Pollution prevention at ports: clearing the air

Seaports are major hubs of economic activity and of environmental pollution in coastal urban areas. Due to increasing global trade, transport of goods through ports has been steadily increasing and will likely continue to increase in the future. Evaluating air pollution impacts of ports requires consideration of numerous sources, including marine vessels, trucks, locomotives, and off-road equipment used for moving cargo. The air quality impacts of ports are significant, with particularly large emissions of diesel exhaust, particulate matter, and nitrogen oxides. The health effects of these air pollutants to residents of local communities include asthma, other respiratory diseases, cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, and premature mortality. In children, there are links with asthma, bronchitis, missed school days, and emergency room visits. The significance of these environmental health impacts requires aggressive efforts to mitigate the problem. Approaches to mitigation encompass a range of possibilities from currently available, low-cost approaches, to more significant investments for cleaner air. Examples of the former include restrictions on truck idling and the use of low-sulfur diesel fuel; the latter includes shore-side power for docked ships, and alternative fuels. A precautionary approach to port-related air pollution would encourage local production of goods in order to reduce marine traffic, greener design for new terminals, and state-of-the art approaches to emissions-control that have been successfully demonstrated at ports throughout the world.     

石油化工厂区土壤中总石油烃分布的研究

为了进行石油化工厂区地下环境的现场评估，利用气相色谱法（EPA8015B）对其土壤中总石油烃（TPHs)进行了测定，测定结果以柴油范围的有机物（DRO）和润滑油范围的有机物（ORO）表示。结果表明：土壤各层DRO检出率在58％－72％之间，ORO检出率在82％－89％之间，大多数检出点位的DRO、ORO含量小于500mg/kg；个别点位的DRO、ORO高达30000mg/kg。     

Source apportionment of PAHs and n-alkanes bound to PM1 collected near the Venice highway

n-Alkanes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) bound to atmospheric particulate matter (PM₁) were investigated in a traffic site located in an urban area of Venice Province (Eastern Po Valley, Italy) during the cold season. Considering the critical situation affecting the Veneto Region concerning the atmospheric pollution and the general lack of information on PM₁ composition and emission in this area, this experimental study aims at determining the source profile, their relative contributions and the dispersion of finer particles. Four sources were identified and quantified using the Positive Matrix Factorization receptor model: (1) mixed combustions related to the residential activities, (2) agricultural biomass burning in addition to the resuspension of anthropogenic and natural debris carried by the wind, (3) gasoline and (4) diesel traffic-related combustions. The role of local atmospheric circulation was also investigated to identify the pollutant sources.     

Effect of lubricant sulfur on the morphology and elemental composition of diesel exhaust particles

This work investigates the effects of lubricant sulfur contents on the morphology, nanostructure, size distribution and elemental composition of diesel exhaust particle on a light-duty diesel engine. Three kinds of lubricant (LS-oil, MS-oil and HS-oil, all of which have different sulfur contents: 0.182%, 0.583% and 1.06%, respectively) were used in this study. The morphologies and nanostructures of exhaust particles were analyzed using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Size distributions of primary particles were determined through advanced image-processing software. Elemental compositions of exhaust particles were obtained through X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Results show that as lubricant sulfur contents increase, the macroscopic structure of diesel exhaust particles turn from chain-like to a more complex agglomerate. The inner cores of the core-shell structure belonging to these primary particles change little; the shell thickness decreases, and the spacing of carbon layer gradually descends, and amorphous materials that attached onto outer carbon layer of primary particles increase. Size distributions of primary particles present a unimodal and normal distribution, and higher sulfur contents lead to larger size primary particles. The sulfur content in lubricants directly affects the chemical composition in the particles. The content of C (carbon) decreases as sulfur increases in the lubricants, while the contents of O (oxygen), S (sulfur) and trace elements (including S, Si (silicon), Fe (ferrum), P (phosphorus), Ca (calcium), Zn (zinc), Mg (magnesium), Cl (chlorine) and Ni (nickel)) all increase in particles.     

Experimental study on filtration and continuous regeneration of a particulate filter system for heavy-duty diesel engines

This study investigated the filtration and continuous regeneration of a particulate filter system on an engine test bench, consisting of a diesel oxidation catalyst（DOC） and a catalyzed diesel particulate filter（CDPF）. Both the DOC and the CDPF led to a high conversion of NO to NO2 for continuous regeneration. The filtration efficiency on solid particle number（SPN） was close to100%. The post-CDPF particles were mainly in accumulation mode. The downstream SPN was sensitively influenced by the variation of the soot loading. This phenomenon provides a method for determining the balance point temperature by measuring the trend of SPN concentration.     

柴油车尾气颗粒物排放现状评价

对2013年哈尔滨市不同供油方式的柴油车排气细颗粒物或黑碳测量参数—光吸收系数进行了统计分析,结果表明:涡轮增压和自然吸气供油方式光吸收系数均值分别为1.39 m-1和1.27 m-1,超标率分别为5.8%和2.4%,采用颗粒物控制措施及排气装置强制维护降低了颗粒物排放,符合排放标准。     

Expression of alkane monooxygenase (alkB) genes by plant-associated bacteria in the rhizosphere and endosphere of Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum L.) grown in diesel contaminated soil

For phytoremediation of organic contaminants, plants have to host an efficiently degrading microflora. To assess the role of endophytes in alkane degradation, Italian ryegrass was grown in sterile soil with 0, 1 or 2% diesel and inoculated either with an alkane degrading bacterial strain originally derived from the rhizosphere of Italian ryegrass or with an endophyte. We studied plant colonization of these strains as well as the abundance and expression of alkane monooxygenase (alkB) genes in the rhizosphere, shoot and root interior. Results showed that the endophyte strain better colonized the plant, particularly the plant interior, and also showed higher expression of alkB genes suggesting a more efficient degradation of the pollutant. Furthermore, plants inoculated with the endophyte were better able to grow in the presence of diesel. The rhizosphere strain colonized primarily the rhizosphere and showed low alkB gene expression in the plant interior.     

Biochemical biomarkers in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) after short-term exposure to diesel oil, pure biodiesel and biodiesel blends

Fossil fuels such as diesel are being gradually replaced by biodiesel, a renewable energy source, cheaper and less polluting. However, little is known about the toxic effects of this new energy source on aquatic organisms. Thus, we evaluated biochemical biomarkers related to oxidative stress in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) after two and seven exposure days to diesel and pure biodiesel (B100) and blends B5 and B20 at concentrations of 0.01 and 0.1 mL L⁻¹. The hepatic ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase activity was highly induced in all groups, except for those animals exposed to B100. There was an increase in lipid peroxidation in liver and gills in the group exposed to the higher concentration of B5. All treatments caused a significant increase in the levels of 1-hydroxypyrene excreted in the bile after 2 and 7 d, except for those fish exposed to B100. The hepatic glutathione-S-transferase increased after 7 d in animals exposed to the higher concentration of diesel and in the gill of fish exposed to the higher concentration of pure diesel and B5, but decreased for the two tested concentrations of B100. Superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase also presented significant changes according to the treatments for all groups, including B100. Biodiesel B20 in the conditions tested had fewer adverse effects than diesel and B5 for the Nile tilapia, and can be suggested as a less harmful fuel in substitution to diesel. However, even B100 could activate biochemical responses in fish, at the experimental conditions tested, indicating that this fuel can also represent a risk to the aquatic biota.     

Modelling and Prediction of Diesel Engine Performance using Relevance Vector Machine

Diesel engines are being increasingly adopted by many car manufacturers today, yet no exact mathematical diesel engine model exists due to its highly nonlinear nature. In the current literature, black-box identification has been widely used for diesel engine modelling and many artificial neural network (ANN) based models have been developed. However, ANN has many drawbacks such as multiple local minima, user burden on selection of optimal network structure, large training data size, and over-fitting risk. To overcome these drawbacks, this article proposes to apply an emerging machine learning technique, relevance vector machine (RVM), to model and predict the diesel engine performance. The property of global optimal solution of RVM allows the model to be trained using only a few experimental data sets. In this study, the inputs of the model are engine speed, load, and cooling water temperature, while the output parameters are the brake-specific fuel consumption and the amount of exhaust emissions like nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide. Experimental results show that the model accuracy is satisfactory even the training data is scarce. Moreover, the model accuracy is compared with that using typical ANN. Evaluation results also show that RVM is superior to typical ANN approach.     

柴油车尾气微粒的燃烧性能

采用热解质量分析方法（TGA）对机动车柴油发动机尾气微粒（PM）的燃烧性能进行了研究。分别在空气和氮气条件下对柴油微粒的失重情况进行了测试。实验表明，柴油微粒的起始失重温度Tb为200℃左右，起始氧化温度Tox为410-450℃，最大失重温度Tmax为650℃-700℃，其可挥发组分（VOC）含量为48%-55%，增加氧气浓度仅在调温时对微粒燃烧有利。