Effectiveness of fluidized pellet bed for removing soluble contaminants

Fluidized pellet bed (FPB) has been successfully applied in water and wastewater treatment. However, the removal mechanism ofcontaminants especially the soluble ones, is still unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the e ectiveness of FPB reactor for removingsoluble contaminants from synthetic wastewater. By only coagulation through jar test operation with addition of polyaluminium chloride(PACl) as primary coagulant and polyacryamide (PAM) as coagulant-aid, the removals of soluble chemical oxygen demand (COD),total phosphorus (TP), and NH4+-N were found to be only 2.2%–7.5%, 5.7%–25.5%, and 9.9%–18.5%, respectively. However, by FPBoperation under the same dosage of coagulants, these values increased to 82.7%, 37.2%, and 50%, indicating that the formation ofpellets in the FPB e ectively enhanced the removal of soluble contaminants. By careful comparison of the settleablility and filterabilityof the pollutants after coagulation, the originally soluble contaminants could be divided into three groups, namely: (1) coagulated-andsettleable,(2) coagulated-but-nonsettleable, and (3) uncoagulable. It was found that not only the first two groups but also a large part ofthe third group could be e ectively removed by FPB operation. However, the mechanism for the removal of the uncoagulable pollutantsby FPB operation still needs further investigation.     

Combined alkaline and ultrasonic pretreatment of sludge beforeaerobic digestion

Alkaline and ultrasonic sludge disintegration can both be used as pretreatments of waste activated sludge (WAS) for improving the subsequent anaerobic or aerobic digestion. The pretreatment has been carried out using different combination of these two methods in this study. The effect was evaluated based on the quantity of soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) in the pretreated sludge as well as the degradation of organic matter in the following aerobic digestion. For WAS samples with combined pretreatment, the released COD was in high level than those with ultrasonic or alkaline treatment. When combined with the same ultrasonic treatment, NaOH treatment resulted in more solubilization of WAS than Ca(OH)2. For combined NaOH and ultrasonic treatments with different sequences, the released COD were in the order: simultaneous treatment > ultrasonic treatment following NaOH treatment > NaOH treatment following ultrasonic treatment. For simultaneous treatment, low NaOH dosage (100 g/kg dry solid), short duration (30 min) of NaOH treatment, and low ultrasonic specific energy (7 500 kJ/kg dry solid) were beneficial for sludge disintegration. Using combined NaOH and ultrasonic pretreatment with the optimium parameters, the degradation efficiency of organic matter was increased from 38.0% to 50.7%, which is much higher than with ultrasonic (42.5%) or with NaOH pretreatment (43.5%) in the subsequent aerobic digestion at the same retention time.     

Using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a model animal for assessing thetoxicity induced by microcystin-LR

Among more than 75 variants of microcystin(MC),microcystin-LR(MC-LR) is one of the most common toxins.In this study,the feasibility of using Caenorhabditis elegans to evaluate MC-LR toxicity was studied.C.elegans was treated with MC-LR at different concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 80 μg/L.The results showed that MC-LR could reduce lifespan,delay development,lengthen generation time,decrease brood size,suppress locomotion behavior,and decreases hsp-16-2-gfp expression.The endpoints of generation time,brood...     

A novel aminated polymeric adsorbent for removing refractory dissolvedorganic matter from landfill leachate treatment plant

Refractory dissolved organic matter (DOM) from landfill leachate treatment plant was with high dissolved organic carbon (DOC) content. An aminated polymeric adsorbent NDA-8 with tertiary amino groups and sufficient mesopore was synthesized, which exhibited high adsorption capacity to the DOM (raw water after coagulation). Resin NDA-8 performed better in the uptake of the DOM than resin DAX-8 and A100. Electrostatic attraction was considered as the decisive interaction between the adsorbent and adsorbate. Special attention was paid to the correlation between porous structure and adsorption capacity. The mesopore of NDA-8 played a crucial role during uptake of the DOM. In general, resin in chloride form performed a higher removal rate of DOC. According to the column adsorption test, total adsorption capacity of NDA-8 was calculated to 52.28 mg DOC/mL wet resin. 0.2 mol/L sodium hydroxide solution could regenerate the adsorbent efficiently.     

Acid deposition critical loads modeling for the simulation of sulfur exceedanceand reduction in Guangdong, China

The current acid deposition critical loads in Guangdong, China were calculated using the PROFILE model with a 3 km × 3 km resolution. Calculations were carried out for critical loads of potential acidity, actual acidity, sulfur and nitrogen, with values in extents of 0–3.5, 0–14.0, 0–26.0 and 0–3.5 kmol/(hm2·year), respectively. These values were comparable to previously reported results and reflected the influences of vegetation and soil characteristics on the soil acid buffering capacity. Simulations of S...     

Quinone-mediated decolorization of sulfonated azo dyes by cells and cellextracts from Sphingomonas xenophaga

The effects of various quinone compounds on the decolorization rates of sulfonated azo dyes by Sphingomonas xenophaga QYY were investigated. The results showed that anthraquinone-2-sulfonate (AQS) was the most effective redox mediator and AQS reduction was the rate-limited step of AQS-mediated decolorization of sulfonated azo dyes. Based on AQS biological toxicity tests, it was assumed that AQS might enter the cells to kill them. In the cytoplasmic extracts from strain QYY, AQS effectively increased decolorization rates of sulfonated azo dyes than other quinone compounds. In addition, we found a NADH/FMN-dependent AQS reductase using nondenaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (Native-PAGE).     

Sensitivity of green and blue-green algae to methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) during a fifteen-day test

The test was designed to assess the toxicity of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) to Chlorella ellipsoidea and Aphanizomenon flos-aquae during 15 d with concentrations of MTBE from high (2.00×104 mg/L) to low (2 mg/L). The results showed that the toxicity was low when the concentration of MTBE was 1.00×104-2.00×104 mg/L (the greatest inhibition of growth-rate was 70%-71%, occurring on day 1-5). Low concentrations (2-500 mg/L) stimulated algal growth up to the greatest effect of 85%-200% when the concentration of MTBE was 50-100 mg/L on day 3-5. The low concentrations may lead to an algal bloom owing to overabundance, which represents an aquatic ecological risk. However, the stimulatory effect occurred only during the day 1-5 and disappeared gradually during the day 13-15. The toxicity of MTBE (72-120 h EC50) is 6.65×103-9.58×103 mg/L for C. ellipsoidea and that is 1.14×104-2.00×104 mg/L for A. spiroides. We found that the toxicity and ecological risk of MTBE for the algal community structure were low. The toxicity was influenced by the duration of the test. We suggest that the duration of the test should not be shorter than half a life-cycle.     

Concentrations and chemical forms of potentially toxic metals in road-deposited sediments from different zones of Hangzhou, China

The 25 road-deposited sediments were collected from five different land-use zones (industrial, residential, commercial, park, and countryside) in Hangzhou, China. The concentrations of metals (Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in these samples were determined using the ICP-AES after digestion with the mixture of HNO3-HF-HCl (aqua regia), and chemically fractionated using the modified BCR (the European Community Bureau of Reference) sequential extraction procedure. The highest metal concentration level was detected in the sample from industrial zone and commercial zone having heavy traffic. While the lowest metal level was noted in the street dust sample from residential zone, park, and countryside zone. The mobility sequence based on the sum of the BCR sequential extraction stages was: Zn (80.28%), Pb (78.68%), Cd (77.66%) ＞ Cu (73.34%) ＞ Mn (67.92%) ＞ Co (41.66%) ＞ Ni (30.36%) ＞ Cr (21.56%), Fe (20.86%). Correlation analysis and principal component analysis were applied to the data matrix to evaluate the analytical results and to identify the possible pollution sources of metals. Factor analysis showed that these areas were mainly contaminated by three sources, namely lithology, traffic, and industry.     

Influences of working pressure on properties for TiO2 films deposited by DCpulse magnetron sputtering

TiO2 films were deposited at room temperature by DC pulse magnetron sputtering system.The crystalline structures,morphological features and photocatalytic activity of TiO2 films were systematically investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD),atomic force microscopy and ultraviolet spectrophotometer,respectively.The results indicated that the working pressure was the key deposition parameters influencing the TiO2 film phase composition at room temperature,which directly affected its photocatalytic activity.With increasing the working pressure,the target self-bias decreases monotonously.Therefore,low temperature TiO2 phase (anatase) could be deposited with high working pressure.The anatase TiO2 films deposited with 1.4 Pa working pressure displayed the highest photocatalytic activity by decomposition of Methyl Orange solution,which the degradation rate reached the maximum (35%) after irradiation by ultraviolet light for 1 h.     

Mechanism of calcium mitigating membrane fouling in submerged membranebioreactors

Two parallel membrane bioreactors (MBRs) were operated under different calcium dosages (168.5, 27 mg/L) to gain a better understanding of the mechanism of retarding membrane fouling by adding calcium. The results showed that the particle size of sludge flocs increased and the particle size distribution tended to be narrow at the optimum dosage (168.5 mg/L). Calcium was effective in decreasing loosely bound extracellular polymeric substances (LB-EPS) in microbial flocs and soluble microbial products (SMP) in the supernatant at the dosage of 168.5 mg/L by strengthening the neutralization and bridging of EPS with flocs. Furthermore, the amount of COD_S and COD_C decreased in both the mixed liquor and the fouling cake layer on the membrane surface. In order to compare the filtration characteristics of cake layers from the MBRs with the two calcium dosages, the specific cake resistance and the compressibility coefficient were measured. The specific cake resistance from the MBR with optimum dosage (168.5 mg/L) was distinctly lower than that with low dosage (27 mg/L). The compressibility coefficient of the cake layers under two dosages were respectively attained as 0.65, 0.91. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and three-dimensional confocal scanning laser microscope analysis (CLSM) images were utilized to observe the gel layer directly.