Search results for "WASTE"

System dynamics models for decision making in product multiple lifecycles

2015

The main drivers for adopting product multiple lifecycles are to gain ecological and economic advantages. However, in most of the cases it is not straight forward to estimate the potential ecological and economic gain that may result from adopting product multiple lifecycles. Even though many researchers have concluded that product multiple lifecycles result in gain, there are examples which indicate that the gain is often marginal or even none in many cases. The purpose of this research is to develop system dynamics models that can assist decision makers in assessing and analysing the potential gain of product multiple lifecycles considering the dynamics of material scarcity. The foundatio…

Building future nuclear power fleets: The available uranium resources constraint

2013

Abstract According to almost all forward-looking studies, the world′s energy consumption will increase in the future decades, mostly because of the growing world population and the long-term development of emerging countries. The effort to contain global warming makes it hard to exclude nuclear energy from the global energy mix. The availability of natural uranium resources is a major constraint in terms of meeting this demand. In line with the scenarios floated by various international organisations and taking into consideration only current uranium-consuming light water reactors technologies with slow neutrons, 4 to 7 Mt of uranium could be consumed by 2050, namely, all identified or know…

Estimating performance and savings of water leakages and unplanned water supply interruptions in drinking water providers

2022

Producción Científica

Editorial: Special Issue on Economics of Wastewater Treatment and Reuse

2018

Environmentally driven changes in Baltic salmon oxidative status during marine migration.

2020

The fitness and recruitment of fish stocks can be markedly affected by environmental disturbances including global warming, eutrophication and contamination. Understanding the effects of environmental stressors on salmon physiology during marine residence is of a global concern as marine survival has decreased. We present a unique combination of physiological responses - antioxidant defence and oxidative damage biomarkers, stable isotopes and contaminant exposure biomarkers - measured from adult Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) collected at the Baltic Sea and studied in relation to environmental variables and fitness estimates. The results demonstrate that feeding populations of salmon display…

Uptake prediction of nine heavy metals by Eichhornia crassipes grown in irrigation canals: A biomonitoring approach

2021

The principal objective of this study is to generate mathematical regression equations that facilitate the estimation of the extent to which Eichhornia crassipes (C. Mart.) Solms, water hyacinth, absorbs heavy metals (HMs) into four plant organs (laminae, petioles, roots, and stolons). This study considers the absorption of nine HMs (Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn), and the E. crassipes evaluated in this study were located in three irrigation canals in the North Nile Delta in Egypt, with sampling being conducted in both monospecific and homogenous E. crassipes. Samples of both E. crassipes and water were collected on a monthly basis during one growing season. Analysis of the water s…

Acute toxicity tests using earthworms to estimate ecological quality of compost and digestate

2017

Ecological quality of compost and digestate, used as fertilizers for agricultural use, was assessed through an acute ecotoxicological bioassay testing the earthworm Eisenia fetida (Annelida). The test evaluates the earthworm’s attitude to dig within 15 min into a soil medium constituted by a mixture of a standardized soil and different concentrations of compost/digestate. According to different classes of behavior responses, the sample is classified as good or bad quality (ON/OFF). The validity of this test was confirmed comparing the observations with the results from a standard chronic test developed by OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). Considering samples fro…

Photocatalytic ozonation under visible light for the remediation of water effluents and its integration with an electro-membrane bioreactor

2018

Abstract Photocatalysis and photocatalytic ozonation under visible light have been applied for the purification of a complex aqueous matrix such as the grey water of Masdar City (UAE), by using N-doped brookite-rutile catalysts. Preliminary runs on 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) solutions allowed to test the reaction system in the presence of a model pollutant and to afford the relevant kinetic parameters of the process. Subsequently, the remediation of grey water effluent has been evaluated in terms of the reduction of total organic carbon (TOC) and bacterial counts. The concentration of the most abundant inorganic ionic species in the effluent has been also monitored during reaction. Photocatalytic…

Energy generation and abatement of Acid Orange 7 in reverse electrodialysis cells using salinity gradients

2015

Abstract The simultaneous generation of electric energy and the treatment of wastewaters contaminated by an organic pollutant resistant to conventional biological processes, Acid Orange 7 (AO7), was achieved for the first time using proper redox processes by reverse electrodialysis using salinity gradients. The stack was fed with two aqueous solutions with different concentrations of NaCl and a synthetic wastewater contaminated by AO7. Various electrochemical approaches including electro-Fenton, electrogeneration of active chlorine (IOAC) and coupled process were performed in a stack equipped with 40–60 cell pairs and studied by focused electrolyses. The effect of the number of cell pairs a…

Electrochemical abatement of chloroethanes in water: Reduction, oxidation and combined processes

2010

An electrochemical route, based on the anodic oxidation to carbon dioxide coupled with the cathodic reduction to de-halogenated hydrocarbons, was proposed for the treatment of waters contaminated by chloroethanes. The electrochemical abatement of two model compounds, namely 1,2-dichloroethane and 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane, was carried out by cathodic reduction at silver, anodic oxidation at boron doped diamond (BDD) and combined processes. The anodic oxidation gives rise to a high abatement of the concentration of both these compounds and of COD. The reduction of 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane proceeds also with high abatement but with the formation of some halogenated intermediates and final pr…