Understanding nutrient build-up on urban road surfaces

This article discusses the outcomes of a research project on nutrients build-up on urban road surfaces.Nutrient build-up was investigated on road sites belonging to residential,industrial and commercial land use.Collected build-up samples were separated into five particle size ranges and were tested for total nitrogen (TN),total phosphorus (TP) and sub species of nutrients,namely,NO 2- ,NO 3- ,TKN and PO 43-.Multivariate analytical techniques were used to analyse the data and to develop detailed understanding on build- up.Data analysis revealed that the solids loads on urban road surfaces are highly influenced by factors such as land use,antecedent dry period and traffic volume.However,the nutrient build-up process was found to be independent of the type of land use.It was solely dependent on the particle size of solids build-up.Most of the nutrients were associated with the particle size range 150 μm.Therefore,the removal of particles below 150 μm from road surfaces is of importance for the removal of nitrogen and phosphorus from road surface solids build-up.It is also important to consider the difference in the composition of nitrogen and phosphorus build-up in the context of designing effective stormwater quality mitigation strategies.     

Physical and Thermal Analysis of the Degradation of Poly(3-Hydroxybutyrate-<Emphasis Type="Italic">co</Emphasis>-4-Hydroxybutyrate) Coated Paper in a Constructed Soil Medium

The degradation of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4-hydroxybutyrate) (P(3HB-co-4HB)) coated brown Kraft paper and its components in a constructed soil environment was investigated. Soil burial tests were carried out over 8 weeks. Weight loss measurements, photographic analysis, environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were conducted to assess the physical, structural, mechanical and thermal behavior before and after the soil burial test. Paper showed the highest physical degradation and weight loss. With respect to the control samples, the stiffness of the partially degraded samples decreased. The overall crystallinity of the biopolymer and the coated paper was affected significantly by burial. The pure biopolymer’s weight loss was substantially enhanced when coated on paper. This result reveals a possible increased microbial population in the coated paper relative to the pure biopolymer.     

Validation of an Automated Multiunit Composting System

Biodegradable packaging has high potential to help solve the crisis of non-biodegradable plastic waste causing an increase in the footprint of landfills. However, more research needs to be executed to develop a larger assortment of biodegradable plastics for numerous applications and to make them more economical to manufacture. This paper discusses the design and validation of an automated composting system (AMUCS) that fits the requirements of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) 5338-11 standard. The results of the experiments show that the AMUCS was able to create and maintain the conditions for biodegradation of biodegradable polymers in compost using microcrystalline cellulose. The biodegradation caused by the composting environment was observed visually with the naked eye and on the micro scale with an environmental scanning electron microscope. The magnitude of biodegradation was measured by calculating the carbon metabolized from the samples. The carbon metabolized from the three compost replicates was consistent and linear, and there was only an 8 % difference between the non-biodegradable low density polyethylene and the compost. For the biodegradation study according to ASTM D 5338-11, the experiment was validated with the use of cellulose as a reference material. Under controlled composting conditions, the mineralization of microcrystalline cellulose yielded 72.05 %, which is slightly higher than the 70 % mineralization requirement.