Characterizations of organic compounds in diesel exhaust particulates

To characterize how the speed and load of a medium-duty diesel engine affected the organic compounds in diesel particle matter (PM) below 1 μm, four driving conditions were examined. At all four driving conditions, concentration of identifiable organic compounds in PM ultrafine (34–94 nm) and accumulation (94–1000 nm) modes ranged from 2.9 to 5.7 μg/m³ and 9.5 to 16.4 μg/m³, respectively. As a function of driving conditions, the non-oxygen-containing organics exhibited a reversed concentration trend to the oxygen-containing organics. The identified organic compounds were classified into eleven classes: alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, aromatic hydrocarbons, carboxylic acids, esters, ketones, alcohols, ethers, nitrogen-containing compounds, and sulfur-containing compounds. At all driving conditions, alkane class consistently showed the highest concentration (8.3 to 18.0 μg/m³) followed by carboxylic acid, esters, ketones and alcohols. Twelve polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were identified with a total concentration ranging from 37.9 to 174.8 ng/m³. In addition, nine nitrogen-containing polycyclic aromatic compounds (NPACs) were identified with a total concentration ranging from 7.0 to 10.3 ng/m³. The most abundant PAH (phenanthrene) and NPACs (7,8-benzoquinoline and 3-nitrophenanthrene) comprise a similar molecular (3 aromatic-ring) structure under the highest engine speed and engine load.     

The System Dynamics of Nuclear Energy in Singapore

In this article, a system dynamics model is developed to study the complex issues involving nuclear energy in Singapore by assessing four essential aspects, namely (1) Economic, (2) Environment, (3) Social, and (4) Political in various scenarios. The first factor juxtaposes the monetary benefit from deploying nuclear energy with the current situation. The second deals with carbon dioxide emission, nuclear waste, and thermal pollution from nuclear power plant. The third part discusses the safety and social acceptance toward nuclear project, and the last section analyzes the political stability in provision of nuclear energy advent. The proposed system dynamic model incorporates all four components that allow us to run sensitivity analysis based on various scenarios and enables us to gain insight in how each domain evolves with time. Based on the model, we present advantages and disadvantages of possessing nuclear power plants in Singapore and suggest remedies to rectify the drawbacks.     

Racial mixing in South African honeybees: the effects of genotype mixing on reproductive traits of workers

To test the hypothesis that the honeybee hybrid zone in South Africa is a tension zone due to increased reproductive conflict in colonies that contain both Apis mellifera capensis and Apis mellifera scutellata worker genotypes, we constructed mixed subspecies and hybrid colonies via a combination of artificial and natural matings. We measured emergence weight, ovary activation, and the presence/absence of a spermatheca on workers of different genotypes. We show that the measured characteristics were all affected by genotype with some traits also affected by the social environment in which the worker was reared. Workers with both an A. m. capensis mother and father had the highest emergence weight. When workers had an A. m. capensis mother, paternity affected emergence weight with A. m. capensis fathers producing heavier workers. When the queen was A. m. scutellata, paternity had less effect on weight. Presence of spermatheca was highest in mixed colonies irrespective of maternity and colonies containing pure A. m. capensis workers only. Paternity had a significant effect on the presence of a spermatheca within mixed colonies, with workers that had an A. m. capensis father being more likely to possess a spermatheca. Rates of ovary activation were highest in colonies with an A. m. scutellata queen mated to drones of both genotypes, suggesting that mixed subspecies colonies likely suffer increased reproductive strife among workers. Our results provide support for the hypothesis that the South African honeybee hybrid zone is a tension zone arising from reduced fitness of genetically mixed colonies.     

Effect of long chain fatty acids removal as a pretreatment on the anaerobic digestion of food waste

This study investigated the effect of long chain fatty acids (LCFAs) removal as a pretreatment prior to anaerobic digestion on the production of methane from food waste. The results showed that the anaerobic digestion of food waste containing 1.6 g COD/L of LCFAs was not inhibited (4 days lag-time, 78.3 % methane recovery in 35 days) compared to that of lipid free food waste (3 days lag time, 72.5 % methane recovery in 35 days); however, some unsaturated LCFAs, which are toxic to microorganism, were accumulated in the batch anaerobic digestion reactor. Meanwhile, in a methanogenic activity study, the activity of methanogens was observed to be linearly inhibited by the presence of more than 1 g COD/L of LCFAs. The possibility of the accumulation of unsaturated LCFAs in the reactor should be considered when operating a large-scale continuous system.     

Reuse of washing effluent containing oxalic acid by a combined precipitation–acidification process

This study aims at evaluating the reuse feasibility of effluent produced by the soil washing of mine tailings with oxalic acid. Alkaline chemicals such as NaOH, Ca(OH)₂, and Na₂CO₃ are used for the precipitation of arsenic and heavy metals in the effluent containing oxalic acid. All of the target contaminants are removed with very high efficiency (up to 100%) at high pH. The precipitation using NaOH at pH 9 is determined to be the most cost-effective method for the removal of arsenic as well as heavy metals in the effluent. The effluent decontaminated by NaOH is consecutively reused for the soil washing of raw mine tailings, resulting in considerable efficiency. Furthermore, even more arsenic and heavy metals are extracted from raw mine tailings by acidifying the decontaminated effluent under the alkaline condition, compared with direct reuse of the decontaminated effluent. Here, the oxalic acid, which is a weak complex-forming ligand as well as a weak acid, has noticeable effects on both soil washing and effluent treatment by precipitation. It extracts efficiently the contaminants from the mine tailings without adverse change of soil and also makes possible the precipitation of the contaminants in the effluent unlike strong chelating reagent. Reuse of the washing effluent containing oxalic acid would make the existing soil washing process more environment-friendly and cost-effective.     

Monitoring of selected veterinary antibiotics in environmental compartments near a composting facility in Gangwon Province, Korea

Many studies have been recently reported that veterinary antibiotics released into the environment have a detrimental effect on humans such as the occurrence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. However, only limited information is available regarding to the release of antibiotics in environmental compartments in Korea. Objectives of this study were to evaluate the concentrations of antibiotics in water, sediment, and soil adjacent to a composting facility in Korea and to determine the dilution effects of antibiotics when released into the environment. Seven antibiotics of chlortetracycline, oxytetracycline, tetracycline, sulfamethazine, sulfamethoxazole, sulfathiazole, and tylosin were evaluated by high-performance liquid chromatography?Ctandem mass spectrometry following pretreatment using solid-phase extraction to clean the samples. Results showed that the highest concentration of each antibiotic in both aqueous and solid samples was detected from a site adjacent to the composting facility. We also found that the studied water, sediment, and soil samples are contaminated by veterinary antibiotics throughout comparison with studies from other countries. However, relatively lower concentrations of each antibiotic were observed from the rice paddy soil located at the bottom of the water stream. Further research is necessary to continuously monitor the antibiotics release into ecosystems, thereby developing an environmental risk assessment.