Decolorization of reactive brilliant red K-2BP by white rot fungus under sterile and non-sterile conditions

Almost all the studies both domestic and international using white rot fungus for dye wastewater treatment are performed under sterile conditions. However, it is obviously unpractical that wastewater with dyes is treated under sterile conditions. A feasible study was made for using white rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium to degrade reactive brilliant red K-2BP dye under non-sterile conditions. The results showed that there was no decolorizing effect under non-sterile condition if white rot fungus was incubated under non-sterile condition, and the decolorization was always near to 0% during decolorizing test for 3 d; in the meantime, a lot of yeast funguses were found in liquid medium when white rot fungus was incubated under non-sterile conditions; however, if white rot fungus was incubated under sterile condition firstly, its decolorization was above 90% under non-sterile condition, which was similar to that of sterile condition. So we point out that the treating process for wastewater with dyes should be divided into two stages. The first stage is that white rot fungus should be incubated under sterile conditions, and the second stage is that reactive brilliant red K-2BP is decolorized under non-sterile conditions. The method not only save the operation cost which decolorizing reactive brilliant red K-2BP under sterile condition, but also provide the feasibility for using white rot fungus to degrade wastewater with dyes under non-sterile conditions.

Photochemical degradation of environmentally persistent perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in the presence of Fe(Ⅲ)

Environmentally persistent and bioaccumulative perfluorooctanic acid （PFOA） was difficult to be decomposed under the irradiation of 254 nm UV light. However, in the presence of 80μmol/L Fe（Ⅲ）, 80% of PFOA with initial concentration of 48μmol/L （20 mg/L） was effectively degraded and 47.8% of fluorine atoms in PFOA molecule were transformed into inorganic fluoride ion after 4 h reaction. Shorter chain perfluorocarboxylic acids bearing C3-C7 and fluoride ion were detected and identified by LC/MS and IC as the degradation products in the aqueous solution. It was proposed that complexes of PFOA with Fe（Ⅲ） initiated degradation of PFOA irradiated with 254 nm UV light.

Chemical Composition of Summertime PM_(2.5) and Its Relationship to Aerosol Optical Properties in Guangzhou,China

Urban aerosols have a large effect on the deterioration of air quality and the degradation of atmospheric visibility.Characterization of the chemical composition of PM 2.5 and in situ measurements of the optical properties of aerosols were conducted in July 2008 at an urban site in Guangzhou,Southern China.The mean PM 2.5 concentration for the entire period was 53.7±23.2 μg m 3.The mean PM 2.5 concentration (82.7±25.4 μg m 3) on hazy days was roughly two times higher than that on clear days (38.8±8.7 μg m 3).The total water-soluble ion species and the total average carbon accounted for 47.9%±4.3% and 35.2%±4.5%,respectively,of the major components of PM 2.5.The increase of secondary and carbonaceous aerosols,in particular ammonium sulfate,played an important role in the formation of haze pollution.The mean absorption and scattering coefficients and the single scattering albedo over the whole period were 53±20 M m 1,226±111 M m 1,and 0.80±0.04,respectively.PM 2.5 had a high linear correlation with the aerosol extinction coefficient,elemental carbon (EC) was correlated with aerosol absorption,and organic carbon (OC) and SO 4 2 were tightly linked to aerosol scattering.

Synergistic extraction of rare earth elements and alumina from coal fly ash by potassium pyrosulfate

Although coal fly ash(CFA)contains a high content of rare earth elements(REEs),the related extraction methods have limitations because of their low efficiencies,high levels of energy consumption,and other drawbacks.To address these problems,in this study,we examined the coextraction of REEs and Al_(2)O_(3)from two types of Al_(2)O_(3)-rich CFA,pulverized CFA(PCFA)and circulating fluidized bed fly ash(CFBFA)using low-temperature calcination in the presence of K_(2)S_(2)O_(7).The total REEs,heavy REEs(HREEs),and light REEs(LREEs)extraction efficiencies were determined using different K_(2)S_(2)O_(7)/Al_(2)O_(3) molar ratios and calcination temperatures and correlated with the Al_(2)O_(3) extraction efficiency using Pearson correlation coefficient analysis.The REEs are concentrated within CFA particles encapsulated in an aluminosilicate glass phase,and the REEs extraction efficiency is related to the form of Al in CFA.The extraction efficiencies of Al_(2)O_(3) and REEs increase as the K_(2)S_(2)O_(7)/Al_(2)O_(3) molar ratio and calcination temperature increase,and the extraction selectivity of the more industrially valuable HREEs from CFBFA is higher.At high K_(2)S_(2)O_(7)/Al_(2)O_(3) molar ratios,the extraction of REEs from PCFA is more efficient than that from CFBFA with the regeneration of the highly active Al-O-Si bonds in CFBFA.The Al_(2)O_(3) extraction efficiencies of PCFA as well as CFBFA correlate strongly with the total REEs,HREEs,and LREEs extraction efficiencies.The developed extraction technology has the potential to promote CFA valorization and expand REEs resources,thus mitigating the bottlenecks of REEs procurement.

Chemical Composition of PM_(2.5) at an Urban Site of Chengdu in Southwestern China

PM2.5 aerosols were sampled in urban Chengdu from April 2009 to January 2010, and their chemical compositions were characterized in detail for elements, water soluble inorganic ions, and carbonaceous mat- ter. The annual average of PM2.5 was 165 btg m a, which is generally higher than measurements in other Chinese cities, suggesting serious particulate pollution issues in the city. Water soluble ions contributed 43.5% to the annual total PM2.5 mass, carbonaceous aerosols including elemental carbon and organic car- bon contributed 32.0%, and trace elements contributed 13.8~0. Distinct daily and seasonal variations were observed in the mass concentrations of PM2.5 and its components, reflecting the seasonal variations of dif- ferent anthropogenic and natural sources. Weakly acidic to neutral particles were found for PMz5. Major sources of PM2.u identified from source apportionment analysis included coal combustion, traffic exhaust, biomass burning, soil dust, and construction dust emissions. The low nitrate： sulfate ratio suggested that stationary emissions were more important than vehicle emissions. The reconstructed masses of ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate, particulate carbonaceous matter, and fine soil accounted for 79% of the total measured PM2.5 mass; they also accounted for 92% of the total measured particle scattering.

Biogeochemical cyclic activity of bacterial arsB in arsenic-contaminated mines

Biogeochemical cyclic activity of the ars (arsenic resistance system) operon is arsB influx/effux encoded by the ecological of Pseudomonas putida.This suggests that studying arsenite-oxidizing bacteria may lead to a better understanding of molecular geomicrobiology,which can be applied to the bioremediation of arsenic-contaminated mines.This is the first report in which multiple arsB-binding mechanisms have been used on indigenous bacteria.In ArsB (strains OS-5; ABB83931; OS-19; ABB04282 and RW-28; ABB88574...

Effects of adsorption interferents on removal of Reactive Red 195 dye in wastewater by chitosan

Reactive Red 195, which is an azoic anionic dye characterized by the presence of five sulfonic groups and one azoic group, is efficiently removed using chitosan. The increasing chitosan dose had a dramatic positive impact on the achieved color removal, there was approximately a linear relationship between chitosan dose and color removal of dye before color removal reach maximum. Also, the increase of dye concentration led to the increase of chitosan dosage in order to get the same color remova l.92 mg/L of chitosan dosage was sufficient to achieve complete remove of dye at initial concentration of dye at 200 mg/L. For the higher concentrations of dye, high dosages were necessary to reach complete color removal. On the other hand, the use of adsorption interferents（Fe^2＋ , Na^＋ , HCO3^- and others） can be interesting, addition of ions had effect on the color removal of Reactive Red 195. Comparing with blank, addition of chemical species approximately decreased the color removal except Na^＋ and combination of Fe^2＋ ＋ HCO3^- . However, comparing with Fe^2＋ alone and HCO3^- alone, combination of Fe^2＋ ＋ HCO3^- increased the color removal.

Pattern Recognition Methods Combined with Raman Spectra Applied to Distinguish Serums from Lung Cancer Patients and Healthy People

Raman spectroscopy was used to distinguish the serums from lung cancer patients and healthy people, through spectral pretreatment method combined with pattern recognition methods including principal component analysis (PCA), partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), un-correlated linear discriminant analysis (ULDA), etc. Through the comparisons of the results, it can be found that ULDA and LDA combined with multiple scatter correction (MSC) pretreatment method successfully distinguish the patients of lung cancer and healthy people. The method has academic significance and promising clinical application value.

EFFECT OF SOLUTION EXTRUSION RATE ON MORPHOLOGY AND PERFORMANCE OF POLYVINYLIDENE FLUORIDE HOLLOW FIBER MEMBRANES USING POLYVINYL PYRROLIDONE AS AN ADDITIVE

Polyvinylidene fluoride （PVDF） hollow fiber membranes prepared from spinning solutions with different polyvinyl pyrrolidone （PVP） contents （1% and 5%） at different extrusion rates were obtained by wet/dry phase process keeping all other spinning parameters constant. In spinning these PVDF hollow fibers, dimethylacetamide （DMAc） and PVP were used as a solvent and an additive, respectively. Water was used as the inner coagulant. Dimethylformamide （DMF） and water （30/70） were used as the external coagulant. The performances of membranes were characterized in terms of water flux, solute rejection for the wet membranes. The structure and morphology of PVDF hollow fiber were examined by BET adsorption, dry/wet weight method and scanning electron microscopy （SEM）. It is found that the increase in PVP content and extrusion rate of spinning solution can result in the increase of water flux and decrease of solute rejection. The improvements of interconnected porous structure and pore size are induced by shear-thinning behavior of spinning solution at high extrusion rates, which could result in the increase of water flux of hollow fiber membranes. The increase of extrusion rate also leads to the increase of membrane thickness due to the recovery effect of elastic property of polymer chains.

Distribution patterns and changes of aquatic plant communities in Napahai Wetland in northwestern Yunnan Plateau,China

Using GPS technology and community research methods for plant communities,we investigated the distribution patterns of aquatic plant communities in the high plateaus of the Napahai Wetlands,Yunnan,China,as well as the species changes of plant communities compared with that of 24 years ago since 2005.We found that the types and numbers of aquatic plant communities have changed.Some pollution-tolerant,nutrient-loving plant communities such as Scirpus tabernaemontani,Zizania caduciflora,Myriophyllum spicatum,and Azolla imbricata flourished,while the primary aquatic plant communities were reduced or even disappeared.The number of aquatic plant communities were increased from nine to 12 with the addition of two new emergent plant communities and one new floating-leaved plant community.The increase in emergent plant communities was significant.From east to west and from south to north,various types of plant communities were continuously distributed,including floating-leaved plant communities,emergent plant communities and submerged plant communities.The composition of the communities became more complicated and the number of accompanying species increased,while the percentage ratio of dominant plant species declined.In 2005,the coverage of emergent plant communities was the largest(528.42 hm^(2))followed by submerged plant communities(362.50 hm^(2))and the floating-leaf plant communities was the smallest(70.23 hm^(2)).The variations in the distribution of aquatic plant communities in the Napahai Wetlands reflect the natural responses to the change of the wetland ecological environment.This study indicates that human disturbances have led to an inward movement of the wetland shoreline,a decrease in water quality and a reduction in wetland habitat.

Relating Cd2+binding by humic acids to molecular weight:A modeling and spectroscopic study

Molecular weight（Mw） is a fundamental property of humic acids（HAs）, which considerably affect the mobility and speciation of heavy metals in the environment. In this study, soil humic acid（HA） extracted from Jinyun Mountain, Chongqing was ultra-filtered into four fractions according to the molecular weight, and their properties were characterized.Complexation of cadmium was investigated by titration experiments. For the first time,Langmuir and non-ideal competitive adsorption-Donna（NICA-Donnan） models combined with fluorescence excitation-emission matrix（EEM） quenching were employed to elucidate the binding characteristics of individual Mw fractions of HA. The results showed that the concentration of acidic functional groups decreased with increasing Mw, especially the phenolic groups. The humification degree and aliphaticity increased with increasing Mw as indicated by elemental composition analysis and FT-IR spectra. The binding capacity of Cd2＋ to Mw fractions of HA followed the order UF1（〈 5 kDa） 〉 UF2（5–10 kDa） 〉 UF4（〉 30 kDa） 〉 UF3（10–30 kDa）. Moreover, the distribution of cadmium speciation indicated that the phenolic groups were responsible for the variations in binding of Cd2＋ among different Mw fractions. The results of fluorescence quenching illustrated that the binding capacity of Cd2＋ to Mw fractions was controlled by the content of functional groups, while the binding affinity was largely influenced by structural factors. The results provide a better understanding of the roles that different HA Mw fractions play in heavy metal binding,which has important implications in the control of heavy metal migration and bio-toxicity.

Effect of Abiotic Factors on the Mercury Reduction Process by Humic Acids in Aqueous Systems

As a global pollutant process,the reduction of mercury(Hg)is especially important.One pathway is through an abiotic reduction with humic acids(HAs),which is controlled by different factors,including initial Hg and HA concentrations,pH,temperature and light.In this study,three humic acids were selected to illustrate the Hg^(2+)abiotic reduction mechanisms by HAs,and to identify the key limiting factors for reduction rates and amounts.In addition,the initial status of the HAs as a solid or in an aqueous solution were also compared,to help explain why HAs show different dominant characteristics(e.g.complexation or reduction)in the reaction process with Hg.Results indicated that HAs were able to reduce Hg abiotically.Higher initial Hg,higher HA concentrations and either high(8.1)or low(3.6)solution pH decreased the HA reduction capacity.In addition,Hg°production rates increased with increasing temperature,and the same trend was observed with light exposure.Humic acids added as an aqueous solution resulted in significantly greater Hg°production than addition as a bulk solid.Finally,the Hg reduction rate and capacity varied significantly(P<0.05)with HAs from different sources.These findings helped to explain why HAs showed different dominant characteristics(e.g.complexation or reduction)in the reaction process with Hg,and evidentially demonstrated the existence of a possible pathway of Hg^(2+)reduction,which indicated that humic substances in natural environments,especially in water bodies,could act either as a sink or a source for Hg.

A novel knotted cotton-thread carrier:Its potential use in achieving the biomass renewal of Phanerochaete chrysosporium in an immobilized growth system

In order to achieve an innovative strategy to renew the biomass of Phanerochaete chrysosporium in an immobilized growth system which can maintain white-rot fungi biomass, a novel knotted cotton-thread carrier was designed and made. By using a high-speed stirring apparatus under the conditions of 1400 r/min stirring speed for 6 min, mycelia immobilized on the knotted cotton-thread carriers were exfoliated completely and homogenized to a proper size. Furthermore, the homogenized mycelia from the immobilized mycelia can resume their growth on the knotted cotton-thread carriers in agitated flask cultures. The average regrowth biomass on the new carriers and the reused carriers was 0.0171 g/carrier and 0.0314 g/carrier, respectively. It proves that the knotted cotton-thread carrier performs perfectly in homogening the immobilized mycelia to achieve the biomass renewal of P. chrysosporium in an immobilized growth system.

Leaching characteristics of heavy metals during cement stabilization of fly ash from municipal solid waste incinerators

The leaching characteristics of heavy metals in products of cement stabilization of fly ash from a municipal solid waste incinerator were investigated in this paper.The stabilization of heavy metals such as Cd,Pb,Cu,and Zn in fly ash from such incinerators was examined through the national standard method in China based on the following factors:additive quantity of cement and Na_(2)S,curing time,and pH of leaching liquor.The results showed that as more additives were used,less heavy metals were leached except for Pb,which is sensitive to pH of the leachate,and the worse effect was observed for Cd.The mass ratio of cement to fly ash=10% is the most appropriate parameter according to the national standard method.When the hydration of cement was basically finished,stabilization of heavy metals did not vary after curing for 1 d.The mixtures of cement and fly ash had excellent adaptability to environmental pH.The pH of leachate was maintained at 7 when pH of leaching liquor varied from 3 to 11.