EXPERIENCE WITH THE 303-208-201 STUDY RELATIONSHIPS1

ABSTRACT: The current 201 study by the Bergen County Sewer Authority illustrates possibilities for improving the currently defined relationships between 201, 208 and 303 studies. The Bergen County Sewer Authority serves 115 square miles in northeast New Jersey, providing sewerage service to 507,000 people in 43 municipalities. Its STP discharges to the Hackensack River, a tidal estuary recently classified as Water Quality Limited, and which receives significant non-plant loading. The subject 201 study is concurrent with 208 and 303 planning by NJDEP. Preliminary evaluations show that detailed 201 work can affect the conclusions of 303 and 208 studies, and that a wider (environmental - social as well as economic) interpretation of cost-effectiveness can demand re-examination of prior assumptions and decisions, a task not typically part of 208–303 work. Increased flexibility is needed in applying 303 and 208 recommendations to defining 201 studies and NPDES permit criteria, particularly in analysis of water use objectives, water quality parameters and future flows, loadings and facility costs. Further, perception of alternatives can be clarified by broadening analysis of costs and control and plant strategies. Inclusion of 201 planning at all stages of regional planning can synergistically improve the total planning process.     

LOCAL ATTITUDES TOWARD ALTERNATIVE USES OF A RESERVOIR PROJECT1

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this paper is to examine the correlates of attitudes toward alternative uses which could have been made of public resources employed to construct a multipurpose reservoir. A sample of 303 adult residents of a rural community impacted by lake construction was asked to evaluate several alternative development options which could have been implemented in lieu of the lake project. The alternative options evaluated were: rural industrialization, keeping land in agriculture and forests, improving public services, building a state or national park, drilling water wells for urban water supply, aid to small business, helping poor people, building several smaller impoundments, and private recreation development. The findings revealed the local people preferred the lake project to every option except keeping the land in agriculture and forest. Even this option was not strongly supported when compared with the lake project. Socio-demographic, attitude, and cost assessment factors were investigated using a “vested interest” perspective for hypotheses development. These findings demonstrated that costs and benefits were relatively good predictors of attitudes toward alternative development options and were supportive of the theoretical perspective advanced in this paper.     

Thought for Fuelling Change: A Review of Three Models for Understanding Environmentally Significant Transitions

For over a century, western economic development has depended upon the use of combustible hydrocarbons for its energy needs. The 20th century saw the prolific exploitation of fossil hydrocarbon sources (coal and oil) which are finite and exhaustible. There is a clear need for society to conserve such non-renewable resources. In addition to conservation, a wholesale switch to renewable energy sources should be seen as the first research and development priority. In the interim, moving towards a crop-based fuel economy appears to be a good alternative to provide the necessarily dramatic changes in lifestyle and mindset that would be required of consumers, for a wholesale shift away from hydrocarbon combustion. Before programs and policies designed to address the need for an interim or alternative energy and materials economy are put into place however, it is important to understand the barriers and opportunities put forth by society itself. Conventional frameworks designed to understand this type of change are of limited assistance. This paper argues that institutional thinking is a very useful tool in addressing these types of environmental problems.     

含氧柴油对柴油机排放及细颗粒物碳质组分的影响

乙缩醛(1,1-diethoxyethane)与柴油互溶性好, 可替代乙醇作为生物质来源的柴油含氧添加成分. 生物柴油掺混可以提高乙缩醛和柴油混合燃料的闪点及含氧量. 在柴油发动机台架上, 考察柴油和2种含氧柴油(10%乙缩醛+90%柴油和10%乙缩醛＋10%生物柴油＋80%柴油)在2个固定转速不同负荷的5个工况点的排放特性, 分析了NO_x、HC、CO和PM_2.5排放情况, 并用DRI的碳分析仪分析了PM_2.5中的碳质组分.结果表明, 与普通柴油排放相比, 含氧柴油对NO_x排放速率的影响不大, 在某些工况点HC排放速率有较显著的增加. 含氧柴油降低了柴油机PM_2.5排放速率, 最大降低幅度29%. 从碳质组成上看, 含氧燃料降低了PM_2.5中总碳 (total carbon,TC) 的排放速率, 最大降低幅度24%. 含氧柴油的元素碳(elemental carbon,EC)排放速率普遍低于普通柴油; 有机碳(organic carbon,OC)的排放速率在发动机高转速工况时明显低于普通柴油; PM_2.5的OC/EC值在大多数工况下高于普通柴油. 3种燃料排放PM_2.5的碳质组成百分比相似, OC和EC主要为OC1和EC1. 含氧柴油降低了柴油机PM_2.5的排放速率, 颗粒物中OC的比例有所增加, 但对颗粒物的碳质组分组成没有明显的影响.     

城市交通低碳化的可能路径

对中国如何发展城市交通低碳化进行了战略构想,从空间性减碳、技术性减碳和社会性减碳三方面着眼提出了可行性建议。     

美国汽车清洁燃料研究发展

本文简要介绍了美国汽车清洁燃料和汽油替代燃料的研究和发展状况，内容涉及美国政府对发展汽车清洁燃料的战略、政策、立法和有关发展计划，清洁燃料的类型和种类及应用情况，以及存在的主要问题和未来的发展方向。     

Biogas production from slaughterhouse wastewaters and use of biofertilizer obtained for biodegradation of aromatic hydrocarbons

The anaerobic digestion of industrial wastes produces a biogas that is an alternative to the use of fossil fuels for energy production. At the end of this process, the stabilized biomass presents high levels of nutrients, which can be used both as biofertilizers in agriculture and for the biodegradation of contaminants in the soil through improvement of the microbiota. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate biogas production by industrial wastes and to use the biofertilizer for the bioremediation of soils previously contaminated with gasoline. The biomass (420 mL) generated approximately 10 liters (L) of methane and 3 L of other gases. Anaerobic incubation reduced total and volatile solids, as well as biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, and the carbon and nitrogen contents of the biomass. The bioremediation experiment showed that 15 days after contamination with gasoline, the addition of the biofertilizer improved the degradation efficiency of monoaromatic hydrocarbons; however, the degradation of polyaromatic hydrocarbons was less time efficient. So, we conclude that the anaerobic incubation of industrial wastes generates a high amount of biogas, and that biofertilizer deposition into contaminated soil does not affect the efficiency of the degradation of aromatic hydrocarbons after 30 days. Novelty or significance : Anaerobic incubation of industrial wastes generates a high calorific value gas, which can be used as an alternative source of energy. And, the resulting biomass, called biofertilizer, can be used to remediate soils contaminated with hydrocarbons.     

Open workshops as sites of innovative socio-economic practices: approaching urban post-growth by assemblage theory

ABSTRACT

Current debates on knowledge-based and creative locational development have come to deal with small urban places of novelty that formerly remained unnoticed. A plethora of new forms of producing and working recently emerged in unplanned and uncoordinated ways, bearing odd names such as FabLabs, Open Worklabs, RealLabs, Open Design Cities, Techshops, Repair Cafés, and more (Smith, A., M. Fressoli, D. Abrol, E. Arond, and A. Ely. 2017. Grassroots Innovation Movements. London: Routledge). Political initiatives have been taken by surprise; at the same time, standard epistemic tools of the social sciences and economics have been rendered unfit. More concise analytical reconstructions are needed to adequately capture the variety and complexity of these “labs”, their heterogeneous causation, their contingent proceedings, their surplus of latency, their peculiar power relations and their local embeddings. Urban social contexts have a strong triggering function as they help to re-configure older, and create new, combinations of heterogeneous social and economic agency. Meanwhile strong elements of grassroots innovation (Smith et al. 2017) have informed the formation of various models of alternative work and production. Taking the phenotype of open workshops as a revealing example, we take assemblage theory to describe the constitutive features of these new types of self-organised work, and the associated places of innovation. A fresh gaze on the complexity and open-endedness of socio-material formations may help to better understand the nature of emerging post-growth economies.