Converting waste polystyrene into a polymer flocculant for wastewater treatment

We have succeeded in converting waste polystyrene from electrical appliances into a polymer flocculant for treating some kinds of wastewater after chemical modification. Waste polystyrene, such as polystyrene foam and additive-containing TV cabinets, was converted into a water-soluble polymer, polystyrene sulfate (PSS), and PSS of various degrees of aqueous viscosity was obtained by introducing sulfone bridges during sulfonation. We examined the relationship between the degree of flocculation of wastewater and the aqueous viscosity of the PSS, and found that PSS with medium viscosity is most suitable for flocculating inorganic wastewater from a factory, and PSS with high viscosity is most suitable for dewatering organic domestic wastewater. We report how PSS containing sulfone bridges works as a polymer flocculant for treating wastewater. Received: July 19, 2000 / Accepted: September 21, 2000     

浅论城市生活垃圾的资源化系统

现在社会产生越来越多,组份越来越复杂的生活垃圾,已成为严重的环境和社会问题。本文通过对垃圾成份和数量的分析,结果国内外垃圾处理的发展现状,针对四川省省情,提出了加强垃圾分类收集、分选回收,以堆肥、焚烧、再生等手段实现垃圾的资源化系统。并且,对目前的垃圾处理所涉及到的政府职能和社会意识等软环境作了简单描述。     

铜铬电镀废液中铬回收方法

用亚硫酸钠将电镀废液中的六价铬还原为三价铬,用硫化钠除去铜,用氢氧化钠沉淀三价铬后,用一定量的硫酸溶解氢氧化铬后得到碱式硫酸铬加以回收利用。     

An advanced study on the hydrometallurgical processing of waste computer printed circuit boards to extract their valuable content of metals

This study refers to two chemical leaching systems for the base and precious metals extraction from waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs); sulfuric acid with hydrogen peroxide have been used for the first group of metals, meantime thiourea with the ferric ion in sulfuric acid medium were employed for the second one. The cementation process with zinc, copper and iron metal powders was attempted for solutions purification. The effects of hydrogen peroxide volume in rapport with sulfuric acid concentration and temperature were evaluated for oxidative leaching process. 2 M H₂SO₄ (98% w/v), 5% H₂O_2, 25 °C, 1/10 S/L ratio and 200 rpm were founded as optimal conditions for Cu extraction. Thiourea acid leaching process, performed on the solid filtrate obtained after three oxidative leaching steps, was carried out with 20 g/L of CS(NH₂)₂, 6 g/L of Fe³⁺, 0.5 M H₂SO₄, The cross-leaching method was applied by reusing of thiourea liquid suspension and immersing 5 g/L of this reagent for each other experiment material of leaching. This procedure has lead to the doubling and, respectively, tripling, of gold and silver concentrations into solution. These results reveal a very efficient, promising and environmental friendly method for WPCBs processing.     

Sociological survey in a municipality with a high level separate collection programme in an area of historic unpopularity

Behaviours, opinions and knowledge of citizens on MSW and separate collection were investigated in the city of Mercato San Severino (about 22,000 people), in the Campania region of Southern Italy that is an area suffering from a serious solid waste emergency that has lasted over 17 years due to the absence of treatment facilities. The image of heaps of rubbish in the streets of Naples and other nearby cities is only one side of the coin. Mercato San Severino has adopted an effective kerbside collection system since 2001 and a pay-as-you-throw program during 2005, guaranteeing more than the minimum level of recycling required by the Italian legislation. Structured questionnaires were administered to a sample of 500 people in 2010. Chi-square tests of independence were applied to state whether the differences were statistically significant (5%). About 90% of the sample stated that the success of the separate collection program was due to either the citizens and local authority or only the local authority, highlighting the leading role of the local authority and confirming that trust is the key to any social program success. The registered level of knowledge was better than that of nearby university students and citizens. The higher the education level, the greater the level of knowledge was.     

An assessment on the recycling opportunities of wastes emanating from scrap metal processing in Mauritius

This paper presents an assessment on the wastes namely slag, dust, mill scale and sludge resulting from scrap metal processing. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that there are various ways via which scrap metal processing wastes can be reused or recycled in other applications instead of simply diverting them to the landfill. These wastes are briefly described and an overview on the different areas of applications is presented. Based on the results obtained, the waste generation factor developed was 349.3 kg per ton of steel produced and it was reported that slag represents 72% of the total wastes emanating from the iron and steel industry in Mauritius. Finally the suitability of the different treatment and valorisation options in the context of Mauritius is examined.     

Economies of size and density in municipal solid waste recycling in Portugal

The recycling of municipal solid waste has a remarkable importance in the preservation of the environment and the welfare of the society. However, it is also important that this service can be provided with efficient costs. This paper aims to search for economies of output density and economies of size in the selective collection and recycling activities in Portugal and to identify the size the utilities should have to become more cost efficient. The sample comprises all Portuguese recycling utilities operating in the wholesale segment in the period 2006–2010. The results show that the Portuguese recycling utilities should increase the quantities of municipal solid waste for recycling (especially glass and paper) and also become larger to dimensions corresponding to a supply of 400–550 thousand inhabitants. With the increasing amount of glass collected, utilities are simultaneously struggling to fulfill the targets established by the European legislation and explore the existing economies of output density. The results also show that the management of these services carried out by private companies and the use of incineration (by utilities) seem to reduce the costs of utilities while the regulation of these services and the composting of waste held by utilities tend to increase costs.     

Kinetic analysis of transesterification of waste pig fat in supercritical alcohols

The kinetic analysis method using non-isothermal technique was proposed to determine the kinetic parameters for the transesterification reaction of waste pig fat in supercritical alcohols. To investigate the transesterification of waste pig fat, the waste pig fat to alcohol ratio (w/w) was varied from 1:1.5 to 1:2.5 between the temperatures 220 and 290 °C at an interval of 10 °C in a 25 mL batch reactor. The products were analyzed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed kinetic analysis method, the experimental values were compared with the values calculated using the kinetic parameters obtained from this work. It was found that the proposed kinetic analysis method gave reliable kinetic parameters for the transesterification of waste pig fat in supercritical alcohols. Further, it was found that the apparent activation energy for supercritical ethanol was lower than the value for supercritical methanol.     

A new strain for recovering precious metals from waste printed circuit boards

A new strain, Pseudomonas Chlororaphis (PC), was found for dissolving gold, silver, and copper from the metallic particles of crushed waste printed circuit boards (PCBs). The optimized conditions that greatly improved the ability of producing CN^? (for dissolving metals) were obtained. Dissolving experiments of pure gold, silver, and copper showed that the metals could be changed into Au⁺, Ag⁺, and Cu²⁺. PC cells and their secreta would adsorb metallic ions. Meanwhile, metallic ions destroyed the growth of PC. Dissolving experiments of metallic particles from crushed waste PCBs were performed by PC. The results indicated that 8.2% of the gold, 12.1% silver, and 52.3% copper were dissolved into solution. This paper contributed significance information to recovering precious metals from waste PCBs by bioleaching.     

Process analysis of an industrial waste-to-energy plant: Theory and experiments

Thermal conversion is fundamental in an integrated waste management system due to the capability of reducing mass and volume of waste and recovering energy content from unrecyclable materials. Indeed, power generation from industrial solid wastes (ISW) is a topic of great interest for its appeal in the field of renewable energy production as well as for an increasing public concern related to its emissions. This paper is based on the process engineering and optimization analysis, commissioned to the University Campus-Biomedico of Rome by the MIDA Tecnologie Ambientali S.r.l. enterprise, ended up in the construction of an ISW thermo-conversion plant in Crotone (Southern Italy), where it is nowadays operating. The scientific approach to the process analysis is founded on a novel cascade numerical simulation of each plant section and it has been used initially in the process design step and after to simulate the performances of the industrial plant. In this paper, the plant process scheme is described together with the values of main operating parameters monitored during the experimental test runs. The thermodynamic and kinetic basics of the mathematical model for the simulation of the energy recovery and flue gas treatment sections are presented. Moreover, the simulation results, together with the implemented parameters, are given and compared to the experimental data for 10 specific plant test runs. It was found that the model is capable to predict the process performances in the energy production as well as in the gas treatment sections with high accuracy by knowing a set of measurable input variables. In the paper fundamental plant variables have been considered such as steam temperature, steam flow rate, power generated as well as temperature, flow rate and composition of the resulting flue gas; therefore, the mathematical model can be simply implemented as a reliable and efficient tool for management optimization of this kind of plants.