Search results for "6. Clean water"
showing 10 items of 418 documents
Novel solutions for closed-loop Reverse Electrodialysis: thermodynamic characterisation and perspective analysis
2019
Abstract Closed-loop Reverse Electrodialysis is a novel technology to directly convert low-grade heat into electricity. It consists of a reverse electrodialysis (RED) unit where electricity is produced exploiting the salinity gradient between two salt-water solutions, coupled with a regeneration unit where waste-heat is used to treat the solutions exiting from the RED unit and restore their initial composition. One of the most important advantages of closed-loop systems compared to the open systems is the possibility to select ad-hoc salt solutions to achieve high efficiencies. Therefore, the properties of the salt solutions are essential to assess the performance of the energy generation a…
''Sex Difference In Open-water Ultra-swim Performance In the Longest Freshwater Lake Swim In Europe''
2013
Eichenberger, Evelyn | Knechtle, Beat | Knechtle, Patrizia | Ruest, Christoph A. | Rosemann, Thomas | Lepers, Romuald | Senn, Oliver; International audience; ''This study examined participation and performance trends in the 26.4-km open-water ultra-swim "Marathon Swim in Lake Zurich," Switzerland. A total of 461 athletes (157 women and 304 men) finished the race between 1987 and 2011. The mean age of the finishers during the studied period was 32.0 +/- 6.5 years for men and 30.9 +/- 7.2 years for women. The mean age of finishers and the age of winners increased significantly across years for both sexes (p 0.05). The swimming time performance remained stable (p > 0.05) for both sexes across …
The contribution of the European Society for Soil Conservation (ESSC) to scientific knowledge, education and sustainability
2019
Soil is an integral component of the global environmental system which supports the quality and diversity of terrestrial life on Earth. Therefore, it is vital to consider the processes and impacts of soil degradation on society, especially on the provision of environmental goods and services, including food security and climate change mitigation and adaptation. Scientific societies devoted to soil science play significant roles in reducing soil degradation and promoting soil conservation by advancing scientific knowledge, education and environmental sustainability. The ESSC was founded on 4 November 1988, with the aims to: 1. Support research on soil degradation, soil protection and soil an…
Reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membranes for highly efficient PFASs removal: overview, challenges and future perspectives
2021
Today, it is extremely urgent to face the increasing shortage of clean and safe water resources, determined by the exponential growth of both world population and its consumerism, climate change and pollution. Water remediation from traditional chemicals and contaminants of emerging concerns (CECs) is supposed to be among the major methods to solve water scarcity issues. Reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) membrane separation technologies have proven to be feasible, sustainable and highly effective methods for the removal of contaminants, comprising the extremely persistent and recalcitrant perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), which failed to be treated through the traditional water …
Cyclam-functionalized silica-modified electrodes for selective determination of Cu(II)
2009
Cyclam derivatives have been grafted via 1, 2 or 4 silylated arms to the surface of mesoporous silica and the resulting materials have been incorporated into carbon paste electrodes and applied to the preconcentration electroanalysis of Cu(II). Sensitive and selective detection of the target analyte was achieved owing to the attractive binding properties of this macrocyclic ligand towards Cu(II) species. Various parameters likely to affect the preconcentration and detection steps have been studied, including pH of the accumulation medium, composition of the detection solution, structure and composition of the adsorbent, accumulation time, or presence of potentially interfering species. In p…
Biologically labile photoproducts from riverine non-labile dissolved organic carbon in the coastal waters
2015
In order to assess the production of biologically labile photoproducts (BLPs) from non-labile riverine dissolved organic carbon (DOC), we collected water samples from ten major rivers, removed labile DOC and mixed the residual non-labile DOC with artificial seawater for microbial and photochemical experiments. Bacteria grew on non-labile DOC with a growth efficiency of 11.5% (mean; range from 3.6 to 15.3%). Simulated solar radiation transformed a part of non-labile DOC into BLPs, which stimulated bacterial respiration and production, but did not change bacterial growth efficiency (BGE) compared to the non-irradiated dark controls. In the irradiated water samples, the amount of BLPs stimulat…
Accelerated Solvent Extraction and Pulsed Electric Fields for Valorization of Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and Sole (Dover sole) By-Products: …
2021
Fishery by-products are rich in biologically active substances and the use of green and efficient extraction methods to recover these high-added-value compounds is of particular importance. In this study, head, skin and viscera of rainbow trout and sole were used as the target matrices and accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) (45–55 °C, 15 min, pH 5.2–6.8, 103.4 bars) and pulsed electric fields (PEF) (1–3 kV/cm, 123–300 kJ/kg, 15–24 h) were applied as extraction technologies. The results showed that ASE and PEF significantly increased the protein extract efficiency of the fish by-products (p < 0.05) by up to 80%. SDS-PAGE results showed that ASE and PEF treatments changed the molecular size…
Autocorrelation Metrics to Estimate Soil Moisture Persistence From Satellite Time Series: Application to Semiarid Regions
2021
Satellite-derived soil moisture (SM) products have become an important information source for the study of land surface processes in hydrology and land monitoring. Characterizing and estimating soil memory and persistence from satellite observations is of paramount relevance, and has deep implications in ecology, water management, and climate modeling. In this work, we address the problem of SM persistence estimation from microwave sensors using several autocorrelation metrics that, unlike traditional approaches, build on accurate estimates of the autocorrelation function from nonuniformly sampled time series. We show how the choice of the autocorrelation estimator can have a dramatic impac…
Disentangling the rhizosphere effect on nitrate reducers and denitrifiers: insight into the role of root exudates.
2008
International audience; To determine to which extent root-derived carbon contributes to the effects of plants on nitrate reducers and denitrifiers, four solutions containing different proportions of sugar, organic acids and amino acids mimicking maize root exudates were added daily to soil microcosms at a concentration of 150 μg C g−1 of soil. Water-amended soils were used as controls. After 1 month, the size and structure of the nitrate reducer and denitrifier communities were analysed using the narG and napA, and the nirK, nirS and nosZ genes as molecular markers respectively. Addition of artificial root exudates (ARE) did not strongly affect the structure or the density of nitrate reduce…
On the modelling of an Acid/Base Flow Battery: An innovative electrical energy storage device based on pH and salinity gradients
2020
Abstract Electrical energy storage can enhance the efficiency in the use of fluctuating renewable sources, e.g. solar and wind energy. The Acid/Base Flow Battery is an innovative and sustainable process to store electrical energy in the form of pH and salinity gradients via electrodialytic reversible techniques. Two electromembrane processes are involved: Bipolar Membrane Electrodialysis during the charge phase and its opposite, Bipolar Membrane Reverse Electrodialysis, during the discharge phase. For the first time, the present work aims at predicting the performance of this energy storage device via the development of a dynamic mathematical model based on a multi-scale approach with distr…