Effects of chitosan on growth of an aquatic plant (Hydrilla verticillata) in polluted waters with different chemical oxygen demands

Effects of chitosan on a submersed plant, Hydrilla verticillata, were investigated. Results indicated that H. venicillata could prevent ultrastructure phytotoxicities and oxidativereaction from polluted water with high chemical oxygen demand (COD). Superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and malondialdehyde (MDA) contents in H. verticillata treated with 0.1% chitosan in wastewater increased with high COD (980 mg/L) and decreased with low COD (63 mg/L), respectively. Ultrastructural analysis showed that the stroma and grana of chloroplast basically remained normal. However, plant cells from the control experiment (untreated with chitosan) were vacuolated and the cell interval increased. The relict of protoplast moved to the center, with cells tending to disjoint. Our findings indicate that wastewater with high COD concentration can cause a substantial damage to submersed plant, nevertheless, chitosan probably could alleviate the membrane lipid peroxidization and ultrastructure phytotoxicities, and protect plant cells from stress of high COD concentration polluted water.     

Performance and fouling mechanism of direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) treating fermentation wastewater with high organic concentrations

In this study,direct contact membrane distillation(DCMD)was used for treating fermentation wastewater with high organic concentrations.DCMD performance characteristics including permeate flux,permeate water quality as well as membrane fouling were investigated systematically.Experimental results showed that,after 12 hr DCMD,the feed wastewater was concentrated by about a factor of 3.7 on a volumetric basis,with the permeate flux decreasing from the initial 8.7 L/m~2/hr to the final 4.3 L/m~2/hr due to membrane fouling;the protein concentration in the feed wastewater was increased by about 3.5 times and achieved a value of 6178 mg/L,which is suitable for reutilization.Although COD and TOC in permeate water increased continuously due to the transfer of volatile components from wastewater,organic rejection of over 95%was achieved in wastewater.GC–MS results suggested that the fermentation wastewater contained 128kinds of organics,in which 14 organics dominated.After 12 hr DCMD,not only volatile organics including trimethyl pyrazine,2-acetyl pyrrole,phenethyl alcohol and phenylacetic acid,but also non-volatile dibutyl phthalate was detected in permeate water due to membrane wetting.FT-IR and SEM–EDS results indicated that the deposits formed on the membrane inner surface mainly consisted of Ca,Mg,and amine,carboxylic acid and aromatic groups.The fouled membrane could be recovered,as most of the deposits could be removed using a HCl/Na OH chemical cleaning method.     

Biostability in distribution systems in one city in southern China：Characteristics, modeling and control strategy

This study investigated the bacterial regrowth in drinking water distribution systems receiving finished water from an advanced drinking water treatment plant in one city in southem China. Thirteen nodes in two water supply zones with different aged pipelines were selected to monitor water temperature, dissolved oxygen （DO）, chloramine residual, assimilable organic carbon （AOC）, and heterotrophic plate counts （HPC）. Regression and principal component analyses indicated that HPC had a strong correlation with chloramine residual. Based on Chick-Watson＇s Law and the Monod equation, biostability curves under different conditions were developed to achieve the goal of HPC 100 CFU/mL. The biostability curves could interpret the scenario under various AOC concentrations and predict the required chloramine residual concentration under the condition of high AOC level. The simulation was also carded out to predict the scenario with a stricter HPC goal （≤50 CFU/mL） and determine the required chloramine residual. The biological regrowth control strategy was assessed using biostability curve analysis. The results indicated that maintaining high chloramine residual concentration was the most practical way to achieve the goal of HPC ≤ 100 CFU/mL. Biostability curves could be a very useful tool for biostability control in distribution systems. This work could provide some new insights towards biostability control in real distribution systems.     

Reuse rate of treated wastewater in water reuse system

A water quality model for water reuse was made by mathematics induction. The relationship among the reuse rate of treated wastewater（R）, pollutant concentration of reused water（ Cs ）, pollutant concentration of influent（ C0）, removal efficiency of pollutant in wastewater（ E）, and the standard of reuse water were discussed in this study. According to the experiment result of a toilet wastewater treatment and reuse with membrane bioreactors, R would be set at less than 40%, on which all the concerned parameters could meet with the reuse water standards. To raise R of reuse water in the toilet, an important way was to improve color removal of the wastewater.     

Performance of a water hyacinth （Eichhornia crassipes） system in the treatment of wastewater from a duck farm and the effects of using water hyacinth as duck feed

Nowadays, intensive breeding of poultry and livestock of large scale has made the treatment of its waste and wastewater an urgent environmental issue, which motivated this study. A wetland of 688 m2 was constructed on an egg duck farm, and water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) was chosen as an aquatic plant for the wetland and used as food for duck production. The objectives of this study were to test the role of water hyacinth in purifying nutrient-rich wastewater and its effects on the ducks’ feed intake, egg laying performance and egg quality. This paper shows that the constructed wetland removed as much as 64.44% of chemical oxygen demand (COD), 21.78% of total nitrogen (TN) and 23.02% of total phosphorus (TP). Both dissolved oxygen (DO) and the transparency of the wastewater were remarkably improved, with its transparency 2.5 times higher than that of the untreated wastewater. After the ducks were fed with water hyacinth, the average daily feed intake and the egg-laying ratio in the test group were 5.86% and 9.79% higher, respectively, than in the control group; the di erences were both significant at the 0.01 probability level. The egg weight in the test group was 2.36% higher than in the control group (P < 0.05), but the feed conversion ratios were almost the same. The eggshell thickness and strength were among the egg qualities significantly increased in ducks fed with water hyacinth.We concluded that a water hyacinth system was e ective for purifying wastewater from an intensive duck farm during the water hyacinth growing season, as harvested water hyacinth had an excellent performance as duck feed. We also discussed the limitations of the experiment.     

Spatial and temporal variations of water quality in Cao-E River of eastern China

Evaluation and analysis of water quality variations were performed with integrated consideration of water quality parameters, hydrological-meteorologic and anthropogenic factors in Cao-E River, Zhejiang Province of China. Cao-E River system has been polluted and the water quality of some reaches are inferior to Grade V according to National Surface Water Quality Standard of China （GB2002）. However, mainly polluted indices of each tributary and mainstream are different. Total nitrogen （TN） and total phosphorus （TP） in the water are the main polluted indices for mainstream that varies from 1.52 to 45.85 mg/L and 0.02 to 4.02 mg/L, respectively. TN is the main polluted indices for Sub-watershed Ⅰ, Ⅱ, Ⅳ and Ⅴ（0.76 to 18.27 mg/L）. BOD5 （0.36 to 289.5 mg/L）, CODMn （0.47 to 78.86 mg/L）, TN （0.74 to 31.09 mg/L） and TP （0 to 3.75 mg/L） are the main polluted indices for Sub-watershed Ⅲ. There are tow pollution types along the river including nonpoint source pollution and point source pollution types. Remarkably temporal variations with a few spatial variations occur in nonpoint pollution type reaches （including mainstream, Sub-watershed Ⅰ and Ⅱ） that mainly drained by arable field and/or dispersive rural dwelling district, and the maximum pollutant concentration appears in flooding seasons. It implied that the runoff increases the pollutant concentration of the water in the nonpoint pollution type reaches. On the other hand, remarkably spatial variations occur in the point pollution type reaches （include Sub-watershed Ⅲ, Ⅳ and Ⅴ） and the maximum pollutant concentration appears in urban reaches. The runoff always decreases the pollutant concentration of the river water in the seriously polluted reaches that drained by industrial point sewage. But for the point pollution reaches resulted from centralized town domestic sewage pipeline and from frequent shipping and digging sands, rainfall always increased the concentration of pollutant （TN） in the river water too. Pollution controls were respectively suggested for these tow types according to different pollution causes.     

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation for advanced municipal wastewater treatment: is it feasible?

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation（ANAMMOX） is a recently developed process to treat ammonia-rich wastewater. There were numerous articles about the new technology with focus on the ammonium-rich wastewater treatment, but few on advanced municipal wastewater treatment. The paper studied the anaerobic ammonium oxidation （ANAMMOX） process with a down flow anoxic biofilter for nitrogen removal from secondary clarifier effluent of municipal wastewater with low COD/N ratio. The results showed that ANAMMOX process is applicable to advanced wastewater treatment with normal temperature as well as ammonia-rich high temperature wastewater treatment. The results indicated that ammonia removal rate was improved by raising the nitrite concentration, and the reaction rate reached a climax at 118.4 mgN/L of the nitrite nitrogen concentration. If the concentration exceeds 118.4 mgN/L, the ANAMMOX process was significantly inhibited although the ANAMMOX bacteria still showed a relatively high reactivity. The data also indicated that the ratio of NO2^- -N：NH4 ＊ -N = 1.3：1 in the influent was appropriate for excellent nitrogen removal. The pH increased gradually along the ANAMMOX biofilter reactor. When the ANAMMOX reaction was ended, the pH was tend to calm. The data suggested that the pH could be used as an indicator to describe the course of ANAMMOX reaction.     

Micro-electrolysis technology for industrial wastewater treatment

Experiments were conducted to study the role of micro-electrolysis in removing chromaticity and COD and improving the biodegradability of wastewater from pharmaceutical.dye-printing and papermaking plants.Results showed that the use of micro-electrolysis technology could remove more than 90% of chromaticity and more than 50% of COD and greatly improved the biodegradability of pharmaceutical wastewater.Lower initial pH could be advantageous to the removal of chromaticity. A retention time of 30 minutes was recommended for the process design of micro-electrolysis.For the use of micro-electrolysis in treatment of dye-printing wastewater,the removal rates of both chromaticity and COD were increased from neutral condition to acid condition for disperse blue wastewater;more than 90% of chromaticity and more than 50% of COD could be removed in neutral condition for vital red wastewater.     

Rapid detection of multiple class pharmaceuticals in both municipal wastewater and sludge with ultra high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

This work described the development, optimization and validation of an analytical method for rapid detection of multiple-class pharmaceuticals in both municipal wastewater and sludge samples based on ultrasonic solvent extraction, solid-phase extraction, and ultra high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry quantification. The results indicated that the developed method could effectively extract all the target pharmaceuticals （25） in a single process and analyze them within 24 min. The recoveries of the target pharmaceuticals were in the range of 69%-131% for wastewater and 54%-130% for sludge at different spiked concentration levels. The method quantification limits in wastewater and sludge ranged from 0.02 to 0.73 ng/L and from 0.02 to 1.00μg/kg, respectively. Subsequently, this method was validated and applied for residual pharma- ceutical analysis in a wastewater treatment plant located in Beijing, China. All the target pharmaceuticals were detected in the influent samples with concentrations varying from 0.09 ng/L （tiamulin） to 15.24 μg/L （caffeine）; meanwhile, up to 23 pharmaceuticals were detected in sludge samples with concentrations varying from 60 ng/kg （sulfamethizole） to 8.55 mg/kg （ofloxacin）. The developed method demonstrated its selectivity, sensitivity, and reliability for detecting multiple-class pharmaceuticals in complex matrices such as municipal wastewater and sludge.     

Identification of anthropogenic influences on water quality of rivers in Taihu watershed

Surface water bodies are progressively subjected to stress as a result of anthropogenic activities. This study assessed and examined the impact of human activities on spatial variation in the water quality of 19 rivers in the Taihu watershed. Concentrations of physicochemical parameters of surface water quality were determined at the mouth of each river during the period of 2000-2004. Multivariate statistical techniques were applied to identify characteristics of the water quality in the studied rivers. The results showed that rivers strongly influenced by household wastewater have the highest concentrations of nutrients （TN and TP）. Moreover, rivers in the vicinity of a metropolis presented low dissolved oxygen （DO） levels. However, organic-chemical pollution （petroleum and volatile phenolics） was identified with high localization. Two rivers influenced by sewage from industry and ships were distinguished from other rivers with high values of petroleum. The Taige channel, a river located in Changzhou City that is strongly influenced by wastewater from industry, was characterized with an extraordinarily high value of volatile phenolics. Rivers passing through countries, especially through hilly countries were characterized with high DO contents and low nutrient and organic-chemical pollution, suggesting that agriculture puts less pressure on water quality in adjacent rivers. Therefore, more effort should be made in controlling point pollution to restore water quality in rivers adjacent to cities.     

Designing principles of an ecological water storage basin on coastal saline: a case study

The degradation of water source environment becomes serious problems accompanying with rapid urbanization in China.Ecological engineering provides ecologically sound and cost-effective solution to solving this problem. As a case study, a 15 hm^2 ecological water storage basin for a water plant was designed and constructed on the TEDA area in Tianjin City. Located on saline, the construction of this project has to face serious difficulties, such as high salinity, scarce seed banks of macrophytes, and strong winds. Freshwater replacement, soil amendation and macrophytes planting at the basinshore, wooden water breaker and plastic membrane installation and other measures were conducted for the assistance of plant community establishment. The result showed that the chloride concentration in the basin water decreased from 11600 mg/L to less than 100 mg/L, and the chloride content in the basin sediment decreased from 2.1% to 0. 35 % after freshwater soaking. The introduced macrophytes of 8 species all survived and 11 other macrophytes species were occurred in the basin. A new ecosystem was created with increased biological diversity in the original saline, and the water quality was improved. This ecological water storage basin also provided a pleasing landscape for local people.     

A pilot-scale study of cryolite precipitation from high fluoride-containing wastewater in a reaction-separation integrated reactor

Fluoride removal by traditional precipitation generates huge amounts of a water-rich sludge with low quality, which has no commercial or industrial value. The present study evaluated the feasibility of recovering fluoride as low water content cryolite from industrial fluoride-containing wastewater. A novel pilot-scale reaction-separation integrated reactor was designed. The results showed that the seed retention time in the reactor was prolonged to strengthen the induced crystallization process. The particle size of cryolite increased with increasing seed retention time, which decreased the water content. The recovery rate of cryolite was above 75% under an influent fluoride concentration of 3500 mg/L, a reaction temperature of 50℃, and an influent flow of 40 L/hr. The cryolite products that precipitated from the reactor were small in volume, large in particle size, low in water content, high in crystal purity, and recyclable.     

Treatment of phosphate-containing oily wastewater by coagulation and microfiltration

The oily wastewater generated from pretreatment unit of electrocoating industry contains oils, phosphate, organic solvents, and surfactants. In order to improve the removal efficiencies of phosphate and oils, to mitigate the membrane fouling, coagulation for ceramic membrane microfiltration of oily wastewater was performed. The results of filtration tests show that the membrane fouling decreased and the permeate flux and quality increased with coagulation as pretreatment. At the coagulant Ca （OH）2 dosage of 900 mg/L, the removal efficiency of phosphate was increased from 46.4% without coagulation to 99.6%; the removal of COD and oils were 97.0% and 99.8%, respectively. And the permeate flux was about 70% greater than that when Ca（OH）2 was not used. The permeate obtained from coagulation and microfiltration can be reused as make-up water, and the recommended operation conditions for pilot and industrial application are transmembrane pressure of 0.10 MPa and cross-flow velocity of 5 m/s. The comparison results show that 0.2 μm ZrO2 microfilter with coagulation could be used to perform the filtration rather than conventional ultrafilter, with very substantial gain in flux and removal efficiency of phosphate.     

Cytotoxicity and genotoxicity evaluation of urban surface waters using freshwater luminescent bacteria Vibrio-qinghaiensis sp.-Q67 and Vicia faba root tip

The freshwater luminescent bacteria Vibrio-qinghaiensis sp.-Q67 test and the Vicia faba root tip test associated with solid-phase extraction were applied for cytotoxicity and genotoxicity assessment of organic substances in three rivers, two lakes and effluent flows from two wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Xi'an, China. Although the most seriously polluted river with high chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total organic carbon (TOC) showed high cytotoxicity (expressed as TII₅₀, the toxicity impact index) and genotoxicity (expressed as RMCN, the relative frequency of micronucleus), no correlative relation was found between the ecotoxicity and organic content of the water samples. However, there was a linear correlative relation between TII₅₀ and RMCN for most water samples except that from the Zaohe River, which receives discharge from WWTP and untreated industrial wastewaters. The ecotoxicity of the organic toxicants in the Chanhe River and Zaohe River indicated that cytotoxic and genotoxic effects were related to the pollutant source. The TII₅₀ and RMCN were also found to correlate roughly to the dissolved oxygen concentration of the water. Sufficient dissolved oxygen in surface water is thus proved to be an indicator of a healthy water environmental condition.     

Prediction of effluent concentration in a wastewater treatment plant using machine learning models

Of growing amount of food waste, the integrated food waste and waste water treatment was regarded as one of the efficient modeling method. However, the load of food waste to the conventional waste treatment process might lead to the high concentration of total nitrogen(T-N) impact on the effluent water quality. The objective of this study is to establish two machine learning models—artificial neural networks(ANNs) and support vector machines(SVMs), in order to predict 1-day interval T-N concentration of effluent from a wastewater treatment plant in Ulsan, Korea. Daily water quality data and meteorological data were used and the performance of both models was evaluated in terms of the coefficient of determination(R~2), Nash–Sutcliff efficiency(NSE), relative efficiency criteria(d rel). Additionally, Latin-Hypercube one-factor-at-a-time(LH-OAT) and a pattern search algorithm were applied to sensitivity analysis and model parameter optimization, respectively. Results showed that both models could be effectively applied to the 1-day interval prediction of T-N concentration of effluent. SVM model showed a higher prediction accuracy in the training stage and similar result in the validation stage.However, the sensitivity analysis demonstrated that the ANN model was a superior model for 1-day interval T-N concentration prediction in terms of the cause-and-effect relationship between T-N concentration and modeling input values to integrated food waste and waste water treatment. This study suggested the efficient and robust nonlinear time-series modeling method for an early prediction of the water quality of integrated food waste and waste water treatment process.     

Release behavior of copper and zinc from sandy soils

The concentrations and chemical forms of copper(Cu) and zinc(Zn) in surface soils directly influence the movement of Cu and Zn. In this study, thirteen sandy soil samples with a wide range of total Cu and Zn concentrations were collected for evaluating the relationships between Cu and Zn release and extraction time, ratio of soil to water, pH and electro;yte types. The results indicated that Cu released in batch extraction that represents long-term leaching was mainly from exchangeable, and carbonate bound Cu fractions, and Zn released in the batch extraction was mainly from its carbonate bound fraction. However, the Cu and Zn leached from the soils using the column leaching that represents short-term leaching were mainly from their exchangeable fractions. Soil column leaching at different pH values indicated that the amounts of leached Zn and Cu were greatly affected by pH. The Cu and Zn release experiments with varying extraction times and ratio of soil to water suggest that long-term water-logging in the soils after rain may increase contact time of the soils with water and the release of Cu and Zn to water from the soils, and total amounts of Cu or Zn released from the soils increase, but the Cu or Zn concentration in the surface runoff decrease with increasing rainfall intensity. The increased Ca concentration in soil solution increased stability of organic matter-mineral complexes and might decrease the dissolution of organic matter, and thus decreased the release of Cu-binding component of organic matter. However, high concentration of Na in the soil solution increased the dispersion of the organic matter-mineral complexes and increased dissolution of organic matter and the release of Cu from the soils.     

Selection of appropriate organic additives for enhancing Zn and Cd phytoextraction by hyperaccumulators

Chelant-enhanced phytoextraction is one of the most promising technologies to remove heavy metals from soil. The key of the technology is to choose suitable additives in combination with a suitable plant. In the present study, laboratory batch experiment of metal solubilization, cress seeds germination were undertaken to investigate the metal-mobilizing capability and the phytotoxicity of organic additives, including ethylene diamine triacetic acid （EDTA）, citric acid, acetic acid, oxalic acid, glutamine and monosodium glutamate waste liquid （MGWL） from food industry. Experiments in pots were carried out to study the effects of the additives on Zn and Cd phytoextraction. Furthermore, a leaching experiment with lysimeter was performed to evaluate the environmental risks of additive-induced leaching to underground water. The results showed that EDTA had a strong mobilizing ability for Zn and Cd, followed by mixed reagent （MR） and MGWL. MGWL and acetic acid at 5 mmol equivalent per liter resulted in seed germination index less than 2%. Experiments in pots verified the phytotoxicity of acetic acid and MGWL. Addition of the mixed reagent at 6--10 mmol/kg significantly increased Zn phytoextraction by Thlaspi caerulescens. The same for EDTA and the mixed reagent at 10 mmol/kg by Sedum dfredii. But only mixed reagents could significantly increase Cd phytoextraction by the studied hyperaccumulators. This suggested that the strong chelant was not always the good agent to enhance phytoextraction. S. alfredii combined with 2--10 mmol/kg soil MR was preferred for phytoremediation of Cd/Zn contaminated soils in southern China, this could result in high phytoextraction of Cd/Zn and reduce the leaching risk to underground water than EDTA assisted phytoextration.     

Chemical oxygen demand reduction in coffee wastewater through chemical flocculation and advanced oxidation processes

The removal of the natural organic matter present in coffee processing wastewater through chemical coagulation-flocculation and advanced oxidation processes （AOP） had been studied. The effectiveness of the removal of natural organic matter using commercial flocculants and UV/H202, UV/O3 and UV/H2O2/O3 processes was determined under acidic conditions. For each of these processes, different operational conditions were explored to optimize the treatment efficiency of the coffee wastewater. Coffee wastewater is characterized by a high chemical oxygen demand （COD） and low total suspended solids. The outcomes of coffee wastewater treatment using coagulation-flocculation and photodegradation processes were assessed in terms of reduction of COD, color, and turbidity. It was found that a reduction in COD of 67% could be realized when the coffee wastewater was treated by chemical coagulation-flocculation with lime and coagulant T-1. When coffee wastewater was treated by coagulation-flocculation in combination with UV/H2O2, a COD reduction of 86% was achieved, although only after prolonged UV irradiation. Of the three advanced oxidation processes considered, UV/H2O2, UV/O3 and UV/H2O2/O3, we found that the treatment with UV/H2O2/O3 was the most effective, with an efficiency of color, turbidity and further COD removal of 87%, when applied to the flocculated coffee wastewater.     

Influence of biosurfactant on the diesel oil remediation in soil-water system

There were six high diesel oil degrading bacteria strains isolated from the oil contaminated soil that collected from Linzi City. The strain YI was able to produce biosurfactant rhanmolipid when cultivated on diesel oil as carbon source. The critical micelle concentrations （CMC） of rhanmolipid in water and in the soil were measured respectively according to the correlation between the surface tension of the medium and the added rhamnolipid concentration. The results showed that the CMC of rhanmolipid in water was 65 mg/L, and was 185 mg/L in soil. The tests on diesel oil biodegradation were conducted with the addition of different concentrations of rhamnolipid in water and in soil respectively. When 0.01% rhanmolipid was added to water, the diesel oil degradation was enhanced. On the contrary, when the same concentration of rhanmolipid was added to the soil, the degradation of diesel oil was inhibited. The results suggested that the rhamnolipid could enhance the diesel oil biodegradation, indicating that the concentration of rhamnolipid was higher than the corresponding CMC in the medium. Kinetics parameters for the diesel oil biodegradation parameters such as biodegradation constant （λ）, coefficient of correlation （r） and half life （t1/2） in both tests were numerically analyzed in this paper, indicating that the moderate concentration of rhamnolipid in the medium could not only enhance the extent of diesel oil biodegradation but also shorten the time for oil remediation.     

Phosphate removal and recovery through crystallization of hydroxyapatite using xonotlite as seed crystal

Xonotlite was synthesized and tested for phosphate removal and recovery from synthetic solution in a batch mode. The e ects of pH, initial calcium concentration, bicarbonate concentration on phosphate removal through crystallization were examined. The morphology and X-ray di raction (XRD) pattern of xonotlite before and after crystallization confirmed the formation of crystalline hydroxyapatite. The results indicated that the crystallization product had a very high P content (> 10%), which is comparable to phosphate rock at the dosage of 50–200 mg xonotlite per liter, with a maximum P content of 16.7%. The kinetics of phosphate removal followed the second-order reaction equation. The phosphate removal ability increased with increasing pH. The precipitation of calcium phosphate took place when pH was higher than 7.2, whereas the crystallization occurred at pH 6.0. A high calcium concentration could promote the removal of phosphate via crystallization, while a high bicarbonate concentration also enhanced phosphate removal, through that the pH was increased and thus induced the precipitation process. When xonotlite was used to remove phosphate from wastewater, the removal e ciency could reach 91.3% after 24 h reaction, with removal capacity 137 mg/g. The results indicated that xonotlite might be used as an e ective crystal seed for the removal and recovery of phosphate from aqueous solution.