Packing material formulation for odorous emission biofiltration

In biological gas treatment, like biofiltration of volatile organic compounds or odorous substances, the microbial nutritional needs could be a key factor of the process. The aim of this work is to propose a new packing material able to provide the lacking nutrients. In the first part of this study, two kinds of material composed of calcium carbonate, an organic binder and two different nitrogen sources, ammonium phosphate and urea phosphate (UP), were compared. The new supports present bulk densities between 0.88 and 1.15g cm(-3), moisture retention capacities close to 50% and 70%, and water cohesion capacities greater than six months for the material with 20% binder. In the second part, oxygen consumption measurements in liquid experiments show that these packing materials could enhance bacterial growth compared to pine bark or pozzolan and have no inhibitory effect. The biodegradation of different substrates (sodium sulfide and ammonia) and the support colonization by the biomass were evaluated. Finally, UP 20 was chosen and tested in a hydrogen sulfide or ammoniac biofiltration process. This showed that, for H2S concentrations greater than 100mg m(-3), UP 20 has a real advantage over pine bark or pozzolan.     

波罗的海沿岸三国环境政策制订的驱动力

本文详尽阐述了国际环境体制和多边环境协议在波罗的海沿岸三国（爱沙尼亚、拉脱维亚和立陶宛）制订本国环境政策过程中所起的作用。将污染物排放趋势与环境状况变化参照国际环境体制进行对比后可以得出结论，正式加入环境公约与环境领域所发生的变化之间并没有明显的联系。这三个波罗的海沿岸国家的做法是，先加入涉及全球性或区域性环境安全的国际环境体制，尔后才接受对于解决其自身环境问题比较重要的协议并加入相关的体制。因此，可以断定，这三个国家在制订自身环境政策过程中把国际法律文件看作是预防性的，而非整治性的。另一方面，它们认为，积极参与多边环境协议，对于在其环境政策方面采取下一个步骤，即接受欧盟的环境政策（"欧亚体经验规范"）（Acquis Communautaire），将起着巨大推动作用。     

Positive psychology in education for sustainable development at a primary-education institution

The present global environmental crisis is demanding serious rather than superficial changes within the cultural assumptions of human-to-human and human-to-nature relationships. In this sense, education is one of the strongest tools to model our future and a key factor of cultural change. One of the principal aims of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is to develop cognitive and affective skills that affect people's values, such as empathy and critical thinking. Together with compromise and responsibility towards a group, it is possible to build new values and ways to interact with both people and the environment. In the present study we used positive psychology principles in creating teaching interventions to empower empathy and critical thinking through an ESD programme at a Chilean primary school. The results show that an intervention of this kind helps to harmoniously build reflective thinking and empathy within students. This enables them to achieve important changes in their disposition to make sound personal and environmental decisions, and prepares them to positively meet imposing present and future challenges.     

An analysis of continuous black carbon concentrations in proximity to an airport and major roadways

Black carbon (BC), a constituent of particulate matter, is emitted from multiple combustion sources, complicating determination of contributions from individual sources or source categories from monitoring data. In close proximity to an airport, this may include aircraft emissions, other emissions on the airport grounds, and nearby major roadways, and it would be valuable to determine the factors most strongly related to measured BC concentrations. In this study, continuous BC concentrations were measured at five monitoring sites in proximity to a small regional airport in Warwick, Rhode Island from July 2005 to August 2006. Regression was used to model the relative contributions of aircraft and related sources, using real-time flight activity (departures and arrivals) and meteorological data, including mixing height, wind speed and direction. The latter two were included as a nonparametric smooth spatial term using thin-plate splines applied to wind velocity vectors and fit in a linear mixed model framework. Standard errors were computed using a moving-block bootstrap to account for temporal autocorrelation. Results suggest significant positive associations between hourly departures and arrivals at the airport and BC concentrations within the community, with departures having a more substantial impact. Generalized Additive Models for wind speed and direction were consistent with significant contributions from the airport, major highway, and multiple local roads. Additionally, inverse mixing height, temperature, precipitation, and at one location relative humidity, were associated with BC concentrations. Median contribution estimates indicate that aircraft departures and arrivals (and other sources coincident in space and time) contribute to approximately 24–28% of the BC concentrations at the monitoring sites in the community. Our analysis demonstrated that a regression-based approach with detailed meteorological and source characterization can provide insights about source contributions, which could be used to devise control strategies or to provide monitor-based comparisons with source-specific atmospheric dispersion models.     

Dioxin production during the thermal treatment of meat and bone meal residues

Safe animal by-product disposal is a priority target as a result of the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy crisis in the European beef industry. One such disposal option is the incineration of by-product material such as meat and bone meal residues (MBM) for the purpose of energy recovery. Although currently applied, the thermal decomposition of MBM wastes has not been scientifically studied until now. A series of experiments has been performed to study the thermal behavior of MBM both in inert (N2) and reactive atmosphere (air), both by thermogravimetry and in a horizontal laboratory furnace. As a general trend, MBM gives low PCDD/F values, compared with incineration of other wastes. Maximum yield of pollutants is observed at a nominal temperature between 700 and 800 degrees C.