Short communication: Cadmium determination in two flat fishes from two fishery regions in north of the Persian Gulf

Heavy metals are natural trace components of the aquatic environment, but their levels have increased due to industrial agriculture, mining activities, industrial activity, shipping accident. Pollution studies in the ROPME area including the Persian Gulf and the Oman Sea are extremely important because this region is shallow, semi-enclosed, and has a very high evaporation rate and poor flushing characteristics. Other Iranian scientists reported the pollution from inland water but our study was the first on evaluation of Cadmium pollution from northern coastal waters of the Persian Gulf, belonging to the Iranian coastlines. The aim of this study was to examine the quality of local seafood in terms of heavy metal contamination by examining the two commercial fish species, Euryglossa orientalis and Psettodes erumei through the determination of Cd concentration levels in the muscle and liver tissues of the fish, monitoring the ROPME region, and investigating the relationship between fish size and metal concentration in the different tissues of these two flat fishes

Removal of 1,2-dichloroethane from industrial wastewater with membrane filtration

Background and Aims: 1,2-dichloroetane [ethylene dichloride (EDC)] is a chlorinated hydrocarbon which is widely used to produce vinyl chloride. The later is the major precursor to PVC production. Wastewater originating from EDC production is characterized by high turbidity and contains ethylene dichloride and FeCl3 particles. The aim of the present study was to investigate the treatability of EDC effluent using membrane filtration.Materials and Methods: Laboratory scale experiments were carried out on Abadan petrochemical complex wastewater (EDC unit) with various membrane filtration processes that combine microfiltration with nanofiltration. Microfiltration membrane was used as a pretreatment to remove turbidity as well as FeCl3 fine particles, which may subsequently damage nanofiltration system. The microfiltration effluent was thereafter fed to a nanofiltration membrane cell. The filtration performance was assessed through turbidity, TDS, COD and 1,2-dichloroetane removals. pH, temperature and system pressure were also controlled during the study.Results: Successful removal of turbidity (97.5%) and FeCl3 particles (98%) was achieved by microfiltration. EDC concentration in raw effluent was ranged between 2,000 to 3,000 ppm. The nanofiltration membrane cell followed by microfiltration achieved a very high 1,2-dichloroetane removal (96.7) from water. The experimental results indeed showed that the permeate was consisted mainly of water, which asserts that 1,2-dichloroetane was separated in waste phase.Conclusion: The results obtained provide further support for previous researches into this brain area and support the application of membrane technology to remove and recovery of soluble organic compounds from petrochemical wastewater.Key words: Petrochemical wastewater, 1,2-dichloroetane, Membrane filtration, Nanofiltration, Microfiltratio

Removal of Estrogen Hormones (17-Estradiol and Estrone) from Aqueous Solutions Using Rice Husk Silica

The aim of this study was to investigate the removal of estrogen hormones (17β-estradiol and estrone) from aqueous solutions using rice husk extracted silica. Rice husk was collected from rice factories in Mazandaran province (Iran) and the adsorbent was prepared in a furnace at 800 °C for 4 h, after acid leaching with hydrochloric and sulfuric acid mixture. Optimal operating parameters for estrogen removal were determined, including initial pH values (4–9), adsorbent dosages (0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 g L–1), contact times (30, 60, 90, and 120 min), and initial concentrations of 17β-estradiol and estrone (10, 40, 70 and 100 ng L–1); one-factor-at-a-time method was used. The method of electrochemiluminescence was used to measure the concentration of hormones. Kinetic adsorption models and adsorption isotherms were also studied. The maximum removal efficiency (%) of 17β-estradiol (E2) and estrone (E1) hormones of 95.5 and 93.1 %, respectively, was obtained at optimal conditions of pH 4, 1.5 g L–1 of adsorbent dosage, 60 min of contact time and 10 ng L–1 initial concentrations of E2 and E1. Pseudo first-order kinetic model and Langmuir adsorption isotherm had the best fit with experimental data for both estrogen hormones, following nonlinear regression procedure. Rice husk silica could be considered as effective and accessible adsorbent for removal of estrogenic hormones. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Powder activated carbon/Fe3O4 hybrid composite as a highly efficient heterogeneous catalyst for Fenton oxidation of tetracycline: Degradation mechanism and kinetic

In this work, we prepared and used a composite of powder activate carbon/Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles (PAC/Fe3O4 MNPs) as a heterogeneous catalyst to remove tetracycline (TC) from aqueous solution. By using XRD, BET, VSM, SEM, TEM and EDX techniques, also, we tried to characterize the catalyst. The effects of pH, H2O2, catalyst dosages and also initial TC concentration on the degradation process were assessed. Based on the results, it was indicated that at low pH values and initial TC concentrations, the efficiency of the process is higher than the other values and concentrations studied in this work. Under the ambient conditions and setting the initial pH value and TC concentration at respectively 3.0 ± 0.2 and 10 mg L-1, the optimal dosage of reagents were recorded to be 0.3 g L-1 catalyst and 80.0 mM H2O2. The values of observed rate constants, kobs, increased by increasing the catalyst loading in the system; however, these values decreases when the initial TC concentration was increased. Our findings indicated that all of TC concentration was nearly degraded during the 180 min reaction. Regarding the reusability of PAC/Fe3O4 MNPs, the results showed that TC and TOC removal efficiencies of 94.5 and 32.3, respectively, can be achieved after four consecutive runs. By conducting the stability experiments, it was confirmed that PAC/Fe3O4 MNPs is a promising and effective catalyst in Fenton reactions and can be used to treat TC-contaminated water with very low loss of catalytic activity. © 2015 The Royal Society of Chemistry

Removal of Cationic Tolonium Chloride Dye Using Fe3O4 Nanoparticles Modified with Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate

In this study, Fe3O4 nanoparticles modified with sodium dodecyl sulfate (Fe3O4-SDS) were used for the adsorption of cationic tolonium chloride (TC) dye from aqueous solution. The effects of temperature, pH, amount of nanoparticles and SDS concentration, stirring time, and interfering ions on dye adsorption were investigated. For TC, the maximum removal was 98 % in the best conditions (pH = 6; 0.6 g Fe3O4-SDS; 30 °C temperature, and 3 min stirring time). Data from the sorption kinetic studies showed the best fitting of the pseudo-second-order model for adsorption of the dye. The Langmuir isotherm showed better fitting of the data for TC adsorption by Fe3O4-SDS compared with the other models. The Fe3O4-SDS nanoparticles are easily synthesizable, magnetically recoverable, and regenerable, which increases their practical applications. Additionally, NaCl showed no significant impact on the dye removal up to 0.8 molar concentration, which increases the industrial application of the process

COD Removal from High Salinity Petrochemical Wastewater Using Photo-assisted Peroxi-coagulation

Photo-assisted peroxi-coagulation (PPC) was investigated for treatment of high TDS (total dissolved solids) wastewater. The most important characteristics of the studied wastewater were high TDS of around 16428 mg L–1 and BOD5/COD ratio of 0.07. Effective operating parameters, including initial pH values of 3–8, reaction time of 60–240 min, electrode distance values of 2–6 cm, and voltage values of 0.5–3 V were investigated in batch mode experiments. Optimum conditions were obtained at pH = 3, voltage = 1.5 V, electrode distance = 2 cm, and reaction time = 420 min, corresponding to 89.44 % COD removal, which meets the Iran environmental discharge legislation (COD = 100 mg L–1). Kinetic analysis showed that pseudo first-order kinetic model was best fitted (R2 = 0.97). GC mass chromatograms before and after treatment showed degradation of complex compounds to more simple constituents

A systematic review and meta-analysis of human biomonitoring studies on exposure to environmental pollutants in Iran

Population exposure to environmental contaminants can be precisely observed through human biomonitoring studies. The present study aimed to systematically review all the biomonitoring studies conducted in Iran on some selected carcinogen environmental pollutants. In this systematic review study, 11 carcinogen agents were selected including arsenic, cadmium, chromium, nickel, lindane, benzene, trichloroethylene (TCE), pentachlorophenol (PCP), radon-222, radium-224, � 226, � 228, and tobacco smoke. The Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus databases were searched for peer-reviewed articles published in English. After several screening steps, data were extracted from the studies. Meta-analyses (a random-effect model using the DerSimonian-Laired method) were performed only for the biomarkers with more than three eligible articles, including cadmium in blood and breast milk, and arsenic in breast milk. Methodological quality of the studies was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale adapted for cross-sectional studies. Of the 610 articles found in the database search, 30 studies were eligible for qualitative review, and 13 were included in the meta-analysis (cadmium in blood (n = 3), cadmium in breast milk (n = 6), and arsenic in breast milk (n = 4)). The overall pooled average concentrations (95 CI) of cadmium in blood, cadmium in breast milk, and arsenic in breast milk were 0.11 (95 CI: 0.08, 0.14), 5.38 (95 CI: 3.60, 6.96), and 1.42 (95 CI: 1.02, 1.81) µg/L, respectively. These values were compared with the biomarker concentrations in other countries and health-based guideline values. This study showed that there is a need for comprehensive action plans to reduce the exposure of general population to these environmental contaminants. © 202