Wastewater treatment is a process that is vital to protecting both the environment and human health. At present, the most cost-effective way of treating wastewater is with biological treatment processes such as the ac...Wastewater treatment is a process that is vital to protecting both the environment and human health. At present, the most cost-effective way of treating wastewater is with biological treatment processes such as the activated sludge process, despite their long operating times. However, population increases have created a demand for more efficient means of wastewater treatment, Fluidization has been demonstrated to in- crease the efficiency of many processes in chemical and biochemical engineering, but it has not been widely used in large-scale wastewater treatment. At the University of Western Ontario, the circulating fluidized-bed bioreactor (CFBBR) was developed for treating wastewater. In this process, carrier particles develop a biofilm composed of bacteria and other microbes. The excellent mixing and mass transfer characteristics inherent to fluidization make this process very effective at treating both municipal and industrial wastewater. Studies of lab- and pilot-scale systems showed that the CFBBR can remove over 90% of the influent organic matter and 80% of the nitrogen, and produces less than one-third as much biological sludge as the activated sludge process. Due to its high efficiency, the CFBBR can also be used to treat wastewaters with high organic solid concentrations, which are more difficult to treat with conventional methods because they require longer residence times; the CFBBR can also be used to reduce the system size and footprint. In addition, it is much better at handling and recovering from dynamic loadings (i.e., varying influent volume and concentrations) than current systems. Overall, the CFBBR has been shown to be a very effective means of treating wastewa- ter, and to be capable of treating larger volumes of wastewater using a smaller reactor volume and a shorter residence time. In addition, its compact design holds potential for more geographically localized and isolat- ed wastewater treatment systems.展开更多
The growth of reeds was impeded remarkably under a salinity of 15.0±3.4 g CI·L-1 in the first year of this experiment, recovered in the second year and then increased year-by-year afterward. The growth of re...The growth of reeds was impeded remarkably under a salinity of 15.0±3.4 g CI·L-1 in the first year of this experiment, recovered in the second year and then increased year-by-year afterward. The growth of reeds under a salinity of 9.3±1.9 g CI·Ll was much better than those under 15.0 ± 3.4 g CI·L1. The stress effect was significant for shoot extension but not for the quantity of shoots increase. The dense vegetation bed during the vegetation period (June-October) provided a high rate of evapotranspiration and water loss from HFs (horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetlands), which made large contributions to reducing pollutant load. The HFs with die-back reeds in the non-vegetation periods (November-March) provided slight evapotranspiration and water loss and made less of a contribution to reducing pollutants removal compared to HFs with the dense vegetation bed in the vegetation periods. However, the HFs with die-back reeds in the non-vegetation periods had higher removal performance than the HF without reeds. This indicated that the rhizosphere of HFs with reeds might play important roles, such as that the microbes around rhizomes might have a higher amount of pollutant-removing microbe activity than those in the HF without reeds during the non-vegetation period.展开更多
Based on the statistics of surface drifter data of 1979-2011 and the simulation of nuclear pollutant particulate move- merits simulated using high quality ocean reanalysis surface current dataset, the transport pathwa...Based on the statistics of surface drifter data of 1979-2011 and the simulation of nuclear pollutant particulate move- merits simulated using high quality ocean reanalysis surface current dataset, the transport pathways and impact strength of Fuku-shima nuclear pollutants in the North Pacific have been estimated. The particulates are used to increase the sampling size and en- hance the representativeness of statistical results. The trajectories of the drifters and particulates are first examined to identify typical drifting pathways. The results show that there are three types of transport paths for nuclear pollutants at the surface: 1) most pollutant particles move eastward and are carried by the Kuroshio and Kuroshio-extension currents and reach the east side of the North Pacific after about 3.2-3.9 years; 2) some particles travel with the subtropical circulation branch and reach the east coast of China after about 1.6 years according to one drifter trajectory and about 3.6 years according to particulate trajectories; 3) a little of them travel with local, small scale circulations and reach the east coast of China after about 1.3-1.8 years. Based on the par-tieulates, the impact strength of nuclear pollutants at these time scales can be estimated according to the temporal variations of relative concentration combined with the radioactive decay rate. For example, Cesium-137, carried by the strong North Pacific current, mainly accumulates in the eastern North Pacific and its impact strength is 4% of the initial level at the originating Fuku- shima area after 4 years. Due to local eddies, Cesium-137 in the western North Pacific is 1% of the initial pollutant level after 1.5 years and continuously increases to 3% after 4 years. The vertical movement of radioactive pollutants is not taken into account in the present study, and the estimation accuracy would be improved by considering three-dimensional flows.展开更多
A nuclear accident involving the leaking of radioactive pollutants occurred at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, following an earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11,2011. Using official Japanese data ...A nuclear accident involving the leaking of radioactive pollutants occurred at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, following an earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11,2011. Using official Japanese data on pollutant emissions during the accident, this study simulates the dispersion of nuclear pollutants. The source term of the nuclear leakage of radioactive material is designed using PM2.5 as the tracer of radioactive pollutants, and the study considers dry and wet deposition processes. A coupled-model system is constructed from the air-quality model Models-3/CMAQ and the Weather Research and Forecasting atmospheric model. The transport path and distribution of radioactive pollutants over long and short distances are simulated with different model horizontal resolutions of 30 and 4 km respectively. The long-distance simulation shows that, following the Fukushima nuclear accident, under the effect of westerly winds, radioactive pollutants are transported generally towards the eastern Pacific and reach the American continent after 5 days, but their concentration is only about 10-7 times the concentration near the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. The time required for pollutants to reach the United States is basically consistent with measurements made in California on March 18. Because the upper westerly wind is faster than the lower westerly wind, the distribution of pollutants tilts eastward in terms of its vertical structure. The short-distance (local) highresolution simulation indicates that strong winds and precipitation associated with a cyclone can accelerate the deposition, dif- fusion and transport of pollutions, and local cyclonic circulation can change the transport path of pollutants, even resulting in repeated effects of pollution in some areas. Pollutants disperse to southeastern Honshu, Japan, on March 14, 2011, agreeing well with the timing of local observations of increases in the absorbed dose rate. Results also show that radioactive pollutants from the Fukushima nuclear accident are mainly transported and diffuse eastward, resulting in a relatively short-term impact on the Japanese mainland even under the influence of the cyclone system. Therefore, in terms of atmospheric conditions, the location of the Fukusbima Nuclear Power Plant is appropriate and could serve as a reference to site selection and protection of other nuclear facilities.展开更多
文摘Wastewater treatment is a process that is vital to protecting both the environment and human health. At present, the most cost-effective way of treating wastewater is with biological treatment processes such as the activated sludge process, despite their long operating times. However, population increases have created a demand for more efficient means of wastewater treatment, Fluidization has been demonstrated to in- crease the efficiency of many processes in chemical and biochemical engineering, but it has not been widely used in large-scale wastewater treatment. At the University of Western Ontario, the circulating fluidized-bed bioreactor (CFBBR) was developed for treating wastewater. In this process, carrier particles develop a biofilm composed of bacteria and other microbes. The excellent mixing and mass transfer characteristics inherent to fluidization make this process very effective at treating both municipal and industrial wastewater. Studies of lab- and pilot-scale systems showed that the CFBBR can remove over 90% of the influent organic matter and 80% of the nitrogen, and produces less than one-third as much biological sludge as the activated sludge process. Due to its high efficiency, the CFBBR can also be used to treat wastewaters with high organic solid concentrations, which are more difficult to treat with conventional methods because they require longer residence times; the CFBBR can also be used to reduce the system size and footprint. In addition, it is much better at handling and recovering from dynamic loadings (i.e., varying influent volume and concentrations) than current systems. Overall, the CFBBR has been shown to be a very effective means of treating wastewa- ter, and to be capable of treating larger volumes of wastewater using a smaller reactor volume and a shorter residence time. In addition, its compact design holds potential for more geographically localized and isolat- ed wastewater treatment systems.
文摘The growth of reeds was impeded remarkably under a salinity of 15.0±3.4 g CI·L-1 in the first year of this experiment, recovered in the second year and then increased year-by-year afterward. The growth of reeds under a salinity of 9.3±1.9 g CI·Ll was much better than those under 15.0 ± 3.4 g CI·L1. The stress effect was significant for shoot extension but not for the quantity of shoots increase. The dense vegetation bed during the vegetation period (June-October) provided a high rate of evapotranspiration and water loss from HFs (horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetlands), which made large contributions to reducing pollutant load. The HFs with die-back reeds in the non-vegetation periods (November-March) provided slight evapotranspiration and water loss and made less of a contribution to reducing pollutants removal compared to HFs with the dense vegetation bed in the vegetation periods. However, the HFs with die-back reeds in the non-vegetation periods had higher removal performance than the HF without reeds. This indicated that the rhizosphere of HFs with reeds might play important roles, such as that the microbes around rhizomes might have a higher amount of pollutant-removing microbe activity than those in the HF without reeds during the non-vegetation period.
基金supported by the National Basic Research Program (Grant No.2013CB430304)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos.41206178, 41030854, 41106005, 41176003 and 41306006)the National High-Tech R&D Program of China (No.2013 AA09A505)
文摘Based on the statistics of surface drifter data of 1979-2011 and the simulation of nuclear pollutant particulate move- merits simulated using high quality ocean reanalysis surface current dataset, the transport pathways and impact strength of Fuku-shima nuclear pollutants in the North Pacific have been estimated. The particulates are used to increase the sampling size and en- hance the representativeness of statistical results. The trajectories of the drifters and particulates are first examined to identify typical drifting pathways. The results show that there are three types of transport paths for nuclear pollutants at the surface: 1) most pollutant particles move eastward and are carried by the Kuroshio and Kuroshio-extension currents and reach the east side of the North Pacific after about 3.2-3.9 years; 2) some particles travel with the subtropical circulation branch and reach the east coast of China after about 1.6 years according to one drifter trajectory and about 3.6 years according to particulate trajectories; 3) a little of them travel with local, small scale circulations and reach the east coast of China after about 1.3-1.8 years. Based on the par-tieulates, the impact strength of nuclear pollutants at these time scales can be estimated according to the temporal variations of relative concentration combined with the radioactive decay rate. For example, Cesium-137, carried by the strong North Pacific current, mainly accumulates in the eastern North Pacific and its impact strength is 4% of the initial level at the originating Fuku- shima area after 4 years. Due to local eddies, Cesium-137 in the western North Pacific is 1% of the initial pollutant level after 1.5 years and continuously increases to 3% after 4 years. The vertical movement of radioactive pollutants is not taken into account in the present study, and the estimation accuracy would be improved by considering three-dimensional flows.
基金supported by the Special Funds of Public Welfare of China (Grant No. GYHY201306061)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41230421, 41105065 & 41275128)
文摘A nuclear accident involving the leaking of radioactive pollutants occurred at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, following an earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11,2011. Using official Japanese data on pollutant emissions during the accident, this study simulates the dispersion of nuclear pollutants. The source term of the nuclear leakage of radioactive material is designed using PM2.5 as the tracer of radioactive pollutants, and the study considers dry and wet deposition processes. A coupled-model system is constructed from the air-quality model Models-3/CMAQ and the Weather Research and Forecasting atmospheric model. The transport path and distribution of radioactive pollutants over long and short distances are simulated with different model horizontal resolutions of 30 and 4 km respectively. The long-distance simulation shows that, following the Fukushima nuclear accident, under the effect of westerly winds, radioactive pollutants are transported generally towards the eastern Pacific and reach the American continent after 5 days, but their concentration is only about 10-7 times the concentration near the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. The time required for pollutants to reach the United States is basically consistent with measurements made in California on March 18. Because the upper westerly wind is faster than the lower westerly wind, the distribution of pollutants tilts eastward in terms of its vertical structure. The short-distance (local) highresolution simulation indicates that strong winds and precipitation associated with a cyclone can accelerate the deposition, dif- fusion and transport of pollutions, and local cyclonic circulation can change the transport path of pollutants, even resulting in repeated effects of pollution in some areas. Pollutants disperse to southeastern Honshu, Japan, on March 14, 2011, agreeing well with the timing of local observations of increases in the absorbed dose rate. Results also show that radioactive pollutants from the Fukushima nuclear accident are mainly transported and diffuse eastward, resulting in a relatively short-term impact on the Japanese mainland even under the influence of the cyclone system. Therefore, in terms of atmospheric conditions, the location of the Fukusbima Nuclear Power Plant is appropriate and could serve as a reference to site selection and protection of other nuclear facilities.