Nitrobenzene biodegradation ability of microbial communities in water and sediments along the Songhua River after a nitrobenzene pollution event

More than 100 t of nitrobenzene (NB) and related compounds were discharged into the Songhua River,the fourth longest river in China,because of the world-shaking explosion of an aniline production factory located in Jilin City on November 13,2005.As one of the efforts to predict the fate of residual NB in the river,NB biodegradation abilities by microbes in the water and sediments from different river sections were evaluated systematically.The results indicated that microbial communities from any section of ...

Prediction of the environmental fate and aquatic ecological impact of nitrobenzene in the Songhua River using the modified AQUATOX model

An accidental discharge of nitrobenzene happened in November 2005 in the Songhua River,China.The AQUATOX model was modified and adapted to simulate the time-dependent nitrobenzene distribution in this multimedia aquatic system and its potential ecological impacts.Nitrobenzene concentrations in flowing water,sediment,and biota were predicted.Based on the initial concentrations of nitrobenzene observed in the field during the accidental discharge,that is,0.167-1.47 mg/L at different river segments, the predic...

Characterization of the Songhua River sediments and evaluation of their adsorption behavior for nitrobenzene

The explosion at a plant of the Jilin Petrochemical Corporation on 13 November,2005,and the spill of an estimated 100 t of toxic substances (nitrobenzene as the main component) into the Songhua River received worldwide attention.This study has focused on the adsorption behavior of nitrobenzene that spilled onto sediments along the Songhua River,which was one of the efforts to evaluate the fate of nitrobenzene after the spillage event.The organic carbon contents of these sediments along the Songhua River var...

QSAR Study of Nitrobenzenes’ Toxicity to Tetrahymena Pyriformis Using Semi-empirical Quantum Chemical Methods

The molecular geometries and electronic structures of 30 nitrobenzenes have been calculated by using semi-empirical MO AM1 and PM3 methods. EHOMO, ELUMO, ENHOMO, ENLUMO, AE, QNO2, Qc and V were selected as the structural descriptors. The acute toxicity （-log/C50） of nitrobenzenes to tetrahymena pyriformis along with the above eight structural parameters was used to establish the quantitative structure-activity relationships （QSARs）. The results indicate that the established model based on AM I method is superior to that on PM3 method not only for the stability but also for the predictive powers of the model. Based on AM1 parameters, a further classifying discussion was presented for the study of nitrobenzene toxic mechanism. The results show that the substituents, nitro group and halogen substituents on the aromatic ring are crucial to the chemicals＇ toxicity. For nitrobenzenes without halogen or other substituent, the reduction of nitro group is the main route. However, for those with halogen substituents, their next lowest unoccupied molecular orbital may take part in the toxic action betweeen the chemicals and macromolecules, and ENLUMO has the most important effect on these chemicals＇ toxicity.

Location and PCR analysis of catabolic genes in a novel Streptomyces sp. DUT_AHX capable of degrading nitrobenzene

A novel strain of Streptomyces sp.DUT_AHX was isolated from sludge contaminated with nitrobenzene and identified on the basis of physiological and biochemical tests and 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequence analysis.The optimal degradation conditions were as follows:temperature 30℃,pH 7.0-8.0,shaking speed 150-180 r/min,and inocula 10%(V/V).The strain,which possessed a partial reductive pathway with the release of ammonia,was also able to grow on mineral salts basal (MSB) medium plates with 2-aminophenol, pheno...

Concentration level and geographical distribution of nitrobenzene in Chinese surface waters

Nitrobenzene was reported to occur at relatively high concentrations in some Chinese surface water and to cause an environmental pollution event in 2005.To map the distribution of nitrobenzene in the Chinese surface water throughout China,surface water samples were collected from over 600 sites in the 7 major watersheds and three drainage areas.The samples were analyzed for concentration of nitrobenzene.Overall,nitrobenzene was more frequently detected at higher concentrations in the rivers of North China,i...

Degradation of nitrobenzene in aqueous solution by ozone-ceramic honeycomb

The degradation of nitrobenzene by ceramic-honeycomb catalyzed ozonation was investigated. The results showed that the presence of ceramic honeycombs significantly increased the oxidation rate of nitrobenzene by ozone compared to the case of ozone oxidation alone. In this paper, the effects of various factors on the catalytic oxidation were investigated, such as the amount of catalysts, the ozone dosage, the temperature, the pH value and the presence of tert-butanol. With the addition of tert-butanol the removal of nitrobenzene decreased sharply, which appeared to support that, the degradation of nitrobenzene by ozonation followed a radical type mechanism. The EPR experiments verified that higher nitrobenzene removal rate was attributed to more OH radicals generated in the catalyzed ozonation than ozonation alone.

QSAR Studies on the Toxicity of Nitrobenzenes to Population Growth of Tetrahymena Pyriformis

The IGC 50 (50% inhibitory growth concentration) values of 27 nitrobenzenes were determined for the population growth endpoint of Tetrahymena pyriformis . The toxicity order of the observed compounds was found to be as follows: dinitro compounds>mononitro compounds, dichloronitrobenzenes>monochloronitrobenzenes, meta substituted nitrobenzenes>ortho /para substituted nitrobenzenes(NT, NPh, NAnis) except for the dinitrobenzenes and nitroanilines(DNB, NAn). Quantitative structure activity relationships(QSARs) were developed with the logarithm of the reciprocal of IGC 50 [lg(IGC 50 ) -1 ] in mole liter as dependent variable and six molecular descriptors lg P , 1 X Ⅴ, I, 1K a, ∑σ - and E LUMO as independent variables. Via multiple regression analysis, one best equation was obtained: lg(IGC 50 ) -1 =3.029+0.860∑ σ -+0.341I n=27, r=0.924, r 2=0.854, s=0.265, f=70.44 , Pr> f =0.000 1 The equation was used to estimate IGC 50 for five analogues.

Phototransformation of nitrobenzene in the Songhua River:Kinetics and photoproduct analysis

Nitrobenzene (NB) pollution of the Songhua River caused by an explosion at a petrochemical plant in Jilin City,Jilin Province, China,attracted public concern over the fate of NB in the river.As one of the efforts to predict the fate of residual NB in the river,the kinetics and mechanism of phototransformation of NB in natural water from four sections of the Songhua River were investigated.It was found that photodegradation of NB in water proceeded via pseudo-first-order reaction kinetics under simulated sol...

Reduction of nitrobenzene by the catalyzed Fe/Cu process

The polarization behavior of the couple Fe/Cu in 100 mg/L nitrobenzene aqueous solution was studied using Evans coupling diagrams.The results indicated that the iron corrosion was limited by both anodic and cathodic half-cell reactions under the neutral conditions,and cathodically controlled under the alkaline conditions.Batch experiments were performed to study the effect of solution pH,reaction duration,concentration,type of electrolyte,and dissolved oxygen(DO)on the reduction of nitrobenzene by the catal...

A DFT-based Quantum Theoretic QSAR Study of Nitrobenzenes' Toxicity to Tetrahymena Pyriformis

In this study,DFT-B3LYP level of theory with the 6-311G basis set was used to calculate a set of molecular descriptors of 36 nitrobenzenes.Quantitative structure-activity relationship（QSAR） models of the toxicity（pIGC50） of 36 nitrobenzenes were established using some of the following calculated descriptors：HOMO energy（EHOMO）,LUMO energy（ELUMO）,the difference between LUMO and HOMO energy values（ΔE=ELUMO–EHOMO）,average polarizability（P）,dipole moment（μ）,molecular volume（V） and the charge of nitro group（Q-NO2）.The QSAR models obtained by employing stepwise multiple regression techniques are aimed at correlating the structures with their reported experimental toxicity values. Among the models presented in this study, statistically the most significant one is a two-parameter linear equation with the correlation coefficient （R2） of 0.896 and cross-validated correlation coefficient （R2cv） of 0.878. To further validate the predictive ability of the resulting model, external validation was carried out with R2~xt and Q^2,ext values of 0.894, 0.900, 0.909, 0.874, 0.885 and 0.903, respectively. This study also reconstructed the obtained models using AMl-based calculated descriptors to demonstrate the superiority of DFT over AM1 for quantum calculations of mechanical descriptors. The results were discussed in the light of the main factors that influence the toxicity of nitrobenznenes.

Effects of Nitrobenzene on Liver Antioxidant Defense System of Carassius auratus

With superoxidedismutase（SOD）, catalase（CAT）, glutathione S-transferase（GST） and malondialdehyde （MDA） as characteristic indexes, the effects of nitrobenzene（NB） on the liver antioxidant defense system of Carassius auratus were studied under the indoors stimulant conditions, and the toxic mechanisms were discussed. The exposure concentrations of NB were 0.5, 1.0, 5.0 and 10.0 mg/L, and the exposure time was 5, 10 and 15 days, respectively. The results show that the stress responses of four antioxidant indexes in the fish liver to nitrobenzene were different. The SOD activity was firstly inhibited and then induced. The CAT and GST activities were mainly induced. The MDA content in the high concentration group showed a significant time-effect relationship. In addition, the changes of CAT and SOD activities were not synchronous, and GST played an important part in the detoxification process of nitrobenzene.

Recovery of Aniline from Wastewater by Nitrobenzene Extraction Enhanced with Salting-Out Effect

Objective Nitrobenzene extraction enhanced by salting-out effect was employed to recover aniline from wastewater at 25 ℃. Method Batchwise experiments were conducted to elucidate the influence of various operating variables on the extracting performance, including acidity of wastewater, initial aniline concentration, ratios of solvent to wastewater, extraction stages, concentrations and different types of inorganic salts, such as NaCl, KCI, Na2SO4, CaCl2 and K29O4. Results Nitrobenzene with a concentration of 20% and a pH value of 9.1 at the temperature of 25 ℃ together with NaCl of a concentration of 14 wt.% realized nearly 100% aniline recovery at the fifth stage of wastewater treatment. Conclusions High pH values and volume ratios of nitrobenzene/wastewater are more suitable for recovery of aniline. In addition, recovery of aniline is significantly elevated with increase of the concentration of salts, whose promoting effects are in the following order: NaCI〉Na2SO4〉K2SO4〉CaC12〉KCI on the weight basis of wastewater. Furthermore, aniline in wastewater can be almost completely recovered by five-stage sequential nitrobenzene extraction, which is promoted continuously by the salting-out effect.

Degradation of nitrobenzene in wastewater by γ-ray irradiation

The degradation of nitrobenzene(NB) by γ ray irradiation was studied. The influences of dose rate and initial NB concentration were investigated in details. At a dose rate of 55 Gy/min, the degradation kinetics was pseudo first order at NB concentrations from 0 2 mmol/L to 4 0 mmol/L. At an initial NB concentration of 0 8 mmol/L, the degradation of NB at various dose rates also followed pseudo first order kinetics. Dissolved oxygen was found to have a positive effect on NB degradation. The degradation products were identified as nitrophenol, nitrosobenzene, and hydroquinone, and so on. Based on the product analysis, possible degradation pathways of nitrobenzene were proposed.

Degradation of Nitrobenzene Wastewater via Iron/Carbon Micro-electrolysis Enhanced by Ultrasound Coupled with Hydrogen Peroxide

The zero valent iron/granular active carbon(ZVI/GAC) micro-electrolysis enhanced by ultrasound(US) coupled with hydrogen peroxide(H_2O_2) was investigated for the deep degradation of nitrobenzene-containing wastewater. The results of scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-rays analysis(SEM-EDS) demonstrated that continuously accelerated regeneration of ZVI and GAC in situ by US could improve the process for converting nitrobenzene(NB) to aniline(AN). H_2O_2 was decomposed catalytically by the byproduct Fe^(2+) ions generated in the micro-electrolysis process to hydroxyl radicals and the organic pollutants in the wastewater were finally mineralized to CO2 and H2O. Effects of the ZVI dosage, the ZVI/GAC mass ratio, the initial pH value and the H_2O_2 dosage on the efficiency for degradation of NB were studied in these experiments. The optimal operating conditions covered a ZVI dosage of 15 g/L, a ZVI/GAC mass ratio of 1:2,an initial pH value of 3 and a H_2O_2 dosage of 4 mL. In this case, the NB removal efficiency reached 97.72% and the total organic carbon(TOC) removal efficiency reached 73.42% at a NB concentration of 300 mg/L. The reduction of NB by USZVI/GAC followed the pseudo-first-order kinetics model, and the pseudo-first-order rate constants were given at different initial pH values. The reaction intermediates such as AN, benzoquinonimine, p-benzoquinone, p-nitrophenol and other organic acids were detected and a probable pathway for NB degradation has been proposed.

Reaction Selectivity Improvement for Reduction of Nitrobenzene in a Packed-Bed Electrode Reactor under Periodic-Current Control

Rectangular wave current control of the electrochemical reduction of nitrobenzene im-proves the selectivity for p-aminophenol(PAP) compared to direct current(d.c.) control at thesame average current density in a flow-by packed-bed reactor.Optimal increase in PAP selectivitycan be obtained at about a frequency of 50Hz and a duty cycle of 0.2.A mathematical model isset up to incorporate the effects of mass transfer,hydrogen evolution and double layer charging,and is solved using the Duhamel’s superposition principle and the modified Crank-Nicolson methodwith the upwind scheme.The conventional d.c.control cases are also calculated for comparison.Calculations can be applied to predict the reaction results under periodic current and d.c.control,but both display the same trends compared to experimental data.

Biostimulation-enhanced Biodegradation of Nitrobenzene in Contaminated Groundwater

In this study, biostimulation technology was used for bioremediation of nitrobenzene-contaminated groundwater by adding a mixture of lactose and phosphate, peptone, and beef extract. During the process of biostimulation, the remediation effectiveness, microbial dehydrogenase activities and microbial densities were investigated; the varieties of microbial community structure and composition were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis（PCR-DGGE） technique and the relative abundances of nitrobenzene-degrading gene（nbzA） were determined by fluorescence quantitative real-time PCR（RT-PCR）. Findings show that the removal rate of nitrobenzene in groundwater could reach about 60% by biostimulation with lactose and phosphate, 70% with peptone and 68% with beef extract. The microbial dehydrogenase activities and microbial densities were all improved obviously via biostimulation. The results of PCR-DGGE show that the microbial diversities were improved, and more than ten kinds of dominant microorganisms were detected after biostimulation. RT-PCR results show that the relative abundances of nbzA gene of microbes in groundwater were increased significantly, which indicated that biostimulation actually enhanced the growth of nitrobenzene-degrading bacteria. Therefore, biostimulation is a cost-effective and feasible bioremediation technique for nitrobenzene-contaminated groundwater.

Transient grating study of the intermolecular dynamics of liquid nitrobenzene

Femtosecond time-resolved transient grating(TG) technique is used to study the intermolecular dynamics in liquid phase. Non-resonant excitation of the sample by two crossing laser pulses results in a transient Kerr grating, and the molecular motion of liquid can be detected by monitoring the diffraction of a third time-delayed probe pulse. In liquid nitrobenzene(NB), three intermolecular processes are observed with lifetimes of 37.9±1.4 ps, 3.28±0.11 ps, and 0.44±0.03 ps, respectively. These relaxations are assigned to molecular orientational diffusion, dipole/induced dipole interaction, and libration in liquid cage, respectively. Such a result is slightly different from that obtained from OKE experiment in which the lifetime of the intermediate process is measured to be 1.9 ps. The effects of electric field on matter are different in TG and optical Kerr effect(OKE) experiments, which should be responsible for the difference between the results of these two types of experiments. The present work demonstrates that TG technique is a useful alternative in the study of intermolecular dynamics.

Genotoxicity of substituted nitrobenzenes and the quantitative structure－activity relationship

The genotoxicity of 22 substituted nitrobenzenes were evaluated by the chromosome aberrations test in in vitro human peripheral lymphocytes.18 of 22 compounds exhibit genotoxic activities.Quantitative structure-activity relationship model was established to correlate the genotoxicity of substituted nitrobenzenes with the characteristics of the substituents on benzene ring.

Degradation of Wastewater Containing Nitrobenzene by High Gravity-Ultrasonic/Ozonation/Electrolysis Technology

The integrated high gravity-ultrasonic/ozonation/electrolysis technology was applied in the pretreatment of wastewater containing nitrobenzene.The effect of pH value,high gravity factor,liquid flow-rate and electric current density on removal of COD and nitrobenzene compounds was investigated.Experimental results have determined the optimal process regime involving a high gravity factor of 100,an electric current density of 20mA/cm2,a liquid flow-rate of 100L/h,and an initial liquid pH value of 11.After the wastewater had been treated for 180 min,the degradation of nitrobenzene and COD reached 99% and 80%,respectively,with the biochemical coefficient(BOD/COD) equating to 0.64,and the subsequent treatment of wastewater could be carried out by conventional biochemical means.Compared with traditional aerationozone contactors,a rotating packed bed with high mass transfer characteristics could be used to increase the ozonation treatment efficiency.