Thermally Modified Palygorskite Usage as Adsorbent in Fixed-Bed Reactor for High Concentration NH4+-N Removal and Further Application as N-Fertilizer in Hydroponic Cultivation.

Palygorskite sample (Pal) underwent thermal treatment at 400 °C (T-Pal) to be used as adsorbent for the removal of 200 mg NH4+-N/L from artificial solution. After thermal treatment, the sample was characterized via X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). For NH4+-N removal, T-Pal was added as a bed matrix in fixed-bed reactor experiments and the effect of flow rate was determined. It was indicated that with the flow rate increase from 10 mL/min to 50 mL/min, fewer liters of the solution were purified, rendering a longer residual time of interactions, which is optimal for NH4+-N removal from T-Pal. The maximum removed amount was calculated at 978 mg NH4+-N (qtotal), suggesting T-Pal is a promising ammonium adsorbent. The data of kinetic experiments were applied to Clark, Yoon-Nelson, and Thomas kinetic models, with Clark having the best fit, highlighting a heterogenous adsorption. At the end of kinetic experiments, T-Pal applied in hydroponic cultivations and presented a sufficient release rate, which was found utilizable for saturated T-Pal usage as N fertilizer that satisfactory results were deemed concerning lettuces characteristics and growth.

Raw and modified palygorskite in water treatment applications for low-concentration ammonium removal.

Raw palygorskite (Pal) samples went under acid (H-Pal), NaCl (Na-Pal), and CaCl2 treatment (Ca-Pal) in order to be examined as ammonium (NH4 + ) sorbents from aqueous solutions. The samples were characterized by XRD and FT-IR techniques to examine potential structural differences after modifications, and batch kinetic experiment series were applied to determine the optimal conditions for NH4 + removal. According to thermodynamic analysis, the removal reaction for sodium- and calcium-treated samples was endothermic (ΔΗ0  > 0, 1.65 kJ/mol and 24.66 kJ/mol, respectively), in contrast with the exothermic reactions of raw and acidic-treated palygorskite samples (ΔΗ0  < 0, -37.18 kJ/mol and -27.56 kJ/mol respectively). Moreover, each sample presented a different order of sorbed ions preference, whereas the strong affinity for Ca2+ sorption was common in all cases since the NH4 + removal inhibited. Nevertheless, a similar pattern was followed for raw and modified samples at isotherm study, rendering the linear form of Freundlich isotherm to express better the NH4 + sorption on palygorskite sample, indicating that it is a heterogeneous procedure. In all cases, the NH4 + maximum uptake was within 15 min using 8 g/L of each sorbent, especially for the Na-Pal sample, which could reach almost 100% removal of low concentration NH4 + . PRACTITIONER POINTS: Modified palygorskite samples were tested for NH4 + removal from aqueous solutions. NaCl-treated palygorskite had the higher removal efficiency, which could reach almost 100% removal of low concentration NH4 + . NH4 + maximum uptake was within 15 minutes using 8 g/L of each sorbent. NH4 + adsorption was an endothermic reaction for NaCl- and CaCl2 -treated palygorskite sorbents. NH4 + adsorption was an exothermic reaction for raw and acid-treated palygorskite sorbents.

Polymeric Coatings Based on Water-Soluble Trimethylammonium Copolymers for Antifouling Applications.

Crosslinked polymeric materials based on a quaternary trimethylammonium compound were developed and evaluated as potential antifouling coatings. For this purpose, two water-soluble random copolymers, poly(4-vinylbenzyltrimethylammonium chloride-co-acrylic acid) P(VBCTMAM-co-AAx) and poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide-co-glycidylmethacrylate) P(DMAm-co-GMAx), were synthesized via free radical polymerization. A water based approach for the synthesis of P(VBCTMAM-co-AAx) copolymer was used. Coatings of the complementary reactive copolymers in different compositions were obtained by curing at 120 °C for one day and were used to coat aquaculture nets. These nets were evaluated in respect to their release rate using Total Organic Carbon (TOC) and Total Nitrogen (TN) measurements. Finally, the antifouling efficacy of these newly-composed durable coatings was investigated for 14 days in accelerated conditions. The results showed that this novel polymeric material provides contact-killing antifouling activity for a short time period, whereas it functions efficiently in biofouling removal after high-pressure cleaning.

Preliminary background indoor EMF measurements in Greece.

The main purpose of this work was to investigate the fluctuation of Greek indoor electromagnetic field (EMF) intensity values and identify peaks that might occur. The scientific interest is mainly focused on the bands of extremely low-frequency (ELF) magnetic fields and radiofrequency (RF) electric fields which have been suggested to be possibly carcinogenic to humans by the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR). Electromagnetic radiation (EMR) measurements were performed in a variety of indoor dwellings, in Attica and in the islands of Zakynthos and Lesvos. A total number of 4540 measurements were taken in a wide frequency range (50 Hz-2100 MHz) of which 3301 in Attica, 963 in Lesvos and 276 in Zakynthos. Statistical analysis of the data revealed specific statistically significant differences between the mean values of the electric (ELF and RF) but not the magnetic (ELF) field strengths measured at different distances from the EMF source, as well as between some of the mean values of the RF electric field at different bands. Some statistically significant differences between mean electric field values at different geographic locations were also identified. As far as the RF electric field is concerned, the maximum values, in most cases, were below 0.5 V/m, however increased values above 1 V/m and up to 5.6 V/m were occasionally observed. The ELF magnetic field values were lower than 1 µT. It may be concluded that overall, the observed indoor EMF intensity values remained well below domestic and European established limits.

Groundwater quality assessment of the Limnos Island Volcanic Aquifers, Greece.

Limnos Island in Greece, which has been the subject of extensive hydrogeological research, contains confined volcanic aquifers that overlie impermeable flysch. Groundwater salinization is usually the effect of seawater intrusion, and results from a combination of factors such as low annual areal precipitation and exploitation of aquifers for civil, commercial, and agricultural purposes. Areas with intense agricultural activities have also increasingly observed these effects. A geochemical evaluation on the basis of multiple ion (Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, HCO3-, Cl-, SO4(2-), NO3-) concentrations and physicochemical parameters distribution revealed that ion exchange is the dominant hydrogeochemical process. However, the enrichment of groundwater in potassium and magnesium results from rock and mineral weathering and dissolution.

Self-organised critical features in soil radon and MHz electromagnetic disturbances: results from environmental monitoring in Greece.

This paper addresses the issues of self-organised critical behaviour of soil-radon and MHz-electromagnetic disorders during intense seismic activity in SW Greece. A significant radon signal is re-analysed for environmental influences with Fast Fourier Transform and multivariate statistics. Self-organisation of signals is investigated via fractal evolving techniques and detrended fluctuation analysis. New lengthy radon data are presented and analysed accordingly. The data did not show self-similarities. Similar analysis applied to new important concurrent MHz-electromagnetic signals revealed analogous behaviour to radon. The signals precursory value is discussed.

Environmental monitoring of radon in soil during a very seismically active period occurred in South West Greece.

This paper focuses on the environmental monitoring of radon in soil as a potential trace gas in the search of earthquake precursors. The paper reports the following: (a) Pre-monitoring experiments. (b) Set-up of methods and devices. (c) Active and passive monitoring results concentrating on two extremely-strong radon anomalies (~ 500 kBq m(-3)). (e) Discussion regarding the employed ± 2σ technique for identifying radon disturbances. (f) Application of wavelet-power-spectrum fractal analysis for detecting power-law behaviour. The strong anomalies exhibited anti-persistent power-law-beta-values (b = (1.8 ± 0.2), b = (1.8 ± 0.3)) significantly higher than those of the baseline. Persistent b-values were also detected. The findings comply with a self-organised-critical pre-earthquake state. (h) Discussion on models that interpret the radon anomalies focusing on the recently-proposed asperity-model. (i) Application of a recent technique which showed that the two strong disturbances were proportional to the strain change. It was concluded that the strong radon disturbances may be linked to the strong earthquake of 8/6/2008, M = 6.5, occurred 29 km away from the installed instrumentation.

Attachment of Pseudomonas putida onto differently structured kaolinite minerals: a combined ATR-FTIR and 1H NMR study.

The attachment of Pseudomonas (P.) putida onto well (KGa-1) and poorly (KGa-2) crystallized kaolinite was investigated in this study. Batch experiments were carried out to determine the attachment isotherms of P. putida onto both types of kaolinite particles. The attachment process of P. putida onto KGa-1 and KGa-2 was adequately described by a Langmuir isotherm. Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance were employed to study the attachment mechanisms of P. putida. Experimental results indicated that KGa-2 presented higher affinity and attachment capacity than KGa-1. It was shown that electrostatic interactions and clay mineral structural disorders can influence the attachment capacity of clay mineral particles.