A multi-criteria approach to screening alternatives for converting sewage sludge to biodiesel

The search for cheaper feedstock for use in the production of biofuels such as biodiesel has turned attention to various forms of waste products including animal fats, waste oils and now lipids in sludge. With the potential of obtaining sludge at a reduced cost, free, or possibly with incentives, sewage sludge is being investigated as a potential feedstock for biofuel production. For the extraction of oils from the sewage sludge and the subsequent processing, there are various alternatives that should be designed, analyzed, and screened. In developing and screening these alternatives, it is necessary to have a consistent basis for comparing alternatives based on key criteria. While most of the design studies focus on techno-economic criteria, it is also important to include safety metrics in the multi-criteria analysis. In this work, a detailed economic analysis and a safety evaluation are performed on a process involving extraction of triglycerides and fatty acids, pre-treatment of fatty acids (direct conversion to biodiesel), and transesterification of triglycerides to biodiesel. Four solvents, toluene, hexane, methanol and ethanol, are individually used in the extraction process. The resulting triglycerides and fatty acids from each extraction are modeled in the pre-treatment process. ASPEN Plus software is used to simulate the detailed process. Economic analysis is performed using ASPEN ICARUS, and scale-up of a previously analyzed process is used to estimate the cost of the biodiesel portion of the process. A new safety metric (referred to as the Safety Index “SI”) is introduced to enable comparison of the various solvent extraction processes. The SI is based on solvent criteria as well as process conditions. A case study is presented to demonstrate the insights and usefulness of the developed approach. The results of the techno-economic analysis reveal that of the four solvents used for the initial extraction, hexane and toluene were least costly (2.89 and 2.79 $/gal, respectively). Conversely, the safety analysis utilizing the SI reveals that methanol and ethanol are the safer solvent options. The issue of cost/safety tradeoffs is also discussed.     

Determinants of deforestation in Nepal's Central Development Region

The process of deforestation in the Central Development Region (CDR) of Nepal is diverse in space and time, with rapid deforestation still occurring in areas outside the national parks and wildlife reserves. This paper identifies the spatial driving forces (SDFs) of deforestation in the CDR for 1975–2000 using satellite data of 1975 (MSS), 1990 (TM), and 2000 (ETM+) along with socio-demographic and socioeconomic variables. Radiometrically calibrated satellite images are individually classified into seven distinct classes and merged together to cover the entire CDR. Classification accuracies are also assessed. Areas of land use and cover within the areas of each Village Development Committee (VDC) and municipality represented by GIS polygons are calculated from the classified images by overlaying vector files of 1845 polygons representing sections of VDCs and municipalities in 30–1199 m, 1200–2399 m, 2400–4999 m and >5000 m elevation levels. These elevation levels were estimated from the DEM compiled from 24 ASTER scenes taken on different dates. Only the first three elevation levels are used in the analysis because area >5000 m is under permanent snow cover where human related forestry activities are almost negligible. A transition matrix is generated for 1975–1990 using classified images of 1975 and 1990 and then this product is used to further develop another transition matrix for 1990–2000 with the classified ETM+ 2000 images as the final stage. The GIS polygon layer is overlaid on the transition matrices to calculate deforestation areas for 1975–1990 and 1990–2000. Biophysical and socioeconomic information collected from various sources is then brought into a GIS platform for statistical analyses. Six linear regression models are estimated using SAS; in effect, two models for each elevation range representing the 1975–1990 and 1990–2000 periods of change to identify SDF influences on deforestation. These regression analyses reveal that deforestation in the CDR is related to multiple factors, such as farming population, genders of various ages, migration, elevation, road, distance from road to forest, meandering and erosion of river, and most importantly the conversion of forestland into farmland.     

A new method for risk assessment of pillar recovery operation

Safe pillar recovery operations can result in better miner safety and more efficient recovery of ore reserves. Several parameters influence on safety of pillar recovery operation. Each of these parameters is able to reduce safety of operation and cause to detrimental effects during pillar recovery. In this paper, by emphasizing ground control aspects, the most important technical parameters influencing on safety of pillar recovery are introduced and the role of them is described. Then, a new method is presented by combining all of these parameters to assess overall risk of pillar recovery operation in pre-developed room and pillar mines. The proposed method involves calculating the PR-Risk (Pillar Recovery-Risk) indicator. PR-Risk value is between 0 and 100 that based on overall risk of pillar recovery operation divides into four categories: low, medium, high, and very high. PR-Risk is an important indicator for predicting the safety of pillar recovery operation and based on it decision can be made about the safe implementation of operation. Finally, the overall risk of pillar recovery operation in main panel of Tabas Central Mine, located in the mid eastern of Iran, is assessed by use of proposed method in this paper. PR-Risk value in this panel was obtained 51 that show overall risk of operation is medium. Moreover, based on individual assessment of parameters, for the safe implementation of operation and reduction of related risks, reinforcement of roof prior to beginning of operation and partial pillar extraction have been suggested as the most efficient controlling measures.     

Impact of petroleum industry on goats in Saudi Arabia: heavy metal accumulation,oxidative stress,and tissue injury

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Heavy metals (HMs) constitute a group of persistent toxic pollutants, and the petroleum industry is one of the sources of these metals. This study...     

Health risk assessment of occupational exposure to styrene in Neyshabur electronic industries

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Styrene is one of the essential components in making thousands of everyday products. Occupational exposure to styrene causes pulmonary, neurological,...     

Natural resistance of rose petals to microbial attack

Petals of red, yellow and white roses (Rosa damascene Mill.) of the family Rosaceae were extracted with (1:1) methylene chloride/methanol and tested for their antimicrobial activities against four species of Gram-positive bacteria (Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, Micrococcus luteus and Staphylococcus aureus), five species of Gram-negative bacteria (Enterobacter aerogenes, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Serratia marcescens) and five species of fungi (Penicillium notatum, Aspergillus niger, Rhizopus stolonifer, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Fusarium oxysporum). All of the crude extracts showed a wide range of antimicrobial activities according to the tested organism and rose's type. Micrococcus luteus was found to be the most susceptible bacteria to all crude extracts. Red and yellow petal extracts showed much higher antibacterial activity than the white petals extract. Bacillus subtilis was found to be the least susceptible to all extracts. The fungus, Penicillium notatum was found to be the most susceptible with white petal extract being the most effective. Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Fusarium oxysporum were the least susceptible to all extracts. White roses extract showed much higher antifungal activities against Penicillium notatum than red or yellow roses, therefore, it was subjected to several bioassay guided chromatographic fractionations and purification to isolate the active chemical(s) responsible for the antifungal activity. Chemical structure of the isolated antifungal compounds were identified by spectroscopy techniques and found to be a γ-sitosterol and (Z,Z)-9,12-octadecadienoic acid. Antibacterial activity of the various types of rose extracts were due to complex mixtures of organic compounds which are still under chemical investigation and will be published later.     

Residue levels of organochlorine pesticides in some ecosystem components of Manzala Lake

To evaluate the organochlorine pesticide (OCP) contamination of Manzala Lake, its ecosystem was investigated during the winter season (December to March). The studied ecosystem components were water, sediment, aquatic weeds, and fishes in four locations. The samples were analyzed by gas chromatography with electron capture detector. Pollutant levels of total OCPs showed significantly high levels in the water areas of Round road (46.253 ng/ml), Port-Said Damietta road (19.301 ng/ml), followed by Bughas El-Rasoah (5.539 ng/ml), then Ashtoum El Gamel (natural reserve area now) (0.289 ng/ml). Organochlorines were detected in sediment only in Round road (3.359 μg/kg) and Port-Said Damietta road (0.171 μg/kg) by significant order while they were undetectable in Ashtoum El Gamel and Bughas El-Rasoah. Total OCPs in aquatic weeds ranged between 0.194 μg/kg in Port-Said Damietta and 0.026 μg/kg in Ashtoum El Gamel. While OCPs were 0.160 and 0.153 μg/kg in Round road and Bughas El-Rasoah, respectively. Concerning fish muscles OCPs were significantly higher in the Round road area (0.397 μg/kg) followed by the Port-Said Damietta road (0.258 μg/kg), and finally, Ashtoum El Gamel samples (0.126 μg/kg). The results revealed the direct relation for the accumulation of OCPs between studied ecosystem parameters at the Manzala Lake during the winter season. Results also demonstrated that fish samples collected from the Manzala Lake in the studied areas were contaminated with levels of organochlorines, not higher than the maximum permissible level recorded by FAO/WHO, and that the public is not at risk with fish consumption.     

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF FRESH-SALT WATER INTERFACES USING FINITE ELEMENT AND SIMPLE APPROACHES

ABSTRACT: The fresh-salt water interface in artesian aquifers has been investigated by various techniques on the basis of its analogy to the free surface in earth dams or cores of dams. Although various approximations are used, some more or less exact solutions exist. One of the simple methods, that would appeal to practical workers, was developed by the analysis of hydraulic forces. However, this method has not been checked thoroughly due to the lack of wide ranges of coverage by the more or less exact solutions. In this paper a suggested finite element method is used for the purpose of comparing with the method of hydraulic forces. The presented procedure eliminates some of the difficulties and uncertainties in current finite element procedures. Both methods proved to be in close agreement. Moreover, the hydraulic heads along the upper boundary of the artesian aquifer were found to be in close agreement with Dupuit's equation. The results of this investigation would greatly simplify the more complex management problems when the effects of discharge and/or recharge wells are added to the natural flow effects.     

Experimental study of the stack geometric parameters effect on the resonance frequency of a standing wave thermoacoustic refrigerator

Thermoacoustic refrigeration is an emerging technology that makes use of acoustic power to pump heat. The resonance frequency is important for the performance of thermoacoustic refrigerators, as it affects the temperature difference across the stack. This paper aims to optimize the performance of thermoacoustic refrigerators by experimentally investigating the effect of the stack geometric parameters (i.e. stack position, stack length, and the stack size) on the resonance frequency of a standing wave loudspeaker driven thermoacoustic refrigerator. Celcor Ceramic stacks of normalized positions of 0.764, 1.05, 1.43, and 1.72, normalized lengths of 0.076, 0.114, 0.153, and 0.191, and two porosities of 0.8 and 0.85 are used. The clarification of the relationship between the stack geometric parameters and the resonance frequency of the thermoacoustic refrigerator is presented. Moreover, the coefficient of performance of the thermoacoustic refrigerator is observed to increase at the resonance frequency of each stack configuration.