活性炭吸附室内空气中挥发性有机化合物

活性炭吸附室内空气中挥发性有机化合物的１０％穿透时间与气相浓度及挥发性有机化合物的种类有关,通过对苯、甲苯和丙酮的实验研究,得出了由高浓度估算室内低浓度时炭床１０％穿透时间的经验公式ｔｂ,１＝ｔｂ,ｈ（Ｃ０,１／Ｃ０,ｈ）＾ａ,其中ａ值是与炭床性能及挥发性有机化合物种类有关的参数,可通过实验确定。     

氧化亚铁硫杆菌对亚铁离子的氧化及其动力学研究

采用9K培养基研究了氧化亚铁硫杆菌氧化Fe^2＋过程中,pH和氧化还原电位的变化规律,并对Fe^2＋的氧化过程进行动力学分析,确定了其反应级数及反应速率常数。结果表明,（1）在温度为30℃,摇床转速为150r／min的条件下,氧化亚铁硫杆菌的最佳接种量为10．0％;（2）Fe^2＋初始质量浓度在11．39～21．72g／L时,随着浓度的增大,Fe^2＋达到100％转化率需要的时间增加;（3）氧化亚铁硫杆菌对Fe^2＋的氧化可近似看作一级反应,反应速率常数为0．0527～0．0788h。     

Application of slipstreamed air pollution control devices on waste-as-fuel processes

The recovery of energy from the combustion of municipal solid wastes is becoming an attractive alternative as landfill space becomes scarce and the availability of fossil fuels decreases. Particulate emissions from “waste-as-fuel” processes, however, may differ significantly in chemical and physical properties from particulate emissions produced by firing only coal. Such differences can affect the design and operation of air pollution control equipment. Presented in this paper are the results of a 2-month test program at Ames, Iowa, with a mobile electrostatic precipitator (ESP) and a mobile scrubber supplied by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Industrial Environmental Research Laboratory (IERL), Research Triangle Park. PEDCo Environmental, Inc., and Acurex Corporation jointly conducted the test program to examine the effect of burning refuse-derived fuel (RDF) on particulate and heavy metal control efficiencies. The mobile ESP was used only as a primary control device, whereas the mobile scrubber was tested both upstream and downstream of the existing full-scale ESP. This paper also presents a status report on a PEDCo test program with a pilot fabric filter at Ames.     

High velocity fabric filtration for control of coal-fired boilers

As a follow-up to a pilot study, a full scale investigation of applying high velocity fabric filtration to coal-fired boiler fly ash control was conducted. Two filter systems were separately applied to two 60,000 lb/h coal-fired boilers. Performance evaluations conducted over the course of a year included total mass removal efficiency and fractional efficiencies. One filtration system employed Teflon felt as the filter media while the second system employed Gore-Tex, a Polytetrofluorethylene (PTFE) laminate on PTFE woven backing. During the course of the year, a limited number of glass felt and woven glass bags were introduced into the house containing Gore-Tex. As a separate option, the second system was outfitted entirely with woven glass bags. Preliminary results indicate acceptable performance at air-to-cloth ratio of 6 to 1. Future plans call for utilizing one of the baghouse systems for SO₂ removal.     

Perceived stressors of climate vulnerability across scales in the Savannah zone of Ghana: a participatory approach

Smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are confronted with climatic and non-climatic stressors. Research attention has focused on climatic stressors, such as rainfall variability, with few empirical studies exploring non-climatic stressors and how these interact with climatic stressors at multiple scales to affect food security and livelihoods. This focus on climatic factors restricts understanding of the combinations of stressors that exacerbate the vulnerability of farming households and hampers the development of holistic climate change adaptation policies. This study addresses this particular research gap by adopting a multi-scale approach to understand how climatic and non-climatic stressors vary, and interact, across three spatial scales (household, community and district levels) to influence livelihood vulnerability of smallholder farming households in the Savannah zone of northern Ghana. This study across three case study villages utilises a series of participatory tools including semi-structured interviews, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. The incidence, importance, severity and overall risk indices for stressors are calculated at the household, community, and district levels. Results show that climatic and non-climatic stressors were perceived differently; yet, there were a number of common stressors including lack of money, high cost of farm inputs, erratic rainfall, cattle destruction of crops, limited access to markets and lack of agricultural equipment that crossed all scales. Results indicate that the gender of respondents influenced the perception and severity assessment of stressors on rural livelihoods at the community level. Findings suggest a mismatch between local and district level priorities that have implications for policy and development of agricultural and related livelihoods in rural communities. Ghana’s climate change adaptation policies need to take a more holistic approach that integrates both climatic and non-climatic factors to ensure policy coherence between national climate adaptation plans and District development plans.     

When experts disagree: the need to rethink indicator selection for assessing sustainability of agriculture

Sustainability indicators are well recognized for their potential to assess and monitor sustainable development of agricultural systems. A large number of indicators are proposed in various sustainability assessment frameworks, which raises concerns regarding the validity of approaches, usefulness and trust in such frameworks. Selecting indicators requires transparent and well-defined procedures to ensure the relevance and validity of sustainability assessments. The objective of this study, therefore, was to determine whether experts agree on which criteria are most important in the selection of indicators and indicator sets for robust sustainability assessments. Two groups of experts (Temperate Agriculture Research Network and New Zealand Sustainability Dashboard) were asked to rank the relative importance of eleven criteria for selecting individual indicators and of nine criteria for balancing a collective set of indicators. Both ranking surveys reveal a startling lack of consensus amongst experts about how best to measure agricultural sustainability and call for a radical rethink about how complementary approaches to sustainability assessments are used alongside each other to ensure a plurality of views and maximum collaboration and trust amongst stakeholders. To improve the transparency, relevance and robustness of sustainable assessments, the context of the sustainability assessment, including prioritizations of selection criteria for indicator selection, must be accounted for. A collaborative design process will enhance the acceptance of diverse values and prioritizations embedded in sustainability assessments. The process by which indicators and sustainability frameworks are established may be a much more important determinant of their success than the final shape of the assessment tools. Such an emphasis on process would make assessments more transparent, transformative and enduring.     

Glutathione S-transferase gene polymorphisms in association with susceptibility to lead toxicity in lead- and cadmium-exposed children near an abandoned lead-zinc mining area in Kabwe,Zambia

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Interindividual genetic variations determine human’s susceptibility to heavy metal-induced toxicity. Thus, we analyzed blood concentrations of...     

Direct degradation of methylene blue by unactivated peroxymonosulfate: reaction parameters,kinetics, and mechanism

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are efficient methods for water purification. However, there are few studies on using peroxymonosulfate (PMS) to...