Source apportionment in oil spill remediation

A pipe rupture during unloading led to a spillage of 350-700 tonnes of Ca?o Limon, a light sweet crude oil, into San Vicente Bay in 2007. Initial clean-up methods removed the majority of the oil from the sandy beaches although some oil remained on the rocky shores. It was necessary for the responsible party to clean the spilled oil even though at this location there were already crude oil hydrocarbons from previous industrial activity. A biosolvent based on vegetable oil derivatives was used to solubilise the remaining oil and a statistical approach to source apportionment was used to determine the efficacy of the cleaning. Sediment and contaminated rock samples were taken prior to cleaning and again at the same locations two days after application of the biosolvent. The oil was extracted using a modified USEPA Method 3550B. The alkanes were quantified together with oil biomarkers on a GC-MS. The contribution that Ca?o Limon made to the total oil hydrocarbons was calculated from a Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis using Ca?o Limon crude oil as the source. By the time the biosolvent was applied, there had already been some attenuation of the oil with all alkanes 相似文献   

Evaluation of a portable nephelometer against the Tapered Element Oscillating Microbalance method for monitoring PM(2.5)

Monitoring personal exposure to particle matter (PM(2.5)) in ambient air requires performing measurements using portable monitors. In this work, the portable nephelometer SidePak? AM510 Personal Aerosol Monitor manufactured by TSI Inc. was evaluated against a Tapered Element Oscillating Microbalance (TEOM) equipped with a Filter Dynamics Measurements System (FDMS). Conventionally, the SidePak is calibrated with respect to the Arizona Road Test Dust and then multiplied by an environmental calibration factor to yield mass concentration. To adapt this calibration to specific field conditions, we present an implementation of this calibration by introducing a growing factor correction which takes into account relative humidity and the dry and wet portions of the refractive index estimated from TEOM-FDMS measurements. PM(2.5) sampling with several SidePaks AM510 was carried out in background and rural sites in the Po Valley (Italy). Modeled SidePak data were plotted vs. reference TEOM-FDMS data which show a good agreement.     

3D Numerical Model of the Thermal Interaction Between Sediment–Water–Atmosphere

This paper describes a three-dimensional numerical model of heat flux using finite-difference approximation for the simulation, prediction, and visualization of sediment, water, and air temperature, applied in Villa del Mar saltmarsh, Bahía Blanca Estuary, Argentina. To make this computation, we develop an open-source software tool called Hemera 1.0 which is characterized by having little complexity and low hardware requirements. The model considers three heat transfer processes: diffusion, convection, and radiation, using bulk aerodynamic formulas as boundary conditions between the interfaces. The aforementioned model was applied for the month of January 2009. The model reproduced adequately the physical processes of the heat balance and showed an adequate response to changes in the boundary conditions. In addition, according to the model design, meteorological and oceanographic data and some soil properties are the only data input used for modeling. It is easily adaptable to other environments such us lakes and reservoirs, among others, in order to carry out similar studies.     

Health risk estimation due to carbon monoxide pollution at different spatial levels in Santiago, Chile

The Metropolitan Region of Santiago has been declared as nonattainment area for carbon monoxide (CO). The data was based on seven air monitoring stations that do not necessarily represent the real population exposure. Usually, a series of coefficients that relates the concentration of pollutants with health effects (betas of the concentration–response equations) are used. For the calculation of these betas, normally, a city average air pollution concentration is used; nevertheless, these betas do not necessarily represent the real risk of exposure that the inhabitants are experimented. For this reason, this study estimates two aspects that are unknown and that are necessary to policymakers in public health decisions. First, estimate the exposure at a lower spatial resolution level and, second, estimate a concentration–response curve that differs spatially and depends on the proportion of susceptible groups. We followed the Air Pollution and Health, European Approach/Spanish Multicenter Study on the Relationship Between Air Pollution and the Mortality methodology for the determination of the short-term health effect due to CO population exposure at the three spatial levels (city, zone, and county). We found that there are different risks in cardiorespiratory mortality in the group over 64 years old associated to an unequal exposure to CO in Santiago city. The higher risks are in counties located to the south–east of the city. These finding confirm the necessity to face, in a different way, the approach when evaluating control strategies and policy decision to control air pollution in Santiago.     

A study of the particulate matter PM10 composition in the atmosphere of Chillán, Chile

Inhalable particulate matter (PM10) concentrations were measured over 24-h intervals at six different urban sites in the city of Chillán from September 2001 to April 2003. Sampling locations were selected to represent central city, commercial, residential, and industrial portions of the city. Chemical composition of PM10 was performed to samples of 47 mm diameter Teflon membranes within the city of Chillán. The spatial and temporal variability of the chemical composition of PM10 was evaluated taking into account additional data from meteorology and further air pollutants. The majority of PM mass was comprised of carbon, nitrate, sulfate, ammonium, and crustal components but in different proportion on different days and at different sites. The chemical analyses showed that carbonaceous substances and crustal material were the most abundant component of PM10 during the winter and summer, respectively. The concentrations of PM10 were higher during the cold season than during the warm season. The PM10 concentrations were higher in the downtown area of the city of Chillán, where also the chemical composition was more variable due to urban traffic and other anthropogenic sources.     

Chemical recycling of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (pet) by hydrolysis and glycolysis

In this paper we review an interesting method of PET recycling, i.e. chemical recycling; it is based on the concept of depolymerizing the condensation polymer through solvolytic chain cleavage into low molecular products which can be purified and reused as raw materials for the production of high-quality chemical products. In this work our attention is confined to the hydrolysis (neutral, acid and alkaline) and glycolysis processes of PET chemical recycling; operating conditions and mechanism of each method are reported and described. The neutral hydrolysis has an auto accelerating character; two kinetic models have been proposed: an half-order and a second order kinetic model. The acid hydrolysis could be explained by a modified shrinking core model under chemical reaction control and the alkaline hydrolysis by a first-order model with respect to hydroxide ion concentration. To describe glycolysis, two different kinetic models have been proposed where EG can act or not as internal catalyst. Further experimental and theoretical investigations are required to shed light on the promising processes of PET chemical recycling reviewed in this work.     

Fenton's pre-treatment of mature landfill leachate

The aim of this study was to check the effectiveness of the Fenton's reagent (Fe2+ + H2O2 + H+) for the pre-treatment of a municipal landfill leachate with the objective of improving its overall biodegradability, evaluated in terms of BOD5/COD ratio, up to a value compatible with biological treatment. The leachate came from a municipal sanitary landfill located in southern Italy and the average values of its main parameters were: pH=8.2; COD=10,540 mgl(-1); BOD5=2,300 mgl(-1); TOC=3,900 mgl(-1); NH4-N=5210 mgl(-1); conductivity=45,350 microScm(-1); alkalinity=21,470 mgl(-1) CaCO3. The effect of initial pH value on the pre-treatment effectiveness was evaluated by titrating the amount of acidic by-products formed. The extent of leachate oxidation was monitored and controlled by both pH and redox potential measurements. The best operational conditions for achieving the desired goal (i.e., BOD5/COD> or =0.5) resulted: Fe2+=275 mgl(-1); H2O2=3,300 mgl(-1); initial pH=3; reaction time=2 h. At the end of the Fenton's pre-treatment, in order to permit a subsequent biological treatment, residual ferric ions were removed increasing the pH up to 8.5 by adding 3 gl(-1) of Ca(OH)2 and 3 mgl(-1) of a cationic polyelectrolyte, the latter as an aid to coagulation. This final step also resulted in a further modest removal of residual COD due to co-precipitation phenomena.     

Wind tunnel attraction of grapevine moth females, Lobesia Botrana, to natural and artificial grape odour

Summary. Host plant volatiles which attract insect herbivores for egg-laying are of principal interest with respect to insect ecology and evolution. Direct applications concern population monitoring and control through behavioural manipulation. Identification of behaviourally active plant secondary metabolites is essential also for plant breeding for insect resistance. Grapevine moth females Lobesia botrana are attracted by upwind flight to green grape berries Vitis vinifera. The headspace of grape berries was collected on air filters. A solvent extract of these filters, released from a sprayer, attracted females in the wind tunnel. The results demonstrate that volatile cues mediate attraction of grapevine moth females to grape berries, and that headspace collections capture the essence of this odour signal. The air filter extracts were examined by gas chromatography coupled with electroantennographic detection, and the compounds eliciting a consistent antennal response in L. botrana females were identified by mass spectrometry. The headspace collection apparatus was calibrated for collection efficiency of the active compounds. Their recovery rate ranged from 35 % for methyl salicylate to 83 % for (E,E)-α-farnesene. A synthetic ten-component blend was then formulated. The blend consisted of compounds eliciting an antennal response, formulated in a blend ratio corrected for differences in collection efficiency. Subsequent wind tunnel tests showed that female attraction to this synthetic ten-component blend was not significantly different from attraction to grape berries, or to headspace collections of the same berries. At a release rate of 35 ng/h of the most abundant compound (E)-β-caryophyllene, 20 % of the test females approached the source of sprayed headspace collections and the ten-component synthetic blend, respectively. In comparison, 100 g of green berries, releasing the main compound (E)-β-caryophyllene at a rate of ca. 4.7 ng/h, attracted 10 % of the females by upwind flight followed by source contact.