Traditional research on biodegradation of emerging organic pollutants involves slow and labor-intensive experimentation. Currently, fast-developing metagenome, metatranscriptome, and metabolome technologies promise to expedite mechanistic research on biodegradation of emerging organic pollutants. Integrating the metagenome, metatranscriptome, and metabolome (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhile most household surfactants are biodegradable in aerobic conditions, their biodegradability may obscure their environmental risks. The presence of surfactants in a biological treatment process can lead to the proliferation of antimicrobial-resistance genes (ARG) in the biomass. Surfactants can be cationic, anionic, or zwitterionic, and these different classes may have different effects on the proliferation ARG.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhile co-oxidation is widely used to biodegrade halogenated organic pollutants (HOPs), a considerable amount of organic primary substrate is required. Adding organic primary substrates increases the operating cost and also leads to extra carbon dioxide release. In this study, we evaluated a two-stage Reduction and Oxidation Synergistic Platform (ROSP), which integrated catalytic reductive dehalogenation with biological co-oxidation for HOPs removal.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmmunition wastewater contains toxic nitrated explosives like RDX and oxyanions like nitrate and perchlorate. Its treatment is challenged by low efficiency due to contaminant recalcitrance and high cost due to multiple processes needed for separately removing different contaminant types. This paper reports a H-based low-energy strategy featuring the treatment of explosives via catalytic denitration followed by microbial mineralization coupled with oxyanion reduction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMore food production required to feed humans will require intensive use of herbicides to protect against weeds. The widespread application and persistence of herbicides pose environmental risks for nontarget species. Elemental-palladium nanoparticles (PdNPs) are known to catalyze reductive dehalogenation of halogenated organic pollutants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA particular challenge to treatment systems for ship wastewater comes from low and variable temperatures. We evaluated the temperature response (35-15 °C) of a novel biological treatment system involving activated sludge followed by a membrane-biofilm reactor: the activated sludge/membrane-biofilm reactor (AS-ABfMemR). In this study, a pilot-scale AS-ABfMemR achieved over 96% chemical oxygen demand (COD) and 94% total nitrogen (TN) removal from a ship wastewater (550-960 mgCOD·L and 52-77 mgTN·L) with a continuous operation with a hydraulic retention time of 12 h at 25 °C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFReductive catalysis by zero-valent palladium nanoparticles (PdNPs) has emerged as an efficient strategy for promoting the detoxification of chlorophenols (CPs) hydrogenation. Most studies achieved hydrodechlorination of CP to phenol for detoxification, but it requires considerably high energy input and harsh conditions to further hydrosaturate phenol to cyclohexanone (CHN) as the most desired product for resource recovery. This study documented 4-CP hydrodechlorination and hydrosaturation catalyzed by PdNPs deposited on H-transfer membranes in the H-based membrane catalyst-film reactor, which yielded up to 99% CHN selectivity under ambient conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNitrated energetics are widespread contaminants due to their improper disposal from ammunition facilities. Different classes of nitrated energetics commonly co-exist in ammunition wastewater, but co-removal of the classes has hardly been documented. In this study, we evaluated the catalytic destruction of three types of energetics using palladium (Pd) nano-catalysts deposited on H-transfer membranes in membrane catalyst-film reactors (MCfRs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFScalable applications of precious-metal catalysts for water treatment face obstacles in H-transfer efficiency and catalyst stability during continuous operation. Here, we introduce a H-based membrane catalyst-film reactor (H-MCfR), which enables in situ reduction and immobilization of a film of heterogeneous Pd catalysts that are stably anchored on the exterior of a nonporous H-transfer membrane under ambient conditions. In situ immobilization had >95% yield of Pd in controllable forms, from isolated single atoms to moderately agglomerated nanoparticles (averaging 3-4 nm).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGroundwater co-contaminated with 1,4-dioxane, 1,1,1-trichloroethane (TCA), and trichloroethene (TCE) is among the most urgent environmental concerns of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), U.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRapid dechlorination and full mineralization of para-chlorophenol (4-CP), a toxic contaminant, are unfulfilled goals in water treatment. Means to achieve both goals stem from the novel concept of coupling catalysis by palladium nanoparticles (PdNPs) with biodegradation in a biofilm. Here, we demonstrate that a synergistic version of the hydrogen (H)-based membrane biofilm reactor (MBfR) enabled simultaneous removals of 4-CP and cocontaminating nitrate.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTrichloroacetic acid (TCAA) is a common disinfection byproduct (DBP) produced during chlorine disinfection. With the outbreak of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the use of chlorine disinfection has increased, raising the already substantial risks of DBP exposure. While a number of methods are able to remove TCAA, their application for continuous treatment is limited due to their complexity and expensive or hazardous inputs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFQuaternary ammonium compounds (QAC, e.g., cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, (CTAB)) are widely used as surfactants and disinfectants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF1,1,1-Trichloroethane (1,1,1-TCA) and trichloroethene (TCE) are common recalcitrant contaminants that coexist in groundwater. H-induced reduction over precious-metal catalysts has proven advantageous, but its application to long-term continuous treatment has been limited due to poor H-transfer efficiency and catalyst loss. Furthermore, catalytic reductions of aqueous 1,1,1-TCA alone or concomitant with TCE catalytic co-reductions are unstudied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe recent discovery of magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) in human brain tissue has raised concerns regarding their source and neurotoxicity. As previous studies have suggested that magnetite in urban dust may be the source, we collected urban magnetic dust and thoroughly characterized the nature of ambient urban magnetic dust particles prior to investigating their neurotoxic potential. In addition to magnetite, magnetic dust contained an abundance (∼40%) of elemental iron (Fe).
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