In situ remediation of groundwater contaminated by heavy- and transition-metal ions by selective ion-exchange methods

Laboratory studies were conducted to investigate the feasibility of using ion-exchange resins in permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) for the remediation of groundwater contaminated by heavy and transition metals. Ion-exchange resins represent an essentially neglected class of materials which may, in addition to iron, activated carbon, and zeolites, prove effective for use in PRBs. Four resins were considered: two commercially available resins, Duolite GT-73 (Rohm and Haas) and Amberlite IRC-748 (Rohm and Haas), and two solvent-impregnated resins (SIRs). The SIRs were prepared from Amberlite IRA-96 (Rohm and Haas) and two different thiophosphoric extractants. All four resins are able to reduce cadmium, lead, and copper concentrations from 1000 microg/L (typical for contaminated groundwaters) to below 5 microg/L. Significantly, all of the resins are effective for the capture of cadmium, copper, and lead, even in the presence of CaCl2 and clay. Because of their high hydraulic conductivity, the use of these resins in clusters of wells, as an alternative to continuous walls, is considered in the design of effective PRBs. Numerical solution of the groundwater flow equations shows that, depending on the well configuration, most (or all) of the contaminated groundwater can pass through the resins. These results demonstrate the possibility of using selective ion-exchange resins as an effective, active material in PRBs for in situ groundwater remediation.     

鸡蛋壳溶菌酶分离纯化工艺研究

以鲜鸡蛋壳为原料,1.0％NaCl(pH3.0,40℃)提取溶菌酶, 724大孔阳离子树脂色谱纯化,10％(NH_4)_2SO_4洗脱,盐析 结晶。用羧甲基纤维素CM52柱色谱分析,显示产品纯度 较高。     

高浓度印染废水处理

针对高浓度印染废水特性,设计了新的废水处理工艺,即好氧单元采用活性污泥法,以替代接触氧化法;物化处理单元中,以混凝沉淀代替气浮法.文中具体介绍了该废水处理工程的设计思想和参数以及工艺流程图等,使印染废水达到国家一级排放标准.     

News: EPA using more innovative cleanup technologies, says GAO

Technology.     

Bacterial bioassay for rapid and accurate analysis of arsenic in highly variable groundwater samples

In this study, we report the first ever large-scale environmental validation of a microbial reporter-based test to measure arsenic concentrations in natural water resources. A bioluminescence-producing arsenic-inducible bacterium based on Escherichia coli was used as the reporter organism. Specific protocols were developed with the goal to avoid the negative influence of iron in groundwater on arsenic availability to the bioreporter cells. A total of 194 groundwater samples were collected in the Red River and Mekong River Delta regions of Vietnam and were analyzed both by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and by the arsenic bioreporter protocol. The bacterial cells performed well at and above arsenic concentrations in groundwater of 7 microg/L, with an almost linearly proportional increase of the bioluminescence signal between 10 and 100 microg As/L (r2 = 0.997). Comparisons between AAS and arsenic bioreporter determinations gave an overall average of 8.0% false negative and 2.4% false positive identifications for the bioreporter prediction at the WHO recommended acceptable arsenic concentration of 10 microg/L, which is far betterthan the performance of chemical field test kits. Because of the ease of the measurement protocol and the low application cost, the microbiological arsenic test has a great potential in large screening campaigns in Asia and in other areas suffering from arsenic pollution in groundwater resources.     

Preserving quality of fresh-cut products using safe technologies

Food preservation is critical for keeping the global food supply safe and available for consumers. Food scientists study production and processing to develop new technologies that improve the quality and quantity of healthy food products, with the main objective of increasing food production without affecting food quality and environment, while fulfilling consumer expectations. Nowadays consumers want their food to be fresh, nutritious, safe, and attractive, low priced, and ready-to-eat. That is the case of fresh-cut products; however, maintaining the quality of these products is not an easy task, since minimally processed products experience increased ethylene production and respiration rates, with the consequent lost of quality. New effective and inexpensive technologies to safely preserve the quality of fresh-cut products are needed. In the last two decades, food scientists have attempted to solve problems in fresh-cut processing and quality preservation, and rapid advances in scientific knowledge on fresh-cut product preservation have been developed. The present review describes the use of emerging technologies such as ultraviolet irradiation (UV-C), edible coatings, active packaging and natural additives, to preserve the quality of fresh-cut fruits; highlighting the areas in which information is still lacking, and commenting on future trends.     

Preserving quality of fresh-cut products using safe technologies

Food preservation is critical for keeping the global food supply safe and available for consumers. Food scientists study production and processing to develop new technologies that improve the quality and quantity of healthy food products, with the main objective of increasing food production without affecting food quality and environment, while fulfilling consumer expectations. Nowadays consumers want their food to be fresh, nutritious, safe, and attractive, low priced, and ready-to-eat. That is the case of fresh-cut products; however, maintaining the quality of these products is not an easy task, since minimally processed products experience increased ethylene production and respiration rates, with the consequent lost of quality. New effective and inexpensive technologies to safely preserve the quality of fresh-cut products are needed. In the last two decades, food scientists have attempted to solve problems in fresh-cut processing and quality preservation, and rapid advances in scientific knowledge on fresh-cut product preservation have been developed. The present review describes the use of emerging technologies such as ultraviolet irradiation (UV-C), edible coatings, active packaging and natural additives, to preserve the quality of fresh-cut fruits; highlighting the areas in which information is still lacking, and commenting on future trends.     

Rehydration of salt-cured cod using injection and tumbling technologies

Traditional rehydration of salt-cured and dried salt-cured cod (klipfish) is most often carried out in stagnant water for 24–48 h. This process has however been difficult to run in industrial scale due to problems related both to process flow and product quality. The new three-step rehydration method developed in this work includes injection of tap water followed by tumbling in water and tumbling in a 2% NaCl brine. Using the new rapid method whole fillets and loins are rehydrated within 3 h. Similar to traditional rehydration, a weight gain of 33–34% was obtained. A trained sensory panel found significant differences in cohesiveness, after-taste and sour smell between fillets rehydrated with the traditional and the new method. No differences were found concerning 14 other sensory properties or the storage stability of rehydrated samples.     

一步层析法分离高纯度蛋清过敏原卵转铁蛋白

鸡蛋是引起食物过敏最常见的食物之一.为了快速高效分离鸡蛋中主要过敏原卵转铁蛋白,开展鸡蛋过敏的研究,采用DEAE-Sepharose Fast Flow阴离子交换层析一步分离出高纯度、高回收卒的卵转铁蛋白,纯度达97%,回收率为87.47%.本实验所建立的方法操作简便,设备简单,分离效率高,纯化出的卵转铁蛋白可为进一步研究提供实验材料.     

Long-term selective retention of natural Cs and Rb by highly weathered coastal plain soils

Naturally occurring Cs and Rb are distinctly more abundant relative to K in the highly weathered upland soils of the Savannah River Site, South Carolina, than in average rock of Earth's upper continental crust (UCC), by factors of 10 and 4, respectively. Naturally occurring Cs has been selectively retained during soil evolution, and Rb to a lesser extent, while K has been leached away. In acid extracts of the soils, the Cs/K ratio is about 50 times and the Rb/K ratio about 15 times the corresponding ratios for the UCC, indicating that relatively large amounts of natural Cs and Rb have been sequestered in soil microenvironments that are highly selective for these elements relative to K. Cation exchange favoring Cs and Rb ions, and subsequent fixation of the ions, at sites in interlayer wedge zones within hydroxy-interlayered vermiculite particles may account for the observations. The amounts of stable Cs retained and the inferred duration of the soil evolution, many thousands of years, provide new insights regarding long-term stewardship of radiocesium in waste repositories and contaminated environments. Study of natural Cs in soil adds a long-term perspective on Cs transport in soils not available from studies of radiocesium.     

基于电子鼻和气质联用技术的浓香型白酒分类

该研究分别利用电子鼻和气质联用(gas chromatography-mass spectrometry,GC-MS)分析7种不同品牌浓香型白酒的差异。结果表明,电子鼻的S2、S6、S7和S9 4个传感器对不同品牌浓香型白酒具有较好的响应信号,经主成分分析(principal component analysis,PCA)筛选后可以作为浓香型白酒差异的特征指标来衡量。基于传感器信号,比较了PCA和线性判别对不同各品牌浓香型白酒的分类效果,PCA分析能够对不同品牌白酒进行较好区分。GC-MS分析表明,不同品牌浓香型白酒风味物质含量存在明显差异,而PCA分析中关系密切的样品在风味成分层面存在相似性。该研究提供了一种基于电子鼻、GC-MS技术和数理统计分析相结合的浓香型白酒分类方法,为浓香型白酒的快速质量分类方法的开发提供了理论和数据支撑。     

Efficient, near-complete removal of DNAPL from three-dimensional, heterogeneous porous media using a novel combination of treatment technologies

Remediation of porous media containing an entrapped dense nonaqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) is extremely difficult due to the heterogeneity and three-dimensional spatial nature of typical natural systems. A novel treatment technology based on surfactant- and gravity-induced mobilization, dense brine containment and collection, and a vapor-phase extraction polishing step is proposed as a means to remediate such systems. Laboratory experiments are performed using the suggested methodology applied to three-dimensional, heterogeneous systems, which are packed based upon a realization from a correlated random field. Entrapped DNAPL is effectively removed as a result of each component of the technology. Following vapor extraction, less than 1% of the original DNAPL mass remained in the system. While these results are very promising, several open issues must be resolved before this technology can be considered mature; both the investigation of some of these issues and a summary of remaining needs are addressed.     

Phage-based technologies for highly sensitive luminescent detection of foodborne pathogens and microbial toxins: A review

Foodborne pathogens and microbial toxins are the main causes of foodborne illness. However, trace pathogens and toxins in foods are difficult to detect. Thus, techniques for their rapid and sensitive identification and quantification are urgently needed. Phages can specifically recognize and adhere to certain species of microbes or toxins due to molecular complementation between capsid proteins of phages and receptors on the host cell wall or toxins, and thus they have been successfully developed into a detection platform for pathogens and toxins. This review presents an update on phage-based luminescent detection technologies as well as their working principles and characteristics. Based on phage display techniques of temperate phages, reporter gene detection assays have been designed to sensitively detect trace pathogens by luminous intensity. By the host-specific lytic effects of virulent phages, enzyme-catalyzed chemiluminescent detection technologies for pathogens have been exploited. Notably, these phage-based luminescent detection technologies can discriminate viable versus dead microbes. Further, highly selective and sensitive immune-based assays have been developed to detect trace toxins qualitatively and quantitatively via antibody analogs displayed by phages, such as phage-ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) and phage-IPCR (immuno-polymerase chain reaction). This literature research may lead to novel and innocuous phage-based rapid detection technologies to ensure food safety.     

Assessment of groundwater pollution in Tokyo using PPCPs as sewage markers

While the occurrence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in groundwater has typically been reported in bank filtration sites, irrigated fields, septic tanks, and sewage disposal practices, fewer studies have been conducted in highly urbanized areas, where infiltration of treated or untreated sewage is not supposed to be a source of groundwater recharge. Furthermore, little is known about the occurrence of various kinds of PPCPs in relation to microbial indicators in groundwater from different types of aquifers. Thus, we examined the city-wide occurrence of selected PPCPs (diethyltoluamide, crotamiton, ethenzamide, propyphenazone, carbamazepine, and caffeine) and E. coli in 50 groundwaters from unconfined aquifers (<30 m in depth) and confined aquifers (up to 500 m in depth) in Tokyo, where unintended groundwater contamination could take place due to decrepit sewer networks. PPCPs were detected in unconfined aquifers and springs (23/34 samples, 68%), and in confined aquifers (7/16 samples, 44%). Compared with published results for sewage influents, concentrations of PPCPs, excluding caffeine, were generally 1-2 orders of magnitude lower, while in some samples concentrations were quite comparable. The high occurrence rate of PPCPs, even in confined aquifers, indicated that such aquifers are not always protected from pollution by sewage near the land surface. Among the PPCPs analyzed, carbamazepine and crotamiton were most frequently detected, which would appear to be owing to their high persistence, combined with the high concentration of crotamiton in sewage. Crotamiton was detected in all four E. coli-positive groundwaters, and thus may potentially serve as a precautionary indicator of E. coli contamination. Using carbamazepine as a sewage marker, we estimated that 0.8%-1.7% of the dry-weather flow of sewage was leaking out into the unconfined aquifers.     

Remediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon compounds in groundwater using poplar trees

A seven-year study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of hybrid poplar trees to remediate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) compounds in soil and groundwater at a creosote-contaminated site. A reduction in the areal extent of the PAH plume was observed in the upper half of the 2-m-thick saturated zone, and PAH concentration levels in the groundwater declined throughout the plume. PAH concentrations began to decline during the period between the third and fourth growing seasons, which coincided with the propagation of the tree roots to the water table region. Remediation was limited to naphthalene and several three-ring PAHs (acenaphthylene and acenaphthene). PAH concentrations in soil and aquifer sediment samples also declined over time; however, levels of four-ring PAHs persisted at the lower depths during the study period. The naphthalene to total PAH concentration ratio in the most contaminated groundwater decreased from >0.90 at the beginning of the second growing season to approximately 0.70 at the end the study. Remediation in the lower region of the saturated zone was limited bythe presence of a 0.3-m-thick layer of creosote present as a dense nonaqueous phase liquid (DNAPL). The nearly steady-state condition of the PAH concentrations observed during the last three years of the study suggests that the effectiveness of the phytoremediation system is limited by the rate of PAH dissolution from the DNAPL source.     

Decontamination of chilli flakes in a fluidized bed using combined technologies: Infrared,UV and ozone

An initial study of the combination of IR, UV and ozone on treating raw and artificially inoculated chilli flakes (CF, Capsicum annum L) was assessed using a specially designed fluidised bed system, in a fused quartz tube, using a distributor plate and filtered air, to keep the CF in an air suspension. The untreated samples, as bought, were contaminated with ~1 × 10⁶ cfu/g, they were subsequently autoclaved, and inoculated with Escherichia coli (MG1655). The individual treatments were all effective in reducing the bioburden with log reduction and treatment times ~6 logs (cfu/g) in ≤20 min for ozone (300 mgO₃hr^−>1); ~7 logs (cfu/g) in ≤40 min, for UV (4 W); and ~7 logs (cfu/g) in ≤20 min, for IR (100 W); for stationary air with ozone, and an airflow of 108 Lmin^−>1 with UV and IR treatment. The IR was modulated so that the external tube temperature was 58–60 °C. The treatment order was more effective for the IR and UV followed by ozone, than ozone followed by UV and IR (ozone, 10 min, UV and IR 10 min combined), this was due to the higher intial reduction of the UV and IR (0.80 log (cfu/g)) than with ozone first (0.13 log (cfu/g)). Such decontamination systems could be used efficiently when conveying the spices, just prior to aseptic packaging.