International Journal Of Environmental Research
Volume:10 Issue: 4, Autumn 2016

For small cheese-making factories, with no effluent treatment plants, whey can be a serious problem and the landfarming technique represents an alternative for its disposal. However, whey may contain antibiotic residues at the Maximum Residue Limits. Therefore, in this work, we evaluated the phytotoxic effect of different concentrations of five antibiotics (enrofloxacin, kanamycin, oxytetracycline, penicillin and tylosin) on the germination frequency and root elongation of five Argentine crops: sunflower (Helianthus annuus), corn (Zea mays), soybean (Glycine max), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), and wheat (Triticum aestivum). We concluded that the antibiotic concentrations currently allowable for the dairy industry (Maximum Residue Limits) are a potential risk for S. bicolor, corn and G. max crops. Results showed that 0.10 mg/l of enrofloxacin affected sorghum, 0.15 mg/l of kanamycin affected corn and G. max, 0.004 mg/l of penicillin affected corn, G. max and S. bicolor, and that 0.05 mg/l of tylosin affected G. max. Therefore, dumping whey contaminated with antibiotic residues on the soil is not recommended.

In a coastline with growing urbanization, we examined the condition of water and sediments in sandy beaches within a gradient of uses and modification, in contrast with a reference unmodified beach, to assess different disturbance sources and environmental impact grades. The gradient was analyzed depending on beaches proximity to the urban nucleus, accessibility, tourism and recreation activities, and construction of breakwater structures. Using an integrated approach, some physical, chemical, microbiological and morphodynamic parameters were measured during two sampling campaigns. The results indicate a higher content of organic matter in sediments of the beaches near to the Veracruz Reef System with respect to the reference beach, and in the cold fronts season than in rainy season. This temporal variation can be explained by the regional pattern of surface circulation, favoring downwelling in cold fronts season and upwelling in rainy season. Water temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen concentrations also accounted for seasonal variations. The stress gradient was evident in the granulometric characteristics of sediments, fats and oils, total solids, and enterococci concentrations in pore water. Intertidal slopes and littoral currents indicated not only a marked seasonality of these parameters, but differences between unmodified and modified beaches by breakwaters. All parameters are discussed, particularly those that accounted for the perturbation gradient, increased by the presence of breakwaters. This study serves as baseline of the environmental spatial-temporal variation in intertidal of the sandy beaches of central Veracruz, and as a reference in assessments of other beaches worldwide with similar conditions.

Microbial biodegradation is a bio-treatment method for attenuating crude oil contaminated soils. The purpose of present study was to select and recognize indigenous bacteria and to investigate the capability of the bacterial consortium to remove crude oil in a planned microcosm. Capability of the bacterial growth in agar plates containing crude oil was used to select the isolated crude oil eating bacteria. Soil samples were collected from different contaminated sites nearby the exploitation unit of Karoon-3, Ahvaz, Iran, and incubated by individual and mixed bacterial consortium at 30°C for a 90 day period time. Two indigenous isolates were selected and designated as S10 and S31. According to 16S rRNA sequencing, S10 was identified as a new strain of Bacillus subtilis and S31 as Bacillus licheniformis. The results showed that the highest cell mass was in 10th day of incubation time with about 1.7×107 CFU/g, for bacterial consortium. The highest total petroleum hydrocarbons degradation (C%) in the first 10 days of incubation time raised up to about 77.5% for bacterial consortium, and also residual C:N ratio deleted about 73%. Results emphasized that the planned microcosm in laboratory with controlled conditions using consortia of the selected indigenous bacteria can make the crude oil biodegradation close to the optimal conditions and have a good potential for application in bioremediation of crude oil contaminated soils, as compared to the individual strains. This is the first report on planned microcosm and microbial consortium of Karoon soil contaminated with crude oil.

Rework is a stubborn issue in the construction industry, and it has been drawing considerable attention from the industry and academia over the past decades. However, so far, little effort has been made to investigate reworks in green building construction projects. This study aims to assess the status quo of rework in green building construction projects in Singapore, identify and evaluate the rework factors in green building construction projects, compare their criticalities with those in the conventional counterparts, and propose a set of feasible solutions. To achieve these aims, a questionnaire survey was administered, and data collected from 30 different construction companies were analyzed. Results showed that, compared to conventional building construction projects, green building construction projects tended to have a lower incidence of rework, but suffered more from the rework’s adverse impacts in terms of cost overrun and schedule delay. Results also showed that the top four most critical rework factors in green building construction projects were “owner change”, “design change”, “design error/omission” and “contractor’s error/omission”. In addition, this study proposed five practical solutions that can help curb reworks in green building construction projects. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by examining the rework problem in green building construction projects. Meanwhile, this study contributes to the industry by providing the practitioners with an in-depth understanding of rework in green building construction projects. The specific solutions proposed by this study can also offer the industry practitioners direct help in reducing works in such projects.

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are one of the most important components of electronic equipment and encompass a variety of metals, including the majority of the valuable metals, and also most of the toxic components in e-waste. The objective of the present work proposes an integrated (hybrid) method for the recovery of copper (Cu), nickel (Ni) and zinc (Zn) from waste PCBs using a combination of biometallurgical (biological) and hydrometallurgical (chemical) processes. The recovery was effected using the combination of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and 2 M HNO3. The leaching of metals was experimented using inorganic acid, bacteria and the integration of both acid and bacteria. From the initial experiments, it was observed that the percentage of nickel, copper and zinc solubilised into leaching solution from the actual PCB basically decreased with the increase in the concentration of e-waste from 10g/L to 100g/L. The hybrid method was compared against the individual chemical and biological methods and proved to be a better method than the other two, being rapid, efficient, economical and eco-friendly.

In this paper, the simultaneous absorption of SO2 and NO from the simulated sintering flue gas by ammonia-FeⅡEDTA complex solution was investigated in a pilot scale reactor. The experiment results showed that the maximum removal efficiencies of SO2 and NOx by ammonia-FeⅡEDTA complex solution scrubbing were 99% and 68.26%, respectively. However, the denitiration efficiency was gradually declined due to the oxidation of FeⅡEDTA into FeⅢEDTA. At the same time, FeⅢEDTA did not have the ability of binding NO. In order to keep the high denitration efficiency, FeⅢEDTA regeneration by iron and the surplus iron ion removal by the precipitation were proposed. Moreover, the optimum parameters of the surplus iron ion removal were also investigated, the experimental results showed that the optimum addition of ammonia carbonate was 0.4 g/L. After the regeneration and precipitation, the denitration efficiency by ammonia-FeⅡEDTA complex solution could be kept at 55%, and the desulfurization efficiency in the test was above 99%.

The effluents that are generated through Tanning process have high load of COD, BOD, Sulphides and Odour. Oxidation through aeration has been used for removing sulphide and COD in the tannery effluent. In the present study a comparison of normal aeration and oxygen injection in the presence and absence of catalyst MnSO4 were carried out. The three test setup were performed side by side and endured for a fixed duration till there was no further reduction observed in COD and Sulphide. Results showed that the maximum COD and Sulphide removal efficiencies in case of oxygen injection @ 0.5 LPM and addition of MnSO4 catalyst (5% of sulphide concentration) at pH 8.5. The removal of sulphide and COD through pure oxygen injection was found to be two times more effective than normal aeration. The removal efficiency of COD and Sulphide after 7 hours of oxygen injection @ 0.5 LPM with addition of catalyst MnSO4 was 82.68% and 76.83% respectively.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in 13 size fractions of ambient particulate matter (PM) were investigated at three sites in Katowice, Poland. PM was sampled with two of the same type 13-stage low-pressure impactors (DEKATI). One of them was used first at a motorway shoulder in the spring of 2012, and then, in the summer, at a busy crossroads. The second impactor was used in parallel with the first one at an urban background site in both the seasons. The PAH contents in PM were determined by means of gas chromatography (Perkin Elmer).
The ambient concentrations of PAHs from particular PM fractions at the urban background site differed insignificantly from those at the two traffic sites. Although the concentrations of PAHs and total PAHs (ΣPAH) for some PM size fractions were higher at the urban background site, the significant influence of traffic emissions on the mass size distributions and concentrations of PAHs in Katowice was proved. For example, the traffic effects can be seen in the shares of the PM1-bound ΣPAH and some PM1-bound PAHs in the concentrations of PM-bound ΣPAH and these PAHs, visibly higher at the motorway and crossroads. Also, the mass size distributions of some PM-bound PAHs reflect the traffic influence on the ambient PAH concentrations within the whole city in summer. As the traffic emissions cause high concentrations of PM-bound BaP and BaA, these two PAHs probably pose the main health risk related with ambient PAH inhalation in non-heating periods in Katowice.

The predictive ability of response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural network (ANN) in the modelling of photo-Fenton degradation of Rhodamine B (Rh-B) was investigated in the present study. The dye degradation was studied with respect to four factors viz., initial concentration of dye, concentration of H2O2 and Fe2 ions and process time. Central composite design (CCD) was used to evaluate the effect of four factors and a second order regression model was obtained. The optimum degradation of 99.84% Rh-B was obtained when 159 ppm dye, 239 ppm H2O2, 46 ppm Fe2 were treated for 27 min. The independent variables were fed as inputs to ANN with the percentage dye degradation as outputs. For the optimum percentage dye degradation, a three-layered feed-forward network was trained by Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) algorithm and the optimized topology of 4:10:1 (input neurons: hidden neurons: output neurons) was developed. A high regression coefficient (R2 = 0.9861) suggested that the developed ANN model was more accurate and predicted in a better way than the regression model given by RSM (R2 = 0.9112).

In recent years, cultures of algae were developed for both wastewater treatment and bio-fuel production. In this research, green microalgae Chlorella vulgaris were applied for bioremediation of an Iranian petrochemical wastewater samples. The efficiency of C. vulgaris and nonionic surfactants were examined in laboratory scale for elimination of COD, BOD, Total Nitrogen (TN), Total Phosphors (TP), and total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH). In the preliminary study, the growth of the algae were monitored in pure as well as 25%, 50% and 75% diluted wastewater samples The effectiveness of two surfactants of Tween 20 and Tween 60 were investigated in 15 day experiments. Removal of all parameters was significantly increased using surfactants. Nitrogen and Phosphors removal were observed in all experiment up to 100%. Maximum TPH degradation of 27% was observed by Tween 60 compare to 10% for control sample. Hence, using Chlorella vulgaris and surfactants can be recommended for treatment of wastewaters from petroleum industries.

The distributions of Ca, Cr, Fe, Co, Zn, Ga, Se, Rb, Ba, Tl, Bi, Th, U and rare-earth elements (REEs), measured by Inductively Coupled Plasma Sector Field Mass Spectrometry (ICP-SFMS) in ground natural waters characterized by near-acidic to alkaline pH (5.7 – 9.0), were evaluated to examine the major processes of water-rock interaction. Cluster analysis of ground water quality parameters resulted in three clusters: 1) transition elements (Cr, Co and Zn); 2) REEs; and 3) geogenic elements (Rb, Ga, Ba and Th) with 55%, 60% and 75% similarity levels, respectively. Also, natural ground waters with relatively high salinity (5.3 – 6.8 g/L) were found to be significantly enriched with Ca, Cr, Co, Zn, Ga, Rb and Ba compared to lower-salinity waters (0.5 – 3.7 g/L). Negative Ce (from 0.4 to 0.9) and positive Eu (from 1.2 to 17.5) anomalies were found in the investigated waters and most of them were associated with heavy rare-earth elements (HREEs) enrichments. It was established that the relative proportion of total REE concentration (range 75 – 470 ng/L) to Ca abundance (from 1 to 180 mg/L) could be a useful indicator of weathering processes in studied ground waters. This observation is attributed to the increase in the calcite dissolution during the weathering process, as well as to REEs leaching due to the complex formation of bicarbonate. The reliability of the ICP-SFMS method was checked by using certified reference materials (SLEW-3, SLRS-4 and TMRAIN-04). The relative standard deviation (RSD) was

Thallium (Tl) is highly toxic to humans compared with other heavy metals and metalloids, but the risk of its bioaccumulation has not been adequately considered. Thus, Tl uptake and translocation in barley and sunflower under hydroponics with the applications of diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA) and citric acid were investigated. Thallium concentrations in roots of both the plants were higher than those in the shoots. Translocation index (TLI) of Tl in barley decreased from 14.9 to 10.0% with increasing Tl treatments in barley, but it increased from 5.9 to 7.5% in sunflower. The concentration of Tl in the barley tissues increased with DTPA applications, but it decreased with citric acid treatments. In contrast, Tl in the sunflower tissues decreased with DTPA treatments, while it increased with the applications of citric acid. However, Tl concentrations in the tissues of both plants were not significantly different between the two concentrations (5.0 and 30 mg/kg) of DTPA and citric acid applications.

Mangrove ecosystems are areas prone to various types of pollution, especially hydrocarbons. These hydrocarbons mostly stem from human activities such as spills coming from offshore oil operations, runoff from surrounding urban areas or atmospheric deposition. This pollution causes the decline of mangroves, which results in an imbalance in the functioning of this particular ecosystem with damages to the microbiota. Biodegradation allows to restore these ecosystems. This biodegradation can only be effective in specific environmental conditions. The presence of nutrients, which stimulate bacterial growth and promote biodegradation, is a key parameter to be considered. During this experiment, we achieved biodegradation tests to assess the effect of nitrogen and phosphorus on the process. The results showed that the biodegradation rates were strongly bound to the presence of nutrients. The degradation rates depended on the medium. The treatment that reached the best rate of degradation of diesel after 10 days was the one using 20% of a nutrient solution (MSM) containing nitrogen and phosphorus. This treatment led to a maximal degradation of 84.7% ± 4.7% obtained in the flasks containing 20% of a nutrient solution (MSM) containing nitrogen and phosphorus.

Traditional microalgae harvesting techniques consume a lot of energy. Flocculation, or the formation of aggregates, is an energetically favorable process to collect biomass. Flocculation is normally carried in tanks to allow the formation of the aggregates after stirring, however, this consumes time and physical resources. In this work, flocculation of Chlorella vulgaris and Scenedesmus sp. by acidification and alkalization was compared to chemical flocculation in a turbulent medium for short periods of time (30 seconds and 2 minutes). Flocculation with potassium hydroxide at pH=10 showed to be nearly as efficient as traditional flocculation by using ferric sulphatum after two minutes. Acid flocculation with nitric acid was not as effective, even at values of pH=4. Flocculation by pH does not generate toxic wastes and the remaining added flocculants turn into nutrients after harvesting. After flocculation and neutralization, the remaining cells in the medium were viable to recultivate. Since pH-driven flocculation does not allow harvesting the total microalgae culture, remaining cells can be used to keep growing. Based on these results a semi continuous harvesting method incorporated in the microalgae growing phase seems promising.

Identifying environmental potentials has a crucial role in the construction and spatial planning of our country, especially in the countryside. This article attempts to examine the climate characteristics of the tourism villages located at the northern coast of Iran, which is the south of Caspian Sea, in order to expand and develop the tourism industry. In this study, for the first time, terms of climate comfort and climate tourism in 6 tourism villages of 3 provinces of Golestan, Gilan, and Mazandaran were analyzed through physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) and climate-tourism-information-scheme (CTIS) by using data from 1994-2014. Results from PET showed that among the 6 studied villages in Mazandaran, Kandolus and Javaher Deh had the most days of thermal comfort with values of 51.6% and 51%, respectively in the entire period of the study while the least thermal comfort was 35.3% which belonged to Zeyarat in Golestan. The results also showed that based on PET, late fall to mid-winter held the maximum climate comfort conditions observed in the villages of the 3 provinces. Furthermore, it was found that the most important climate comfort deterrent factor in villages of Gilan and Golestan was hot class and for Mazandaran, bioclimatic warmth. However, based on CTIS, windy, foggy, and cold stress were not known as comfort limiting factors in the entire study area. Sultry and heat stress were introduced as tourism limiting factors in the summer and spring. On the other hand, the maximum comfort was in the autumn based on thermal comfort.

The present study was designed to investigate the capability of algae biomass to increase methane biogas production from anaerobic digestion of municipal solid waste. Batch anaerobic digester was used for digesting the mixture of algae and organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW). A variety condition of algae to organic fraction municipal solid waste mixing ratio, pH, temperature, and total solid are studied for a period of 12 days. It was observed that maximum methane biogas production was found to be 946.0012 mL/gm v.s at optimum condition of mixing ratio of algae to OFMSW were, 1:2, temperature, total solid and pH of 32 oC, 8 % and 7.5 respectively. Multiple correlation methodology optimized the methane production with a correlation coefficient (R2) to be 0.925. The first order kinetic model was used to assess the dynamics of the biodegradation process. The obtained negative value of (k = - 0.2543), indicates that the solid waste biodegradation was quick with a correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.9906. The Gompertz model was used to adequately describe the experimental cumulative methane biogas production from lab scale anaerobic digesters. The theoretical methane biogas yield was found to be 1016.76 mL/gm v.s which is very close to experimental value 946.0012 mL/gm v.s. with high correlation coefficient R2 of 0.998.

The purpose of this study is to model precipitation characteristics and simulation of drought using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) during 2011-2020 in Mashhad station, Iran. To this end, first, the data related to the average of monthly precipitation in synoptic station of Mashhad (from 1951 to 2010) were obtained from the Meteorological Organization of Iran. Using the method proposed by Box-Jenkins, the monthly precipitation was modeled in 2011 to 2020, with respect to its preceding series trend. In addition, using SPI, climatic conditions in the upcoming years were investigated in terms of drought. The results indicated that the seasonal-multiplicative statistical model of SARIMA (2, 0, 1) (2, 1, 1)12 is a good technique for fitting the precipitation data. Using this model, the pattern of monthly precipitation in Mashhad station from 2011 to 2020 was modeled. The results revealed that the average of monthly precipitation in the next 10 years will decrease about 26mm compared with the last 10 years (2001-2010). The correlation of precipitation in the upcoming 10 years compared with the previous 10 years is about 96%. The SPI suggested that in a 6-month timescale, in the upcoming 10 years, Mashhad station will face drought about 18%; in a 12-month timescale it would be about 17%.

Microalgae are one of the most promising feedstock for the biofuels production. However, high cost associated with the different stages involved in the transformation process is one cause of uncompetitiveness price of biofuels, compared with fossil fuels like diesel oil or gasoline. In this research, the potential of Chlorella Vulgaris microalgae for the production of two fuels, biodiesel and stove pellets, has been analyzed. Results showed that an efficient harvesting of algal biomass was achieved using inorganic flocculants, especially Aluminium chloride (AlCl3) which achieved more than 95 % biomass recovery. Moreover, data obtained demonstrated that simultaneous application of microwaves and ultrasounds extracted more than twice lipids than only ultrasounds. Biodiesel conversions between 12 and 27 % based on dry weight, were reached. Additionally, the algal residue generated in biodiesel production process has been used for making stove pellets. The analysis of their properties corroborated that algal pellets can be used as fuel in biomass stoves.

The present research introduces a pseudo comprehensive carbon footprint model for simple cycle and combined cycle power plants based on Life Cycle Assessment frameworks for sustainable planning in Iran. For this purpose, parameters which their effects are considered distinguishable have been investigated. The mentioned parameters include: plant type, fuel type, fuel transmission type, own consumption of the plant, degradation, site ambient condition, transmission and distribution losses. Investigating power plant operational phase and transmission and distribution effect on carbon footprint assessment of power plant is the specific feature of the proposed model. Afterward, a sensitivity analysis is performed under different cases covering all the possible choices for investigated parameters. The results show that carbon footprint of fossil fuel (simple and combined cycle) varies remarkably due to the parameters affecting the carbon footprint. Results of sensitivity analyses show that by controlling the effective parameters carbon footprint of power plants can be reduced by 142%.

A three years monitoring was carried out at 9 sites in Italy to evaluate some physical indicators of soil quality related to soil structure degradation and compaction: bulk density, packing density, surface roughness of the seedbed, and crop yields, and test effectiveness of European cross-compliance Standard 3.1 ‘Ploughing in good soil moisture conditions’. Two plots were set up in each site: low soil moisture (L), with soil main tillage at lower water content, and high soil moisture (H) with soil main tillage at higher water content. The volumetric soil water contents at ploughing in the two treatments were compared with Upper Tillage Limit (θUTL) and Optimum Tillage Limit (θOTL). Grain yields of crops were lower as average when soil was tilled at high moisture content in comparison with the low moisture treatments. The physical parameters adopted as indicators of soil structure degradation proved effective in assessing the differences among the treatments, and could be adopted as a routine scheme in similar researches on the effects of soil tillage on soil degradation.