Environmental impact assessment of non-wood based pulp production by soda-anthraquinone pulping process

Paper pulp manufacturing is the main non-food industrial utilization of plant biomass. Non-wood and agricultural residues are potential raw materials in the production of specialty papers. This chapter aims to quantify the environmental impacts associated with non-wood high quality paper pulp manufacture via soda-anthraquinone (AQ) cooking process by means of the application of LCA methodology in a cradle-to-gate analysis. Hemp (Cannabis sativa) and Flax (Linum usitatissimum) were evaluated as raw materials for the production of high quality non-porous pulp. A specialty paper pulp mill was analysed in detail and process chain was divided in six subsystems: agricultural activities, chemicals production, electricity production, transport, pulp production and waste treatment. Inventory data came from interviews and surveys (on-site measurements). When necessary, the data were completed with bibliographic resources.Abiotic resources depletion (AD), global warming (GW), ozone layer depletion (OLD), human toxicity (HT), ecotoxicity, photochemical oxidant formation (POF), acidification (A) and eutrophication (E) were the impact categories analysed in this study. According to the results, the environmental impact is mainly caused by the production of chemicals, electricity and fibres (agricultural activities) due to greenhouse gases emissions, phosphorous and nitrogen compounds emissions. The activities inside the pulp mill present minor contribution to almost all impact categories, excluding GW (15%) and E (6%) as well as OLD (25%). This study provides useful information for non-wood based industries related not only to pulp manufacture but also to panels or biorefineries with the aim of increasing their sustainability.     

Evaluation of the geotechnical properties of MSW in two Brazilian landfills

The characteristics of municipal solid waste (MSW) play a key role in many aspects of waste disposal facilities and landfills. Because most of a landfill is made up of MSW, the overall stability of the landfill slopes are governed by the strength parameters and physical properties of the MSW. These parameters are also important in interactions involving the waste body and the landfill structures: cover liner, leachate and gas collection systems. On the other hand, the composition of the waste, which affects the geotechnical behavior of the MSW, is dependent on a variety of factors such as climate, disposal technology, the culture and habits of the local community. It is therefore essential that the design and stability evaluations of landfills in each region be performed based on the local conditions and the geotechnical characteristic of the MSW. The Bandeirantes Landfill, BL, in São Paulo and the Metropolitan Center Landfill, MCL, in Salvador, are among the biggest landfills in Brazil. These two disposal facilities have been used for the development of research involving waste mechanics in recent years. Considerable work has been made in the laboratory and in the field to evaluate parameters such as water and organic contents, composition, permeability, and shear strength. This paper shows and analyzes the results of tests performed on these two landfills. The authors believe that these results could be a good reference for certain aspects and geotechnical properties of MSW materials in countries with similar conditions.     

Selection of sorption material for tests of pesticide permeation through protective clothing fabrics.

The paper presents the results of studies on selecting a solid sorption material for absorbing liquid crop protection agents which permeate samples of protective clothing fabrics. The sorption materials were investigated and selected with an assumption that they should have a high recovery coefficient for biologically active substances, used as active ingredients in crop protection agents, at a presumed, acceptably high level. The selected substances were determined with a gas chromatograph equipped with an electron capture detector (dichlorvos, cypermethrin and 2,4-D) and a nitrogen-phosphorus detector (carbofuran). The tests demonstrated that polypropylene melt-blown type unwoven cloth had high recovery coefficients for all 4 active ingredients proposed for the study. The highest recovery coefficient, -.97, was obtained for carbofuran. The recovery coefficients obtained for the 3 remaining substances were lower: .89 for cypermethrin and 2,4-D, and .84 for dichlorvos.     

137Cs in marine samples from the Brazilian southeastern coastal region

The present work presents the results of ¹³⁷Cs concentration in seawater, fish and sediments samples collect in 11 sampling points, crossing the Brazilian Southeastern coastal region, from Vitória (ES) to Santos (SP), on a routine basis from 1997 to 2002. This monitoring program was carried out by the Instituto de Radioproteção e Dosimetria (IRD/CNEN/MCT), in cooperation with the Instituto de Estudos do Mar Almirante Paulo Moreira (IEAPM/Brazilian Navy), aiming at determining artificial radionuclides in marine samples. Additionally to the ¹³⁷Cs results, ⁹⁰Sr concentrations in fish samples from 1998 to 2002 are also reported.The ¹³⁷Cs in seawater follows a lognormal distribution, with a geometric mean of 1.8 Bq m^-3 and a geometric standard deviation of 1.4 (n=54), decay corrected to June/2002. For ¹³⁷Cs levels in fish samples a geometric mean of 0.19 Bq kg⁻¹ and a geometric standard deviation of 2.9 (n=39), decay corrected to June/2002, with a range of 0.03 to 1.7 Bq kg⁻¹, were obtained. Based on the ¹³⁷Cs mean concentration in fish as well as in seawater, a transfer factor of 1 × 10² was calculated, which is quite in agreement with the recommended value found in the Safety Report Serie 19.     

Necessity of Toxicity Assessment in Turkish Industrial Discharges (Examples from Metal and Textile Industry Effluents)

Toxicity of some organic and inorganic chemicals to microorganisms is an important consideration in assessingtheir environmental impact against their economic benefits.Microorganisms play an important role in several environmentalprocesses, both natural and engineered. Some organic and inorganics at toxic levels have been detected in industrial discharges resulting in plant upsets and discharge permit violations. In addition to this, even though in some cases the effluent wastewater does not exceed the discharge limits,the results of toxicity tests show potential toxicity. Toxicityknowledge of effluents can benefit treatment plant operators inoptimising plant operation, setting pre-treatment standards, and protecting receiving water quality and in establishing sewer discharge permits to safeguard the plant. In the Turkish regulations only toxicity dilution factor (TDF) with fish is part of the toxicity monitoring program of permissible wastewater discharge. In various countries, laboratory studiesinvolving the use of different organisms and protocol for toxicity assessment was conducted involving a number of discharges.In this study, it was aimed to investigate the acute toxicity of textile and metal industry wastewaters by traditional and enrichment toxicity tests and emphasize the importance of toxicity tests in wastewater discharge regulations. The enrichment toxicity tests are novel applications and give anidea whether there is potential toxicity or growth limiting and stimulation conditions. Different organisms were used suchas bacteria (Floc and Coliform bacteria) algae (Chlorella sp.), fish (Lepistes sp.) and protozoan (Vorticella sp.) to represent four tropic levels. The textile industry results showed acute toxicity for at least one organism in 8 out of 23 effluent samples. Acute toxicity for at least two organisms in 7 out of 23 effluent sampling was observed for the metal industry. The toxicity test results were assessed with chemical analyses such as COD, BOD, color and heavy metals. It was observed that the toxicity of the effluents could not be explained by using physicochemical analyses in 5 cases for metal and 4 cases for the textile industries. The results clearly showed that the useof bioassay tests produce additional information about the toxicity potential of industrial discharges and effluents.