Development of Nitrogen-Containing Fertilizer Based on Pine Bark and Study of its Effectiveness in Wheat Growing in the Agricultural Zone of the Krasnoyarsk

A method for production a new fertilizer was proposed. This method is based on the impregnation of a substrate from pine bark with a water solution of ammonium nitrate, and containing 20.0 wt. % nitrogen. The physicochemical properties of a pine bark substrate and prepared fertilizers were studied. A field experiment was conducted on growing wheat of the variety “Krasnoyarskaya 12”. The yield of wheat when fertilized with pine bark was applied to the soil increased by 2.9 centners/ha compared to blank experiment without fertilizer. The use of this fertilizer results in an increase in the quality (higher nutritional value) of the grains in comparison blank experiments with ammonium nitrate and without fertilizer

Lipid Production by Yeasts Growing on Commercial Xylose in Submerged Cultures with Process Water Being Partially Replaced by Olive Mill Wastewaters

Six yeast strains belonging to Rhodosporidium toruloides, Lipomyces starkeyi, Rhodotorula glutinis and Cryptococcus curvatus were shake-flask cultured on xylose (initial sugar—S0 = 70 ± 10 g/L) under nitrogen-limited conditions. C. curvatus ATCC 20509 and L. starkeyi DSM 70296 were further cultured in media where process waters were partially replaced by the phenol-containing olive mill wastewaters (OMWs). In flasks with S0 ≈ 100 g/L and OMWs added yielding to initial phenolic compounds concentration (PCC0) between 0.0 g/L (blank experiment) and 2.0 g/L, C. curvatus presented maximum total dry cell weight—TDCWmax ≈ 27 g/L, in all cases. The more the PCC0 increased, the fewer lipids were produced. In OMW-enriched media with PCC0 ≈ 1.2 g/L, TDCW = 20.9 g/L containing ≈ 40% w/w of lipids was recorded. In L. starkeyi cultures, when PCC0 ≈ 2.0 g/L, TDCW ≈ 25 g/L was synthesized, whereas lipids in TDCW = 24–28% w/w, similar to the experiments without OMWs, were recorded. Non-negligible dephenolization and species-dependent decolorization of the wastewater occurred. A batch-bioreactor trial by C. curvatus only with xylose (S0 ≈ 110 g/L) was performed and TDCW = 35.1 g/L (lipids in TDCW = 44.3% w/w) was produced. Yeast total lipids were composed of oleic and palmitic and to lesser extent linoleic and stearic acids. C. curvatus lipids were mainly composed of nonpolar fractions (i.e., triacylglycerols).

Ecofriendly Reduction of Methylene Blue with Polyurethane Catalyst

A number of physical, chemical, and biological technologies have been developed to address the issue of synthetic dyes in wastewater. One of the important chemical methods involves reduction of these stringent pollutants into less hazardous products. In this study, a cross-linked polyurethane foam (CPUF) was prepared from toluene diisocyanate (TDI), tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA), and polycaprolactone diol (PCL; Mw: 1000 g/mole). To avoid harmful reducing agents, ecofriendly reduction of methylene blue (MB) was executed with CPUF as catalyst where ascorbic acid and fresh juice extracts were applied as reducing agents. The FTIR and SEM analysis confirmed the chemical composition and porous morphology of CPUF, respectively. The 100% reduction of MB was recorded in just 15 minutes with ascorbic acid and CPUF, while similar result was obtained in 37 minutes in blank experiment composed of only MB and ascorbic acid. Thus, catalytic role of CPUF in reduction process was proved. Fresh fruit extracts also participated in the reduction process, but rate of reaction was accelerated in the presence of CPUF. The reusability study of the catalyst supported its stability and efficiency. All the successful reduction processes followed 1st-order kinetics with highest apparent rate constant for ascorbic acid. Furthermore, phytotoxicity evaluation proved safe reduction of MB with 60% germination index. Hence, it can be concluded that catalytic role of CPUF has been established with safe and biodegradable reducing agents which can be extended to other redox processes.

Plant characters of broccoli determinants of head production

ABSTRACT: The increasing consumption of single-head broccoli is due to several factors, among them there are food production in minimally processing form and the existence of hybrids that adapt to various climates, in addition to the simple harvesting of this typical architecture.This study aimed to identify the most relevant plant characters of broccoli, represented by growth characters, which are determinant in the production and canopy area. The study was conducted in an experimental area in Pato Branco city, PR. The 11 characters were evaluated for 365 plants, spaced with 0.8x0.5m, on a blank experiment. The characters of group 1 (height, number of leaves, stem height, stem diameter) were evaluated on the 21 and 58 day after transplanting (DAT), and the leaf area was evaluated on the 17 and 32 DAT. The characters of group 2 were quantity of fresh head mass and canopy area. At the initial stage of cultivation, on the 17 and 21 DAT, variations in the plants characters did not lead toany variation in production. The higher number of leaves and the larger stem diameter on the 58 DAT determined the greater mass of the broccoli heads.

A Comparative Performance Evaluation of Some Novel “Green” and Traditional Antiscalants in Calcium Sulfate Scaling

A relative ability of industrial samples of four phosphorus-free polymers (polyaspartate (PASP); polyepoxysuccinate (PESA); polyacrylic acid sodium salt (PAAS); copolymer of maleic and acrylic acid (MA-AA)) and of three phosphonates (aminotris(methylenephosphonic acid), ATMP; 1-hydroxyethane-1,1-bis(phosphonic acid), HEDP; phosphonobutane-1,2,4-tricarboxylic acid, PBTC) to inhibit calcium sulfate precipitation is studied following the NACE Standard along with dynamic light scattering (DLS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique. For the 0.5 mg·dm−3dosage, the following efficiency ranking was found:MA-AA~ATMP>PESA (400–1500 Da)>PASP (1000–5000 Da)≫PAAS (3000–5000 Da)~PBTC~HEDP. The isolated crystals are identified as gypsum. SEM images for PESA, PASP, PAAS, and HEDP and for a blank sample indicated the needle-like crystal morphology. Surprisingly, the least effective reagent PBTC revealed quite a different behavior, changing the morphology of gypsum crystals to an irregular shape. The DLS experiments exhibited a formation of 300 to 700 nm diameter particles with negativeζ-potential around −2 mV for all reagents.Although suchζ-potential values are not capable of providing colloidal stability, all three phosphonates demonstrate significant gypsum particles stabilization relative to a blank experiment.

Influence of NH4Cl on Hydrothermal Formation ofα-CaSO4·0.5H2O Whiskers

The influence of NH4Cl on hydrothermal formation of CaSO4·0.5H2O whiskers from CaSO4·2H2O precursor at 135°C was investigated in this paper. Compared with the blank experiment, the presence of 3 × 10−2 mol·L−1NH4Cl led to the increase of the lengths of the whiskers from 50 to 160 μm to 150 to 300 μm and the decrease of the diameters from 1.0 to 1.5 μm to 0.2 to 0.5 μm. The dissolution of CaSO4·2H2O was accelerated by the complex interactions with NH4Cl and the soluble cations, which led to the decrease of the induction time for the occurrence ofα-CaSO4·0.5H2O from 46 minutes to 34 minutes and the formation of CaSO4·0.5H2O whiskers with high aspect ratios. Furthermore the critical supersaturation for the formation ofα-CaSO4·0.5H2O was investigated.

Consumption of reactive halogen species from sea-salt aerosol by secondary organic aerosol: slowing down the bromine explosion

Environmental context Secondary organic aerosols together with sea-salt aerosols are a major contribution to global aerosols and influence the release of reactive halogens, which affect air quality and human health. In this study, the loss of reactive halogen species from simulated salt aerosols due to three different types of secondary organic aerosols was quantified in chamber experiments and investigated with the help of a numerical model. The loss rate can be included into chemistry models of the atmosphere and help to quantify the halogen budget in nature. Abstract The interaction between secondary organic aerosols (SOAs) and reactive bromine species (e.g. BrO, Br2, HOBr) coexisting in the environment is not well understood and not included in current chemistry models. The present study quantifies the quenching of bromine release from an artificial salt aerosol caused by SOAs from ozonolysis of three precursors (α-pinene, catechol or guaiacol) in a Teflon smog chamber and incorporates it into a chemical box model. The model simulations perform very well for a blank experiment without SOA precursor, capturing BrO formation, as detected by differential optical absorption spectrometry. A first-order BrO loss rate of 0.001s–1 on the surface of SOA represents the overall effective Brx (total inorganic bromine) loss included in the model. Generally, the model agrees with the maximum BrO mixing ratio in time and magnitude, with some disagreements in the exact shape. Formation of reactive OClO was observed in the presence of organics but could not be reproduced by the model. According to current knowledge, most inorganic chlorine would be in the form of HCl in the presence of organics, as predicted by the model. In order to reproduce the net effects of the presence of SOA, the effective uptake coefficients of reactive bromine on the SOA surface are estimated to be 0.01, 0.01 and 0.004 for α-pinene, catechol and guaiacol respectively. The uptake coefficient can now be incorporated into box models and even global models, where sinks for bromine species are thought to be inadequately represented.

Evidence of Low Temperature Decomposition of GaN Hetero-Epitaxial Layers on C-Plane Sapphire Surface Characterized by Differential Scanning Calorimetry

This work reports on the characterization of the decomposition of GaN layers epitaxied on c-plane Sapphire substrate by Differential Scanning Calorimetry. Many configurations have been characterized from two different GaN epilayer providers with a large range of doping concentrations from Non-intentionally Doped layers up to 2x1019cm-3. All intentionally doped layers exhibit an endothermic reaction starting at 200-300 °C while the NiD layer thermogram is the same as the blank experiment. XPS and SEM observations demonstrated that the endothermic reaction is related to the GaN decomposition through Threading Dislocation and nanoPipe.

Biological Removal NOx from Simulated Flue gas in aerobic biofilter, by Jiang R., Huang S.B. and Yang J.

A bench-scale biofiltration system was developed to evaluate the NOx removal efficiency under high oxygen concentration. The system had been running for 120 days and kept on a steady NOx removal rate above 80%. A stable NOx removal with an efficiency of more than 80% from the gas phase can be obtained by the bioreactor concept, when flue gas containing NO (400-600 ppmv) and a certain O2 concentration (0-20%). In the blank experiment, less than 35% NO was removed as oxygen increased. The tendency of the three curves about NO removal rate with various O2 concentrations was mainly similar but some differences in the highest and lowest removal rate happened in the definite O2 concentration range. Oxygen was shown to have a significant effect on NOx removal at the first two or three days when oxygen concentration increased sharply. The higher concentration NO influent gas contained, the longer time the microflora need to regain activities. Compared with humidifier, microbial regenerator which was incorporated in biofilter can improve aerobic denitrifying bacteria activity by applying alternating oxic–anoxic conditions in the presence of nitrate and nitrite. Oxidation-Reduction Potential (ORP) and Dissolved Oxygen (DO) were used to control the dose of carbon source.