Effect of housing geometry on the performance of Chemcatcher passive sampler for the monitoring of hydrophobic organic pollutants in water

Passive sampling of pollutants in water has been gaining acceptance for environmental monitoring. Previously, an integrative passive sampler (the Chemcatcher) was developed and calibrated for the measurement of time weighted average concentrations of hydrophobic pollutants in water. Effects of physicochemical properties and environmental variables (water temperature and turbulence) on kinetic and thermodynamic parameters characterising the exchange of analytes between the sampler and water have been published. In this study, the effect of modification in sampler housing geometry on these calibration parameters was studied. The results obtained for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons show that reducing the depth of the cavity in the sampler body geometry increased the exchange kinetics by approximately twofold, whilst having no effect on the correlation between the uptake and offload kinetics of analytes. The use of performance reference compounds thus avoids the need for extensive re-calibration when the sampler body geometry is modified.     

Kosetice, Czech Republic--ten years of air pollution monitoring and four years of evaluating the origin of persistent organic pollutants

The regional observatory Kosetice is a central European background station. Unique continuous monitoring from 1988 on is held here. POP (persistent organic pollutant) concentration values of air samples from Kosetice taken between 1996 and 2005 were statistically processed. Values of Czech ambient air quality standards were not exceeded. Concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons reached two maxima, in 1996 and 2001-2002. Polychlorinated biphenyls concentrations reached the highest values in 1997 and 1998 and hexachlorocyclohexanes concentrations in 1998. DDTs, hexachlorobenzene and pentachlorobenzene were analysed as well. Long-range transport of pollutants between 2002 and 2005 was evaluated using the Potential Source Contribution Function hybrid receptor model. Indicated potential source areas of PCBs coincide with many well-known urban and industrialised areas, while the indicated potential source areas of HCHs and DDTs coincide with many agricultural and/or forested regions and the potential source areas of HCB comprise all land use types.     

Improvement of an efficient separation method for chemicals in diesel exhaust particles: analysis for nitrophenols

GOAL, SCOPE, AND BACKGROUND: Diesel exhaust is believed to consist of thousands of organic constituents and is a major cause of urban pollution. We recently reported that a systematic separation procedure involving successive solvent extractions, followed by repeated column chromatography, resulted in the isolation of vasodilatory active nitrophenols. These findings indicated that the estimation of the amount of nitrophenols in the environment is important to evaluate their effect on human health. The isolation procedure, however, involved successive solvent extractions followed by tedious, repeated chromatography, resulting in poor fractionation and in a significant loss of accuracy and reliability. Therefore, it was crucial to develop an alternative, efficient, and reliable analytical method. Here, we describe a facile and efficient acid-base extraction procedure for the analysis of nitrophenols. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Diesel exhaust particles (DEP) were collected from the exhaust of a 4JB1-type engine (ISUZU Automobile Co., Tokyo, Japan). Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis was performed with a GCMS-QP2010 instrument (Shimadzu, Kyoto, Japan). RESULTS: A solution of DEP in 1-butanol was extracted with aqueous NaOH to afford a nitrophenol-rich oily extract. The resulting oil was methylated with trimethylsilyldiazomethane and subsequently subjected to GC-MS analysis, revealing that 4-nitrophenol, 3-methyl-4-nitrophenol, 2-methyl-4-nitrophenol, and 4-nitro-3-phenylphenol were present in significantly higher concentrations than those reported previously. DISCUSSION: Simple acid-base extraction followed by the direct analysis of the resulting extract by GC-MS gave only broad peaks of nitrophenols with a poor detection limit, while the GC-MS analysis of the sample pretreated with (trimethylsilyl)diazomethane gave satisfactorily clear chromatograms with sharp peaks and with a significantly lowered detection limit (0.5 ng/ml, approximately 100 times). CONCLUSION: The present method involving an acid-base extraction, in situ derivatization, and GC-MS analysis has shown to be a simple, efficient, and reliable method for the isolation and identification of the chemical substances in DEP.     

Relationships between organic matter, black carbon and persistent organic pollutants in European background soils: Implications for sources and environmental fate

Black carbon (BC) and total organic carbon (TOC) contents of UK and Norwegian background soils were determined and their relationships with persistent organic pollutants (HCB, PAHs, PCBs, co-planar PCBs, PBDEs and PCDD/Fs) investigated by correlation and regression analyses, to assess their roles in influencing compound partitioning/retention in soils. The 52 soils used were high in TOC (range 54-460 mg/g (mean 256)), while BC only constituted 0.24-1.8% (0.88%) of the TOC. TOC was strongly correlated (p < 0.001) with HCB, PCBs, co-PCBs and PBDEs, but less so with PCDD/Fs (p < 0.05) and PAHs. TOC explained variability in soil content, as follows: HCB, 80%; PCBs, 44%; co-PCBs, 40%; PBDEs, 27%. BC also gave statistically significant correlations with PBDEs (p < 0.001), co-PCBs (p < 0.01) and PCBs, HCB, PCDD/F (p < 0.05); TOC and BC were correlated with each other (p < 0.01). Inferences are made about possible combustion-derived sources, atmospheric transport and air-surface exchange processes for these compounds.     

Competition between phenanthrene, chrysene, and 2,5-dichlorobiphenyl for high-energy adsorption sites in a sediment

We determined the maximum amounts of added phenanthrene, chrysene, and 2,5-dichlorobiphenyl sorbed onto high-energy adsorption sites in a sediment on bi-solute experiments. The bi-solute pairs were phenanthrene/chrysene and phenanthrene/2,5-dichlorobiphenyl. On the bi-solute sorption experiments, one solute was introduced and equilibrated with sediment prior to addition of the second solute. The values for the maximum amounts adsorbed onto high-energy sites revealed that, after equilibration of the first solute, still some high-energy sites could be occupied by the second solute. Phenanthrene, chrysene, and 2,5-dichlorobiphenyl seem to share about 30% of the accessible high-energy adsorption sites in the sediment employed.     

Spatial & temporal variations of PM10 and particle number concentrations in urban air

The size of particles in urban air varies over four orders of magnitude (from 0.001 μm to 10 μm in diameter). In many cities only particle mass concentrations (PM10, i.e. particles <10 μm diameter) is measured. In this paper we analyze how differences in emissions, background concentrations and meteorology affect the temporal and spatial distribution of PM10 and total particle number concentrations (PNC) based on measurements and dispersion modeling in Stockholm, Sweden. PNC at densely trafficked kerbside locations are dominated by ultrafine particles (<0.1 μm diameter) due to vehicle exhaust emissions as verified by high correlation with NOx. But PNC contribute only marginally to PM10, due to the small size of exhaust particles. Instead wear of the road surface is an important factor for the highest PM10 concentrations observed. In Stockholm, road wear increases drastically due to the use of studded tires and traction sand on streets during winter; up to 90% of the locally emitted PM10 may be due to road abrasion. PM10 emissions and concentrations, but not PNC, at kerbside are controlled by road moisture. Annual mean urban background PM10 levels are relatively uniformly distributed over the city, due to the importance of long range transport. For PNC local sources often dominate the concentrations resulting in large temporal and spatial gradients in the concentrations. Despite these differences in the origin of PM10 and PNC, the spatial gradients of annual mean concentrations due to local sources are of equal magnitude due to the common source, namely traffic. Thus, people in different areas experiencing a factor of 2 different annual PM10 exposure due to local sources will also experience a factor of 2 different exposure in terms of PNC. This implies that health impact studies based solely on spatial differences in annual exposure to PM10 may not separate differences in health effects due to ultrafine and coarse particles. On the other hand, health effect assessments based on time series exposure analysis of PM10 and PNC, should be able to observe differences in health effects of ultrafine particles versus coarse particles.     

顶空-气相色谱法(氮磷检测器)测定固定污染源废气中三甲胺

建立了顶空-气相色谱法测定固定污染源废气中三甲胺的分析方法。弱酸性吸收液采集固定污染源废气中的三甲胺,碱液中和后顶空进样气相色谱仪氮磷检测器分析。并对平衡温度、平衡时间、盐析效应、氨水和氢氧化钠条件实验进行优化,在最佳实验条件下,三甲胺的方法检出限为0. 46μg/m~3(以采集20 L空气样品计),加标回收率为97%～107%,相对标准偏差在9. 26%以下。利用该方法对垃圾焚烧发电厂厂界空气及鱼粉厂有组织废气中三甲胺进行检测分析,该方法能够满足国家标准及上海地方标准中三甲胺排放限值的要求。     

An experimental apparatus for testing biodiesels based on a CFR engine—setup and validation with different methyl ester blends

A cooperative fuel research (CFR) engine was modified and instrumented in order to control operating conditions and to measure engine parameters and in-cylinder pressure diagrams. Aiming at the comparison of different alternative fuels, an experimental procedure was defined, including cetane number (CN) evaluation and the definition of engine operating quantities in different working points, for fixed levels of compression ratio (CR) and injection advance. An investigation was made considering several blends of methyl-esters of rapeseed oil (RME) and of a mix of vegetable oils (VOME) with conventional diesel oil. The defined experimental procedure was applied to assess CN, engine brake thermal efficiency (bte) and exhaust emissions. Results show that the biodiesel content has a positive influence on soot emissions, with strong reduction, while thermal efficiency and NO_X emissions are negatively affected, which can be justified taking into account fuel properties and changes in combustion process. As observed outcomes are generally in line with those presented in literature, the facility proved to be a suitable tool for basic investigations on alternative fuels to be used in specific applications.     

A numerical study on the effects of EGR and spark timing to combustion characteristics and NOx emission of a GDI engine

EGR is one of the most significant strategies for reducing especially nitrogen oxides (NO_x) emissions from internal combustion engines. The thermal efficiency of spark ignition engines is lower than compression ignition engines because of its lower compression ratio. If the compression ratio is increased to obtain higher thermal efficiency, there may be a knocking tendency in spark ignition engines. EGR can be used in order to reduce NO_x emissions and avoid knocking phenomena at higher compression ratios. In-cylinder temperature at the end of combustion is decreased and heat capacity of fresh charge is increased when EGR applied. Besides EGR, spark timing is another significant parameter for reducing exhaust emissions such as nitrogen oxides, and unburned hydrocarbon (UHC). In this study the effects of EGR and spark timing on spark ignition engine were investigated numerically. KIVA codes were used in order to model combustion process. The combustion process has been modeled for a single cylinder, four stroke and gasoline direct injection (GDI) spark ignition engine. The results showed that in-cylinder pressure and heat release rate decrease as EGR ratio increase. In-cylinder pressure increases with the advancing of spark timing. Advancing spark timing increases the heat release rate and in-cylinder temperature. The simulation results also showed that EGR reduced exhaust gas temperature and NO_x emissions.