Plain Language Summary: The spill of the natural gas condensates in the East China Sea was unprecedented and the first major maritime spill of this kind in history. Unlike the more commonly spilled crude oil, the condensates are highly volatile and become invisible within days. However, the condensates mainly consist of low molecular weight hydrocarbons that have high solubility in seawater. Once dissolved in seawater, it is removed mainly by microbiologic processes that may take months to years. It is postulated in this study that the underwater leakage from the sunken tanker may result in a bottom layer of condensate-enriched water. In this study we formulate a model to examine how the contaminant water spread by oceanic processes. It is found that the scope and magnitude of the dispersion are most sensitive to how long the marine microorganism can consume the dissolved contamination. In this incident, the contaminant is shown to spread over a large area because of the proximity of the source to the Kuroshio Current.

Chen, N.-C., Yang, T.F., Hong, W.-L., Yu, T.-L., Lin, I.-T., Wang, P.-L., Lin, S., Su, C.-C., Shen, C.-C., Wang, Y., Lin, L.-H., 2020. Discharge of deeply rooted fluids from submarine mud volcanism in the Taiwan accretionary prism. Scientific Reports 10, 381.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-57250-9 Qualitative and quantitative assessments of fluid cycling are essential to address the role and transport of deeply sourced fluids in subduction systems. In this study, sediment cores distributed across a submarine mud volcano (SMV) offshore southwestern Taiwan were investigated to determine the characteristics of fluids generated through the convergence between the Eurasian and Phillippine Sea Plates. The low dissolved chloride 18 2 concentration combined with the enrichment of O, and depletion of H of pore fluids suggest the discharge of deep freshwater formed by smectite dehydration at an equilibrium temperature of 100 to 150 °C. The upward - 1 fluid velocities, decreasing from 2.0 to 5.0 cmyr at the center to a negligible value at margin sites, varied with the rate and efficiency of anaerobic methanotrophy, demonstrating the impact of fluid migration on biogeochemical processes and carbon cycling. By extrapolating the velocity pattern, the flux of fluids exported 7 - 1 from 13 SMVs into seawater amounted up to 1.3 -2.5 × 10 kg yr , a quantity accounting for 1.1 - 28.6% of the smectite-bound water originally stored in the incoming sediments. Our results imply that SMVs could act as a conduit to channel the fluids produced from great depth/temperature into seafloor environments in a subduction system of the western Pacific Ocean.

Chen, P.H., Venegas Jimenez, J.L., Rowland, S.M., Quinn, J.C., Laurens, L.M.L., 2020. Nutrient recycle from algae hydrothermal liquefaction aqueous phase through a novel selective remediation approach. Algal Research 46, 101776.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211926419304746 Algae have received increasing interest in the past several decades as a biofuel feedstock source. However, sustainable nutrient supply has presented algal biofuels with a major obstacle in the value chain. At a scale where algal biofuels would meet a significant portion of transportation fuel needs, the demand for nutrients, specifically nitrogen and phosphorus, would exceed current global agricultural production. One downstream conversion pathway, hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL), produces bio-crude oils from wet algal biomass with a waste aqueous phase (HTL-AP), containing a significant amount of carbon and nitrogen. While this stream is rich in organic content and nutrients, it also contains toxic components, which include heterocyclic nitrogen compounds and phenolic compounds. Thus, the recyclability and potential toxicity of HTL-AP need to be studied in detail. The feasibility of utilizing nutrients available in HTL-AP was experimentally determined for Chlorella vulgaris Desmodesmus armatus and monocultures. Our work focused on determining the tolerance of these algae species toward HTL-AP toxicity through varying dilutions. Nitrogen replacement in the growth media was varied from a low of 18% to a high of 141% across both species. The most notable of these results C. show that addition of a 100× dilution (35% nitrogen replacement) of untreated HTL-AP decreased growth in vulgaris by 47 ± 7% with respect to a control medium. Adsorption treatments, including activated carbon and various resins, were introduced to remediate the HTL-AP toxic effects. Treatment of the HTL-AP portion with C. vulgaris an ion-exchange resin, Dowex 50WX8, supported growth at a 100× dilution (35% nitrogen replacement) with no statistical change compared to the control. An in-depth molecular profiling demonstrated for the first time the selective removal of high-nitrogen containing components by resin treatme nt. This work