Using chemical process simulation to design industrial ecosystems

Chemical process simulation (CPS) software has been widely used by chemical (process) engineers to design, test, optimise, and integrate process plants. It is expected that industrial ecologists to bring these same problem-solving benefits to the design and operation of industrial ecosystems can use CPS. This paper provides industrial ecology researchers and practitioners with an introduction to CPS and an overview of chemical engineering design principles. The paper highlights recent research showing that CPS can be used to model industrial ecosystems, and discusses the benefits of using CPS to address some of the technical challenges facing companies participating in an industrial ecosystem. CPS can be used to (i) quantitatively evaluate and compare the potential environmental and financial benefits of material and energy linkages; (ii) solve general design, retrofit, or operational problems; (iii) help to identify complex and often counter-intuitive solutions; and (iv) evaluate what-if scenarios. CPS should be a useful addition to the industrial ecology toolbox.     

Environmental chemical study on the marsh of Fatimid cemetery at Aswan City,Egypt

ＩｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎＡｓｗａｎｇｏｖｅｒｎｏｒａｔｅ ,Ｅｇｙｐｔ ,ｉｓｆａｍｏｕｓｆｏｒｂｙｍｏｎｕｍｅｎｔｓ (Ａｎｃｉｅｎｔ,ＣｏｐｔｉｃａｎｄＩｓｌａｍｉｃ) .Ｔｈｅｆｏｕｎｄａｔｉｏｎａｒｅｏｆｔｈｅｆｉｒｓｔｉｍｐｏｒｔａｎｃｅａｎｄｃａｒｅｓｈｏｕｌｄｂｅｔａｋｅｎｔｏｓｅｅｔｈａｔｔｈｅｙａｒｅｃｏｎｓｏｌｉｄａｔｅｄａｎｄｐｒｏｔｅｃｔｅｄａｓｆｏｒａｓｐｏｓｓｉｂｌｅｆｒｏｍｔｈｅｉｎｆｉｌｔｒａｔｉｏｎｏｆｗａｔｅｒ.Ｗａｔｅｒｉｓａｍａｊｏｒｃａｕｓｅｏｆｄａｍａｇｅ ,ｎｏ…     

The ecological basis of boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis Boheman) management

The boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis Boheman), generally considered to be native to Mexico or Central America, spread into the southern United States of America in the late 1800s and seriously threatened the cotton industry. As there were no effective alternatives, pest control specialists studied the insect's ecology and advocated cultural practices that would disrupt its environment and maximize the benefits of natural biological and environmental controls. An ecologically orientated pest management scheme founded on cultural practices emerged well before suitable chemical control technology became available and allowed farmers to live with the weevil problem.Despite the ingenuity of the early management scheme, it frequently did not provide satisfactory boll weevil control gauged by present standards. Control of the pest thus shifted largely from an ecological to a chemical approach as effective synthetic organic insecticides became available after World War II. The chemical approach was successful for a number of years, but problems of insecticide-resistant strains of pests, secondary pest outbreaks, environmental quality, and increased costs of the insecticides have forced pest control specialists to re-emphasize the nonchemical techniques used widely against the boll weevil before World War II and to revive the ecological approach to weevil management.This article examines boll weevil ecology as related to management of the insect and reviews the status and prospects of ecologically-based weevil management techniques in the United States.     

A new pheromone of the silkworm moth Bombyx mori

The female silkmoth Bombyx mori L. emits a second pheromone component bombykal (E-10, Z-12-hexade-cadien-1-al) in addition to the well-known sexual attractant bombykol (E-10, Z-12-hexadecadien-1-ol). Bombykal stimulates its own specialized and highly sensitive olfactory cells of the male moth. Surprisingly, the aldehyde inhibits the release of the male's wing-fluttering response to bombykol.