Textural and chemical properties of swine-manure-derived biochar pertinent to its potential use as a soil amendment

Biochars have received increasing attention in recent years because of their properties pertaining to soil fertility and contaminant immobilization as well as serving as carbon sinks. In this work, a series of biochars were produced from dried swine manure waste by slow pyrolysis at different temperatures (i.e., 673-1073 K). The characterization of the resulting biochars was examined for its relevance to its potential use as soil amendment. It was found that the pore properties, ash contents and pH values of all swine-manure-derived biochars basically increased as temperature increased, while the yield and nitrogen/oxygen contents decreased with increasing temperature as a result of pyrolytic volatilization during pyrolysis. From the organic and inorganic elements analyses, the manure-derived biochar was rich in soil nutrients such as N, P, Ca, Mg, and K. Furthermore, the pore, surface and chemical properties were also consistent with the observations of the SEM-EDS, XRD and FTIR. This result suggested that the mesoporous manure-derived biochar could be used as an excellent medium to soil environment.     

Influence of root-exudates concentration on pyrene degradation and soil microbial characteristics in pyrene contaminated soil

The effect of ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) root-exudates concentration on pyrene degradation and the microbial ecological characteristics in the pyrene contaminated soil was investigated by simulating a gradually reducing concentration of root exudates with the distance away from root surface in the rhizosphere. Results showed that, after the root-exudates were added 15 d, the pyrene residue in contaminated soil responded nonlinearly in the soils with the same pyrene contaminated level as the added root-exudates concentration increased, which decreased first and increased latter with the increase of the added root-exudates concentration. The lowest pyrene concentration appeared when the root exudates concentration of 32.75 mg kg(-1) total organic carbon (TOC) was added. At the same time, changes of microbial biomass carbon (MBC, C(mic)) and microbial quotient (C(mic)/C(org)) were opposite to the trend of pyrene degradation as the added root-exudates concentration increased. Phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis revealed that bacteria was the dominating microbial community in pyrene contaminated soil, and the changing trends of pyrene degradation and bacteria number were the same. The changing trend of endoenzyme-dehydrogenase activity was in accordance with that of soil microbe, indicating which could reflect the quantitative characteristic of detoxification to pyrene by soil microbe. The changes in the soils microbial community and corresponding microbial biochemistry characteristics were the ecological mechanism influencing pyrene degradation with increasing concentration of the added root-exudates in the pyrene contaminated soil.     

Cosorption of organic chemicals with different properties: their shared and different sorption sites

Complementary sorption of different chemicals was expected and investigating the relationship between the sorption inhibition of primary sorbate (ΔQ(pri)) and sorption of secondary sorbate (Q(sec)) could provide a new angle to understand coadsorption of different chemicals. This study used bisphenol A (BPA) as the primary adsorbate, sulfamethoxazole (SMX) as the competitor, and carbon nanotubes as model adsorbents to study their complementary and competitive adsorption. At low BPA concentrations, the sorption of SMX (Q(sec)) exceeded BPA sorption inhibition (ΔQ(pri)), indicating that these two chemicals complementarily adsorbed on their respectively preferred sorption sites. At high BPA concentrations, higher ΔQ(pri) was observed in comparison to Q(sec), which may be resulted from different packing efficiencies of the adsorbed SMX and BPA. This study emphasized that both competitive and complementary sorption should be discussed in binary sorption system.     

Biodegradation of high molecular weight PAHs using isolated yeast mixtures: application of meta-genomic methods for community structure analyses

Bioaugmentation for the removal of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from wastewater using bacteria and yeasts is considered environment-friendly and a cost-effective technique. The effectiveness of this biodegradation system depends on the stability of inoculated microorganisms and the availability of nutrients. This study is aimed to investigate the removal of high molecular weight (HMW)-PAHs from biologically treated produced water using different biological systems. Three systems, inoculated with activated sludge (AS), the mixture of five yeast strains (MY), and the mixture of AS and the five yeast strains (SY), respectively, were constructed, and their performance for the removal of HMW-PAHs was compared over 10 weeks. The effluent of the biologically treated produced water from an oilfield was used as the influent after chrysene and benzo(a)pyrene were spiked as HMW-PAHs. Polymerase chain reaction-based denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) techniques were used to examine the changes in the structures and abundances of the bacterial and yeast communities in these three systems. Only SY and MY systems were capable to remove chrysene (90.7 % and 98.5 %, respectively) and benzo(a)pyrene (80.7 % and 95.2 %, respectively). PCR-DGGE analysis confirmed that all of the five yeast strains inoculated remained in the SY and MY systems, while FISH results showed that the relative abundance of yeast in the SY and MY systems (10.6 % to 21.9 %, respectively) were significantly higher than AS system (2.3 % to 7.8 %, respectively). The relative abundances of the catechol 2,3-dioxygenase (C23O) indicated that the copy number ratios of benzene ring cleavage gene C23O in the yeast amended systems were much higher than that in the AS system. In this study, all of the three systems were effective in removing the low molecular weight (LMW)-PAHs, while HMW-PAHs including chrysene and benzo(a)pyrene were efficiently removed by MY and SY systems, not by AS system. The high HMW-PAHs removal in the MY and SY bioaugmentation systems possibly attributed to the inoculation of the mixed yeast culture. By combining the PCR-DGGE results with the FISH analyses, it was found that yeast probably consisting mainly of the five inoculated strains inhabited in the two bioaugmentation systems as a dominant population. The relatively higher performance of the SY system might be attributed to the suspended growth type which permitted a more efficient contact between microbial cells and contaminants. The bioaugmentation systems (SY and MY) were successfully established by inoculating with five nonindigenous yeast strains and demonstrated high performance in removal of HMW-PAHs.     

垃圾渗滤液发酵产氢和产甲烷特性研究

以实际垃圾渗滤液作为厌氧发酵基质,研究了初始pH为7.0、中温(37℃)条件下的发酵产氢、产甲烷特性。结果表明,利用垃圾渗滤液作为基质发酵产氢或甲烷时,氢气的最大累积产量为24.33mL(以每克COD计,下同),甲烷的最大累积产量为91.59mL,产氢发酵在初期存在明显的迟滞期,但是产甲烷发酵不存在明显迟滞期;产氢发酵的液相末端产物中含有大量的挥发性有机酸和乙醇,乙醇、乙酸、丁酸质量浓度分别为487.23、1 175.21、1 225.78mg/L,相比产氢发酵,产甲烷发酵的液相末端产物中乙醇、乙酸、丁酸质量浓度均较低,分别为256.38、106.73、107.42mg/L;产甲烷发酵的最终pH是6.32,接近中性,而产氢发酵的最终pH为4.21,呈明显酸性;产甲烷发酵对COD的去除率(41.78%)高于产氢发酵对COD的去除率(32.14%),可能是产氢发酵液相末端产物中的乙酸能被产甲烷菌利用,而被进一步降解。     

3种植物对Cd污染农田土壤的修复效果比较试验研究

通过盆栽试验研究了3种植物三叶鬼针草(Bidens pilosa L.)、紫茉莉(Mirabilis Jalapa)、中华景天(Sedum polytrich-oides)对上海地区2种质量浓度(1.2、12.0mg/kg)Cd污染农田土壤的修复效果,以探索其在上海地区Cd污染农田土壤修复中应用的可行性。结果表明:2种浓度下,三叶鬼针草对土壤Cd去除效果均最佳,1.2mg/kg处理下盆中土壤Cd质量浓度由原来的1.249 9mg/kg下降到0.861 7mg/kg,降低0.388 2mg/kg,Cd去除率为31.06%;12.0mg/kg处理下三叶鬼针草盆中土壤Cd质量浓度由原来的12.033 2mg/kg下降到10.020 6mg/kg,降低2.012 6mg/kg,Cd去除率为16.73%;紫茉莉和中华景天相比较而言,修复效果均较差。在2种浓度下,3种植物地上部分生物量排序均为三叶鬼针草>中华景天>紫茉莉。因此,建议将三叶鬼针草作为上海地区Cd污染农田土壤修复的优选植物。     

Physicochemical properties of chars at different treatment temperatures

In this study, the physicochemical properties of the char of Indonesian SM coal following heat treatment at various temperatures were evaluated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and morphological and specific surface area analysis. Based on these analyses, heat treatment of coal was determined to be the most effective in increasing the coal rank. In the XPS analysis, the C-O and C-O-C groups and quaternary-N species were found to be of a lower grade coal when the pretreatment temperature decreased, meanwhile the C-C group and pyridinic species increased. In the FT-IR analysis, the collapse of the C-O and C-O-C group was observed due to the collapse of the ether group. In SEM and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis, a decrease in the ether group was shown to be accompanied with the formation of micropores.     

Improving the activity of Mn/TiO2 catalysts through control of the pH and valence state of Mn during their preparation

In this study, the authors investigated the influence of the valence state of Mn on the efficacy of selective catalytic reduction using a Mn-based catalyst. The nitrogen oxides (NOx) conversion rate of the catalyst was found to be dependent on the type of TiO2 support employed and on the temperature, as the catalyst showed an excellent conversion of > 80% at a space velocity of 60,000 hr(-1) when the temperature was above 200 degrees C. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses confirmed that catalyst displaying the highest activity contained the Mn4+ species and that its valence state was highly dependent on the pH during the catalyst preparation.     

Development of regenerative dye impregnated mesoporous silica materials for assessing exposure to ammonia

The mesostructured materials MCM-41 and SBA-15 were studied as possible supports of bromocresol green (BG) dye impregnation for the ammonia gas detection because of their large surface area, high regenerative property, and high thermal stability. X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscope, and N2 adsorption analysis were used to characterize the prepared materials. These materials could sense ammonia via visible color change from yellowish-orange to blue color. The color change process of the nanostructured materials was fully reversible during 10 cyclic tests. The results indicated that the ammonia absorption responses of the two nanostructured materials were both very sensitive, and high linear correlation and high precision were achieved. As the gaseous ammonia concentrations were 50 and 5 ppmv, the response times for the SBA-15/BG were only 1 and 5 min, respectively. Moreover the BG dye-impregnated SBA-15 was less affected by the variation in the relative humidity. It also had faster response for the detection of NH3, as well as lower manufacturing price as compared to that of the dye-impregnated MCM-41. Such feature enables SBA-15/BG to be a very promising material for the detection of ammonia gas.     

苦土和氧化镁处理氮磷废水的对比研究

分别采用苦土、纯氧化镁为沉淀剂对模拟高浓度氮磷废水(N/P=0.8)进行了脱氮除磷研究,比较了沉淀剂投加量、pH对2种沉淀剂处理氮磷废水的影响,对沉淀产物进行XRD分析,并进行了经济效益比较。结果表明,pH是影响2种沉淀剂处理氮磷废水的主要因素,随着pH的增加,脱氮除磷效果提高,在平衡pH为9～10之间时氮磷处理效果最佳,pH继续增加,由于磷酸镁沉淀的形成使得氨氮去除率降低。此外,处理相同的废水,苦土的最佳投加量要大于纯氧化镁,但是经济效益比较结果表明,以苦土为沉淀剂处理氮磷废水可大大降低处理成本。