INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (IJEST)
Year:2010 | Volume:7 | Issue:1 (25)|Papers Count:20

Sorption data were obtained with a Matawan soil and the following chromium (III) organic complexes: chromium (III) ascorbate, chromium (III) glutamate, chromium (III) histidine, chromium (III) mandelate, chromium (III) citrate, chromium (III) cysteine, chromium (III) serine, chromium (III) pyruvate and chromium (III) oxalate. The influence of pH (2-12), ionic strength (0.005-1 M) and concentration of sorbate (1-10 mg/L) on the extent of sorption was evaluated. The pH value did not influence the percent sorption at environmentally relevant pH 7. Ionic strength between 0.005 and 0.01 M KNO3 did not influence the sorption. Sorption and desorption data obtained at pH 7, 0.01 M KNO3 and 1-10 mg/L for each chromium (III) organic complex were analyzed using Freundlich and Langmuir models. The Freundlich model provided good fits for all of the chromium (III) organic complexes. Sorption data for chromium (III) glutamate, chromium (III) pyruvate, chromium (III) oxalate, chromium (III) cysteine, chromium (III) ascorbate and chromium (III) citrate were described well by the Langmuir model. Estimates for the saturated sorption capacities were 141, 70.9, 36.5, 35.5, 28.6 and 4.4 mg/g, respectively. It was not possible to desorb significant amounts of the previously sorbed chromium (III) organic complexes. At the same pH, ionic strength and solid:liquid ratio, the order of the observed sorption to the Matawan soil from highest to lowest was chromium (III) mandelate, chromium (III) glutamate, chromium (III) histidine, chromium (III) cysteine, chromium (III) serine, chromium (III) pyruvate, chromium (III) oxalate, chromium (III) ascorbate and chromium (III) citrate.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the benthic macroinvertebrate distribution in the Keºap Stream (in the Eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey) for the summer period using biotic index. The water quality was assessed through the application of the Belgian biotic index. For this purpose, benthic macroinvertebrate sampling was performed in six sites along the Keºap Stream in the summer period, in July 2007. The distribution of dominant genera of the sites was evaluated according to water quality. According to the Belgian biotic index, II, III and IV water quality classes (slightly, moderately and heavily polluted, respectively) were determined in the stream. In addition, diversities of benthic macroinvertebrates in six sites were calculated. The biotic index values are found also consistent with the diversity values. Especially, in areas of the stream after industrial facilities water quality decreased. However, very heavy pollution was not observed accord to the biotic index values. It was found that Ephemeroptera was the dominant major taxon in all sampling sites. As a result of this biological evaluation, Ephemeroptera were concluded to be the most common taxa in the stream and the ephemeropterans, Potamanthus, Baetis and Ephemerella were dominant genera in the conditions of slightly, moderately and heavily polluted.

A study was conducted to investigate the trace metal pollution of water and sediments of downstream of Tsurumi River, Yokohama, Japan. Twenty samples of water and sediments were collected from the river starting from Tokyo bay side up to the junction point of the Yagami River. Results show that the mean concentrations of chromium, cupper and nickel in water greatly exceed (>100 times) the surface water standard. The concentration of molybdenum and lead was also higher than standard values while iron and manganese was lower than that of surface water standard. The mean concentration of zinc, cupper, cadmium, lead, chromium, vanadium, bromine and iodine was 381.1, 133.0, 1.0, 40.8, 102.9, 162.0, 71.5 and 10.6 mg/g sediments, respectively and was greatly exceed the average worldwide shale concentrations and average Japanese river sediment values. However, mean concentration of arsenic, nickel and strontium was 11.0, 36.6 and 164.6 mg/g sediments, respectively which was lower than the average shale value. Other analyzed trace metals, including barium, zirconium, rubidium, yttrium, tin, antimony, cesium, lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium and neodymium were detected in river sediments; the concentration of which was close to the Japan’s river sediment average values. Pollution load index values of the sites of the studied area ranged from 1.24 to 7.65 which testify that the river sediments are polluted. The PLI value of the area was, however, high (6.53) as the concentration of trace metals like zinc, cupper, cadmium, lead and chromium were very high and were the major pollutants.

Mixing of heated water discharged from outfalls is an efficient and effective method of waste disposal in coastal areas. Discharging the heated water with large quantities of mass flux generally requires multi-port diffusers. In recent years, using numerical models to predict the plume behavior has received attention from many researchers, who are interested in design of outfalls. This study reports the development and application of an artificial neural network model for prediction of initial dilution of multi-port tee diffusers. Several networks with different structures were trained and tested using error back propagation algorithm. Statistical error measures showed that a three layer network with 9 neurons in the hidden layer is skillful in prediction of initial dilution and the outputs are in good agreement (R = 0.97) with experimental results. Furthermore, the sensitivity analyses showed that the width of the equivalent slot of the diffuser is the most important parameter in the estimation of initial dilution.

Sewage solids are usually characterized by non-specific parameters such as suspended solids. The suspended solids have been shown to be an inadequate index for advanced water treatment processes. In this study, the sewages solids particle size distribution was used to provide more detailed information on sewage characteristic. It is hoped that, by introducing particle size distribution, the mechanism of sewage solids sedimentations can be better understood. The particle size distribution of the domestic sewage was measured by the Malvern® laser scattering technique to link to its settlement efficiency. Experimental results show that 77% of particle volume was removed during the 90 min settling, of which 71.2 % of particle volume was removed in the initial 30 min. The submicron particles were found to be removed by co-settling with large particles. The fractal dimensions of sewage solids could also be derived from the laser scattering measurement. The fractal dimension could also provide useful information on the shape and density of sewage solids. A mathematical model considering the particle sizes, shapes and density changes was then constructed to simulate the settlement of raw sewage particles. Comparison of the modeling results based on discrete and flocculent settling theory shows that settlement can be better predicted by considering the fractal nature of particles. The particle size distribution and fractal dimension data measured by Malvern® laser scattering technique have been shown to be valuable data for in-depth understanding of the mechanisms of sewage solids sedimentation.

Normally, decision makers use number of pipe broken in specific sections of water distribution systems to determine the pipes to be replaced. This index cannot solely evaluate hydraulic and quality parameters of the system and effects of pipe renovation on the system performance. In this study, a methodology is presented to manage the rehabilitation and replacement of water distribution network using hydraulic and geospatial information systems models. A preprocessor subroutine is developed to link geospatial information systems and hydraulic software. Hydraulic parameters together with the attribute data of pipes are used to determine the required renovation schemes based on several criteria. The proposed indices consist of pipe breaks and leakage analyses, hydraulic and quality performance and mechanical reliability of the network. A novel approach is also introduced to calculate leakage values throughout the network. Results of a real case study by the developed model introduced replacement of 4 km 40 mm galvanized pipes instead of 11 km 100 mm asbestos-cement pipes from conventional method. It is observed that the suggested geographic information system based model produces more realistic results with less cost for renovation schemes in comparison with conventional method which just consider number of bursts as a key criterion.

The present study was conducted in two forests in Abha (Capital of Asir Region) and two forests in Al Namas (130 km north of Abha), south western Saudi Arabia (Asir region) to investigate the effect of terraces on rainwater harvesting and growth of Juniperus procera Hochst. ex Endlicher. Farmers grow their crops within Juniper forests and woodlots by constructing terraces from soil and stones to harvest rainwater. Juniper forests and woodlots present important watersheds and sources for water. Study plots were established in four forests, two of which contained maintained terraces and the other two have been covered by abandoned and damaged terraces. The results showed that maintained terraces served as important means for rainwater harvesting, whereas abandoning of terraces resulted in increased soil loss, surface runoff, and bulk density and reduced infiltration rates. Significant correlations and regression between soil loss, total runoff, and soil bulk density and infiltration rate were provided. Diameter at breast height, total height, basal area, volume, number of trees, crown coverage and regeneration/ha of J. procera were significantly (P < 0.0001) higher in forests with maintained terraces compared with abandoned terraces. Finally, maintained terraces improved rainwater harvesting and growth performance of J. procera.

The rainfall-runoff relationship is one of the most complex hydrological phenomena. In recent years, hydrologists have successfully applied backpropagation neural network as a tool to model various nonlinear hydrological processes because of its ability to generalize patterns in imprecise or noisy and ambiguous input and output data sets. However, the backpropagation neural network convergence rate is relatively slow and solutions can be trapped at local minima. Hence, in this study, a new evolutionary algorithm, namely, particle swarm optimization is proposed to train the feedforward neural network. This particle swarm optimization feedforward neural network is applied to model the daily rainfall-runoff relationship in Sungai Bedup Basin, Sarawak, Malaysia. The model performance is measured using the coefficient of correlation and the Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient. The input data to the model are current rainfall, antecedent rainfall and antecedent runoff, while the output is current runoff. Particle swarm optimization feedforward neural network simulated the current runoff accurately with R = 0.872 and E2 = 0.775 for the training data set and R = 0.900 and E2 = 0.807 for testing data set. Thus, it can be concluded that the particle swarm optimization feedforward neural network method can be successfully used to model the rainfall-runoff relationship in Bedup Basin and it could be to be applied to other basins.

In this study, the pine tree (Pinus Eldarica Medw.) needles were evaluated as the biomonitors of heavy metal contamination in Tehran, Iran. The pine needle samples supplied from the old trees according to the main wind direction (highest wind speed) were obtained from each parts of tree and then were homogeneously mixed. The samples were taken from different locations with different degrees of metal pollution (urban, industrial, highway and control sites). Then, the concentrations of lead, zinc, copper, nickel and chromium were measured using a flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The result of this study showed that the highest and the lowest metal concentrations were found in the heavy traffic sites and the control site, respectively. However, samples taken from highway sites contained the high concentrations of nickel, copper and lead. Moreover, industrial areas were found to have high contents of zinc and chromium. The variation in heavy metal concentrations between the studied locations is due to changes in traffic density and anthropogenic activities. This research proved significant correlations between the heavy metal concentrations in pine needle samples. Finally, it is concluded that Pinus Eldarica Medw. needles can be applied to monitor polluted sites.

The biosorption of chromium (VI) ions from aqueous solutions by two adsorbents viz. mango and neem sawdust was studied under a batch mode. An initial pH of 2.0 was most favorable for chromium (VI) removal by both the adsorbents. The results obtained for the final concentration of chromium (VI) and chromium (III) at a pH range of 2-8 indicated that a combined effect of biosorption and reduction was involved in the chromium (VI) removal specially when the pH value is lower than 3. The maximum loading capacity was calculated from adsorption isotherms by applying the Langmuir model and found to be higher for neem sawdust (58.82 mg/g). Evaluation of experimental data in terms of biosorption kinetics showed that the biosorption of chromium (VI) by neem sawdust followed pseudo second-order kinetics. Therefore, the rate limiting step may be chemical sorption or chemisorption. The efficiency of this process was examined in using tannery wastewater contaminated with chromium (VI) ions in column mode.

This study investigated the prediction of suspended sediment load in a gauging station in the USA by neuro-fuzzy, conjunction of wavelet analysis and neuro-fuzzy as well as conventional sediment rating curve models. In the proposed wavelet analysis and neuro-fuzzy model, observed time series of river discharge and suspended sediment load were decomposed at different scales by wavelet analysis. Then, total effective time series of discharge and suspended sediment load were imposed as inputs to the neuro-fuzzy model for prediction of suspended sediment load in one day ahead. Results showed that the wavelet analysis and neuro-fuzzy model performance was better in prediction rather than the neuro-fuzzy and sediment rating curve models. The wavelet analysis and neuro-fuzzy model produced reasonable predictions for the extreme values. Furthermore, the cumulative suspended sediment load estimated by this technique was closer to the actual data than the others one. Also, the model could be employed to simulate hysteresis phenomenon, while sediment rating curve method is incapable in this event.

Polyvinyl alcohol-containing desizing wastewater discharged within final textile wastewater has a great impact to the environment due to its poor biodegradability. An improved lab-scale hybrid anaerobic baffled reactor was developed to treat desizing wastewater. The modification was achieved by increasing the height of hybrid anaerobic baffled reactor and application of proper effluent recycle enabled to increase the ability of entrapping microbe-rich small particles in the reactor and prompted the formation of granules. The significant difficulty in hybrid anaerobic baffled reactor operation is the slow start-up procedure, which is crucial to the overall polyvinyl alcohol-containing desizing wastewater treatment. Therefore, the ability of a hybrid anaerobic baffled reactor, treating desizing wastewater, to achieve a prompt start-up was studied at lab-scale. Results showed that inoculated with anaerobic granular sludge and adoption of effluent recycle during start-up, the system demonstrated a good performance of polyvinyl alcohol removal efficiency (above 17.2 %) and satisfactory stability of pH and alkalinity in effluent (range around 7.4-8.0 and 700-920 mg/L, respectively) and the sludge appeared obviously granulation. Thus, the prompt start-up was achieved after 60 days. The start-up strategy used for this process has achieved its goals by creating an active microbial population. The improved lab-scale hybrid anaerobic baffled reactor proved to be an efficient reactor configuration for the treatment of desizing wastewater, which favored the prompt start-up of hybrid anaerobic baffled reactor. The results also provide evidence to modify the design of anaerobic baffled reactor to improve reactor performance.

Tubifex tubifex has been shown to survive in organic polluted environments, however, not much has been done on its inorganic pollution tolerance. Samples of T. tubifex and their respective sewage sludge were taken from Soche wastewater treatment plant in Blantyre City, Malawi during July 2007 to November 2008. The total number of sludge samples taken was fifty one which was made into seventeen composite samples. A total of seventeen T. Tubifex samples were also collected. The samples were analyzed for copper, lead, manganese, zinc and cadmium using standard methods from American Public Health Association and Association of Official Analytical Chemists. The concentrations of metals in sewage sludge and T. tubifex were on dry weight basis and the metals determined were acid extractable. In general, heavy metals concentration was lower in T. tubifex than in sewage sludge. The range of heavy metals concentrations were (in sludge and (T. tubifex)): zinc 275.3 - 361.5 mg/kg (45.0 - 82.2 mg/kg), manganese 293.7 - 230.1 mg/kg (1.21 - 3.69 mg/kg), copper 86.5 - 120.1 mg/kg (1.6 - 4.7 mg/kg), lead 11.2 - 22.4 mg/kg (Below detection limit – 0.95 ) and cadmium 1.12 - 2.31 mg/kg (1.08 - 2.18 mg/kg). The results showed significant differences between the concentrations of manganese, copper, lead and zinc in sewage sludge and T. tubifex (p < 0.05). However there was no significant difference between the concentrations of cadmium in sewage sludge and T. tubifex (p > 0.05). T. tubifex did not show the ability to accumulate heavy metals (attributed to its high defecation and metabolic rate) except for cadmium hence cannot be used as a bioindicator for heavy metal pollution in sludge.

Industrial development has lead to higher energy consumption, emission of greenhouse gases, as well as air pollutants. Cement factories play an important role in over all greenhouse emissions. This study aims to investigate the role of Iranian cement industries and their contribution of greenhouse gases contribution. The measured emission factors for oil and fuel gas shows that carbon dioxide contribution from fuel oil based cement industries is almost 2.7 times higher than gas based cement factories. The strength, weakness, opportunity and threat technique analysis showed that the best strategy to combat greenhouse gases from Iranian cement factory is to implement energy efficiency measures. Further, strategic position and action evaluation matrix analysis indicates that Iranian cement industries fall within invasive category. Therefore, exploitation of opportunities must carefully be used. One of these opportunities is the utilization of financial assistance provided by clean development mechanism. The results show that replacement of ball mills with vertical roller mill can reduce the electricity consumption from 44.6 to 28 kWh/ton. As a result of such substitution about 720 million kWh/y of electricity would be saved (almost a power plant of 125 MW capacities). Though implementation of new mills may not be economic for the cement industries’ owner, but the overall gain for the government of Iran will be about US$ 304 million. If the duration of such efficiency measure is considered as about 12 y, then the overall CO2 reduction/phase-out would be around 4.3 million tons.

The impacts of climate change and human pressure in groundwater have been greatest threats facing small islands. This paper represents a case study of groundwater responses towards the climate change and human pressures in Manukan Island Malaysia. SEAWAT-2000 was used for the simulations of groundwater response in study area. Simulations of six scenarios representing climate change and human pressures showed changes in hydraulic heads and chloride concentrations. Reduction in pumping rate and an increase in recharge rate can alter the bad effects of overdrafts in Manukan Island. In general, reduction in pumping rate and an increase in recharge rate are capable to restore and protect the groundwater resources in Manukan Island. Thus, for groundwater management options in Manukan Island, scenario 2 is capable to lessen the seawater intrusion into the aquifer and sustain water resources on a long-term basis. The selection of scenario 6 is the preeminent option during wet season. The output of this study provides a foundation which can be used in other small islands of similar hydrogeological condition for the purpose of groundwater resources protection.

The removal of the chromium (VI) ion from aqueous solutions with the Lewatit FO36 ion-exchange resin is described at different conditions. The effects of adsorbent dose, initial metal concentration, contact time and pH on the removal of chromium (VI) were investigated. The batch ion exchange process was relatively fast and it reached equilibrium after about 90 min of contact. The ion exchange process, which is pH dependent showed maximum removal of chromium (VI) in the pH range 5.0-8.0 for an initial chromium (VI) concentration of 0.5 mg/dm3. The equilibrium related to Lewatit FO36 ion- exchange capacity and the amounts of the ion exchange were obtained using the plots of the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. It was observed that the maximum ion exchange capacity of 0.29 mmol of chromium (VI)/g for Lewatit FO36 was achieved at optimum pH value of 6.0. The ion exchange of chromium (VI) on this cation-exchange resin followed first-order reversible kinetics.

Recently, research on the production of ethanol from waste has been accelerating for both ecological and economical reasons, primarily for its use as an alternative to petroleum based fuels. In this study, response surface methodology based 23 -full factorial central composite design was employed to optimize the parameters of ethanol production from Korean food waste leachate. The reducing sugar concentration of the food waste leachate determined by the dinitrosalicylic acid method was 75 g/L. A second order polynomial model was developed to evaluate the quantitative effects of temperature, pH and reducing sugar concentration in order to find an optimum condition for the ethanol production from food waste leachate. From the experimental result, maximum ethanol concentration of 24.17 g/L was obtained at the optimum condition of temperature (38°C), pH (5.45) and reducing sugar concentration (75 g/L). The experimental value (24.17 g/L) agreed very well with the predicted one (23.66 g/L), indicating the suitability of the model employed and the success of response surface methodology in optimizing the conditions of ethanol production from food waste leachate. Canonical analysis indicated that the stationary point was a saddle point for the ethanol yield. Despite being a waste, an ethanol yield of 0.32 g ethanol/g reducing sugar demonstrated the potential of food waste leachate as a promising biomass resource for the production of ethanol.

A suspended growth photobioreactor was utilized to treat pharmaceutical wastewater by a wild strain purple non-sulfur photosynthetic bacterium isolated from the soil. The strain was named Z08 and identified as Rhodobacter-sphaeroides by 16SrDN. The photobioreactor was illuminated externally with two (40 W) fluorescent compact light sources on both sides. Its operation pH and temperature were between 6.8 – 7.0 and 20 – 30°C, respectively. Optimum growth of the isolate was obtained after enrichment of the pharmaceutical wastewater with 0.5 % ammonium sulfate and 0.1 % yeast extract under microaerobic optimum light (6000 lx) condition at 5d retention. Using these optimum conditions, the maximum dry cell weight and chemical oxygen demand percentage removal were 880 mg/L and 80%. Chemical analysis of the culture after treatment of the enriched and non-enriched wastewater showed the crude protein content of the biomass to be 54.6 % and 38.0 %, respectively. This study proved that photosynthetic bacteria could transform complex wastewater that contains recalcitrant organic compounds with a resultant recovery of useful products.

In most rice paddies in Mazandaran Province, diazinon is applied to control Chilo suppressalis. Due to the extensive application of insecticides in the rice paddies of the Caspian coasts of Iran, this investigation was carried out on the rice fields in order to obtain the necessary data and information on the concentration of insecticide residues. A total of 125 samples were taken from five areas of Amol township in 2007. Then, according to the analysis of variance procedures, the water samples were statistically analyzed after the spraying of diazinon. Results indicate that the insecticide was used frequently to control stem boring caterpillar of rice. The residuals of this toxic chemical were observed in the majority of stations from the day after the spraying until one to two months later. The greatest level of diazinon was observed in station 1 in amount of 1.14 ppm. This study revealed that the physical and chemical properties of the studied diazinon such as fumigation characteristic as well as the ecological conditions and soil type influence the reduction and eventual removal of the insecticides during the cultivation and harvest periods.

The production of biodiesel from waste vegetable oil offers a triple-facet solution: economic, environmental and waste management. The new process technologies developed during the last years made it possible to produce biodiesel from recycled frying oils comparable in quality to that of virgin vegetable oil biodiesel with an added attractive advantage of being lower in price. Thus, biodiesel produced from recycled frying oils has the same possibilities to be utilized. While transesterification is well-established and becoming increasingly important, there remains considerable inefficiencies in existing transesterification processes. There is an imperative need to improve the existing biodiesel production methods from both economic and environmental viewpoints and to investigate alternative and innovative production processes. This study highlights the main changes occurring in the oil during frying in order to identify the characteristics of oil after frying and the anticipated effects of the products formed in the frying process on biodiesel quality and attempts to review the different techniques used in the production of biodiesel from recycled oils, stressing the advantages and limitations of each technique and the optimization conditions for each process. The emerging technologies which can be utilized in this field are also investigated. The quality of biodiesel produced from waste vegetable oil in previous studies is also reviewed and the performance of engines fueled with this biodiesel and the characteristics of the exhaust emissions resulting from it are highlighted. The overarching goal is to stimulate further activities in the field.