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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2024) | Viewed by 11393

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Dr. Guoyu Ding

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Guest Editor

School of Environemnt, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
Interests: emerging micropollutants; chlorinated organic compounds; fate and transport; microplastics; groundwater recharge; water reuse; remediation technology; risk assessment

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Due to rapid industrialization and urbanization, the concentrations of inorganic and organic contaminants in soil and groundwater are increasing, causing severe pollution and becoming a concern to public health and the surrounding environment. Various methods have been developed for soil and groundwater remediation. In this Special Issue, we invite high-quality research studies focused on physical, chemical and biological technologies and novel materials for the remediation of soil and groundwater contaminated by heavy metals, chlorinated organic solvents, inorganic ions, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, emerging micropollutants and their combinations, etc., as well as systematic studies on the applications of these technologies in pilot studies or real remedial projects. In addition, to fully understand the characteristics of pollutants, research papers related to the fate and transport of pollutants in soil and groundwater systems, and their health and/or ecological risk assessment are also welcome.

Dr. Guoyu Ding
Guest Editor

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Keywords

soil and groundwater pollution
heavy metal
chlorinated organic solvent
inorganic ions
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon
emerging micropollutants
remediation technology
fate and transport
risk assessment

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 2298 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Pleurotus pulmonarius Strain: Arsenic(III)/Cadmium(II) Accumulation, Tolerance, and Simulation Application in Environmental Remediation

by Yuhui Zhang, Xiaohong Chen and Ling Xie

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(6), 5056; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20065056 - 13 Mar 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1358

Abstract

The arsenic (As, III) and cadmium (Cd, II) accumulation and tolerance traits of a new strain Pleurotus pulmonarius MT were evaluated, and the utilization of the strain for repairing contaminated liquid and soil was explored. The hypha cultivated in potato dextrose agar (PDA) exhibited medium or high Cd accumulation (0 to 320 mg/L), medium Cd tolerance (maximum tolerated concentration, MTC ≥ 640 mg/L), medium As accumulation (0 to 80 mg/L), and high As tolerance (MTC > 1280 mg/L). The hypha has application potential in processes related to the removal of Cd and As in aqueous pollutants at concentrations of 80 mg/L Cd and 20 mg/L As. The trends obtained for the fruiting bodies of P. pulmonarius MT seemed to deviate from those of the hypha of this strain. The results show that the fruiting bodies featured medium As accumulation (0 to 40 mg/kg), medium As tolerance (MTC > 160 mg/kg), medium Cd accumulation (0 to 10 mg/kg), and high Cd tolerance (MTC > 1280 mg/kg). The fruiting bodies of P. pulmonarius MT were utilized in processes related to the recovery of Cd and As in substrates, that is, 12% contaminated soil mixed with 50 mg/kg Cd and 200 mg/kg As; thus, the hypha and fruiting bodies of P. pulmonarius MT can be used for the decontamination of water and soil containing As(III) and Cd(II). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assessment and Treatment of Soil and Groundwater Pollution)

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17 pages, 3804 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Source Apportionment and Health Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in Soils of Old Industrial Areas—A Case Study of Shanghai, China

by Chuan-Zheng Yuan and Xiang-Rong Wang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(3), 2395; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032395 - 29 Jan 2023

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1954

Abstract

Heavy metals in the soil of industrial areas pose severe health risks to humans after land-use properties are transformed into residential land. The public exposure time and frequency will soar significantly under residential land. However, much uncertainty still exists about the relationship between soil heavy metal pollution and—human health risks in an old industrial zone in Shanghai, China. Principal component analysis—(PCA) was used to explore the main sources of these heavy metals. Kriging interpolation was u-sed to identify their spatial distribution and high-risk areas, and the Human Health risk model was used to measure health risk. The results illustrate that the pollution levels of Cd, Hg, and Pb in industrial land are more serious than those in irrigation cropland. Meanwhile, the results of PCA showed that there were two main pollution sources under irrigated cropland, a natural source and a traffic source, accounting for 44.1% and 31.0%, respectively, and there were three main pollution sources under industrial land, with natural sources accounting for 28.5%, traffic sources accounting for 25.7%, and industrial sources accounting for 13.1%. In addition, the health risk assessment results indicated that the priority control pollutants of non-carcinogenic risk and carcinogenic risk were Zn and Cr, respectively. The high-risk area was mainly located in the middle of the study area. These results indicate that eliminating heavy metal pollution in the soil of the industrial area is so important to decrease health risks. The results of this study provide theoretical contributions to early warning of health risks related to heavy metal pollution in industrial area soil and serve as a practical reference for speeding up the formulation of industrial land pollution management policies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assessment and Treatment of Soil and Groundwater Pollution)

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17 pages, 5480 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Electrochemical Mechanisms and Optimization System of Nitrate Removal from Groundwater by Polymetallic Nanoelectrodes

by Fang Liu, Zhili Zhang and Jindun Xu

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(3), 1923; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20031923 - 20 Jan 2023

Viewed by 1720

Abstract

Zn-Cu-TiO₂ polymetallic nanoelectrodes were developed using Ti electrodes as the substrate. The reaction performance and pollutant removal mechanism of the electrodes were studied for different technological conditions by analyzing the electrochemical properties of the electrodes in the electrochemical system, using Ti, TiO₂, Cu-TiO₂, and Zn-Cu-TiO₂ electrodes as cathodes and Pt as the anode. The Tafel curve was used for measuring the corrosion rate of the electrode. The Tafel curve resistance of the Zn-Cu-TiO₂ polymetallic nanoelectrode was the smallest, so the Zn-Cu-TiO₂ nanoelectrode was the least prone to corrosion. The electrode reaction parameters were determined using cyclic voltammetry (CV). Zn-Cu-TiO₂ polymetallic nanoelectrodes have the lowest peak position and the highest electrochemical activity. The surface area of the electrode was determined by the time-current (CA) method, and it was found that the Zn-Cu-TiO₂ polymetallic nanoelectrode had a larger surface area and the highest removal rate of nitrate. The Ti, TiO₂, Cu-TiO₂, and Zn-Cu-TiO₂ electrodes also had higher removal rates for real groundwater, and the differences between the removal rates of nitrates for deionized water and real groundwater decreased as removal time increased. The Zn-Cu-TiO₂ polymetallic nanoelectrode exhibited the highest removal rate for real groundwater. This study reveals the reaction mechanism of the cathode reduction of nitrate, which provides the basis for constructing electrochemical reactors and its application in treating nitrate-contaminated groundwater. A mathematical model of optimized working conditions was created by the response surface method, and optimum time, NaCl concentration, and current density were 93.39 min, 0.22 g/L, and 38.34 mA/cm², respectively. Under these optimal conditions, the nitration removal rate and ammonium nitrogen generation in the process solution were 100% and 0.00 mg/L, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assessment and Treatment of Soil and Groundwater Pollution)

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12 pages, 1953 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Typical Sulfonamide Antibiotics Removal by Biochar-Amended River Coarse Sand during Groundwater Recharge

by Rui Liu, Hechun Yu, Xiaoshu Hou, Xiang Liu, Erping Bi, Wenjing Wang and Miao Li

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(24), 16957; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192416957 - 16 Dec 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1678

Abstract

The high porosity of medium-coarse sand (MCS) layers in groundwater recharge areas presents a high environmental risk. Sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and trimethoprim (TMP) are two common sulfonamide antibiotics in surface water that have a high propensity to migrate into groundwater. In this study, four biochars were prepared and biochar-amended soil aquifer treatment (SAT) columns were constructed to remove SMX and TMP. Batch experiments demonstrated that the sorption isotherms conformed to the Freundlich model. The maximum adsorptions of biochars prepared at 700 °C were 54.73 and 67.62 mg/g for SMX and 59.3 and 73.38 mg/g for TMP. Electrostatic interaction may be one of the primary mechanisms of adsorption. The column experiments showed that the SMX and TMP removal rate of the biochar-amended SAT was as high as 96%, while that of the MCS SAT was less than 5%. The addition of biochar greatly improved the retention capacity of the pollutants in the MCS layer in the groundwater recharge area and effectively reduced environmental risk. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assessment and Treatment of Soil and Groundwater Pollution)

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11 pages, 1348 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Simultaneous Determination for Nine Kinds of N-Nitrosamines Compounds in Groundwater by Ultra-High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Coupled with Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry

by Shanshan Chen, Yi Zhang, Qinghua Zhao, Yaodi Liu and Yun Wang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(24), 16680; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192416680 - 12 Dec 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1929

Abstract

The ability to effectively detect N-nitrosamine compounds by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry presents a challenge due to the problems of high detection limits and difficulty in simultaneous N-nitrosamine compound detection. In order to overcome these limitations, this study reduced the detection limit of N-nitrosamine compounds by applying n-hexane pre-treatment to remove non-polar impurities before the conventional process of column extraction. In addition, ammonium acetate was used as the mobile phase to enhance the retention of nitrosamine target substances on the chromatographic column, with formic acid added to the mobile phase to improve the ionization level of N-nitrosodiphenylamine, to achieve the simultaneous detection of multiple N-nitrosamine compounds. Applying these modifications to the established detection method allowed the rapid and accurate detection of N-nitrosamine in water within 12 min. The linear relationship, detection limit, quantification limit and sample spiked recovery rate of nine types of nitrosamine compound were investigated, showing that the correlation coefficient ranged from 0.9985–0.9999, while the detection limits of the instrument and the method were 0.280–0.928 µg·L⁻¹ and 1.12–3.71 ng·L⁻¹, respectively. The spiked sample recovery rate ranged from 64.2–83.0%, with a standard deviation of 2.07–8.52%, meeting the requirements for trace analysis. The method was applied to the detection of N-nitrosamine compounds in nine groundwater samples in Wuhan, China, and showed that the concentrations of N-nitrosodimethylamine and NDEA were relatively high, highlighting the need to monitor water bodies with very low levels of pollutants and identify those requiring treatment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assessment and Treatment of Soil and Groundwater Pollution)

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12 pages, 2859 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Factors Affecting the Detection of Hexavalent Chromium in Cr-Contaminated Soil

by Mingtao Huang, Guoyu Ding, Xianghua Yan, Pinhua Rao, Xingrun Wang, Xiaoguang Meng and Qiantao Shi

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(15), 9721; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159721 - 7 Aug 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2033

Abstract

The alkali digestion pretreatment method in the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Method 3060A could underestimate the content of Cr(VI) in Cr-contaminated soils, especially for soils mixed with chromite ore processing residue (COPR), which leads to a misjudgment of the Cr(VI) level in soils after remediation, causing secondary pollution to the environment. In this study, a new pretreatment method to analyze Cr(VI) concentration in contaminated soils was established. The impacts of soil quality, particle size, alkali digestion time and the rounds of alkali digestion on Cr(VI) detection in contaminated soils was explored and the alkali digestion method was optimized. Compared with USEPA Method 3060A, the alkaline digestion time was prolonged to 6 h and multiple alkali digestion was employed until the amount of Cr(VI) in the last extraction was less than 10% of the total amount of Cr(VI). Because Cr(VI) in COPR is usually embedded in the mineral phase structure, the hydration products were dissolved and Cr(VI) was released gradually during the alkaline digestion process. The amount of Cr(VI) detected showed high correlation coefficients with the percentage of F1 (mild acid-soluble fraction), F2 (reducible fraction) and F4 (residual fraction). The Cr(VI) contents detected by the new alkaline digestion method and USEPA Method 3060A showed significant differences for soil samples mixed with COPR due to their high percentage of residual fraction. This new pretreatment method could quantify more than 90% of Cr(VI) in Cr-contaminated soils, especially those mixed with COPR, which proved to be a promising method for Cr(VI) analysis in soils, before and after remediation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assessment and Treatment of Soil and Groundwater Pollution)

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