Does industrial waste taxation contribute to reduction of landfilled waste? Dynamic panel analysis considering industrial waste category in Japan

Waste taxes, such as landfill and incineration taxes, have emerged as a popular option in developed countries to promote the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle). However, few studies have examined the effectiveness of waste taxes. In addition, quite a few studies have considered both dynamic relationships among dependent variables and unobserved individual heterogeneity among the jurisdictions. If dependent variables are persistent, omitted variables cause a bias, or common characteristics exist across the jurisdictions that have introduced waste taxes, the standard fixed effects model may lead to biased estimation results and misunderstood causal relationships. In addition, most existing studies have examined waste in terms of total amounts rather than by categories. Even if significant reductions in total waste amounts are not observed, some reduction within each category may, nevertheless, become evident.Therefore, this study analyzes the effects of industrial waste taxation on quantities of waste in landfill in Japan by applying the bias-corrected least-squares dummy variable (LSDVC) estimators; the general method of moments (difference GMM); and the system GMM. In addition, the study investigates effect differences attributable to industrial waste categories and taxation types. This paper shows that industrial waste taxes in Japan have minimal, significant effects on the reduction of final disposal amounts thus far, considering dynamic relationships and waste categories.     

Suppression of gas explosion using vacuum chamber at different break-up times of diaphragm

Vacuum chamber is a new method to suppress the gas explosion. The explosion propagation characteristics have been studied in an L-shaped channel (tubes joined a right angle) with a vacuum chamber in the region of joining of the tubes. The vacuum chamber separated from the inner tubular space with the help of a diaphragm pierced by firing pin. The results demonstrate that the effect of explosion suppression of vacuum chamber is related to the break-up time of diaphragm and the position of the explosive flame front. When the diaphragm breaks up, the shorter the distance of flame front propagation is, the closer the flame front gets to the vacuum chamber, and the better effect of explosion suppression is, conversely, the worse the effect of explosion suppression is.     

What is the acceptable margin of error for the oxygen uptake method in evaluating the reactivity of organic waste?

The acceptable margin of error for the organic waste reactivity measured by the oxygen uptake method was assessed. Oxygen uptake was determined by the Dynamic Respiration Index (DRI) (mgO₂/kgVS h). The composed uncertainty (uC) of the experimental set up used for the DRI test was evaluated and the uncertainty (u) of all the components of the apparatus was evaluated. A procedure for calculating the uC of the apparatus is proposed. The components affecting the uC of the DRI to a more significant extent were the one of the oxygen mass rate and the u of the amount of VS in the sample analyzed. For a confidence level of 99.73%, the extended uC (UC) interval for a DRI = 1024 mgO₂/kgVS h was ±440 mgO₂/kgVS h, whereas for a DRI = 3489 mgO₂/kgVS h, the UC interval was ±1288 mgO₂/kgVS h. When oxygen consumption and VS content become lower than 600 mgO₂/h and 0.9 kg, respectively, the UC interval is similar to the measured DRI.     

Accident modelling and analysis in process industries

Accident modelling is a methodology used to relate the causes and effects of events that lead to accidents. This modelling effectively seeks to answer two main questions: (i) Why does an accident occur, and (ii) How does it occur. This paper presents a review of accident models that have been developed for the chemical process industry with in-depth analyses of a class of models known as dynamic sequential accident models (DSAMs). DSAMs are sequential models with a systematic procedure to utilise precursor data to estimate the posterior risk profile quantitatively. DSAM also offers updates on the failure probabilities of accident barriers and the prediction of future end states. Following a close scrutiny of these methodologies, several limitations are noted and discussed, and based on these insights, future work is suggested to enhance and improve this category of models further.     

成都平原不同类型沟渠CO2、CH4和N2O排放通量特征及其影响因素

为研究不同类型沟渠CH_4、CO_2和N_2O排放通量特征及其影响因素,于2014年3月~2015年2月,以每月一次的频率,采用静态浮箱法对成都平原的农业沟渠、农业生活复合沟渠、生活沟渠的CH_4、CO_2和N_2O排放通量进行监测.结果表明:(1)受人为活动的影响,研究区域中3种类型的沟渠CO_2、CH_4和N_2O排放通量较大,变化范围分别为-2.26~1 504.40mg·(m~2·h)~(-1)、0.69~40.00 mg·(m~2·h)~(-1)、-2.27~70.35μg·(m~2·h)~(-1),且均表现出夏季高,冬季低的特征.(2)农业生活复合沟渠CO_2排放通量显著高于农业沟渠和生活沟渠(P0.05),生活沟渠CH_4和N_2O排放通量显著高于农业生活复合沟渠和农业沟渠(P0.05).(3)水温和降雨量是影响CO_2、CH_4和N_2O排放通量的主要环境因子,溶解氧(dissolved oxgen,DO)和全氮(total nitrogen,TN)是影响CO_2和N_2O排放通量的主要水质参数;铵态氮(ammonium nitrogen,NH_4~+-N)与DO是影响CH_4排放通量的主要水质参数.     

土壤中苯向大气挥发过程的影响因素和通量特征研究

采用通量箱(30.0 cm×17.5 cm×29.0 cm)研究砂土与黑土中苯挥发过程中的影响因素和通量变化特征.通过模拟不同空气流速、不同温度,并设定土壤类型、土壤含水量、初始浓度等条件,实时监测通量箱中各层土壤气相中和土壤上方空气中苯的浓度,来分析不同条件下苯的挥发特征.结果表明,砂土和黑土中苯的挥发通量分别随着土壤含水量的增加而降低,土壤充气空隙率相近情况下,苯在砂土中的挥发通量明显高于黑土.空气流速在300~900 mL·min-1范围内,砂土中苯挥发通量随空气流速升高而加大;在20~40℃范围内对黑土的试验结果表明,苯挥发强度受温度影响显著.苯挥发通量与土壤中苯浓度呈线性相关,其可根据土壤中苯初始浓度和水溶出浓度进行预测.     

松花江上游夹皮沟金矿土壤与大气汞污染特征

在松花江上游夹皮沟金矿开采区内,混汞法提金工艺已使用180余年,导致严重的环境介质汞污染问题.为研究土壤和大气汞污染特征,使用塞曼效应汞分析仪(Zeeman RA915+)测定了大气汞含量,使用冷原子吸收分光光度法(GB/T17136-1997)测定了土壤汞含量,使用动态通量箱法测定了老金厂、二道沟、二道岔和夹皮沟镇小区四处土/气间汞交换通量;对土壤汞含量和大气汞含量进行了线性回归分析;并对土/气间汞交换通量与气象因子进行了相关性分析.结果表明:①区域大气汞含量均值为(71.08±38.22)ng.m-3.②区域土壤汞含量均值为(0.913 1±0.040 8)mg.kg-1;土壤汞含量与大气汞含量显著正相关.③各采样点土/气间汞交换通量为:老金厂(129.13±496.07)ng.(m2.h)-1,二道沟(98.64±43.96)ng.(m2.h)-1,二道岔(23.17±171.23)ng.(m2.h)-1,夹皮沟镇小区(7.12±46.33)ng.(m2.h)-1.④太阳辐射是老金厂、二道岔和夹皮沟镇小区土/气间汞交换通量主要影响因子,太阳辐射、大气温度和土壤温度共同控制二道沟土/气汞交换通量过程;地形条件的干扰,形成三类迥异的土/气间汞交换通量日变化特征形态.     

Review of the influencing factors of secondary organic aerosol formation and aging mechanism based on photochemical smog chamber simulation methods

The formation and aging mechanism of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) and its influencing factors have attracted increasing attention in recent years because of their effects on climate change, atmospheric quality and human health. However, there are still large errors between air quality model simulation results and field observations. The currently undetected components during the formation and aging of SOA due to the limitation of current monitoring techniques and the interactions among multiple SOA formation influencing factors might be the main reasons for the differences. In this paper, we present a detailed review of the complex dynamic physical and chemical processes and the corresponding influencing factors involved in SOA formation and aging. And all these results were mainly based the studies of photochemical smog chamber simulation. Although the properties of precursor volatile organic compounds (VOCs), oxidants (such as OH radicals), and atmospheric environmental factors (such as NO_x, SO₂, NH₃, light intensity, temperature, humidity and seed aerosols) jointly influence the products and yield of SOA, the nucleation and vapor pressure of these products were found to be the most fundamental aspects when interpreting the dynamics of the SOA formation and aging process. The development of techniques for measuring intermediate species in SOA generation processes and the study of SOA generation and aging mechanism in complex systems should be important topics of future SOA research.     

养殖塘CH4通量时空变化特征及其影响因素

本研究基于多通道密闭式动态箱法对亚热带典型养殖塘CH₄通量的时空变化特征及其影响因素进行了分析.结果表明：亚热带养殖塘CH₄主要排放方式是冒泡,CH₄扩散及冒泡通量均呈现明显的季节变化特征.春、夏、秋、冬4个季节CH₄扩散通量分别为：0.113,0.830,0.002,0.005μmol/（m²·s）,冒泡通量分别为0.923,1.789,0.006,0.007μmol/（m²·s）,冒泡通量占总通量的比例分别为89.04%、68.29%、78.95%和60.52%.在冬、春季养殖塘没有人工管理措施的情况下,CH₄通量随着离岸距离的增加而增大,冬、春季养殖塘中间区域CH₄总通量分别是岸边浅水区的34.70和2.98倍.夏季养殖活跃期CH₄通量在空间上呈现出：人工投食区（7.371μmol/（m²·s））>自然生长区（2.151μmol/（m²·s））>人工增氧区（0.888μmol/（m²·s））>岸边浅水区（0.206μmol/（m²·s））的特征.在0.5h尺度上,春季CH₄扩散通量与水温呈显著正相关关系,与风速呈负相关关系,秋季CH₄扩散通量与水温、风速呈正相关关系,冒泡通量和水温呈正相关关系.在日尺度上,水温是CH₄扩散通量和冒泡通量的主控因子,两者均随着水温升高呈指数增加,并且冒泡通量的水温敏感性Q₁₀（12.72）大于扩散通量（7.78）.     

身管内膛热化学-机械烧蚀磨损数值计算

目的探究身管烧蚀和机械磨损的作用机理,完善身管热化学–机械烧蚀磨损模型,指导身管寿命预测和结构设计。方法以弹炮耦合系统摩擦行为为切入点,提出一种计及摩擦热的热化学烧蚀材料退化模型。基于Archard磨损理论和动压润滑原理,以动压润滑摩擦替换传统弹炮耦合过程采用的干摩擦,提出一种身管机械磨损材料退化模型。结果身管内膛烧蚀磨损主要集中在坡膛和炮口位置,500发射击后坡膛位置最大径向、周向烧蚀量分别为1.3、0.8 mm,炮口位置最大径向、周向机械磨损量分别为0.32、0.26 mm。结论材料退化模型能够较为准确地描述弹炮耦合系统中身管内膛的烧蚀磨损特性。数值模拟结果与实际膛线烧蚀磨损具备较好的一致性。