了APG投加量和水解时间对剩余污泥水解产酸过程的影响.结果表明,APG显著降低污泥表面张力,强化污泥水解,在最适投加量(以TSS计,下同)0.2 g·g-1下,SCOD、蛋白质和可溶性糖的浓度均在12h内达到最大,分别由初始的4 280.2、1 122.9和246.5 mg·L-1上升到6 481.1、1 639.3和1 205.8mg·L-1,同时短链脂肪酸(SCFAs)浓度由1 309.9 mg·L-1增加为2 221.6 mg·L-1,且SCFA的组分分布随之改变,APG投加量越大,SCFAs达到最大浓度所需时间也随之延长.随着APG投加量的增大,α-葡萄糖苷酶相对活力由1.5升至2.5,而蛋白酶相对活力在低投加量下由1.4升至1.9,高投加量下降至1.5.不论APG是否存在,α-葡萄糖苷酶和蛋白酶的活力在达最高后都随着水解时间的延长而逐渐降低.整个过程中pH均呈现先减小后增大的趋势.     

Determining short chain fatty acids in sewage sludge hydrolysate：A comparison of three analytical methods and investigation of sample storage effects

In anaerobic digestion, the production of short-chain fatty acids （SCFAs） can be beneficial or harmful to the overall process, depending on the concentration of accumulated acids. Therefore, the accurate determination of the SCFA concentration in both fresh and stored sludge hydrolysates is important. To select a suitable method for monitoring SCFAs during the anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge, the accuracy of three available analytical methods, including 5 pH point acid titration （TITRA5）, gas chromatography （GC）, and spectrophotometry, were compared in the present study. The results revealed that TITRA5 and GC displayed better agreement in the achieved measurements and higher precision and accuracy than the spectrophotometric assay, as supported by the application of different statistical models. TITRA5 excelled in titrating unfiltered hydrolysate while simultaneously measuring the alkalinity, whereas the GC method provided detailed information on the contribution of different fatty acids to the total acidity. In contrast, the spectrophotometric assay suffered from many forms of interference, depending on the sample＇s matrix. SCFA production followed the pattern of enzymatic reactions and fitted the Michaelis-Menten model. In addition to promoting TITRA5 as an accurate and robust analytical tool for routine SCFA analyses, this comparative study also demonstrated the possibility of storing hydrolysate samples at different temperatures and durations without altering the SCFA measurements.     

Elucidating the removal mechanism of N,N-dimethyldithiocarbamate in an anaerobic-anoxic-oxic activated sludge system

N,N-Dimethyldithiocarbamate （DMDTC） is a typical precursor of N-nitrosodimethylamine （NDMA）. Based on separate hydrolysis, sorption and biodegradation studies of DMDTC, a laboratory-scale anaerobic-anoxic-oxic （AAO） system was established to investigate the removal mechanism of DMDTC in this nutrient removal biological treatment system. DMDTC hydrolyzed easily in water solution under either acidic conditions or strong alkaline conditions, and dimethylamine （DMA） was the main hydrolysate. Under anaerobic, anoxic or oxic conditions, DMDTC was biodegraded and completely mineralized. Furthermore, DMA was the main intermediate in DMDTC biodegradation. In the AAO system, the optimal conditions for both nutrient and DMDTC removal were hydraulic retention time 8 hr, sludge retention time 20 day, mixed-liquor return ratio 3：1 and sludge return ratio 1：1. Under these conditions, the removal efficiency of DMDTC reached 99.5%; the removal efficiencies of chemical organic demand, ammonium nitrogen, total nitrogen and total phosphorus were 90%, 98%, 81% and 93%, respectively. Biodegradation is the dominant mechanism for DMDTC removal in the AAO system, which was elucidated as consisting of two steps： first, DMDTC is transformed to DMA in the anaerobic and anoxic units, and then DMA is mineralized to CO2 and NH3 in the anoxic and oxic units. The mineralization of DMDTC in the biological treatment system can effectively avoid the formation of NDMA during subsequent disinfection processes.