Barriers to plantation activities in different agro-ecological zones of Southern India

This paper analyses environmental and socio-economic barriers for plantation activities on local and regional level and investigates the potential for carbon finance to stimulate the increased rates of forest plantation on wasteland, i.e., degraded lands, in southern India. Building on multidisciplinary field work and results from the model GCOMAP, the aim is to (1) identify and characterize the barriers to plantation activities in four agro-ecological zones in the state of Karnataka and (2) investigate what would be required to overcome these barriers and enhance the plantation rate and productivity. The results show that a rehabilitation of the wasteland based on plantation activities is not only possible but also anticipated by the local population and would lead to positive environmental and socio-economic effects at a local level. However, in many cases, the establishment of plantation activities is hindered by a lack of financial resources, low land productivity and water scarcity. Based on the model used and the results from the field work, it can be concluded that certified emission reductions such as carbon credits or other compensatory systems may help to overcome the financial barrier; however, the price needs to be significantly increased if these measures are to have any large-scale impact.     

Generation pattern of sulfur containing gases from anaerobically digested sludge cakes.

Eleven dewatered sludge cakes collected from anaerobic digesters at different treatment plants were evaluated for the amount, type, and pattern of odorous gas production. All but one of the sludge cakes were from mesophilic anaerobic digesters. One was from a thermophilic digester. The pattern and quantities of sulfur gases were found to be unique for each of the samples with regard to the products produced, magnitude, and subsequent decline. The main odor-causing chemicals were volatile sulfur compounds, which included hydrogen sulfide, methanethiol, and dimethyl sulfide. Volatile sulfur compound production peaked in 3 to 8 days and then declined. The decline was a result of conversion of organic sulfur compounds to sulfide. In one side-by-side test, a high-solids centrifuge cake generated more odorous compounds than the low-solids centrifuge cake. The data show that anaerobic digestion does not eliminate the odor potential of anaerobically digested dewatered cakes.     

Residues of 14C‐γ‐HCH in paddy after dusting,and the fate of γ‐HCH during refining process of rice bran oil

Paddy (rice) plants were dusted with 10% HCH containing ¹⁴C‐Γ‐HCH, at the rate of 2.5 kg a.i./ha and ¹⁴C‐residues were determined in different fractions of rice. Rice bran (0.187 ppm) had more of ¹⁴C‐residues than grain (0.026 ppm) and husk (0.042 ppm). The rice bran oil contained 0.129 ppm HCH residues. While degumming, dewaxing, alkali refining and bleaching had no effect, deodorisation alone eliminated 99.5% of added ¹⁴C‐residues in rice bran the oil during refining process.     

Assessment of urban air pollution and it's probable health impact

The present study deals with the quantitative effect of vehicular emission on ambient air quality during May 2006 in urban area of Lucknow city. In this study SPM, RSPM, SO2, NOx and 7 trace metals associated with RSPM were estimated at 10 representative locations in urban area and one village area for control. Beside this, air quality index (AQI), health effects of different metals and mortality were assessed. The 24 hr average concentration of SPM, RSPM, SO2 and NOx was found to be 382.3, 171.5, 24.3 and 33.8 microg m(-3) respectively in urban area and these concentrations were found to be significantly (p < 0.01) higher by 94.8, 134.8, 107.4 and 129.6% than control site respectively The 24 hr mean of SPM and RSPM at each location of urban area were found to be higher than prescribed limit of National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) except SPM for industrial area. The 24 hr mean concentration of metals associated with RSPM was found to be higher than the control site by 52.3, 271.8, 408.9, 75.81, 62.7, 487.54 and 189.5% for Fe, Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni, Mn and Cr respectively. The inter correlation of metals Pb with Mn, Fe and Cr; Zn with Ni and Cr; Ni with Cr; Mn with Fe and Cu with Cr showed significant positive relation either at p < 0.05 or p < 0.01 level. Metals Pb, Mn and Cr (p < 0.01) and Cu (p < 0.05) showed significant positive correlation with RSPM. These results indicate that ambient air quality in the urban area is affected adversely due to emission and accumulation of SPM, RSPM, SO2, NOx and trace metals. These pollutants may pose detrimental effect on human health, as exposure of these are associated with cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, neurological impairments, increased risk of preterm birth and even mortality and morbidity.     

Treatment of anti-osmotic drug based pharmaceutical effluent in an upflow anaerobic fluidized bed system

During the production of Cephradine (a main constituent of anti-osmotic drug) a large quantity of concentrated effluent was produced. The main polluting compounds in this effluent are osmotic drug, acetic acid and ammonia. The feasibility of using a fluidized bed reactor under anaerobic condition with bioaugmentation to treat anti-osmotic drug based pharmaceutical effluent was evaluated. The main objective of the study was to show that bioaugmentation could be used to promote biological treatment to applications where conventional operation might be difficult or unfavourable. The effluent with chemical oxygen demand (COD) of 14000-18000 mg/l was treated in a fluidized bed reactor with a hydraulic retention time of 3-12 h. The reactor was unable to maintain consistent removal in conventional mode of operation due to an inability to retain and grow biomass. The COD reduction (%) after inoculation from a sequencing batch reactor was related to influent concentration, mass of inoculum and hydraulic retention time characterized by calculating the initial food to microorganism ratio. The role of volatile fatty acid (VFA) as cosubstrate was assessed with respect to COD reduction (%). Continuous COD reduction (%) attained a maximum value of 88.5% using bioaugmentation through periodic addition of acclimated cells every 2 days with 30-73.2 g of cells from an off-line enricher reactor.     

Evaluation of membrane bioreactor process capabilities to meet stringent effluent nutrient discharge requirements.

A six-stage membrane bioreactor (MBR) pilot plant was operated to determine and demonstrate the capability of this process to produce a low-nutrient effluent, consistent with the nutrient reduction goals for the Chesapeake Bay. Biological nitrogen removal was accomplished using a multistage configuration with an initial anoxic zone (using the carbon in the influent wastewater), an aerobic zone (where nitrification occurred), a downstream anoxic zone (where methanol was added as a carbon source), and the aerated submerged membrane zone. The capability to reliably reduce effluent total nitrogen to less than 3 mg/L as nitrogen (N) was demonstrated. A combination of biological (using an initial anaerobic zone) and chemical (using alum) phosphorus removal was used to achieve effluent total phosphate concentrations reliably less than 0.1 mg/L as phosphorus (P) and as low as 0.03 mg/L as P. Alum addition also appeared to enhance the filtration characteristics of the MBR sludge and to reduce membrane fouling. Aeration of the submerged membranes results in thickened sludge with a high dissolved oxygen concentration (approaching saturation), which can be recycled to the main aeration zone rather than to an anoxic or anaerobic zone to optimize biological nutrient removal. Biological nutrient removal was characterized using the International Water Association Activated Sludge Model No. 2d. The stoichiometry of chemical phosphorus removal was also consistent with conventional theory and experience. The characteristics of the solids produced in the MBR were compared with those of a parallel full-scale conventional biological nitrogen removal process and were generally found to be similar. These results provide valuable insight to the design and operating characteristics of MBRs intended to produce effluents with very low nutrient concentrations.     

Anaerobic digestion of raw and thermally hydrolyzed wastewater solids under various operational conditions

In this study, high-solids anaerobic digestion of thermally pretreated wastewater solids (THD) was compared with conventional mesophilic anaerobic digestion (MAD). Operational conditions, such as pretreatment temperature (150 to 170 degrees C), solids retention time (15 to 20 days), and digestion temperature (37 to 42 degrees C), were varied for the seven THD systems operated. Volatile solids reduction (VSR) by THD ranged from 56 to 62%, compared with approximately 50% for MAD. Higher VSR contributed to 24 to 59% increased biogas production (m3/kg VSR-d) from THD relative to MAD. The high-solids conditions of the THD feed resulted in high total ammonia-nitrogen (proportional to solids loading) and total alkalinity concentrations in excess of 14 g/L as calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Increased pH in THD reactors caused 5 to 8 times more un-ionized ammonia to be present than in MAD, and this likely led to inhibition of aceticlastic methanogens, resulting in accumulation of residual volatile fatty acids between 2 and 6 g/L as acetic acid. The THD produced biosolids cake that possessed low organic sulfur-based biosolids odor and dewatered to between 33 and 39% total solids. Dual conditioning with cationic polymer and ferric chloride was shown to be an effective strategy for mitigating dissolved organic nitrogen and UV-quenching compounds in the return stream following centrifugal dewatering of THD biosolids.     

The effect of digestion and dewatering on sudden increases and regrowth of indicator bacteria after dewatering

Several investigators have reported higher densities of indicator bacteria after dewatering of anaerobically digested biosolids. The increases appear to occur at two points in the biosolids process: the first, referred to as "sudden increase", occurs immediately after dewatering; the second, "regrowth", occurs during storage over longer periods. The objectives of this study were to examine the effect of digestion and dewatering processes on sudden increase and regrowth of fecal coliform and E. coli. Samples were collected from five thermophilic and five mesophilic digestion processes, with either centrifuge or belt filter press dewatering. Sudden increase typically was observed in the thermophilic processes with centrifuge dewatering and was not observed in the mesophilic processes with either centrifuge or belt filter press dewatering. Regrowth was observed in both thermophilic and mesophilic processes with centrifuge dewatering but not belt filter press dewatering.