The legal environmental risk analysis (LERA) sample of mining and the environment in Turkish legislation

As advancing technology and increasing demands for natural resources continue to mount pressure on the environment, environmental conservation and sustainable management have become ever more important. Individual countries have been increasingly taking action to reduce environmental destruction caused by human activities in an attempt to find a balance in between the necessary exploitation of resources and environmental conservation. In Turkey, the struggle between environmental conservation and mining activities is set within the legal context, with the requisite legal regulations (which describe various procedures) in the midst of being updated or renewed. The legal environmental risk analysis (LERA), beginning by discussing the main legal regulations of environmental conservation in relation to mining activities, defines basic environmental components which form the basis of environmental conservation in relation to mining, and analyzes the impact of mining on each component. The analysis (LERA) finishes with an evaluation of the components as they currently stand and makes some suggestions for the improvement of insufficient regulations.     

Algal biomass valorization for biofuel production and carbon sequestration: a review

The world is experiencing an energy crisis and environmental issues due to the depletion of fossil fuels and the continuous increase in carbon dioxide concentrations. Microalgal biofuels are produced using sunlight, water, and simple salt minerals. Their high growth rate, photosynthesis, and carbon dioxide sequestration capacity make them one of the most important biorefinery platforms. Furthermore, microalgae's ability to alter their metabolism in response to environmental stresses to produce relatively high levels of high-value compounds makes them a promising alternative to fossil fuels. As a result, microalgae can significantly contribute to long-term solutions to critical global issues such as the energy crisis and climate change. The environmental benefits of algal biofuel have been demonstrated by significant reductions in carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and sulfur oxide emissions. Microalgae-derived biomass has the potential to generate a wide range of commercially important high-value compounds, novel materials, and feedstock for a variety of industries, including cosmetics, food, and feed. This review evaluates the potential of using microalgal biomass to produce a variety of bioenergy carriers, including biodiesel from stored lipids, alcohols from reserved carbohydrate fermentation, and hydrogen, syngas, methane, biochar and bio-oils via anaerobic digestion, pyrolysis, and gasification. Furthermore, the potential use of microalgal biomass in carbon sequestration routes as an atmospheric carbon removal approach is being evaluated. The cost of algal biofuel production is primarily determined by culturing (77%), harvesting (12%), and lipid extraction (7.9%). As a result, the choice of microalgal species and cultivation mode (autotrophic, heterotrophic, and mixotrophic) are important factors in controlling biomass and bioenergy production, as well as fuel properties. The simultaneous production of microalgal biomass in agricultural, municipal, or industrial wastewater is a low-cost option that could significantly reduce economic and environmental costs while also providing a valuable remediation service. Microalgae have also been proposed as a viable candidate for carbon dioxide capture from the atmosphere or an industrial point source. Microalgae can sequester 1.3 kg of carbon dioxide to produce 1 kg of biomass. Using potent microalgal strains in efficient design bioreactors for carbon dioxide sequestration is thus a challenge. Microalgae can theoretically use up to 9% of light energy to capture and convert 513 tons of carbon dioxide into 280 tons of dry biomass per hectare per year in open and closed cultures. Using an integrated microalgal bio-refinery to recover high-value-added products could reduce waste and create efficient biomass processing into bioenergy. To design an efficient atmospheric carbon removal system, algal biomass cultivation should be coupled with thermochemical technologies, such as pyrolysis.

     

Methanol fuel production,utilization, and techno-economy: a review

Environmental Chemistry Letters - Climate change and the unsustainability of fossil fuels are calling for cleaner energies such as methanol as a fuel. Methanol is one of the simplest molecules for...     

Immune responses,DNA damage and ultrastructural alterations of gills in the marine mussel Lithophaga lithophaga exposed to CuO nanoparticles

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Nanoparticle (NP) pollution is a worldwide problem. Copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) are one of the most used NPs in a variety of applications,...     

Experimental study on fresh,mechanical properties and embodied carbon of concrete blended with sugarcane bagasse ash,metakaolin, and millet husk ash as ternary cementitious material

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In recent years, the research direction is shifted toward introducing new supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) in lieu of in place of Portland...     

Overview of anaerobic treatment: thermophilic and propionate implications.

Difficulties in achieving low propionate concentrations in anaerobically treated effluents are frequently reported in the literature (Ahring, 1994; Kugelman and Guida, 1989; Rimkus et al., 1982), especially at thermophilic temperatures, with concentrations as high as 1000 to 9600 mg/L sometimes produced. This paper will detail the effect of several variables on the performance of both mesophilic and thermophilic regimes. Studies concerning the effect of the following four important factors on performance are included: reactor configuration, inorganic nutrient supplementation, substrate characteristics, and the unique role of microbial consortia proximity in enhancing performance. Reactor configuration modifications, essential nutrient additions, and the importance of close microbial proximity were all found to contribute to improvement in thermophilic anaerobic digestion in all the studies. It was found that, in substrates that shunt significant amounts of the electron donor through propionate, performance was critically related to reactor optimization, with propionate removal efficiency considerably improved using intact upflow anaerobic sludge blanket granules, less so in a homogenized granule slurry blanket, and noticeably reduced even more when the completely stirred reactor configuration of homogenized granules was used. The critical importance of extremely close microbial consortia proximity in maintaining hydrogen intermediates at very low levels to efficiently convert propionate to hydrogen and acetate was demonstrated. Compared to mesophilic digestion, thermophilic digestion manifested elevated levels of propionate, except in the nonmixed reactors, which had close microbial consortia proximity. The reactor configuration with the best results was the anaerobic digestion elutriated phased treatment (ADEPT) scheme, in which the raw sludge was elutriated of its fermenting volatile fatty acids, as they are generated in a short 5- to 8-day solids retention time (SRT) in one reactor and the elutriate then metabolized by passing up through a methanogenic granule or slurry blanket (with its close microbial consortia proximity) in a separate reactor with a 20- to 50-day SRT. Loading rates and performance of the ADEPT reactor configuration were superior to the standard continuously stirred tank reactor, and ADEPT thermophilic temperatures allowed higher organic loading rates without high propionate concentrations in the effluent.     

Rice straw for energy and value-added products in China: a review

Environmental Chemistry Letters - The rise of global waste and the decline of fossil fuels are calling for recycling waste into energy and materials. For example, rice straw, a by-product of rice...     

The value of indigenous knowledge in climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies in the African Sahel

Past global efforts at dealing with the problem of global warming concentrated on mitigation, with the aim of reducing and possibly stabilizing greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere. With the slow progress in achieving this, adaptation was viewed as a viable option to reduce the vulnerability to the anticipated negative impacts of global warming. It is increasingly realized that mitigation and adaptation should not be pursued independent of each other but as complements. This has resulted in the recent calls for the integration of adaptation into mitigation strategies. However, integrating mitigation and adaptation into climate change concerns is not a completely new idea in the African Sahel. The region is characterized by severe and frequent droughts with records dating back into centuries. The local populations in this region, through their indigenous knowledge systems, have developed and implemented extensive mitigation and adaptation strategies that have enabled them reduce their vulnerability to past climate variability and change, which exceed those predicted by models of future climate change. However, this knowledge is rarely taken into consideration in the design and implementation of modern mitigation and adaptation strategies. This paper highlights some indigenous mitigation and adaptation strategies that have been practiced in the Sahel, and the benefits of integrating indigenous knowledge into formal climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. Incorporating indigenous knowledge can add value to the development of sustainable climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies that are rich in local content, and planned in conjunction with local people.     

Efficient photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B dye using ZnO/graphitic C<Subscript>3</Subscript>N<Subscript>4</Subscript> nanocomposites synthesized by microwave

Semiconductor photocatalysis is a solution to issues of environmental pollution and energy shortage because photocatalysis can use solar energy to degrade pollutants. The photocatalytic activity can be improved by using composites of ZnO and other semiconductors. Here, composites of ZnO and polymeric graphite-like C₃N₄ (g-C₃N₄) with high photocatalytic activities were prepared by microwave synthesis. Products were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, ultraviolet–visible and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B was tested under irradiation from a Xe lamp. Results show that adding graphite-like C₃N₄ promotes the photocatalytic activity of ZnO. Composites with 1.0 wt% g-C₃N₄ showed the best photodegradation efficiency, and the reaction average energy was approximately 33.71 kJ mol^?1.