The current status and future issues in human evacuation from ships

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) developed guidelines in May 1999 for the evacuation analysis of Ro-Ro passenger ships to prevent loss of life in maritime accidents. However, IMO considered these guidelines only as an interim measure and allocated 3 years for their improvement and further development as very limited experience and data were available. In this paper, the requirements of the IMO and current research regarding ship evacuation are reviewed. In addition, applicable evacuation models are presented as well as several experimental methods of obtaining the data of human behavior in regard to listing and the dynamic effect of waves on a ship are evaluated. Recommendations on further issues are discussed at the end.     

Determination of solvents permeating through chemical protective clothing with a microsensor array

The performance of a novel prototype instrument in determining solvents and solvent mixtures permeating through samples of chemical protective clothing (CPC) materials was evaluated. The instrument contains a mini-preconcentrator and an array of three polymer-coated surface-acoustic-wave (SAW) microsensors whose collective response patterns are used to discriminate among multiple permeants. Permeation tests were performed with a 2.54 cm diameter test cell in an open-loop configuration on samples of common glove materials challenged with four individual solvents, three binary mixtures, and two ternary mixtures. Breakthrough times, defined as the times required for the permeation rate to reach a value of 1 microg cm(-2) min(-1), determined by the instrument were within 3 min of those determined in parallel by manual sampling and gas chromatographic analysis. Permeating solvents were recognized (identified) from their response patterns in 59 out of 64 measurements (92%) and their vapor concentrations were quantified to an accuracy of +/- 31% (typically +/- 10%). These results demonstrate the potential for such instrumentation to provide semi-automated field or bench-top screening of CPC permeation resistance.     

NUMERICAL MODELING OF THERMAL STRATIFICATION IN A RESERVOIR WITH LARGE DISCHARGE-TO-VOLUME RATIO1

ABSTRACT: A numerical model study of thermal stratification in a high discharge-to-volume reservoir is described. Predicted temperature profiles are compared with field data for two different years. The model accurately predicts the date of fall turnover, and predicts degree of stratification and depth of the thermocline within about 20% for both years simulated. A parametric study of stratification mechanics for a high flow reservoir indicated that diffusion was the predominant heat transport mechanism in the hypolimnion, while surface effects dominated the epilimnion. Flow effects for the particular case studied, in which all inflows and outflows occur in the epilimnion, did not significantly affect stratification behavior.     

A laboratory scale study on arsenic（Ⅴ） removal from aqueous medium using calcined bauxite ore

The present work deals with the As（Ⅴ） removal from an aqueous medium by calcined refractory grade bauxite （CRB） as a function of solution pH, time, As（Ⅴ） concentration and temperature. The residual As（Ⅴ） was lowered from 2 mg/L to below 0.01 mg/L in the optimum pH range 4.0-7.0 using a 5 g/L CRB within 3 h contact time. The adsorption data fits well with Langmuir isotherm and yielded Langmuir monolayer capacity of 1.78 mg As（Ⅴ）/g of CRB at pH 7.0. Presence of anions such as silicate and phosphate decreased As（Ⅴ） adsorption efficiency. An increase temperature resulted a decrease in the amount of As（Ⅴ） adsorbed by 6%. The continuous fixed bed column study showed that at the adsorbent bed depth of 30 cm and residence time of 168 min, the CRB was capable of treating 340 bed volumes of As（V） spiked water （C0 = 2 mg/L） before breakthrough （Ce = 0.01 mg/L）. This solid adsorbent, although not reusable, can be considered for design of adsorption columns as an efficiency arsenic adsorption media.     

Characteristics of PM10, PM2.5, CO2 and CO monitored in interiors and platforms of subway train in Seoul, Korea

This study was performed to investigate the concentration of PM(10) and PM(2.5) inside trains and platforms on subway lines 1, 2, 4 and 5 in Seoul, KOREA. PM(10), PM(2.5), carbon dioxide (CO(2)) and carbon monoxide (CO) were monitored using real-time monitoring instruments in the afternoons (between 13:00 and 16:00). The concentrations of PM(10) and PM(2.5) inside trains were significantly higher than those measured on platforms and in ambient air reported by the Korea Ministry of Environment (Korea MOE). This study found that PM(10) levels inside subway lines 1, 2 and 4 exceeded the Korea indoor air quality (Korea IAQ) standard of 150 microg/m(3). The average percentage that exceeded the PM(10) standard was 83.3% on line 1, 37.9% on line 2 and 63.1% on line 4, respectively. PM(2.5) concentration ranged from 77.7 microg/m(3) to 158.2 microg/m(3), which were found to be much higher than the ambient air PM(2.5) standard promulgated by United States Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA) (24 h arithmetic mean: 65 microg/m(3)). The reason for interior PM(10) and PM(2.5) being higher than those on platforms is due to subway trains in Korea not having mechanical ventilation systems to supply fresh air inside the train. This assumption was supported by the CO(2) concentration results monitored in tube of subway that ranged from 1153 ppm to 3377 ppm. The percentage of PM(2.5) in PM(10) was 86.2% on platforms, 81.7% inside trains, 80.2% underground and 90.2% at ground track. These results indicated that fine particles (PM(2.5)) accounted for most of PM(10) and polluted subway air. GLM statistical analysis indicated that two factors related to monitoring locations (underground and ground or inside trains and on platforms) significantly influence PM(10) (p<0.001, R(2)=0.230) and PM(2.5) concentrations (p<0.001, R(2)=0.172). Correlation analysis indicated that PM(10), PM(2.5), CO(2) and CO were significantly correlated at p<0.01 although correlation coefficients were different. The highest coefficient was 0.884 for the relationship between PM(10) and PM(2.5).     

Determination of low (137)Cs concentration in seawater using ammonium 12-molybdophosphate adsorption and chemical separation method

A new method has been developed for analyzing (137)Cs in a small volume of seawater. Ammonium 12-molybdophosphate (AMP) was used two times during pretreatment procedure. The first step was to adsorb (137)Cs in seawater samples into AMP in order to reduce sample volume, and the second was to remove (87)Rb, interference nuclide for beta counting. The AMP adsorbing (137)Cs was dissolved by sodium hydroxide solution, and then (137)Cs was finally formed to be cesium chloroplatinate precipitate by adding 10% hexachloroplatinic acid. The beta rays emitted from (137)Cs were measured with a low background gas-proportional alpha/beta counter. This method was applied to several seawater samples taken in the East Sea of Korea. Compared to the routinely used gamma-spectrometry method, this new AMP method was reliable and suitable for analyzing (137)Cs in deep seawater.     

Carbon credit schemes for forest landowners are counterproductive

As part of carbon cap-and-trade policy development, programs are being proposed that would pay landowners for the carbon stored in the trees in their forests. We contend that such programs could be counterproductive to the aim of mitigating atmospheric carbon if they discourage the use of wood for carbon-neutral fuels and as substitutes for more fossil carbon-intensive building products.     

Probability mass first flush evaluation for combined sewer discharges

The Korea government has put in a lot of e ort to construct sanitation facilities for controlling non-point source pollution. The first flush phenomenon is a prime example of such pollution. However, to date, several serious problems have arisen in the operation and treatment e ectiveness of these facilities due to unsuitable design flow volumes and pollution loads. It is di cult to assess the optimal flow volume and pollution mass when considering both monetary and temporal limitations. The objective of this article was to characterize the discharge of storm runo pollution from urban catchments in Korea and to estimate the probability of mass first flush (MFFn) using the storm water management model and probability density functions. As a result of the review of gauged storms for the representative using probability density function with rainfall volumes during the last two years, all the gauged storms were found to be valid representative precipitation. Both the observed MFFn and probability MFFn in BE-1 denoted similarly large magnitudes of first flush with roughly 40% of the total pollution mass contained in the first 20% of the runo . In the case of BE-2, however, there were significant di erence between the observed MFFn and probability MFFn.     

Predicting the impacts of climate change on nonpoint source pollutant loads from agricultural small watershed using artificial neural network

This study described the development and validation of an artificial neural network (ANN) for the purpose of analyzing the e ects of climate change on nonpoint source (NPS) pollutant loads from agricultural small watershed. The runo discharge was estimated using ANN algorithm. The performance of ANN model was examined using observed data from study watershed. The simulation results agreed well with observed values during calibration and validation periods. NPS pollutant loads were calculated from load-discharge relationship driven by long-term monitoring data. LARS-WG (Long Ashton Research Station-Weather Generator) model was used to generate rainfall data. The calibrated ANN model and load-discharge relationship with the generated data from LARS-WG were applied to analyze the e ects of climate change on NPS pollutant loads from the agricultural small watershed. The results showed that the ANN model provided valuable approach in estimating future runo discharge, and the NPS pollutant loads.     

Controlling various contaminants in wastewater effluent through membranes and engineered wetland

For effective wastewater reclamation and water recovery, the treatment of natural and effluent organic matters (NOM and EfOM), toxic anions, and micropollutants was considered in this work. Two different NOM (humic acid of the Suwannee River, and NOM of US and Youngsan River, Korea), and one EfOM from the Damyang wastewater treatment plant, Korea, were selected for investigating the removal efficiencies of tight nanofiltration (NF) and ultrafiltration (UF) membranes with different properties. Nitrate, bromate, and perchlorate were selected as target toxic anions due to their well known high toxicities. Tri-(2-chloroethyl)-phosphate (TCEP), oxybenzone, and caffeine, due to their different K _ow and pK _a values, were selected as target micropollutants. As expected, the NF membranes provided high removal efficiencies in terms of all the tested contaminants, and the UF membrane provided fairly high removal efficiencies for anions (except for nitrate) and the relatively hydrophobic micropollutant, oxybenzon. Through the wetlands, nitrate was successfully removed. Therefore, a fair process of combining membranes with an engineered wetland could be proposed for sustainable wastewater reclamation and optimum control of contaminats.