Evaluating the potential of biodiesel (via recycled cooking oil) use in Singapore,an urban city

Singapore has pledged to attain 7–11% Business-As-Usual carbon emissions reduction by 2020. About 19% of CO₂ contribution stemmed from road transport in 2005. Commercial vehicles, which uses mainly diesel, consumed 695 million litres diesel in 2012. An estimated 115,585 tonnes or 127 million litres cooking oils (derived from seeds/fruits) were consumed in 2010, in which the bulk of used cooking oil is re-incorporated into the food preparation process while only a small amount is being recycled into biodiesel or disposed into the sewerage. Nevertheless, the present research reveals that biodiesel derived from spent cooking oil has potential to be a viable fuel supplement. Surveys were carried out involving three market segments – suppliers, processors and end-users – to identify the barriers and obstacles in mass production of biodiesel. A key enabler of biodiesel as a fuel supplement towards a greener environment lies in government mandate/policies in promoting greater biodiesel usage.     

Comparative Toxicities of Polar and Non-Polar Organic Fractions From Sediments Affected By the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Prince William Sound,Alaska

Abstract

Standardized tests were applied to aromatic and polar fractions of sediment extracts to determine whether polar constituents or oxidative degradation products contributed significantly to the toxicity of sediments oiled by the Exxon Valdez spill. Intertidal sediment and pore-water samples were collected in September 1990 from two heavily oiled sites and an unoiled site in Prince William Sound (PWS). Methylene chloride extracts from these samples were fractionated by liquid chromatography into aliphatic, aromatic and polar fractions, and the aromatic and polar fractions were tested for toxicity using the Microtox^R test, bivalve larval mortality and development (Mytilus); several measures of genotoxicity in Mytilus, including SOS Chromotest^R, anaphase aberrations and sister chromatid exchange; and survival, anaphase aberrations and teratogenicity in coho salmon (Onchorhynchus kisutch). Microtox^R and SOS Chromotest^R protocols were applied in a screening mode to all samples, whereas other tests were applied only to selected fractions from two sites. Samples from Bay of Isles (oiled) were consistently more toxic (usually only 2 to 5-fold) than the Mooselips Bay (unoiled) samples, which gave very low responses in all tests. for both sites, however, responses to polar and aromatic fractions were about the same in most tests, suggesting that while the overall toxicity of the oil was low in these samples, at least part of that toxicity was derived from polar constituents. Compared to the parent hydrocarbons, polar oxidation products partition preferentially into pore-water and are more rapidly diluted and dispersed in the water column. These results suggest that polar oxidation products of petroleum hydrocarbons pose little risk to marine organisms, except possibly for infauna continuously exposed to pore-water in heavily oiled sediments. Independent surveys showed that sediment toxicity in PWS declined during 1989–1991 to near background levels, in accord with previous understanding of oil weathering and toxicity.     

Biodiesel production from vegetable oil and waste animal fats in a pilot plant

In this study, corn oil as vegetable oil, chicken fat and fleshing oil as animal fats were used to produce methyl ester in a biodiesel pilot plant. The FFA level of the corn oil was below 1% while those of animal fats were too high to produce biodiesel via base catalyst. Therefore, it was needed to perform pretreatment reaction for the animal fats. For this aim, sulfuric acid was used as catalyst and methanol was used as alcohol in the pretreatment reactions. After reducing the FFA level of the animal fats to less than 1%, the transesterification reaction was completed with alkaline catalyst. Due to low FFA content of corn oil, it was directly subjected to transesterification. Potassium hydroxide was used as catalyst and methanol was used as alcohol for transesterification reactions. The fuel properties of methyl esters produced in the biodiesel pilot plant were characterized and compared to EN 14214 and ASTM D6751 biodiesel standards. According to the results, ester yield values of animal fat methyl esters were slightly lower than that of the corn oil methyl ester (COME). The production cost of COME was higher than those of animal fat methyl esters due to being high cost biodiesel feedstock. The fuel properties of produced methyl esters were close to each other. Especially, the sulfur content and cold flow properties of the COME were lower than those of animal fat methyl esters. The measured fuel properties of all produced methyl esters met ASTM D6751 (S500) biodiesel fuel standards.     

Environmental Damage,Abandoned Treaties,and Fossil-Fuel Dependence: The Coming Costs of Oil-and-Gas Exploration in the “1002 Area” of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Contrary to claims from American politicians, lobbyists, and oil and gas executives, allowing energy development in the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) will harm the environment, compromise international law, erode the social significance of wilderness protection, and ultimately fail to␣increase the energy security of the United States. After exploring a brief history of the ANWR controversy, this piece argues that the operation of oil and gas refineries in ANWR will release discharged solids, drilling waste, and dirty diesel fuel into the ecosystem’s food-chain, as they have from oil operations in Prudhoe Bay. Less obvious but equally important, oil and gas exploration in ANWR will violate a number of international treaties on biodiversity protection. In the end, development in ANWR will threaten the concept of wilderness protection, and will do little to end US dependence on foreign sources of energy. About the Author: Benjamin K. Sovacool is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. He works as a research analyst for the Consortium on Energy Restructuring and is a Senior Research Fellow for the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research. He also just completed a Graduate Fellowship in Energy Policy at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

关于国际油污赔偿基金组织索赔手册

介绍了国际油污赔偿基金组织索赔手册的主要内容，包括法律框架、索赔的提出以及可以得到的赔偿等。     

船舶区域溢油风险程度甄别的人工神经网络方法

利用误差反向传播 (BP)人工神经网络 ,建立了海域船舶溢油风险程度甄别的评价模型。该模型能够反映出研究海域各区域发生船舶溢油事件的风险等级差别 ,具有一定的客观性和实用性。     

感潮河网溢油归宿的数值模拟研究

基于拉格朗日油粒子模型、溢油风化模型以及三维水动力、泥沙和吸附质模型构建了溢油双层数学模型.模型不仅能够模拟油膜的运动轨迹、岸边吸附与冲刷、油品性质变化过程,而且通过耦合泥沙吸附及沉积动力学过程,能够更加客观地模拟溢油从水体向底泥环境的迁移过程,更全面地反映溢油在环境中的归宿.此外,本文以假设溢油事故为背景,模拟和分析了洪、枯季节条件下珠江广州段溢油事故对河网陆地边界、河网水质及底泥环境的影响.     

脉冲电絮凝处理三次采油污水研究

文章利用自制的脉冲电絮凝装置对油田三次采油污水进行了处理,讨论了脉冲电流参数,包括脉冲峰值电流、频率、占空比的影响,并通过正交实验优化了处理条件。在优化条件下处理后,油田三次采油污水的COD和浊度分别达到66.3 mg/L和1.5 FTU,满足国家《污水综合排放标准》的要求。同时,脉冲电絮凝法处理三次采油污水的效果优于投加聚合氯化铝和聚合硫酸铁的化学处理法,在处理效果和节省电能的方面明显优于直流电絮凝方法。     

地下空间在节能减排中的应用及展望

在能源短缺和环境污染的双重压力下,我国出台多项措施加大节能减排力度。总结概括了地下空间的几种类型,认为盐岩洞穴、废弃矿洞、废弃油井、枯竭油气层等地下空间经过技术改造,可以埋存CO2、固体垃圾、废弃核原料,储存油气,地热利用等,能创造可观的社会价值和环境保护效益,可作为节能减排的一种有效措施。以山东地区为例,调研分析了山东多处地下空间利用现状,给出了地下空间的三种发展方向。     

From waste hot-pot oil as carbon precursor to development of recyclable attapulgite/carbon composites for wastewater treatment

The utilization of waste products as valuable materials was a technical imperative for waste management. In this study, the cost-effective attapulgite/carbon(APT/C) composite was developed for wastewater treatment using waste hot-pot oil as a carbon precursor through a facile one-step calcination process. The APT/C composite prepared at 300°C exhibited the excellent adsorption capacity and rapid equilibrium rate over a broad p H range for the removal of various pollutants. More importantly, the removal ratios of the composites toward Methyl Violet and tetracycline still remained 77.6% and 60.2% of the initial adsorption capacity after ten adsorption–regeneration cycles via a facile thermal regeneration strategy, respectively.Beyond all doubt, this research provided a feasible and economical way for the sustainable utilization of waste hot-pot oil in wastewater treatment, achieving the concept of disposal waste with waste and recycling.