The contaminated site is considered a high-risk pollution source due to the accumulation of industrial waste and wastewater, which affects the soil and groundwater environment. In this study, through soil and groundwater investigation, we outlined the characteristics of heavy metal contamination in the soil and groundwater of the contaminated site, assessed the health risk of the contaminated site to humans, and established a numerical model to predict the ecological and environmental risks of the site. The results of the study showed that the maximum contamination concentration of pollutants (lead, arsenic, cadmium) in the soil all exceeded the Chinese environmental standard (GB36600-2018, Grade II), that the maximum contamination concentration (cadmium, Cd) of the groundwater exceeded the Chinese environmental standard (GB14848−2017, Grade IV), and that the heavy metal pollution was mainly concentrated in the production area of the site and the waste-residue stockpiles. The total car... [more]

Use of dyes as well as colorants in industrial processes has extensively increased. Effluents from various industries such as textile, paint, food, etc. are reported to have a diverse range of colorants. The effluents from these industries are often released into natural water bodies, causing serious water and environmental pollution, to which humans and other species are constantly exposed. Continued changes in climate have also affected water availability for people around the world. Thus, advanced treatments and removal of harmful contaminants from municipal and industrial wastewater are becoming increasingly important. Removal of dyes and colorants from wastewater can be done in a variety of ways, including physical, chemical, and biological treatments. These technologies, however, differ in terms of efficiency, cost, and environmental effect. There are many technological and economic challenges for the wastewater treatment methods currently available. The search for the most suita... [more]

Compared to traditional water dyeing, supercritical CO2 fluid waterless dyeing is more advanced concerning zero pollution, energy saving and emission reduction. The measurement of the solubility of disperse dyes in supercritical CO2 provides convenience and technological basis for the popularization and development of this technology. In the current work, the solubility of 2-[4-(2-Cyanoethylethylamino)phenyl]diazenyl-5-nitrobenzonitrile (C.I. Dispersed Red 73), 2,2′-[[4-[(4-Nitrophenyl)azo]phenyl]imino] bis-ethano (C.I. Dispersed Red 19) and 3,3′-[[4-[(4-nitrophenyl)azo]phenyl]imino] bispropiononitrile (C.I. Dispersed Orange S-RL) in supercritical CO2 was determined by flow-type supercritical fluid equipment at pressures ranging from 14 to 26 MPa and temperatures ranging from 343.15 to 403.15 K, and the solubility ranges were 1.96−19.78 × 10−6, 1.51−2.63 × 10−6 and 1.49−2.49 × 10−6 mol/mol, respectively. The increase in pressure P and temperature T has obvious effect on the increase in... [more]

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected educational settings (ES) in Slovenia. To effectively limit the emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 infections in ES, it is important to identify the pathways of introduction and transmission of infection. This study aims to analyse the spread of infections in ES according to the level of education, taking into account the predominant variant of the virus in Slovenia in order to advise on public health action. We calculated the incidence rate of infection by age group, according to the level of the ES. Additionally, we analysed data on the reported outbreak criteria in ES. In Slovenia, SARS-CoV-2 infections in children and adolescents (1−18 years) accounted for 16.8% of all confirmed infections. The incidence and leading outbreak criteria differed according to the level of the ES and predominant SARS-CoV-2 variant. The occurrence of cases in ≥3 different “bubbles” was the most common outbreak criteria (59%). A high number of employee-importe... [more]

In the context of the “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality” goal and energy marketization, the City Regional Integrated Energy System (CRIES), as an important participant in the energy market, pursues low-carbon development as its most important goal. Without a reasonable market participation structure and a comprehensive low-carbon evaluation system, it will be difficult to meet the needs of CRIES for low-carbon development in the energy market. Therefore, this paper first proposes a framework suitable for CRIES to participate in the energy market, and under the influence of the operating characteristics of the energy market, proposes an evaluation index system suitable for CRIES’ low-carbon capabilities in the energy market. The analytic network process−criteria importance through intercriteria correlation (ANP-CRITIC) method is used to determine the subjective and objective weights of each indicator, and the comprehensive weight of each indicator is calculated by the principle of m... [more]

Industrial wastewater discharges often contain high levels of organic matter and nutrients, which can lead to eutrophication and constitute a serious hazard to receiving waters and aquatic life. The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of using a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) to treat high-strength organic wastewater for the removal of both chemical oxygen demand (COD) and nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus). At a constant COD concentration of approximately 1000 mg/L, the effects of cycle time (3 and 9 h) and various C:N:P ratios (100:5:2, 100:5:1, 100:10:1, and 100:10:2) were investigated using four identical SBRs (R1, R2, R3, and R4). According to experimental data, a significant high removal, i.e., 90%, 98.5%, and 84.8%, was observed for COD, NH3-N, and PO43−-P, respectively, when C:N:P was 100:5:1, at a cycle time of 3 h. Additionally, when cycle time was increased to 9 h, the highest levels of COD removal (95.7%), NH3-N removal (99.6%), and PO43−-P removal (90.31%) w... [more]

In the open innovation environment, enterprise sustainable innovation is no longer the result of individual decision-making. Extensive contact with suppliers, customers, scientific research institutions, and other subjects for boundary-spanning knowledge search, absorption, and reconfiguration is considered a critical path to enterprise sustainable innovation. Studying the process of “how boundary-spanning search affects enterprise sustainable innovation” has become an urgent and valuable task. Therefore, based on an innovation search perspective, this study explored the path and mechanism of boundary-spanning search affecting enterprise sustainable innovation, revealed the intermediary effect of capability reconfiguration, and clarified the regulatory role of information technology (IT) governance. We also proposed an integrated model promoting enterprise sustainable innovation process. Using questionnaire data from manufacturing companies in China, this study empirically tested the p... [more]

The Industrial Internet of things (IIoT), the implementation of IoT in the industrial sector, requires a deterministic, real-time, and low-latency communication response for its time-critical applications. A delayed response in such applications could be life-threatening or result in significant losses for manufacturing plants. Although several measures in the likes of predictive maintenance are being put in place to prevent errors and guarantee high network availability, unforeseen failures of physical components are almost inevitable. Our research contribution is to design an efficient communication prototype, entirely based on internet protocol (IP) that combines state-of-the-art communication computing technologies principles to deliver a more stable industrial communication network. We use time-sensitive networking (TSN) and edge computing to increase the determinism of IIoT networks, and we reduce latency with zero-loss redundancy protocols that ensure the sustainability of IIoT... [more]

Photocatalysis, especially heterogeneous photocatalysis, is one of the most investigated processes for environmental remediation [...]

var. ferrea (Fabaceae) is endemic to ferruginous tropical rocky outcrops in the eastern Amazon, also known as canga. Canga are often associated with mining activities and are the target of protection and rehabilitation projects. M. acutistipula stands out in this biodiversity hotspot with high growth rates, even in rehabilitating minelands (RMs). However, little is known about the diversity of soil microorganisms interacting with M. acutistipula in canga and RMs. This study analyzed the rhizosphere-associated bacterial and fungal microbial communities associated with M. acutistipula growing in an RM and a native shrub canga. The fungal phylum Ascomycota was the dominant taxa identified in the rhizosphere of the canga (RA: 98.1) and RM (RA: 93.1). The bacterial phyla Proteobacteria (RA: 54.3) and Acidobacteria (RA: 56.2) were the dominant taxa identified in the rhizosphere in the canga and RM, respectively. Beneficial genera such as Bradyrhizobium, Rhodoplanes, and Paraconiothyrium were... [more]

“The Hebei Xiongan New Area Planning Outline” states that the carbon sink of the water body should be improved and the quality of Baiyangdian water should be improved by cleaning the sludge, but the treatment of endogenous pollution in the water body will release a large amount of carbon dioxide, which will reduce the carbon sink of Baiyangdian, which makes the improvement of water body quality and increasing carbon sink conflicting. In order to realize the coordinated development of Baiyangdian water quality improvement and carbon sink increase, this paper establishes the calculation model of the amount of sludge to be cleared to improve the unit water quality and the amount of carbon dioxide released by clearing the silt using the release flux and diffusion flux of nitrogen and phosphorus elements in the water body, and the relationship between the content of nitrogen and phosphorus elements, the depth of Baiyangdian sludge excavation and the amount of carbon dioxide released: as the... [more]

Human survival depends on the sustainable development of agriculture. This study constructs a data-driven evaluation and optimization method of agricultural sustainable development capacity, aiming to better cope with challenges such as environmental pollution and excessive consumption of resources and energy, as well as improve agricultural economic level. Further, an evaluation index system was constructed based on comprehensive consideration of energy and resources utilization, environmental pollution, and agricultural economy. After simplifying and integrating the data, a data envelopment analysis model was constructed to quantitatively evaluate the capability for agricultural sustainable development and its changing trend. Moreover, its influencing factors were analyzed from the perspective of input, which provides accurate countermeasures for improving agricultural sustainable development ability, resource utilization efficiency, and process optimization. This study shows the rea... [more]

Emission of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and soot particles during the combustion of biomass fuels and municipal solid waste is a major environmental issue. Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and acetylene (C2H2) are important precursors of NOx and soot particles, respectively. In the current work, infrared tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (IR-TDLAS), as a non-intrusive in situ technique, was applied to quantitatively measure HCN and C2H2 in a combustion environment. The P(11e) line of the first overtone vibrational band v1 of HCN at 6484.78 cm−1 and the P(27e) line of the v1 + v3 combination band of C2H2 at 6484.03 cm−1 were selected. However, the infrared absorption of the ubiquitous water vapor in the combustion environment brings great uncertainty to the measurement. To obtain accurate temperature-dependent water spectra between 6483.8 and 6485.8 cm−1, a homogenous hot gas environment with controllable temperatures varying from 1100 to 1950 K provided by a laminar flame was employed to per... [more]

In recent years, people have been increasingly concerned about air quality and pollution since a number of studies have proved that air pollution, especially PM2.5 (particulate matter), can affect human health drastically. Though the research on air quality prediction has become a mainstream research field, most of the studies focused only on the prediction of urban air quality and pollution. These studies did not predict the actual impact of these pollutants on people. According to the researchers’ best knowledge, the amount of polluted air inhaled by people and the amount of polluted air that remains inside their body are two important factors that affect their health. In order to predict the quantity of PM2.5 inhaled by people and what they have retained in their body, a process and a platform have been proposed in the current research work. In this research, the experimental process is as follows: (1) First, a personalized PM2.5 sensor is designed and developed to sense the quantit... [more]

High-efficiency bioremediation technology for heavy oil pollution has been a popular research topic in recent years. Laccase is very promising for the remediation of heavy oil pollution because it can not only convert bio-refractory hydrocarbons into less toxic or completely harmless compounds, but also accelerate the biodegradation efficiency of heavy oil. However, there are few reports on the use of laccase to enhance the biodegradation of heavy oil. In this study, we investigated the effect of laccase on the bacterial consortia degradation of heavy oil. The degradation efficiencies of bacterial consortia and the laccase-bacterial consortia were 60.6 ± 0.1% and 68.2 ± 0.6%, respectively, and the corresponding heavy oil degradation rate constants were 0.112 day−1 and 0.198 day−1, respectively. The addition of laccase increased the heavy oil biodegradation efficiency (p < 0.05) and biodegradation rate of the bacterial consortia. Moreover, gas chromatography−mass spectrometry analysi... [more]

Anaerobic digestion of biomass has increasing implementation for bioenergy production. The solid by-product of this technology, i.e., the digestate, has relevant potential in agricultural and environmental applications. This study explored the capacity of a digestate from mixed feedstock to remove from water four endocrine-disrupting chemicals, namely the pesticides metribuzin (MET) and boscalid (BOS) and the xenoestrogens bisphenol A (BPA) and 4-tert-octylphenol (OP). The surface micromorphology and functional groups of the digestate were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, respectively. Results of sorption kinetics showed that all compounds reached the steady state in a few hours according to a pseudo-first-order model in the cases of MET and OP, a pseudo-second-order model for BOS and both models in the case of BPA. Data of adsorption isotherms were fitted to the Henry, Freundlich, Langmuir and Temkin equations. T... [more]

Numerous studies have examined the relationship between technological development and pollution. From a global economic perspective, the narrowing of one country’s technological gap relative to the world technology frontier (due to the technological progress) may affect its environmental pollution. However, few studies have focused on this issue. This study examined the relationship between technology gap and air pollution both theoretically and empirically. The theoretical model shows that narrowing the technology gap may help reduce pollution. Using patent data from USPTO, as well as industrial level pollution and socio-economic data in China, this paper found that the narrowing of technology gap plays a role in reducing air pollution emissions in China, which confirms the theoretical model. This study provides a new perspective on the relationship between technology progress and pollution.

Subjectively, to verify the human perception of the state of satisfaction with the environment it is necessary to use objective methods. One of these methods is the heat flux measuring method. This paper points out the risk factors that affect the heat transfer coefficient H through building structures that are necessary to determine the projected heat input of the building. At the operation stage, the aforementioned structures are affected by environmental factors (noise, artificial lighting, heat sources). This changes the suggested value Hc to the real value Hr, which is documented by the measurements. The rate of change of the H value is given by the correction “K”. According to the measurements the value obtained can be corrected from 0.08 to 0.25. The final values of the heat transfer coefficient were generalized in the equation and the value of the building energy category within the energy certification of buildings was determined. The result is a methodology for the optimal de... [more]

The treatment of poultry slaughterhouse wastewater (PSW) with an Expanded Granular Sludge-Bed Bioreactor (EGSB) is hindered by the washout of activated sludge, and difficulties associated with the operation of the three-phase separator and the determination of the optimum up-flow velocity for sludge-bed fluidization. This results in a poor reactor functionality, and thus a poor performance due to pollutants such as fats, oil and grease (FOG) in the PSW being treated. Hydrolyzing the FOG content with a bio-delipidation, enzyme-based agent in a pre-treatment unit would significantly improve the effectiveness of the primary PSW treating system, i.e., the EGSB. In this study, PSW was pre-treated for 48 h with a biological mixture containing bioflocculants and bio-delipidation constituents. The pre-treated PSW was further treated in an EGSB. The PSW FOG, total chemical oxygen demand (tCOD) and total suspended solids (TSS) content were determined to assess the effectiveness of the pre-treatm... [more]

Polyurethanes are most often called “green” when they contain natural, renewable additives in their network or chemical structure, such as mono- and polysaccharides, oils (mainly vegetable oils), polyphenols (e.g., lignins, tannins), or various compounds derived from agro-waste white biotechnology (Principle 7). This usually results in these polyurethanes obtained from less hazardous substrates (Principle 4). Appropriate modification of polyurethanes makes them susceptible to degradation, and the use of appropriate processes allows for their recycling (Principle 10). However, this fulfilment of other principles also predisposes them to be green. As in the production of other polymer materials, the synthesis of polyurethanes is carried out with the use of catalysts (such as biocatalysts) (Principle 9) with full control of the course of the reaction (Principle 11), which allows maximization of the atomic economy (Principle 2) and an increase in energy efficiency (Principle 6) while minim... [more]

Constructed wetlands (CW) is an environmentally friendly technique for removing pollutants from wastewater and has been applied to municipal wastewater, petroleum refinery wastewater, agriculture drainage, acid mine drainage, etc. The past decade has seen a remarkable number of innovations in the exponentially growing field of microbiology. This manuscript covers a critical review of key aspects of CW, such as various types of CW, the contaminants and their removal mechanisms, degradation pathways, challenges and opportunities, materials, applications, and theory with a focus on recent advances in the last three decades. In addition, an attempt has been taken to project future advances in the field of CW and facilitate these advances by framing key unsolved problems in CW. Guidelines are prepared for the fast-growing CW field through the standardization of key design aspects. This review covers the evaluation of the current state-of-the-art of CW technology and provides definitions and... [more]

Textile effluent containing azo dyes such as C.I. Acid Violet 1 (AV1) can be degraded to toxic aromatic amines in the environment. Thus, there is a legitimate need to treat such effluents before they are discharged to surface waters. Two methods were proposed to remove AV1 from aqueous solutions: adsorption and advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). The sorption capacity of the strongly basic anion exchanger Purolite A520E of the polystyrene matrix determined from the Langmuir isotherm model was found to be 835 mg/g, while that of Lewatit S5428 of the polyacrylamide matrix Freundlich model seems to be more appropriate for describing the experimental data. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model and external diffusion are the rate limiting steps of adsorption. The removal efficiency of AV1 by the anion exchangers was higher than 99% after 40 min of phase contact time. AOPs involved the usage of hydrogen peroxide and peracetic acid (PAA) as oxidizing agents, while Fe2+ and simulated sunlight... [more]

Mining extraction operations generate a large number of tailings that contain different mineral phases such as quartz (principally), complex silicates, metallic elements, etc. Tailings impose a serious concern as it is possible to have acid mine drainage potential, leaching, and percolation events of heavy metals into the environment under certain conditions. The objective of this work was to evaluate the technical feasibility of producing ceramic foams from gold and silver tailings with high sulfide gangue through a previous flotation process to eliminate impurities associated to this gangue, as it can produce SO2 in the foaming process, and to analyze the effect of the sintering time and the temperature on the characteristics of foams obtained with this type of waste. The results showed that the inverse flotation reduced the presence of impurities associated to sulfides. In addition, it was possible to observe that in the absence of a foaming agent, it was possible to obtain ceramic... [more]

Several optimization models, which consider economic and environmental perspectives, have been developed recently to support the sustainable biomass-to-biofuel supply chain (BBSC) design. All of the economic-environmental optimization models rely on solving long-term planning problems with a conventional hierarchical approach, where tactical decisions are made based on the optimal strategic decisions from the strategic-level model, despite it arousing non-optimal solutions. Moreover, almost all of them have used non-monetary-based environmental indicators, which result in difficulties with clarity when comparing with economic objectives. Therefore, in this work, an effort is made to develop a more reliable planning strategy that offers optimal strategic and tactical decisions simultaneously and maximizes the economic and environmental benefits. Furthermore, the environmental performance of the BBSC has been assessed in terms of monetary value by adopting an ecocost approach after perfo... [more]

This study evaluates the performance of different agricultural by-products to identify the potential effect of independent variables, using as the dependent variable the biogas production. A Box−Behnken experimental design was carried out in a pilot-scale plant of four stirred stainless-steel digesters under mesophilic semi-continuous digestion. The results obtained support the creation of a technical framework to scale up the process and further evaluation of the potential environmental impacts through life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. A stable behaviour was achieved in 12 of the 13 experiments proposed. The highest value of daily biogas production was 2200.15 mL day−1 with a stabilization time of 14 days, an organic loading rate of 4 g VS feed daily, low C/N ratio and a 1:1 relation of nitrogen providers. The concentrations of CH4 remained stable after the production stabilization and an average biogas composition of 60.6% CH4, 40.1% CO2 and 0.3% O2 was obtained for the condit... [more]