Evaluating heavy metals-related risk in staple crops and making financing strategy for corresponding soil remediation across China.

China's staple crops face heavy metal (HMs) contamination, a widespread issue lacking a national assessment. We used machine learning (ML) to assess risks of 8 HMs in rice, wheat, and maize, and estimated a financing strategy for soil remediation via linear optimization and computable general equilibrium (CGE). The accumulation of HMs in crops depends on Soil-HMs, climate, soil properties, and crop types.

Direct Electrolysis of Municipal Reclaimed Water for Efficient Hydrogen Production Using a Bifunctional Non-Noble-Metal Catalyst.

Water electrolysis for green H production traditionally requires a stable supply of renewable electricity and pure water. However, spatial separation of renewables and water resources as well as water scarcity per capita in China necessitate unconventional water resources for electrolysis. Reclaimed water produced from municipal wastewater treatment plants is widely distributed with quality improved significantly in recent years, which may be a promising alternative to feedstock.

Coupling methanol oxidation with CO reduction: A feasible pathway to achieve carbon neutralization.

The energy consumption of up to 90 % of the total power input in the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) slows down the implementation of electrochemical CO reduction reaction (CORR) to generate valuable chemicals. Herein, we present an alternative strategy that utilizes methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) to replace OER. The iron single atom anchored on nitrogen-doped carbon support (Fe-N-C) use as the cathode catalyst (CORR), low-loading platinum supported on the composites of tungsten phosphide and multiwalled carbon nanotube (Pt-WP/MWCNT) use as the anode catalyst (MOR).

Co-utilization of wastewater sludge and heavy metals for single-atom electrocatalytic reduction of gaseous CO.

Synergetic management of waste activated sludge, heavy metals (HMs) and CO for their valorization and cyclic utilization is rarely reported. Herein, we employed sludge-derived extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and HMs in wastewater to fabricate a gas diffusion electrode (GDE) for electrochemical CO reduction. This approach atomically dispersed Ni at each nanofiber of the GDE.

The insightful water quality analysis and predictive model establishment via machine learning in dual-source drinking water distribution system.

Dual-source drinking water distribution systems (DWDS) over single-source water supply systems are becoming more practical in providing water for megacities. However, the more complex water supply problems are also generated, especially at the hydraulic junction. Herein, we have sampled for a one-year and analyzed the water quality at the hydraulic junction of a dual-source DWDS.

Artificial Soil-Like Material Enhances CO Bio-Valorization into Chemicals in Gas Fermentation.

Gas fermentation offers a carbon-neutral route for producing industrial feedstocks using autotrophic microbes to convert carbon dioxide (CO) in waste gases, such as industrial emissions and biogas, into valuable chemicals or biofuels. However, slow microbial metabolism owing to low gaseous solubility causes significant challenges in gas fermentation. Although chemical or genetic manipulations have been explored to improve gas fermentation, they are either nonsustainable or complex.

Pilot Study on the Combination of Different Pre-Treatments with Nanofiltration for Efficiently Restraining Membrane Fouling While Providing High-Quality Drinking Water.

Nanofiltration (NF) is a promising post-treatment technology for providing high-quality drinking water. However, membrane fouling remains a challenge to long-term NF in providing high-quality drinking water. Herein, we found that coupling pre-treatments (sand filtration (SF) and ozone-biological activated carbon (O-BAC)) and NF is a potent tactic against membrane fouling while achieving high-quality drinking water.

Transfer characteristic of fluorine from atmospheric dry deposition, fertilizers, pesticides, and phosphogypsum into soil.

Fluorine (F) is widely dispersed in the environment and frequently used in industry and agriculture with a high migration ability. Thus, it is essential to understand the leaching characteristic of F in soil from industry and agriculture sources. Several sources of F pollutants in soil, including fertilizers, pesticides, phosphogypsum, and atmospheric deposition, were selected to investigate leaching characteristics of F in soil by leaching experiments.

A novel Biochar modified by Chitosan-Fe/S for tetracycline adsorption and studies on site energy distribution.

A novel wasted sludge-based Biochar modified by Chitosan and Fe/S (BCFe/S) was prepared for tetracycline (TC) removal from water. To investigate the similarities and differences in adsorption behaviors between Biochar and BCFe/S, characterization, kinetics, isotherms and thermodynamics were discussed. The studies on site energy distribution (SED) were also presented.