The Impact of Typhoon Morakot on Heavy Metals of Dapeng Bay and Pollution from Neighboring Rivers

This study demonstrates that prior to Typhoon Morakot, the index of heavy metals such as Cd, Pb, and Cr was above moderate pollution levels in Dapeng Bay and the three neighboring rivers. During January 2007, the content of Zn metal in Dapeng Bay and Tungkang River was also above moderate pollution levels, while after the Typhoon Morakot event, all metals were at levels below the criteria for low pollution. This work has demonstrated that the samples collected from Dapeng Bay and the three neighboring river systems displayed individual crowd–distribution phenomena, indicating variability between the heavy metal content of sediments collected from Dapeng Bay and the three neighboring rivers. Understanding the spatial and temporal variability of heavy metal pollutants in the sediments of Dapeng Bay, along with pollution sources from three neighboring rivers, provides useful information in the fields of disaster management, habitat recovery, operative management, as well as ecotourism specification.     

Optimal model averaging by data perturbation for spatial noisy data

Geostatistical models play an important role in spatial data analysis, in which model selection is inevitable. Model selection methods, such as AIC and BIC, are popular for selecting appropriate models. In recent years, some model averaging methods, such as smoothed AIC and smoothed BIC, are also applied to spatial data models. However, the corresponding averaging estimators are outperformed by optimal model averaging estimators (Hansen in Econometrica 75:1175–1189, 2007) for the ordinary linear models. Therefore, this paper focuses on the optimal model averaging method for geostatistical models. We propose a weight choice criterion for the model averaging estimator on the basis of the generalized degrees of freedom and data perturbation technique. We further theoretically prove the resultant estimator is asymptotically optimal in terms of the mean squared error, and numerically demonstrate its satisfactory performance. Finally, the proposed method is applied to a mercury data set.     

Integrated process development for the recovery of Europium and Yttrium from waste fluorescent powder

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - Fluorescent powder plays an important role in the modern electronic lighting products. During the production of electronic lighting products, a...     

Arsenic accumulation and resistance mechanism in Panax notoginseng, a traditional rare medicinal herb

Panax notoginseng, a traditional rare Chinese medicinal herb, was recently found to bring health risk to consumers, mainly because soil in its major plantation area was contaminated by arsenic (As). We investigated the effect of soil As pollution on the growth and As uptake of pot-cultured P. notoginseng, and the associated mechanisms of As stressed response. Results showed that, comparing with P. notoginseng growing in a low-As soil, the root, stem, and leaf biomasses of those growing in a high-As soil significantly reduced by 0.75, 0.09 and 0.21 g seedling⁻¹, respectively. Arsenic concentrations in roots, stems and leaves of the seedlings growing in high-As soil were 22, 15 and 3 times higher than those growing in low-As soil, respectively. Regardless of the soil As concentration, As existed in plants mainly as As(III), suggesting that the reduction of As(V) is a key step in As metabolism. Arsenic was distributed primarily in cell walls (51.7% for plants growing in the low-As soil, and 51.5% in the high-As soil), followed by cytoplasm supernatant, with cell organelles containing the least As. Compared with plants growing in the low-As soil, those in the high-As soil had increased superoxide dismutase and peroxidase activities in their roots, stems, and leaves, which would be associate with improving the resistance of P. notoginseng to As stress. The results suggest that there exists some special mechanisms of As-tolerance in P. notoginseng and the study is of significance in developing measures to reduce As in the herb.     

Reductive dechlorination for remediation of polychlorinated biphenyls

Technologies such as thermal, oxidative, reductive, and microbial methods for the remediation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have previously been reviewed. Based on energy consumption, formation of PCDD/F, and remediation efficiency, reductive methods have emerged as being advantageous for remediation of PCBs. However, many new developments in this field have not been systematically reviewed. Therefore, reductive technologies published in the last decade related to remediation of PCBs will be reviewed here. Three categories, including catalytic hydrodechlorination with H₂, Fe-based reductive dechlorination, and other reductive dechlorination methods (e.g., hydrogen-transfer dechlorination, base-catalyzed dechlorination, and sodium dispersion) are specifically reviewed. In addition, the advantages of each remediation technology are discussed. In this review, 108 articles are referenced.     

Influence of amendments on soil arsenic fractionation and phytoavailability by Pteris vittata L

Increasing availability of soil arsenic is of significance for accelerating phytoremediation efficiency of As-polluted sites. The effects of seven amendments, i.e., citrate, oxalate, EDTA, sodium polyacrylate (SPA), phosphate rock (PR), single superphosphate (SSP), and compost on fractionation and phytoavailability of soil As were investigated in lab culture experiment. The results showed that the addition of PR, SPA, EDTA or compost to soils significantly increased the concentration of NaHCO₃-extractable As over a 120 d incubation period compared with the control (amendment-free) soil. Then, the four amendments were selected to add to As-contaminated soil growing Pteris vittata. It was concluded that As accumulation by the fern increased significantly under the treatments of PR and SPA by 25% and 31%, respectively. For As fractionation in soil, SPA increased Fe-As significantly by 51% and PR increased Ca-As significantly by 18%, while both the two amendments reduced occluded-As by 16% and 19%, respectively. Adding PR and SPA in soil increased the activities of urease and neutral phosphatase resulting from the improvement the fertility and physical structure of the soil, which benefits plant growth and As absorption of P. vittata. The results of the research revealed that both PR and SPA were effective amendments for improving phytoremediation of As-contaminated sites by P. vittata.     

Microwave treatment of dairy manure for resource recovery: Reaction kinetics and energy analysis

A newly designed continuous-flow 915 MHz microwave wastewater treatment system was used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the microwave enhanced advanced oxidation process (MW/H₂O₂-AOP) for treating dairy manure. After the treatment, about 84% of total phosphorus and 45% of total chemical oxygen demand were solubilized with the highest H₂O₂ dosage (0.4% H₂O₂ per %TS). The reaction kinetics of soluble chemical oxygen demand revealed activation energy to be in the range of 5–22 kJ mole^?1. The energy required by the processes was approximately 0.16 kWh per liter of dairy manure heated. A higher H₂O₂ dosage used in the system had a better process performance in terms of solids solubilization, reaction kinetics, and energy consumption. Cost-benefit analysis for a farm-scale MW/H₂O₂-AOP treatment system was also presented. The results obtained from this study would provide the basic knowledge for designing an effective farm-scale dairy manure treatment system.     

含铜废催化剂中铜的回收

采用热解—氨浸工艺处理含铜废催化剂（w（Cu）为23.6%）,优化了工艺条件,并通过蒸氨还原法制备出Cu₂O产品。实验结果表明：热解工段中,控制管式热解炉的空气流量为3.0 m³/min,在升温速率20 ℃/min、热解终温600 ℃、终温保持时间90 min的优化条件下,含铜废催化剂中的有机物热解完全;氨浸工段中,以NH₄Cl-NH₃-H₂O溶液为氨浸液,控制氨浸温度为40 ℃,在烧成料研磨时间90 min（粒径29.43 μm）、氨浸液总氨浓度4 mol/L、氨浸时间80 min的优化条件下,铜浸出率达到98%;经蒸氨还原法制得的Cu₂O产品的质量符合HG/T 2961—2010《工业氧化亚铜》中的一等品标准,产率为24%。     

Removal of malachite green dye from wastewater by different organic acid-modified natural adsorbent: kinetics,equilibriums, mechanisms,practical application,and disposal of dye-loaded adsorbent

Natural adsorbent (Cinnamomum camphora sawdust) modified by organic acid (oxalic acid, citric acid, and tartaric acid) was investigated as a potential adsorbent for the removal of hazardous malachite green (MG) dye in aqueous media in a batch process. The extent of MG adsorption onto modified sawdust increased with increasing organic acid concentrations, pH, contact time, and temperature but decreased with increasing adsorbent dosage and ionic strength. Kinetic study indicated that the pseudo-second-order kinetic model could best describe the adsorption kinetics of MG. Equilibrium data were found to fit well with the Langmuir model, and the maximum adsorption capacity of the three kinds of organic acid-modified sawdust was 280.3, 222.8, and 157.5 mg/g, respectively. Thermodynamic parameters suggested that the sorption of MG was an endothermic process. The adsorption mechanism, the application of adsorbents in practical wastewater, the prediction of single-stage batch adsorption system, and the disposal of depleted adsorbents were also discussed.