Efficacy of two chemical coagulants and three different filtration media on removal of Aspergillus flavus from surface water

Aquatic fungi are common in various aqueous environments and play potentially crucial roles in nutrient and carbon cycling as well as interacting with other organisms. Species of Aspergillus are the most common fungi that occur in water. The present study was undertaken to elucidate the efficacy of two coagulants, aluminum sulfate and ferric chloride, used at different concentrations to treat drinking water, in removing Aspergillusflavus, as well as testing three different filtration media： sand, activated carbon, and ceramic granules, for their removal of fungi from water. The results revealed that both coagulants were effective in removing fungi and decreasing the turbidity of drinking water, and turbidity decreased with increasing coagulant concentration. Also, at the highest concentration of the coagulants, A. flavus was decreased by 99.6% in the treated water. Among ceramic granules, activated carbon, and sand used as media for water filtration, the sand and activated carbon filters were more effective in removing A.flavus than ceramic granules while simultaneously decreasing the turbidity levels in the test water samples. Post-treatment total organic carbon （TOC） and total nitrogen （TN） concentrations in the experimental water did not decrease; on the contrary, TN concentrations increased with the increasing dosage of coagulants. The filtration process had no effect in reducing TOC and TN in tested water.     

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal phylogenetic groups differ in affecting host plants along heavy metal levels

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi（AMF） are important components of soil microbial communities,and play important role in plant growth. However, the effects of AMF phylogenetic groups（Glomeraceae and non-Glomeraceae） on host plant under various heavy metal levels are not clear. Here we conducted a meta-analysis to compare symbiotic relationship between AMF phylogenetic groups（Glomeraceae and non-Glomeraceae） and host plant functional groups（herbs vs. trees, and non-legumes vs. legumes） at three heavy metal levels. In the meta-analysis, we calculate the effect size（ln（RR）） by taking the natural logarithm of the response ratio of inoculated to non-inoculated shoot biomass from each study. We found that the effect size of Glomeraceae increased, but the effect size of non-Glomeraceae decreased under high level of heavy metal compared to low level. According to the effect size, both Glomeraceae and non-Glomeraceae promoted host plant growth, but had different effects under various heavy metal levels. Glomeraceae provided more benefit to host plants than non-Glomeraceae did under heavy metal condition, while non-Glomeraceae provided more benefit to host plants than Glomeraceae did under no heavy metal. AMF phylogenetic groups also differed in promoting plant functional groups under various heavy metal levels.Interacting with Glomeraceae, herbs and legumes grew better than trees and non-legumes did under high heavy metal level, while trees and legumes grew better than herbs and non-legumes did under medium heavy metal level. Interacting with non-Glomeraceae, herbs and legumes grew better than trees and non-legumes did under no heavy metal. We suggested that the combination of legume with Glomeraceae could be a useful way in the remediation of heavy metal polluted environment.     

Genotoxicity removal of reclaimed water during ozonation

Genotoxicity in wastewater and reclaimed water now is gaining increased attention because of genotoxins' potential damage to the ecosystem and human health. The effect of ozonation on genotoxicity in reclaimed water was investigated. It was found that ozonation decreased the genotoxicy dramatically in three tertiary treatment plants. In the further batch ozonation experiment in laboratory,secondary effluent sample used exhibited the genotoxicity of(41.1 ± 4.1) μg 4NQO/L. Ozonation with a dose of 10 mg O3/L completely removed the genotoxicity in secondary effluent. However,after ozonation, the dissolved organic carbonvalue of the sample didn't change much but the specific ultraviolet absorbance(SUVA) value dropped sharply. With the help of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, ozonation was found to change chemical aliphatic carbon and C–O of the dissolved arganic matter, which might be the reason of the significant decreases of SUVA and genotoxicity.     

Fast increasing of surface ozone concentrations in Pearl River Delta characterized by a regional air quality monitoring network during 2006-2011

Based on the observation by a Regional Air Quality Monitoring Network including 16 monitoring stations, temporal and spatial variations of ozone(O3), NO2and total oxidant(Ox) were analyzed by both linear regression and cluster analysis. A fast increase of regional O3concentrations of 0.86 ppbV/yr was found for the annual averaged values from 2006 to 2011 in Guangdong, China. Such fast O3increase is accompanied by a correspondingly fast NOx reduction as indicated by a fast NO2 reduction rate of 0.61 ppbV/yr. Based on a cluster analysis, the monitoring stations were classified into two major categories – rural stations(non-urban) and suburban/urban stations. The O3concentrations at rural stations were relatively conserved while those at suburban/urban stations showed a fast increase rate of 2.0 ppbV/yr accompanied by a NO2 reduction rate of 1.2 ppbV/yr. Moreover, a rapid increase of the averaged O3 concentrations in springtime(13%/yr referred to 2006 level) was observed, which may result from the increase of solar duration, reduction of precipitation in Guangdong and transport from Eastern Central China. Application of smog production algorithm showed that the photochemical O3production is mainly volatile organic compounds(VOC)-controlled. However, the photochemical O3production is sensitive to both NOx and VOC for O3pollution episode. Accordingly, it is expected that a combined NOx and VOC reduction will be helpful for the reduction of the O3 pollution episodes in Pearl River Delta while stringent VOC emission control is in general required for the regional O3 pollution control.     

Effect of a high strength chemical industry wastewater on microbial community dynamics and mesophilic methane generation

A high strength chemical industry wastewater was assessed for its impact on anaerobic microbial com- munity dynamics and consequently mesophilic methane generation. Cumulative methane production was 251 mL/g total chemical oxygen demand removed at standard temperature and pressure at the end of 30 days experimental period with a highest recorded methane percentage of 80.6% of total biogas volume. Volatile fatty acids （VFAs） analysis revealed that acetic acid was the major intermediate VFAs produced with propionic acid accumulating over the experimental period. Quantitative analysis of microbial communities in the test and control groups with quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction highlighted that in the test group, Eubacteria （96.3%） was dominant in comparison with methanogens （3.7%）. The latter were dominated by Methanomicrobiales and Methanobacteriales while in test groups increased over the experimental period, reaching a maximum on day 30. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis profile was performed, targeting the 16S rRNA gene of Eubacteria and Archaea, with the DNA samples extracted at 3 different time points from the test groups. A phylogenetic tree was constructed for the sequences using the neighborhood joining method. The analysis revealed that the presence of organisms resembling Syntrophomonadaceae could have contributed to increased production of acetic and propionic acid intermediates while decrease of organisms resembling Pelotomaculum sp. could have most likely contributed to accumulation of propionic acid. This study suggested that the degradation of organic components within the high strength industrial wastewater is closely linked with the activity of certain niche microbial communities within eubacteria and methanogens.     

Characterization of extracellular polymeric substances in the biofilms of typical bacteria by the sulfur K-edge XANES spectroscopy

A combined approach of physicochemical extraction and sulfur K-edge X-ray absorption near-edge structure（XANES） spectroscopy was applied to characterize the extracellular polymeric substances（EPS） of typical bacterial biofilms in this study. Physicochemical analysis showed variation of the contents of DNA,polysaccharide and protein in different fractions of EPS in different mediums. The sulfur K-edge XANES analysis yielded a variety of spectra.Spectral fitting of the XANES spectra utilizing a large set of model compounds showed that there was more reduced sulfur in both LB-EPS（loosely bound EPS） and TB-EPS（tightly bound EPS） of all the biofilms in LB medium than in R2 A medium. More oxidized sulfur was identified in LB-EPS than that in TB-EPS,suggesting different niches and physiological heterogeneity in the biofilms. Our results suggested that the sulfur K-edge XANES can be a useful tool to analyze the sulfur speciation in EPS of biofilms.     

探讨适用于河流沉积物重金属污染程度的评价方法

本文使用地累积指数法和潜在生态危害指数法两种方法对同一区域五条河流的沉积物中重金属的测定结果进行了评价和比较,提出了将河流沉积物中重金属的监测纳入我国地表水常规监测的意见和建议.     

煤炭企业环境成本核算及控制浅议

随着我国环境保护方面的法律法规逐步完善,以及公众对环保的日益重视,对煤炭环境成本进行核算十分必要.本文论述了煤炭企业环境成本核算的重要性,分析了煤炭企业现有成本核算存在问题,提出了完善煤炭企业环境成本核算的对策.     

可再生胺类脱硫剂的选择研究

采用哌嗪等二元胺和二乙醇胺为吸收剂,对模拟烟气进行SO2的吸收解吸实验研究,筛选出性能优异的吸收剂,并考察添加剂H2 S O 4对其性能的影响。实验表明:可再生胺类吸收剂脱硫率可接近100%,二元胺吸收剂较醇胺的SO 2吸收量大、pH值随时间变化慢、首次解吸率高;羟乙基支链对胺类吸收剂的抗氧化能力、SO2吸收量和首次解吸率均有影响,环状二元胺比链状二元胺的抗氧化能力好、首次解吸率高;在N-(2-羟乙基)哌嗪溶液中添加硫酸构成N-(2-羟乙基)哌嗪/H 2S O 4脱硫体系后,脱硫率未受影响、SO2吸收量变小、首次解吸率显著提高,具有更好的循环使用性能。     

浙江省污水污泥处理处置状况的调查

通过对丽水、宁波、衢州、诸暨等浙江省境内十几个地区的污水处理厂的调查发现:目前浙江省内的污水处理工艺中,A2/O、A/O、氧化沟三种工艺占了近50%的份额。而SBR因其方法特点正在受到越来越多的重视。在污泥处理工艺中,填埋占了最大的一部分,有近70%的污水处理厂将产生的污泥进行填埋处理。目前,污泥处理技术单一,需要继续探寻污泥的减量和资源化技术,为日益增多的污泥探寻出路。