等离子体热解气化有机废弃物制氢的关键技术分析

等离子体热解气化有机固体废物制氢是一种先进高效的废物处理及资源化利用技术.首先,本文讨论了等离子体热解气化有机废弃物的机理,也概括了等离子体发生器的类型及其特点,其次分析了等离子体处理固体废弃物的影响因素,认为输入功率和载气类型等是影响等离子体处理的主要因素,最后总结了等离子体处理医疗垃圾、农林生物质、污泥等的应用现状与前景,指出等离子体热解气化固体废弃物是一种很有潜力的制氢方法.     

Plasma lipid profiles and risk of cardiovascular disease on occupational exposure in Karimnagar

Occupational exposure is unregulated in developing countries like India, and becoming the most common cause of disease of environmental origin. The present study was aimed to investigate the effects of occupational exposure on plasma lipid profiles, and risk of cardiovascular diseases. A total of 79 human volunteers were included in the study. Control subjects were healthy housewives of Karimnagar, India. Occupationally exposed individuals included different occupational workers like petrol station attendants, battery chargers, drivers, welders, pesticide-exposed workers, painters, and auto mechanics. These subjects were shown to be chronic occupationally-exposed for at least three years, and neither associated with any other chronic pathological conditions like hypertension or diabetes, nor under any medication other than analgesics during the month preceding the study. Subjects with excessive high or low caloric intake were excluded from the study. Total cholesterol (TC), LDL cholesterol, triglycerides (TG), VLDL cholesterol, LDL/HDL cholesterol, and TC/HDL ratio in these subjects were significantly higher than those in control subjects, whereas HDL cholesterol was not markedly affected. Blood pressure (systolic and diastolic), and other anthropometric parameters (body mass index (BMI), body fat index (BFI), body surface area (BSA)) were not significantly different between groups. Data suggest that chronic occupational exposure increases plasma lipid levels and is thereby associated with cardiovascular complications.     

Comparative study of the age and location dependence of some heavy metals in human hair from two Nigerian cities

The concentration of some heavy metals (lead, zinc and copper) were determined in the scalp hair of children (1–15 year) and active adults (16–40 year) in two Nigerian cities. The levels of zinc were found to be higher in children than in the adult population. There was a significant difference (P?=?0.05) between the two age groups. The levels of copper were all within the same range for the two age groups and independent of location. The levels of lead were generally higher in adults than in children. However, there was no significant difference (P?=?0.05) in the average concentrations of lead between the children and adult populations of the two cities. The regression analysis indicated a strong correlation (r?=?0.86) between zinc and copper.     

Alterations in plasma electrolyte levels of a freshwater fish Cyprinus carpio exposed to acidic pH

The impact of acidification (Low pH 5.0) on plasma electrolytes (Na⁺, K⁺, Cl^?, Ca²⁺, and Mg²⁺) in a freshwater fish Cyprinus carpio was studied for a 35 day (long term) exposure period, while control groups were maintained at neutral pH (7.3). During long-term (35 days) exposure periods, plasma K⁺ and Mg²⁺ levels were increased (77.8% and 16.0%) in the low pH (5.0) treated fish. On the other hand, plasma Na⁺, Cl^?, and Ca²⁺ levels were decreased (12.4%, 18.4% and 31.3%, respectively). The loss of plasma Na⁺, Cl^?, and Ca²⁺ indicates the displacement of Ca²⁺ from tight junctions. The increased plasma K⁺ ion might have resulted from acidosis, because intracellular K⁺ is released from muscle as H⁺ enters. The elevated level of plasma Mg²⁺ might be due to inhibition of active transport of magnesium across the kidneys resulting in the accumulation of this ion in the plasma. Ionic alteration takes place upon exposure to acidic pH and can be considered as a potential tool for detecting environmental stresses caused by acidification.     

脉冲电晕等离子体降解有毒气体

采用脉冲电晕放电等离子体对化学毒剂模拟剂氯膦酸二乙酯(DECP)进行降解,结果表明,对初始浓度为70 mg·m-3的DECP降解率为96.4%.通过GC-MS和离子色谱分析,其降解产物主要有CHCl2-CH2Cl、CHCl2-CHCl2、二氯膦酸乙酯、HCl和H3PO4,并根据降解产物探讨了等离子体对DECP的降解反应机理.DECP分子中的P—Cl和C—O键断裂促使DECP矿化为H3PO4和HCl,而C—O键断裂形成的乙基与氯自由基反应形成CHCl2-CH2Cl和CHCl2-CHCl2;同时DECP分子中的一个P—O键发生断裂后与氯自由基结合形成了二氯膦酸乙酯.对DECP的反应动力学进行了分析讨论,得到其反应速率常数为0.0516 m.3(W.h)-1.     

Are safety investigations pro-active?

This paper elaborates on the debate whether safety investigations are obsolete and should be replaced by more modern safety assessment approaches. Despite their past performance, in particular in aviation, accident investigations are criticized for their reactive nature and the lack of learning potential they provide. Although safety management systems are considered a modern method with a more prospective potential, they too are hard to judge by their quantitative performance. Instead of measuring both concepts along the lines of their output, this contribution explores the origin, context and notions behind both approaches. Both approaches prove to be adaptive to new developments and have the ability to shift their focus towards learning and cognition. In assessing their potential, accident investigations prove to cover a specific domain of application in the risk domain of low probability and major consequences, fulfilling a mission as public safety assessor. In order to make optimal use of their analytic and diagnostic potential, investigations should mobilize more complex and sophisticated scientific theories and notions, in particular of a non-linear nature. Consequently, they are neither reactive, nor proactive, but provide a specific approach to safety issues.     

甲醇对等离子体脱硫脱硝影响的实验研究

应用等离子体耦合催化剂进行烟气同时脱硫脱硝实验,重点分析了甲醇对脱硫脱硝效率的影响,同时研究了反应温度、甲醇浓度等因素的影响。实验结果表明,在V2O5/TiO2催化剂耦合等离子体反应器中,200℃时添加0.4%的甲醇能将NO的氧化效率从38%提高到99%。     

高压脉冲等离子体降解水中苯酚的实验研究

对高压脉冲放电等离子体技术降解水中有机污染物苯酚进行了实验研究,观察了脉冲成形电容、脉冲峰值电压、脉冲频率、放电电极直径、放电距离、苯酚的人口质量浓度等因素对苯酚降解率的影响;实验结果表明脉冲成形电容有一最佳值;降解率随脉冲峰值电压、脉冲频率增大而升高,随放电电极直径和放电距离的减小而增大,随苯酚人口质量浓度增大而增大。     

Soils and geomedicine

Geomedicine is the science dealing with the influence of natural factors on the geographical distribution of problems in human and veterinary medicine. Discussions on potential harmful impacts on human and animal health related to soil chemistry are frequently focused on soil pollution. However, problems related to natural excess or deficiency of chemical substances may be even more important in a global perspective. Particularly problems related to trace element deficiencies in soils have been frequently reported in agricultural crops as well as in livestock. Deficiencies in plants are often observed for boron, copper, manganese, molybdenum, and zinc. In animals deficiency problems related to cobalt, copper, iodine, manganese, and selenium are well known. Toxicity problems in animals exposed to excess intake have also been reported, e.g., for copper, fluorine, and selenium. Humans are similar to mammals in their relations to trace elements and thus likely to develop corresponding problems as observed in domestic animals if their supply of food is local and dependent on soils providing trace element imbalances in food crops. In large parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, people depend on locally grown food, and geomedical problems are common in these parts of the world. Well-known examples are Keshan disease in China associated with selenium deficiency, large-scale arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh and adjacent parts of India, and iodine deficiency disorders in many countries. Not all essential elements are derived only from the soil minerals. Some trace elements such as boron, iodine, and selenium are supplied in significant amounts to soils by atmospheric transport from the marine environment, and deficiency problems associated with these elements are therefore generally less common in coastal areas than farther inland. For example, iodine deficiency disorders in humans are most common in areas situated far from the ocean. There is still a great need for further research on geomedical problems.     

Comparative network analysis toward characterization of systemic organization for human–environmental sustainability

A preliminary study in comparative ecological network analysis was conducted to identify key assumptions and methodological challenges, test initial hypotheses and explore systemic and network structural characteristics for environmentally sustainable ecosystems. A nitrogen network for the U.S. beef supply chain – a small sub-network of the industrial food system analyzed as a pilot study – was constructed and compared to four non-human carbon and nitrogen trophic networks for the Chesapeake Bay and the Florida Everglades. These non-human food webs served as sustainable reference systems. Contrary to the main original hypothesis, the “window of vitality” and the number of network roles did not clearly differentiate between a human sub-network and the more complete non-human networks. The effective trophic level of humans (a partial estimate of trophic level based on the single food source of beef) was much higher (8.1) than any non-human species (maximum of 4.88). Network connectance, entropy, total dependency coefficients, trophic efficiencies and the ascendency to capacity ratio also indicated differences that serve as hypotheses for future tests on more comprehensive human food webs. The study elucidated important issues related to (1) the steady state assumption, which is more problematic for industrial human systems, (2) the absence or dearth of data on contributions of dead humans and human wastes to feed other species in an integrated food web, (3) the ambiguity of defining some industrial compartments as living versus non-living, and (4) challenges with constructing compartments and trophic transfers in industrial versus non-human food webs. The two main novel results are (1) the progress made toward adapting ecological network analysis (ENA) methodology for analysis of human food networks in industrial cultures and (2) characterizing the critical aspects of comparative ENA for understanding potential causes of the problems, and providing avenues for solutions, for environmental sustainability. Based on this work, construction and comparative network analysis of a more comprehensive industrial human food network seems warranted and likely to provide valuable insights for modifying structures of industrial food networks to be more like natural networks and more sustainable.