Potential and characteristics on nitrobenzene degradation by biological acidification.

Biological acidification, efficient and low-cost biotechnology, is crucial in treating pharmaceutical, pesticide water, and petrochemical wastewater. Nitrobenzene is a typical organic pollutant in petrochemical wastewater with high toxicity and long persistence. However, its effect on hydrolysis acidification is yet to be fully elucidated.

Soil benzene emissions and inhalation health risks affected by various land covers.

Accurate quantification of soil volatile organic compounds (VOCs) flux is crucial for assessing inhalation environmental health risks and developing region-specific remediation strategies. However, land cover significantly influences VOCs emissions from soil. This study investigated benzene, a representative VOCs, using a laboratory flux chamber and numerical simulations to evaluate its release patterns under different surface covers, including bare soil (no cover), clay brick, cement, and grass.

Advancements of the Fluidized Bed Fenton (FBF) Technology for wastewater treatment: Mechanism, mass and heat transfer.

Fluidized Bed Fenton (FBF) technology, a fusion of the Fenton method and fluidized bed reactor, has emerged as a superior alternative to conventional Fenton technology for treating organic industrial wastewater. This innovative approach has garnered significant attention from researchers in recent years. While earlier studies primarily focused on pollutant degradation in simulated wastewater and catalyst development, there has been a growing interest in examining the alterations in mass or heat transfer performance attributed to fluidized beds.

Microbial synthesis of antimony sulfide to prepare catechol and hydroquinone electrochemical sensor by pyrolysis and carbonization.

The application of antimony sulfide sensors, characterized by their exceptional stability and selectivity, is of emerging interest in detection research, and the integration of graphitized carbon materials is expected to further enhance their electrochemical performance. This study represents a pioneering effort in the synthesis of carbon-doped antimony sulfide materials through the pyrolysis of the mixture of microorganisms and their synthetic antimony sulfide. The prepared materials are subsequently applied to electrochemical sensors for monitoring the highly toxic compounds catechol (CC) and hydroquinone (HQ) in the environment.

Towards zero excess sludge discharge with built-in ozonation for wastewater biological treatment.

In this study, a biological treatment process, which used a built-in ozonation bypass to achieve sludge reduction, was built to treat the industrial antifreeze production wastewater (mainly composed of ethylene glycol). The results indicated there is a positive correlation between ozone dosage and sludge reduction. At the laboratory level, the MLSS in the system can be stably controlled at around 3400 mg MLSS L under the dosage of 0.

Tracking the flows of Hg, As, Cd, Cr, and Pb in Chinese coal-fired industrial boilers.

Coal-fired industrial boilers (CFIBs) are critical anthropogenic contributors of heavy metals (HMs) because of their high coal consumption and complicated air pollution control facilities (APCDs). This study explored the flows of Hg, As, Cd, Cr, and Pb in CFIBs at regional scale by establishing a boiler-level HMs inflow-outflow inventory. The results indicate that large-capacity CFIBs (≥ 65 t/h) are the leading contributors to HMs inflows.

Upgrade of the biggest catalytic ozonation wastewater treatment plant in China: From pollution control to carbon reduction.

Catalytic ozonation is a widely used effective technology in advanced treatment for the removal of refractory organics from wastewater. However, it is also a highly energy-consuming technology, usually accounting for 30%∼40% of the total electricity consumption of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The O consumption per unit of COD removed (g-O/g-COD) is usually higher than 1.

High-precision spatio-temporal variations and future perspectives of multiple air pollutant emissions from Chinese biomass-fired industrial boilers.

Biomass-fired industrial boilers (BFIBs) are one of the neglected and important anthropogenic sources of air pollutants. A comprehensive boiler-based emission inventory of multiple air pollutants from BFIBs in China in 2020 was first developed based on the activity level database and updated emission factors. Results showed that national emissions of air pollutants from BFIBs in 2020 were estimated to be 11.

The response of nitrifying activated sludge to chlorophenols: Insights from metabolism and redox homeostasis.

The specialized wastewater treatment plants for the chemical industry are rapidly developed in China and many other countries. But there is a common bottleneck in that the toxic pollutants in chemical wastewater often cause shock impacts on biological nitrogen removal systems, which directly affects the stability and cost of operation. As the research on nitrification inhibition characteristics is not sufficient till now, there is a great lack of theoretical guidance on the control of the inhibition.

Synthesis of Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) Sludge-Derived Al-FeO as Fenton-like Catalysts for the Efficient Degradation of Tetracycline.

In recent years, the development of environmentally friendly solid catalysts derived from sludge for the efficient removal of pollutants from wastewater has triggered widespread attention. Acid mine drainage (AMD) sludge is a waste produced in the process of acid mine wastewater treatment and contains multitudes of valuable metal resources. Hence it provides the original conditions for the synthesis of metal-based Fenton catalysts.

Pollution characteristics and microbial community succession of a rural informal landfill in an arid climate.

Informal landfills pose potential threats to the environment and human health due to the lack of anti-seepage measures. However, little research has been conducted on the distribution of pollutants in informal landfill sites situated in arid climates, as well as the underlying interaction mechanisms between environmental factors and microbial structure. In this study, we sought to investigate the pollution characteristics and microbial community succession of the landfill in northern China.

Stimulating anaerobic digestion to degrade recalcitrant organic pollutants: Potential role of conductive materials-led direct interspecies electron transfer.

This review aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the potential of CMs-dominated DIET in the degradation of recalcitrant organic pollutants in AD. The review covers the mechanisms and efficiencies of recalcitrant organic pollutant degradation by CMs-dominated DIET, the comparison of degradation pathways between DIET and chemical treatment, recent insights on DIET-enhanced degradation, and the evaluation of the potential and future development of CMs-dominated DIET. The review emphasizes the importance of coupled syntrophic microorganisms, electron flux, and physicochemical properties of CMs in enhancing the degradation performance of AD.

Conductive materials as fantastic toolkits to stimulate direct interspecies electron transfer in anaerobic digestion: new insights into methanogenesis contribution, characterization technology, and downstream treatment.

Direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) stimulated by conductive materials (CMs) enables intercellular metabolic coupling that can address the unfavorable thermodynamical dilemma inherent in anaerobic digestion (AD). Although the DIET mechanism and stimulation have been extensively summarized, the methanogenesis contribution, characterization techniques, and downstream processes of CMs-led DIET in AD are surprisingly under-reviewed. Therefore, this review aimed to address these gaps.

Development, dilemma and potential strategies for the application of nanocatalysts in wastewater catalytic ozonation: A review.

With the continuous development of nanomaterials in recent years, the application of nanocatalysts in catalytic ozone oxidation has attracted more and more researchers' attention due to their excellent catalytic properties. In this review, we systematically summarized the current research status of nanocatalysts mainly involving material categories, mechanisms and catalytic efficiency. Based on summary and analysis, we found most of the reported nanocatalysts were in the stage of laboratory research, which was caused by the nanocatalysts defects such as easy aggregation, difficult separation, and easy leakage.

Formation, application, and storage-reactivation of aerobic granular sludge: A review.

It was an important discovery in wastewater treatment that the microorganisms in the traditional activated sludge can form aerobic granular sludge (AGS) by self-aggregation under appropriate water quality and operation conditions. With a typical three-dimensional spherical structure, AGS has high sludge-water separation efficiency, great treatment capacity, and strong tolerance to toxic and harmful substances, so it has been considered to be one of the most promising wastewater treatment technologies. This paper comprehensively reviewed AGS from multiple perspectives over the past two decades, including the culture conditions, granulation mechanisms, metabolic and structural stability, storage, and its diverse applications.

Evaluation of pH regulation in carbohydrate-type municipal waste anaerobic co-fermentation: Roles of pH at acidic, neutral and alkaline conditions.

This study investigated and evaluated the roles of acidic (pH 4.0), neutral (pH 7.0) and alkaline (pH 10.

Target and Enhance Ethanol and Butyrate Production from Anaerobic Fermentation via the pH and Organic Loading Rate Combined Strategy.

The large capacity production and low utilization rate increase the difficulty of fruit and vegetable wastes (FVW) treatment. Efficient and targeted recovery strategies can solve these problems. This study investigated and proposed combined strategies via pH and organic loading rate (OLR) to target and enhance ethanol- and butyrate-dominant acidogenic production in the FVW mixed culture fermentation.

Effect of extrusion-spheronization granulation and manganese loading on catalytic ozonation of petrochemical wastewater.

The petrochemical secondary effluent (PSE) is typical refractory wastewater derived from the petrochemical industries, which requires advanced treatment due to the strict environmental protection policies. Catalytic ozonation is one of the most widely used advanced oxidation technologies in wastewater treatment because of its high mineralization rate, in which the alumina-based catalyst usually plays an important role. Extrusion-spheronization is a promising technique for the preparation of alumina spheres because the synthesized alumina particles have high sphericity, high specific surface aera and narrow particle size distribution.

Enhanced denitrification of dispersed swine wastewater using Ca(OH)-pretreated rice straw as a solid carbon source.

In a pilot-scale packed bed reactor, the denitrification performance and microbial community structure of the dispersed swine wastewater treatment using calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)) pretreated rice straw as a carbon source were investigated. In a Ca(OH)-pretreated rice straw supported denitrification system (Ca(OH)-RS), the removal efficiency of NO-N was 96.39% at an influent NO-N load of 0.

Effect of carbon source conditions on response of nitrifying sludge to 3,5-dichlorophenol.

Nutritional conditions of activated sludge had a significant influence on nitrification inhibition response. This study comprehensively investigated the inhibition of 3,5-dichlorophenol (3,5-DCP) on nitrification of activated sludge with different C/N ratios and carbon source types. The corresponding extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), microbial communities and functional genes were analysed.

Degradation and mechanism analysis of chloroxylenol in aqueous solution by gas-liquid discharge plasma combined with ozonation.

Gas-liquid discharge non-thermal plasma (NTP) coupled with an ozonation reactor was used to investigate the removal of a broad-spectrum antibacterial agent, chloroxylenol (PCMX), from aqueous solution. Under the same experimental conditions (discharge power of 50.25 W, the initial concentration of PCMX of 60 mg L, oxygen flow of 1.

A thorough observation of an ozonation catalyst under long-term practical operation: Deactivation mechanism and regeneration.

Heterogeneous catalytic oxidation, as an efficient advanced treatment technology, has been gradually applied in industrial wastewater treatment. The fixed bed technique is one of the most popular catalytic ozonation methods. However, few studies have concentrated on the long-term operation effects on catalysts.

Electrochemical Sensor for Directional Recognition and Measurement of Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Water.

The establishment of rapid targeted identification and analysis of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) is very important. In this study, an electrochemical sensor, which can detect ARGs was obtained by modifying the sulfhydryl single-stranded DNA probe onto the thin-film gold electrode through self-assembly. The sensor can perform a hybridization reaction with a target sequence to obtain an electrochemical impedance spectroscopy signal.

Inhibition of biological acidification and mechanism of crotonaldehyde removal with glucose cometabolism.

Biological acidification is an effective method in the treatment or pretreatment of industrial wastewater. Crotonaldehyde is a typical characteristic organic pollutant in petrochemical wastewater, but its effect on biological acidification is unclear. To investigate the inhibitory characteristic of crotonaldehyde on biological acidification and the mechanism of crotonaldehyde removal, variations in volatile fatty acid (VFA) yields, enzyme activities, biodegradation products, and microbial community structures were investigated by batch experiments in the presence of crotonaldehyde.

Using biochar to strengthen the removal of antibiotic resistance genes: Performance and mechanism.

In this study, the excess activated sludge was used for pyrolysis to produce biochar with Ce modification. The removal process and mechanism of ampicillin resistance gene (ARG) by biochar was investigated. The results showed that when pyrolyzing the excess sludge at 400 °C, the organic components in the sludge could be partially pyrolyzed and complexed with Ce.