Fugitive emissions in chemical processes: The assessment and prevention based on inherent and add-on approaches

Fugitive emissions are among the major concerns of industrial process releases. The emissions cause problem to various aspects including the environment, health, and economic. Early evaluation of process hazards is beneficial because process can be made inherently benign at lower cost. This paper discusses two important aspects of fugitive emissions assessment during process design – the quantification and the prevention strategies.For the quantification part, three methods are presented for fugitive emissions estimation during the process design. They are tailored to data available in simple process flow diagram (PFD), detailed PFD, and piping & instrumentation diagram (PID). Such methods are needed as early emissions estimation allows production routes and process designs with lower emissions to be selected. The fugitive emissions estimation and methods to abatement are demonstrated on a benzene process case study. Valves are found to be the major emission source with 50% of fugitive emissions of process area in a base case of petrochemical process, in which no fugitive emission reductions are yet made. Pumps without mechanical seals come second with 30% and flanges with 8% of emissions. Inherently safer design keywords can be applied to prevent fugitive emissions in the process plants. Substitution is the most applicable keyword in fugitive emission reduction of existing plants.The emission rate calculations together with estimation of health risk give a sound background for the decision making on elimination of emissions at source through equipment and piping changes. The case study presented reveals that by substituting emission prone components by inherently low-leaking ones, the plant emissions can be reduced over 90% in practice. This is created mainly by replacing rising stem valves with ball valves, installing double mechanical pump seals or hermetic pumps and making changes in sampling and relief systems. Ideally by also changing flanges to welded connections, which is not viable for various reasons, the emissions could be reduced nearly to zero.     

Uncertainty-based quantitative assessment of sustainability for higher education institutions

Evaluation of sustainability in various facets of life is gaining increasing importance. Traditionally, different multi-criteria decision-making methods have been used for sustainability assessment. “Sustainability” can be a qualitative concept, and as such several researchers have attempted fuzzy logic for the quantitative assessment of sustainability. This paper outlines a new evaluation model based on fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making. The model is tested for sustainability assessment of higher education institutions (HEIs). It is based on a driving force–pressure–state–exposure–effect–action (DPSEEA) framework and is called uncertainty-based DPSEEA-Sustainability index Model (uD-SiM). The uD-SiM is a causality-based model in which the sustainability index is an outcome of nonlinear impacts of sustainability indicators in different stages of DPSEEA. The percent contribution of driving forces on the sustainability index of HEI is investigated using sensitivity analysis. The study reveals that education in sustainability and global and local research trends are the major driving forces for achieving sustainability in HEI, followed by financial and economic growth rate, social equity, energy requirements rate, and institutional enhancement, in descending order. The results of uD-SiM were found to be more realistic and rational than our earlier proposed approach, D-SiM.     

Gaseous and particulate emissions from thermal power plants operating on different technologies

This paper presents the assessment of gaseous and particulate emissions from thermal power plants operating on different combustion technologies. Four thermal power plants operating on heavy furnace oil were selected for the study, among which three were based on diesel engine technology, while the fourth plant was based on oil-fired steam turbine technology. The stack emissions were monitored for critical air pollutants carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, lead, and mercury. The pollutant emissions were measured at optimum load conditions for a period of 6 months with an interval of 1 month. The results of stack emissions were compared with National Environmental Quality Standards of Pakistan and World Bank guidelines for thermal power plants, and few parameters were found higher than the permissible limits of emissions. It was observed that the emissions carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, and particulate matters from diesel engine-based power plants were comparatively higher than the turbine-based power plants. The emissions of sulfur dioxide were high in all the plants, even the plants with different technologies, which was mainly due to high sulfur contents in fuel.     

Spore inhibition-based enzyme substrate assay for monitoring of aflatoxin M1 in milk

A spore germination-based concept and its transformation into a field level prototype for monitoring aflatoxin M₁ (AFM₁) in milk was developed. Initially, 15 strains of Bacillus spp. procured from different culture collection were screened for AFM₁ sensitivity using spot assay and marker strain showing inhibition at 0.5 ppb was selected based upon maximum zone of inhibition. The selected strain B. megaterium 2949 was further screened for different enzymes activities and subsequently its spores were produced to an extent of 73.13% ± 3.197% in newly developed sporulation medium containing beef extract (0.0075% ± 0.0004%), yeast extract (0.015% ± 0.001%), peptone (0.0375% ± 0.0016%), and sodium chloride (0.0375% ± 0.0018%). A spore germination-based concept/ assay was optimized by immobilizing spores in eppendorf with pretreated milk (80°C/15 min) containing germinant and chromogenic substrate followed by incubation at 37°C. The appearance of sky blue color within real time of 45 min indicated spores germination and release of specific marker enzyme such as acetyl esterase and its specific action on chromogenic substrate which demonstrates absence of AFM₁ in milk. However, if there was no color change, presence of AFM₁ at 0.5 ppb MRL was denoted by Codex. The developed concept on AFM₁ detection was validated and a correlation of 0.97 was established with AOAC approved Charm 6602 and ELISA at Codex MRL with minimal false positive and negative results. The cost effective test has potential application in dairy farms, manufacturing, and R&D units for routine monitoring of AFM₁ in milk.     

Evaluating public open spaces through the lively planning integrative perspective: a developing country context

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Public open spaces (POSs) provide a forum for social gathering, health, leisure, and recreation opportunities for city dwellers. POSs are considered...     

Evaluation and selection strategy for green supply chain using interval-valued q-rung orthopair fuzzy combinative distance-based assessment

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Environmental deterioration and global warming has created a substantial impact on international companies to incorporate eco-friendly, green supply...     

Synthesis,Characterization and Environmental Applications of a New Bio-Composite Gelatin-Zr(IV) Phosphate

Gelatin-Zr(IV) phosphate composite (GT/ZPC) was synthesized by sol–gel method. Different techniques viz. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray powdered diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used for the characterisation of GT/ZPC composite ion exchanger. The ion exchange capacity (IEC) of GT/ZPC was observed to be better (1.04 meq g^?1) than its inorganic counterpart (0.64 meq g^?1). The pH studies revealed the monofunctional nature of GT/ZPC with one inflection point. The distribution studies showed that the GT/ZPC was highly selective for Cd²⁺ as compare to other metal ions. The environmental applicability of ion exchanger has been analysed for binary separations of metal ions using column method. Cd²⁺ was effectively removed from synthetic mixture of metal ions (Zn²⁺, Pb²⁺, Ni²⁺, Co²⁺ and Cu²⁺).     

A comprehensive review on the carcinogenic potential of bisphenol A: clues and evidence

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Bisphenol A [BPA; (CH3)2C(C6H4OH)2] is a synthetic chemical used as a precursor material for the manufacturing of plastics and resins. It gained...     

Determination of heavy metal contents in water,sediments, and fish tissues of Shizothorax plagiostomus in river Panjkora at Lower Dir,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Pakistan

The present study was conducted to investigate the contamination of water, sediments, and fish tissues with heavy metals in river Panjkora at Lower Dir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Water, sediments, and fish (Shizothorax plagiostomus) samples were collected from September 2012 to January 2013 at three different sites (upstream site at Sharigut, sewage site at Timergara, and downstream site at Sadoo) of river Panjkora. The concentrations of heavy metals in water were in the order Zn?>?Cu?≈?Pb?>?Ni?≈?Cd with mean values of 0.30, 0.01, 0.01, 0.0 and 0.0 mg/l, respectively, which were below the maximum permissible limits of WHO for drinking water. In sediments, heavy metals were found in the order Cu?>?Zn?>?Ni?>?Pb?>?Cd with mean concentrations of 50.6, 38.7, 9.3, 8, and 0.4 mg/kg, respectively. Ni and Cd were not found in any fish tissues, but Zn, Cu, and Pb were detected with the mean concentration ranges of 0.04–1.19, 0.03–0.12, and 0.01–0.09 μg/g, respectively. The present study demonstrates that disposal of waste effluents causes a slight increase in the concentration of heavy metals in river Panjkora as revealed by variation in metal concentrations from upstream to downstream site. Sewage disposal was also found to change physicochemical characteristics of Panjkora water. At present, water and fish of river Panjkora are safe for human consumption, but the continuous sewage disposal may create problems in the future.