Abstract Polymers of Intrinsic Microporosity (PIMs) are recognized as promising polymers for active separation of organic pollutants. These highly porous and solution-processable polymers could be tailored to remove specific targets from an aqueous system. In this study, PIM-1 powder was modified to amidoxime PIM-1 powder and adsorption of charged dyes which are Methylene Blue (MB, cationic) and Methyl Orange (MO, anionic) from an aqueous system was explored to evaluate the influence of contact time, initial concentration, solution pH and temperature on the removal of dyes. The adsorption reached the equilibrium within three hours in a batch adsorption process for both dyes. Experimental adsorption capacity (qe, exp) of Amidoxime PIM-1 was found as 79.8 mg g−1 and 69.8 mg g−1 for MO and MB, respectively at pH 6 and 298 K. The Amidoxime PIM-1 was also able to remove a mixture of anionic and cationic dyes simultaneously from aqueous system. The removal ability is dependent on the solution pH and the selectivity can be tuned by shifting solution pH such as at low pH (pH 3) anionic dye adsorption is more favourable, while at high pH (pH 10) cationic dye adsorption is preferable. Equilibrium data acquired from batch adsorption experiments have been examined by four two-parameter (Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin–Radushkevich), four three-parameter (Redlich–Peterson, Sips, Khan and Liu) isotherm models, and by kinetic models such as the pseudo-first-order, the pseudo-second-order, Elovich equation and intraparticle diffusion using non-linear regression technique. Combination of several errors analysis techniques was applied to find the best fitting isotherm and kinetic models. Liu isotherm was the best to define the experimental data and the maximum adsorption capacities (qm) were calculated as 86.7 mg g−1 and 81.3 mg g−1 for MO and MB, respectively at pH 6 and 298 K. Adsorption data have the best consistency with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Furthermore, thermodynamic parameters were determined and the experiments suggested that the adsorption of MB and MO onto Amidoxime PIM-1 is a physical, spontaneous and exothermic. Graphic Abstract

Integration of environmental assessment tools has long been promoted as best practice with the potential to bring environmental benefits. In this research, we set out to evaluate the effectiveness of integration of environmental impact assessment (EIA) and mine closure planning using a simple effectiveness criteria framework, applied to current regulatory provisions and practices in Western Australia. The effectiveness criteria for the integration of EIA and mine closure planning, compiled from existing reviews of integration and effectiveness concepts in the impact assessment literature, considers procedural, transactive, substantive effectiveness and overall process legitimacy. Data analysis consisted of a literature review, examination of regulatory and guidance material and interviews with 12 experienced EIA and/or mine closure practitioners with an industry or regulatory focus. The results provide strong, positive examples of procedural, transactive and substantive effectiveness due to the integrated framework. These include behavioural changes, improved knowledge and learning and better provision for closure at an early stage of mine planning. A trajectory of improvement was noted by everybody interviewed. However, a key driver for effectiveness is the enthusiasm of key facilitations, and tension exists due to the different motivations of the two lead regulatory agencies which poses a challenge for the integrated framework. While it can reasonably be argued that the effectiveness of early mine closure planning cannot yet be realised, due to a paucity of completely closed mines in Australia this study nevertheless demonstrates clear benefits and opportunities result from early stage integration of EIA with mine closure planning.

Numerous studies have demonstrated adverse effects on human health after exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5). However, it is still not clear how the toxicological effects and the health risks vary among PM samples of different compositions and concentrations. In this study, we examined effects of region- and season-dependent differences of PM2.5 on cytotoxicity, and the contributions of PAHs, nitro-PAHs (N-PAHs) and hydroxy-PAHs (OH-PAHs) to PM2.5 toxicity by determining different toxicological indicators in three lung cell lines. The results illustrated significant differences in components concentrations and biological responses elicited by PM2.5 collected in different cities and seasons. The concentrations of most PAHs, N-PAHs and OH-PAHs were much higher in Taiyuan than in Guangzhou. PM2.5 from Taiyuan exhibited lower cell viability and higher reactive oxygen species (ROS) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) release on lung cells than those from Guangzhou. Specifically, PM2.5 collected in summer from Taiyuan caused higher levels of pro-inflammatory responses and oxidative potential than those collected in winter. The correlation analysis between 19 PAHs, 17 N-PAHs and 12 OH-PAHs and the measured indicators demonstrated that PAHs were more related to PM2.5-induced CCK-8 cytotoxicity and IL-6 release in Taiyuan while N-PAHs and OH-PAHs were more related to PM2.5-induced CCK-8 cytotoxicity and dithiothreitol (DTT)-based redox activity in Guangzhou, suggesting that the toxicity of PM2.5 from Taiyuan was mostly correlated with PAHs while the toxicity of PM2.5 from Guangzhou was closely associated with N-PAHs and OH-PAHs. These results revealed that composition differences in PM2.5 from different regions and seasons significantly accounted for the differences of their toxicological effects.

The use of nitrification inhibitors (NIs) such as 3,4–dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP) has been suggested to diminish agricultural soil nitrate (NO3−) loss and increase nitrogen (N) use efficiency (NUE). However, the yield of ammonium (NH4+)–sensitive plants such as spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) may be adversely affected by the application of NIs at high N levels and, on the other hand, the efficiency of the NIs may also be affected by soil amendments such as biochar. These two issues are still not adequately addressed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of different N levels including DMPP or not in a calcareous soil with and without amendment of wheat straw biochar on spinach yield, NUE, nitrate concentration of spinach leaf, activity of enzymes nitrate reductase (NR) and nitrite reductase (NiR), and soil ammonium (NH4+) and NO3− concentration under greenhouse conditions. This experiment was carried out with different N rates factor at seven levels (un–fertilized, N0; fertilized with 50 mg N kg−1 soil, N50; fertilized with 75 mg N kg−1 soil, N75; fertilized with 100 mg N kg−1 soil, N100; fertilized with N50 + DMPP; fertilized with N75 + DMPP; and fertilized with N100 + DMPP) and biochar (BC) factor at two levels (0, 0%BC; and 2% (w/w), 2%BC) with six replications over a 56–day cultivation period of spinach. Results showed that the application of DMPP had no significant effect on the yield of spinach plant at low and medium levels of N (50 and 75 mg N kg−1 soil), but decreased the yield of this plant at the higher level of N (100 mg N kg−1 soil). However, application of BC decreased the negative effect of DMPP on spinach yield as the yield in spinach plants fertilized with N75 + DMPP and N100 + DMPP significantly increased. Both application of DMPP and addition of BC to soil decreased leaf NO3− concentration by 29.2% and 16.3% compared to control, respectively. Biochar compared to control decreased NR activity by 46.3%. With increasing N rate, NR and NiR activities increased, but DMPP decreased the activities of both enzymes. Biochar reduced the efficiency of DMPP as soil NH4+ concentration was higher in the treatments containing DMPP without BC at 56 days after planting. Biochar and DMPP could increase the quality of spinach plant through decreasing the leaf NO3− concentration. In general, wheat straw biochar counteracted DMPP–mediated negative effect on growth of spinach plant at high level of N by decreasing the efficiency of this inhibitor. These results provide the useful information for managing the application rate of N fertilizers including DMPP in biochar–amended soil.

Gas cooking is an important source of airborne particulate matter (PM) indoors. Exposure to cooking-derived PM can lead to adverse human health impacts on non-smokers, especially in poorly-ventilated residential homes. Most of the previous studies on gas cooking emissions mainly focused on fine particles (PM2.5) with little information on their size-fractionation. Moreover, studies dealing with mitigation of indoor human exposure to cooking-derived PM are currently sparse. Therefore, a systematic study was conducted to investigate the characteristics of PM2.5 and size-fractionated PM derived from five commonly used cooking methods, namely, steaming, boiling, stir-frying, pan-frying and deep-frying in a poorly ventilated domestic kitchen under controlled experimental conditions. Additionally, an indoor portable air cleaner was employed as a mitigation device to capture cooking-derived PM and improve indoor air quality (IAQ). Results revealed that the oil-based deep-frying cooking released the highest airborne particles which were about 170 folds higher compared to the baseline levels for PM2.5 mass concentrations. The use of the air cleaner showed a statistically significant (p < 0.05) reduction in the indoor PM2.5 levels. Moreover, PM<0.25 (particles with diameter ≤ 250 nm) showed a very high mass concentration (378.2 μg/m3) during deep-frying, raising human health concern. A substantial reduction (∼60–85%) in PM<0.25 mass concentrations and their total respiratory deposition doses (RDD) in the human respiratory tract was observed while using the air cleaner during the five cooking methods. Furthermore, morphological characteristics and the relative abundance of trace elements in cooking-derived PM were also investigated. This study provides useful insights into the assessment and mitigation of indoor human exposure to cooking-derived PM.

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) has been known primarily for its role in the regulation of several drug and xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes to mitigate environmental stresses. In this study, we interfere the expression of AhR gene to investigate the mechanism of AhR signaling pathway in the detoxification and antioxidation defense system that induced by Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) exposure by RNA interference (RNAi). The gene expressions of aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator (ARNT), heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) were evaluated after being exposed to benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) (4 μg/L) for 5 days and the positive correlations between AhR, ARNT, HSP90 indirectly indicating that AhR may have the ability to bind to ligands such as PAHs in Ruditapes philippinarum (R. philippinarum). Besides, the activities of detoxification enzymes were determined to investigate the role of AhR signaling pathway played in the metabolic detoxification. What's more, the gene expressions of protein kinase C (PKC) signaling pathway, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPKs) signaling pathway, NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) signaling pathway and antioxidant defense system indicated that AhR may regulate the Nrf2-Keap1 signaling pathway through Kelch-like ECH-associated protein-1 (Keap1) and MAPKs, PKC signaling pathways. In conclusion, adoption of RNA interference technology to explore the role of RpAhR gene played in the detoxification and antioxidation defense system under the PAHs stress at different time points can informe molecular endpoints for application towards ecotoxicology monitoring of bivalves.

Population growth and deteriorating health issues have led to an increase in the consumption of angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), such as losartan (LOR), for treating high blood pressure and, as a result, to the frequent detection of these drugs in water and wastewater. The present study focuses on the oxidation of LOR by UV photolysis, UV(/Fe2+)-activated persulfate (PS) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) systems. The effects of operating parameters including pH value, reaction time, concentration of oxidant and activator on the efficacy of treatment were studied. The target compound degradation by direct UV photolysis, UV/PS and UV/H2O2 systems proved to be efficient and followed a pseudo-first-order kinetic model. The application of UV/oxidant systems even at lower PS or H2O2 concentrations resulted in more than 95% of LOR degradation in 10 min. In addition, the use of UV/Fe2+-activated oxidant systems led to a further increase in the kobs by improving the LOR oxidation in aqueous solution. The effectiveness of LOR mineralization based on total organic carbon (TOC) removal was also considered. The optimized results of the studied systems obtained in ultrapure water were used in groundwater to assess the effectiveness of LOR decomposition in more complex environmental matrix. Moreover, the acute toxicity of LOR solutions before and after the UV/Fe2+-activated PS and H2O2 oxidation to luminous bacteria (Vibrio fischeri) was investigated.

Green roof can mitigate urban stormwater and improve environmental, economic, and social conditions. Various modeling approaches have been effectively employed to implement a green roof, but previous models employed simplifications to simulate water movement in green roof systems. To address this issue, we developed a new modeling tool (SWMM-H) by coupling the stormwater management and HYDRUS-1D models to improve simulations of hydrological processes. We selected green roof systems to evaluate the coupled model. Rainfall-runoff experiments were conducted for a pilot-scale green roof and urban subbasin. Soil moisture in the green roof and runoff volume in the subbasin were simulated more accurately by using SWMM-H instead of SWMM. The scenario analysis showed that SWMM-H selected sandy loam for controlling runoff whereas SWMM recommended sand. In conclusion, SWMM-H could be a useful tool for accurately understanding hydrological processes in green roofs.

The adversarial effects of construction and demolition (C&D) waste on the environment are on the increase. While materials such as metals, wood, glass and plastics are segregated and diverted for reuse/recycling, C&D debris consisting of concrete, bricks and tiles are landfilled in most of the countries. LCA studies have indicated a clear preference for recycling. However, it has been inferred that the environmental credits obtained in these studies were mainly from recycling of metals and wood and studies focusing on environmental impacts/benefits evaluation of C&D debris recycling is limited. This is particularly relevant in the cases of developing countries like India, where C&D debris forms a bulk of C&D waste generation. Therefore, this paper evaluates the environmental impacts of four different scenarios for managing C&D debris comprising the present (S1) and future (S2) landfilling options and recycling options without transfer stations (S3) and with transfer stations (S4). LCA according to ISO methodology is performed based on locally sourced data supplemented with Ecoinvent database. IMPACT 2002+ impact assessment method has been applied for environmental impact quantification using SimaPro software. Landfilling of C&D debris generates environmental impacts, and recycling scenarios generate environmental benefits in all 15 impact categories. Single score values of landfilling scenarios are 1.83 mPt (S1) and 2.78 mpt (S2) and that of C&D debris recycling are −2.56 mPt (S3) and −1.91 mPt (S4). The robustness of the results was shown through sensitivity analysis. Recycling remains beneficial compared to landfilling as long as the diesel and electricity consumption of C&D debris recycling facility remains less than 475% of the current consumption. Furthermore, even if the transportation distance from quarry to crushing unit is reduced to zero, recycling still remains a better alternative. The merit of considering the future landfilling scenario in the decision making has been discussed since the challenges that might be encountered in setting up new landfills are underestimated. The implications of the findings and their relevance to urban local bodies have also been discussed to help policymakers take informed decisions while facing challenges of managing C&D debris.

This work proposes an adaptive data compression mechanism to reduce the flow in the communication infrastructure of the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), providing a more agile communication and thus allowing the scalability of the internet of things (IoT) applications in the demand side management (DSM) scenario, to automate consumption management and distributed power generation. Such a mechanism is built into a smart meter (SM) and aims to reduce the amount of data sent to an electric power company (EPC). Additionally, this mechanism makes use of curve adjustment to find, in an adaptive way in run time, a functional model, among the available options, that best adapts to the consumption measures inferred by the SM. The experiments present compression rates where the data recovered by the functional model respect a pre-established error threshold. Thus, allowing the scalability of DSM applications in this infrastructure. Therefore, it can to be stated that the presence of the data compression mechanism proposed in this work is satisfactorily adequate for the DSM scenario of consumption and distributed generation achieving compression rates close to 96%, as well as provides the possibility of being adapted to other contexts, such as WSN.

As the weak effect of previous economy catch-up policies in the context of growth traps in underdeveloped regions, this paper contributes to the knowledge area of establishing a coordinated economy-environment developing mode that aims at green economy catch-up from the perspective of long-term convergence of environmental total factor productivity (ETFP). To verify the feasibility of this convergence as a practical path for green economy catch-up, we investigate the existence of conditional β-convergence and the effect of its convergence conditions through comparing Eastern, Central, Western, and Northeastern China with the aid of convergence model. Empirical results indicate that club convergence of ETFP has not appeared in these four regions, thus supporting the existence of conditional convergence. Further analysis shows when ETFP increases by 1%, the foreign trade dependence, pollution intensity, and input biases on ETFP as convergence conditions in China will decrease by 29.5%, 40.32% and 91.74%, respectively. However, it exists heterogeneous embodiments of convergence conditions among four regions. What's more, unskilled human capital, energy structure, and foreign trade dependence all significantly act on ETFP growth with marginal effect as 0.0012, 0.0039, and −0.012 in China's underdeveloped regions (Western and Northeastern provinces), respectively. Overall, our findings reveal that the input of human capital, greenization criterion, and international openness should be viewed as important factors for green economy catch-up in China's underdeveloped regions.

Disposable paper cups comprise typical single-use plastic items, as they are lined internally with a thin plastic coating for waterproofing. They are consumed at a staggering rate worldwide, with the UK alone consuming around 7 million cups daily, thus annually producing around 30,000 tonnes of paper cup waste. Contrary to popular belief, less than 1 in 400 paper cups is currently recycled in the UK, which is in stark contrast to the waste hierarchy and the European Commission’s ambitious Circular Economy Action Plan. Paper cups typically end up in landfill sites or even improperly disposed of, contributing to (micro)plastic waste and potentially polluting the world's oceans. The implications of the latter are not fully known yet and cannot be quantified by existing life cycle impact assessment methods. By employing the life cycle assessment methodology, UK’s annual carbon footprint from paper cup consumption was found to be 75 kt of carbon dioxide equivalents, which is similar to that of manufacturing 11,500 mid-size passenger cars. Globally, their environmental footprint was found to be comparable to that of some 1.5 M average European inhabitants, suggesting the nature and extent of single-use plastic items problem, which paper cup is just a typical example. Paper cup recycling could reduce this environmental footprint by up to 40%, whereas switching to reusable cups appears to be more environmentally sustainable, achieving a threefold reduction in carbon emissions, which is more than twice Malta’s annual carbon footprint. Results indicate that consumerism along with small daily choices, such as using reusable cups instead of their disposable counterparts, could play a huge role in climate change. At policy level, no concrete measures to curb the superfluous consumption of paper cups, as well as other single-use plastic items that are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, have materialised. Furthermore, it appears that decision- and policy-makers tend to step in to curtail wasteful and polluting practices only when environmental problems have started to generate widespread concern, instead of undertaking preventative policy measures.

In transitioning towards cleaner production and any other new policy, public acceptance is often seen as a major issue. Edutainment energy parks, with the potential to produce and exhibit various renewable energies, seems to be a successful strategy for increasing public awareness and culture building that may lead to public acceptance. The location of these park is the first, and perhaps the most important, challenge impacting their future usage and success. In this study, a hybrid decision support model was developed by combining the Delphi method (to obtain the main site selection criteria), the Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory technique (to establish the interdependence and correlation between complex criteria), and the Fuzzy Analytic Network Process (to overcome inconsistent and uncertain judgments whilst weighting the selected criteria). The developed method identified twelve sub-criteria grouped under four main criteria, including transportation infrastructures, population and social, environmental, and physical indicators. The weighting results showed that the built environment and natural topography (0.148), parcel size, land use and economic matters (0.146), legibility (0.107), and population centers (0.104) are the four most important sub-criteria. Application to a real data set of Tehran for efficiency revealed that Afra Park with a 5419 m2 area is the most optimal parcel for establishing an edutainment energy park in District 7 of the city, according to the selected criteria. Therefore, implementing these criteria demonstrated that they can be useful when working on a practical project with real data.

This paper questions how the implementation of the circular economy actually takes place and evolves over time, using the geographical example of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. This particular practice-oriented, regional focus is underexposed in the literature. Relying upon transition management literature, the analysis shows through five years' action-research that a pipeline of tailor-made circular initiatives, all at varying speeds, was created and when successful, scaled up. This is visualised in a ‘practice-based model for implementing circular economy’, which specifies the four-phase model by Rotmans et al. (2001). By developing a scheme which represents the activities needed in each phase of the implementation process, Loorbach's transition management cycle (2010) could be refined. Contrary to what Loorbach suggests, these activities largely follow not only a sequential order, but are also cyclic. Studies on similar initiatives in other regional contexts will allow for generalisation of the results gained in the study presented here.

Globally, while the livestock sector contributes significantly to the environmental impact (EI), it faces some key challenges such as to increase production to cover increased demand, to adapt to highly variable natural and economic scenarios, and to enhance its eco-environmental performance. Such complex scenarios require a comprehensive evaluation of the EI considering the carbon footprint (CF), the blue water footprint (BWF), the socio-economic sustainability (SES) and their interactions. Hence, the economic value (EV) made by the goat production system (GPS) in the Comarca Lagunera (CL), northern-arid Mexico was quantified to compare it with its EI and SES (1994–2018). Response variables included the EV of the CF and BWF and the SES of the EV-GPS. The value of each of the variables was adjusted to 2011 euros while indicating the value in United States Dollars (USD) between parentheses. The CL recorded annual averages of 390,427 goats, 64.34 million liters of milk and 3,316.12 tons of meat. When contrasting the EV-GPS [M€ 18.17 (MUSD 23.47)] with the EV-CF [M€ 3.61 (MUSD 4.67); 84.29 kg CO2-eq kg milk-meat protein−1, MMP−1] + EV-BWF [M€ 2.48 (MUSD 3.20); 462.99 l H2O kg MMP−1)], a positive balance was observed. The accumulated GPS-CL economic spillover effect was M€ 454.23 (MUSD 586.83), 5.79 million minimum wages (MW) yearly and close to 400,000 MW during the studied period. The GPS is highly eco-efficient considering both the CF and the transformation of the BWF into animal protein (milk-meat) with an undisputable biological value. Besides, the greater the economic and productive efficiency of the GPS, the better the socio-economic conditions of the producer and his family, with concomitant decreases in both the index and degree of marginalization of families and municipalities where goat production develops.

The Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear power plant (NPP) accidents that occurred in 1986 and 2011 respectively have led to many years of chronic radiation exposure of wildlife. However, controversies remain on the dose threshold above which an impact on animal health occurs. Fish have been highly exposed immediately after both accidents in freshwater systems around Chernobyl and in freshwater and marine systems around Fukushima. The dose levels decreased during the years after the accidents, however, little is known about the effects of environmental low doses of radiation on fish health. The present laboratory study assesses the effects of an environmentally relevant dose range of radiation (0.1, 1 and 10 mGy/day) on early life stages of the 3-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus. The cardiac physiology and developmental features (head width, diameter, area) of high exposed embryos (10 mGy/day) showed no significant change when compared to controls. Embryos exposed to the medium and high dose were slower to hatch than the controls (between 166 and 195 h post-fertilization). After 10 days of exposure (at 240 h post-fertilization), larvae exposed to the high dose displayed comparable growth to controls. High-throughput sequence analysis of transcriptional changes at this time point revealed no significant changes in gene regulation compared to controls regardless of exposure conditions. Our results suggest that exposure of fish embryos to environmental radiation elicits subtle delays in hatching times, but does not impair the overall growth and physiology, nor the gene expression patterns in the recently hatched larvae.

In this study, the performance of three commercial available monolithic carbonaceous aerogels (NQ30A, NQ60A and NQ80A) for the removal of different emerging pollutants, detected in water sources, was evaluated. More specifically, the removal of two pharmaceuticals (antipyrine and sulfamethoxazole) and an anti-fungal agent (methyl paraben), widely used in cosmetics, was studied. The NQ60A demonstrated the best adsorption characteristics and effectively adsorbed over 50 mg/g of the antipyrine and around 30 mg/g sulfamethoxazole and methyl paraben. The kinetic study of the adsorption process revealed that pseudo-first order kinetic model described very well the kinetic behaviour of the selected pollutants onto the NQ60A aerogel. After that, the regeneration of the loaded aerogel, with antipyrine alone and in presence of the other two contaminants, was evaluated. The regeneration was accomplished in two ways: (1) by using directly the loaded aerogels as cathode during the electro-Fenton treatment and (2) by its regeneration immersed in the bulk volume of electro-Fenton cell (boron doped diamond as anode and carbon felt as cathode). Both approaches can provide an effective removal of the pollutants inside the aerogel. In addition, the regenerated aerogel proved to maintain its adsorptive properties and can be successfully reused in successive cycles of adsorption-regeneration. On the basis of these promising results, it can be concluded that the proposed strategy based on aerogels adsorption and electro-Fenton regeneration is a suitable alternative for emerging pollutants removal from water streams.

A Pt catalyst supported on activated carbon (Pt/AC) was used for an environmentally friendly thermal treatment of food waste under an inert atmosphere (i.e., pyrolysis). This catalyst influenced the amounts of condensable hydrocarbons and noncondensable gases but not that of the solid remaining after the pyrolysis; in particular, it contributed to shifting the carbon distribution from the condensable hydrocarbons to the noncondensable gases for the food waste pyrolysis. Moreover, its use suppressed the generation of harmful chemical compounds, especially at high temperatures. For example, a Pt/AC-catalyzed pyrolysis at 700 °C produced about 4 times fewer benzene derivatives than the same treatment without a catalyst; this probably occurred because the Pt sites catalyzed the decyclization reaction and/or the free radical mechanism, which is dominant in the thermal cracking of carbon-containing feedstock. This study suggests that a Pt/AC-catalyzed pyrolysis would be a more environmentally benign food waste treatment method.

Light energy is one of the major costs for phototrophic systems. This study evaluated the photoreactor efficiency of purple phototropic bacteria anaerobic membrane bioreactor (PAnMBR) at low irradiance for the treatment of municipal wastewater. Infrared irradiance levels of 3.0 and 1.4 W/m2 produced by an infrared (IR) lamp emitting in the 800–900 nm wavelength range were investigated, with the ultimate goal of optimizing the irradiance energy demand. Experimental and modeling results demonstrated the ability of PPB to grow and treat raw municipal wastewater at the applied low irradiances, with effluent quality below target limits of TCOD˂50 mg/L, TN˂10 mg/L, and TP˂1 mg/L. While Monod kinetic parameters, km and Y, were determined to be lower than previous high-energy studies (1.9 mgCOD/mgVSS-d and 0.38 mgVSS/mgCOD, respectively), the photobioreactor performance were consistently maintained, indicating that energy cost associated with IR illumination can be reduced by up to 97%. To determine whether the treatment process could approach energy neutrality, subsequent anaerobic digestion experiments of the residual PPB biomass proved a potential for biogas recovery of up to 240 NmLCH4/gVSSadded, and a moderate biomass biodegradability of 41%. As a result, the net energy consumption of the process was estimated at 0.5 kWh/m3 of treated municipal wastewater, considering an energy demand for illumination of 0.67 kWh/m3 and an energy recovery attributed to the anaerobic digestion of 0.17 kWh/m3 from the excess PPB biomass wasted from PAnMBR.