气浮溶气新技术应用研究

介绍对炼油厂净化水车间一级浮选2^#池的改造，并与未改造的1^#池进行工业应用对比试验。试验结果表明，改造后大大提高了气浮处理效果，平均除油率达85％，且除油效果稳定，出水合格率比对比池提高20．4％。     

锅炉煤炭燃烧过程NOx释放规律及累积转化率影响因素

选用某电厂的实际用煤及焦炭,模拟燃煤电厂的煤炭燃烧过程,在不同温度、助燃气体流量、煤粉粒径和氧含量等多种条件下分别进行实验,得出不同燃烧条件下NOx的释放规律。实验表明,相同条件下,挥发分越大,氮的转化率也相对越大;煤的粒径越小,氮的转化效率越低;随着助燃气体流量的增加,燃料N转化为NOx的总转化效率增加;氧含量增加缩短了反应时间,但燃料N总效率变化不大。     

Age-dating Diesel Fuel Spills: Using the European Empirical Time-based Model in the U.S.A.

In 1993, a paper was published by Christensen and Larsen that offered a method for determining the age of diesel oil spills in soil (Christensen and Larsen, 1993 Ground Water Mount. R . Fall , 142-149). It presented an empirical time-based model of the degradation of diesel fuel in soils using chemical data gathered at petroleum release sites in Denmark and the Netherlands. Now, evaluation of the validity of the application of this work to subsurface petroleum releases in other countries remains. In the U.S.A., investigations assessing date(s) of release of diesel fuel in soils, e.g. age dating of subsurface petroleum contamination, have considerable interest. Litigation-driven scientific investigations with accompanying expert testimony in a court of law are underway. The number of instances where application of the Christensen and Larsen empirical time-based model to petroleum-contaminated properties is growing in the U.S.A. This paper presents two case studies which evaluate the applicability of the Christensen and Larsen empirical time-based model to petroleum-contaminated properties in general. It illustrates the approach using gas chromatographic data from two recently-completed projects evaluating the applicability of the Christensen and Larsen model to a No. 2 fuel oil/diesel fuel surface spill in the U.S.A. Results showed that the application of the model to petroleum-contaminated soils was scientifically valid, provided its applicability was evaluated using hypothesis testing for specific changes in the characteristics of the petroleum hydrocarbon distribution in a number of soil samples collected over time at one site. The paper offers observations on the application of the Christensen and Larsen model to petroleum found in the light non-aqueous phase liquid (LNAPL) phase and groundwater.     

Characterization of silver release from commercially available functional (nano)textiles

Silver, both in the nano as well as in other forms, is used in many applications including antimicrobial textiles. Washing of such textiles has already been identified as an important process that results in the release of silver into wastewater. This study thus investigated the release of silver from eight different commercially available silver-textiles during a washing and rinsing cycle. The silver released was size-fractionated and characterized using electron microscopy. In addition, the antimicrobial functionality of the textiles was tested before and after washing. Three of the textiles contained nanosized silver (labeled or confirmed by manufacturers’ information), another used a metallic silver wire and four contained silver in undeclared form. The initial silver content of the textiles was between 1.5 and 2925 mg Ag/kg. Only four of the investigated textiles leached detectable amounts of silver, of which 34-80% was in the form of particles larger than 450 nm. Microscopic analysis of the particles released in the washing solutions identified Ti/Si-AgCl nanocomposites, AgCl nanoparticles, large AgCl particles, nanosilver sulfide and metallic nano-Ag, respectively. The nanoparticles were mainly found in highly agglomerated form. The identified nanotextiles showed the highest antimicrobial activity, whereas some of the other textiles, e.g. the one with a silver wire and the one with the lowest silver content, did not reduce the growth of bacteria at all. The results show that different silver textiles release different forms of silver during washing and that among the textiles investigated AgCl was the most frequently observed chemical form in the washwater.     

Arsenic release from arsenic-bearing Fe-Mn binary oxide: effects of E(h) condition

Ferric and manganese binary oxide (FMBO) has been successfully used to remediate arsenic-polluted river, but there still lacks sufficient data to evaluate its effects on environments. The release behaviors of iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), and arsenic (As) in different E_h ranges were investigated for As-bearing FMBO sediment after remediating As-polluted DaSha River by FMBO. Under high E_h range (+550 to +400 mV), slight dissolution of Fe and Mn, which corresponded to 12.2% and 25.6%, and less than 5% of As release were observed in 336 h. Under lower E_h range (+50 to −100 mV), elevated extent of the dissolution of Mn and Fe were observed, which corresponded to as high as 61.3% and 70.1%. Under such conditions, the dissolution rate of Mn was higher than that of Fe. Furthermore, from the established relationship of As release and the dissolution of Fe and Mn, the release of As seemed dominated by the dissolution of Fe. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis demonstrated the release of Fe, Mn, As(III), and As(V) after sodium ascorbate-treatment, and the re-adsorption of As(V), as indicated from the increased binding energy of As 3d from 44.78 to 45.83 eV. Surface element composition analysis indicated significant decrease of Mn from 3.22% to 0.54%, slight increase of Fe from 12.45% to 13.67%, and elevated ratio of As from 0.11% to 0.32% accordingly. The main reactions of Fe and Mn dissolution and the pathways of As release under different E_h ranges were also proposed.     

A national inventory to estimate release of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans in Portugal

Taking into account current environmental concerns, the main objective of this work focused a national inventory aiming to estimate the amount of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDD/PCDF) released in Portugal in 2006. The methodology used was based on the Standardized Toolkit for Identification and Quantification of Dioxins and Furan Releases, developed by UNEP Chemicals, in 2005. The method allows the assessment of the amount of PCDD/PCDF released into the environment along five vectors involving air, water, land, products and residues. Facing some difficulties mainly regarding to the availability of data for some activities known to produce PCDD/PCDF, three scenarios (Sc1 to Sc3) corresponding to lower, central and upper estimates were established. The Sc1 scenario (lower estimate) includes the situations where in case of doubt or scarce information, reduced or none emission values were assumed, Sc2 refers to a central estimate, which is believed to be the most realistic for the Portuguese situation, while Sc3 corresponds to the worst case (upper estimate). The results obtained pointed out that the total amount of PCDD/PCDF emitted in Portugal during the period under analysis was in the range of 51.2-217.9 g TEQ year⁻¹, with the most likely value of 95.2 g TEQ year⁻¹ achieved under the Sc2 scenario. This study also showed that the methodology developed by UNEP Chemicals is a very simple one, and the main difficulty is the availability of data. The main indicators calculated in this study were 8.98 μg TEQ/(year person) by taking into account the total amount of PCDD/PCDF released, and 3.63 μg TEQ/(year person) when only air emissions were considered.     

Reinventing Environmental Regulation from the Grassroots Up: Explaining and Expanding the Success of the Toxics Release Inventory

/ The success of the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) stands in stark contrast to most other environmental regulations in the United States. Between its inception in 1988 and 1995, releases of chemicals listed on the TRI have declined by 45%. We argue the TRI has achieved this regulatory success by creating a mechanism of "populist maxi-min regulation." This style of regulation differs from traditional command-and-control in several ways. First, the majorrole of public agencies is not to set and enforce standards, but to establish an information-rich context for private citizens, interest groups, and firms to solve environmental problems. Second, environmental "standards" are not determined by expert analysis of acceptable risk, but are effectively set at the levels informed citizens will accept. Third, firms adopt pollution prevention and abatement measures in response to a dynamic range of public pressures rather than to formalized agency standards or governmental sanction. Finally, public pressure ruthlessly focuses on the worst polluters-maximum attention to minimum performers-to induce them to adopt more effective environmental practices. TRI has inadvertently set in motion this alternative style of regulation that has, in turn, dramatically reduced toxics emissions in the United States. By properly understanding the mechanisms that drive TRI's accomplishments, more intentional public policy designs can expand the system of populist maxi-min regulation and achieve even more rapid toxics reduction.     

Water incubation-induced fluctuating release of heavy metals in two smelter-contaminated soils

The soil moisture regime can affect the release of heavy metals in soil. In the previous studies, slightly polluted soils or artificially contaminated soil samples were considered to investigate the effect of soil moisture. We used highly smelter-contaminated and aged soils to study the release of typical heavy metals(Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb) induced by water incubation in batch experiments with characterization via speciation and X-ray diffraction analyses(XRD). The results show that the leachable concentrations of the heavy metals increased slightly in the first 30 days, decreased drastically between 30 and 90 days, and immobilized relatively constant thereafter. The fluctuation was ascribed to the changes of soil Eh and pH, the reductive dissolution of crystalline iron oxides, the formation of new amorphous iron oxides, the absorption of dissolved organic matter and the precipitation of metal sulfide. Speciation analysis indicated that a proportion of the soil heavy metals was transformed from an exchangeable fraction to a less labile fraction after water incubation. And the presence of a lead iron oxide phase and the peak increasing of zinc sulfide were observed via XRD analyses. Finally, water incubation restrained the release of heavy metals after 180 days of incubation, and reduced the leachability of Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb by as much as 1.61%–7.21% for soil A and 0.43%–3.36% for soil B, respectively. The study findings have implications for the formulation of risk control and management strategies for heavy metals in smelter-contaminated soils.     

Improving flammable mass estimation for vapor cloud explosion modeling in an offshore QRA

Presence of congestion and confinement in offshore modules due to limited availability of space make Vapor Cloud Explosions (VCEs) a significant contributor to risk. There are several methods available for quantifying the blast overpressure generated over distances and time. The approaches range from one-dimensional analysis using correlation models to 3-D analysis using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFDs). The correlation models are easy to use and well-suited for assessing a number of credible VCE scenarios. However, the overpressure results predicted by correlation models depend on a good estimate of flammable mass. This paper proposes a method to improve the estimation of flammable mass. The UKOOA Ignition model developed by the Energy Institute London is used to estimate the flammable mass; and is modified to account for the effect of mitigation measures on release rate. A directional probability for wind is also added to the model. The proposed model takes into consideration the platform geometry and offshore conditions for each scenario, release location and direction, and wind direction. An offshore production platform with three deck levels is presented as an example case. The flammable mass is also computed using CFD and the results are compared to that of the proposed and the conventional methods. The results show that the flammable masses for selected scenarios are better estimated by the proposed method, being much lower than estimated by the conventional method, though larger than the CFD results. This paper presents an interim result of a project undertaken to improve QRA studies for VCE events.     

Trends in causes of offshore releases by severity classification

The Hydrocarbon Release Database (HCRD) contains data on loss of containment events in the UK sector of the North Sea. The data shows a decrease in the annual number of releases. A study was carried out to determine whether statistically significant trends are apparent when categorizing releases by severity and specific cause. It was investigated whether the relative contribution of some causes as compared to all releases, had changed over time.The main conclusion is that over the analysed period (1993–2014), the relative contribution of “Procedures” as a cause for release has decreased with statistical significance. “Design” improvements seem to lead to a reduction in releases too. Finally, “Equipment” was improving at the slowest rate, if at all, until 2005. Since then, it appears to improve as well. These findings are robust, at least for the total set of data, and the releases of Significant severity. For releases of Major severity, the number of incidents is too small to justify any conclusion on trends.The conclusions suggest that over the analysed period improvements in offshore safety have been mainly driven by improvements in management, covering elements like procedures, competence and compliance.