Life cycle assessment of waste paper management: The importance of technology data and system boundaries in assessing recycling and incineration

The significance of technical data, as well as the significance of system boundary choices, when modelling the environmental impact from recycling and incineration of waste paper has been studied by a life cycle assessment focusing on global warming potentials. The consequence of choosing a specific set of data for the reprocessing technology, the virgin paper manufacturing technology and the incineration technology, as well as the importance of the recycling rate was studied. Furthermore, the system was expanded to include forestry and to include fossil fuel energy substitution from saved biomass, in order to study the importance of the system boundary choices. For recycling, the choice of virgin paper manufacturing data is most important, but the results show that also the impacts from the reprocessing technologies fluctuate greatly. For the overall results the choice of the technology data is of importance when comparing recycling including virgin paper substitution with incineration including energy substitution. Combining an environmentally high or low performing recycling technology with an environmentally high or low performing incineration technology can give quite different results. The modelling showed that recycling of paper, from a life cycle point of view, is environmentally equal or better than incineration with energy recovery only when the recycling technology is at a high environmental performance level. However, the modelling also showed that expanding the system to include substitution of fossil fuel energy by production of energy from the saved biomass associated with recycling will give a completely different result. In this case recycling is always more beneficial than incineration, thus increased recycling is desirable. Expanding the system to include forestry was shown to have a minor effect on the results. As assessments are often performed with a set choice of data and a set recycling rate, it is questionable how useful the results from this kind of LCA are for a policy maker. The high significance of the system boundary choices stresses the importance of scientific discussion on how to best address system analysis of recycling, for paper and other recyclable materials.     

Wastewater management in small- and medium-size enterprises: case studies

Wastewater management in small and medium-sized enterprises representing the chemical and food industries was investigated. The results showed that wastewater discharged from an ink-production factory was highly contaminated with organic pollutants. Anaerobic biological treatment followed by chemical coagulation using ferric chloride aided with lime proved to be very effective and produced an effluent that complied with national regulatory standard for wastewater discharge into public sewage network. Also, management of wastewater from a confectionery factory representing the food sector was carried out. Aerobic biological treatment using plastic-packed trickling filter proved to be an effective treatment method. However, application of in-plant control measures alleviated the requirement for the construction of a wastewater treatment plant. The applied pollution prevention and cleaner production measures involved good housekeeping, recovery of spent chocolate, modification of floor cleaning and installation of suction devices for the removal of sugar and starch powders. All improvement measures were documented by cost/benefit analysis.     

低强度超声波强化剩余活性污泥好氧消化的研究

污泥是城市污水处理厂的副产物,若处理不当,将会带来一系列严重的环境问题.实验采用低强度超声波对剩余活性污泥(WAS)的好氧消化过程进行强化,选取超声强度、超声时间、超声间隔3个因素设计正交实验.结果表明,经超声辐照的WAS,其好氧消化时间最短仅约为13 d,比未经超声辐照的缩短了18.00 d.对实验结果的极差分析和方差分析表明,低强度超声波强化WAS好氧消化的最佳参数为:超声强度1.0 W/cm2、超声时间10 min、超声间隔8 h.实验还研究了WAS达标前后溶解性化学需氧量(SCOD)和总化学需氧量(TCOD)的变化情况,发现在相对较短的处理时间内,经低强度超声波强化处理的WAS的TCOD降解率仍然能与对照相近甚至高于对照,主要原因是低强度超声波强化了微生物的新陈代谢,促进了其对有机物的吸收分解.     

Accurate sampling of PCDD/F in high temperature flue-gas using cooled sampling probes

In a laboratory-scale combustion reactor, flue-gas samples were collected at two temperatures in the post-combustion zone, 700 °C and 400 °C, using two different water-cooled sampling probes. The probes were the cooled probe described in the European Standard method EN-1948:1, referred to as the original probe, and a modified probe that contained a salt/ice mixture to assist the cooling, referred to as the sub-zero probe. To determine the efficiency of the cooling probes, internal temperature measurements were recorded at 5 cm intervals inside the probes. Flue-gas samples were analyzed for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs). Samples collected at 700 °C using the original cooling probe showed higher concentrations of PCDD/Fs compared to samples collected using the sub-zero probe. No significant differences were observed between samples collected at 400 °C. The results indicated that artifact formation of PCDD/Fs readily occurs during flue-gas sampling at high temperatures if the cooling within the probe is insufficient, as found for the original probe at 700 °C. It was also shown that this problem could be alleviated by using probes with an enhanced cooling capacity, such as the sub-zero probe.Although this may not affect samples collected for regulatory purposes in exit gases, it is of great importance for research conducted in the high-temperature region of the post-combustion zone.     

新型气浮净化技术在处理废纸造纸生产废水中的应用

采用新型气浮净化技术结合生化工艺处理废纸造纸生产废水，在进水CODcr，SS，BOD5分别为1200mg／L，800mg／L，300mg／L的情况下，出水分别为64．8mg／L，18mg／L和30mg／L。     

Acceleration of floc-water separation and floc reduction with magnetic nanoparticles during demulsification of complex waste cutting emulsions

Waste cutting emulsions are difficult to treat efficiently owing to their complex composition and stable emulsified structure.As an important treatment method for emulsions,chemical demulsification is faced with challenges such as low flocs-water separation rates and high sludge production.Hence,in this study,Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles(MNPs)were used to enhance chemical demulsification performance for treating waste cutting emulsions under a magnetic field.The addition of...     

One-step preparation of a novel graphitic biochar/Cu0/Fe3O4 composite using CO2-ambiance pyrolysis to activate peroxydisulfate for dye degradation

Herein,a one-step co-pyrolysis protocol was adopted for the first time to prepare a novel pyrogenic carbon-Cu⁰/Fe₃O₄ heteroatoms (FCBC) in CO₂ ambiance to discern the roles of each component in PDS activation.During co-pyrolysis,CO₂ catalyzed formation of reducing gases by biomass which facilitated reductive transformation of Fe³⁺ and Cu²⁺ to Cu⁰ and Fe₃O₄,respectively.According to the a...     

上杭紫金山金矿废水废渣的处理及生态环境影响

金矿的开采会产生大量的废渣和废矿石，氰化法提金则产生大量含氰废水，如果未能妥善处理，将严重污染地表水和地下水，以及周边生态环境。该文对上杭紫金山金矿的生产工艺、废水废渣处理情况进行了调研，并提出矿山生态环境保护措施建议。     

绿色化学浅议

绿色化学是更高层次的化学，其产生是为了避免或减少化学过程对人类健康和环境造成的危害，由此出现的技术是环境友好的技术。绿色化学的发展能节省资源、减少环境污染，并将成为可持续发展战略的核心内容之一。     

沈阳市“十一五”固体废物污染防治

固体废物污染防治是“十一五”期间所面临环境保护的重要问题。本文针对固体废物产生及处置利用现状和存在的问题进行了分析,提出了对固体废物污染防治的措施。