Birnessite not only oxidizes arsenite into arsenate but also interacts with organic matter in various ways. However, effects of organic matter on interaction between As and birnessite remain unclear. This study investigated effects of citrate and EDTA (3.12 and 2.05 mM, respectively) on oxidation of As(III) (1.07 mM) and adsorption of As(V) (0.67 mM) on birnessite (5.19 mM as Mn) at near-neutral pH. We found that As(V) adsorption on birnessite was enhanced by citrate and EDTA, which resulted from the increase in active adsorption sites via dissolution of birnessite. In comparison with citrate batches, more As was adsorbed on birnessite in EDTA batches, where dissolved Mn was mainly presented as Mn(III)-EDTA complex. Citrate or EDTA-induced dissolution of birnessite did not decrease the As(III) oxidation rate in the initial stage where As(III) oxidation rate was rapid. Afterwards, As(III) oxidation was conspicuously suppressed in citrate-amended batches, which was mainly attributed to the decrease in adsorption sites by adsorption of citrate/Mn(II)-citrate complex. This suppression was enhanced by the increase in concentrations of dissolved Mn(II). Citrate inhibited As adsorption after As(III) oxidation due to the strong competitive adsorption of citrate/Mn(II)-citrate complex. However, the As(III) oxidation rate was increased in EDTA-amended batches in the late stage, which mainly derived from the increase in the active sites via birnessite dissolution. The strong complexation ability of EDTA led to formation of Mn(III)-EDTA complex. Arsenic adsorption was not affected due to the limited competitive adsorption of the complex on the solid. This work reveals the critical role of low molecular weight organic acids in geochemical behaviors of As and Mn in aqueous environment.

Textile industry is responsible for producing a large amount of effluent. The objective of the present study was to treat the raw effluent of a textile manufacturer through heterogeneous photocatalysis (TiO₂/UVₛₒₗₐᵣ). Four types of effluents were evaluated: raw (RE), treated by the manufacturer (MTE), and exposed to photocatalysis in the presence (PTETi) and absence (PTE) of titanium dioxide (TiO₂). They were evaluated for physical, chemical, and toxicological parameters. In regard to dissolved oxygen (DO) contents, MTE, PTETi, and PTE effluents increased values when compared with RE effluent. Color degradation was more efficient by MTE effluent, but the chemical oxygen demand (COD) values of the treated effluents were not in accordance with Brazilian norms. Besides that, the toxicity test with Allium cepa L. shows cytotoxicity by MTE (24 and 48 h) effluent. PTETi and PTE (24 h) effluents did not show cytotoxicity, but PTETi-48 h showed a significant decrease in mitotic index. The immobility/mortality test with Artemia salina L. showed toxicity of the RE and MTE effluents in concentrations of 100% and 50%. In the case of the phototreated effluents, there was only toxicity in the concentration of 100%. Thus, so generally, photocatalytic treatments were more efficient than the treatment applied by the manufacturer; however, it is necessary to improve a new stage in the treatment.

Pyrene, a toxic four-benzene-ring that persists in the ecosystem, is highly resistant to degradation. The goal of the research is to screen, isolate, and identify pyrene-degrading filamentous fungi via the molecular biological identification method. The capabilities of identified isolates in biodegradation and transformation of pyrene were also evaluated. Based on the morphological characterization and sequence alignments, results of neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree from 18S rRNA of F03 revealed that genetic similarity had achieved 99% of homology percentage and identified as Trichoderma sp. Trichoderma sp. F03 was able to degrade pyrene (78%) when culture conditions were set at 100 mg/L initial pyrene concentration in culture medium with pH 5 at 27 °C, the use of glucose as a carbon source and polyethylene glycol sorbitan monooleate as a biosurfactant without agitation. Finally, three metabolites, benzoic acid, 3-hydroxybenzoic acid, and acetic acid, were detected during the pyrene degradation process by using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GCMS).

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are important precursors of ozone and atmospheric particulates that have attracted extensive attention worldwide. Cooking emissions, the chemical characteristics of which vary dramatically due to different cooking styles, are a main source of ambient VOCs, especially in large cities. This research focused on the emission characteristics of VOCs from six types of restaurants in Shanghai: hot pot (HP), Sichuan cuisine (SC), Cantonese cuisine (CS), seafood (SF), Western fast food (WFF), and authentic Shanghai cuisine (ASC). It was found that HP, which discharged cooking fumes indoors, produced the highest mass concentration of VOCs (1900.2 ± 364.8 μg m⁻³), followed by SC (1403.7 ± 403.8 μg m⁻³), WFF (656.0 ± 156.9 μg m⁻³), SF (638.6 ± 145.1 μg m⁻³), CC (632.7 ± 127.7 μg m⁻³), and ASC (612.3 ± 51.3 μg m⁻³), the cooking fumes from which were collected by emission extraction stacks. Additionally, the VOC species from each cuisine were mainly low carbon substances. Alkanes were the major VOC pollutants from all six cuisines, accounting for 34.4–71.7%. The coefficient divergence values were 0.287–0.593, suggesting that there were differences between the cuisines in the present study. Ozone formation potential and secondary organic aerosol formation potential indicated that O-VOCs and aromatics were the largest contributors. Health risk assessment of VOCs via non-carcinogenic risk values (HQ) and carcinogenic risk values (RISK) indicated that frying, grilling, and stir-frying had relatively large impacts on human health. VOCs collected in emission extraction stacks were significantly higher risk compared with those in the indoor environment, but the RISK score of the HP restaurant was larger, second only to SC. The HQ and RISK values of 1,3-butadiene, acetaldehyde, and trichloroethylene in the HP restaurant all exceeded US EPA standards, indicating that long-term exposure in an HP restaurant would have a significant impact on human health and might carry a potential cancer risk.

The seasonal variations of dissolved and bioavailable copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) were studied in two recreational marinas in Sweden and Finland. The time series from the two marinas were characterized by rising concentrations during the spring boat launching, elevated concentrations all through the peak boating season, and decreasing concentrations in autumn when boats were retrieved for winter storage. This pattern shows a clear link between Cu and Zn concentrations and boating activity, with antifouling paints as the principal source. The leaching from antifouling paints was also found to significantly alter the speciation of dissolved Cu and Zn in marina waters, with an increase of the proportion of metals that may be considered bioavailable. This change in speciation, which occurred without any change in dissolved organic carbon (DOC), further increases the environmental risk posed by antifouling paints. In the Swedish marina, dissolved Cu and Zn exceed both Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) and Predicted No Effect Concentrations (PNEC), indicating that the current Swedish risk assessment (RA) of antifouling paints is failing to adequately protect the marine environment. An evaluation of the RA performance showed the underlying cause to be an underestimation of the predicted environmental concentration (PEC) by factors of 2 and 5 for Cu and Zn, respectively. For both metals, the use of inaccurate release rates for the PEC derivation was found to be either mainly (Cu) or partly (Zn) responsible for the underestimation. For Zn, the largest source of error seems to be the use of an inappropriate partitioning coefficient (KD) in the model. To ensure that the use of antifouling coatings does not adversely impact the sensitive Baltic Sea, it is thus recommended that the KD value for Zn is revised and that representative release rates are used in the RA procedure.

The applications of photocatalytic processes have been explored, and their ability as microbial disinfection has been recognized. This review article will introduce the related parameters in semiconducting oxide photocatalyst applications as a photocatalytic microbial disinfection in order to provide better understanding on achieving excellent performance in photocatalytic disinfection. Several significant parameters have been identified, namely, pH, catalyst loading, particle size, temperature, inorganic ions, doping, light intensity, and irradiation time. This mini review may be useful for directing the photocatalyst research under the visible light region for microbial disinfection.

Surfactants are organic compounds which can be used in several applications. However, they can contaminate world water resources causing detrimental effects to human beings, aquatic life, and animals. This paper investigates the adsorption kinetics, isotherms, and thermodynamic properties for the removal of an anionic surfactant, sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS), using fly ash. Characteristics of fly ash such as surface area and pore size analysis and the point of zero charge (PZC) were determined. The effects of parameters such as pH, surfactant concentration, and temperature and the adsorption kinetics, isotherms, and thermodynamic properties and adsorption mechanism were determined. Fly ash is a mesoporous material having surface area and pore size of 1.079 m²/g and 9.813 nm and PZC at pH 6.58. pH 2 and the temperature 25 °C were optimum for adsorbing SDBS onto fly ash. The adsorption capacity and removal efficiency increased by increasing the concentration of SDBS from 100 to 2000 mg/L, indicating that the increase of surfactant concentration could not saturate the surface of fly ash. The pseudo-second-order and the Langmuir isotherm models showed best fit to the adsorption data and the thermodynamic properties described adsorption as an exothermic, barrierless, non-spontaneous, and entropy-reducing reaction which is more feasible at a lower temperature of 25 °C. This indicated that the adsorption occurs by both physisorption and chemisorption with monolayer coverage of SDBS on the surface of fly ash. SDBS surfactant adsorbed onto fly ash mainly through electrostatic interactions between oppositely charged SDBS and fly ash.

This study reports the results of a comparison made using life cycle assessment (LCA) analysis of the environmental impact of nine different sandwich material models (SMs). The objective is to reveal whether the candidate materials considered for a railway passenger vehicle (conventional or high-speed train) are green/environmentally friendly or not. For this aim, life cycle approach enables to take into account the light weighting gain without disregarding the environmental impact of manufacturing process. These SMs are designed as combinations of existing traditional and candidate materials, such as steel, aluminium, carbon/glass fibre–reinforced plastics (CFRP/GFRP), aluminium honeycomb, and polymer foam core. The environmental performance of these nine different models has been calculated via the LCA analysis with CML-IA v.3.0 impact assessment methodology in a SimaPro 8.5.0. The system boundaries in the LCA analysis include “cradle to grave” process of sandwich composite materials in the railway passenger vehicle. The functional unit was selected as “one product of SM” for each configuration; besides, this panel has a lifetime span of 25 years at 400,000 vehicle-km per year in the vehicle operation. The results show that the use-phase, which dominates the environmental impact of the SMs of the railway passenger vehicle car body, is itself largely affected by electricity generation. In particular, the mass reduction in the models also achieved a reduction in environmental impact over its lifetime, mainly owing to decreased energy consumption. Another important finding regarding the manufacture of certain models (such as CFRP and GFRP) for lightweight design, is that assessment, based solely on mass reduction, may not always have better environmental performance or be reliable due to the manufacturing impact.