Performance of aquatic weed - Waste Myriophyllum spicatum immobilized in alginate beads for the removal of Pb(II).

A new biosorbent - alginate encapsulated with Myriophyllum spicatum - MsA was investigated for lead ions removal. This biosorbent was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), zeta potential, X ray Diffraction (XRD) and size distribution analysis. FT-IR analysis demonstrated that the lead ions sequestration mechanism included ion exchange and lead complexation with the carboxyl, carbonyl and hydroxyl groups in MsA. In order to better understand the mechanisms of the binding of Pb(II) on immobilized M. spicatum beads, 3 reaction and one diffusion based kinetic models were applied on kinetic data removal lead ions on three materials: M. spicatum, Ca-alginate and MsA. Myriophyllum spicatum encapsulated with alginate - MsA have higher adsorption capacity than M. spicatum. Among examined six isotherms Redlich-Peterson and the Langmuir isotherm model exhibited the best fit to the experimental data, with capacities ranging from 230 to 268.7 mg/g. Among the various tested desorption agents, nitric acid has proven to be the best. The obtained results suggest that the immobilized M. spicatum biosorbent holds great potential for lead wastewater treatment applications.

Biometric approach in selecting plants for phytoaccumulation of uranium.

This paper promotes the biometric classification system of plant cultivars, unique characteristics, in terms of the uranium (U) uptake, primarily in the function of the application for phytoremediation. It is known that the degree of adoption of U depends on the plant species and its morphological and physiological properties, but it is less known what impact have plants cultivars, sorts, and hybrids. Therefore, we investigated the U adoption in four cultivars of three plant species (corn, sunflower and soy bean). "Vegetation experiments were carried out in a plastic-house filled with soil (0.66 mgU) and with tailing (15.3 mgU kg(-1)) from closed uranium mine Gabrovnica-Kalna southeast of Serbia". Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Cluster Analysis (CA) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for assessing the effect of different substrates cultivars, plant species and plant organs (root or shoot) on U uptake. Obtained results showed that a difference in U uptake by three investigated plant species depends not only of the type of substrate types and plant organs but also of their cultivars. Biometrics techniques provide a good opportunity for a better understanding the behavior of plants and obtaining much more useful information from the original data.

Alkali modified hydrochar of grape pomace as a perspective adsorbent of Pb(2+) from aqueous solution.

Hydrochar produced via hydrothermal carbonization of grape pomace was considered as novel sorbent of Pb(2+) from aqueous solution. In order to enhance the adsorption capacity, hydrochar was chemically modified using 2 M KOH solution. Both materials were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction technique. Batch experiments were performed to examine the effect of sorbent dosage, pH and contact time. Obtained results showed that the KOH treatment increased the sorption capacity of hydrochar from 27.8 mg g(-1) up to 137 mg g(-1) at pH 5. Adsorption of lead on either of the materials was achieved through ion-exchange mechanism, chemisorption and Pb(2+)-π interaction. The Sips isotherm model gave the best fit with the experimental data obtained for Pb(2+) sorption using activated hydrochar. The adsorption kinetic followed a pseudo second-order model. Thermodynamic parameters implied that the Pb(2+) binding for hydrochar surface was spontaneous and exothermic process. Findings from this work suggest that the hydrothermal carbonization is a promising route for production of efficient Pb (2+) sorbents for wastewater treatment.

A nappies management by-product for the treatment of uranium-contaminated waters.

The direct disposal of municipal solid waste such as nappies to the environment may create serious pollution problems. Based on the circular economy and waste management concepts, the conversion of nappies and/or their ingredients (such as super absorbent polymer (SAP)) to high added value products is of great importance. In this work, a modified SAP (MSAP) was examined as an adsorbent for treatment of contaminated waters and uranium recovery. Batch experiments and spectroscopic techniques were used to examine the effect of various parameters (pH, contact time, temperature, initial concentration, and ionic strength), and the mechanism of adsorption U(VI) and desorption process. The U(VI) concentration was determined by alpha spectroscopy after addition of 232U standard tracer solution to account for possible interferences during electrodeposition and alpha particle counting. The maximum adsorption monolayer capacity was found to be 217.4 mg/g at pH 4.0 and at 298 K. The adsorption of U(VI) on MSAP seems to occur mainly via the formation of inner-sphere surface complexes between U(VI) and the carboxylic surface moieties of MSAP. The MSAP could satisfactorily be regenerated with 0.1 M Na2CO3 (>90%) and it also shows a promising applicability to real wastewaters contaminated with U(VI).

Concurrent, Performance-Based Methodology for Increasing the Accuracy and Certainty of Short-Term Neural Prediction Systems.

Accurate prediction of the short time series with highly irregular behavior is a challenging task found in many areas of modern science. Such data fluctuations are not systematic and hardly predictable. In recent years, artificial neural networks have widely been exploited for those purposes. Although it is possible to model nonlinear behavior of short time series by using ANNs, very often they are not able to handle all events equally well. Therefore, alternative approaches have to be applied. In this study, a new, concurrent, performance-based methodology that combines best ANN topologies in order to decrease the forecasting errors and increase the forecasting certainty is proposed. The proposed approach is verified on three different data sets: the Serbian Gross National Income time series, the municipal traffic flow for a particular observation point, and the daily electric load consumption time series. It is shown that the method can significantly increase the forecasting accuracy of the individual networks, regardless of their topologies, which makes the methodology more applicable. For quantitative comparison of the accuracy of the proposed methodology with that of similar methodologies, a series of additional forecasting experiments that include a state-of-the-art ARIMA modelling and a combination of ANN and linear regression forecasting have been conducted.

Applying multi-criteria analysis for preliminary assessment of the properties of alginate immobilized Myriophyllum spicatum in lake water samples.

The preliminary assessment of the properties of alginate immobilized aquatic weed Myriophyllum spicatum beads-MsAlg in a multi-element system of nine Serbian lakes water samples was done. Herein, the results obtained in the biosorption experiment with MsAlg contents of twenty-two elements analysed by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry, biosorption capacity, element removal efficiency, total hardness (TH) and quality index of water (WQI) are presented. Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy was used for the characterization of M. spicatum and its beads. The study showed that aluminium, magnesium and strontium were adsorbed by MsAlg in the water samples from all examined lakes; barium and iron in the water samples from six lakes. The overall average efficiency of MsAlg in biosorption of elements was in the following order: Al > Ba > Sr > Fe > Mg (58.6, 51.7, 48.2, 23.9 and 17.7%, respectively). The increase of TH and WQI values after the biosorption was noticed in all studied lake water samples. The most significant correlations for pH were regarding the contents of B, Mg and Ca, whereas WQI was highly correlated to the contents of B and Mg, and pH. The complexity of the obtained data was explained by Cluster Analysis and Principal Component Analysis, which showed good discrimination capabilities between the water samples taken from different locations. Considering that the invasive M. spicatum is natural, widespread and that its immobilization is cheap and eco-friendly, presented findings could be helpful in further assessment of MsAlg beads for its potential use as biofilter.

Utilization of phosphate rock from Lisina for direct application: release of plant nutrients in the exchange-fertilizer mixtures.

This study examined the possibility of direct application of phosphate rock (PR) from Lisina deposit, in a mixture with natural clinoptilolite (Cp) and clinoptilolite partially saturated with ammonium ions (NH4-Cp). Solution P concentrations of the NH4-Cp/PR mixtures were sufficient for plant growth and ranged from 0.36 to 0.82 mg L(-1). The median NH4-Cp/PR ratio and the longest proposed mixing time had the most positive impact on the P concentration. Solution Ca concentrations of the NH4-Cp/PR mixtures were between 112.5 and 700.5 mg L(-1), indicating that use of the proposed NH4-Cp/PR mixtures solves the potential lack of Ca(2+) in the solution, which is typical for substrates of similar composition. Selected artificial neural networks (ANNs) were able to predict experimental variables for a broad range of the process parameters all through assay. Manifold effects of small changes in composition of the mixtures and time on the observed concentrations of nutrients were shown using the sensitivity analysis.