Bibliometric insights into the evolution of uranium contamination reduction research topics: Focus on microbial reduction of uranium.

Confronting the threat of environment uranium pollution, decades of research have yielded advanced and significant findings in uranium bioremediation, resulting in the accumulation of tremendous amount of high-quality literature. In this study, we analyzed over 10,000 uranium reduction-related papers published from 1990 to the present in the Web of Science based on bibliometrics, and revealed some critical information on knowledge structure, thematic evolution and additional attention. Methods including contribution comparison, co-occurrence and temporal evolution analysis are applied. The results of the distribution and impact analysis of authors, sources, and journals indicated that the United States is a leader in this field of research and China is on the rise. The top keywords remained stable, primarily focused on chemicals (uranium, iron, plutonium, nitrat, carbon), characters (divers, surfac, speciat), and microbiology (microbial commun, cytochrome, extracellular polymeric subst). Keywords related to new strains, reduction mechanisms and product characteristics demonstrated the strongest uptrend, while some keywords related to mechanism and performance were clearly emerging in the past 5 years. Furthermore, the evolution of the thematic progression can be categorized into three stages, commencing with the discovery of the enzymatic reduction of hexavalent uranium to tetravalent uranium, developing in the groundwater remediation process at uranium-contaminated sites, and delving into the research on microbial reduction mechanisms of uranium. For future research, enhancing the understanding of mechanisms, improving uranium removal performance, and exploring practical applications can be considered. This study provides unique insights into microbial uranium reduction research, providing valuable references for related studies in this field.

The effect of low-molecular-weight organic-acids (LMWOAs) on treatment of chromium-contaminated soils by compost-phytoremediation: Kinetics of the chromium release and fractionation.

A soil-plant biological system was developed from chromium (Cr) polluted soil treated by the compost-phytoremediation method. The transformation and migration of the Cr in this system is comprehensively studied in this research. The results illustrated that the co-composting treatment can reduce the Cr availability from 39% (F1 was about 31% of total, F2 was about 8% of total) to less than 2% by stabilizing the Cr. However, herbaceous plants can accumulate the concentrations of Cr from 113.8 to 265.2mg/kg in the two crops, even though the concentration of soluble Cr in the substrate soil was below 0.1mg/L. Cr can be assimilated and easily transferred in the tissues of plants because the low-molecular-weight organic-acids (LMWOAs) derived from the plant root increase the bioavailability of Cr. The amount of extracted Cr dramatically increased when the organic acids were substituted in this order: citric acid>malic acid>tartaric acid>oxalic acid>acetic acid. On average the maximum (147.4mg/kg) and the minimum (78.75mg/kg) Cr were extracted by 20mmol/L citric acid and acetic acid, respectively. The desorption of Cr in different acid solutions can be predicted by the pseudo second-order kinetics. The exchangeable Cr, carbonate-bound Cr, and residual Cr decreased, while Fe-Mn oxide bound Cr and organic bound Cr increased in the soil solid phase. According to the experimental results, the organic acids will promote the desorption and chelation processes of Cr, leading to the remobilization of Cr in the soil.

Screening and characterizing a denitrifying phosphorus-accumulating bacterium isolated from a circular plug-flow reactor.

Denitrifying phosphorus-accumulating organisms (DNPAO) are viewed as one of the most effective means to solve the removal contradiction of nitrogen and phosphorus in wastewater treatment. In this study, we isolated a DNPAO (C-17, accession number: KU745702) from activated sludge in a patented circular plug-flow reactor, physiologically to Pseudomonas sp. based on 16S rRNA sequence and phenotypic characteristics. The results of denitrifying phosphorus-accumulating experiment showed that Pseudomonas C-17 has high removal efficiencies for [Formula: see text] and NO3-N, 75% and 87%, respectively. The ratio of phosphorus release was 25.0 mg [Formula: see text] (with anabolism) and 26.8 mg [Formula: see text] (without anabolism), respectively. Our results indicated that Pseudomonas C-17 had strong capacity of phosphorus release, and its uptake is often imprecisely evaluated by ignoring the part of metabolic consumption. Pseudomonas C-17 is capable of utilizing oxygen, nitrate and nitrite as electron acceptors under experimental conditions.

Engineering application of activated alumina adsorption dams for emergency treatment of arsenic-contaminated rivers.

A batch of lab-based adsorption experiments were performed to investigate the arsenic (As) removal efficacy by activated alumina. Four factors including contact time, pH, initial As concentration and different coexisting ions were examined. The adsorbent made of activated alumina (AA) with particles of 2-4 mm diameter showed a high As removal efficiency and the As concentrations of the samples were below 0.05 mg/L when the hydraulic retention time (HRT) was operated above 5 min. The As concentrations of the samples could remain below 0.05 mg/L for 30 days. A series of AA adsorption dams coupled with several other supporting adsorption techniques were employed for As-contaminated river restoration. The engineering project functioned well, and the effluent As concentration was below 0.05 mg/L when the influent was between 0.2 and 0.7 mg/L, which met the discharge requirement of the Surface Water Quality Standards criteria III in China. The results demonstrated that AA adsorption dams could be applied for emergency treatments of small- or medium-sized rivers contaminated with As.

Whole cell bioreporter application for rapid detection and evaluation of crude oil spill in seawater caused by Dalian oil tank explosion.

Accidents involving the release of crude oil to seawater pose serious threat to human and animal health, fisheries and marine ecosystems. A whole cell bioreporter detection method, which has unique advantages for the rapid evaluation on toxicity and bioavailability, is a useful tool to provide environmental risk assessments at crude oil-contaminated sites. Acinetobacter baylyi ADPWH_alk and ADPWH_recA are chromosomally-based alkane and genotoxicity bioreporters which can be activated to express bioluminescence in the presence of alkanes and genotoxic compounds. In this study, we applied Acinetobacter ADPWH_alk and ADPWH_recA bioreporters to examine six seawater and six sediment samples around the Dalian Bay four weeks after an oil tank explosion in Dalian, China in 2010, and compared the results with samples from the same sites one year after. The results of bioreporter detection suggest that seawater and sediments from five sites (DB, NT, JSB, XHP and FJZ) four weeks after the oil-spill were contaminated by the crude oil with various extents of genotoxicity. Among these six sites, DB and NT had high oil contents and genotoxicity, and JSB had high oil content but low genotoxicity in comparison with an uncontaminated site LSF, which is located at other side of the peninsula. These three sites (DB, NT and JSB) with detectable genotoxicity are within 30 km away from the oil spill point. The far-away two sites XHP (38.1 km) and FJZ (31.1 km) were lightly contaminated with oil but no genotoxicity suggesting that they are around the contamination boundary. Bioreporter detection also indicates that all six sites were clean one year after the oil-spill as the alkane and genotoxicity were below detection limit. This study demonstrates that bioreporter detection can be used as a rapid method to estimate the scale of a crude oil spill accident and to evaluate bioavailability and genotoxicity of contaminated seawater and sediments, which are crucial to risk assessment and strategic decision-making for environmental management and clean-up.