Stress-strain response of plastic waste mixed soil

Recycling plastic waste from water bottles has become one of the major challenges worldwide. The present study provides an approach for the use plastic waste as reinforcement material in soil. The experimental results in the form of stress-strain-pore water pressure response are presented. Based on experimental test results, it is observed that the strength of soil is improved and compressibility reduced significantly with addition of a small percentage of plastic waste to the soil. The use of the improvement in strength and compressibility response due to inclusion of plastic waste can be advantageously used in bearing capacity improvement and settlement reduction in the design of shallow foundations.     

Impact of metals on histopathology and expression of HSP 70 in different tissues of Milk fish (Chanos chanos) of Kaattuppalli Island, South East Coast, India

Histological and Immunohistochemical studies were carried out to document the possible impact of heavy metal contamination in different tissues of Chanos chanos. Heavy metals such as Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, Mn and Fe were predominant in water, sediment and biota of Kaattuppalli Island and varied significantly between two different sites. Histological changes such as swelling of muscle fiber and break down of muscle bundles were noted in the muscle. Similarly gill filament cell proliferation, increase in intercellular spaces and primary and secondary lamellar epithelium were evident in gills. The hepatocytes showed damage of central vein and rupture of irregular hepatic plate with more number of vacuoles in the fish collected from polluted site compared to that from the less polluted site. The impact of pollution was also assessed in different tissues by immunohistochemistry using primary antibody (mouse monoclonal HSP70 antibody 1:2000) and secondary antibody (HRP conjugated antibody) for expression of stress protein. Immunostaining analysis showed expression of HSP70 with high intensity in the tissues of fish collected from polluted site compared to less polluted sites. Further, HSP70 positive cells were analyzed from six locations per fish tissue section. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by least significant difference (LSD) was used to check if the expression was significant. Results indicate that the values are statistically significant at the two different sampling sites (P<0.05).     

Site selection of check dams using geospatial techniques in Debre Berhan region,Ethiopia — water management perspective

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Remote sensing and GIS technology were very helpful to determine an appropriate location of freshwater storage in Amhara, Ethiopia. The techniques...     

Isolation,mass cultivation,and biodiesel production potential of marine microalgae identified from Bay of Bengal

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In this study, marine microalgae were isolated from the Bay of Bengal, and their biodiesel production potential was investigated. Five different...     

High-Solid Loading Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Waste Office Paper for poly-3-hydroxybutyrate Production Through Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation

Journal of Polymers and the Environment - Waste paper holds great potential as a substrate for the microbial production of bioplastic (Poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB)). This study aimed to produce PHB...     

Selection of optimum fish oil fuel blend to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions in an IC engine—A hybrid multiple criteria decision aid approach

The increasing demand on energy due to population growth and rising of living standards has led to considerable use of fossil fuels which has in turn, had an adverse impact on environmental pollution and depletion of fossil fuels in Internal Combustion (IC) engine sector. Alternative fuel blend evaluation in IC engine fuel technologies is a very important strategic decision involving decisions balancing within a number of criteria and opinions from different decision maker of IC engine experts. The selection of appropriate source of biodiesel and proper blending of biodiesel plays a major role in alternate energy production. This paper describes an application of hybrid Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) technique for the selection of optimum biodiesel blend in the IC engine. The proposed model, Analytical Network Process (ANP) is integrated with Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to evaluate the optimum blend. Here the ANP is used to determine the relative weights of the criteria, whereas TOPSIS is used for obtaining the final ranking of alternative blends. An efficient pair-wise comparison process and ranking of alternatives can be achieved for optimum blend selection through the integration of ANP and TOPSIS. The obtained preference order for the blends are as B20 > B40 > Diesel > B60 > B80 > B100. This paper highlights a new insight into MCDM techniques to evaluate the best fuel blend for the decision makers such as engine manufactures and R&D engineers to meet the fuel economy and emission norms to empower the green revolution.     

Biodegradation of toluene vapor in coir based upflow packed bed reactor by <Emphasis Type="Italic">Trichoderma asperellum</Emphasis> isolate

In the present study, a new biofiltration system involving a selective microbial strain isolated from aerated municipal sewage water attached with coir as packing material was developed for toluene degradation. The selected fungal isolate was identified as Trichoderma asperellum by 16S ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) sequencing method, and pylogenetic tree was constructed using BLASTn search. Effect of various factors on growth and toluene degradation by newly isolated T. asperellum was studied in batch studies, and the optimum conditions were found to be pH 7.0, temperature 30 °C, and initial toluene concentration 1.5 (v/v)%. Continuous removal of gaseous toluene was monitored in upflow packed bed reactor (UFPBR) using T. asperellum. Effect of various parameters like column height, flow rate, and the inlet toluene concentration were studied to evaluate the performance of the biofilter. The maximum elimination capacity (257 g m^?3 h^?1) was obtained with the packing height of 100 cm with the empty bed residence time of 5 min. Under these optimum conditions, the T. asperellum showed better toluene removal efficiency. Kinetic models have been developed for toluene degradation by T. asperellum using macrokinetic approach of the plug flow model incorporated with Monod model.     

Characteristics of columnar aerosol optical and microphysical properties retrieved from the sun photometer and its impact on radiative forcing over Skukuza (South Africa) during 1999–2010

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The detailed analysis of columnar optical and microphysical properties of aerosols obtained from the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) Cimel sun...     

Review of pollutants removed by electrocoagulation and electrocoagulation/flotation processes

The word “electrocoagulation” (EC) will be sometimes used with “electroflotation” (EF) and can be considered as the electrocoagulation/flotation (ECF) process. Through the process of electrolysis, coagulating agents such as metal hydroxides are produced. When aluminium electrodes are used, the aluminium dissolves at the anode and hydrogen gas is released at the cathode. The coagulating agent combines with the pollutants to form large size flocs. As the bubbles rise to the top of the tank they adhere to particles suspended in the water and float them to the surface. In fact, a conceptual framework of the overall ECF process is linked to coagulant generation, pollutant aggregation, and pollutant removal by flotation and settling when it has been applied efficiently to various water and wastewater treatment processes. This review paper considers a significant number of common applications of EC and ECF processes which have been published in journal and conference papers.