Degradation of methyl-phenanthrene isomers during bioremediation of soil contaminated by residual fuel oil

Phenanthrene and methyl-phenanthrenes are major aromatic pollutants originating in particular from fuel oil. Phenanthrene is usually degraded faster than methyl-phenanthrenes under geological and environmental conditions. Here, we report a preferential and accelerated biodegradation of methyl-phenanthrenes versus phenanthrene in soil contaminated by fuel oil. The polluted soil was mixed with sawdust and sand to form a homogenized biopile. The biopile was continuously sprayed with microbial consortia isolated from crude oil?Ccontaminated soil and treated by biosurfactants and nutritive substances for biostimulation. During a 6-month bioremediation experiment, a steady increase in the relative abundance of phenanthrene compared to methyl-phenathrenes was observed by gas chromatography?Cmass spectrometry. The increase was the highest for trimethyl-phenanthrenes, with a phenanthrene/trimethyl-phenanthrenes ratio increasing from 0.42 to 2.45. By contrast, the control, non-stimulated samples showed a ratio decrease from 0.85 to 0.11. Moreover, the results showed that the level of degradability depends on the number of methyl groups.     

Wastewater treatment by catalytic wet air oxidation process over Al-Fe pillared clays synthesized using microwave irradiation

Microwave irradiation has been used to prepare Al, Fe-pillared clays from a natural Tunisian smectite from the El Hicha deposit (province of Gabes). Chemical analysis, XRD spectra and surface properties evidenced the success of pillaring process. The obtained solids present higher surface area and pore volume than conventionally prepared Al-Fe pillared clays. The main advantages of the microwave methodology are the considerable reduction of the synthesis time and the consumption of water. The microwave-derived Al-Fe pillared clays have been tested for catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) of phenol in a stirred tank at 160°C and 20 bar of pure oxygen pressure. These materials are efficient for CWAO of phenol and are highly stable despite the severe operating conditions (acidic media, high pressure, high temperature). The catalyst deactivation was also significantly hindered when compared to conventionally prepared clays. Al-Fe pillared clays prepared by microwave methodology are promising as catalysts for CWAO industrial water treatment.

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Physico‐mechanical and Flammability Properties of Cyrtostachys renda Fibers Reinforced Phenolic Resin Bio-composites

Journal of Polymers and the Environment - The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of fiber length and loading on physico-mechanical and flammability properties of Cyrtostachys renda (CR)...     

Impact of Silver Nanoparticles Synthesized by Irradiated Polyvinylpyrrolidone on Spodoptera littoralis Nucleopolyhedrosis Virus Activity

Journal of Polymers and the Environment - A Green nanomaterial synthesis could be considered as an alternative bio-controller source of insect pest management as well as saving the environment....     

Mechanochemical activation for lead extraction from spent cathode ray tube

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - In this study, a mechanochemical activation technique to effectually extract lead from the funnel glass of cathode ray tube (CRT) is proposed. A...     

Fiscal spending and the environment: Theory and empirics

During economic crises, governments often increase fiscal spending to stimulate the economy. While the fiscal spending surge may be temporary, spending composition is often altered in favor of expenditures on social programs and other public goods which may persist over time. We model and measure the impact of fiscal spending patterns on the environment. The model predicts that a reallocation of government spending composition towards social and public goods reduces pollution. However, increasing total government spending without altering its composition does not reduce pollution. We empirically test these predictions for air and water pollutants showing that they are fully supported.     

Integrated remote sensing and GIS techniques for landslide hazard zonation: a case study Wadi Watier area,South Sinai,Egypt

Natural hazard analysis involves mapping and identifying future hazardous zones through the analysis of the controls influencing hazard initiation and occurrence. One of such natural hazard is the landslide. Landslides are amongst the most costly and damaging natural hazards especially in mountain regions and are triggered mainly by seismic activity and/or rainfall. The aim of the present study is to integrate Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) tools to create thematic layers for assessment and the estimation of landslide hazard zones in and surrounding the Wadi Watier area, South Sinai, Egypt. Various factors, variables and/or parameters can be derived from thematic layers such as lithology, structural lineaments, land-cover/land-use, terrain analysis and earthquakes. Intensity risk layers were created by using ERDAS Imagine 9.2, ARC GIS 9.2 and ARC INFO 7.2.1 software. Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+7) Landsat satellite images were used to discriminate and extract structural lineaments, lithology and land-use/land-cover variables for the study area. The Digital Elevation Model (DEM) was generated from digitized topographic maps to produce terrain analysis maps such as; slope, aspect, height elevation, and 3D. The weighting score rating system based on the relative importance of various causal factors derived from RS data and other thematic layers was used for landslide hazard zonation (LHZ). Based on these data, a simple algorithm was created to classify the area into different risk zones. By overlaying all hazard layers a final landslide hazard map was produced. Using trial and error and statistical methods the weight score rating values have been readjusted. GIS integration with RS data can greatly facilitate classifying landslide hazard zones into low risk, moderate risk and high risk by using a slicing operation. Seismic data are integrated with final the LHZ to generate a LHZ scenario map for the future and to draw up an action plan of mitigation measures to avoid the damage, loss of life and socio-economic impacts in the study area.     

A combined frequency–severity approach for the analysis of rear-end crashes on urban arterials

Analysis of both the crash count and the severity of injury are required to provide the complete picture of the safety situation of any given roadway. The randomness of crashes, the one-way dependency of injury on crash occurrence and the difference in response types have typically led researchers into developing independent statistical models for crash count and severity classification. The Genetic Programming (GP) methodology adopts the concepts of evolutionary biology such as crossover and mutation in effectively giving a common heuristic approach to model the development for the two different modeling objectives. The chosen GP models have the highest hit rate for rear-end crash classification problem and the least error for function fitting (regression) problems. Higher Average Daily Traffic (ADT) is more likely to result in more crashes. Absence of on-street parking may result in diminished severity of injuries resulting from crashes as they may provide “soft” crash barrier in contrast to fixed road side objects. Graphical presentation of the frequency of crashes with varying input variables shed new light on the results and its interpretation. Higher friction coefficient of roadways result in reduced frequency of crashes during the morning peak hours, with the trend being reversed during the afternoon peak hours. Crash counts have been observed to be at a maximum at a surface width of 30 ft. Sensitivity analysis results reflect that ADT is responsible for the largest variation in crash counts on urban arterials.     

Ecofriendly Zinc Oxide-Decorated Poly-3-hydroxyalkanoate—graft—Poly-Methyl Acrylate Copolymer Film for Photocatalysis-Mediated Water Treatment

Journal of Polymers and the Environment - The application of microbiologically produced polymer, i.e., medium-chain-length poly-3-hydroxyalkanoate (mcl-PHA), in environmental remediation technology...     

Production and Characterization of Sodium Alginate/Gum Arabic Based Films Enriched with Syzygium cumini Seeds Extracts for Food Application

Journal of Polymers and the Environment - Biodegradable sodium alginate/gum Arabic (SG) films were obtained. The influence of Syzygium cumini seeds extract (SCSE) incorporation in SG films on...