Characterisation of FOGs in grease trap waste from the processing of chickens in Thailand

Industrial firms that kill and process chickens generate wastewater that contains fat, oil, and grease (FOG). The FOGs are located in the fatty waste that is collected by floatation in grease traps. Chemical and physical characterisation of FOGs would provide useful information that would help in the development of methods designed to decrease the extent of pollution caused by disposal of the waste and to utilise commercially some of its lipid constituents. Employing these methods would enhance the profitability and competitive potential of these commercial organisations. Samples of grease trap waste from 14 firms in central Thailand have been examined. Due to the very different schemes of waste management employed by these firms, the physical appearance of their fatty wastes showed considerable variation. The chemical and physical properties of the FOGs present in these wastes showed considerable variation also. Large amounts of free fatty acids (10–70% as oleic acid) were detected in most of the 14 wastes and palmitic, cis-9-oleic, cis,cis-9,12-linoleic, stearic, and palmitoleic acids were the predominant species of free and esterified acids. Most of the FOGs were solid at temperatures below 40 °C. Many of them contained traces of heavy metals (Cu and Pb) and some contained traces of the pesticides dimethoate and cypermethrin. The content of these potentially hazardous substances would have to be considered very carefully before discarding the fatty wastes and during the development of methods designed to isolate their potentially profitable lipid constituents.     

Bacterial toxicity testing and antibacterial activity of parabens

Parabens are used because of their antimicrobial effects, yet they have multiple adverse effects. The aim of this work was to evaluate the bactericidal activity and bacterial toxicity of the most common parabens: methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, isopropylparaben, butylparaben, isobutylparaben and phenylparaben. The bactericidal action was evaluated by means of the dilution-neutralization method against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, and the biotest of inhibition of growth of E. coli was applied for the bacterial toxicity assay. Bactericidal concentrations were reached only for propylparaben, butylparaben and isobutylparaben. The toxicity study showed methylparaben to be the least toxic, whereas the most toxic one was phenylparaben. It can be concluded that the disinfectant activity of the parabens studied is insignificant against S. aureus and E. coli. Acute toxicity is very low, and the inhibitory effect is weak. Our results provide information about the risk–benefit balance of parabens use.     

A hybrid decision-making approach based on FCM and MOORA for occupational health and safety risk analysis

IntroductionWith the development of industries and increased diversity of their associated hazards, the importance of identifying these hazards and controlling the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) risks has also dramatically augmented. Currently, there is a serious need for a risk management system to identify and prioritize risks with the aim of providing corrective/preventive measures to minimize the negative consequences of OHS risks. In fact, this system can help the protection of employees’ health and reduction of organizational costs. Method: The present study proposes a hybrid decision-making approach based on the Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA), Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM), and Multi-Objective Optimization on the basis of Ratio Analysis (MOORA) for assessing and prioritizing OHS risks. After identifying the risks and determining the values of the risk assessment criteria via the FMEA technique, the attempt is made to determine the weights of criteria based on their causal relationships through FCM and the hybrid learning algorithm. Then, the risk prioritization is carried out using the MOORA method based on the decision matrix (the output of the FMEA) and the weights of the criteria (the output of the FCM). Results: The results from the implementation of the proposed approach in a manufacturing company reveal that the score at issue can overcome some of the drawbacks of the traditional Risk Priority Number (RPN) in the conventional FMEA, including lack of assignment the different relative importance to the assessment criteria, inability to take into account other important management criteria, lack of consideration of causal relationships among criteria, and high dependence of the prioritization on the experts’ opinions, which finally provides a full and distinct risk prioritization.     

Water saving effect on integrated water resource management

This study proposes an improved integrated water resource management (IWRM), in which water conservation was analyzed for the entire water use process. A multi-objective optimization method was applied to optimize the IWRM, which investigated the reduction of freshwater consumption and the total water supply cost. Customer's preference for saving water and an end use analysis (EUA) was applied in the water conservation analysis. Taking Tianjin as the study area, a reduction in customer's economic pressure (EP) was utilized to evaluate the degree of the customer's preference for saving water. The results revealed that agriculture had a greater preference for saving water than other sectors, where as the public had the weakest motivation for saving water. Improving the transportation method could contribute 62.1% of the total water savings in the agriculture sector. The optimization of the IWRM demonstrated that the local freshwater savings would be 21.5%, and the total cost for water supplies would decrease by 13%. However, a government subsidy of 87.5 million Yuan would be needed. Additionally, by analyzing the change in the amount of water savings affected by water price, the appropriate water price increase range was suggested to be 1.5–1.7 times the original price.     

山东省临沂市土壤有机氯农药滴滴涕残留量与空间分布特征

通过对临沂市全区表层土壤每36 km2进行样品收集,测试分析了DDTs、Org C、N等指标,主要研究了区域表层土壤DDTs的残留现状、组成和来源、影响因素、空间分布和环境质量特征.结果表明,调查区表层土壤中DDTs检出率为71.75%,平均含量为0.035μg·g-1;检出样品中p,p'-DDT和p,p'-DDE为主要残留物,平均残留分别为0.033μg·g-1和0.010μg·g-1,分别占检出样的60.99%和34.62%.DDTs降解率指示区域58%表层土壤为新近输入区,新近输入区在调查区中南部分布尤为明显;而p,p'-DDD/p,p'-DDE指示区域DDTs降解以氧化环境为主,o,p'-DDT/p,p'-DDT指示71.37%区域土壤DDTs输入可能与工业级DDTs有关.相关分析表明,影响土壤DDTs分布的外在因素包括土壤Org C、N、C和p H等指标,且DDTs中p,p'-DDT组分占比越高,影响越明显.DDTs的空间分布具明显点源特征,市县周围均出现明显浓集中心,中南部部分区域浓度明显较高.全区DDTs土壤环境质量污染程度较低,主要以一二类土壤为主,分别占78.95%和21.05%.     

高地下水位地区透水停车场的水文控制效果

为确定高地下水位地区透水铺装对路面径流的水文控制效果,在上海市区建造了4个实验性透水铺装单元与1个不透水铺装对照,其中3个为设有防水衬底的不透型设施分别为透水混凝土铺装(设施Ⅰ)、水泥稳定碎石基层/缝隙透水砖面层(设施Ⅱ)、碎石基层/缝隙透水砖面层(设施Ⅲ),1个普通缝隙透水砖铺装(设施Ⅳ),以及1个不透水混凝土对照(设施0).历时1年监测了实际降雨条件下4种实验设施的表面径流、排水管出流流量及表面渗透速率,考察不同设施的径流总量削减率、峰值削减及峰现延迟能力.结果表明,缝隙透水砖面层的表面稳定渗透速率明显小于透水混凝土面层,使用1年后,2种面层表面稳定渗透速率均明显下降;4种设施的表面产流均无显著差异;3种不透型设施的就地消纳水量能力均较弱,年径流总量控制率分别为24.2%、28.5%、28.4%,排水管不发生出流的控制降雨量分别为5.2 mm、7.8 mm、7.8 mm;设施Ⅰ的峰值削减与峰现延迟效果弱于设施Ⅱ及设施Ⅲ,且3种设施的峰值削减率和峰现延迟时间与降雨强度呈现显著负相关性.     

Control of aliphatic halogenated DBP precursors with multiple drinking water treatment processes: Formation potential and integrated toxicity

The comprehensive control efficiency for the formation potentials(FPs) of a range of regulated and unregulated halogenated disinfection by-products(DBPs)(including carbonaceous DBPs(C-DBPs), nitrogenous DBPs(N-DBPs), and iodinated DBPs(I-DBPs)) with the multiple drinking water treatment processes, including pre-ozonation, conventional treatment(coagulation–sedimentation, pre-sand filtration), ozone-biological activated carbon(O_3-BAC) advanced treatment, and post-sand filtration, was investigated. The potential toxic risks of DBPs by combing their FPs and toxicity values were also evaluated.The results showed that the multiple drinking water treatment processes had superior performance in removing organic/inorganic precursors and reducing the formation of a range of halogenated DBPs. Therein, ozonation significantly removed bromide and iodide,and thus reduced the formation of brominated and iodinated DBPs. The removal of organic carbon and nitrogen precursors by the conventional treatment processes was substantially improved by O_3-BAC advanced treatment, and thus prevented the formation of chlorinated C-DBPs and N-DBPs. However, BAC filtration leads to the increased formation of brominated C-DBPs and N-DBPs due to the increase of bromide/DOC and bromide/DON.After the whole multiple treatment processes, the rank order for integrated toxic risk values caused by these halogenated DBPs was haloacetonitriles(HANs)》haloacetamides(HAMs) haloacetic acids(HAAs) trihalomethanes(THMs) halonitromethanes(HNMs) 》I-DBPs(I-HAMs and I-THMs). I-DBPs failed to cause high integrated toxic risk because of their very low FPs. The significant higher integrated toxic risk value caused by HANs than other halogenated DBPs cannot be ignored.     

人工湿地植物水体净化效能研究进展

通过检索近20年来人工湿地植物在净化水质方面代表性文献,筛选出50种常见人工湿地植物,包括水生植物(挺水植物、浮水植物及浮叶植物、沉水植物)、湿生植物、旱生植物,对该50种常见植物的净化效能进行分析比较;指出湿地植物在净化水体时可能受物种、环境因子、种类配置模式三方面的影响;提出未来人工湿地植物选择应用方面发展方向为:应进一步扩大其种类的选择范围,加强探究维持其生长代谢的机理,加强与微生物的耦合作用完成水体污染物净化的效能研究,根据不同人工湿地和水体污染物类型进行配置等4个方面。     

带缝金属腔体内包含非线性组件的耦合效应分析

目的对带缝金属腔体内连接非线性组件的系统级耦合效应进行分析。方法在外界电磁激励源的作用下,采用全波混合算法解决腔体内部场强分布问题,并利用高阶FDTD方法求解线缆上的感应电压和电流,得到流入非线性组件的信号,然后建立非线性组件的频域黑箱模型,结合S-参数,得到非线性组件端口的功率响应,最后通过仿真实验验证方法的有效性。结果通过系统耦合效应分析建模,建立仿真模型,得到了非线性组件的响应曲线。结论该系统级的耦合效应分析方法可以分析得到非线性组件作为二端口或多端口时的输出功率响应,对系统级的耦合研究具有重要意义。     

粉末活性炭粒径对水中菲吸附动力学的影响效应研究

以菲为目标污染物,研究了粉末活性炭(PAC)在微尺度(1～ 100.Μm)下的粒径效应对多环芳烃吸附性能的影响.实验中按照中值粒径将研磨后得到的粉末活性炭划分为:PAC-1 (19 μm)、PAC-2(46μm)、PAC-3(76 μm).通过比表面积及孔隙度自动分析仪、原位拉曼光谱、扫描电镜等手段对PAC物化性质进行表征,发现粒径减小使PAC的BET比表面积和总孔容增加了10％ ～20％左右,而对PAC表面化学性质的影响较小.PAC的粒径分布对其吸附性能有显著影响,这种影响主要体现为吸附速率成倍的增加,其次是吸附容量有30％ ～36％的增幅.分别用3种动力学模型对吸附过程进行拟合,结果表明,伪二级动力学方程的拟合程度最高,PAC-1有最大的吸附速率常数k,并且随着粒径的减小,k值逐渐增大.