Notes

Improving anaerobic digestion procedure using inclusion of conductive supplies.
We use first principle approaches to study the adsorption and catalytic activation mechanism of CO2 on ionic liquids (ILs, [CnMIm]+[Cl]- (n = 0-6)) attached to a Au(111) surface. The adsorption of CO2 at this liquid-solid model interface occurs via either (i) parallel π-stacking mode or (ii) CO2 oxygen lone pair (lp)···π interaction. These CO2 physisorption modes, which depend on the CO2 landing angle at this interface, are identified as an efficient way to activate CO2 and its further conversion into value-added products. For illustration, we discuss the conversion of CO2 into formic acid where the ILs@Au(111) decorated interface allows reduction of the activation energy for the CO2 + H2 → HCOOH reaction. In sum, our electrode/electrolyte based interface model provides valuable information to design novel heterogeneous catalysts for CO2 conversion. Indeed, our work establishes that a suitable interface material is enough to activate CO2.Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) can influence methanotrophic activities and be adsorbed by biochar (BC); however, the impact of H2S on BC in stimulating the methane (CH4) oxidation capacity of landfill cover soil (LCS) has not been clarified. Thus, batch incubation experiments were conducted to observe the effect of H2S on the CH4 oxidation capacity of and microbial communities in BC-amended LCS. Three landfill gas conditions were considered 5 % CH4 and 15 % oxygen (O2) (5 M), 10 % CH4 and 10 % O2, and 20 % CH4 and 5 % O2 (20 M) by volume, with H2S concentrations of 0, 100, 250, and 1000 ppm, respectively. Another series was conducted using LCS subjected to pre-H2S saturation under the 20 M gas condition. In the 5 M gas condition suitable for the dominant methanotroph Methylocaldum (type I), the BC retained its ability to stimulate the CH4 oxidation capacity of LCS (enhancement of 41-108 %) in the presence of H2S. Additionally, when H2S ≤ 250 ppm, the BC exhibited a relatively consistent impact of H2S on both CH4 oxidation capacity and microbial communities in LCS, independent of the CH4 or O2 concentrations. This result could be attributed to the different pathways of H2S metabolism for the LCS and BC-amended LCS. Furthermore, when saturated adsorption of H2S occurred for the LCS, the CH4 oxidation capacity for BC-amended LCS was higher than that for non-amended LCS, which demonstrated the ability of BC in alleviating the inhibition of H2S on CH4 oxidation due to its excellent H2S adsorption under even anoxic environments.This study reports the thermally assisted solid-state synthesis of a cathode comprising a biowaste-derived nitrogen-doped carbon coating on LiFePO4 (LFP) for Li-ion batteries. The eggshell membrane (ESM), which mainly consists of collagen, is converted into nitrogen-doped carbon with good ionic and electrical conductivity during thermally driven decomposition. The ESM-coated LFP (ESM@LFP) containing pyrrolic nitrogen, pyridinic nitrogen, and oxidized pyridinic nitrogen has been motivated to improve its ionic and electrical conductivity, that promotes the movement of Li-ions and electrons on the LFP surface. ESM@LFP exhibits stable cyclability and ~16.3% of increased specific discharge capacity for 100 cycles at a current rate of 1C compared to bare LFP.A promising technology was developed for the remediation of fluoranthene (FLT) contaminated water and soil. Specifically, iron nanoparticles supported on N-doped carbon foam (Fe@CF-N) was synthesized by in-situ impregnation and a unique calcination process using pine cone as the precursor. The obtained Fe@CF-N was used as an activator of potassium peroxymonosulfate (PMS) to degrade FLT in water and soil. According to experimental results, Fe@CF-N had a three-dimensional network structure with a large specific surface area of 249.0 m2 g-1, displaying excellent catalytic performance. The maximum removal efficiency of FLT in water and soil reached 81.83% and 78.12% within 180 min, respectively. After four consecutive degradation cycles, the removal efficiency of FLT in water was still 55%. Electron spin resonance (ESR) measurements showed that hydroxyl radicals (·OH), sulfate radical (SO4-·) and 1O2 were the major reactive oxygen species (ROS). A series of low molecular weight intermediates were generated during the FLT degradation progress, such as C6H6O3 and C3H8O2. The effect of Fe@CF-N/PMS system on the phytotoxicity was evaluated via bioassay based on peas. The results indicated that seed germination rate and root shoot elongation of remediated soil by Fe@CF-N/PMS system were not significantly different from those of noncontaminated soil. This study provided a cost-effective remediation option for PAHs contaminated water and soil.Sulfate-reducing bioreactors for sulfide production are the initial stage of processes targeting elemental sulfur recovery from sulfate-rich effluents. In this work, the principal reactions involved in glycerol fermentation and sulfate reduction using glycerol and its fermentation products as electron donors were assessed together with their specific consumption/production rates. A battery of batch activity tests with and without sulfate were performed with glycerol and with each fermentation product using a non-methanogenic but sulfidogenic granular sludge from an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor operated under long-term while fed with crude glycerol. As a result, a mechanistic approach based on the experimental observations is proposed in this work. Glycerol was mainly fermented to 1,3-propanediol, ethanol, formate, propionate and acetate by fermentative bacteria. All organic intermediates were found to be further used by sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) for sulfate reduction except for acetate. The most abundant genus detected under sulfidogenic conditions were Propionispora (15.2%), Dysgonomonas (13.2%), Desulfobulbus (11.6%) and Desulfovibrio (10.8%). The last two SRB genera accounted for 22.4% of the total amount of retrieved sequences, which were probably performing an incomplete oxidation of the carbon source in the sulfidogenic UASB reactor. As single substrates, specific sulfate reduction rates (SRRs) using low molecular weight (MW) carbon sources (formate and ethanol) were 39% higher than those using high-MW ones (propionate, 1,3-propanediol and butanol). However, SRRs in glycerol-fed tests showed that 1,3-propanediol played a major role in sulfate reduction in addition to formate and ethanol.Particulate matter (PM)-induced airway inflammation contributes to the development and exacerbation of chronic airway diseases. Circular RNA (circRNA) is a new class of non-coding RNA that participates in gene regulation in various respiratory diseases, but the regulatory role of circRNA in PM-induced airway inflammation has not been fully elucidated. In this study, we performed the human circRNA microarray to reveal differentially expressed circRNAs in PM-induced human bronchial epithelial cells (HBECs). A total of 176 upregulated and 15 downregulated circRNAs were identified. Of these, a new circRNA termed circTXNRD1 was upregulated by PM exposure in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Knockdown of circTXNRD1 significantly attenuated PM-induced expression of proinflammatory cytokine interleukin 6 (IL-6). CircRNA pull-down, dual-luciferase reporter assay and fluorescence in situ hybridization showed that circTXNRD1 acted as an endogenous sponge to decrease miR-892a levels in HBECs. Downregulation of miR-892a could increase cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression and eventually promote IL-6 secretion in PM-induced HBECs. mTOR inhibitor Taken together, our findings reveal circTXNRD1 as a novel inflammatory mediator in PM-induced inflammation in HBECs via regulating miR-892a/COX-2 axis. These results provide new insight into the biological mechanism underlying PM-induced inflammation in chronic airway diseases.Excessive application of pesticides to control pests and weeds leads to contaminating bodies of water and health problems for consumers. The present study was designed to investigate the concentration of pesticides in raw water originated from the Marun River as well as the treated water of the drinking water treatment plant in Behbahan City. The efficiency of each treatment process was evaluated. Moreover, the health risks caused by detectable pesticides for consumers of treated water were assessed. The target pollutants were extracted using droplet liquid-liquid microextraction and detected by a gas chromatograph-mass spectrophotometer. The results showed relatively high mean concentrations of organophosphate pesticides ranging from 0.87 to 3.229 μg/L in the river water and low concentrations of organochlorine pesticides, except for 1,3-dichloropropene with the concentration of 3.58 μg/L. Alachlor had a rather high concentration (2.44 μg/L) in the river water. The concentration of pesticides in the drinking water had been reduced to an acceptable amount. The major part of pesticides removal occurred in coagulation-flocculation and rapid sand filtration units (87 %) due to the hydrophobic nature of pesticides and the use of GAC in the filtration unit. Based on the risk assessment estimates, the total hazard quotient (THQ) for all the pesticides was much less than one. The value of THQ was higher in younger individuals and children for all the given pesticides. The highest value of THQ in children was 0.2 which was attributed to aldrin. Similarly, the carcinogenic risk (CR) of aldrin for children and teenagers was in the unsafe range (more than 10-4) while the CR for other target compounds in all the age groups was negligible (10-4-10-6 or less). The high concentration of pesticides in the river water might be concerning and therefore selling and using pesticides, especially the banned ones, should be more regulated.The utilization of microalgae in treating wastewater has been an emerging topic focussed on finding an economically sustainable and environmentally friendly approach to treating wastewater. Over the last several years, different types of con microalgae and bacteria consortia have been experimented with to explore their potential in effectively treating wastewater from different sources. The basic features considered while determining efficiency is their capacity to remove nutrients including nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) and heavy metals like arsenic (As), lead (Pb), and copper (Cu). This paper reviews the efficiency of microalgae as an approach to treating wastewater from different sources and compares conventional and microalgae-based treatment systems. The paper also discusses the characteristics of wastewater, conventional methods of wastewater treatment that have been used so far, and the technological mechanisms for removing nutrients and heavy metals from contaminated water. Microalgae can successfully eliminate the suspended nutrients and have been reported to successfully remove N, P, and heavy metals by up to 99.6 %, 100 %, and 13%-100 % from different types of wastewater. However, although a microalgae-based wastewater treatment system offers some benefits, it also presents some challenges as outlined in the last section of this paper. Performance in eliminating nutrients from wastewater is affected by different parameters such as temperature, biomass productivity, osmotic ability, pH, O2 concentration. Therefore, the conducting of pilot-scale studies and exploration of the complexities of contaminants under complex environmental conditions is recommended.
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