Degradation of polyacrylamide (PAM) and methane production by mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic digestion: Effect of temperature and concentration

Polyacrylamide(PAM)is generally employed in wastewater treatment processes such as sludge dewatering and therefore exists in the sludge.Furthermore,it degrades slowly and can deteriorate methane yield during anaerobic digestion(AD).The impact or fate of PAM in AD under thermophilic conditions is still unclear.This study mainly focuses on PAM degradation and enhanced methane production from PAM-added sludge during 15 days of thermophilic(55°C)AD compared to mesophilic(35°C)AD.Sludge and PAM dose from 10 to 50 g/kg TSS were used.The results showed that PAM degraded by 76%to 78%with acrylamide(AM)content of 0.2 to 3.3 mg/L in thermophilic AD.However,it degraded only 21%to 30%with AM content of 0.5 to 7.2 mg/L in mesophilic AD.The methane yield was almost 230 to 238.4 mL/g VSS on the 8th day in thermophilic AD but was 115.2 to 128.6 mL/g VSS in mesophilic AD.Mechanism investigation revealed that thermophilic AD with continuous stirring not only enhanced PAM degradation but also boosted the organics release from the sludge with added PAM and gave higher methane yield than mesophilic AD.

Insight into fluorescence properties of 14 selected toxic single-ring aromatic compounds in water:Experimental and DFT study

Various single-ring aromatic compounds in water sources are of great concern due to its hazardous impact on the environment and human health.The fluorescence excitation-emission matrix(EEMs)spectrophotometry is a useftil method to identify organic pollutants in water.This study provides a detailed insight into the fluorescence properties of the 14 selected toxic single-ring aromatic compounds by experimental and theoretical analysis.The theoretical analysis were done with Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory(TD-DFT)and B3LYP/6-31G(d,p)basis set,whereas,Polarizable Continuum Model(PCM)was used to consider water as solvent.The selected compounds displayed their own specific excitation-emission(Ex/Em)wavelengths region,at Ex<280 nm and Em<340 nm,respectively.Whereas the theoretical Ex/Em was observed as.Ex at 240 nm-260 nm and Em at 255 nm-300 nm.Aniline as a strong aromatic base has longer Em(340 nm)than alkyl,carbonyl,and halogens substituted benzenes.The lone pair of electrons at amide substituent serves as a 7r-electron contributor into the aromatic ring,hence increasing the stability and transition energy,which results in longer emission and low quantum yield for the aniline.The fluorescence of halogenated benzenes illustrates an increase in the HOMO-LUMO energy gap and a decrease in quantum yield associated with atomic size(F>Cl>Br>I).In this study the theoretical results are in line with experimental ones.The understanding of fluorescence and photophysical properties are of great importance in the identification of these compounds in the water.