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- Andersson, Anna, 1990-
(författare)
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Uncharted Waters : Non-target analysis of disinfection by-products in drinking water
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Disinfection by-products (DBPs) are potentially toxic compounds formed when drinking water is treated with disinfectants, such as chlorine or chloramine. A large proportion of the exposure to DBPs is still unknown and the health risks observed through epidemiological studies cannot be explained by DBPs known today. In this thesis, a part of the unknown DBP fraction is investigated, covering a wide range of non-volatile, chlorine/bromine-containing DBPs. The goals were to investigate how the compositions of these DBPs differ between water treatment plants, how their occurrence changes in the distribution system until reaching consumers and how new treatment techniques can reduce their formation and toxicity. To analyze unknown DBPs, a non-targeted approach adopting ultra-high-resolution mass spectrometry, Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS), was used, where the mass of molecules is measured with such accuracy that the elemental composition of individual DBPs can be calculated. A panel of bioassays was used to assess the combined toxic effects from these DBP mixtures. The results show that the formation of these DBPs to a large extent was specific to each water treatment plant and that local conditions influenced DBP formation, based on e.g., the abundance of organic material with certain chemical structures, bromide and disinfection procedure and agent (chlorine or chloramine). The DBPs were detected in both chlorinated and chloraminated water and in all tap water samples, demonstrating that they are part of human exposure. The number of DBP formulae decreased and the DBP composition changed between drinking water treatment and consumer taps, suggesting that DBP exposure to consumers is not necessarily resembling measurements at the treatment plants. Evaluation of new treatment techniques showed that suspended ion exchange and ozonation have potential to decrease the formation and toxic effects of DBPs and that the removal of organic matter can influence qualitative aspects of DBP formation, such as the proportions of chlorine-containing (less toxic) versus bromine-containing (more toxic) DBPs. Through increased knowledge about the role and relevance of non-volatile DBPs, this work can contribute to future monitoring and actions to reduce the health risks associated with DBPs in chlorinated or chloraminated drinking water.
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- Rudberg, David, 1989-
(författare)
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CO2 Emissions from Northern Lakes : Insights on regulation and spatiotemporal variability across contrasting lakes in Sweden
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Lakes cover only ~2 % of the global land area, but their connections to the surrounding catchment make them important for the global carbon cycle. A considerable amount of the carbon input to lakes is emitted to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2) through diffusive flux. This CO2 flux varies with surface water CO2 concentrations (CwCO2) and the transfer velocity of CO2 across the thin boundary layer between surface water and atmosphere (k), which both in turn depend on physical, biological, and chemical factors that interplay with lake and catchment characteristics over various time scales. Comprehensive studies of these interlinkages across lake types are rare, and current assessments of lake CO2 emissions are therefore uncertain. In this thesis, the variability and regulation of lake CO2 fluxes across a latitudinal gradient in Sweden is investigated. The thesis explores how CwCO2 and k regulate lake CO2 fluxes and how spatiotemporal patterns of CO2 fluxes vary within and across lakes.Regulation of CO2 flux at shorter temporal scales (<1 week) was dominated by k. However, the contribution from CwCO2 increased over time making it the dominant factor for seasonal CO2 flux in some lakes. Furthermore, we show that ways of assessing k in lakes may lead to bias, possibly due to inadequate consideration of processes occurring at the upper surface layer of lakes. In the three lakes where daynight variability was studied, we found consistent patterns of higher fluxes of CO2 at daytime during periods where lakes were emitting CO2. Meanwhile, the period of lake water column turnover in autumn was crucial for both day-night variability and total lake CO2 fluxes. Based on the patterns above, we have made recommendations on improved study design for representative measurements of CO2 fluxes in lakes. In addition, we produced models for estimating CO2 flux from combinations of climatic data, satellite imagery and national lake inventory data, i.e., information that is relatively easily available and thus simplify extrapolation of flux estimates to other lakes. Patterns observed across our models suggest strong climate feedbacks, which may lead to increasing CO2 fluxes from lakes at northern latitudes along with precipitation and temperature increases there. Thus, results in this thesis urges forthcoming studies to better account for spatiotemporal variability to improve upon models that can be used for large-scale estimates and future predictions of lake CO2 fluxes.
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- Rudberg, David, et al.
(författare)
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Diel Variability of CO2 Emissions From Northern Lakes
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Geophysical Research - Biogeosciences. - Hoboken, United States : John Wiley & Sons. - 2169-8953 .- 2169-8961. ; 126:10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Lakes are generally supersaturated in carbon dioxide (CO2) and emitters of CO2 to the atmosphere. However, estimates of CO2 flux ((Formula presented.)) from lakes are seldom based on direct flux measurements and usually do not account for nighttime emissions, yielding risk of biased assessments. Here, we present direct (Formula presented.) measurements from automated floating chambers collected every 2–3 hr and spanning 115 24 hr periods in three boreal lakes during summer stratification and before and after autumn mixing in the most eutrophic lake of these. We observed 40%–67% higher mean (Formula presented.) in daytime during periods of surface water CO2 supersaturation in all lakes. Day-night differences in wind speed were correlated with the day-night (Formula presented.) differences in the two larger lakes, but in the smallest and most wind-sheltered lake peaks of (Formula presented.) coincided with low-winds at night. During stratification in the eutrophic lake, CO2 was near equilibrium and diel variability of (Formula presented.) insignificant, but after autumn mixing (Formula presented.) was high with distinct diel variability making this lake a net CO2 source on an annual basis. We found that extrapolating daytime measurements to 24 hr periods overestimated (Formula presented.) by up to 30%, whereas extrapolating measurements from the stratified period to annual rates in the eutrophic lake underestimated (Formula presented.) by 86%. This shows the importance of accounting for diel and seasonal variability in lake CO2 emission estimates.
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- Šafarič, Luka, 1988-
(författare)
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Anaerobic Digester Fluid Rheology and Process Efficiency : Interactions of Substrate Composition, Trace Element Availability, and Microbial Activity
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- As the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions continue imposing stress on our environment, it is becoming increasingly important to identify and implement new renewable technologies. Biogas production through anaerobic digestion has a great potential, since it links waste treatment with extraction of renewable energy, enabling circular bio-economies that are vital for a sustainable future.For biogas to have an important role as a renewable energy carrier in society, the scale of its production will need to be increased substantially. New substrates need to be introduced along with raising organic loading rates of the reactors to increase the rate of biogas production. This contributes to challenges in maintaining process stability, thus increasing the risk for process disturbances, including problems that were not commonly encountered before. These difficulties may be particularly pronounced when a broad range of new, largely untested substrates are introduced, leading to an increased heterogeneity of organic material entering the reactors. In the case of currently the most common reactor type; the continuous stirred-tank biogas reactor (CSTBR); such problems may include shifts in rheology (i.e. fluid behaviour) of the anaerobic digester sludge. This may lead to increased energy consumption and decreased digester mixing efficiencies, which in turn may lead to inefficient biogas processes, ultimately decreasing the economic and environmental viability of biogas production. Much is still unknown regarding how rheology shifts happen in biogas reactors, particularly when it comes to what role the substrate plays in rheological dynamics, as compared to the microbial community during varying levels of biogas process stability.This thesis elucidates the interactions between substrate type, microbial community and its metabolic activity, and anaerobic sludge rheology. A number of sludge samples from mesophilic and thermophilic CSTBRs digesting a broad range of substrates was analysed for their rheology. The specific effects of individual substrate types on CSTBR sludge rheology and the resulting implications for stirring power requirements and mixing efficiency were investigated. In order to also asses to which extent the microbial metabolism affects rheology at different levels of process disturbance, an experiment with a trace-element-induced inhibition of specific metabolic pathways under mesophilic reactor conditions was performed. This was used to identify the sequence of different interactions that occur in the reactor after the process begins to fail, and to evaluate how these interactions link to changes in digester sludge rheology. Finally, a case study of a disturbed thermophilic anaerobic digestion process was performed, including the monitoring of the response of rheology in relation to process stability, which was modified by changing trace element concentrations. The use of artificial substrate without polymeric compounds in both cases allowed for an evaluation of effects of the microbial community and its metabolic products on rheology without including the effects of complex substrates.The results showed that substrate type has a large effect on how different process parameters correlate with fluid behaviour. This was particularly apparent in the case of total solids and total volatile solids, which correlated well with rheological parameters for samples from reactors digesting agricultural waste, sewage sludge, paper mill waste, or food waste, but not for mesophilic co-digesters. Among the different substrates investigated, food waste was generally observed to lead to the highest limit viscosities (i.e. apparent viscosities at high shear rates, where it becomes linear and constant) of the anaerobic sludge, while digestion of paper mill waste and thermophilic co-digestion led to some of the lowest. No fluid type could be clearly coupled to a specific substrate, but it could be observed that increased solids content could generally be associated with more complex, non-Newtonian rheological behaviour. The differences in fluid characteristics between reactors corresponded to large differences in modelled stirring power requirements and mixing efficiency. The results indicated that fluids with high values of rheological parameters, such as the consistency index (K) or yield stress (τ0), would likely require more power or an adapted stirring system to achieve complete mixing. The substrates generally contributed more to the rheology characteristics of the anaerobic sludge than microbial cells on their own. Trace element-induced process disturbance initially led to the inhibition of specific microbial groups among methanogenic archaea or their syntrophic partners, which later escalated to broader inhibition of many microbial groups due to the accumulation of fermentation products. This resulted in microbial cell washout with a corresponding decrease of the contribution of the cells to anaerobic sludge rheology. A recovery of the thermophilic anaerobic digestion process was possible after the supplementation of selenium and tungsten was increased, resulting in increased propionate turnover rates, growing cell densities, and higher viscosity. Major shifts in the methanogenic community were observed, corresponding to the level of process stability. It could be concluded based on these experiments that the specific effect of microbial cells and their activity on sludge rheology were linked to cell density, which corresponded to process stability.A conceptual scheme was developed based on the studies in this thesis, defining complex interactions between substrate, microbial metabolism, and anaerobic sludge rheology in biogas processes. The possible causes of rheology shifts are visualised and discussed.
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