Naturally aged polylactic acid microplastics stunted pakchoi (Brassica rapa subsp. chinensis) growth with cadmium in soil.

Biodegradable microplastics (BMPs) and cadmium (Cd) are posing threats to agro-systems especially to plants and current studies mostly used virgin BMPs to explore their ecological effects. However, effects of naturally aged BMPs and their combined effects with Cd on pakchoi are yet to be unraveled. Therefore, this study incubated naturally aged polylactic acid (PLA) MPs through soil aging process and investigated the single and combined effects of Cd and PLA MPs (virgin and aged) on pakchoi (Brassica rapa subsp. chinensis) morphology, antioxidant systems and soil microbial activities. Our results found that after being deposited in soil for six months, aged PLA (PLAa) MPs formed with a fractured surface, demonstrating more detrimental effects on pakchoi than virgin ones. PLA/PLAa MPs and Cd stunted pakchoi growth, caused oxidative stress and altered the biophysical environment in soil, separately. Moreover, co-existence of PLA/PLAa MPs and Cd caused greater damages to pakchoi than applied alone. The co-presence of PLAa MPs and Cd inhibited pakchoi biomass accumulation rate by 92.2 % compared with the no-addition group. The results unraveled here emphasized BMPs, especially aged BMPs, could trigger negative effects on agro-systems with heavy metals. These findings will give reference to future holistic assessments of BMPs' ecological effects.

New insights into the r/K selection theory achieved in methanogenic systems through continuous-flow and sequencing batch operational modes.

Anaerobic digestion is achieved through cooperation among various types of microorganisms, and the regulation of microbial communities is key to achieving stable system operation. In this study, the r/K selection theory was adopted to examine the system performance and microbial characteristics in anaerobic reactors with different operating modes (continuous-flow reactors, CFRs; sequencing batch reactors, SBRs) and sludge retention times (25 and 10 days). Four lab-scale reactors (CFR25d, CFR10d, SBR25d, and SBR10d) were operated. In the cycle reaction, CFR25d achieved the highest methane yield (678.0 mL/L) and methane production rate (140.8 mL/(L·h)); while those in CFR10d were the lowest, which could have been due to an accumulation of volatile fatty acids. CFR could wash out r-strategists efficiently, such as Methanosarcina. CFR25d and CFR10d significantly enriched the K-strategist Geobacter, with the relative abundances of 34.0% and 72.6%, respectively. In addition, the hydrogenotrophic methanogens of Methanolinea and Methanospirillum (K-strategists) dominated in CFR25d and CFR10d. Methanobacterium adapted to the diverse operational conditions, but the slow grower Methanosaeta only accounted for 0.9% in CFR10d. Failure to enrich propionate oxidizers resulted in a functional absence of propionate degradation in the CFRs.

Prediction of tempo-spatial patterns and exceedance probabilities of atmospheric corrosion of Q235 carbon steel across China.

To reduce the losses caused by the atmospheric corrosion of carbon steels, it is important to establish a prediction model to determine the corrosion rate of carbon steels in natural environments. In this study, a prediction model of atmospheric corrosion of Q235 carbon steel (PMACC-Q235) in China was established by coupling the mean impact value algorithm and back propagation artificial neural network. Tempo-spatial patterns of corrosion rates in five long-exposure time categories across China were analyzed. Ten main factors affecting the atmospheric corrosion of Q235 were identified. The corrosion rates in a single year were similar (approximately 30 µm/a) and larger than those for 2 (25.30 µm/a) and 3 years (21.66 µm/a). The spatial corrosion rates in the northwestern areas were primarily lower than those in southeastern coastal areas. This could be influenced by climatic factors, such as temperature, humidity, and precipitation. All corrosion rates reached the C2 level (>1.3 µm/a), and there was some possibility that they reached higher corrosion levels. The largest probability for the C3 level in all periods was an average of 0.91, and that for the C4 level was 0.83. Spatially, higher probabilities were mainly located in the southern area, especially in Hainan, located in the south and surrounded by sea. Corrosion rates largely varied among climatic zones, and mean corrosion rates in the tropical monsoon climate zone were the largest (average of three periods 33.39 µm/a). SO2 and soluble-dust fall had the largest impact on the variations in the corrosion rates among different climatic zones.

Development of a dynamic feeding strategy for continuous-flow aerobic granulation and nitrogen removal in a modified airlift loop reactor for municipal wastewater treatment.

This study investigated the aerobic sludge granulation and nitrogen removal performance in a modified airlift loop reactor treating municipal wastewater under different operation conditions. Dynamic feeding and aeration control were applied to create feast/famine conditions to facilitate microbial aggregation. Experimental results demonstrated that aerobic granular sludge could be cultivated in continuous-flow reactors fed with an optimized dynamic feeding condition. Fresh granules sizing 0.4-0.6 mm were observed in the reactors after a 61-day operation, then turned to matured granules after another 33-day operation with a compact structure, a stable size of 2-4 mm, and a low SVI of ~35 mL/g. Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) analysis results showed that both EPS contents and the ratio of protein to polysaccharides increased with the granulation process, leading to an increase of cell hydrophobicity. Granular sludge exhibited a good nitrogen removal ability with a comparable level of specific nitrification rate and denitrification rate with those measured in state-of-the-art sequential batch reactors. Microbial population analysis showed an increase in the relative abundance of functional microbes, including Zoogloea, Nitrospira, Dechloromonas, and Thauera in the cultivated granules, suggesting a potentially crucial role of these microbes in sludge granulation and nitrogen removal. The dynamic feeding strategy and the reactor configuration are considered as critical factors for aerobic granulation under continuous-flow conditions for creating feast/famine conditions and allow sludge backflow without structure damage.

Two-stage anaerobic digestion of food waste coupled with in situ ammonia recovery using gas membrane absorption: Performance and microbial community.

A two-stage GAs Membrane Absorption anaerobic Reactor (GAMAR) was developed by combining the gas membrane absorption (GMA) system with two-stage anaerobic digestion. The two-stage configuration consisted of an acidogenic reactor (AR) and a methanogenic reactor (MR) with GMA. With the application of GMA, the ammonia concentration of MR was maintained at 2200 mgN L-1 to alleviate potential ammonia inhibition. The setup of AR enhanced hydrolysis and acidogenesis of FW and alleviated volatile fatty acids (VFA) accumulation in MR. Two-stage GAMAR could be operated stably at 6.1 kg VS m-3 d-1 and the volumetric biogas production rate was 3.21 m3 m-3 d-1. The different environmental conditions caused a significant shift in the microbial community. Lactobacillus and Aeriscardovia became predominant in AR under low pH, while Syntrophomonas was dominant in MR when the reactor was stable. The dominant archaea genus in MR was Methanothrix and it greatly decreased when MR was acidified.

Enhanced biogas production and in situ ammonia recovery from food waste using a gas-membrane absorption anaerobic reactor.

A novel GAs-Membrane Absorption anaerobic Reactor (GAMAR) was developed by combining gas-membrane absorption system with anaerobic digestion. A gas-permeable expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) membrane was submerged in the anaerobic reactor. Free ammonia could transfer through the gas-permeable membrane and be recovered by acidic solution. The free ammonia concentration was lower than 40 mgN L-1 in GAMAR, which alleviated ammonia inhibition. Meanwhile free ammonia concentration up 70 mgN L-1 in the reference reactor inhibited methanogens and led to unstable operation. The volumetric biogas production rate of GAMAR was 2.83 m3 m-3 d-1, and 58% higher than the reference reactor. Long term use of membrane led to membrane fouling and hydrophobicity loss. The contact angle of membrane decreased from 105.9 ±â€¯1.2° to 97.6 ±â€¯6.3° after 43 d. The abundance of methanogens in GAMAR was 1.8-2.1 times higher than that in the reference reactor, which was in accordance with the higher biogas production rate in GAMAR.

Carbon dioxide fixation coupled with ammonium uptake by immobilized Scenedesmus obliquus and its potential for protein production.

In this study, immobilized Scenedesmus obliquus (S. obliquus) was proposed to simultaneously alleviate the carbon dioxide (CO2) and ammonium (NH4+-N). Two trophic modes of autotrophy and mixotrophy were conducted by batch experiments with a period of 5 days. The results shown that NH4+-N could be removed more efficiently if algal cells were immobilized, and the trophic mode change had no significant effect on immobilized S. obliquus to NH4+-N removal under 5% CO2 sparging. Specifically, immobilized S. obliquus could remove NH4+-N completely at initial concentrations of 30 and 50 mg/L and reached about 80% removal rate of NH4+-N at the concentration of 70 mg/L under both trophic modes. The protein synthesis was its main removal mechanism and the dominant amino acid components including glutamic acid (Glu), cystine (Cys), arginine (Arg), methionine (Met) and lysine (Lys) were sensitive to NH4+-N assimilation.

[Corrosion of stainless steel 201, 304 and 316L in the simulated sewage pipes reactor].

The corrosion behavior of stainless steel 201, 304 and 316L which would be used as sewer in-situ rehabilitation materials was studied in the simulated sewage pipes reactor. The corrosion potential and corrosion rate of these three materials were studied by potentiodynamic method on the 7th, 14th, 21st, 56th day under two different conditions which were full immersion condition or batch immersion condition with a 2-day cycle. The electrode process was studied by Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) on the 56th day. The microstructure and composition of the corrosion pitting were analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS) on the 56th day. The results showed that 304 and 316L had much better corrosion resistance than 201 under both conditions. 304 and 316L had much smaller corrosion rate than 201 under both conditions. The corrosion resistance of all three kinds of stainless steel under the batch immersion condition was much better than those under the full immersion condition. The corrosion rate of all three kinds of stainless steel under the batch immersion condition was much smaller than those under the full immersion condition. Point pitting corrosion was formed on the surfaces of 304 and 316L. In comparison, a large area of corrosion was formed in the surface of 201.

The performance of high-loading composite anammox reactor and its long-term recovery from extreme substrates inhibition.

A composite reactor combined with granule and biofilm in one single SBR was developed for high-rate anammox operation. Low activity flocculent inoculum was used as seed sludge and the nitrogen loading rate reached 10.62kgNm(-3)d(-1) after 93days' operation. Subsequently, the performance of high-loading anammox reactor under fluctuation condition was investigated. Due to the extremely short hydraulic retention time and high-strength substrates, the reactor presented dramatic substrates accumulation which resulted in severe inhibition subsequently. Nevertheless, the composite reactor presented significant recovery potential even after biomass hydrolysis caused by inhibition, mainly due to the protection and promotion supplied by biofilm. Besides, granules were gradually formed and accumulated from the flocculent sludge directly during the recovery operation, further elevating the reactor performance. The nitrogen loading rate and corresponding nitrogen removal rate achieved 20.30 and 18.01kgNm(-3)d(-1) with total nitrogen in the influent of 1500mg/l finally.

Graphene-supported nanoscale zero-valent iron: removal of phosphorus from aqueous solution and mechanistic study.

Excess phosphorus from non-point pollution sources is one of the key factors causing eutrophication in many lakes in China, so finding a cost-effective method to remove phosphorus from non-point pollution sources is very important for the health of the aqueous environment. Graphene was selected to support nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) for phosphorus removal from synthetic rainwater runoff in this article. Compared with nZVI supported on other porous materials, graphene-supported nZVI (G-nZVI) could remove phosphorus more efficiently. The amount of nZVI in G-nZVI was an important factor in the removal of phosphorus by G-nZVI, and G-nZVI with 20 wt.% nZVI (20% G-nZVI) could remove phosphorus most efficiently. The nZVI was very stable and could disperse very well on graphene, as characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Raman spectroscopy were used to elucidate the reaction process, and the results indicated that Fe-O-P was formed after phosphorus was adsorbed by G-nZVI. The results obtained from X-ray diffraction (XRD) indicated that the reaction product between nZVI supported on graphene and phosphorus was Fe3(PO4)2·8H2O (Vivianite). It was confirmed that the specific reaction mechanism for the removal of phosphorus with nZVI or G-nZVI was mainly due to chemical reaction between nZVI and phosphorus.