INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (IJEST)
Year:2010 | Volume:7 | Issue:3 (27)|Papers Count:20

Previous works on database integration focused mainly on the creation of transformation interfaces between incompatible databases built up by different departments of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration, ignoring the demands of systematically and flexibly integrated information for advanced pollution control of point sources. To provide a systematic framework for flexible integration of distributed data, this paper presents a general model as the systematic object event data model based on systems thinking, to improve the integration capability of databases. The conceptual database framework for integrated pollution control was proposed as a result of the application of the systematic object event data model. The fundamental part of the systematic object event data model, creation of the object registry database, was put into practice from the year 2008. The object database of pollution source is available to factories in 2009, which helps factories to create and Taiwan environmental protection administration to maintain the consistent object data through the electronic application processes of permits. To construct various event databases that systematically connect to object database would be the following step to more efficiently provide systematic information from systematic data integration.

In this study, copper, iron, manganese and nickel levels of branches and leaves of Pyracantha coccinea Roem. (firethorn) were measured for determining the heavy metal pollution in Mugla Province. Plant samples were collected from 34 different localities in four different areas of Mugla Province, during 2006 vegetation period. Unwashed and washed leaf samples and unwashed branch samples were subjected to analysis and copper, iron, manganese and nickel concentrations of samples were measured by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. The obtained data were analyzed with “statistical package for the social sciences” statistics program. As a result of measurements, the highest average and lowest values and their collected stations were as follows; the highest average (5.89 ± 0.04 mg/g dw) and the lowest (5.20 ± 0.03 mg/g dw) values of copper were measured near highways. The average highest iron value (9.53 ±1.68 mg/g dw) was in industrial area while the lowest was near highways (1.73 ± 0.54 mg/g dw). The highest value of magnesium accumulation (1.00 ± 0.16 mg/gdw) was measured near highways. The lowest value was determined in urban area (0.40 ± 0.14 mg/g dw). The average highest level of nickel was in industrial area while the lowest was determined in urban area. The values were 14.34 ± 1.59 mg/g and 4.05 ± 0.51 mg/g dw. As a result, it was proven that P. coccinea could be used as a biomonitor species for some of these heavy metals especially for copper and nickel.

Globally, aquatic ecosystems are highly polluted with heavy metals arising from anthropogenic and terrigenous sources. The objective of this study was to investigate the pollution of stream sediments and possible sources of pollutants in Nakivubo Channel Kampala, Uganda. Stream sediments were collected and analysed for heavy metal concentration using flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The degree of pollution in Nakivubo channelized stream sediments for lead, cadmium, copper, zinc, manganese and iron was assessed using enrichment factor, geoaccumulation index and pollution load index. The results indicated that (1) the sediments have been polluted with lead, cadmium and zinc and have high anthropogenic influences; (2) the calculation of geo-accumulation index suggest that Nakivubo stream sediments have background concentration for copper, manganese and Fe (Igeo £ 0); (3) factor analysis results reveal three sources of pollutants as explained by three factors (75.0 %); (i) mixed origin or retention phenomena of industrial and vehicular emissions; (ii) terrigenous and (iii) dual origin of zinc (vehicular and industrial). In conclusion, the co-precipitation (inclusion, occlusion and adsorption) of lead, cadmium and zinc with manganese and iron hydroxides, scavenging ability of other metals, very low dissolved oxygen and slightly acidic to slightly alkaline pH in stream water could account for the active accumulation of heavy metals in Nakivubo stream sediments. These phenomena may pose a risk of secondary water pollution under sediment disturbance and/or changes in the geo-chemistry of sediments.

The regional inequalities in socio-economical characteristics such as income, population density, age composition, unemployment rate and the education level may bring about variation in waste generation, recycling and collection. Using environmental Kuznets curve, the factors affecting municipal solid waste disposal are examined. The results demonstrate that an inverted N-shaped curve executes on municipal solid waste disposal for all regions. As personal disposable income increases, per capita municipal solid waste disposed firstly declines, then grows at the second stage and finally decreases again. All the explanatory variables including economic factors, social characteristics and geographical barriers are found to influence municipal solid waste disposal significantly. Each person increase in population density leads to an increase in municipal solid waste disposed by approximately 1.17 ×10-4 kg/day. Each percent increase in age composition results in a decrease in municipal solid waste disposed by approximately 0.0224 kg/day; in the unemployment rate causes a decrease of 0.0901 kg/day and in the education level results in a decrease of 0.01556 kg/day. In general, municipal solid waste disposal starts to increase at the first turning point of personal disposable income NT$ 198,000 (about US$ 6,280) and to decrease at the second point of NT$ 389,000 (about US$ 12,350) for all regions (pooled data). The rural regions, however, cannot support the inverted Nshaped curve by the ‘reduced form’ while urban regions have a significant outcome. This result implies that income can only explain a portion of variation while other social and geographical factors contribute a lot to identify the variation in municipal solid waste disposal between urban and rural regions.

Detoxification of synthetic dyes is one of the main challenges in clearing textile industry wastes. Biodegradation of azo-dyes using Phanerochaete chrysosporium is one the most environmentally friendly methods available. The main enzymes responsible for mycodecolorization process are lignin and manganese peroxidases. Here, optimization of expression conditions has been carried out with manipulating culture condition and nutrient sources. Therefore, the effects of buffer and temperature as well as nitrogen source on lignin peroxidase and manganese peroxidase production were investigated at two levels and four levels, respectively. For this purpose, P. chrysosporium RP78 based on Taguchi design of experiment has been applied. Maximum lignin and manganese peroxidase activities of 182 ± 2.5 U/L and 850 ± 41 U/L were obtained under predicted optimum conditions, respectively. Thereby, about 100 % decolorization was achieved after 24 h for two most widely used groups of azo dyes in textile industry consisting reactive and acidic. The physical adsorption of the azo dyes by mycelia was not significant which indicated that the enzymatic degradation of the dyes was occurred. Time profile of these enzymes showed that manganese peroxidase was peaked on 9th day while lignin peroxidase peaked on 13th. day and remained stable in the culture. The extracellular expression profiles of both were studied by 2 dimensional gel electrophoresis to partially characterize the enzymes.

A field study was carried out to evaluate long-term heavy metal accumulation in the top 20 cm of a Tunisian clayey loam soil amended for four consecutive years with municipal solid waste compost at three levels (0, 40 and 80 t/ha/y). Heavy metals uptake and translocation within wheat plants grown on these soils were also investigated. Compared to untreated soils, compost-amended soils showed significant increases in the content of all measured metals: cadmium, chromium, copper, nickel, lead and zinc in the last three years, especially for plots amended with municipal solid waste compost at 80 t/ha/y. Wheat plants grown on compost-amended soils showed a general increase in metal uptake and translocation, especially for chromium and nickel. This heavy metal uptake was about three folds greater in plots amended at 80 t/ha/y as compared to plots amended at 40 t/ha/y. At the end of the experimental period, the diluting effect resulting from enhanced growth rates of wheat plants due to successive compost applications resulted in lower concentrations in the plants (grain part) grown on treated plots. On the other hand, chromium and nickel were less mobile in the aerial part of wheat plants and were accumulated essentially in root tissues. Plant/soil transfer coefficients for compost-amended treatments were higher than threshold range reported in the literature, indicating that there was an important load/transfer of metal ions from soils to wheat plants.

Promotion of green technologies related to notebook computer will have significant benefits in the environment. Notebook companies need to make a careful market assessment for green technologies. Due to the variety of consumer preferences for green technologies, as well as a hot competitive climate in notebook market, consumer preferences should be taken into consideration during the assessment process. This study classifies the green technologies of notebook industry. Some green technologies are not controlled by the environmental regulations but are popular among customers. This study named this kind of technologies niche green technologies. The product line design model can evaluate the design scheme based on customer preferences. Therefore, this study uses conjoin analysis to investigate the consumers’ preferences for assorted technology. Subsequently, product line design model is utilized to seek the optimal scheme of niche green technologies adoption based on the consumers’ preference. Results of conjoint analysis reveal that consumers value two attributes, including price and size. Furthermore, the preferences for niche green technologies in solid state drive disk and light emitting diode backlight surpass the former technology. After the assessment of market situation with product line design model, two types of niche green technologies, including lithium polymer battery and light emitting diode backlight are suggested for the adoption of new products design.

Changes in heavy metal speciation and uptake by maize in a soil before and after washing with chelating organic acids, citric acid, tartaric acid and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid were assessed. A sandy loam was collected from the vicinity of the Benue industrial layout, Makurdi, Nigeria and spiked with a quinternary mixture of nickel, copper, zinc, cadmium and lead nitrates to achieve higher levels of contamination. Batch soil washing experiments performed on 1.0 g portions of the spiked soil using 0.05 M chelating agents at a solid:liquid ratio of 1:25 showed that washing efficiencies varied in the order: ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid> citric acid> tartaric acid with metal extraction yields typically following the sequence, copper> nickel> zinc> cadmium> lead. Sequential extractions proposed by the European Communities Bureau of Reference method used to assess the redistribution of heavy metal forms in the soil showed that apparent metal mobilities were reduced upon soil washing. Citric acid removed most of the metals hitherto associated with the exchangeable and reducible fractions; tartaric acid, the exchangeable metal pools; and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, the non-residual metal pools. Heavy metal assay of harvested biomass of maize grown on unwashed and washed soil samples indicated that metal transfer coefficients, decreased in the order of treatment: ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid <citric acid <tartaric acid <unwashed soil. Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and citric acid appeared to offer greater potentials as chelating agents to use in remediating the high permeability soil. Tartaric acid, however, is recommended in events of moderate contamination.

The sorption of cadmium and humic acids from aqueous solutions using surface-modified nanozeolite A has been investigated under various examination conditions. The morphology of untreated and treated nanozeolite was studied under scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope. Isotherms of cadmium adsorption onto surfacemodified nanozeolite A were studied at different pH, solid to liquid ratio, adsorbate concentration and interaction time. Kinetic and equilibrium studies were conducted and the equilibrium data have been analyzed using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The study revealed that experimental results were in agreement with the Freundlich model. The Langmuir monolayer adsorption capacity was found to be 1666.67 g cadmium and 6.75 g humic acid per gram of modified nanozeolite A, which is higher than that of reported value for other zeolites. The sorption ability was enhanced by surface modification and reduction in size and enabled the zeolite to adsorb cadmium. The adsorption of cadmium and humic acid on nanozeolite was found to be the highest at pH 6 and 3, respectively. Results showed that solid to liquid ratio and pH are the most important factors for cadmium and humic acid removal, respectively. Effect of competitive ions was studied and results showed that there is no competition between cadmium and humic acid sorption and presence of these ions.

Acid mine drainage was reacted with coal fly ash over a 24 h reaction time and species removal trends evaluated. The evolving process water chemistry was modeled by the geochemical code PHREEQC using WATEQ4 database. Mineralogical analysis of the resulting solid residues was done by X-ray diffraction analysis. Selective sequential extraction was used to evaluate the transfer of species from both acid mine drainage and fly ash to less labile mineral phases that precipitated out. The quantity of fly ash, volume of acid mine drainage in the reaction mixture and reaction time dictated whether the final solution at a given contact time will have a dominant acidic or basic character. Inorganic species removal was dependent on the pH regime generated at a specific reaction time. Sulphate concentration was controlled by precipitation of gypsum, barite, celestite and adsorption on iron-oxy-hydroxides at pH > 5.5. Increase of pH in solution with contact time caused the removal of the metal ions mainly by precipitation, coprecipitation and adsorption. PHREEQC predicted precipitation of iron, aluminium, manganese-bearing phases at pH 5.53-9.12. An amorphous fraction was observed to be the most important in retention of the major and minor species at pH > 6.32. The carbonate fraction was observed to be an important retention pathway at pH 4-5 mainly due to initial local pockets of high alkalinity on surfaces of fly ash particles. Boron was observed to have a strong retention in the carbonate fraction.

Airborne indoor and outdoor bacteria and fungi were assessed during the spring season using conventional methods to investigate the enumeration and identification of airborne micro-organisms. This was determined through air quality sampling using the ‘open plate technique’. The air samples were collected during the spring season (March-May) from four different locations. Conventional enumeration of airborne micro-organisms relies on culturebased or microscopic methods. Although a culture-based analysis is most widely used for bio-aerosol, four public places located in urban residential areas were selected for indoor/outdoor air bio-pollutant measurement. The public places included kitchens, classrooms, recreational areas, laboratories. Public parks are an important facility associated with the environmental exposure of children. Cultivation and total microscopic enumeration methods were employed for the sample analysis. 26 groups of bacteria and fungi, either of human or environmental origin were detected. Environmental agents generally predominated while significantly higher counts were detected as the level of hygiene or standard of housing dropped. Seven genera of fungi, mainly members of the genus Aspergillum, were isolated from all residents. Bacteria shows higher growth numbers as opposed to the slow growing fungi. Sample collection and pretreatment, determination techniques and performance results are summarized and discussed.

Development of higher welfare could not be realized unless by energy consumption and other natural resources. Growth of industrial complexes has shown an unprecedented trend during recent years. Many of these towns have no treatment systems for the industrial wastes leachates. Besides, the chemical composition of wastes in such complexes varies considerably due to the different kinds of industries. It is endeavored in the present work to study the natural potential of soil to treat leachate of such industrial wastes. For this purpose, the Aliabad industrial complex in Tehran – Garmsar road was selected as the study area. The potential of adsorption of elements such as nickel, copper, cadmium, zinc, chromium, lead and manganese was investigated. The results indicated that the soil potential to adsorb heavy metals (except for manganese) was very high (95 %) in the adsorption of heavy metals (except for manganese). Further, chemical partitioning studies revealed that heavy metals are associated with various soil phases such as loosely bonded ions, sulfide and organics to various extents. Among the mentioned soil phases, one can deduce that major portion of metal contaminants is absorbed as loosely bonded ions. Organic bond and sulfide bond are in the 2nd and 3rd positions of metal contaminants adsorption, respectively. The results of the present study apparently showed that soil column had ample capacity to adsorb metal contaminants. Thus, determination of soil potential in adsorption of heavy metals during site selection is as important criteria.

The biosorption of copper (II) from aqueous solution using different bacterial strains was studied. Copper-biosorbing bacteria were isolated from tannery effluent collected from Borg Al-Arab, Alexandria, Egypt. These isolates displayed different degrees of copper biosorption under aerobic conditions. Based on 16S rDNA gene sequence analysis, three of them (S2, S5 and S7) were identified as Chryseobacterium sp., Enterobacter sp. And Stenotrophomonas sp., respectively. Initial copper (II) ion concentrations from 25-250 mg/L at constant temperature 30°C were studied. The residual copper (II) concentration and its toxicity effect in solution were determined using atomic absorption spectrophotometer and bioluminescent bioreporter. The bioluminescence inhibition of strain (S5) reached to 91.4 % as compared with the strain (S7) reached to 83.3 % at 225 mg/L of copper ion where the maximum biosorption efficiency for S5 and S7 were 71 % and 70.1% correspondingly using atomic absorption. The bioluminescent bioreporter was proved to be fast and accurate technique for measurement the toxicity effect of residual copper (II) in solution.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorinated biphenyls were investigated in sediment of bitumen deposit impacted area of Agbabu, Nigeria, to determine the present level of contamination with these toxic compounds prior to exploitation. Samples were collected during the dry season (March) and the wet season (August) of year 2008. Analysis was carried out with gas chromatography using mass spectrometry detector for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and flame ionization detector for polychlorinated biphenyls. In the dry season sum of concentration of PAHs ranged from zero to 0.12 ± 0.06 ppm, while in the wet season the minimum was 0.18 ± 0.07 ppm and the maximum was 1.04 ± 0.16 ppm. Most of these values were higher than sum of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons concentrations of 1 – 10 mg/kg indicating that they were likely to come from anthropogenic sources. Average concentrations of PAHs such as naphthalene and benzo (a) pyrene obtained in sediment in the wet season in some of the stations were higher than recommended limits. The linear regression analysis between sum of concentrations and percentage organic carbon showed no significant correlation in sediment in the dry season (r2 = 0.0025) and in the wet season (r2 = 0.1345). The predominance of 4-6 ringed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and the ratios between pairs of individual polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons showed that they are likely to have come from pyrolytic sources. No polychlorinated biphenyl congener was detected in the samples.

In the coming decades, global warming and increase in temperature, in different regions of the world, may change indoor and outdoor thermal comfort conditions and human health. The aim of this research was to study the effects of global warming on thermal comfort conditions in indoor ambiences in Iran. To study the increase in temperature, model for assessment of greenhouse-gas induced climate change scenario generator compound model has been used together with four scenarios and to estimate thermal comfort conditions, adaptive model of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers has been used. In this study, Iran was divided into 30 zones, outdoor conditions were obtained using meteorological data of 80 climatological stations and changes in neutral comfort conditions in 2025, 2050, 2075 and 2100 were predicted. In accordance with each scenario, findings from this study showed that temperature in the 30 zones will increase by 2100 to between 3.4°C and 5.6°C. In the coming decades and in the 30 studied zones, neutral comfort temperature will increase and be higher and more intense in the central and desert zones of Iran. The low increase in this temperature will be connected to the coastal areas of the Caspian and Oman Sea in southeast Iran. This increase in temperature will be followed by a change in thermal comfort and indoor energy consumption from 8.6 % to 13.1 % in air conditioning systems. As a result, passive methods as thermal inertia are proposed as a possible solution.

Unfertilizable fruiting buds of mango plant Mangifera Indica L, an agrowaste, is used as a biomass in this study. The efficacy of the biosorbent was tested for the removal of lead, copper, zinc and nickel metal ions using batch experiments in single and binary metal solution under controlled experimental conditions. It is found that metal sorption increases when the equilibrium metal concentration rises. At highest experimental solution concentration used (150 mg/L), the removal of metal ions were 82.76 % for lead, 76.60 % for copper, 63.35 % for zinc and 59.35 % for nickel while at lowest experimental solution concentration (25 mg/L), the removal of metal ions were 92.00% for lead, 86.84 % for copper, 83.96 % for zinc and 82.29 % for nickel. Biosorption equilibrium isotherms were plotted for metal uptake capacity (q) against residual metal concentrations (Cf) in solution. The q versus Cf sorption isotherm relationship was mathematically expressed by Langmuir and Freundlich models. The values of separation factor were between zero and one indicating favourable sorption for four tested metals on the biosorbent. The surface coverage values were approaching unity with increasing solution concentration indicating effectiveness of biosorbent under investigation. The non-living biomass of Mangifera indica L present comparable biosorption capacity for lead, copper, zinc and nickel metal ions with other types of biosorbent materials found in literature and is effective to remove metal ions from single metal solutions as well as in the presence of other co-ions with the main metal of solution.

This study investigates the utilization of landfill biogas as a fuel for electrical power generation. Landfills can be regarded as conversion biogas plants to electricity, not only covering internal consumptions of the facility but contributing in the power grid as well. A landfill gas plant consists of a recovery and a production system. The recovery of landfill gas is an area of vital interest since it combines both alternative energy production and reduction of environmental impact through reduction of methane and carbon dioxide, two of the main greenhouse gases emissions. This study follows two main objectives. First, to determine whether active extraction of landfill gas in the examined municipal solid waste sites would produce adequate electric power for utilisation and grid connection and second, to estimate the reduction of sequential greenhouse gases emissions. However, in order to optimize the designing of a plant fed by biogas, it is necessary to quantify biogas production over several years. The investigation results of energy efficiency and environmental impact of biogas utilization in landfills are considering satisfactory enough both in electric energy production and in contribution to greenhouse gases mitigation.

Dominant agricultural society of Nepal demonstrates the sign of compromises on its rural and virgin landscape. The current study investigates the fish base indices on some of its watershed. It is a proven fact that fish base variables such as species diversity and the abundance indicate the extent of impact by various disturbances on the ecological integrity of the river system. Three rivers, namely Jhikhukhola, Rapti and Tinau were studied to see the agricultural impact by taking fish species number and their abundance as the indicators in this work. The study was done for an academic purpose from 2003 to 2006 in which sampling was done using electro-fishing gear by standard wading method. Four replicates of sample taken in four major seasons were obtained in the field. Altogether, 10542 fishes of 24 genera and 34 species were captured during the entire sampling. The comparison of their distribution and abundance showed a clear sign of impact mainly on the downstream of the rivers indicating the rapid increase in unaccounted and indiscriminate use of agricultural inputs such as synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. This was further verified by nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test which showed the significant variations in the impact on the downstream in major agricultural season.

During the past decades, a significant increase occurred in accidental oil spill in the aquatic environments. In this regard, oil spill in Marine freshwater is still considered as a major environmental hazard. In this research, the experimental data on the sorption capacity of expanded perlite to crude oil were correlated with the equilibrium isotherm of Langmuir, Freudlich, Tempkin and the three parameter Redlich-Peterson isotherms. The results obtained from each specified isotherms were compared and accuracy of the models were favorably discussed. Accuracy of each model using the error function were evaluated. Moreover, the effect of type of objective function on the final results was investigated. To bring up the idea; the sum of square of the average squares of the errors, the sum of the squares of the errors, the hybrid fractional error function, Marquardt’s percent standard deviation and Chi-Square objective function were used and the accuracy was obtained using each objective function. The results showed that the Redlich- Peterson model can better represent the equilibrium isotherm data for the crude oil to be up taken on the expanded perlite.

Adsorption plays an important role in water and wastewater treatment. The analysis and design of processes that involve adsorption rely on the availability of isotherms that describe these adsorption processes. Adsorption isotherms are usually estimated empirically from measurements of the adsorption process variables. Unfortunately, these measurements are usually contaminated with errors that degrade the accuracy of estimated isotherms. Therefore, these errors need to be filtered for improved isotherm estimation accuracy. Multiscale wavelet based filtering has been shown to be a powerful filtering tool. In this work, multiscale filtering is utilized to improve the estimation accuracy of the Freundlich adsorption isotherm in the presence of measurement noise in the data by developing a multiscale algorithm for the estimation of Freundlich isotherm parameters. The idea behind the algorithm is to use multiscale filtering to filter the data at different scales, use the filtered data from all scales to construct multiple isotherms and then select among all scales the isotherm that best represents the data based on a cross validation mean squares error criterion. The developed multiscale isotherm estimation algorithm is shown to outperform the conventional time-domain estimation method through a simulated example.