Comparing Green and Grey Infrastructure Using Life Cycle Cost and Environmental Impact: A Rain Garden Case Study in Cincinnati,OH

Green infrastructure (GI) is quickly gaining ground as a less costly, greener alternative to traditional methods of stormwater management. One popular form of GI is the use of rain gardens to capture and treat stormwater. We used life cycle assessment (LCA) to compare environmental impacts of residential rain gardens constructed in the Shepherd's Creek watershed of Cincinnati, Ohio to those from a typical detain and treat system. LCA is an internationally standardized framework for analyzing the potential environmental performance of a product or service by including all stages in its life cycle, including material extraction, manufacturing, use, and disposal. Complementary to the life cycle environmental impact assessment, the life cycle costing approach was adopted to compare the equivalent annual costs of each of these systems. These analyses were supplemented by modeling alternative scenarios to capture the variability in implementing a GI strategy. Our LCA models suggest rain garden costs and impacts are determined by labor requirement; the traditional alternative's impacts are determined largely by the efficiency of wastewater treatment, while costs are determined by the expense of tunnel construction. Gardens were found to be the favorable option, both financially (~42% cost reduction) and environmentally (62‐98% impact reduction). Wastewater utilities may find significant life cycle cost and environmental impact reductions in implementing a rain garden plan.     

Social media and disasters: a functional framework for social media use in disaster planning,response, and research

A comprehensive review of online, official, and scientific literature was carried out in 2012–13 to develop a framework of disaster social media. This framework can be used to facilitate the creation of disaster social media tools, the formulation of disaster social media implementation processes, and the scientific study of disaster social media effects. Disaster social media users in the framework include communities, government, individuals, organisations, and media outlets. Fifteen distinct disaster social media uses were identified, ranging from preparing and receiving disaster preparedness information and warnings and signalling and detecting disasters prior to an event to (re)connecting community members following a disaster. The framework illustrates that a variety of entities may utilise and produce disaster social media content. Consequently, disaster social media use can be conceptualised as occurring at a number of levels, even within the same disaster. Suggestions are provided on how the proposed framework can inform future disaster social media development and research.     

赤潮灾害经济损失评估技术方法

为有效应对赤潮灾害防灾减灾、灾后救援及管理的需求,在综合分析前人提出的赤潮灾害损失评估技术方法的基础上,参考赤潮灾害对受灾体的危害特点,结合实际工作的需求及在实际中可获取的业务数据,提出了赤潮灾害经济损失评估指标体系;根据灾害经济学理论,借鉴其他自然灾害经济损失评估的先进思想,采用市场价格法,分别建立了包括海水养殖业经济损失、滨海旅游业经济损失、赤潮灾害业务与应急监测费用和赤潮灾害处置费用的赤潮灾害经济损失评估模型;最后,提出了赤潮灾害损失评估的技术流程。     

Remarkable promotion effect of trace sulfation on OMS-2 nanorod catalysts for the catalytic combustion of ethanol

OMS-2 nanorod catalysts were synthesized by a hydrothermal redox reaction method using MnSO₄ (OMS-2-SO₄) and Mn(CH₃COO)₂ (OMS-2-AC) as precursors. SO₄^2 −-doped OMS-2-AC catalysts with different SO₄^2 − concentrations were prepared next by adding (NH₄)₂SO₄ solution into OMS-2-AC samples to investigate the effect of the anion SO₄^2 − on the OMS-2-AC catalyst. All catalysts were then tested for the catalytic oxidation of ethanol. The OMS-2-SO₄ catalyst synthesized demonstrated much better activity than OMS-2-AC. The SO₄^2 − doping greatly influenced the activity of the OMS-2-AC catalyst, with a dramatic promotion of activity for suitable concentration of SO₄^2 − (SO₄/catalyst = 0.5% W/W). The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), NH₃-TPD and H₂-TPR techniques. The results showed that the presence of a suitable amount of SO₄^2 − species in the OMS-2-AC catalyst could decrease the Mn–O bond strength and also enhance the lattice oxygen and acid site concentrations, which then effectively promoted the catalytic activity of OMS-2-AC toward ethanol oxidation. Thus it was confirmed that the better catalytic performance of OMS-2-SO₄ compared to OMS-2-AC is due to the presence of some residual SO₄^2 − species in OMS-2-SO₄ samples.     

Oxidation of Cr(III) on birnessite surfaces: The effect of goethite and kaolinite

Oxidation of Cr(III) by manganese oxides may pose a potential threat to environments due to the formation of toxic Cr(VI) species. At present, it was still unclear whether the extent of Cr(III) oxidation and fate of Cr(VI) would be changed when manganese oxides co-exist with other minerals, the case commonly occurring in soils. This study investigated the influence of goethite and kaolinite on Cr(III) oxidation by birnessite under acidic pH condition (pH 3.5) and background electrolyte of 0.01 mol/L NaCl. Goethite was found not to affect Cr(III) oxidation, which was interpreted as the result of overwhelming adsorption of cationic Cr(III) onto the negatively-charged birnessite (point of zero charge (PZC) < 3.0) rather than the positively-charged goethite (PZC = 8.8). However, more Cr(VI) would be retained by the surface with the increase in addition of goethite because of its strong ability on adsorption of Cr(VI) at low pH. Moreover, either Cr(III) oxidation or distribution of the generated Cr(VI) between the solid and solution phases was not affected by kaolinite (PZC < 3.0), indicating its low affinity for Cr species. Reactions occurring in the present mixed systems were suggested, which could be partly representative of those in the soils and further indicates that the mobility and risk of Cr(VI) would be decreased if goethite was present.     

江苏省太湖流域农村生活污水处理技术评价

农村生活污水处理技术种类繁多,实际应用效果参差不齐,且各类技术缺乏对实际工程实施的指导。针对江苏省太湖流域农村生活污水排放特点,研究了毛细管渗滤沟处理技术、厌氧池-人工湿地组合工艺、厌氧滤池-氧化塘-生态渠技术、SBR-化学除磷和膜生物反应器等技术的工艺参数、处理效果、投资估算和操作管理要求,并对各项技术进行综合评估。针对不同的污水处理规模,总结不同地区相应的推荐处理技术。     

均相芬顿氧化技术在废水处理中的应用研究

针对污水处理过程中存在的难降解有机物问题,介绍了芬顿的概念和特点,探讨了均相芬顿氧化在原位产生芬顿试剂的机理及应用.目前均相芬顿氧化技术总体可归纳为超声-芬顿氧化技术、微波-芬顿氧化技术、光-芬顿氧化技术、电-芬顿氧化技术.这些技术的应用能促进有机物的降解,提高芬顿技术的处理效率.通过介绍芬顿氧化技术降解废水中污染物的机理,综述了均相芬顿氧化技术在废水处理中的应用,分析了各种方法的适用范围和优缺点.     

组合工艺在养猪废水处理中的工程应用研究

针对某猪场养殖废水排放所造成的严重污染问题,采用“固液分离+ UBF厌氧反应器+接触氧化+曝气生物滤池”的组合工艺,对废水中的COD、BOD、氨氮、SS去除效果明显,去除率分别为93.7％、94.4％、95％、77.1％,处理后的水质达到《国家畜禽养殖业污染物排放标准》.该工程运行费用仅为1.509元/m3,处理成本低.同时UBF池中产生的沼气可以收集并利用,猪粪和污泥可制作有机肥,实现了废物资源化利用.     

Fenton法和类Fenton法降解土壤中的二苯砷酸

本文对Fenton法与类Fenton法降解土壤中的二苯砷酸(diphenylarsinic acid,DPAA)进行了研究.考察了H2O2投加量和催化剂种类(Fe2+/Fe3+)对红壤及黑土中DPAA降解效果的影响,并采用高效液相色谱-质谱联用法(HPLC-MS/MS)对降解中间产物进行了初步鉴定.结果显示,针对红壤与黑土分别采用类Fenton法与Fenton法,在H2O2投加浓度为1 mol·L-1,含铁催化剂浓度为0.25 mol·L-1,土水比为1∶3,反应时间为1h的条件下,红壤及黑土中DPAA的降解率均可达到65%以上.HPLC-MS/MS的分析结果表明,DPAA可脱苯环形成降解产物苯砷酸(phenylarsinic acid,PAA),而PAA进一步氧化生成无机砷,这可能是Fenton/类Fenton法降解DPAA的途径之一.     

碳中和时代下我国能量自给型污水处理厂发展方向及工程实践

基于碳中和背景及污水处理可持续、低碳运行理念,分析了我国污水处理厂不同水质、工艺类型、规模等条件下的能源消耗及能源回收特点,提出了以“碳改向技术+低耗高效复合脱氮技术+污泥厌氧共消化技术+污水热能回收技术+节能降耗技术”的污水处理新模式是实现我国能源自给型污水处理厂的关键,并提出我国污水处理厂实现碳中和应分为“完全能源自给”及“能源供应工厂”两个目标.此外,对基于此背景下建设的北京某再生水厂的理论能源自给情况进行了分析,结果表明,通过节能降耗、引入外源有机物、污水源热泵回收等措施,北京某再生水厂能源自给率由12.2%分别提高至17.1%、21.6%、84.7%.