Preparation of TiO2/MCM-41 by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition method and its photocatalytic activity

Titanium dioxide is coated on the surface of MCM-41 wafer through the plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) method using titanium isopropoxide (TTIP) as a precursor. Annealing temperature is a key factor affecting crystal phase of titanium dioxide. It will transform an amorphous structure to a polycrystalline structure by increasing temperature. The optimum anatase phase of TiO₂ which can acquire the best methanol conversion under UV-light irradiation is obtained under an annealing temperature of 700°C for 2 h, substrate temperature of 500°C, 70 mL·min^?1 of oxygen flow rate, and 100W of plasma power. In addition, the films are composed of an anatase-rutile mixed phase, and the ratio of anatase to rutile varies with substrate temperature and oxygen flow rate. The particle sizes of titanium dioxide are between 30.3 nm and 59.9 nm by the calculation of Scherrer equation. Under the reaction conditions of 116.8 mg·L^-1 methanol, 2.9 mg·L^?1 moisture, and 75°C of reaction temperature, the best conversion of methanol with UV-light is 48.2% by using the anatase-rutile (91.3/8.7) mixed phase TiO₂ in a batch reactor for 60 min. While under fluorescent light irradiation, the best photoactivity appears by using the anatase-rutile (55.4/44.6) mixed phase TiO₂ with a conversion of 40.0%.     

Transition to a low-carbon city: lessons learned from Suzhou in China

Climate change has become one of the most serious challenges facing humanity; developing a low-carbon economy provides new opportunities for addressing this issue. Building a low-carbon city has been pursued by people with a high degree of enthusiasm in China. Different from actions at the national level and distinct from practices of developed countries, low-carbon development in Chinese cities should be placed on diverse concerns. Taking Suzhou of Jiangsu Province of China as a case city, this paper adopts a scenario analysis approach to explore strategic focal points in the transition to a low-carbon city. Within this transition, we mainly focus on the different contributions from two factors-economic restructuring and technological upgrading. Scenario analysis results show that 1) in the case of no breakthrough technologies, it is difficult to achieve absolute emission reductions; 2) technologies involved in optimizing energy structure and improving energy efficiency of basic service sectors should be highly emphasized in local planning; 3) in comparison with technological upgrading, economic structural adjustment could be a stronger contributor to mitigation, which is one of the main differences from developed countries. However, the key issue of economic restructuring is to promote the growth of emerging low-carbon industries, which requires not only a strategic choice of new industries but also an introduction of advanced low-carbon technologies. It is also found that establishing a local carbon emissions accounting system is a prerequisite and the first priority for realizing a low-carbon transition and government capacity buildings should be strengthened accordingly.     

Hazard and vulnerability evaluation of water distribution system in cases of contamination intrusion accidents

In this paper, it proposed an index system for hazard and vulnerability evaluations of water distribution networks, based on the simulation of contamination events caused by pollutant injections at different junctions. It attempted to answer the following two questions in the case of contamination events: 1) Which are the most hazardous junctions? 2) Which are the most vulnerable junctions? With EPANET toolkit, it simulated the propagation of the contaminant, and calculated the peak concentration of the contaminant and mass delivered at different nodes. According to types of consumers, different weights were assigned to the consumer nodes for assessing the influence of the contaminant on the consumers. Using the method proposed herein, both the hazard index and vulnerability index were calculated for each node in the pipe network. The presented method was therefore applied to the water network of the city of Zhenjiang, which contains two water plants, two booster pump stations with storage tanks. In conclusion, the response time, the relationships between the peak concentration of contaminant and the total absorption are the most important factors in hazard and vulnerability evaluation of the water distribution network.     

Reduction of hexavalent chromium with scrap iron in a fixed bed reactor

The reduction of hexavalent chromium by scrap iron was investigated in continuous long-term fixed bed system. The effects of pH, empty bed contact time (EBCT), and initial Cr(VI) concentration on Cr(VI) reduction were studied. The results showed that the pH, EBCT, and initial Cr(VI) concentration significantly affected the reduction capacity of scrap iron. The reduction capacity of scrap iron were 4.56, 1.51, and 0.57 mg Cr(VI)·g^-1 Fe⁰ at pH 3, 5, and 7 (initial Cr(VI) concentration 4 mg·L^-1, EBCT 2 min, and temperature 25°C), 0.51, 1.51, and 2.85 mg Cr(VI)·g^-1 Fe⁰ at EBCTs of 0.5, 2.0, and 6.0 min (initial Cr(VI) concentration 4 mg·L^-1, pH 5, and temperature 25°C), and 2.99, 1.51, and 1.01 mg Cr(VI)·g^-1 Fe⁰ at influent concentrations of 1, 4, and 8 mg·L^-1 (EBCT 2 min, pH 5, and temperature 25°C), respectively. Fe(total) concentration in the column effluent continuously decreased in time, due to a decrease in time of the iron corrosion rate. The fixed bed reactor can be readily used for the treatment of drinking water containing low amounts of Cr(VI) ions, although the hardness and humic acid in water may shorten the lifetime of the reactor, the reduction capacity of scrap iron still achieved 1.98 mg Cr⁶⁺·g^-1 Fe. Scanning electron microscope equipped with energy dispersion spectrometer and X-ray diffraction were conducted to examine the surface species of the scrap iron before and after its use. In addition to iron oxides and hydroxide species, iron-chromium complex was also observed on the reacted scrap iron.     

Optimal locations of monitoring stations in water distribution systems under multiple demand patterns: a flaw of demand coverage method and modification

A flaw of demand coverage method in solving optimal monitoring stations problem under multiple demand patterns was identified in this paper. In the demand coverage method, the demand coverage of each set of monitoring stations is calculated by accumulating their demand coverage under each demand pattern, and the impact of temporal distribution between different time periods or demand patterns is ignored. This could lead to miscalculation of the optimal locations of the monitoring stations. To overcome this flaw, this paper presents a Demand Coverage Index (DCI) based method. The optimization considers extended period unsteady hydraulics due to the change of nodal demands with time. The method is cast in a genetic algorithm framework for integration with Environmental Protection Agency Net (EPANET) and is demonstrated through example applications. Results show that the set of optimal locations of monitoring stations obtained using the DCI method can represent the water quality of water distribution systems under multiple demand patterns better than the one obtained using previous methods.     

Characterization of soil low-molecular-weight organic acids in the Karst rocky desertification region of Guizhou Province, China

Soil low-molecular-weight (LMW) organic acids play important roles in the soil-forming process and the cycling of nutrients in Karst regions. In this study, we quantified the contents of LMW organic acids (including lactate, acetate, formate, malate, and oxalate) in soil solution over the Karst region of Guizhou Province, China using ion chromatography. The concentration of total LMW organic acids in topsoil solution ranged from 0.358 to 1.823 μmol·g^-1, with an average of 0.912 μmol·g^-1. The mean concentrations of lactate, acetate, formate, malate, and oxalate were 0.212±0.089, 0.302±0.228, 0.301±0.214, 0.014±0.018 and 0.086±0.118 μmol·g^-1, respectively. There were also significant difference in the contents of these acids among four phases of rocky desertification, and their concentrations decreased with the aggravation of rocky desertification. The concentrations of the LMW organic acids were significantly positive correlated each other. Significant positive correlations were also observed among individual LMW organic acids in soil solution, and between them and soil available P, available K, exchangeable Ca, respectively. Furthermore, the concentrations of LMW organic acids were significantly positively correlated with inorganic anions (chlorides, nitrates, and sulfates) in Karst topsoil solution. Therefore, the concentrations of soil LMW organic acids might be one of driving force in the Karst rock desertification process in Guizhou Province.     

Different responses of photosynthesis and flow cytometric signals to iron limitation and nitrogen source in coastal and oceanic Synechococcus strains (Cyanophyceae)

Iron plays an important role in marine primary productivity, and Synechococcus species as major contributors to the total photosynthetic biomass in the world’s oceans might be limited by iron supply in some regions. The present study aimed to compare the photosynthesis and flow cytometric signals of four Synechococcus strains grown under different iron concentrations with either nitrate or ammonium as the sole nitrogen source. Two oceanic strains were much more sensitive to iron limitation than two coastal strains. The inhibition of iron limitation on the growth, maximal PSII photochemical yield, maximal rate of relative electron transport and photochemical quenching of the two oceanic strains was higher than for their coastal counterparts. Under iron limitation condition, the connectivity factor between individual photosynthetic units (ρ) increased for the two coastal strains, while decreased for the two oceanic strains. Furthermore, iron limitation accelerated the Q _A re-oxidation of the two oceanic strains and the PQ pool re-oxidation of the two coastal strains. Under iron limitation condition, the cell size of the two coastal strains and intracellular pigment concentrations of the two oceanic strains decreased, while the side light scatter/front light scatter (SS/FS) ratio of the two coastal strains increased. In contrast to iron limitation, nitrogen source only marginally affected the photosynthesis of the four Synechococcus strains. Ammonium enhanced the growth of the two coastal strains under iron-replete condition. For the two oceanic strains, ammonium increased their cell size and decreased their SS/FS ratio and intracellular pigment concentrations under iron-deplete and iron-replete conditions.