The effluent from phenyl acetic acid (PhCH2COOH) production process can betreated with NDA-999 macroporous polymeric adsorbent with about 100% removalefficiency of PhCH2COOK benzyl alcohol (PhCH2OH)and benzaldehyde (P...The effluent from phenyl acetic acid (PhCH2COOH) production process can betreated with NDA-999 macroporous polymeric adsorbent with about 100% removalefficiency of PhCH2COOK benzyl alcohol (PhCH2OH)and benzaldehyde (PhCHO) aswell as the decrease in Total Organic Carbon (TOC)from 4691mg/l to <300mg/L. 3. 7kgPhCH2COOH and 120kg NaCl will be recovered from per m3 wastewater and theadsorbent can be reused after being regenerated by NaOH aqueous solution andmethanol. Good economic, social and environmental results can be achieved with thismethod.展开更多
The main treatment methods of chemical wastewater were reviewed.Physical,chemical,and biochemical treatment technologies effective for removing those pollutants were presented with their applicability,effectiveness an...The main treatment methods of chemical wastewater were reviewed.Physical,chemical,and biochemical treatment technologies effective for removing those pollutants were presented with their applicability,effectiveness and advantages.The problems facing the wastewater treatment in the petroleum chemical industry and coal chemical industry were introduced.In the end,the new progress and trend of the processes were overviewed.展开更多
The paper provides a critical comparison between mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic treatment of PTA wastewater through diagnosis of a case study. Aspects covered are bioavailability, biodegradability, microbial po...The paper provides a critical comparison between mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic treatment of PTA wastewater through diagnosis of a case study. Aspects covered are bioavailability, biodegradability, microbial population, thermodynamics, kinetics involved and bio-reactor design for PTA wastewater treatment. The results of the case study suggests that one- stage thermophilic anaerobic reactor coupled with coagulation-flocculation pre-treatment unit and an aerobic post treatment unit could be techno-economically viable for PTA wastewater treatment to ensure that the final effluent quality conforms to the international standard. The in-formation emanated from this study could be useful and thought provoking to the professionals and academia in the area of PTA wastewater treatment and can serve as impetus toward the development of research lines in similar problems like the treatment of other petrochemical wastewater such as phenol-con- taining wastewater, benzene/benzoic acid-con- taining wastewater or wastewater from other similar industrial settings.展开更多
The wastewater treatment from brassylic acid manufacturing plant using membrane bioreactor (MBR) was studied. The membrane bioreactor consisted of batch-operation biological aeration tank and ultrafiltration evaluatio...The wastewater treatment from brassylic acid manufacturing plant using membrane bioreactor (MBR) was studied. The membrane bioreactor consisted of batch-operation biological aeration tank and ultrafiltration evaluation tank. The content of test included the affection of variation operation conditions on ultrafiltration separation, the general characteristics of MBR process, and the difference comparing with the conventional biological treatment. The results are as follows: (1) among the test membrane material, polyether sulphone (PES) membrane is more suitable for the wastewater treatment; (2) when the cutoff molecular weight is among 10000-50000, the higher the cutoff molecular weight, the bigger the water flux is in the test; (3) under the operation pressure, water flux increases accompanying with the increasing of operation pressure; (4) the paper filtered COD concentration has more affection on the water flux than the suspended solid concentration; ( 5) as they volume loading of MBR increases, the accumulation of high molecule organic substance and colloid increases, the membrane,permeate COD concentration and paper filtered COD concentration increase too, meanwhile the water flux reduces; (6) when the sludge retention time of activated sludge of MBR increases, the accumulation of high molecule organic substance and colloid reduces, the membrane permeate (:OD concentration and paper filtered COD concentration reduce too, and the water flux increases; (7) comparing with the conventional biological process, the microbial activity is higher, but the microbial species is less.展开更多
The electro-Fenton process,with its capacity for in-situ H_(2)O_(2)formation and Fe^(2+)regeneration,is a strik-ing alternative to the traditional chemical-Fenton process.However,the frequent requirement of extra bind...The electro-Fenton process,with its capacity for in-situ H_(2)O_(2)formation and Fe^(2+)regeneration,is a strik-ing alternative to the traditional chemical-Fenton process.However,the frequent requirement of extra binders for electrode fabrication leads to low catalyst utilization,a complex fabrication process,and weak conductivity.Herein,a three-dimensional(3D)porous electrode was fabricated in-situ on a Ni foam(NF)substrate integrated with nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes(N@C)derived from carbonization of zeolitic imidazolate framework-8(ZIF-8)without any binder.The resulting 900/N@C-NF cathode(synthesized at 900℃)was high in surface area,N content,and degree of graphitization,achieved high performance of H_(2)O_(2)production(2.58 mg L^(−1)h^(−1)H_(2)O_(2)/mg catalyst)at-0.7 V(vs.SCE),and enabled prompt regeneration of Fe^(2+).The electro-Fenton system equipped with the 900/N@C-NF cathode was effective in removing a diverse range of organic pollutants,including rhodamine B(Rh B),phenol,bisphenol A(BPA),nitroben-zene(NB),and Cu-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid(EDTA),and significantly attenuating the concentration of chemical oxygen demand(COD)in the real acid wastewater,exhibiting superior activity and stability.This binder-free and self-supporting electro-Fenton cathode was thus shown to be an attractive candidate for application to wastewater treatment,particularly those rich in organics,acids,and Fe^(3+)/Fe^(2+).展开更多
The high strength easily biodegradable pollutants (represented by COD E) are strong inhibitors of terephthalic acid (TA) anaerobic biodegradation. At the same time, TA can inhibit easily biodegradable pollutants remo...The high strength easily biodegradable pollutants (represented by COD E) are strong inhibitors of terephthalic acid (TA) anaerobic biodegradation. At the same time, TA can inhibit easily biodegradable pollutants removal under anaerobic conditions to a limited extent. This mutual inhibition could happen and cause a low removal efficiency of both TA and COD E, when the effluent from TA workshops containing TA and easily biodegradable pollutants are treated by a single anaerobic reactor system. Based upon the treatment kinetics analysis of both TA degradation and COD E removal, a two stage up flow anaerobic sludge blanket and up flow fixed film reactor(UASB UAFF) system for dealing with this kind of wastewater was developed and run successfully at laboratory scale. An UASB reactor with the methanogenic consortium as the first stage removes the easily biodegradable pollutants(COD E). An UAFF reactor as the second stage is mainly in charge of TA degradation. At a COD E loading of 15.3 g/(L\5d) and a TA loading of 1.4 g/(L\5d), HRT 18.5h, the COD E and TA removal rate of the system reached 89.2% and 71.6%, respectively.展开更多
As the characteristic pollutant, terephthalic acid(TA)was in charge of 40%—78% of the total COD of terylene artificial silk printing and dyeing wastewater(TPW-water). The studies on biodegradability of TA were conduc...As the characteristic pollutant, terephthalic acid(TA)was in charge of 40%—78% of the total COD of terylene artificial silk printing and dyeing wastewater(TPW-water). The studies on biodegradability of TA were conducted in a serial of activated sludge reactors with TPW-water. TA appeared to be readily biodegradable with removal efficiency over 96.5% under aerobic conditions, hardly biodegradable with removal efficiency below 10% under anoxic conditions and slowly biodegradable with a turnover between 31.4% and 56.0% under anaerobic conditions. TA also accounted for the majority of BOD in TPW-water. The process combined by anoxic, anaerobic and aerobic activated sludge reactor was suitable for TA degradation and TPW-water treatment. Further, the aerobic process was essentially much more effective than the anaerobic or anoxic one to degrade TA in TPW-water.展开更多
To optimize the design and improve the performance of wastewater treatment bioreactors,the review concerning the hydrodynamics explored by theoretical equations,process experiments,modeling of the hydrodynamics and fl...To optimize the design and improve the performance of wastewater treatment bioreactors,the review concerning the hydrodynamics explored by theoretical equations,process experiments,modeling of the hydrodynamics and flow field measurement is presented. Results of different kinds of experiments show that the hydrodynamic characteristics can affect sludge characteristics,mass transfer and reactor performance significantly. Along with the development of theoretical equations,turbulence models including large eddy simulation models and Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) models are widely used at present. Standard and modified k-ε models are the most widely used eddy viscosity turbulence models for simulating flows in bioreactors. Numerical simulation of hydrodynamics is proved to be efficient for optimizing design and operation. The development of measurement techniques with high accuracy and low intrusion enables the flow filed in the bioreactors to be transparent. Integration of both numerical simulation and experimental measurement can describe the hydrodynamics very well.展开更多
Wastewaters from the chemical industry are usually of high-strength and may contain minor inhibitory and recalcitrant organics that are at times not readily identifiable. This paper describes the experience of a biolo...Wastewaters from the chemical industry are usually of high-strength and may contain minor inhibitory and recalcitrant organics that are at times not readily identifiable. This paper describes the experience of a biological waste water treatment plant (WWTP) processing a COD concentration of 43000 mg·L^-1 wastewater from an oxochemical manufacturing plant. Stage improvements of the plant process by dilution of the inhibitory influent using other chemical wastewater streams resulting in a synergistic process effect, and removal of inhibitory organics by phase separation via acidification, effectively achieved process optimization producing a high quality effluent. In particular, the COD removal efficiency of granular sludge based anaerobic reactors increased from 56% to 90%. The final effluent COD decreased from 250mg·L^-1 to 50mg·L^-1, consistently meeting the COD concentration of 100 mg·L^-1 regulatory discharge limit. The success of the process enhancements supports the hypothesis that long-chain quaternary carboxylic acids act as substrate inhibitors in the biological process.展开更多
4,4’-diaminostilbene-2, 2’-disulfonic acid (DSD acid) manufacturing wastewater was treated by a macroporous resin in a fixed-bed column. The results showed that this method was suitable for removal of chemical oxyge...4,4’-diaminostilbene-2, 2’-disulfonic acid (DSD acid) manufacturing wastewater was treated by a macroporous resin in a fixed-bed column. The results showed that this method was suitable for removal of chemical oxygen demands (COD) and color. About 91% COD and 99.5% color removal were obtained under the optimum adsorption conditions, i.e. temperature 20℃, flow rate 1bed volume/hour (BV/hr) and pH1-2. The resin was efficiently regenerated with aqueous sodium hydroxide and water. Furthermore, 65.5% of 4,4’-dinitrostilbene-2, 2’-disulfonic acid (DNS) could be recovered from wastewater for possible recycling to the manufacturing process. The adsorption capacity of resin remained constant during the repetition process of adsorption and desorption.展开更多
Copolymer of maleic acid and acrylic acid (PMA-100), combining with polyvinyl butyral (PVB) ultrafiltration membrane was used for the removal of Mn(II) from waste water by complexation-ultrafiltration. The carbo...Copolymer of maleic acid and acrylic acid (PMA-100), combining with polyvinyl butyral (PVB) ultrafiltration membrane was used for the removal of Mn(II) from waste water by complexation-ultrafiltration. The carboxylic group content of PMA-100 and the rate of complexation reaction were measured. Effects of the mass ratio of PMA-100 to Mn(II) (n), pH, background electrolyte, etc on the rejection rate (R) and permeate flux (J) were investigated. The results show that carboxylic group content of PMA-100 is 9.5 mmol/g. The complexation of Mn(II) with PMA-100 is rapid and completed within 5 min at pH 6.0. Both R and J increase with pH increasing in the range of 2.5-7.0, and R increases with the increase of n at pH 6.0 while J is little affected. The background electrolyte leads to the decrease of R, and CaCl2 has much greater effect on R than NaCl at the same ionic strength.展开更多
Several macroporous polymeric adsorbents (NDA-999, XAD-8, X-5 and XAD-2) were employed in the study to adsorb phenylacetic acid from aqueous solution. Effect of salt and ambient temperature on adsorption was studied u...Several macroporous polymeric adsorbents (NDA-999, XAD-8, X-5 and XAD-2) were employed in the study to adsorb phenylacetic acid from aqueous solution. Effect of salt and ambient temperature on adsorption was studied using NDA-999 adsorbent and the adsorption process conforms to Freundlich抯 model reasonably. Adsorption dynamics were conducted in batch experiments in order to make clear the mechanism of adsorption process. It is proved that the squared driving force mass transfer model can be adopted to elucidate the process. The treatment process of industrial wastewater containing high strength of phenylacetic acid was proposed for cleaner production of phenylacetic acid.展开更多
The production and accumulation of propionic acid affect significantly anaerobic wastewater treatment system, but the reasons are not approached until now. Based on the results of continuous-flow tests and the analysi...The production and accumulation of propionic acid affect significantly anaerobic wastewater treatment system, but the reasons are not approached until now. Based on the results of continuous-flow tests and the analysis of biochemistry and ecology, two mechanisms of producing propionic acid have been put forward. It is demonstrated that the reasons of propionic acid production and accumulation are not caused by higher hydrogen partial pressure. The combination of specific pH value and ORP is the ecological factor affecting propionic acid production, and the equilibrium regulation of NADH/NAD+ ratio in cells is the physiological factor. Meanwhile, it is put forward that using the two-phase anaerobic treatment process and the ethanol type fermentation in anaerobic reactor to avoid propionic acid accumulation are efficient methods.展开更多
文摘The effluent from phenyl acetic acid (PhCH2COOH) production process can betreated with NDA-999 macroporous polymeric adsorbent with about 100% removalefficiency of PhCH2COOK benzyl alcohol (PhCH2OH)and benzaldehyde (PhCHO) aswell as the decrease in Total Organic Carbon (TOC)from 4691mg/l to <300mg/L. 3. 7kgPhCH2COOH and 120kg NaCl will be recovered from per m3 wastewater and theadsorbent can be reused after being regenerated by NaOH aqueous solution andmethanol. Good economic, social and environmental results can be achieved with thismethod.
文摘The main treatment methods of chemical wastewater were reviewed.Physical,chemical,and biochemical treatment technologies effective for removing those pollutants were presented with their applicability,effectiveness and advantages.The problems facing the wastewater treatment in the petroleum chemical industry and coal chemical industry were introduced.In the end,the new progress and trend of the processes were overviewed.
文摘The paper provides a critical comparison between mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic treatment of PTA wastewater through diagnosis of a case study. Aspects covered are bioavailability, biodegradability, microbial population, thermodynamics, kinetics involved and bio-reactor design for PTA wastewater treatment. The results of the case study suggests that one- stage thermophilic anaerobic reactor coupled with coagulation-flocculation pre-treatment unit and an aerobic post treatment unit could be techno-economically viable for PTA wastewater treatment to ensure that the final effluent quality conforms to the international standard. The in-formation emanated from this study could be useful and thought provoking to the professionals and academia in the area of PTA wastewater treatment and can serve as impetus toward the development of research lines in similar problems like the treatment of other petrochemical wastewater such as phenol-con- taining wastewater, benzene/benzoic acid-con- taining wastewater or wastewater from other similar industrial settings.
文摘The wastewater treatment from brassylic acid manufacturing plant using membrane bioreactor (MBR) was studied. The membrane bioreactor consisted of batch-operation biological aeration tank and ultrafiltration evaluation tank. The content of test included the affection of variation operation conditions on ultrafiltration separation, the general characteristics of MBR process, and the difference comparing with the conventional biological treatment. The results are as follows: (1) among the test membrane material, polyether sulphone (PES) membrane is more suitable for the wastewater treatment; (2) when the cutoff molecular weight is among 10000-50000, the higher the cutoff molecular weight, the bigger the water flux is in the test; (3) under the operation pressure, water flux increases accompanying with the increasing of operation pressure; (4) the paper filtered COD concentration has more affection on the water flux than the suspended solid concentration; ( 5) as they volume loading of MBR increases, the accumulation of high molecule organic substance and colloid increases, the membrane,permeate COD concentration and paper filtered COD concentration increase too, meanwhile the water flux reduces; (6) when the sludge retention time of activated sludge of MBR increases, the accumulation of high molecule organic substance and colloid reduces, the membrane permeate (:OD concentration and paper filtered COD concentration reduce too, and the water flux increases; (7) comparing with the conventional biological process, the microbial activity is higher, but the microbial species is less.
基金financial support from the Guangdong Special Support Plan for Innovation Teams (No.2019BT02L218)the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province,China (No.2019A050510009)+3 种基金the Guangdong Special Support Plan for Young Top-notch Talents (No.2019TQ05L179)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.21876052)the Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou,China (No.201904010293)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities,SCUT (No.2020ZYGXZR055)。
文摘The electro-Fenton process,with its capacity for in-situ H_(2)O_(2)formation and Fe^(2+)regeneration,is a strik-ing alternative to the traditional chemical-Fenton process.However,the frequent requirement of extra binders for electrode fabrication leads to low catalyst utilization,a complex fabrication process,and weak conductivity.Herein,a three-dimensional(3D)porous electrode was fabricated in-situ on a Ni foam(NF)substrate integrated with nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes(N@C)derived from carbonization of zeolitic imidazolate framework-8(ZIF-8)without any binder.The resulting 900/N@C-NF cathode(synthesized at 900℃)was high in surface area,N content,and degree of graphitization,achieved high performance of H_(2)O_(2)production(2.58 mg L^(−1)h^(−1)H_(2)O_(2)/mg catalyst)at-0.7 V(vs.SCE),and enabled prompt regeneration of Fe^(2+).The electro-Fenton system equipped with the 900/N@C-NF cathode was effective in removing a diverse range of organic pollutants,including rhodamine B(Rh B),phenol,bisphenol A(BPA),nitroben-zene(NB),and Cu-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid(EDTA),and significantly attenuating the concentration of chemical oxygen demand(COD)in the real acid wastewater,exhibiting superior activity and stability.This binder-free and self-supporting electro-Fenton cathode was thus shown to be an attractive candidate for application to wastewater treatment,particularly those rich in organics,acids,and Fe^(3+)/Fe^(2+).
文摘The high strength easily biodegradable pollutants (represented by COD E) are strong inhibitors of terephthalic acid (TA) anaerobic biodegradation. At the same time, TA can inhibit easily biodegradable pollutants removal under anaerobic conditions to a limited extent. This mutual inhibition could happen and cause a low removal efficiency of both TA and COD E, when the effluent from TA workshops containing TA and easily biodegradable pollutants are treated by a single anaerobic reactor system. Based upon the treatment kinetics analysis of both TA degradation and COD E removal, a two stage up flow anaerobic sludge blanket and up flow fixed film reactor(UASB UAFF) system for dealing with this kind of wastewater was developed and run successfully at laboratory scale. An UASB reactor with the methanogenic consortium as the first stage removes the easily biodegradable pollutants(COD E). An UAFF reactor as the second stage is mainly in charge of TA degradation. At a COD E loading of 15.3 g/(L\5d) and a TA loading of 1.4 g/(L\5d), HRT 18.5h, the COD E and TA removal rate of the system reached 89.2% and 71.6%, respectively.
文摘As the characteristic pollutant, terephthalic acid(TA)was in charge of 40%—78% of the total COD of terylene artificial silk printing and dyeing wastewater(TPW-water). The studies on biodegradability of TA were conducted in a serial of activated sludge reactors with TPW-water. TA appeared to be readily biodegradable with removal efficiency over 96.5% under aerobic conditions, hardly biodegradable with removal efficiency below 10% under anoxic conditions and slowly biodegradable with a turnover between 31.4% and 56.0% under anaerobic conditions. TA also accounted for the majority of BOD in TPW-water. The process combined by anoxic, anaerobic and aerobic activated sludge reactor was suitable for TA degradation and TPW-water treatment. Further, the aerobic process was essentially much more effective than the anaerobic or anoxic one to degrade TA in TPW-water.
基金Sponsored by the National Basic Research Program of China( 973 Program)(Grant No.G2000026402)
文摘To optimize the design and improve the performance of wastewater treatment bioreactors,the review concerning the hydrodynamics explored by theoretical equations,process experiments,modeling of the hydrodynamics and flow field measurement is presented. Results of different kinds of experiments show that the hydrodynamic characteristics can affect sludge characteristics,mass transfer and reactor performance significantly. Along with the development of theoretical equations,turbulence models including large eddy simulation models and Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) models are widely used at present. Standard and modified k-ε models are the most widely used eddy viscosity turbulence models for simulating flows in bioreactors. Numerical simulation of hydrodynamics is proved to be efficient for optimizing design and operation. The development of measurement techniques with high accuracy and low intrusion enables the flow filed in the bioreactors to be transparent. Integration of both numerical simulation and experimental measurement can describe the hydrodynamics very well.
文摘Wastewaters from the chemical industry are usually of high-strength and may contain minor inhibitory and recalcitrant organics that are at times not readily identifiable. This paper describes the experience of a biological waste water treatment plant (WWTP) processing a COD concentration of 43000 mg·L^-1 wastewater from an oxochemical manufacturing plant. Stage improvements of the plant process by dilution of the inhibitory influent using other chemical wastewater streams resulting in a synergistic process effect, and removal of inhibitory organics by phase separation via acidification, effectively achieved process optimization producing a high quality effluent. In particular, the COD removal efficiency of granular sludge based anaerobic reactors increased from 56% to 90%. The final effluent COD decreased from 250mg·L^-1 to 50mg·L^-1, consistently meeting the COD concentration of 100 mg·L^-1 regulatory discharge limit. The success of the process enhancements supports the hypothesis that long-chain quaternary carboxylic acids act as substrate inhibitors in the biological process.
文摘4,4’-diaminostilbene-2, 2’-disulfonic acid (DSD acid) manufacturing wastewater was treated by a macroporous resin in a fixed-bed column. The results showed that this method was suitable for removal of chemical oxygen demands (COD) and color. About 91% COD and 99.5% color removal were obtained under the optimum adsorption conditions, i.e. temperature 20℃, flow rate 1bed volume/hour (BV/hr) and pH1-2. The resin was efficiently regenerated with aqueous sodium hydroxide and water. Furthermore, 65.5% of 4,4’-dinitrostilbene-2, 2’-disulfonic acid (DNS) could be recovered from wastewater for possible recycling to the manufacturing process. The adsorption capacity of resin remained constant during the repetition process of adsorption and desorption.
基金Project (21176264) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaProject (11JJ2010) supported by Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of ChinaProject (LC13076) supported by Undergraduate Innovation Foundation of Central South University,China
文摘Copolymer of maleic acid and acrylic acid (PMA-100), combining with polyvinyl butyral (PVB) ultrafiltration membrane was used for the removal of Mn(II) from waste water by complexation-ultrafiltration. The carboxylic group content of PMA-100 and the rate of complexation reaction were measured. Effects of the mass ratio of PMA-100 to Mn(II) (n), pH, background electrolyte, etc on the rejection rate (R) and permeate flux (J) were investigated. The results show that carboxylic group content of PMA-100 is 9.5 mmol/g. The complexation of Mn(II) with PMA-100 is rapid and completed within 5 min at pH 6.0. Both R and J increase with pH increasing in the range of 2.5-7.0, and R increases with the increase of n at pH 6.0 while J is little affected. The background electrolyte leads to the decrease of R, and CaCl2 has much greater effect on R than NaCl at the same ionic strength.
文摘Several macroporous polymeric adsorbents (NDA-999, XAD-8, X-5 and XAD-2) were employed in the study to adsorb phenylacetic acid from aqueous solution. Effect of salt and ambient temperature on adsorption was studied using NDA-999 adsorbent and the adsorption process conforms to Freundlich抯 model reasonably. Adsorption dynamics were conducted in batch experiments in order to make clear the mechanism of adsorption process. It is proved that the squared driving force mass transfer model can be adopted to elucidate the process. The treatment process of industrial wastewater containing high strength of phenylacetic acid was proposed for cleaner production of phenylacetic acid.
基金This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 59578021) the National Distinguished Young Scientists Fund of China.
文摘The production and accumulation of propionic acid affect significantly anaerobic wastewater treatment system, but the reasons are not approached until now. Based on the results of continuous-flow tests and the analysis of biochemistry and ecology, two mechanisms of producing propionic acid have been put forward. It is demonstrated that the reasons of propionic acid production and accumulation are not caused by higher hydrogen partial pressure. The combination of specific pH value and ORP is the ecological factor affecting propionic acid production, and the equilibrium regulation of NADH/NAD+ ratio in cells is the physiological factor. Meanwhile, it is put forward that using the two-phase anaerobic treatment process and the ethanol type fermentation in anaerobic reactor to avoid propionic acid accumulation are efficient methods.