Fungi can be used to remove or degrade polluting compounds through a mycoremediation process. Sometimes even more efficiently than prokaryotes, they can therefore be used to combat pollution from non-biodegradable polymers. Cellulose acetate is a commonly used material in the manufacture of cigarette butts, so when discarded, it generates pollution. The fungus Pleurotus ostreatus has the ability to degrade cellulose acetate through the enzymes it secretes. The enzyme hydrolyzes the acetyl group of cellulose acetate, while cellulolytic enzymes degrade the cellulose backbone into sugars, polysaccharides, or cellobiose. In addition to cellulose acetate, this fungus is capable of degrading other conventionally non-biodegradable polymers, so it has the potential to be used to reduce pollution. Large-scale cultivation of the fungus has proven to be more economically viable than conventional methods for treating non-biodegradable polymers, which is an additional advantage.
Every production day in Nigeria, and in other oil producing countries, millions of barrels of produced water is generated. Being very toxic, remediation of the produced water before discharge into environment or re-use is very essential. An eco-friendly and cost effective approach is hereby reported for remediative pre-treatment of produced water (PW) obtained from Nigerian oilfield. In this approach, Telfairia occidentalis stem extract-silver nanoparticles (TOSE-AgNPs) were synthesized, characterized and applied as bio-based adsorbent for treating the PW in situ. The nanoparticles were of average size 42.8 nm ± 5.3 nm, spherical to round shaped and mainly composed of nitrogen and oxygen as major atoms on the surface. Owing to the effect of addition of TOSE-AgNPs, the initially high levels (mg/L) of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and TSS of 607, 3.78 and 48.4 in the PW were reduced to 381, 1.22 and 19.6, respectively, whereas DO and COD improved from 161 and 48.4 to 276 and 19.6 respectively, most of which fell within WHO and US-EPA safe limits. Particularly, the added TOSE-AgNPs efficiently removed Pb (II) ions from the PW at temperatures between 25 ℃ to 50 ℃. Removal of TOSE-AgNPs occurred through the adsorption mechanism and was dependent contact time, temperature and dose of TOSE-AgNPs added. Optimal remediation was achieved with 0.5 g/L TOSE-AgNPs at 30 ℃ after 5 h contact time. Adsorption of Pb (Ⅱ) ions on TOSE-AgNPs was spontaneous and physical in nature with remediation efficiency of over 82% of the Pb (Ⅱ) ions in solution. Instead of discarding the stem of Telfairia occidentalis, it can be extracted and prepared into a new material and applied in the oilfield as reported here for the first time.
Among carbon nanoparticles, fullerene has been observed as a unique zero-dimensional hollow molecule. Fullerene has a high surface area and exceptional structural and physical features (optical, electronic, heat, mechanical, and others). Advancements in fullerene have been observed in the form of nanocomposites. Application of fullerene nanocomposites has been found in the membrane sector. This cutting-edge review article basically describes the potential of fullerene nanocomposite membranes for water remediation. Adding fullerene nanoparticles has been found to amend the microstructure and physical features of the nanocomposite membranes in addition to membrane porosity, selectivity, permeation, water flux, desalination, and other significant properties for water remediation. Variations in the designs of fullerene nanocomposites have resulted in greater separations between salts, desired metals, toxic metal ions, microorganisms, etc. Future investigations on ground-breaking fullerene-based membrane materials may overcome several design and performance challenges for advanced applications.
Photocatalysis, an innovative technology, holds promise for addressing industrial pollution issues across aqueous solutions, surfaces, and gaseous effluents. The efficiency of photodegradation is notably influenced by light intensity and duration, underscoring the importance of optimizing these parameters. Furthermore, temperature and pH have a significant impact on pollutant speciation, surface chemistry, and reaction kinetics; therefore, process optimization must consider these factors. Photocatalytic degradation is an effective method for treating water in environmental remediation, providing a flexible and eco-friendly way to eliminate organic contaminants from wastewater. Selectivity in photocatalytic degradation is achieved by a multidisciplinary approach that includes reaction optimization, catalyst design, and profound awareness of chemical processes. To create efficient and environmentally responsible methods for pollution removal and environmental remediation, researchers are working to improve these components.
Soil and groundwater remediation act has been enacted and executed since year 2000 in Taiwan. It has been ten good years till today where lots of remediation techniques progressively employed to improve Taiwan soil and groundwater resource quality. Regulatory agencies, academia, remediation consulting firms, on-site professional engineers all have contribute the proud ten years in terms of soil and groundwater clean-up contribution. However, some of technologies were un-environmental friendly even detrimental and damage to Taiwan precious soil and groundwater resources. In Article one of the current Taiwan soil and groundwater Act, it clearly stated that soil is a precious nature resources. Soil definitely is not a waste, shame on us most of current most commonly employed remediation are unlawful and merely aiming to save time and money consideration without any care to our land. Dig-and-dump and soil acid washing are damaged employed in almost every single local environment agency soil clean-up project. Lot of money, effort and time has been spent during past ten years. Most of the spending is not improving soil quality using Green approach.
This project is carried out to assess the remediation effect on soil contaminated by molybdenum (Mo), one of heavy metals, through the use of an energy crop, sunflowers. This project explores the integration of phytohormones and chelates in the phytoremediation of soils contaminated by heavy metals, and further assesses the operational measures of remedying heavy-metal contaminated soil with sunflowers, in addition to the related environmental factors. Then the project explores phytohormones and heavy metals on the growth scenario explants (explants morphological analysis) through the experiment. The results indicate that GA3 can increase the growth rate of the plants. The average incremental growth of the heavy-metal-added-only group is 21.0 cm; of the GA3-added group it is 21.9 cm; of the EDDS-added group, it is 20.3 cm; of the GA3+ EDDS-added group, it is 21.7 cm. Compared with the conventional methods of phytoremediation, these integrated measures can actually spur the growth of plants.
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