Influence of environmental factors on arsenic accumulation and biotransformation using the aquatic plant species Hydrilla verticillata

Hydrilla verticillata(waterthyme) has been successfully used for phytoremediation in arsenic(As) contaminated water.To evaluate the effects of environmental factors on phytoremediation,this study conducted a series of orthogonal design experiments to determine optimal conditions,including phosphorus(P),nitrogen(N),and arsenate(As(Ⅴ))concentrations and initial pH levels,for As accumulation and biotransformation using this aquatic plant species,while also analyzing As species transformation in culture media after 96-hr exposure.Analysis of variance and the signal-to-noise ratio were used to identify both the effects of these environmental factors and their optimal conditions for this purpose.Results indicated that both N and P significantly impacted accumulation,and N was essential in As species transformation.High N and intermediate P levels were critical to As accumulation and biotransformation by H.verticillata,while high N and low P levels were beneficial to As species transformation in culture media.The highest total arsenic accumulation was(197.2±17.4) μg/g dry weight when As(V) was at level 3(375μg/L),N at level 2(4 mg/L),P at level 1(0.02 mg/L),and pH at level 2(7).Although H.verticillata is highly efficient in removing As(Ⅴ) from aquatic environments,its use could be potentially harmful to both humans and the natural environment due to its release of highly toxic arsenite.For cost-effective and ecofriendly phytoremediation of As-contaminated water,both N and P are helpful in regulating As accumulation and transformation in plants.     

Recent advances in catalytic decomposition of ozone

Ozone (O₃), as a harmful air pollutant, has been of wide concern. Safe, efficient, and economical O₃ removal methods urgently need to be developed. Catalytic decomposition is the most promising method for O₃ removal, especially at room temperature or even subzero temperatures. Great efforts have been made to develop high-efficiency catalysts for O₃ decomposition that can operate at low temperatures, high space velocity and high humidity. First, this review describes the general reaction mechanism of O₃ decomposition on noble metal and transition metal oxide catalysts. Then, progress on the O₃ decomposition performance of various catalysts in the past 30 years is summarized in detail. The main focus is the O₃ decomposition performance of manganese oxides, which are divided into supported manganese oxides and non-supported manganese oxides. Methods to improve the activity, stability, and humidity resistance of manganese oxide catalysts for O₃ decomposition are also summarized. The deactivation mechanisms of manganese oxides under dry and humid conditions are discussed. The O₃ decomposition performance of monolithic catalysts is also summarized from the perspective of industrial applications. Finally, the future development directions and prospects of O₃ catalytic decomposition technology are put forward.     

氮掺杂二氧化钛负载钒磷氧催化氧化NO的实验研究

以VPO为活性组分,N掺杂TiO 2为载体,采用浸渍法制备了VPO/TiN催化剂,基于单因素实验研究了其对NO的选择性催化氧化(SCO)性能以及抗硫抗水性能。研究表明:当P/V为1/5、N/Ti为1、活性组分负载量为10%、焙烧温度为350℃时,催化剂的SCO活性最好,NO氧化率达到61%;光致发光光谱(PL)表征显示N掺杂TiO 2在催化剂表面形成的氧空位可增强催化剂对O 2的吸附;VPO/TiN催化剂抗硫抗水性能较强,反应后的催化剂表面未发现硫酸根的特征峰,水蒸气主要通过与NO竞争吸附占据活性位点来抑制催化剂的SCO活性。     

Pollution prevention at ports: clearing the air

Seaports are major hubs of economic activity and of environmental pollution in coastal urban areas. Due to increasing global trade, transport of goods through ports has been steadily increasing and will likely continue to increase in the future. Evaluating air pollution impacts of ports requires consideration of numerous sources, including marine vessels, trucks, locomotives, and off-road equipment used for moving cargo. The air quality impacts of ports are significant, with particularly large emissions of diesel exhaust, particulate matter, and nitrogen oxides. The health effects of these air pollutants to residents of local communities include asthma, other respiratory diseases, cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, and premature mortality. In children, there are links with asthma, bronchitis, missed school days, and emergency room visits. The significance of these environmental health impacts requires aggressive efforts to mitigate the problem. Approaches to mitigation encompass a range of possibilities from currently available, low-cost approaches, to more significant investments for cleaner air. Examples of the former include restrictions on truck idling and the use of low-sulfur diesel fuel; the latter includes shore-side power for docked ships, and alternative fuels. A precautionary approach to port-related air pollution would encourage local production of goods in order to reduce marine traffic, greener design for new terminals, and state-of-the art approaches to emissions-control that have been successfully demonstrated at ports throughout the world.     

Using improved neural network model to analyze RSP,NOx and NO2 levels in urban air in Mong Kok,Hong Kong

As the health impact of air pollutants existing in ambient addresses much attention in recent years, forecasting of airpollutant parameters becomes an important and popular topic inenvironmental science. Airborne pollution is a serious, and willbe a major problem in Hong Kong within the next few years. InHong Kong, Respirable Suspended Particulate (RSP) and NitrogenOxides NO_x and NO₂ are major air pollutants due to thedominant diesel fuel usage by public transportation and heavyvehicles. Hence, the investigation and prediction of the influence and the tendency of these pollutants are ofsignificance to public and the city image. The multi-layerperceptron (MLP) neural network is regarded as a reliable andcost-effective method to achieve such tasks. The works presentedhere involve developing an improved neural network model, whichcombines the principal component analysis (PCA) technique and theradial basis function (RBF) network, and forecasting thepollutant levels and tendencies based in the recorded data. Inthe study, the PCA is firstly used to reduce and orthogonalizethe original input variables (data), these treated variables arethen used as new input vectors in RBF neural network modelestablished for forecasting the pollutant tendencies. Comparingwith the general neural network models, the proposed modelpossesses simpler network architecture, faster training speed,and more satisfactory predicting performance. This improvedmodel is evaluated by using hourly time series of RSP, NO_x and NO₂ concentrations collected at Mong Kok Roadside Gaseous Monitory Station in Hong Kong during the year 2000. By comparing the predicted RSP, NO_x and NO₂ concentrationswith the actual data of these pollutants recorded at the monitorystation, the effectiveness of the proposed model has been proven.Therefore, in authors' opinion, the model presented in the paper is a potential tool in forecasting air quality parameters and hasadvantages over the traditional neural network methods.     

太湖水质氮素质量浓度时空差异特征及影响因素分析

通过对2014—2016年湖体水质中氮素质量浓度分析,结合出入湖总氮浓度、水量、湖体水生生态等影响因素,发现太湖水体中总氮浓度呈现逐年下降的趋势,各监测点位总氮为0.530 mg/L～5.51 mg/L,时空分布不均,差异明显。时间上,总氮浓度表现为春季最高,夏季和秋季最低,且月均值变化曲线呈现出规律的正弦函数波形。空间上,总氮浓度大致表现出由西部湖区向东部湖区递减的趋势,呈现西部湖区﹥北部湖区﹥南部湖区﹥湖心区﹥东部湖区。要改善湖体水质,不仅要切断污染源,而且要加强水生生态功能修复。     

NBIAS中污泥龄对脱氮除磷效果的影响

探讨无回流间歇曝气系统 (简称 NBIAS) ,处理城市污水的污泥龄 ( SRT)对脱氮除磷及有机物去除效果的影响。通过原污水流程试验和人工合成污水静态模拟实验 ,试验结果表明 :在水温为 2 0℃～ 30℃ ,污泥负荷为 0 .2 5～0 .45kg CODcr/ kg MLSS· d,SRT为 1 8～ 2 2 d,HRT为 8～ 1 0 h时 ,利用原污水作为碳源 ,NBIAS在保持较高的 CODcr去除率的同时 ,总氮和总磷的去除率均在 80 %以上。     

采用钙钛矿型催化剂(La0.8K0.2Cu0.05Mn0.95O3)同时催化去除NOx和碳烟的研究

将钙钛矿型催化剂与碳烟均匀混合后置于固定床连续流动反应体系中,利用程序升温反应技术,在模拟柴油机尾气的情况下对同时催化去除氮氧化物(NOx)和碳烟的反应进行了实验研究.通过改变含Cu原料的用量,得到不同Cu取代量的催化剂La0.8K0.2CuxMn1-xO3,性能评价结果表明,La0.8K0.2Cu0.05Mn0.95O3催化剂的综合性能较好,碳烟的起燃温度及NO向N2的最大转化率分别为280℃和58.0%.采用该催化剂,进一步考察了进气中NO浓度、O2浓度、进气总流量及催化剂与碳烟的接触状况对反应的影响.研究结果表明,进气中NO浓度、O2浓度、气体总流量和催化剂与碳烟之间的接触状况对NO的去除率的影响比较明显,而对碳烟起燃温度的影响较小.O2浓度从5%变为7.5%时,碳烟的起燃温度及最大NO转化率分别从280℃和53.8%变为270℃和96.7%.碳烟与催化剂松散接触时,碳烟的起燃温度及最大NO转化率分别为290℃和48.4%,紧密接触时分别为275℃和70.4%.而进气中NO浓度、气体总流量的变化对碳烟的燃烧基本上没有影响,虽然NO的转化率有明显变化,但生成的N2总量基本不变.     

Synergistic effect of F and triggered oxygen vacancies over F-TiO2 on enhancing NO ozonation

Oxidation-absorption technology is a key step for NO_x removal from low-temperature gas. Under the condition of low O₃ concentration (O₃/NO molar ratio = 0.6), F-TiO₂ (F-TiO₂), which is cheap and environmentally friendly, has been prepared as ozonation catalysts for NO oxidation. Catalytic activity tests performed at 120°C showed that the NO oxidation efficiency of F-TiO₂ samples was higher than that of TiO₂ (about 43.7%), and the NO oxidation efficiency of F-TiO₂-0.15 was the highest, which was 65.3%. Combined with physicochemical characteristics of catalysts and the analysis of active species, it was found that there was a synergistic effect between F sites and oxygen vacancies on F-TiO₂, which could accelerate the transformation of monomolecular O₃ into multi-molecule singlet oxygen (¹O₂), thus promoting the selective oxidation of NO to NO₂. The oxidation reaction of NO on F-TiO₂-0.15 follows the Eley-Rideal mechanism, that is, gaseous NO reacts with adsorbed O₃ and finally form NO₂.     

Simultaneous determination of dissolved organic nitrogen, nitrite, nitrate and ammonia using size exclusion chromatography coupled with nitrogen detector

Accurate quantification of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) has been a challenge due to the cumulative analytical errors in the conventional method via subtracting dissolved inorganic nitrogen species (DIN) from total dissolved nitrogen (TDN). Size exclusion chromatography coupled with an organic nitrogen detector (SEC-OND) has been developed as a direct method for quantification and characterization of DON. However, the applications of SEC-OND method still subject to poor separations between DON and DIN species and unsatisfied N recoveries of macromolecules. In this study, we packed a series of SEC columns with different lengths and resin materials for separation of different N species and designed an independent vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) oxidation device for complete oxidation converting N species to nitrate. To guarantee sufficient N recoveries, the operation conditions were optimized as oxidation time ≥ 30 min, injection mass (sample concentration × injection volume) < 1000 µL × mg-N/L for macromolecular proteins, and neutral pH mobile eluent. The dissolved O₂ concentration in SEC mobile phase determined the upper limit of VUV oxidation at a specific oxidation time. Compared to conventional HW50S column (20 × 250 mm), HW40S column (20 × 350 mm) with mobile phase comprising of 1.5 g/L Na₂HPO₄·2H₂O + 2.5 g/L KH₂PO₄ (pH = 6.85) could achieve a better separation of DON, nitrite, nitrate, and ammonia. When applied to river water, lake water, wastewater effluent, groundwater, and landfill leachate, the SEC-OND method could quantify DON as well as DIN species accurately and conveniently even the DIN/TDN ratio reached 0.98.