Search

Biochar, as a soil amendment for synergizing the reduction of pollution and carbon emissions, shows great potential and future prospects in controlling antibiotic contamination. In order to research the effects of biochar on antibiotic behaviors in soil systematically, a Meta-analysis was conducted based on 20 studies published from 2011 to 2021. The results showed that the adsorption and degradation of antibiotics in the soil were significantly affected by the application rate and property of biochar. A 2% biochar application dose seemed to be the highest effect size (ES) of 0.19 on adsorption, while there was a significant effect (ES=0.23) on the degradation when the application rate was 5%. The specific surface area, polarity, stability, and aromaticity of biochar could increase the partition coefficient significantly, and the ES was 0.11, 0.13, 0.09, and 0.18, respectively, whereas the effects of antibiotic transport on the dose and property of biochar were insignificant. Biochar also indirectly controlled antibiotic behavior by altering the soil environment. However, the response of the coupling mechanism in antibiotic behaviors on biochar application into soil is still unclear. Moreover, the long-term and negative effects of biochar application in the field are still lacking basic data.

At present, the effect characteristics and mechanism of organic fertilizer replacing chemical fertilizer on organic carbon mineralization and active organic carbon in dryland yellow soil remain unclear. In order to explore the effect of organic fertilizer replacing chemical fertilizer on organic carbon mineralization and active organic carbon in dryland yellow soil, we used soil with no fertilization (CK), only chemical fertilizer (NP), 50% organic fertilizer replacing chemical fertilizer (1/2(NPM)), and 100% organic fertilizer replacing chemical fertilizer (M). We examined the indoor mineralization culture of organic carbon and explored the characteristics of soil organic carbon and the change in active organic carbon under the condition of organic fertilizer replacing chemical fertilizer. The results showed that organic fertilizer replacing chemical fertilizer increased soil pH, organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), and C/N. During the culture period, the soil organic carbon mineralization rate of all treatments decreased sharply in the initial stage (2-4 days), decreased slightly in the middle stage (4-20 days), and tended to be stable in the last stage (20-60 days). After fertilization, the cumulative mineralization of soil organic carbon significantly increased by 7.9%-27.7%. Compared with that in the NP treatment, the cumulative mineralization of soil organic carbon decreased by 5.2% in the 1/2(NPM) treatment and increased by 12.2% in the 1/2(NPM) treatment. Before mineralization culture, the substitution of organic fertilizer for chemical fertilizer had no significant effect on soil recalcitrant organic carbon (ROC) but significantly increased the content of microbial biomass carbon (MBC). The content of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was significantly increased in the 1/2(NPM) treatment and decreased in the M treatment. After 60 days of culture, the content of soil active organic carbon in all treatments decreased compared with the initial content, of which MBC decreased the most (30.6%-41.2%). The accumulated mineralization of organic carbon was significantly positively correlated with soil pH and SOC and significantly positively correlated with the initial value of MBC and the change value before and after culture. To summarize, 100% organic fertilizer replacing chemical fertilizer significantly promoted soil organic carbon mineralization and reduced soil organic carbon stability; 50% organic fertilizer replacing chemical fertilizer inhibited soil organic carbon mineralization, which was beneficial to soil sequestration and fertilization; and 50% organic fertilizer replacing chemical fertilizer significantly increased soil active organic carbon content, and MBC was used as the main carbon source in the process of soil organic carbon mineralization.

A method for determining volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by cryogenic dynamic adsorption in solid adsorbent tubes, subsequent thermal desorption with cryofocusing in a cold trap and analysis by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry was adapted for continuous ambient air monitoring. VOCs pollution characteristics and health risk assessment (HRA)were researched in detail. Moreover, the sources apportionment was reliably analyzed by positive matrix factorization (PMF) model. The results showed that the average concentration of VOCs was 332.34 μg·m -3 per day, the concentrations of aromatic hydrocarbon and halo hydrocarbon were remarkably high compared to the other VOCs. Particularly, the PMF analysis results revealed that solvent/paint use emission, biomass or coal combustion and motor vehicle exhaust emissions were the main pollutants emission sources. Additionally, the cancer risk index of all carcinogenic substances was higher than the suggested value of USEPA(1×10 -6 ), which could cause potential harm to human health.

The chloroacetic acids are ubiquitous present as a class of trace chlorinated organic pollutants in surface and drinking water. Most of chloroacetic acids are known or suspected carcinogens and, when at high concentrations, are of great concern to human health. In order to economically remove chloroacetic acids, the degradation of chloroacetic acids by cast iron was investigated. Moreover, the effect of iron style, pretreatment process, shocking mode and dissolved oxygen on chloroacetic acids reduced by cast iron was discussed. Compared to iron source and acid pretreatment, mass transfer was more important to chloroacetic acid removal. Dichloroacetic acid (DCAA) and monochloroacetic acid (MCAA) were the main products of anoxic and oxic degradation of trichloroacetic acid (TCAA) by cast iron during the researched reaction time, respectively. With longtitudinal shock, the reaction kinetics of chloroaectic acid removal by cast iron conformed well to the pseudo first order reaction. The anoxic reaction constants of TCAA, DCAA and MCAA were 0.46 h(-1), 0.03 h(-1) and 0, and their oxic constants were 1.24 h(-1), 0.79 h(-1) and 0.28 h(-1), respectively. The removal mechanisms of chloroacetic acids were different under various oxygen concentrations, including sequential hydrogenolysis for anoxic reaction and sequential hydrogenolysis and direct transformation possible for oxic reaction, respectively.

Water temperature has significant effects on the disinfection by-product (DBP) formation and concentration in many water utilities and distribution systems. To study the temperature effect on the DBP concentration, the uniform formation condition (UFC) test was referred in testing the formation concentration of DBPs [including (trihalomethanes) THMs and (haloacetic acids) HAAs] at different temperatures during chlorination of the humic acid (HA) solution. A kinetic model was consequently proposed to predict DBP concentration during chlorination. Results show that for the three detected DBPs, including chloroform (CHCl3), dichloroacetic acid (DCAA) and trichloroacetic acid (TCAA), increasing temperature could considerably enhance both the DBP formation rates and the maximum DBP concentrations, where the maximum concentrations increase exponentially with the water temperature (R2 > 0.90). By using the data-processing software Origin, the detected DBP values were fitted using the proposed first order kinetic model, and the result showed a strong correlation for each DBP at various temperatures (R > 0.94). The apparent reaction rate constant k was also derived for each DBP. In order to quantify the temperature effect on DBP formation, the Arrhenius Equation was employed to calculate the apparent reaction activation energy for each DBP-22.3, 25.5 and 40.8 kJ x mol(-1) for CHCl3, DCAA and TCAA, respectively. By comparing the model predicted and the detected DBP values at 20 and 30 degrees C, the model showed a strong performance in predicting DBP formation concentrations, which indicated the reliability and validity of this proposed kinetic model.

In a batch reactor, the BrO3(-) formation was investigated in the ozonation and catalytic ozonation of Br(-)-containing Yellow river water, using the different heterogeneous catalysts. The results showed that BrO3(-) minimization was achieved in the catalytic ozonation with NiO, CuO, Fe3O4 and Al2O3 as catalysts and the percent reductions of BrO3(-) were 34.0%, 32.8%, 29.2% and 20.8% respectively. In the reaction R(ct), the ratio of concentration of *OH to O3, decreased with the reaction time, and the range of R(ct) was from 10(-8) to 10(-6). In the ozonation process, one of the main reaction pathways of BrO3(-) formation was the combination oxidation of Br(-) by *OH and then O3, another was the combination oxidation of Br(-) by O3 and then *OH. In the catalytic ozonation with Fe3O4 catalyst, the main pathway was the combination oxidation by *OH and then O3. Moreover, about 60.7% removal for UV254 was obtained after 20 min in the catalytic ozonation reaction. In our study, it was found that the catalytic ozonation process can effectively minimize the formation of BrO3(-) and also oxidize organic compounds.

Adsorption behaviors of phosphate on the desert particulates of inflow Yellow River were investigated in natural water (river water and sea water) and the experimental data was fitted by both the improved Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm adsorption models. The results show that (1) With more clear physical meaning and more reasonable fitting parameters, the improved Langmuir isotherm adsorption model is much better for describing phosphate adsorption on the desert particulates than the improved Freundlich isotherm adsorption model; (2) The maximum phosphorus (P) adsorption capacity Qmac is in the range of 41.322-357.143 mg x kg(-1), which is the biggest in Y2 (Juyanhai Lake particulates). There is remarkable positive correlation between Qmax and organic matter of the particulates (Y1-Y5); (3) Except for Y1 (Badain Jaran Desert particulates), the EPC0 (zero equilibrium P concentration) of the particulates are higher than the concentration of P in corresponding water. The EPC0 of P adsorption on Y1 in Yellow River is lower than P concentration in corresponding water (0.010 mg x L(-1) < 0.053 mg x L(-1)), while the EPC0 of P adsorption on Y1 in Bohai Sea water is higher than the P concentration in their corresponding water (0.109 mg x L(-1) > 0.074 mg x L(-1)), which shows that Y1 adsorbs P from the water of the Yellow River, then it releases its NAP (native adsorbed exchangeable phosphorus) into Bohai Seawater. However, in the process of the P exchange between other desert particulates and their corresponding water, only desorption phenomenon were observed, which means all other desert particulates release P to their corresponding water; (4) The adsorption isotherms of phosphate on the desert particulates of inflow Yellow River are cross-axis-type with over 0.00, a new cross-axis-type adsorption-desorption model, which provide a better explanation for adsorption characteristics of P and for the dual role of natural particulates.

The effects of excess aluminum on water distribution system and human health were mainly attributable to the presences of some aluminum species in drinking water. A prediction model for the concentrations of aluminum species was developed using three-layer front feedback artificial neural network method. Results showed that the reaction rates of both inorganic monomeric aluminum and soluble aluminum varied with reaction time and water quality parameters, such as water temperature, pH, total aluminum, fluoride, phosphate and silicate. Their reaction orders were both three. The reaction kinetic parameters of inorganic monomeric aluminum and soluble aluminum could be predicted effectively applying artificial neural network; the correlation coefficients of k and 1/C0(2) between calculated value and predicted value were both greater than 0.999. Aluminum species prediction results in the drinking water of City M showed that when the concentration of total aluminum was less than 0.05 mg x L(-1), the relative prediction error was large for inorganic monomeric aluminum. When the concentration of total aluminum was above 0.05 mg x L(-1), the model could predict inorganic monomeric aluminum and soluble aluminum concentrations effectively, with relative prediction errors of +/- 15% and +/- 10% respectively.

The effects of aluminum on water distribution system and human health are mainly attributable to their presence in drinking water. Laboratory experiments were performed to investigate the influence of temperature and pH on the distribution of aluminum species applying alum synthetic water. Aluminum species studied in the experiments included monomeric aluminum, soluble aluminum, suspended aluminum, and polymeric aluminum, which were determined by fluorescence spectrophotometry method. Results indicated that suspended aluminum was the major species at pH 6.5, occupied about 62.2% in the total aluminum mass concentration. While at pH above 7.0, monomeric aluminum was the major species; and varied little as reaction time increased. Polymeric aluminum mass concentration was low at studied water quality condition and also varied little as reaction time increased. The influence of temperature on aluminum species distribution was similar to solution pH; and both could be explained by pOH. Aluminum species in drinking water could be controlled by adjusting the pOH value, which provided theoretical guidance for the operation of the water distribution system and aluminum toxicity control.

The residual Al concentration and species distribution of a north Chinese city was surveyed using fluorimetry. Results showed that the highest total Al concentration was 0.078 mg x L(-1) and the mean concentration was 0.038 mg x L(-1), lower than the latest portable water standard of 0.2 mg x L(-1). Inorganic mono-aluminum and inorganic poly-aluminum, the main toxicity-leading species, were also the major existence species with the mean concentration 0.011 mg x L(-1) and 0.013 mg x L(-1) respectively. While organic combined aluminum concentration was quite low. Correlation analysis results showed that the Al concentration and species distribution in a certain pipe line was connected with the water quality. When the distribution system contained more salts and less soluble organic matter, the Al concentration would be controlled in a low level, which was important to guide the local operation.

The adsorption behaviors of herbicide glyphoste on three soils were studied. The influence of pH value and ion strength on adsorption was discussed. It was shown that the adsorption dynamic process of glyphoste on three soils all was first order reaction, and the adsorption isotherms all were linear, adsorption coefficients Kd ranged from 2.2207-3.5280 mL x g(-1). The adsorption percentage of glyphoste on three soils increased with the ionic strength decrease. The adsorption percentage of glyphoste on the Huhhot soil and Dongsheng soil increased with pH value gradually decrease (9-3), and the adsorption percentage of the Hangjing 2 soil early increased and late decreased with pH value gradually decrease (9-3).