Could wastewater analysis be a useful tool for China? — A review

Analysingwastewater samples is an innovative approach that overcomesmany limitations of traditional surveys to identify and measure a range of chemicals that were consumed by or exposed to people living in a sewer catchment area. First conceptualised in 2001, much progress has been made to make wastewater analysis (WWA) a reliable and robust tool for measuring chemical consumption and/or exposure. At the moment, the most popular application of WWA, sometimes referred as sewage epidemiology, is to monitor the consumption of illicit drugs in communities around the globe, including China. The approach has been largely adopted by lawenforcement agencies as a device tomonitor the temporal and geographical patterns of drug consumption. In the future, themethodology can be extended to other chemicals including biomarkers of population health (e.g. environmental or oxidative stress biomarkers, lifestyle indicators or medications that are taken by different demographic groups) and pollutants that people are exposed to (e.g. polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, perfluorinated chemicals, and toxic pesticides). The extension of WWA to a huge range of chemicals may give rise to a field called sewage chemical-information mining (SCIM) with unexplored potentials. China has many densely populated cities with thousands of sewage treatment plants which are favourable for applying WWA/SCIM in order to help relevant authorities gather information about illicit drug consumption and population health status. However, there are some prerequisites and uncertainties of the methodology that should be addressed for SCIM to reach its full potential in China.     

Applying a new method for direct collection, volume quantification and determination of N2 emission from water

The emission of N₂ is important to remove excess N from lakes, ponds, and wetlands. To investigate the gas emission from water, Gao et al. (2013) developed a new method using a bubble trap device to collect gas samples from waters. However, the determination accuracy of sampling volume and gas component concentration was still debatable. In this study, the method was optimized for in situ sampling, accurate volume measurement and direct injection to a gas chromatograph for the analysis of N₂ and other gases. By the optimized new method, the recovery rate for N₂ was 100.28% on average; the mean coefficient of determination (R²) was 0.9997; the limit of detection was 0.02%. We further assessed the effects of the new method, bottle full of water, vs. vacuum bag and vacuum vial methods, on variations of N₂ concentration as influenced by sample storage times of 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 days at constant temperature of 15°C, using indices of averaged relative peak area (%) in comparison with the averaged relative peak area of each method at 0 day. The indices of the bottle full of water method were the lowest (99.5%-108.5%) compared to the indices of vacuum bag and vacuum vial methods (119%-217%). Meanwhile, the gas chromatograph determination of other gas components (O₂, CH₄, and N₂O) was also accurate. The new method was an alternative way to investigate N₂ released from various kinds of aquatic ecosystems.     

Effect of six kinds of scale inhibitors on calcium carbonate precipitation in high salinity wastewater at high temperatures

Precipitation of calcium carbonate(Ca CO3) scale on heat transfer surfaces is a serious and expensive problem widely occurring in numerous industrial processes. In this study, we compared the scale inhibition effect of six kinds of commercial scale inhibitors and screened out the best one(scale inhibitor SQ-1211) to investigate its scale inhibition performance in highly saline conditions at high temperature through static scale inhibition tests. The influences of scale inhibitor dosage, temperature, heating time and p H on the inhibition efficiency of the optimal scale inhibitor were investigated. The morphologies and crystal structures of the precipitates were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy and X-ray Diffraction analysis. Results showed that the scale inhibition efficiency of the optimal scale inhibitor decreased with the increase of the reaction temperature. When the concentration of Ca2+was 1600 mg/L, the scale inhibition rate could reach 90.7% at 80°C at p H 8. The optimal scale inhibitor could effectively retard scaling at high temperature. In the presence of the optimal scale inhibitor, the main crystal structure of Ca CO3 changed from calcite to aragonite.     

Piriformospora indica confers cadmium tolerance in Nicotiana tabacum

Piriformospora indica, a root-colonizing endophytic fungus of Sebacinales, promotes plant growth and confers resistance against biotic and abiotic stresses. In order to confirm the influence of P. indica on growth, proline, malondialdehyde (MDA), chlorophyll, and cadmium (Cd) amounts in Nicotiana tabacum under Cd stress, hydroponics, pot and field trials were conducted. The results showed that P. indica can store Cd in plant roots and reduce leaf Cd content, reduce the concentration of MDA, and increase the proline and chlorophyll content and the activities of catalase, peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase under hydroponic Cd stress. RT-PCR analysis showed that the relative expression level of genes Gsh2, TaPCS1, oas1, GPX, and Hsp70 in colonized plants was 4.3, 1.4, 2.9, 1.7, and 6.9 fold higher than in un-colonized plants respectively. Cd exposure significantly reduced un-colonized plants'' agronomic traits compared to P. indica-colonized ones. Our results suggested that P. indica can sequester Cd in roots, so that much less cadmium was transported to leaves, and the increased concentrations of antioxidant enzymes, pigments and proline contents, as well as the higher expression of stress-related phytochelatin biosynthesis genes in P. indica-inoculated plants, may also serve to protect N. tabacum plants against oxidative damage, enhancing Cd tolerance.     

Excretion of manure-borne estrogens and androgens and their potential risk estimation in the Yangtze River Basin

The Yangtze River is the longest river in China, and the river basin spans one fifth of the area of the whole country. Based on statistical data, the excretion of manure-borne steroid hormones, including steroid estrogens(SEs) and steroid androgens(SAs), in 10 provinces of China within the region has been estimated. The potential environmental and ecological risk of manure-borne steroid estrogens to the surface water in this region was also assessed. The manure-borne SE and SA excretions in the 10 provinces and municipalities vary in the order: Sichuan Hunan Hubei Yunnan Jiangsu Anhui Jiangxi Chongqing Qinghai Shanghai. The highest increase of manure-borne SEs(1434.3 kg)and SAs(408.5 kg) was found in Hunan and Hubei provinces, respectively, and the total excretion in 2013 was 65% more than 15 years earlier in these two provinces. However, the emissions in Anhui and Shanghai decreased in this 15 year period of time. Swine urine,chicken feces, cattle urine, and laying hen feces were considered the dominant sources of manure-borne E1, βE2, αE2, and SAs, respectively. Although Jiangsu province did not have the largest excretion of manure-borne SEs, it had the highest level of predicted17β-estradiol equivalency(EEQs) value of 16.65 ng/L in surface water because of the limited surface water resources. According to the lowest observable effect level of 10 ng/L for17β-estradiol, the manure-borne SEs in Jiangsu province might potentially pose ecological risk to its wild aquatic organisms.     

寒冷地区分散性生活污水处理适用技术推荐

寒冷的气候条件制约着我国北方地区分散性生活污水处理技术的发展。针对北方地区气候条件及经济技术条件,结合国内外研究成果及相关工程实例,对3种污水处理技术进行分析,得出2种适合寒冷地区分散性生活污水处理的实用技术:厌氧滤池/生物接触氧化池净化槽组合、厌氧滤池/人工湿地处理技术组合。     

石化企业35kV输电线路防雷对策研究

采用ATP-EMTP仿真软件建立有无避雷线输电线路的仿真模型,并考虑接地电阻、档距大小,进行仿真比较.结果表明:杆塔塔顶电压与接地电阻成正比,并呈线性增加,随着电阻值增加,杆塔塔顶电压增加越来越快;当杆塔水平档距小于100 m时,直击杆塔塔顶电压随档距的增加呈线性增长,当档距大于100 m时,杆塔塔顶电压的变化就不明显了;验证35 kV线路全线架设避雷线可有效降低输电线路杆塔塔顶电压幅值,提出石化企业35 kV输电线路应全线架设避雷线.     

微波在废树脂中的穿透厚度研究

通过对不同功率微波在不同规格钢桶中对不同含水率的树脂中的穿透厚度的研究可知,微波在树脂中的穿透厚度主要与树脂自身含水率有关,与钢桶的规格尺寸也有一定的关系,而微波功率的影响则可基本忽略不计;对于含水率50％左右的树脂,微波在12L钢桶中的穿透厚度是130 mm;在200L钢桶中的穿透厚度是70mm.该研究成果对微波干燥工艺的具体参数的选取和扩大规模台架装置的设计研究等有重要意义.     

多级A／O膜生物反应器污泥活性研究

采用一种新型的多级A／O膜生物反应器处理污水,对该工艺的污泥活性进行了研究。结果表明,VSS／SS在实验过程中呈较弱的下降趋势,多级A／O池曝气室污泥比硝化速率逐室下降,但各缺氧室污泥比反硝化速率基本一致;污泥释磷、聚磷过程在30 min和1 h内基本完成,反硝化聚磷试验表明污泥中存在DPB的富集,反硝化作用是反硝化细菌与DPB共同作用的结果。