Remediation of petroleum-contaminated soils by fluidized thermal desorption

A novel type of fluidized bed desorber was developed for the remediation of petroleum-contaminated soils at low temperature with high efficiency. Cahn balance® was utilized to investigate the thermal desorption behavior of soils contaminated by various hydrocarbons. The performance of the fluidized-bed desorber was investigated at different operating modes. Batch operation of the fluidized-bed desorber exhibited 99.9% desorption efficiency at temperatures of ca. 300°C within a half hour. Continuous operation of the fluidized-bed indicated that Q/F (the ratio of the mass flow rate of fluidizing gas to feeding rate of contaminated soils) is less important at higher temperature (>300°C), if proper fluidization is ensured. The periodic operation of the fluidized bed desorber shows the possibility to reduce off-gas volume significantly.     

Compartment model of aerobic and anaerobic biodegradation in a municipal solid waste landfill

The mathematical formulations in a one-dimensional compartment model of the biodegradation of organic landfill components are described. The model is designed to switch between anaerobic and aerobic conditions, depending on the local oxygen concentration. The model also includes the effect of environmental factors, such as moisture content, pH, and temperature, on reaction rates. The model includes not only biodegradation processes for carbon compounds (acetate, CO2, CH4), but also for nitrogen compounds involved in nitrification and denitrification due to their significance in landfills. Two example runs to simulate anaerobic and aerobic waste were conducted for a single landfill unit cell by changing the organic content and diffusion coefficient.     

The global greenhouse effect

The global warming caused by emissions of CO₂ and trace gases is expected to cause shifts in climatic zones and rainfall patterns, and possibly thermal expansion of oceans. There are likely to be impacts on global agriculture and the food security of low-income countries, as well as disruptions to major ecosystem complexes such as forests. Rising sea levels will threaten low-lying regions, coastal zones and islands. Policy-makers will therefore have to consider the relative costs and benefits of 'doing nothing', preventive measures and adaptive responses. Economics should play a key and innovative role in this analysis.     

Mini-review on river eutrophication and bottom improvement techniques,with special emphasis on the Nakdong River

Water quality in rivers is vital to humans and to maintenance of biotic and ecological integrity. During the Four Major Rivers restoration of South Korea, remarkable attempts have been made to decrease external nutrient loads and moveable weirs were designed to discharge silt that may deposit in pools. However, recently eutrophication of the Nakdong River, which was limited to the lower reaches, is seen to be spreading upstream. The reduction of external nutrient loads to rivers is a long-term goal that is unlikely to lead to reductions in algal blooms for many years because of the time required to implement effective land management strategies. It would therefore be desirable to implement complementary strategies. Regulating the amount of water released is effective at preventing algae blooms in weir pools; so, the relationship between discharge, stratification and bloom formation should be understood in this regard. However, pollutants are likely to accumulate in the riverbed upstream from release points. Thus, to control phosphorus levels, total phosphorus density should be lowered by applying in-river techniques as well. As many ecosystem properties are controlled by multiple processes, simultaneous river bottom improvement techniques, such as combined dissolved oxygen supply and nutrient inactivation, are likely to be effective. The purpose of this review is to present a series of technological approaches that can be used to improve the river bottom area and hence sediment nutrient release, and to illustrate the application of these techniques to the Nakdong River.     

Prediction of effluent concentration in a wastewater treatment plant using machine learning models

Of growing amount of food waste, the integrated food waste and waste water treatment was regarded as one of the efficient modeling method. However, the load of food waste to the conventional waste treatment process might lead to the high concentration of total nitrogen(T-N) impact on the effluent water quality. The objective of this study is to establish two machine learning models—artificial neural networks(ANNs) and support vector machines(SVMs), in order to predict 1-day interval T-N concentration of effluent from a wastewater treatment plant in Ulsan, Korea. Daily water quality data and meteorological data were used and the performance of both models was evaluated in terms of the coefficient of determination(R~2), Nash–Sutcliff efficiency(NSE), relative efficiency criteria(d rel). Additionally, Latin-Hypercube one-factor-at-a-time(LH-OAT) and a pattern search algorithm were applied to sensitivity analysis and model parameter optimization, respectively. Results showed that both models could be effectively applied to the 1-day interval prediction of T-N concentration of effluent. SVM model showed a higher prediction accuracy in the training stage and similar result in the validation stage.However, the sensitivity analysis demonstrated that the ANN model was a superior model for 1-day interval T-N concentration prediction in terms of the cause-and-effect relationship between T-N concentration and modeling input values to integrated food waste and waste water treatment. This study suggested the efficient and robust nonlinear time-series modeling method for an early prediction of the water quality of integrated food waste and waste water treatment process.     

Greenhouse gas emissions during co-composting of calf mortalities with manure

Composting may be a viable on-farm option for disposal of cattle carcasses. This study investigated greenhouse gas emissions during co-composting of calf mortalities with manure. Windrows were constructed that contained manure + straw (control compost [CK]) or manure + straw + calf mortalities (CM) using two technologies: a tractor-mounted front-end loader or a shredder bucket. Composting lasted 289 d. The windrows were turned twice (on Days 72 and 190), using the same technology used in their creation. Turning technology had no effect on greenhouse gas emissions or the properties of the final compost. The CO2 (75.2 g d(-1) m(-2)), CH4 (2.503 g d(-1) m(-2)), and N2O (0.370 g d(-1) m(-2)) emissions were higher (p < 0.05) in CM than in CK (25.7, 0.094, and 0.076 g d(-1) m(-2) for CO2, CH4, and N2O, respectively), which reflected differences in materials used to construct the compost windrows and therefore their total C and total N contents. The final CM compost had higher (p < 0.05) total N, total C, and mineral N content (NO3*+ NO2* + NH4+) than did CK compost and therefore has greater agronomic value as a fertilizer.