Biochar as low-cost sorbent of volatile fuel organic compounds: potential application to water remediation

Pyrolysis of waste materials to produce biochar is an excellent and suitable alternative supporting a circular bio-based economy. One of the properties attributed to biochar is the capacity for sorbing organic contaminants, which is determined by its composition and physicochemical characteristics. In this study, the capacity of waste-derived biochar to retain volatile fuel organic compounds (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX) and fuel oxygenates (FO)) from artificially contaminated water was assessed using batch-based sorption experiments. Additionally, the sorption isotherms were established. The results showed significant differences between BTEX and FO sorption on biochar, being the most hydrophobic and non-polar contaminants those showing the highest retention. Furthermore, the sorption process reflected a multilayer behaviour and a relatively high sorption capacity of the biochar materials. Langmuir and Freundlich models were adequate to describe the experimental results and to detect general differences in the sorption behaviour of volatile fuel organic compounds. It was also observed that the feedstock material and biochar pyrolysis conditions had a significant influence in the sorption process. The highest sorption capacity was found in biochars produced at high temperature (>?400 °C) and thus rich in aromatic C, such as eucalyptus and corn cob biochars. Overall, waste-derived biochar offers a viable alternative to be used in the remediation of volatile fuel organic compounds from water due to its high sorption capacity.

     

Towards an assessment of the influence of climate on wet acidic deposition in Europe

The EMEP precipitation composition network is used to examine relationships between non-marine SO4(2-), NO3-, NH4+, H+ concentrations and precipitation amount and a local zonal pressure index (an index of the atmospheric circulation). The pattern of the relationships changes across Europe with the zonal pressure gradient explaining more of the variance in ion concentrations in the west, and precipitation amount explaining relatively more of the variance in the east. There is some predictive capability for precipitation composition in the zonal pressure gradient for restricted regions in Europe; R2 values are up to 40% on a daily basis but in some seasons/months attain >60%. The zonal pressure gradient is an index which appears to include pertinent information on transport and wet removal. Preliminary analysis indicates that this approach can be useful in assessing the contributions of changing atmospheric circulation to time-trends of wet acidic deposition in an area stretching from the UK over the North Sea to Denmark. The zonal pressure gradient is known to have varied on time-scales of decades, and the simple index may be one appropriate approach to assessing future deposition patterns from future climate projections.     

A Comprehensive Python Toolkit for Accessing High‐Throughput Computing to Support Large Hydrologic Modeling Tasks

The National Flood Interoperability Experiment (NFIE) was an undertaking that initiated a transformation in national hydrologic forecasting by providing streamflow forecasts at high spatial resolution over the whole country. This type of large‐scale, high‐resolution hydrologic modeling requires flexible and scalable tools to handle the resulting computational loads. While high‐throughput computing (HTC) and cloud computing provide an ideal resource for large‐scale modeling because they are cost‐effective and highly scalable, nevertheless, using these tools requires specialized training that is not always common for hydrologists and engineers. In an effort to facilitate the use of HTC resources the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project, CI‐WATER, has developed a set of Python tools that can automate the tasks of provisioning and configuring an HTC environment in the cloud, and creating and submitting jobs to that environment. These tools are packaged into two Python libraries: CondorPy and TethysCluster. Together these libraries provide a comprehensive toolkit for accessing HTC to support hydrologic modeling. Two use cases are described to demonstrate the use of the toolkit, including a web app that was used to support the NFIE national‐scale modeling.     

Microbial fuel cells: Advances in electrode modifications for improvement of system performance

There is an increasing trend to conduct the researches related to Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) in the recent years. Limited power output has been the major obstacle for the practical application and upscaling of MFCs. Attempts have been made on electrode modifications such as anode treatments, cathode modifications with catalysts and bio cathodes developments to produce varying degrees of improved output current depending upon the types of modifications. Power density and Coulombic efficiency have been considered as the important parameters to analyze the system performances. This paper overviews on the advances made in MFCs’ researches focusing on different types of electrodes modifications along with the involved methodology. Furthermore, the system performances of different modified MFCs are compared in terms of the power density and the Coulombic efficiency.     

Optimization of Pellet Production from Agro-Industrial By-Products: Effect of Plasticizers on Properties of Pellets and Composite Pots

The present study aimed to optimize the pellets formulation (deoiled rice bran, potato peel powder and plasticizers) for the development of the injection molded pots. The maximum hardness and bulk density (desirable responses) were obtained for pellets having 100 g of deoiled rice bran, 100 g potato peel powder and 14 % of cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL) as well as 14 % of glycerol (GL) (on raw material basis). The optimized pellets and the pots developed from them were characterized for their physico-chemical, functional, rheological and morphological properties. Expansion ratio, pellet durability index and hardness of the pellets with 14 % CNSL were found to be 1.097, 98.647 % and 485.551 N, respectively. For pellets with 14 % GL expansion ratio, pellet durability index and hardness were found to be 1.150, 97.747 % and 462.949 N, respectively. The biodegradation analysis of the pots developed from optimized pellets with 14 % CNSL and GL degraded in 11 and 9 weeks, respectively. Porosity, puncture force, density and hardness of ‘AP’ pots were 27.473 %, 495.731 N, 1.549 g/ml and 542.641 N, respectively. However, for ‘BP’ pots, the porosity, puncture force, density and hardness were 32.548 %, 440.149 N, 1.191 g/ml and 507.841 N, respectively. Pots prepared from 14 % CNSL (AP) were better in physical and mechanical properties as compared to pots developed from glycerol.     

How to Constrain Multi‐Objective Calibrations of the SWAT Model Using Water Balance Components

Accurate discharge simulation is one of the most common objectives of hydrological modeling studies. However, a good simulation of discharge is not necessarily the result of a realistic simulation of hydrological processes within the catchment. We propose an evaluation framework that considers both discharge and water balance components as evaluation criteria for calibration of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). In this study, we integrated average annual values of surface runoff, groundwater flow, and evapotranspiration in the model evaluation procedure to constrain the selection of good model runs for the Little River Experimental Watershed in Georgia, United States. For evaluating water balance and discharge dynamics, the Nash‐Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) and percent bias (PBIAS) were used. In addition, the ratio of root mean square error and standard deviation of measured data (RSR) was calculated for individual segments of the flow duration curve to identify the best model runs in terms of discharge magnitude. Our results indicate that good statistics for discharge do not guarantee realistic simulations of individual water balance components. Therefore, we recommend constraining the ranges of water balance components to achieve a more realistic simulation of the entire hydrological system, even if tradeoffs between good statistics for discharge simulations and reasonable amounts of the water balance components are unavoidable. Editor's note : This paper is part of the featured series on SWAT Applications for Emerging Hydrologic and Water Quality Challenges. See the February 2017 issue for the introduction and background to the series.     

Ultrasound effects on the activity of Aspergillus niger lipases in their application in dairy wastewater treatment

We evaluated the effect of ultrasound radiation on lipase activity. The experiments were conducted using a low‐cost crude enzyme extract. We then used this lipase to treat dairy effluent. The results of our study presented an increase of approximately 430% in the concentration of free fatty acids.     

Evaluation of Existing and Modified Wetland Equations in the SWAT Model

The ability to accurately simulate flow and nutrient removal in treatment wetlands within an agricultural, watershed‐scale model is needed to develop effective plans for meeting nutrient reduction goals associated with protection of drinking water supplies and reduction of the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone. The objectives of this study were to incorporate new equations for wetland hydrology and nutrient removal in Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), compare model performance using original and improved equations, and evaluate the ramifications of errors in watershed and tile drain simulation on prediction of NO₃‐N dynamics in wetlands. The modified equations produced Nash‐Sutcliffe Efficiency values of 0.88 to 0.99 for daily NO₃‐N load predictions, and percent bias values generally less than 6%. However, statistical improvement over the original equations was marginal and both old and new equations provided accurate simulations. The new equations reduce the model's dependence on detailed monitoring data and hydrologic calibration. Additionally, the modified equations increase SWAT's versatility by incorporating a weir equation and an irreducible nutrient concentration and temperature coefficient. Model improvements enhance the utility of SWAT for simulating flow and nutrients in wetlands and other impoundments, although performance is limited by the accuracy of inflow and NO₃‐N predictions from the contributing watershed. Editor's note : This paper is part of the featured series on SWAT Applications for Emerging Hydrologic and Water Quality Challenges. See the February 2017 issue for the introduction and background to the series.     

Think globally,act locally: neighbourhood pollution and the future of the earth

Each year governments and industry around the globe spend billions of dollars in search of treatments and cures for diseases that shorten lives, which often means gadgets, implants, radiation and pills. These “cures”, do not get to the root of the problem. Perhaps it is time for us to adjust our thinking to be more proactive instead of reactive in public health. Perhaps we need to consider confronting environmental pollution of air, soil and water at a local level. As the Physicians for Social Responsibility point out, we should be “preventing what we cannot cure”. One such preventive measure is ensuring that our communities, including our poor inner-city neighbourhoods, enjoy a clean environment. We challenge local and national policy-makers to respond to the global call and to take action to address environmental toxins; to take local action to ameliorate the pollution of the air, water and soil in so many of our nation’s neighbourhoods. A person’s neighbourhood, and the proximity of dangerous environmental contaminants within it, is a powerful predictor of how long s/he will live. While situations like the poisoning of the water in Flint, Michigan have gotten some attention, they are generally treated as the exception rather than a reflection of real environmental hazards that exist in the west. Moreover we wonder why more endemic issues of neighbourhood environmental contamination that shorten human lives are not a priority for local action or that it is not linked to disproportionate production of greenhouse gases that cause climate change/warming/chaos.     

Demonstrating Contaminant Degradation at an MGP Site With Metabolic Gas Flux and Radio Carbon Dating

Obtaining lines of evidence indicating that contamination in sediment environments is degrading and being transformed to less toxic forms is an important component of building support for a monitored natural recovery remedy for contaminated sediments. This project was a field demonstration of manufactured gas plant contaminant degradation in river sediments using metabolic gas flux and was performed in an urban area section of a river in northeastern Indiana. CO₂ sorbent traps were deployed to measure CO₂ flux from the river sediments. Sediment samples were collected and analyzed for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentrations and for microbial community composition using molecular techniques. The results showed that the deployment was successful, measuring CO₂ flux at all sediment locations and demonstrating that microbial contaminant degrading activity was occurring in the sediments. Radio carbon dating showed a significant portion of the CO₂ being generated (approximately 19–27 percent) was the result of fossil fuel degradation. Molecular results showed that the microbial community consisted of phylotypes known to be associated with monocyclic aromatic and PAH degradation. ©2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.