Fire and explosion risk assessment for large-scale oil export terminal

Now in Russian Federation and other countries large-scale oil terminals (volume of one tank exceeds 100 000 m³, total volume of tanks exceeds 300 000 m³) are designed and constructed. Therefore fire safety of such objects becomes a very important task, solution of which is hardly possible without detail fire risk assessment. This study is aimed to a solution of this problem. Potential, individual and social risks were calculated. The potential risk was defined as a frequency of occurrence of hazardous factors of fires and explosions in a given point of space (the so-called risk contours). The individual risk was defined as a frequency of injuring a given person by hazardous factors of fires and explosions. Time of presence of this person in hazardous zones (near the hazardous installation) is taken into account during calculations of the individual risk. Social risk was defined as a dependence of frequency of injuring a given number of people by hazardous factors of fires and explosions on this number. In practice the social risk is usually determined on injuring not less than 10 people.

The oil terminal under consideration includes the following main parts: crude oil storage consisting of three tanks of volume 100 000 m³ each, input crude oil pipeline of diameter 0.6 m, crude oil pumps, output crude oil pipeline of diameter 0.8 m, auxiliary buildings and facilities. The following main scenarios of tank fires have been considered: rim seal fire, pool fire on a surface of a floating roof, pool fire on a total cross-section surface of the tank, pool fire in a dyke, explosions in closed or semiclosed volumes. Fires and explosions in other parts of the terminal are also taken into account. Effects of escalation of accidents are considered.

Risk contours have been calculated both for the territory of the terminal and for the neighbouring space. The potential risk for the storage zone is near 10⁻⁴–10⁻⁵ year⁻¹, and at a distance 500 m from the terminal the potential risk values do not exceed 10⁻⁶ year⁻¹. The values of the individual risk for various categories of workers are in the range of 10⁻⁵–10⁻⁶ year⁻¹. Because of low number of the workers on the terminal and large distances to towns and villages the social risk value is negligible. These risk values are consistent with practice of the best oil companies, and fire hazard level of the terminal can be accepted as tolerable.     

Snowmobile impact on old field and marsh vegetation in Nova Scotia,Canada: An experimental study

A study was carried out in Nova Scotia, Canada, to experimentally assess the effect of snowmobiles on old field and marsh vegetation. Snowmobile treatments ranging from a single pass to 25 passes (five passes on five separate days) were administered. The first pass by a snowmobile caused the greatest increase in snow compaction-roughly 75% of that observed after five sequential passes. Snowmobile treatment resulted in highly significant increases in snow retention in spring. Frequency was more important than intensity in this regard.Standing crop and species composition were measured the following summer. Standing crop in the field showed a significant reduction with increasing snowmobile use; frequency of treatment (p < 0.01) was more important than intensity (p = 0.125).Stellaria graminea, Aster cordifolius, Ranunculus repens, andEquisetum arvense all showed significant (p < 0.05) differences in percent cover resulting from the treatment. Marginally significant changes were observed inAgrostis tenuis andPhleum pratense Marsh vegetation showed no significant effects of snowmobile treatment. This may have been because of solid ice cover during the winter.The literature is critically reviewed. It is concluded that snowmobile use can have a highly significant effect upon natural vegetation. Management suggestions are made.     

Public policy for the use of reclaimed water

This article documents the general need to reuse water reclaimed from sewage effluents for beneficial purposes and then considers in detail which specific uses will be most beneficial. The analysis begins by describing five levels of wastewater treatment: primary, secondary, tertiary, advanced, and advanced plus complete treatment. Next, five major uses for reclaimed water are identified: groundwater recharge, industrial use, irrigation, recreational lakes, and direct municipal reuse. Subcategories of reuse falling under each of the five major reuse categories are also identified and discussed. The analysis then proceeds to review significant literature available on health and environmental effects, treatment and distribution costs, and public opinion concerns in relation to each of the five major uses and their related subcategories. The paper concludes with a cumulative numerical analysis of the disbenefits associated with each specific type of reuse summed over the health effects, environmental effects, treatment costs, distribution costs, and public opinion concerns. Uses of reclaimed water for industrial purposes and for irrigation of fodder and fiber crops are found to be most beneficial by the analysis here employed, and use for aquifer recharge and direct municipal reuse are found to be least beneficial.     

A conceptual model for response to Arctic oil spills

The potential for oil spills in Arctic regions has increased significantly because of the development of petroleum resources. Response to an oil spill in the Arctic is likely to be much slower than that in the temperate region because of the remoteness of the area and its severe climate. In the face of these unique problems, accurate prediction of the extent and subsequent movement of an oil spill is vital to any cleanup effort. Presented is the framework of a program to study the movement of oil spills in the Arctic. Existing models of oil spreading and polar ice dynamics are reviewed and areas where new model development is required are defined. A system design is developed that may be used for developing a plan to act in the event of a major spill.     

Electrochemical remediation of copper (II) from an industrial effluent Part II: three-dimensional foam electrodes

A batch recycle removal of copper ions from an industrial effluent by means of copper foam cathodes was tested. A constant current of 750 A was applied to the cell in order to perform the reduction. Copper depletion was investigated at different solution flow rates and a removal greater than 98% was obtained with a flow rate of 1000 l/h. The influence of initial metal concentration on copper deposition and current efficiency is also discussed.     

Pomegranate husk as an adsorbent in the removal of toxic chromium from wastewater

The use of a new sorbent developed from the husk of pomegranate, a famous fruit in Egypt, for the removal of toxic chromium from aqueous solution has been investigated. The batch experiment was conducted to determine the adsorption capacity of the pomegranate husk. The effects of initial metal concentration (25 and 50 mg l^-1), pH, contact time, and sorbent concentration (2-6 g l^-1) have been studied at room temperature. A strong dependence of the adsorption capacity on pH was observed, the capacity increased as the pH decreased, and the optimum pH value was pH 1.0. Adsorption equilibrium and kinetics were studied with different sorbent and metal concentrations. The adsorption process was fast, and equilibrium was reached within 3 h. The maximum removal was 100% for 25 mg l^-1 of Cr⁶⁺ concentration on 5 g l^-1 pomegranate husk concentration, and the maximum adsorption capacity was 10.59 mg g^-1. The kinetic data were analysed using various kinetic models—pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, Elovich, and intraparticle diffusion equations—and the equilibrium data were tested using several isotherm models, Langmuir, Freundlich, Tempkin, Dubinin-Radushkevich, and Generalized isotherm equations. The Elovich and pseudo-second-order equations provided the greatest accuracy for the kinetic data, while Langmuir and Generalized isotherm models were the closest fit for the equilibrium data. The activation energy of sorption has also been evaluated as 0.236 and 0.707 kJ mol^-1 for 25 and 50 mg l^-1 chromium concentration, respectively.     

Could wastewater analysis be a useful tool for China? — A review

Analysingwastewater samples is an innovative approach that overcomesmany limitations of traditional surveys to identify and measure a range of chemicals that were consumed by or exposed to people living in a sewer catchment area. First conceptualised in 2001, much progress has been made to make wastewater analysis (WWA) a reliable and robust tool for measuring chemical consumption and/or exposure. At the moment, the most popular application of WWA, sometimes referred as sewage epidemiology, is to monitor the consumption of illicit drugs in communities around the globe, including China. The approach has been largely adopted by lawenforcement agencies as a device tomonitor the temporal and geographical patterns of drug consumption. In the future, themethodology can be extended to other chemicals including biomarkers of population health (e.g. environmental or oxidative stress biomarkers, lifestyle indicators or medications that are taken by different demographic groups) and pollutants that people are exposed to (e.g. polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, perfluorinated chemicals, and toxic pesticides). The extension of WWA to a huge range of chemicals may give rise to a field called sewage chemical-information mining (SCIM) with unexplored potentials. China has many densely populated cities with thousands of sewage treatment plants which are favourable for applying WWA/SCIM in order to help relevant authorities gather information about illicit drug consumption and population health status. However, there are some prerequisites and uncertainties of the methodology that should be addressed for SCIM to reach its full potential in China.     

San copolymer membranes with ion exchangers for Cu(II) removal from synthetic wastewater by electrodialysis

Heterogeneous membranes were obtained by using styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer (SAN) blends with low content of ion-exchanger particles (5 wt.%). The membranes obtained by phase inversion were used for the removal of copper ions from synthetic wastewater solutions by electrodialytic separation. The electrodialysis was conducted in a three cell unit, without electrolyte recirculation. The process, under potentiostatic or galvanostatic control, was followed by pH and conductivity measurements in the solution. The electrodialytic performance, evaluated in terms of extraction removal degree (rd) of copper ions, was better under potentiostatic control then by the galvanostatic one and the highest (over 70%) was attained at 8 V. The membrane efficiency at small ion-exchanger load was explained by the migration of resin particles toward the pores surface during the phase inversion. The prepared membranes were characterized by various techniques i.e. optical microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and differential thermal analysis and contact angle measurements.     

东江源头区典型村庄厨余废水水质分析

在东江源头区选取了3个典型村庄,对其厨余废水的水质进行调查分析。结果表明:东江源头区沿江村庄农户家庭厨余废水中TP、NH 3-N和COD浓度远远超过《城镇污水处理厂污染物排放标准》中一级A标准限值,需经进一步处理后排放;夏秋季节,厨余废水中TP、NH 3-N、COD浓度高于春季;村庄的经济发展水平对厨余废水水质有一定影响,经济发展水平高的村庄排放的厨余废水中污染物的浓度较经济水平较低的村庄厨余废水中污染物的浓度低。     

反渗透深度处理乳品加工业二级处理废水试验研究

采用砂滤、活性炭吸附和反渗透组合工艺深度处理乳制品加工废水。深度处理后出水指标CODcr、TP和硬度分别达到10、1 mg以下和20 mg/L以下,经反渗透组合工艺深度处理后的乳制品加工废水可以达到锅炉补水,冷却循环水等水质要求。