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  • Dorsey posted an update 1 year, 3 months ago

    The findings of this study, along with its implications on environmental management, will help to promote sustainable urban development strategies for achieving desirable environmental co-benefits for urban residents and practitioners.The effects of PBC and HBC on rice production, NUE and corresponding mechanisms were examined. Six treatments, P05, P30, H05, H30 (P PBC; H HBC; 05 and 30 represented the application rate of 0.5 and 3.0% w/w), CKU (urea application without char) and CK (no application of char and urea), were set up. Results showed that P05, P30 and H05 increased grain yield by 1.8-7.3% (P > 0.05), whereas H30 reduced grain yield by 60.4% (P less then 0.05), compared to CKU. Meanwhile, HI under P05, P30 and H05 increased by 3.4-3.6%, while H30 decreased by 9.1% (P less then 0.05). NUE and NAE showed similar trends with rice yield. By investigation, the excessive introduction of BDOM plays a crucial role in the reduction of rice production and NUE under higher HBC application. GC-MS/MS analysis showed that the soluble BDOM of HBC and PBC was quite different, and compounds such as 2,6-dimethoxyphenol might stress rice growth. ESI-FT-ICR-MS analysis showed that the BDOM of HBC contained a certain quantity of aromatic compounds, which may also stress rice growth. Overall, HBC pretreatment should be conducted, and the application rate should be strictly controlled before its agricultural application.Recovering P via struvite crystallization is an effective way to utilize the resources in swine wastewater. At present, the main challenges of traditional struvite crystallization process are the long reaction time and insufficient removal efficiency. In this study, a novel method to promote struvite crystallization process through ultrasound (US) combined with seed materials is proposed to overcome these defects. We systematically study the effects of US, seed materials, and ultrasonic power on nutrient recovery. The experimental results show that under the conditions of pH 9.5 and MgCl2P molar ratio1.41, the addition of 2 g/L pre-synthesized struvite as the seed materials can increase the P removal rate to 91.56%, whereas, the addition of 80 W ultrasonic power for 15 min can make the P removal rate reach 94.18%. Meanwhile, the combination of US and struvite seed crystals can achieve a maximum P removal efficiency value of 97.66% in which 10 min for the reaction time is enough. The products are characterized using XRD, SEM, and FTIR to determine the phosphorus removal mechanism of ultrasonic power combined with seed induction. The shearing effect of US is found beneficial to affect the surface morphology of the seed crystals, which provides more nucleation sites to enhance crystal nucleation and growth. The removal efficiency comparison reveals that this combined technology performs an excellent removal effect.Sewage sludge treatment & disposal pose environmental challenges in populated-dense urban environments. Due to its poor digestibility and dewaterability, sewage sludge contains high water content and concentrated nutrients (carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus) even after conditioning and mechanical thickening. Regarding this, a pretreatment step and downstream anaerobic digestion (AD) are often required. To meet our societal goal towards a circular economy, system integration of hydrothermal pretreatment and AD now present an attractive approach for recovering resources from the wet sewage sludge biomass. In this study, such system integration together with struvite precipitation was applied for valorizing sewage sludge. Firstly, hydrothermal conditions of different temperatures (160 °C-230 °C) and duration (2 h-12 h) were compared to their performance of nutrients solubilization. Subsequently, the hydrothermal condition of 220°C-3 h was selected for further investigations of struvite recovery and bioenergy production. Bcl-2 lymphoma Through AD comparisons, the integrated process improved the ultimate biomethane yield by 38%. Interestingly, a lag phase occurred in the midst of the AD, which indicated the need for microbial acclimatization after the hydrothermal process. The long-term microbial monitoring revealed the efficient biomethane re-generation was closely related to the late enrichment of Syntrophus for potential H2-syntrophy. Therefore, on one hand, this study investigated an efficient and integrated approach of sewage sludge valorization. On other hand, it uncovered the microbial bottlenecks and potential biotechnological means for further system improvement. Further research about nutrients speciation in the integrated system would be desired.Applying pruning residues in the lanes of olive groves has become a popular practice because it is economical and accrues benefits for soil and water management. This study presents an analysis of the impact of different rates of pruning residue on soil properties, in particular related with soil quality. Over 4 annual campaigns, chopped pruning residues used as a mulch were analyzed in terms of composition, coverage and moisture content to evaluate their effects on the amount of soil organic carbon (-10 cm and -20 cm) and CO2 emissions, temperature and moisture. The experiment was carried out in a super-intensive olive orchard in Cordoba (SE, Spain) and used four amounts of fresh pruning residue 7.5 t ha⁻1(T1), 15.0 t ha⁻1 (T2) and 30.0 t ha⁻1 (T3), with a control T0 = 0.0 t ha1. Mulch mean leaf fraction was 46.0 ± 17.5% (±SD) and initial water content, 24.8 ± 8.6%. The mulching benefits for soil moisture were observed in amounts of pruning residue >7.5 t ha⁻1, which are only produced in super-intensive olive groves or in orchards with high tree densities. The low impact of the treatments on soil moisture was explained by the dramatic annual variations in residue moisture contents, caused by the regimes of high temperatures and rainfall-evapotranspiration deficits inherent to the Mediterranean Basin climate. Thus, the mulching capacity only resulted efficient when the residues were still humid in spring. In addition, 15.0 t ha⁻1 of pruning residues was the threshold to provide significant increases in soil organic carbon at depths of 0-20 cm. Thus, accumulating pruning residue in lanes at rates of over 15 t ha⁻1 (T2 and T3) is more convenient than a uniform distribution with lower amounts, due to the low mineralization rates occurring during warm seasons and the larger inputs of OM increasing the annual balance of SOC.

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