Research status,challenges and future prospects of renewable synthetic fuel catalysts for CO2 photocatalytic reduction conversion

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In recent years, with global climate change, the utilization of carbon dioxide as a resource has become an important goal of human society to achieve...     

Effect of multiple washing operations on the removal of potentially toxic metals from an alkaline farmland soil and the strategy for agricultural reuse

Few studies have carried out soil washing experiments using pot experiments to simulate in situ soil washing operations, particularly for alkaline soils. This study explored the effects of multiple washing operations using pot experiments on the removal efficiencies of potentially toxic metals (PTM) from alkaline farmland soil and the reuse strategy of washed soil for safe agricultural production. The results showed that the removal efficiencies of Cd, Pb, Cu, and Zn after seven washings with a mixed chelator (EDTA, GLDA, and citric acid) were 41.1%, 47.1%, 14.7%, and 26.5%, respectively, which was close to the results of the EDTA treatment. For the alkaline soil studied, the second washing with the mixed chelators most effectively removed PTM owing to the activation of them after the first washing operation. The mixed chelator more effectively increased the proportion of stable fraction of PTM and maintained soil nutrients (e.g., nitrogen content) than EDTA, indicating little disturbance of alkaline soil quality after washing with the mixed chelator. After the amendment of the washed soil, there was no visible difference in the biomass weight of crops from the soils washed with different agents, indicating that the inhibitory effect of both washing agents on plant growth was effectively alleviated. The Cd and Pb contents in Z. mays were below the threshold of Hygienical Standard for Feeds of China (GB 13078–2017) (1 and 30 mg·kg^?1). Moreover, after three cropping operations, the available concentrations of PTM in the soil washed with the mixed chelator were lower than those in the soil washed with EDTA, indicating the value and potential of agricultural reuse of alkaline farmland soil washed with the mixed chelator.

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Use of historical and contemporary distribution of mammals in China to inform conservation

A systematic understanding of dynamic animal extinction trajectories for different regions in a nation like China is critically important to developing practical conservation strategies. We explored historical and contemporary changes in terrestrial mammalian diversity to determine how diversity in each of the 5 regions in China has changed over time and to examine the conservation potential of these regions. We used records from databases on Pleistocene mammalian fossils and historical distribution records (1175–2020) for Primates (as a case study) to reconstruct evolutionary and historical distribution trajectories of the 11 orders of terrestrial mammals and to predict their prospective survival based on the national conservation strategy applied. The results indicated that since the Pleistocene, 4–5 mammalian orders have been lost in the northeast, 3 in central China, 2 along the coast, and 1 in the northwest. In the southwest, all 11 orders were maintained. Contemporarily, the coast and southwest had the highest and second-highest species densities. The southwest region and southeastern sections of the northwest region were the most historically and contemporarily diverse areas, which suggests that they should be the first priority for protected area (PA) designation. The central and coastal areas should be secondarily prioritized. In these 2 regions, conservation should focus on human coexistence with nature. Less attention should be paid to the PA in the northeast and western northwest because in these areas ecosystems are depauperate and the climate is harsh. Conservation in these areas should focus principally on avoiding further human encroachment on natural areas. Article impact statement: Historical and contemporary patterns of extinction can be a basis for mammalian conservation strategies.     

Bibliometric analysis of simulated driving research from 1997 to 2016

Objective: The objective of this study was to explore the evolution footprints of simulated driving research in the past 20 years through rigorous and systematic bibliometric analysis, to provide insights regarding when and where the research was performed and by whom and how the mainstream content evolved over the years.

Methods: The analysis began with data retrieval in Web of Science with defined search terms related to simulated driving. BibExcel and CiteSpace were employed to conduct the performance analysis and co-citation network analysis; that is, probe of the performance of institutes, journals, authors, and research hotspots.

Results: A total of 3,766 documents were filtered out and presented an exponential growth from 1997 to 2016. The United States contributed the most publications as well as international collaborations followed by Germany and China. In addition, several universities in The Netherlands and the United States dominated the list of contributing institutes. The leading journals were in transportation and ergonomics. The leading researchers were also recognized among the 8,721 contributing authors, such as J. D. Lee, D. L. Fisher, J. H. Kim, and K. A. Brookhuis. Finally, the co-citation analysis illuminated the evolution of simulated driving research that covered the following topics roughly in chronological order: task-induced stress, drivers with neurological disorders, alertness and sleepiness while driving, trust toward driving assistance systems, driver distraction, the effect of drug use, the validity of simulators, and automated driving.

Conclusions: This article employed bibliometric tools to probe the contributing countries, institutes, journals, authors, and mainstream hotspots of simulated driving research in the past 20 years. A systematic bibliometric analysis of this field will help researchers realize the panorama of global simulated driving and establish future research directions.     

CFD simulation of MSW combustion and SNCR in a commercial incinerator

A CFD scheme was presented for modeling municipal solid waste (MSW) combustion in a moving-grate incinerator, including the in-bed burning of solid wastes, the out-of-bed burnout of gaseous volatiles, and the selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR) process between urea (CO(NH₂)₂) and NO_x. The in-bed calculations provided 2-D profiles of the gas–solid temperatures and the gas species concentrations along the bed length, which were then used as inlet conditions for the out-of-bed computations. The over-bed simulations provided the profiles of incident radiation heat flux on the top of bed. A 3-dimensional benchmark simulation was conducted with a 750 t/day commercial incinerator using the present coupling scheme incorporating with a reduced SNCR reduction mechanism. Numerical tests were performed to investigate the effects of operating parameters such as injection position, injection speed and the normalized stoichiometric ratio (NSR) on the SNCR performance. The simulation results showed that the distributions of gas velocity, temperature and NO_x concentration were highly non-uniform, which made the injection position one of the most sensitive operating parameters influencing the SNCR performance of moving grate incinerators. The simulation results also showed that multi-layer injections were needed to meet the EU2000 standard, and a NSR 1.5 was suggested as a compromise of a satisfactory NO_x reduction and reasonable NH₃ slip rates. This work provided useful guides to the design and operation of SNCR process in moving-grate incinerators.     

Scale Effects on Spatially Varying Relationships Between Urban Landscape Patterns and Water Quality

Scientific interpretation of the relationships between urban landscape patterns and water quality is important for sustainable urban planning and watershed environmental protection. This study applied the ordinary least squares regression model and the geographically weighted regression model to examine the spatially varying relationships between 12 explanatory variables (including three topographical factors, four land use parameters, and five landscape metrics) and 15 water quality indicators in watersheds of Yundang Lake, Maluan Bay, and Xinglin Bay with varying levels of urbanization in Xiamen City, China. A local and global investigation was carried out at the watershed-level, with 50 and 200 m riparian buffer scales. This study found that topographical features and landscape metrics are the dominant factors of water quality, while land uses are too weak to be considered as a strong influential factor on water quality. Such statistical results may be related with the characteristics of land use compositions in our study area. Water quality variations in the 50 m buffer were dominated by topographical variables. The impact of landscape metrics on water quality gradually strengthen with expanding buffer zones. The strongest relationships are obtained in entire watersheds, rather than in 50 and 200 m buffer zones. Spatially varying relationships and effective buffer zones were verified in this study. Spatially varying relationships between explanatory variables and water quality parameters are more diversified and complex in less urbanized areas than in highly urbanized areas. This study hypothesizes that all these varying relationships may be attributed to the heterogeneity of landscape patterns in different urban regions. Adjustment of landscape patterns in an entire watershed should be the key measure to successfully improving urban lake water quality.     

Authentication of emission monitoring data and optimization of desulfurization in the molybdenum roasting process based on BAT-OOPN and the response surface method

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This paper presents a quantitative pollutant discharge model for a typical molybdenum roasting plant, which combines the best available technology and...     

Environmental knowledge,behaviors, and attitudes regarding caffeine consumption among Chinese university students from the perspective of ecopharmacovigilance

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Caffeine is considered the most representative pharmaceutical emerging contaminant (PEC) because of its ubiquity, high environmental abundance,...     

Knowledge map and global trends in extreme weather research from 1980 to 2019: a bibliometric analysis

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - There is an increasing number of studies focusing on extreme weather all over the world, but global trends and research topics related to extreme...     

1025t/h四角切圆煤粉炉内空气过量系数对NO生成的影响

文章采用计算流体力学软件Fluent数值模拟了1 025 t/h四角切圆煤粉炉内的湍流扩散燃烧,分析了空气过量系数对炉内烟气速度、烟气温度和氮氧化物组分的影响。结果表明:空气过量系数会对炉内流场的空气动力学特性和温度场分布均匀性产生显著影响。煤粉炉膛最佳空气过量系数为1.07,此时炉内温度场、速度场和浓度场的分布可使燃烧中间产物HCN和NH_3较好的将燃料型NO还原为N_2,来充分发挥空气分级燃烧降低NO排放的功效。