Sustainability in electrical and electronic equipment closed-loop supply chains: A System Dynamics approach

In this paper we examine the impact of ecological motivation and technological innovations on the long-term behavior of a closed-loop supply chain with recycling activities. Ecological motivation manifests through legislation and green image factor, whereas technological innovations manifest through design for environment. We adopt System Dynamics methodology applied to many environmental systems seeking long-term gains. The developed model is implemented to a real-world supply chain of electrical equipment in Greece. Numerical analysis illustrates the factors concerned, like the delay of the legislation enforcement, to achieve a sustainable future through non-renewable resources and landfill preservation.     

基于系统动力学模型的徐州市水资源承载力研究

本文运用系统动力学原理,构建了徐州市水资源承载力系统SD模型。并利用该模型,研究徐州市水资源承载力在不同发展方案下的变化趋势。最终得出开源、节流、治污并举的综合方案是徐州市水资源可持续发展利用的最优方案,同时指出开源措施对徐州市水资源承载力提高效果最为明显。并有针对性的提出提高徐州水资源承载力的建议与措施。     

Numerical study of the effects of Planetary Boundary Layer structure on the pollutant dispersion within built-up areas

The effects of different Planetary Boundary Layer(PBL) structures on pollutant dispersion processes within two idealized street canyon configurations and a realistic urban area were numerically examined by a Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD) model. The boundary conditions of different PBL structures/conditions were provided by simulations of the Weather Researching and Forecasting model. The simulated results of the idealized 2D and 3D street canyon experiments showed that the increment of PBL instability favored the downward transport of momentum from the upper flow above the roof to the pedestrian level within the street canyon. As a result, the flow and turbulent fields within the street canyon under the more unstable PBL condition are stronger. Therefore, more pollutants within the street canyon would be removed by the stronger advection and turbulent diffusion processes under the unstable PBL condition. On the contrary, more pollutants would be concentrated in the street canyon under the stable PBL condition. In addition, the simulations of the realistic building cluster experiments showed that the density of buildings was a crucial factor determining the dynamic effects of the PBL structure on the flow patterns. The momentum field within a denser building configuration was mostly transported from the upper flow, and was more sensitive to the PBL structures than that of the sparser building configuration. Finally, it was recommended to use the Mellor–Yamada–Nakanishi–Niino(MYNN) PBL scheme, which can explicitly output the needed turbulent variables, to provide the boundary conditions to the CFD simulation.     

Characterization of bacterial community dynamics in a full-scale drinking water treatment plant

Understanding the spatial and temporal dynamics of microbial communities in drinking water systems is vital to securing the microbial safety of drinking water. The objective of this study was to comprehensively characterize the dynamics of microbial biomass and bacterial communities at each step of a full-scale drinking water treatment plant in Beijing, China. Both bulk water and biofilm samples on granular activated carbon (GAC) were collected over 9 months. The proportion of cultivable cells decreased during the treatment processes, and this proportion was higher in warm season than cool season, suggesting that treatment processes and water temperature probably had considerable impact on the R2A cultivability of total bacteria. 16s rRNA gene based 454 pyrosequencing analysis of the bacterial community revealed that Proteobacteria predominated in all samples. The GAC biofilm harbored a distinct population with a much higher relative abundance of Acidobacteria than water samples. Principle coordinate analysis and one-way analysis of similarity indicated that the dynamics of the microbial communities in bulk water and biofilm samples were better explained by the treatment processes rather than by sampling time, and distinctive changes of the microbial communities in water occurred after GAC filtration. Furthermore, 20 distinct OTUs contributing most to the dissimilarity among samples of different sampling locations and 6 persistent OTUs present in the entire treatment process flow were identified. Overall, our findings demonstrate the significant effects that treatment processes have on the microbial biomass and community fluctuation and provide implications for further targeted investigation on particular bacteria populations.     

农村生活垃圾产生特征及分类收集模式

以南京市高淳县的一个村为研究对象,依托新建的农村生活垃圾分类收集系统,对该区域生活垃圾的产生量、组成成分及其动态变化进行了调查研究,从垃圾分类收集模式的运行效果和经济可行性对其进行了分析。结果表明,该地区农村人均垃圾产生量为0.4 kg/d ,但随季节有一定的波动,这主要是由食品类消费的季节性变动而引起。垃圾组成以有机垃圾为主,约占55%,可回收垃圾、其他垃圾和有害垃圾所占比例分别为30.5%、14.2%和0.34%。通过认真的宣传和指导,村民在较短的时间内基本都可以做到正确分类;垃圾分类收集系统的户均建设成本为21元,运行费用比分类收集前每户每月增加3.2元 。     

A new methodology to estimate the gas ascending time from underwater gas releases

Accidental subsea gas releases can pose a threat to people, equipment, and facilities since gas can be toxic or flammable at the concentrations in which the leak occurs. The accurate prediction of the behavior of the gas plume formed in the leaks can be fundamental to the development of techniques of accident prevention or, in some cases, remediation measures, avoiding the emergence of more serious consequences. Among the different ways to analyze the behavior of gas plumes formed underwater, the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tool stands out for allowing the study of plume behavior to be done in a safer, simpler, and less expensive way, if compared to experimental studies. Inspired by the accidental release of the subsea gas scenario, this work validated a CFD setup of a 2D two-phase air–water flow using the VOF method in Ansys Fluent. The use of the VOF method differs this work from other works that use a hybrid Eulerian–Lagrangian methodology to model such types of flow. In this validation, simulations with a 9 m base tank, and 7 m water depth, and 0.050, 0.100, and 0.450 m${}^3$/s gas flow were performed. The simulated data were compared to experimental results available in literature. After the validation of the setup, a study was carried out varying the size of the leak to 0.24 and 0.17 m, and the gas flow from 0.006 to 0.150 m${}^3$/s aiming to verify how some plume characteristics are affected by the changes. Finally, following the directions from literature for analyzing the ascending gas behavior, and combining it with a dimensional analysis of the data, we proposed a mathematical model for calculating the gas ascending time using only properties of the gas leak. With future modifications of the proposed methodology, we hope that soon it will be possible to simulate gas releases under more realistic conditions. Even so, the findings of this work are already a significant step forward in the study of underwater gas releases.