Estimating the reduction of urban PM10 concentrations by trees within an environmental information system for planners

Trees have been widely quoted as effective scavengers of both gaseous and particulate pollutants from the atmosphere. Recent work on the deposition of urban aerosols onto woodland allows the effect of tree planting strategies on airborne aerosol concentrations to be quantified and considered within the planning process. By identifying the potential planting locations in the local authority area, and applying them within a dispersion and deposition model, the potential magnitude of reduction in the ambient concentration of PM(10), achievable through urban tree planting, has been quantified for two UK cities. As part of the Environmental Information Systems for Planners (EISP), flow diagrams, based on planning decisions, have incorporated output from the model to make decisions on land use planning ranging from development plans and strategic planning, to development control. In this way, for any new developments that contribute to the local PM(10) level, the mitigation by planting trees can be assessed, and in some cases, reductions can be sufficient to meet air quality objectives for PM(10).     

Life Cycle Assessment on a Bus Body Component Based on Hemp Fiber and PTP<Superscript>®</Superscript>

The application of renewable raw materials in the automotive sector became more and more interesting in the last years. For the first time, a material system based on natural fibers and PTP^®, a vegetable based thermoset resin, was produced and manufactured into a bus body component by Sheet-Moulding-Compound-technology. The Life Cycle Assessment on this component based on renewable raw materials shows advantages especially in the categories fossil resources and global warming. It can be expected that further concepts of development and optimization lead to a more efficient use of materials and so to an additional reduction of environmental impacts.     

The Tropical Peatland Plantation-Carbon Assessment Tool: estimating CO2 emissions from tropical peat soils under plantations

Land use change on Indonesian peatlands contributes to global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Accessible predictive tools are required to estimate likely soil carbon (C) losses and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from peat soils under this land use change. Research and modelling efforts in tropical peatlands are limited, restricting the availability of data for complex soil model parameterisation and evaluation. The Tropical Peatland Plantation-Carbon Assessment Tool (TROPP-CAT) was developed to provide a user friendly tool to evaluate and predict soil C losses and CO₂ emissions from tropical peat soils. The tool requires simple input values to determine the rate of subsidence, of which the oxidising proportion results in CO₂ emissions. This paper describes the model structure and equations, and presents a number of evaluation and application runs. TROPP-CAT has been applied for both site specific and national level simulations, on existing oil palm and Acacia plantations, as well as on peat swamp forest sites to predict likely emissions from future land use change. Through an uncertainty and sensitivity analysis, literature reviews and comparison with other methods of estimating soil C losses, the paper identifies opportunities for future model development, bridging between different approaches to predicting CO₂ emissions from tropical peatlands under land use change. TROPP-CAT can be accessed online from www.redd-alert.eu in both English and Bahasa Indonesia.     

气溶胶OCEC切割点确定方法改进及应用

用MOUDI采样器分级(0.18～18μm,8级)采集北京(BD)及美国亚特兰大(GT)2011年7、8月大气气溶胶样品,测定有机碳(OC)及元素碳(EC).结果表明,由于石英膜结构在灼烧过程中变化,空白膜激光值在OCEC分析过程会随温度改变而变化,且整体呈下降趋势,扣除空白膜激光值变化后手动确定切割点,即激光校正切割可以提高切割点准确性.采用激光校正切割法得到的OC、EC浓度及粒径分布与有氧无氧切割法不同.一些样品切割点出现在通氧前,原因可能是气溶胶中金属等可在无氧环境中催化氧化EC或受热后分解、变色的吸光物质含量较高等.GT气溶胶碳质组分浓度低于BD,且除GT采样点EC外,均呈双峰分布.BD及GT两个采样点OC浓度在0.56～1.0μm、3.2～5.6μm两个粒径段出现峰值,采样期间BD峰值浓度分别为(2.82±1.59)μg.m-3、(1.95±0.76)μg.m-3,GT峰值浓度分别为(1.28±0.41)μg.m-3、(0.64±0.19)μg.m-3.BD采样点EC浓度峰值出现在1.0～1.8μm、3.2～5.6μm,分别为(0.32±0.24)μg.m-3、(0.26±0.19)μg.m-3.GT采样点EC呈三峰分布,集中于粒径更小的气溶胶中,粒径为0.18～0.56μm气溶胶中EC含量占总采样粒径段44.6%.GT采样点OC、EC浓度均较BD更集中于积聚模态,原因可能为夏季GT主要污染源是机动车尾气排放,而BD存在较多工业活动等排放.     

Photocatalytic reduction of organic pollutant under visible light by green route synthesized gold nanoparticles

We report a rapid method of green chemistry approach for synthesis of gold nanoparticles(AuNPs)using Lagerstroemia speciosa leaf extract(LSE). L. speciosa plant extract is known for its effective treatment of diabetes and kidney related problems. The green synthesis of Au NPs was complete within 30 min at 25°C. The same could also be achieved within 2 min at a higher reaction temperature(80°C). Both UV–visible spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy results suggest that the morphology and size distribution of Au NPs are dependent on the pH of gold solution,gold concentration,volume of LSE,and reaction time and temperature. Comparison between Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FT-IR)spectra of LSE and the synthesized Au NPs indicate an active role of polyphenolic functional groups(from gallotannins,lagerstroemin,and corosolic acid)in the green synthesis and capping of Au NPs. The green route synthesized Au NPs show strong photocatalytic activity in the reduction of dyes viz.,methylene blue,methyl orange,bromophenol blue and bromocresol green,and 4-nitrophenol under visible light in the presence of Na BH_4. The non-toxic and cost effective LSE mediated Au NPs synthesis proposed in this study is extremely rapid compared to the other reported methods that require hours to days for complete synthesis of Au NPs using various plant extracts. Strong and stable photocatalytic behavior makes Au NPs attractive in environmental applications,particularly in the reduction of organic pollutants in wastewater.