Adsorptive amputation of hazardous azo dye Congo red from wastewater: a critical review

Increasing amount of dyes in an ecosystem has propelled the search of various methods for dye removal. Amongst all the methods, adsorption occupies a prominent place in dye removal. Keeping this in mind, many adsorbents used for the removal of hazardous anionic azo dye Congo red (CR) from aqueous medium were reviewed by the authors. The main objectives behind this review article are to assemble the information on scattered adsorbents and enlighten the wide range of potentially effective adsorbents for CR removal. Thus, CR sorption by various adsorbents such as activated carbon, non-conventional low-cost materials, nanomaterials, composites and nanocomposites are surveyed and critically reviewed as well as their sorption capacities are also compared. This review also explores the grey areas of the adsorption performance of various adsorbents with reference to the effects of pH, contact time, initial dye concentration and adsorbent dosage. The equilibrium adsorption isotherm, kinetic and thermodynamic data of different adsorbents used for CR removal were also analysed. It is evident from a literature survey of more than 290 published papers that nanoparticle and nanocomposite adsorbents have demonstrated outstanding adsorption capabilities for CR.

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Trends and variations of pH and hardness in a typical semi-arid river in a monsoon climate region during 1985–2009

The rapid growth of urbanization and industrialization, along with dramatic climate change, has strongly influenced hydrochemical characteristics in recent decades in China and thus could cause the variation of pH and general total hardness of a river. To explore such variations and their potential influencing factors in a river of the monsoon climate region, we analyzed a long-term monitoring dataset of pH, SO₄ ^2?, NO_x, general total hardness (GH), Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, and Cl^? in surface water and groundwater in the Luan River basin from 1985 to 2009. The nonparametric Seasonal Kendall trend test was used to test the long-term trends of pH and GH. Relationship between the affecting factors, pH and GH were discussed. Results showed that pH showed a decreasing trend and that GH had an increasing trend in the long-term. Seasonal variation of pH and GH was mainly due to the typical monsoon climate. Results of correlation analysis showed that the unit area usage amounts of chemical fertilizer, NO₃ ^?, and SO₄ ^2? were negatively correlated with pH in groundwater. In addition, mining activity affected GH spatial variation. Acid deposition, drought, and increasing the use of chemical fertilizers would contribute to the acidification trend, and mining activities would affect the spatial variation of GH. Variations of precipitation and runoff in semi-arid monsoon climate areas had significant influences on the pH and GH. Our findings implied that human activities played a critical role in river acidification in the semi-arid monsoon climate region of northern China.     

Effect of feeding dried sweet orange (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Citrus sinensis</Emphasis>) peel and lemon grass (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cymbopogon citratus</Emphasis>) leaves on growth performance,carcass traits,serum metabolites and antioxidant status in broiler during the finisher phase

The current experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding dried sweet orange peel (SOP) and lemon grass leaves (LGL) as feed additives on broiler growth performance, serum metabolites, and antioxidant status. A total of 192-day-old (Ross 308) broiler chickens were distributed randomly into 4 dietary treatments with 4 replicates per each treatment. The dietary treatments included a control diet without any feed additive (T1), a diet containing 0.8 % SOP (T2), a diet containing 0.8 % LGL (T3), and a diet containing combination of 0.4 % SOP?+?0.4 % LGL (T4) was fed during the growth period from 22 to 42 days. Feed intake (FI), body weight gain (BWG), feed conversion ratio (FCR), carcass traits, serum components, and antioxidant status were measured. At the end of the experimental period, the results indicated that supplementation of SOP and LGL alone or in combination did not significantly (P?>?0.05) affect BWG, FI, FCR, and carcass characteristics in broiler chickens. Serum total protein was increased significantly (P?<?0.05) in T3 and T4 compared to the other treatments. Also, serum globulin increased significantly (P?<?0.05) in the treated groups. Serum glucose, low density lipoprotein, triglyceride, and very low density lipoprotein decreased significantly (P?<?0.05) in the treatment groups, while cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein decreased in T2 compared to the other groups. Significantly (P?<?0.05) higher total antioxidant status was observed in T2 compared to the other treatments. In conclusion, these results indicate that SOP, LGL, and their combination may positively modify some serum components and the antioxidant status without any beneficial effect on growth performance and carcass traits in broiler chickens.     

Biodegradability of the anticancer drug etoposide and identification of the transformation products

Etoposide susceptibility to microbiological breakdown was studied in a batch biotransformation system, in the presence or absence of artificial wastewater containing nutrients, salts and activated sludge at two concentration levels. The primary focus of the present study was to study etoposide transformation products by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution hybrid quadrupole-Orbitrap tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). Data-dependent experiments combining full-scan MS data with product ion spectra were acquired to identify the molecular ions of etoposide transformation products, to propose the molecular formulae and to elucidate their chemical structures. Due to the complexity of the matrix, visual inspection of the chromatograms showed no clear differences between the controls and the treated samples. Therefore, the software package MZmine was used to facilitate the identification of the transformation products and speed up the data analysis. In total, we propose five transformation products; among them, four are described as etoposide transformation products for the first time. Even though the chemical structures of these new compounds cannot be confirmed due to the lack of standards, their molecular formulae can be used to target them in monitoring studies.     

Water reclamation during drinking water treatments using polyamide nanofiltration membranes on a pilot scale

The aim of this study was to investigate the performances of polyamide nanofiltration membranes during water reclamation. The study was conducted using nanofiltration concentrates obtained from two different nanofiltration drinking water treatment plants placed in the northern part of Serbia (Kikinda and Zrenjanin). Used nanofiltration concentrates contained high concentrations of arsenic (45 and 451 μg/L) and natural organic matter (43.1 and 224.40 mgKMnO₄/L). Performances of polyamide nanofiltration membranes during water reclamation were investigated under various fluxes and transmembrane pressures in order to obtain drinking water from nanofiltration concentrates and, therefore, reduce the amount of produced concentrates and minimize the waste that has to be discharged in the environment. Applied polyamide nanofiltration membranes showed better removal efficiency during water reclamation when the concentrate with higher content of arsenic and natural organic matter was used while the obtained permeates were in accordance with European regulations. This study showed that total concentrate yield can be reduced to ~5 % of the optimum flux value, in both experiments. The obtained result for concentrate yield under the optimum flux presents considerable amount of reclaimed drinking water and valuable reduced quantity of produced wastewater.     

Efficient degradation of rhodamine B using modified graphite felt gas diffusion electrode by electro-Fenton process

The electro-Fenton (EF) process treatment of 0.1-M (rhodamine B) RhB solution was studied with different graphite cathode materials, and graphite felt (GF) was selected as a promising material in further investigation. Then, the degradation performances of gas diffusion electrode (GDE) and graphite felt (GF) were compared, and GDE was confirmed to be more efficient in RhB removal. The operational parameters such as Fe²⁺ dosage and current density were optimized, and comparison among different modified methods—polytetrafluoroethylene-carbon black (PTFE-CB), polytetrafluoroethylene-carbon nanotube (PTFE-CNT), electrodeposition-CB, and electrodeposition-CNT—showed 98.49 % RhB removal by PTFE-CB-modified cathode in 0.05 M Na₂SO₄ at a current density of 50 A/m² and an air flow rate of 1 L/min after 20 min. Meanwhile, after cathode modified by PTFE-CB, the mineralization efficiency and mineralization current efficiency performed absolutely better than the pristine one. Cyclic voltammograms, SEM images, contact angles, and BET surface area were carried out to demonstrate stronger current responses and higher hydrophilicity of GF after modified. The value of biochemical oxygen demand/chemical oxygen demand (BOD₅/COD) increased from 0.049 to 0.331 after 90-min treatment, suggesting the solution was biodegradable, and the modified cathode was confirmed to be stable after ten circle runs. Finally, a proposed degradation pathway of RhB was put forward.     

Organic pollution of the Büyük Menderes River,Turkey and effects on aquaculture

Water quality was measured at eight stations on the Buyuk Menderes River in Turkey (Ad?güzel dam, Yenice regülator, Sarayköy bridge, Feslek regülator, Yenipazar bridge, Ayd?n bridge, Koçarl? bridge, Söke regülator) between 2000 and 2013 in February, April, June, August, October and December. The resulting data were evaluated in terms of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), dissolved oxygen (DO), ammoniac–nitrogen (NH₃–N), nitrite–nitrogen (NO₂–N), nitrate–nitrogen (NO₃–N) and orthophosphate (o-PO₄) aquaculture. According to the analysis, while river water pollution generally varied during each year, samples from certain measurement points demonstrated high pollution levels throughout the year. In this study, water parameters were classified according to the “Turkish water pollution control regulation.” The studied parameters are also compared with TS 266 and WHO guidelines. While levels at Sarayköy station were generally higher than other stations, values at Ad?güzel dam were the lowest, giving it the best water quality of the eight stations. The highest values on a yearly basis were obtained in 2007 due to the severe drought in the Menderes basin within which irrigation water levels fell to 4255 m³/ha. The BOD, COD levels are the lowest in 2009 and highest in 2007; the DO level is lowest in 2007 and highest in 2009; NH₃–N, NO₂–N, and NO₃–N parameters are the lowest in 2007 and highest in 2009; and the o-PO₄ are at the lowest level in 2004 and seen as the highest in 2007. Analysis of the data was performed by SPSS 21 statistics program. One direction ANOVA was applied to the data, which were also subject to Tukey multiple comparison tests. Differences between groups were evaluated at p?<?0.05. Box–plot graphs were used to demonstrate the data distribution. In the study, it was analyzed, the effect of fish species and pollution involved in the Büyük Menderes River so far on fish species.     

The effect of titanium dioxide nanoparticles on neuroinflammation response in rat brain

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO₂ NPs) are widely used for their whiteness and opacity in several applications such as food colorants, drug additives, biomedical ceramic, and implanted biomaterials. Research on the neurobiological response to orally administered TiO₂ NPs is still limited. In our study, we investigate the effects of anatase TiO₂ NPs on the brain of Wistar rats after oral intake. After daily intragastric administration of anatase TiO₂ NPs (5–10 nm) at 0, 50, 100, and 200 mg/kg body weight (BW) for 60 days, the coefficient of the brain, acethylcholinesterase (AChE) activities, the level of interleukin 6 (IL-6), and the expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) were assessed to quantify the brain damage. The results showed that high-dose anatase TiO₂ NPs could induce a downregulated level of AChE activities and showed an increase in plasmatic IL-6 level as compared to the control group accompanied by a dose-dependent decrease inter-doses, associated to an increase in the cerebral IL-6 level as a response to a local inflammation in brain. Furthermore, we observed elevated levels of immunoreactivity to GFAP in rat cerebral cortex. We concluded that oral intake of anatase TiO₂ NPs can induce neuroinflammation and could be neurotoxic and hazardous to health.     

Combination of biochar amendment and phytoremediation for hydrocarbon removal in petroleum-contaminated soil

Remediation of soils contaminated with petroleum is a challenging task. Four different bioremediation strategies, including natural attenuation, biochar amendment, phytoremediation with ryegrass, and a combination of biochar and ryegrass, were investigated with greenhouse pot experiments over a 90-day period. The results showed that planting ryegrass in soil can significantly improve the removal rate of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) and the number of microorganisms. Within TPHs, the removal rate of total n-alkanes (45.83 %) was higher than that of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (30.34 %). The amendment of biochar did not result in significant improvement of TPH removal. In contrast, it showed a clear negative impact on the growth of ryegrass and the removal of TPHs by ryegrass. The removal rate of TPHs was significantly lower after the amendment of biochar. The results indicated that planting ryegrass is an effective remediation strategy, while the amendment of biochar may not be suitable for the phytoremediation of soil contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons.