There is currently great interest in microalgae as sources of renewable energy and biofuels. Many algae species have a high lipid content and can be grown on non-arable land using alternate water sources such as seawater. This paper discusses in detail the issue of sustainability of commercial-scale microalgae production of biofuels with particular focus on land, water, nutrients (N and P) and CO2 requirements and highlights some of the key issues in the very large scale culture of microalgae which is required for biofuels. The use of genetically modified algae is also considered. 相似文献
Construction and building industry is in dire need for developing sustainability assessment frameworks that can evaluate and integrate related environmental and socioeconomic impacts. This paper discusses an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) based sustainability evaluation framework for mid-rise residential buildings based on a broad range of environmental and socioeconomic criteria. A cradle to grave life cycle assessment technique was applied to identify, classify, and assess triple bottom line (TBL) sustainability performance indicators of buildings. Then, the AHP was applied to aggregate the impacts into a unified sustainability index. The framework is demonstrated through a case study to investigate two six storey structural systems (i.e. concrete and wood) in Vancouver, Canada. The results of this paper show that the environmental performance of a building in Canada, even in regions with milder weather such as Vancouver, is highly dependent on service life energy, rather than structural materials. 相似文献
Mercury as a toxic element and its associated health hazard has been an important topic of research for urban pollution for many years. In this paper, the spatial distribution, pollution assessment, and health risk associated with Hg in roadside dust 96 street dust samples, representing differing land-uses, have been investigated. Land-uses included residential areas (RA), industrial areas (IA), public gardens (PG), roadside areas (RS), and suburban areas (SA) in the city of Ahvaz, Iran were investigated. Compared with other cities, the concentration of Hg in Ahvaz was considerably higher with a mean value of 2.53 mg kg?1, ranging from 0.02 to 8.75 mg kg?1. Residential areas exhibited higher Hg in street dust than other areas, as demonstrated by spatial mapping illustrating hot spots associated with old urban areas with high residential density, high volume traffic of roadside areas, and industrial districts: including oil-drilling activities, steel smelting-related industries, and small industrial towns around Ahvaz. However, Hg concentrations in street dust near to the public gardens (PG) and suburban areas (SA) were not at elevated levels compared other land-uses investigated in this study. A health risk assessment model of non-carcinogenic effects was evaluated for both children and adults. The HQ values also revealed that the main exposures route for children and adults decreased as follows: vapour > ingestion > dermal contact > inhalation. The hazard index (HI) in each area is less than the safe level (HI ≤ 1) for children and adults, but higher for children. The HI value decreases as the following order: RS > IA > RA > SA > PG, which indicates potentially serious health hazards for children in the study areas. 相似文献
As largely documented in the literature, the stark restrictions enforced worldwide in 2020 to curb the COVID-19 pandemic also curtailed the production of air pollutants to some extent. This study investigates the perception of the air pollution as assessed by individuals located in ten countries: Australia, Brazil, China, Ghana, India, Iran, Italy, Norway, South Africa and the USA. The perceptions towards air quality were evaluated by employing an online survey administered in May 2020. Participants (N = 9394) in the ten countries expressed their opinions according to a Likert-scale response. A reduction in pollutant concentration was clearly perceived, albeit to a different extent, by all populations. The survey participants located in India and Italy perceived the largest drop in the air pollution concentration; conversely, the smallest variation was perceived among Chinese and Norwegian respondents. Among all the demographic indicators considered, only gender proved to be statistically significant.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01574-2. 相似文献
Aggregate structure of covalently functionalized chiral specific semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) was systematically studied employing static light scattering (SLS). Fractal dimensions (Df) of two specific chirality SWNTs—SG65 and SG76 with (6, 5) and (7, 6) chiral enrichments—were measured under four biological exposure media conditions, namely: Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle Medium (DMEM), Minimum Essential Medium (MEM), Roswell Park Memorial Institute (RPMI) 1640 medium, and 0.9% saline solution. The SWNTs exhibited chiral dependence on Df with SG65 showing more fractal or loosely bound aggregate structures, i.e., lower Df values (range of 2.24 ± 0.03 to 2.64 ± 0.05), compared to the SG76 sample (range of 2.58 ± 0.13 to 2.90 ± 0.08). All the Df values reported are highly reproducible, measured from multiple SLS runs and estimated with ‘random block-effects’ statistical analysis that yielded all p values to be <0.001. The key mechanism for such difference in Df between the SWNT samples was identified as the difference in van der Waals (VDW) interaction energies of these samples, where higher VDW of SG76 resulted in tighter packing density. Effect of medium type showed lower sensitivity; however, presence of di-valent cations (Ca2+) in DMEM and MEM media resulted in relatively loose or more fractal aggregates. Moreover, presence of fetal bovine serum (FBS) and bovine serum albumin (BSA), used to mimic the in vitro cell culture condition, reduced the Df values, i.e., created more fractal structures. Steric hindrance to aggregation was identified as the key mechanism for creating the fractal structures. Also, increase in FBS concentration from 1% to 10% resulted in increasingly lower Df values. 相似文献
Journal of Polymers and the Environment - Cellulose was initially extracted from Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) stem wastes and used for the preparation of a fully bio-based adsorbent polymer... 相似文献
Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Rapid evolution in the population age structure of the Middle East countries has major economic, social, and environmental outcomes. Therefore, to... 相似文献
Cigarette butts are hazardous wastes that are not properly discarded by most smokers. They are one of the most abundant litters in the environment and a threat to various organisms because they leak numerous pollutants. This study aimed to assess the distribution of cigarette butts in a coastal city south of the Caspian Sea in Mazandaran Province, Iran. Observations were performed using the visual survey technique based on standardized protocol. The results showed 11,261 littered cigarette butts in 15 studied urban areas ( an average of 0.306 units per square meter). Also, the average density of littered cigarette butts on the studied beaches was 0.106 per square meter. The littered cigarette butts had significant spatial variation, and the number of counts was 135 to 2090. The land-use has a significant effect on the density of littered cigarette butts due to its population density. The inquiry’s index demonstrated that 33.3% of the studied urban areas are high pollution and severe pollution, while all beaches are high and severe. Therefore, a significant focus must be considered to reduce cigarette butts littering due to the collection problems and challenges of cigarette butt management. Because the pollution on the beaches is higher than in urban areas, improving waste management services and establishing a regular cleaning program are essential.
The production of biofuels from microalgae, especially biodiesel, has become a topic of great interest in recent years. However, many of the published papers do not consider the question of scale up and the feasibility of the various processes to be operated at the very large scale required if algal biofuels are to make a meaningful contribution to renewable fuels. All the steps in the process must also be very low cost. This paper discusses the unit processes required for algal biofuels production (i.e., growing the algae, harvesting, dewatering, extraction and conversion to biofuel) and their scalability. In many cases, especially in the lipid extraction step, little is known as yet as to the scalability and economic feasibility of the various processes proposed. We also highlight the key engineering and biological issues which must be resolved for the production of biofuels from microalgae to become an economic reality. 相似文献
API650-2008 is one of the prominent codes consisting of seismic specifications to design steel storage tanks for earthquakes resistance. In spite of the code's broad application, there are some failure modes such as slide bottom, elephant-foot buckling, sloshing and uplift needing more evaluation. In this paper, 161 existing tanks in an oil refinery complex have been classified into 24 groups and investigated using both API650-2008 rules and numerical FEM models. Failure modes and dynamic characteristics of studied models have been calculated by numerical FEM analysis and compared with code requirements. The results demonstrate that, in some cases, there are some imperfections in the code requirements that require further investigation. 相似文献