Simultaneous removal of nitrogen oxide/nitrogen dioxide/sulfur dioxide from gas streams by combined plasma scrubbing technology

Oxides of nitrogen (NOx) [nitrogen oxide (NO) + nitrogen dioxide (NO2)] and sulfur dioxide (SO2) are removed individually in traditional air pollution control technologies. This study proposes a combined plasma scrubbing (CPS) system for simultaneous removal of SO2 and NOx. CPS consists of a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) and wet scrubbing in series. DBD is used to generate nonthermal plasmas for converting NO to NO2. The water-soluble NO2 then can be removed by wet scrubbing accompanied with SO2 removal. In this work, CPS was tested with simulated exhausts in the laboratory and with diesel-generator exhausts in the field. Experimental results indicate that DBD is very efficient in converting NO to NO2. More than 90% removal of NO, NOx, and SO2 can be simultaneously achieved with CPS. Both sodium sulfide (Na2S) and sodium sulfite (Na2SO3) scrubbing solutions are good for NO2 and SO2 absorption. Energy efficiencies for NOx and SO2 removal are 17 and 18 g/kWh, respectively. The technical feasibility of CPS for simultaneous removal of NO, NO2, and SO2 from gas streams is successfully demonstrated in this study. However, production of carbon monoxide as a side-product (approximately 100 ppm) is found and should be considered.     

Textural and chemical properties of swine-manure-derived biochar pertinent to its potential use as a soil amendment

Biochars have received increasing attention in recent years because of their properties pertaining to soil fertility and contaminant immobilization as well as serving as carbon sinks. In this work, a series of biochars were produced from dried swine manure waste by slow pyrolysis at different temperatures (i.e., 673-1073 K). The characterization of the resulting biochars was examined for its relevance to its potential use as soil amendment. It was found that the pore properties, ash contents and pH values of all swine-manure-derived biochars basically increased as temperature increased, while the yield and nitrogen/oxygen contents decreased with increasing temperature as a result of pyrolytic volatilization during pyrolysis. From the organic and inorganic elements analyses, the manure-derived biochar was rich in soil nutrients such as N, P, Ca, Mg, and K. Furthermore, the pore, surface and chemical properties were also consistent with the observations of the SEM-EDS, XRD and FTIR. This result suggested that the mesoporous manure-derived biochar could be used as an excellent medium to soil environment.     

Improving the activity of Mn/TiO2 catalysts through control of the pH and valence state of Mn during their preparation

In this study, the authors investigated the influence of the valence state of Mn on the efficacy of selective catalytic reduction using a Mn-based catalyst. The nitrogen oxides (NOx) conversion rate of the catalyst was found to be dependent on the type of TiO2 support employed and on the temperature, as the catalyst showed an excellent conversion of > 80% at a space velocity of 60,000 hr(-1) when the temperature was above 200 degrees C. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses confirmed that catalyst displaying the highest activity contained the Mn4+ species and that its valence state was highly dependent on the pH during the catalyst preparation.     

Development of regenerative dye impregnated mesoporous silica materials for assessing exposure to ammonia

The mesostructured materials MCM-41 and SBA-15 were studied as possible supports of bromocresol green (BG) dye impregnation for the ammonia gas detection because of their large surface area, high regenerative property, and high thermal stability. X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscope, and N2 adsorption analysis were used to characterize the prepared materials. These materials could sense ammonia via visible color change from yellowish-orange to blue color. The color change process of the nanostructured materials was fully reversible during 10 cyclic tests. The results indicated that the ammonia absorption responses of the two nanostructured materials were both very sensitive, and high linear correlation and high precision were achieved. As the gaseous ammonia concentrations were 50 and 5 ppmv, the response times for the SBA-15/BG were only 1 and 5 min, respectively. Moreover the BG dye-impregnated SBA-15 was less affected by the variation in the relative humidity. It also had faster response for the detection of NH3, as well as lower manufacturing price as compared to that of the dye-impregnated MCM-41. Such feature enables SBA-15/BG to be a very promising material for the detection of ammonia gas.     

关于排污权交易市场设置的探索研究

排污权交易在我国经过了近30年的探索和实践,仍然停留在试点工作上的原因在于该制度的推广还存在一些困难。本文针对我国部分排污权交易试点地区由于市场容量过小,导致排污权供给不足,出现供不应求情况的问题,以山西省排污权交易开展现状为例,从人口、经济、政策环境等方面对影响市场设置的因素作出初步探索和分析,认为按照省级行政区域来划分市场范围是目前比较合理的选择,可以充分发挥排污权交易机制在市场资源配置方面的作用。     

Assessment of China's economic loss resulting from the degradation of agricultural land in the end of 20th century

Land degradation is a consequence stemming from both natural processes and social economic activities. On the bases of analyzing general situation of agricultural land degradation in China, the monetary estimating methods such as market value method and shadow engineering method were used to quantitatively assess the economic loss resulting from land deterioration. Results showed that the economic loss in 1999 was 326.8l billion RMB Yuan, which accounted for 4.1% of GDP in the same year of China. If taking five items namely farmland conversion, soil erosion, salinization, decline in reservoir functions, and siltation in waterways and, comparing with that in 1992, the percentage of economic loss to GDP has increased by 1.5 in the only 7 years.