Photodegradation using TiO2-activated borosilicate tubes

This study examines the photocatalytic activity of titanium dioxide (TiO2) semiconductor supported on borosilicate tubes (cut-off 290 nm) towards removal of a mix of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) from water. For this purpose, two widely used analgesic and anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), ibuprofen (IBU) and mefenamic acid, along with MCPA sodium monohydrate, which is a common herbicide frequently used in the agricultural activities, were selected as a case study. Borosilicate tubes were coated with titanium oxide through two different approaches: sol-gel dip-coating and a hybrid nanoparticle dip-coating and plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) process. The photochemical reactor that hosts the titania-coated tubes was designed to permit continuous throughput of liquid feed stream. The photodegradation experiments were performed in laboratory conditions under artificial irradiation simulating solar light. The efficiency of direct photolysis and heterogeneous photocatalysis (TiO2) was investigated, and the performance of each coating method was evaluated. Kinetic studies for each experiment were accomplished, the overall results showed poor efficiency and insufficient removal for NSAIDs through direct photolysis, whereas applying heterogeneous photacatalysis with TiO2 coated on borosilicate tubes was found to accelerate their degradation rate with complete decomposition. Concomitantly, kinetic experimental results showed a critical difference of performance for the two coating methods used; in particular, the degradation rates of pollutants by the solgel- coated tubes were much faster than the degradation by the nanoparticle/PECVD-coated tubes. Using TiO2 supported on borosilicate tubes appears to be a promising alternative to conventional TiO2 suspension and avoid post-separation stages. The results achieved in this study can be used to optimise large-scale applications, and expanding the study to cover a wide range of pollutants will lead to achieve more representative results.We are grateful to Eng. Stefano Costacurta from Symera Srl, Italy, and Eng. Alessandro Patelli from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Padova, Italy, for the great efforts that had exerted in the manufacturing and for the characterisation of the TiO2- activated borosilicate tubes used in this research work. This work was supported by the European Commission in the framework of the Project BDiffusion of nanotechnology based devices for water treatment and recycling- NANOWAT^ (ENPI CBC MED I.B/2.1/049, Grant No. 7/1997)

TiO2 and Active Coated Glass Photodegradation of Ibuprofen

Commercial non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are considered as toxic to the environment since they induce side e ects when consumed by humans or aquatic life. Ibuprofen is a member of the NSAID family and is widely used as an anti-inflammatory and painkiller agent. Photolysis is a potentially important method of degradation for several emerging contaminants, and individual compounds can undergo photolysis to various degrees, depending on their chemical structure. The e ciency oftitanium dioxide (TiO2) and photocatalysis was investigated for the removal of ibuprofen from the aquatic environment, and the performance of these di erent processes was evaluated. In heterogeneous photocatalysis, two experiments were carried out using TiO2 as (i) dispersed powder, and (ii) TiO2 immobilized on the active surface of commercial coated glass. The kinetics of each photoreaction was determined, and the identification of the photoproducts was carried out by liquid chromatography coupled with Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (LC-FTICR MS). The overall results suggest that the TiO2 active thin layer immobilized on the glass substrate can avoid recovery problems related to the use of TiO2 powder in heterogeneous photocatalysis and may be a promising tool toward protecting the environment from emerging contaminants such as ibuprofen and its derivatives.Funding: This work was supported by the European Union in the framework of the Project “Di usion of nanotechnology-based devices for water treatment and recycling; NANOWAT” (ENPI CBC MED I-B/2.1/049, Grant No. 7/1997). Acknowledgments: Many thanks to Jawad H. Shoqueir, the head of Soil and hydrology Lab at Al-Quds University, for his support to partially cover the publication fee from his own budget. Results reported in this article were partially presented by Samer Khalaf at the Second International Conference on Recycle and Reuse, 4–6 June 2014, Istanbul, Turkey and published in the book of abstracts

TiO2 and Active Coated Glass Photodegradation of Ibuprofen

Commercial non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are considered as toxic to the environment since they induce side effects when consumed by humans or aquatic life. Ibuprofen is a member of the NSAID family and is widely used as an anti-inflammatory and painkiller agent. Photolysis is a potentially important method of degradation for several emerging contaminants, and individual compounds can undergo photolysis to various degrees, depending on their chemical structure. The efficiency oftitanium dioxide (TiO2) and photocatalysis was investigated for the removal of ibuprofen from the aquatic environment, and the performance of these different processes was evaluated. In heterogeneous photocatalysis, two experiments were carried out using TiO2 as (i) dispersed powder, and (ii) TiO2 immobilized on the active surface of commercial coated glass. The kinetics of each photoreaction was determined, and the identification of the photoproducts was carried out by liquid chromatography coupled with Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (LC-FTICR MS). The overall results suggest that the TiO2 active thin layer immobilized on the glass substrate can avoid recovery problems related to the use of TiO2 powder in heterogeneous photocatalysis and may be a promising tool toward protecting the environment from emerging contaminants such as ibuprofen and its derivativ

Removal of Herbicides from Water Using Heterogeneous Photocatalysis Case Study: MCPA Sodium Monohydrate

In this study, the herbicide MCPA sodium salt monohydrate (sodium (4-chloro-2 methylphenoxy) acetate has been studied as are presentative compound used in the agricultural field. Accordingly, direct photolysis and photocatalytic experiments under artificial irradiation simulating solar light in laboratorial conditions were performed. Photocatalytic experiments were performed using TiO2 dispersed powder and as an immobilized thin layer on the surface of blue glasses. The obtained results of photolysis showed a poor efficacy toward degradation of MCPA sodium monohydrate, with half-life (t1/2) 6931.5 min. While, the addition of TiO2 dispersed powder to the photocatalytic process enhances the process dramatically with (t1/2) equal to 36.5 min; furthermore, complete mineralization had been reached after approximately 4 hours, whereas the addition of TiO2 through immobilized system led to enhance the degradation rate with 2236 min. as t1/2. In spite of this, using TiO2 supported on glass substrates with more improvements could be a promising alternative to conventional TiO2 suspension, and provides a clean treatment method

Exploring Wind Speed for Energy Considerations in Eastern Jerusalem-Palestine Using Machine-Learning Algorithms

Wind energy is one of the fastest growing sources of energy worldwide. This is clear from the high volume of wind power applications that have been increased in recent years. However, the uncertain nature of wind speed induces several challenges towards the development of efficient applications that require a deep analysis of wind speed data and an accurate wind energy potential at a site. Therefore, wind speed forecasting plays a crucial rule in reducing this uncertainty and improving application efficiency. In this paper, we experimented with several forecasting models coming from both machine-learning and deep-learning paradigms to predict wind speed in a metrological wind station located in East Jerusalem, Palestine. The wind speed data were obtained, modelled, and forecasted using six machine-learning techniques, namely Multiple Linear Regression (MLR), lasso regression, ridge regression, Support Vector Regression (SVR), random forest, and deep Artificial Neural Network (ANN). Five variables were considered to develop the wind speed prediction models: timestamp, hourly wind speed, pressure, temperature, and direction. The performance of the models was evaluated using four statistical error measures: Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), and coefficient of determination (R2). The experimental results demonstrated that the random forest followed by the LSMT-RNN outperformed the other techniques in terms of wind speed prediction accuracy for the study site

Removal of Diclofenace Sodium from Aqueous Environments Using Heterogeneous Photocatalysis Treatment

The occurrence, fate and effects of Pharmaceuticals compounds (PhCs) in the environmental system have been attracted special attention in the world as a new emerging contaminants due to their potential impact on humans, animals and microorganisms even at low concentrations. Conventional wastewater treatment technologies, including biological, thermal and physical treatments, are demonstrated to be insufficient for removal of many pharmaceuticals residues from wastewater, due to their low biodegradability and high chemical stability. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), are one of the most promising treatment technologies for elimination of such relentless compounds. The current study was focused on the efficacy of various oxidation processes for degradation of diclofenac sodium (DCF) as a one of the most widespread pharmaceuticals present in sewage. The experimental phase was divided into two parts: Photolysis and heterogeneous photocatalysis. Concerning photocatalysis experiments, TiO2 as a catalyst has been used in two forms: (i) as dispersed powder; (ii) immobilized on the surface of blue slabs. Kinetic studies of DCF were accomplished and it’s photoproducts were identified using liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry system (LC-MS). Heterogeneous photocatalysis by using TiO2 dispersed powder shows the fastest extent of degradation with 54.6 min of half-life (t1/2). Nevertheless, the recovery of the suspended catalyst from the treated solution still form a problem after the treatment process. Direct photolysis and photocatalysis using TiO2 immobilized system showed approximately comparable results ( 71 and 79 min respectively), in contrast, the degradation pathway for each process was different which yielded a diversity in the photoproducts in each process. In conclusion, the overall results suggested that using both photolysis and heterogeneous photocatalysis are promising alternative techniques towards protecting the environment from this emerging contaminants

Characterizing CO2 residual trapping in-situ by means of single-well push-pull experiments at Heletz, Israel, pilot injection site : experimental procedures and results of the experiments

Two dedicated field experiments have been carried out at the Heletz, Israel pilot CO2 injection site. The objective has been to quantify the CO2 residual trapping in-situ, based on two distinctly different methods. Both experiments are based on the principle of a combination of hydraulic, thermal and/or tracer tests before and after creating the residually trapped zone of CO2 and using the difference in the responses of these tests to estimate the in-situ residual trapping. In Residual Trapping Experiment I (RTE I), carried out in autumn 2016, the main characterization test before and after the creation of the residually trapped zone were hydraulic withdrawal tests. In this experiment, the residually trapped zone was also created by fluid withdrawal, by first injecting CO2, then withdrawing fluids until CO2 was at residual saturation. The second experiment, Residual Trapping Experiment II (RTE II), was carried out autumn 2017. In this experiment, the residually trapped CO2 zone was created by CO2 injection, followed by the injection of CO2-saturated water, to push away the mobile CO2 and leave the residually trapped CO2 behind. In this test, the main reference test carried out before and after creating the residually trapped zone was injection and recovery of gas partitioning tracer Krypton. This paper presents the experimental procedures and results of these experiments. A hydraulic withdrawal test as a characterization method was robust and gave a clear signal. Given the difficulties in injecting water optimally saturated with CO2, in order not to dissolve the residually trapped CO2 or to create situations with excess mobile gas, withdrawal test may also be a generally preferable hydraulic testing method, in comparison to injection. The limitation of any hydraulic test is that it only gives an averaged value over the test section. At Heletz additional information about CO2 distribution was obtained based on thermal measurements and by monitoring the pressure difference between the two sensors in the bolehole. The latter could be used to estimate the amount of mobile CO2 in the well test section. Tracer experiments with gas partitioning tracers can in principle give more detailed information of CO2 residual distribution in the reservoir than hydraulic tests can, but are also far more complicated to carry out, involving sophisticated and sensitive equipment. In the Heletz case the optimal injection of CO2-saturated water turned out to be difficult to achieve. Creating the zone of residual saturation by means of fluid withdrawal rather than by injecting CO2-saturated water seemed a more robust approach. Monitoring the gas contents in the test interval gave good guidance on the state of the system. Model interpretations of the two experiments to obtain values for CO2 residual saturation are presented in companion papers in this same Special Edition

Early stage litter decomposition across biomes

Through litter decomposition enormous amounts of carbon is emitted to the atmosphere. Numerous large-scale decomposition experiments have been conducted focusing on this fundamental soil process in order to understand the controls on the terrestrial carbon transfer to the atmosphere. However, previous studies were mostly based on site-specific litter and methodologies, adding major uncertainty to syntheses, comparisons and meta-analyses across different experiments and sites. In the TeaComposition initiative, the potential litter decomposition is investigated by using standardized substrates (Rooibos and Green tea) for comparison of litter mass loss at 336 sites (ranging from −9 to +26 °C MAT and from 60 to 3113 mm MAP) across different ecosystems. In this study we tested the effect of climate (temperature and moisture), litter type and land-use on early stage decomposition (3 months) across nine biomes. We show that litter quality was the predominant controlling factor in early stage litter decomposition, which explained about 65% of the variability in litter decomposition at a global scale. The effect of climate, on the other hand, was not litter specific and explained <0.5% of the variation for Green tea and 5% for Rooibos tea, and was of significance only under unfavorable decomposition conditions (i.e. xeric versus mesic environments). When the data were aggregated at the biome scale, climate played a significant role on decomposition of both litter types (explaining 64% of the variation for Green tea and 72% for Rooibos tea). No significant effect of land-use on early stage litter decomposition was noted within the temperate biome. Our results indicate that multiple drivers are affecting early stage litter mass loss with litter quality being dominant. In order to be able to quantify the relative importance of the different drivers over time, long-term studies combined with experimental trials are needed.This work was performed within the TeaComposition initiative, carried out by 190 institutions worldwide. We thank Gabrielle Drozdowski for her help with the packaging and shipping of tea, Zora Wessely and Johannes Spiegel for the creative implementation of the acknowledgement card, Josip Dusper for creative implementation of the graphical abstract, Christine Brendle for the GIS editing, and Marianne Debue for her help with the data cleaning. Further acknowledgements go to Adriana Principe, Melanie Köbel, Pedro Pinho, Thomas Parker, Steve Unger, Jon Gewirtzman and Margot McKleeven for the implementation of the study at their respective sites. We are very grateful to UNILEVER for sponsoring the Lipton tea bags and to the COST action ClimMani for scientific discussions, adoption and support to the idea of TeaComposition as a common metric. The initiative was supported by the following grants: ILTER Initiative Grant, ClimMani Short-Term Scientific Missions Grant (COST action ES1308; COST-STSM-ES1308-36004; COST-STM-ES1308-39006; ES1308-231015-068365), INTERACT (EU H2020 Grant No. 730938), and Austrian Environment Agency (UBA). Franz Zehetner acknowledges the support granted by the Prometeo Project of Ecuador's Secretariat of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (SENESCYT) as well as Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands (2190). Ana I. Sousa, Ana I. Lillebø and Marta Lopes thanks for the financial support to CESAM (UID/AMB/50017), to FCT/MEC through national funds (PIDDAC), and the co-funding by the FEDER, within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement and Compete 2020. The research was also funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, FCT, through SFRH/BPD/107823/2015 (A.I. Sousa), co-funded by POPH/FSE. Thomas Mozdzer thanks US National Science Foundation NSF DEB-1557009. Helena C. Serrano thanks Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (UID/BIA/00329/2013). Milan Barna acknowledges Scientific Grant Agency VEGA (2/0101/18). Anzar A Khuroo acknowledges financial support under HIMADRI project from SAC-ISRO, India