Search results for "WATER"

Accounting More Precisely for Peat and Other Soil Carbon Resources

2012

In the context of “recarbonization”, it is important to know where the soil C stocks are located and how much of these are prone to emission to the atmosphere. While it may appear to be a trivial question considering available global estimates and maps, yet there is a strong need to emphasize that erroneous estimates are made in assessing the global soil C stocks. Without doubt, peatlands hold the single most important soil C stock at the global scale, and these soils are mostly located in the northern latitudes between 50°N and 70°N. However, there are additional wetlands or other ecosystems which also hold potentially relevant amounts of soil C stocks. From the soil science perspective, i…

The impact of urban development on aquifers in large coastal cities of West Africa: Present status and future challenges

2018

Abstract This paper investigates the coastal cities of Abidjan, Cotonou, Lagos and Douala in West Africa. Published data on these areas were aggregated in order to compare the urban development of some African huge cities and assess their impacts on groundwater. Those urban centers have experienced an exponential demographic expansion since the 1950s, with increased population densities and a geographical coverage expansion as well. The Continental Terminal aquifer, major groundwater resource taped in this region by the national water companies and local populations, shows a continuous downward trend in piezometric levels. Concerning water quality, the evolution up to the current state (sal…

Compact Cell Imaging Device (CoCID) provides insights into the cellular origins of viral infections

2021

The overall CoCID concept is centred on providing virologists with a next-generation imaging device, which, through increased penetration and depth of focus, as well as through high natural contrast and sensitivity to organelle density (including virus-related organelles), will produce higher-fidelity ultrastructural images of whole intact cells. These insights will, in turn, help increase our understanding of the links between the structural reorganisation of cells and the mechanisms of viral entry, replication, assembly, and egress in cells. CoCID will provide this valuable imaging capability in the form of a compact lab-scale device that will greatly improve the accessibility of soft X-r…

Plant-wide modelling in wastewater treatment: showcasing experiences using the Biological Nutrient Removal Model

2020

Abstract Plant-wide modelling can be considered an appropriate approach to represent the current complexity in water resource recovery facilities, reproducing all known phenomena in the different process units. Nonetheless, novel processes and new treatment schemes are still being developed and need to be fully incorporated in these models. This work presents a short chronological overview of some of the most relevant plant-wide models for wastewater treatment, as well as the authors' experience in plant-wide modelling using the general model BNRM (Biological Nutrient Removal Model), illustrating the key role of general models (also known as supermodels) in the field of wastewater treatment…

High Biological Value Compounds Extraction from Citrus Waste with Non-Conventional Methods.

2020

Citrus fruits are extensively grown and much consumed around the world. Eighteen percent of total citrus cultivars are destined for industrial processes, and as a consequence, large amounts of waste are generated. Citrus waste is a potential source of high biological value compounds, which can be used in the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries but whose final disposal may pose a problem due to economic and environmental factors. At the same time, the emerging need to reduce the environmental impact of citrus waste and its responsible management has increased. For these reasons, the study of the use of non-conventional methods to extract high biological value compounds such as caro…

Reply to: "Hepatic benefits of HCV cure: Don't forget coagulation!"

2020

Analytical solution of kinematic wave time of concentration for overland flow under green-ampt infiltration

2015

In this paper the well-known kinematic wave equation for computing the time of concentration for impervious surfaces has been extended to the case of pervious hillslopes, accounting for infiltration. An analytical solution for the time of concentration for overland flow on a rectangular plane surface is derived using the kinematic wave equation under the Green-Ampt infiltration. The relative time of concentration is defined as the ratio between the time of concentration of an infiltrating plane and the soil sorptivity time scale, depending on the normalized rainfall intensity and a parameter synthesizing the soil and hillslope characteristics. It is shown that for a more complex case (corre…

A comprehensive assessment of energy efficiency of wastewater treatment plants: An efficiency analysis tree approach

2023

Producción Científica

Green Composites Based on PLA and Agricultural or Marine Waste Prepared by FDM

2021

Three dimensional-printability of green composites is recently growing in importance and interest, especially in the view of feasibility to valorize agricultural and marine waste to attain green fillers capable of reducing bioplastic costs, without compromising their processability and performance from an environmental and mechanical standpoint. In this work, two lignocellulosic fillers, obtained from Opuntia ficus indica and Posidonia oceanica, were added to PLA and processed by FDM. Among the 3D printed biocomposites investigated, slight differences could be found in terms of PLA molecular weight and filler aspect ratio. It was shown that it is possible to replace up to 20% of bioplastic …

Determination of mercury at picogram level in natural waters with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry by using 3D printed metal scavengers

2019

The determination of ultra-trace concentrations of Hg in natural water samples via preconcentration using 3D printed metal scavenger technique followed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was developed. The determination of Hg in certified reference material ERM-CA615 (groundwater) was performed with high accuracy and precision resulting in recovery of 100 ± 3% and RSD <2.5%, respectively. Selective laser sintering (SLS) 3D printing was used to fabricate the scavengers using a mixture of polyamide-12 powder with thiol-functionalized silica. The preconcentration procedure is based on the adsorption of Hg on the scavenger and followed by elution of the preconcentrated Hg …