Abandoned tailing dumps from mining industry represent important sources of metal contamination in the surrounding environments. This study evaluates the potential of two Mediterranean native plants, Pistacia lentiscus and Phragmites australis, for phytoremediation of two Sardinian contaminated mine sites. A 6 months study has been conducted at greenhouse-controlled conditions with the aim of investigating the plant capability to tolerate high metal concentrations and to extract or immobilize them within the roots. The possibility to mitigate stress on the plants and improve treatment efficiency by adding compost as amendment was also evaluated. Both species were able to restrict accumulation of Cd, Pb and Zn to the root tissues exhibiting a metal concentration ratio of plant roots to soil bioavailable fraction higher than two (four in the case of Zn). However, the two species showed different adaptation responses, being the survival of P. australis after 6 months in contaminated soil lower (25 %-58 %) than that observed for P. lentiscus (77 %-100 %). Compost addition resulted in a lower metal uptake in tissues of both plants and a higher survival of P. australis, whilst almost no effect was observed as regard the growth of both species. The two tested species appear to be promising candidates for phytostabilization, P. lentiscus exhibiting a greater adaptability to heavy metal contaminated matrices than P. australis.

An autotrophic denitrification process using reduced sulfur compounds (thiosulfate and sulfide) as electron donor in an activated sludge system is proposed as an efficient and cost effective alternative to conventional heterotrophic denitrification for inorganic (or with low C/N ratio) wastewaters and for simultaneous removal of sulfide or thiosulfate and nitrate. A suspended culture of sulfur-utilizing denitrifying bacteria was fast and efficiently established by bio-augmentation of activated sludge with Thiobacillus denitrificans. The stoichiometry of the process and the key factors, i.e. N/S ratio, that enable combined sulfide and nitrogen removal, were determined. An optimum N/S ratio of 1 (100% nitrate removal without nitrite formation and low thiosulfate concentrations in the effluent) has been obtained during reactor operation with thiosulfate at a nitrate loading rate (NLR) of 17.18 mmol N L(-1) d(-1). Complete nitrate and sulfide removal was achieved during reactor operation with sulfide at a NLR of 7.96 mmol N L(-1) d(-1) and at N/S ratio between 0.8 and 0.9, with oxidation of sulfide to sulfate. Complete nitrate removal while working at nitrate limiting conditions could be achieved by sulfide oxidation with low amounts of oxygen present in the influent, which kept the sulfide concentration below inhibitory levels.

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In various activated sludge systems, sludge grows under transient (unbalanced) conditions and storage of internal polymers becomes important. Differences in storage capacity under transients are often used to explain kinetic control of bulking, but storage is neither studied in detail nor usually included in modelling. For this reason, the transient response of different aerobic mixed cultures was studied by experimentally determining the role of storage. Two different mixed cultures (bulking and non-bulking) were selected in an acetate-limited medium, by continuous or intermittent feeding of a CSTR, respectively. Batch tests were used to investigate the transient response of the selected cultures as a function of the starvation time and of the ratio of the initial concentration of the substrate and sludge biomass (So/Xo). In most experimental conditions, both cultures showed that the storage of poly-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) is in general the prevailing mechanism of substrate removal. In particular, the culture dominated by floc-formers showed very fast response to the substrate spike with a high observed yield. Storage was practically the only metabolism occurring. The ratio So/Xo did not have a major role in determining the type and extent of the response. Starvation did not affect the response of the floc-formers to transient conditions. For the filamentous bacteria, both the growth response and, even more significantly, the storage response were negatively affected. Hence, the difference in storage capacity between filamentous and floc-forming bacteria was further increased.