Selective supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) at 40 degrees C, 120 bar and 60 min was utilised as a means to estimate the bioavailable fraction of PCBs to chironomid larvae in a naturally contaminated limnic sediment. This extraction methodology removed about 50% of the PCBs from the sediment. According to the equilibrium partitioning theory, organisms in that sediment should decrease their uptake from the sediment to the same extent, biota-to-sediment accumulation factors (BSAFs) thus remaining constant. Surprisingly, the BSAFs for 11 PCB congeners decreased some 40% for the selectively extracted sediment as compared to BSAFs for organisms dwelling in untreated sediment. The results were statistically significant at the 0.001 level using a paired t-test. This can only be interpreted so that selective SFE removed easily available PCBs preferentially, leaving more tightly bound PCBs behind. Hence, by fine-tuning extraction conditions, this methodology might be used to estimate bioavailable fractions by chemical means. 相似文献
This paper focuses on the impact of an oscillating low-speed current on the structure and dynamics of the bottom-boundary layer (BBL) in a small stratified basin. A set of high-resolution current profile measurements in combination with temperature-microstructure measurements were collected during a complete cycle of the internal oscillation (`seiching') in the BBL of Lake Alpnach, Switzerland. It was found that even a relatively long seiching period of 24 hours significantly changed the form of the near-bottom current profiles as well as the dynamics of the turbulent dissipation rate compared to the steady-state law-of-the-wall. A logarithmic fit to the measured current profiles starting at a distance of 0.5 m above the sediment led to inconsistent estimates of both friction velocity and roughness length. Moreover, a phase lag between the current and the turbulent dissipation of 1.5 hours and a persistent maximum in the current profile at a height of 2.5 to 3 m above the sediment were observed. The experimental findings were compared to the results of a k- turbulence model and showed good agreement in general. Specifically, the inconsistent logarithmic fitting results and the observed phase lag were reproduced well by the model. 相似文献
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an economically attractive strategy for avoiding carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from, e.g., power plants to the atmosphere. The combination of CCS and biomass combustion would result in a reduction of atmospheric CO2, or net negative emissions, as plant growth is a form of sequestration of atmospheric carbon. Carbon capture can be achieved in a variety of ways, one of which is chemical looping. Chemical-looping combustion (CLC) and chemical looping gasification (CLG) are two promising technologies for conversion of biomass to heat and power or syngas/methane with carbon capture. There have been significant advances made with respect to CLC in the last two decades for all types of fuel, with much less research on the gasification technology. CLG offers some interesting opportunities for production of biofuels together with carbon capture and may have several advantages with respect to the bench mark indirect gasification process or dual-bed fluidized bed (DFBG) in this respect. In CLG, an oxygen carrier is used as a bed material instead of sand, which is common in indirect gasification, and this could have several advantages: (i) all generated CO2 is present together with the syngas or methane in the fuel reactor outlet stream, thus in a concentrated stream, viable for separation and capture; (ii) the air reactor (or combustion chamber) should largely be free from trace impurities, thus preventing corrosion and fouling in this reactor; and (iii) the highly oxidizing conditions in the fuel reactor together with solid oxide surfaces should be advantageous with respect to limiting formation of tar species. In this study, two manganese ores and an iron-based waste material, LD slag, were investigated with respect to performance in these chemical-looping technologies. The materials were also impregnated with alkali (K) in order to gauge possible catalytic effects and also to establish a better understanding of the general behavior of oxygen carriers with alkali, an important component in biomass and biomass waste streams and often a precursor for high-temperature corrosion. The viability of the oxygen carriers was investigated using a synthetic biogas in a batch fluidized bed reactor. The conversion of CO, H2, CH4, and C2H4 was investigated in the temperature interval 800–950 °C. The reactivity, or oxygen transfer rate, was highest for the manganese ores, followed by the LD slag. The conversion of C2H4 was generally high but could largely be attributed to thermal decomposition. The K-impregnated samples showed enhanced reactivity during combustion conditions, and the Mangagran-K sample was able to achieve full conversion of benzene. The interaction of the solid material with alkali showed widely different behavior. The two manganese ores retained almost all alkali after redox testing, albeit exhibiting different migration patterns inside the particles. LD slag lost most alkali to the gas phase during testing, although some remained, possibly explaining a small difference in reactivity. In summary, the CLC and CLG processes could clearly be interesting for production of heat, power, or biofuel with negative CO2 emissions. Manganese ores are most promising from this study, as they could absorb alkali, giving a better conversion and perhaps also inhibiting or limiting corrosion mechanisms in a combustor or gasifier.
Forest growth simulators go beyond a mere tabulation of empirical measurements by employing biometric models that functionally describe the dependence of forest growth of the initial forest structure, growth conditions and management regime. This makes them very flexible and allows predicting growth reactions for unknown and/or complex forest growth scenarios. When simulation outcomes are to be used in silvicultural strategic planning, the results are of direct and delicate importance, and the correct simulator performance must be ascertained. This is especially so when the considered forest situation differs from the forest data used to parameterise the model (e.g. different geographical region).In this article, the forest growth simulator SILVA (version 2.2) was validated for 55 long-term experimental plots of mature mixed Silver fir–Norway spruce stands in southwest Germany (Picea abies, Abies alba). The evaluation was restricted to the upper canopy trees during the survey period 1989–2004. Following the general evaluation criteria for ecological models from [Vanclay, J.K., Skovsgaard, J.P., 1997. Evaluating forest growth models. Ecol. Mod. 98, 1–12], a specific methodology was developed to evaluate the simulated height and diameter growth on the basis of forest growth principles.The qualitative analysis proved the SILVA growth algorithms to be in accordance with physiologically based standard growth equations. The quantitative evaluation was limited by incomplete knowledge of the site conditions. To overcome this problem, the experimental plots were regarded as a “heterogeneous growth series” which allows analysing the growth behaviour in a more general way. It could be shown that for the given data set, the SILVA simulations produced an overestimation of height growth (median: +61% spruce, +12% fir), and an underestimation of diameter growth and competition sensitivity (median: ?16% spruce, ?70% fir). The errors partially compensated in the volume growth resulting in an overall over-/underestimation of +9% for spruce and ?58% for fir (median).The unbalanced height and diameter growth cannot be compensated by a change in the site conditions because this affects both height and diameter growth either positive or negative. Hence, an adjustment of selected parameterisation values appears to offer the best solution to adapt SILVA to the considered forest situation. This approach of adaptive parameterisation is discussed against a more general background of deductive vs. inductive forest growth modelling. 相似文献
We examined root hydraulic conductivity (Lp) responses of one-year-old seedlings of four conifers to the combined effects of elevated CO2 and inorganic nitrogen (N) sources. We found marked interspecific differences in Lp responses to high CO2 ranging from a 37% increase in P. abies to a 27% decrease in P. menziesii, but these effects depended on N source. The results indicate that CO2 effects on root water transport may be coupled to leaf area responses under nitrate (NO3−), but not ammonium (NH4+) dominated soils. To our knowledge, this is the first study that highlights the role of inorganic N source and species identity as critical factors that determine plant hydraulic responses to rising atmospheric CO2 levels. The results have important implications for understanding root biology in a changing climate and for models designed to predict feedbacks between rising atmospheric CO2, N deposition, and ecohydrology. 相似文献
Chemical-looping combustion is a novel combustion technology with inherent separation of the greenhouse gas CO2. The technology uses circulating oxygen carriers to transfer oxygen from the combustion air to the fuel. In this paper, oxygen carriers based on commercially available NiO and α-Al2O3 were prepared using the industrial spray-drying method, and compared with particles prepared by freeze-granulation. The materials were investigated under alternating oxidizing and reducing conditions in a laboratory fluidized bed, thus simulating the cyclic conditions of a chemical-looping combustion system. The particles produced by spray-drying displayed a remarkable similarity to the freeze-granulated oxygen carriers, with high reactivity when the bed was fluidized and similar physical properties when sintered at the same temperature. This is an important result as it shows that the scaling-up from a laboratory production method, i.e. freeze-granulation, to a commercial method suitable for large-scale production, i.e. spray-drying, did not involve any unexpected difficulties. A difference noticed between the spray-dried and freeze-granulated particles was the sphericity. Whereas the freeze-granulated particles showed near perfect sphericity, a large portion of the spray-dried particles had hollow interiors. Defluidization was most likely to occur for highly reduced particles, at low gas velocities. The apparent density and crushing strength of the oxygen carriers could be increased either by increasing the sintering temperature or by increasing the sintering time. However, the fuel conversion was fairly unchanged when the sintering temperature was increased but was clearly improved when the sintering time was increased. 相似文献