Review of LCA studies of solid waste management systems – Part II: Methodological guidance for a better practice

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is increasingly used in waste management to identify strategies that prevent or minimise negative impacts on ecosystems, human health or natural resources. However, the quality of the provided support to decision- and policy-makers is strongly dependent on a proper conduct of the LCA. How has LCA been applied until now? Are there any inconsistencies in the past practice? To answer these questions, we draw on a critical review of 222 published LCA studies of solid waste management systems. We analyse the past practice against the ISO standard requirements and the ILCD Handbook guidelines for each major step within the goal definition, scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation phases of the methodology. Results show that malpractices exist in several aspects of the LCA with large differences across studies. Examples are a frequent neglect of the goal definition, a frequent lack of transparency and precision in the definition of the scope of the study, e.g. an unclear delimitation of the system boundaries, a truncated impact coverage, difficulties in capturing influential local specificities such as representative waste compositions into the inventory, and a frequent lack of essential sensitivity and uncertainty analyses. Many of these aspects are important for the reliability of the results. For each of them, we therefore provide detailed recommendations to practitioners of waste management LCAs.     

Monod kinetics rather than a first-order degradation model explains atrazine fate in soil mini-columns: Implications for pesticide fate modelling

Pesticide transport models commonly assume first-order pesticide degradation kinetics for describing reactive transport in soil. This assumption was assessed in mini-column studies with associated batch degradation tests. Soil mini-columns were irrigated with atrazine in two intermittent steps of about 30 days separated by 161 days application of artificial rain water. Atrazine concentration in the effluent peaked to that of the influent concentration after initial break-through but sharply decreased while influx was sustained, suggesting a degradation lag phase. The same pattern was displayed in the second step but peak height and percentage of atrazine recovered in the effluent were lower. A Monod model with biomass decay was successfully calibrated to this data. The model was successfully evaluated against batch degradation data and mini-column experiments at lower flow rate. The study suggested that first-order degradation models may underestimate risk of pesticide leaching if the pesticide degradation potential needs amplification during degradation.     

岩溶地区隧道施工对水环境影响评价指标体系的建立

随着人们环保意识的不断提高,交通隧道施工期对周边水环境的影响也日益受到关注。针对岩溶地区隧道的施工特点建立了隧道施工期对水环境影响的评价指标体系。该体系研究了施工中含污废水排放对地表水体污染以及地下水疏排给隧道周边水资源流失两方面进行评价;指标体系各层指标数量随施工进展与现场情况变化进行增减,以满足施工期不断变化情况对水环境影响大小的准确评估;该指标体系充分考虑到"木桶理论"的原理,明确施工过程中对水环境影响最严重环节,有助于及时采取保护措施。     

燃煤电厂烟塔合一排烟风洞试验与数值模拟对比分析

近年来,燃煤电厂烟塔合一烟气排烟对近距离环境影响的不确定性,使其在国内的推广过程受到一定限制。准确判断烟塔合一排烟的环境影响,对于我国现有燃煤电厂烟气污染物的排放有着巨大的工程价值和明显的现实意义。利用国家环境保护某重点实验室中风洞试验平台,对燃煤电厂烟塔合一烟气污染物在近距离的扩散和传输行为,进行物理风洞试验以及数值模拟计算,并进行对比分析。结果表明:德国Austal2000模式的浓度预测并不精确;数值风洞也有其差异性,而物理风洞的结果在很大程度上符合现有的理论及国内工程实际。     

风电场对米波雷达系统的影响研究

目的针对目前风电场对米波雷达的潜在威胁,研究风电场的有源干扰、无源散射、遮蔽对米波雷达系统的影响,为评估风电场对米波雷达系统的影响提供技术指导。方法根据风力发电机的工作原理和结构,对风电场的有源干扰进行实际测试,就风电场有源干扰对米波雷达系统周边背景噪声的影响进行分析,提出一系列应对有源干扰的措施;利用散射、刃峰绕射、多普勒效应等理论,就无源散射、遮蔽等因素对米波雷达系统的影响进行仿真计算和分析。结果风电场将引起米波雷达系统周边背景噪声恶化、虚警率提高、探测距离缩减、测向和测速误差等,导致米波雷达性能下降。结论风电场对米波雷达系统存在着巨大威胁,在米波雷达台站附近规划建设风电场前应进行严格的技术评估,保证国家经济建设和雷达系统性能不受影响。     

飞机实验室风吹雨气候环境试验技术研究

为了解决目前飞机整机风吹雨试验只能在外场自然环境条件下进行,试验周期长,费用大的难题,研究飞机实验室风吹雨试验技术。通过研究飞机遭遇极端气候风吹雨引起的环境效应,基于气候环境实验室风吹雨试验环境条件的建设能力,借鉴国内外相关环境试验标准以及国外飞机气候环境试验经验。规划了飞机整机实验室风吹雨试验项目和试验顺序,设计了飞机实验室风吹雨试验方法,总结了试验需要检测及评估的范畴。为飞机实验室风吹雨试验的实施提供技术参考。     

热带海洋大气环境下X70管线钢的缝隙腐蚀行为研究

目的研究X70管线钢在热带海洋大气实海环境下的缝隙腐蚀行为。方法在距离湛江东海岛海岸50m和200 m处分别搭建楔型缝隙模型,安装大气环境Cl-收集装置和自动气象监测站。结果距离海岸越近,风速越大,大气中Cl-沉降速率也越大,X70管线钢缝隙腐蚀越严重。X70管线钢在距离海岸50 m处发生缝隙腐蚀的最大缝宽约为0.96 mm,200 m处最大缝宽约为3.75 mm,50 m处缝隙腐蚀更严重。结论缝隙腐蚀区域形成了氧浓差电池,同时随着缝隙液中Cl-向缝隙内迁移,发生闭塞区电池自催化过程,在二者共同作用下,缝隙腐蚀区域较非缝隙腐蚀区域腐蚀更严重。     

极低风速条件下水-气界面甲烷气体传输速率分析

薄边界层理论被广为用来计算水-气界面气体通量,而气体传输速率(k600)则是其中的关键性环境因子.为了研究极低风速下小型浅水湿地水-气界面甲烷气体传输速率,以宜昌饮用水水库梅子垭水库和周邻5个富营养化池塘为研究对象,采用静态通量箱进行了为期一年的水-气界面甲烷气体通量观测,同步监测了水环境因子和气象因子.野外监测时的风速(U10)范围为0~0.75 m·s~(-1),平均值约为0.19 m·s~(-1);水温(Tw)变化范围为6.3~30.9℃,平均值约为19.3℃.结果表明,梅子垭水库和周边5个池塘水-气界面甲烷气体传输速率较小,在0.20~1.99 cm·h~(-1)之间变化,平均值约为0.50 cm·h~(-1).本研究利用表层水温和风速指标两个参数的双二次项模型和二次项加幂函数模型,回归得到了气体传输速率的数学公式,回归结果与原始数据和对k600进行深度平均(bin-averaged)后的数据均存在极显著性关系.     

长沙市郊大气CH4浓度变化特征

为研究长江中游地区大气CH4浓度(体积分数)变化特征,2007~2011年,利用内表面硅烷化的苏玛罐采样、GC/FID方法对长沙市郊空气样品中CH4浓度进行测定分析,并结合地面气象要素和后向轨迹,探讨CH4浓度变化特征与源汇的关系.结果表明,观测期间,大气CH4年平均浓度变化范围在2 012×10-9~2 075×10-9之间,季节变化特征为秋季高,春季低,浓度年较差为152×10-9.通过分析地面风和气团传输对长沙市郊大气CH4的影响表明,长沙市郊大气CH4浓度受西北风和偏南风交替控制,贡献率分别为41.1%和20.4%;引起CH4抬升的地面风包括:4个季节中的W-WNW-NW、夏季ESE-SE和冬季S,春夏季节S则导致CH4浓度降低;夏秋季节源自水稻产区的气团、冬春季节源自能源消费量较高地区的气团,对长沙市郊CH4浓度的抬升有显著贡献,南方长距离传输气团有利于CH4扩散和清除.     

气象条件对上甸子地区气溶胶散射特征的影响

利用北京地区上甸子站气溶胶散射系数、PM2.5质量浓度和气象要素1 a的观测资料,研究不同天气条件下上甸子地区散射系数的变化特征,并讨论了气象条件对散射系数的影响.结果表明,散射系数在雾霾天最高608.4 Mm-1,其次为雾天500.6 Mm-1和霾天423.7 Mm-1,是一般天气散射系数的6.4～9.2倍.在各类天...