Shaobin Sun

Bio: Shaobin Sun is an academic researcher from Beijing Jiaotong University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Ceramic membrane & Membrane. The author has an hindex of 11, co-authored 19 publications receiving 263 citations. Previous affiliations of Shaobin Sun include New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Uptake and translocation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals by maize from soil irrigated with wastewater.

Abstract: By investigating the uptake of 16 priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and five heavy metals from soils to maize at the farmlands with industrial wastewater irrigation, this study revealed the effects of heavy metals on PAHs uptake in terms of co-contamination. The results of 15 investigated soils showed medium contamination level and the vertical PAHs distribution in soils indicated that 2–3 rings PAHs with low octanol-water partition coefficient (log Kow < 4.5) were easier to transport in soils, causing a great potential risk immigrating to the groundwater. The 3-ring PAHs were most likely to be taken up by maize roots whereas 2- and 4–6 ring PAHs had the lower likelihood. The translocation of PAHs in maize tissues has positive relationship with log Kow less than 4.5, while negatively correlated otherwise. Redundancy analysis indicated the unexpected results that, except for soil PAHs concentration, the PAHs translocation by maize was reduced by Pb uptake, but not significantly affected by soil organic matters, pH or the other four heavy metals (Cr, Cu, Ni and Zn). This study for the first time provides the restricted factors of PAHs and heavy metal acropetal translocation by maize when they co-exist at wastewater irrigation sites.

Environmental toxicology and risk assessment of pharmaceuticals from hospital wastewater

Abstract: In this paper, we evaluated the ecotoxicological potential of the 100 pharmaceuticals expected to occur in highest quantities in the wastewater of a general hospital and a psychiatric center in Switzerland. We related the toxicity data to predicted concentrations in different wastewater streams to assess the overall risk potential for different scenarios, including conventional biological pretreatment in the hospital and urine source separation. The concentrations in wastewater were estimated with pharmaceutical usage information provided by the hospitals and literature data on human excretion into feces and urine. Environmental concentrations in the effluents of the exposure scenarios were predicted by estimating dilution in sewers and with literature data on elimination during wastewater treatment. Effect assessment was performed using quantitative structure-activity relationships because experimental ecotoxicity data were only available for less than 20% of the 100 pharmaceuticals with expected highest loads. As many pharmaceuticals are acids or bases, a correction for the speciation was implemented in the toxicity prediction model. The lists of Top-100 pharmaceuticals were distinctly different between the two hospital types with only 37 pharmaceuticals overlapping in both datasets. 31 Pharmaceuticals in the general hospital and 42 pharmaceuticals in the psychiatric center had a risk quotient above 0.01 and thus contributed to the mixture risk quotient. However, together they constituted only 14% (hospital) and 30% (psychiatry) of the load of pharmaceuticals. Hence, medical consumption data alone are insufficient predictors of environmental risk. The risk quotients were dominated by amiodarone, ritonavir, clotrimazole, and diclofenac. Only diclofenac is well researched in ecotoxicology, while amiodarone, ritonavir, and clotrimazole have no or very limited experimental fate or toxicity data available. The presented computational analysis thus helps setting priorities for further testing. Separate treatment of hospital wastewater would reduce the pharmaceutical load of wastewater treatment plants, and the risk from the newly identified priority pharmaceuticals. However, because high-risk pharmaceuticals are excreted mainly with feces, urine source separation is not a viable option for reducing the risk potential from hospital wastewater, while a sorption step could be beneficial.

Photo-Fenton self-cleaning membranes with robust flux recovery for an efficient oil/water emulsion separation

Abstract: Superhydrophilic/underwater superoleophobic membranes have aroused much research enthusiasm because of their good anti-fouling ability for the treatment of oil-contaminated water. However, such anti-fouling membranes inevitably suffer from fouling during long-term use. Thus, anti-fouling membranes with excellent self-cleaning performance, fast and superior flux recovery are still greatly required. Herein, the green tannic acid (TA)-Fe(III) complex is first assembled onto the polyvinylidene fluoride membrane (PVDF) surface and followed by the in situ mineralization of β-FeOOH to fabricate the PVDF/TA/β-FeOOH membrane for efficient oil/water emulsion separation. The resultant membrane exhibits superhydrophilicity and underwater superoleophobicity with underwater OCA of above 155° for various oils. Importantly, the as-prepared membrane shows fast (within 10 min) and excellent flux recovery (over 98%) attributed to the robust photo-Fenton catalytic activity of β-FeOOH. Moreover, the membrane also displays high separation efficiency (>99.1%) and high flux (1426.8–2106.2 L m−2 h−1 bar−1) for a series of oil/water emulsions. This study highlights a new direction in the development of photo-Fenton self-cleaning membranes with fast and robust flux recovery for efficient oil/water emulsion separation.