Environmental impacts of a large-scale incinerator with mixed MSW of high water content from a LCA perspective

Large-scale incinerators are applied widely as a result of the heavy burden of municipal solid waste(MSW) generated, while strong opposition is arising from the public living nearby. A large-scale working incineration plant of 1500 ton/day was chosen for evaluation using life cycle assessment. It was found that the corresponding human toxicity impacts via soil(HTs), human toxicity impacts via water(HTw) and human toxicity impacts via air(HTa)categories are 0.213, 2.171, and 0.012 personal equivalents(PE), and global warming(GW100)and nutrient enrichment(NE) impacts are 0.002 and 0.001 PE per ton of waste burned for this plant. Heavy metals in flue gas, such as Hg and Pb, are the two dominant contributors to the toxicity impact categories, and energy recovery could reduce the GW100 and NE greatly. The corresponding HTs, HTw and HTa decrease to 0.087, 0.911 and 0.008 PE, and GW100 turns into savings of- 0.007 PE due to the increase of the heating value from 3935 to5811 k J/kg, if a trommel screener of 40 mm mesh size is used to pre-separate MSW. MSW sorting and the reduction of water content by physical pressure might be two promising pre-treatment methods to improve the combustion performance, and the application of stricter standards for leachate discharge and the flue gas purification process are two critical factors for improvement of the environmental profile identified in this work.     

Greenhouse gas emission and its potential mitigation process from the waste sector in a large-scale exhibition

As one of the largest human activities, World Expo is an important source of anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas emission (GHG), and the GHG emission and other environmental impacts of the Expo Shanghai 2010, where around 59,397 tons of waste was generated during 184 Expo running days, were assessed by life cycle assessment (LCA). Two scenarios, i.e., the actual and expected figures of the waste sector, were assessed and compared, and 124.01 kg CO₂-equivalent (CO₂-eq.), 4.43 kg SO₂-eq., 4.88 kg NO₃^--eq., and 3509 m³ water per ton tourist waste were found to be released in terms of global warming (GW), acidification (AC), nutrient enrichment (NE) and spoiled groundwater resources (SGWR), respectively. The total GHG emission was around 3499 ton CO₂-eq. from the waste sector in Expo Park, among which 86.47% was generated during the waste landfilling at the rate of 107.24 kg CO₂-eq., and CH₄, CO and other hydrocarbons (HC) were the main contributors. If the waste sorting process had been implemented according to the plan scenario, around 497 ton CO₂-eq. savings could have been attained. Unlike municipal solid waste, with more organic matter content, an incineration plant is more suitable for tourist waste disposal due to its high heating value, from the GHG reduction perspective.     

Treatment of sewage using an aged-refuse-based bioreactor

The refuse in landfills becomes stabilized or aged after years of placement, and the resultant partly or fully stabilized refuse thus obtained is referred to as "aged refuse" in this work. The aged refuse contains a wide spectrum and large quantity of microorganisms, which have been proved to have a strong decomposition capability for both biodegradable and refractory organic matter present in some wastewaters. In this study, the aged refuse excavated from a 10-year old closed landfill compartment at Shanghai Refuse Landfill was used as the substrate in a bioreactor for the biofiltration of sewage taken from the sewage pipeline systems in Shanghai downtown areas. Typically, 120kg of screened aged refuse with a diameter less than 15mm was used as biofiltration material in a round shaped bioreactor with an inner diameter of 80cm and a height of 150cm. Influent sewage with initial COD, BOD, and NH(3)-N concentrations of 400-500, 240-300, and 45-50mg/L, respectively, was introduced into the bioreactor. The corresponding concentrations in the effluent were reduced to below 80-100, 10-20, and 10-15mg/L, respectively, at a hydraulic load of 1000-1200L/m(3) refuse/day, and the treatment efficiencies decreased with increased hydraulic load. The treatment mechanism was also studied. It was found that the pollutant removal efficiencies dramatically decreased when the aged refuse in the bioreactor was preliminarily disinfected using NaClO solutions, indicating that the pollutants in the sewage were biologically removed. The treatment process developed in this work is cost-effective.     

Fluorescence-based monitoring of tracer and substrate distribution in an UASB reactor

In this work, rhodamine-related fluorescence was measured on-line at four reactor heights in order to study hydrodynamics within an upflow anaerobic sludge bed reactor. A linear dependence of the dispersion coefficient (D) on the upflow velocity was observed, while the influence of the organic loading rate (OLR) was insignificant. Furthermore, the Bodenstein number of the reactor loaded with granulated sludge was found to be position-dependent with the largest values measured at the bottom of the sludge bed. This trend was not observed in the reactor without sludge. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) and volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentrations were measured at the same reactor heights as in rhodamine tests using conventional off-line analytical methods and on-line multiwavelength fluorometry. Significant spatial COD and VFA gradients were observed at organic loading rates above 6g COD l(R)(-1)d(-1) and linear upflow velocities below 0.8m h(-1).     

氰化钠生产中聚合废料的利用

对氰化钠生产中的聚合废料进行了吸附试验和氰化钠含量分析，试验结果表明，聚合废料中含有２８％左右的氰化钠，其中黑褐色杂质可用活性炭吸附脱除。生产规模试验证明，用聚合废料为原料生产的硫氰酸钠，产品质量可达到装置设计指标，满足腈纶装置的使用要求。     

乌鲁木齐市大气TSP中苯并（a）芘及碳质成分的测定与变化规律的研究

报导了乌鲁木齐市两年内大气TSP中苯并(a)芘及碳质成分含量的分析结果、污染程度及变化规律,为乌鲁木齐城市环境综合整治定量考核,加强环境管理,进一步防治大气污染提供了科学依据.     

金华市奶牛基地的资源利用问题研究

本文论述了奶牛基地发展与红黄壤资源开发利用之间的内在联系。在分析奶牛基地农业资源利用现状基础上,运用灰色系统理论和多元统计的系统聚类分析方法,对影响奶牛基地发展的因素及区域发展对策作了定量分析,并预测奶牛基地发展趋势,提出奶牛生产不同区域的红黄壤资源开发利用的重点,这为合理开发利用红黄壤资源种草养奶牛提供理论和实际参考依据。     

膜生物反应器技术在环境激素废水处理中的应用

本文主要介绍膜生物反应器技术在环境激素废水处理研究中的应用现状。     

Increase of multi-metal tolerance of three leguminous plants by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi colonization

A greenhouse pot experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of the colonization of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (AMF) Glomus mosseae on the growth and metal uptake of three leguminous plants (Sesbania rostrata, Sesbania cannabina, Medicago sativa) grown in multi-metal contaminated soil. AMF colonization increased the growth of the legumes, indicating that AMF colonization increased the plant’s resistance to heavy metals. It also significantly stimulated the formation of root nodules and increased the N and P uptake of all of the tested leguminous plants, which might be one of the tolerance mechanisms conferred by AMF. Compared with the control, colonization by G. mosseae decreased the concentration of metals, such as Cu, in the shoots of the three legumes, indicating that the decreased heavy metals uptake and growth dilution were induced by AMF treatment, thereby reducing the heavy metal toxicity to the plants. The root/shoot ratios of Cu in the three legumes and Zn in M. sativa were significantly increased (P < 0.05) with AMF colonization, indicating that heavy metals were immobilized by the mycorrhiza and the heavy metal translocations to the shoot were decreased.     

Relationships of relative humidity with PM<Subscript>2.5</Subscript> and PM<Subscript>10</Subscript> in the Yangtze River Delta,China

Severe particulate matter (PM, including PM_2.5 and PM₁₀) pollution frequently impacts many cities in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) in China, which has aroused growing concern. In this study, we examined the associations between relative humidity (RH) and PM pollution using the equal step-size statistical method. Our results revealed that RH had an inverted U-shaped relationship with PM_2.5 concentrations (peaking at RH = 45–70%), and an inverted V-shaped relationship (peaking at RH = 40 ± 5%) with PM₁₀, SO₂, and NO₂. The trends of polluted-day number significantly changed at RH = 70%. The very-dry (RH < 45%), dry (RH = 45–60%) and low-humidity (RH = 60–70%) conditions positively affected PM_2.5 and exerted an accumulation effect, while the mid-humidity (RH = 70–80%), high-humidity (RH = 80–90%), and extreme-humidity (RH = 90–100%) conditions played a significant role in reducing particle concentrations. For PM₁₀, the accumulation and reduction effects of RH were split at RH = 45%. Moreover, an upward slope in the PM_2.5/PM₁₀ ratio indicated that the accumulation effects from increasing RH were more intense on PM_2.5 than on PM₁₀, while the opposite was noticed for the reduction effects. Secondary transformations from SO₂ and NO₂ to sulfate and nitrate were mainly responsible for PM_2.5 pollution, and thus, controlling these precursors is effective in mitigating the PM pollution in the YRD, especially during winter. The conclusions in this study will be helpful for regional air-quality management.