Search results for "environmental engineering"
showing 10 items of 2674 documents
Model compound synthesis for the structure determination of new unknown planar aromatic compounds originating from pulp mill
1991
Abstract Several model compounds have been synthesized for verification of the structures of new unknown planar aromatic compounds (UPACs) observed in high-resolution gas chromatography/low-resolution mass spectrometry analyses of the polychlorodibenzodioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorodibenzofurans (PCDFs) in pulp mill products, effluents, sediments and mussels. The mass spectra of synthetic alkyl polychlorodibenzofurans (C6-PCDFs) were different, but those of alkyl polychlorobibenzyls (C5-PCBBs) were very similar compared to the spectra of UPACs.
The Influence of Stimulation Techniques on the Microbiological Changes and n-Alkane Transitions in the Soil Contaminated of Petroleum-Derived Substan…
2019
Removal of petroleum products from contaminated soil is a long-term process requiring attention and constant monitoring. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of Fyre-Zyme enzyme preparation and/or calcium carbonate on microbiological changes and conversion of n-aliphatic hydrocarbons in soil contaminated of petroleum-derived substances. The material for testing was soil contaminated with petroleum substances. The total concentration of n-alkanes with a C8–C40 chain length was 420.1 mg·kg−1 DM. The pot tests were carried out by introducing stimulators. As a decomposition promoter for n-alkanes in contaminated soil, a 6% water solution of Fyre-Zyme and/or 1% sterile CaCO3 was use…
Special Issue: Water Management Strategies in Irrigated Areas
2016
The 2015 edition of the United Nations World Water Development Report highlighted that ‘water is at the core of sustainable development’. Water has upgraded the quality of human life, and any progress to achieve a more sustainable world will deal with the maintenance and/or the improvement of water management. Water demand has grown at more than twice the population rate in the XX century. By 2025, it is estimated that about 1.8 billion people will live in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions.
The overall classification of residential buildings: Possible role of tourist EU Ecolabel award scheme
2012
Abstract The debate on the environmental performance of buildings and their classification is continuously rising and deeply involves all actors of the sector, from researchers to technicians and from owners to real estate managers. In the field, the EU has created a panel that is currently working on defining the criteria for attributing an Ecolabel award to a building. However, despite the enormous efforts made by administrative and academic institutions, a suitable and widely available scheme for operators to assess the environmental performance of a building is far from being established. To help provide a solution to the problem, the possibility of adopting the EU Ecolabel scheme estab…
QUALITY OF GROUNDWATER AND AQUATIC HUMIC SUBSTANCES FROM MAIN RESERVOIRE OF GROUND WATER No. 333
2015
The conducted research included the estimation of the quality of groundwater from the Main Reservoir of Ground Water No. 333 area in Opole District, Poland. The groundwater in the analyzed region shows high diversity in quality. The main threat for the quality of water in this region is the human household activity. The main pollutants of groundwater are: dissolved phosphorus, nitrate and ammonium. The quality and quantity of dissolved humic substances in groundwater were also investigated. The results showed that the contents of water-extractable organic carbon varied. Presently, the analyzed groundwater is characterized by large differences in dissolved forms of organic carbon. During mig…
Ecotoxicity assessment of natural attenuation effects at a historical dumping site in the western Baltic Sea.
2005
During the late 1950s and early 1960s of the past century, industrial waste material highly enriched in various contaminants (heavy metals, PAHs) was dumped in the inner Mecklenburg Bay, western Baltic Sea. Large-scale shifts in the spatial distribution of heavy metals in surface sediments were mapped by geochemical monitoring in the mid-1980s and 12 years later in 1997. A further study in 2001 was designed to investigate the small-scale spatial distribution of contaminants inside, on top of, and around the historical dumping ground and to examine possible effects to benthic organisms (Arctica islandica, microbiological toxicity tests). The site is located within an area characterized by a …
Effectiveness of Posidonia oceanica biotic indices for assessing the ecological status of coastal waters in the Saronikos Gulf (Aegean Sea, Eastern M…
2017
Biotic indices are considered key assessment tools in most national and European policies aimed at improving the quality of coastal waters. At present, several Water Framework Directive (WFD)-compliant biotic indices based on the marine angiosperm Posidonia oceanica have been developed and applied in the Mediterranean Sea. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of four different P. oceanica indices (POMI, PREI, Valencian CS, and BiPo) in evaluating the ecological status of coastal waters in a case study area of Greece. The evaluation, comparison, and validation of the Ecological Status Class (ESC) assessments obtained by each index were based on a set of eight common sites that en…
A European multicentre evaluation of detection and typing methods for human enteroviruses and parechoviruses using RNA transcripts
2020
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detection has become the gold standard for diagnosis and typing of enterovirus (EV) and human parechovirus (HPeV) infections. Its effectiveness depends critically on using the appropriate sample types and high assay sensitivity as viral loads in cerebrospinal fluid samples from meningitis and sepsis clinical presentation can be extremely low. This study evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of currently used commercial and in‐house diagnostic and typing assays. Accurately quantified RNA transcript controls were distributed to 27 diagnostic and 12 reference laboratories in 17 European countries for blinded testing. Transcripts represented the four human EV…
Performance of a membrane-coupled high-rate algal pond for urban wastewater treatment at demonstration scale
2020
[EN] The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of an outdoor membrane-coupled high-rate algal pond equipped with industrial-scale membranes for treating urban wastewater. Decoupling biomass retention time (BRT) and hydraulic retention time (HRT) by membrane filtration resulted in improved process efficiencies, with higher biomass productivities and nutrient removal rates when operating at low HRTs. At 6 days of BRT, biomass productivity increased from 30 to 66 and to 95 g.m(-3).d(-1) when operating at HRTs of 6, 4 and 2.5 days, respectively. The corresponding nitrogen removal rates were 4, 8 and 11 g N.m(-3).d(-1) and the phosphorous removal rates were 0.5, 1.3 and 1.6 g P…
Occurrence of acidic pharmaceuticals and personal care products in Turia River Basin: From waste to drinking water
2014
The occurrence of 21 acidic pharmaceuticals, including illicit drugs, and personal care products (PPCPs) in waste, surface and drinking water and in sediments of the Turia River Basin (Valencia, Spain) was studied. A liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed for the determination of these PPCPs with electrospray (ESI) in negative ionization (NI) mode. Ammonium fluoride in the mobile phase improved ionization efficiency by an average increase in peak area of 5 compared to ammonium formate or formic acid. All studied compounds were detected and their concentration was waste water>surface water>drinking water. PPCPs were in waste water treatment plants (WWT…