Turbulence characteristics of 45° inclined dense jets

Environmental Fluid Mechanics - In the present study, we performed an extensive laboratory investigation to quantify the turbulence characteristics of 45° inclined dense jets using Particle...     

Effectiveness of predicting the spatial distributions of target contaminants of a coking plant based on their related pollutants

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The prediction accuracy of the spatial distribution of soil pollutants at a site is relatively low. Related pollutants can be used as auxiliary...     

The endocrine and reproductive function of the female Yucheng adolescents prenatally exposed to PCBs/PCDFs

BACKGROUND: Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and related compounds such as polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and polychlorinated dibenzo-dioxins (PCDDs) alter sexual maturation and endocrine function in animals. In 1978-1979, a mass poisoning occurred in central Taiwan from cooking oil contaminated by heat-degraded PCBs and oxidated compounds PCDFs. We tested the hypothesis that in utero exposed to PCBs/PCDFs alter sexual maturation, endocrine, and reproductive function in the human pubescent females. METHODS: In 1997-1999, girls aged 13-19 years, born to mothers exposed to PCBs/PCDFs, was invited to participate in the study. Menstruation characteristic was recorded daily for 84 days and serum levels of estradiol, LH, FSH, and testosterone were measured on the 3rd day of menstruation. RESULTS: A total of 17 exposed girls and controls participated, the exposed girls reported shorter mean duration of bleeding per cycle than 16 unexposed (5.5 vs 6.5 days, P=0.0055). There was a higher rate of irregular menstrual cycle in the exposed girls (40% vs 0%, P=0.018). Serum levels of estradiol (P=0.016) and FSH (P=0.061) were higher in exposed girls as compared to controls. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that prenatal exposure to PCBs/PCDFs resulted in abnormal menstruation and higher estradiol and FSH levels in follicular phase of menstrual cycle in adolescent girls.     

Removal of metal ions and humic acid from water by iron-coated filter media

Iron oxide is an excellent, regenerable adsorbent, and often controls free metals through adsorption reaction. The utilization of heating process for coating iron oxide on sand surface allowed the media to be used in a packed column. Iron-coated sand was investigated for adsorbing metal ions and natural organic matter from water by batch and column experiments. Chemical analysis (energy dispersive analysis of X-ray, EDAX) was used for characterizing the copper and lead adsorption sites on iron-coated sand. From the batch experiment results, the copper and lead ions could be removed simultaneously by the iron-coated sand in the competition adsorption system. The interaction between copper, lead ions and iron oxide on sand surface was primarily the chemical bonds. The maximum adsorption capacities of iron-coated sand for copper and lead were 0.259 mg Cu/g-sand and 1.211 mg Pb/g-sand, respectively. The presence of humic acid led to increase the adsorption of copper and lead. Results from column experiments indicated that the copper ions, lead ions and humic acid could be removed completely before the breakpoint. Consequently, the iron-coated sand may be applied for the adsorption/filtration of metal ions and natural organic matters from water.     

氧化锌吸收-空气氧化法烟气脱硫实验研究

采用次氧化锌配制成的悬浮浆液脱除吸收模拟烟气中的SO2,吸收产物亚硫酸锌浆液再通过鼓风湿式氧化成硫酸锌溶液,以验证氧化锌吸收空气氧化法烟气脱硫的效果。通过改变气体流量、SO2浓度、浆液温度及pH值等工艺参数,探索吸收和氧化过程的最佳控制条件。结果表明,氧化锌浆液对含SO2浓度从5800～8600mg/m3的烟气脱除效率均可达到90%以上,吸收容量为39gSO2/15g次氧化锌;氧化过程控制吸收终点浆液pH值为50以及浆液温度在38℃,氧化率可达95%。     

Fe (III) supported on resin as effective catalyst for the heterogeneous oxidation of phenol in aqueous solution

FeIII supported on resin as an effective catalyst for oxidation was prepared and applied for the degradation of aqueous phenol. Phenol was selected as a model pollutant and the catalytic oxidation was carried out in a batch reactor using hydrogen peroxide as the oxidant. The influent factors on oxidation, such as catalyst dosage, H2O2 concentration, pH, and phenol concentration were examined by considering both phenol conversion and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal. The FeIII-resin catalyst possesses a high oxidation activity for phenol degradation in aqueous solution. The experimental results of this study show that almost 100% phenol conversion and over 80% COD removal can be achieved with the FeIII-resin catalyst catalytic oxidation system. A series of prepared resin were investigated for improving the oxidation efficiency. It was found that the reaction temperature and initial pH in solution significantly affected both of phenol conversion and COD removal efficiency. The activity of the catalyst significantly decreased at high pH, which was similar to the Fenton-like reaction mechanism. Results in this study indicate that the FeIII-resin catalytic oxidation process is an efficient method for the treatment of phenolic wastewater.     

A statistics-based system for treatment plant operation

This paper describes work toward development of a convenient computer system to improve everyday operation and control of the wastewater treatment process. The goal is to help the operator detect the problems in the process and to select appropriate control actions. The system comprises subsystems for a data base management, data analysis including several statistical methods, and an expert advisory system. The statistical methods investigated include construction of external reference distributions, computation of moving averages, graphical methods, discriminant functions for early detection of upsets, and several kinds of control charts. The latter two methods are still under development and are not built into the system. Reference distributions are used to help define the fuzzy terms such as high and low for the conditions of the variables involved in the expert system control rules. The system is written in dBase-III and Lotus-123 and has a user-friendly interface for the communication between the user and the system.     

Benthic Infaunal Composition and Distribution at an Intertidal Wetland Mudflat

Benthic infaunal communities at Mai Po Inner Deep Bay mudflat, Hong Kong were investigated between August 2002 and August 2003. A total of 55 species belonging to 8 Phyla from more than 99,074 specimens were recorded. The species richness varied between 13 at Station B in August 2002 and 28 at Station D in August 2003 with an average of 21 across the mudflat and the species diversity was low [H′(log₂) = 0.7–3.5 with an average H′ = 2.4]. Seasonal variations were also observed through abundance and biomass across the mudflat among the seasons. The abundance density was between 8,977 individuals m⁻² at Station D in February 2003 and 77,256 individuals m⁻² at Station B in November 2002 and the overall average density was 25,274 individuals m⁻² for the four stations. The benthic infauna were dominated by pollution tolerant species at this wetland mudflat.     

Analysis of vapor phase organics in air of Beijing, Langfang and Tianjin by capillary GC and GC/MS

The vapor phase organics (VPOs) in the air of Beijing, Langfang and Tianjin were detected by a capillary gas chromatography and GC/MS during the winter and the summer separately. The tentatively identified compounds include alkanes, cyclic hydrocarbons, alkenes, aromatics, acids, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, esters, halocarbons and so on. The numbers of VPOs found are 118 in Beijing, 83 in Lang-fang and 65 in Tianjin in the winter, and 56, 39 and 72 in the summer respectively. Based on the data of some representative compounds determined quantitatively by GC and GC/MS, a profile of organic pollution in the air of the three cities is presented.     

Evaluation and application of blast furnace slag as a mud cake modifier

The aim of this research was to reuse blast furnace slag (BFS) as a mud cake modifier (MCM) to improve the annular isolation quality in oil and gas wells. For the optimum formula of drilling fluid, the effects of MCM on the drilling fluid rheology were investigated. The relationship between the MCM addition and shear strength at cement–formation interface (SSCFI) was evaluated. The experimental results showed that the optimized formula of the drilling fluid has 1.0 wt% MCM and 0.5 wt% XY-27. The simulation results showed that SSCFI increased significantly with the addition of MCM. Based on the mechanism analysis of BFS as an MCM to improve SSCFI, it is found that the transformation of mud cake to agglomerated cake can be the main reason. The application results showed that the success rate of five wells reached 100%, and the rate of quality in cement was 100%. Especially, the average high quality rate of five wells reached 83.7%. Compared with conventional methods, the average high quality rate is increased by 32.6% points. This research provides a new way for sustainable utilization of BFS.