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  • Christiansen posted an update 9 months ago

    On-site wastewater treatment systems are gaining popularity in areas where centralized wastewater treatment is not available. In the current case study a domestic activated sludge system was investigated, where treated effluent was stored in a short-term (1 week turn-over time) and a long-term (over 2-3 months) storage tank and was then used for irrigation. This design provided a unique opportunity to assess the chemical and microbial changes of the effluent upon storage. Long-term storage greatly improved both the chemical quality and the degradation efficiency of most organic micropollutants examined, including petroleum hydrocarbons and the pesticide diethyltoluamide. Taxonomic profile of the core microbiome of the effluent was also influenced upon storage. Relative abundance values of the members of Azoarcus and Thauera genera, which are important in degrading polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons compounds, clearly indicated the biodegrading activity of these microbes across samples. The abundance of xenobiotics degradation functions correlated with the observed organic micropollutant degradation values indicating efficient microbial decomposition of these contaminants. Functions related to infectious diseases also had the highest abundance in the short-term storage tank corresponding well with the relative abundance of indicator organisms and implying to the significance of storage time in the elimination of pathogens. Based on these results, small, on-site wastewater treatment systems could benefit from long-term storage of wastewater effluent.Negative emissions technologies (NETs), which remove and isolate carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, are expected to play a significant role in mitigating climate change. As one of the most promising NETs, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) methods, which captures carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from bioenergy plants and then stores them in geological reservoirs, are being widely used in climate change scenarios. With the increased focus on mitigating solutions, several concerns have been raised regarding the deployment of BECCS. As no science mapping analyses of evolutionary BECCS patterns have yet been made, this study sought to determine these evolution patterns using a systematic analysis approach based on science mapping and visualization analyses. Under a longitudinal framework, the conceptual BECCS evolutionary track was determined using SciMAT to elucidate the structure and dynamic aspects of the associated scientific research. The co-word network and thematic evolutionary analysis revealed five main BECCS related themes. While this study provides a systematic study of BECCS research and development, further research should continue to focus on techno-economic analyses and the ecological and environmental impacts (land-use, water, diversity, and bioenergy crops) of BECCS. An increased research focus on the emerging biochar and hydrogen production themes is expected.A flexible, durable, and reusable nanocatalyst system was fabricated by anchoring palladium nanoparticles on carbon nanotube (CNT) carpets covalently attached to carbon cloth. These hierarchical hybrid materials were tested for catalytic degradation of triclosan (TCS), an emerging contaminant. Materials were characterized using scanning & transmission electron microscopy techniques (SEM and TEM), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), and X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). The reaction kinetics was studied using HPLC and reaction pathways proposed based on LC-MS/GC-MS analyses. In the presence of hydrogen, complete step-wise chlorine removal was seen until complete dechlorination was accomplished. The pseudo-first-order rate constant was measured to be orders of magnitude higher than earlier reported values. Moreover, the same material was usable for multiple cycles in flowing water. This study demonstrates that robustness and reusability of larger structural materials can be combined with the ultra-high surface activity of nanocatalysts to provide practical and eco-friendly solutions for water sustainability.Energy consumption has gradually become an important factor affecting the sustainable use of regional water resources, especially in areas with abundant energy but scarce water. In this research, the water consumption for energy production in arid Northwest China (NWC) in 2017 and 2030 was evaluated, and the virtual water (VW) transfer embodied in the energy trade was also calculated based on a large amount of data collected from multiple sources. The results showed that the energy-related water consumption in NWC in 2017 was 2.6 billion m3, accounting for approximately 3.4% of the total regional water consumption and 61.8% of the total regional industrial water consumption. This value is projected to reach 8.6 billion m3 in 2030 under a normal water consumption scenario (BAU scenario), and 5.4 and 3.6 billion m3 under a regular water-saving scenario (RWS scenario) and enhanced water-saving scenario (EWS scenario), respectively. In 2017, except for Qinghai and Gansu, the other province in the study area was a VW exporter and the total VW output volume was 710.3 million m3, accounting for 26.9% of the total water consumption for energy production, this ratio will reach approximately 60% in 2030 due to the expansion of energy industry. In addition, based on our research, the available water in four provinces cannot meet the future energy requirements under EWS scenario owing to the water shortage, however, different energy development strategies need to be selected faced with the different types of water shortage condition. This study also proposed some countermeasures to ensure the coordinated development of regional water and energy.While the contamination of agroecosystems with pharmaceutical compounds has been reported, the fate of these compounds, particularly uptake into plants remains unclear. This lack of environmental fate data is evident for a critical class of pharmaceuticals, the antivirals and antiretrovirals (ARVDs). Thus, this study evaluated the root uptake of the antiretroviral compounds nevirapine, lamivudine and efavirenz, and the antiviral compound oseltamivir in lettuce. LY3009120 ic50 The lettuce was hydroponically grown in a nutrient solution containing the four ARVD pharmaceutical mixture in the 1-100 μg L-1 concentration range. The measured bioaccumulation showed that efavirenz and lamivudine accumulated to the highest and lowest degree, at concentrations of 3463 ng g-1 and 691 ng g-1 respectively. The translocation factor between the root and leaf for nevirapine was greater than 1. The highest concentration of the pharmaceutical mixture had a physiological impact on the lettuce. Potential toxicity was evidenced by a statistically significant 34% (p = 0.

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