Reproduction in mice treated with crufomate: effects of dermal treatments on female mice and on their progeny.

Dermal treatments with crufomate 100 or 50 mg/kg or crufomate vehicle 100 mg/kg were applied to mice either on days 35 and 21 before mating or on days 70, 56, 35, and 21 before mating. Two, but not four dermal treatments, with both doses of crufomate reduced the mating reponse and conception rate in mice. The mice either did not produce a litter or the litter died before the age of 7 days. Four treatments with crufomate 100 mg/kg, but not with 50 mg/kg, reduced the weaning weight of progeny weaned at the age of 21 days. The vehicle had no effects on reproduction and increased the weights at maturity of female and male progeny of mice given two and four treatments, respectively.     

Bioavailability to rats of bound [14C] pirimiphos-methyl in stored wheat.

Stored wheat treated with radiolabelled pirimiphos-methyl (0-2-diethyl-amino-6-methyl-pyrimidin-4-yl 0,0-dimethyl phosphorothioate) formed bound (nonextractable) 14C residues. Supercritical fluid extraction, gas chromatography and mass spectrometric techniques were used to identify and quantitate the 14C bound residues in wheat grains. The amount of bound 14C residues present after 28 weeks of storage was about 9.9% of the applied radioactivity. Pirimiphos-methyl accounted for 80% of the bound residue. Grain-bound residues were fed to rats for 5 days. After a total period of 8 days a substantially large percentage of the administered bound 14C residues (72.9%) was eliminated in urine while feces contained only 17.9%. Bound pirimiphos-methyl in wheat grain was metabolized in rats by processes involving hydrolysis, N-dealkylation and 0-demethylation. The results indicate that wheat-bound residues of pirimiphos-methyl are highly bioavailable to the rat and may possess a toxicological potential as manifested by a significant reduction in body weight gain.     

Used lubricating oil recycling using hydrocarbon solvents

A solvent extraction process using new hydrocarbon solvents was employed to treat used lubricant oil. The solvents used were liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) condensate and stabilized condensate. A demulsifier was used to enhance the treatment process. The extraction process using stabilized condensate demonstrated characteristics that make it competitive with existing used oil treatment technologies. The process is able to reduce the asphaltene content of the treated lubricating oil to 0.106% (w/w), the ash content to 0.108%, and the carbon residue to 0.315% with very low levels of contaminant metals. The overall yield of oil is 79%. The treated used oil can be recycled as base lubricating oil. The major disadvantage of this work is the high temperature of solvent recovery. Experimental work and results are presented in detail.     

The international tin agreement, 1976: An assessment of its regulatory machinery as an instrument of international policy

The author examines the provisions of the New International Economic Order (NIEO), and maintains that with or without a Common Fund, International Commodity Agreements are, and will remain, a recognized instrument for achieving the objectives of the NIEO. Because of various factors conducive to effective organization — including the convergence of interests among producing and consuming countries — the International Tin Agreement (ITA) has made some useful contributions. But wider objectives can only be achieved by appropriate structural reforms in commodity organization.     

Potential contributions of clay minerals and organic matter to pentachlorophenol retention in soils

Sorption of pentachlorophenol (PCP) by pure minerals and humic acids were measured to obtain additional perspective on the potential contributions of both clay minerals and soil organic matter (SOM) to contaminants retention in soils. Four types of common soil minerals and two kinds of humic acids (HAs) were tested. The sorption affinity for PCP conformed to an order of HAs > K-montmorillonite > Ca-montmorillonite > goethite > kaolinite. Such a difference in sorption capacity could be attributed to the crucial control of HAs. Clay minerals also had their contribution, especially K-montmorillonite, which played an important, if not dominant, role in the controlling process of PCP sorption. By removing 80% (on average) of the organic carbon from the soils with H(2)O(2), the sorption decreased by an average of 50%. The sorption reversibility had been greatly favored as well. Considering the uncharged mineral fractions in soil before and after H(2)O(2)-treated, the main variation in sorption behavior of the soil might thus be related to the removed organic carbon and the reduced pH. This testified rightly the interactive effect of SOM and clay minerals on PCP sorption as a function of pH.     

Decomposition of heavy metal contaminated nettles (Urtica dioica L.) in soils subjected to heavy metal pollution by river sediments

Two incubation experiments were conducted to evaluate differences in the microbial use of non-contaminated and heavy metal contaminated nettle (Urtica dioica L.) shoot residues in three soils subjected to heavy metal pollution (Zn, Pb, Cu, and Cd) by river sediments. The microbial use of shoot residues was monitored by changes in microbial biomass C, biomass N, biomass P, ergosterol, N mineralisation, CO(2) production and O(2) consumption rates. Microbial biomass C, N, and P were estimated by fumigation extraction. In the non-amended soils, the mean microbial biomass C to soil organic C ratio decreased from 2.3% in the low metal soil to 1.1% in the high metal soils. In the 42-d incubation experiment, the addition of 2% nettle residues resulted in markedly increased contents of microbial biomass P (+240%), biomass C (+270%), biomass N (+310%), and ergosterol (+360%). The relative increase in the four microbial properties was similar for the three soils and did not show any clear heavy metal effect. The contents of microbial biomass C, N and P and ergosterol contents declined approximately by 30% during the incubation as in the non-amended soils. The ratios microbial biomass C to N, microbial biomass C to P, and ergosterol to microbial biomass C remained constant at 5.2, 26, and 0.5%, respectively. In the 6-d incubation experiment, the respiratory quotient CO(2)/O(2) increased from 0.74 in the low metal soil to 1.58 in the high metal soil in the non-amended soils. In the treatments amended with 4% nettle residues, the respiratory quotient was constant at 1.13, without any effects of the three soils or the two nettle treatments. Contaminated nettle residues led generally to significantly lower N mineralisation, CO(2) production and O(2) consumption rates than non-contaminated nettle residues. However, the absolute differences were small.     

Effect of copper on the adsorption of p-nitrophenol onto soils

The effect of copper on adsorption of p-nitrophenol on two typical Chinese soils was investigated using a batch-equilibration method. Adsorption experiments were carried out when both copper and p-nitrophenol were adsorbed simultaneously, and when copper was previously adsorbed on soils. It was observed that adsorption of p-nitrophenol decreased with increasing copper concentrations thereby indicating a competition between copper and p-nitrophenol for occupying the adsorption sites on soils. Moisture increased the hydrated sphere and the acidity of water surrounding the cation, which further reduced the adsorption of p-nitrophenol. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy study provided the direct evidence for the coordination of p-nitrophenol sorbed by soils with metal cation in n-hexane system. It was observed that the perturbations included a red shift of the nu(asym) (NO) band, a concomitant blue-shift of the nu(sym) (NO) band and a blue-shift of C-N band when compared with the infrared spectra obtained from water solution.     

Effective environmental management through life cycle assessment

Unplanned and unsustainable development (particularly rapid industrialisation) has placed great pressure in every dimension of the environment (air, water, soil, health, etc.). The resulting disturbance in the natural ecological balance is a serious concern. Sustainable development is the need of the hour; it can only be achieved through effective environmental management. Environmental management will become indispensable in the future as regulatory restrictions tighten and public expectations of environmental performance increase. The day is not far away when a customer will prefer to buy products produced by an environmentally committed organisation. In short, the environmental commitment of an organisation will become a market strategy.

Environmental management is a set of actions based on a structured methodology to ensure that an organisation is committed to the environment and that the production process has minimal/no adverse affect on it. This article emphasises environmental management in the real engineering sense of the term, and discusses how to develop an effective environmental management system through life cycle assessment. It further demonstrates through a real life case study how an industry has achieved landmark success in managing its environment, production, as well as winning the good faith of society.     

Risk-based asset integrity indicators

Asset integrity is a major concern of process facilities. Monitoring and assessing asset integrity is a challenging task due to the involvement of various dependent and independent parameters. Monitoring and assessing asset performance through indicators is one easily doable option. Lack of an appropriate set of indicators quantification technique and measurement cohesion limits the use of an indicator system. To overcome this, in the present paper a hierarchical framework is prepared to for asset integrity monitoring and assessment. The hierarchical structure is used to characterize the asset and relate it to an organization’s strategic goal. The hierarchical structure is based on three major areas of asset integrity, namely: mechanical, personnel and process. Further, it provides an opportunity to follow a bottom-up perspective for identifying multilevel level indicators. The proposed approach uses a risk metric to classify asset integrity through the integration of leading and lagging indicators’ outcome. The analytical hierarchy process is used to determine the weights, or for prioritization of each level indicator and for the aggregation of the indicators to classify risk. To test the proposed model, a benchmark study is conducted. The estimated asset integrity index value provides a tangible asset’s performance index. The system of indicators and their integration provide a comprehensive view of the process facility’s status and also reveal which sections of the facility need more attention.     

Fugitive emissions in chemical processes: The assessment and prevention based on inherent and add-on approaches

Fugitive emissions are among the major concerns of industrial process releases. The emissions cause problem to various aspects including the environment, health, and economic. Early evaluation of process hazards is beneficial because process can be made inherently benign at lower cost. This paper discusses two important aspects of fugitive emissions assessment during process design – the quantification and the prevention strategies.For the quantification part, three methods are presented for fugitive emissions estimation during the process design. They are tailored to data available in simple process flow diagram (PFD), detailed PFD, and piping & instrumentation diagram (PID). Such methods are needed as early emissions estimation allows production routes and process designs with lower emissions to be selected. The fugitive emissions estimation and methods to abatement are demonstrated on a benzene process case study. Valves are found to be the major emission source with 50% of fugitive emissions of process area in a base case of petrochemical process, in which no fugitive emission reductions are yet made. Pumps without mechanical seals come second with 30% and flanges with 8% of emissions. Inherently safer design keywords can be applied to prevent fugitive emissions in the process plants. Substitution is the most applicable keyword in fugitive emission reduction of existing plants.The emission rate calculations together with estimation of health risk give a sound background for the decision making on elimination of emissions at source through equipment and piping changes. The case study presented reveals that by substituting emission prone components by inherently low-leaking ones, the plant emissions can be reduced over 90% in practice. This is created mainly by replacing rising stem valves with ball valves, installing double mechanical pump seals or hermetic pumps and making changes in sampling and relief systems. Ideally by also changing flanges to welded connections, which is not viable for various reasons, the emissions could be reduced nearly to zero.