Volume 22 (2020): Issue 4 (December 2020)

Palygorskite was applied in complexation-ultrafiltration treatment of heavy metals in wastewater under different pH and ionic strength. The results indicated that the rejection of heavy metals increased significantly with pH value, and decreased slightly with an increase of ionic strength of Na⁺ and Cl^–. A certain concentration of NaCl significantly reduced the rejection rate of Cu²⁺. The rejection of Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺ and Cd²⁺ could reach over 86.8%, 93.6% and 93.7% at pH of 7 and 0.1 mol/L NaCl. The rejection of heavy metals was severely affected by low molecular weight competing complexing agents and the effect of sodium tartrate was greater than triethanolamine. In the presence of sodium tartrate, the rejection of Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺ and Cd²⁺ could arrive over 81.4%, 57.6% and 60.5% at pH of 7 in 20 min. Palygorskite was offered a potential complexing agent for the removal of heavy metals in wastewater at the complexation-ultrafiltration process.

Lignin was used to study the mechanical properties and thermal stability of polymers. The lignin was blended with three kinds of polymers, and the addition of lignin was 0.5 wt%. Under the condition of thermal oxidation, the thermal stability of lignin/polymer samples varies with the structure of lignin. The effects of lignin on the mechanical properties and thermal stability of the polymers were investigated by oxidation induction time (OIT), rheological properties, mechanical properties and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The results show that the effect of lignin on the thermal properties of polymer samples is 2~3°C. It can be inferred that lignin can effectively improve the interaction between polymer molecular chain segments, and improve the crystallization rate and rigidity to a certain extent, so it can be seen that lignin has good compatibility and thermal stability.

Soluble polysaccharides were isolated from fruit pericarps of the Algerian Argania spinosa. The cell wall fraction was subjected to sequential extractions with H₂O (2 × 2 h at 100°C), EDTA (1%, 6 h at 80°C) and KOH (1 and 4 M, 14 h at 25°C). The structures of the obtained polysaccharide fractions were characterized using gas chromatography (GC), infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The presence of arabinose, galactose and rhamnose in the pectin fractions suggests the presence of rhamnogalacturonan, while the abundance of xylose in the hemicellulosic fractions indicates the presence of xylan. The DSC data revealed the endothermal behavior of all the soluble polysaccharides and only two thermal transitions, the glass transition (T_g) and the fusion transition (T_f) have been recorded.

The purpose of the present article was to determine odour emission rate from primary settling tanks after hermetisation. The paper presents the results of the research on odour emission from four settling tanks, covered with self-supporting aluminium domes with a diameter of 52 meters, located on urban wastewater treatment plants, with the planned flow capacity equal to 200 000 m³/day. Altogether, the olfactometry analysis of 189 samples of polluted air pulled from the domes with the use of an air blower which has efficiency of 12 000 m³/h was conducted. The results of odour concentration measurements were in a range of approximately 10 800 to 763 600 ou_E/m³. Average odour emission rate was equal to 102 ou_E/(s · m²). The obtained value is much higher than the literature data, available for non-hermetised settlers only. This rate enables better estimation of the odour stream that has to be deodorised after sealing the settling tanks.

A technology for producing gold films on the surface of fabric materials has been developed, which provides for preliminary wetting of the fabric product with aqueous solutions of gold (III) chloride. In this case, a sorption layer of gold chloride is formed on the surface of fabric materials. Then, when drying these products under sunlight, physicochemical and photochemical processes occur, leading initially to the formation of monovalent gold chlorides, which, having semiconductor properties, provide the release of elemental gold. After washing of by-products on the surface of the material remains an ultra-thin film of gold, which has a sufficiently strong grip on the base. Since the proposed technology does not require special equipment it can be used to apply functional films of gold on various products of technical, household and medical purposes.

The article presents research on the exploring of extraction process of biologically active substances from the leaves of the Moringa oleifera tree using ethanol. Ethanolic extracts were obtained using three different techniques: maceration with shaking, ultrasound-assisted extraction and extraction in Soxhlet apparatus, in different time variants: 1, 2 and 4-hours. After solvent evaporating and drying, the yields of dry extracts obtained in particular processes were calculated. The antioxidant activity of extracts was analyzed spectrophotometrically using DPPH radical scavenging method, and total phenolic content (TPC) was determined by Folin-Ciocalteu method. By means of gas chromatography with mass selective detector (GC-MS), 11 biologically active compounds present in ethanolic extracts were identified, among which α-tocopherol had the greatest share. Based on the results, the influence of the extraction technique and time on the yield and antioxidant activity of M. oleifera leaf extracts were discussed.

The use of guava seeds (GS) and acid-modified guava seeds (MGS) for the removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous solutions was investigated. Batch-type experiments were performed with Cr(VI) aqueous solutions and biosorbents to determine the kinetic and equilibrium sorption parameters. Results indicated that GS and MGS were capable of reducing and remove Cr(VI) from solutions, but the reduction was only observed at some experimental conditions. Infrared analysis showed that several functional groups were involved in the reduction, and biosorption of Cr(VI), particularly alcohol, phenolic, carboxylic, and methoxymethyl structures. The mechanisms of reduction and biosorption depended upon the type of biosorbent, pH, and temperature of the system. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model describes the kinetic sorption data, and the Langmuir-Freundlich (L-F) model describes the isotherm data in most cases. Significantly high total chromium biosorption capacities were obtained. Acid modification of guava seeds improves chromium biosorption performance.

A technological quality method was used to compare two methods of sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) production. The first method was the classic spray method (CM) and the second was a dry single-stage method (DSM). The assessment criteria were environmental, based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) evaluation and economic, based on production costs. The technological quality assessment of CM was 6.5% lower in comparison to DSM. LCA environmental analyses showed that the partial environmental quality of DSM was lower by only 4.4% compared to CM. Partial economic quality was lower by 10.3%, mainly due to the lower energy costs (on average 52%) for DSM. The advantage of the new DSM method is the technological progress achieved, mainly due to the application of new technology, design, and apparatus solutions; thus, the basic elements of the activities proposed in the methodology allow for cleaner STPP production.

Based on the theory of direct relation graph (DRG) and sensitivity analysis (SA), a reduced mechanism for diesel-CH₄-H₂ tri-fuel is constructed. The detailed mechanism of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which has 654 elements and 2827 elementary reactions, is used for mechanism reduction with DRG. Some small thresholds are used in the process of simplifying the detailed mechanism via DRG, and a skeletal mechanism of 266 elements is obtained. Based on the framework of the skeletal mechanism, the time-consuming approach of sensitivity analysis is used for further simplification, and the skeletal mechanism is reduced to 262 elements. Validation of the reduced mechanism is done via a comparison of ignition delay time and laminar flame speed from the calculation using the reduced mechanism and the detailed mechanism or experiment. The reduced mechanism shows good agreement with the detailed mechanism and with related experimental data.

To collect permeability data and establish its database of fertilizer nutrients and water vapor through different polymer membranes for the development of polymer-coated fertilizer, the permeabilities of N-, P-, and K-nutrient from saturated aqueous of urea, NaH₂PO₄ and KCl solution and the permeability of water vapor through the membranes of poly lactic acid (PLA), its blends with polystyrene (PS), and its composites with humic acid (HA) particles were determined experimentally at the temperatures of 288, 298, and 308 K, respectively. The effects of the addition of PS and HA particles, temperature, and coating thickness on the permeability of fertilizer nutrient and water vapor were investigated. It was found that the addition of PS and HA increased the permeability for both the fertilizer nutrients and water vapor. The increase in temperature raised the permeability of N-, P-, and K-nutrient while decrease the permeability of water vapor in the range studied.