Experimental investigation and modelling of tritium washout by precipitation in the area of the nuclear power plant of Paks, Hungary

Tritium occurs in nature in trace amounts, but its concentration is changing due to natural and artificial sources. Studies focusing on natural tritium have to take into account the effect of artificial sources. Also, the impact of tritium is an important issue in environmental protection, e.g. in connection with the emissions from nuclear power plants. The present work focuses on the rain washout of tritium emitted from the Paks nuclear power plant in Hungary. Rainwater collectors were placed around the plant and after a period of precipitation, rainwater was collected and analysed for tritium content. Samples were analysed using low-level liquid scintillation counting, with some also subject to the more accurate ³He ingrowth method. The results clearly show the trace of the tritium plume emitted from the plant; however, values are only about one order of magnitude higher than environmental background levels. A washout model was devised to estimate the distribution of tritium around the plant. The model gives slightly higher concentrations than those measured in the field, but in general the agreement is satisfactory. The modelled values demonstrate that the effect of the plant on rainwater tritium levels is negligible over a distance of some kilometres.     

Determination of chloramphenicol, enrofloxacin and 29 pesticides residues in bovine milk by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

A sensitive method for determination of chloramphenicol, enrofloxacin and 29 pesticides residues in bovine milk by high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) was developed. Residues of the targets were extracted from milk with acetonitrile, cleaned up by C₁₈-SPE cartridge, and then determined by HPLC-MS/MS. The MS detection was operated in positive or negative ionization mode, depending on the compounds. For confirmation of each target compound, two precursor ion > product ion transitions were selected by multi-reaction monitoring mode (MRM). The method showed good linearity for all the tested compounds over the studied concentration range with correlation coefficient higher than 0.9910. Recoveries for the studied compounds at three spiked levels (0.05, 0.10, 0.19 mg kg⁻¹) in bovine milk were in the range of 71-107% with RSDs not larger than 13.7%, except that recoveries of trifluralin ranged between 62% and 70% at the spiked levels. Limits of quantitation for the analytes were estimated to range between 0.03 × 10⁻³ and 14.5 × 10⁻³ mg kg⁻¹. The proposed method was applied for the determination of the analytes residues in real samples. The found levels of the analytes in milk samples were lower than maximum residues levels (MRL).     

Catalytic conversion of waste tyres into valuable hydrocarbons

Tyre recycling has become a necessity because of the huge piles of tyres that represent a threat to the environment. The used tyres represent a source of energy and valuable chemical products. Waste tyres were pyrolysed catalytically in a batch reactor under atmospheric pressure. Calcium carbide was used as a catalyst to explore its effect on pyrolysis product distribution. The effect of temperature, amount of catalyst and time on the yields of the pyrolysed products was investigated. Char yield decreased with increase of pyrolysis temperature while total gas and liquid yields increased. The liquid fraction was obtained with boiling point up to 320 °C. The physical and chemical properties of the pyrolysed products obtained were characterized. The catalytic pyrolysis produced 45 wt.% aromatic, 35 wt.% aliphatic and 20 wt.% of polar hydrocarbons. The distillation data showed that ∼80% of oil has boiling point below 270 °C which is the boiling point for 50% of distilled product in commercial diesel oil. The oil fraction was found to have high gross calorific value; GCV (42.8 MJ kg⁻¹). Its Specific gravity, viscosity, Kinematic viscosity, freezing point and diesel index were also within the limits of diesel fuel. The char residues were studied to investigate their characteristics for use as a possible adsorbent. Surface area of char before and after acid demineralization was determined to determine the adsorptive features for waste water treatment.     

重大危险源区域事故应急非结构化模糊决策应用研究

针对目前我国应对重大危险源突发事故的管理和决策主要依赖于相关领导或专家掌握的知识及经验的现状,将非结构化模糊决策方法(Non-structural Fuzzy Decision Method,NSFDM)和事故后果模拟方法相结合,以区域范围内受重大危险源潜在事故影响的企业为决策对象,以减小事故影响范围,降低事故严重程度为目标,建立起重大危险源区域事故应急决策的多准则决策方法,以期帮助安监职能部门优化配置应急救援资源,提高应急响应绩效,减少国家和人民的经济和财产损失。以广州市某公司丙烷储罐区为实例,在对其进行沸腾液体扩展蒸气爆炸(Boiling Liquid Expanding Va-por Explosion,BLEVE)事故模拟的基础上,运用非结构化模糊决策方法,对该丙烷储罐区BLEVE事故的处理,提供了应急决策支持。     

傅立叶变换红外光谱法直接定性分析水样中有机污染物

用蒸馏水作为样品红外光谱的背景图谱,在水样图谱中扣除背景图谱即得到其中主要污染物的红外谱图,通过解谱,可对水样中的成分作出快速定性,在环境应急监测中得到应用。     

Assessment of toxic metals in waste personal computers

Considering the enormous production of waste personal computers nowadays, it is obvious that the study of their composition is necessary in order to regulate their management and prevent any environmental contamination caused by their inappropriate disposal. This study aimed at determining the toxic metals content of motherboards (printed circuit boards), monitor glass and monitor plastic housing of two Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitors, three Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) monitors, one LCD touch screen monitor and six motherboards, all of which were discarded. In addition, concentrations of chromium (Cr), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg) were compared with the respective limits set by the RoHS 2002/95/EC Directive, that was recently renewed by the 2012/19/EU recast, in order to verify manufacturers’ compliance with the regulation. The research included disassembly, pulverization, digestion and chemical analyses of all the aforementioned devices. The toxic metals content of all samples was determined using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). The results demonstrated that concentrations of Pb in motherboards and funnel glass of devices with release dates before 2006, that is when the RoHS Directive came into force, exceeded the permissible limit. In general, except from Pb, higher metal concentrations were detected in motherboards in comparison with plastic housing and glass samples. Finally, the results of this work were encouraging, since concentrations of metals referred in the RoHS Directive were found in lower levels than the legislative limits.     

探究水质环境监测技术和仪器的发展

文章对近些年来的简易现场水质检测、水质自动监测等水质环境监测技术和仪器发展以及中间存在的问题作出了初步的分析,对国际上以及国内的一些水质环境监测技术的经验和成果进行了总结,对未来此技术的发展方向和重点指明了方向。     

光合细菌两段流化床处理鸡粪粪水的研究

光合细菌对高浓度有机废水具有较好的适应性和处理能力,特别是作为一个预处理工艺对后续污水处理可以产生重要的影响。鉴于光合细菌生长时间相对较长,为提高光合细菌对高浓度有机污水的处理效率,本研究利用光合细菌两段流化床反应器对鸡粪粪水进行降解。试验结果表明:经过60 d的启动运行后,反应器进入稳定状态,在进水pH值6.0,COD小于10000mg/L范围内,流化床水力停留时间(HRT)为48 h时,对废水COD去除率为88.10%,TN去除率为68.29%,NH3-N去除率为94.42%,NO3-N去除率为65.43%。     

一种实验室高温液相色谱方法的构建

高温液相色谱(High temperature liquid chromatography,HTLC)是一种操作温度在常温以上,通过改变温度来对分析仪器进行调节的液相色谱分析方法。实验采用接触预热法,检测器后设置阻尼阀的方式,通过在色谱柱后及检测器前直接设置冷却管的方式构建了分离效率高、峰容量大及可采用高黏度溶剂为流动相的HTLC系统。     

Development of novel combustion risk index for flammable liquids based on unsupervised clustering algorithms

Current liquid flammability classification mainly relies on flash point and its risk is largely dependent on consequence and probability. However, combustions of liquefied marine fuels have their uniqueness, leading to a less consistent with the common classification. This work aims at classifying flammable liquids in compression ignition engines for further safety evaluation. Besides liquid flammability characteristics, flame propagation and aerosol formulation are considered. Two unsupervised machine learning clustering algorithms, k-means and spectral clustering, are applied to the collected liquid compounds database. To consider both cluster cohesion and separation, the global mean silhouette value is used to find the optimal number of clusters and to evaluate the clustering performance. The results show that the spectral clustering outperforms k-means on classifying the risk ratings for all proposed models, while the clustering accuracy of the optimal model has been doubled by employing spectral clustering algorithm. Moreover, principal component analysis and star coordinate diagrams are presented to visualize high dimensional data to 2-D graphs. Finally, the overall liquid safety performance is evaluated by a novel combustion risk index via the weight values determined by the information entropy approach. This index can be used to explore inherently safer fuels in the process industries.