Mobility and phytoavailability of As and Pb in a contaminated soil using pine sawdust biochar under systematic change of redox conditions.

Biochar has been adopted to control the mobility and phytoavailability of trace elements (TEs) in soils. To date, no attempt has been made to determine the mobility and phytoavailability of arsenic (As) and lead (Pb) in a contaminated soil with biochars as amendments under predefined redox potentials (E). Thus, in this study, a soil contaminated with As and Pb (2047 and 1677 mg kg, respectively) was pre-incubated for 105 days with three amendments (pine sawdust biomass (BM) and two biochars produced from the same feedstock at 300 °C (BC300) and 550 °C (BC550)).

Measurements of major VOCs released into the closed cabin environment of different automobiles under various engine and ventilation scenarios.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in automobile cabins were measured quantitatively to describe their emission characteristics in relation to various idling scenarios using three used automobiles (compact, intermediate sedan, and large sedan) under three different idling conditions ([1] cold engine off and ventilation off, [2] exterior air ventilation with idling warm engine, and [3] internal air recirculation with idling warm engine). The ambient air outside the vehicle was also analyzed as a reference. A total of 24 VOCs (with six functional groups) were selected as target compounds.

Pyrogenic transformation of Nannochloropsis oceanica into fatty acid methyl esters without oil extraction for estimating total lipid content.

This study fundamentally investigated the pseudo-catalytic transesterification of dried Nannochloropsis oceanica into fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) without oil extraction, which was achieved in less than 5min via a thermo-chemical pathway. This study presented that the pseudo-catalytic transesterification reaction was achieved in the presence of silica and that its main driving force was identified as temperature: pores in silica provided the numerous reaction space like a micro-reactor, where the heterogeneous reaction was developed. The introduced FAME derivatization showed an extraordinarily high tolerance of impurities (i.

Pseudo catalytic transformation of volatile fatty acids into fatty acid methyl esters.

Instead of anaerobic digestion of biodegradable wastes for producing methane, this work introduced the transformation of acidogenesis products (VFAs) into fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) to validate the feasible production of short-chained fatty alcohols via hydrogenation of FAMEs. In particular, among VFAs, this work mainly described the mechanistic explanations for transforming butyric acid into butyric acid methyl ester as a case study. Unlike the conventional esterification process (conversion efficiency of ∼94%), the newly introduced esterification under the presence of porous materials via the thermo-chemical process reached up to ∼99.

Pyrolysis of microalgal biomass in carbon dioxide environment.

This work mechanistically investigated the influence of CO2 in the thermo-chemical process of microalgal biomass (Chlorella vulgaris and Microcystis aeruginosa) to achieve a fast virtuous cycle of carbon via recovering energy. This work experimentally justified that the influence of CO2 in pyrolysis of microalgal biomass could be initiated at temperatures higher than 530 °C, which directly led to the enhanced generation of syngas. For example, the concentration of CO from pyrolysis of M.