Review of LCA studies of solid waste management systems – Part II: Methodological guidance for a better practice

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is increasingly used in waste management to identify strategies that prevent or minimise negative impacts on ecosystems, human health or natural resources. However, the quality of the provided support to decision- and policy-makers is strongly dependent on a proper conduct of the LCA. How has LCA been applied until now? Are there any inconsistencies in the past practice? To answer these questions, we draw on a critical review of 222 published LCA studies of solid waste management systems. We analyse the past practice against the ISO standard requirements and the ILCD Handbook guidelines for each major step within the goal definition, scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation phases of the methodology. Results show that malpractices exist in several aspects of the LCA with large differences across studies. Examples are a frequent neglect of the goal definition, a frequent lack of transparency and precision in the definition of the scope of the study, e.g. an unclear delimitation of the system boundaries, a truncated impact coverage, difficulties in capturing influential local specificities such as representative waste compositions into the inventory, and a frequent lack of essential sensitivity and uncertainty analyses. Many of these aspects are important for the reliability of the results. For each of them, we therefore provide detailed recommendations to practitioners of waste management LCAs.     

有机质胶体对卡马西平在多孔介质中迁移影响模拟实验

有机质胶体与有机污染物的相互作用会影响污染物在多孔介质中迁移转化等环境行为.为研究有机质胶体对药物和个人护理品(PPCPs)在土壤环境中迁移的影响,本实验以卡马西平(CBZ)为目标污染物,用商用腐殖酸制备有机质胶体,分别选择石英砂、标准土和野外所取土样为研究介质,通过室内土柱模拟实验探究有机质胶体存在时污染物在多孔介质中的迁移行为.结果表明,描述一维溶质运移的两点化学非平衡模型能够较好模拟CBZ在各介质土中的运移过程,说明污染物运移过程中与介质间发生了化学非平衡吸附作用;石英砂柱中加入胶体后,对CBZ的吸附过程无明显影响,但在解吸时阻滞因子及滞留量变小,可见胶体与石英砂间作用微弱,解吸过程中胶体与污染物结合形成复合体后对污染物有增溶作用;胶体存在时,标准土和自然土对CBZ的吸附量和迁移阻滞强度均明显大于石英砂,其中有机质及黏土矿物的作用最为明显,有机质中的低能/高能吸附位点以及黏土矿物极性表面均能够固定污染物;由于有机质含量较高,自然土对CBZ在吸附-解吸过程中的阻滞截留强度大于标准土.针对本实验中CBZ的迁移情况,提出了疏水性有机污染物在含有机质胶体土壤中的迁移过程中各种作用的概念模型.     

嫩江水体溶解氧变化规律的混沌研究

针对目前溶解氧研究主要是从生物、化学等方面开展,而对溶解氧自身变化规律的研究很少的特点,以嫩江干流浏园水文站测得的溶解氧质量浓度序列为例,首先进行相空间重构,应用自相关函数法确定出延迟时间、伪邻近点法确定出嵌入维数;然后应用主分量分析(PCA)方法对序列进行分析,表明该序列不是噪声序列而可能是混沌序列,通过计算Kolmogorov熵得出溶解氧质量浓度序列具有混沌特性的结论;最后应用基于关联度的局域加权线性回归预测法对该序列进行了混沌预测研究,得到了比较理想的预测结果,这为应用混沌理论进行溶解氧变化规律的研究提供了依据.     

金属丝网对甲烷/空气预混火焰管道内传播的影响

为研究管道内金属丝网对甲烷/空气预混火焰传播的影响,通过实验和三维数值模拟研究安装金属丝网的管道内火焰传播特性以及流场、温度场的变化。结果表明:40目4层的金属丝网可以使火焰淬熄,30目4层的金属丝网无法淬熄,但可以使火焰停滞3 ms;大涡模型可以很好地对管道内火焰淬熄现象进行模拟;当火焰穿过30目4层金属丝网时,速度增大,在Kelvin Helmholtz不稳定和Rayleigh Taylor不稳定的耦合作用下形成湍流;金属丝网的目数会影响热量在丝网层中的扩散,当金属丝网为30目4层时,火焰热量扩散快,而当金属丝网为40目4层时,火焰热量扩散慢且温度大幅度衰减,衰减率达到83%。     

In situ formation of bimetallic FeNi nanoparticles on sand through green technology: Application for tetracycline removal

• In situ preparation of FeNi nanoparticles on the sand via green synthesis approach. • Removal of tetracycline using GS-FeNi in batch and column study. • Both reductive degradation and sorption played crucial role the process. • Reusability of GS-FeNi showed about 77.39±4.3% removal on 4th cycle. • TC by-products after interaction showed less toxic as compared with TC. In this study, FeNi nanoparticles were green synthesized using Punica granatum (pomegranate) peel extract, and these nanoparticles were also formed in situ over quartz sand (GS-FeNi) for removal of tetracycline (TC). Under the optimized operating conditions, (GS-FeNi concentration: 1.5% w/v; concentration of TC: 20 mg/L; interaction period: 180 min), 99±0.2% TC removal was achieved in the batch reactor. The removal capacity was 181±1 mg/g. A detailed characterization of the sorbent and the solution before and after the interaction revealed that the removal mechanism(s) involved both the sorption and degradation of TC. The reusability of reactant was assessed for four cycles of operation, and 77±4% of TC removal was obtained in the cycle. To judge the environmental sustainability of the process, residual toxicity assay of the interacted TC solution was performed with indicator bacteria (Bacillus and Pseudomonas) and algae (Chlorella sp.), which confirmed a substantial decrease in the toxicity. The continuous column studies were undertaken in the packed bed reactors using GS-FeNi. Employing the optimized conditions, quite high removal efficiency (978±5 mg/g) was obtained in the columns. The application of GS-FeNi for antibiotic removal was further evaluated in lake water, tap water, and ground water spiked with TC, and the removal capacity achieved was found to be 781±5, 712±5, and 687±3 mg/g, respectively. This work can pave the way for treatment of antibiotics and other pollutants in the reactors using novel green composites prepared from fruit wastes.     

悬浮填料活性污泥法优化填料投配比试验

悬浮填料活性污泥法中试试验系统,利用某城市污水厂生产工艺回流污泥为系统悬浮污泥,探讨了悬浮填料投配比、投配方式和中试硝化效果之间的关系。试验结果表明,悬浮填料最小投配比为15%即可满足系统硝化功能的要求;悬浮填料的投配方式宜采用集中投配并布置于曝气池的末端,这样既可提高系统的生物膜量,又有利于硝化反应的实现。而且,控制适当的溶解氧浓度,悬浮填料的投加有助于同步硝化反硝化更充分的进行。     

Scapegoat Ecology: Blame,Exoneration, and an Emergent Genre in Environmentalist Discourse

This essay identifies and examines scapegoat ecology, an emergent genre in online environmental discourse. In scapegoat ecology, a public of environmentally minded individuals focuses attention and vitriol on a single person for being particularly harmful to the environment. This essay argues that such discourse deflects attention from more complex and systemic environmental factors and implicitly exonerates the broader community, assuring it of its own environmental commitments while excusing it from further ecological action. The essay describes the form and appeal of scapegoat ecology, then provides a series of illustrative case examples before highlighting the implications of such discourse for both environmental communication and broader social/political conversations.     

“Hey Friend,Buy Green”: Social Media Use to Influence Eco-Purchasing Involvement

This study addresses the use of message carriers to convey corporate social responsibility information to promote eco-purchasing involvement. The work tests various media formats transmitted via social media. The effects of corporate vs. peer communication in a corporate social responsibility campaign in stimulating self-reported eco-purchasing involvement are indicated. The research varies communication dimensions of a fictional corporate social responsibility campaign sent through social media. Multiple media formats; new release; article; and advertisement were tested, as was the inclusion of social media persuasive sentiment. The analysis of source/format combinations and source/format/sentiment combinations found statistically significant differences for consumer-to-consumer communication in stimulating eco-purchasing involvement in certain circumstances. This research suggests an emerging role for the consumer communicator as a content co-creator and validates the effective use of articles and news releases instead of advertising on social media, yielding managerial and scholarly implications.     

Adsorption thermodynamics and kinetic investigation of aromatic amphoteric compounds onto different polymeric adsorbents

The adsorption behavior of p-aminobenzoic acid and o-aminobenzoic acid onto the different polymeric adsorbents was systematically investigated as a function of the solution concentration and temperature.Experimental results indicated that the equilibrium adsorption data of the four polymeric adsorbents fitted well in the Freundlich isotherm.The adsorption capacity of multi-functional polymeric adsorbent NJ-99 was the highest,which might be attributed to the strong hydrogen-bonding interaction between the amino groups on the resin and the carboxyl group of aminobenzoic acid.The adsorption capacity of o-aminobenzoic acid onto any adsorbent was higher than p-aminobenzoic acid.Thermodynamic studies suggested the exothermic,spontaneous physical adsorption process.Adsorption kinetics results showed that the adsorption followed the pseudo-second-order kinetics model and the intraparticle mass transfer process was the rate-controlling step.     

A pipeline of tweets: environmental movements’ use of Twitter in response to the Keystone XL pipeline

Social movements often amalgamate otherwise diffuse public political interests. In recent years, social media use has allowed both groups and individuals to engage with political issues both online and offline. How do organizations use Twitter to mobilize networked publics? To what extent do groups promote both ‘connective action’ online and traditional activism offline? How do their strategies differ according to whether they seek to promote or combat the status quo? And how do they balance encouraging and reinforcing individualized expression through group messaging? The ways pro-Keystone XL pipeline and anti-Keystone XL groups differed in their Keystone-related action on Twitter from January 2010 until October 2014 are analyzed. Boolean searching and Natural Language processing are used to analyze more than three million tweets. The results demonstrate that the frames within Twitter conversations have significant implications for how communities understand, develop, and mobilize around environmental issues.