Biofouling control by phosphorus limitation strongly depends on the assimilable organic carbon concentration.

Nutrient limitation is a biofouling control strategy in reverse osmosis (RO) membrane systems. In seawater, the assimilable organic carbon content available for bacterial growth ranges from about 50 to 400 μg C·L, while the phosphorus concentration ranges from 3 to 11 μg P·L. Several studies monitored biofouling development, limiting either carbon or phosphorus.

Influence of two polarization potentials on a bioanode microbial community isolated from a hypersaline coastal lagoon of the Yucatan peninsula, in México.

In recent years, halotolerant biofilms have become a subject of interest for its application in Bioelectrochemical systems for wastewater treatment. To determine if the polarization potential affects the microbial community of a halotolerant bioanode, four bioanodes were poised at potentials of +0.34 V/SHE and - 0.

Osmotically and Thermally Isolated Forward Osmosis-Membrane Distillation (FO-MD) Integrated Module.

In this study, we propose a novel module design to integrate forward osmosis (FO) and membrane distillation (MD). The two processes are sealed in one module and operated simultaneously, making the system compact and suitable for a wide range of applications. To evaluate the system under large-scale module operating conditions, FO and MD experiments were performed separately.

Transcriptomics and co-expression networks reveal tissue-specific responses and regulatory hubs under mild and severe drought in papaya (Carica papaya L.).

Plants respond to drought stress through the ABA dependent and independent pathways, which in turn modulate transcriptional regulatory hubs. Here, we employed Illumina RNA-Seq to analyze a total of 18 cDNA libraries from leaves, sap, and roots of papaya plants under drought stress. Reference and de novo transcriptomic analyses identified 8,549 and 6,089 drought-responsive genes and unigenes, respectively.

Corn industrial wastewater (nejayote): a promising substrate in Mexico for methane production in a coupled system (APCR-UASB).

In Mexico, the corn tortilla is a food of great economic importance. Corn tortilla production generates about 1500-2000 m of wastewater per 600 tons of processed corn. Although this wastewater (also known as nejayote) has a high organic matter content, few studies in Mexico have analyzed its treatment.

Pretreatment of vinasse from the sugar refinery industry under non-sterile conditions by in a fluidized bed bioreactor and its effect when coupled to an UASB reactor.

Background: During hydrous ethanol production from the sugar refinery industry in Mexico, vinasse is generated. Phenolic compounds and melanoidins contribute to its color and make degradation of the vinasse a difficult task. Although anaerobic digestion (AD) is feasible for vinasse treatment, the presence of recalcitrant compounds can be toxic or inhibitory for anaerobic microorganism.

A fast linear predictive adaptive model of packed bed coupled with UASB reactor treating onion waste to produce biofuel.

Background: Agro-industrial wastes are an energy source for different industries. However, its application has not reached small industries. Previous and current research activities performed on the acidogenic phase of two-phase anaerobic digestion processes deal particularly with process optimization of the acid-phase reactors operating with a wide variety of substrates, both soluble and complex in nature.

Pluggable microbial fuel cell stacks for septic wastewater treatment and electricity production.

Septic tanks and other decentralized wastewater treatment systems play an important role in protecting public health and water resource for remote or developing communities. Current septic systems do not have energy production capability, yet such feature can be very valuable for areas lack access to electricity. Here we present an easy-to-operate microbial fuel cell (MFC) stack that consists a common base and multiple pluggable units, which can be connected in either series or parallel for electricity generation during waste treatment in septic tanks.