In-Situ Phytoremediation of Pahs Contaminated Soils Following a Bioremediation Treatment

Phytoremediation of pollutants in soils is an emerging technology, using different soil-plant interaction properties. For organic pollutants, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), phytodegradation seems to be the most promising approach. It occurs mostly through an increase of the microbial activity in the plant rhizosphere, allowing the degradation of organic substances, a source of carbon for soil microbes. Despite a large amount of available data in the literature concerning laboratory and short term PAH phytodegradation experiments, no actual field application of such technique was previously carried out. In the present study, a soil from a former coking plant was used to evaluate the feasibility and the efficiency of PAH phytodegradation in the field during a three years trial and following a bioremediation treatment. Before the phytoremediation treatment, the soil was homogenized and split into six independent plots with no hydrological connections. On four of these plots, different types of common plant species were sowed: mixture of herbaceous species, short cut (P1), long cut (P2), ornamental plants (P3) and trees (P4). Natural vegetation was allowed to grow on the fifth plot (P5), and the last plot was weeded (P6). Each year, representative sampling of two soil horizons (0–50 and 50–100 cm) was carried out in each plot to characterize the evolution of PAHs concentration in soils and in soils solution obtained by lixiviation. Possible impact of the phytoremediation technique on ecosystems was evaluated using different eco- and genotoxicity tests both on the soil solid matrix and on the soil solution. For each soil horizon, comparable decrease of soil total PAHs concentrations were obtained for three plots, reaching a maximum value of 26% of the initial PAHs concentration. The decrease mostly concerned the 3 rings PAHs. The overall low decrease in PAHs content was linked to a drastic decrease in PAHs availability likely due to the bioremediation treatment. However, soil solutions concentration showed low values and no signficant toxicity was characterized. The mixture of the herbaceous species seemed to be the most promising plants to be used in such procedure.     

高效絮凝菌的鉴定及结构研究

从活性污泥中筛选到一株高效絮凝剂产生菌RL-2。在1%CaCl2存在下,其发酵液对高岭土悬液具有较高的絮凝活性。根据形态及生理生化特征,利用16S rRNA部分序列分析确定该菌归属于Bacillus brevis。溶解性,茚三酮反应,Molish反应,电性试验及薄层色谱分析表明,RL-2所产高聚物为一阴离子型多糖,其结构单体为葡萄糖、半乳糖醛酸和甘露糖;由乌氏粘度法测得分子量大约为3.64×106Da。     

农药废水生物处理可行性技术研究

采用静态及动态小试实验研究，得到农药厂废水处理的最佳工艺流程及运行控制条件，从而为实际工程设计及运行提供的可靠的依据。     

A novel approach combining bootstrapped non-intrusive reduced order models and unscented transform for the robust and efficient CFD analysis of accidental gas releases in congested plants

The risk assessment for safety-critical, complex systems is a very challenging computational problem when it is performed with high-fidelity models, e.g. CFD, like in the case of accidental gas releases in congested systems. Within this framework, a novel CFD approach, named Source Box Accident Model, has been recently proposed to efficiently model such phenomena by splitting the simulation of the gas release and its subsequent dispersion in the system in two steps. In this view, the present paper proposes a non-intrusive, Proper Orthogonal Decomposition-Radial Basis Functions reduced order model that exploits the two-step nature of the SBAM approach, to mimic the behaviour of the original, long-running CFD model code at a significantly lower computational cost. Moreover, the paper presents a methodology combining the bootstrap and unscented transform approaches to efficiently assess the ROM uncertainty in the safety-critical simulation output quantities of interest, e.g. the flammable volume. The results obtained in a test case involving a high pressure, accidental gas release in an off-shore Oil & Gas plant are in very satisfactory agreement with those produced by CFD, with a relative error smaller than 10% and a reduction in the computational time of about three orders of magnitude.     

Human behaviour and evacuation time for large underground comprehensive buildings during fire risk process

Human factors play an indispensable role in process safety during fire risk process. Fire evacuation of underground comprehensive buildings is a critical consideration for practical importance. Here, evacuation experiments were conducted in the Guangzhou East Railway Station Plaza, a large underground comprehensive building in Guangdong, China, with the plaza occupants as the participants. The evacuation factors, namely evacuation time and evacuee-selected evacuation routes, were evaluated using empirical equations (the Togawa model and the Melinek and Booth model) and evacuation modelling software (EVACNET 4 and composite occupant evacuation model). The experimental data were used to verify the empirical equations and evacuation models and to modify specific empirical parameters. The effect on escape route judgement and selection under emergency situations was analysed. The results demonstrated that direct access to outdoor exits could considerably reduce evacuation time. The experimental N and t_s were 1 person/m·s and 28 s, respectively. The total evacuation time was 281 s, and the EVACNET 4 and composite models’ simulations of safe evacuation were 285–290 s, which was consistent with the experimental data—validating the high accuracy and applicability of the models.     

Territorial meadow pipit males (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Anthus pratensis</Emphasis>; Passeriformes) become more aggressive in female presence

Although mate guarding as prevention of extra-pair copulation is common among birds, evidence for aggressive behaviour involving physical contact related to mate guarding in passerines is scarce and cases of the presence of one partner directly influencing the aggressiveness of the other are lacking. We investigated the intra-specific territorial behaviour of male meadow pipits (Anthus pratensis; Passeriformes: Motacillidae) at the beginning of the breeding season by placing a pipit model accompanied by an intra-specific song playback in the territory of socially paired males and compared the responses of males whose mates were physically present during trials with those whose females were out of sight. The level of aggression of males was significantly higher in the presence of the female; half of the males in this group physically attacked the model (the most intense and risky aggressive behaviour). Physical attacks did not occur among males whose female was absent during the trial; response to the playback by most of these males was only weak. This pattern may be related to the prevention of extra-pair copulation; if the risks involved in the conflict are outweighed by potential loss of paternity, such aggressive mate guarding may pay off. The apparently overlooked effect on the territorial behaviour of a partner’s passive physical presence during conflict should be further evaluated because it may be important for the design and interpretation of results of behavioural experiments.     

Simultaneous removal of NO and SO2 from dry gas stream using non-thermal plasma

In order to investigate the feasibility of sequential removal NO and SO_2 using non-thermal plasma and adsorbent simultaneously,the removal of NO and SO_2 from dry gas stream(NO/SO_2/N_2/O_2)with very little O_2 using non-thermal plasma was investigated using a coaxial dielectric barrier discharge.Comparative experiments were carried out in the dry gas stream with and without Ar respectively at O_2 concentration of 0.1%.The results showed that NO could be removed remarkably and it would be enhanced in the presence of Ar in the dry gas stream.It seems that SO_2 could not be removed unless there is Ar in the dry gas stream.The mechanism of removal of NO and SO_2 in the dry gas stream was discussed.     

Optimization of a novel process for the ozonolysis of 2, 4‐dichlorophenol

An innovative process was studied for the destruction of 2,4‐dichlorophenol in water. The immiscible fluorinated solvent, inert and highly ozone soluble, was used as the solvent in the extraction‐ozonation system. Taguchi methods were applied in the design of experiments to identify the significant factors and establish the optimal combination of process parameters. The result indicate that this statistical technique can provide an extremely effective structured approach.     

负载型纳米复合半导体WO3-TiO2/AC光催化降解刚果红废水

采用溶胶-凝胶-浸渍-焙烧法制备了负载型纳米复合半导体WO₃-TiO₂/AC光催化剂,以偶氮染料刚果红为目标降解物,通过正交实验优化了刚果红废水的降解条件,并对其光催化动力学进行了探讨。结果表明,刚果红废水的最佳降解条件为：催化剂投加量10 g/L,pH=7,H₂O₂用量为3.5 mL/L。在最佳条件下,当刚果红废水起始浓度为40 mg/L时,反应120 min后,刚果红溶液的去除率可达95.21%,较相同条件下TiO₂/AC对刚果红染料的降解率提高了19.57％。光催化剂对刚果红的光催化降解符合Langmuir-Hinshelwood（L-H）模型。