Electrochemical oxidation of PFOA and PFOS in concentrated waste streams

The electrochemical oxidation (EO) of environmentally persistent perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) with a Magnéli phase Ti₄O₇ electrode was investigated in this study. After 3 hours (hr) of electrolysis, 96.0 percent of PFOA (10 milligrams per liter [mg/L] in 100 milliliters [mL] 100 millimolar [mM] Na₂SO₄ solution) was removed following pseudo first‐order kinetics (k = 0.0226 per minute [min]) with the degradation half‐life of 30.7 min. Under the same treatment conditions, PFOS (10 mg/L in 100 mL 100 mM Na₂SO₄ solution) removal reached 98.9 percent with a pseudo first‐order degradation rate constant of 0.0491/min and the half‐life of 14.1 min. Although, the degradation of PFOA was slower than PFOS, when subjected to EO treatment in separate solutions, PFOA appeared to degrade faster than PFOS when both are present in the same solution, indicating possible competition between PFOA and PFOS during Ti₄O₇ anode‐based EO treatment with PFOA having the competitive advantage. Moreover, the EO treatment was applied to degrade highly concentrated PFOA (100.5 mg/L) and PFOS (68.6 mg/L) in ion‐exchange resin regenerant (still bottom) with high organic carbon content (15,800 mg/L). After 17‐hr electrolysis, the total removal of PFOA and PFOS was 77.2 and 96.5 percent, respectively, and the fluoride concentration increased from 0.84 mg/L to 836 mg/L. Also, the dark brown color of the original solution gradually faded during EO treatment. In another test using still bottom samples with lower total organic carbon (9,880 mg/L), the PFOA (15.5 mg/L) and PFOS (25.5 mg/L) concentrations were reduced to levels below the limits of quantification after 16‐hr treatment. In addition, the performance of EO treatment using different batch reactor setups was compared in this study, including one‐sided (one anode:one cathode) and two‐sided (one anode:two cathodes) setups. The two‐sided reactor configuration significantly enhanced the degradation efficiency, likely due to the larger anode area available for reactions.     

Characteristics of exhaust gas,liquid products,and residues of printed circuit boards using the pyrolysis process

Introduction  

The pyrolytic method was employed to recycle metals and brominated compounds blended into printed circuit boards (PCBs).     

Quantifying the waste reduction potential of using prefabrication in building construction in Hong Kong

As Hong Kong is a compact city with limited available land and high land prices, the construction of high-rise buildings is prevalent. The construction industry produces a significant amount of building waste. In 2005, about 21.5 million tonnes of construction waste were generated, of which 11% was disposed of in landfills and 89% in public filling areas. At the present rate, Hong Kong will run out of both public filling areas and landfill space within the next decade. The government is taking action to tackle the problem, such as by introducing a construction waste landfill charge, and promoting prefabrication to reduce on-site waste generation. This paper reports an ongoing study on the use of prefabrication in buildings and its impact on waste reduction in Hong Kong. A questionnaire survey was administered to experienced professionals, and case studies of recently completed building projects were conducted. The results revealed that construction waste reduction is one of the major benefits when using prefabrication compared with conventional construction. The average wastage reduction level was about 52%. This implies that a wider use of prefabrication could considerably reduce construction waste generation in Hong Kong and alleviate the burdens associated with its management.     

The mechanisms of arsenic removal from soil by electrokinetic process coupled with iron permeable reaction barrier

An innovative remediation system of electrokinetic process coupled with permeable reaction barrier (PRB) was proposed for arsenic removal in soil matrix. Batch tests with PRB media of Fe(0) and FeOOH under potential gradient of 2 V cm(-1) for 5d duration were conducted to evaluate the removal mechanisms of arsenic. Arsenic enhancement of 1.6-2.2 times was achieved when a PRB system was installed in an electrokinetic system. A best performance was found in system with FeOOH layer located in the middle of elctrokinetic cell. This was largely because of higher surface area of FeOOH and the moving of HAsO(4)(2-) to the anode side by electromigration effect was inhibited by the electroosmosis flow. The surface characteristics of PRB media, which were qualified by SEM coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), were clearly confirmed that arsenic was found on the passive layer surface. Results indicated that the removal of As in EK/PRB systems was much more contributed by surface adsorption/precipitation on PRB media than by EK process. Furthermore among the electrical removal mechanisms, electromigration was predominant than electrosmotic flow. Surface adsorption and precipitation were respectively the principal removal mechanism under acid environment, e.g. near anode side, and under basic environment, e.g. near cathode side. The results reported in the present work will be beneficial to optimizing design of batch EK/PRB system and enlarging to the field scale system.     

Silane removal at ambient temperature by using alumina-supported metal oxide adsorbents

Copper, zinc, and cerium oxide adsorbents supported on alumina were used to remove silane gas (SiH4). The adsorbents were prepared using a coprecipitation method and characterized by the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, X-ray powder diffractometer, and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method (BET). The silane removal efficiency and adsorption capacity of the adsorbents were investigated in this study. Test results showed that the adsorbents containing active species had a removal efficiency >99.9% for SiH4 before breakthrough. Adsorbents containing mixed oxides (CuO-CeO2/ Al2O3 and CuO-ZnO/Al2O3), which showed well-dispersed active species and high BET surface areas, had a greater adsorption capacity than the adsorbents containing single metal oxide. However, when the CuO-ZnO/ Al2O3 adsorbents contain >40 wt% of active metal oxides, the increase of active species lowered the BET surface area leading to a decrease of the adsorption capacity. Additionally, when the content of the active metal oxides was between 20% and 40%, the CuO-ZnO/Al2O3 adsorbents demonstrated higher adsorption capacity.     

Effect of recycle-to-influent ratio on activities of nitrifiers and denitrifiers in a combined UASB-activated sludge reactor system

A laboratory study using a combined upflow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB)-activated sludge (AS) reactor system was undertaken to explore the effect of recycle-to-influent ratio (R(e)=1, 2, and 3) on the activities of nitrifiers and denitrifiers. Suspended-solids pre-settled piggery wastewater was used as the substrate-feed wastewater. At the R(e) of 1-3, the combined reactor system achieved efficient removal of COD (96-97%), TKN (100%) and total nitrogen TN (54-77%). Methanogenesis occurred with nearly-complete denitrification in the UASB reactor, whereas complete nitrification took place in the AS reactor. A higher R(e) (i.e., accompanied with a shorter solids retention time) resulted in a larger amount of high-activity denitrifiers and thereby achieved a higher TN removal efficiency. Compact granules and a high biomass concentration in the UASB reactor were observed. At the R(e) of 1-3, the maximum specific reaction rate of nitrifiers (0.45-0.49 NH(4)(+)-NmgVSS(-1)d(-1)) and the specific nitrification rates of mixed culture (0.18-0.22mg NH(4)(+)-NmgVSS(-1)d(-1)) in the AS reactor varied slightly; whereas the maximum specific reaction rate of denitrifiers (0.18-0.27mg NO(x)(-)-NmgVSS(-1)d(-1)) and the specific denitrification and COD removal rates of mixed culture (0.025-0.050mg NO(x)(-)-NmgVSS(-1)d(-1); 0.24-0.31mgCODmgVSS(-1)d(-1)) in the UASB reactor increased with increasing R(e). The primary finding of the study is that the combined UASB-AS reactor system should be operated at a higher R(e) to maintain high-activity denitrifiers to remove organic materials and nitrogen from piggery wastewater.     

Leveraging the Rao–Blackwell theorem to improve ratio estimators in adaptive cluster sampling

Rao-Blackwellization is used to improve the unbiased Hansen–Hurwitz and Horvitz–Thompson unbiased estimators in Adaptive Cluster Sampling by finding the conditional expected value of the original unbiased estimators given the sufficient or minimal sufficient statistic. In principle, the same idea can be used to find better ratio estimators, however, the calculation of taking all the possible combinations into account can be extremely tedious in practice. The simplified analytical forms of such ratio estimators are not currently available. For practical interest, several improved ratio estimators in Adaptive Cluster Sampling are proposed in this article. The proposed ratio estimators are not the real Rao-Blackwellized versions of the original ones but make use of the Rao-Blackwellized univariate estimators. How to calculate the proposed estimators is illustrated, and their performance are evaluated by both of the Bivariate Poisson clustered process and a real data. The simulation result indicates that the proposed improved ratio estimators are able to provide considerably advantageous estimation results over the original ones.     

Biogeochemical reductive release of soil embedded arsenate around a crater area (Guandu) in northern Taiwan using X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy

This study investigates biogeochemical reductive release of arsenate from beudantite into solution in a crater area in northern Taiwan,using a combination of X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) and atomic absorption spectrometry.Total arsenic (As) concentrations in the soil were more than 200 mg/kg.Over four months of laboratory experiments,less than 0.8% As was released into solution after reduction experiments.The 71% to 83% As was chemically reduced into arsenite (As(III)) and partially weathering into the soluble phase.The kinetic dissolution and re-precipitation of As,Fe,Pb and sulfate in this area of paddy soils merits further study.     

Prediction of Cadmium uptake by brown rice and derivation of soil–plant transfer models to improve soil protection guidelines

Cadmium (Cd) levels in paddy fields across Taiwan have increased due to emission from industry. To ensure the production of rice that meets food quality standards, predictive models or suitable soil tests are needed to evaluate the quality of soils to be used for rice cropping. Levels of Cd in soil and rice grains were measured in 19 paddy fields across the western plains in Taiwan. Cadmium levels in soil range from less than 0.1 mg kg^?1 to 30 mg kg^?1. Measured Cd levels in brown rice were predicted very well (R² > 0.8) based on Cd and Zinc in a 0.01 M CaCl₂ extract or a soil–plant transfer model using the reactive soil Cd content, pH, and cation exchange capacity. In contrast to current soil quality standards used in Taiwan, such models are effective in identifying soils where Cd in rice will exceed food quality standards.     

Effects of polyelectrolytes on reduction of model compounds via coagulation

The objective of this research work was to evaluate the performance of enhanced coagulation by alum and polymer. Synthetic source waters containing high molecular weight humic acids, medium molecular weight tannic acids and low molecular weight p-hydroxybenzoic acid were formulated by adjusting the concentration of turbidity and pH; and jar tests were used to study the effect of various types and dosages of polymer on reducing the above model compounds. At a specific pH condition, the applied alum dosage would efficiently decrease the turbidity to 2 NTU follows the order: humic>tannic>p-hydroxybenzoic acid. Adjustment of pH influenced the performance of alum obviously but not of p-DADMAC. High p-DADMAC dosage overwhelming the effects of alum is less affected by pH adjustment. The results of this investigation reveal that enhanced coagulation with p-DADMAC was founded to be very effective for removing high-molecular-weight THM precursors, i.e., humic acid and tannic acid, and markedly reduced the alum dosages required for turbidity removal. The other two polymers, i.e., cationic PAM and non-ionic PAM, which had higher molecular weight but lower charge density than p-DADMAC, were not capable of removing organic precursors. It was thus concluded that enhanced coagulation with polymer, p-DADMAC, could be considered as a promising technique for removal of NOMs with hydrophobic and higher-molar-mass (>1K) in water treatment plants.