The production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) with a high fraction of 3-hydroxyvalerate (3HV) and 3-hydroxy-2-methylvalerate (3H2MV) from mixed culture enriched by valerate-dominant hydrolysate was evaluated in this study. After long-term enrichment, the culture showed strong ability to synthesize 3HV and 3H2MV, even with acetate-dominant substrate. The ultilization of single or mixed iso-/n-valerate by the enriched culture showed that the mixture of iso-valerate and n-valerate was more efficient substrate than any single in terms of balancing microbial growth and PHAs synthesis. Besides, through comparing the kinetics and stoichiometry of the tests supplying valerate and propionate, the enriched culture with equivalent valerate and propionate (1:1 molar ratio) exhibited superior PHAs production performances to pure valerate or propionate, attaining more than 70 mol% of 3HVand 3H2MV. The above findings reveal that valerate-dominant hydrolysate is a kind of suitable substrate to enrich PHAs producing culture with great capability to synthesize 3HV and 3H2MV monomers, thus improving product properties than pure poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (P3HB); also 3HV and 3H2MV production behaviors can be regulated by the type of odd-carbon VFAs in the substrate.
Negatively charged carboxymethylated polyethersulfone (CMPES) and positively charged quaternized polyethersulfone (QAPES) ultrafiltration (UF) membranes were prepared by bulk chemical modification and non-solvent induced phase separation method. The effects of PES membrane interfacial electrokinetic property on the bovine serum albumin (BSA) membrane fouling behavior were studied with the aid of the membrane-modified colloidal atomic force microscopy (AFM) probe. Electrokinetic test results indicated that the streaming potential (ΔE) of QAPES membrane was not consistent with its expected IEC value, however, within the pH range of 3–10, the ζ potentials of two charged-modified PES membranes were more stable than the unmodified membrane. When pH value was 3, 4.7 or 9, the interaction behavior between charged PES membrane and BSA showed that there was significant linear correlation between the jump distance r0 of membrane-BSA adhesion force (F/R) and the ζ potential absolute value. Charged modification significantly reduced the adhesion of PES membrane-BSA, and the adhesion data was good linear correlated with the flux decline rate in BSA filtration process, especially reflected in the CMPES membrane. The above experimental facts proved that the charged membrane interfacial electric double layer structure and its electrokinetic property had strong ties with the protein membrane fouling behavior.
Observed effects of metal mixtures on animals and plants often differ from the estimates, which are commonly calculated by adding up the biological responses of individual metals. This difference from additivity is commonly referred to as being a consequence of specific interactions between metals. The science of how to quantify metal interactions and whether to include them in risk assessment models is in its infancy. This review summarizes the existing predictive tools for evaluating the combined toxicity of metals present in mixtures and indicates the advantages and disadvantages of each method. We intend to provide eco-toxicologists with background information on how to make good use of the tools and how to advance the methods for assessing toxicity of metal mixtures. It is concluded that statistically significant deviations from additivity are not necessarily biologically relevant. Incorporation of interactions between metals in a model does not on forehand mean that the model is more accurate than a model developed based on additivity only. It is recommended to first use a relatively simple method for effect prediction of uninvestigated metal mixtures. To improve the reliability of toxicity modeling for metal mixtures, further efforts should focus on balancing the relationship between the significance of statistics and the biological meaning, and unraveling the toxicity mechanisms of metals and their mixtures.
This paper studied the biofilm properties and corrosion behavior of sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) on stainless steel 316L (SS316L) surface in circulating cooling water system with and without additives including hydroxy ethyl fork phosphonic acid (HEDP), dodecyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chlotide (1227) and NaClO. Biochemical technique, electrochemical technology, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were used. The results show that the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) in biofilm attached on the SS316L surface mainly contain proteins and polysaccharides, the contents are 98 ug·cm-2 and 635ug·cm-2, respectively. The polysaccharides were cut by 1227 about 80%, while 55% by NaClO. The proteins were reduced by NaClO about 53%, while only 30% by 1227. The potentiodynamic polarization shows that the corrosion potential of SS316L was enhanced from -0.495 V to -0.390 V by the chemical additives, delaying the occurrence of the corrosion. And the corrosion rate was also reduced from 5.19 × 10-3 mm·a-1 to 2.42 × 10-3 mm·a-1. But NaClO still caused pitting corrosion after sterilizing the bacteria, while 1227 can form a protective film on the surface of SS316L. Though HEDP contribute to the bacteria activity, it can enhance the breakdown potential. XPS results confirmed that 1227 can change the value of C:O in the biofilm attached on metal surface, and NaClO can eliminate the existence of amidogen. This study would provide some recommendations for the selection of chemical additives in the thermal power plant.
A biofilm membrane bioreactor (BF-MBR) and a conventional membrane bioreactor (MBR) were parallelly operated for treating digested piggery wastewater. The removal performance of COD, TN, NH4+-N, TP as well as antibiotics were simultaneously studied when the hydraulic retention time (HRT) was gradually shortened from 9 d to 1 d and when the ratio of influent COD to TN was changed. The results showed that the effluent quality in both reactors was poor and unstable at an influent COD/TN ratio of 1.0±0.2. The effluent quality was significantly improved as the influent COD/TN ratio was increased to 2.3±0.5. The averaged removal rates of COD, NH4+-N, TN and TP were 92.1%, 97.1%, 35.6% and 54.2%, respectively, in the BF-MBR, significantly higher than the corresponding values of 91.7%, 90.9%, 17.4% and 31.9% in the MBR. Analysis of 11 typical veterinary antibiotics (from the tetracycline, sulfonamide, quinolone, and macrolide families) revealed that the BF-MBR removed more antibiotics than the MBR. Although the antibiotics removal decreased with a shortened HRT, high antibiotics removals of 86.8%, 80.2% and 45.3% were observed in the BF-MBR at HRTof 5–4 d, 3–2 d and 1 d, respectively, while the corresponding values were only 83.8%, 57.0% and 25.5% in the MBR. Moreover, the BF-MBR showed a 15% higher retention rate of antibiotics and consumed 40% less alkalinity than the MBR. Results above suggest that the BF-MBR was more suitable for digested piggery wastewater treatment.
Characterization of the molecular properties of soluble microbial products (SMP) is critical for understanding the membrane filtration and fouling mechanisms in anaerobic and aerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBR & MBR). In this study, the distributions of the absolute molecular weight and intrinsic viscosity of SMP polysaccharides from an AnMBR were effectively determined by a high performance size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) that was coupled with the refractive index (RI), diode array UV (DAUV), right and low angle light scattering (LS), and viscometer (Vis) detectors. Based on the tetra-detector HPSEC determined absolute molecular weights and intrinsic viscosity, a universal calibration relationship for the SMP polysaccharides was developed and the molecular conformations, average molecular weights, and hydrodynamic sizes of the SMP polysaccharides were also explored. Two factors which can be derived from the tetra-detector HPSEC analysis were proposed for the characterization of the viscous and osmotic pressure properties of the SMP polysaccharides. In addition, it was also extrapolated how to analyze the resistance characteristics of the concentration polarization layers formed in membrane filtration based on the molecular properties determined by the tetra-detector HPSEC analysis.
When microalgae are simultaneously applied for wastewater treatment and lipid production, soluble algal products (SAP) should be paid much attention, as they are important precursors for formation of disinfection byproducts (DBPs), which have potential risks for human health. Chlorella sp. HQ is an oleaginous microalga that can generate SAP during growth, especially in the exponential phase. This study investigated the contribution of SAP from Chlorella sp. HQ to DBP formation after chlorination. The predominant DBP precursors from SAP were identified with the 3D excitation-emission matrix fluorescence. After chlorination, a significant reduction was observed in the fluorescence intensity of five specific fluorescence regions, particularly aromatic proteins and soluble microbial by-product-like regions, accompanied with slight shifting of the peak. The produced DBPs were demonstrated to include trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids. As the algal cultivation time was extended in wastewater, the accumulated SAP strengthened the formation of DBPs. The trend for DBP formation was as follows: chloroform>dichloroacetic acid>trichloroacetic acid.
It is common that 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (TCP) coexists with nitrate or nitrite in industrial wastewaters. In this work, simultaneous reductive dechlorination of TCP and denitrification of nitrate or nitrite competed for electron donor, which led to their mutual inhibition. All inhibitions could be relieved to a certain degree by augmenting an organic electron donor, but the impact of the added electron donor was strongest for TCP. For simultaneous reduction of TCP together with nitrate, TCP’s removal rate value increased 75% and 150%, respectively, when added glucose was increased from 0.4 mmol?L–1 to 0.5 mmol?L–1 and to 0.76 mmol?L–1. For comparison, the removal rate for nitrate increased by only 25% and 114% for the same added glucose. The relationship between their initial biodegradation rates versus their initial concentrations could be represented well with the Monod model, which quantified their half-maximum-rate concentration (KS value), and KS values for TCP, nitrate, and nitrite were larger with simultaneous reduction than independent reduction. The increases in KS are further evidence that competition for the electron donor led to mutual inhibition. For bioremediation of wastewater containing TCP and oxidized nitrogen, both reduction reactions should proceed more rapidly if the oxidized nitrogen is nitrite instead of nitrate and if readily biodegradable electron acceptor is augmented.
The relationship between the improvement of sludge dewaterability and variation of organic matters has been studied in the process of sludge pre-conditioning with modified cinder, especially for extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in the sludge. During the conditioning process, the decreases of total organic carbon (TOC) and soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) were obviously in the supernatant especially for the acid modified cinder (ACMC), which could be attributed to the processes of adsorption and sweeping. The reduction of polysaccharide and protein in supernatant indicated that ACMC might adsorb EPS so that the tightly bound EPS (TB-EPS) decreased in sludge. In the case of ACMC addition with 24 g·L–1, SRF of the sludge decreased from 7.85 × 1012 m·kg–1 to 2.06 × 1012 m·kg–1, and the filter cake moisture decreased from 85% to 60%. The reconstruction of “floc mass” was confirmed as the main sludge conditioning mechanism. ACMC promoted the dewatering performance through the charge neutralization and adsorption bridging with the negative EPS, and provided firm and dense structure for sludge floc as skeleton builder. The passages for water quick transmitting were built to avoid collapsing during the high-pressure process.
The environmentally sustainable disposal and recycling of ever increasing volumes of electronic waste has become a global waste management issue. The addition of up to 25% polymeric waste PCBs (printed circuit boards) as fillers in polypropylene (PP) composites was partially successful: while the tensile modulus, flexural strength and flexural modulus of composites were enhanced, the tensile and impact strengths were found to decrease. As a lowering of impact strength can significantly limit the application of PP based composites, it is necessary to incorporate impact modifying polymers such as rubbery particles in the mix. We report on a novel investigation on the simultaneous utilization of electronic and automotive rubber waste as fillers in PP composites. These composites were prepared by using 25 wt.% polymeric PCB powder, up to 9% of ethylene propylene rubber (EPR), and PP: balance. The influence of EPR on the structural, thermal, mechanical and rheological properties of PP/PCB/ EPR composites was investigated. While the addition of EPR caused the nucleation of the β crystalline phase of PP, the onset temperature for thermal degradation was found to decrease by 8%. The tensile modulus and strength decreased by 16% and 19%, respectively; and the elongation at break increased by ~71%. The impact strength showed a maximum increase of ~18% at 7 wt.%–9 wt.% EPR content. Various rheological properties were found to be well within the range of processing limits. This novel eco-friendly approach could help utilize significant amounts of polymeric electronic and automotive waste for fabricating valuable polymer composites.
