Influence of Hydrogen Peroxide on Disinfection and Soil Removal during Low-Temperature Household Laundry

In the Water, Energy and Waste Directive, the European Commission provides for the use of household washing programmes with lower temperatures (30–40 °C) and lower water consumption. However, low washing temperatures and the absence of oxidising agents in the liquid detergents, and their reduced content in powder detergents, allow biofilm formation in washing machines and the development of an unpleasant odour, while the washed laundry can become a carrier of pathogenic bacteria, posing a risk to human health. The aim of the study was to determine whether the addition of hydrogen peroxide (HP) to liquid detergents in low-temperature household washing allows disinfection of the laundry without affecting the properties of the washed textiles even after several consecutive washes. Fabrics of different colours and of different raw material compositions were repeatedly washed in a household washing machine using a liquid detergent with the addition of 3% stabilised HP solution in the main wash, prewash or rinse. The results of the antimicrobial activity, soil removal activity, colour change and tensile strength confirmed the excellent disinfection activity of the 3% HP, but only if added in the main wash. Its presence did not discolour nor affect the tensile strength of the laundry, thus maintaining its overall appearance.     

LC and NMR Studies for Identification and Characterization of Degradation Byproducts of Olmesartan Acid,Elucidation of Their Degradation Pathway and Ecotoxicity Assessment

The discovery of various sartans, which are among the most used antihypertensive drugs in the world, is increasingly frequent not only in wastewater but also in surface water and, in some cases, even in drinking or groundwater. In this paper, the degradation pathway of olmesartan acid, one of the most used sartans, was investigated by simulating the chlorination process normally used in a wastewater treatment plant to reduce similar emerging pollutants. The structures of nine isolated degradation byproducts (DPs), eight of which were isolated for the first time, were separated via chromatography column and HPLC methods, identified by combining nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry, and justified by a proposed mechanism of formation beginning from the parent drug. Ecotoxicity tests on olmesartan acid and its nine DPs showed that 50% of the investigated byproducts inhibited the target species Aliivibrio fischeri and Raphidocelis subcapitata, causing functional decreases of 18% and 53%, respectively.     

Modeling aspects of flow and solute transport simulations in water disinfection tanks

Water disinfection tanks such as chlorine and ozone contactors typically consist of multiple compartments featuring a serpentine flow pattern. Due to the complex hydrodynamics, the design and optimization of these tanks are often carried out by employing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The present study demonstrates the influence of certain modeling aspects when the widely used Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) based CFD approach to predict hydrodynamics and disinfection performance is employed. Three different contact tank geometries are examined numerically using RANS. The time-averaged velocity predictions are reasonably accurate when compared to validation data. However, in baffled contact tanks, the time-averaged flow differs quite significantly from the instantaneous flow, with the consequence that RANS-based models require careful calibration of the turbulent mixing parameter, i.e., the turbulent Schmidt number, when computing transport of solutes.     

Kinetic Studies on the Urethane Reaction of Propanediol with Isocyanate in Nitrogenous Solvents

The urethane reactions of 1,2-propanediol, 1,3-propanediol, and n-propanol with phenyl isocyanate were respectively carried out in nitrogenous solvents. In situ FT-IR was used to monitor the reactions, and rate constants were determined. It was shown that the reaction rate of 1,2-propanediol was fastest, followed by the reaction rates of 1,3-propanediol and n-propanol. After that, activation energy (E_a), activation enthalpy (ΔH), and activation entropy (ΔS) were calculated. It was found that these thermodynamic parameters for 1,2-propanediol and 1,3-propanediol are very similar, but they were very different from those of n-propanol, which is very useful to understand the urethane reaction mechanism.     

含氮杂环协助的醛胺缩合反应机理的研究

采用密度泛函理论（DFT）方法研究了在酸性条件下对带有氮杂原子的伯胺与醛的缩合反应机理.研究结果表明,在酸性条件下,碱性更强的杂环氮比羰基氧更容易被质子化,杂环氮作为氢质子桥使缩合反应能垒大大降低,计算得到的反应能量跨度为13.08 kcal/mol.同时,将伯胺上含氮杂环上的N原子调变为P,As原子及改变N原子的位置后缩合反应能垒升高,证实了杂环氮原子协助氢转移的重要性,此理论研究为揭示含氮杂环伯胺与醛的缩合反应机理提供了新的思路与理论依据.     

Effects of Brewers’ condensed solubles (bcs) on the production of ethanol from low-grade starch materials

Yeast fermentation was performed on grain and bakery byproducts with and without adding the same volume of brewers’ condensed solubles (BCS). Starch material in the grain and bakery byproducts effectively was converted to fermentable sugars with conversion ratios of 93–97% by successive treatments of samples with bacterial αamylase and fungal glucoamylase. The yeast fermentation of these enzyme-digested byproducts alone showed that ethanol concentrations of 16.4–42.7 mL/100 g dry solid in the broth were achieved with fermentation efficiencies of 87–96%. Addition of BCS to the grain byproducts increased ethanol concentration by 10–86% by increasing the potential glucose content of the broth. The rates of fermentation measured by CO₂ gas production demonstrated that BCS addition to bakery byproducts reduced the fermentation time from 62–72 h to 34–35 h. In bakery byproducts that were low in amino nitrogen, exhaustion of nitrogenous compounds in substrates was found to be a limiting factor for yeast growth. Because BCS is a rich source of nitrogen, adding BCS to these substrates markedly increased the fermentation rate.     

Photocatalytic and bactericidal activities of hydrothermally synthesized nanocrystalline Cd-doped ZnO

Nanocrystalline Cd-doped ZnO has been obtained by hydrothermal synthesis and characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive X-ray spectrum, high resolution scanning electron micrographs and UV–visible diffuse reflectance, photoluminescence and electrochemical impedance spectra. Cd-doping by hydrothermal method decreases the grain size and destroys the microstructure. Although doping does not modify the band gap it suppresses the deep level emission, decreases the charge-transfer resistance and increases the capacitance. Cd-doping enhances the photocatalytic and bactericidal activities.     

低温等离子体灭菌实验装置研究

相对于传统的灭菌方法,利用常压低温等离子体灭菌有许多优点.简单介绍了一个常压低温等离子体灭菌实验装置,该装置主要由电源、匹配测量电路、放电电极和真空系统及光谱检测系统等4个部分组成,并给出了运行调试的结果.