Modified potential ecological risk index （MRI） was proposed based on the potential ecological risk index （RI） and risk assessment code （RAC） by modifying an index. The modified index was relevant to the chemical speciation of heavy metals. Xiawan Port, a typical region contaminated by industrial production, was selected as a case study area. The total concentrations and chemical speciation of heavy metals in sediments of Xiawan Port were analyzed. The experimental data indicate that Xiawan Port is seriously polluted by heavy metals, especially by Cd. The risks of heavy metals are evaluated by RI, RAC and MRI, respectively. The resluts of MRI show that the risks of heavy metals are in the decreasing order of Cd〉Pb〉Cu〉Zn. Comparison of results by different methods reveals that MRI integrates the characters of RI and RAC. MRI is recognized to be useful for risk managemnt of heavy metals in sediments.
An environment friendly bio-surfactant of rhamnolipid(RL) was used as a solvent. The enzymatic reaction of oleic acid catalyzed by lipase and lignin peroxidase(lip) was evaluated. The optimum conditions of enzymatic reaction catalyzed by lipase(lip) were water to amphiphile molar ratio of 30(20), RL of 60(60) critical micelle concentration(CMC), pH of 7.0(3.0) and temperature of 40(30) °C, respectively. The change of enzyme conformation indicates that, for catalytic of lipase, water content is the most important factor of the enzymatic reaction of oleic acid, and p H for lip. With individual optimum conditions, the enzymatic efficiency of oleic acid catalyzed by lipase is higher than that by lip. In the presence of ethanol, the enzymatic reaction of oleic acid catalyzed by lipase suits Ping-Pong Bi-Bi mechanism. As an alternative to chemical reversed micelles, the RL reversed micelles are promising methods to enzymatic reaction of oleic acid.
An integrated evaluation system under randomness and fuzziness was developed in this work to systematically assess the risk of groundwater contamination in a little town, Central China. In this system, randomness of the parameters and the fuzziness of the risk were considered simultaneously, and the exceeding standard probability of contamination and human health risk due to the contamination were integrated. The contamination risk was defined as a combination of "vulnerability" and "hazard". To calculate the value of "vulnerability", pollutant concentration was simulated by MODFLOW with random input variables and a new modified health risk assessment(MRA) model was established to analyze the level of "hazard". The limit concentration based on environmental-guideline and health risk due to manganese were systematically examined to obtain the general risk levels through a fuzzy rule base. The "vulnerability" and "hazard" were divided into five categories of "high", "medium-high", "medium", "low-medium" and "low", respectively. Then, "vulnerability" and "hazard" were firstly combined by integrated evaluation. Compared with the other two scenarios under deterministic methods, the risk obtained in the proposed system is higher. This research illustrated that ignoring of uncertainties in evaluation process might underestimate the risk level.
