The Application of Chemical Leasing Business Models in Mexico

- DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1065/espr2006.02.294 Background, Aim and Scope. To better address the requirements of the changing multilateral order, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Cleaner Production Programme, in 2004, developed the new Sustainable Industrial Resource Management (SIRM) approach. This approach is in accordance with the principles decided at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. Unlike the traditional approaches to environmental management, the SIRM concept captures the idea of achieving sustainable industrial development through the implementation of circular material and energy flows in the entire production chain and reduction of the amount of material and energy used with greater efficiency solutions. The SIRM approach seeks to develop new models to encourage a shift from selling products to supplying services, modifying, in this manner, the supplier/user relationship and resulting in a win-win situation for the economy and the environment. Chemical Leasing represents such a new service-oriented business model and is currently being promoted by UNIDO′s Cleaner Production Programme. Main Features. One of the potential approaches to address the problems related to ineffective use and over-consumption of chemicals is the development and implementation of Chemical Leasing business models. These provide concrete solutions to the effective management of chemicals and on the ways negative releases to the environment can be reduced. The Chemical Leasing approach is a strategy that addresses the obligations of the changing international chemicals policy by focusing on a more service-oriented strategy. Mexico is one of the countries that were selected for the implementation of UNIDO's demonstration project to promote Chemical Leasing models in the country. The target sector of this project is the chemical industry, which is expected to shift their traditional business concept towards a more service and value-added approach. This is being achieved through the development of company specific business models that implement the above-indicated Chemical Leasing concept with the support from the Mexican National Cleaner Production Centre (NCPC). Results and Conclusions. The implementation of Chemical Leasing in Mexico has proven to be an efficient instrument in enhancing sustainable chemical management and significantly reducing emissions in Mexico. Several companies from the chemical industrial sector implement or agreed to implement chemical leasing business models. Based on the positive findings of the project, several Mexican companies started to negotiate contents of possible Chemical Leasing contracts with suitable business partners. The project further aimed at disseminating information on Chemical Leasing. It successfully attracted globally operating companies in the chemicals sector to explore possibilities to implement Chemical Leasing business models in Mexico. At the international level, the results of the UNIDO project were presented on 20TH September 2005 during a side event of the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) Preparation Conference in Vienna. Recommendations and Outlook. To facilitate the promotion and application of Chemical Leasing project at international level, UNIDO is currently developing a number of tools to standardize Chemical Leasing projects. These include, among others, Chemical leasing contract models; Chemical Leasing data base to find partners for chemical leasing; and guidelines to implement Chemical Leasing projects and work programmes.     

Contesting neoliberal knowledge politics in restoration governance: the restorationist’s dilemma

ABSTRACT

The success of ecological restoration efforts is tightly coupled with the effectiveness of many U.S. environmental policies. Yet scholars have raised questions about the ability of restoration to produce intended results. We use a case study of tidal wetland restoration planning in Oregon to examine how neoliberal environmental governance exercises influence through a set of knowledge politics that produces subpar outcomes. We present three main findings: (1) restoration policies produce a restoration economy based on a conception of wetland as commodity (2) practitioners in this restoration economy exhibit competitive behavior resulting in a piecemeal rather than a landscape approach to restoration; and (3) limited monitoring prevents changes to existing policies. Practitioners offer insight into the challenge of treating wetlands as a commodity and call for more monitoring to challenge the assumptions of hegemonic knowledge practices that reinforce a neoliberal environmental governance regime. The divergent ideas of reflexive practitioners, though not yet manifest as action, show where changes to restoration governance might be possible.     

Major, minor and trace element content derived from aquacultural activity of marine sediments (Central Adriatic, Croatia)

Introduction and purpose

Studies examining the environmental impact of marine aquaculture have increased significantly in number during the last few decades. The present paper investigates a region of rapid growth in intensive aquaculture and its influence on the local marine ecosystem.

Discussion

This study was undertaken with the specific aim of assessing the effect of fish farming on marine sediment at a farm near the island of Vrgada in the Central Adriatic. Data obtained regarding major (Si, Al, K, Na, Fe, Ca, Mg), minor (Mn, P, Ti) and trace (As, Au, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Ga, Hf, Hg, Mo, Nb, Ni, Pb, Rb, Sb, Sc, Se, Sr, Ta, Th, Tl, U, V, Y, Zn, Zr) elements were used to estimate the spatial and temporal distribution of metals in the sediment and their possible relationship with local aquacultural activity.

Results

Although the measured concentrations of heavy metals in sediment below fish cages were notably different and potentially a result of farming activity, the values were generally lower than background concentrations observed in the Central Adriatic. In contrast, concentrations of heavy metals at a reference site unaffected by aquaculture varied from lower levels to values even higher than those observed below the high-production cages. Furthermore, calculated environmental index values indicate that the sediment below the farm is either uncontaminated or suffers from only low levels of contamination.

Conclusion

Such results suggest that the effect of observed fish farm activity on the local marine ecosystem is practically negligible.     

Limitations for heavy metal release during thermo-chemical treatment of sewage sludge ash

Phosphate recycling from sewage sludge can be achieved by heavy metal removal from sewage sludge ash (SSA) producing a fertilizer product: mixing SSA with chloride and treating this mixture (eventually after granulation) in a rotary kiln at 1000 ± 100 °C leads to the formation of volatile heavy metal compounds that evaporate and to P-phases with high bio-availability. Due to economical and ecological reasons, it is necessary to reduce the energy consumption of this technology. Generally, fluidized bed reactors are characterized by high heat and mass transfer and thus promise the saving of energy. Therefore, a rotary reactor and a fluidized bed reactor (both laboratory-scale and operated in batch mode) are used for the treatment of granulates containing SSA and CaCl₂. Treatment temperature, residence time and - in case of the fluidized bed reactor - superficial velocity are varied between 800 and 900 °C, 10 and 30 min and 3.4 and 4.6 m s⁻¹. Cd and Pb can be removed well (>95 %) in all experiments. Cu removal ranges from 25% to 84%, for Zn 75-90% are realized. The amount of heavy metals removed increases with increasing temperature and residence time which is most pronounced for Cu.In the pellet, three major reactions occur: formation of HCl and Cl₂ from CaCl₂; diffusion and reaction of these gases with heavy metal compounds; side reactions from heavy metal compounds with matrix material. Although, heat and mass transfer are higher in the fluidized bed reactor, Pb and Zn removal is slightly better in the rotary reactor. This is due the accelerated migration of formed HCl and Cl₂ out of the pellets into the reactor atmosphere. Cu is apparently limited by the diffusion of its chloride thus the removal is higher in the fluidized bed unit.     

Spatial distribution of trace metals in the Krka River, Croatia: an example of the self-purification

The spatial distribution of dissolved and total trace metals (Zn, Cd, Pb and Cu) in the Krka River (partly located in the Krka National Park) has been studied using a "clean" sampling, handling and analysis technique. Differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry (DPASV) with a hanging mercury drop electrode (HMDE) has been used for trace metal analysis. The Krka River has been divided into the upper and lower flow region with respect to the metals concentration and main physico-chemical parameters. A significant increase in trace metal concentration as the result of the untreated waste water discharge downstream of Knin Town has been registered in the upper flow region. Due to a specific characteristic of the Krka, the so-called self-purification process, a decrease in the elevated trace metals concentration from the water column takes place at numerous small lakes formed by tufa barriers (at the end of the upper flow region). The clean groundwater input at the beginning of the lower flow region additionally contributes to the observed decrease in trace metals concentration in the Krka, maintaining them at a very low level in the remaining region of fresh-water flow. The determined median total concentrations were zinc 120-7400 ng l(-1), cadmium 3-8 ng l(-1), lead 11-250 ng l(-1) and copper 110-440 ng l(-1). Karst rivers, such as the Krka River, with extremely low natural concentrations of trace metals are highly sensitive to the anthropogenic influence. Therefore, such aquatic systems require implementation of strict protection regimes in the entire catchments area.     

Metal accumulation in the earthworm Lumbricus rubellus. Model predictions compared to field data

The mechanistic bioaccumulation model OMEGA (Optimal Modeling for Ecotoxicological Applications) is used to estimate accumulation of zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) in the earthworm Lumbricus rubellus. Our validation to field accumulation data shows that the model accurately predicts internal cadmium concentrations. In addition, our results show that internal metal concentrations in the earthworm are less than linearly (slope<1) related to the total concentration in soil, while risk assessment procedures often assume the biota-soil accumulation factor (BSAF) to be constant. Although predicted internal concentrations of all metals are generally within a factor 5 compared to field data, incorporation of regulation in the model is necessary to improve predictability of the essential metals such as zinc and copper.     

Modeling organic carbon dynamics and cadmium fate in long-term sludge-amended soil

A model is described that may help to resolve uncertainty and controversy over the long-term consequences of sludge applications to arable land, especially with regard to the effects of sludge adsorption characteristics on trace metal solubility and bioavailability (e.g., the sludge "time bomb" or sludge "protection" hypotheses). Mass balances of organic and inorganic material derived from sludge and crop residues are simulated. Each pool has a potentially different adsorption affinity for trace metals, and this leads to changes in the adsorption capacity of sludge-amended soil that influence leaching and crop uptake. Model simulations were compared with measured changes in organic carbon and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA)-extractable cadmium contents in a clay loam soil following 41 years of sludge applications. The model adequately reproduced the data, although discrepancies in the vertical distribution of Cd were attributed to the effects of macropore transport and root-uptake driven recirculation. A Monte Carlo sensitivity analysis demonstrated that the most important parameters affecting leaching and crop uptake were the Cd loading and parameters controlling adsorption, especially the partition coefficient for sludge-derived inorganic material and the exponent regulating the effect of pH on sorption. Scenario simulations show that no general conclusions can be drawn with respect to the validity of the sludge "time bomb" and sludge "protection" hypotheses. Either may occur, or neither, depending on three key system parameters: the ratio of sludge adsorption capacity to the initial adsorption capacity of the soil, the proportion of the sludge adsorption capacity contributed by the inorganic fraction, and the sludge Cd loading.