Numerical study of heat transfer characteristics of char from waste tire pyrolysis

To investigate heat transfer of char from waste tire pyrolysis, the cooling of char was simulated by the computational fluid dynamics. To scrutinize the heat transfer characteristics, bed height, temperature of cooling wall, and mixing time were selected as calculation parameters. From the results, increasing the char bed height from 0.005 to 0.02 m, the total heat transfer is decreased as from 45.5 to 26.5 J. As the char bed height is further increased from 0.02 to 0.06 m, the total heat transfer is decreased from 26.5 to 9.1 J. The char bed height affects the total heat transfer significantly. The total heat transfer decreases from 15.9 to 14.0 J as the temperature of cooling wall increases from 273.15 to 323.15 K. The total heat transfer mildly depends on the temperature of cooling wall. The particle mixing time increases from 10 to 120 s and the total heat transfer decreases from 28.6 to 22.6 J. It is noted that the particle contact is enhanced between char particles as well as the particles and cooling wall as the particle mixing time decreases. Consequently, heat transfer is augmented.     

区域大气环境中PM2．5／PM10空间分布研究

提出了一种利用移动监测技术研究区域大气环境中PM2.5／PM10空间分布的方法,并在2004年12月进行了宁波市全市域PM2.5／PM10空间分布的研究。数据显示：相同路径所代表的地区PM2.5和PM10具有很好的相关性,多数路径上PM2.5与PM10数据的相关系数平方在0．95以上,而不同路径上PM2.5与PM10的比值不同。文中给出了宁波市PM2.5／PM10污染的空间分布图,直观地显示出PM2.5／PM10污染的空间分布情况,突出了污染的重点点位和地区。     

Measurement of gas-phase total peroxides at the summit of Mount Tai in China

Measurement of ambient gas-phase total peroxides was performed at the summit of Mount Tai (Mt. Tai, 1534 m above sea level) in central-eastern China during March 22–April 24 and June 16–July 20, 2007. The hourly averaged concentration of peroxides was 0.17 ppbv (± 0.16 ppbv, maximum: 1.28 ppbv) and 0.55 ppbv (± 0.67 ppbv, maximum: 3.55 ppbv) in the spring and summer campaigns, respectively. The average concentration of peroxides at Mt. Tai, which is in a heavily polluted region, was much lower than hydrogen peroxide measurements made at some rural mountain sites, suggesting that significant removal processes took place in this region. An examination of diurnal variation and a correlation analysis suggest that these removal processes could include chemical suppression of peroxide production due to the scavenging of peroxy and hydroxy radicals by high NO_x, wet removal by clouds/fogs rich in dissolved sulfur dioxide which reacts quickly with peroxides, and photolysis. These sinks competed with photochemical sources of peroxides, resulting in different mean concentrations and diurnal pattern of peroxides in the spring and summer. A principal component analysis was conducted to quantify the major processes that influenced the variation of peroxide concentrations. This analysis shows that in the spring photochemical production was an important source of peroxides, and the major sink was scavenging during upslope transport of polluted and humid air from the lower part of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) and wet removal by synoptic scale clouds. During the summer, highly polluted PBL air (with high NO_x) was often associated with very low peroxides due to the chemical suppression of HO₂ by high NO_x and wet-removal by clouds/fogs in this sulfur-rich atmosphere, especially during the daytime. Higher concentrations of peroxides, which often appeared at mid-nighttime, were mainly associated with subsidence of air masses containing relatively lower concentrations of NO_y.     

Adapting a geographical information system-based water resource management to the needs of the Romanian water authorities

Background, aim, and scope

The need for global and integrated approaches to water resources management, both from the quantitative and the qualitative point of view, has long been recognized. Water quality management is a major issue for sustainable development and a mandatory task with respect to the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive as well as the Swiss legislation. However, data modelling to develop relational databases and subsequent geographic information system (GIS)-based water management instruments are a rather recent and not that widespread trend. The publication of overall guidelines for data modelling along with the EU Water Framework Directive is an important milestone in this area. Improving overall water quality requires better and more easily accessible data, but also the possibility to link data to simulation models. Models are to be used to derive indicators that will in turn support decision-making processes. For this whole chain to become effective at a river basin scale, all its components have to become part of the current daily practice of the local water administration. Any system, tool, or instrument that is not designed to meet, first of all, the fundamental needs of its primary end-users has almost no chance to be successful in the longer term.

Materials and methods

Although based on a pre-existing water resources management system developed in Switzerland, the methodological approach applied to develop a GIS-based water quality management system adapted to the Romanian context followed a set of well-defined steps: the first and very important step is the assessment of needs (on the basis of a careful analysis of the various activities and missions of the water administration and other relevant stakeholders in water management related issues). On that basis, a conceptual data model (CDM) can be developed, to be later on turned into a physical database. Finally, the specifically requested additional functionalities (i.e. functionalities not provided by classical commercial GIS software), also identified during the assessment of needs, are developed. This methodology was applied, on an experimental basin, in the Ialomita River basin.

Results

The results obtained from this action-research project consist of a set of tangible elements, among which (1) a conceptual data model adapted to the Romanian specificities regarding water resources management (needs, data availability, etc.), (2) a related spatial relational database (objects and attributes in tables, links, etc.), that can be used to store the data collected, among others, by the water administration, and later on exploited with geographical information systems, (3) a toolbar (in the ESRI environment) offering the requested data processing and visualizing functionalities. Lessons learned from this whole process can be considered as additional, although less tangible, results.

Discussion

The applied methodology is fairly classical and did not come up with revolutionary results. Actually, the interesting aspects of this work are, on the one hand, and obviously, the fact that it produced tools matching the needs of the local (if not national) water administration (i.e. with a good chance of being effectively used in the day-to-day practice), and, on the other hand, the adaptations and adjustments that were needed both at the staff level and in technical terms.

Conclusions

This research showed that a GIS-based water management system needs to be backed by some basic data management tools that form the necessary support upon which a GIS can be deployed. The main lesson gained is that technology transfer has to pay much attention to the differences in existing situations and backgrounds in general, and therefore must be able to show much flexibility. The fact that the original objectives could be adapted to meet the real needs of the local end-users is considered as a major aspect in achieving a successful adaptation and development of water resources management tools. Time needed to setup things in real life was probably the most underestimated aspect in this technology transfer process.

Recommendations and perspectives

The whole material produced (conceptual data model, database and GIS tools) was disseminated among all river basin authorities in Romania on the behalf of the national water administration (ANAR). The fact that further developments, for example, to address water quantity issues more precisely, as envisaged by ANAR, can be seen as an indication that this project succeeded in providing an appropriate input to improve water quality in Romania on the long term.

     

氧化亚铁硫杆菌浸出废弃线路板中铜的研究

对废弃线路板中的铜进行了细菌浸出、只有硫酸亚铁环境下的浸出及酸浸出实验,研究了不同条件对比浸出效果,研究结果表明,细菌浸出比只有硫酸亚铁存在的浸出和酸浸要快得多。研究了在线路板粉末浓度12、24、40、60和120 g/L下浸出速率的变化,结果表明, 在考察范围内,浸出速度随着加入的废弃线路板粉末浓度的升高而降低,当线路板粉末的浓度＞60 g/L时,浸出速度维持在较低水平,选取24 g/L作为浸出的线路板粉末的浓度。分别在细菌培养0、24、48和72 h时加入线路板粉末24 g/L进行浸出实验,结果表明,细菌培养时间长,使得浸出过程进行得也更快。     

基于生态安全的DAT-IAT城市污水处理工艺改进研究

通过正交试验,得到了DAT-IAT工艺和A/DAT-IAT工艺处理城市污水的常规指标去除和生态毒理指标削减的最优运行条件。结果表明,在正交试验的同一工艺中,COD去除最优运行条件的出水COD值优于生态毒性削减最优运行条件的出水COD值,但前者出水的生态毒性较大。由于厌氧池的水解酸化作用,A/DAT-IAT工艺对COD和生态毒性的处理效果均优于DAT-IAT工艺,并且回流总能耗低于DAT-IAT工艺,但是出水COD仍不达标。为了降低进入工艺的COD的总量,以絮凝沉淀做为预处理工艺,并采用Al残留量最小的絮凝剂投药量以降低出水中残留Al带来的生态风险。结果表明,在COD去除最优运行条件下,具有絮凝预处理的工艺对COD的去除效果优于没有絮凝预处理的工艺。絮凝-A/DAT-IAT工艺在COD去除最优运行条件下出水COD为104.46 mg/L,满足排放标准。在毒性削减最优运行条件下,具有絮凝预处理的工艺的出水生态毒性有所上升,但是污染物的总量得到了大幅削减。絮凝-A/DAT-IAT工艺与DAT-IAT工艺相比,在污染物去除效率得到大幅增加的同时,生态毒性得到有效控制,生态安全得到了有效的保障。     

On experimental setup in bioelectromagnetics

Bioeffects created by electromagnetic field (EMF) are the subject of intensive studies. This paper critically considers estimations of exposure to EMF in bioelectromagnetic experiments. Results of calculations presented herein show the significant role of the presence of conducting bodies (the exposure system) near an object under test on EMF energy absorption as well as mutual interactions between simultaneously exposed objects. Our aims herein are twofold: firstly to find a way to refer measurement results to free-space conditions in order to enable comparison of results obtained in different laboratories, and secondly to show that EMF energy absorption in any exposed object is different and that this difference is a function of the size of the exposure system, the number of exposed objects, and the particular properties (i.e., the electromagnetic structure) of the objects. In the authors’ opinion the existence of interactions caused by the presence of the exposure system and other exposed objects is a reason why remarkable differences are observed between experiments performed even under supposedly identical conditions. The presented considerations and conclusion suggest wider participation of physicists and engineers in bioelectromagnetic experiments in order to ensure the correctness of metrological aspects of these experiments.     

Choice of parameters for passive shielding of power-frequency magnetic fields

Epidemiological studies suggesting the possibility of harmful effects on human (specifically children’s leukaemia) due to long-term exposure to magnetic fields of extremely low frequency (e.g. 50/60 Hz) and relatively low values (i.e. over the microtesla range) have stirred high activity in the topic of magnetic field mitigation. To reduce these fields, it is common to use passive metal screens (e.g. plates made of aluminium or steel). To design them, effective and fast numerical computations are highly desirable. In this article, a method is presented, which computes various parameters of screens in a given shielding problem and yields magnetic field distribution and shielding factors. The method takes into consideration the 3D field distribution and is able to solve systems with large aspect ratios (thin thickness in comparison with its other dimensions); this is a common problem where other methods such as finite elements often experience difficulties. The presented method computes separately the field inside and outside the screens. Afterwards, the solutions are “stitched” together along the border of the subregions. Two practical examples are given of the developed numerical method.     

Urbanization and its impact on groundwater: a remote sensing and GIS-based assessment approach

The perils of unplanned urbanization and increasing pressure of human activities on hydro-geomorphologic system often result in modification of the existing recharge mechanism, which leads to many environmental consequences. In the present research, an attempt has been made to investigate the applicability of remote sensing and geographical information system (GIS) in dealing with spatial and temporal variability of dynamic phenomena, like urbanization and its impact on groundwater. This paper covers primarily, quantitative and qualitative impacts of urban growth on the behavior of aquifer in Ajmer city (India). Urban growth of the Ajmer city in last 17 years has been estimated from the satellite images. Database related to urbanization and groundwater has been created in GIS. Groundwater recharge has been computed using a water balance approach known as Water Level Fluctuation Methodology. Recharge estimation methodology has been implemented in GIS to introduce the spatial variability of hydro-geological characteristics. Further, temporal and spatial variations in groundwater quality and quantity have been correlated with urban growth using overlay analysis in GIS. The study reveals a general decline in water table and quality with urbanization. Further, remote sensing and GIS technologies have been found useful in assessment of spatial and temporal phenomena of urbanization and its impact on groundwater system.