Removal of phenol by powdered activated carbon adsorption

In this study, the adsorption performance of powdered activated carbon (PAC) on phenol was investigated in aqueous solutions. Batch adsorption studies were performed to evaluate the effects of various experimental parameters like PAC type, PAC dose, initial solution pH, temperature and pre-oxidation on the adsorption of phenol by PAC and establish the adsorption kinetics, thermodynamics and isothermal models. The results indicated that PAC adsorption is an effective method to remove phenol from water, and the effects of all the five factors on adsorption of phenol were significant. The adsorption rate of phenol by PAC was rapid, and more than 80% phenol could be absorbed by PAC within the initial 10 min. The adsorption process can be well described by pseudo-second-order adsorption kinetic model with rate constant amounted to 0.0313, 0.0305 and 0.0241 mg·μg ^-1·min ^-1 with coal, coconut shell and bamboo charcoal. The equilibrium data of phenol absorbed onto PAC were analyzed by Langmuir, Freundlich and Tempkin adsorption isotherms and Freundlich adsorption isotherm model gave the best correlation with the experimental data. Thermodynamic parameters such as the standard Gibbs free energy (?G^o), enthalpy (?H^o) and entropy (?S^o) obtained in this study indicated that the adsorption of phenol by PAC is spontaneous, exothermic and entropy decreasing.     

Thermal hazard analysis of triacetone triperoxide (TATP) by DSC and GC/MS

Thermal degradation of triacetone triperoxide (TATP) was studied using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). TATP, a potential explosive material, is powerful organic peroxide (OP) that can be synthesized by available chemicals, such as acetone and hydrogen peroxide in the laboratory or industries. The thermokinetic parameters, such as exothermic onset temperature (T₀) and heat of decomposition (ΔH_d), were determined by DSC tests. The gas products from thermal degradation of TATP were identified using GC/MS technique.In this study, H₂O₂ was mixed with propanone (acetone) and H₂SO₄ catalysis that produced TATP. The T₀ of TATP was determined to be 40 °C and E_a was calculated to be 65 kJ/mol. A thermal decomposition peak of H₂O₂ was analyzed by DSC and two thermal decomposition peaks of H₂O₂/propanone were determined. Therefore, H₂O₂/propanone mixture was applied to mix acid that was discovered a thermal decomposition peak (as TATP) in this study. According to risk assessment and analysis methodologies, risk assessment of TATP for the environmental and human safety issue was evaluated as 2-level of hazard probability rating (P) and 6-level of severity of consequences ratings (S). Therefore, the result of risk assessment is 12-point and was evaluated as “Undesirable” that should be enforced the effect of control method to reduce the risk.     

警惕:血吸虫病卷土重来

46年前,伟人毛泽东从《人民日报》上读到江西省余江县消灭了血吸虫病时,浮想联翩,夜不能寐,欣然写下了著名诗词《送瘟神》：“春风杨柳万千条,六亿神州尽舜尧。红雨随心翻作浪,青山着意化为桥。”半个世纪以来,一代又一代党和政府领导人高度重视血吸虫病防治工作,全国已有广东、上海、广西、福建、浙江5个省市消灭了血吸虫病,取得举世     

高压脉冲等离子体降解水中苯酚的实验研究

对高压脉冲放电等离子体技术降解水中有机污染物苯酚进行了实验研究,观察了脉冲成形电容、脉冲峰值电压、脉冲频率、放电电极直径、放电距离、苯酚的人口质量浓度等因素对苯酚降解率的影响;实验结果表明脉冲成形电容有一最佳值;降解率随脉冲峰值电压、脉冲频率增大而升高,随放电电极直径和放电距离的减小而增大,随苯酚人口质量浓度增大而增大。     

白泥海水脱硫示范工程的中试研究

对黄岛发电厂3#机组白泥海水脱硫示范工程进行了中试研究。试验结果表明:以白泥做吸收剂,脱硫效率可达到90%以上,并能产生较好的经济效益,脱硫过程中可以直接消耗白泥,从而达到以废治废的目的。     

Application of proteomics in environmental science

Proteomics involves the separation of proteins, identification of the amino acid sequence of the interested or target proteins, study of the function of the proteins, modification, structure and ultimate assignments to functional pathways in the cell. The proteomic investigations have contributed greatly to human diseases studies, new drugs discovery researches, and environmental science in recent years. This article provides a review on the development of the main proteomic technologies, including both the gel based and non-gel based technologies, and their applications in environmental science. Proteomic technologies have been utilized in the environmental stresses studies to analyze the induction or reduction of proteins at expression level and identify the target proteins to investigate their function in response to environmental stresses, such as high or low pH, oxidation stress, and toxic chemicals. Such protein responses are also helpful to understand the mechanisms of some cellular activities and the functions of some proteins.     

泥法A／O生物脱氮工艺处理腈纶废水和炼油废水

采用泥法Ａ／Ｏ生物脱氮工艺处理腈纶废水和炼油废水,出水中ＣＯＤ〈１００ｍｇ／Ｌ,ＮＨ３－Ｎ〈１５ｍｇ／Ｌ。但进水中油〉２０ｍｇ／Ｌ,ＮＨ３－Ｎ〉７００ｍｇ／Ｌ或ＳＣＮ＾－〉７０ｍｇ／Ｌ时,将对系统产生不良影响。本文介绍了１年来的运行情况,探讨了系统受影响的原因,并提出了改进建议。     

A hidden species-area curve

The species-area curve, which describes the relationship between the number of observed species in a geographical region and the area of the region, plays a central role in biogeography. Beyond its scientific importance, the species-area curve is commonly used to assess the loss of species due to habitat loss. When the species-area curve is estimated from spatial samples, the existence of species with low or highly spatially variable abundance exaggerates the true rate at which species accumulate with area. Here, a hidden species-area curve is defined that accounts for this sampling effect and its estimation by maximum likelihood is outlined. Both the species-area curve and the hidden species-area curve are conditioned on the observed species list; thus the analysis does not depend on the total number of observed and unobserved species, that is, species richness. The method is tested by sub-sampling some tropical forest data and found to work well. It is also applied to a classic data set from the deep sea. For these data, accounting for this sampling effect has a large impact.     

Effects of adding biochar on tetracycline removal during anaerobic composting of swine manure

Residual antibiotics in manure pose a potential threat to public and ecological health when the manure is released to the environment via land application of manure as fertiliser. Anaerobic composting has the potential to decrease antibiotic concentrations prior to land application. We therefore investigated the degradation of the antibiotics tetracycline (TC) and oxytetracycline (OTC) during anaerobic composting under different conditions. All composting treatment conditions were able to effect significant decreases in the antibiotic concentrations, though without biochar antibiotic residues remained. TC and OTC were removed more efficiently when the compost was treated at 55°C than treatments at 35°C or 25°C. Adding biochar significantly and rapidly decreased the antibiotic concentrations in the compost samples. After 15 days of treatment with biochar at 55°C, 100% of TC and OTC had been removed from the manure. The marked ability of biochar to remove the antibiotics was primarily attributed to adsorption of TC and OTC by the biochar. However, the addition of biochar may also have altered the microbial community structures within the compost and accelerated microbial degradation of the antibiotics.