Comprehensive utilization of residues of Magnolia officinalis based on fiber characteristics

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - The traditional Chinese medicinal plant Magnolia officinalis has a wide range of applications; including more than 200 kinds of patented Chinese...     

Ammonia production and kinetic properties of glutamate dehydrogenase in the sipinculid Phascolosoma arcuatum exposed to anoxia

The amounts of total NH ₄ ⁺ detected in the external media in which Phascolosoma arcuatum had been exposed to various periods of anoxia were significantly greater than those in which the worms were exposed to normoxia for a similar period. The increased NH ₄ ⁺ production by P. arcuatum during anoxic exposure was unlikely to be due to an increased catabolism of adenine nucleotides or urea. In contrast, there were significant decreases in the concentrations of several free amino acids in the coelomic plasma and body tissues of individuals during the 48 h of anoxic exposure. The amount of NH ₄ ⁺ produced by the anoxic P. arcuatum could be accounted for by the decreases in the concentrations of aspartate or glycine. Increases in the catabolism of free amino acids (FAA), leading to the increased production of NH ₄ ⁺ , in P. arcuatum during anoxia were supported by the detection of significant changes in the kinetic properties of glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH), in the deaminating direction, from worms exposed to anoxia for 48 h. The apparent increase in the affinity of GDH from the anoxic worm to glutamate would bring about a greater deaminating activity at physiological concentrations of ths substrate. P. arcuatum used in these experiments were collected from the mangrove swamp at Mandai, Singapore between 1990 and 1993.     

Aerosol optical properties under different pollution levels in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region of China

To clarify the aerosol hygroscopic growth and optical properties of the Pearl River Delta(PRD)region,integrated observations were conducted in Heshan City of Guangdong Province from October 19 to November 17,2014.The concentrations and chemical compositions of PM_(2.5),aerosol optical properties and meteorological parameters were measured.The mean value of PM_(2.5) increased from less than 35(excellent) to 35-75 μg/m~3(good) and then to greater than 75 μg/m~3(pollution),corresponding to mean PM_(2.5) values of 24.9,51.2,and 93.3 μg/m~3,respectively.The aerosol scattering hygroscopic growth factor(f(RH = 80%)) values were 2.0,2.12,and 2.18 for the excellent,good,and pollution levels,respectively.The atmospheric extinction coefficient(σext)and the absorption coefficient of aerosols(σ_(ap)) increased,and the single scattering albedo(SSA)decreased from the excellent to the pollution levels.For different air mass sources,under excellent and good levels,the land air mass from northern Heshan had lower f(RH) and σ_(sp) values.In addition,the mixed aerosol from the sea and coastal cities had lower f(RH) and showed that the local sources of coastal cities have higher scattering characteristics in pollution periods.     

Adsorption of 17β-estradiol from aqueous solution by raw and direct/pre/post-KOH treated lotus seedpod biochar

Five biochars derived from lotus seedpod(LSP) were applied to examine and compare the adsorption capacity of 17β-estradiol(E2) from aqueous solution.The effect of KOH activation and the order of activation steps on material properties were discussed.The effect of contact time,initial concentration,p H,ionic strength and humic acid on E2 adsorption were investigated in a batch adsorption process.Experimental results demonstrated that the pseudo second-order model fitted the experimental data best and that adsorption equilibrium was reached within 20 hr.The efficiency of E2 removal increased with increasing E2 concentration and decreased with the increase of ionic strength.E2 adsorption on LSP-derived biochar(BCs) was influenced little by humic acid,and slightly affected by the solution p H when its value ranged from 4.0 to 9.0,but considerably affected at p H 10.0.Low environmental temperature is favorable for E2 adsorption.Chemisorption,π–π interactions,monolayer adsorption and electrostatic interaction are the possible adsorption mechanisms.Comparative studies indicated that KOH activation and the order of activation steps had significant impacts on the material.Post-treated biochar exhibited better adsorption capacity for E2 than direct treated,pretreated,and raw LSP biochar.Pyrolyzed biochar at higher temperature improved E2 removal.The excellent performance of BCs in removing E2 suggested that BCs have potential in E2 treatment and that the biochar directly treated by KOH would be a good choice for the treatment of E2 in aqueous solution,with its advantages of good efficiency and simple technology.     

含油污泥处理技术进展

石油工业生产的特征固体废物——含油污泥,是一种由石油烃、水、固体颗粒物和其他物质（如重金属）组成的固态/半固态复合物,因毒性和易燃性被归入危险废物管理。我国含油污泥年产量高达500万t,其中含有15%~50%的石油烃。含油污泥的处理要兼顾无害化和资源化。基于其组成、性质和危害,介绍了含油污泥的油品资源化分离法（离心、溶剂萃取、热解）和无害化剩余含油残渣处理法（焚烧、固化、生物处理）等国内外常用的处理方法。大体上,含油污泥的处理思路为,首先预处理降低含水率、提高含油率,再经油品分离法回收含油污泥中的石油烃,最后无害化处理剩余含油残渣。讨论了各方法的特点以及国内外研究进展,提出了含油污泥处理技术的发展建议。     

Analysis of pollutant levels in central Hong Kong applying neural network method with particle swarm optimization

Air pollution has emerged as an imminent issue in modernsociety. Prediction of pollutant levels is an importantresearch topic in atmospheric environment today. For fulfillingsuch prediction, the use of neural network (NN), and inparticular the multi-layer perceptrons, has presented to be acost-effective technique superior to traditional statisticalmethods. But their training, usually with back-propagation (BP)algorithm or other gradient algorithms, is often with certaindrawbacks, such as: 1) very slow convergence, and 2) easilygetting stuck in a local minimum. In this paper, a newlydeveloped method, particle swarm optimization (PSO) model, isadopted to train perceptrons, to predict pollutant levels, andas a result, a PSO-based neural network approach is presented. The approach is demonstrated to be feasible and effective bypredicting some real air-quality problems.     

Reduction of SO2 emissions by ammonia gas during unstaged combustion

The reduction of SO₂ by the addition of ammonia gas has been studied in a 2 m high fluidized bed combustor having a 30 cm static bed height and a freeboard height of 170 cm. Ammonia gas was injected at 52 cm above the distributor where the temperature is ca. 700° C by an uncooled stainless steel tube injector. Experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of amminia gas injection on sulphur dioxide emissions at unstaged conditions of: (i) excess air level, (ii) NH₃:SO₂ molar ratio, (iii) fluidizing velocity and (iv) bed height.A maximum reduction of 75% in SO₂ emissions was found at 40% excess air, at an NH₃:SO₂ molar ratio of 5.4. The onset of SO₂ reduction occurred at an NH₃:SO₂ ratio of 1.5 However, the most effective ratio was found to be between 3 and 5. Fluidizing velocity and bed height were also found to have significant influence on SO₂ reduction.It is difficult to determine how the SO₂ reduction varied with operating conditions. When ammonia is added in the main combustor zone, the temperature is much higher than that required for the occurrence of sulphur dioxide-ammonia and sulphur trioxide-ammonia reactions. However, this paper points out the significance of ammonia addition in the reduction of sulphur dioxide.     

Environmental and biological monitoring of methyl ethyl ketone (MEK)

This study was conducted to evaluate the usefulness of various biological parameters for monitoring of workers exposed to methyl ethyl ketone (MEK). Fifty male workers from a large magnetic videotape factory participated in this study. Personal air samples were collected using 3M organic vapor monitors and analysed for MEK by gas chromatography with flame ionisation detector (FID). 10 mL of urine; blood (1 mL) and exhaled air were also collected at the end of an 8-hour workshift. The headspace GC method was applied for measurement of urinary and blood MEK. MEK in expired air was analysed directly by using a GC/FID.The correlation coefficients (r) between environmental MEK and all other biological parameters measured show significant positive relationships. The r for environmental MEK and urine MEK was 0.84; for blood 0.73 and for breath 0.64. The correlation coefficients between blood and urine was 0.72; blood and breath was 0.88 and urine and breath 0.60. These findings suggest that measurements of unmetabolised MEK in blood, exhaled air and urine can be used for biological monitoring of MEK exposure. Nevertheless, laboratory methodological assessment is in favour of measuring urinary MEK as it is non-invasive and does not have to be analysed immediately after collection.     

Using improved neural network model to analyze RSP,NOx and NO2 levels in urban air in Mong Kok,Hong Kong

As the health impact of air pollutants existing in ambient addresses much attention in recent years, forecasting of airpollutant parameters becomes an important and popular topic inenvironmental science. Airborne pollution is a serious, and willbe a major problem in Hong Kong within the next few years. InHong Kong, Respirable Suspended Particulate (RSP) and NitrogenOxides NO_x and NO₂ are major air pollutants due to thedominant diesel fuel usage by public transportation and heavyvehicles. Hence, the investigation and prediction of the influence and the tendency of these pollutants are ofsignificance to public and the city image. The multi-layerperceptron (MLP) neural network is regarded as a reliable andcost-effective method to achieve such tasks. The works presentedhere involve developing an improved neural network model, whichcombines the principal component analysis (PCA) technique and theradial basis function (RBF) network, and forecasting thepollutant levels and tendencies based in the recorded data. Inthe study, the PCA is firstly used to reduce and orthogonalizethe original input variables (data), these treated variables arethen used as new input vectors in RBF neural network modelestablished for forecasting the pollutant tendencies. Comparingwith the general neural network models, the proposed modelpossesses simpler network architecture, faster training speed,and more satisfactory predicting performance. This improvedmodel is evaluated by using hourly time series of RSP, NO_x and NO₂ concentrations collected at Mong Kok Roadside Gaseous Monitory Station in Hong Kong during the year 2000. By comparing the predicted RSP, NO_x and NO₂ concentrationswith the actual data of these pollutants recorded at the monitorystation, the effectiveness of the proposed model has been proven.Therefore, in authors' opinion, the model presented in the paper is a potential tool in forecasting air quality parameters and hasadvantages over the traditional neural network methods.     

Chemical monitoring and evaluation of the water quality of the Douro River at the Crestuma-Lever dam

Water taken from the Crestuma-Lever dam on the Douro River was evaluated considering the Portuguese Decree-law no. 236/98 of 1st August, 1998. This paper presents the metrological characteristics, validation of analytical methodologies and the data obtained from seasonal samplings. The test parameters selected are: temperature, pH, chloride, conductivity, carbon dioxide, alkalinity, hardness, oxidability, dissolved oxygen, BOD5, total suspended solids, sulfide, phosphate, silica, ammonium, nitrite, nitrate, sulfate, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, copper and zinc. From data analysis we can conclude that the water presented the following characteristics: a pH situated in the neutral zone; a median mineralization; a medium hardness; well oxygenated water; and a carbonate hardness exclusively due to bicarbonates. The temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, ammonia, chlorides, sulfates, copper, zinc and BOD5 were compared with the legal limits presented in annexes XXI and I of Decree-law 236/98. The results relating to total hardness, nitrites, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, aluminium, sulfides and oxidability were compared with the legal values in annex VI as there are no limits relating to these parameters in annexes XXI and I.