High Pressure Hydrogenotrophic Denitrification (HPHD) provided a promising alternative for efficient and clean nitrate removal. In particular, the denitrification rates at low temperature could be compensated by elevated H₂ partial pressure. However, nitrite reduction was strongly inhibited while nitrate reduction was barely affected at low temperature. In this study, the nitrate reduction gradually recovered under long-term low temperature stress, while nitrite accumulation increased from 0.1 to 41.0 mg N/L. The activities of the electron transport system (ETS), nitrate reductase (NAR), and nitrite reductase (NIR) decreased by 45.8 %, 27.3 %, and 39.3 %, respectively, as the temperature dropped from 30 °C to 15 °C. Real time quantitative PCR analysis revealed that the denitrifying gene expression rather than gene abundance regulated nitrogen biotransformation. The substantial nitrite accumulation was attributed to the significant up-regulation by 54.7 % of narG gene expression and down-regulation by 73.7 % of nirS gene expression in hydrogenotrophic denitrifiers. In addition, the nirS-gene-bearing denitrifiers were more sensitive to low temperature compared to those bearing nirK gene. The dominant populations shifted from the genera Paracoccus to Hydrogenophaga under long-term low temperature stress. Overall, this study revealed the microbial mechanism of high nitrite accumulation in hydrogenotrophic denitrification at low temperature.

Natural organic matter in waters varies in different fractions. To better understand the removal of different fractions by a magnetic ion exchange (MIEX) resin and the mechanism behind it, this study investigated adsorption kinetics, equilibrium and thermodynamics of humic acid (HA) fractions with different hydrophilic-hydrophobic properties and molecular weights on MIEX resin through a series of batch experiments. MIEX resin can effectively remove approximately 40% of hydrophilic and 30% of hydrophobic HA components, as well as approximately 44% of molecular weight (MW) ,10 kDa to some degree. The removal efficiency of HA fractions by MIEX resin reduced with the increase of pH from 6 to 9. Adsorption kinetics of different HA fractions on MIEX resin fitted the pseudo-second-order model well. With the increase of MW of HA from ,1 kDa to .10 kDa, the time to reach adsorption equilibrium reduced from 180 to 120 min. It took more time for the hydrophilic fractions (140 min) to reach the equilibrium than for hydrophobic HA fractions (120 min). The Sips model fitted the adsorption equilibrium data of HA fractions on MIEX resin well. It was revealed that the adsorption of HA fractions on MIEX resin was spontaneous, endothermic and an entropy driven process, and the chemisorption might dominate the adsorption of HA components on MIEX resin. This study is of great significance to the design of magnetic ion exchange resin reactors and the optimization of operational parameters for the removal of natural organic matter with different hydrophilic-hydrophobic properties and molecular weights in different water sources.

Electrolysis and permanganate (PM) oxidation are two commonly used technologies for water treatment. However, they are often handicapped by their slow reaction rates. To improve the removal efficiency of refractory contaminants, we combined electrolysis with PM using an activated carbon fiber (ACF) as cathode (E-ACF-PM) for the first time to treat diclofenac (DCF) in aqueous solution. Up to 90% DCF was removed in 5 min by E-ACF-PM process. In comparison, only 3.95 and 27.35% of DCF was removed by individual electrolysis and PM oxidation at the same time, respectively. Acidic condition was more conducive to DCF removal. Surprisingly, soluble Mn(III) _{( aq)} formed on the surface of ACF was demonstrated as the principal oxidizing agent in E-ACF-PM process. Further studies showed that all three components (electrolysis + ACF + PM) were necessary to facilitate the heterogeneous generation of reactive Mn(III) _{( aq)}. Moreover, SEM images and XPS spectra of ACF before and after treatment revealed that the morphologies and elemental compositions of reacted ACF were nearly unchanged during the E-ACF-PM process. ACF can be remained active and utilized to the rapid degradation of DCF in E-ACF-PM process even after reused for 20 times. Therefore, the E-ACF-PM process may provide a novel and effective alternative on the generation of reactive Mn(III) _{( aq)} in situ for water treatment by green electrochemical reactions.

Rapid and large variation of photovoltaic (PV) power may incur frequency variation in a power system with high PV penetration. In such a case, much more reserve capacity of automatic generation control (AGC) for frequency regulation will be needed. In this paper, the energy storage station (ESS) is used to decrease the ramp rate of the total PV power and consequently decrease the AGC reserve capacity requirement of the power grid. However, as an expensive option, the ESS capacity should be optimally determined considering the balance between ESS cost and the equivalent benefit from the reduction of AGC payment. Therefore, an optimal sizing scheme for ESS in a power system with high PV penetration is proposed to strike a balance between the ESS cost and the reduction of the AGC payment. Firstly, a control scheme of ESS is proposed for smoothing PV power variation, during which the ramp rate of PV power can be finitely controlled with a size-limited ESS. Afterwards, an object function aiming to achieve the tradeoff between the investment cost of ESS and the reduction of AGC payment for frequency regulation is presented. Finally, case studies are conducted with actual PV power data to verify the effectiveness of the presented sizing scheme.