China’s sponge cities alleviate urban flooding and water shortage: a review

Environmental Chemistry Letters - About one tenth of humans are impacted by water shortages around the globe. Water resilience is worsening under climate change because intensifying weather...     

Environmental decentralization,environmental public service,and public health: evidence from 289 cities in China

Environmental Geochemistry and Health - Effective supply of environmental public services (EPS) is important to guarantee the mitigation of residential pollution exposure risk. This study analyzes...     

Airborne hydrophilic microplastics in cloud water at high altitudes and their role in cloud formation

Microplastic pollution is occurring in most ecosystem, yet their presence in high altitude clouds and their influence on cloud formation and climate change are poorly known. Here we analyzed microplastics in cloud water sampled at the summits of Japan mountains at 1300–3776 m altitude by attenuated total reflection imaging and micro-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. We observed nine microplastics including polyethylene, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polymethyl methacrylate, polyamide 6, polycarbonate, ethylene–propylene copolymer or polyethylene–polypropylene alloy, polyurethane, and epoxy resin. Microplastic were fragmented, with mean concentrations ranging from 6.7 to 13.9 pieces per liter, and with Feret diameters ranging from 7.1 to 94.6 μm. Microplastics bearing hydrophilic groups such as carbonyl and/or hydroxyl groups were abundant, suggesting that they might have acted as condensation nuclei of cloud ice and water. Overall, our finding suggest that high-altitude microplastics cloud influence cloud formation and, in turn, might modify the climate.

     

Recycling sewage sludge into ceramic materials: A review

Environmental Chemistry Letters - Huge amounts of unwanted sewage sludge are generated in the process of wastewater treatment, calling for methods to recycle sewage sludges into value-added...     

创新价值链视角下企业创新效率差异及影响因素分析——基于江苏省国家高新区企业的验证

中国经济新常态背景下,高新区企业创新增效提质是增强高新区创新能力的内生动力.从创新价值链视角出发,将企业创新过程分为技术开发阶段和经济转化阶段,运用两阶段DEA模型分别对2016年江苏省12个国家高新区、11个技术领域以及各高新区内不同技术类型企业的整体和分阶段创新效率进行测度,并构建Tobit回归模型探究每个阶段企业创新效率的影响因素.研究表明:(1)江苏省国家高新区整体创新效率有较大提升空间,其中技术开发效率表现优于经济转化效率.(2)高创新效率的技术领域集中在电子与信息、新材料等,生物医药、环境保护和光机电一体化等技术领域整体创新效率处于较低水平.(3)以各阶段创新效率均值为分界,划分创新资源利用的四种模式,大部分高新区企业处于高开发-低转化和低开发-高转化型模式,存在技术创新与经济转化联系不够紧密的现象.(4)资本投入水平、劳动力的“质”和“量”、政府支持力度对企业创新效率的影响存在明显的阶段差异性.最后,根据研究结果,从强化知识交流网络、集聚多元化人才、调整资源投入产出评估方式及采取扬优补短式效率提升路径四个方面给出提升高新区企业创新效率的政策建议.     

Personal exposure to PM2.5-bound heavy metals associated with cardiopulmonary function in general population

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - To better understand the cardiopulmonary alterations associated with personal exposed PM2.5-bound heavy meals, we conducted a cross-sectional study in...     

A comprehensive review on green buildings research: bibliometric analysis during 1998–2018

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Buildings account for nearly 2/5ths of global energy expenditure. Due to this figure, the 90s witnessed the rise of green buildings (GBs) that were...     

Understanding and addressing the environmental risk of microplastics

Over the past decades, the plastic production has been dramatically increased. Indeed, a category of small plastic particles mainly with the shapes of fragments, fibers, or spheres, called microplastics (particles smaller than 5 mm) and nanoplastics (particles smaller than 1 μm) have attracted particular attention. Because of its wide distribution in the environment and potential adverse effects to animal and human, microplastic pollution has been reported as a serious environment problem receiving increased attention in recent years. As one of the commonly detected emerging contaminants in the environment, recent evidence indicates that the concentration of microplastics show an increasing trend, for the reason that up to 12.7 million metric tons of plastic litter is released into aquatic environment from land-based sources each year. Furthermore, microplastic exposure levels of model organisms in laboratory studies are usually several orders of magnitude higher than those found in environment, and the microplastics exposure conditions are also different with those observed in the environment. Additionally, the detection of microplastics in feces indicates that they can be excreted out of the bodies of animal and human. Hence, great uncertainties might exist in microplastics exposure and health risk assessment based on current studies, which might be exaggerated. Policies reduce microplastic emission sources and hence minimize their environmental risks are determined. To promote the above policies, we must first overcome the technical obstacles of detecting microplastics in various samples.     

Conversion of waste plastics into value-added carbon materials

Plastic pollution is a major environmental issue worldwide, calling for advanced methods to recycle waste plastics in the context of the circular economy. Here we review methods and strategies to convert waste plastics into value-added carbon materials, with focus on sources, properties, pretreatment of waste plastics, and on preparation of carbon materials. Pretreatment techniques include mechanical crushing, plastic stabilization and electrospinning. Carbon materials such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, carbon nanosheets, carbon spheres and porous carbon are prepared by oxygen-limited carbonization, catalytic carbonization, the template-based method, and pressure carbonization. We emphasize the conversion of polyethene terephthalate, polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, halogenated plastics, polyurethane and mixed plastics.

     

Coupled electrochemical methods for nitrogen and phosphorus recovery from wastewater: a review

Environmental Chemistry Letters - Declining mineral resources, high fertilizer production cost and widespread eutrophication are calling for the recovery of nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewaters...