Jute bioblanket as a soil rehabilitation strategy in Sorocaba,Brazil: Soil chemistry and SWOT approaches

Soil erosion and the invasion of exotic plant species are major constraints to achieve sustainable development around the world. Currently, we find few products devoted concomitantly to combatting soil erosion as well as the establishment of unwanted exotic plants. In this paper, we introduce a new product, called herein a bioblanket, that protects the soil and impedes the establishment of exotic plant species. This product is of simple design, and to manufacture it, we use two biodegradable materials: jute tissue and grass wastes. We designed this product to combat soil erosion and the germination and establishment of new, unwanted, invasive plant species. In this paper, we describe our evaluation of how successful this product was in terms of improving the chemical attributes of soil. We also identified the product's potentialities and weaknesses by means of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis. The bioblanket ameliorated the chemical attributes of the soil, as evidenced especially by the neutralization of acidity (8.5%) and aluminum toxicity (33%), and by an increment in nutrients concentration. We argue that after adequate treatment and management, the residues of plants that are normally considered unwanted materials can be transformed into a raw material to control the propagation of unwanted plant species, and concomitantly control soil erosion while improving the chemical conditions of the soil. The improvement of the soil chemical attributes was one of the main positive effects reported through the SWOT analysis. In addition, the SWOT analysis revealed some features that need improvement in future generations of the product, but we argue that these features do not impede the benefits for the use of the product in its present form.     

以聚羟基脂肪酸酯为固体碳源去除地下水中的硝酸盐

研究了可降解聚合物聚羟基脂肪酸酯（PHA）作为固体碳源和生物膜载体去除地下水中硝酸盐的影响因素。结果表明,低温反硝化有较大影响,5℃和10℃时的反硝化速率分别只有30℃时的5%和13%。反硝化对进水pH有较强的适应性,在pH4.5-9.5条件下,反硝化速率介于11.2-15.8mg/（Loh）之间。pH为4.5-8.5时,出水亚硝酸盐的浓度相差不大。DO对以反硝化速率影响不大,当进水DO为0.9mg/L-5.0mg/L时,反硝化速率介于12.6-15.8mg/（Loh）之间,出水NO2-N浓度的最大值为0.15 mg/L。     

Biosorption of Cu(II) on extracellular polymers from Bacillus sp. F19

Biosorption can be an effective process for the removal of heavy metals from aqueous solutions. The adsorption of Cu(Ⅱ) from aqueous solution on the extracellular polymers (EPS) from Bacillus sp. (named MBFF19) with respect to pH, incubation time,concentration of initial Cu(Ⅱ), and biosorbent dose was studied. Biosorption of Cu(Ⅱ) is highly pH dependent. The maximum uptake of Cu(Ⅱ) (89.62 mg/g) was obtained at pH 4.8. Biosorption equilibrium was established in approximately 10 min. The correlation coefficient of more than 0.90 turned out that the adsorption process of Cu(Ⅱ) on MBFF19 was in accordance with both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. The pseudo-first and second order models were applied to examine the kinetics of the adsorption, whereas the latter was found to be in harmony with the kinetic data better. Because of the outstanding uptake capacity of Cu(Ⅱ), MBFF19 produced by Bacillus sp. was proved to be an excellent biosorbent for removing Cu(Ⅱ) from aqueous solutions.     

Behaviour of smoldering fires during periodic refilling of wood pellets into silos

The evolution of smoldering fires in biomass stored in lab-scale silos with additional fuel material supplied repeatedly, has been studied. The direct effects of the added material on the sample are: cooling, enhanced thermal insulation, and facilitation of more intense combustion at a later stage. This article focuses on the cooling, which leads to an almost instantaneous reduction in the combustion rate. Surprisingly, this reduction does not vary only with the amount of material refilled – but also depends strongly on the stage of the smoldering process. This demonstrates that the underlying smoldering processes merely to a certain degree are regularized by the periodic refillings. Quantitatively, the functional relationship between the refilled amount and the change in combustion rate caused by the refilling was determined. The results displays four regimes, that reflect different stages of the smoldering process at the time of the refilling. Using the Arrhenius equation, we find for one of these regimes an expression for the ratio of combustion rates (immediately after to immediately before the refill) as function of the amount of added material. This expression contains only one free (undetermined) parameter. We determine the value of this parameter from the data and demonstrate that this value is consistent with a simple model for how the sudden cooling occurs spatially in the sample.     

Exploitation of Fenton and Fenton-like reagents as alternative conditioners for alum sludge conditioning

The use of Fenton’s reagent (Fe2+/H2O2) and Fenton-like reagents containing transition metals of Cu(II), Zn(II), Co(II), and Mn(II) for an alum sludge conditioning to improve its dewaterability was investigated. The results obtained were compared with those obtained from conditioning the same alum sludge using cationic and anionic polymers. Experimental results show that Fenton’s reagent was the best among the Fenton and Fenton-like reagents for the alum sludge conditioning. A considerable e ectiveness of capillary suction time (CST) reduction e ciency of 47% can be achieved under test conditions of Fe2+/H2O2 = 20/125 mg/g DS (dry solid) and pH 6.0. The observation of floc-like particles after Fenton’s reagent conditioning of alum sludge suggested that the mechanism of Fenton’s reagent conditioning was di erent from that of polymer conditioning. In spite of the lower e ciency in the CST reduction of Fenton’s reagent in alum sludge conditioning compared to that of polymer conditioning, Fenton’s reagent o ers a more environmentally safe option. This study provided an example of proactive treatment engineering, which is aimed at seeking a safe alternative to the use of polymers in sludge conditioning towards achieving a more sustainable sludge management strategy.     

光-生物双降解PS发泡餐盒

采用添加淀粉、光敏剂及生物降解促进剂的方法,制得光－生物双降解ＰＳ餐盒。探讨不同光敏剂、生物降解促进剂地餐盒降解性能的影响,并对此餐盒在自然环境中的降解性能进行了研究。结果表明,添加０．１％光敏剂ＭＲ及２％生物草芽胞杆菌,所制得的含淀粉２０％的ＰＳ发泡餐盒,在自然界中６０ｄ降解成碎片,土埋９０ｄ失重率大于７％。     

A Method for Measuring Degradation of Individual Components in Multicomponent Biodegradable Plastics by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry

A new chemometric method based on Beer's law was derived that uses peak ratios from Fourier transform infrared spectra of neat polymers and their composite plastics to quantify degradation of the individual polymers after biodegradation. The method affords direct measurement of polymer concentrations and weight losses without prior calibration against known composites. Unlike traditional chemometric methods, this method does not require sampling of as many or more different composites as the number of polymers in the composite being analyzed. When the neat polymer spectra are known, only two measurements, one before and one after biodegradation, are needed. A potentially major advance is that the method allows automation of analytical infrared wavelength selection by computer from all possible wavelength combinations. In this paper, the theoretical basis and derivation of the mathematical model for multicomponent systems is presented. The validity of the model was proved initially by applying the method to simulated two-polymer and three-polymer composites and finally by comparing test results with known samples of biodegradable composites prepared in the laboratory. Potential future development of the method for more challenging multicomponent plastics is discussed.     

可降解餐盒去除地下水硝酸盐的砂槽模拟实验研究

采用室内砂槽实验装置,研究了以可降解餐盒(BMB)为反硝化碳源的生物反应器对于模拟污水中硝酸盐的去除效果及其影响因素。结果表明,以BMB为反硝化碳源的反应器启动时间短。当进水硝酸盐浓度为50 mg/L,水温为25℃,水力停留时间为1.15 d时,硝酸盐的去除率可达92.6%以上,实验过程中出现亚硝酸盐积累,出水TOC浓度上升,但反应稳定后亚硝酸盐浓度均低于0.1 mg/L,且TOC浓度有下降趋势;水力停留时间减小或者进水硝酸盐浓度增加均能使得脱氮效率降低,但当水力停留时间在0.57~1.15 d,进水硝酸盐浓度在50~80 mg/L范围变化时,反应器硝酸盐去除效率仍能达到80%以上;温度对反硝化作用影响较大,当温度为(20±1)℃时,硝酸盐的去除效率仅为62.0%、74.4%和97.5%。     

Sources of Volatile Organic Compounds in a University Building

A total of 34 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were measured in the indoor of laboratories, offices and classrooms of the Chemical Engineering Department of Hacettepe University in Ankara in 2 week-day passive sampling campaigns. The average concentrations ranged from 0.77 to 265 μg m^?3 at the different indoor sites, with the most abundant VOC found to be toluene (119.6 μg m^?3), followed by styrene (21.24 μg m^?3), 2-ethyltoluene (17.11 μg m^?3), n-hexane (10.21 μg m^?3) and benzene (9.42 μg m^?3). According to the factor analysis, the evaporation of solvents used in the laboratories was found to be the dominant source.     

Molecularly imprinted polymers for the detection of benomyl residues in water and soil samples

Benomyl is a benzimidazol fungicide used against various crop pathogens. Although banned in many countries, it is still widely used worldwide and is listed in different monitoring programs among the substances to be monitored to assess human exposure to pesticide residues. The assessment of benomyl is mainly based on the analysis of the residues of its most important metabolite, carbendazim. Existing methods often lack of selectivity and display a limited performance because of the presence of co-extracted compounds. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) offer an alternative methodology, adsorbing preferentially those target molecules for which the polymers are specifically prepared. In this study, we optimized the synthesis of a polymer imprinted with benomyl. Tests of specificity recognition showed a good performance for carbendazim compared with other similar pesticides. The mean recovery of benomyl (measured as carbendazim) from water samples was estimated to be 90% for MIPs while with real soil samples collected in Morocco the recovery efficiency was 62%. Preliminary tests also suggest that this MIP can implement traditional SPE techniques for assessing benomyl residual concentrations in environmental samples.