Passive in situ remediation of metal-polluted water with caustic magnesia: evidence from column experiments

Passive remediation consists of a permeable system that enables the water to pass through while retaining metals by means of biogeochemical reactions. Conventional passive treatments are based on calcite dissolution. This increases the pH to values between 6 and 7, which are insufficiently high to precipitate divalent metals. Alternative treatments are based on sulfate reduction with organic matter in order to precipitate metal sulfides. However, redox reactions are usually too slow to treat large groundwater flows as currently found in gravel aquifers (>50 m/a). Caustic magnesia obtained from calcination of magnesium carbonate was tested as an alternative material to devising passive remediation systems. Caustic magnesia reacts with water to form magnesium hydroxide, which dissolves, increasing the pH to values higher than 8.5. Then zinc and lead are mainly precipitated as hydroxides, copper is precipitated as hydroxysulfate, and manganese(II) is oxidized and precipitated as manganese(III) oxides. Thus, metal concentrations as high as 75 mg/L in the inflowing water are depleted to values below 0.04 mg/L. Magnesia dissolution is sufficiently fast to treat flows as high as 100 m/a. The new precipitates may lead to a permeability drop in the porous treating system. Mixtures of caustic magnesia and an inert material such as silica sand (approximately 50% of each) have been shown to be as reactive as pure magnesia and permeable for a longer time (more than 10 months and 1000 pore vol).     

Chemical characterisation of natural organic substrates for biological mitigation of acid mine drainage

The current approach of the biological treatment of acid mine drainage by means of a passive remediation system involves the choice of an appropriate organic substrate as electron donor for sulphate reducers. Nowadays this selection is one of the critical steps in the performance of such treatment, as this depends to a great extent on the degradability of the organic substrate. Thus, a prior characterisation of the organic substrate predicting its biodegradability would be desirable before embarking on an extensive large-scale application. The aim of this study was to correlate the chemical composition (lignin content) of four different natural organic substrates (compost, sheep and poultry manures, oak leaf) and their capacity to sustain bacterial activity in an attempt to predict biodegradation from chemical characterisation. The results showed that the lower the content of lignin in the organic substrate, the higher its biodegradability and capacity for developing bacterial activity. Of the four organic materials, sheep and poultry manures and oak leaf evolved reducing conditions and sustained active sulphidogenesis, which coupled with the decrease in sulphate concentration indicated bacterial activity. Sheep manure was clearly the most successful organic material as electron donor (sulphate removal >99%), followed by poultry manure and oak leaf (sulphate removal of 80%). Compost appeared to be too poor in carbon to promote sulphate-reducing bacteria activity by itself. Column experiments emphasised the importance of considering the residence time as a key factor in the performance of continuous systems. With a residence time of 0.73 days, sheep manure did not promote sulphidogenesis. However, extending residence time to 2.4 and 9.0 days resulted in an increase in the sulphate removal to 18% and 27%, respectively.     

Optimization of phosphate removal in anodizing aluminium wastewater

The wastewater produced after brightening and anodizing aluminium has high concentrations of phosphates and sulphates. The addition of MgO in a first physico-chemical wastewater treatment step makes the selective recovery of phosphates in the form of magnesium phosphates feasible, which may be reused as fertilizer. The proposed wastewater treatment process allows manufacturers to reduce more than 70% of the volume of the precipitate in the sedimentation reactor and more than 50% of the weight of the final disposal sludge. In this study, the use of an alternative low-grade MgO (LG-MgO) as a source of magnesium, which is cheaper than pure MgO, is investigated. The phosphate concentration and pH of the treated wastewater is controlled by the formation and precipitation of newberyite or bobierrite as a function of the magnesium source added. According to experimental data, a reaction mechanism is proposed. Although LG-MgO reacts more slowly than pure MgO and it is necessary to add 3-4 times the stoichiometric amount, this procedure has considerable economic and technical advantages.     

Bacillus subtilis DnaG primase stabilises the bacteriophage SPP1 G40P helicase-ssDNA complex

We analyzed our treatment results in 153 patients with histologically verified intracranial germ cell tumors and proposed classifying them into three therapeutic groups with good prognosis, intermediate prognosis, and poor prognosis. In this work, we selected patients treated with chemotherapy (cisplatin or carboplatin combinations) in each subgroup, and we discuss the role of chemotherapy in their treatment. Our combination chemotherapy regimens are: cisplatin-vinblastine-bleomycin, cisplatin-etoposide, and carboplatin-etoposide. We delivered these chemotherapies to the last 33 patients and compared their treatment results with those obtained in the previous 31 patients, who were treated with conventional radiation therapy alone. A combination with chemotherapy and a reduced dose of irradiation with local field was given to 7 patients with germinoma to increase the cure rate and reduce radiation-induced side effects, including anterior pituitary dysfunction. We obtained an excellent initial response to chemotherapy. The chemotherapy we delivered had significantly better effects in the group with intermediate prognosis, but not in the group with poor prognosis. More aggressive chemotherapy and radiation therapy should be given as the initial treatment.     

Use of caustic magnesia to remove cadmium, nickel, and cobalt from water in passive treatment systems: column experiments

In the present study caustic magnesia obtained from calcination of magnesium carbonate was tested in column experiments as an alternative material for passive remediation systems to remove divalent metals. Caustic magnesia reacts with water to form magnesium hydroxide, which dissolves increasing the pH to values higher than 8.5. At these pH values, cadmium is precipitated as otavite and to a minor amount as a hydroxide. Cobalt and nickel are precipitated as hydroxides which form isostructural solids with brucite. Thus, metal concentrations as high as 75 mg/L in the inflowing water are depleted to values below 10 microg/L. Magnesia dissolution is sufficiently fast to treat flows as high as 0.5 m3/m2 x day. For reactive grain size of 2-4 mm, the column efficiency ends due to coating of the grains by precipitates, especially when iron and aluminum are present in the solution.     

Potential Environmental Applications of Pure Zeolitic Material Synthesized from Fly Ash

A pure 4A∕X (60∕40) zeolite product was synthesized from silica extracts of the Meirama fly ash in northwestern Spain. A high cation-exchange capacity (4.7 meq∕g) was obtained for the zeolitic material. The potential application of this coal fly ash conversion product for decontamination of high heavy metal waters was evaluated using three high heavy metal waters from acid mine drainage around the pyrite Huelva belt. The results were compared with those obtained with an equivalent pure commercial synthetic zeolite. A considerable reduction in the heavy metal content was attained (Zn from 174 to <0.1 mg∕L, Cu from 36 to 0.1 mg∕L, Fe from 444 to 0.8 mg∕L, Mn from 74 to <0.1 mg∕L, Pb from 1.5 to <0.1 mg∕L, and Cd from 0.4 to <0.1 mg∕L), even in high Ca and Fe waters using zeolite doses from 5 to 30 mg∕L. Both precipitation and cation-exchange processes accounted for the reduction in the pollutant concentration in the treated waters. Leachable hazardous elements from coal fly ash, such as Mo, B, As, V, and Cr, were not fixed in the synthesis of pure zeolites from the silica extracts. Consequently, they did not restrict the potential applications of this material as an ion exchanger, unlike the zeolitic material obtained from fly ash by direct alkaline conversion.     

Partition of Rare Earth Elements Between Sulfate Salts Formed by the Evaporation of Acid Mine Drainage

Acid mine drainage (AMD) contains rare earth element (REE) concentrations several orders of magnitude higher than those of the rest of natural waters and could be a secondary source of REEs. In arid to semiarid climates with a long dry season, the precipitation of efflorescent sulfates constitutes a transient storage of REEs. The REE partition among the Al–Fe–Mg–Ca sulfates formed by the evaporation to dryness of six different AMDs was investigated by statistical methods and by selective dissolution. The chemical composition of the evaporitic salts showed that only three principal components (PCs) could explain more than 80% of the variability in the six samples analyzed. PC1 was associated with Ca and light REEs and interpreted as gypsum, whereas PC2 was associated with Y and heavy REEs, which were not clearly associated with a major sulfate. Finally, PC3 included Mg, Fe and several transition metals (Cu, Ni, Co, Mn and Zn) and was interpreted as Fe(II)-Mg sulfates. Selective dissolution of the salt mixtures with solutions saturated in the major sulfates revealed that the REEs were only retained in gypsum and were practically absent from the rest of the sulfates. The incorporation of REEs into gypsum decreased from Pr-Nd to La and Lu and was strictly ruled by the differences in their atomic radii and that of Ca in eight-fold coordination. However, gypsum concentrated less than 20% of the REE inventory (<?1% for Sc); the rest probably formed one or more unidentified trace minerals. This indicates that gypsum may not be an efficient way to concentrate REEs from AMD.

     

Grammatical and nongrammatical contributions to closed-class word selection.

Closed-class word selection was investigated by focusing on determiner production. Native speakers from three different languages named pictures of objects using determiner plus noun phrases (e.g., in French "la table" [thefeminineA table], while ignoring distractor determiners printed on the pictures (e.g., "le" [themasculine]. The target and distractor expressed either shared or different grammatical and nongrammatical features (gender, number, and definiteness). A gender-facilitation effect was observed and attributed to noun processing. Crucially, across five experiments, distractors that shared a feature with the target determiner never resulted in longer naming latencies than distractors that were more different. These results indicate that activating related candidates is not detrimental for determiner retrieval, suggesting a noncompetitive mechanism of closed-class word selection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pesticide residues in washing water of olive oil mills: effect on olive washing efficiency and decontamination proposal

BACKGROUND: Washing olives in the olive oil mill (a commonly used preliminary step to remove foreign materials and leaves) can help to remove pesticide residues, especially herbicides that are present in olives due to contamination either during application or as a consequence of contact with contaminated soil. The aim of the present work was the study of washing efficacy during washing cycles, i.e., from the beginning of the cycle until the water was changed. RESULTS: Four active ingredients, namely diuron, oxyfluorfen, terbuthylazine and endosulfan (α and β isomers) as well as the latter's degradation product endosulfan sulfate, were the most frequently found pesticides in raw olives after harvest. At the beginning of the washing cycle, diuron, terbuthylazine and oxyfluorfen residues were effectively removed from olives. However, progressive water contamination with pesticide residues decreased the efficiency of the washing step, specially for diuron and terbuthylazine residues. CONCLUSION: A decontamination method to enable water recycling in olive oil mills was proposed and optimized. It employed FeCl₃ as coagulant and active charcoal as adsorbent, and was effective in removing both suspended solids and pesticide residues. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

Evaluation by torque-rheometer of suspensions of semi-rigid and flexible natural fibers in a matrix of poly(vinyl chloride)

The flow properties of three different PVC-natural fiber suspensions were evaluated using a torque-rheometer. The fibers used were extracted from henequen leaves, coconut husk, and bovine leather. They have distinct mechanical properties that produce suspensions with different flow behaviors. Nevertheless, the experimental results show that, at the rates employed, the behavior of the suspensions can be described by a power-law ($ \sigma = m\dot \gamma ^n $). The flow (n) and consistency (m) indexes of each suspension were evaluated using an approximate technique previously developed. The evolution of these indexes as a function of the volume fraction of fibers (Φ) are studied and discussed. It was found that, at diluted concentrations, the value of the flow index unexpectedly increases with the concentration of fibers, especially in those suspensions containing the more flexible fibers. However, at elevated concentrations it substantially diminishes. To model this behavior an empirical function for n(Φ) is proposed. The index of consistency (m) presents a continuous increment with the concentration of fibers. To model the evolution of this parameter with the content of fibers, we have defined a relative consistency index m_r(m_r = m_s/m_o, where m_s and m_o are the suspension and matrix indexes) in a similar form to that established for the relative Newtonian viscosity. The function m_r(Φ) is modeled using several equations used to describe the behavior of this last viscosity (Maron and Pierce, Mooney, Thomas, Sudduth and Polynomial models). Among them, the Sudduth and Polynomial equations were those that better fit the behavior of these type of suspensions. Finally, to test the previous methodology, the theoretical torque values obtained were compared with experimental data for each suspension. Excellent agreement among them was found.