Environmental Technologies to Treat Rare Earth Elements Pollution: Principles and Engineering

Rare earth elements (REE) have applications in various modern technologies, e.g., semiconductors, mobile phones, magnets. They are categorized as critical raw materials due to their strategic importance in economies and high risks associated with their supply chain. Therefore, more sustainable practices for efficient extraction and recovery of REE from secondary sources are being developed. This book, Environmental Technologies to Treat Rare Earth Elements Pollution: Principles and Engineering: presents the fundamentals of the (bio)geochemical cycles of rare earth elements and which imbalances in these cycles result in pollution.overviews physical, chemical and biological technologies for successful treatment of water, air, soils and sediments contaminated with different rare earth elements.explores the recovery of value-added products from waste streams laden with rare earth elements, including nanoparticles and quantum dots. This book is suited for teaching and research purposes as well as professional reference for those working on rare earth elements. In addition, the information provided in this book is helpful to scientists, researchers and practitioners in related fields, such as those working on metal/metalloid microbe interaction and sustainable green approaches for resource recovery from wastes. ISBN: 9781789062229 (Paperback) ISBN: 9781789062236 (eBook) ISBN: 9781789062243 (ePUB)

Soils and sediments host Thermoplasmata archaea encoding novel copper membrane monooxygenases (CuMMOs)

Copper membrane monooxygenases (CuMMOs) play critical roles in the global carbon and nitrogen cycles. Organisms harboring these enzymes perform the first, and rate limiting, step in aerobic oxidation of ammonia, methane, or other simple hydrocarbons. Within archaea, only organisms in the order Nitrososphaerales (Thaumarchaeota) encode CuMMOs, which function exclusively as ammonia monooxygenases. From grassland and hillslope soils and aquifer sediments, we identified 20 genomes from distinct archaeal species encoding divergent CuMMO sequences. These archaea are phylogenetically clustered in a previously unnamed Thermoplasmatota order, herein named the Ca. Angelarchaeales. The CuMMO proteins in Ca. Angelarchaeales are more similar in structure to those in Nitrososphaerales than those of bacteria, and contain all functional residues required for general monooxygenase activity. Ca. Angelarchaeales genomes are significantly enriched in blue copper proteins (BCPs) relative to sibling lineages, including plastocyanin-like electron carriers and divergent nitrite reductase-like (nirK) 2-domain cupredoxin proteins co-located with electron transport machinery. Ca. Angelarchaeales also encode significant capacity for peptide/amino acid uptake and degradation and share numerous electron transport mechanisms with the Nitrososphaerales. Ca. Angelarchaeales are detected at high relative abundance in some of the environments where their genomes originated from. While the exact substrate specificities of the novel CuMMOs identified here have yet to be determined, activity on ammonia is possible given their metabolic and ecological context. The identification of an archaeal CuMMO outside of the Nitrososphaerales significantly expands the known diversity of CuMMO enzymes in archaea and suggests previously unaccounted organisms contribute to critical global nitrogen and/or carbon cycling functions.

Quantification of anthropogenic TiO2 nanoparticles in soils and sediments combining size fractionation and trace element ratio

Soils and sediments are the most important sinks for anthropogenic TiO2 nanoparticles. Therefore, it is important to assess their environmental impact and monitor their concentration in this media. Since these...

The Fate of Glyphosate in Soil and Water: A Review

The fate of glyphosate in soil and water is dependent on the properties of glyphosate and its envoronement. Behaviour of glyphosate in soil, sediment and water is strongly influenced the way by which it can be adsorbed by soils, sediments, and suspended material in water. The role of soil organic matter, clay mineral, and amorphous minerals on the adsorption of glyphosate depends primarily on the nature and properties of the soil itself and the properties of glyphosate. Environmental factors have some influence on sorption and degradation of glyphosate. Glyphosate is rapidly inactivated in soil, is in part due to adsorption. Some soil properties have been identified strongly influence adsorption of glyphosate, such as clay minerals, composition of cations in exchangeable site of clay and organic matter, unoccupied phosphate adsorption site, degree of humification, and soil pH. Adsorption limits the availability of glyposate for microbial degradation. The sorbed glyphosate is not directly available to microorganisms in soil. Evidence also suggests that not only a strongly sorbed compound such as paraquat but also weakly sorbed compounds such as flumetsulam and picloram can persist for long periods when they are sorbed by soil constituents. This suggests that the interaction between sorption and biodegradation should be considered in predicting the fate of pesticides in soils and sediments.

Distribution and contamination assessment of heavy metals in soils and sediments from the Fildes Peninsula and Ardley Island in King George Island, Antarctica

Concentrations of heavy metals (Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd and Cr) in surface soils and sediments collected in 2008 from 37 sampling sites in the Fildes Peninsula and Ardley Island were detected by atomic absorption spectrometry. The total contents of Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd and Cr ranged, respectively, from 61.36 to 562.2 mg/kg, 0.52 to 1.95 mg/kg, 54.61 to 577.9 mg/kg, 0.04 to 3.76 mg/kg and 6.83 to 25.9 mg/kg in soils and from 58.55 to 498.3 mg/kg, 0.60 to 2.51 mg/kg, 56.22 to 345.9 mg/kg, 0.07 to 5.77 mg/kg and 7.76 to 39.5 mg/kg in sediments. The geo-accumulation index and the pollution load index were calculated to evaluate the environmental effects of heavy metal pollutants, Cu, Zn and Cd, in the study area. Soils and sediments from Ardley Island were found to be moderately polluted with the studied metals. Pearson’s correlation analysis and principal component analysis were applied to assess the distribution pattern and potential source of heavy metals. The results suggest that Cu, Zn and Cd in the study area originated from both the lithogenic sources and penguin guano, while Pb and Cr were probably derived from lithogenic sources.

Dynamics of Leaf- and Root-Specific Biomarkers during 1-Year of Litter Decomposition

Root-specific and leaf-specific biomarkers have been used for decades to identify the origin of organic materials in soils and sediments. However, quantitative approaches require appropriate knowledge about the fate of these indicator molecules during degradation. To clarify this issue, we performed a 1-year incubation experiment with fine root and leaf material of six temperate tree species: European ash (Fraxinus excelsior), European beech (Fagus sylvatica), Oak spec. (Quercus spec.), Linden spec. (Tilia spec.), Norway spruce (Picea abies) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvatica). Only one molecule, x,16-dihydroxy hexadecanoic acid (x,16-C16), could be validated as a general leaf-specific biomarker for the set of all species. For roots, no general root biomarker was found. Ester-bound tricosanol (C23-OH) could be validated for five out of six species; 20-hydroxy eicosanoic acid (ωC20) could be validated for four out of six species, leaving Norway spruce without a suitable root biomarker. The results of this study suggest that the validity of leaf- and root-derived ester-bound lipids as biomarkers is highly species dependent and does not always coincide with previous findings. Concentrations of root- and leaf-derived ester-bound lipids did not stay constant within 1 year of degradation and changed without a linear trend. The change of concentrations seems to be highly species dependent. This might be due to a different structure and arrangement of the individual monomers in cutin and suberin per species, and, therefore, a different accessibility of bond cleaving enzymes. The usefulness of root and leaf biomarkers is context dependent. Our results suggest that general assumptions about litter input to forest soils solely based on biomarker analysis have to be considered carefully.

Sorption Processes in Soils and Sediments

Sorption processes at the mineral–water interface are fundamental to the chemical functioning of soils, and impact the biogeochemical cycling of both trace and major elements in soil and sediment environments [...]