Heavy metal contamination in a vulnerable mangrove swamp in South China

Concentrations of six heavy metals (Cu, Ni, Zn, Cd, Cr, and Pb) in sediments and fine roots, thick roots, branches, and leaves of six mangrove plant species collected from the Futian mangrove forest, South China were measured. The results show that both the sediments and plants in Futian mangrove ecosystem are moderately contaminated by heavy metals, with the main contaminants being Zn and Cu. All investigated metals showed very similar distribution patterns in the sediments, implying that they had the same anthropogenic source(s). High accumulations of the heavy metals were observed in the root tissues, especially the fine roots, and much lower concentrations in the other organs. This indicates that the roots strongly immobilize the heavy metals and (hence) that mangrove plants possess mechanisms that limit the upward transport of heavy metals and exclude them from sensitive tissues. The growth performance of propagules and 6-month-old seedlings of Bruguiera gymnorhiza in the presence of contaminating Cu and Cd was also examined. The results show that this plant is not sufficiently sensitive to heavy metals after its propagule stage for its regeneration and growth to be significantly affected by heavy metal contamination in the Futian mangrove ecosystem. However, older mangrove seedlings appeared to be more metal-tolerant than the younger seedlings due to their more efficient exclusion mechanism. Thus, the effects of metal contamination on young seedlings should be assessed when evaluating the risks posed by heavy metals in an ecosystem.     

Biodegradation and biotransformation of wastewater organics as precursors of disinfection byproducts in water

Laboratory experiments were carried out to investigate wastewater organics as the precursors of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in drinking water supply. The focus was on the change in wastewater DBP precursors during biological degradation under simulated natural conditions. The wastewater and its treated secondary effluent were characterized for DBP formation potential (DBPFP) and DBP speciation profile, including trihalomethanes, haloacetic acids, chloral hydrate, and nitrogen-containing DBPs. Several model organic compounds, including humic acid, tannic acid, glucose, starch, glycine, and bovine serum albumin (BSA), were used to represent the different types of organic pollutants in wastewater discharge. The results show that the DBPFP of wastewater decreased after biodegradation, but the remaining organic matter had a greater DBPFP yield with chlorine. Different model organics displayed different changes in DBPFP during biodegradation. The DBPFP remained largely unchanged for the glycine solution, decreased greatly for the tannic acid and BSA solutions, and increased nearly 3-fold for the glucose and starch solutions after 10d of biodegradation. Meanwhile, the DBPFP yield increased from 3 for glycine to 51μg DBP mg(-1) C for its degradation residue, and from 1 for glucose and starch to 87 and 38μg DBP mg(-1) C for their organic residues, respectively. Although biodegradation may effectively remove some DBP precursors, biotransformation during the process produces new DBP precursors in the form of soluble microbial products (SMPs). The experimental results reveal that SMPs may be an important source of wastewater-derived DBP precursors in natural waters.     

Chemical compositions and sources of atmospheric PM10 in heating, non-heating and sand periods at a coal-based city in northeastern China

Mass concentrations and chemical components (18 elements, 9 ions, organic carbon [OC] and elemental carbon [EC]) in atmospheric PM(10) were measured at five sites in Fushun during heating, non-heating and sand periods in 2006-2007. PM(10) mass concentrations varied from 62.0 to 226.3 μg m(-3), with 21% of the total samples' mass concentrations exceeding the Chinese national secondary standard value of 150 μg m(-3), mainly concentrated in heating and sand periods. Crustal elements, trace elements, water-soluble ions, OC and EC represented 20-47%, 2-9%, 13-34%, 15-34% and 13-25% of the particulate matter mass concentrations, respectively. OC and crustal elements exhibited the highest mass percentages, at 27-34% and 30-47% during heating and sand period. Local agricultural residuals burning may contribute to EC and ion concentrations, as shown by ion temporal variation and OC and EC correlation analysis. Heavy metals (Cr, Ni, Zn, Cu and Mn) from coal combustion and industrial processes should be paid attention to in heating and sand periods. The anion/cation ratios exhibited their highest values for the background site with the influence of stationary sources on its upper wind direction during the sand period. Secondary organic carbon were 1.6-21.7, 1.5-23.0, 0.4-17.0, 0.2-33.0 and 0.2-21.1 μg m(-3), accounting for 20-77%, 44-88%, 4-77%, 8-69% and 4-73% of OC for the five sampling sites ZQ, DZ, XH, WH and SK, respectively. From the temporal and spatial variation analysis of major species, coal combustion, agricultural residual burning and industrial emission including dust re-suspended from raw material storage piles were important sources for atmospheric PM(10) in Fushun at heating, non-heating and sand periods, respectively. It was confirmed by principal component analysis that coal combustion, vehicle emission, industrial activities, soil dust, cement and construction dust and biomass burning were the main sources for PM(10) in this coal-based city.     

好氧颗粒污泥自生动态膜生物反应器处理碱减量印染废水

自生动态膜生物反应器(SFDMBR)接种颗粒污泥启动,研究溶解氧浓度和水力停留时间对该反应器处理碱减量印染废水的影响。自生动态膜生物反应器形成稳定的动态膜后,出水浊度小于10 NTU,系统对浊度的去除率在90%以上,溶解氧和水力停留时间对反应器出水浊度基本无影响。系统对废水色度的去除率随着溶解氧浓度的提高和水力停留时间的延长而增加,但是系统对色度的去除效率一般不超过40%。溶解氧浓度由0.3 mg/L逐渐增大至2.4 mg/L,COD的去除率由40%提升至80%,而当溶解氧浓度大于1.0 mg/L后,UV254的去除率达到95%。水力停留时间在8~48 h时,COD去除效率由65%逐渐上升至85%左右;水力停留时间在8~32 h,UV254去除效率为68%~93%,超过32 h后水力停留时间对UV254去除效率的影响已不明显。     

Characterization of the extracellular biodemulsifiers secreted by Bacillus cereus LH-6 and the enhancement of demulsifying efficiency by optimizing the cultivation conditions

A highly efficient demulsifying strain, LH-6, was isolated from petroleum-contaminated soil and identified as Bacillus cereus by 16S rDNA gene analysis. It achieved 95.61 and 95.40 % demulsifying ratios within 12 h for water-in-oil (W/O) and oil-in-water (O/W) model emulsions, respectively. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and thin-layer chromatography (TLC) detections indicated that the LH-6’s extracellular biodemulsifiers were different types of lipopeptides for the W/O and O/W emulsions. Optimization of the culture medium composition was conducted to improve the biosynthesis and demulsifying efficiency of the biodemulsifier. The optimal carbon source was liquid paraffin, while waste frying oil could also be an alternative carbon source. The optimal nitrogen sources were ammonium sulfate and yeast extract. To further enhance the biodemulsifier efficiency, the optimal cultivation conditions were determined using response surface methodology (RSM) based on central composite rotation design (CCRD). Using the optimized cultivation conditions, the demulsifying ratios increased to 98.23 and 97.65 % for the W/O and O/W model emulsions, respectively.     

MBR在橡胶废水处理中的应用

橡胶废水具有含盐量高、色度高、有机污染成分含量高且难于生化降解等特点。膜生物反应器(MBR)技术的核心是生化处理加微滤膜过滤,通过将MBR技术应用于橡胶废水处理的实践表明,该技术对COD、氨氮、磷酸盐的平均去除率都达到了85%以上,再辅之以药剂处理后,降低了色度和难降解有机物含量,出水水质完全符合排放标准的要求,是一种解决橡胶污水处理难题的有效途径。     

Assessment of heterogeneity of metal composition of fine particulate matter collected from eight U.S. counties using principal component analysis

The main objectives of this study are to (1) characterize chemical constituents of particulate matter (PM) and (2) compare overall differences in PM collected from eight US. counties. This project was undertaken as a part of a larger research program conducted by the Johns Hopkins Particulate Matter Research Center (JHPMRC). The goal of the JHPMRC is to explore the relationship between health effects and exposure to ambient PM of differing composition. The JHPMRC collected weekly filter-based ambient fine particle samples from eight US. counties between January 2008 and January 2010. Each sampling effort consisted of a 5-6-week sampling period. Filters were analyzed for 25 metals using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Overall compositional differences were ranked by principal component analysis (PCA). The results showed that weekly concentrations of each element varied 3-40 times between the eight counties. PCA showed that the first five principal components explained 85% of the total variance. The authors found significant overall compositional differences in PM as the average of standardized principal component scores differed between the counties. These findings demonstrate PCA is a useful tool to identify the differences in PM compositional mixtures by county. These differences will be helpful for epidemiological and toxicological studies to help explain why health risks associated with PM exposure are different in locations with similar mass concentrations of PM.     

青虾池塘养殖环境效率分析

为以环境友好型效率标准合理引导青虾池塘养殖生产活动，将淡水养殖对环境的影响纳入效率研究的范畴，以青虾池塘养殖为例，分别运用SBM模型和CCR模型，计算了青虾池塘养殖的环境效率和经济效率，以及各投入要素的使用情况。并运用相关分析、配对样本T检验和方差齐次性检验等技术进行比较研究。研究结果表明：当前我国青虾池塘养殖的环境效率（考虑环境因素的经济效率）仅为0476 9，而传统的经济效率（不考虑环境因素的经济效率）为0696 7，前者显著低于后者，且波动性更强。所有的要素投入都存在过量现象。除电费、虾苗和药物投入外，其他各项投入在环境效率中的过量程度均大于经济效率；具有固定成本性质的投入品，如劳动力投入和机械投入的过量程度更为严重；利用率过低致使肥料投入过量程度高于饲料投入。农户资源配置过程中忽视环境成本是根本原因，应引起高度重视     

高压脉冲放电等离子体处理活性红X-3B染料废水

采用高压脉冲放电等离子体技术对活性红X-3B染料废水进行处理,考察了废水电导率、脉冲电压、脉冲频率、针板间距以及曝气量对处理效果的影响。实验结果表明,当废水电导率为200μS/cm、脉冲电压为34kV、脉冲频率为60Hz、针板间距为15mm、曝气量为12L/h、处理时间为60m in时,活性红X-3B染料废水脱色率能达到98.6%。     

多孔性Mn3O4的制备及其对水中镉的吸附

采用硫酸锰水解-氧化两步法制备了多孔性四氧化三锰,以X射线衍射、扫描电镜和氮吸附比表面仪对其进行了表征,研究了该多孔性Mn3O4在不同的溶液pH值、吸附时间、投加量和温度下对水中Cd(Ⅱ)的吸附行为,并测定了吸附过程的动力学和热力学参数。实验结果表明,该法合成的四氧化三锰属四方体心结构,一次晶粒尺寸为45.8 nm,颗粒间存在大量的孔洞,BET法比表面积为40.27 m2/g。在293 K,pH 5.5,吸附12 h时达到平衡,饱和吸附量为12.8 mg/g。该吸附过程符合准二级反应动力学模型,其反应的吸附活化能为2.743 kJ/mol,吸附等温线较好地符合Langmuir等温方程,吸附焓变和熵变均为正值,自由能变为负值,说明该吸附过程为自发的吸热过程。