Assessing groundwater quality and its sustainability in Joypurhat district of Bangladesh using GIS and multivariate statistical approaches

Sustainable groundwater quality is a key global concern and has become a major issue of disquiets in most parts of the world including Bangladesh. Hence, the assessment of groundwater quality is an important study to ensure its sustainability for various uses. In this study, a combination of multivariate statistics, geographical information system (GIS) and geochemical approaches was employed to evaluate the groundwater quality and its sustainability in Joypurhat district of Bangladesh. The results showed that the groundwater samples are mainly Ca–Mg–HCO₃ type. Principal component analysis (PCA) results revealed that geogenic sources (rock weathering and cation exchange) followed by anthropogenic activities (domestic sewage and agro-chemicals) were the major factors governing the groundwater quality of the study area. Furthermore, the results of PCA are validated using the cluster analysis and correlation matrix analysis. Based on the groundwater quality index (GWQI), it is found that all the groundwater samples belong to excellent to good water quality domains for human consumption, although iron, fluoride and iodide contaminated to the groundwater, which do not pose any significant health hazard according to World Health Organization’s and Bangladesh’s guideline values. The results of irrigation water quality index including sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), permeability index and sodium percentage (Na %) suggested that most of the groundwater samples are good quality water for agricultural uses. The spatial distribution of the measured values of GWQI, SAR, Fe (iron), EC (electrical conductivity) and TH (total hardness) were spatially mapped using the GIS tool in the study area.     

Treibhausgasemissionen zukünftiger Erdgasbereitstellung für Deutschland

Ohne Zusammenfassung Original erschienen in UWSF – Z Umweltchem ?kotox 20(2):133–144 (2008) DOI: Herausgeber: Martin Pehnt und Eckard Helmers     

Development of a test method against hot alkaline chemical splashes.

High temperature alkaline chemical liquids have caused injuries and hazardous situations in Finnish pulp manufacturing mills. There are no requirements and/or test method standards concerning protection against high temperature alkaline chemical splashes. This paper describes the test method development process to test and identify materials appropriate for hot liquid chemical hazard protection. In the first phase, the liquid was spilled through a stainless steel funnel and the protection performance was evaluated using a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) film under the test material. After several tentative improvements, a graphite crucible was used for heating and spilling the chemical, and a copper-coated K-type thermometer with 4 independent measuring areas was designed to measure the temperature under the material samples. The thermometer was designed to respond quickly so that peak temperatures could be measured. The main problem was to keep the spilled amount of chemical constant, which unfortunately resulted in significant variability in data.     

Effects of calcium hydroxide and calcium chloride addition to bentonite in iron ore pelletization.

Pyrite ash is created as waste from the roasting of pyrite ores during the production of sulphuric acid. These processes generate great amounts of pyrite ash waste that is generally land filled. This creates serious environmental pollution due to the release of acids and toxic substances. Pyrite ash waste can be utilized in the iron production industry as a blast furnace feed to process this waste and prevent environmental pollution. The essential parameters affecting the pelletization process of pyrite ash were studied using bentonite as a binder. Experiments were then carried out using bentonite and a mixture of bentonite with calcium hydroxide and calcium chloride in order to make the bentonite more effective. The metallurgical properties of pyrite ash, bentonite, calcium hydroxide, calcium chloride, a mixture of these and sintered pellets were studied using X-ray analysis. The crushing strength tests were carried out to investigate the strength of pyrite ash waste pellets. The results of these analyses showed that pyrite ash can be agglomerated to pellets and used in the iron production industry as a blast furnace feed. The crushing strength of the pellets containing calcium hydroxide and calcium chloride in addition to bentonite was better than the strength of pellets prepared using only bentonite binder.     

废水产氢产酸/同型产乙酸耦合产酸条件优化

为了更好地发挥产氢产酸/同型产乙酸耦合系统在废水厌氧发酵生产乙酸方面的优势,有必要寻找一种简单有效的方法以获得该系统产酸的优化条件.利用经过加热处理并活化的厌氧污泥作种泥,以模拟废水中的葡萄糖为底物,针对发酵时间、底物浓度、种泥浓度、初始pH进行4因素10水平均匀设计实验,得到了乙酸生产指标与产酸条件之间关系的回归方程;也得到了以高乙酸产量为主要目标导向同时兼顾高乙酸产率和高乙酸生产强度目标的优化条件;优化条件实验乙酸浓度比均匀设计中最高乙酸浓度提高20%左右.研究表明,将均匀设计应用于废水产氢产酸/同型产乙酸耦合产酸条件优化,可以避免盲目性,迅速获得满意结果.     

Synergistic effects of Cu species and acidity of Cu-ZSM-5 on catalytic performance for selective catalytic oxidation of n-butylamine

In this work, a series of Cu-ZSM-5 catalysts with different SiO₂/Al₂O₃ ratios (25, 50, 100 and 200) were synthesized and investigated in n-butylamine catalytic degradation. The n-butylamine can be completely catalytic degradation at 350°C over all Cu-ZSM-5 catalysts. Moreover, Cu-ZSM-5 (25) exhibited the highest selectivity to N₂, exceeding 90% at 350°C. These samples were investigated in detail by several characterizations to illuminate the dependence of the catalytic performance on redox properties, Cu species, and acidity. The characterization results proved that the redox properties and chemisorption oxygen primarily affect n-butylamine conversion. N₂ selectivity was impacted by the Brønsted acidity and the isolated Cu²⁺ species. Meanwhile, the surface acid sites over Cu-ZSM-5 catalysts could influence the formation of Cu species. Furthermore, in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectra was adopted to explore the reaction mechanism. The Cu-ZSM-5 catalysts are the most prospective catalysts for nitrogen-containing volatile organic compounds removal, and the results in this study could provide new insights into catalysts design for VOC catalytic oxidation.     

绿色环境保护节能建筑的设计与实现研究

为了实现建筑行业的可持续发展,设计并实现绿色环保节能建筑,将节能环保理念渗透在建筑设计的每个细节中。分析融入节能环保理念的建筑设计过程,对其中的架构环保节能设计、节能环保材料的选用以及节能环保技术发展进行研究,并重点分析了资源可持续利用、太阳能利用以及电气节能技术在绿色环保节能建筑设计中的应用过程。通过绿色建筑节能环保总设计,绿色节能环保建筑构造的优化设计以及绿色建筑的暖通空调设计,实现绿色环保节能建筑的高质量设计。