Removal processes for arsenic in constructed wetlands

Arsenic pollution in aquatic environments is a worldwide concern due to its toxicity and chronic effects on human health. This concern has generated increasing interest in the use of different treatment technologies to remove arsenic from contaminated water. Constructed wetlands are a cost-effective natural system successfully used for removing various pollutants, and they have shown capability for removing arsenic. This paper reviews current understanding of the removal processes for arsenic, discusses implications for treatment wetlands, and identifies critical knowledge gaps and areas worthy of future research. The reactivity of arsenic means that different arsenic species may be found in wetlands, influenced by vegetation, supporting medium and microorganisms. Despite the fact that sorption, precipitation and coprecipitation are the principal processes responsible for the removal of arsenic, bacteria can mediate these processes and can play a significant role under favourable environmental conditions. The most important factors affecting the speciation of arsenic are pH, alkalinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, the presence of other chemical species - iron, sulphur, phosphate -, a source of carbon, and the wetland substrate. Studies of the microbial communities and the speciation of arsenic in the solid phase using advanced techniques could provide further insights on the removal of arsenic. Limited data and understanding of the interaction of the different processes involved in the removal of arsenic explain the rudimentary guidelines available for the design of wetlands systems.     

Interactions between plant and rhizosphere microbial communities in a metalliferous soil

In the present work, the relationships between plant consortia, consisting of 1-4 metallicolous pseudometallophytes with different metal-tolerance strategies (Thlaspi caerulescens: hyperaccumulator; Jasione montana: accumulator; Rumex acetosa: indicator; Festuca rubra: excluder), and their rhizosphere microbial communities were studied in a mine soil polluted with high levels of Cd, Pb and Zn. Physiological response and phytoremediation potential of the studied pseudometallophytes were also investigated. The studied metallicolous populations are tolerant to metal pollution and offer potential for the development of phytoextraction and phytostabilization technologies. T. caerulescens appears very tolerant to metal stress and most suitable for metal phytoextraction; the other three species enhance soil functionality. Soil microbial properties had a stronger effect on plant biomass rather than the other way around (35.2% versus 14.9%). An ecological understanding of how contaminants, ecosystem functions and biological communities interact in the long-term is needed for proper management of these fragile metalliferous ecosystems.     

微生物絮凝剂的研究现状与发展趋势

相对于传统絮凝剂而言,微生物絮凝剂具有絮凝效果好、应用范围广、易生物降解、对环境安全、无二次污染的特点。文章综述了微生物絮凝剂的类型和特点,详细阐述了其絮凝机理,分析了影响微生物絮凝剂絮凝性能的因素以及微生物絮凝剂在水处理中的应用。指出了当前微生物絮凝剂研究存在的问题以及今后的发展趋势。     

Monitoring of pathogenic microorganisms contamination during heat drying process of sewage sludge

The sewage sludge from wastewater treatment plant is a potential source of infectious organism. The number and type of pathogens in sludge depends on various factors namely, the wastewater source, the type of treatment plant, and other environmental factors such as the biological medium offered by the sewage sludge. The principal sludge-borne diseases are presented followed by discussion on biological aspect of growth and occurrence. The overall objective of this work is to estimate kinetic reduction of pathogen population in sludge during different thermal-drying process including: the agitated conductive drying, drum drying, solar drying, and fry-drying. The temperature curves were reported from literature except frying data which were determined in experiment. In order to apply the temperature influence on pathogens population, kinetic parameters for the thermal inactivation (D, z-values) were chosen from literature. Values of concentrations of each pathogen were also extracted from scientific review of pathogens in bio-solids. This study conducted to resolve the survival kinetic of Hepatitis A viruses. The result showed that a concentration of 7 × 10⁴ cfu/100 ml initially present in the sewage sludge is significantly reduced during the heat drying processes except the solar plant. The sewage sludge is completely disinfected when heated for 20 min, 10 min, and 10 s, respectively, during the agitated conductive process, vacuum fry-drying, and drum drying process.     

基于高通量定量PCR研究城市化小流域微生物污染特征

水体微生物污染(包括致病菌、病毒、寄生虫)会引起多种传染病和寄生虫病,对生产生活用水安全和人体健康造成重要威胁。本研究应用基于Taq Man探针的高通量荧光定量PCR技术对厦门市后溪流域冬季微生物污染进行检测,包含了5种粪便污染源(人源、反刍动物源、猪源、家禽源、狗源)微生物源示踪分子标记物与12种病原微生物。结果表明,该流域在上游及水库5个位点没有粪便污染,仅在其中一个水库位点检测出棘阿米巴,微生物污染极小;中下游检测出人类、反刍动物、猪、家禽、狗粪便污染,并且检测出产气荚膜梭菌、肠聚集性大肠杆菌、肠毒素型大肠杆菌、幽门螺杆菌、霍乱弧菌、副溶血弧菌、棘阿米巴、克雷伯氏肺炎杆菌等病原菌,其中流经旧城区居民生活生产区水样微生物污染严重,下游新城区微生物污染较小。这些结果暗示着城市人类活动是流域微生物污染主要来源,应从污染源头加强微生物污染控制。     

Application of an early warning indicator and CaO to maximize the time–space-yield of an completely mixed waste digester using rape seed oil as co-substrate

In order to increase the organic loading rate (OLR) and hereby the performance of biogas plants an early warning indicator (EWI-VFA/Ca) was applied in a laboratory-scale biogas digester to control process stability and to steer additive dosing. As soon as the EWI-VFA/Ca indicated the change from stable to instable process conditions, calcium oxide was charged as a countermeasure to raise the pH and to bind long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs) by formation of aggregates. An interval of eight days between two increases of the OLR, which corresponded to 38% of the hydraulic residence time (HRT), was sufficient for process adaptation. An OLR increase by a factor of three within six weeks was successfully used for biogas production. The OLR was increased to 9.5 kg volatile solids (VS) m^?3 d^?1 with up to 87% of fat. The high loading rates affected neither the microbial community negatively nor the biogas production process. Despite the increase of the organic load to high rates, methane production yielded almost its optimum, amounting to 0.9 m³ (kg VS)^?1. Beneath several uncharacterized members of the phylum Firmicutes mostly belonging to the family Clostridiaceae, a Syntrophomonas-like organism was identified that is known to live in a syntrophic relationship to methanogenic archaea. Within the methanogenic group, microorganisms affiliated to Methanosarcina, Methanoculleus and Methanobacterium dominated the community.     

The lack of microbial degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from coal-rich soils

Analytical techniques used to assess the environmental risk of contamination from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) typically consider only abiotic sample parameters. Supercritical fluid extraction and sorption enthalpy experiments previously suggested slow desorption rates for PAH compounds in two coal-contaminated floodplain soils. In this study, the actual PAH availability for aerobic soil microorganisms was tested in two series of soil-slurry experiments. The experimental conditions supported microbial degradation of phenanthrene if it was weakly sorbed onto silica gel. Native coals and coal-derived particles in two soils effectively acted as very strong sorbents and prevented microbial PAH degradation. The long history of PAH exposure and degree of coal contamination apparently had no influence on the capability of the microbial soil community to overcome constraints of PAH availability. Within the context of the experimental conditions and the compounds chosen, our results confirm that coal-bound PAHs are not bioavailable and hence of low environmental concern.     

煤粒度和煤浆浓度对微生物法煤炭脱硫的影响

本文探讨了煤粒度和煤浆浓度对微生物脱硫的影响。实验结果表明,煤粒度越小,煤的脱硫率越高,小于0.054mm粒径的煤样(煤浆浓度10％),微生物在12天时间内,可脱除44.1％左右的硫,使煤的总含硫量从2.55％降到1.425％;浓度为10％的煤浆(粒径0.073—0.088mm)脱硫效果最好,微生物在12天时间内,可脱除38.9％左右的硫,使煤的总含硫量从2.55％降到1.558％。从而确定出微生物法煤炭脱硫工艺的最佳粒径要求和煤浆浓度条件。     

填料技术在废水生物处理中的应用和发展

填料技术是生物膜反应器的核心部分。本文阐述了填料在废水生物处理中的作用,讨论了理想填料必须具备的4项条件,介绍了目前国内外应用较广的几种主要填料的工艺特点及其规格参数,并对它们的性能进行了比较,最后简要分析了填料技术研究开发的动向。      

Occurrence and microbial degradation of phthalate esters in Taiwan river sediments

Concentrations and microbial degradation rates were measured for eight phthalate esters (PAEs) found in 14 surface water and six sediment samples taken from rivers in Taiwan. The tested PAEs were diethyl phthalate (DEP), dipropyl phthalate (DPP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), diphenyl phthalate (DPhP), benzylbutyl phthalate (BBP), dihexyl phthalate (DHP), dicyclohexyl phthalate (DCP), and di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP). In all samples, concentrations of DEHP and DBP were found to be higher than the other six PAEs. DEHP concentrations in the water and sediment samples ranged from ND to 18.5 μg/l and 0.5 to 23.9 μg/g, respectively; for DBP the concentration ranges were 1.0–13.5 μg/l and 0.3–30.3 μg/g, respectively. Concentrations of DHP, BBP, DCP and DPhP were below detection limits. Under aerobic conditions, average degradation half-lives for DEP, DPP, DBP, DPhP, BBP, DHP, DCP and DEHP were measured as 2.5, 2.8, 2.9, 2.6, 3.1, 9.7, 11.1 and 14.8 days, respectively; under anaerobic conditions, respective average half-lives were measured as 33.6, 25.7, 14.4, 14.6, 19.3, 24.1, 26.4 and 34.7 days. In other words, under aerobic conditions we found that DEP, DPP, DBP, DPhP and BBP were easily degraded, but DEHP was difficult to degrade; under anaerobic conditions, DBP, DPhP and BBP were easily degraded, but DEP and DEHP were difficult to degrade. Aerobic degradation rates were up to 10 times faster than anaerobic degradation rates.