Hexavalent chromium release from lignite fly ash and related ecotoxic effects

Hexavalent chromium Cr(VI) is a pollutant of immense concern due to its high mobility to water sources and highly toxic properties. In most cases, Cr(VI) could be released from lignite fly ash in aquatic environment when fly ash comes into contact with water. In this study, the contribution of the leaching patterns and bioavailability of Cr(VI) from lignite fly ash to the overall ecotoxic properties of fly ash leachates was originally examined and leaching procedures were evaluated in this context. A series of customized leaching tests were conducted and a battery of ecotoxicity tests including the crustacean Daphnia magna and the photobacterium Vibrio fischeri was applied. The leaching of Cr(VI) was pH and liquid to solid (L/S) ratio dependent, exhibiting the highest releases at pH values between 7 and 8. At the liquid to solid ratio (L/S) equal to 100 L/kg, the (CrVI) release reached a plateau, implying the presence of diffusion constrains and/or solubility hindrances. The toxic effect of the leachates obtained under leaching at pH 7 towards D. magna was relatively high (TU = 28.6 (23.8-35.7) at L/S = 10 L/kg). Interestingly, the toxicity of the leachates towards D. magna not only was significantly correlated to Cr(VI) (r = 0.961, P < 0.01), but the toxicity of the leachates (in absolute values) was matching the toxicity of the Cr(VI) revealing its remarkable contribution to the overall effect. In addition, the lower sensitivity of the bacteria V. fischeri when exposed to the leachates, along with the time dependence of the toxicity profiles supported the interpretation of the results obtained in this study

Ecotoxicological properties of wastewater treated using tertiary methods

The objective of this work was the examination of the efficiency of coagulation and ozonation processes for the production of reclaimed wastewater with low toxicity. Municipal secondary effluents were treated by FeCl 3, Al2(SO4)3 (alum), and a commercial substance at metal ion concentrations of 0.5 and 1 mmol/L. Alternatively, the effluents were treated by ozonation in a semibatch ozone reactor. The feed gas was introduced at a flowrate of 3 L/min containing ozone at various concentrations, ranging between 2.5 and 8 mg/L; ozone residence times were 2, 5, 15, and 30 min. The toxic effects of the advanced treated effluents were examined by a battery of tests using the marine bacteria Vibrio fischeri, the freshwater crustaceans Daphnia magna, Daphnia pulex, and Thamnocephalus platyurus, and the rotifers Brachionus calyciflorus. The addition of alum decreased the toxic effect of reclaimed wastewater on immobilization of D. pulex, from 90 to 60%. Ozonation was also effective for toxicity removal, which decreased to 25% effect on D. pulex after treatment by 2.5 mg O3/L for 2 min. However, acute toxic effects after ozonation, were observed on V. fischeri and were related to ozone gas concentration and contact time. At the highest ozone dosage, the toxicity reached almost 100% inhibition of bioluminescence after 15 min. The toxicity of the ozonated effluents to bacteria decreased with sample storage time and was almost negligible after 48 h, indicating that the potential adverse effect of reclaimed wastewaters on receiving waters might be reduced by storage for a certain time. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Developing Payment for Ecosystem Services Scheme on Pari Island Kepulauan Seribu

Pari Island is a tourism area and the number of tourists has increased each year. It decreases the quality of the coastal ecosystem. However, major funding is required to maintain the quality. This study using literature review explains the value of ecosystem services and the PES scheme. The total willingness to pay, that explains the value of ecosystem services, is higher than operational budget. It indicates PES scheme can be used as an alternative way to cover operational cost. The PES scheme that can be implemented on Pari Island is between local forum as ecosystem services provider and tourists of Pari Island as user. This research contributes to the development of PES to protect the coastal ecosystem of Pari Island. This study also informs the importance of beach for Pari Island and the great negative economic impact if the beach is damage

Bioavailability and toxicity of heavy metals in the presence of natural organic matter

The effect of humic acids (HA) on the toxicity of copper, zinc and lead was investigated in this study, using the photobacterium Vibrio fischeri (Microtox test) as a test organism. The metal species and the complexation capacity of HA were predicted using model WinHumicV for speciation modeling. The toxicities of copper and lead were generally comparable, while the toxicity of zinc was lower than the ones of the other two method. The toxicity of copper decreased with the addition of HA, while the toxicity of zinc remained almost constant. The complexation of Zn with HA was low. Thus the presence of HA did not significantly influence the toxicity of Zn. For Cu and Zn, the free metal ion species showed to be basically responsible for the toxicity of these metals, while for Pb the chlorocomplexes and Pb-HA complexes contributed to the toxicity of Pb, indicating that the toxicity of heavy metals depends not only on the free metal ion species concentration but on different metal species that may be bioavailable

Influence of ozonation on the in vitro mutagenic and toxic potential of secondary effluents

Reclamation of municipal effluents by advanced treatment processes is an attractive perspective for facing certain water shortage problems. However, the application of tertiary techniques should be thoroughly examined for their potential hazardous effects. Ozonation is an efficient chemical oxidation method, often used in wastewater reclamation, which may result in by-products that may alter the toxic and mutagenic properties of effluents. In this study, Ames test and Microtox test were used for the evaluation of ozonation efficiency to upgrade secondary effluents quality. In general, the toxic response and mutagenic effect without metabolic activation of test species were influenced mainly by the ozone dose and ozonation duration, whereas the mutagenic effect with metabolic activation was influenced mainly by ozone dose, indicating that ozone conditions strongly affect the formation of by-products. In most cases, the toxicity was increased and reached up to 100% (in relation to that of secondary effluent) after ozonation with 8.0 mg CA for 5 min. On the contrany, in most cases the mutagenic activity towards strain TA98 without metabolic activation was reduced, when ozone dose and contact time increased, However, the mutagenicity was also increased after ozonation at low ozone doses and for contact times less than 5 min. The mutagenic activity of treated effluents towards strain TA98 with metabolic activation remained about the same or was reduced, compared to that of secondary effluent, and was even eliminated after ozonation with 8.0 mg O(3)/L for contact times higher than 5 min. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Wetting properties of dehydrated biofilms under different growth conditions

Biofilms are resilient to environmental conditions and often resistant even to strong disinfectants. It is crucial to investigate their interfacial properties, which can be effectively characterized by wetting analysis. Wetting phenomena on biofilm surfaces have been poorly investigated in literature, in particular a systematic study of wetting on real biofilm-coated substrates including the application of external body forces (forced wetting, i.e.: centrifugal and gravitational forces) is missing. The aim of this work is to study the role of nutrient and shear flow conditions on wetting properties of Pseudomonas fluorescens dehydrated biofilms, grown on glass substrates. An innovative device (Kerberos®), capable to study spreading/sliding behavior under the application of external body forces, is used here for a systematic analysis of wetting/de-wetting liquid droplets on horizontal substrates under the action of tangential forces. Results prove that, under different growth conditions, (i.e., nutrients and imposed flow), biofilms exhibit different wetting properties. At lower nutrient/shear flow conditions, biofilms show spreading/sliding behavior close to that of pure glass. At higher nutrient and shear flow conditions, droplets on biofilms show spreading followed by imbibition soon after deposition, which leads to peculiar droplet depinning during the rotation test. Wetting properties are derived as a function of the rotation speed from both top and side views videoframes through a dedicated image analysis technique. A detailed analysis of biofilm formation and morphology/topography is also provided here

Environmental hazard assessment of coal fly ashes using leaching and ecotoxicity tests

The environmental hazard of six coal fly ash samples collected from various coal incineration plants were examined in the present study, using various leaching tests along with physicochemical and ecotoxicological analyses. Physicochemical analyses indicated that the concentration of Ba, Cr, Mo, Se, sulfates and total dissolved solids (TDS) exceeded the threshold values, according to the European Council decision 2003/33/EC for inert, non-hazardous or hazardous waste. The highest sensitivity, among examined organisms, was presented by Daphnia magna and was ascribed to the lowest tolerance of the organism to Cr. The toxic effect profile of the leachates toward Vibrio fischeri revealed that its bioluminescence was significantly altered by the presence of heavy metals in the leachates (such as Cu, Ni and Zn) in low or sub-lethal doses. Although the toxicity of the leachates toward Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata was relatively high, the correlation between the toxicity and heavy metals concentration was rather poor, indicating the significance of the bioavailability of constituents and the importance of toxicity testing. Based on the classification of the samples resulted by physicochemical analyses of the leachates and the results of ecotoxicity tests, Physicochemical and Ecotoxicological indices were also defined, for an overall evaluation of the environmental impact assessment of fly ashes. The suggested indices showed that ecotoxicity tests were in some cases inconsistent with the outcome of waste classification based on physicochemical analyses. Moreover, the examination of leaching protocols and obtained results showed that one stage leaching test (L/S=10 L/kg) underestimated the fly ash classification, when compared with the two stage test EN 12457-3 at the cumulative ratio L/S=10 L/kg. In addition, the application of availability test NEN 7341 provided useful results about the ecotoxicity wastes. Thus, NEN 7341 is strongly suggested for the implementation of such studies, since the bioavailability of constituents may not be altered by pH adjustment tactics and pH-originated toxicity effects may be avoided. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved