A CFD study of the transport and fate of airborne droplets in a ventilated office: The role of droplet−droplet interactions

• Coulomb and Lennard−Jones forces were considered for droplet interactions. • The net droplet interactions were repulsive. • Repulsive droplet interactions increased the transport of droplets. • Repulsive droplet interactions significantly modified the fate of droplets. Previous studies reported that specially designed ventilation systems provide good air quality and safe environment by removing airborne droplets that contain viruses expelled by infected people. These water droplets can be stable in the environment and remain suspended in air for prolonged periods. Encounters between droplets may occur and droplet interactions should be considered. However, the previous studies focused on other physical phenomena (air flow, drag force, evaporation) for droplet transport and neglected droplet interactions. In this work, we used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to simulate the transport and fate of airborne droplets expelled by an asymptomatic person and considered droplet interactions. Droplet drag with turbulence for prediction of transport and fate of droplets indicated that the turbulence increased the transport of 1 μm droplets, whereas it decreased the transport of 50 μm droplets. In contrast to only considering drag and turbulence, consideration of droplet interactions tended to increase both the transport and fate. Although the length scale of the office is much larger than the droplet sizes, the droplet interactions, which occurred at the initial stages of release when droplet separation distances were shorter, had a significant effect in droplet fate by considerably manipulating the final locations on surfaces where droplets adhered. Therefore, it is proposed that when an exact prediction of transport and fate is required, especially for high droplet concentrations, the effects of droplet interactions should not be ignored.     

Spatial cost efficiency in waste paper handling: the case of corrugated board in Sweden

This paper analyzes the spatial cost efficiency of the Swedish legislation regarding waste disposal handling. We focus on the case of corrugated board and recognize that the different counties in Sweden possess different economic prerequisites in terms of waste paper recovery and utilization potential. We employ data for six corrugated board mills and 20 counties and a non-linear programming model to identify the least cost strategy for reaching the politically specified recycling target of a 65% recovery rate for corrugated board. That is, the total costs of recovering a minimum of 65% in each county are calculated and compared with the case when the country as a whole recovers 65% of all old corrugated board is collected but there exist no uniform target for each county. The conclusion is that from an efficiency point of view the recovery efforts should be concentrated to the highly populated and urbanized counties, and not be uniformly divided throughout the country. In the base case, the results suggest that the cost efficient county-specific recovery rates should range from 51 to 72%.     

吉非罗齐在热活化过硫酸盐体系中的降解机制研究

以降血脂药物吉非罗齐(GEM)为目标污染物,研究其在热活化过硫酸盐体系中的降解机制.结果表明,GEM的降解过程符合准一级反应动力学规律,增加过硫酸盐初始浓度或升高反应溶液温度都可以显著提高GEM的降解速率常数(kobs),其反应的表观活化能Ea为133.14k J·mol~(-1).酸性和中性条件下GEM的降解效果要好于碱性条件.自然水体中的腐植酸(HA)和HCO_3~-对GEM的降解有明显的抑制作用.自由基清除实验表明,在酸性和中性条件下,SO_4~(·-)对GEM的降解起主导作用,而在碱性条件下,HO·成为体系主要的氧化物种.利用HPLC-MS/MS技术共检测到11种中间产物,推测GEM的降解路径涉及苯环的羟基化和醛基化反应、苯环侧链的环化作用和脱羧反应以及醚支链的断裂.     

Thiolated arsenicals in arsenic metabolism: Occurrence, formation, and biological implications

Arsenic (As) is a notoriously toxic pollutant of health concern worldwide with potential risk of cancer induction, but meanwhile it is used as medicines for the treatment of different conditions including hematological cancers. Arsenic can undergo extensive metabolism in biological systems, and both toxicological and therapeutic effects of arsenic compounds are closely related to their metabolism. Recent studies have identified methylated thioarsenicals as a new class of arsenic metabolites in biological systems after exposure of inorganic and organic arsenicals, including arsenite, dimethylarsinic acid (DMAV), dimethylarsinous glutathione (DMAIIIGS), and arsenosugars. The increasing detection of thiolated arsenicals, including monomethylmonothioarsonic acid (MMMTAV), dimethylmonothioarsinic acid (DMMTAV) and its glutathione conjugate (DMMTAVGS), and dimethyldithioarsinic acid (DMDTAV) suggests that thioarsenicals may be important metabolites and play important roles in arsenic toxicity and therapeutic effects. Here we summarized the reported occurrence of thioarsenicals in biological systems, the possible formation pathways of thioarsenicals, and their toxicity, and discussed the biological implications of thioarsenicals on arsenic metabolism, toxicity, and therapeutic effects.     

Migration Pathways and Remediation of Urban Runoff for PAH Control

The migration pathways for polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and the associated active attenuating mechanisms within the urban environment are examined. The interest in developing an improved understanding of PAH migration/attenuation is focused toward quantification of the cost-effectiveness of urban runoff control strategies for mitigation of PAH inputs to receiving water bodies.A case study application to the City of Sault Ste Marie demonstrates that snow removal from sub-basins with the largest deposition rates, and relatively small wet and/or dry stormwater management ponds, are the most cost-effective remediation strategies.     

BIOECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF SELECTED CONSERVATION PRACTICES ON SOIL EROSION AND FRESHWATER FISHERIES1

ABSTRACT: Farmers can generate environmental benefits (improved water quality and fisheries and wildlife habitat), but they may not be able to quantify them. Furthermore, farmers may reduce their incomes from managing lands to produce these positive externalities but receive little monetary compensation in return. This study simulated the relationship between agricultural practices, water quality, fish responses to suspended sediment and farm income within two small watersheds, one of a cool water stream and one of a warm water stream. Using the Agricultural Drainage and Pesticide Transport (ADAPT) model, this study related best management practices (BMPs) to calculated instream suspended sediment concentrations by estimating sediment delivery, runoff, base flow, and streambank erosion to quantify the effects of suspended sediment exposure on fish communities. By implementing selected BMPs in each watershed, annual net farm income declined $18,000 to $28,000 (1 to 3 percent) from previous levels. “Lethal” fish events from suspended sediments in the cool water watershed decreased by 60 percent as conservation tillage and riparian buffers increased. Despite reducing suspended sediments by 25 percent, BMPs in the warm water watershed did not reduce the negative response of the fisheries. Differences in responses (physical and biological) between watersheds highlight potential gains in economic efficiency by targeting BMPs or by offering performance based “green payments.”     

Incidents in manual handling activities

More than 20000 handling manoeuvres in loading or unloading trailers in a large transportation company were observed. The aim of the study was to determine the frequency and nature of the incidents occurring whilst handling. The incidents were recorded and interpreted from a double perspective, namely as risk factors and as activity regulation factors. The study showed that on average, one incident occurred in every seven handling manoeuvres: 71% of them were related to the environment, and 29% to the activity. While numerous, the environment-related incidents were generally without consequences. In this respect, the activity incidents appeared more risky; also, the majority of these incidents occurred during the load positioning phase. The study also showed that loads are re-handled twice as often in unloading as in loading, the frequency of re-handlings varying widely from one handler to another. The reasons why so few of the observed incidents are reported in accident studies and their significance in the understanding of handling problems are discussed.     

地下土壤、水中DNAPLs污染的修复技术研究进展

综述了国内外地下土壤、含水层DNAPLs污染的迁移机理及其修复技术研究进展,对该领域的研究前景做了展望.     

Analysis of the recycling system for aluminum cans,focusing on collection,transportation, and the intermediate processing methods

In this article, the systems for the collection and intermediate processing of used beverage cans (UBCs) are compared and analyzed, focusing on the time taken and the cost of processing, the energy consumption, and the emissions of CO₂, SO _x , and NO _x , during the process. We found that cases where the UBCs were crushed in the discharging process gave better results, and how the UBCs were collected was the most important factor. It was more desirable to treat UBCs in one place than in two places. When the transportation distance was longer, the pressed form of UBCs was more convenient. When the transportation distance was short, the original form, the crushed form, and the shredded form of UBCs were all suitable. That is, the contribution of the transportation process to the evaluation was large when the transport distance was long, and the contribution of the treatment process was large when the transport distance was short.     

An assessment of how distance and diesel oxidation catalyst will impact thermal decomposition behaviors of particles

Decomposition mass loss and pyrolysis products analyses of particles sampled at various locations along the tailpipe of a Euro-IV diesel engine were performed using a thermogravimetry in conjunction with Fourier transformation infrared spectrometry-mass spectrum. Diesel particles were collected at the same location with and without diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) mounted on the test engine separately. The three poles in thermal gravity-differential thermal gravity images suggested that the decomposition process of diesel particles could be divided into three stages which correspond to the decompositions of lower boiling substances, higher boiling substances and soot respectively. It is noticed that no matter whether DOC was mounted or not, the further the particles were sampled away from the engine block, the lower the peak temperatures and the heavier the mass losses within the first two stages, which indicated that the soluble organic fraction in the particle samples increased and therefore lowering the activation energy of thermal decomposition. Hydroxyl, ammonia, C_xH_y fragments, benzene, toluene, and phenol were found to be the primary products of particle decomposition, which didn't change with the location of particle sample point. The employment of DOC increased the activation energy for particle oxidation and resulted in a higher peak temperature and lower mass loss within the first-stage. Moreover, the CO stretching bands of aldehyde and ketone at 1771 cm^?1 was only detected without a DOC, while the NO₂ peak at 1634 cm^?1 was solely noticed with the presence of DOC. Compared to the first-stage pyrolysis products, more polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and less C_xH_y fragments were seen in the second-stage.