Development of a hybrid microbial fuel cell (MFC) and fuel cell (FC) system for improved cathodic efficiency and sustainability: the M2FC reactor

In an effort to improve the efficiency and sustainability of microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology, a novel MFC reactor, the M2FC, was constructed by combining a ferric-based MFC with a ferrous-based fuel cell (FC). In this M2FC reactor, ferric ion, the catholyte in the MFC component, is regenerated by the FC system with the generation of additional electricity. When the MFC component was operated separately, the electricity generation was maintained for only 98 h due to the depletion of ferric ion in the catholyte. In combination with the fuel cell, however, the production of power was sustained because ferric ion was continually replenished from ferrous ion in the FC component. Moreover, the regeneration process of ferric ion by the FC produced additional energy. The M2FC reactor yielded a power density of up to 2 W m⁻² (or time-averaged value of approximately 650 mW m⁻²), density up to 20 times (or approximately six times based on time-averaged value) higher than the corresponding MFC system.     

MFC强化同步短程硝化反硝化工艺的启动

微生物燃料电池(MFC)可在阴极实现反硝化、短程反硝化和同步硝化反硝化并产生电能,但在MFC阴极实现同步短程硝化反硝化的研究尚未见到报道。为了探讨MFC阴极同步短程硝化反硝化工艺的性能,将双室曝气阴极MFC与A/O脱氮工艺结合处理人工模拟低碳氮比废水。通过静置运行15 d使得MFC阴极室亚硝态氮得以积累,氨氧化菌得以富集。随即改为连续运行后第21天成功启动同步短程硝化反硝化MFC;阴极出水氨氮浓度为0.3 mg/L,亚硝态氮浓度为15.9 mg/L,硝态氮浓度为0.6 mg/L,亚硝化率达到95%以上,阴极电极自养反硝化去除率达到50%以上,COD去除率达到85%以上。结果表明,将MFC与同步短程硝化反硝化工艺结合,通过阴极室中氧气得电子获得高p H,可以强化同步短程硝化反硝化工艺,完成生物脱氮的同时回收电能,并具有减少外加碱度的优势。     

Uptake of cadmium into cells in culture∗

Cadmium has been recognized as pollutant of the environment for many years and numerous studies on its toxic effects have been carried out. Little, however, is known about its metabolic behaviour e.g. why the metal is accumulated so extremely rapidly into the organs of men and animals. Since the study of the individual metabolic steps is very difficult in vivo cell cultures may be used to obtain first indications of what happens in the whole animal.

We used CHO cells in monolayer culture to study the conditions under which the uptake of cadmium occurs. From serumfree medium the metal is accumulated rapidly in the cells. The uptake is inhibited very strongly by the presence of serum or albumin. Accumulation occurs against a concentration gradient and is dependent on the incubation temperature. Below 10°C no cadmium uptake is seen. Several substances which are known to affect cell metabolism have been used to influence cadmium accumulation. Neither inhibitors of energy production nor microtubule or microfilament disruptors showed any substantial effect. In contrast SH‐group blocking agents markedly reduced cadmium uptake.

The results show that cadmium uptake does not occur by passive diffusion but by some active mechanism.     

Fetal cells and DNA in maternal blood

Although fetal cells have been known to escape to the maternal circulation for a number of years, research attempts to use them for prenatal diagnosis have not had any consistent success. This review attempts to trace the history of such attempts and to document their progress and reasons for success or failure. The opinions of recent conferences including that of the US National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, a sponsor of major US research in the field, are reported and discussed. It is concluded that although basic work has demonstrated the biologic availability of both fetal cells and their free DNA representatives in the maternal circulation at gestational ages relevant to prenatal diagnosis, much work remains to develop practical technology for their consistent recovery and assay. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

EMMC process for combined removal of organics, nitrogen and an odor producing substance

In order to improve the process performance regarding the removal of organics, nitrogen, and an odor-causing compound (sulfide) contained in domestic wastewater, an entrapped-mixed-microbial cell (EMMC) with and without humic substances for both fixed and moving carrier reactors and conventional suspended growth culture (i.e. conventional activated sludge process) were investigated simultaneously. Both synthetic (simulated to the organics concentration of general domestic sewage) and actual domestic wastewater were investigated under operational conditions of 12 h of hydraulic retention time (HRT) with 1 h of aeration and 1 h of non-aeration, and 6 h of HRT with continuous aeration, at a room temperature of 25 +/- 2 degrees C. It was found that entrapping humic substances in the EMMC carriers had no impact on the removal of organics, nitrogen, and the odor-producing compound. Additionally, the performance of the EMMC moving carrier system for the removal of these pollutants is similar to that of the EMMC fixed carrier system. In general, the EMMC associated systems which provide high solids retention time achieve a better removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD), nitrogen, and the odor-producing substance than the suspended growth system for both HRTs of 6 h (continuous aeration) and 12 h (1 h of aeration and 1 h of non-aeration). Both the fixed and moving carrier EMMC processes, therefore, have the potential for improvement or replacement of the existing conventional activated sludge process with regard to improving the effluent qualities (such as COD, nitrogen and odor-producing compound) for reuse/disposal.     

Cultured human-cell-based bioassay for environmental risk management

Among bioassays for evaluating various impacts of chemicalson humans and ecosystems, those based on culturedmammalian-cells can best predict acute lethal toxicity to humans. Weexpect them to be employed in the future in environmentalrisk management alongside mutagenicity tests and endocrine-disrupting activity tests. We recently developed adisposable bioassay device that immobilizes humanhepatocarcinoma cells in a small micropipette tip. Thisenables very quick (within 2 h) evaluation of acute lethaltoxicity to humans. For bioassay-based environmentalmanagement, 2 promising approaches have been demonstrated bythe US-EPA: toxicity identification evaluation (TIE) andtoxicity reduction evaluation (TRE). The Japanese Ministryof Environment has been supporting a multi-center validationproject, aimed at assembling a bioassay database. To makefull use of these resources, we present a numerical modelthat describes contribution of individual chemical toobserved toxicity. This will allow the selection of the mosteffective countermeasure to reduce the toxicity. Bioassay-based environmental risk management works retrospectively,whereas impact assessment using substance flow models andtoxicity databases works prospective. We expect that these 2approaches will exchange information, act complementarily,and work effectively in keeping our environment healthy inthe 21st century.     

联苯代谢对微生物的生长胁迫及分裂抑制

以联苯/多氯联苯降解菌株R04（Rhodococcus sp.R04）和几种模式微生物为研究对象，利用高效液相色谱、荧光显微镜、扫描电子显微镜等分析微生物在联苯及其代谢物培养条件下细胞分裂和形态的变化.结果表明联苯及其代谢产物对红球菌R04和几种模式微生物细胞的分裂有抑制作用，并对部分微生物形态有影响.与前体-联苯及其代谢产物2-羟基-6-酮基-6-苯基-2，4-己二烯酸相比，2，3-二羟基联苯对G⁺、G^-细菌，或是酵母细胞分裂都有较强的抑制和形态的改变.2，3-二羟基联苯导致R.R04和缺陷型R.R04细胞形成不完整隔膜的比例增加；造成96.4%的大肠杆菌BL21细胞表面凹陷，胞质内容物流失，菌体体积缩小；导致枯草芽孢杆菌89.6%的细胞体积明显缩小；导致金黄色葡萄球菌基本没有细胞能形成完整的分裂隔膜；导致红酵母细胞能进行出芽生殖的比例从64.2%降低到19.3%，但对其细胞形态无明显改变.联苯代谢物2，3-二羟基联苯对红球菌R04及其它微生物细胞分裂和增殖的抑制作用比其前体-联苯强，建议在研究环境化合物与微生物互作时，应考虑环境化合物代谢的毒性效应.     

The Kinetics of Interesterfication on Waste Cooking Oil (Sunflower Oil) for the Production of Fatty Acid Alkyl Esters using a Whole Cell Biocatalyst (Rhizopus oryzae) and Pure Lipase Enzyme

Recent research and technology have provided promising outcomes to rely on biodiesel as the alternative and conventional source of fuel. The use of renewable sources constitutes the main stream of research. Waste Cooking Oil (WCO) was used for biodiesel production in this study. Lipase enzyme producing fungi Rhizopus oryzae 262 and commercially available pure lipase enzyme were used for comparative study in the production of FAAE. The whole cell biocatalyst and pure enzyme were immobilized using calcium alginate beads. It was prepared by optimizing with different molar ratios of calcium chloride and different percent sodium alginate. Entrapment immobilization was done for whole cell biocatalyst. PE was also immobilized by entrapment for the transesterification reaction. Four different solvents methanol, ethanol, n-propanol, n-butanol were used as the acyl acceptors. The reaction parameters like temperature, molar ratio, reaction time, and amount of enzyme to be used were also optimized for methanol alone. The same parameters were adopted for the other acyl acceptors too. Among the different acyl acceptors, methanol whose reaction parameters were optimized showed maximum conversion of triglycerides to FAAE - 94% with PE and 84% with WCB. On the whole, PE showed better catalytic converting ability with all the acyl acceptor compared to WCB, further study, it was observed that three consecutive and reversible reactions occurred in the interesterification of triglycerides. So, a kinetic model based on Michaelis-Menten equation with competitive substrate inhibition was used to find the maximum reaction rate V_i for the four solvents using pure enzyme and WCB.     

双室微生物燃料电池处含银废水的产电性研究

以剩余污泥为阳极底,糖蜜废水为基质,Ag Cl废水为阴极电子受体,构建了双室微生物燃料电池(Two-chamber Microbial Fuel Cell,简称MFCs),并研究了电池的产电特性、库仑效率及金属去除率.结果表明:Ag+不仅可以作为阴极电子受体,而且还能稳定产电,外电阻为1000Ω时,获得的最大电压为514.5 m V,最大功率密度为65.82 m W·m-2.在阴极实现了对废水中Ag+的去除,最大去除率可达71.6%,而且Ag+浓度为2000 mg·L-1时,回收金属银单质质量为197.66 g.在阳极对废水的处理效果也很显著,库仑效率最高为2.66%,COD去除率最大为81.22%.