Life cycle assessment of integrated solid state anaerobic digestion and composting for on-farm organic residues treatment.

Driven by the gradual changes in the structure of energy consumption and improvements of living standards in China, the volume of on-farm organic solid waste is increasing. If untreated, these unutilized on-farm organic solid wastes can cause environmental problems. This paper presents the results of a life cycle assessment to compare the environmental impacts of different on-farm organic waste (which includes dairy manure, corn stover and tomato residue) treatment strategies, including anaerobic digestion (AD), composting, and AD followed by composting.

Effects of organic wastes on structural characterizations of humic acid in semiarid soil under plastic mulched drip irrigation.

The objective of this work was to evaluate the variation in the amount and structure of humic acid (HA) after the application of organic wastes (OWs) in semiarid soil under plastic mulched drip irrigation, measured by elemental composition, excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence, and carbon 13 nuclear magnetic resonance (C CPMAS NMR). The experiment involved chemical fertilizer combined with chicken manure (CM), sheep manure (SM), maize straw (MS), fodder grass (FG), and tree leaves (TL), while chemical fertilizer only was used as control (CK). The highest cation exchange capacity (CEC), soil organic carbon (SOC), and HA contents (P < 0.

Biodegradation of 17β-estradiol by Bacterial Co-culture Isolated from Manure.

Animal wastes are potential sources of natural and steroidal estrogen hormones into the environment. These hormones can be removed by microorganisms with induced enzymes. Two strains of 17β-estradiol-degrading bacteria (LM1 and LY1) were isolated from animal wastes.

Remarkable improved electro-Fenton efficiency by electric-field-induced catalysis of CeO.

In this study, we designed a novel combined electro-Fenton system for the treatment of wastewater containing biological recalcitrant using electric-field-induced ceria (CeO) as the synergistic catalysts. It was found that by applying this CeO electro-Fenton system, the current efficiency improved from 74.49% to 109.

Bio-inspired redox-cycling antimicrobial film for sustained generation of reactive oxygen species.

Open wounds and burns are prone to infection and there remains considerable interest in developing safe and effective mechanisms to confer antimicrobial activities to wound dressings. We report a biomimetic wound dressing for the in situ and sustained generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Specifically, we fabricate a catechol-modified chitosan film that mimics features of the melanin capsule generated during an insect immune response to infection.

Impervious area percentage predicated influence of rapid urbanization on macroinvertebrate communities in a southwest China river system.

Urban areas and their development depress water physicochemical properties, river habitats and aquatic biotic integrity worldwide. Benthic macroinvertebrates at 61 sites representing three types of river reach locations (upstream rural areas, intermediate and downstream of urban areas) on the Liangtan River, a rapidly urbanized river with untreated sewage discharge in southwest China, were examined to compare their community composition and diversity. Their relationships with environmental variables were also explored.

Reactor performance and energy analysis of solid state anaerobic co-digestion of dairy manure with corn stover and tomato residues.

Anaerobic co-digestion is commonly believed to be benefical for biogas production. However, additional of co-substrates may require additional energy inputs and thus affect the overall energy efficiency of the system. In this study, reactor performance and energy analysis of solid state anaerobic digestion (SS-AD) of tomato residues with dairy manure and corn stover were investigated.

Effects of co-digestion of cucumber residues to corn stover and pig manure ratio on methane production in solid state anaerobic digestion.

This study investigated the performance of co-digesting cucumber residues, corn stover, and pig manure at different ratios. Microbial community structure was analyzed to elucidate functional microorganism contributing to methane production during co-digestion. Results show that mixing cucumber residues with pig manure and corn stover could significantly improved methane yields 1.

A national assessment of the effect of intensive agro-land use practices on nonpoint source pollution using emission scenarios and geo-spatial data.

China's intensive agriculture has led to a broad range of adverse impacts upon ecosystems and thereby caused environmental quality degradation. One of the fundamental problems that face land managers when dealing with agricultural nonpoint source (NPS) pollution is to quantitatively assess the NPS pollution loads from different sources at a national scale. In this study, export scenarios and geo-spatial data were used to calculate the agricultural NPS pollution loads of nutrient, pesticide, plastic film residue, and crop straw burning in China.

Seed germination test for toxicity evaluation of compost: Its roles, problems and prospects.

Compost is commonly used for the growth of plants and the remediation of environmental pollution. It is important to evaluate the quality of compost and seed germination test is a powerful tool to examine the toxicity of compost, which is the most important aspect of the quality. Now the test is widely adopted, but the main problem is that the test results vary with different methods and seed species, which limits the development and application of it.

Anaerobic digestion of food waste - Challenges and opportunities.

The disposal of large amounts of food waste has caused significant environmental pollution and financial costs globally. Compared with traditional disposal methods (i.e.

Urea deep placement reduces yield-scaled greenhouse gas (CH and NO) and NO emissions from a ground cover rice production system.

Ground cover rice production system (GCRPS), i.e., paddy soils being covered by thin plastic films with soil moisture being maintained nearly saturated status, is a promising technology as increased yields are achieved with less irrigation water.

Phylloremediation of Air Pollutants: Exploiting the Potential of Plant Leaves and Leaf-Associated Microbes.

Air pollution is air contaminated by anthropogenic or naturally occurring substances in high concentrations for a prolonged time, resulting in adverse effects on human comfort and health as well as on ecosystems. Major air pollutants include particulate matters (PMs), ground-level ozone (O), sulfur dioxide (SO), nitrogen dioxides (NO), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). During the last three decades, air has become increasingly polluted in countries like China and India due to rapid economic growth accompanied by increased energy consumption.

Effects and mechanisms of meta-sodium silicate amendments on lead uptake and accumulation by rice.

The objectives of this research were to study the effects of NaSiO application on the uptake, translocation, and accumulation of Pb in rice and to investigate the mechanisms of Pb immobilization by NaSiO in paddy rice soils and rice plants. Pot experiments were conducted using a Cd-Pb-Zn-polluted soil and Oryza sativa L. ssp.

Effects of pH buffering agents on the anaerobic hydrolysis acidification stage of kitchen waste.

This study investigated effects of initial pH buffering agents on the lab-scale anaerobic hydrolysis acidification stage of kitchen waste (KW). Different cheap, available and suitable buffering agents (NaOH(s), NaOH(l), CaO(s)-NaOH, KOH(l)-NaOH, KHPO(s)-KOH, NaCO(s)-NaOH) were added under optimal adjusting mode (first two days: per 16h, after: one time per day) which was obtained in previous work. The effects of buffering agents were evaluated according to indexes of pH, VFAs, NH-N, TS, VS, VS/TS, TS and VS removal rate.

[Effect of Wastewater Nitrogen Concentrations on Nitrogen Removal Ability of ].

, which is an important plant for constructed wetlands, has powerful purification ability for wastewater, however, the relationship between nitrogen removal ability of and wastewater nitrogen concentrations is still unclear. In this study, pot culture experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of wastewater nitrogen levels on nitrogen removal ability of . 7 nitrogen levels were set up as following:2, 5, 10, 20, 100, 200, 400 mg·L.

Effect of pH on the adsorption and photocatalytic degradation of sulfadimidine in Vis/g-CN progress.

In this study, g-CN was synthesized by thermal polycondensation of melamine and was characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV-visible diffuse reflection spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. Results showed that g-CN degraded sulfadimidine (SMD) under visible light, in which the adsorption and photocatalytic degradation was influenced by pH. The maximum adsorption capacity was achieved at approximately pH 5.

Synchrotron Fourier transform infrared mapping: A novel approach for membrane fouling characterization.

We described a synchrotron-based infrared (IR) microscopic method to characterize fouling layer induced by organic foulants and colloidal silica in membrane distillation (MD). This technique, utilizing the ultrahigh brightness of synchrotron infrared source, enables spectra with high signal-to-noise ratio that was obtained from micrometer-sized samples. Our results showed that synchrotron IR mapping was able to resolve the foulant spatial distribution in combined fouling in MD.

Improving rice production sustainability by reducing water demand and greenhouse gas emissions with biodegradable films.

In China, rice production is facing unprecedented challenges, including the increasing demand, looming water crisis and on-going climate change. Thus, producing more rice at lower environmental cost is required for future development, i.e.

Enhanced limonene production in cyanobacteria reveals photosynthesis limitations.

Terpenes are the major secondary metabolites produced by plants, and have diverse industrial applications as pharmaceuticals, fragrance, solvents, and biofuels. Cyanobacteria are equipped with efficient carbon fixation mechanism, and are ideal cell factories to produce various fuel and chemical products. Past efforts to produce terpenes in photosynthetic organisms have gained only limited success.

Chromium(VI) sorption efficiency of acid-activated banana peel over organo-montmorillonite in aqueous solutions.

In the present study, we examined sorption of chromate (Cr(VI)) to acid-activated banana peel (AABP) and organo-montmorillonite (O-mont) as a function of pH, initial Cr(VI) concentration at a sorbent dose of 4 g L and at 20 ± 1°C in aqueous solutions. In sorption edge experiments, maximum Cr(VI) removal was obtained at pH 3 after 2 hours by AABP and O-mont (88% and 69%). Sorption isotherm data showed that the sorption capacity of AABP was higher than O-mont (15.

Control of dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide odors during pig manure composting using nitrogen amendment.

Effects of nitrogen electron acceptors on dimethyl sulfide (MeS) and dimethyl disulfide (MeSS) odor emission during composting was investigated. The chemicals and doses used included sodium nitrate (NO at 10mM, 20mM and 40mM), sodium nitrite (NO at 10mM, 20mM and 40mM) and sodium nitrite (10mM, 20mM and 40mM) with hexaammonium heptamolybdate tetrahydrate (HHT). The results showed that the addition of these chemicals restricted the emission of MeS and MeSS.

The fate of the herbicide propanil in plants of the littoral zone of the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR), China.

The anti-seasonal hydrology with 30m water fluctuations in the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) of China attracts growing environmental and ecological concerns. We investigated the biotransformation of the herbicide propanil in plants dominating in the littoral zone of the TGR by applying the C-ring-labeled herbicide into non-aseptic hydroponic plant systems (Cynodon dactylon, Nelumbo nucifera and Bidens pilosa), aseptic plants (Lemna minor and Lemna gibba) and cell suspension cultures (C. dactylon and L.