Treatment technologies for 1,4‐Dioxane: Fundamentals and field applications

1,4‐Dioxane is a synthetic industrial chemical frequently found at contaminated sites where 1,1,1‐trichloroethane was used for degreasing. It is a probable human carcinogen and has been found in groundwater at sites throughout the United States. The physical and chemical properties and behavior of 1,4‐dioxane create challenges for its characterization and treatment. It is highly mobile and has not been shown to readily biodegrade in the environment. In December 2006, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation (OSRTI) prepared a report titled “Treatment Technologies for 1,4‐Dioxane: Fundamentals and Field Applications.” The report provides information about the chemistry of dioxane, cleanup goals, analytical methods, available treatment technologies, and site‐specific treatment performance data. The information may be useful to project managers, technology providers, consulting engineers, and members of academia faced with addressing dioxane at cleanup sites or in drinking water supplies. This article provides a synopsis of the US EPA report, which is available at http://cluin.org/542R06009 . © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

论区域环境规划与区域开发环境影响评价在区域开发环境管理中的作用和地位

回顾了国内外区域开发环境管理的发展历程，简要论述了区域环境规划与区域开发环境影响评价在区域开发环境管理中的作用和地位以及两者的相互关系。     

Environmental assessment and remediation: Estimating the costs of uncertainty

Current cost estimates for the assessment and remediation of environmental contamination at facilities operated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) are based largely on assumptions, with a resulting high level of uncertainty. Therefore, consistent and reliable methods for estimating the uncertainty inherent in the estimates are of vital importance. This article presents an approach and format for estimating contingency in DOE's Environmental Restoration Program. The method involves an analysis of risk factors having a potential to affect the cost of the major elements in the estimate. Application of the contingency analysis to a project site is included in the discussion.     

浅论区域开发环境影响评价的指标体系

论述了区域开发环境影响评价应建立能反映环境可持续性和跨边界性的指标体系，提出了建立该指标体系的原则与方法。     

Environmental friendly automated line for recovering the cabinet of waste refrigerator

A large amount of hazardous trichloromonofluoromethane (CFC-11) is contained in the polyurethane (PUR) foam of refrigerator cabinet. How to recover the cabinet of waste refrigerator with environmental awareness has been the pressing problem in the treatment of waste refrigerator. The published literature of waste refrigerator cabinets recovering mainly focuses on policy making and conceptual design. Little information relates to the production line of waste refrigerator cabinet recovering and its detailed operation, which is the urgent needed literature. In this paper, an environmental friendly production line for recovering the cabinet of waste refrigerators was reported for helping enterprise or government to construct line to recover the obsolete refrigerators. It included closed shearing process, activated carbon fiber absorption (ACFA) process, air current separation, and magnetic/eddy current separation. The optimized operating parameters of every process were obtained from the experiments. Then, experiment of recovering 50 waste refrigerator cabinets by the production line was performed in factory. Mass balances of the recovered materials were carried out. The result shown the recovery rate of waste refrigerator cabinet could reach 97.6%. Finally, comparison between the production line and other recovery technologies was made. The results indicated that the proposed line provided environment-friendly recovery of waste refrigerator cabinets while achieving low cost of production.     

ICAROS: An Integrated Computational Environment for the Assimilation of Environmental Data and Models for Urban and Regional Air Quality

Integrated environmental management in urban areas is nowadaysconsidered a sine qua non objective of Community and nationalenvironmental and development policies. A large amount ofscientific information on the state of the environment is nowavailable from a large pool of data sources. This work presentsan innovative method for integration of these data sources andeffective coupling of environmental information with appropriatemodels and decision-support tools. State-of-the-art Earthobservation techniques, ground-based air quality measurements,atmospheric transport and chemical modelling, and multi-criteriadecision-aid systems are used in an integrated information fusionenvironment in support of environmental and health impactassessment and decision-making at the urban and regional scales. Results of the pilot application of the method in the area ofLombardy in Northern Italy demonstrate the validity andusefulness of this novel approach.     

Microplastics for Use in Environmental Research

Journal of Polymers and the Environment - Microplastics?<?20 μm are being increasingly reported in treated drinking water as well as in surface waters. As such,...     

Resilience: A New Consideration for Environmental Remediation in an Era of Climate Change

There has been a growing movement within the environmental industry to develop more sustainable approaches in environmental remediation. These have generally included carbon footprint analysis, life cycle assessment, and best management practices to reduce the overall net environmental, social, and economic impacts of investigation and remediation activities. One of the foundational reasons net environmental impacts are currently evaluated is to identify and, subsequently, reduce contributions to climate change, primarily greenhouse gas emissions. While this trend toward sustainability and reduction in impact to the global environment is both important and admirable, the approach to remediation design and long‐term planning now needs to evolve further to better incorporate climate resilience into sustainable remediation design and implementation: designing remediation solutions that account for the projected impacts of climate change, as well as have the capacity to adapt to changing conditions. As a global population, we are now beyond the point of being able to prevent climate change and instead need to plan for adapting to it. In remediation, the effects of climate change create both risks and opportunities which should be considered during remedial design and long‐term planning. Responsible parties may see the push for—and management of—these considerations through their internal corporate risk management. The authors of this paper propose a simple framework for climate adaptation and resilience evaluations and plan development for remediation projects. ©2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Sugarcane vinasse: Environmental implications of its use

The inadequate and indiscriminate disposal of sugarcane vinasse in soils and water bodies has received much attention since decades ago, due to environmental problems associated to this practice. Vinasse is the final by-product of the biomass distillation, mainly for the production of ethanol, from sugar crops (beet and sugarcane), starch crops (corn, wheat, rice, and cassava), or cellulosic material (harvesting crop residues, sugarcane bagasse, and wood). Because of the large quantities of vinasse produced, alternative treatments and uses have been developed, such as recycling of vinasse in fermentation, fertirrigation, concentration by evaporation, and yeast and energy production. This review was aimed at examining the available data on the subject as a contribution to update the information on sugarcane vinasse, from its characteristics and chemical composition to alternatives uses in Brazil: fertirrigation, concentration by evaporation, energy production; the effects on soil physical, chemical and biological properties; its influence on seed germination, its use as biostimulant and environmental contaminant. The low pH, electric conductivity, and chemical elements present in sugarcane vinasse may cause changes in the chemical and physical–chemical properties of soils, rivers, and lakes with frequent discharges over a long period of time, and also have adverse effects on agricultural soils and biota in general. Thus, new studies and green methods need to be developed aiming at sugarcane vinasse recycling and disposal.     

Environmental Relevance of CL-20: Preliminary Findings

CL-20 is a recently synthesized component of energetic propellant formulations. Although energetic aspects of CL-20 have attracted considerable attention, its environmental behavior is unknown. A multi-disciplinary study covering a variety of fate, transport, and toxicity issues of CL-20 is currently under way in the Center for Environmental Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology. Preliminary results on water solubility, biodegradability, hydrolytic reactivity, thermal decomposition and soil microbial and plant toxicity are reported in this article.     

Environmental mediation: Cutting to the chase in environmental dispute resolution

The following quote from Abraham Lincoln, dated 1850, should be kept in mind by all environmental attorneys: “Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser—in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker, the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good [person]. There will still be business enough.” This article discusses mediation and mediation skills as invaluable tools for settling and managing environmental issues.     

Environmental and economic assessment methods for waste management decision-support: possibilities and limitations.

A large number of methods and approaches that can be used for supporting waste management decisions at different levels in society have been developed. In this paper an overview of methods is provided and preliminary guidelines for the choice of methods are presented. The methods introduced include: Environmental Impact Assessment, Strategic Environmental Assessment, Life Cycle Assessment, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Cost-effectiveness Analysis, Life-cycle Costing, Risk Assessment, Material Flow Accounting, Substance Flow Analysis, Energy Analysis, Exergy Analysis, Entropy Analysis, Environmental Management Systems, and Environmental Auditing. The characteristics used are the types of impacts included, the objects under study and whether the method is procedural or analytical. The different methods can be described as systems analysis methods. Waste management systems thinking is receiving increasing attention. This is, for example, evidenced by the suggested thematic strategy on waste by the European Commission where life-cycle analysis and life-cycle thinking get prominent positions. Indeed, life-cycle analyses have been shown to provide policy-relevant and consistent results. However, it is also clear that the studies will always be open to criticism since they are simplifications of reality and include uncertainties. This is something all systems analysis methods have in common. Assumptions can be challenged and it may be difficult to generalize from case studies to policies. This suggests that if decisions are going to be made, they are likely to be made on a less than perfect basis.     

Application of the SOLVTM Process: A Total Systems Approach to Environmental Remediation

Commodore Solution Technologies, Inc. has developed an innovative total systems approach to environmental remediation that utilizes a patented chemistry called Solvated Electron Technology (SET^TM). Solvated electron solutions are some of the most powerful reducing agents know. Formed by dissolving alkali and alkaline-earth metals in anhydrous liquid ammonia to produce a solution of metal cations and free electrons, solvated electron solutions are capable of providing reductants of great activity and uniqueness. They provide a highly useful mechanism for the reductive destruction of many organic molecules and are extremely effective in the dehalogenation of halogenated organic compounds. Commodore has received a nation-wide EPA operating permit for the nonthermal destruction of PCBs using this process. The SoLV^TM process is a total solution approach that incorporates SET^TM with pre-and post-treatments, when necessary, for environmental cleanup. It is applicable to a broad range of substrates including liquids, solids, soils, and job materials. This article presents results from several pilot, field, and commercial validation studies utilizing the SoLV^TM process.     

LCA to Evaluate the Environmental Impact for Chemical Pre-treatment in Plastics Metallization

The life cycle assessment methodology was used to calculate the environmental impacts of the current chemical pre-treatment with chromium(VI) for electroplating acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. The inventory comprised: the procurement of chemicals; the manufacturing process with successive baths and rinses that requires, in addition to chemicals, energy to heat baths, air agitation, filtration, and so forth, wastewater treatment and air emissions; and also the treatment of sludges from wastewater treatment and exhausted baths. Chromic acid was almost the unique responsible of eco-toxicity (97.5 %) and human toxicity-cancer (99.8 %) and it was one of the highest contributor to climate change, cumulative energy demand, fossil fuel depletion, human toxicity non-cancer, and in abiotic depletion.     

环境重金属污染的生物指示作用

针对指示生物在环境重金属污染监测、评价与防治中所起的指示作用与研究现状,介绍了有关指示生物的基本理论,分析了常见指示生物对土壤、水和大气环境重金属污染的指示作用。提出了选择合适的指示生物是发挥其对重金属污染指示作用的关键。最后,提出了指示生物对环境重金属污染指示作用的局限性及对策。     

清洁过程环境影响评估模块的开发

在过程开发早期阶段考虑环境问题是实现污染预防的有效手段。将环境影响评估功能集成于过程模拟软件是一项重要的工作。以通用模拟软件ECSS—ChStar为平台,开发出环境影响评估模块。该模块可以对物质流、过程单元和总流程提供环境模拟分析,并计算过程方案的环境影响指数。     

环境风险评价中氯气泄漏扩散的计算

根据HJ/T169-2004((建设项目环境风险评价技术导则>(简称<导则>),对某化工厂使用的液氯钢瓶的事故源进行分析.采用<导则>推荐的Cox和Carpenter稠密气体扩散模型,在氯气泄漏的初期,将其作为重气泄漏扩散进行计算,得到重气云团温度、半径、卷入空气质量和质量浓度随扩散时间的变化关系.计算结果与非重气扩散高斯模式的计算结果有较大差异.因此,对涉及氯气的项目进行环境风险评价时,应重视氯气作为重气泄漏扩散的环节.     

Environmental assessment and accounting for the waste disposal stream in Bangkok,Thailand

It is very important that waste should be controlled and appropriately handled in a waste disposal stream, considering its impact on the environment. In this research, the LCA-EA model was applied to the current waste disposal stream of the BMR as well as other waste disposal stream scenarios, so that treatment cost, environmental load and environmental cost were assessed quantatively. The results of this study showed that in the current waste diposal stream in Bangkok, there were large contributions from carbon dioxide and methane to the greenhouse gas emissions from the stream. The study was able to quantify the reductions in environmental load associated with various waste disposal stream scenarios, using the baseline scenario as a standard.     

垃圾焚烧余热发电的环境保护措施

在某垃圾焚烧余热发电厂的设计过程中，发现垃圾电厂对环境的污染影响比一般的火力发电厂要复杂。针对这一情况，介绍了该类电厂的工艺特点及其运行过程中的三废排放、治理措施，希望从多角度关注此类电厂的环境保护问题。