Health risk assessment of emissions from a coal-fired power plant using AERMOD modelling

Current electricity generation mix in Malaysia consists of 58% gas, 33% coal and 9% hydro. It is anticipated that by year 2019, the generation mix will be at 64% coal, 32% gas and 4% hydro. Due to the increase in coal consumption for power generation, there is a critical need to evaluate the health risks for the population living in the vicinity of a coal-fired power plant in Malaysia. To date, such study related to the plant in Malaysia has never been published. In this study, health risk assessment (HRA) for air emission from a coal-fired power plant in Malaysia was carried out. Two pollutants from the Proposed New Environmental Quality (Clean Air) Regulation 201X (Draft) (i.e. SO₂ and Hg) were assessed for non-carcinogenic health risk, and two trace elements (i.e. As and Cr) were assessed for carcinogenic health risk. Both short-term and long-term health effects were evaluated. Air dispersion modelling (AERMOD) was used to predict the ground level concentration (GLC) within 10 km radius of the emission source. Based on the HRA, different health risks were identified for short-term and long-term dispersion of the studied pollutants. The findings indicate that a detailed assessment on the short-term and long-term health effects of the emissions from coal-fired power plant in Malaysia with meteorological factor as one of the significant factors influencing the emissions level is needed.     

综合类生态工业园区循环经济模式构建

在分析综合性生态工业园区特点的基础上,从企业、园区和循环社会3个层面,构建综合类生态工业园区循环经济发展模式。以安塞工业园区为例,构建了工业园循环经济产业链系统,提出了综合类生态工业园区循环经济模式建设的具体途径。     

Investigation of biocatalytic potential of garbage enzyme and its influence on stabilization of industrial waste activated sludge

The decomposable waste thrown into the environment can be used to produce value added bio-product which in turn reduces the production of greenhouse gas. Garbage enzyme is one such value added product produced by fermentation of organic solid waste. In the present study enzyme activity and disinfectant potential of garbage enzyme was evaluated and its influence on reduction of total solids, suspended solids and pathogens in dairy waste activated sludge were studied. The result showed the garbage enzyme possesses protease, amylase and lipase activity and reduced 37.2% of total solids, 38.6% of suspended solids and 99% of pathogens in dairy waste activated sludge. This significant result may be helpful for researchers to compare the effectiveness of earth-friendly garbage enzyme treatment of industrial sludge with various physical and chemical pre-treatment methods to improve the biogas production from the sludge digestion unit.     

Distributed generation by energy from waste technology: A life cycle perspective

Municipal Solid Waste in general and its organic fraction in particular is a potential renewable and non-seasonal resource. In this work, a life cycle assessment has been performed to evaluate the environmental impacts of two future scenarios using biogas produced from the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) to supply energy to a group of dwellings, respectively comprising distributed generation using solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) micro-CHP systems and condensing boilers. The London Borough of Greenwich is taken as the reference case study. The system is designed to assess how much energy demand can be met and what is the best way to use the digestible waste for distributed energy purposes.The system is compared with two alternative scenarios fuelled by natural gas: a reference scenario, where the electricity is supplied by the grid and the heat is supplied from condensing boilers, and a fuel cell micro-CHP system. The results show that, although OFMSW alone can only supply between 1% and 4% of the total energy demand of the Borough, a saving of ∼130 tonnes of CO₂ eq per year per dwelling equipped with micro-CHP is still achievable compared with the reference scenario. This is primarily due to the surplus electricity produced by the fuel cell when the micro-CHP unit is operated to meet the heat demand. Use of biogas to produce heat only is therefore a less desirable option compared with combined heat and power production. Further investigation is required to identify locally available feedstock other than OFMSW in order to increase the proportion of energy demand that can be met in this way.     

Negative carbon via Ocean Afforestation

Ocean Afforestation, more precisely Ocean Macroalgal Afforestation (OMA), has the potential to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations through expanding natural populations of macroalgae, which absorb carbon dioxide, then are harvested to produce biomethane and biocarbon dioxide via anaerobic digestion. The plant nutrients remaining after digestion are recycled to expand the algal forest and increase fish populations. A mass balance has been calculated from known data and applied to produce a life cycle assessment and economic analysis. This analysis shows the potential of Ocean Afforestation to produce 12 billion tons per year of biomethane while storing 19 billion tons of CO₂ per year directly from biogas production, plus up to 34 billion tons per year from carbon capture of the biomethane combustion exhaust. These rates are based on macro-algae forests covering 9% of the world's ocean surface, which could produce sufficient biomethane to replace all of today's needs in fossil fuel energy, while removing 53 billion tons of CO₂ per year from the atmosphere, restoring pre-industrial levels. This amount of biomass could also increase sustainable fish production to potentially provide 200 kg/yr/person for 10 billion people. Additional benefits are reduction in ocean acidification and increased ocean primary productivity and biodiversity.     

Optimization and evaluation of an air-recirculated stripping for ammonia removal from the anaerobic digestate of pig manure

An air-recirculated stripping involved two processes and did not require any pretreatment. First, stripping CO₂ decreased the buffer capacity of the anaerobic digestate, thereby reducing the amount of lime used to achieve a high pH. Second, lime was added to increase pH and remove ammonia from the anaerobic digestate of pig manure. pH increased from 8.03 to 8.86 by stripping CO₂ in the first process (gas-to-liquid ratio = 180) and further reached 12.38 in the second process (gas-to-liquid ratio = 300). During process optimization, the maximum ammonia removal efficiency reached 96.78% with a lime dose of 22.13 g. The value was close to 98.25%, which was the optimal result predicted by response surface methodology using the software Design-Expert 8.05b. All these results indicated that air-recirculated stripping coupled with absorption was a promising technology for the removal and recovery of nitrogen in the anaerobic digestate of pig manure.     

Effect of depithing on the safety and environmental aspects of bagasse stockpiling

Large scale sugarcane bagasse storage in uncovered stockpiles has the potential to result in adverse impacts on the environment and surrounding communities through hazards associated with nuisance dust, groundwater seepage, spontaneous combustion and generation of contaminated leachates. Managing these hazards will assist in improved health and safety outcomes for factory staff and reduced potential environmental impacts on surrounding communities. Removal of the smaller fibres (pith) from bagasse prior to stockpiling reduced the dust number of bagasse by 50% and modelling suggests peak ground level PM₁₀ dust emissions would reduce by 70%. Depithed bagasse has much lower water holding capacity (～43%) than whole bagasse.This experimental and modelling study investigated the physical properties of depithed and whole bagasse. Dust dispersion modelling was undertaken to determine the likely effects associated with storage of whole and depithed sugarcane bagasse.     

Biotrickling filters for biogas sweetening: Oxygen transfer improvement for a reliable operation

An industrial-scale biotrickling filter for the removal of high concentrations of H₂S is described in this work. The system has been operating at H₂S inlet concentrations between 1000 and 3000 ppm_v at acidic conditions. A decrease of pH from 2.6 to 1.8 did not affect the biological activity inside the biofilter while reducing the water make-up consumption up to 75%. The current oxygen supply system, based on direct injection of air to the liquid phase, has demonstrated to be inefficient for a long-term operation leading to elemental sulfur accumulation in the packing material (i.e. promoting clogging episodes). The present study demonstrates it is possible to partially remove (40.3%) the deposited elemental sulfur by bio-oxidation when biogas is not fed. In normal operation conditions, the implementation of an aeration system based on jet-venturi devices has shown quite promising results in terms of oxygen transfer efficiency and robustness. Such improvement of oxygen transfer was translated in a better conversion of H₂S to sulfate, which increased around 17%, prolonging the lifespan operation at low-pressure drop.     

An integrated approach to assessing the environmental and health impacts of pollution in the urban environment: Methodology and a case study

This paper presents a new decision-support methodology and software tool for sustainable management of urban pollution. A number of different methods and tools are integrated within the same platform, including GIS, LCA, fate and transport modelling, health impact assessment and multi-criteria decision analysis. The application of the framework is illustrated on a case study which investigates the environmental and health impacts of pollution arising from different industrial, domestic and transport sources in a city. The example city chosen for the study is Sheffield, UK, and the main pollutants considered are NO_x, SO₂ and PM10. The results suggest that the absence of the current large industrial sources in the city would lead to a 90% reduction of the SO₂ and 70% of the NO₂ ground concentrations, consequently preventing 27 deaths and 18 respiratory hospital admissions per annum for a population of 500,000. Based on the total annual mortality and hospital admissions in Sheffield for the year of the assessment, this means that 0.53% of premature deaths and 0.49% of respiratory hospital admissions would be prevented by the estimated reduction in air pollution.     

Evaluating sulfuric acid reduction,substitution, and recovery to improve environmental performance and biogas productivity in rubber latex industry

Sulfuric acid is heavily used in concentrated rubber latex factories to coagulate rubber particles in skim latex. The resulting sulfate-rich wastewater creates the onset of toxic H₂S gas production in the wastewater holding ponds, causing severe corrosion to materials and community disturbance when dispersed to ambient air. This work identified and evaluated measures to reduce H₂S production by minimizing sulfate concentration in the wastewater. Sulfuric acid use could be cut down by pre-removal of ammonia in the skim latex as well as a stricter manipulation of acid dosing. In search of a more benign chemical, a heat sensitive polymer was identified and tested as sulfuric acid substitute. The use of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose polymer (HPMC) changed wastewater characteristics and was found to increase biogas production approximately by 2.4 times in batch assay at the initial pH 7.0 and methane yield by 2.7 times in continuous digester operation at HRT 7 days. Finally, a resource recovery option was evaluated. The remaining H₂S in the produced biogas was oxidized in the biotrickling filter to sulfuric acid that has a potential to partially supplement the fresh acid. This work demonstrated an integrated approach in waste management to improve environmental performance, safety and energy recovery in the concentrated latex industry.     

Economic assessment of inherently safe membrane reactor technology options integrated into IGCC power plants

Pd/alloy-based (Pd/Cu, Pd/Au) membrane reactors embedded into Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plants (IGCC-MR) enable the storage and/or use of the energy value of H₂ to produce electricity while the CO₂ enriched retentate exit stream becomes particularly suitable for high pressure CO₂ capture-sequestration. There is undoubtedly a lack of operating experience associated with IGCC-MR plants, and therefore, sound process intensification principles/practices should be followed not only to enhance process system performance but also to ensure process safety and economic feasibility of an IGCC-MR plant. Motivated by the above considerations, a comprehensive process economic assessment framework for an inherently safe membrane Pd/alloy-based reactor integrated into an IGCC plant is proposed. In particular, a detailed Net Present Value (NPV) model has been developed to evaluate the economic viability of an IGCC-MR plant where the membrane reactor module design conforms to basic inherent safety principles. Sources of irreducible uncertainty (market, regulatory and technological) are explicitly recognized such as the power plant capacity factor, Pd price, membrane life time and CO₂-taxes due to future regulatory action/policies. The effect of the above uncertainty drivers on the project's/plant's value is studied through Monte Carlo methods resulting in detailed NPV-distribution and process economic outcome profiles. The simulation results derived suggest that in the presence of (operational, economic and regulatory) uncertainties, inherently safe membrane reactor technology options integrated into IGCC plants could become economically viable. In particular, comparatively more attractive NPV distribution profiles are obtained when concrete safety risk-reducing measures are taken into account through pre-investment in process safety (equipment).     

Environmental and eco-costs life cycle assessment of an acrylonitrile process by capacity enlargement in Mexico

Life cycle assessment and marginal prevention costs (eco-costs method) for an acrylonitrile plant were carried out estimating the environmental impact and the eco-costs, due to the increment in the production capacity. This study compares the old plant's operative performance (old design) at 50,000 ton/year where the by-products were incinerated, with the current operation at 60,000 ton/year where those by-products in the waste stream will be treated to take advantage of its substance content, to generate profitable products. In addition, the effect of a wastewater flow rate with cyanide was evaluated on the biological wastewater treatment process.The redesign showed a high reduction percentage in eleven of eighteen midpoint impact categories. The reduction of 36% in the global impacts in the redesign was obtained when these ones were calculated based on the impacts of the year of 2005. The CO₂ emissions equivalents (CO₂eq) had a reduction of 46% (from 6.55 to 3.50 kg CO₂eq/kg of acrylonitrile). The total of marginal prevention costs (eco-costs) are 1.28 USD/kg for acrylonitrile old design and the 0.735 USD/kg for acrylonitrile redesign, i.e. 42.5% lower than the old design. This means that 94.5% are costs for pollution and the use of energy and 5.4% by depletions of material resources.This study proved that the redesign is environmentally most favorable and economically affordable method.Eco-costs method should be incorporated as part of the financial indicators of a project, but with the respective adaptation to the environmental and economic conditions of a region.     

Release characteristics and control of nitrogen,phosphate, organic matter from spent mushroom compost amended soil in a column experiment

Spent mushroom compost (SMC) is a co-product of edible mushroom which contains abundant nutrients including organics, nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P). This study is related to the release potential of nitrogen, phosphate and organic matter from SMC amended soil in column-based experiments. Results showed that due to SMC application, NH₄⁺–N and NO₃⁻–N concentrations in leachate decreased by 92.5% and 76.3%, respectively, while EC and COD_Cr concentrations increased by 84.2% and 481.9%, respectively, as compared to chemical fertilizers. Moreover, a minor loss of TN_cum (65%) and TP_cum (almost equal value) exhibited good nutrient retention capacity. Leaching test results demonstrated that the mixed application of SMC and chemical fertilizers could alleviate excessive COD_Cr level in SMC leachate. The release process of nutrients in SMC amended soil could be described by first/first order mixed model, indicating that nutrients leached from SMC follow a two-stage pattern.     

火电厂烟气脱硫系统运行常见故障分析

为降低火电厂SO<,2>的排放,大部分火电厂采用烟气脱硫技术,在烟气脱硫技术中湿式石灰石/石膏法脱硫应用最为广泛,而脱硫系统的运行可靠性是保证火电厂烟气脱硫效果,减少SO<,2>排放的重要保证.在已投运的火电厂中,脱硫系统运行可能会出现脱硫效率下降,系统堵塞等问题,因此在实际过程中如何处理好此类问题成为保证火电厂脱硫效...     

Assessing the hazards from a BLEVE and minimizing its impacts using the inherent safety concept

Many worlds' major process industry accidents are due to BLEVE such as at Feyzin, France, 1966 and San Juan Ixhuatepec, Mexico City, 1984. One of the approaches to eliminate or minimize such accidents is by the implementation of inherently safer design concept. This concept is best implemented where the consequence of BLEVE can be evaluated at the preliminary design stage, and necessary design improvements can be done as early as possible. Thus, the accident could be avoided or minimized to as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP) without resorting to a costly protective system. However, the inherent safety concept is not easy to implement at the preliminary design stage due to lack of systematic technique for practical application. To overcome these hurdles, this paper presents a new approach to assess process plant for the potential BLEVE at the preliminary design stage and to allow modifications using inherent safety principles in order to avoid or minimize major accidents. A model known as Inherent Fire Consequence Estimation Tool (IFCET) is developed in MS Excel spreadsheet to evaluate BLEVE impacts based on overpressure, radiation heat flux and missile effects. In this study, BLEVE impacts are the criteria used as the decision-making for the acceptability of the design. IFCET is integrated with iCON process design simulator for ease of data transfer and quick assessment of potential BLEVE during the design simulation stage. A case study was conducted to assess of potential BLEVE from a propane storage vessel at the design simulation stage using this new approach. The finding shows promising results that this approach has a potential to be developed as a practical tool.     

Anaerobic co-digestion of fat,oil, and grease (FOG): A review of gas production and process limitations

The addition of readily available high strength organic wastes such as fats, oils, and grease (FOG) from restaurant grease abatement devices may substantially increase biogas production from anaerobic digesters at wastewater treatment facilities. This FOG addition may provide greater economic incentives for the use of excess biogas to generate electricity, thermal, or mechanical energy. Co-digestion of FOG with municipal biosolids at a rate of 10–30% FOG by volume of total digester feed caused a 30–80% increase in digester gas production in two full scale wastewater biosolids anaerobic digesters (Bailey, 2007, Muller et al., 2010). Laboratory and pilot scale anaerobic digesters have shown even larger increases in gas production. However, anaerobic digestion of high lipid wastes has been reported to cause inhibition of acetoclastic and methanogenic bacteria, substrate, and product transport limitation, sludge flotation, digester foaming, blockages of pipes and pumps, and clogging of gas collection and handling systems. This paper reviews the scientific literature on biogas production, inhibition, and optimal reactor configurations, and will highlight future research needed to improve the gas production and overall efficiency of anaerobic co-digestion of FOG with biosolids from municipal wastewater treatment.     

Process analysis of an industrial waste-to-energy plant: Theory and experiments

Thermal conversion is fundamental in an integrated waste management system due to the capability of reducing mass and volume of waste and recovering energy content from unrecyclable materials. Indeed, power generation from industrial solid wastes (ISW) is a topic of great interest for its appeal in the field of renewable energy production as well as for an increasing public concern related to its emissions. This paper is based on the process engineering and optimization analysis, commissioned to the University Campus-Biomedico of Rome by the MIDA Tecnologie Ambientali S.r.l. enterprise, ended up in the construction of an ISW thermo-conversion plant in Crotone (Southern Italy), where it is nowadays operating. The scientific approach to the process analysis is founded on a novel cascade numerical simulation of each plant section and it has been used initially in the process design step and after to simulate the performances of the industrial plant. In this paper, the plant process scheme is described together with the values of main operating parameters monitored during the experimental test runs. The thermodynamic and kinetic basics of the mathematical model for the simulation of the energy recovery and flue gas treatment sections are presented. Moreover, the simulation results, together with the implemented parameters, are given and compared to the experimental data for 10 specific plant test runs. It was found that the model is capable to predict the process performances in the energy production as well as in the gas treatment sections with high accuracy by knowing a set of measurable input variables. In the paper fundamental plant variables have been considered such as steam temperature, steam flow rate, power generated as well as temperature, flow rate and composition of the resulting flue gas; therefore, the mathematical model can be simply implemented as a reliable and efficient tool for management optimization of this kind of plants.     

Environmental consequence analysis for resource depletion

Resource depletion is of concern to both present and future generations in terms of access to resources. It is a prominent impact category within life cycle assessment (LCA) and sustainability assessment. This paper examines existing resource depletion approaches and indicators in the context of natural gas depletion, and their limitations in modelling the wider environmental consequences of resource consumption. Some existing models assume substitution of scarce fossil fuels with an alternative fossil fuel or mix, but do not consider all of the subsequent change in impacts. An additional methodology is proposed to measure the impact changes when fossil fuel substitution occurs as a result of scarcity. The methodology will demonstrate the effect of resource scarcity for individual processes but also multiple processes which operate at different levels of resource consumption with varying degrees of impacts. The methodology is applied to a scarcity situation of natural gas in Australia, where black coal is substituted for gas. It is first applied to natural gas consumed for electricity generation only. In the second case, the methodology is applied to the substitution of natural gas for both electricity generation and hydrogen production. The varying impacts on emissions to air and water, together with solid waste generation and water depletion, as a result of the substitution are used to reflect the consequences of fossil fuel depletion. The indicators also provide information on the impacts of substitution in each product, thus enabling users to prioritise products based on the impacts produced during natural gas allocation.     

安徽省工业化石能源消费碳排放研究

按不同化石能源品种的消费量估算安徽省2004—2014年CO2排放量,分析该省工业行业能源消费量及化石能源消费碳排放量的变化规律。在此基础上,采用等维灰数递补动态GM(1,1)预测模型预测3种发展情景下2030年安徽省工业化石能源消费碳排放量。结果表明:安徽省工业化石能源消费CO2排放量由2004年的1.64亿t上升到2014年的4.25亿t;到2030年,在基准情景、低碳情景和强化低碳情景下将分别达到7.51亿t、6.06亿t和4.91亿t。     

生态工业园区建设理论探讨

资源和环境问题是我国面临的严重的生态安全和环境安全问题 ,也是制约我国经济可持续发展的问题。生态工业是与环境协调发展的环境友好的工业体系。生态工业园是实现生态工业的理想的生态系统 ,通过工业园区内物质流、能量流、信息流和正确设计来模拟自然生态系统 ,形成企业间的共生网络 ,从而解决工业发展与资源和环境保护之间的相互制约的关系。随着我国工业化进程的推进 ,生态工业园区的建设步伐也在加快。笔者对生态工业园区建设的总体思路、建设指标以及建设过程中存在的主要问题等内容进行了理论探讨。以期抛砖引玉 ,促进生态工业园区的理论研究 ,推动生态工业园区在我国的实践。