Chromate transport through columns packed with surfactant-modified zeolite/zero valent iron pellets

Chromate transport through columns packed with zeolite/zero valent iron (Z/ZVI) pellets, either untreated or treated with the cationic surfactant hexadecyltrimethylammonium (HDTMA), was studied at different flow rates. In the presence of sorbed HDTMA, the chromate retardation factor increased by a factor of five and the pseudo first-order rate constant for chromate reduction increased by 1.5-5 times. The increase in rate constant from the column studies was comparable to a six-fold increase in the rate constant determined in a batch study. At a fast flow rate, the apparent delay in chromate breakthrough from the HDTMA modified Z/ZVI columns was primarily caused by the increase in chromate reduction rate constant. In contrast, at a slower flow rate, the retardation in chromate transport from the HDTMA modified Z/ZVI columns mainly originated from chromate sorption onto the HDTMA modified Z/ZVI pellets. Due to dual porosity, the presence of immobile water was responsible for the earlier breakthrough of chromate in columns packed with zeolite and Z/ZVI pellets. The results from this study further confirm the role of HDTMA in enhancing sorption and reduction efficiency of contaminants in groundwater remediation.     

Pressurized CO2/zero valent iron system for nitrate removal

A fluidized zero valent iron (ZVI) reactor pressurized by CO(2) gas for controlling pH was employed for nitrate reduction. The proposed CO(2) pressurized system potentially has advantages of using less CO(2) gas and reaching equilibrium pH faster than CO(2)-bubbled system. However, due to weak acid nature of carbonic acid, system pH gradually increased with increasing oxidation of ZVI and reduction of nitrate. As pH increased with progress of reaction, nitrate removal rate decreased continuously. The results indicate that nitrate removal efficiency increases with increasing initial ZVI dosage but reaches plateau at ZVI doses of higher than 8.25gl(-1), and initial nitrate concentration up to 100mg l(-1) as N has minimal impact on the removal efficiency. Unlike the fluidized system with pH control by strong acid reported in our pervious study, near 100% of nitrogen recovery was observed in the current process, indicating that nitrate reduction by ZVI with different pH controlled mechanisms will have different reaction routes.     

Physiological and biochemical responses to high Mn concentrations in two contrasting Populus cathayana populations

We exposed the cuttings of Populus cathayana to Hoagland's solution containing four different manganese (Mn) concentrations (0, 0.1, 0.5 and 1mM) in a greenhouse to characterize the physiological and biochemical basis of Mn resistance in woody plants. Two contrasting populations of P. cathayana were used in our study, which were from the wet and dry climate regions in western China, respectively. The results showed that Mn treatments significantly decreased chlorophyll content and growth characteristics, including shoot height, basal diameter, biomass accumulation and total leaf area in the two populations. Mn treatments also significantly increased the levels of abscisic acid (ABA), polyamines and free amino acids especially proline (Pro), histidine (His) and phenylalanine (Phe) available for cellular signaling and heavy metal chelation. In addition, high Mn concentrations also caused oxidative stress indicated as the accumulation of hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) and malondialdehyde (MDA) contents. On the other hand, there were different responses to Mn stress between the two contrasting populations. Compared with the dry climate population, the wet climate population accumulated more Mn in plant tissues especially in leaves; it showed lower tolerance index and more pronounced decrease in growth and chlorophyll contents. The wet climate population not only accumulated less ABA, putrescine and free amino acids, but also exhibited lower activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX), thus suffering from more serious oxidative damage. Therefore, our results showed that the wet climate population was more susceptible to Mn stress than the dry climate population.     

Aerobic degradation of bisphenol A by Achromobacter xylosoxidans strain B-16 isolated from compost leachate of municipal solid waste

A novel bacterium designated strain B-16 was isolated from the compost leachate of the municipal solid waste (MSW) in a laboratory reactor. This strain was identified as a gram-negative bacterium, Achromobacter xylosoxidans that could grow on bisphenol A (BPA, a representative endocrine disruptor) as a sole carbon source under aerobic condition. BPA-degrading characteristics of strain B-16 were investigated in liquid cultures. The results show that BPA degradation was influenced by several factors (e.g. inoculum size, substrate concentration, temperature and pH, etc). The half-lives, optimum temperature and pH were found to be 0.58-3.1d, 35 degrees C and 7.0, respectively. BPA-degrading activity and cell growth were inhibited at high substrate concentration. Metabolic intermediates detected during the degradation process were identified as p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, p-hydroxybenzoic acid and p-hydroquinone, respectively. Metabolic pathway of BPA degradation was proposed in this study.     

Application of artificial neural network approach and remotely sensed imagery for regional eco-environmental quality evaluation

Eco-environment quality evaluation is an important research theme in environment management. In the present study, Fuzhou city in China was selected as a study area and a limited number of 222 sampling field sites were first investigated in situ with the help of a GPS device. Every sampling site was assessed by ecological experts and given an Eco-environment Background Value (EBV) based on a scoring and ranking system. The higher the EBV, the better the ecological environmental quality. Then, three types of eco-environmental attributes that are physically-based and easily-quantifiable at a grid level were extracted: (1) remote sensing derived attributes (vegetation index, wetness index, soil brightness index, surface land temperature index), (2) meteorological attributes (annual temperature and annual precipitation), and (3) terrain attribute (elevation). A Back Propagation (BP) Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model was proposed for the EBV validation and prediction. A three-layer BP ANN model was designed to automatically learn the internal relationship using a training set of known EBV and eco-environmental attributes, followed by the application of the model for predicting EBV values across the whole study area. It was found that the performance of the BP ANN model was satisfactory and capable of an overall prediction accuracy of 82.4%, with a Kappa coefficient of 0.801 in the validation. The evaluation results showed that the eco-environmental quality of Fuzhou city is considered as satisfactory. Through analyzing the spatial correlation between the eco-environmental quality and land uses, it was found that the best eco-environmental areas were related to forest lands, whereas the urban area had the relatively worst eco-environmental quality. Human activities are still considered as a major impact on the eco-environmental quality in this area.     

Leachability of municipal solid waste ashes in simulated landfill conditions

In Japan the volume of municipal solid waste is reduced by incineration, with fly ash and bottom ash disposed in controlled landfills. The leachability of anions and heavy metal cations, Zn, Cu and Pb, from MSW fly ash and bottom ash at different pHs was examined using batch- and column-leaching tests. The MSW ashes had a high capacity for neutralizing acids. Behaviour during leaching depended on the pH of the solution. For the volumes applied, the leachabilities of MSW fly ash were very similar at pHs from 3 to 6. Due to its amphoteric nature, Pb is leachable at pHs of approximately 10 or more, with leachate concentrations of about 3 and 3-10mg/L for the fly ash and bottom ash, respectively, much higher than for Zn and Cu. Pb concentrations for most leaching solutions were 1 and 3mg/L for the fly ash and bottom ash, respectively. Zn, and Cu leached at low concentrations for solutions of pH 3-6. Na and K ions leached at high concentrations of approximately 5000 mg/L in the first batch leaching test, decreasing to 10mg/L by the fourth leach. Ca and Mg ions leached more gradually than Na and K. Cl(-) and SO(4)(2+) ions were the major anions in the MSW ash. The high pH and cation leaching are expected to have negative impacts on the performance of clay liners.     

Investigation of a new approach to decompose two potent greenhouse gases: photoreduction of SF(6) and SF(5)CF(3) in the presence of acetone

In this paper, we addressed the utilization of photochemical method as an innovative technology for the destruction and removal of two potent greenhouse gases, SF(6) and SF(5)CF(3). The destruction and removal efficiency (DRE) of the process was determined as a function of excitation wavelength, irradiation time, initial ratio of acetone to SF(5)X (X represented F or CF(3)), initial SF(5)X concentration, additive oxygen and water vapor concentration. A complete removal was achieved by a radiation period of 55min and 120min for SF(6)-CH(3)COCH(3) system and SF(5)CF(3)-CH(3)COCH(3) system respectively under 184.9nm irradiation. Extra addition of water vapor can enhance DRE by approximately 6% points in both systems. Further studies with GC/MS and FT-IR proved that no hazardous products such as S(2)F(10), SO(2)F(2), SOF(2), SOF(4) were generated in this process.     

絮凝剂PAN-DCD与甲基橙相互作用中的热力学研究

用平衡渗析法研究了有机高分子絮凝剂ＰＡＮ－ＤＣＤ与甲基橙（ＭＯ）在２０,２５,３０,３５℃下相互作用的热力学,求得结合常数Ｋ和热力学参数△Ｇ,△Ｈ,△Ｓ,在对不同絮凝剂结构进行表征的基础上,探讨了不同ＰＡＮ,ＤＣＤ配比对合成的絮凝剂与ＭＯ相互作用的影响,结果表明：ＰＡＮ－ＤＣＤ与ＭＯ的相互作用中能量作用是主要的：随ＰＡＮ与ＤＣＤ的比值增大,合成的絮凝剂ＰＤ１,ＰＤ２,ＰＤ３在常温下与ＭＯ的结合程试     

小麦在与水杨酸诱导的应答过程中PGIP的积累

以ＳＷ８９－２５８９小麦品系为材料,利用自制的小麦抗ＰＧＩＰ血清和ｄｏｔ－ｉｍｍｕｎｏｂｉｎｄｉｎｇ ａｓｓａｙ,并结合ＰＧＩＰ粗提液对ｅｎｄｏ－ＰＧ的抑制实验,研究了小麦内源多聚半乳糖醛酸酶抑制蛋白（ＰＧＩＰ）水平与水杨酸之间的应答关系。发现用水杨酸处理过的ＰＧＩＰ粗提液在ＮＣ膜上的显色斑点颜色均较Ｈ２Ｏ处理的ＰＧＩＰ粗提液深,而且对ｅｎ－ｄｏ－ＰＧ的抑制程度也高于未用水杨酸处理的ＰＧＩＰ粗提液     

影响土壤中微生物体氮的因子

综述了影响土壤微生物体氮的因子,以及微生物体氮与可矿化氮之间的关系。着重讨论了土壤有机质、有机物料、氮肥、作物根系、土壤温度和湿度对微生物体氮的影响及研究进展;评价了土壤微生物体氮与可矿化氮的关系的研究结果。