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Carbon cycle regulation and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission abatement within wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) can theoretically improve sustainability. Currently, however, large amounts of external carbon sources used for deep nitrogen removal and waste sludge disposal aggravate the carbon footprint of most WWTPs. In this pilot-scale study, considerable carbon was preliminarily recovered from primary sludge (PS) through short-term (five days) acidogenic fermentation and subsequently utilized on-site for denitrification in a wool processing industrial WWTP. The recovered sludge-derived carbon sources were excellent electron donors that could be used as additional carbon supplements for commercial glucose to enhance denitrification. Additionally, improvements in carbon and nitrogen flow further contributed to GHG emission abatement. Overall, a 9.1% reduction in sludge volatile solids was achieved from carbon recovery, which offset 57.4% of external carbon sources, and the indirect GHG emissions of the target industrial WWTP were reduced by 8.05%. This study demonstrates that optimizing the allocation of carbon mass flow within a WWTP has numerous benefits.

Although there exists a variety of different catalysts for hydroboration of organic substrates such as aldehydes, ketones, imines, nitriles etc., recent evidence suggests that tetra-coordinate borohydride species, formed by activation, redistribution, or decomposition of boron reagents, are the true hydride donors. We then proposed that Me2S-BH3 could also act as a hydride donor for the reduction of various imines, as similar compounds have been observed to reduce carbonyl substrates. This boron reagent was shown to be an effective and chemoselective hydroboration reagent for a wide variety of imines.

The collaborative and mutually reinforcing phosphorus removal in domestic wastewater in a sponge iron and microorganisms system was studied through a laboratory and a pilot scale experiment. The results showed that the total phosphorus concentration of the effluent of less than 0.5 mg/L could be achieved. The results also support that the biochemical reaction accelerated the iron electrochemical corrosion. As a driving force, iron bacteria strengthened the chemical oxidation of Fe(ll) to Fe(lll). The chemical precipitation of Fe(lll) is the main form of phosphorus removal, in addition, there exists adsorption phosphorus removal by phosphate-accumulating organisms. The mechanism of the enhanced phosphorus removal by microbial-collaborating sponge iron was thus proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An activated sludge from SBBR (sequencing biofilm batch reactor) reactor filled with Fe0 as filler had been acclimated to Fe(III)-rich environment aiming at secure an enrichment culture of iron-reducing bacteria. The dissimilatory Fe(III) reduction ability and its efficiency on the effect of nitrogen and phosphorous removal by dosing different Fe(III) under anaerobic condition were investigated. The mechanism was also proposed based on the results derived from the experiment and that in the literature. The experimental results show that there is great consistency between the ability of Fe(III) reduction and the effects of nitrogen and phosphorous removal, with the order of Fe(OH)3>iron oxide scale>green ore>red ore. However, NH4+-N and TN show a removal hysteresis. The results support that the mechanism of phosphorous removal using dissimilatory Fe(III) reduction seems to be the chemical sedimentation driven by IRB, rather than the surface adsorption of Fe(III) source. Judging from ΔGθ, it is reasonable to believe that Feammox, ANAMMOX and nitrate-dependent oxidation coupled with Fe(III) reduction under anaerobic condition are thermodynamically feasible. They are potentially critical components of N cycle in activated sludge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents work provides a previously unexplored strategy for multifunctional electronic skins (e-skins) with excellent practicability. It mentions the breathable, biodegradable, antibacterial, and self-powered electronic skin based on all-nanofiber triboelectric nanogenerators. It discusses on how e-skin achieve real-time and self-powered monitoring of whole-body physiological signal and joint movement.