Development of Operation Management Model of Groundwater According to Nitrate Contamination

Nitrate is one of the most important groundwater pollutants with such different sources as chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or domestic and industrial wastewater. In this research, the optimal operation of groundwater wells in aquifers with nitrate pollution is investigated using simulation and optimization techniques. For the simulation part, an artificial neural network (ANN) model is developed, and for the optimization model, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) is used. Considering the high nitrate concentration in Karaj area and its increase in recent years, the northern part of this aquifer is selected as a case study to apply the proposed methodology. A seasonal ANN model is developed with input layers including well discharge in the current and previous seasons, nitrate concentration in the previous season, aquifer thickness, and well coordinates, all selected based on sensitivity analysis. The results of PSO algorithm shows that nitrate concentration can be controlled by increasing or decreasing well discharge in different zones. Therefore, it is possible to reduce nitrate concentration in critical areas by changing the spatial distribution of groundwater extractions in different zones keeping the total discharge constant

Remediation of Groundwater Contaminated with Cadmium by Nano-Zero Valence Iron (at Batch and Pore Media Scales)

Since a major portion of the food we use is provided by corps irrigated with water that is supplied from groundwater resources, remediation of contaminated groundwater using in-situ methods like permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) seems to be a top priority. Given the need to reduce Cd contamination in southern Tehran, the present study was designed to compare the rate of Cd absorption by nZVI with that by Zeolite and Calcite. The results of the study revealed a higher Cd adsorption by nZVI as compared to that by Calcite and Zeolite. Also, when nZVI concentration was raised from 1 to 2 g/l, enhancements were observed after two hours in Cd adsorption by up to 5.5%, 3.4%, and 11.5% in solutions containing 0.2, 0.5, and 4 ppm of Cd, respectively.Moreover, for a contact time of 24 hours and when the initial concentration of the contaminant was raised from 0.2 to 0.5 ppm, the adsorption rate declined to 5.45% and 7.75% for nZVI injections of 1 and 2 g/l, respectively. In a second part of the study, such environmental conditions as changes in pH and temperature were investigated for their effects on Cd adsorption. Compared to the initial concentration of 4 ppm, Cd adsorption reduced by 37.15% under acidic conditions (pH=3.7) and by 92.75% under alkaline conditions (pH=13.1) after a contact time of 3 hours. Similarly, a reduction equal to 38.5% was observed in Cd adsorption after 6 hours when temperature was raised from 20 °C to 75 °C. In order to explore the bioenvironmental impacts of injecting nanoparticles aimed at adsorption and precipitation of Cd, the concentration of iron nanoparticles present in the environment was measured. As a result of the reaction between the solutions containing 0.5 ppm of Cd with the absorbent solution containing 2 g/l iron, the iron nanoparticle concentration in the solution was observed to decline to 0.0041% of its initial concentration after 24 hours. In the experiments conducted in a vertical saturated porous and homogeneous medium, injection of 3 g/l of nZVI, as the absorbent, into water containing 2.92 ppm of the contaminant reduced the contaminant concentration to levels below the limits recommended for drinking water. The reaction between nZVI and Cd dissolved in the medium revealed that the nanoparticles served as an efficient absorbent as they not only adsorbed Cd over time, but also removed it from the medium through precipitation

Post-Treatment of Reclaimed Municipal Wastewater through Unsaturated and Saturated Porous Media in a Large-Scale Experimental Model

In recent decades, groundwater overexploitation has caused an important aquifer level decline in arid zones each year. In addition to this issue, large volumes of effluent are produced each year in metropolitan areas of these regions. In this situation, an aquifer storage and recovery system (ASR) using the reclaimed domestic wastewater can be a local solution to these two challenges. In this research, a post-treatment of reclaimed municipal wastewater has been investigated through unsaturated–saturated porous media. A large-scale, L-shaped experimental model was set up near the second-stage wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in the west of greater Tehran. The water, soil, and treated wastewater of the experimental model were supplied from the aquifer, site, and WWTP, respectively. The 13 physicochemical parameters, temperature and fecal coliform were analyzed every 10 days in seven points for a period of four months (two active periods of 40 days with a 12-h on–off rate (wet cycles) and a rest period of 40 days (dry cycle) between the two wet cycles). The results showed that the effects of the saturated zone were twice as great as those of the unsaturated zone and two-thirds of the total treatment efficiency. Furthermore, a discontinuous wet–dry–wet cycle had a significant effect on effluent treatment efficiency and contaminants’ reduction. In conclusion, an aquifer storage and recovery system using treated wastewater through the unsaturated–saturated zones is a sustainable water resource that can be used for agriculture, environmental and non-potable water demands

Single sequence repeat markers associated with partial resistance in sunflower to Phoma macdonaldii

Phoma black stem of sunflower, caused by Phoma macdonaldii, occurs in many countries. The objective of the present study was to estimate the number of markers and genomic regions in sunflower associating with Phoma black stem resistance. Genetic variability among 32 sunflower genotypes, including recombinant inbred lines and their parents, M7 mutant lines developed by gamma irradiation, and some genotypes from different countries of origin, was evaluated using simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Eighty-eight markers were generated at 38 SSR loci, with a mean number of alleles per locus of 2.32. Using susceptibility data of 32 sunflower genotypes against seven P. macdonaldii isolates (Darvishzadeh et al., 2007), one to four markers were associated with each of seven different P. macdonaldii isolates. To reduce the probability of false positives, a sequential Bonferroni-experiment-wise P-value was used for each marker trait association tested. The identified markers showed a promising trend, although they did not pass the more stringent bar of statistical significance, and should be studied further