Contamination and risk assessment of heavy metals in soils irrigated with biogas slurry: a case study of Taihu basin.

The accumulation of heavy metals in different soils resulting from irrigation with biogas slurry obtained from Taihu basin may create a potential public health risk. We quantified the concentration of heavy metals (Zn, Pb, Cu, Cr, As, and Cd.) in soils. Results indicated that the concentrations of Ni, Zn, Cd, and Pb in soil exceeded the maximum permitted levels set by Chinese Soil Environmental Quality Standard (GB15618-2008). The highest mean level in the soil was noted for Zn, followed by Zn, Pb, Cu, Cr, As, and Cd, while maximum geoaccumulation index (Igeo) was found for Cd in all soil samples which ranged from strongly polluted to extremely polluted. Pollution levels varied with metals and soil types. Moreover, the concentrations of Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, and Pb in soils showed significant correlations with OM; pH showed positive correlations with Cd, Cu, As, and Cr; pH and OM were the most important factors controlling the uptake of heavy metals by soils. Multivariate principal component analysis showed anthropogenic contributions of Zn, Pb, Cu, As, and Cd in the different kinds of soils. The target hazard quotient (HQ) values of six metals in soils were less than 1, which suggested that non-carcinogenic risks of metal exposure to soils were generally assumed to be safe. The assessment results of carcinogenic risks in soils showed higher risks than an acceptable range of 1E-06 to 1E-04 that would pose potential cancer risks to the farmers due to the work of leafy and root vegetables grown locally.

Contamination and risk assessment of metals in road-deposited sediments in a medium-sized city of China.

Road-deposited sediment (RDS) is a valuable environmental medium for characterizing contamination of metals in urban areas and the associated risks to human health. A total of 62 RDS samples were collected for metal test in four urban areas in a medium size city in eastern China. The areas that represented different land uses consisted of intense traffic area (ITA), commercial area (CA), residential area (RA), and riverside park area (RPA). The effects of particle size and different land uses on metal contamination and health risk were the major focus in this study. The test results showed that RDS in ITA appeared to have higher metal content, enrichment factor (EF), ecological risk index (RI), and the non-cancer and cancer risks than in the other areas. The metal contamination and health risk increased inversely with particle size. The particles less than 63 µm were found to be most critical in development of metal contamination and health risk. The EF was measured to be greater than 2.0 in the four areas, indicating a moderate enrichment. The measured RI ranged between 50 and 200, indicating considerable to moderate risks. The non-cancer risk for children was high in the four areas but was low for adults in all test areas except in ITA. The cancer risk of Cr for children was high in all test areas. Based on the test results, the contamination control and management for metals in RDS shall focus on the effects from such factors as particles (<63 µm) and the land use for intense traffic (ITA).

Adsorption equilibria and kinetics for phenol and cresol onto polymeric adsorbents: effects of adsorbents/adsorbates structure and interface.

Phenol and cresol (o-, m-, and p-) were selected as the adsorbates with different dipole moment (cresol>phenol, methyl being electron-drawing group) and solubility (phenol>cresol, methyl being hydrophobic group). Macropore polymers (NDA-1800 and XAD-4), hypercrosslinked polymers (NDA-100), and chemically modified adsorbents (NDA-150 and NDA-99), were comparatively used to investigate the adsorption properties including equilibria, thermodynamics and kinetics. First, all of the results about equilibria show that the adsorption data fit well to the Freundlich model. The adsorption capacity of NDA-99 and NDA-150 especially for phenol is larger in a certain extent than other three types of polymers. The hydrophobic interaction from large specific surface was mainly occurred, while the polar groups containing oxygen and amine markedly enhance the adsorption process via hydrogen interaction. Furthermore, the adsorption amount for NDA-99 and XAD-4 decrease linearly with the solubility of solutes tested. Then, the negative values of enthalpy demonstrate the predominantly exothermic and physical solid-extraction processes. Finally, the relatively more rapid adsorption process could be found onto NDA-150 than NDA-99, with the reason of the double larger pore size of the former. In conclusion, solubility of solute, together with surface area, pore size and modified groups, extremely exerts influences to the adsorption performances.

Immobilization study of biosorption of heavy metal ions onto activated sludge.

Activated sludge was immobilized into Ca-alginate beads via entrapment, and biosorption of three heavy metal ions, copper(II), zinc(II), and chromimum(II), from aqueous solution in the concentration range of 10-100 mg/L was studied by using both entrapped activated sludge and inactivated free biomass at pH < or = 5. A biphasic metal adsorption pattern was observed in all immobilized biomass experiments. The biosorption of metal ions by the biosorbents increased with the initial concentration increased in the medium. The adsorption rate of immobilized pretreated activated sludge(PAS) was much lower than that of free PAS due to the increase in mass transfer resistance resulting from the polymeric matrix. Biosorption equilibrium of beads was established in about 20 h and the adsorbed heavy metal ions did not change further with time. No significant effect of temperature was observed in the test for free biomass while immobilized PAS appeared to be strong temperature dependent in the test range of 10 and 40 degrees C. Besides, the content of activated sludge in the calcium alginate bead has an influence on the uptake of heavy metals. The sorption equilibrium was well modeled by Langmuir isotherm, implying monomolecular adsorption mechanism. Carboxyl group in cell wall played an important role in surface adsorption of heavy metal ions on PAS.