Current Pollution Reports最新文献

Purpose of Review

Different drying methods can cause errors in determining the content and evaluating the biological effectiveness of various forms of phosphorus (P) in sediment. The drying pretreatment effectively promotes the conversion of amorphous iron and aluminium oxides to their crystalline form, which ultimately impacts the adsorption capabilities of sediment. However, limited research has been conducted in this field previously. Sediments from the Weiyuan River, Baoenqiao Reservoir, and Honghu Lake in China were pretreated using freeze-drying, air-drying, and oven-drying methods. The effects of pretreatment methods on P were evaluated through P fractionation and isothermal adsorption experiments. The study also investigated the proportion and amount of amorphous iron and aluminium (Fe_ox and Al_ox) transformed into crystalline forms.

Recent Findings

The results revealed that drying pretreatment markedly increased the potentially bioavailable P(BAP) (6.73%). This increase can be attributed to the rise in loosely-bound P (48.30%) and P bound to metal oxides (9.51%), which are predominant contributors to BAP. Furthermore, sediment adsorption performance significantly decreases after drying pretreatment. This is due to the reduced content of Fe_ox (64.02%) and Al_ox (36.61%), which exhibit higher P adsorption capacity. Additionally, drying led to a significant reduction in SP_max (25.09%) and PSI (28.20%), along with an increase in EPC₀ (24.96%) and DPS (6.83%).

Summary

Different drying treatments affected the P forms and sorption properties of the sediment to varying degrees, with the overall effect being oven-drying > air-drying > freeze-drying > fresh samples. Consequently, when fresh sediment is not available for laboratory analysis, freeze-drying may be a more realistic method for characterizing P properties.

Graphical Abstract

Purpose of Review

The response to COVID-19 in the global community resulted in a disruption of usual sensory experiences associated with quotidian life and special events. While research has investigated urban and rural soundscape alteration/change during COVID and post-COVID, no summative work has focused on soundscapes of traditional (heritage) festivals. Research is warranted as cultural heritage festivals are significant and fundamental for human societal functioning, and associated soundscapes are a key aural reflection of these. This paper aims to critically review literature published from 2020 on the effect of COVID-19 on heritage festival soundscapes, with a particular focus on the loss of aural experience examined from a community perspective.

Recent Findings

We identified fourteen articles which covered heritage festival sounds or soundscapes, with the resultant aural experience being transformed, postponed or discontinued due to pandemic restrictions. There was a distinct lack of formal research investigating how communities perceived these changed soundscapes, with perceptions generally based on researcher’s own perspectives, either through informal conversations with community members or through content analysis. Furthermore, we identified no research which specifically targeted community perceptions of transformed heritage festival soundscapes.

Summary

In recognising and understanding both the importance of sensory components in creating a festival atmosphere and the significance of heritage festivals to the community as a cultural signature, the COVID-19 pandemic gives us a chance to pause and consider festival sensory components as an experienced intangible form of heritage and to question how alteration of these sensory heritage experiences concerns the communities affected.

Graphical Abstract

Visual collage of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on heritage festival soundscapes

The response to COVID-19 resulted in a disruption of usual sensory experiences. In recognising the importance of festival sensory components in creating an atmosphere and the significance of heritage festivals to the community, the pandemic gives us an opportunity to consider festival sensory components as an experienced intangible form of heritage.

Purpose of Review

The synergistic effects of microplastics (MPs) and heavy metals are becoming major threats to aquatic life and human well-being. Therefore, understanding synergistic interactions between MPs and heavy metals is crucial to comprehend their environmental impacts.

Recent Findings

The mechanisms such as electrostatic attraction, surface interactions, ion exchange, hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic forces, and π–π interactions behind the synergistic effects of MPs and heavy metals were critically reviewed and justified. In addition, the roles of surface chemistry in these interactions were also emphasized. Finally, efficient remediation techniques aligning with a circular economy-based initiative to promote sustainable solutions were recommended to mitigate plastic-heavy metal pollution to achieve a cleaner environment.

Summary

This review examines the combined impact of MPs and heavy metals in aquatic ecosystems, detailing their mechanistic interactions, and consequences with proposed sustainable solutions. Additionally, this review highlights the MP-heavy metal contamination risks and emphasizes the need for further research to safeguard aquatic life and human health.

The presence of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in various environments poses a significant challenge due to their widespread volume, complexity, and harmful effects on environment and human health. NSAIDs elimination from the ecosystem has become an urgent priority. Therefore, the present study focuses on evaluating specific microorganisms capable of effectively remediating pharmaceutical wastewater and reducing NSAIDs contamination. Acidophile microorganisms exhibit unique survival abilities in acidic conditions and demonstrate the potential for degrading pharmaceutical compounds in wastewater. These microorganisms utilize these compounds as their sole carbon and energy sources, converting them into valuable bioproducts. Acidophile microorganisms display various functional processes, including biodegradation, biotransformation, biosorption, and bioaccumulation. It is noteworthy that bioaccumulation is mostly found in microalgae since they have more protein to uptake NSAIDs. A detailed understanding of bioaccumulation in acidophile microorganisms is recommended as degradation mechanisms. In addition, metabolites can be acknowledged by omics approaches since it has yet to be exposed.

Purpose of Review

As short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) have been classified as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), there has been a significant surge in the utilization of medium- and long-chain chlorinated paraffins (MCCPs and LCCPs) as potential alternatives. However, their environmental and ecological risks have gained more prominence. Consequently, the objective of this review is to provide a comprehensive overview of the biological effects, migration, and transformation of chlorinated paraffins (CPs), with a particular focus on comparing the similarities and differences among SCCPs, MCCPs, and LCCPs.

Recent Findings

According to the latest research findings, it has been discovered that MCCPs and LCCPs possess persistence, bioaccumulation, and long-distance migration abilities, similar to SCCPs. Moreover, these research results demonstrate that the toxicity of MCCPs and LCCPs, especially those components with high chlorine content, is equally significant as that of SCCPs. Furthermore, MCCPs and LCCPs in the environment can undergo biotransformation and photodegradation processes, resulting in the generation of toxic substances such as very short-chain chlorinated paraffins (vSCCPs), SCCPs, and chlorinated alcohols.

Summary

This review comprehensively examines the biological toxicity, health risks, migration, and transformation of CPs with different chain lengths. In addition, the study analyzes the sources and trends of vSCCPs, SCCPs, MCCPs, and LCCPs in different environment media. It should be noted that SCCPs pose a greater health risk to aquatic organisms, whereas MCCPs are particularly concerning for infants. On the other hand, LCCPs present a higher health risk to terrestrial organisms, especially those situated at the top of the food chain. Based on the drawbacks of current research, outlook for future research was proposed. This review is expected to provide a reference for more scientific and reasonable evaluation of the CPs environment risk.

Purpose of Review

Lignocellulosic biomass, as a green and sustainable resource, can be used in biorefineries to produce bio-based products. The complex and resistant structure of lignocellulose prevents microorganisms access to carbohydrates in the biorefinery’s main processes, necessitating pretreatment. Different conventional pretreatment methods (physical, physico-chemical, chemical, and biological methods) and also novel advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) and their sustainability, environmental impact, economic viability, energy efficiency and, commercialization state are investigated in this review.

Recent Findings

Due to various reviews and studies on conventional pretreatment methods, they are briefly described with proper data. As the mechanisms and principle of operation of AOPs were investigated, during the AOPs pretreatment methods, hydroxyl radicals (·OH) are generated sufficiently to decompose lignocellulosic structure through oxidation. In this paper, we review the different AOPs, i.e., Fenton process, ozonation, photochemical, wet air oxidation, ultrasound, and electrochemical, which are recently used in the pretreatment of lignocellulose. Also, the achievement of different AOPs pretreatment research studies and general trends governing the process operating conditions are presented briefly in tables. Moreover, lignocellulosic biomass pretreatment sustainability assessment approaches such as life cycle assessment (LCA) and economic value and environmental impact (EVEI) are discussed. Although no study compared the sustainability aspects of different AOPs with conventional methods, this review generally addresses them. Further, environmental, energetic, and economic aspects of AOPs methods have been compared as important criteria in selecting a pretreatment method.

Summary

This review provides a thorough insight into the biorefinery’s bottleneck, pretreatment, and comprehensively investigated mechanisms, principle of operation, sustainability, environmental, economic, energy, and commercialization state of AOPs methods.

Purpose of Review

This review intends to recapitulate the pretreatment measures of kitchen waste and kitchen wastewater (KWAKWW). Furthermore, this review also separately summarizes the ascendancy of using bacteria, microalgae and microalgae-bacteria consortia to treat KWAKWW, and corresponding emerging reinforcement strategies.

Recent Findings

Tremendous amount of KWAKWW are annually generated in the whole world. Wherein roughly 1.3 billion tons of kitchen waste (KW) are dumped and which were forecasted that would increase to about 2.5 billion tons by 2025. In addition, KWAKWW have the characteristics of high content of refractory organic matter (e.g., oil and cellulose), water (commonly outstrip 70%), and salt, which is difficult for bacteria or microalgae to treat. Consequently, it is essential to perform efficacious pretreatment measures to boost the efficiency of post-treatment. Utilizing bacteria, microalgae, and microalgae-bacteria consortia to treat KWAKWW is considered an efficient strategy due to ascendancy of puissant deep purification ability, excellent resource appreciation effect, and low operation costs. For instance, bacteria could produce leastways four kinds of products through KWAKWW; multiple studies indicated that microalgae generally could remove exceed 70% of nutrients of KWAKWW; one research manifested that microalgae-bacteria consortia retrenched 46% of the demand about dissolved oxygen (DO). Nevertheless, the above microbial treatment systems still have some inherent drawbacks such as poor impact resistance. Fortunately, metabolic engineering and other strengthen strategies can efficaciously upgrade the nutrient removal and resource utilization performance of bacteria, microalgae, and microalgae-bacteria consortia. For example, one research shown that the 1-butanol productivity of original bacteria remarkably increased by 93.48–171.74% draw support from metabolic engineering.

Summary

A total of 221 papers related to the content of this review were searched through Web of Science (http://apps.webofknowledge.com). What is more, specific data that emerged on this review were all extracted from the above-searched papers. The mechanisms and effect of hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) and other four pretreatment measures are introduced by this review in detail. The preponderance of utilizing bacteria, microalgae, and microalgae-bacteria consortia to treat KWAKWW are comprehensively evaluated mainly from the perspectives of nutrient purification and resource utilization. Four state-of-the-art strengthen strategies like machine learning are then introduced. Finally, the current challenges in KWAKWW treatment are summarized from five aspects, and future concrete improvement directions are also provided. Overall, this review outlines the state-of-the-art research progress of KWAKWW treatment by bacteria and microalgae and tenders corresponding implementation schemes for improving KWAKWW t