Recent advances in thin film composites membranes for brackish groundwater treatment with critical focus on Saskatchewan water sources

Drinking water scarcity is an ever-increasing global concern. This issue appears as a greater threat to the countries with no access to sea water resources or rivers, since their potential water resources are only limited to ground waters only. There are serious concerns with the treatment of ground water resources, including landfill leachates, agricultural contaminations (pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers), and rural contaminations. Membrane separation has been proved to be the governing technology in water and wastewater treatment plants, as these methods are responsible for more than half of the market share of the world's desalination capacity. This study intends to offer a holistic view of the groundwater contamination with specific focus on Saskatchewan province in Canada, and the recent efforts in the groundwater treatment using thin film composite membrane technology. This study begins with an introduction of the general aspects of ground water and membrane separation, polluting agents, and their sources. It is followed by a discussion of Saskatchewan's groundwater status and various issues. Furthermore, the recent research that became available since 2010 is reviewed in details and the results are summarized with respect to purification efficiency. Different affecting parameters in a groundwater-thin film composite system are synthesized and an in-depth overview is presented.     

Enzyme-electrolytic degradation of dichloromethane: Efficiency, kinetics and mechanism

Enzymatic electrolysis cell(EEC) has advantages over microbial electrolysis cell(MEC) due to the needless of microbe inoculation and high-efficiency of enzymatic reaction. In this study, an EEC was first applied to achieve the effective degradation of halogenated organic pollutants and dichloromethane(CH_2Cl_2) was utilized as a model pollutant. The results indicate that the degradation efficiency of CH_2Cl_2 after 2 hr reaction in the EEC was almost100%, which was significantly higher than that with enzyme(51.1%) or current(19.0%). The current induced the continuous regeneration of reduced glutathione(GSH), thus CH_2Cl_2 was degraded under the catalysis of GSH-dependent dehalogenase through stepwise dechlorination, and successively formed monochloromethane(CH_3Cl) and methane(CH_4). The kinetic result shows that with a current of 15 mA, the maximum specific degradation rate of CH_2Cl_2(3.77 × 10~(-3) hr~(-1)) was increased by 5.7 times. The optimum condition for CH_2Cl_2 dechlorination was also obtained with pH, current and temperature of 7.0, 15 mA and 35°C,respectively. Importantly, this study helps to understand the behavior of enzymes and the fate of halogenated organic pollutants with EEC, providing a possible treatment technology for halogenated organic pollutants.     

“Measuring Sustainability”: A Multi-Criterion Framework

So far, the elementary question of whether one country’s or region’s economy is moving towards sustainability or away from it cannot be answered with unanimous consensus on the ‘measuring rod(s)’ to be employed. The main assumption of this article is that sustainability assessment needs a set of multi-dimensional indicators. From this assumption a question arises: how could such indicators be aggregated? Often, some indicators improve while others deteriorate. For instance, when incomes grow, SO₂ might go down while CO₂ increases. It has to be noted that this is the classical conflictual situation studied in multi-criteria decision theory. The use of a multi-criterion framework for making operational the ‘measuring of sustainability’ is discussed here by means of illustrative examples and more formal arguments.     

电极构型对空气阴极生物燃料电池发电性能的影响

在空气阴极生物燃料电池(ACMFC)中,从阴极扩散进入阳极的氧气能够被兼性微生物作为电子受体还原,进而导致电子损失严重.本研究利用葡萄糖作底物,对2种不同电极构型的空气阴极生物燃料电池ACMFC1和ACMFC2的功率输出和电子回收进行了比较研究.结果表明,ACMFC1的内阻为302.14Ω,阳极电位为-323mV,最大功率密度为3 070 mW/m³;ACMFC2的内阻为107.79Ω,阳极电位为-442mV,最大功率密度达到9 800 mW/m³.在间歇条件下,ACMFC2可以连续运行220h,电子回收率为30.1%;而ACMFC1只能运行不到50h,电子回收率为9.78%.因此,合理的设计空气阴极生物燃料电池电极构型可以减小内阻,增大电池电动势进而增大功率输出,提高电子回收率.     

Copper complexation by tannic acid in aqueous solution

The speciation of titrated copper in a dissolved tannic acid (TA) solution with an initial concentration of 4 mmol organic carbon (OC)/l was investigated in a nine-step titration experiment (Cu/OC molar ratio = 0.0030–0.0567). We differentiated between soluble and insoluble Cu species by 0.45 μm filtration. Measurements with a copper ion selective electrode (ISE) and diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) were conducted to quantify unbound Cu(II) cations (‘free’ Cu) and labile soluble Cu complexes. For the DGT measurements, we used an APA hydrogel and a Chelex 100 chelating resin (Na form). Insoluble organic Cu complexes (>0.45 μm) was the dominant Cu species for Cu/OC = 0.0030–0.0567 with a maximum fraction of 0.96 of total Cu. At Cu/OC > 0.0100, Cu-catalysed degradation of aggregate structures resulted in a strong increase of free Cu and (labile) soluble Cu complexes with a maximum fraction of 0.28 and 0.32 of total Cu, respectively. Labile (i.e. DGT-detectable) soluble Cu complexes had a relatively high averaged diffusion coefficient (D) in the APA hydrogel (3.50 × 10⁻⁶– 5.58 × 10⁻⁶ cm² s⁻¹).     

土壤和沉积物中重金属积累及其Pb、S同位素示踪

对榨子厂附近一个废弃多年的古老土法炼锌点土壤和沉积物中重金属的积累及污染程度进行了研究。研究区土壤、沉积物样品中Pb、Zn、Cd含量已大大高于该地区的背景值,zn的积累明显大于Pb的积累程度。相关分析表明,土壤和沉积物中Fe2O3对重金属有强烈的固定作用。沉积物和土壤中有很高的综合污染指数,显示出重金属的污染程度很高。化学形态分析表明重金属以碳酸盐结合态、残渣态和铁锰氧化物结合态为主,有效态所占的比例很低,但其含量并不很低,在酸性条件下,有释放导致污染的可能性。同位素示踪结果显示,研究区土壤和沉积物中积累的Pb、S为矿山物质来源。     

考虑过渡区影响的粉喷桩复合地基承载特性的有限元数值分析

粉喷桩成桩过程中不可避免地会带动桩间土产生强烈的挤压和振动,在固化剂与桩体发生物理化学反应的同时,桩周一定范围内的土体也进行了固化和挤密,使得在桩土交界处形成环向变化的过渡区,过渡区的材料由桩逐渐过渡到桩间土,因此有必要考虑该过渡区对粉喷桩复合地基承载特性的影响。本文从粉喷桩复合地基桩土交界处的特点出发,考虑了桩土材料性质变化的过渡区单元,利用上的摩尔—库仑本构模型,和Plaxis专业岩土软件对粉喷桩复合地基进行了有限元数值分析,就粉喷桩复合地基中桩和土的承载特性得出了一些有益的结论。     

PVA-SbQ固定叶绿体及其生物传感器在检测除草剂中的应用

聚乙烯－苯乙烯吡啶（PVA－SbQ）是一种新的光敏聚合物，在紫外光诱导下形成大分子网状结构，电镜照片显示PVA－SbQ固定的新鲜菠菜叶绿体－20℃贮存6mo后，内，外膜结构完整，类囊体膜排列整齐，还原DPIP的能力保留50％，将叶绿体膜固定在铂电极上，制成生物传感器，在含0．035H2O2的50mmol L^-1,pH7.4Tris-HCl缓冲液中，25℃条件下用示差脉冲伏安法检测除草剂，在0－1.0 μg/L浓度范围，百草枯，敌草隆，扑草净和阿特闰津具有较好的线性关系。图6参29     

高浓度苯酚在石墨电极上电解特性的研究

研制了数据在线采集记录系统对高浓度苯酚在石墨电极上电解过程的循环伏安行为进行了研究。采用连续循环伏安法考察了体系电解的特点,并考察了支持电解质、扫描速率、苯酚的浓度对反应体系的影响。结果表明:峰电流密度与扫描速率的平方根及苯酚浓度呈线性递增关系,支持电解质的添加量在苯酚电解过程存在最佳值,多次扫描过程中峰电流密度有下降趋势。实验推断电解效率下降是由于电极表面被聚合物污染导致,这一现象对电解处理有机物种的系统控制过程具有重要意义。     

气体扩散电极制备及其对苯酚降解效果的研究

以质量比9∶1的活性炭和乙炔黑制备气体扩散电极,着重研究电流密度、pH值、曝气量等因素对H2O2产生量的影响.结果表明:pH值在较大范围内均适用;电流密度控制在50～75 mA/cm2,曝气量确定为5 L/min时,反应产生H2O2较多.另外,利用该气体扩散电极做阴极,石墨电极做阳极,以Na2SO4为电解质,研究了电解时间、电流密度、pH值、初始苯酚浓度、曝气量等因素对苯酚降解效果的影响.结果表明:在电流密度为75 mA/cm2、曝气量为5 L/min、初始pH=3的条件下,当苯酚的初始浓度为80 mg/L时,1 h后其去除率达77%.