Release dynamic process identification for a cement based material in various leaching conditions. Part I. Influence of leaching conditions on the release amount

In this paper we investigate at laboratory scale the influence of the liquid/solid leaching conditions on the release of different chemical species from a reference porous material obtained by solidification of PbO and CdO with Portland cement. The pH influence on the dissolution of pollutants and the initial pore solution composition (target elements: Na(+), K(+), Ca(2+), Pb(2+), Cd(2+), SO(4)(2-)) were assessed by applying a methodology consisting of two equilibrium leaching tests, the Acid Neutralization Capacity (ANC) and the Pore Water (PW) tests and geochemical modelling. Samples of the same material were submitted in parallel to four different dynamic leaching tests in order to determine the influence of the sample shape (monolithic or granular) and eluate hydrodynamics (instantaneous L/S ratio, eluate renewal) on the leaching of the target elements. The comparison criteria were the eluate saturation state, the cumulative release and the released flux. Generally, the eluates obtained in the tests applied on granular material were more concentrated, even saturated for the eluate pH value with respect to Ca(2+), Pb(2+) and SO(4)(2-). The consequence of the eluate saturation is the slowing down effect on the dynamic release. The highest released flux was observed for the Monolith Leaching Test (MLT) involving the highest instantaneous L/S ratio and the lowest solid/liquid exchange surface and for which no saturation was observed, except Pb(2+) and SO(4)(2-) in some eluates. The maximum cumulative released-mass was obtained for the Column Leaching Test (CLT) applied on granular material having the highest exchange surface, the lowest instantaneous L/S and a continuous input flow of the leachant. The experimental results demonstrate the significance of the liquid/solid contact type which is also a scenario specific parameter.     

Environmental behaviour of a construction made of a mixture of hydraulic binders and air pollution control residues from municipal solid waste incineration Part 1. Physico-chemical characterisation and modelling of the source term

The reuse of waste materials requires the development of assessment methods for the long-term release of pollutants (source term) from wastes (or materials containing wastes) in contact with water. These methods depend on the scenario conditions: characteristics of the materials (especially physical structure and composition), contact with water. The scenario studied here is a water storage reservoir for fire fighting. The reservoir construction is made of a mixture of hydraulic binders and air pollution control (APC) residues from a municipal solid waste incinerator (MSWI). The modelling of the source term is performed in 5 steps ranging from the physico-chemical characterisation of the material to the validation of the proposed model by means of field simulation devices. This article presents the first steps of the methodology: physico-chemical characterisation of the source term, identification of the main transfer mechanisms and laboratory scale modelling of the source term. During the physico-chemical characterisation, it has been shown that the solidified waste shows a high basic capacity and that a relative decrease in pH during leaching favours retention of the main pollutants. During the first leaching sequences, the dynamic leaching tests show that the release of pollutants such as cadmium, arsenic, zinc and lead is extremely low but that the release of alkaline species (sodium and potassium) and chloride is very high from the beginning, whereas the release of calcium remains very high even after 3600 h of leaching. Identification of the main transfer mechanisms concludes that the release of soluble pollutants is the combined result of diffusional transfer of pollutants in the solution and the physico-chemical specificity of the species. The modelling based on these features enables a good simulation of the release but reveals a deviation from the experimental results after 500 h for alkaline species and 1000 h for Ca and Cl leaching. However, this deviation only appears after release of the major part of these elements.     

Goa: tourism,migrations, and ecosystem transformations

This article is based on a larger case study that investigated the role of tourist induced and other population movements in causing coastal ecosystem change in Goa, India. It focuses especially upon agro-ecosystems locally known as khazan lands, and sand dunes, and how they are transformed to accommodate the needs of tourists and tourism. The effects of different forms of tourism upon land cover and land-use change is assessed. The research findings suggest that it is not population movements alone that cause ecosystem changes, but the changes in relations between people and ecosystems. This means that in some cases land cover has not changed as much as land use, and in other cases land cover has changed dramatically. Intermediary influences upon land use and land-cover change are also legal, political, and economic factors, particularly changes in property rights.     

Corporate strategy and viable future land use: planning for closure from the outset of mining

This paper provides an overview of the environmental impact of mining on viable future land use and underlines the imperative of improved environmental management and closure planning. It argues that pollution prevention, through planning for closure, can lead to cost-effective strategies for sustainable minerals development and viable future land use. This seems to be most true for greenfield sites since, generally, the earlier closure planning and pollution prevention is built into a project, the more cost-effective and environmentally benign closure will be. Further, for greenfield sites, pollution prevention techniques can be employed from the outset, at the stages of exploration and mine development, and then monitored and improved through the operation stage to closure, and can be kept in place to manage future land use.
The paper discusses how global changes in the industry, following the liberalisation of investment regimes, and mergers and strategic alliances between key firms, has, by virtue of the diffusion of new technology, led to further opportunities to prevent pollution and optimise future land use through planning for closure from the outset. The objectives and components of closure plans are also reviewed as the paper draws on case studies to highlight some of the possible constraints and challenges to pollution prevention that may be faced at the level of both public policy and corporate strategy. The article concludes by suggesting a forward-looking approach to integrated environmental management and viable future land-use planning based on a dynamic model for environmental management.     

Horizontal environmental assessment of building products in relation to the construction products directive (CPD)

According to the European Construction Products Directive (89/106/EC), construction products must satisfy specified essential requirements (ER). To comply with ER 3, on hygiene, health and environment, the construction works must be designed and built in such a way that they will not be a threat to the hygiene and health of the occupants and neighbours, nor to the environment. Standardised test methods for the release of substances that are hazardous to health and environment need to be developed at the European level. A horizontal approach is considered the best route for such test development and consists of the development of a test method applicable for different products used in a certain scenario (across the fields of different Technical Committees). The work presented here regards the emission of pollutants towards soil and water and has been carried out on monolith products, based on three types of matrices: concrete, wood and metal (zinc). The aim of the work is to study the parameters (nature of leachant, temperature, liquid-to-solid ratio) that could influence the release behaviour of substances in water. The knowledge acquired from these tests will allow the identification of some parameters needed for the development of a horizontal test.     

Transfer rate of pesticide residues from medicinal plants in different types of extractive solutions

Abstract

Starting from the suspicion that the medicinal herbs may contain traces of pesticides and taking into account the risks of patients being exposed to contaminated products, the aim of this research was to evaluate the pesticide residues and the degree of their transfer (%) in three types of preparations (infusion, decoctionand cold maceration), for four medicinal plant species very often used in phytotherapy (Rosmarini folium, Menthae folium, Saturejae herba and Basilica herba). For each type of plant product, four samples were purchased from different manufacturers and they have been analyzed using gas chromatography- tandem mass spectrometry. One out of four samples of the same plant species contain at least one pesticide residue above the maximum level and shows a significant transfer of these residues in aqueous extractive solutions during extraction. The highest rate of pesticide transfer from medicinal plants was identified in infusions, recommended by many manufacturers.     

Effect of fulvic acid on the photochemical degradation of methylparathion

Photochemical degradation of methylparathion (O,O,–dimethyl O-4 nitrophenylphosphorothioate) in the presence of fulvic acid (FA) between pH 2 and 7 was studied by differential pulse polarography (DPP). Fulvic acid and its photoproducts were not electro-active under the experimental conditions used in this study, and only the pesticide exhibited polarographic signals. Photolysis of methylparathion in acid media was sensitized by fulvic acid since the pesticide did not degrade in the absence of this compound. Methylparathion degradation was observed at each of the studied pHs. The reaction was first-order with rate constant values ranging from 3.3 × 10^?3 to 8.8 × 10^?3min^?1.     

Energy reserves and accumulation of metals in the ground beetle Pterostichus oblongopunctatus from two metal-polluted gradients

Living in an area chronically polluted with metals is usually associated with changes in the energy distribution in organisms due to increased energy expenses associated with detoxification and excretion processes. These expenses may be reflected in the available energy resources, such as lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins. In this context, the energy status of Pterostichus oblongopunctatus (Coleoptera: Carabidae) was studied in two metal pollution gradients near Olkusz and Miateczko ?l?skie in southern Poland. Both regions are rich in metal ores, and the two largest Polish zinc smelters have been operating there since the 1970s. Beetles were collected from five sites at each gradient. Zinc and cadmium concentrations were measured in both the soil and the beetles. The possible reduction in energy reserves as a cost of detoxifying assimilated metals was evaluated biochemically by determining the total lipid, carbohydrates, and protein contents. At the most polluted sites, the Zn concentration in the soil organic layer reached 2,906 mg/kg, and the Cd concentration reached 55 mg/kg. Body Zn and Cd concentrations increased with increasing soil Zn and Cd concentrations (p?=?0.003 and p?=?0.0001, respectively). However, no relationship between pollution level and energetic reserves was found. The results suggest that populations of P. oblongopunctatus inhabiting highly metal-polluted sites are able to survive without any serious impact on their energy reserves, though they obviously have to cope with elevated body metal concentrations.     

Environmental behaviour of a construction made of a mixture of hydraulic binders and air pollution control residues from municipal solid waste incineration Part 2. Simulation tests and validation of the source term modelling

The reuse of waste materials requires the development of assessment methods for the long-term release of pollutants (source term) from wastes (or materials containing wastes) in contact with water. These methods depend on the scenario conditions: characteristics of the materials (especially physical structure and composition), contact with water… The scenario studied here is a water storage reservoir for fire extinguishing. The reservoir construction is made of a mixture of hydraulic binders and air pollution control (APC) residues from municipal solid waste incinerator (MSWI). The modelling of the source term is performed in five steps ranging from the physico-chemical characterisation of the material to the validation of the proposed model by means of field simulation devices. This paper follows a first publication on source term modelling using laboratory tests which therefore concerns the comparison of the results obtained with the previously established model. The first laboratory scale simulation test aims at taking into account the role of the leachate carbonation in the leaching behaviour of the studied material. The results obtained show that air carbonation of the leachate does not fundamentally change mass transfer mechanisms of easily soluble species (especially for alkaline metals). For these species, the use of the apparent diffusional model (model proposed in the previous paper) is, therefore, at first, a satisfactory solution for the prediction of long term leaching behaviour. The field scale test enables us to validate and calibrate the release model determined on a laboratory scale basis.     

Release dynamic process identification for a cement based material in various leaching conditions. Part II. Modelling the release dynamics for different leaching conditions

This paper deals with process identification and model development for the case of a porous reference material leaching under certain hydrodynamic conditions. Four different dynamic leaching tests have been applied in order to take into account different types of solid/liquid contact conditions corresponding to various real leaching scenarios: monolithic and granular material with sequential eluate renewal, and granular material and continuously renewed eluate with different hydrodynamic conditions (dispersion, residence time). A coupled chemical-mass transfer model has been developed to describe the leaching behaviour under all experimental conditions. Diffusion has been considered as the mass transport mechanism inside the saturated porous material and dispersive convection as that in the leachate. Two specific phenomena have been identified and considered in the model: (i) the early surface dissolution of the material which results in high Ca concentration and (ii) the late weak dissolution of Na and K giving rise to a long-term residual release. The intrinsic material parameters such as the initial concentrations in the pore water and solid phases were determined by applying equilibrium leaching tests and geochemical modelling. Diffusion coefficients for different elements and the late solubility of alkalines have been found to reach the same values in the four tests. The estimated values of the surface dissolution kinetic constant have shown a dependence on leachate hydrodynamics when the thickness of the degraded layer is nearly the same in the four tests (intrinsic parameter of the material). The competition between the four main dynamic processes, i.e. diffusion, convection, late dissolution, and surface dissolution, has been emphasized and compared in the four leaching tests: the hydrodynamic dispersion and the residence time had no effect on the leaching behaviour of alkalines, which is controlled by diffusion, whereas the behaviour of calcium (a major element of the material) was strongly influenced. This has significant effects on eluate pH values and on the concentration of Pb (the monitored pollutant). The model was then applied to simulate a landfill scenario in the case of a stabilized/solidified incinerator residue containing heavy metals and chloride. A high rain infiltration level and the use of small blocs are favourable conditions for enhanced pollutant release.