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Mining activities have introduced various heavy metals and metalloids to surrounding soil environments, causing adverse impacts to the ecological environment system. The extremely high concentration of various heavy metals and metalloids make the Xikuangshan (Hunan, China) an excellent model to assess their ecological risk. In this study, the soil samples from 26 locations of different land use methods in four areas (smelting area, road nearby ore, mining area, and ore tailing area) in Xikuangshan with different levels of various heavy metals and metalloids (Sb, As, Pb, and Cd) were analyzed; in addition, the index of geo-accumulation and the potential ecological risk index were used to evaluate ecological risk. The results showed that the average contents of Sb, As, Pb, and Cd in all soil samples were 4368.222 mg·kg−1, 40.722 mg·kg−1, 248.013 mg·kg−1, and 40.941 mg·kg−1, respectively, implying serious contamination of compound pollution of heavy metals in soil. The concentration of heavy metals in soil among smelting area, road nearby ore, mining area, and ore tailing area showed significant distribution characteristics of region because different mining activities such as smelting, mining, transportation, and stacking caused different pollution intensity. Moreover, the contents of Sb in soil samples decreased successively in residue field, wasteland, forestland, sediment, grassland, and vegetable field, and the contents of Sb in vegetable-field and ecological restoration grassland were relatively low, which indicate that the method of grassland ecological restoration is an effective method to control antimony pollution in soil. The results of ecological risk assessment showed that the antimony mining area was seriously polluted by Sb, As, Pb, and Cd, and had strong ecological risk, and Sb and Cd were the most important pollution factors, which indicated that the pollution of Sb and Cd should be a major concern of relevant departments of environment and health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel adsorbent (Fe3O4/HCO) was prepared via co-precipitation from a mix of ferriferrous oxide and a Ce-rich waste industrial sludge recovered from an optical polishing activity. The effect of system parameters including reaction time, pH, dose, temperature as well as initial concentration on the adsorption of Sb(III) were investigated by sequential batch tests. The Sb(III)/Fe3O4/HCO system quickly reached adsorption equilibrium within 2 h, was effective over a wide pH (3–7) and demonstrated excellent removal at a 60 mg/L Sb(III) concentration. Three isothermal adsorption models were assessed to describe the equilibrium data for Sb(III) with Fe3O4/HCO. Compared to the Freundlich and dubinin-radushkevich, the Langmuir isotherm model showed the best fit, with a maximum adsorption capacity of 22.853 mg/g, which exceeds many comparable absorbents. Four kinetic models, Pseudo-first-order, Pseudo-second-order, Elovich and Intra-particle, were used to fit the adsorption process. The analysis showed that the mechanism was pseudo-second-order and chemical adsorption played a dominant role in the adsorption of Sb(III) by Fe3O4/HCO (correlation coefficient R2 = 0.993). Thermodynamic calculations suggest that adsorption of Sb(III) ions was endothermic, spontaneous and a thermodynamically feasible process. The mechanism of the adsorption of Sb(III) on Fe3O4/HCO could be described by the synergistic adsorption of Sb (III) on Fe3O4, FeCe2O4 and hydrous ceric oxide. The Fe3O4/HCO sorbent appears to be an efficient and environment-friendly material for the removal of Sb(III) from wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most important water treatment agents, polysilicate coagulant, has been playing an important role in coagulation- flocculation, but it is prone to lose stability due to self-polymerization and the forming of silica gel. Therefore, research on the preparation of stable polysilicate coagulant has attract great attention. A new method to prepare a stable polysilicate coagulant (PSPF), was proposed in this paper. Its structure and morphology were characterized by using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) respectively. Fe species in PSPF was analyzed via Fe-Ferron complexation timed spectrophotometric method. The performance of PSPF was assessed by measuring micro-polluted water treatment efficiency. Primary chemicals, such as ferrous sulfate, sodium silicate, potassium dihydrogen phosphate, sodium carbonate, were used. The influence of those parameters affecting the preparation of PSPF, such as nSi/nFe, nP/nFe and nOH/nFe molar ratios were examined. The results showed that nSi/nFe of 1∶4, nP/nFe of 1∶6 and nOH/nFe of 1∶10 under 60 ℃ water bath for 30 min was the optimum condition for preparation. The FTIR spectrum indicated that PSPF was a kind of high molecular polymer, containing new groups (e.g., Si—O—Si and Fe—O—Si), which could increase the molecular weight，molecular chain and coagulation-flocculation efficiency. PSPF presented a cluster appearance similar to a network structure, which was conductive to adsorption-bridging capacity and precipitation sweeping. The increase of Fe(b) and Fe(c) as a result of Si increasing in PSPF improved the polymerization and solidification. The coagulation behaviors of PSPF that were largely affected by the coagulant dosage and pH, indicated that for pH and dosage at 6 and 8 mg·L-1, respectively, the residual turbidity and UV254 removal efficiency could achieve 0.33 NTU and 58.6%, respectively.

Effects of photoreactivating light intensity (0-41 microW x cm(-2)) on photoreactivation of Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis) in the secondary effluent after UV and UV-TiO2 disinfection were investigated. The results indicated that the disinfection efficiency of UV-TiO2 was much higher than that of UV disinfection. The photoreactivation rate of E. coli was much higher in UV disinfection than that in UV-TiO2 disinfection. Under high light intensity in UV-TiO2 disinfection, high resurrection rate can be induced. However, a higher resurrection rate can be introduced even under low light intensity in the UV disinfection. Meanwhile, UV-TiO2 disinfection had a strong inhibition effect on E. faecalis photoreactivation, when the light intensity was lower than 21 microW x cm(-2), three was no resurrection occurred on E. faecalis after 72 h resurrection irradiation, only under a strong photoreactivating light intensity, the resurrection rate of E. faecalis was observed.