Physico-chemical characterisation of material fractions in residual and source-segregated household waste in Denmark.

PubMed

Götze, R; Pivnenko, K; Boldrin, A; Scheutz, C; Astrup, T Fruergaard

2016-08-01

Physico-chemical waste composition data are paramount for the assessment and planning of waste management systems. However, the applicability of data is limited by the regional, temporal and technical scope of waste characterisation studies. As Danish and European legislation aims for higher recycling rates evaluation of source-segregation and recycling chains gain importance. This paper provides a consistent up-to-date dataset for 74 physico-chemical parameters in 49 material fractions from residual and 24 material fractions from source-segregated Danish household waste. Significant differences in the physico-chemical properties of residual and source-segregated waste fractions were found for many parameters related to organic matter, but also for elements of environmental concern. Considerable differences in potentially toxic metal concentrations between the individual recyclable fractions within one material type were observed. This indicates that careful planning and performance evaluation of recycling schemes are important to ensure a high quality of collected recyclables. Rare earth elements (REE) were quantified in all waste fractions analysed, with the highest concentrations of REE found in fractions with high content of mineral raw materials, soil materials and dust. The observed REE concentrations represent the background concentration level in non-hazardous waste materials that may serve as a reference point for future investigations related to hazardous waste management. The detailed dataset provided here can be used for assessments of waste management solutions in Denmark and for the evaluation of the quality of recyclable materials in waste. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fractions and biodegradability of dissolved organic matter derived from different composts.

PubMed

Wei, Zimin; Zhang, Xu; Wei, Yuquan; Wen, Xin; Shi, Jianhong; Wu, Junqiu; Zhao, Yue; Xi, Beidou

2014-06-01

An experiment was conducted to determine the fractions of molecular weights (MW) and the biodegradability of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in mature composts derived from dairy cattle manure (DCM), kitchen waste (KW), cabbage waste (CW), tomato stem waste (TSW), municipal solid waste (MSW), green waste (GW), chicken manure (CM), sludge (S), and mushroom culture waste (MCW). There were distinct differences in the concentration and MW fractions of DOM, and the two measures were correlated. Fraction MW>5kDa was the major component of DOM in all mature composts. Determined 5day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) of DOM was correlated to the concentration of DOM and all MW fractions except MW>5kDa, indicating that the biodegradability of DOM was a function of the content and proportion of fraction MW<5kDa. This study suggests that the amount and distribution of low MW fractions affect DOM biodegradability. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Determination of bioactivity of chemical fractions of liquid wastes using freshwater and saltwater algae and crustaceans

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Walsh, G.E.; Garnas, R.L.

1983-03-01

Complex wastes from industrial and municipal outfalls were fractionated chemically and tested for toxicity with freshwater and saltwater algae and crustaceans. The organic fraction of each waste was subfractionated into acid-, base-, and neutral-extractable portions, and the inorganic fraction was subfractionated into its anion and cation components. All wastes affected growth of the algae Skeletonema costatum (saltwater) and Monoraphidium capricornutum (freshwater) or survival of Mysidopsis bahia (saltwater) and Daphnia magna (freshwater). Usually, bioactivity was limited to one or two subfractions. In some cases, algal growth was stimulated by a fraction or subfraction, whereas stimulation was not detected in whole waste.more » It is suggested that fractionation must be done in order to estimate the full potential impact of complex wastes on aquatic systems. The method can also be used to identify toxic factors before application of cost-effective control technology.« less

Determination of reaction rates and activation energy in aerobic composting processes for yard waste.

PubMed

Uma, R N; Manjula, G; Meenambal, T

2007-04-01

The reaction rates and activation energy in aerobic composting processes for yard waste were determined using specifically designed reactors. Different mixture ratios were fixed before the commencement of the process. The C/N ratio was found to be optimum for a mixture ratio of 1:6 containing one part of coir pith to six parts of other waste which included yard waste, yeast sludge, poultry yard waste and decomposing culture (Pleurotosis). The path of stabilization of the wastes was continuously monitored by observing various parameters such as temperature, pH, Electrical Conductivity, C.O.D, VS at regular time intervals. Kinetic analysis was done to determine the reaction rates and activation energy for the optimum mixture ratio under forced aeration condition. The results of the analysis clearly indicated that the temperature dependence of the reaction rates followed the Arrhenius equation. The temperature coefficients were also determined. The degradation of the organic fraction of the yard waste could be predicted using first order reaction model.

Effects of Moisture Content in Solid Waste Landfills

DTIC Science & Technology

2000-03-01

C02 + CH4 + NH3 + H2S + Heat The biological conversion of the organic fraction of the solid waste during anaerobic transformation is thought to occur...of placement (Blight, 1995: 11). In dry climates, the field capacity of the waste may never be naturally reached. Conversely , in a wet climate, the...detected in the cellulase activity (Barlaz and others, 1990: 570). Protease, amylase, and cellulase are the enzymes that degrade proteins, starches, and

Extracellular polymers of ozonized waste activated sludge.

PubMed

Liu, J C; Lee, C H; Lai, J Y; Wang, K C; Hsu, Y C; Chang, B V

2001-01-01

Effect of ozonation on characteristics of waste activated sludge was investigated in the current study. Concentrations of cell-bound extracellular polymers (washed ECPs) did not change much upon ozonation, whereas the sum of cell-bound and soluble extracellular polymers (unwashed ECPs) increased with increasing ozone dose. Washed ECPs in original sludge as divided by molecular weight distribution was 39% < 1,000 Da (low MW), 30% from 1,000 to 10,000 Da (medium MW), and 31% > 10,000 Da (high MW). It was observed that the low-MW fraction decreased, and the high-MW fraction increased in ozonized sludge. The unwashed ECPs were characterized as 44% in low MW, 30% in medium MW, and 26% in high MW. Both low-MW and medium-MW fractions of unwashed ECPs decreased while high-MW fraction increased in ozonized sludge. The dewaterability of ozonized sludge, assessed by capillary suction time (CST) and specific resistance to filtration (SRF), deteriorated with ozone dose. The optimal dose of cationic polyelectrolyte increased with increasing ozone dose. The production rate and the accumulated amount of methane gas of ozonized sludge were also higher.

Biologically important compounds in synfuels processes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Clark, B R; Ho, C; Griest, W H

1980-01-01

Crude products, by-products and wastes from synfuel processes contain a broad spectrum of chemical compounds - many of which are active in biological systems. Discerning which compound classes are most important is necessary in order to establish effective control over release or exposure. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), multialkylated PAH, primary aromatic amines and N-heterocyclic PAH are significant contributors to the overall mutagenic activities of a large number of materials examined. Ames test data show that the basic, primary aromatic amine fraction is the most active. PAHs, multialkylated PAHs and N-heterocyclic PAHs are all components of the neutral fraction. In nearlymore » all cases, the neutral fractions contribute the largest portion of the mutagenic activity, while the basic primary aromatic amine fractions have the highest specific activity. Neutral fractions are usually the largest (wt %) whereas the total basic fractions are small by comparison; thus, the overall greater contribution of the neutral fraction to the mutagenic activity of most samples. Biologically active constituents are isolated in preparative scale amounts from complex mixtures utilizing combinations of liquid-liquid extraction and various liquid chromatographic column-eluant combinations. Fractions are characterized using a combination of spectroscopic techniques and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry.« less

Packaging waste prevention activities: A life cycle assessment of the effects on a regional waste management system.

PubMed

Nessi, Simone; Rigamonti, Lucia; Grosso, Mario

2015-09-01

A life cycle assessment was carried out to evaluate the effects of two packaging waste prevention activities on the overall environmental performance of the integrated municipal waste management system of Lombardia region, Italy. The activities are the use of refined tap water instead of bottled water for household consumption and the substitution of liquid detergents packaged in single-use containers by those distributed 'loose' through self-dispensing systems and refillable containers. A 2020 baseline scenario without waste prevention is compared with different waste prevention scenarios, where the two activities are either separately or contemporaneously implemented, by assuming a complete substitution of the traditional product(s). The results show that, when the prevention activities are carried out effectively, a reduction in total waste generation ranging from 0.14% to 0.66% is achieved, corresponding to a 1-4% reduction of the affected packaging waste fractions (plastics and glass). However, the improvements in the overall environmental performance of the waste management system can be far higher, especially when bottled water is substituted. In this case, a nearly 0.5% reduction of the total waste involves improvements ranging mostly between 5 and 23%. Conversely, for the substitution of single-use packaged liquid detergents (0.14% reduction of the total waste), the achieved improvements do not exceed 3% for nearly all impact categories. © The Author(s) 2015.

Investigating organic molecules responsible of auxin-like activity of humic acid fraction extracted from vermicompost.

PubMed

Scaglia, Barbara; Nunes, Ramom Rachide; Rezende, Maria Olímpia Oliveira; Tambone, Fulvia; Adani, Fabrizio

2016-08-15

This work studied the auxin-like activity of humic acids (HA) obtained from vermicomposts produced using leather wastes plus cattle dung at different maturation stages (fresh, stable and mature). Bioassays were performed by testing HA concentrations in the range of 100-6000mgcarbonL(-1). (13)C CPMAS-NMR and GC-MS instrumental methods were used to assess the effect of biological processes and starting organic mixtures on HA composition. Not all HAs showed IAA-like activity and in general, IAA-like activity increased with the length of the vermicomposting process. The presence of leather wastes was not necessary to produce the auxin-like activity of HA, since HA extracted from a mix of cattle manure and sawdust, where no leather waste was added, showed IAA-like activity as well. CPMAS (13)CNMR revealed that HAs were similar independently of the mix used and that the humification process involved the increasing concentration of pre-existing alkali soluble fractions in the biomass. GC/MS allowed the identification of the molecules involved in IAA-like effects: carboxylic acids and amino acids. The concentration of active molecules, rather than their simple presence in HA, determined the bio-stimulating effect, and a good linear regression between auxin-like activity and active stimulating molecules concentration was found (R(2)=-0.85; p<0.01, n=6). Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Hydrolytic activities of extracellular enzymes in thermophilic and mesophilic anaerobic sequencing-batch reactors treating organic fractions of municipal solid wastes.

PubMed

Kim, Hyun-Woo; Nam, Joo-Youn; Kang, Seok-Tae; Kim, Dong-Hoon; Jung, Kyung-Won; Shin, Hang-Sik

2012-04-01

Extracellular enzymes offer active catalysis for hydrolysis of organic solid wastes in anaerobic digestion. To evidence the quantitative significance of hydrolytic enzyme activities for major waste components, track studies of thermophilic and mesophilic anaerobic sequencing-batch reactors (TASBR and MASBR) were conducted using a co-substrate of real organic wastes. During 1day batch cycle, TASBR showed higher amylase activity for carbohydrate (46%), protease activity for proteins (270%), and lipase activity for lipids (19%) than MASBR. In particular, the track study of protease identified that thermophilic anaerobes degraded protein polymers much more rapidly. Results revealed that differences in enzyme activities eventually affected acidogenic and methanogenic performances. It was demonstrated that the superior nature of enzymatic capability at thermophilic condition led to successive high-rate acidogenesis and 32% higher CH(4) recovery. Consequently, these results evidence that the coupling thermophilic digestion with sequencing-batch operation is a viable option to promote enzymatic hydrolysis of organic particulates. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Use of solid phosphorus fractionation data to evaluate phosphorus release from waste activated sludge.

PubMed

Pokhrel, S P; Milke, M W; Bello-Mendoza, R; Buitrón, G; Thiele, J

2018-06-01

Waste activated sludge (WAS) can become an important source of phosphorus (P). P speciation was examined under anaerobic conditions, with different pH (4, 6 and 8) and temperatures (10, 20 and 35 °C). Aqueous P was measured and an extraction protocol was used to find three solid phosphorus fractions. A pH of 4 and a temperature of 35 °C gave a maximum of 51% of total P solubilized in 22 days with 50% of total P solubilized in 7 days. Batch tests indicate that little pH depression is needed to release non-apatite inorganic P (including microbial polyphosphate), while a pH of 4 rather than 6 will release more apatite inorganic P, and that organic P is relatively more difficult to release from WAS. Fractionation analysis of P in WAS can aid in design of more efficient methods for P recovery from WAS. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Biogas production from the mechanically pretreated, liquid fraction of sorted organic municipal solid wastes.

PubMed

Alvarado-Lassman, A; Méndez-Contreras, J M; Martínez-Sibaja, A; Rosas-Mendoza, E S; Vallejo-Cantú, N A

2017-06-01

The high liquid content in fruit and vegetable wastes makes it convenient to mechanically separate these wastes into mostly liquid and solid fractions by means of pretreatment. Then, the liquid fraction can be treated using a high-rate anaerobic biofilm reactor to produce biogas, simultaneously reducing the amount of solids that must be landfilled. In this work, the specific composition of municipal solid waste (MSW) in a public market was determined; then, the sorted organic fraction of municipal solid waste was treated mechanically to separate and characterize the mostly liquid and solid fractions. Then, the mesophilic anaerobic digestion for biogas production of the first fraction was evaluated. The anaerobic digestion resulted in a reduced hydraulic retention time of two days with high removal of chemical oxygen demand, that is, 88% on average, with the additional benefit of reducing the mass of the solids that had to be landfilled by about 80%.

The influence of spent household batteries to the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes during composting.

PubMed

Komilis, Dimitrios; Bandi, Dimitra; Kakaronis, Georgios; Zouppouris, Georgios

2011-06-01

The objective of this work was to investigate the potential transfer of 9 heavy metals from spent household batteries (zinc-carbon and alkaline-manganese batteries) to the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes during active composting. Six runs were performed including one control and 2 replications. Eleven types of alkaline and non-alkaline batteries were added at 3 different levels to the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes, namely at percentages equal to 0.98% w/w (low), 5.2% w/w (medium) and 10.6% w/w (high). Experiments were performed in 230 l insulated plastic aerobic bioreactors under a dynamic air flow regime for up to 60 days. Iron, copper and nickel masses contained in the organic fraction of the wastes were found significantly higher in the high level runs compared to the corresponding masses in the control. No metal transfer was obtained in the low and medium level runs. Metal mass balance closures ranged from 51% to 176%. Metals' concentrations in the leachates were below 10 mg l⁻¹ for most metals, except iron, while an increasing concentration trend versus time was measured in the leachates of the high level runs. In all cases, the contents of 5 regulated heavy metals in all end products were below the Hellenic limits. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of the potential of different high calorific waste fractions for the preparation of solid recovered fuels.

PubMed

Garcés, Diego; Díaz, Eva; Sastre, Herminio; Ordóñez, Salvador; González-LaFuente, José Manuel

2016-01-01

Solid recovered fuels constitute a valuable alternative for the management of those non-hazardous waste fractions that cannot be recycled. The main purpose of this research is to assess the suitability of three different wastes from the landfill of the local waste management company (COGERSA), to be used as solid recovered fuels in a cement kiln near their facilities. The wastes analyzed were: End of life vehicles waste, packaging and bulky wastes. The study was carried out in two different periods of the year: November 2013 and April 2014. In order to characterize and classify these wastes as solid recovered fuels, they were separated into homogeneous fractions in order to determine different element components, such as plastics, cellulosic materials, packagings or textile compounds, and the elemental analysis (including chlorine content), heavy metal content and the heating value of each fraction were determined. The lower heating value of the waste fractions on wet basis varies between 10 MJ kg(-1) and 42 MJ kg(-1). One of the packaging wastes presents a very high chlorine content (6.3 wt.%) due to the presence of polyvinylchloride from pipe fragments, being the other wastes below the established limits. Most of the wastes analyzed meet the heavy metals restrictions, except the fine fraction of the end of life vehicles waste. In addition, none of the wastes exceed the mercury limit content, which is one of the parameters considered for the solid recovered fuels classification. A comparison among the experimental higher heating values and empirical models that predict the heating value from the elemental analysis data was carried out. Finally, from the three wastes measured, the fine fraction of the end of life vehicles waste was discarded for its use as solid recovered fuels due to the lower heating value and its high heavy metals content. From the point of view of the heating value, the end of life vehicles waste was the most suitable residue with a lower heating value of 35.89 MJ kg(-1), followed by the packaging waste and the bulky waste, respectively. When mixing the wastes studied a global waste was obtained, whose classification as solid recovered fuels was NCV 1 Cl 3 Hg 3. From the empirical models used for calculating higher heating value from elemental content, Scheurer-Kestner was the model that best fit the experimental data corresponding to the wastes collected in November 2013, whereas Chang equation was the most approximate to the experimental heating values for April 2014 fractions. This difference is due to higher chlorine content of the second batch of wastes, since Chang equation is the only one that incorporates the chlorine content. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bulky waste quantities and treatment methods in Denmark.

PubMed

Larsen, Anna W; Petersen, Claus; Christensen, Thomas H

2012-02-01

Bulky waste is a significant and increasing waste stream in Denmark. However, only little research has been done on its composition and treatment. In the present study, data about collection methods, waste quantities and treatment methods for bulky waste were obtained from two municipalities. In addition a sorting analysis was conducted on combustible waste, which is a major fraction of bulky waste in Denmark. The generation of bulky waste was found to be 150-250 kg capita(-1) year(-1), and 90% of the waste was collected at recycling centres; the rest through kerbside collection. Twelve main fractions were identified of which ten were recyclable and constituted 50-60% of the total quantity. The others were combustible waste for incineration (30-40%) and non-combustible waste for landfilling (10%). The largest fractions by mass were combustible waste, bricks and tile, concrete, non-combustible waste, wood, and metal scrap, which together made up more than 90% of the total waste amounts. The amount of combustible waste could be significantly reduced through better sorting. Many of the waste fractions consisted of composite products that underwent thorough separation before being recycled. The recyclable materials were in many cases exported to other countries which made it difficult to track their destination and further treatment.

Fractionation and Purification of Bioactive Compounds Obtained from a Brewery Waste Stream

PubMed Central

Barbosa-Pereira, Letricia; Pocheville, Ainara; Angulo, Inmaculada; Paseiro-Losada, Perfecto; Cruz, Jose M.

2013-01-01

The brewery industry generates waste that could be used to yield a natural extract containing bioactive phenolic compounds. We compared two methods of purifying the crude extract—solid-phase extraction (SPE) and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE)—with the aim of improving the quality of the final extract for potential use as safe food additive, functional food ingredient, or nutraceutical. The predominant fractions yielded by SPE were the most active, and the fraction eluted with 30% (v/v) of methanol displayed the highest antioxidant activity (0.20 g L−1), similar to that of BHA. The most active fraction yielded by SFE (EC50 of 0.23 g L−1) was obtained under the following conditions: temperature 40°C, pressure 140 bar, extraction time 30 minutes, ethanol (6%) as a modifier, and modifier flow 0.2 mL min−1. Finally, we found that SFE is the most suitable procedure for purifying the crude extracts and improves the organoleptic characteristics of the product: the final extract was odourless, did not contain solvent residues, and was not strongly coloured. Therefore, natural extracts obtained from the residual stream and purified by SFE can be used as natural antioxidants with potential applications in the food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. PMID:23762844

Phytochemical analysis, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity of calyces from Physalis peruviana.

PubMed

Toro, Reina M; Aragón, Diana M; Ospina, Luis F; Ramos, Freddy A; Castellanos, Leonardo

2014-11-01

Physalis peruviana calyces are used extensively in folk medicine. The crude ethanolic extract and some fractions of calyces were evaluated in order to explore antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. The anti-inflammatory activity was evaluated by the TPA-induced ear edema model. The antioxidant in vitro activity was measured by means of the superoxide and nitric oxide scavenging activity of the extracts and fractions. The butanolic fraction was found to be promising due to its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities. Therefore, a bio-assay guided approach was employed to isolate and identify rutin (1) and nicotoflorin (2) from their NMR spectroscopic and MS data. The identification of rutin in calyces of P. peruviana supports the possible use of this waste material for phytotherapeutic, nutraceutical and cosmetic preparations.

Evaluating the biogas potential of the dry fraction from pretreatment of food waste from households

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Murto, Marika, E-mail: marika.murto@biotek.lu.se; Björnsson, Lovisa, E-mail: lovisa.bjornsson@miljo.lth.se; Environmental and Energy Systems Studies, Lund University, P.O. Box 118, SE-221 00 Lund

2013-05-15

Highlights: ► A novel approach for biogas production from a waste fraction that today is incinerated. ► Biogas production is possible in spite of the impurities of the waste. ► Tracer studies are applied in a novel way. ► Structural material is needed to improve the flow pattern of the waste. ► We provide a solution to biological treatment for the complex waste fraction. - Abstract: At the waste handling company NSR, Helsingborg, Sweden, the food waste fraction of source separated municipal solid waste is pretreated to obtain a liquid fraction, which is used for biogas production, and a drymore » fraction, which is at present incinerated. This pretreatment and separation is performed to remove impurities, however also some of the organic material is removed. The possibility of realising the methane potential of the dry fraction through batch-wise dry anaerobic digestion was investigated. The anaerobic digestion technique used was a two-stage process consisting of a static leach bed reactor and a methane reactor. Treatment of the dry fraction alone and in a mixture with structural material was tested to investigate the effect on the porosity of the leach bed. A tracer experiment was carried out to investigate the liquid flow through the leach beds, and this method proved useful in demonstrating a more homogenous flow through the leach bed when structural material was added. Addition of structural material to the dry fraction was needed to achieve a functional digestion process. A methane yield of 98 m{sup 3}/ton was obtained from the dry fraction mixed with structural material after 76 days of digestion. This was in the same range as obtained in the laboratory scale biochemical methane potential test, showing that it was possible to extract the organic content in the dry fraction in this type of dry digestion system for the production of methane.« less

Statistical analysis of solid waste composition data: Arithmetic mean, standard deviation and correlation coefficients.

PubMed

Edjabou, Maklawe Essonanawe; Martín-Fernández, Josep Antoni; Scheutz, Charlotte; Astrup, Thomas Fruergaard

2017-11-01

Data for fractional solid waste composition provide relative magnitudes of individual waste fractions, the percentages of which always sum to 100, thereby connecting them intrinsically. Due to this sum constraint, waste composition data represent closed data, and their interpretation and analysis require statistical methods, other than classical statistics that are suitable only for non-constrained data such as absolute values. However, the closed characteristics of waste composition data are often ignored when analysed. The results of this study showed, for example, that unavoidable animal-derived food waste amounted to 2.21±3.12% with a confidence interval of (-4.03; 8.45), which highlights the problem of the biased negative proportions. A Pearson's correlation test, applied to waste fraction generation (kg mass), indicated a positive correlation between avoidable vegetable food waste and plastic packaging. However, correlation tests applied to waste fraction compositions (percentage values) showed a negative association in this regard, thus demonstrating that statistical analyses applied to compositional waste fraction data, without addressing the closed characteristics of these data, have the potential to generate spurious or misleading results. Therefore, ¨compositional data should be transformed adequately prior to any statistical analysis, such as computing mean, standard deviation and correlation coefficients. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Experimental evaluation of coal conversion solid waste residuals. Progress report, August 1-October 31, 1979

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Neufeld, R. D.; Bern, J.; Erdogan, H.

1979-11-15

Activities are underway to investigate basic phenomena that would assist demonstration and commercial sized coal conversion facilities in the environmentally acceptable disposal of process solid waste residuals. The approach taken is to consider only those residuals coming from the conversion technology itself, i.e. from gasification, liquefaction, and hot-clean-up steps as well as residuals from the wastewater treatment train. Residuals from the coal mining and coal grinding steps will not be considered in detail since those materials are being handled in some manner in the private sector. Laboratory evalations have been conducted on solid waste samples of fly ash from anmore » existing Capman gasifier. ASTM-A and EPA-EP leaching procedures have been completed on sieved size fractions of the above wastes. Data indicate that smaller size fractions pose greater contamination potential than do larger size particles with a transition zone occurring at particle sizes of about 0.05 inches in diameter. Ames testing of such residuals is reported. Similar studies are under way with samples of H-Coal solid waste residuals.« less

Melter feed viscosity during conversion to glass: Comparison between low-activity waste and high-level waste feeds

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jin, Tongan; Chun, Jaehun; Dixon, Derek R.

During nuclear waste vitrification, a melter feed (generally a slurry-like mixture of a nuclear waste and various glass forming and modifying additives) is charged into the melter where undissolved refractory constituents are suspended together with evolved gas bubbles from complex reactions. Knowledge of flow properties of various reacting melter feeds is necessary to understand their unique feed-to-glass conversion processes occurring within a floating layer of melter feed called a cold cap. The viscosity of two low-activity waste (LAW) melter feeds were studied during heating and correlated with volume fractions of undissolved solid phase and gas phase. In contrast to themore » high-level waste (HLW) melter feed, the effects of undissolved solid and gas phases play comparable roles and are required to represent the viscosity of LAW melter feeds. This study can help bring physical insights to feed viscosity of reacting melter feeds with different compositions and foaming behavior in nuclear waste vitrification.« less

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hadi, Pejman; Ning, Chao; Ouyang, Weiyi

Highlights: • Environmental impacts of electronic waste and specifically waste printed circuit boards. • Review of the recycling techniques of waste printed circuit boards. • Advantages of physico-mechanical recycling techniques over chemical methods. • Utilization of nonmetallic fraction of waste printed circuit boards as modifier/filler. • Recent advances in the use of nonmetallic fraction of waste printed circuit boards as precursor. - Abstract: Electronic waste, including printed circuit boards, is growing at an alarming rate due to the accelerated technological progress and the shorter lifespan of the electronic equipment. In the past decades, due to the lack of proper economicmore » and environmentally-benign recycling technologies, a major fraction of e-waste generated was either destined to landfills or incinerated with the sole intention of its disposal disregarding the toxic nature of this waste. Recently, with the increasing public awareness over their environment and health issues and with the enaction of more stringent regulations, environmentally-benign recycling has been driven to be an alternative option partially replacing the traditional eco-unfriendly disposal methods. One of the most favorable green technologies has been the mechanical separation of the metallic and nonmetallic fraction of the waste printed circuit boards. Although metallic fraction, as the most profitable component, is used to generate the revenue of the separation process, the nonmetallic fraction (NMF) has been left isolated. Herein, the recent developments in the application of NMF have been comprehensively reviewed and an eco-friendly emerging usage of NMF as a value-added material for sustainable remediation has been introduced.« less

Waste printed circuit board recycling techniques and product utilization.

PubMed

Hadi, Pejman; Xu, Meng; Lin, Carol S K; Hui, Chi-Wai; McKay, Gordon

2015-01-01

E-waste, in particular waste PCBs, represents a rapidly growing disposal problem worldwide. The vast diversity of highly toxic materials for landfill disposal and the potential of heavy metal vapors and brominated dioxin emissions in the case of incineration render these two waste management technologies inappropriate. Also, the shipment of these toxic wastes to certain areas of the world for eco-unfriendly "recycling" has recently generated a major public outcry. Consequently, waste PCB recycling should be adopted by the environmental communities as an ultimate goal. This article reviews the recent trends and developments in PCB waste recycling techniques, including both physical and chemical recycling. It is concluded that the physical recycling techniques, which efficiently separate the metallic and nonmetallic fractions of waste PCBs, offer the most promising gateways for the environmentally-benign recycling of this waste. Moreover, although the reclaimed metallic fraction has gained more attention due to its high value, the application of the nonmetallic fraction has been neglected in most cases. Hence, several proposed applications of this fraction have been comprehensively examined. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Characterisation of the biochemical methane potential (BMP) of individual material fractions in Danish source-separated organic household waste.

PubMed

Naroznova, Irina; Møller, Jacob; Scheutz, Charlotte

2016-04-01

This study is dedicated to characterising the chemical composition and biochemical methane potential (BMP) of individual material fractions in untreated Danish source-separated organic household waste (SSOHW). First, data on SSOHW in different countries, available in the literature, were evaluated and then, secondly, laboratory analyses for eight organic material fractions comprising Danish SSOHW were conducted. No data were found in the literature that fully covered the objectives of the present study. Based on laboratory analyses, all fractions were assigned according to their specific properties in relation to BMP, protein content, lipids, lignocellulose biofibres and easily degradable carbohydrates (carbohydrates other than lignocellulose biofibres). The three components in lignocellulose biofibres, i.e. lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose, were differentiated, and theoretical BMP (TBMP) and material degradability (BMP from laboratory incubation tests divided by TBMP) were expressed. Moreover, the degradability of lignocellulose biofibres (the share of volatile lignocellulose biofibre solids degraded in laboratory incubation tests) was calculated. Finally, BMP for average SSOHW composition in Denmark (untreated) was calculated, and the BMP contribution of the individual material fractions was then evaluated. Material fractions of the two general waste types, defined as "food waste" and "fibre-rich waste," were found to be anaerobically degradable with considerable BMP. Material degradability of material fractions such as vegetation waste, moulded fibres, animal straw, dirty paper and dirty cardboard, however, was constrained by lignin content. BMP for overall SSOHW (untreated) was 404 mL CH4 per g VS, which might increase if the relative content of material fractions, such as animal and vegetable food waste, kitchen tissue and dirty paper in the waste, becomes larger. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Phosphorus dynamics in soils irrigated with reclaimed waste water or fresh water - A study using oxygen isotopic composition of phosphate

USGS Publications Warehouse

Zohar, I.; Shaviv, A.; Young, M.; Kendall, C.; Silva, S.; Paytan, A.

2010-01-01

Transformations of phosphate (Pi) in different soil fractions were tracked using the stable isotopic composition of oxygen in phosphate (??18Op) and Pi concentrations. Clay soil from Israel was treated with either reclaimed waste water (secondary, low grade) or with fresh water amended with a chemical fertilizer of a known isotopic signature. Changes of ??18Op and Pi within different soil fractions, during a month of incubation, elucidate biogeochemical processes in the soil, revealing the biological and the chemical transformation impacting the various P pools. P in the soil solution is affected primarily by enzymatic activity that yields isotopic equilibrium with the water molecules in the soil solution. The dissolved P interacts rapidly with the loosely bound P (extracted by bicarbonate). The oxides and mineral P fractions (extracted by NaOH and HCl, respectively), which are considered as relatively stable pools of P, also exhibited isotopic alterations in the first two weeks after P application, likely related to the activity of microbial populations associated with soil surfaces. Specifically, isotopic depletion which could result from organic P mineralization was followed by isotopic enrichment which could result from preferential biological uptake of depleted P from the mineralized pool. Similar transformations were observed in both soils although transformations related to biological activity were more pronounced in the soil treated with reclaimed waste water compared to the fertilizer treated soil. ?? 2010 Elsevier B.V.

Effect of leachate recirculation on mesophilic anaerobic digestion of food waste.

PubMed

Shahriari, Haleh; Warith, Mostafa; Hamoda, Mohamed; Kennedy, Kevin J

2012-03-01

The effects of using untreated leachate for supplemental water addition and liquid recirculation on anaerobic digestion of food waste was evaluated by combining cyclic water recycle operations with batch mesophilic biochemical methane potential (BMP) assays. Cyclic BMP assays indicated that using an appropriate fraction of recycled leachate and fresh make up water can stimulate methanogenic activity and enhance biogas production. Conversely increasing the percentage of recycled leachate in the make up water eventually causes methanogenic inhibition and decrease in the rate of food waste stabilization. The decrease in activity is exacerbated as the number cycles increases. Inhibition is possibly attributed to accumulation and elevated concentrations of ammonia as well as other waste by products in the recycled leachate that inhibit methanogenesis. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Biphenyl-Metabolizing Microbial Community and a Functional Operon Revealed in E-Waste-Contaminated Soil.

PubMed

Jiang, Longfei; Luo, Chunling; Zhang, Dayi; Song, Mengke; Sun, Yingtao; Zhang, Gan

2018-05-18

Primitive electronic waste (e-waste) recycling activities release massive amounts of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and heavy metals into surrounding soils, posing a major threat to the ecosystem and human health. Microbes capable of metabolizing POPs play important roles in POPs remediation in soils, but their phylotypes and functions remain unclear. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), one of the main pollutants in e-waste contaminated soils, have drawn increasing attention due to their high persistence, toxicity, and bioaccumulation. In the present study, we employed the culture-independent method of DNA stable-isotope probing to identify active biphenyl and PCB degraders in e-waste-contaminated soil. A total of 19 rare operational taxonomic units and three dominant bacterial genera ( Ralstonia, Cupriavidus, and uncultured bacterium DA101) were enriched in the 13 C heavy DNA fraction, confirming their functions in PCBs metabolism. Additionally, a 13.8 kb bph operon was amplified, containing a bphA gene labeled by 13 C that was concentrated in the heavy DNA fraction. The tetranucleotide signature characteristics of the bph operon suggest that it originated from Ralstonia. The bph operon may be shared by horizontal gene transfer because it contains a transposon gene and is found in various bacterial species. This study gives us a deeper understanding of PCB-degrading mechanisms and provides a potential resource for the bioremediation of PCBs-contaminated soils.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kot, Wing K.; Pegg, Ian L.; Brandys, Marek

One of the primary roles of waste pretreatment at the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) is to separate the majority of the radioactive components from the majority of the nonradioactive components in retrieved tank wastes, producing a high level waste (HLW) stream and a low activity waste (LAW) stream. This separation process is a key element in the overall strategy to reduce the volume of HLW that requires vitrification and subsequent disposal in a national deep geological repository for high level nuclear waste. After removal of the radioactive constituents, the LAW stream, which has a much largermore » volume but smaller fraction of radioactivity than the HLW stream, will be immobilized and disposed of in near surface facilities at the Hanford site.« less

Mass, energy and material balances of SRF production process. Part 2: SRF produced from construction and demolition waste.

PubMed

Nasrullah, Muhammad; Vainikka, Pasi; Hannula, Janne; Hurme, Markku; Kärki, Janne

2014-11-01

In this work, the fraction of construction and demolition waste (C&D waste) complicated and economically not feasible to sort out for recycling purposes is used to produce solid recovered fuel (SRF) through mechanical treatment (MT). The paper presents the mass, energy and material balances of this SRF production process. All the process streams (input and output) produced in MT waste sorting plant to produce SRF from C&D waste are sampled and treated according to CEN standard methods for SRF. Proximate and ultimate analysis of these streams is performed and their composition is determined. Based on this analysis and composition of process streams their mass, energy and material balances are established for SRF production process. By mass balance means the overall mass flow of input waste material stream in the various output streams and material balances mean the mass flow of components of input waste material stream (such as paper and cardboard, wood, plastic (soft), plastic (hard), textile and rubber) in the various output streams of SRF production process. The results from mass balance of SRF production process showed that of the total input C&D waste material to MT waste sorting plant, 44% was recovered in the form of SRF, 5% as ferrous metal, 1% as non-ferrous metal, and 28% was sorted out as fine fraction, 18% as reject material and 4% as heavy fraction. The energy balance of this SRF production process showed that of the total input energy content of C&D waste material to MT waste sorting plant, 74% was recovered in the form of SRF, 16% belonged to the reject material and rest 10% belonged to the streams of fine fraction and heavy fraction. From the material balances of this process, mass fractions of plastic (soft), paper and cardboard, wood and plastic (hard) recovered in the SRF stream were 84%, 82%, 72% and 68% respectively of their input masses to MT plant. A high mass fraction of plastic (PVC) and rubber material was found in the reject material stream. Streams of heavy fraction and fine fraction mainly contained non-combustible material (such as stone/rock, sand particles and gypsum material). Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of cobalt supplementation and fractionation on the biological response in the biomethanization of Olive Mill Solid Waste.

PubMed

Pinto-Ibieta, F; Serrano, A; Jeison, D; Borja, R; Fermoso, F G

2016-07-01

Due to the low trace metals concentration in the Olive Mill Solid Waste (OMSW), a proposed strategy to improve its biomethanization is the supplementation of key metals to enhance the microorganism activity. Among essential trace metals, cobalt has been reported to have a crucial role in anaerobic degradation. This study evaluates the effect of cobalt supplementation to OMSW, focusing on the connection between fractionation of cobalt in the system and the biological response. The highest biological responses was found in a range from 0.018 to 0.035mg/L of dissolved cobalt (0.24-0.65mg total cobalt/L), reaching improvements up to 23% and 30% in the methane production rate and the methane yield coefficient, respectively. It was found that the dissolved cobalt fraction is more accurately related with the biological response than the total cobalt. The total cobalt is distorted by the contribution of dissolved and non-dissolved inert fractions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

S.O. Bader

The purpose of this design analysis is to specify and document the total and respirable fractions for radioactive materials that are released from an accident event at the Monitored Geologic Repository (MGR) involving commercial spent nuclear fuel (CSNF) in a dry environment. The total and respirable release fractions will be used to support the preclosure licensing basis for the MGR. The total release fraction is defined as the fraction of total CSNF assembly inventory, typically expressed as an activity inventory (e.g., curies), of a given radionuclide that is released to the environment from a waste form. The radionuclides are releasedmore » from the inside of breached fuel rods (or pins) and from the detachment of radioactive material (crud) from the outside surfaces of fuel rods and other components of fuel assemblies. The total release fraction accounts for several mechanisms that tend to retain, retard, or diminish the amount of radionuclides that are available for transport to dose receptors or otherwise can be shown to reduce exposure of receptors to radiological releases. The total release fraction includes a fraction of airborne material that is respirable and could result in inhalation doses. This subset of the total release fraction is referred to as the respirable release fraction. Potential accidents may involve waste forms that are characterized as either bare (unconfined) fuel assemblies or confined fuel assemblies. The confined CSNF assemblies at the MGR are contained in shipping casks, canisters, or disposal containers (waste packages). In contrast to the bare fuel assemblies, the container that confines the fuel assemblies has the potential of providing an additional barrier for diminishing the total release fraction should the fuel rod cladding breach during an accident. However, this analysis will not take credit for this additional bamer and will establish only the total release fractions for bare unconfined CSNF assemblies, which may however be conservatively applied to confined CSNF assemblies.« less

Factors determining waste generation in Spanish towns and cities.

PubMed

Prades, Miriam; Gallardo, Antonio; Ibàñez, Maria Victoria

2015-01-01

This paper analyzes the generation and composition of municipal solid waste in Spanish towns and cities with more than 5000 inhabitants, which altogether account for 87% of the Spanish population. To do so, the total composition and generation of municipal solid waste fractions were obtained from 135 towns and cities. Homogeneity tests revealed heterogeneity in the proportions of municipal solid waste fractions from one city to another. Statistical analyses identified significant differences in the generation of glass in cities of different sizes and in the generation of all fractions depending on the hydrographic area. Finally, linear regression models and residuals analysis were applied to analyze the effect of different demographic, geographic, and socioeconomic variables on the generation of waste fractions. The conclusions show that more densely populated towns, a hydrographic area, and cities with over 50,000 inhabitants have higher waste generation rates, while certain socioeconomic variables (people/car) decrease that generation. Other socioeconomic variables (foreigners and unemployment) show a positive and null influence on that waste generation, respectively.

Physico-chemical characterisation of material fractions in household waste: Overview of data in literature.

PubMed

Götze, Ramona; Boldrin, Alessio; Scheutz, Charlotte; Astrup, Thomas Fruergaard

2016-03-01

State-of-the-art environmental assessment of waste management systems rely on data for the physico-chemical composition of individual material fractions comprising the waste in question. To derive the necessary inventory data for different scopes and systems, literature data from different sources and backgrounds are consulted and combined. This study provides an overview of physico-chemical waste characterisation data for individual waste material fractions available in literature and thereby aims to support the selection of data fitting to a specific scope and the selection of uncertainty ranges related to the data selection from literature. Overall, 97 publications were reviewed with respect to employed characterisation method, regional origin of the waste, number of investigated parameters and material fractions and other qualitative aspects. Descriptive statistical analysis of the reported physico-chemical waste composition data was performed to derive value ranges and data distributions for element concentrations (e.g. Cd content) and physical parameters (e.g. heating value). Based on 11,886 individual data entries, median values and percentiles for 47 parameters in 11 individual waste fractions are presented. Exceptional values and publications are identified and discussed. Detailed datasets are attached to this study, allowing further analysis and new applications of the data. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Thermodynamic analysis of the energy recovery from the aerobic bioconversion of solid urban waste organic fraction.

PubMed

Di Maria, Francesco; Benavoli, Manuel; Zoppitelli, Mirco

2008-01-01

Waste management is of the utmost importance for many countries and especially for highly developed ones due to its implications on society. In particular, proper treatment before disposal of the solid urban waste organic fraction is one of the main issues that is addressed in waste management. In fact, the organic fraction is particularly reactive and if disposed in sanitary landfills without previous adequate treatment, a large amount of dangerous and polluting gaseous, liquid and solid substances can be produced. Some waste treatment processes can also present an opportunity to produce other by-products like energy, recycled materials and other products with both economic and environmental benefits. In this paper, the aerobic treatment of the organic fraction of solid urban waste, performed in a biocell plant with the possibility of recovering heat for civil or industrial needs, was examined from the thermodynamic point of view. A theoretical model was proposed both for the biological process of the organic fraction, as well as for the heat recovery system. The most significant results are represented and discussed.

Heating value prediction for combustible fraction of municipal solid waste in Semarang using backpropagation neural network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khuriati, Ainie; Setiabudi, Wahyu; Nur, Muhammad; Istadi, Istadi

2015-12-01

Backpropgation neural network was trained to predict of combustible fraction heating value of MSW from the physical composition. Waste-to-Energy (WtE) is a viable option for municipal solid waste (MSW) management. The influence of the heating value of municipal solid waste (MSW) is very important on the implementation of WtE systems. As MSW is heterogeneous material, direct heating value measurements are often not feasible. In this study an empirical model was developed to describe the heating value of the combustible fraction of municipal solid waste as a function of its physical composition of MSW using backpropagation neural network. Sampling process was carried out at Jatibarang landfill. The weight of each sorting sample taken from each discharged MSW vehicle load is 100 kg. The MSW physical components were grouped into paper wastes, absorbent hygiene product waste, styrofoam waste, HD plastic waste, plastic waste, rubber waste, textile waste, wood waste, yard wastes, kitchen waste, coco waste, and miscellaneous combustible waste. Network was trained by 24 datasets with 1200, 769, and 210 epochs. The results of this analysis showed that the correlation from the physical composition is better than multiple regression method .

Analysis of the waste selective collection at drop-off systems: Case study including the income level and the seasonal variation.

PubMed

Gallardo, A; Carlos, M; Colomer, F J; Edo-Alcón, N

2018-01-01

There are several factors which have an influence in the selective collection of the municipal waste. To define a selective collection system, the waste generation pattern should be firstly determined and these factors should be analyzed in depth. This paper tries to analyze the economic income level and the seasonal variation on the collection and the purity of light-packaging waste to determine actions to improve the waste management plan of a town. In the first stage of the work, waste samples of the light-packaging containers were collected in two zones of the town with different economic characteristics in different seasons during one year. In the second stage, the samples were characterized to analyze the composition and purity of the waste. They were firstly separated into four fractions: metals; plastic; beverage cartons; and misplaced materials. The misplaced fraction was in its turn separated into cardboard, rubber and leather, inert waste, organic matter, paper, hazardous waste, clothes and shoes, glass and others. The plastic fraction was separated into five types of plastics and the metal fraction into three. In the third stage, the data have been analyzed and conclusions have been extracted. The main result is that the quality of the light-packaging fraction collected in these zones during both seasons were similar. This methodology can be extrapolated to towns with similar characteristics. It will be useful when implementing a system to collect the waste selectively and to develop actions to achieve a good participation in the selective collection of the waste.

Particle size fractionation as a method for characterizing the nutrient content of municipal green waste used for composting.

PubMed

Haynes, R J; Belyaeva, O N; Zhou, Y-F

2015-01-01

In order to better characterize mechanically shredded municipal green waste used for composting, five samples from different origins were separated into seven particle size fractions (>20mm, 10-20mm, 5-10mm, 2-5mm, 1-2mm, 0.5-1.0mm and <0.5mm diameter) and analyzed for organic C and nutrient content. With decreasing particle size there was a decrease in organic C content and an increase in macronutrient, micronutrient and ash content. This reflected a concentration of lignified woody material in the larger particle fractions and of green stems and leaves and soil in the smaller particle sizes. The accumulation of nutrients in the smaller sized fractions means the practice of using large particle sizes for green fuel and/or mulch does not greatly affect nutrient cycling via green waste composting. During a 100-day incubation experiment, using different particle size fractions of green waste, there was a marked increase in both cumulative CO2 evolution and mineral N accumulation with decreasing particle size. Results suggested that during composting of bulk green waste (with a high initial C/N ratio such as 50:1), mineral N accumulates because decomposition and net N immobilization in larger particles is slow while net N mineralization proceeds rapidly in the smaller (<1mm dia.) fractions. Initially, mineral N accumulated in green waste as NH4(+)-N, but over time, nitrification proceeded resulting in accumulation of NO3(-)-N. It was concluded that the nutrient content, N mineralization potential and decomposition rate of green waste differs greatly among particle size fractions and that chemical analysis of particle size fractions provides important additional information over that of a bulk sample. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Determination of Free Radical Scavenging, Antioxidative DNA Damage Activities and Phytochemical Components of Active Fractions from Lansium domesticum Corr. Fruit

PubMed Central

Klungsupya, Prapaipat; Suthepakul, Nava; Muangman, Thanchanok; Rerk-Am, Ubon; Thongdon-A, Jeerayu

2015-01-01

Lansium domesticum Corr. or “long-kong” is one of the most popular fruits in Thailand. Its peel (skin, SK) and seeds (SD) become waste unless recycled or applied for use. This study was undertaken to determine the bioactivity and phytochemical components of L. domesticum (LD) skin and seed extracts. Following various extraction and fractionation procedures, 12 fractions were obtained. All fractions were tested for antioxidant capacity against O2−• and OH•. It was found that the peel of L. domesticum fruits exhibited higher O2−• and OH• scavenging activity than seeds. High potential antioxidant activity was found in two fractions of 50% ethanol extract of peel followed by ethyl acetate (EA) fractionation (LDSK50-EA) and its aqueous phase (LDSK50-H2O). Therefore, these two active fractions were selected for further studies on their antioxidative activity against DNA damage by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in human TK6 cells using comet assay. The comet results revealed DNA-protective activity of both LDSK50-EA and LDSK50-H2O fractions when TK6 human lymphoblast cells were pre-treated at 25, 50, 100, and 200 μg/mL for 24 h prior to H2O2 exposure. The phytochemical analysis illustrated the presence of phenolic substances, mainly scopoletin, rutin, and chlorogenic acid, in these two active fractions. This study generates new information on the biological activity of L. domesticum. It will promote and strengthen the utilization of L. domesticum by-products. PMID:26287238

Valorisation of tuna processing waste biomass for recovery of functional and antioxidant peptides using enzymatic hydrolysis and membrane fractionation process.

PubMed

Saidi, Sami; Ben Amar, Raja

2016-10-01

The enzymatic hydrolysis using Prolyve BS coupled to membrane process (Ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF)) is a means of biotransformation of tuna protein waste to Tuna protein hydrolysate (TPH) with higher added values. This method could be an effective solution for the production of bioactive compounds used in various biotechnological applications and minimizing the pollution problems generated by the seafood processing industries. The amino acid composition, functional and antioxidant properties of produced TPH were evaluated. The results show that the glutamic acid, aspartic acid, glycine, alaline, valine and leucine were the major amino acids detected in the TPH profile. After membrane fractionation process, those major amino acids were concentrated in the NF retentate (NFR). The NFR and NF permeate (NFP) have a higher protein solubility (>95 %) when compared to TPH (80 %). Higher oil and water binding capacity were observed in TPH and higher emulsifying and foam stability was found in UF retentate. The NFP showed the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity (65 %). The NFR contained antioxidant amino acid (30.3 %) showed the highest superoxide radical and reducing power activities. The TPH showed the highest iron chelating activity (75 %) compared to other peptide fractions. The effect of the membrane fractionation on the molecular weight distribution of the peptide and their bioactivities was underlined. We concluded that the TPH is a valuable source of bioactive peptides and their peptide fractions may serve as useful ingredients for application in food industry and formulation of nutritional products.

Contribution of individual waste fractions to the environmental impacts from landfilling of municipal solid waste.

PubMed

Manfredi, Simone; Tonini, Davide; Christensen, Thomas H

2010-03-01

A number of LCA-based studies have reported on the environmental performance of landfilling of mixed waste, but little is known about the relative contributions of individual waste fractions to the overall impact potentials estimated for the mixed waste. In this paper, an empirical model has been used to estimate the emissions to the environment from landfilling of individual waste fractions. By means of the LCA-model EASEWASTE, the emissions estimated have been used to quantify how much of the overall impact potential for each impact category is to be attributed to the individual waste fractions. Impact potentials are estimated for 1 tonne of mixed waste disposed off in a conventional landfill with bottom liner, leachate collection and treatment and gas collection and utilization for electricity generation. All the environmental aspects are accounted for 100 years after disposal and several impact categories have been considered, including standard categories, toxicity-related categories and groundwater contamination. Amongst the standard and toxicity-related categories, the highest potential impact is estimated for human toxicity via soil (HTs; 12 mPE/tonne). This is mostly caused by leaching of heavy metals from ashes (e.g. residues from roads cleaning and vacuum cleaning bags), batteries, paper and metals. On the other hand, substantial net environmental savings are estimated for the categories Global Warming (GW; -31 mPE/tonne) and Eco-Toxicity in water chronic (ETwc; -53 mPE/tonne). These savings are mostly determined by the waste fractions characterized by a high content of biogenic carbon (paper, organics, other combustible waste). These savings are due to emissions from energy generation avoided by landfill gas utilization, and by the storage of biogenic carbon in the landfill due to incomplete waste degradation. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Validation of Microtox as a first screening tool for waste classification.

PubMed

Weltens, R; Deprez, K; Michiels, L

2014-12-01

The Waste Framework Directive (WFD; 2008/98/EG) describes how waste materials are to be classified as hazardous or not. For complex waste materials chemical analyses are often not conclusive and the WFD provides the possibility to assess the hazardous properties by testing on the waste materials directly. As a methodology WFD refers to the protocols described in the CLP regulation (regulation on Classification, Labeling and Packaging of chemicals) but the toxicity tests on mammals are not acceptable for waste materials. The DISCRISET project was initiated to investigate the suitability of alternative toxicity tests that are already in use in pharmaceutical applications, for the toxicological hazard assessment of complex waste materials. Results indicated that Microtox was a good candidate as a first screening test in a tiered approached hazard assessment. This is now further validated in the present study. The toxic responses measured in Microtox were compared to biological responses in other bioassays for both organic and inorganic fractions of the wastes. Both fractions contribute to the toxic load of waste samples. Results show that the Microtox test is indeed a good and practical screening tool for the organic fraction. A screening threshold (ST) of 5 geq/l as the EC50 value in Microtox is proposed as this ST allows to recognize highly toxic samples in the screening test. The data presented here show that the Microtox toxicity response at this ST is not only predictive for acute toxicity in other organisms but also for sub lethal toxic effects of the organic fraction. This limit value has to be further validated. For the inorganic fraction no specific biotest can be recommended as a screening test, but the use of direct toxicity assessment is also preferable for this fraction as metal speciation is an important issue to define the toxic load of elutriate fractions. A battery of 3 tests (Microtox, Daphnia and Algae) for direct toxicity assessment of this fraction is recommended in literature, but including tests for mechanistic toxicity might be useful. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An engineering assessment of the burning of the combustible fraction of construction and demolition wastes in a redundant brick kiln.

PubMed

Chang, N B; Lin, K S; Sun, Y P; Wang, H P

2001-12-01

This paper confirms both technical feasibility and economic potential via the use of redundant brick kilns as an alternative option for disposal of the combustible fractions of construction and demolition wastes by a three-stage analysis. To assess such an idea, one brick kiln was selected for performing an engineering feasibility study. First of all, field sampling and lab-analyses were carried out to gain a deeper understanding of the physical, chemical, and thermodynamic properties of the combustible fractions of construction and demolition wastes. Kinetic parameters for the oxidation of the combustible fractions of construction and demolition wastes were therefore numerically calculated from the weight loss data obtained through a practice of thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA). Secondly, an engineering assessment for retrofitting the redundant brick kiln was performed based on integrating several new and existing unit operations, consisting of waste storage, shredding, feeding, combustion, flue gas cleaning, and ash removal. Such changes were subject to the operational condition in accordance with the estimated mass and energy balances. Finally, addressing the economic value of energy recovery motivated a renewed interest to convert the combustible fractions of construction and demolition wastes into useful hot water for secondary uses.

40 CFR 265.1084 - Waste determination procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... biodegradation efficiency (Rbio) for a treated hazardous waste. (i) The fraction of organics biodegraded (Fbio... biodegradation efficiency, percent. Fbio = Fraction of organic biodegraded as determined in accordance with the... biodegradation rate (MRbio) for a treated hazardous waste. (i) The MRbio shall be determined based on results for...

40 CFR 265.1084 - Waste determination procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... biodegradation efficiency (Rbio) for a treated hazardous waste. (i) The fraction of organics biodegraded (Fbio... biodegradation efficiency, percent. Fbio = Fraction of organic biodegraded as determined in accordance with the... biodegradation rate (MRbio) for a treated hazardous waste. (i) The MRbio shall be determined based on results for...

40 CFR 265.1084 - Waste determination procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... biodegradation efficiency (Rbio) for a treated hazardous waste. (i) The fraction of organics biodegraded (Fbio... biodegradation efficiency, percent. Fbio = Fraction of organic biodegraded as determined in accordance with the... biodegradation rate (MRbio) for a treated hazardous waste. (i) The MRbio shall be determined based on results for...

40 CFR 265.1084 - Waste determination procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... biodegradation efficiency (Rbio) for a treated hazardous waste. (i) The fraction of organics biodegraded (Fbio... biodegradation efficiency, percent. Fbio = Fraction of organic biodegraded as determined in accordance with the... biodegradation rate (MRbio) for a treated hazardous waste. (i) The MRbio shall be determined based on results for...

Preparation of Flax Shive and Processing Waste for Use in Biocomposites

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Composite materials were prepared by combining waste fractions generated during flax fiber cleaning operations with a biobased polymer matrix. The waste fractions contained fragments of cuticle and the associated surface lipids. These lipids included long chain waxes and fatty alcohols that are cons...

Ultrasounds pretreatment of olive pomace to improve xylanase and cellulase production by solid-state fermentation.

PubMed

Leite, Paulina; Salgado, José Manuel; Venâncio, Armando; Domínguez, José Manuel; Belo, Isabel

2016-08-01

Olive mills generate a large amount of waste that can be revaluated. This work aim to improve the production lignocellulolytic enzymes by solid-state fermentation using ultrasounds pretreated olive mill wastes. The composition of olive mill wastes (crude and exhausted olive pomace) was compared and several physicochemical characteristics were significantly different. The use of both wastes in SSF was evaluated and a screening of fungi for xylanase and cellulase production was carried out. After screening, the use of exhausted olive pomace and Aspergillus niger led to the highest enzyme activities, so that they were used in the study of ultrasounds pre-treatment. The results showed that the sonication led to a 3-fold increase of xylanase activity and a decrease of cellulase activity. Moreover, the liquid fraction obtained from ultrasounds treatment was used to adjust the moisture of solid and a positive effect on xylanase (3.6-fold increase) and cellulase (1.2-fold increase) production was obtained. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Estimation of marginal costs at existing waste treatment facilities.

PubMed

Martinez-Sanchez, Veronica; Hulgaard, Tore; Hindsgaul, Claus; Riber, Christian; Kamuk, Bettina; Astrup, Thomas F

2016-04-01

This investigation aims at providing an improved basis for assessing economic consequences of alternative Solid Waste Management (SWM) strategies for existing waste facilities. A bottom-up methodology was developed to determine marginal costs in existing facilities due to changes in the SWM system, based on the determination of average costs in such waste facilities as function of key facility and waste compositional parameters. The applicability of the method was demonstrated through a case study including two existing Waste-to-Energy (WtE) facilities, one with co-generation of heat and power (CHP) and another with only power generation (Power), affected by diversion strategies of five waste fractions (fibres, plastic, metals, organics and glass), named "target fractions". The study assumed three possible responses to waste diversion in the WtE facilities: (i) biomass was added to maintain a constant thermal load, (ii) Refused-Derived-Fuel (RDF) was included to maintain a constant thermal load, or (iii) no reaction occurred resulting in a reduced waste throughput without full utilization of the facility capacity. Results demonstrated that marginal costs of diversion from WtE were up to eleven times larger than average costs and dependent on the response in the WtE plant. Marginal cost of diversion were between 39 and 287 € Mg(-1) target fraction when biomass was added in a CHP (from 34 to 303 € Mg(-1) target fraction in the only Power case), between -2 and 300 € Mg(-1) target fraction when RDF was added in a CHP (from -2 to 294 € Mg(-1) target fraction in the only Power case) and between 40 and 303 € Mg(-1) target fraction when no reaction happened in a CHP (from 35 to 296 € Mg(-1) target fraction in the only Power case). Although average costs at WtE facilities were highly influenced by energy selling prices, marginal costs were not (provided a response was initiated at the WtE to keep constant the utilized thermal capacity). Failing to systematically address and include costs in existing waste facilities in decision-making may unintendedly lead to higher overall costs at societal level. To avoid misleading conclusions, economic assessment of alternative SWM solutions should not only consider potential costs associated with alternative treatment but also include marginal costs associated with existing facilities. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Glass Property Models, Constraints, and Formulation Approaches for Vitrification of High-Level Nuclear Wastes at the US Hanford Site

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kim, Dong-Sang

2015-03-02

The legacy nuclear wastes stored in underground tanks at the US Department of Energy’s Hanford site is planned to be separated into high-level waste and low-activity waste fractions and vitrified separately. Formulating optimized glass compositions that maximize the waste loading in glass is critical for successful and economical treatment and immobilization of nuclear wastes. Glass property-composition models have been developed and applied to formulate glass compositions for various objectives for the past several decades. The property models with associated uncertainties and combined with composition and property constraints have been used to develop preliminary glass formulation algorithms designed for vitrification processmore » control and waste form qualification at the planned waste vitrification plant. This paper provides an overview of current status of glass property-composition models, constraints applicable to Hanford waste vitrification, and glass formulation approaches that have been developed for vitrification of hazardous and highly radioactive wastes stored at the Hanford site.« less

Fractionation of Pb and Cu in the fine fraction (<10 mm) of waste excavated from a municipal landfill.

PubMed

Kaczala, Fabio; Orupõld, Kaja; Augustsson, Anna; Burlakovs, Juris; Hogland, Marika; Bhatnagar, Amit; Hogland, William

2017-11-01

The fractionation of metals in the fine fraction (<10 mm) of excavated waste from an Estonian landfill was carried out to evaluate the metal (Pb and Cu) contents and their potential towards not only mobility but also possibilities of recovery/extraction. The fractionation followed the BCR (Community Bureau of Reference) sequential extraction, and the exchangeable (F1), reducible (F2), oxidizable (F3) and residual fractions were determined. The results showed that Pb was highly associated with the reducible (F2) and oxidizable (F3) fractions, suggesting the potential mobility of this metal mainly when in contact with oxygen, despite the low association with the exchangeable fraction (F1). Cu has also shown the potential for mobility when in contact with oxygen, since high associations with the oxidizable fraction (F3) were observed. On the other hand, the mobility of metals in excavated waste can be seen as beneficial considering the circular economy and recovery of such valuables back into the economy. To conclude, not only the total concentration of metals but also a better understanding of fractionation and in which form metals are bound is very important to bring information on how to manage the fine fraction from excavated waste both in terms of environmental impacts and also recovery of such valuables in the economy.

Comparison of soil heavy metal pollution caused by e-waste recycling activities and traditional industrial operations.

PubMed

He, Kailing; Sun, Zehang; Hu, Yuanan; Zeng, Xiangying; Yu, Zhiqiang; Cheng, Hefa

2017-04-01

The traditional industrial operations are well recognized as an important source of heavy metal pollution, while that caused by the e-waste recycling activities, which have sprouted in some developing countries, is often overlooked. This study was carried out to compare the status of soil heavy metal pollution caused by the traditional industrial operations and the e-waste recycling activities in the Pearl River Delta, and assess whether greater attention should be paid to control the pollution arising from e-waste recycling activities. Both the total contents and the chemical fractionation of major heavy metals (As, Cr, Cd, Ni, Pb, Cu, and Zn) in 50 surface soil samples collected from the e-waste recycling areas and 20 soil samples from the traditional industrial zones were determined. The results show that the soils in the e-waste recycling areas were mainly polluted by Cu, Zn, As, and Cd, while Cu, Zn, As, Cd, and Pb were the major heavy metals in the soils from the traditional industrial zones. Statistical analyses consistently show that Cu, Cd, Pb, and Zn in the surface soils from both types of sites were contributed mostly by human activities, while As, Cr, and Ni in the soils were dominated by natural background. No clear distinction was found on the pollution characteristic of heavy metals in the surface soils between the e-waste recycling areas and traditional industrial zones. The potential ecological risk posed by heavy metals in the surface soils from both types of sites, which was dominated by that from Cd, ranged from low to moderate. Given the much shorter development history of e-waste recycling and its largely unregulated nature, significant efforts should be made to crack down on illegal e-waste recycling and strengthen pollution control for related activities.

To fractionate municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash: Key for utilisation?

PubMed

Sormunen, Laura Annika; Rantsi, Riina

2015-11-01

For the past decade, the Finnish waste sector has increasingly moved from the landfilling of municipal solid waste towards waste incineration. New challenges are faced with the growing amounts of municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash, which are mainly landfilled at the moment. Since this is not a sustainable or a profitable solution, finding different utilisation applications for the municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash is crucial. This study reports a comprehensive analysis of bottom ash properties from one waste incineration plant in Finland, which was first treated with a Dutch bottom ash recovery technique called advanced dry recovery. This novel process separates non-ferrous and ferrous metals from bottom ash, generating mineral fractions of different grain sizes (0-2 mm, 2-5 mm, 5-12 mm and 12-50 mm). The main aim of the study was to assess, whether the advanced bottom ash treatment technique, producing mineral fractions of different grain sizes and therefore properties, facilitates the utilisation of municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash in Finland. The results were encouraging; the bottom ash mineral fractions have favourable behaviour against the frost action, which is especially useful in the Finnish conditions. In addition, the leaching of most hazardous substances did not restrict the utilisation of bottom ash, especially for the larger fractions (>5 mm). Overall, this study has shown that the advanced bottom ash recovering technique can be one solution to increase the utilisation of bottom ash and furthermore decrease its landfilling in Finland. © The Author(s) 2015.

Advanced High-Level Waste Glass Research and Development Plan

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Peeler, David K.; Vienna, John D.; Schweiger, Michael J.

2015-07-01

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of River Protection (ORP) has implemented an integrated program to increase the loading of Hanford tank wastes in glass while meeting melter lifetime expectancies and process, regulatory, and product quality requirements. The integrated ORP program is focused on providing a technical, science-based foundation from which key decisions can be made regarding the successful operation of the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) facilities. The fundamental data stemming from this program will support development of advanced glass formulations, key process control models, and tactical processing strategies to ensure safe and successful operations formore » both the low-activity waste (LAW) and high-level waste (HLW) vitrification facilities with an appreciation toward reducing overall mission life. The purpose of this advanced HLW glass research and development plan is to identify the near-, mid-, and longer-term research and development activities required to develop and validate advanced HLW glasses and their associated models to support facility operations at WTP, including both direct feed and full pretreatment flowsheets. This plan also integrates technical support of facility operations and waste qualification activities to show the interdependence of these activities with the advanced waste glass (AWG) program to support the full WTP mission. Figure ES-1 shows these key ORP programmatic activities and their interfaces with both WTP facility operations and qualification needs. The plan is a living document that will be updated to reflect key advancements and mission strategy changes. The research outlined here is motivated by the potential for substantial economic benefits (e.g., significant increases in waste throughput and reductions in glass volumes) that will be realized when advancements in glass formulation continue and models supporting facility operations are implemented. Developing and applying advanced glass formulations will reduce the cost of Hanford tank waste management by reducing the schedule for tank waste treatment and reducing the amount of HLW glass for storage, transportation, and disposal. Additional benefits will be realized if advanced glasses are developed that demonstrate more tolerance for key components in the waste (such as Al 2O 3, Cr 2O 3, SO 3 and Na 2O) above the currently defined WTP constraints. Tolerating these higher concentrations of key waste loading limiters may reduce the burden on (or even eliminate the need for) leaching to remove Cr and Al and washing to remove excess S and Na from the HLW fraction. Advanced glass formulations may also make direct vitrification of the HLW fraction without significant pretreatment more cost effective. Finally, the advanced glass formulation efforts seek not only to increase waste loading in glass, but also to increase glass production rate. When coupled with higher waste loading, ensuring that all of the advanced glass formulations are processable at or above the current contract processing rate leads to significant improvements in waste throughput (the amount of waste being processed per unit time),which could significantly reduce the overall WTP mission life. The integration of increased waste loading, reduced leaching/washing requirements, and improved melting rates provides a system-wide approach to improve the effectiveness of the WTP process.« less

Water diffusion membranes 3 (pervaporation and heat rejection through composite membranes)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cabasso, I.

1977-01-01

The problem of waste management in space is discussed for manned space flight. It is shown that such waste can be accounted for in one of four ways: (1) the waste may be dumped into space; (2) it may be accumulated for return to earth; (3) the waste may be separated into two fractions, one fraction (water) to be dumped into space and the remaining portion to be returned to earth; or (4) the waste components may be beneficially reused.

Global warming potential of material fractions occurring in source-separated organic household waste treated by anaerobic digestion or incineration under different framework conditions.

PubMed

Naroznova, Irina; Møller, Jacob; Scheutz, Charlotte

2016-12-01

This study compared the environmental profiles of anaerobic digestion (AD) and incineration, in relation to global warming potential (GWP), for treating individual material fractions that may occur in source-separated organic household waste (SSOHW). Different framework conditions representative for the European Union member countries were considered. For AD, biogas utilisation with a biogas engine was considered and two potential situations investigated - biogas combustion with (1) combined heat and power production (CHP) and (2) electricity production only. For incineration, four technology options currently available in Europe were covered: (1) an average incinerator with CHP production, (2) an average incinerator with mainly electricity production, (3) an average incinerator with mainly heat production and (4) a state-of-the art incinerator with CHP working at high energy recovery efficiencies. The study was performed using a life cycle assessment in its consequential approach. Furthermore, the role of waste-sorting guidelines (defined by the material fractions allowed for SSOHW) in relation to GWP of treating overall SSOHW with AD was investigated. A case-study of treating 1tonne of SSOHW under framework conditions in Denmark was conducted. Under the given assumptions, vegetable food waste was the only material fraction which was always better for AD compared to incineration. For animal food waste, kitchen tissue, vegetation waste and dirty paper, AD utilisation was better unless it was compared to a highly efficient incinerator. Material fractions such as moulded fibres and dirty cardboard were attractive for AD, albeit only when AD with CHP and incineration with mainly heat production were compared. Animal straw, in contrast, was always better to incinerate. Considering the total amounts of individual material fractions in waste generated within households in Denmark, food waste (both animal and vegetable derived) and kitchen tissue are the main material fractions allowing GWP mitigation with AD when it is compared to incineration. The inclusion of other material fractions in SSOHW sorting guidelines may be considered of less importance. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Size fractionation of waste-to-energy boiler ash enables separation of a coarse fraction with low dioxin concentrations.

PubMed

Weidemann, E; Allegrini, E; Fruergaard Astrup, T; Hulgaard, T; Riber, C; Jansson, S

2016-03-01

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/F) formed in modern Waste-to-Energy plants are primarily found in the generated ashes and air pollution control residues, which are usually disposed of as hazardous waste. The objective of this study was to explore the occurrence of PCDD/F in different grain size fractions in the boiler ash, i.e. ash originating from the convection pass of the boiler. If a correlation between particle size and dioxin concentrations could be found, size fractionation of the ashes could reduce the total amount of hazardous waste. Boiler ash samples from ten sections of a boiler's convective part were collected over three sampling days, sieved into three different size fractions - <0.09 mm, 0.09-0.355 mm, and >0.355 mm - and analysed for PCDD/F. The coarse fraction (>0.355 mm) in the first sections of the horizontal convection pass appeared to be of low toxicity with respect to dioxin content. While the total mass of the coarse fraction in this boiler was relatively small, sieving could reduce the amount of ash containing toxic PCDD/F by around 0.5 kg per tonne input waste or around 15% of the collected boiler ash from the convection pass. The mid-size fraction in this study covered a wide size range (0.09-0.355 mm) and possibly a low toxicity fraction could be identified by splitting this fraction into more narrow size ranges. The ashes exhibited uniform PCDD/F homologue patterns which suggests a stable and continuous generation of PCDD/F. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Decomposition rate and enzymatic activity of composted municipal waste and poultry manure in the soil in a biofuel crops field.

PubMed

Cordovil, Cláudia Marques-Dos-Santos; de Varennes, Amarilis; Pinto, Renata Machado Dos Santos; Alves, Tiago Filipe; Mendes, Pedro; Sampaio, Sílvio César

2017-05-01

Biofuel crops are gaining importance because of the need to replace non-renewable sources. Also, due to the increasing amounts of wastes generated, there is the need to recycle them to the soil, both to fertilize crops and to improve soil physical properties through organic matter increase and microbiological changes in the rhizosphere. We therefore studied the influence of six biofuel crops (elephant grass, giant cane, sugarcane, blue gum, black cottonwood, willow) on the decomposition rate and enzymatic activity of composted municipal solid waste and poultry manure. Organic amendments were incubated in the field (litterbag method), buried near each plant or bare soil. Biomass decrease and dehydrogenase, urease and acid phosphatase level in amendments was monitored over a 180-day period. Soil under the litterbags was analysed for the same enzymatic activity and organic matter fractions (last sampling). After 365 days, a fractionation of organic matter was carried out in both amendments and soil under the litterbags. For compost, willow and sugarcane generally led to the greatest enzymatic activity, at the end of the experiment. For manure, dehydrogenase activity decreased sharply with time, the smallest value near sugarcane, while phosphatase and urease generally presented the highest values, at the beginning or after 90 days' incubation. Clustering showed that plant species could be grouped based on biomass and enzymes measured over time. Plant species influenced the decomposition rate and enzymatic activities of the organic amendments. Overall, mineralization of both amendments was associated with a greater urease activity in soils. Dehydrogenase activity in manure was closely associated with urease activity. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.

Three year field test of a plant growth promoting rhizobacteria enhanced phytoremediation system at a land farm for treatment of hydrocarbon waste.

PubMed

Gurska, Jolanta; Wang, Wenxi; Gerhardt, Karen E; Khalid, Aaron M; Isherwood, David M; Huang, Xiao-Dong; Glick, Bernard R; Greenberg, Bruce M

2009-06-15

Phytoremediation of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) has the potential to be a sustainable waste management technology if it can be proven to be effective in the field. Over the past decade, our laboratory has developed a system which utilizes plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) enhanced phytoremediation (PEP) that, following extensive greenhouse testing, was shown to be effective at remediating TPH from soils. This system consists of physical soil manipulation and plant growth following seed inoculation with PGPR. PGPR elicit biomass increases, particularly in roots, by minimizing plant stress in highly contaminated soils. Extensive development of the root system enhances degradation of contaminants by the plants and supports an active rhizosphere that effectively promotes TPH degradation by a broad microbial consortium. Following promising greenhouse trials, field tests of PEP were performed over a period of three years at a Southern Ontario site (approximately 130 g kg(-1) TPH) used for land farming of refinery hydrocarbon waste for many years. The low molecular weight fractions (the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) fractions 1 and 2) were removed through land farming and bioremediation; the high molecular weight, recalcitrant fractions (CCME fractions 3 and 4) remained at high levels in the soil. Using PEP, we substantially remediated fractions 3 and 4, and lowered TPH from 130 g kg(-1) to approximately 50 g kg(-1) over a three year period. The amount of plant growth and extent of oil remediation were consistently enhanced by PGPR.

Organic Separation Test Results

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Russell, Renee L.; Rinehart, Donald E.; Peterson, Reid A.

2014-09-22

Separable organics have been defined as “those organic compounds of very limited solubility in the bulk waste and that can form a separate liquid phase or layer” (Smalley and Nguyen 2013), and result from three main solvent extraction processes: U Plant Uranium Recovery Process, B Plant Waste Fractionation Process, and Plutonium Uranium Extraction (PUREX) Process. The primary organic solvents associated with tank solids are TBP, D2EHPA, and NPH. There is concern that, while this organic material is bound to the sludge particles as it is stored in the tanks, waste feed delivery activities, specifically transfer pump and mixer pump operations,more » could cause the organics to form a separated layer in the tank farms feed tank. Therefore, Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) is experimentally evaluating the potential of organic solvents separating from the tank solids (sludge) during waste feed delivery activities, specifically the waste mixing and transfer processes. Given the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) waste acceptance criteria per the Waste Feed Acceptance Criteria document (24590-WTP-RPT-MGT-11-014) that there is to be “no visible layer” of separable organics in the waste feed, this would result in the batch being unacceptable to transfer to WTP. This study is of particular importance to WRPS because of these WTP requirements.« less

Storage potential and residual emissions from fresh and stabilized waste samples from a landfill simulation experiment.

PubMed

Morello, Luca; Raga, Roberto; Sgarbossa, Paolo; Rosson, Egle; Cossu, Raffaello

2018-05-01

The storage capacity and the potentially residual emissions of a stabilized waste coming from a landfill simulation experiment were evaluated. The evolution in time of the potential emissions and the mobility of some selected elements or compounds were determined, comparing the results of the stabilized waste samples with the values detected in the related fresh waste samples. Analyses were conducted for the total bulk waste and also for each identified category (under-sieve, kitchen residues, green and wooden materials, plastics, cellulosic material and textiles) to highlight the contribution of the different waste fractions in the total emission potential. The waste characterization was performed through analyses on solids and on leaching test eluates; the chemical speciation of carbon, nitrogen, chlorine and sulfur together with the partitioning of heavy metals through a SCE procedure were carried out. Results showed that the under-sieve is the most environmentally relevant fraction, hosting a consistent part of mobile compounds in fresh waste (40.7% of carbon, 44.0% of nitrogen, 47.6% of chloride and 40.0% of sulfur) and the greater part of potentially residual emissions in stabilized waste (88.4% of carbon, 90.9% of nitrogen, 98.4% of chloride and 91.1% of sulfur). Landfilled Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) proved to be an effective sink, finally storing more than 55% of carbon, 53% of nitrogen, 33% of sulfur and 90% of heavy metals (HM) which were initially present in fresh waste samples. A general decrease in leachable fractions from fresh to stabilized waste was observed for each category. Tests showed that solid waste is not a good sink for chlorine, whose residual non-mobile fraction amounts to 12.3% only. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fractionation of heavy metals and assessment of contamination of the sediments of Lake Titicaca.

PubMed

Cáceres Choque, Luis Fernando; Ramos Ramos, Oswaldo E; Valdez Castro, Sulema N; Choque Aspiazu, Rigoberto R; Choque Mamani, Rocío G; Fernández Alcazar, Samuel G; Sracek, Ondra; Bhattacharya, Prosun

2013-12-01

Chemical weathering is one of the major geochemical processes that control the mobilization of heavy metals. The present study provides the first report on heavy metal fractionation in sediments (8-156 m) of Lake Titicaca (3,820 m a.s.l.), which is shared by the Republic of Peru and the Plurinational State of Bolivia. Both contents of total Cu, Fe, Ni, Co, Mn, Cd, Pb, and Zn and also the fractionation of these heavy metals associated with four different fractions have been determined following the BCR scheme. The principal component analysis suggests that Co, Ni, and Cd can be attributed to natural sources related to the mineralized geological formations. Moreover, the sources of Cu, Fe, and Mn are effluents and wastes generated from mining activities, while Pb and Zn also suggest that their common source is associated to mining activities. According to the Risk Assessment Code, there is a moderate to high risk related to Zn, Pb, Cd, Mn, Co, and Ni mobilization and/or remobilization from the bottom sediment to the water column. Furthermore, the Geoaccumulation Index and the Enrichment Factor reveal that Zn, Pb, and Cd are enriched in the sediments. The results suggest that the effluents from various traditional mining waste sites in both countries are the main source of heavy metal contamination in the sediments of Lake Titicaca.

The study on biomass fraction estimate methodology of municipal solid waste incinerator in Korea.

PubMed

Kang, Seongmin; Kim, Seungjin; Lee, Jeongwoo; Yun, Hyunki; Kim, Ki-Hyun; Jeon, Eui-Chan

2016-10-01

In Korea, the amount of greenhouse gases released due to waste materials was 14,800,000 t CO2eq in 2012, which increased from 5,000,000 t CO2eq in 2010. This included the amount released due to incineration, which has gradually increased since 2010. Incineration was found to be the biggest contributor to greenhouse gases, with 7,400,000 t CO2eq released in 2012. Therefore, with regards to the trading of greenhouse gases emissions initiated in 2015 and the writing of the national inventory report, it is important to increase the reliability of the measurements related to the incineration of waste materials. This research explored methods for estimating the biomass fraction at Korean MSW incinerator facilities and compared the biomass fractions obtained with the different biomass fraction estimation methods. The biomass fraction was estimated by the method using default values of fossil carbon fraction suggested by IPCC, the method using the solid waste composition, and the method using incinerator flue gas. The highest biomass fractions in Korean municipal solid waste incinerator facilities were estimated by the IPCC Default method, followed by the MSW analysis method and the Flue gas analysis method. Therefore, the difference in the biomass fraction estimate was the greatest between the IPCC Default and the Flue gas analysis methods. The difference between the MSW analysis and the flue gas analysis methods was smaller than the difference with IPCC Default method. This suggested that the use of the IPCC default method cannot reflect the characteristics of Korean waste incinerator facilities and Korean MSW. Incineration is one of most effective methods for disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW). This paper investigates the applicability of using biomass content to estimate the amount of CO2 released, and compares the biomass contents determined by different methods in order to establish a method for estimating biomass in the MSW incinerator facilities of Korea. After analyzing the biomass contents of the collected solid waste samples and the flue gas samples, the results were compared with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) method, and it seems that to calculate the biomass fraction it is better to use the flue gas analysis method than the IPCC method. It is valuable to design and operate a real new incineration power plant, especially for the estimation of greenhouse gas emissions.

Electricity generation from food wastes and characteristics of organic matters in microbial fuel cell.

PubMed

Li, Hui; Tian, Yu; Zuo, Wei; Zhang, Jun; Pan, Xiaoyue; Li, Lipin; Su, Xinying

2016-04-01

The microbial fuel cell (MFC) was evaluated as an alternative way to recover electricity from canteen based food waste. Characteristics of the organics in food waste before and after the MFC treatment were analyzed to investigate how the organic matters were biodegraded and transformed during the MFC treatment. A maximum power density of 5.6W/m(3) and an average output voltage of 0.51V were obtained. During the MFC operation, the hydrophilic and acidic fractions were more readily degraded, compared to the neutral fractions. Additionally, aromatic compounds in the hydrophilic fraction were more preferentially removed than non-aromatic compounds. The MFC could easily remove the tryptophan protein-like substances in all fractions and aromatic proteins in hydrophilic and hydrophobic neutral fractions. Additionally, the hydrophobic amide-1 proteins and aliphatic components were readily hydrolyzed and biodegraded in the MFC. These findings may facilitate the pretreatment and posttreatment choices for MFC system fed with food waste. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Municipal solid waste generation in growing urban areas in Africa: current practices and relation to socioeconomic factors in Jimma, Ethiopia.

PubMed

Getahun, T; Mengistie, E; Haddis, A; Wasie, F; Alemayehu, E; Dadi, D; Van Gerven, T; Van der Bruggen, B

2012-10-01

As one of cities in the developing countries, a rapid population growth and industrial activities pose many environmental challenges for Jimma city, Ethiopia. One aspect of urban growth posing a threat on sustainable development is poor solid waste management, which results in environmental pollution. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the quantity, composition, sources of waste generated, their current disposal practices, and to recommend appropriate management technologies. The total waste generated daily in Jimma city was ca. 88,000 kg, and the average per capita generation rate was 0.55 ± 0.17 kg/capita/day. Eighty-seven percent of the waste was produced by households and 13% by institutions, and a negligible fraction (0.1%) was generated by street sweepings. During the rainy season, 40% more waste was generated than in the dry season because of the increased availability of agricultural food product. Further analysis showed that biodegradable organic waste constitutes 54% by weight with an average moisture content of 60% that falls within the required limits for composting. The nonbiodegradable components constitute 46% of which 30% of it was nonrecyclable material. Only 25% of the community uses municipal containers for disposal at the selected landfill site. Fifty-one percent of the households disposed their waste in individually chosen spots, whereas 22% burned their waste. Finally 2% of households use private waste collectors. The socioeconomic analysis showed that higher family income and educational status is associated more with private or municipal waste collection and less with the application of backyard or open dumping. These insights into generated waste and management practice in Jimma city allow making suggestions for improved collection, treatment, and disposal methods. A primary conclusion is that the biodegradable waste is a major fraction having suitable properties for recycling. As such an economic benefit can be obtained from this waste while avoiding the need for disposal.

Municipal solid waste management planning for Xiamen City, China: a stochastic fractional inventory-theory-based approach.

PubMed

Chen, Xiujuan; Huang, Guohe; Zhao, Shan; Cheng, Guanhui; Wu, Yinghui; Zhu, Hua

2017-11-01

In this study, a stochastic fractional inventory-theory-based waste management planning (SFIWP) model was developed and applied for supporting long-term planning of the municipal solid waste (MSW) management in Xiamen City, the special economic zone of Fujian Province, China. In the SFIWP model, the techniques of inventory model, stochastic linear fractional programming, and mixed-integer linear programming were integrated in a framework. Issues of waste inventory in MSW management system were solved, and the system efficiency was maximized through considering maximum net-diverted wastes under various constraint-violation risks. Decision alternatives for waste allocation and capacity expansion were also provided for MSW management planning in Xiamen. The obtained results showed that about 4.24 × 10 6  t of waste would be diverted from landfills when p i is 0.01, which accounted for 93% of waste in Xiamen City, and the waste diversion per unit of cost would be 26.327 × 10 3  t per $10 6 . The capacities of MSW management facilities including incinerators, composting facility, and landfills would be expanded due to increasing waste generation rate.

Newer Analytical and Fractionation Approaches for Detecting Endocrine-active Chemicals in CAFOs

EPA Science Inventory

Several labs in ORD and academic partners from different US universities are involved in an integrated, collaborative effort to better assess the magnitude and extent of the impact of estrogenic and androgenic hormones in waste from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) ...

Toward environmentally-benign utilization of nonmetallic fraction of waste printed circuit boards as modifier and precursor.

PubMed

Hadi, Pejman; Ning, Chao; Ouyang, Weiyi; Xu, Meng; Lin, Carol S K; McKay, Gordon

2015-01-01

Electronic waste, including printed circuit boards, is growing at an alarming rate due to the accelerated technological progress and the shorter lifespan of the electronic equipment. In the past decades, due to the lack of proper economic and environmentally-benign recycling technologies, a major fraction of e-waste generated was either destined to landfills or incinerated with the sole intention of its disposal disregarding the toxic nature of this waste. Recently, with the increasing public awareness over their environment and health issues and with the enaction of more stringent regulations, environmentally-benign recycling has been driven to be an alternative option partially replacing the traditional eco-unfriendly disposal methods. One of the most favorable green technologies has been the mechanical separation of the metallic and nonmetallic fraction of the waste printed circuit boards. Although metallic fraction, as the most profitable component, is used to generate the revenue of the separation process, the nonmetallic fraction (NMF) has been left isolated. Herein, the recent developments in the application of NMF have been comprehensively reviewed and an eco-friendly emerging usage of NMF as a value-added material for sustainable remediation has been introduced. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparison of various techniques for the extraction of umbelliferone and herniarin in Matricaria chamomilla processing fractions.

PubMed

Molnar, Maja; Mendešević, Nikolina; Šubarić, Drago; Banjari, Ines; Jokić, Stela

2017-08-05

Chamomile, a well-known medicinal plant, is a rich source of bioactive compounds, among which two coumarin derivatives, umbelliferone and herniarin, are often found in its extracts. Chamomile extracts have found a different uses in cosmetic industry, as well as umbelliferone itself, which is, due to its strong absorption of UV light, usually added to sunscreens, while herniarin (7-methoxycoumarin) is also known for its biological activity. Therefore, chamomile extracts with certain herniarin and umbelliferone content could be of interest for application in pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. The aim of this study was to compare the extracts of different chamomile fractions (unprocessed chamomile flowers first class, processed chamomile flowers first class, pulvis and processing waste) and to identify the best material and method of extraction to obtain herniarin and umbelliferone. Various extraction techniques such as soxhlet, hydrodistillation, maceration and supercritical CO 2 extraction were used in this study. Umbelliferone and herniarin content was determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The highest yield of umbelliferone (11.80 mg/100 g) and herniarin (82.79 mg/100 g) were obtained from chamomile processing waste using maceration technique with 50% aqueous ethanol solution and this extract has also proven to possess antioxidant activity (61.5% DPPH scavenging activity). This study shows a possibility of potential utilization of waste from chamomile processing applying different extraction techniques.

Abundance of (14)C in biomass fractions of wastes and solid recovered fuels.

PubMed

Fellner, Johann; Rechberger, Helmut

2009-05-01

In recent years thermal utilization of mixed wastes and solid recovered fuels has become of increasing importance in European waste management. Since wastes or solid recovered fuels are generally composed of fossil and biogenic materials, only part of the CO(2) emissions is accounted for in greenhouse gas inventories or emission trading schemes. A promising approach for determining this fraction is the so-called radiocarbon method. It is based on different ratios of the carbon isotopes (14)C and (12)C in fossil and biogenic fuels. Fossil fuels have zero radiocarbon, whereas biogenic materials are enriched in (14)C and reflect the (14)CO(2) abundance of the ambient atmosphere. Due to nuclear weapons tests in the past century, the radiocarbon content in the atmosphere has not been constant, which has resulted in a varying (14)C content of biogenic matter, depending on the period of growth. In the present paper (14)C contents of different biogenic waste fractions (e.g., kitchen waste, paper, wood), as well as mixtures of different wastes (household, bulky waste, and commercial waste), and solid recovered fuels are determined. The calculated (14)C content of the materials investigated ranges between 98 and 135pMC.

Combining woody biomass for combustion with green waste composting: Effect of removal of woody biomass on compost quality.

PubMed

Vandecasteele, Bart; Boogaerts, Christophe; Vandaele, Elke

2016-12-01

The question was tackled on how the green waste compost industry can optimally apply the available biomass resources for producing both bioenergy by combustion of the woody fraction, and high quality soil improvers as renewable sources of carbon and nutrients. Compost trials with removal of woody biomass before or after composting were run at 9 compost facilities during 3 seasons to include seasonal variability of feedstock. The project focused on the changes in feedstock and the effect on the end product characteristics (both compost and recovered woody biomass) of this woody biomass removal. The season of collection during the year clearly affected the biochemical and chemical characteristics of feedstock, woody biomass and compost. On one hand the effect of removal of the woody fraction before composting did not significantly affect compost quality when compared to the scenario where the woody biomass was sieved from the compost at the end of the composting process. On the other hand, quality of the woody biomass was not strongly affected by extraction before or after composting. The holocellulose:lignin ratio was used in this study as an indicator for (a) the decomposition potential of the feedstock mixture and (b) to assess the stability of the composts at the end of the process. Higher microbial activity in green waste composts (indicated by higher oxygen consumption) and thus a lower compost stability resulted in higher N immobilization in the compost. Removal of woody biomass from the green waste before composting did not negatively affect the compost quality when more intensive composting was applied. The effect of removal of the woody fraction on the characteristics of the green waste feedstock and the extracted woody biomass is depending on the season of collection. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Modelling the anaerobic digestion of solid organic waste - Substrate characterisation method for ADM1 using a combined biochemical and kinetic parameter estimation approach.

PubMed

Poggio, D; Walker, M; Nimmo, W; Ma, L; Pourkashanian, M

2016-07-01

This work proposes a novel and rigorous substrate characterisation methodology to be used with ADM1 to simulate the anaerobic digestion of solid organic waste. The proposed method uses data from both direct substrate analysis and the methane production from laboratory scale anaerobic digestion experiments and involves assessment of four substrate fractionation models. The models partition the organic matter into a mixture of particulate and soluble fractions with the decision on the most suitable model being made on quality of fit between experimental and simulated data and the uncertainty of the calibrated parameters. The method was tested using samples of domestic green and food waste and using experimental data from both short batch tests and longer semi-continuous trials. The results showed that in general an increased fractionation model complexity led to better fit but with increased uncertainty. When using batch test data the most suitable model for green waste included one particulate and one soluble fraction, whereas for food waste two particulate fractions were needed. With richer semi-continuous datasets, the parameter estimation resulted in less uncertainty therefore allowing the description of the substrate with a more complex model. The resulting substrate characterisations and fractionation models obtained from batch test data, for both waste samples, were used to validate the method using semi-continuous experimental data and showed good prediction of methane production, biogas composition, total and volatile solids, ammonia and alkalinity. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Enhanced diesel fuel fraction from waste high-density polyethylene and heavy gas oil pyrolysis using factorial design methodology.

PubMed

Joppert, Ney; da Silva, Alexsandro Araujo; da Costa Marques, Mônica Regina

2015-02-01

Factorial Design Methodology (FDM) was developed to enhance diesel fuel fraction (C9-C23) from waste high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and Heavy Gas Oil (HGO) through co-pyrolysis. FDM was used for optimization of the following reaction parameters: temperature, catalyst and HDPE amounts. The HGO amount was constant (2.00 g) in all experiments. The model optimum conditions were determined to be temperature of 550 °C, HDPE = 0.20 g and no FCC catalyst. Under such conditions, 94% of pyrolytic oil was recovered, of which diesel fuel fraction was 93% (87% diesel fuel fraction yield), no residue was produced and 6% of noncondensable gaseous/volatile fraction was obtained. Seeking to reduce the cost due to high process temperatures, the impact of using higher catalyst content (25%) with a lower temperature (500 °C) was investigated. Under these conditions, 88% of pyrolytic oil was recovered (diesel fuel fraction yield was also 87%) as well as 12% of the noncondensable gaseous/volatile fraction. No waste was produced in these conditions, being an environmentally friendly approach for recycling the waste plastic. This paper demonstrated the usefulness of using FDM to predict and to optimize diesel fuel fraction yield with a great reduction in the number of experiments. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Forecasting municipal solid waste generation using prognostic tools and regression analysis.

PubMed

Ghinea, Cristina; Drăgoi, Elena Niculina; Comăniţă, Elena-Diana; Gavrilescu, Marius; Câmpean, Teofil; Curteanu, Silvia; Gavrilescu, Maria

2016-11-01

For an adequate planning of waste management systems the accurate forecast of waste generation is an essential step, since various factors can affect waste trends. The application of predictive and prognosis models are useful tools, as reliable support for decision making processes. In this paper some indicators such as: number of residents, population age, urban life expectancy, total municipal solid waste were used as input variables in prognostic models in order to predict the amount of solid waste fractions. We applied Waste Prognostic Tool, regression analysis and time series analysis to forecast municipal solid waste generation and composition by considering the Iasi Romania case study. Regression equations were determined for six solid waste fractions (paper, plastic, metal, glass, biodegradable and other waste). Accuracy Measures were calculated and the results showed that S-curve trend model is the most suitable for municipal solid waste (MSW) prediction. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fraction distribution and risk assessment of heavy metals in waste clay sediment discharged through the phosphate beneficiation process in Jordan.

PubMed

Al-Hwaiti, Mohammad Salem; Brumsack, Hans Jurgen; Schnetger, Bernhard

2015-07-01

Heavy metal contamination of clay waste through the phosphate beneficiation process is a serious problem faced by scientists and regulators worldwide. Through the beneficiation process, heavy metals naturally present in the phosphate rocks became concentrated in the clay waste. This study evaluated the concentration of heavy metals and their fractions in the clay waste in order to assess the risk of environmental contamination. A five-step sequential extraction method, the risk assessment code (RAC), effects range low (ERL), effects range medium (ERM), the lowest effect level (LEL), the severe effect level (SEL), the redistribution index (U tf), the reduced partition index (I), residual partition index (I R), and the Nemerow multi-factor index (PC) were used to assess for clay waste contamination. Heavy metals were analyzed using high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HR-ICP-MS) and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Correlation analyses were carried out to better understand the relationships between the chemical characteristics and the contents of the different phase fractions. Concentrations of Cd and Cu confirmed that both were bound to the exchangeable fraction (F1) and the carbonate fraction (F2), presenting higher mobility, whereas Pb was most abundant in the Fe-Mn oxide fraction (F3) and organic matter fraction (F4). The residual fraction (F5) contained the highest concentrations (>60%) of As, Cr, Mo, V, and Zn, with lower mobility. Application of the RAC index showed that Cd and Cu should be considered a moderate risk, whereas As, Cr, Mo, Pb, and Zn presented a low risk. Cadmium and Cu contents in mobile fractions F1 and F2 were higher than ERL but lower than ERM. On the other hand, As, Pb, and Zn contents of mobile fractions F1 and F2 were lower than ERL and ERM guideline values. Moreover, total Pb concentrations in the clay waste were below the lowest effect level (LEL) threshold value period, Cr and Zn values in the clay waste were determined to have exceeded the severe effect level (SEL) limit values, whereas Cd and Cu level ranges between LEL and SEL indicate moderate contamination. I R values of heavy metals in the clay waste confirmed that Cd and Cu were bound to the exchangeable and carbonate fractions and presented higher mobility, whereas As, Cr, Mo, Pb, V, and Zn were bound to organic or residual fractions and consequently exhibit lower mobility. A Nemerow multi-factor index revealed that the mine site contains high levels of Cd, Cu, V, and Zn pollution. As and Cr were found at a moderate level of contamination, whereas Pb was present at a safe level of contamination. The order of the comprehensive contamination indices was Cd > Cu > Mo > Zn > V > Cr > As > Pb, indicating that the assessment of clay waste, especially with Cd and Cu, should be undertaken to control heavy metal contamination in adjacent urban and mine areas at the Eshidiya mines.

Gravitational sedimentation of flocculated waste activated sludge.

PubMed

Chu, C P; Lee, D J; Tay, J H

2003-01-01

The sedimentation characteristics of flocculated wastewater sludge have not been satisfactorily explored using the non-destructive techniques, partially owing to the rather low solid content (ca. 1-2%) commonly noted in the biological sediments. This paper investigated, for the first time, the spatial-temporal gravitational settling characteristics of original and polyelectrolyte flocculated waste activated sludge using Computerized Axial Tomography Scanner. The waste activated sludge possessed a distinct settling characteristic from the kaolin slurries. The waste activated sludges settled more slowly and reached a lower solid fraction in the final sediment than the latter. Flocculation markedly enhanced the settleability of both sludges. Although the maximum achievable solid contents for the kaolin slurries were reduced, flocculation had little effects on the activated sludge. The purely plastic rheological model by Buscall and White (J Chem Soc Faraday Trans 1(83) (1987) 873) interpreted the consolidating sediment data, while the purely elastic model by Tiller and Leu (J. Chin. Inst. Chem. Eng. 11 (1980) 61) described the final equilibrated sediment. Flocculation produced lower yield stress during transient settling, thereby resulting in the more easily consolidated sludge than the original sample. Meanwhile, the flocculated activated sludge was stiffer in the final sediment than in the original sample. The data reported herein are valuable to the theories development for clarifier design and operation.

Evaluating the biogas potential of the dry fraction from pretreatment of food waste from households.

PubMed

Murto, Marika; Björnsson, Lovisa; Rosqvist, Håkan; Bohn, Irene

2013-05-01

At the waste handling company NSR, Helsingborg, Sweden, the food waste fraction of source separated municipal solid waste is pretreated to obtain a liquid fraction, which is used for biogas production, and a dry fraction, which is at present incinerated. This pretreatment and separation is performed to remove impurities, however also some of the organic material is removed. The possibility of realising the methane potential of the dry fraction through batch-wise dry anaerobic digestion was investigated. The anaerobic digestion technique used was a two-stage process consisting of a static leach bed reactor and a methane reactor. Treatment of the dry fraction alone and in a mixture with structural material was tested to investigate the effect on the porosity of the leach bed. A tracer experiment was carried out to investigate the liquid flow through the leach beds, and this method proved useful in demonstrating a more homogenous flow through the leach bed when structural material was added. Addition of structural material to the dry fraction was needed to achieve a functional digestion process. A methane yield of 98 m3/ton was obtained from the dry fraction mixed with structural material after 76 days of digestion. This was in the same range as obtained in the laboratory scale biochemical methane potential test, showing that it was possible to extract the organic content in the dry fraction in this type of dry digestion system for the production of methane. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The influence of metal speciation in combustion waste on the efficiency of Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, Ni and Cr bioleaching in a mixed culture of sulfur-oxidizing and biosurfactant-producing bacteria.

PubMed

Karwowska, Ewa; Wojtkowska, Małgorzata; Andrzejewska, Dorota

2015-12-15

Metal leachability from ash and combustion slag is related to the physico-chemical properties, including their speciation in the waste. Metals speciation is an important factor that influences the efficiency of metal bioleaching from combustion wastes in a mixed culture of acidophilic and biosurfactant-producing bacteria. It was observed that individual metals tended to occur in different fractions, which reflects their susceptibility to bioleaching. Cr and Ni were readily removed from wastes when present with a high fraction bound to carbonates. Cd and Pb where not effectively bioleached when present in high amounts in a fraction bound to organic matter. The best bioleaching results were obtained for power plant slag, which had a high metal content in the exchangeable, bound to carbonates and bound to Fe and Mg oxides fractions- the metal recovery percentage for Zn, Cu and Ni from this waste exceeded 90%. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Fractionation study in bioleached metallurgy wastes using six-step sequential extraction.

PubMed

Krasnodebska-Ostrega, Beata; Pałdyna, Joanna; Kowalska, Joanna; Jedynak, Łukasz; Golimowski, Jerzy

2009-08-15

The stored metallurgy wastes contain residues from ore processing operations that are characterized by relatively high concentrations of heavy metals. The bioleaching process makes use of bacteria to recover elements from industrial wastes and to decrease potential risk of environmental contamination. Wastes were treated by solutions containing bacteria. In this work, the optimized six-stage sequential extraction procedure was applied for the fractionation of Ni, Cr, Fe, Mn, Cu and Zn in iron-nickel metallurgy wastes deposited in Southern Poland (Szklary). Fractionation and total concentrations of elements in wastes before and after various bioleaching treatments were studied. Analyses of the extracts were performed by ICP-MS and FAAS. To achieve the most effective bioleaching of Zn, Cr, Ni, Cu, Mn, Fe the usage of both autotrophic and heterotrophic bacteria in sequence, combined with flushing of the residue after bioleaching is required. 80-100% of total metal concentrations were mobilized after the proposed treatment. Wastes treated according to this procedure could be deposited without any risk of environmental contamination and additionally the metals could be recovered for industrial purposes.

Partitioning of Inorganic Elements Consumed by Humans Between the Various Fractions of Human Wastes: A Review and Analysis of Existing Literature

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wignarajah, K.; Fisher, John W.; Pisharody, Suresh A.

2003-01-01

The nutritional requirements of humans and astronauts are well defined and show consistency, but the same cannot be said of human wastes. Nutrients taken up by humans can be considered to fall into two major categories - organic and inorganic fractions. Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur are elements that are associated with the organic fraction. These elements are taken up in large amounts by humans and when metabolized released in wastes often in gaseous forms or as water. On the other hand, a large number of the elements are simply exchanged and can be accounted for in the liquid and solid wastes of humans. These elements fall into three major categories - cationic macroelements (e.g. Ca, K, Na, Mg and Si), anionic macroelements (e.g P, S and Cl), 17 essential microelements, (e.g. Fe, Mn, Cr, Co, Cu, Zn, Se and Sr). When provided in the recommended concentrations to an adult human, these elements should not normally accumulate in humans, but will be excreted in the different human wastes. Knowledge of the partitioning of these elements between the different human waste fractions is fundamental to understanding (a) how these elements can be recovered for reuse in space habitats, and (b) to developing the processors for waste management. The current literature is exhaustive but sometimes also conflicting. We have used the existing knowledge of nutrition and waste from medical literature and NASA documentation to develop a consensus to typify and chemically characterize the various human wastes. The partitioning of these elements has been developed into a functional model.

The impact of regulatory compliance behavior on hazardous waste generation in European private healthcare facilities.

PubMed

Botelho, Anabela

2013-10-01

This study empirically evaluates whether the increasingly large numbers of private outpatient healthcare facilities (HCFs) within the European Union (EU) countries comply with the existing European waste legislation, and whether compliance with such legislation affects the fraction of healthcare waste (HCW) classified as hazardous. To that end, this study uses data collected by a large survey of more than 700 small private HCFs distributed throughout Portugal, a full member of the EU since 1986, where 50% of outpatient care is currently dominated by private operators. The collected data are then used to estimate a hurdle model, i.e. a statistical specification in which there are two processes: one is the process by which some HCFs generate zero or some positive fraction of hazardous HCW, and another is the process by which HCFs generate a specific positive fraction of hazardous HCW conditional on producing any. Taken together, the results show that although compliance with the law is far from ideal, it is the strongest factor influencing hazardous waste generation. In particular, it is found that higher compliance has a small and insignificant effect on the probability of generating (or reporting) positive amounts of hazardous waste, but it does have a large and significant effect on the fraction of hazardous waste produced, conditional on producing any, with a unit increase in the compliance rate leading to an estimated decrease in the fraction of hazardous HCW by 16.3 percentage points.

Optimising the biogas production from leather fleshing waste by co-digestion with MSW.

PubMed

Shanmugam, P; Horan, N J

2009-09-01

Waste from the leather industry, known as limed leather fleshing (LF), has a low C:N (3.2) and an alkaline pH of 11.4. This is a major disadvantage for anaerobic digestion due to ammonia toxicity for methanogenesis. This study describes co-digestion of LF with biodegradable fraction of municipal solids waste optimised over a range of C:N and pH to minimise ammonia and to maximise biogas yield. The optimum conditions were found with a blend that provided C:N of 15 and pH of 6.5 and the cumulative biogas yield increased from 560 mL using LF fraction alone, to 6518 mL with optimum blend. At higher pH of 8.5, unionised ammonia was high (2473 mg L(-1)) coincided with poor biogas yield (47 m Ld(-1)) that confirms ammonia toxicity. By contrast at a pH of 4.5 the ammonia was minimum (510 mg L(-1)), but high VFA (26,803 mg L(-1)) inhibited the methanogens. Biomass activity measured using ATP correlated well with biogas yield as reported previously.

Chemical fractionation and health risk assessment of particulate matter-bound metals in Pune, India.

PubMed

Jan, Rohi; Roy, Ritwika; Yadav, Suman; Satsangi, P Gursumeeran

2018-02-01

The present study deals with the assessment of sequential extraction of particulate matter (PM)-bound metals and the potential health risks associated with them in a growing metropolitan city (Pune) of India. The average mass concentration of both PM 2.5-10 and PM 2.5 exceeded the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Significant seasonal variation in mass concentration was found for both size fractions of PM with higher values in winter season and lower in monsoon. Chemical species of the studied trace metals in PM exhibited significant differences, due to difference in sources of pollution. Metals such as Cd, Pb, and Cr in both size fractions and Zn and Co in fine fraction were more efficiently extracted in mobile fractions showing their mobile nature while Ni and Fe showed reduced mobility. Fe showed the highest concentrations among all the analyzed elements in both coarse (PM 2.5-10 ) and fine (PM 2.5 ) PM, while Cd showed least concentration in both size fractions. PCA identified industrial emissions, vehicular activity, coal combustion, diesel exhaust, waste incineration, electronic waste processing, constructional activities, soil, and road dust as probable contributors responsible for the metallic fraction of PM. All the metals showed varying contamination in PM samples. The contamination was higher for fine particles than coarse ones. The average global contamination factor was found to be 27.0-34.3 in coarse and fine PM, respectively. The hazard quotient (HQ) estimated for Cd, Co, and Ni (both total and easily accessible concentrations) exceeded the safe level (HQ = 1), indicating that these metals would result in non-carcinogenic health effects to the exposed population. The HQ ranged from 9.1 × 10 -5 for Cu (coarse) to 8.3 for Ni (fine) PM. The cancer risk for Cd, Ni, and Cr in both sized PM were much higher than the acceptable limits of USEPA.

In Vivo antiplatelet activity aggregation assay of bromelain fractionate by ethanol from extract pineapple core (Ananas comosus [l.] merr.)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Musfiroh, F. F.; Setiasih, S.; Handayani, S.; Hudiyono, S.; Ilyas, N. M.

2018-01-01

Processed fruit from pineapple is one of largest commodities tropical fruit production in Indonesia and will bring the waste from the skin and core. This study aims to isolate bromelain from the pineapple core (Ananas comusus) are purified by fractionation using ethanol and continued by activity test as an antiplatelets agent by in vivo method using white mice male ddy type with acetosal as positive control. Fractionation of crude enzyme bromelain with ethanol produces highest specific activity on ethanol 30-60% fraction (fraction 2) 3.107 Unit/mg and the protein content 61.25 mg with the degree of purity of 155 times compared to crude enzyme. Antiplatelet aggregation tests from in vivo method shows that faction of bromelain with doses 70 μg/KgBW, 140 μg/KgBW, and 210 μg/KgBW can increase a meaningful bleeding time. The highest percentage of increase shown by the isolate at a dose of 210 μg/KgBW in the amount of 515.10 ± 182.23%, when compared to aspirin (231.20 ± 140.66), the value is relatively higher.

Life cycle assessment modelling of waste-to-energy incineration in Spain and Portugal.

PubMed

Margallo, M; Aldaco, R; Irabien, A; Carrillo, V; Fischer, M; Bala, A; Fullana, P

2014-06-01

In recent years, waste management systems have been evaluated using a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach. A main shortcoming of prior studies was the focus on a mixture of waste with different characteristics. The estimation of emissions and consumptions associated with each waste fraction in these studies presented allocation problems. Waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration is a clear example in which municipal solid waste (MSW), comprising many types of materials, is processed to produce several outputs. This paper investigates an approach to better understand incineration processes in Spain and Portugal by applying a multi-input/output allocation model. The application of this model enabled predictions of WTE inputs and outputs, including the consumption of ancillary materials and combustibles, air emissions, solid wastes, and the energy produced during the combustion of each waste fraction. © The Author(s) 2014.

Enhanced LAW Glass Correlation - Phase 1

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Muller, Isabelle S.; Matlack, Keith S.; Pegg, Ian L.

About 50 million gallons of high-level mixed waste is currently stored in underground tanks at the United States Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Hanford site in the State of Washington. The Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) will provide DOE’s Office of River Protection (ORP) with a means of treating this waste by vitrification for subsequent disposal. The tank waste will be separated into low- and high-activity waste fractions, which will then be vitrified respectively into Immobilized Low Activity Waste (ILAW) and Immobilized High Level Waste (IHLW) products. The ILAW product will be disposed in an engineered facility onmore » the Hanford site while the IHLW product is designed for acceptance into a national deep geological disposal facility for high-level nuclear waste. The ILAW and IHLW products must meet a variety of requirements with respect to protection of the environment before they can be accepted for disposal. Acceptable glass formulations for vitrification of Hanford low activity waste (LAW) must meet a variety of product quality, processability, and waste loading requirements. To this end, The Vitreous State Laboratory (VSL) at The Catholic University of America (CUA) developed and tested a number of glass formulations during Part A, Part B1 and Part B2 of the WTP development program. The testing resulted in the selection of target glass compositions for the processing of eight of the Phase I LAW tanks. The selected glass compositions were tested at the crucible scale to confirm their compliance with ILAW performance requirements. Duramelter 100 (DM100) and LAW Pilot Melter tests were then conducted to demonstrate the viability of these glass compositions for LAW vitrification at high processing rates.« less

Physical and chemical characterization of fly ashes from Swiss waste incineration plants and determination of the ash fraction in the nanometer range.

PubMed

Buha, Jelena; Mueller, Nicole; Nowack, Bernd; Ulrich, Andrea; Losert, Sabrina; Wang, Jing

2014-05-06

Waste incineration had been identified as an important source of ultrafine air pollutants resulting in elaborated treatment systems for exhaust air. Nowadays, these systems are able to remove almost all ultrafine particles. However, the fate of ultrafine particles caught in the filters has received little attention so far. Based on the use of engineered nano-objects (ENO) and their transfer into the waste stream, it can be expected that not only combustion generated nanoparticles are found in fly ashes but that many ENO finally end up in this matrix. A more detailed characterization of the nanoparticulate fraction of fly ashes is therefore needed. Physical and chemical characterizations were performed for fly ashes from five selected waste incineration plants (WIPs) with different input materials such as municipal waste, wood and sewage sludge. The intrinsic densities of the fly ashes were in the range of 2.7-3.2 g/cm(3). When the fly ash particle became airborne, the effective density depended on the particle size, increasing from 0.7-0.8 g/cm(3) for 100-150 nm to 2 g/cm(3) for 350-500 nm. The fly ash samples were fractionated at 2 μm, yielding fine fractions (<2 μm) and coarse fractions (>2 μm). The size distributions of the fine fractions in the airborne form were further characterized, which allowed calculation of the percentage of the fly ash particles below 100 nm. We found the highest mass-based percentage was about 0.07%; the number percentage in the fine fraction was in the range of 4.8% to 22%. Comparison with modeling results showed that ENO may constitute a considerable part of the fly ash particles below 100 nm. Chemical analyses showed that for the municipal waste samples Ca and Al were present in higher concentrations in the coarse fraction; for the mixed wood and sludge sample the P concentration was higher in the coarse fraction; for most other samples and elements they were enriched in the fine fraction. Electron microscopic images of fly ashes showed a wide range of particle sizes, from nanometer range to micrometer range. Many aggregated particles were observed, demonstrating that ENO, bulk-derived nano-objects and combustion-generated nano-objects can form aggregates in the incineration process.

Forecasting the Amount of Waste-Sewage Water Discharged into the Yangtze River Basin Based on the Optimal Fractional Order Grey Model

PubMed Central

Li, Shuliang; Meng, Wei; Xie, Yufeng

2017-01-01

With the rapid development of the Yangtze River economic belt, the amount of waste-sewage water discharged into the Yangtze River basin increases sharply year by year, which has impeded the sustainable development of the Yangtze River basin. The water security along the Yangtze River basin is very important for China, It is something about water security of roughly one-third of China’s population and the sustainable development of the 19 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions among the Yangtze River basin. Therefore, a scientific prediction of the amount of waste-sewage water discharged into Yangtze River basin has a positive significance on sustainable development of industry belt along with Yangtze River basin. This paper builds the fractional DWSGM (1,1) (DWSGM (1,1) model is short for Discharge amount of Waste Sewage Grey Model for one order equation and one variable) model based on the fractional accumulating generation operator and fractional reducing operator, and calculates the optimal order of “r” by using particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm for solving the minimum average relative simulation error. Meanwhile, the simulation performance of DWSGM (1,1) model with the optimal fractional order is tested by comparing the simulation results of grey prediction models with different orders. Finally, the optimal fractional order DWSGM (1,1) grey model is applied to predict the amount of waste-sewage water discharged into the Yangtze River basin, and corresponding countermeasures and suggestions are put forward through analyzing and comparing the prediction results. This paper has positive significance on enriching the fractional order modeling method of the grey system. PMID:29295517

Forecasting the Amount of Waste-Sewage Water Discharged into the Yangtze River Basin Based on the Optimal Fractional Order Grey Model.

PubMed

Li, Shuliang; Meng, Wei; Xie, Yufeng

2017-12-23

With the rapid development of the Yangtze River economic belt, the amount of waste-sewage water discharged into the Yangtze River basin increases sharply year by year, which has impeded the sustainable development of the Yangtze River basin. The water security along the Yangtze River basin is very important for China, It is something aboutwater security of roughly one-third of China's population and the sustainable development of the 19 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions among the Yangtze River basin. Therefore, a scientific prediction of the amount of waste-sewage water discharged into Yangtze River basin has a positive significance on sustainable development of industry belt along with Yangtze River basin. This paper builds the fractional DWSGM(1,1)(DWSGM(1,1) model is short for Discharge amount of Waste Sewage Grey Model for one order equation and one variable) model based on the fractional accumulating generation operator and fractional reducing operator, and calculates the optimal order of "r" by using particle swarm optimization(PSO)algorithm for solving the minimum average relative simulation error. Meanwhile, the simulation performance of DWSGM(1,1)model with the optimal fractional order is tested by comparing the simulation results of grey prediction models with different orders. Finally, the optimal fractional order DWSGM(1,1)grey model is applied to predict the amount of waste-sewage water discharged into the Yangtze River basin, and corresponding countermeasures and suggestions are put forward through analyzing and comparing the prediction results. This paper has positive significance on enriching the fractional order modeling method of the grey system.

40 CFR 98.463 - Calculating GHG emissions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... generation using Equation TT-1 of this section. ER29NO11.004 Where: GCH4 = Modeled methane generation in... = Methane correction factor (fraction). Use the default value of 1 unless there is active aeration of waste... paragraphs (a)(2)(ii)(A) and (B) of this section when historical production or processing data are available...

40 CFR 98.463 - Calculating GHG emissions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... generation using Equation TT-1 of this section. ER29NO11.004 Where: GCH4 = Modeled methane generation in... = Methane correction factor (fraction). Use the default value of 1 unless there is active aeration of waste... paragraphs (a)(2)(ii)(A) and (B) of this section when historical production or processing data are available...

Investigating the Partitioning of Inorganic Elements Consumed by Humans between the Various Fractions of Human Wastes: An Alternative Approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wignarajah, Kanapathipillai; Pisharody, Suresh; Fisher, John W.

2003-01-01

The elemental composition of food consumed by astronauts is well defined. The major elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur are taken up in large amounts and these are often associated with the organic fraction (carbohydrates, proteins, fats etc) of human tissue. On the other hand, a number of the elements are located in the extracellular fluids and can be accounted for in the liquid and solid waste fraction of humans. These elements fall into three major categories - cationic macroelements (e.g. Ca, K, Na, Mg and Si), anionic macroelements (e.g. P, S and Cl and 17 essential microelements, (e.g. Fe, Mn, Cr, Co, Cu, Zn, Se and Sr). When provided in the recommended concentrations to an adult healthy human, these elements should not normally accumulate in humans and will eventually be excreted in the different human wastes. Knowledge of the partitioning of these elements between the different human waste fractions is important in understanding (a) developing waste separation technologies, (b) decision-making on how these elements can be recovered for reuse in space habitats, and (c) to developing the processors for waste management. Though considerable literature exists on these elements, there is a lack of understanding and often conflicting data. Two major reasons for these problems include the lack of controlled experimental protocols and the inherently large variations between human subjects (Parker and Gallagher, 1988). We have used the existing knowledge of human nutrition and waste from the available literature and NASA documentation to build towards a consensus to typify and chemically characterize the various human wastes. It is our belief, that this could be a building block towards integrating a human life support and waste processing in a closed system.

Hunting for valuables from landfills and assessing their market opportunities A case study with Kudjape landfill in Estonia.

PubMed

Bhatnagar, Amit; Kaczala, Fabio; Burlakovs, Juris; Kriipsalu, Mait; Hogland, Marika; Hogland, William

2017-06-01

Landfill mining is an alternative technology that merges the ideas of material recycling and sustainable waste management. This paper reports a case study to estimate the value of landfilled materials and their respective market opportunities, based on a full-scale landfill mining project in Estonia. During the project, a dump site (Kudjape, Estonia) was excavated with the main objectives of extracting soil-like final cover material with the function of methane degradation. In total, about 57,777 m 3 of waste was processed, particularly the uppermost 10-year layer of waste. Manual sorting was performed in four test pits to determine the detailed composition of wastes. 11,610 kg of waste was screened on site, resulting in fine (<40 mm) and coarse (>40 mm) fractions with the share of 54% and 46%, respectively. Some portion of the fine fraction was sieved further to obtain a very fine grained fraction of <10 mm and analyzed for its potential for metals recovery. The average chemical composition of the <10 mm soil-like fraction suggests that it offers opportunities for metal (Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn) extraction and recovery. The findings from this study highlight the importance of implementing best available site-specific technologies for on-site separation up to 10 mm grain size, and the importance of developing and implementing innovative extraction methods for materials recovery from soil-like fractions.

Stimulation of the anaerobic digestion of the dry organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) with carbon-based conductive materials.

PubMed

Dang, Yan; Sun, Dezhi; Woodard, Trevor L; Wang, Li-Ying; Nevin, Kelly P; Holmes, Dawn E

2017-08-01

Growth of bacterial and archaeal species capable of interspecies electron exchange was stimulated by addition of conductive materials (carbon cloth or granular activated carbon (GAC)) to anaerobic digesters treating dog food (a substitute for the dry-organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW)). Methane production (772-1428mmol vs <80mmol), volatile solids removal (78%-81% vs 54%-64%) and COD removal efficiencies (∼80% vs 20%-30%) were all significantly higher in reactors amended with GAC or carbon cloth than controls. OFMSW degradation was also significantly accelerated and VFA concentrations were substantially lower in reactors amended with conductive materials. These results suggest that both conductive materials (carbon cloth and GAC) can promote conversion of OFMSW to methane even in the presence of extremely high VFA concentrations (∼500mM). Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Municipal solid waste characterization and quantification as a measure towards effective waste management in Ghana.

PubMed

Miezah, Kodwo; Obiri-Danso, Kwasi; Kádár, Zsófia; Fei-Baffoe, Bernard; Mensah, Moses Y

2015-12-01

Reliable national data on waste generation and composition that will inform effective planning on waste management in Ghana is absent. To help obtain this data on a regional basis, selected households in each region were recruited to obtain data on rate of waste generation, physical composition of waste, sorting and separation efficiency and per capita of waste. Results show that rate of waste generation in Ghana was 0.47 kg/person/day, which translates into about 12,710 tons of waste per day per the current population of 27,043,093. Nationally, biodegradable waste (organics and papers) was 0.318 kg/person/day and non-biodegradable or recyclables (metals, glass, textiles, leather and rubbers) was 0.096 kg/person/day. Inert and miscellaneous waste was 0.055 kg/person/day. The average household waste generation rate among the metropolitan cities, except Tamale, was high, 0.72 kg/person/day. Metropolises generated higher waste (average 0.63 kg/person/day) than the municipalities (0.40 kg/person/day) and the least in the districts (0.28 kg/person/day) which are less developed. The waste generation rate also varied across geographical locations, the coastal and forest zones generated higher waste than the northern savanna zone. Waste composition was 61% organics, 14% plastics, 6% inert, 5% miscellaneous, 5% paper, 3% metals, 3% glass, 1% leather and rubber, and 1% textiles. However, organics and plastics, the two major fractions of the household waste varied considerably across the geographical areas. In the coastal zone, the organic waste fraction was highest but decreased through the forest zone towards the northern savanna. However, through the same zones towards the north, plastic waste rather increased in percentage fraction. Households did separate their waste effectively averaging 80%. However, in terms of separating into the bin marked biodegradables, 84% effectiveness was obtained whiles 76% effectiveness for sorting into the bin labeled other waste was achieved. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Areas on which to focus when seeking to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of commercial waste management. A case study of a hypermarket, Finland.

PubMed

Hupponen, M; Grönman, K; Horttanainen, M

2018-03-22

This study focuses on commercial waste, which has received less attention than household waste in regards to greenhouse gas emission research. First, the global warming potential (GWP) of commercial waste management was calculated. Second, the impacts of different waste fractions and the processes of waste management were recognised. Third, the key areas on which to focus when aiming to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of commercial waste management were determined. This study was conducted on the waste generated by a real hypermarket in South-East Finland and included eight different waste fractions. The waste treatment plants were selected based on the actual situation. Three different scenarios were employed to evaluate the environmental impact of managing mixed waste: landfilling, combustion and more accurate source separation. The GaBi software and impact assessment methodology CML 2001 were used to perform a life cycle assessment of the environmental impacts associated with the waste management. The results indicated that the total GWP of commercial waste management could be reduced by 93% by directing the mixed waste to combustion instead of landfill. A further 5% GWP reduction could be achieved by more accurate source separation of the mixed waste. Utilisation of energy waste had the most significant influence (41-52%) on the total GWP (-880 to -860 kgCO 2 -eq./t), followed by landfilling of mixed waste (influence 15-23% on the total GWP, 430 kgCO 2 -eq./t), recycling polyethylene (PE) plastic (influence 18-21% on the total GWP, -1800 kgCO 2 -eq./t) and recycling cardboard (influence 11-13% on the total GWP, 51 kgCO 2 -eq./t). A key focus should be placed on treatment processes and substitutions, especially in terms of substitutions of energy waste and PE plastic. This study also clarified the importance of sorting PE plastic, even though the share of this waste fraction was not substantial. The results of this paper were compared to those of previous studies. The output of this analysis indicated that the total GWP can be significantly reduced by identifying an alternative recycling or incineration location for cardboard where it is used to substitute virgin material or replace fossil fuels respectively. In conclusion, it is essential to note that waste management companies have a notable influence on the emissions of commercial waste management because they choose the places at which the waste fractions are treated and utilised. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Characterization of the non-metal fraction of the processed waste printed circuit boards.

PubMed

Kumar, Amit; Holuszko, Maria E; Janke, Travis

2018-05-01

Electronic waste is one the fastest growing waste streams in the world and waste printed circuit boards (PCB) are the most valuable part of this stream due to the presence of gold, silver, copper, and palladium. The metal present in PCBs is mostly recovered for the market value whereas the nonmetal fractions are often ignored. This research explored the characteristics of the non-metal fraction (NMF) obtained after the processing of milled waste PCBs with a focus on responsible end-of-life solutions, in the form of non-hazardous landfilling or incineration. The NMF was characterized using sizing, assaying, loss on ignition, calorific value measurement, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The result showed that the metal content in the NMF increased with decrease in the particle size for most of the metals except antimony and the result from loss on ignition (LOI) also showed that over 50% of the coarser fraction represented organic matter compared to less than 30% for the finest fraction. The study also showed that after the recovery of metals from the waste PCBs, landfill leaching for most of the metal is reduced below the environmental limits, with lead being the only exception. The lead leachate concentration of 18 mg/L was observed, which requires further treatment prior to landfilling. With an energy value of 16 GJ/t, the NMF could provide high energy recovery if incinerated but 194 mg/kg of hazardous flame retardants present in the NMF might be released if the combustion process is not closely monitored. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mass, energy and material balances of SRF production process. Part 3: solid recovered fuel produced from municipal solid waste.

PubMed

Nasrullah, Muhammad; Vainikka, Pasi; Hannula, Janne; Hurme, Markku; Kärki, Janne

2015-02-01

This is the third and final part of the three-part article written to describe the mass, energy and material balances of the solid recovered fuel production process produced from various types of waste streams through mechanical treatment. This article focused the production of solid recovered fuel from municipal solid waste. The stream of municipal solid waste used here as an input waste material to produce solid recovered fuel is energy waste collected from households of municipality. This article presents the mass, energy and material balances of the solid recovered fuel production process. These balances are based on the proximate as well as the ultimate analysis and the composition determination of various streams of material produced in a solid recovered fuel production plant. All the process streams are sampled and treated according to CEN standard methods for solid recovered fuel. The results of the mass balance of the solid recovered fuel production process showed that 72% of the input waste material was recovered in the form of solid recovered fuel; 2.6% as ferrous metal, 0.4% as non-ferrous metal, 11% was sorted as rejects material, 12% as fine faction and 2% as heavy fraction. The energy balance of the solid recovered fuel production process showed that 86% of the total input energy content of input waste material was recovered in the form of solid recovered fuel. The remaining percentage (14%) of the input energy was split into the streams of reject material, fine fraction and heavy fraction. The material balances of this process showed that mass fraction of paper and cardboard, plastic (soft) and wood recovered in the solid recovered fuel stream was 88%, 85% and 90%, respectively, of their input mass. A high mass fraction of rubber material, plastic (PVC-plastic) and inert (stone/rock and glass particles) was found in the reject material stream. © The Author(s) 2014.

An Industrial Ecology Approach to Municipal Solid Waste Management: II. Case Studies for Recovering Energy from the Organic Fraction of MSW

EPA Science Inventory

The organic fraction of municipal solid waste provides abundant opportunities for industrial ecology-based symbiotic use. Energy production, economics, and environmental aspects are analyzed for four alternatives based on different technologies: incineration with energy recovery...

A Strategy to Conduct an Analysis of the Long-Term Performance of Low-Activity Waste Glass in a Shallow Subsurface Disposal System at Hanford

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Neeway, James J.; Pierce, Eric M.; Freedman, Vicky L.

2014-08-04

The federal facilities located on the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State have been used extensively by the U.S. government to produce nuclear materials for the U.S. strategic defense arsenal. Currently, the Hanford Site is under the stewardship of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM). A large inventory of radioactive and mixed waste resulting from the production of nuclear materials has accumulated, mainly in 177 underground single- and double-shell tanks located in the central plateau of the Hanford Site (Mann et al., 2001). The DOE-EM Office of River Protection (ORP) is proceeding with plans tomore » immobilize and permanently dispose of the low-activity waste (LAW) fraction onsite in a shallow subsurface disposal facility (the Integrated Disposal Facility [IDF]). Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) was contracted to provide the technical basis for estimating radionuclide release from the engineered portion of the IDF (the source term) as part of an immobilized low-activity waste (ILAW) glass testing program to support future IDF performance assessments (PAs).« less

Acute and Chronic Toxicity of Soluble Fractions of Industrial Solid Wastes on Daphnia magna and Vibrio fischeri

PubMed Central

Flohr, Letícia; de Castilhos Júnior, Armando Borges; Matias, William Gerson

2012-01-01

Industrial wastes may produce leachates that can contaminate the aquatic ecosystem. Toxicity testing in acute and chronic levels is essential to assess environmental risks from the soluble fractions of these wastes, since only chemical analysis may not be adequate to classify the hazard of an industrial waste. In this study, ten samples of solid wastes from textile, metal-mechanic, and pulp and paper industries were analyzed by acute and chronic toxicity tests with Daphnia magna and Vibrio fischeri. A metal-mechanic waste (sample MM3) induced the highest toxicity level to Daphnia magna(CE50,48 h = 2.21%). A textile waste induced the highest toxicity level to Vibrio fischeri (sample TX2, CE50,30 min = 12.08%). All samples of pulp and paper wastes, and a textile waste (sample TX2) induced chronic effects on reproduction, length, and longevity of Daphnia magna. These results could serve as an alert about the environmental risks of an inadequate waste classification method. PMID:22619632

Acute and chronic toxicity of soluble fractions of industrial solid wastes on Daphnia magna and Vibrio fischeri.

PubMed

Flohr, Letícia; de Castilhos Júnior, Armando Borges; Matias, William Gerson

2012-01-01

Industrial wastes may produce leachates that can contaminate the aquatic ecosystem. Toxicity testing in acute and chronic levels is essential to assess environmental risks from the soluble fractions of these wastes, since only chemical analysis may not be adequate to classify the hazard of an industrial waste. In this study, ten samples of solid wastes from textile, metal-mechanic, and pulp and paper industries were analyzed by acute and chronic toxicity tests with Daphnia magna and Vibrio fischeri. A metal-mechanic waste (sample MM3) induced the highest toxicity level to Daphnia magna(CE(50,48 h) = 2.21%). A textile waste induced the highest toxicity level to Vibrio fischeri (sample TX2, CE(50,30 min) = 12.08%). All samples of pulp and paper wastes, and a textile waste (sample TX2) induced chronic effects on reproduction, length, and longevity of Daphnia magna. These results could serve as an alert about the environmental risks of an inadequate waste classification method.

Characterization of urban solid waste in Chihuahua, Mexico.

PubMed

Gomez, Guadalupe; Meneses, Montserrat; Ballinas, Lourdes; Castells, Francesc

2008-12-01

The characterization of urban solid waste generation is fundamental for adequate decision making in the management strategy of urban solid waste in a city. The objective of this study is to characterize the waste generated in the households of Chihuahua city, and to compare the results obtained in areas of the city with three different socioeconomic levels. In order to identify the different socioeconomic trends in waste generation and characterization, 560 samples of solid waste were collected during 1 week from 80 households in Chihuahua and were hand sorted and classified into 15 weighted fractions. The average waste generation in Chihuahua calculated in this study was 0.676 kg per capita per day in April 2006. The main fractions were: organic (48%), paper (16%) and plastic (12%). Results show an increased waste generation associated with the socioeconomic level. The characterization in amount and composition of urban waste is the first step needed for the successful implementation of an integral waste management system.

Oxidative Stability of Tc(I) Tricarbonyl Species Relevant to the Hanford Tank Waste

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chatterjee, Sayandev; Hall, Gabriel B.; Levitskaia, Tatiana G.

Technetium (Tc), which exists predominately in the liquid supernatant and salt cake fractions of the nuclear tank waste stored at the U.S. DOE Hanford Site, is one of the most difficult contaminants to dispose of and/or remediate. In the strongly alkaline environments prevalent in the tank waste, its dominant chemical form is pertechnetate (TcO 4 -, oxidation state +7). However, based on experimentation to-date, a significant fraction of the soluble Tc cannot be effectively separated from the wastes and may be present as a non-pertechnetate species. The presence of a non pertechnetate species significantly complicates disposition of low-activity waste (LAW),more » and the development of methods to either convert them to pertechnetate or to separate the non-pertechnetate species directly is needed. The challenge is the uncertainty regarding the nature and stability of the alkaline-soluble, low-valence, non pertechnetate species in the liquid tank waste. One objective of the Tc management project is to address this knowledge gap. This fiscal year (FY) 2015 report summarizes experimental work exploring the oxidative stability of model low-valence Tc(I) tricarbonyl species, derived from the [Tc(CO) 3] + moiety. These compounds are of interest due to their implied presence in several Hanford tank waste supernatants. Work in part was initiated in FY 2014, and a series of samples containing non-pertechnetate Tc generated ex situ or in situ in pseudo-Hanford tank supernatant simulant solutions was prepared and monitored for oxidation to Tc(VII) (Levitskaia et al. 2014). This experimentation continued in FY 2015, and new series of samples containing Tc(I) as [Tc(CO) 3] +•Ligand was tested. The monitoring method used for these studies was a combination of 99Tc NMR and EPR spectroscopies.« less

Performance of mechanical biological treatment of residual municipal waste in Poland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

den Boer, Emilia; Jędrczak, Andrzej

2017-11-01

The number and capacity of mechanical-biological treatment (MBT) plants in Europe increased significantly in the past two decades as a response to the legal obligation to limit the landfilling of biodegradable waste in landfills and to increase recycling and energy recovery from waste. The aim of these plants is to prepare residual municipal waste for recovery and disposal operations, including especially separation and stabilization of the easily biodegradable fraction (the biofraction). The final products of MBP technology are recyclables, stabilate, high calorific fraction which is used for the production of refuse derived fuel (RDF) and the remaining residual fraction. The shares of the output fractions, especially of the recyclables and RDF determine the overall efficiency of MBT technology in diverting waste from landfills. In this paper results of an assessment of one exemplary MBT plant are provided. The analysis was performed within a comparative study in which 20 selected MBT plants in Poland were subject to a detailed analysis, focusing, both at the design parameters as well as operational ones. The selected plant showed relatively higher overall materials recovery efficiency. With the view to circular economy targets, increased automation of the mechanical waste treatment will be required to support achieving high level diversion from landfills. The study reviled that stabilisation of biofraction should be improved by a better control of process conditions, especially moisture content.

Revisiting the elemental composition and the calorific value of the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes.

PubMed

Komilis, Dimitrios; Evangelou, Alexandros; Giannakis, Georgios; Lymperis, Constantinos

2012-03-01

In this work, the elemental content (C, N, H, S, O), the organic matter content and the calorific value of various organic components that are commonly found in the municipal solid waste stream were measured. The objective of this work was to develop an empirical equation to describe the calorific value of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste as a function of its elemental composition. The MSW components were grouped into paper wastes, food wastes, yard wastes and plastics. Sample sizes ranged from 0.2 to 0.5 kg. In addition to the above individual components, commingled municipal solid wastes were sampled from a bio-drying facility located in Crete (sample sizes ranged from 8 to 15 kg) and were analyzed for the same parameters. Based on the results of this work, an improved empirical model was developed that revealed that carbon, hydrogen and oxygen were the only statistically significant predictors of calorific value. Total organic carbon was statistically similar to total carbon for most materials in this work. The carbon to organic matter ratio of 26 municipal solid waste substrates and of 18 organic composts varied from 0.40 to 0.99. An approximate chemical empirical formula calculated for the organic fraction of commingled municipal solid wastes was C(32)NH(55)O(16). Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of inoculation with white-rot fungi and fungal consortium on the composting efficiency of municipal solid waste.

PubMed

Voběrková, Stanislava; Vaverková, Magdalena D; Burešová, Alena; Adamcová, Dana; Vršanská, Martina; Kynický, Jindřich; Brtnický, Martin; Adam, Vojtěch

2017-03-01

An investigation was carried out on the effect of inoculation methods on the compost of an organic fraction of municipal solid waste. Three types of white-rot fungi (Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Trametes versicolor and Fomes fomentarius), and a consortium of these fungi, were used. The study assessed their influence on microbial enzymatic activities and the quality of the finished compost. It was found that the addition of white-rot fungi to municipal solid waste (after 37days of composting) could be a useful strategy for enhancing the properties of the final compost product. In comparison with the control sample (compost without inoculation), it accelerates degradation of solid waste as indicated by changes in C/N, electrical conductivity and pH. However, the effectiveness of waste degradation and compost maturation depends on the type of microorganism used for inoculation. The presence of inoculants, such as Trametes versicolor and Fomes fomentarius, led to a higher degrading ratio and a better degree of maturity. This resulted in an increase of enzymatic activities (especially dehydrogenase and protease) and a germination index in comparison with inoculation using Phanerochaete chrysosporium or a consortium of fungi. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Production of xylanase and protease by Penicillium janthinellum CRC 87M-115 from different agricultural wastes.

PubMed

Oliveira, Luciana A; Porto, Ana L F; Tambourgi, Elias B

2006-04-01

Five agricultural wastes were evaluated in submerged fermentation for xylanolytic enzymes production by Penicillium janthinellum. The wastes were hydrolyzed in acid medium and the liquid fraction was used for cultivation. Corn cob (55.3 U/mL) and oat husk (54.8 U/mL) were the best inducers of xylanase. Sugar cane bagasse (23.0 U/mL) and corn husk (23.8 U/mL) were moderately good, while cassava peel was negligible. Protease production was very low in all agro-industrial residues. The maximum biomass yields were 1.30 and 1.17 g/L for cassava peel and corn husk after 180 h, respectively. Xylanolytic activity showed a cell growth associated profile.

Waste to energy--key element for sustainable waste management.

PubMed

Brunner, Paul H; Rechberger, Helmut

2015-03-01

Human activities inevitably result in wastes. The higher the material turnover, and the more complex and divers the materials produced, the more challenging it is for waste management to reach the goals of "protection of men and environment" and "resource conservation". Waste incineration, introduced originally for volume reduction and hygienic reasons, went through a long and intense development. Together with prevention and recycling measures, waste to energy (WTE) facilities contribute significantly to reaching the goals of waste management. Sophisticated air pollution control (APC) devices ensure that emissions are environmentally safe. Incinerators are crucial and unique for the complete destruction of hazardous organic materials, to reduce risks due to pathogenic microorganisms and viruses, and for concentrating valuable as well as toxic metals in certain fractions. Bottom ash and APC residues have become new sources of secondary metals, hence incineration has become a materials recycling facility, too. WTE plants are supporting decisions about waste and environmental management: They can routinely and cost effectively supply information about chemical waste composition as well as about the ratio of biogenic to fossil carbon in MSW and off-gas. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Edjabou, Maklawe Essonanawe, E-mail: vine@env.dtu.dk; Jensen, Morten Bang; Götze, Ramona

Highlights: • Tiered approach to waste sorting ensures flexibility and facilitates comparison of solid waste composition data. • Food and miscellaneous wastes are the main fractions contributing to the residual household waste. • Separation of food packaging from food leftovers during sorting is not critical for determination of the solid waste composition. - Abstract: Sound waste management and optimisation of resource recovery require reliable data on solid waste generation and composition. In the absence of standardised and commonly accepted waste characterisation methodologies, various approaches have been reported in literature. This limits both comparability and applicability of the results. In thismore » study, a waste sampling and sorting methodology for efficient and statistically robust characterisation of solid waste was introduced. The methodology was applied to residual waste collected from 1442 households distributed among 10 individual sub-areas in three Danish municipalities (both single and multi-family house areas). In total 17 tonnes of waste were sorted into 10–50 waste fractions, organised according to a three-level (tiered approach) facilitating comparison of the waste data between individual sub-areas with different fractionation (waste from one municipality was sorted at “Level III”, e.g. detailed, while the two others were sorted only at “Level I”). The results showed that residual household waste mainly contained food waste (42 ± 5%, mass per wet basis) and miscellaneous combustibles (18 ± 3%, mass per wet basis). The residual household waste generation rate in the study areas was 3–4 kg per person per week. Statistical analyses revealed that the waste composition was independent of variations in the waste generation rate. Both, waste composition and waste generation rates were statistically similar for each of the three municipalities. While the waste generation rates were similar for each of the two housing types (single-family and multi-family house areas), the individual percentage composition of food waste, paper, and glass was significantly different between the housing types. This indicates that housing type is a critical stratification parameter. Separating food leftovers from food packaging during manual sorting of the sampled waste did not have significant influence on the proportions of food waste and packaging materials, indicating that this step may not be required.« less

Biodiesel production potential from fat fraction of municipal waste in Makkah

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), millions of Muslims come to perform Pilgrimage every year. Around one million ton of municipal solid waste (MSW) is generated in Makkah city annually. The collected MSW is disposed of in the landfills without any treatment or energy recovery. As a result, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and contamination of the soil and water bodies along with leachate and odors are occurring in waste disposal vicinities. The composition of MSW shows that food waste is the largest waste stream (up to 51%) of the total generated MSW. About 13% of the food waste consists of fat content that is equivalent to about 64 thousand tons per year. This study aims to estimate the production potential of biodiesel first time in Makkah city from fat/oil fractions of MSW and highlight its economic and environmental benefits. It has been estimated that 62.53, 117.15 and 6.38 thousand tons of biodiesel, meat and bone meal (MBM) and glycerol respectively could be produced in 2014. A total electricity potential of 852 Gigawatt hour (GWh) from all three sources based on their energy contents, Higher Heating Value (HHV) of 40.17, 18.33 and 19 MJ/kg, was estimated for 2014 that will increase up to 1777 GWh in 2050. The cumulative net savings from landfill waste diversion (256 to 533 million Saudi Riyal (SAR)), carbon credits (46 to 96 million SAR), fuel savings (146 to 303 million SAR) and electricity generation (273 to 569 million SAR) have a potential to add a total net revenue of 611 to 1274 million SAR every year to the Saudi economy, from 2014 to 2050 respectively. However, further studies including real-time data about annual slaughtering activities and the amount of waste generation and its management are critical to decide optimum waste management practices based on life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) methodologies. PMID:28207856

40 CFR 63.4510 - What notifications must I submit?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... not need to submit copies of any test reports. (i) Mass fraction of organic HAP for one coating, for one thinner and/or other additive, and for one cleaning material. (ii) Mass fraction of coating solids... required. (iv) The amount of waste materials and the mass of organic HAP contained in the waste materials...

40 CFR 63.4510 - What notifications must I submit?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... not need to submit copies of any test reports. (i) Mass fraction of organic HAP for one coating, for one thinner and/or other additive, and for one cleaning material. (ii) Mass fraction of coating solids... required. (iv) The amount of waste materials and the mass of organic HAP contained in the waste materials...

40 CFR 63.4710 - What notifications must I submit?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

...) Mass fraction of organic HAP for one coating, for one thinner, and for one cleaning material. (ii) Volume fraction of coating solids for one coating. (iii) Density for one coating, one thinner, and one... is required. (iv) The amount of waste materials and the mass of organic HAP contained in the waste...

40 CFR 63.4710 - What notifications must I submit?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

...) Mass fraction of organic HAP for one coating, for one thinner, and for one cleaning material. (ii) Volume fraction of coating solids for one coating. (iii) Density for one coating, one thinner, and one... is required. (iv) The amount of waste materials and the mass of organic HAP contained in the waste...

40 CFR 63.4510 - What notifications must I submit?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... not need to submit copies of any test reports. (i) Mass fraction of organic HAP for one coating, for one thinner and/or other additive, and for one cleaning material. (ii) Mass fraction of coating solids... required. (iv) The amount of waste materials and the mass of organic HAP contained in the waste materials...

40 CFR 63.4510 - What notifications must I submit?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... not need to submit copies of any test reports. (i) Mass fraction of organic HAP for one coating, for one thinner and/or other additive, and for one cleaning material. (ii) Mass fraction of coating solids... required. (iv) The amount of waste materials and the mass of organic HAP contained in the waste materials...

40 CFR 63.4710 - What notifications must I submit?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

...) Mass fraction of organic HAP for one coating, for one thinner, and for one cleaning material. (ii) Volume fraction of coating solids for one coating. (iii) Density for one coating, one thinner, and one... is required. (iv) The amount of waste materials and the mass of organic HAP contained in the waste...

Enrichment of trace elements in the clay size fraction of mining soils.

PubMed

Gomes, Patrícia; Valente, Teresa; Braga, M Amália Sequeira; Grande, J A; de la Torre, M L

2016-04-01

Reactive waste dumps with sulfide minerals promote acid mine drainage (AMD), which results in water and soil contamination by metals and metalloids. In these systems, contamination is regulated by many factors, such as mineralogical composition of soil and the presence of sorption sites on specific mineral phases. So, the present study dedicates itself to understanding the distribution of trace elements in different size fractions (<2-mm and <2-μm fractions) of mining soils and to evaluate the relationship between chemical and mineralogical composition. Cerdeirinha and Penedono, located in Portugal, were the waste dumps under study. The results revealed that the two waste dumps have high degree of contamination by metals and arsenic and that these elements are concentrated in the clay size fraction. Hence, the higher degree of contamination by toxic elements, especially arsenic in Penedono as well as the role of clay minerals, jarosite, and goethite in retaining trace elements has management implications. Such information must be carefully thought in the rehabilitation projects to be planned for both waste dumps.

Closed cycle construction: an integrated process for the separation and reuse of C&D waste.

PubMed

Mulder, Evert; de Jong, Tako P R; Feenstra, Lourens

2007-01-01

In The Netherlands, construction and demolition (C&D) waste is already to a large extent being reused, especially the stony fraction, which is crushed and reused as a road base material. In order to increase the percentage of reuse of the total C&D waste flow to even higher levels, a new concept has been developed. In this concept, called 'Closed Cycle Construction', the processed materials are being reused at a higher quality level and the quantity of waste that has to be disposed of is minimised. For concrete and masonry, the new concept implies that the material cycle will be completely closed, and the original constituents (clay bricks, gravel, sand, cement stone) are recovered in thermal processes. The mixed C&D waste streams are separated and decontaminated. For this purpose several dry separation techniques are being developed. The quality of the stony fraction is improved so much, that this fraction can be reused as an aggregate in concrete. The new concept has several benefits from a sustainability point of view, namely less energy consumption, less carbon dioxide emission, less waste production and less land use (for excavation and disposal sites). One of the most remarkable benefits of the new concept is that the thermal process steps are fuelled with the combustible fraction of the C&D waste itself. Economically the new process is more or less comparable with the current way of processing C&D waste. On the basis of the positive results of a feasibility study, currently a pilot and demonstration project is being carried out. The aim is to optimise the different process steps of the Closed Cycle Construction process on a laboratory scale, and then to verify them on a large scale. The results of the project are promising, so far.

Separating and stabilizing phosphate from high-level radioactive waste: process development and spectroscopic monitoring.

PubMed

Lumetta, Gregg J; Braley, Jenifer C; Peterson, James M; Bryan, Samuel A; Levitskaia, Tatiana G

2012-06-05

Removing phosphate from alkaline high-level waste sludges at the Department of Energy's Hanford Site in Washington State is necessary to increase the waste loading in the borosilicate glass waste form that will be used to immobilize the highly radioactive fraction of these wastes. We are developing a process which first leaches phosphate from the high-level waste solids with aqueous sodium hydroxide, and then isolates the phosphate by precipitation with calcium oxide. Tests with actual tank waste confirmed that this process is an effective method of phosphate removal from the sludge and offers an additional option for managing the phosphorus in the Hanford tank waste solids. The presence of vibrationally active species, such as nitrate and phosphate ions, in the tank waste processing streams makes the phosphate removal process an ideal candidate for monitoring by Raman or infrared spectroscopic means. As a proof-of-principle demonstration, Raman and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra were acquired for all phases during a test of the process with actual tank waste. Quantitative determination of phosphate, nitrate, and sulfate in the liquid phases was achieved by Raman spectroscopy, demonstrating the applicability of Raman spectroscopy for the monitoring of these species in the tank waste process streams.

SLFP: a stochastic linear fractional programming approach for sustainable waste management.

PubMed

Zhu, H; Huang, G H

2011-12-01

A stochastic linear fractional programming (SLFP) approach is developed for supporting sustainable municipal solid waste management under uncertainty. The SLFP method can solve ratio optimization problems associated with random information, where chance-constrained programming is integrated into a linear fractional programming framework. It has advantages in: (1) comparing objectives of two aspects, (2) reflecting system efficiency, (3) dealing with uncertainty expressed as probability distributions, and (4) providing optimal-ratio solutions under different system-reliability conditions. The method is applied to a case study of waste flow allocation within a municipal solid waste (MSW) management system. The obtained solutions are useful for identifying sustainable MSW management schemes with maximized system efficiency under various constraint-violation risks. The results indicate that SLFP can support in-depth analysis of the interrelationships among system efficiency, system cost and system-failure risk. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Catalytic upgrading of oil fractions separated from food waste leachate.

PubMed

Heo, Hyeon Su; Kim, Sang Guk; Jeong, Kwang-Eun; Jeon, Jong-Ki; Park, Sung Hoon; Kim, Ji Man; Kim, Seung-Soo; Park, Young-Kwon

2011-02-01

In this work, catalytic cracking of biomass waste oil fractions separated from food waste leachate was performed using microporous catalysts, such as HY, HZSM-5 and mesoporous Al-MCM-48. The experiments were carried out using pyrolysis gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) to allow the direct analysis of the pyrolytic products. Most acidic components, especially oleic acid, contained in the food waste oil fractions were converted to valuable products, such as oxygenates, hydrocarbons and aromatics. High yields of hydrocarbons within the gasoline-range were obtained when microporous catalysts were used; whereas, the use of Al-MCM-48, which exhibits relatively weak acidity, resulted in high yields of oxygenated and diesel-range hydrocarbons. The HZSM-5 catalyst produced a higher amount of valuable mono aromatics due to its strong acidity and shape selectivity. Especially, the addition of gallium (Ga) to HZSM-5 significantly increased the aromatics content. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Life-cycle assessment of a Waste-to-Energy plant in central Norway: Current situation and effects of changes in waste fraction composition.

PubMed

Lausselet, Carine; Cherubini, Francesco; Del Alamo Serrano, Gonzalo; Becidan, Michael; Strømman, Anders Hammer

2016-12-01

Waste-to-Energy (WtE) plants constitute one of the most common waste management options to deal with municipal solid waste. WtE plants have the dual objective to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills and simultaneously to produce useful energy (heat and/or power). Energy from WtE is gaining steadily increasing importance in the energy mix of several countries. Norway is no exception, as energy recovered from waste currently represents the main energy source of the Norwegian district heating system. Life-cycle assessments (LCA) of WtE systems in a Norwegian context are quasi-nonexistent, and this study assesses the environmental performance of a WtE plant located in central Norway by combining detailed LCA methodology with primary data from plant operations. Mass transfer coefficients and leaching coefficients are used to trace emissions over the various life-cycle stages from waste logistics to final disposal of the ashes. We consider different fractions of input waste (current waste mix, insertion of 10% car fluff, 5% clinical waste and 10% and 50% wood waste), and find a total contribution to Climate Change Impact Potential ranging from 265 to 637gCO 2 eq/kg of waste and 25 to 61gCO 2 eq/MJ of heat. The key drivers of the environmental performances of the WtE system being assessed are the carbon biogenic fraction and the lower heating value of the incoming waste, the direct emissions at the WtE plant, the leaching of the heavy metals at the landfill sites and to a lesser extent the use of consumables. We benchmark the environmental performances of our WtE systems against those of fossil energy systems, and we find better performance for the majority of environmental impact categories, including Climate Change Impact Potential, although some trade-offs exist (e.g. higher impacts on Human Toxicity Potential than natural gas, but lower than coal). Also, the insertion of challenging new waste fractions is demonstrated to be an option both to cope with the excess capacity of the Norwegian WtE sector and to reach Norway's ambitious political goals for environmentally friendly energy systems. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of methods of preparation on distribution of heavy metals in different size fractions of municipal solid waste composts.

PubMed

Saha, J K; Panwar, N R; Coumar, M Vassanda

2013-11-01

The present study compares the distribution and nature of heavy metals in composts from 12 cities of India, prepared from different types of processed urban solid wastes, namely mixed wastes (MWC), partially segregated wastes (PSWC), and segregated bio-wastes (BWC). Compost samples were physically fractionated by wet sieving, followed by extraction of heavy metals by dilute HCl and NaOH. Bigger particles (>0.5 mm) constituted the major fraction in all three types of composts and had a relatively lower concentration of organic matter and heavy metals, the effect being more pronounced in MWC and PSWC in which a significant portion of the heavy metals was distributed in finer size fractions. Cd, Ni, Pb, and Zn were extracted to a greater extent by acid than by alkali, the difference being greater in MWC, which contained a higher amount of mineral matter. In contrast, Cu and Cr were extracted to a greater extent by dilute alkali, particularly from BWC containing a higher amount of organic matter. Water-soluble heavy metals were generally related to the water-soluble C or total C content as well as to pH, rather than to their total contents. This study concludes that wet sieving with dilute acid can effectively reduce heavy metal load in MWC and PSWC.

Fat, oil and grease waste from municipal wastewater: characterization, activation and sustainable conversion into biofuel.

PubMed

Pastore, Carlo; Pagano, Michele; Lopez, Antonio; Mininni, Giuseppe; Mascolo, Giuseppe

2015-01-01

Fat, oil and grease (FOG) recovered by the oil/water separator of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) were sampled, characterized, activated and converted into biofuel. Free acids (50-55%) and fatty soaps (26-32%) not only composed the main components, but they were also easily separable from the starting waste. The respective free fatty acid profiles were gas-chromatographically evaluated, interestingly verifying that free acids had a different profile (mainly oleic acid) with respect to the soapy fraction (saturated fatty acids were dominant). The inorganic composition was also determined for soaps, confirming that calcium is the most commonly present metal. The chemical activation of this fatty waste was made possible by converting the starting soaps into the respective free fatty acids by using formic acid as activator, coproducing the relevant formates. The activated fatty matter was then converted into biofuel through direct esterification under very mild conditions (345 K, atmospheric pressure) and obtaining thermodynamic conversion in less than 2 h. The process was easily scaled up, isolating at the end pure biodiesel (purity > 96%) through distillation under vacuum, providing a final product conformed to commercial purposes.

Bio-Guided Isolation of Methanol-Soluble Metabolites of Common Spruce (Picea abies) Bark by-Products and Investigation of Their Dermo-Cosmetic Properties.

PubMed

Angelis, Apostolis; Hubert, Jane; Aligiannis, Nektarios; Michalea, Rozalia; Abedini, Amin; Nuzillard, Jean-Marc; Gangloff, Sophie C; Skaltsounis, Alexios-Leandros; Renault, Jean-Hugues

2016-11-21

Common spruce ( Picea abies L.) is a fast-growing coniferous tree, widely used in several countries for the production of sawn wood, timber and pulp. During this industrial exploitation, large quantities of barks are generated as waste materials. The aim of this study was the bio-guided investigation and the effective recovery of methanol-soluble metabolites of common spruce bark for the development of new dermo-cosmetic agents. The active methanol extract was initially fractionated by Centrifugal Partition Chromatography (CPC) using a triphasic solvent system in a step-gradient elution mode. All resulting fractions were evaluated for their antibacterial activity, antioxidant activity and their capability to inhibit tyrosinase, elastase and collagenase activity. In parallel, the chemical composition of each fraction was established by combining a 13 C-NMR dereplication approach and 2D-NMR analyses. As a result, fourteen secondary metabolites corresponding to stilbene, flavonoid and phenolic acid derivatives were directly identified in the CPC fractions. A high amount (0.93 g) of E -astringin was recovered from 3 g of crude extract in a single 125 min run. E -Astringin significantly induced the tyrosinase activity while E -piceid, taxifolin, and taxifolin-3'- O -glucopyranoside exhibited significant anti-tyrosinase activity. The above compounds showed important anti-collagenase and antimicrobial activities, thus providing new perspectives for potential applications as cosmetic ingredients.

Kinetic modelling of anaerobic hydrolysis of solid wastes, including disintegration processes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

García-Gen, Santiago; Sousbie, Philippe; Rangaraj, Ganesh

2015-01-15

Highlights: • Fractionation of solid wastes into readily and slowly biodegradable fractions. • Kinetic coefficients estimation from mono-digestion batch assays. • Validation of kinetic coefficients with a co-digestion continuous experiment. • Simulation of batch and continuous experiments with an ADM1-based model. - Abstract: A methodology to estimate disintegration and hydrolysis kinetic parameters of solid wastes and validate an ADM1-based anaerobic co-digestion model is presented. Kinetic parameters of the model were calibrated from batch reactor experiments treating individually fruit and vegetable wastes (among other residues) following a new protocol for batch tests. In addition, decoupled disintegration kinetics for readily and slowlymore » biodegradable fractions of solid wastes was considered. Calibrated parameters from batch assays of individual substrates were used to validate the model for a semi-continuous co-digestion operation treating simultaneously 5 fruit and vegetable wastes. The semi-continuous experiment was carried out in a lab-scale CSTR reactor for 15 weeks at organic loading rate ranging between 2.0 and 4.7 g VS/L d. The model (built in Matlab/Simulink) fit to a large extent the experimental results in both batch and semi-continuous mode and served as a powerful tool to simulate the digestion or co-digestion of solid wastes.« less

Improving methane yield and quality via co-digestion of cow dung mixed with food waste.

PubMed

Awasthi, Sanjeev Kumar; Joshi, Rutu; Dhar, Hiya; Verma, Shivpal; Awasthi, Mukesh Kumar; Varjani, Sunita; Sarsaiya, Surendra; Zhang, Zengqiang; Kumar, Sunil

2018-03-01

Methane (CH 4 ) production and quality were enhanced by the co-digestion of cow dung and food waste (FW) mixed with organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) under optimized conditions in bench and semi continuous-scale mode for a period of 30 days. A bacterium capable of high yield of CH 4 was enriched and isolated by employing activated sewage sludge as the inoculums. The thirteen bacterial isolates were identified through morphological and biochemical tests. Gas chromatography was used to analyze the chemical compositions of the generated biogas. CH 4 yields were significantly higher during co-digestion of Run II (7.59 L) than Run I (3.7 L). Therefore, the co-digestion of FW with OFMSW and Run II was observed to be a competent method for biogas conversion from organic waste resources. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assessing recycling versus incineration of key materials in municipal waste: The importance of efficient energy recovery and transport distances.

PubMed

Merrild, Hanna; Larsen, Anna W; Christensen, Thomas H

2012-05-01

Recycling of materials from municipal solid waste is commonly considered to be superior to any other waste treatment alternative. For the material fractions with a significant energy content this might not be the case if the treatment alternative is a waste-to-energy plant with high energy recovery rates. The environmental impacts from recycling and from incineration of six material fractions in household waste have been compared through life cycle assessment assuming high-performance technologies for material recycling as well as for waste incineration. The results showed that there are environmental benefits when recycling paper, glass, steel and aluminium instead of incinerating it. For cardboard and plastic the results were more unclear, depending on the level of energy recovery at the incineration plant, the system boundaries chosen and which impact category was in focus. Further, the environmental impact potentials from collection, pre-treatment and transport was compared to the environmental benefit from recycling and this showed that with the right means of transport, recyclables can in most cases be transported long distances. However, the results also showed that recycling of some of the material fractions can only contribute marginally in improving the overall waste management system taking into consideration their limited content in average Danish household waste. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Recovery of transplutonium elements from nuclear reactor waste

DOEpatents

Campbell, David O.; Buxton, Samuel R.

1977-05-24

A method of separating actinide values from nitric acid waste solutions resulting from reprocessing of irradiated nuclear fuels comprises oxalate precipitation of the major portion of actinide and lanthanide values to provide a trivalent fraction suitable for subsequent actinide/lanthanide partition, exchange of actinide and lanthanide values in the supernate onto a suitable cation exchange resin to provide an intermediate-lived raffinate waste stream substantially free of actinides, and elution of the actinide values from the exchange resin. The eluate is then used to dissolve the trivalent oxalate fraction prior to actinide/lanthanide partition or may be combined with the reprocessing waste stream and recycled.

Emissions from small-scale energy production using co-combustion of biofuel and the dry fraction of household waste.

PubMed

Hedman, Björn; Burvall, Jan; Nilsson, Calle; Marklund, Stellan

2005-01-01

In sparsely populated rural areas, recycling of household waste might not always be the most environmentally advantageous solution due to the total amount of transport involved. In this study, an alternative approach to recycling has been tested using efficient small-scale biofuel boilers for co-combustion of biofuel and high-energy waste. The dry combustible fraction of source-sorted household waste was mixed with the energy crop reed canary-grass (Phalaris Arundinacea L.), and combusted in both a 5-kW pilot scale reactor and a biofuel boiler with 140-180 kW output capacity, in the form of pellets and briquettes, respectively. The chlorine content of the waste fraction was 0.2%, most of which originated from plastics. The HCl emissions exceeded levels stipulated in new EU-directives, but levels of equal magnitude were also generated from combustion of the pure biofuel. Addition of waste to the biofuel did not give any apparent increase in emissions of organic compounds. Dioxin levels were close to stipulated limits. With further refinement of combustion equipment, small-scale co-combustion systems have the potential to comply with emission regulations.

Toxic heavy metal capture using a novel electronic waste-based material-mechanism, modeling and comparison.

PubMed

Hadi, Pejman; Barford, John; McKay, Gordon

2013-08-06

In the modern communication era, the disposal of printed circuit boards is ecologically of dire concern on a global scale. The two prevalent methods applied for the disposal of this waste are either incineration or landfilling both of which are viewed with skepticism due to their negative environmental impact. Activation of the nonmetallic fraction of this waste leads to the development of a mesoporous material with highly functional groups which can potentially be applied for heavy metal uptake. The removal of copper, lead, and zinc was studied employing a cost-effective novel adsorbent based on waste printed circuit boards. The results indicate that the modification of the original e-waste material has a considerable effect on its surface area enhancement. Adsorption experiments revealed that the modified novel material had uptake capacities of 2.9 mmol Cu, 3.4 mmol Pb, and 2.0 mmol Zn per each gram of the adsorbent which are significantly higher values than its commercial counterparts used in industry.

Modification of chemical properties, Cu fractionation and enzymatic activities in an acid vineyard soil amended with winery wastes: A field study.

PubMed

Rodríguez-Salgado, Isabel; Pérez-Rodríguez, Paula; Gómez-Armesto, Antía; Díaz-Raviña, Montserrat; Nóvoa-Muñoz, Juan Carlos; Arias-Estévez, Manuel; Fernández-Calviño, David

2017-11-01

The effects of adding two winery wastes, perlite waste (PW) and bentonite waste (BW), to an acid vineyard soil were assessed using some chemical and biological soil properties in a field study that lasted 18 months. The addition of PW (up to 81 Mg ha -1 ) had neither significant nor permanent effects on soil characteristics such as the pH, organic matter content or nutrient concentrations, the amounts of copper or zinc, or the electrical conductivity. Moreover, no persistent negative effects were found on the enzymatic activities after PW application. In contrast, soil that was amended with up to 71 Mg BW ha -1 showed increases in its soil pH values, exchangeable potassium and water soluble potassium and phosphorus contents. In addition, it caused significant increases in the electrical conductivity and water-soluble Cu. In addition, the phosphomonoesterase enzymatic activity decreased significantly (up to 28%) in response to the amendment with 71 Mg BW ha -1 . These results showed that adding BW and PW to the soil may be a good agronomic practice for recycling these types of wastes. However, in the case of PW, its use as a soil amendment must be performed with caution to control its possible harmful effects. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Initial Effects of Differently Treated Biogas Residues from Municipal and Industrial Wastes on Spring Barley Yield Formation

PubMed Central

Prays, Nadia; Kaupenjohann, Martin

2016-01-01

Soil application of biogas residues (BGRs) is important for closing nutrient cycles. This study examined the efficiency and impact on yields and yield formation of solid-liquid separated residues from biodegradable municipal and industrial wastes (bio-waste) in comparison to complete BGRs, nitrification inhibitor, agricultural BGRs, mineral fertilizer and unfertilized plots as control. The experiment was set up as a randomized block design on silt loam Cambisol. Biogas residues from four biogas plants were evaluated. Plants per m², ears per plant, grains per ear and thousand grain weight (TGW) were measured at harvest. Fertilization with BGRs resulted in similar biomass yields compared with mineral fertilizer. Mineral fertilizer (71 dt/ha) and plots fertilized with liquid fraction (59–62 dt/ha) indicated a trend to higher yields than solid fraction or complete BGR due to its high ammonia content. Liquid fractions and fraction with nitrification inhibitor induced fewer plants per m² than corresponding solid and complete variants due to a potential phytotoxicity of high NH4-N concentration during germination. However, barley on plots fertilized with liquid fraction compensated the disadvantages at the beginning during the vegetation period and induced higher grain yields than solid fraction. This was attributable to a higher number of ears per plant and grains per ear. In conclusion, BGRs from biodegradable municipal and industrial wastes can be used for soil fertilization and replace considerable amounts of mineral fertilizer. Our study showed that direct application of the liquid fraction of BGR is the most suitable strategy to achieve highest grain yields. Nevertheless potential phytotoxicity of the high NH4-N concentration in the liquid fraction should be considered. PMID:27116355

40 CFR 63.3510 - What notifications must I submit?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... not need to submit copies of any test reports. (i) Mass fraction of organic HAP for one coating and for one thinner. (ii) Volume fraction of coating solids for one coating. (iii) Density for one coating... density is required. (iv) The amount of waste materials and the mass of organic HAP contained in the waste...

40 CFR 63.3510 - What notifications must I submit?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... not need to submit copies of any test reports. (i) Mass fraction of organic HAP for one coating and for one thinner. (ii) Volume fraction of coating solids for one coating. (iii) Density for one coating... density is required. (iv) The amount of waste materials and the mass of organic HAP contained in the waste...

40 CFR 63.3510 - What notifications must I submit?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... not need to submit copies of any test reports. (i) Mass fraction of organic HAP for one coating and for one thinner. (ii) Volume fraction of coating solids for one coating. (iii) Density for one coating... density is required. (iv) The amount of waste materials and the mass of organic HAP contained in the waste...

40 CFR 63.3510 - What notifications must I submit?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... not need to submit copies of any test reports. (i) Mass fraction of organic HAP for one coating and for one thinner. (ii) Volume fraction of coating solids for one coating. (iii) Density for one coating... density is required. (iv) The amount of waste materials and the mass of organic HAP contained in the waste...

TREATMENT OF FISSION PRODUCT WASTE

DOEpatents

Huff, J.B.

1959-07-28

A pyrogenic method of separating nuclear reactor waste solutions containing aluminum and fission products as buring petroleum coke in an underground retort, collecting the easily volatile gases resulting as the first fraction, he uminum chloride as the second fraction, permitting the coke bed to cool and ll contain all the longest lived radioactive fission products in greatly reduced volume.

Implementing an advanced waste separation step in an MBT plant: assessment of technical, economic and environmental impacts.

PubMed

Meirhofer, Martina; Piringer, Gerhard; Rixrath, Doris; Sommer, Manuel; Ragossnig, Arne Michael

2013-10-01

Heavy fractions resulting from mechanical treatment stages of mechanical-biological waste treatment plants are posing very specific demands with regard to further treatment (large portions of inert and high-caloric components). Based on the current Austrian legal situation such a waste stream cannot be landfilled and must be thermally treated. The aim of this research was to evaluate if an inert fraction generated from this waste stream with advanced separation technologies, two sensor-based [near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR), X-ray transmission (XRT)] and two mechanical systems (wet and dry) is able to be disposed of. The performance of the treatment options for separation was evaluated by characterizing the resulting product streams with respect to purity and yield. Complementing the technical evaluation of the processing options, an assessment of the economic and global warming effects of the change in waste stream routing was conducted. The separated inert fraction was evaluated with regard to landfilling. The remaining high-caloric product stream was evaluated with regard to thermal utilization. The results show that, in principal, the selected treatment technologies can be used to separate high-caloric from inert components. Limitations were identified with regard to the product qualities achieved, as well as to the economic expedience of the treatment options. One of the sensor-based sorting systems (X-ray) was able to produce the highest amount of disposeable heavy fraction (44.1%), while having the lowest content of organic (2.0% C biogenic per kg waste input) components. None of the high-caloric product streams complied with the requirements for solid recovered fuels as defined in the Austrian Ordinance on Waste Incineration. The economic evaluation illustrates the highest specific treatment costs for the XRT (€ 23.15 per t), followed by the NIR-based sorting system (€ 15.67 per t), and the lowest costs for the air separation system (€ 10.79 per t). Within the ecological evaluation it can be shown that the results depend strongly on the higher heating value of the high caloric light fraction and on the content of C biogenic of the heavy fraction. Therefore, the XRT system had the best results for the overall GWP [-14 kg carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2 eq) per t of input waste] and the NIR-based the worst (193 kg CO2 eq per t of input waste). It is concluded that three of the treatment options would be suitable under the specific conditions considered here. Of these, sensor-based sorting is preferable owing to its flexibility.

Rosiglitazone reduces body wasting and improves survival in a rat model of cancer cachexia.

PubMed

Trobec, Katja; Palus, Sandra; Tschirner, Anika; von Haehling, Stephan; Doehner, Wolfram; Lainscak, Mitja; Anker, Stefan D; Springer, Jochen

2014-09-01

Rosiglitazone improves insulin sensitivity and promotes weight gain in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, which could be useful in wasting and cachexia. However, its effects on cardiac function are controversial. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of rosiglitazone on body wasting, body composition, cardiac function, and survival in a rat model of cancer cachexia. Rats were injected with Yoshida AH-130 hepatoma tumor cells and randomized to receive placebo or rosiglitazone 4 mg/kg daily. Treatment started 1 d after tumor inoculation and the rats were sacrificed 14 d thereafter. Body weight and body composition was measured at baseline and after removal of tumor. Echocardiography was performed at baseline and on day 11. At the end of the study, organs were weighed and the proteasome activity in gastrocnemius muscle was measured. Survival analysis showed a significant benefit from treatment with rosiglitazone (hazard ratio = 0.38, 95% confidence interval: 0.15-0.86). Rosiglitazone reduced average daily weight loss (2.33 g/d rosiglitazone versus 3.93 g/d placebo; P < 0.05) as a result of both fat and lean mass preservation. It decelerated white and brown tissue wasting, but had no effect on skeletal muscle mass and heart mass. However, peptidyl-glutamyl-protein-hydrolysing and trypsin-like activity in gastrocnemius muscle was significantly reduced by rosiglitazone. Finally, it increased left ventricular ejection fraction, fractional shortening, and systolic volume and improved cardiac output in cachectic cancer rats. Rosiglitazone prevents weight loss and improves survival in a rat model of cancer cachexia. It exerts beneficial effects on cardiac function. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Investigation of potentially toxic heavy metals in different organic wastes used to fertilize market garden crops.

PubMed

Tella, M; Doelsch, E; Letourmy, P; Chataing, S; Cuoq, F; Bravin, M N; Saint Macary, H

2013-01-01

The benefits of using organic waste as fertilizer and soil amendment should be assessed together with the environmental impacts due to the possible presence of heavy metals (HMs). This study involved analysing major element and HM contents in raw and size-fractionated organic wastes (17 sewage sludges and composts) from developed and developing countries. The overall HM concentration pattern showed an asymmetric distribution due to the presence of some wastes with extremely high concentrations. HM concentrations were correlated with the size of cities or farms where the wastes had been produced, and HM were differentiated with respect to their origins (geogenic: Cr-Ni; anthropogenic agricultural and urban: Cu-Zn; anthropogenic urban: Cd-Pb). Size fractionation highlighted Cd, Cu, Zn and Pb accumulation in fine size fractions, while Cr and Ni were accumulated in the coarsest. HM associations with major elements revealed inorganic (Al, Fe, etc.) bearing phases for Cr and Ni, and sulfur or phosphorus species for Cd, Cu Pb and Zn. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Use of Fenton reaction for the treatment of leachate from composting of different wastes.

PubMed

Trujillo, Daniel; Font, Xavier; Sánchez, Antoni

2006-11-02

The oxidation of leachate coming from the composting of two organic wastes (wastewater sludge and organic fraction of municipal solid wastes) using the Fenton's reagent was studied using different ratios [Fe(2+)]/[COD](0) and maintaining a ratio [H(2)O(2)]/[COD](0) equal to 1. The optimal conditions for Fenton reaction were found at a ratio [Fe(2+)]/[COD](0) equal to 0.1. Both leachates were significantly oxidized under these conditions in terms of COD removal (77 and 75% for leachate from wastewater sludge composting and leachate from organic fraction of municipal solid wastes, respectively) and BOD(5) removal (90 and 98% for leachate from wastewater sludge composting and leachate from organic fraction of municipal solid wastes, respectively). Fenton's reagent was found to oxidize preferably biodegradable organic matter of leachate. In consequence, a decrease in the biodegradability of leachates was observed after Fenton treatment for both leachates. Nevertheless, Fenton reaction proved to be a feasible technique for the oxidation of the leachate under study, and it can be considered a suitable treatment for this type of wastewaters.

Tyrosinase inhibitory constituents from a polyphenol enriched fraction of rose oil distillation wastewater.

PubMed

Solimine, Jessica; Garo, Eliane; Wedler, Jonas; Rusanov, Krasimir; Fertig, Orlando; Hamburger, Matthias; Atanassov, Ivan; Butterweck, Veronika

2016-01-01

During the water steam distillation process of rose flowers, the non-volatile phenolic compounds remain in the waste. We recently developed a strategy to separate rose oil distillation water (RODW) into a polyphenol depleted water fraction and a polyphenol enriched fraction (RF20-SP207). Bioassay-guided investigation of RF20-SP207 led to the isolation of quercetin, kaempferol and ellagic acid. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic analysis as well as by comparison with literature data. Tyrosinase inhibition studies were performed with RF20-SP207, fractions I-IV, and the isolated compounds of the most active fraction. RF20-SP207 strongly inhibited the enzyme with an IC50 of 0.41 μg/mL. From the tested fractions only fraction IV (IC50=5.81 μg/mL) exhibited strong anti-tyrosinase activities. Quercetin, kaempferol and ellagic acid were identified in fraction IV and inhibited mushroom tyrosinase with IC50 values of 4.2 μM, 5.5 μM and 5.2 μM, respectively, which is approximately 10 times more potent than that of the positive control kojic acid (56.1μM). The inhibition kinetics, analyzed by Lineweaver-Burk plots, indicated that RF20-SP207 and fraction IV are uncompetitive inhibitors of tyrosinase when l-tyrosine is used as a substrate. A mixed inhibition was determined for ellagic acid, and a competitive inhibition for quercetin and kaempferol. In conclusion, the recovered polyphenol fraction RF20-SP207 from RODW was found to be a potent tyrosinase inhibitor. This value-added product could be used as an active ingredient in cosmetic products related to hyperpigmentation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Pouteria torta epicarp as a useful source of α-amylase inhibitor in the control of type 2 diabetes.

PubMed

de Sales, Paloma Michelle; de Souza, Paula Monteiro; Dartora, Mariana; Resck, Inês Sabioni; Simeoni, Luiz Alberto; Fonseca-Bazzo, Yris Maria; de Oliveira Magalhães, Pérola; Silveira, Dâmaris

2017-11-01

Type 2 diabetes plays a major role in public health, affecting about 400 million adults. One of the used strategies to control type 2 diabetes is the inhibition of α-amylase activity to reduce post-prandial blood glucose levels. Therefore, in past decades, the search of new α-amylase inhibitors has led to the evaluation of natural products as a source of these compounds. Pouteria torta (Sapotaceae) is widespread in Brazil and bears edible fruits. Epicarp and pulp crude extracts of fresh fruits were studied for in vitro α-amylase inhibition activity. The pulp did not present activity while epicarp, usually considered as waste, showed a high α-amylase inhibitory capacity when compared with acarbose and Triticum aestivum. Therefore, an assay-guided fractionation study of epicarp crude extract was performed. Fraction VI shows very high inhibitory activity with IC 50 of 9 μg/mL. However, subsequent fractionation led to lower inhibition potential (IC 50 of 22.1 μg/mL). The qualitative characterization of fraction VI were performed by chromatographic and spectrometric analysis and showed the presence of epicatechin, catechin, sucrose, glucose, and fructose. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents and antioxidant capacity were also assessed and there seemed to be no correlation between phenolic or flavonoids-rich fractions and antioxidant capacity or α-amylase inhibitory activity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Risks of using EDTA as an agent for trace metals dosing in anaerobic digestion of olive mill solid waste.

PubMed

Serrano, A; Pinto-Ibieta, F; Braga, A F M; Jeison, D; Borja, R; Fermoso, F G

2017-12-01

Low concentrations of trace elements in many organic wastes recommend their supplementation in order to avoid potential limitations. Different chelating agents have been used to ensure an adequate trace metal pool in the soluble fraction, by forming dissolved complexes. Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) is probably the most common, although several negative effects could be associated with its usage. Biomethane potential tests were performed using Olive Mill Solid Waste as the substrate, supplementing different combinations of Fe, Co, Ni, Ba, always under the presence of EDTA. Results show that Ni and Co slightly recovered biodegradability. However, Ba supplementation resulted in worsening the methane yield coefficient in all cases. High concentration of EDTA led to decrease in the activity of anaerobic digestion. High availability of EDTA induces the capture of trace metals like Co or Ni, key trace metals for anaerobic biomass activity. While supplementing trace metals, the addition of Ba and/or EDTA must be carefully considered.

Electrochemical evaluation of manganese reducers - Recovery of Mn from Zn-Mn and Zn-C battery waste

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sobianowska-Turek, Agnieszka; Szczepaniak, Włodzimierz; Zabłocka-Malicka, Monika

2014-12-01

Extraction of manganese from ores or battery waste involves the use of reductive reagents for transformation of MnO2 to Mn2+ ions. There are many reducers, both organic and inorganic, described in the literature. A series of 18 reducers has been discussed in the paper and they were classified according to standard redox potential (pE = -log ae- where pE is used to express formal electron activity and ae- is formal electron activity). The experiments of manganese extraction from paramagnetic fraction of Zn-C and Zn-Mn battery waste in the laboratory scale have been described for 3 reducers of different origin. The best result was achieved with oxalic acid (75%, with the lowest redox potential) and urea (with typical redox potential) appeared inactive. Extraction supported by hydrogen peroxide resulted in moderate yield (50%). It shows that formal thermodynamic scale is only preliminary information useful for selection of possible reducers for manganese extraction resources.

Investigations of biological processes in Austrian MBT plants.

PubMed

Tintner, J; Smidt, E; Böhm, K; Binner, E

2010-10-01

Mechanical biological treatment (MBT) of municipal solid waste (MSW) has become an important technology in waste management during the last decade. The paper compiles investigations of mechanical biological processes in Austrian MBT plants. Samples from all plants representing different stages of degradation were included in this study. The range of the relevant parameters characterizing the materials and their behavior, e.g. total organic carbon, total nitrogen, respiration activity and gas generation sum, was determined. The evolution of total carbon and nitrogen containing compounds was compared and related to process operation. The respiration activity decreases in most of the plants by about 90% of the initial values whereas the ammonium release is still ongoing at the end of the biological treatment. If the biogenic waste fraction is not separated, it favors humification in MBT materials that is not observed to such extent in MSW. The amount of organic carbon is about 15% dry matter at the end of the biological treatment. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Batch anaerobic digestion of synthetic military base food waste and cardboard mixtures.

PubMed

Asato, Caitlin M; Gonzalez-Estrella, Jorge; Jerke, Amber C; Bang, Sookie S; Stone, James J; Gilcrease, Patrick C

2016-09-01

Austere US military bases typically dispose of solid wastes, including large fractions of food waste (FW) and corrugated cardboard (CCB), by open dumping, landfilling, or burning. Anaerobic digestion (AD) offers an opportunity to reduce pollution and recover useful energy. This study aimed to evaluate the rates and yields of AD for FW-CCB mixtures. Batch AD was analyzed at substrate concentrations of 1-50g total chemical oxygen demand (COD)L(-1) using response surface methodology. At low concentrations, higher proportions of FW were correlated with faster specific methanogenic activities and greater final methane yields; however, concentrations of FW ⩾18.75gCODL(-1) caused inhibition. Digestion of mixtures with ⩾75% CCB occurred slowly but achieved methane yields >70%. Greater shifts in microbial communities were observed at higher substrate concentrations. Statistical models of methane yield and specific methanogenic activity indicated that FW and CCB exhibited no considerable interactions as substrates for AD. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Municipal solid waste processing and separation employing wet torrefaction for alternative fuel production and aluminum reclamation.

PubMed

Mu'min, Gea Fardias; Prawisudha, Pandji; Zaini, Ilman Nuran; Aziz, Muhammad; Pasek, Ari Darmawan

2017-09-01

This study employs wet torrefaction process (also known as hydrothermal) at low temperature. This process simultaneously acts as waste processing and separation of mixed waste, for subsequent utilization as an alternative fuel. The process is also applied for the delamination and separation of non-recyclable laminated aluminum waste into separable aluminum and plastic. A 2.5-L reactor was used to examine the wet torrefaction process at temperatures below 200°C. It was observed that the processed mixed waste was converted into two different products: a mushy organic part and a bulky plastic part. Using mechanical separation, the two products can be separated into a granular organic product and a plastic bulk for further treatment. TGA analysis showed that no changes in the plastic composition and no intrusion from plastic fraction to the organic fraction. It can be proclaimed that both fractions have been completely separated by wet torrefaction. The separated plastic fraction product obtained from the wet torrefaction treatment also contained relatively high calorific value (approximately 44MJ/kg), therefore, justifying its use as an alternative fuel. The non-recyclable plastic fraction of laminated aluminum was observed to be delaminated and separated from its aluminum counterpart at a temperature of 170°C using an additional acetic acid concentration of 3%, leaving less than 25% of the plastic content in the aluminum part. Plastic products from both samples had high calorific values of more than 30MJ/kg, which is sufficient to be converted and used as a fuel. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Characterization of selected municipal solid waste components to estimate their biodegradability.

PubMed

Bayard, R; Benbelkacem, H; Gourdon, R; Buffière, P

2018-06-15

Biological treatments of Residual Municipal Solid Waste (RMSW) allow to divert biodegradable materials from landfilling and recover valuable alternative resources. The biodegradability of the waste components needs however to be assessed in order to design the bioprocesses properly. The present study investigated complementary approaches to aerobic and anaerobic biotests for a more rapid evaluation. A representative sample of residual MSW was collected from a Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) plant and sorted out into 13 fractions according to the French standard procedure MODECOM™. The different fractions were analyzed for organic matter content, leaching behavior, contents in biochemical constituents (determined by Van Soest's acid detergent fiber method), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Bio-Methane Potential (BMP). Experimental data were statistically treated by Principal Components Analysis (PCA). Cumulative oxygen consumption from BOD tests and cumulative methane production from BMP tests were found to be positively correlated in all waste fractions. No correlation was observed between the results from BOD or BMP bioassays and the contents in cellulose-like, hemicelluloses-like or labile organic compounds. No correlation was observed either with the results from leaching tests (Soluble COD). The contents in lignin-like compounds, evaluated as the non-extracted RES fraction in Van Soest's method, was found however to impact negatively the biodegradability assessed by BOD or BMP tests. Since cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin are the polymers responsible for the structuration of lignocellulosic complexes, it was concluded that the structural organization of the organic matter in the different waste fractions was more determinant on biodegradability than the respective contents in individual biopolymers. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of CaO2 addition on anaerobic digestion of waste activated sludge at different temperatures and the promotion of valuable carbon source production under ambient condition.

PubMed

Ping, Qian; Lu, Xiao; Zheng, Ming; Li, Yongmei

2018-06-06

The effect of calcium peroxide (CaO 2 ) addition on anaerobic digestion (AD) of waste activated sludge (WAS) at different temperatures (20 °C, 35 °C, and 55 °C) were investigated. The results show that CaO 2 addition had significant positive effect on short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) production under ambient and mesophilic conditions. Polysaccharides and proteins embedded in extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) were effectively released from inner fraction to outer fraction, and non-biodegradable humic-like substances were decreased while easily biodegradable tryptophan-like proteins increased. These effects were most remarkable under ambient conditions. However, CaO 2 addition was unfavorable to thermophilic AD because of high free ammonia concentrations and the accumulation of humic-like substances. Temperature showed a stronger effect than CaO 2 on microbial community structure, but CaO 2 addition was more effective than temperature in enhancing hydrolytic and acidifying microorganisms. Predictive functional profiling indicated that microbial hydrolysis, metabolism and acidification were promoted by CaO 2 under ambient conditions. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Radiation damage and waste management options for the SOMBRERO final focus system and neutron dumps

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Latkowski, J F; Meier, W R; Reyes, S

1999-08-09

Previous studies of the safety and environmental aspects of the SOMBRERO inertial fusion energy (IFE) power plant design did not completely address the issues associated with the final focus system. While past work calculated neutron fluences for a grazing incidence metal mirror (GIMM) and a final focus mirror, scattering off of the final optical component was not included, and thus, fluences in the final focus mirror were significantly underestimated. In addition, past work did not consider neutron-induced gamma-rays. Finally, power plant lifetime waste volumes may have been underestimated as neutron activation of the neutron dumps and building structure were notmore » addressed. In the present work, a modified version of the SOMBRERO target building is presented where a significantly larger open solid-angle fraction (5%) is used to enhance beam smoothing of a diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL). The GIMMs are replaced with transmissive fused silica wedges and have been included in three -dimensional neutron and photon transport calculations. This work shows that a power plant with a large open solid-angle fraction, needed for beam smoothing with a DPSSL, is acceptable from tritium breeding, and neutron activation points-of-view.« less

Preparation of hierarchical porous carbon from waste printed circuit boards for high performance electric double-layer capacitors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Du, Xuan; Wang, Li; Zhao, Wei; Wang, Yi; Qi, Tao; Li, Chang Ming

2016-08-01

Renewable clean energy and resources recycling have become inevitable choices to solve worldwide energy shortages and environmental pollution problems. It is a great challenge to recycle tons of waste printed circuit boards (PCB) produced every year for clean environment while creating values. In this work, low cost, high quality activated carbons (ACs) were synthesized from non-metallic fractions (NMF) of waste PCB to offer a great potential for applications of electrochemical double-layer capacitors (EDLCs). After recovering metal from waste PCB, hierarchical porous carbons were produced from NMF by carbonization and activation processes. The experimental results exhibit that some pores were formed after carbonization due to the escape of impurity atoms introduced by additives in NMF. Then the pore structure was further tailored by adjusting the activation parameters. Roles of micropores and non-micropores in charge storage were investigated when the hierarchical porous carbons were applied as electrode of EDLCs. The highest specific capacitance of 210 F g-1 (at 50 mA g-1) and excellent rate capability were achieved when the ACs possessing a proper micropores/non-micropores ratio. This work not only provides a promising method to recycle PCB, but also investigates the structure tailoring arts for a rational hierarchical porous structure in energy storage/conversion.

40 CFR Table Tt-1 to Subpart Tt of... - Default DOC and Decay Rate Values for Industrial Waste Landfills

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... Industrial Waste Landfills TT Table TT-1 to Subpart TT of Part 98 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) MANDATORY GREENHOUSE GAS REPORTING Industrial Waste... for Industrial Waste Landfills Industry/Waste Type DOC(weight fraction, wet basis) k[dry climatea] (yr...

40 CFR Table Tt-1 to Subpart Tt of... - Default DOC and Decay Rate Values for Industrial Waste Landfills

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... Industrial Waste Landfills TT Table TT-1 to Subpart TT of Part 98 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) MANDATORY GREENHOUSE GAS REPORTING Industrial Waste... for Industrial Waste Landfills Industry/Waste Type DOC(weight fraction, wet basis) k[dry climatea] (yr...

Secondary Waste Cast Stone Waste Form Qualification Testing Plan

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Westsik, Joseph H.; Serne, R. Jeffrey

2012-09-26

The Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) is being constructed to treat the 56 million gallons of radioactive waste stored in 177 underground tanks at the Hanford Site. The WTP includes a pretreatment facility to separate the wastes into high-level waste (HLW) and low-activity waste (LAW) fractions for vitrification and disposal. The LAW will be converted to glass for final disposal at the Integrated Disposal Facility (IDF). Cast Stone – a cementitious waste form, has been selected for solidification of this secondary waste stream after treatment in the ETF. The secondary-waste Cast Stone waste form must be acceptablemore » for disposal in the IDF. This secondary waste Cast Stone waste form qualification testing plan outlines the testing of the waste form and immobilization process to demonstrate that the Cast Stone waste form can comply with the disposal requirements. Specifications for the secondary-waste Cast Stone waste form have not been established. For this testing plan, Cast Stone specifications are derived from specifications for the immobilized LAW glass in the WTP contract, the waste acceptance criteria for the IDF, and the waste acceptance criteria in the IDF Permit issued by the State of Washington. This testing plan outlines the testing needed to demonstrate that the waste form can comply with these waste form specifications and acceptance criteria. The testing program must also demonstrate that the immobilization process can be controlled to consistently provide an acceptable waste form product. This testing plan also outlines the testing needed to provide the technical basis for understanding the long-term performance of the waste form in the disposal environment. These waste form performance data are needed to support performance assessment analyses of the long-term environmental impact of the secondary-waste Cast Stone waste form in the IDF« less

Solid waste characterization in Ketao, a rural town in Togo, West Africa.

PubMed

Edjabou, Maklawe Essonanawe; Møller, Jacob; Christensen, Thomas H

2012-07-01

In Africa the majority of solid waste data is for big cities. Small and rural towns are generally neglected and waste data from these areas are often unavailable, which makes planning a proper solid waste management difficult. This paper presents the results from two waste characterization projects conducted in Kétao, a rural town in Togo during the rainy season and the dry season in 2010. The seasonal variation has a significant impact on the waste stream. The household waste generation rate was estimated at 0.22 kg person(-1) day(-1) in the dry season and 0.42 in the rainy season. Likewise, the waste moisture content was 4% in the dry season while it was 33-63% in the rainy season. The waste consisted mainly of soil and dirt characterized as 'other' (41%), vegetables and putrescibles (38%) and plastic (11%). In addition to these fractions, considerable amounts of material are either recycled or reused locally and do not enter the waste stream. The study suggests that additional recycling is not feasible, but further examination of the degradability of the organic fraction is needed in order to assess whether the residual waste should be composed or landfilled.

Bioaccessibility of U, Th and Pb in particulate matter from an abandoned uranium mine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Millward, Geoffrey; Foulkes, Michael; Henderson, Sam; Blake, William

2016-04-01

Currently, there are approximately 150 uranium mines in Europe at various stages of either operation, development, decommissioning, restoration or abandonment (wise-uranium.com). The particulate matter comprising the mounds of waste rock and mill tailings poses a risk to human health through the inadvertent ingestion of particles contaminated with uranium and thorium, and their decay products, which exposes recipients to the dual toxicity of heavy elements and their radioactive emissions. We investigated the bioaccessibility of 238U, 232Th and 206,214,210Pb in particulate samples taken from a contaminated, abandoned uranium mine in South West England. Sampling included a mine shaft, dressing floor and waste heap, as well as soils from a field used for grazing. The contaminants were extracted using the in-vitro Unified Bioaccessibility Research Group of Europe Method (UBM) in order to mimic the digestion processes in the human stomach (STOM) and the combined stomach and gastrointestinal tract (STOM+INT). Analyses of concentrations of U, Th and Pb in the extracts were by ICP-MS and the activity concentrations of radionuclides were determined on the same particles, before and after extraction, using gamma spectroscopy. 'Total' concentrations of U, Th and Pb for all samples were in the range 57 to 16,200, 0.28 to 3.8 and 69 to 4750 mg kg-1, respectively. For U and Pb the concentrations in the STOM fraction were lower than the total and STOM+INT fractions were even lower. However, for Th the STOM+INT fractions were higher than the STOM due to the presence of Th carbonate species within the gastrointestinal fluid. Activity concentrations for 214Pb and 210Pb, including total, STOM and STOM+INT, were in the range 180 to <1 Bq g-1 for the dressing floor and waste heap and 18 to <1 Bq g-1 for the grazing land. Estimates of the bioaccessible fractions (BAFs) of 238U in the most contaminated samples were 39% and 8% in the STOM and STOM+INT, respectively, whereas the respective BAFs for 232Th were 3% and 9%. For stable 206Pb the STOM and STOM+INT BAFs were 16% and 3% for the most contaminated samples, whereas those from the field had 44% in the STOM fraction and 17% in the STOM+INT fraction. The BAFs for 214Pb and 210Pb were the same as 206Pb. Dose estimates were made for the contaminants together with radioactive doses in order to assess potential risk to human health.

Life cycle assessment of urban waste management: Energy performances and environmental impacts. The case of Rome, Italy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cherubini, Francesco; Bargigli, Silvia; Ulgiati, Sergio

2008-12-15

Landfilling is nowadays the most common practice of waste management in Italy in spite of enforced regulations aimed at increasing waste pre-sorting as well as energy and material recovery. In this work we analyse selected alternative scenarios aimed at minimizing the unused material fraction to be delivered to the landfill. The methodological framework of the analysis is the life cycle assessment, in a multi-method form developed by our research team. The approach was applied to the case of municipal solid waste (MSW) management in Rome, with a special focus on energy and material balance, including global and local scale airbornemore » emissions. Results, provided in the form of indices and indicators of efficiency, effectiveness and environmental impacts, point out landfill activities as the worst waste management strategy at a global scale. On the other hand, the investigated waste treatments with energy and material recovery allow important benefits of greenhouse gas emission reduction (among others) but are still affected by non-negligible local emissions. Furthermore, waste treatments leading to energy recovery provide an energy output that, in the best case, is able to meet 15% of the Rome electricity consumption.« less

Life cycle assessment of urban waste management: energy performances and environmental impacts. The case of Rome, Italy.

PubMed

Cherubini, Francesco; Bargigli, Silvia; Ulgiati, Sergio

2008-12-01

Landfilling is nowadays the most common practice of waste management in Italy in spite of enforced regulations aimed at increasing waste pre-sorting as well as energy and material recovery. In this work we analyse selected alternative scenarios aimed at minimizing the unused material fraction to be delivered to the landfill. The methodological framework of the analysis is the life cycle assessment, in a multi-method form developed by our research team. The approach was applied to the case of municipal solid waste (MSW) management in Rome, with a special focus on energy and material balance, including global and local scale airborne emissions. Results, provided in the form of indices and indicators of efficiency, effectiveness and environmental impacts, point out landfill activities as the worst waste management strategy at a global scale. On the other hand, the investigated waste treatments with energy and material recovery allow important benefits of greenhouse gas emission reduction (among others) but are still affected by non-negligible local emissions. Furthermore, waste treatments leading to energy recovery provide an energy output that, in the best case, is able to meet 15% of the Rome electricity consumption.

A review and overview of nuclear waste management

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Murray, R.L.

1984-12-31

An understanding of the status and issues in the management of radioactive wastes is based on technical information on radioactivity, radiation, biological hazard of radiation exposure, radiation standards, and methods of protection. The fission process gives rise to radioactive fission products and neutron bombardment gives activation products. Radioactive wastes are classified according to source: defense, commercial, industrial, and institutional; and according to physical features: uranium mill tailings, high-level, transuranic, and low-level. The nuclear fuel cycle, which contributes a large fraction of annual radioactive waste, starts with uranium ore, includes nuclear reactor use for electrical power generation, and ends with ultimatemore » disposal of residues. The relation of spent fuel storage and reprocessing is governed by technical, economic, and political considerations. Waste has been successfully solidified in glass and other forms and choices of the containers for the waste form are available. Methods of disposal of high-level waste that have been investigated are transmutation by neutron bombardment, shipment to Antartica, deep-hole insertion, subseabed placement, transfer by rocket to an orbit in space, and disposal in a mined cavity. The latter is the favored method. The choices of host geological media are salt, basalt, tuff, and granite.« less

Energy recovery from organic fractions of municipal solid waste: A case study of Hyderabad city, Pakistan.

PubMed

Safar, Korai M; Bux, Mahar R; Aslam, Uqaili M; Ahmed, Memon S; Ahmed, Lashari I

2016-04-01

Non-renewable energy sources have remained the choice of the world for centuries. Rapid growth in population and industrialisation have caused their shortage and environmental degradation by using them. Thus, at the present rate of consumption, they will not last very long. In this prospective, this study has been conducted. The estimation of energy in terms of biogas and heat from various organic fractions of municipal solid waste is presented and discussed. The results show that organic fractions of municipal solid waste possess methane potential in the range of 3%-22% and their heat capacity ranges from 3007 to 20,099 kJ kg(-1) Also, theoretical biogas potential of different individual fruit as well as vegetable components and mixed food waste are analysed and estimated in the range of 608-1244 m(3) t(-1) Further, the share of bioenergy from municipal solid waste in the total primary energy supply in Pakistan has been estimated to be 1.82%. About 8.43% of present energy demand of the country could be met from municipal solid waste. The study leads us to the conclusion that the share of imported energy (i.e. 0.1% of total energy supply) and reduction in the amount of energy from fossil fuels can be achieved by adopting a waste-to-energy system in the country. © The Author(s) 2016.

A new dawn for buried garbage? An investigation of the marketability of previously disposed shredder waste.

PubMed

Johansson, N; Krook, J; Frändegård, P

2017-02-01

This paper examines the market potential of disposed shredder waste, a resource that is increasingly emphasized as a future mine. A framework with gate requirements of various outlets was developed and contrasted with a pilot project focusing on excavated waste from a shredder landfill, sorted in an advanced recycling facility. Only the smallest fraction by percentage had an outlet, the metals (8%), which were sold according to a lower quality class. The other fractions (92%) were not accepted for incineration, as construction materials or even for re-deposition. Previous studies have shown similar lack of marketability. This means that even if one fraction can be recovered, the outlet of the other material is often unpredictable, resulting in a waste disposal problem, which easily prevents a landfill mining project altogether. This calls for marketability and usability of deposited waste to become a central issue for landfill mining research. The paper concludes by discussing how concerned actors can enhance the marketability, for example by pre-treating the disposed waste to acclimatize it to existing sorting methods. However, for concerned actors to become interested in approaching unconventional resources such as deposited waste, greater regulatory flexibility is needed in which, for example, re-deposition could be allowed as long as the environmental benefits of the projects outweigh the disadvantages. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Current-use and organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls in the biodegradable fraction of source separated household waste, compost, and anaerobic digest.

PubMed

Hellström, Anna; Nilsson, Marie-Louise; Kylin, Henrik

2011-01-01

Several current-use (≤ 80 ng g⁻¹ dry weight) and organochlorine pesticides (≤ 15 ng g⁻¹ dry weight) and polychlorinated biphenyls (≤ 18 ng g⁻¹ dry weight) were found in the biodegradable fraction of source separated household waste, compost, and/or anaerobic digestate. The degradation rates of individual compounds differ depending on the treatment. Dieldrin and pentachloroaniline, e.g., degrade more rapidly than the waste is mineralized and accumulates in the products after all treatments. Many organochlorines degrade at the same rate as the waste and have the same concentrations in the waste and products. Chlorpyrifos degrades slower than the waste and accumulates in all products and ethion during anaerobic digestion. The polychlorinated biphenyls and some pesticides show different degradations rates relative the waste during different processes. Understanding the degradation of the contaminants under different conditions is necessary to develop quality criteria for the use of compost and digest.

Insights into metals in individual fine particles from municipal solid waste using synchrotron radiation-based micro-analytical techniques.

PubMed

Zhu, Yumin; Zhang, Hua; Shao, Liming; He, Pinjing

2015-01-01

Excessive inter-contamination with heavy metals hampers the application of biological treatment products derived from mixed or mechanically-sorted municipal solid waste (MSW). In this study, we investigated fine particles of <2mm, which are small fractions in MSW but constitute a significant component of the total heavy metal content, using bulk detection techniques. A total of 17 individual fine particles were evaluated using synchrotron radiation-based micro-X-ray fluorescence and micro-X-ray diffraction. We also discussed the association, speciation and source apportionment of heavy metals. Metals were found to exist in a diffuse distribution with heterogeneous intensities and intense hot-spots of <10 μm within the fine particles. Zn-Cu, Pb-Fe and Fe-Mn-Cr had significant correlations in terms of spatial distribution. The overlapped enrichment, spatial association, and the mineral phases of metals revealed the potential sources of fine particles from size-reduced waste fractions (such as scraps of organic wastes or ceramics) or from the importation of other particles. The diverse sources of heavy metal pollutants within the fine particles suggested that separate collection and treatment of the biodegradable waste fraction (such as food waste) is a preferable means of facilitating the beneficial utilization of the stabilized products. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier B.V.

40 CFR 98.464 - Monitoring and QA/QC requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... = Degradable organic content of waste stream in Year X (weight fraction, wet basis) FDOC = Fraction of the volatile residue that is degradable organic carbon (weight fraction). Use a default value of 0.6...

High metal reactivity and environmental risks at a site contaminated by glass waste.

PubMed

Augustsson, A; Åström, M; Bergbäck, B; Elert, M; Höglund, L O; Kleja, D B

2016-07-01

This study addresses the reactivity and risks of metals (Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn, As and Sb) at a Swedish site with large glass waste deposits. Old glassworks sites typically have high total metal concentrations, but as the metals are mainly bound within the glass waste and considered relatively inert, environmental investigations at these kinds of sites are limited. In this study, soil and landfill samples were subjected to a sequential chemical extraction procedure. Data from batch leaching tests and groundwater upstream and downstream of the waste deposits were also interpreted. The sequential extraction revealed that metals in <2 mm soil/waste samples were largely associated with geochemically active fractions, indicating that metals are released from pristine glass and subsequently largely retained in the surrounding soil and/or on secondary mineral coatings on fine glass particles. From the approximately 12,000 m(3) of coarse glass waste at the site, almost 4000 kg of Pb is estimated to have been lost through corrosion, which, however, corresponds to only a small portion of the total amount of Pb in the waste. Metal sorption within the waste deposits or in underlying soil layers is supported by fairly low metal concentrations in groundwater. However, elevated concentrations in downstream groundwater and in leachates of batch leaching tests were observed for several metals, indicating on-going leaching. Taken together, the high metal concentrations in geochemically active forms and the high amounts of as yet uncorroded metal-rich glass, indicate considerable risks to human health and the environment. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

In vitro Anti-Thrombotic Activity of Extracts from Blacklip Abalone (Haliotis rubra) Processing Waste.

PubMed

Suleria, Hafiz Ansar Rasul; Hines, Barney M; Addepalli, Rama; Chen, Wei; Masci, Paul; Gobe, Glenda; Osborne, Simone A

2016-12-31

Waste generated from the processing of marine organisms for food represents an underutilized resource that has the potential to provide bioactive molecules with pharmaceutical applications. Some of these molecules have known anti-thrombotic and anti-coagulant activities and are being investigated as alternatives to common anti-thrombotic drugs, like heparin and warfarin that have serious side effects. In the current study, extracts prepared from blacklip abalone ( Haliotis rubra ) processing waste, using food grade enzymes papain and bromelain, were found to contain sulphated polysaccharide with anti-thrombotic activity. Extracts were found to be enriched with sulphated polysaccharides and assessed for anti-thrombotic activity in vitro through heparin cofactor-II (HCII)-mediated inhibition of thrombin. More than 60% thrombin inhibition was observed in response to 100 μg/mL sulphated polysaccharides. Anti-thrombotic potential was further assessed as anti-coagulant activity in plasma and blood, using prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), and thromboelastography (TEG). All abalone extracts had significant activity compared with saline control. Anion exchange chromatography was used to separate extracts into fractions with enhanced anti-thrombotic activity, improving HCII-mediated thrombin inhibition, PT and aPTT almost 2-fold. Overall this study identifies an alternative source of anti-thrombotic molecules that can be easily processed offering alternatives to current anti-thrombotic agents like heparin.

In vitro Anti-Thrombotic Activity of Extracts from Blacklip Abalone (Haliotis rubra) Processing Waste

PubMed Central

Suleria, Hafiz Ansar Rasul; Hines, Barney M.; Addepalli, Rama; Chen, Wei; Masci, Paul; Gobe, Glenda; Osborne, Simone A.

2016-01-01

Waste generated from the processing of marine organisms for food represents an underutilized resource that has the potential to provide bioactive molecules with pharmaceutical applications. Some of these molecules have known anti-thrombotic and anti-coagulant activities and are being investigated as alternatives to common anti-thrombotic drugs, like heparin and warfarin that have serious side effects. In the current study, extracts prepared from blacklip abalone (Haliotis rubra) processing waste, using food grade enzymes papain and bromelain, were found to contain sulphated polysaccharide with anti-thrombotic activity. Extracts were found to be enriched with sulphated polysaccharides and assessed for anti-thrombotic activity in vitro through heparin cofactor-II (HCII)-mediated inhibition of thrombin. More than 60% thrombin inhibition was observed in response to 100 μg/mL sulphated polysaccharides. Anti-thrombotic potential was further assessed as anti-coagulant activity in plasma and blood, using prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), and thromboelastography (TEG). All abalone extracts had significant activity compared with saline control. Anion exchange chromatography was used to separate extracts into fractions with enhanced anti-thrombotic activity, improving HCII-mediated thrombin inhibition, PT and aPTT almost 2-fold. Overall this study identifies an alternative source of anti-thrombotic molecules that can be easily processed offering alternatives to current anti-thrombotic agents like heparin. PMID:28042854

Metabolism of waste engine oil by Pseudomonas species.

PubMed

Salam, Lateef B

2016-06-01

Two bacterial strains phylogenetically identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains RM1 and SK1 displayed extensive degradation ability on waste engine oil (SAE 40W) in batch cultures. Spectrophotometric analysis revealed the presence of various heavy metals such as lead, chromium and nickel in the waste engine oil. The rate of degradation of waste engine oil by the isolates, for the first 12 days and the last 9 days were 66.3, 31.6 mg l -1  day -1   and 69.6, 40.0 mg l -1  day -1 for strains RM1 and SK1, respectively. Gas chromatographic (GC) analyses of residual waste engine oil, revealed that 66.58, 89.06 % and 63.40, 90.75 % of the initial concentration of the waste engine oil were degraded by strains RM1 and SK1 within 12 and 21 days. GC fingerprints of the waste engine oil after 12 days of incubation of strains RM1 and SK1 showed total disappearance of C 15 , C 23 , C 24 , C 25 and C 26 hydrocarbon fractions as well as drastic reductions of C 13 , C 14 , C 16 and PAHs fractions such as C 19 -anthracene and C 22 -pyrene. At the end of 21 days incubation, total disappearance of C 17 -pristane, C 22 -pyrene, one of the C 19 -anthracene and significant reduction of C 18 -phytane (97.2 %, strain RM1; 95.1 %, strain SK1) fractions were observed. In addition, <10 % of Day 0 values of medium fraction ranges C 13 , and C 16 were discernible after 21 days. This study has established the potentials of P. aeruginosa strains RM1 and SK1 in the degradation of aliphatic, aromatic and branched alkane components of waste engine oils.

Washing of waste prior to landfilling.

PubMed

Cossu, Raffaello; Lai, Tiziana

2012-05-01

The main impact produced by landfills is represented by the release of leachate emissions. Waste washing treatment has been investigated to evaluate its efficiency in reducing the waste leaching fraction prior to landfilling. The results of laboratory-scale washing tests applied to several significant residues from integrated management of solid waste are presented in this study, specifically: non-recyclable plastics from source separation, mechanical-biological treated municipal solid waste and a special waste, automotive shredded residues. Results obtained demonstrate that washing treatment contributes towards combating the environmental impacts of raw wastes. Accordingly, a leachate production model was applied, leading to the consideration that the concentrations of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), parameters of fundamental importance in the characterization of landfill leachate, from a landfill containing washed wastes, are comparable to those that would only be reached between 90 and 220years later in the presence of raw wastes. The findings obtained demonstrated that washing of waste may represent an effective means of reducing the leachable fraction resulting in a consequent decrease in landfill emissions. Further studies on pilot scale are needed to assess the potential for full-scale application of this treatment. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fate of organic carbon from different waste materials in cropland soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paetsch, Lydia; Mueller, Carsten; Rumpel, Cornelia; Houot, Sabine; Kögel-Knabner, Ingrid

2015-04-01

Organic amendments are widely used to enhance the fertility of cropland soils. However, there is only scarce knowledge about the long term impact of added organic matter (OM) on the soil organic carbon (SOC) pool. Therefore, we analyzed a long-term field experiment in Feucherolles (France), which regularly received three different composts (home sorted bio-waste mixed with green waste (BIO), municipal solid waste (MSW) and a mixture of green waste and sewage sludge (GWS) and cattle manure since 1998. With these organic materials approximately 4 Mg total OC were added to the soil in two year intervals. The experiment was fully randomized with 4 replicates for each amendment. In September 2013 we took samples from the surface soil (0-5 cm of Ap horizon) of all 4 treatments and the unamended control. To study the chemical alteration and the fate of the added OC into different soil compartments, we fractionated the soils by physical means using a combined density and particle size protocol. Carbon and N content were determined in bulk soils, amendments as well as in size fractions (fPOM, oPOM <20µm and oPOM >20µm, sand, silt and a combined fine silt-clay fraction). Chemical composition was determined by solid-state 13C CPMAS NMR spectroscopy. We found significant higher C contents for the oPOM small and sand fraction of BIO treated soil and for the clay fraction of GWS treated soils (p<0.05). Nitrogen contents were significantly higher for BIO treated soils in bulk soil, fPOM, oPOM small and for GWS treated soils in bulk soil, fPOM and oPOM. The NMR measurements revealed that only the chemical composition of the fPOM differed according to the treatment; towards the more altered fractions as the oPOM small, the compositional differences leveled out and became almost homogeneous. Furthermore, the NMR measurements indicate a similar OC composition within the independent field replicates regarding the different amendments and fractions. As previously shown, N was found to be concentrated in the clay fractions, but interestingly we were able to show this also for the oPOM small. Proteins and peptides, as indicated by the broad resonance between 30 and 55 ppm, clearly point to the presence of microbial products and residues in this fraction.

Evolution of various fractions during the windrow composting of chicken manure with rice chaff.

PubMed

Kong, Zhijian; Wang, Xuanqing; Liu, Qiumei; Li, Tuo; Chen, Xing; Chai, Lifang; Liu, Dongyang; Shen, Qirong

2018-02-01

Different fractions during the 85-day windrow composting were characterized based on various parameters, such as physiochemical properties and hydrolytic enzyme activities; several technologies were used, including spectral scanning techniques, confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and 13 C Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ( 13 C NMR). The evaluated parameters fluctuated strongly during the first 3 weeks which was the most active period of the composting process. The principal components analysis (PCA) results showed that four classes of the samples were clearly distinguishable, in which the physiochemical parameters were similar, and that the dynamics of the composting process was significantly influenced by C/N and moisture content. The 13 C NMR results indicated that O-alkyl-C was the predominant group both in the solid and water-soluble fractions (WSF), and the decomposition of O-alkyl-C mainly occurred during the active stage. In general, the various parameters indicated that windrow composting is a feasible treatment that can be used for the resource reuse of agricultural wastes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

40 CFR 265.1084 - Waste determination procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... to determine the organic biodegradation efficiency (Rbio) for a treated hazardous waste. (i) The... Where: Rbio = Organic biodegradation efficiency, percent. Fbio = Fraction of organic biodegraded as... to determine the actual organic mass biodegradation rate (MRbio) for a treated hazardous waste. (i...

Waste to energy – key element for sustainable waste management

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Brunner, Paul H., E-mail: paul.h.brunner@tuwien.ac.at; Rechberger, Helmut

2015-03-15

Highlights: • First paper on the importance of incineration from a urban metabolism point of view. • Proves that incineration is necessary for sustainable waste management. • Historical and technical overview of 100 years development of MSW incineration. - Abstract: Human activities inevitably result in wastes. The higher the material turnover, and the more complex and divers the materials produced, the more challenging it is for waste management to reach the goals of “protection of men and environment” and “resource conservation”. Waste incineration, introduced originally for volume reduction and hygienic reasons, went through a long and intense development. Together withmore » prevention and recycling measures, waste to energy (WTE) facilities contribute significantly to reaching the goals of waste management. Sophisticated air pollution control (APC) devices ensure that emissions are environmentally safe. Incinerators are crucial and unique for the complete destruction of hazardous organic materials, to reduce risks due to pathogenic microorganisms and viruses, and for concentrating valuable as well as toxic metals in certain fractions. Bottom ash and APC residues have become new sources of secondary metals, hence incineration has become a materials recycling facility, too. WTE plants are supporting decisions about waste and environmental management: They can routinely and cost effectively supply information about chemical waste composition as well as about the ratio of biogenic to fossil carbon in MSW and off-gas.« less

Fractionation and mobility of thallium in areas impacted by mining-metallurgical activities: Identification of a water-soluble Tl(I) fraction.

PubMed

Cruz-Hernández, Yusniel; Ruiz-García, Mismel; Villalobos, Mario; Romero, Francisco Martin; Meza-Figueroa, Diana; Garrido, Fernando; Hernández-Alvarez, Elizabeth; Pi-Puig, Teresa

2018-06-01

Mining and metallurgy generate residues that may contain thallium (Tl), a highly toxic metal, for which it is currently not feasible to determine its geochemical speciation through X-ray absorption spectroscopy due to a combination of very low contents and the interference of accompanying high arsenic contents. Therefore, fractionation studies in residues and soils are required to analyze the mobility and bioavailability of this metal, which in turn provide information to infer its speciation. For this purpose, in this work a modification of the BCR procedure was applied to residues and contaminated soils from three mining zones of Mexico and two mining zones of Spain, spanning samples with acidic to alkaline pH values. The Tl extraction procedure consisted of the following fractions: (1) water-extractable, (2) easily exchangeable and associated to carbonates, associated to (3) poorly-crystalline and (4) crystalline Fe and Mn oxyhydroxides, and (5) associated to organic matter and sulfides; and finally a residual fraction as associated to refractory primary and other secondary minerals. The extracted contents were analyzed by Inductively-Coupled Plasma with Mass Spectrometry. Surprisingly, water-soluble, in Tl(I) oxidation state, was detected in most areas, regardless of the pH, a fact that has not been reported before in these environments, and alerts to potential health risks not previously identified. Most of the samples from a metallurgy area showed high levels of Tl in non-residual fractions and a strong correlation was obtained between extracted Mn and Tl in the third fraction, suggesting its association to poorly crystalline manganese oxides. In the majority of samples from purely mining environments, most of the Tl was found in the residual fraction, most probably bound to alumino-silicate minerals. The remaining Tl fractions were extracted mainly associated to the reducible mineral fractions, and in one case also in the oxidizable fraction (presumably associated to sulfides). Capsule: Soluble Tl(I) was found in all soil samples contaminated with either mining or metallurgical wastes. Additionally, in those affected by metallurgical wastes a very strong Tl-Mn correlation was found. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fractionation and characterization of organic matter in wastewater from a swine waste-retention basin

USGS Publications Warehouse

Leenheer, Jerry A.; Rostad, Colleen E.

2004-01-01

Organic matter in wastewater sampled from a swine waste-retention basin in Iowa was fractionated into 14 fractions on the basis of size (particulate, colloid, and dissolved); volatility; polarity (hydrophobic, transphilic, hydrophilic); acid, base, neutral characteristics; and precipitate or flocculates (floc) formation upon acidification. The compound-class composition of each of these fractions was determined by infrared and 13C-NMR spectral analyses. Volatile acids were the largest fraction with acetic acid being the major component of this fraction. The second most abundant fraction was fine particulate organic matter that consisted of bacterial cells that were subfractionated into extractable lipids consisting of straight chain fatty acids, peptidoglycans components of bacterial cell walls, and protein globulin components of cellular plasma. The large lipid content of the particulate fraction indicates that non-polar contaminants, such as certain pharmaceuticals added to swine feed, likely associate with the particulate fraction through partitioning interactions. Hydrocinnamic acid is a major component of the hydrophobic acid fraction, and its presence is an indication of anaerobic degradation of lignin originally present in swine feed. This is the first study to combine particulate organic matter with dissolved organic matter fractionation into a total organic matter fractionation and characterization.

Separation and characterization of polyphenolics from underutilized byproducts of fruit production (Choerospondias axillaris peels): inhibitory activity of proanthocyanidins against glycolysis enzymes.

PubMed

Li, Qian; Chen, Jun; Li, Ti; Liu, Chengmei; Zhai, Yuxin; McClements, David Julian; Liu, Jiyan

2015-12-01

Bioactive proanthocyanidins were isolated from the peel of Choerospondias axillaris fruit, which is a waste product of the food processing industry. Compositional analysis indicated that the proanthocyanidins had extension units mainly consisting of epicatechin gallate or epicatechin, and terminal units mainly consisting of catechin. Numerous polymeric forms of the molecules were detected, including monomers, dimers, and trimers. Certain fractions exhibited strong α-amylase or α-glucosidase inhibition in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, their inhibitory activities depended on their degree of polymerization and galloylation. For example, the most bioactive fraction had α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities (IC50 values) of 541 and 3.1 μg mL(-1), respectively. This study demonstrates that proanthocyanidins from C. axillaris peels can inhibit carbohydrate digestive enzymes in vitro and may therefore serve as antidiabetic ingredients in functional or medical foods.

Effect of mixture ratio, solids concentration and hydraulic retention time on the anaerobic digestion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste.

PubMed

Fongsatitkul, Prayoon; Elefsiniotis, Panagiotis; Wareham, David G

2010-09-01

This paper describes how the degradation of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) is affected through codigestion with varying amounts of return activated sludge (RAS). Solid waste that had its inorganic fraction selectively removed was mixed with RAS in ratios of 100% OFMSW, 50% OFMSW/50% RAS, and 25% OFMSW/75% RAS. The total solids (TS) concentration was held at 8% and three anaerobic digester systems treating the mixtures were held (for the first run) at a total hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 28 days. Increasing amounts of RAS did not however improve the mixture's digestability, as indicated by little change and/or a drop in the main performance indices [including percentage volatile solids (VS) removal and specific gas production]. The optimum ratio in this research therefore appeared to be 100% OFMSW with an associated 85.1 ± 0.6% VS removal and 0.72 ± 0.01 L total gas g(- 1) VS. In the second run, the effect of increasing percentage of TS (8, 12% and 15%) at a system HRT of 28 days was observed to yield no improvement in the main performance indices (i.e. percentage VS removal and specific gas production). Finally, during the third run, variations in the total system HRT were investigated at an 8% TS, again using 100% OFMSW. Of the HRTs explored (23, 28 and 33 days), the longest HRT yielded the best performance overall, particularly in terms of specific gas production (0.77 ± 0.01 L total gas g(-1) VS).

Status of electronic waste recycling techniques: a review.

PubMed

Abdelbasir, Sabah M; Hassan, Saad S M; Kamel, Ayman H; El-Nasr, Rania Seif

2018-05-08

The increasing use of electrical and electronic equipment leads to a huge generation of electronic waste (e-waste). It is the fastest growing waste stream in the world. Almost all electrical and electronic equipment contain printed circuit boards as an essential part. Improper handling of these electronic wastes could bring serious risk to human health and the environment. On the other hand, proper handling of this waste requires a sound management strategy for awareness, collection, recycling, and reuse. Nowadays, the effective recycling of this type of waste has been considered as a main challenge for any society. Printed circuit boards (PCBs), which are the base of many electronic industries, are rich in valuable heavy metals and toxic halogenated organic substances. In this review, the composition of different PCBs and their harmful effects are discussed. Various techniques in common use for recycling the most important metals from the metallic fractions of e-waste are illustrated. The recovery of metals from e-waste material after physical separation through pyrometallurgical, hydrometallurgical, or biohydrometallurgical routes is also discussed, along with alternative uses of non-metallic fraction. The data are explained and compared with the current e-waste management efforts done in Egypt. Future perspectives and challenges facing Egypt for proper e-waste recycling are also discussed.

Environmental assessment of garden waste management in the Municipality of Aarhus, Denmark

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Boldrin, Alessio, E-mail: aleb@env.dtu.dk; Andersen, Jacob K.; Christensen, Thomas H.

2011-07-15

An environmental assessment of six scenarios for handling of garden waste in the Municipality of Aarhus (Denmark) was performed from a life cycle perspective by means of the LCA-model EASEWASTE. In the first (baseline) scenario, the current garden waste management system based on windrow composting was assessed, while in the other five scenarios alternative solutions including incineration and home composting of fractions of the garden waste were evaluated. The environmental profile (normalised to Person Equivalent, PE) of the current garden waste management in Aarhus is in the order of -6 to 8 mPE Mg{sup -1} ww for the non-toxic categoriesmore » and up to 100 mPE Mg{sup -1} ww for the toxic categories. The potential impacts on non-toxic categories are much smaller than what is found for other fractions of municipal solid waste. Incineration (up to 35% of the garden waste) and home composting (up to 18% of the garden waste) seem from an environmental point of view suitable for diverting waste away from the composting facility in order to increase its capacity. In particular the incineration of woody parts of the garden waste improved the environmental profile of the garden waste management significantly.« less

Environmental assessment of garden waste management in the Municipality of Aarhus, Denmark.

PubMed

Boldrin, Alessio; Andersen, Jacob K; Christensen, Thomas H

2011-07-01

An environmental assessment of six scenarios for handling of garden waste in the Municipality of Aarhus (Denmark) was performed from a life cycle perspective by means of the LCA-model EASEWASTE. In the first (baseline) scenario, the current garden waste management system based on windrow composting was assessed, while in the other five scenarios alternative solutions including incineration and home composting of fractions of the garden waste were evaluated. The environmental profile (normalised to Person Equivalent, PE) of the current garden waste management in Aarhus is in the order of -6 to 8 mPE Mg(-1) ww for the non-toxic categories and up to 100 mPE Mg(-1) ww for the toxic categories. The potential impacts on non-toxic categories are much smaller than what is found for other fractions of municipal solid waste. Incineration (up to 35% of the garden waste) and home composting (up to 18% of the garden waste) seem from an environmental point of view suitable for diverting waste away from the composting facility in order to increase its capacity. In particular the incineration of woody parts of the garden waste improved the environmental profile of the garden waste management significantly. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

New technology for recovering residual metals from nonmetallic fractions of waste printed circuit boards.

PubMed

Zhang, Guangwen; He, Yaqun; Wang, Haifeng; Zhang, Tao; Wang, Shuai; Yang, Xing; Xia, Wencheng

2017-06-01

Recycling of waste printed circuit boards is important for environmental protection and sustainable resource utilization. Corona electrostatic separation has been widely used to recycle metals from waste printed circuit boards, but it has poor separation efficiency for finer sized fractions. In this study, a new process of vibrated gas-solid fluidized bed was used to recycle residual metals from nonmetallic fractions, which were treated using the corona electrostatic separation technology. The effects of three main parameters, i.e., vibration frequency, superficial air flow velocity, and fluidizing time on gravity segregation, were investigated using a vibrating gas-solid fluidized bed. Each size fraction had its own optimum parameters. Corresponding to their optimal segregation performance, the products from each experiment were analyzed using an X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and a scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). From the results, it can be seen that the metal recoveries of -1+0.5mm, -0.5+0.25mm, and -0.25mm size fractions were 86.39%, 82.22% and 76.63%, respectively. After separation, each metal content in the -1+0.5 or -0.5+0.25mm size fraction reduced to 1% or less, while the Fe and Cu contents are up to 2.57% and 1.50%, respectively, in the -0.25mm size fraction. Images of the nonmetallic fractions with a size of -0.25mm indicated that a considerable amount of clavate glass fibers existed in these nonmetallic fractions, which may explain why fine particles had the poorest segregation performance. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pre-aeration of food waste to augment acidogenic process at higher organic load: Valorizing biohydrogen, volatile fatty acids and biohythane.

PubMed

Sarkar, Omprakash; Venkata Mohan, S

2017-10-01

Application of pre-aeration (AS) to waste prior to feeding was evaluated on acidogenic process in a semi-pilot scale biosystem for the production of biobased products (biohydrogen, volatile fatty acids (VFA) and biohythane) from food waste. Oxygen assisted in pre-hydrolysis of waste along with the suppression of methanogenic activity resulting in enhanced acidogenic product formation. AS operation resulted in 97% improvement in hydrogen conversion efficiency (HCE) and 10% more VFA production than the control. Increasing the organic load (OL) of food waste in association with AS application improved the productivity. The application of AS also influenced concentration and composition of fatty acid. Highest fraction of acetic (5.3g/l), butyric (0.7g/l) and propionic acid (0.84g/l) was achieved at higher OL (100g COD/l) with good degree of acidification (DOA). AS strategy showed positive influence on biofuel (biohydrogen and biohythane) production along with the biosynthesis of short chain fatty acids functioning as a low-cost pretreatment strategy in a single stage bioprocess. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pyrolysis reaction models of waste tires: Application of Master-Plots method for energy conversion via devolatilization.

PubMed

Irmak Aslan, Dilan; Parthasarathy, Prakash; Goldfarb, Jillian L; Ceylan, Selim

2017-10-01

Land applied disposal of waste tires has far-reaching environmental, economic, and human health consequences. Pyrolysis represents a potential waste management solution, whereby the solid carbonaceous residue is heated in the absence of oxygen to produce liquid and gaseous fuels, and a solid char. The design of an efficient conversion unit requires information on the reaction kinetics of pyrolysis. This work is the first to probe the appropriate reaction model of waste tire pyrolysis. The average activation energy of pyrolysis was determined via iso-conversional methods over a mass fraction conversion range between 0.20 and 0.80 to be 162.8±23.2kJmol -1 . Using the Master Plots method, a reaction order of three was found to be the most suitable model to describe the pyrolytic decomposition. This suggests that the chemical reactions themselves (cracking, depolymerization, etc.), not diffusion or boundary layer interactions common with carbonaceous biomasses, are the rate-limiting steps in the pyrolytic decomposition of waste tires. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assessing recycling versus incineration of key materials in municipal waste: The importance of efficient energy recovery and transport distances

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Merrild, Hanna; Larsen, Anna W., E-mail: awla@env.dtu.dk; Christensen, Thomas H.

Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We model the environmental impact of recycling and incineration of household waste. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Recycling of paper, glass, steel and aluminium is better than incineration. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Recycling and incineration of cardboard and plastic can be equally good alternatives. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Recyclables can be transported long distances and still have environmental benefits. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Paper has a higher environmental benefit than recyclables found in smaller amounts. - Abstract: Recycling of materials from municipal solid waste is commonly considered to be superior to any other waste treatment alternative. For the material fractions with a significant energy content this might not be the casemore » if the treatment alternative is a waste-to-energy plant with high energy recovery rates. The environmental impacts from recycling and from incineration of six material fractions in household waste have been compared through life cycle assessment assuming high-performance technologies for material recycling as well as for waste incineration. The results showed that there are environmental benefits when recycling paper, glass, steel and aluminium instead of incinerating it. For cardboard and plastic the results were more unclear, depending on the level of energy recovery at the incineration plant, the system boundaries chosen and which impact category was in focus. Further, the environmental impact potentials from collection, pre-treatment and transport was compared to the environmental benefit from recycling and this showed that with the right means of transport, recyclables can in most cases be transported long distances. However, the results also showed that recycling of some of the material fractions can only contribute marginally in improving the overall waste management system taking into consideration their limited content in average Danish household waste.« less

Options for the Separation and Immobilization of Technetium

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Serne, R Jeffrey; Crum, Jarrod V.; Riley, Brian J.

Among radioactive constituents present in the Hanford tank waste, technetium-99 (Tc) presents a unique challenge in that it is significantly radiotoxic, exists predominantly in the liquid low-activity waste (LAW), and has proven difficult to effectively stabilize in a waste form for ultimate disposal. Within the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, the LAW fraction will be converted to a glass waste form in the LAW vitrification facility, but a significant fraction of Tc volatilizes at the high glass-melting temperatures and is captured in the off-gas treatment system. This necessitates recycle of the off-gas condensate solution to the LAW glassmore » melter feed. The recycle process is effective in increasing the loading of Tc in the immobilized LAW (ILAW), but it also disproportionately increases the sulfur and halides in the LAW melter feed, which have limited solubility in the LAW glass and thus significantly reduce the amount of LAW (glass waste loading) that can be vitrified and still maintain good waste form properties. This increases both the amount of LAW glass and either the duration of the LAW vitrification mission or requires the need for supplemental LAW treatment capacity. Several options are being considered to address this issue. Two approaches attempt to minimize the off-gas recycle by removing Tc at one of several possible points within the tank waste processing flowsheet. The separated Tc from these two approaches must then be dispositioned in a manner such that the Tc can be safely disposed. Alternative waste forms that do not have the Tc volatility issues associated with the vitrification process are being sought for immobilization of Tc for subsequent storage and disposal. The first objective of this report is to provide insights into the compositions and volumes of the Tc-bearing waste streams including the ion exchange eluate from processing LAW and the off-gas condensate from the melter. The first step to be assessed will be the processing of ion exchange eluate. The second objective of this report is to assess the compatibility of the available waste forms with the anticipated waste streams. Two major categories of Tc-specific waste forms are considered in this report including mineral and metal waste forms. Overall, it is concluded that a metal alloy waste form is the most promising and mature Tc-specific waste form and offers several benefits. One obvious advantage of the disposition of Tc in the metal alloy waste form is the significant reduction of the generated waste form volume, which leads to a reduction of the required storage facility footprint. Among mineral waste forms, glass-bonded sodalite and possibly goethite should also be considered for the immobilization of Tc.« less

Optimizing the performance of microbial fuel cells fed a combination of different synthetic organic fractions in municipal solid waste.

PubMed

Pendyala, Brahmaiah; Chaganti, Subba Rao; Lalman, Jerald A; Heath, Daniel D

2016-03-01

The objective of this study was to establish the impact of different steam exploded organic fractions in municipal solid waste (MSW) on electricity production using microbial fuel cells (MFCs). In particular, the influence of individual steam exploded liquefied waste components (food waste (FW), paper-cardboard waste (PCW) and garden waste (GW)) and their blends on chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal, columbic efficiency (CE) and microbial diversity was examined using a mixture design. Maximum power densities from 0.56 to 0.83 W m(-2) were observed for MFCs fed with different feedstocks. The maximum COD removed and minimum CE were observed for a GW feed. However, a reverse trend (minimum COD removed and maximum CE) was observed for the FW feed. A maximum COD removal (78%) accompanied with a maximum CE (24%) was observed for a combined feed of FW, PCW plus GW in a 1:1:1 ratio. Lactate, the major byproduct detected, was unutilized by the anodic biofilm community. The organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) could serve as a potential feedstock for electricity generation in MFCs; however, elevated protein levels will lead to reduced COD removal. The microbial communities in cultures fed FW and PCW was highly diversified; however, the communities in cultures fed FW or a feed mixture containing high FW levels were similar and dominated by Bacteroidetes and β-proteobacteria. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Carbon bed mercury emissions control for mixed waste treatment.

PubMed

Soelberg, Nick; Enneking, Joe

2010-11-01

Mercury has various uses in nuclear fuel reprocessing and other nuclear processes, and so it is often present in radioactive and mixed (radioactive and hazardous) wastes. Compliance with air emission regulations such as the Hazardous Waste Combustor (HWC) Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) standards can require off-gas mercury removal efficiencies up to 99.999% for thermally treating some mixed waste streams. Test programs have demonstrated this level of off-gas mercury control using fixed beds of granular sulfur-impregnated activated carbon. Other results of these tests include (1) the depth of the mercury control mass transfer zone was less than 15-30 cm for the operating conditions of these tests; (2) MERSORB carbon can sorb mercury up to 19 wt % of the carbon mass; and (3) the spent carbon retained almost all (98.3-99.99%) of the mercury during Toxicity Characteristic Leachability Procedure (TCLP) tests, but when even a small fraction of the total mercury dissolves, the spent carbon can fail the TCLP test when the spent carbon contains high mercury concentrations.

Energy efficiency of substance and energy recovery of selected waste fractions.

PubMed

Fricke, Klaus; Bahr, Tobias; Bidlingmaier, Werner; Springer, Christian

2011-04-01

In order to reduce the ecological impact of resource exploitation, the EU calls for sustainable options to increase the efficiency and productivity of the utilization of natural resources. This target can only be achieved by considering resource recovery from waste comprehensively. However, waste management measures have to be investigated critically and all aspects of substance-related recycling and energy recovery have to be carefully balanced. This article compares recovery methods for selected waste fractions with regard to their energy efficiency. Whether material recycling or energy recovery is the most energy efficient solution, is a question of particular relevance with regard to the following waste fractions: paper and cardboard, plastics and biowaste and also indirectly metals. For the described material categories material recycling has advantages compared to energy recovery. In accordance with the improved energy efficiency of substance opposed to energy recovery, substance-related recycling causes lower emissions of green house gases. For the fractions paper and cardboard, plastics, biowaste and metals it becomes apparent, that intensification of the separate collection systems in combination with a more intensive use of sorting technologies can increase the extent of material recycling. Collection and sorting systems must be coordinated. The objective of the overall system must be to achieve an optimum of the highest possible recovery rates in combination with a high quality of recyclables. The energy efficiency of substance related recycling of biowaste can be increased by intensifying the use of anaerobic technologies. In order to increase the energy efficiency of the overall system, the energy efficiencies of energy recovery plants must be increased so that the waste unsuitable for substance recycling is recycled or treated with the highest possible energy yield. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Energy efficiency of substance and energy recovery of selected waste fractions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fricke, Klaus, E-mail: klaus.fricke@tu-bs.de; Bahr, Tobias, E-mail: t.bahr@tu-bs.de; Bidlingmaier, Werner, E-mail: werner.bidlingmaier@uni-weimar.de

In order to reduce the ecological impact of resource exploitation, the EU calls for sustainable options to increase the efficiency and productivity of the utilization of natural resources. This target can only be achieved by considering resource recovery from waste comprehensively. However, waste management measures have to be investigated critically and all aspects of substance-related recycling and energy recovery have to be carefully balanced. This article compares recovery methods for selected waste fractions with regard to their energy efficiency. Whether material recycling or energy recovery is the most energy efficient solution, is a question of particular relevance with regard tomore » the following waste fractions: paper and cardboard, plastics and biowaste and also indirectly metals. For the described material categories material recycling has advantages compared to energy recovery. In accordance with the improved energy efficiency of substance opposed to energy recovery, substance-related recycling causes lower emissions of green house gases. For the fractions paper and cardboard, plastics, biowaste and metals it becomes apparent, that intensification of the separate collection systems in combination with a more intensive use of sorting technologies can increase the extent of material recycling. Collection and sorting systems must be coordinated. The objective of the overall system must be to achieve an optimum of the highest possible recovery rates in combination with a high quality of recyclables. The energy efficiency of substance related recycling of biowaste can be increased by intensifying the use of anaerobic technologies. In order to increase the energy efficiency of the overall system, the energy efficiencies of energy recovery plants must be increased so that the waste unsuitable for substance recycling is recycled or treated with the highest possible energy yield.« less

Speciation and Oxidative Stability of Alkaline Soluble, Non-Pertechnetate Technetium

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Levitskaia, Tatiana G.; Rapko, Brian M.; Anderson, Amity

2014-09-30

The long half-life, complex chemical behavior in tank waste, limited incorporation in mid- to high-temperature immobilization processes, and high mobility in subsurface environments make technetium (Tc) one of the most difficult contaminants to dispose of and/or remediate. Technetium exists predominantly in the liquid tank waste phase as the relatively mobile form of pertechnetate, TcO 4 -. However, based on experimentation to date a significant fraction of the soluble Tc cannot be effectively separated from the wastes and may be present as a non- pertechnetate species. The presence of a non-pertechnetate species significantly complicates disposition of low-activity waste (LAW), and themore » development of methods to either convert them to pertechnetate or to separate directly is needed. The challenge is the uncertainty regarding the chemical form of the alkaline-soluble low-valent non-pertechnetate species in the liquid tank waste. This report summarizes work done in fiscal year (FY) 2014 exploring the chemistry of a low-valence technetium(I) species, [(CO) 3Tc(H 2O) 3] +, a compound of interest due to its implication in the speciation of alkaline-soluble technetium in several Hanford tank waste supernatants.« less

Municipal solid waste composition determination supporting the integrated solid waste management system in the island of Crete.

PubMed

Gidarakos, E; Havas, G; Ntzamilis, P

2006-01-01

A one-year survey was conducted in the greater region of Crete (located at the lower region of the Aegean Sea) for the purpose of identifying waste composition (including chemical and physical characterization), as well as any seasonal variation. The investigation was carried out repeatedly at seven landfills and one transfer station in Crete, in four phases. Each sampling phase corresponded to a season (autumn, winter, spring, summer). ASTM D5231-92(2003) standard method and RCRA Waste Sampling Draft Technical Guidance were used. Hand sorting was used for classifying the collected wastes into the following categories: plastics, paper, metals, aluminium, leather-wood-textiles-rubbers, organic wastes, non-combustibles and miscellaneous. Further analysis included proximate and ultimate analysis of combustible materials. Metals such as lead, cadmium and mercury were also investigated. The results show that there has been a significant decrease of organic wastes during the last decade due to the increase of packaging materials, as a result of a change in consumption patterns. Three main waste categories were determined: organic wastes, paper and plastics, which combined represent 76% of the total waste in Crete. Furthermore, a high fraction of glass and a seasonal variation of aluminium indicate a strong correlation of waste composition with certain human activities, such as tourism. There is also a variation between the municipal solid waste (MSW) composition in the region of Crete (2003-2004) and MSW composition suggested in the National Solid Waste Planning (2000) [National Solid Waste Planning, 2000. Completion and particularization of Common Ministerial Act 113944//1944/1997: National Solid Waste Planning, June 2000]. The results of this survey are to be utilized by the regional solid waste authorities in order to establish an integrated waste treatment site, capable of fulfilling the regional waste management demands.

Trends in the management of residual municipal solid waste.

PubMed

Rada, E C; Istrate, I A; Ragazzi, M

2009-06-01

In agreement with European Union directives, the integrated management of municipal solid waste must be developed ensuring a balanced relationship between the streams of selective collection and the one regarding the residual waste. A theoretical scenario is made where the residual municipal solid waste is composed only of non-recyclable fractions. An important aspect concerns the role of the organic fraction as selective collection can significantly decrease its content in the residual waste. This paper focuses on the planning, design and management consequences of this unsteady scenario. The treatments that are considered are: combustion, gasification, pyrolysis, integrated thermal plants, aerobic mechanical-biological treatments, anaerobic mechanical-biological treatments and other types of treatment. The considerations are based on the experience of the authors not only in terms of development of research but also in terms of transfer of the research results to the real scale, and knowledge of the state-of-the-art of the sector.

Concept of sustainable waste management in the city of Zagreb: Towards the implementation of circular economy approach.

PubMed

Ribić, Bojan; Voća, Neven; Ilakovac, Branka

2017-02-01

Improvement of the current waste management is one of the main challenges for most municipalities in Croatia, mainly due to legal obligations set in different European Union (EU) directives regarding waste management, such as reduction of waste generation and landfilling, or increase of separately collected waste and recycling rates. This paper highlights the current waste management in the city of Zagreb by analyzing the waste generation, collection, and disposal scenario along with the regulatory and institutional framework. Since the present waste management system mainly depends upon landfilling, with the rate of separate waste collection and recycling far from being adequate, it is necessary to introduce a new system that will take into account the current situation in the city as well as the obligations imposed by the EU. Namely, in the coming years, the Waste Framework and Landfill Directives of the European Union will be a significant driver of change in waste management practices and governance of the city of Zagreb. At present, the yearly separate waste collection makes somewhat less than 5 kg per capita of various waste fractions, i.e., far below the average value for the (28) capital cities of the EU, which is 108 kg per capita. This is possible to achieve only by better and sustainable planning of future activities and facilities, taking into account of environmental, economic, and social aspects of waste management. This means that the city of Zagreb not only will have to invest in new infrastructure to meet the targets, but also will have to enhance public awareness in diverting this waste at the household level. The solution for the new waste management proposed in this paper will certainly be a way of implementing circular economy approach to current waste management practice in the city of Zagreb. Municipal waste management in the developing countries in the EU (new eastern EU members) is often characterized by its limited utilization of recycling activities, inadequate management of nonindustrial hazardous waste, and inadequate landfill disposal. Many cities in Eastern Europe and Zagreb as well are facing serious problems in managing municipal wastes due to the existing solid waste management system that is found to be highly inefficient. The proposed scenario for city of Zagreb in the paper is an innovative upgrading of municipal waste management based on the waste management hierarchy and circular economy approach.

Development of municipal solid waste classification in Korea based on fossil carbon fraction.

PubMed

Lee, Jeongwoo; Kang, Seongmin; Kim, Seungjin; Kim, Ki-Hyun; Jeon, Eui-Chan

2015-10-01

Environmental problems and climate change arising from waste incineration are taken quite seriously in the world. In Korea, the waste disposal methods are largely classified into landfill, incineration, recycling, etc. and the amount of incinerated waste has risen by 24.5% from 2002. In the analysis of CO₂emissions estimations of waste incinerators fossil carbon content are main factor by the IPCC. FCF differs depending on the characteristics of waste in each country, and a wide range of default values are proposed by the IPCC. This study conducted research on the existing classifications of the IPCC and Korean waste classification systems based on FCF for accurate greenhouse gas emissions estimation of waste incineration. The characteristics possible for sorting were classified according to FCF and form. The characteristics sorted according to fossil carbon fraction were paper, textiles, rubber, and leather. Paper was classified into pure paper and processed paper; textiles were classified into cotton and synthetic fibers; and rubber and leather were classified into artificial and natural. The analysis of FCF was implemented by collecting representative samples from each classification group, by applying the 14C method, and using AMS equipment. And the analysis values were compared with the default values proposed by the IPCC. In this study of garden and park waste and plastics, the differences were within the range of the IPCC default values or the differences were negligible. However, coated paper, synthetic textiles, natural rubber, synthetic rubber, artificial leather, and other wastes showed differences of over 10% in FCF content. IPCC is comprised of largely 9 types of qualitative classifications, in emissions estimation a great difference can occur from the combined characteristics according with the existing IPCC classification system by using the minutely classified waste characteristics as in this study. Fossil carbon fraction (FCF) differs depending on the characteristics of waste in each country; and a wide range of default values are proposed by the IPCC. This study conducted research on the existing classifications of the IPCC and Korean waste classification systems based on FCF for accurate greenhouse gas emissions estimation of waste incineration.

Electricity production from municipal solid waste in Brazil.

PubMed

Nordi, Guilherme Henrique; Palacios-Bereche, Reynaldo; Gallego, Antonio Garrido; Nebra, Silvia Azucena

2017-07-01

Brazil has an increasing production of municipal solid waste that, allied to the current waste management system, makes the search for alternatives of energy recovery essential. Thus, this work aims to study the incineration of municipal solid waste and the electricity production through steam cycles evaluating the influence of municipal solid waste composition. Several scenarios were studied, in which it was assumed that some fractions of municipal solid waste were removed previously. The municipal solid waste generated in Santo André city, São Paulo State, Brazil, was adopted for this study. Simulation results showed that the removal of organic matter and inert components impacts advantageously on the cycle performance, improving their parameters in some cases; in addition, there is the possibility of reusing the separated fractions. The separation of some recyclables, as plastic material, showed disadvantages by the reduction in the electricity generation potential owing to the high calorific value of plastics. Despite the high energy content of them, there are other possible considerations on this subject, because some plastics have a better recovery potential by recycling.

Comparing Waste-to-Energy technologies by applying energy system analysis.

PubMed

Münster, Marie; Lund, Henrik

2010-07-01

Even when policies of waste prevention, re-use and recycling are prioritised, a fraction of waste will still be left which can be used for energy recovery. This article asks the question: How to utilise waste for energy in the best way seen from an energy system perspective? Eight different Waste-to-Energy technologies are compared with a focus on fuel efficiency, CO(2) reductions and costs. The comparison is carried out by conducting detailed energy system analyses of the present as well as a potential future Danish energy system with a large share of combined heat and power as well as wind power. The study shows potential of using waste for the production of transport fuels. Biogas and thermal gasification technologies are hence interesting alternatives to waste incineration and it is recommended to support the use of biogas based on manure and organic waste. It is also recommended to support research into gasification of waste without the addition of coal and biomass. Together the two solutions may contribute to alternate use of one third of the waste which is currently incinerated. The remaining fractions should still be incinerated with priority to combined heat and power plants with high electric efficiency. Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Characterisation and materials flow management for waste electrical and electronic equipment plastics from German dismantling centres.

PubMed

Arends, Dagmar; Schlummer, Martin; Mäurer, Andreas; Markowski, Jens; Wagenknecht, Udo

2015-09-01

Waste electrical and electronic equipment is a complex waste stream and treatment options that work for one waste category or product may not be appropriate for others. A comprehensive case study has been performed for plastic-rich fractions that are treated in German dismantling centres. Plastics from TVs, monitors and printers and small household appliances have been characterised extensively. Based on the characterisation results, state-of-the-art treatment technologies have been combined to design an optimised recycling and upgrade process for each input fraction. High-impact polystyrene from TV casings that complies with the European directive on the restriction of hazardous substances (RoHS) was produced by applying continuous density separation with yields of about 60%. Valuable acrylonitrile butadiene styrene/polycarbonate can be extracted from monitor and printer casings by near-infrared-based sorting. Polyolefins and/or a halogen-free fraction of mixed styrenics can be sorted out by density separation from monitors and printers and small household appliances. Emerging separation technologies are discussed to improve recycling results. © The Author(s) 2015.

Simultaneous production of l-lactic acid with high optical activity and a soil amendment with food waste that demonstrates plant growth promoting activity.

PubMed

Kitpreechavanich, Vichien; Hayami, Arisa; Talek, Anfal; Chin, Clament Fui Seung; Tashiro, Yukihiro; Sakai, Kenji

2016-07-01

A unique method to produce highly optically-active l-lactic acid and soil amendments that promote plant growth from food waste was proposed. Three Bacillus strains Bacillus subtilis KBKU21, B. subtilis N3-9 and Bacillus coagulans T27, were used. Strain KBKU21 accumulated 36.9 g/L l-lactic acid with 95.7% optical activity and 98.2% l-lactic acid selectivity when fermented at 43°C for 84 h in a model kitchen refuse (MKR) medium. Residual precipitate fraction (anaerobically-fermented MKR (AFM) compost) analysis revealed 4.60%, 0.70% and 0.75% of nitrogen (as N), phosphorous (as P2O5), and potassium (as K2O), respectively. Additionally, the carbon to nitrogen ratio decreased from 13.3 to 10.6. AFM compost with KBKU21 promoted plant growth parameters, including leaf length, plant height and fresh weight of Brassica rapa (Komatsuna), than that by chemical fertilizers or commercial compost. The concept provides an incentive for the complete recycling of food waste, contributing towards a sustainable production system. Copyright © 2016 The Society for Biotechnology, Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Case study on prediction of remaining methane potential of landfilled municipal solid waste by statistical analysis of waste composition data.

PubMed

Sel, İlker; Çakmakcı, Mehmet; Özkaya, Bestamin; Suphi Altan, H

2016-10-01

Main objective of this study was to develop a statistical model for easier and faster Biochemical Methane Potential (BMP) prediction of landfilled municipal solid waste by analyzing waste composition of excavated samples from 12 sampling points and three waste depths representing different landfilling ages of closed and active sections of a sanitary landfill site located in İstanbul, Turkey. Results of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) were used as a decision support tool to evaluation and describe the waste composition variables. Four principal component were extracted describing 76% of data set variance. The most effective components were determined as PCB, PO, T, D, W, FM, moisture and BMP for the data set. Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) models were built by original compositional data and transformed data to determine differences. It was observed that even residual plots were better for transformed data the R(2) and Adjusted R(2) values were not improved significantly. The best preliminary BMP prediction models consisted of D, W, T and FM waste fractions for both versions of regressions. Adjusted R(2) values of the raw and transformed models were determined as 0.69 and 0.57, respectively. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Environmental assessment of cement/foundry sludge products.

PubMed

Ruiz, M C; Andrés, A; Irabien, A

2003-05-01

This work deals with the environmental assessment of products based on cement and a waste from a cast iron activity. The waste is a foundry sludge from wastewater treatment previously characterized. This industrial waste shows a high water content (62.4%) and a hazardous behavior due to its metallic content mainly Zn (16.5%), together with a low fraction of organic pollutants, mainly phenolic compounds. The feasibility of immobilizing both typs of contaminants was studied using Portland cement as binder at different cement/waste ratios. The parameters of environmental control were the ecotoxicity and mobilization of zinc and phenolic compounds, all determined on the basis of compliance leaching tests. The acid neutralization capacity of the cement/waste products was measured in order to obtain information on their buffering capacity. Experimental results from chemical analysis of leachates led to a non ecotoxic character of cement/waste products Although the metallic ions were mobilized within the cement mattices, the organic matter did not allow the formation of monolithic forms and an efficient immobilization of phenolic compounds. Concerning the acid neutralization capacity, this parameter was shown to depend mainly on the quantity of cement, although a decrease in alkalinity was observed when the amount of water in the cement/waste products increased.

A web-based Decision Support System for the optimal management of construction and demolition waste.

PubMed

Banias, G; Achillas, Ch; Vlachokostas, Ch; Moussiopoulos, N; Papaioannou, I

2011-12-01

Wastes from construction activities constitute nowadays the largest by quantity fraction of solid wastes in urban areas. In addition, it is widely accepted that the particular waste stream contains hazardous materials, such as insulating materials, plastic frames of doors, windows, etc. Their uncontrolled disposal result to long-term pollution costs, resource overuse and wasted energy. Within the framework of the DEWAM project, a web-based Decision Support System (DSS) application - namely DeconRCM - has been developed, aiming towards the identification of the optimal construction and demolition waste (CDW) management strategy that minimises end-of-life costs and maximises the recovery of salvaged building materials. This paper addresses both technical and functional structure of the developed web-based application. The web-based DSS provides an accurate estimation of the generated CDW quantities of twenty-one different waste streams (e.g. concrete, bricks, glass, etc.) for four different types of buildings (residential, office, commercial and industrial). With the use of mathematical programming, the DeconRCM provides also the user with the optimal end-of-life management alternative, taking into consideration both economic and environmental criteria. The DSS's capabilities are illustrated through a real world case study of a typical five floor apartment building in Thessaloniki, Greece. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Enhancing biogas production from anaerobic biodegradation of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste through leachate blending and recirculation.

PubMed

Nair, Arjun; Sartaj, Majid; Kennedy, Kevin; Coelho, Nuno M G

2014-10-01

Leachate recirculation has a profound advantage on biodegradation of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste in landfills. Mature leachate from older sections of landfills (>10 years) and young leachate were blended and added to organic fraction of municipal solid waste in a series of biomethane potential assay experiments with different mixing ratios of mature and young leachate and their effect on biogas production was monitored. The improvement in biogas production was in the range of 19%-41% depending on the ratio of mixing old and new leachate. The results are conclusive that the biogas generation could be improved by blending the old and new leachate in a bioreactor landfill system as compared with a conventional system employed in bioreactor landfills today for recirculating the same age leachate. © The Author(s) 2014.

Catalytic pyrolysis of oil fractions separated from food waste leachate over nanoporous acid catalysts.

PubMed

Kim, Seung-Soo; Heo, Hyeon Su; Kim, Sang Guk; Ryoo, Ryong; Kim, Jeongnam; Jeon, Jong-Ki; Park, Sung Hoon; Park, Young-Kwon

2011-07-01

Oil fractions, separated from food waste leachate, can be used as an energy source. Especially, high quality oil can be obtained by catalytic cracking. In this study, nanoporous catalysts such as Al-MCM-41 and mesoporous MFI type zeolite were applied to the catalytic cracking of oil fractions using the pyrolysis gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Mesoporous MFI type zeolite showed better textural porosity than Al-MCM-41. In addition, mesoporous MFI type zeolite had strong Brönsted acidity while Al-MCM-41 had weak acidity. Significant amount of acid components in the food waste oil fractions were converted to mainly oxygenates and aromatics. As a result of its well-defined nanopores and strong acidity, the use of a mesoporous MFI type zeolite produced large amounts of gaseous and aromatic compounds. High yields of hydrocarbons within the gasoline range were also obtained in the case of mesoporous MFI type zeolite, whereas the use of Al-MCM-41, which exhibits relatively weak acidity, resulted in high yields of oxygenates and diesel range hydrocarbons.

Transformation of heavy metal fractionation under changing environments: a case study of a drainage system in an e-waste dismantling community.

PubMed

Damrongsiri, Seelawut

2018-04-01

The change in environmental conditions during the transportation of contaminated soil and sediment was expected to affect the transformation of heavy metal fractionation. This study disclosed the serious contamination of copper (Cu), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn) in the sewer sediment of an e-waste dismantling community in Thailand which may be caused by flushed contaminated soil and e-waste fragments. Two environmental conditions were simulated to observe the transformation of heavy metal fractionation. The anoxic sewer condition was induced using high substrate and sulfate in a closed container. The aeration of anoxic contaminated sediment was applied to simulate the transformation to an oxidative environment. The BCR sequential extraction was applied for heavy metal fractionation in this study. The study results exhibited that when heavy metal contaminated soil was transferred into this induced anoxic condition, fractionation was redistributed based on the chemical change of system that tends to be associated into F3 (oxidizable fraction) > F2 (reducible fraction) > F1 (acid soluble/exchangeable fraction). Cu exhibited the outstanding capability association to F3. The iron sulfide was not observed as usual due to its lower capability than Cu, Pb, and Zn. When contaminated sediment was transported to a more oxidative environment, the heavy metals fractionation would be redistributed again among those new environment media. It is noteworthy that F3 of Cu was stable even in oxic conditions. F2 of Fe was not developed by this oxic condition, possibly because its dehydration process was limited. The redistribution under an oxic environment became F1 > F2 > F3 indicating their more available form. This transformation was imperative and should be taken into account in heavy metal contaminated site management and control.

Comparison of alkaline industrial wastes for aqueous mineral carbon sequestration through a parallel reactivity study.

PubMed

Noack, Clinton W; Dzombak, David A; Nakles, David V; Hawthorne, Steven B; Heebink, Loreal V; Dando, Neal; Gershenzon, Michael; Ghosh, Rajat S

2014-10-01

Thirty-one alkaline industrial wastes from a wide range of industrial processes were acquired and screened for application in an aqueous carbon sequestration process. The wastes were evaluated for their potential to leach polyvalent cations and base species. Following mixing with a simple sodium bicarbonate solution, chemistries of the aqueous and solid phases were analyzed. Experimental results indicated that the most reactive materials were capable of sequestering between 77% and 93% of the available carbon under experimental conditions in four hours. These materials - cement kiln dust, spray dryer absorber ash, and circulating dry scrubber ash - are thus good candidates for detailed, process-oriented studies. Chemical equilibrium modeling indicated that amorphous calcium carbonate is likely responsible for the observed sequestration. High variability and low reactive fractions render many other materials less attractive for further pursuit without considering preprocessing or activation techniques. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparative analysis of hazardous household waste in two Mexican regions.

PubMed

Delgado, Otoniel Buenrostro; Ojeda-Benítez, Sara; Márquez-Benavides, Liliana

2007-01-01

Household hazardous waste (HHW) generation in two Mexican regions was examined, a northern region (bordering with the USA) and a central region. The aim of this work was to determine the dynamics of solid waste generation and to be able to compare the results of both regions, regarding consumption patterns and solid waste generation rates. In the northern region, household solid waste was analysed quantitatively. In order to perform this analysis, the population was categorized into three socioeconomic strata (lower, middle, upper). Waste characterization revealed the presence of products that give origin to household hazardous waste. In the northern region (Mexicali city), household hazardous waste comprised 3.7% of municipal solid waste, the largest categories in this fraction were home care products (29.2%), cleaning products (19.5%) and batteries and electronic equipment (15.7%). In the central region, HHW comprised 1.03% of municipal solid waste; the main categories in this fraction were represented by cleaning products (39%), self care products (27.3%), and insecticides (14.4%). In Mexicali, the socioeconomic study demonstrated that the production of HHW is independent of the income level. Furthermore, the composition of the solid waste stream in both regions suggested the influence of another set of variables such as local climate, migration patterns and marketing coverage. Further research is needed in order to establish the effect of low quantities of HHW upon the environment and public health.

Solid waste recycling in Rajshahi city of Bangladesh.

PubMed

Bari, Q Hamidul; Hassan, K Mahbub; Haque, M Ehsanul

2012-11-01

Efficient recycling of solid wastes is now a global concern for a sustainable and environmentally sound management. In this study, traditional recycling pattern of solid waste was investigated in Rajshahi municipality which is the fourth largest city of Bangladesh. A questionnaire survey had been carried out in various recycle shops during April 2010 to January 2011. There were 140 recycle shops and most of them were located in the vicinity of Stadium market in Rajshahi. About 1906 people were found to be involved in recycling activities of the city. The major fraction of recycled wastes were sent to capital city Dhaka for further manufacture of different new products. Only a small amount of wastes, specially plastics, were processed in local recycle factories to produce small washing pots and bottle caps. Everyday, an estimated 28.13 tons of recycled solid wastes were handled in Rajshahi city area. This recycled portion accounted for 8.25% of the daily total generated wastes (341 ton d(-1)), 54.6% of total recyclable wastes (51.49 ton d(-1)) and 68.29% of readily recyclable wastes (41.19 ton d(-1)). Major recycled materials were found to be iron, glass, plastic, and papers. Only five factories were involved in preliminary processing of recyclable wastes. Collecting and processing secondary materials, manufacturing recycled-content products, and then buying recycled products created a circle or loop that ensured the overall success of recycling and generated a host of financial, environmental, and social returns. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fate of metals contained in waste electrical and electronic equipment in a municipal waste treatment process

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Oguchi, Masahiro, E-mail: oguchi.masahiro@nies.go.jp; Sakanakura, Hirofumi, E-mail: sakanakura@nies.go.jp; Terazono, Atsushi, E-mail: terazono@nies.go.jp

2012-01-15

Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The fate of 55 metals during shredding and separation of WEEE was investigated. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Most metals were mainly distributed to the small-grain fraction. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Much of metals in WEEE being treated as municipal waste in Japan end up in landfills. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Pre-sorting of small digital products reduces metals to be landfilled at some level. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Consideration of metal recovery from other middle-sized WEEE is still important. - Abstract: In Japan, waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) that is not covered by the recycling laws are treated as municipal solid waste. A part of common metals are recovered duringmore » the treatment; however, other metals are rarely recovered and their destinations are not clear. This study investigated the distribution ratios and substance flows of 55 metals contained in WEEE during municipal waste treatment using shredding and separation techniques at a Japanese municipal waste treatment plant. The results revealed that more than half of Cu and most of Al contained in WEEE end up in landfills or dissipate under the current municipal waste treatment system. Among the other metals contained in WEEE, at least 70% of the mass was distributed to the small-grain fraction through the shredding and separation and is to be landfilled. Most kinds of metals were concentrated several fold in the small-grain fraction through the process and therefore the small-grain fraction may be a next target for recovery of metals in terms of both metal content and amount. Separate collection and pre-sorting of small digital products can work as effective way for reducing precious metals and less common metals to be landfilled to some extent; however, much of the total masses of those metals would still end up in landfills and it is also important to consider how to recover and utilize metals contained in other WEEE such as audio/video equipment.« less

Mass, energy and material balances of SRF production process. Part 1: SRF produced from commercial and industrial waste.

PubMed

Nasrullah, Muhammad; Vainikka, Pasi; Hannula, Janne; Hurme, Markku; Kärki, Janne

2014-08-01

This paper presents the mass, energy and material balances of a solid recovered fuel (SRF) production process. The SRF is produced from commercial and industrial waste (C&IW) through mechanical treatment (MT). In this work various streams of material produced in SRF production process are analyzed for their proximate and ultimate analysis. Based on this analysis and composition of process streams their mass, energy and material balances are established for SRF production process. Here mass balance describes the overall mass flow of input waste material in the various output streams, whereas material balance describes the mass flow of components of input waste stream (such as paper and cardboard, wood, plastic (soft), plastic (hard), textile and rubber) in the various output streams of SRF production process. A commercial scale experimental campaign was conducted on an MT waste sorting plant to produce SRF from C&IW. All the process streams (input and output) produced in this MT plant were sampled and treated according to the CEN standard methods for SRF: EN 15442 and EN 15443. The results from the mass balance of SRF production process showed that of the total input C&IW material to MT waste sorting plant, 62% was recovered in the form of SRF, 4% as ferrous metal, 1% as non-ferrous metal and 21% was sorted out as reject material, 11.6% as fine fraction, and 0.4% as heavy fraction. The energy flow balance in various process streams of this SRF production process showed that of the total input energy content of C&IW to MT plant, 75% energy was recovered in the form of SRF, 20% belonged to the reject material stream and rest 5% belonged with the streams of fine fraction and heavy fraction. In the material balances, mass fractions of plastic (soft), plastic (hard), paper and cardboard and wood recovered in the SRF stream were 88%, 70%, 72% and 60% respectively of their input masses to MT plant. A high mass fraction of plastic (PVC), rubber material and non-combustibles (such as stone/rock and glass particles), was found in the reject material stream. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Estimation of optimal biomass fraction measuring cycle formunicipal solid waste incineration facilities in Korea.

PubMed

Kang, Seongmin; Cha, Jae Hyung; Hong, Yoon-Jung; Lee, Daekyeom; Kim, Ki-Hyun; Jeon, Eui-Chan

2018-01-01

This study estimates the optimum sampling cycle using a statistical method for biomass fraction. More than ten samples were collected from each of the three municipal solid waste (MSW) facilities between June 2013 and March 2015 and the biomass fraction was analyzed. The analysis data were grouped into monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual intervals and the optimum sampling cycle for the detection of the biomass fraction was estimated. Biomass fraction data did not show a normal distribution. Therefore, the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test was applied to compare the average values for each sample group. The Kruskal-Wallis test results showed that the average monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual values for all three MSW incineration facilities were equal. Therefore, the biomass fraction at the MSW incineration facilities should be calculated on a yearly cycle which is the longest period of the temporal cycles tested. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Deoxygenation of waste cooking oil and non-edible oil for the production of liquid hydrocarbon biofuels.

PubMed

Romero, M J A; Pizzi, A; Toscano, G; Busca, G; Bosio, B; Arato, E

2016-01-01

Deoxygenation of waste cooking vegetable oil and Jatropha curcas oil under nitrogen atmosphere was performed in batch and semi-batch experiments using CaO and treated hydrotalcite (MG70) as catalysts at 400 °C. In batch conditions a single liquid fraction (with yields greater than 80 wt.%) was produced containing a high proportion of hydrocarbons (83%). In semi-batch conditions two liquid fractions (separated by a distillation step) were obtained: a light fraction and an intermediate fraction containing amounts of hydrocarbons between 72-80% and 85-88% respectively. In order to assess the possible use of the liquid products as alternative fuels a complete chemical characterization and measurement of their properties were carried out. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Predicting the degradability of waste activated sludge.

PubMed

Jones, Richard; Parker, Wayne; Zhu, Henry; Houweling, Dwight; Murthy, Sudhir

2009-08-01

The objective of this study was to identify methods for estimating anaerobic digestibility of waste activated sludge (WAS). The WAS streams were generated in three sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) treating municipal wastewater. The wastewater and WAS properties were initially determined through simulation of SBR operation with BioWin (EnviroSim Associates Ltd., Flamborough, Ontario, Canada). Samples of WAS from the SBRs were subsequently characterized through respirometry and batch anaerobic digestion. Respirometry was an effective tool for characterizing the active fraction of WAS and could be a suitable technique for determining sludge composition for input to anaerobic models. Anaerobic digestion of the WAS revealed decreasing methane production and lower chemical oxygen demand removals as the SRT of the sludge increased. BioWin was capable of accurately describing the digestion of the WAS samples for typical digester SRTs. For extended digestion times (i.e., greater than 30 days), some degradation of the endogenous decay products was assumed to achieve accurate simulations for all sludge SRTs.

Characterisation of excavated fine fraction and waste composition from a Swedish landfill.

PubMed

Jani, Yahya; Kaczala, Fabio; Marchand, Charlotte; Hogland, Marika; Kriipsalu, Mait; Hogland, William; Kihl, Anders

2016-12-01

The present research studies the characterisation and the physico-chemical properties of an excavated fine fraction (<10 mm) from a Swedish landfill, the Högbytorp. The results showed that the fine fraction represents 38% by mass of the total excavated wastes and it contains mainly soil-type materials and minerals. Higher concentrations of zinc, copper, barium and chromium were found with concentrations higher than the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for contaminated soil. The found moisture and organic contents of the fine fraction were 23.5% and 16.6%, respectively. The analysed calorific value (1.7 MJ kg -1 ), the potential of CH 4 (4.74 m 3  t -1 dry matter) and Total Organic Carbon (TOC) (5.6%) were low and offer low potential of energy. Sieving the fine fraction further showed that 80% was smaller than 2 mm. The fine represents a major fraction at any landfill (40%-70%), therefore, characterising the properties of this fraction is essential to find the potential of reusing/recycling or safely redisposing. © The Author(s) 2016.

Mechanical Properties of Composite Waste Material Based Styrofoam, Baggase and Eggshell Powder for Application of Drone Frames

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perdana, Mastariyanto; Prastiawan; Hadi, Syafrul

2017-12-01

The garbage issue becomes a very serious problem at the moment. Much research has been done to make waste into useful materials. One of the utilization of waste is as the basic material of composite material that can be applied in the field of engineering. Some of the wastes generated are styrofoam, bagasse and eggshell. Styrofoam, bagasse and eggshell can be applied to a composite material. Styrofoam serves as a composite binder material while the bagasse and eggshells serve as a reinforcement. Volume fraction between styrofoam, bagasse and eggshell are 80%:10%:10%, 70%:15%:15%, 60%:20%:20%, and 50%:25%:25%. The aims of research are determine the mechanical properties of composite material based waste materials from styrofoam, bagasse and eggshell. Mechanical properties tested in this study are bending strength and toughness of composite materials. The results showed bending strength of composite for each volume fraction of 80%:10%:10%, 70%:15%:15%, 60%:20%:20%, and 50%:25%:25% are 5.07 MPa, 8.45 MPa, 8.68 MPa, and 11.01 MPa, respectively. Toughness of composite materials for each volume fraction of 80%:10%:10%, 70%:15%:15%, 60%:20%:20%, and 50%:25%:25% are 0.33 J/mm2, 0.42 J/mm2, 0.75 J/mm2, and 0.75 J/mm2, respectively. Composite materials based on waste materials from styrofoam, bagasse and eggshell can be used as an alternative material for drone frames.

Long-term sampling of CO(2) from waste-to-energy plants: (14)C determination methodology, data variation and uncertainty.

PubMed

Fuglsang, Karsten; Pedersen, Niels Hald; Larsen, Anna Warberg; Astrup, Thomas Fruergaard

2014-02-01

A dedicated sampling and measurement method was developed for long-term measurements of biogenic and fossil-derived CO(2) from thermal waste-to-energy processes. Based on long-term sampling of CO(2) and (14)C determination, plant-specific emission factors can be determined more accurately, and the annual emission of fossil CO(2) from waste-to-energy plants can be monitored according to carbon trading schemes and renewable energy certificates. Weekly and monthly measurements were performed at five Danish waste incinerators. Significant variations between fractions of biogenic CO(2) emitted were observed, not only over time, but also between plants. From the results of monthly samples at one plant, the annual mean fraction of biogenic CO(2) was found to be 69% of the total annual CO(2) emissions. From weekly samples, taken every 3 months at the five plants, significant seasonal variations in biogenic CO(2) emissions were observed (between 56% and 71% biogenic CO(2)). These variations confirmed that biomass fractions in the waste can vary considerably, not only from day to day but also from month to month. An uncertainty budget for the measurement method itself showed that the expanded uncertainty of the method was ± 4.0 pmC (95 % confidence interval) at 62 pmC. The long-term sampling method was found to be useful for waste incinerators for determination of annual fossil and biogenic CO(2) emissions with relatively low uncertainty.

In situ Spectroscopic Analysis and Quantification of [Tc(CO)3]+ in Hanford Tank Waste.

PubMed

Branch, Shirmir D; French, Amanda D; Lines, Amanda M; Soderquist, Chuck Z; Rapko, Brian M; Heineman, William R; Bryan, Samuel A

2018-06-12

The quantitative conversion of non-pertechnetate [Tc(CO)3]+ species in nuclear waste storage tank 241-AN-102 at the Hanford Site is demonstrated. A waste sample containing the [Tc(CO)3]+ species is added to a developer solution that rapidly converts the non-emissive species into a luminescent complex, which is detected spectroscopically. This method was first demonstrated using a [Tc(CO)3]+ sample non-waste containing matrix to determine a detection limit (LOD), resulting in a [Tc(CO)3]+ LOD of 2.20 × 10-7 M, very near the LOD of the independently synthesized standard (2.10 × 10-7 M). The method was then used to detect [Tc(CO)3]+ in a simulated waste using the standard addition method, resulting in a [Tc(CO)3]+ concentration of 1.89 × 10-5 M (within 27.7% of the concentration determined by β- liquid scintillation counting). Three samples from 241-AN-102 were tested by the standard addition method: (1) a 5 M Na adjusted fraction, (2) a fraction depleted of 137Cs, (3) and an acid-stripped eluate. The concentrations of [Tc(CO)3]+ in these fractions were determined to be 9.90 × 10-6 M (1), 0 M (2), and 2.46 × 10-6 M (3), respectively. The concentration of [Tc(CO)3]+ in the as-received AN-102 tank waste supernatant was determined to be 1.84 × 10-5 M.

Formal recycling of e-waste leads to increased exposure to toxic metals: an occupational exposure study from Sweden.

PubMed

Julander, Anneli; Lundgren, Lennart; Skare, Lizbet; Grandér, Margaretha; Palm, Brita; Vahter, Marie; Lidén, Carola

2014-12-01

Electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) contains multiple toxic metals. However, there is currently a lack of exposure data for metals on workers in formal recycling plants. The objective of this study was to evaluate workers' exposure to metals, using biomarkers of exposure in combination with monitoring of personal air exposure. We assessed exposure to 20 potentially toxic metals among 55 recycling workers and 10 office workers at three formal e-waste recycling plants in Sweden. Workers at two of the plants were followed-up after 6 months. We collected the inhalable fraction and OFC (37-mm) fraction of particles, using personal samplers, as well as spot samples of blood and urine. We measured metal concentrations in whole blood, plasma, urine, and air filters using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry following acid digestion. The air sampling indicated greater airborne exposure, 10 to 30 times higher, to most metals among the recycling workers handling e-waste than among the office workers. The exposure biomarkers showed significantly higher concentrations of chromium, cobalt, indium, lead, and mercury in blood, urine, and/or plasma of the recycling workers, compared with the office workers. Concentrations of antimony, indium, lead, mercury, and vanadium showed close to linear associations between the inhalable particle fraction and blood, plasma, or urine. In conclusion, our study of formal e-waste recycling shows that workers performing recycling tasks are exposed to multiple toxic metals. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Experimental investigations on a diesel engine operated with fuel blends derived from a mixture of Pakistani waste tyre oil and waste soybean oil biodiesel.

PubMed

Qasim, Muhammad; Ansari, Tariq Mahmood; Hussain, Mazhar

2017-10-18

The waste tyre and waste cooking oils have a great potential to be used as alternative fuels for diesel engines. The aim of this study was to convert light fractions of pyrolysis oil derived from Pakistani waste vehicle tyres and waste soybean oil methyl esters into valuable fuel and to reduce waste disposal-associated environmental problems. In this study, the waste tyre pyrolysis liquid (light fraction) was collected from commercial tyre pyrolysis plant and biodiesel was prepared from waste soybean oil. The fuel blends (FMWO10, FMWO20, FMWO30, FMWO40 and FMWO50) were prepared from a 30:70 mixture of waste tyre pyrolysis liquid and waste soybean oil methyl esters with different proportions of mineral diesel. The mixture was named as the fuel mixture of waste oils (FMWO). FT-IR analysis of the fuel mixture was carried out using ALPHA FT-IR spectrometer. Experimental investigations on a diesel engine were carried out with various FMWO blends. It was observed that the engine fuel consumption was marginally increased and brake thermal efficiency was marginally decreased with FMWO fuel blends. FMWO10 has shown lowest NOx emissions among all the fuel blends tested. In addition, HC, CO and smoke emissions were noticeably decreased by 3.1-15.6%, 16.5-33.2%, and 1.8-4.5%, respectively, in comparison to diesel fuel, thereby qualifying the blends to be used as alternative fuel for diesel engines.

Landfill Mining - Wet mechanical treatment of fine MSW with a wet jigger.

PubMed

Wanka, Sebastian; Münnich, Kai; Fricke, Klaus

2017-01-01

The motives for landfill mining are various. In the last couple of years Enhanced Landfill Mining (ELFM) has become increasingly important in academic discourse and practical implementation. The main goal of ELFM is to recover as much material as possible from deposited municipal solid waste (MSW). In most of the projects carried out so far, the main focus has been set on coarse materials such as plastics, woods, papers and metals. These fractions can be separated easily by sieving in combination with magnetic separation. In these projects most of the fine materials, which might represent as much as 60-70% of the total mass of the landfill body, had to be deposited again. A further treatment aiming at reducing the masses of these fine materials, which are still a conglomerate of soil, calorific fractions, metals, minerals and residues, usually did not take place. One topic in the framework of the landfill mining project TÖNSLM, in addition to the separation of the calorific fraction and metals has been the treatment of fine materials with the goal to re-use these e.g. for construction purposes. This paper shows the results obtained after the wet mechanical treatment of fine MSW 10-60mm with a wet jigger. The physical principle of this process is the separation of the mass flux due to the different densities of the waste constituents. As a result, three main waste fluxes are obtained: Dense inert and dense fine fraction with a high content of minerals and a lightweight fraction with a high calorific value between 16 and 20MJ/kg. An additional positive effect of wet mechanical treatment is the removal of the finest particles from the surface of the waste material, thus increasing the quality of the generated waste fluxes. The mass fluxes of the different fractions and their qualities as well as possible recovery paths are described below. An economical and ecological consideration of the treatment of the fine materials does not take place within the framework of this feasibility study. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The effect of the labile organic fraction in food waste and the substrate/inoculum ratio on anaerobic digestion for a reliable methane yield.

PubMed

Kawai, Minako; Nagao, Norio; Tajima, Nobuaki; Niwa, Chiaki; Matsuyama, Tatsushi; Toda, Tatsuki

2014-04-01

Influence of the labile organic fraction (LOF) on anaerobic digestion of food waste was investigated in different S/I ratio of 0.33, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0g-VSsubstrate/g-VSinoculum. Two types of substrate, standard food waste (Substrate 1) and standard food waste with the supernatant (containing LOF) removed (Substrate 2) were used. Highest methane yield of 435ml-CH4g-VS(-1) in Substrate 1 was observed in the lowest S/I ratio, while the methane yield of the other S/I ratios were 38-73% lower than the highest yield due to acidification. The methane yields in Substrate 2 were relatively stable in all S/I conditions, although the maximum methane yield was low compared with Substrate 1. These results showed that LOF in food waste causes acidification, but also contributes to high methane yields, suggesting that low S/I ratio (<0.33) is required to obtain a reliable methane yield from food waste compared to other organic substrates. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of clay minerals and nanoparticles on chromium fractionation in soil contaminated with leather factory waste.

PubMed

Taghipour, Marzieh; Jalali, Mohsen

2015-10-30

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of time, clay minerals and nanoparticles (NPs) on chromium (Cr) fractionation in a soil contaminated with leather factory waste (LFW). Soil was mixed with LFW, then, the contaminated soils were treated with clay minerals (bentonite and zeolite) and nanoparticles (MgO, TiO2 and ZnO) at 5% and 1%, respectively. The samples were incubated for 15-180 days at 25 °C and constant moisture. After incubation, Cr in control and treated soils was fractionated by the sequential extraction procedure. The distribution of various Cr fractions in control soil indicated that the greatest amounts of Cr were found in the residual fraction (RES) followed by the carbonate (CAR), organic matter (OM) and exchangeable (EXC) fractions. The addition of LFW in soils increased Cr concentration in all fractions. The higher proportion of EXC fraction in the soil treated with LFW indicates its higher potential of leaching and runoff transport. In all treated soils, the RES fraction was increased, while EXC and OM fractions were decreased during incubation. The results indicated that NPs are effective adsorbent for the removal of Cr ions from LFW treated soil, and they could be useful in reducing their environment risk. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Degradation of polyurethane by bacterium isolated from soil and assessment of polyurethanolytic activity of a Pseudomonas putida strain.

PubMed

Peng, Yu-Huei; Shih, Yang-hsin; Lai, Yen-Chun; Liu, Yuan-Zan; Liu, Ying-Tong; Lin, Nai-Chun

2014-01-01

The increasing usage and the persistence of polyester polyurethane (PU) generate significant sources of environmental pollution. The effective and environmental friendly bioremediation techniques for this refractory waste are in high demand. In this study, three novel PU degrading bacteria were isolated from farm soils and activated sludge. Based upon 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequence blast, their identities were determined. Particularly robust activity was observed in Pseudomonas putida; it spent 4 days to degrade 92% of Impranil DLN(TM) for supporting its growth. The optimum temperature and pH for DLN removal by P. putida were 25 °C and 8.4, respectively. The degradation and transformation of DLN investigated by Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy show the decrease in ester functional group and the emergence of amide group. The polyurethanolytic activities were both presented in the extracellular fraction and in the cytosol. Esterase activity was detected in the cell lysate. A 45-kDa protein bearing polyurethanolytic activity was also detected in the extracellular medium. This study presented high PU degrading activity of P. putida and demonstrated its responsible enzymes during the PU degradation process, which could be applied in the bioremediation and management of plastic wastes.

Coupling plant growth and waste recycling systems in a controlled life support system (CELSS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Garland, Jay L.

1992-01-01

The development of bioregenerative systems as part of the Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS) program depends, in large part, on the ability to recycle inorganic nutrients, contained in waste material, into plant growth systems. One significant waste (resource) stream is inedible plant material. This research compared wheat growth in hydroponic solutions based on inorganic salts (modified Hoagland's) with solutions based on the soluble fraction of inedible wheat biomass (leachate). Recycled nutrients in leachate solutions provided the majority of mineral nutrients for plant growth, although additions of inorganic nutrients to leachate solutions were necessary. Results indicate that plant growth and waste recyling systems can be effectively coupled within CELSS based on equivalent wheat yield in leachate and Hoagland solutions, and the rapid mineralization of waste organic material in the hydroponic systems. Selective enrichment for microbial communities able to mineralize organic material within the leachate was necessary to prevent accumulation of dissolved organic matter in leachate-based solutions. Extensive analysis of microbial abundance, growth, and activity in the hydroponic systems indicated that addition of soluble organic material from plants does not cause excessive microbial growth or 'biofouling', and helped define the microbially-mediated flux of carbon in hydroponic solutions.

Children with health impairments by heavy metals in an e-waste recycling area.

PubMed

Zeng, Xiang; Xu, Xijin; Boezen, H Marike; Huo, Xia

2016-04-01

E-waste recycling has become a global environmental health issue. Pernicious chemicals escape into the environment due to informal and nonstandard e-waste recycling activities involving manual dismantling, open burning to recover heavy metals and open dumping of residual fractions. Heavy metals derived from electronic waste (e-waste), such as, lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), mercury (Hg), arsenic (As), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), aluminum (Al) and cobalt (Co), differ in their chemical composition, reaction properties, distribution, metabolism, excretion and biological transmission. Our previous studies showed that heavy metal exposure have adverse effects on children's health including lower birth weight, lower anogenital distance, lower Apgar scores, lower current weight, lower lung function, lower hepatitis B surface antibody levels, higher prevalence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and higher DNA and chromosome damage. Heavy metals influence a number of diverse systems and organs, resulting in both acute and chronic effects on children's health, ranging from minor upper respiratory irritation to chronic respiratory, cardiovascular, nervous, urinary and reproductive disease, as well as aggravation of pre-existing symptoms and disease. These effects of heavy metals on children's health are briefly discussed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sustainable mechanical biological treatment of solid waste in urbanized areas with low recycling rates.

PubMed

Trulli, Ettore; Ferronato, Navarro; Torretta, Vincenzo; Piscitelli, Massimiliano; Masi, Salvatore; Mancini, Ignazio

2018-01-01

Landfill is still the main technological facility used to treat and dispose municipal solid waste (MSW) worldwide. In developing countries, final dumping is applied without environmental monitoring and soil protection since solid waste is mostly sent to open dump sites while, in Europe, landfilling is considered as the last option since reverse logistic approaches or energy recovery are generally encouraged. However, many regions within the European Union continue to dispose of MSW to landfill, since modern facilities have not been introduced owing to unreliable regulations or financial sustainability. In this paper, final disposal activities and pre-treatment operations in an area in southern Italy are discussed, where final disposal is still the main option for treating MSW and the recycling rate is still low. Mechanical biological treatment (MBT) facilities are examined in order to evaluate the organic stabilization practices applied for MSW and the efficiencies in refuse derived fuel production, organic waste stabilization and mass reduction. Implementing MBT before landfilling the environmental impact and waste mass are reduced, up to 30%, since organic fractions are stabilized resulting an oxygen uptake rate less than 1600 mgO 2  h -1  kg -1 VS , and inorganic materials are exploited. Based on experimental data, this work examines MBT application in contexts where recycling and recovery activities have not been fully developed. The evidence of this study led to state that the introduction of MBT facilities is recommended for developing regions with high putrescible waste production in order to decrease environmental pollution and enhance human healthy. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Characterization of Printed Circuit Boards for Metal and Energy Recovery after Milling and Mechanical Separation

PubMed Central

Bizzo, Waldir A.; Figueiredo, Renata A.; de Andrade, Valdelis F.

2014-01-01

The proper disposal of electrical and electronic waste is currently a concern of researchers and environmental managers not only because of the large volume of such waste generated, but also because of the heavy metals and toxic substances it contains. This study analyzed printed circuit boards (PCBs) from discarded computers to determine their metal content and characterized them as solid waste and fuel. The analysis showed that PCBs consist of approximately 26% metal, made up mainly of copper, lead, aluminum, iron and tin, as well as other heavy metals such as cadmium and nickel. Comparison with the results of other studies indicated that the concentration of precious metals (gold and silver) has declined over time. Analysis of the leachate revealed high concentrations of cadmium and lead, giving the residue the characteristics of hazardous waste. After milling the PCBs, we found that larger amounts of metal were concentrated in smaller fractions, while the lightest fraction, obtained by density separation, had a gross calorific value of approximately 11 MJ/kg, although with a high ash content. Milling followed by density separation proved potentially useful for recovery of metals and energy-rich fractions. PMID:28788692

Global perspectives on e-waste

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Widmer, Rolf; Oswald-Krapf, Heidi; Sinha-Khetriwal, Deepali

2005-07-15

Electronic waste, or e-waste, is an emerging problem as well as a business opportunity of increasing significance, given the volumes of e-waste being generated and the content of both toxic and valuable materials in them. The fraction including iron, copper, aluminium, gold and other metals in e-waste is over 60%, while pollutants comprise 2.70%. Given the high toxicity of these pollutants especially when burned or recycled in uncontrolled environments, the Basel Convention has identified e-waste as hazardous, and developed a framework for controls on transboundary movement of such waste. The Basel Ban, an amendment to the Basel Convention that hasmore » not yet come into force, would go one step further by prohibiting the export of e-waste from developed to industrializing countries. Section 1 of this paper gives readers an overview on the e-waste topic-how e-waste is defined, what it is composed of and which methods can be applied to estimate the quantity of e-waste generated. Considering only PCs in use, by one estimate, at least 100 million PCs became obsolete in 2004. Not surprisingly, waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) today already constitutes 8% of municipal waste and is one of the fastest growing waste fractions. Section 2 provides insight into the legislation and initiatives intended to help manage these growing quantities of e-waste. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is being propagated as a new paradigm in waste management. The European Union's WEEE Directive, which came into force in August of 2004, makes it incumbent on manufacturers and importers in EU states to take back their products from consumers and ensure environmentally sound disposal. WEEE management in industrializing countries has its own characteristics and problems, and therefore this paper identifies some problems specific to such countries. The risky process of extracting copper from printed wiring boards is discussed as an example to illustrate the hazards of the e-waste recycling industry in India. The WEEE Knowledge Partnership programme funded by seco (Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs) and implemented by Empa has developed a methodology to assess the prevailing situation, in order to better understand the opportunities and risks in pilot urban areas of three countries-Beijing-China, Delhi-India and Johannesburg-South Africa. The three countries are compared using an assessment indicator system which takes into account the structural framework, the recycling system and its various impacts. Three key points have emerged from the assessments so far: a) e-waste recycling has developed in all countries as a market based activity, b) in China and India it is based on small to medium-sized enterprises (SME) in the informal sector, whereas in South Africa it is in the formal sector, and c) each country is trying to overcome shortcomings in the current system by developing strategies for improvement.« less

Repeated applications of compost and manure mainly affect the size and chemical nature of particulate organic matter in a loamy soil after 8 years

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peltre, Clement; Dignac, Marie-France; Doublet, Jeremy; Plante, Alain; Houot, Sabine

2013-04-01

Land application of exogenous organic matter (EOM) of residual origin can help to maintain or increase soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. However, it remains necessary to quantify and predict the soil C accumulation and to determine under which form the C accumulates. Changes to the chemical composition of soil organic matter (SOM) after repeated applications of composts and farmyard manure were investigated in a field experiment (Qualiagro experiment, Ile-de-France) after 8 years of applications of green waste and sludge compost (GWS), municipal solid waste compost (MSW), biowaste compost (BIOW) or farmyard manure (FYM). The soil was fractionated into particulate organic matter >50 µm (POM), a heavy fraction >50 µm and a 0-50 µm fraction demineralized with hydrofluoric acid (HF). Repeated EOM applications significantly increased total SOC stocks, the C amount in the POM fraction and to a less extent in the 0-50 µm fraction compared to the reference treatment. Compost applications accumulated C preferentially under the form of coarse organic matter of size >50 µm, whereas the FYM accumulated similar C proportions of size >50 µm and 0-50 µm, which was attributed to the presence in the FYM of a fraction of labile C stimulating microbial activity and producing humified by-products together with a fraction of stabilized C directly alimenting the humified fraction of SOC. Pyrolysis-GC/MS and DRIFT spectroscopy revealed enrichment in lignin in the POM fractions of amended soils with GWS, BIOW and FYM. In the soil receiving MSW compost, the pyrolysate of the POM fraction revealed the presence of plastics originating from the MSW compost. A lower C mineralization during laboratory incubation was found for the POM fractions of amended soils compared with the POM from reference soil. This feature was related to a lower ratio of (furfural+acetic acid) / pyrole pyrolysis products in POM of amended vs. reference plots, indicating a higher degree of recalcitrance.. The POM from amended soils also featured greater thermal stability during thermal analysis compared with POM from reference soil. Higher proportions of N-containing pyrolysis compounds in the POM fraction, and of benzene pyrolysis products in the 0-50 µm fraction, were found in the soil amended with BIOW compost, probably originating from the humified OM of the compost. DRIFT spectroscopy showed relative enrichment in aliphatic compounds of the 0-50 µm fractions from amended plots when compared to reference plots.

Fractional excretion of sodium

MedlinePlus

FE sodium; FENa ... a lab. There, they are examined for salt (sodium) and creatinine levels. Creatinine is a chemical waste ... Chernecky CC, Berger BJ. Excretion fraction of filtered sodium-blood and urine. In: Chernecky CC, Berger BJ, ...

Processing and fractional utilization of lignocellulosic substrates by "pure" and "natural and defined mixed" culture C.TM1, C.SA IV and rumen mixed culture consortia CD.

PubMed

Sankar, M; Chandra, T S

2003-01-01

A detailed analysis was made of chemical fractions of common agro-residues before and after pretreatment (alkali and hydrogen peroxide), and the selective utilization of components such as WSS, EBS, TSS, lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose by pure and mixed cultures of cellulolytic and xylanolytic Clostridia was monitored and correlated with the organisms' enzyme activity. For all cultures pretreatment gave higher utilization of hemicellulose and cellulose fractions; hydrogen peroxide pretreatment was more effective than NaOH treatment. Lignin utilization was not very significant even on pretreatment. C.TM1 and C.SA IV utilized hemicellulose and cellulose better than mixed cultures in selected substrates. These results help to determine the substrate composition, pretreatment conditions and enzyme system of the organism needed when designing an inoculum for agricultural waste treatment processes such as composting or biogas generation.

Microwave assisted pyrolysis of halogenated plastics recovered from waste computers.

PubMed

Rosi, Luca; Bartoli, Mattia; Frediani, Marco

2018-03-01

Microwave Assisted Pyrolysis (MAP) of the plastic fraction of Waste from Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) from end-life computers was run with different absorbers and set-ups in a multimode batch reactor. A large amount of various different liquid fractions (up to 76.6wt%) were formed together with a remarkable reduction of the solid residue (up to 14.2wt%). The liquid fractions were characterized using the following different techniques: FT-IR ATR, 1 H NMR and a quantitative GC-MS analysis. The liquid fractions showed low density and viscosity, together with a high concentration of useful chemicals such as styrene (up to 117.7mg/mL), xylenes (up to 25.6mg/mL for p-xylene) whereas halogenated compounds were absent or present in a very low amounts. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Enhancement mechanisms of short-time aerobic digestion for waste activated sludge in the presence of cocoamidopropyl betaine.

PubMed

Xia, Siqing; Zhou, Yun; Eustance, Everett; Zhang, Zhiqiang

2017-10-18

Cocoamidopropyl betaine (CAPB), which is a biodegradable ampholytic surfactant, has recently been found to dramatically enhance the aerobic digestion of waste activated sludge (WAS) in short-time aerobic digestion (STAD) systems. Therefore, it is important to understand the mechanisms in which CAPB enhances WAS aerobic digestion performance. Results showed that CAPB could dramatically enhance the solubilization of soluble proteins (PN), polysaccharides (PS), nucleic acids (NA) and humic-like substances (HS) in the STAD system within the initial 2 h. Then PN, PS and NA gradually decreased, while HS showed only minor decease. In addition, CAPB increased the proportion of low MW fractions (<20 kDa) from 4.22% to 39.4%, which are more biodegradable. Specific oxygen uptake rates and dehydrogenase enzyme activity results indicated that CAPB markedly improved the aerobic microorganism activities. Microbial community analyses and principle coordinate analyses (PCoA) revealed that CAPB increased the proportion of some functional microorganisms, including Proteobacteria, Planctomycetales, Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas and Aeromonas. The changes driven by CAPB could explain the enhanced performance of the STAD system for WAS aerobic treatment.

Two-phase anaerobic digestion of vegetable market waste fraction of municipal solid waste and development of improved technology for phase separation in two-phase reactor.

PubMed

Majhi, Bijoy Kumar; Jash, Tushar

2016-12-01

Biogas production from vegetable market waste (VMW) fraction of municipal solid waste (MSW) by two-phase anaerobic digestion system should be preferred over the single-stage reactors. This is because VMW undergoes rapid acidification leading to accumulation of volatile fatty acids and consequent low pH resulting in frequent failure of digesters. The weakest part in the two-phase anaerobic reactors was the techniques applied for solid-liquid phase separation of digestate in the first reactor where solubilization, hydrolysis and acidogenesis of solid organic waste occur. In this study, a two-phase reactor which consisted of a solid-phase reactor and a methane reactor was designed, built and operated with VMW fraction of Indian MSW. A robust type filter, which is unique in its implementation method, was developed and incorporated in the solid-phase reactor to separate the process liquid produced in the first reactor. Experiments were carried out to assess the long term performance of the two-phase reactor with respect to biogas production, volatile solids reduction, pH and number of occurrence of clogging in the filtering system or choking in the process liquid transfer line. The system performed well and was operated successfully without the occurrence of clogging or any other disruptions throughout. Biogas production of 0.86-0.889m 3 kg -1 VS, at OLR of 1.11-1.585kgm -3 d -1 , were obtained from vegetable market waste, which were higher than the results reported for similar substrates digested in two-phase reactors. The VS reduction was 82-86%. The two-phase anaerobic digestion system was demonstrated to be stable and suitable for the treatment of VMW fraction of MSW for energy generation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Technical evaluation of a tank-connected food waste disposer system for biogas production and nutrient recovery.

PubMed

Davidsson, Å; Bernstad Saraiva, A; Magnusson, N; Bissmont, M

2017-07-01

In this study, a tank-connected food waste disposer system with the objective to optimise biogas production and nutrient recovery from food waste in Malmö was evaluated. The project investigated the source-separation ratio of food waste through waste composition analyses, determined the potential biogas production in ground food waste, analysed the organic matter content and the limiting components in ground food waste and analysed outlet samples to calculate food waste losses from the separation tank. It can be concluded that the tank-connected food waste disposer system in Malmö can be used for energy recovery and optimisation of biogas production. The organic content of the collected waste is very high and contains a lot of energy rich fat and protein, and the methane potential is high. The results showed that approximately 38% of the food waste dry matter is collected in the tank. The remaining food waste is either found in residual waste (34% of the dry matter) or passes the tank and goes through the outlet to the sewer (28%). The relatively high dry matter content in the collected fraction (3-5% DM) indicates that the separation tank can thicken the waste substantially. The potential for nutrient recovery is rather limited considering the tank content. Only small fractions of the phosphorus (15%) and nitrogen (21%) are recyclable by the collected waste in the tank. The quality of the outlet indicates a satisfactory separation of particulate organic matter and fat. The organic content and nutrients, which are in dissolved form, cannot be retained in the tank and are rather led to the sewage via the outlet. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Antiproliferative terpenoids from almond hulls (Prunus dulcis): identification and structure-activity relationships.

PubMed

Amico, Vincenzo; Barresi, Vincenza; Condorelli, Daniele; Spatafora, Carmela; Tringali, Corrado

2006-02-08

Bioassay-guided fractionation of the EtOAc crude extract from Sicilian almond hulls, a waste material from Prunus dulcis crop, allowed identification of 10 constituents, isolated as pure compounds (1-5, 7, and 10) or unseparable mixtures (5 + 6 and 8 + 9). All compounds were subjected to spectroscopic analysis and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide bioassay on MCF-7 human breast cancer cells. In addition to the main components oleanolic (1), ursolic (2), and betulinic (3) acids, the 2-hydroxy analogues alphitolic (4), corosolic (5), and maslinic (6) acids, as well as the related aldehydes, namely, betulinic (7), oleanolic (8), and ursolic (9), were identified. From a more polar fraction, the beta-sitosterol 3-O-glucoside (10) was also identified. A sample of commercially available betulin (11) was also included in bioassays as further support to a structure-activity relationship study. Betulinic acid showed antiproliferative activity toward MCF-7 cells (GI50 = 0.27 microM), higher than the anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil.

Radioactive waste disposal implications of extending Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act to cover radioactively contaminated land.

PubMed

Nancarrow, D J; White, M M

2004-03-01

A short study has been carried out of the potential radioactive waste disposal issues associated with the proposed extension of Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to include radioactively contaminated land, where there is no other suitable existing legislation. It was found that there is likely to be an availability problem with respect to disposal at landfills of the radioactive wastes arising from remediation. This is expected to be principally wastes of high volume and low activity (categorised as low level waste (LLW) and very low level waste (VLLW)). The availability problem results from a lack of applications by landfill operators for authorisation to accept LLW wastes for disposal. This is apparently due to perceived adverse publicity associated with the consultation process for authorisation coupled with uncertainty over future liabilities. Disposal of waste as VLLW is limited both by questions over volumes that may be acceptable and, more fundamentally, by the likely alpha activity of wastes (originating from radium and thorium operations). Authorised on-site disposal has had little attention in policy and guidance in recent years, but may have a part to play, especially if considered commercially attractive. Disposal at BNFL's near surface disposal facility for LLW at Drigg is limited to wastes for which there are no practical alternative disposal options (and preference has been given to operational type wastes). Therefore, wastes from the radioactively contaminated land (RCL) regime are not obviously attractive for disposal to Drigg. Illustrative calculations have been performed based on possible volumes and activities of RCL arisings (and assuming Drigg's future volumetric disposal capacity is 950,000 m3). These suggest that wastes arising from implementing the RCL regime, if all disposed to Drigg, would not represent a significant fraction of the volumetric capacity of Drigg, but could have a significant impact on the radiological capacity with respect to 226Ra plus 232Th. The government's decision-making programme for managing solid radioactive wastes in the UK may possibly achieve a general consensus that the use of landfill for LLW from the RCL regime has a fundamental role to play. However, this is unlikely to change the situation within the next few years. No new national facility arising from this programme is likely to be available during the first decade of the operation of a new RCL regime. Hence it appears that Drigg will need to play an important role for some years to come.

Conversion of stranded waste-stream carbon and nutrients into value-added products via metabolically coupled binary heterotroph-photoautotroph system.

PubMed

Bohutskyi, Pavlo; Kucek, Leo A; Hill, Eric; Pinchuk, Grigoriy E; Mundree, Sagadevan G; Beliaev, Alexander S

2018-07-01

Growth of heterotrophic bacterium Bacillus subtilis was metabolically coupled with the photosynthetic activity of an astaxanthin-producing alga Haematococcus pluvialis for conversion of starch-containing waste stream into carotenoid-enriched biomass. The H. pluvialis accounted for 63% of the produced co-culture biomass of 2.2 g/L. Importantly, the binary system requires neither exogenous supply of gaseous substrates nor application of energy-intensive mass transfer technologies due to in-situ exchange in CO 2 and O 2 . The maximum reduction in COD, total nitrogen and phosphorus reached 65%, 55% and 30%, respectively. Conducted techno-economic assessment suggested that the astaxanthin-rich biomass may potentially offset the costs of waste treatment, and, with specific productivity enhancements (induction of astaxanthin to 2% and increase H. pluvialis fraction to 80%), provide and additional revenue stream. The outcome of this study demonstrates a successful proof-of-principle for conversion of waste carbon and nutrients into value-added products through metabolic coupling of heterotrophic and phototrophic metabolisms. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Long-term effect of municipal solid waste amendment on microbial abundance and humus-associated enzyme activities under semiarid conditions.

PubMed

Bastida, Felipe; Kandeler, Ellen; Hernández, Teresa; García, Carlos

2008-05-01

Microbial ecology is the key to understanding the function of soil biota for organic matter cycling after a single amendment of organic waste in semiarid soils. Therefore, in this paper, the long-term effect (17 years) of adding different doses of a solid municipal waste to an arid soil on humus-enzyme complexes, a very stable and long-lasting fraction of soil enzymes, as well as on microbial and plant abundance, was studied. Humic substances were extracted by 0.1 M pH 7 sodium pyrophosphate from soil samples collected in experimental plots amended with different doses of a solid municipal waste (0, 65, 130, 195, and 260 t/ha) 17 years before. The activity of different hydrolases related with the C (beta-glucosidase), N (urease), and P (alkaline phosphatase) cycles and with the formation of humic substances (o-diphenol oxidase) were determined in this extract. The density and diversity of plant cover in the plots, as well as the fungal and bacterial biomass (by analyzing phopholipid fatty acids) were also determined. In general, the amended plots showed greater humic substance-related enzymatic activity than the unamended plots. This activity increased with the dose but only up to a certain level, above which it leveled off or even diminished. Plant diversity and cover density followed the same trend. Fungal and bacterial biomass also benefited in a dose-dependent manner. Different signature molecules representing gram+ and gram- bacteria, and those corresponding to monounsaturated and saturated fatty acids showed a similar behavior. The results demonstrate that organic amendment had a noticeable long-term effect on the vegetal development, humic substances-related enzyme activity and on the development of bacteria and fungi in semiarid conditions.

Measurement of carbon storage in landfills from the biogenic carbon content of excavated waste samples.

PubMed

De la Cruz, Florentino B; Chanton, Jeffrey P; Barlaz, Morton A

2013-10-01

Landfills are an anaerobic ecosystem and represent the major disposal alternative for municipal solid waste (MSW) in the U.S. While some fraction of the biogenic carbon, primarily cellulose (Cel) and hemicellulose (H), is converted to carbon dioxide and methane, lignin (L) is essentially recalcitrant. The biogenic carbon that is not mineralized is stored within the landfill. This carbon storage represents a significant component of a landfill carbon balance. The fraction of biogenic carbon that is not reactive in the landfill environment and therefore stored was derived for samples of excavated waste by measurement of the total organic carbon, its biogenic fraction, and the remaining methane potential. The average biogenic carbon content of the excavated samples was 64.6±18.0% (average±standard deviation), while the average carbon storage factor was 0.09±0.06g biogenic-C stored per g dry sample or 0.66±0.16g biogenic-C stored per g biogenic C. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

In vitro modulation of inflammatory target gene expression by a polyphenol-enriched fraction of rose oil distillation waste water.

PubMed

Wedler, Jonas; Weston, Anna; Rausenberger, Julia; Butterweck, Veronika

2016-10-01

Classical production of rose oil is based on water steam distillation from the flowers of Rosa damascena. During this process, large quantities of waste water accrue which are discharged to the environment, causing severe pollution of both, groundwater and surface water due to a high content of polyphenols. We recently developed a strategy to purify the waste water into a polyphenol-depleted and a polyphenol-enriched fraction RF20-(SP-207). RF20-(SP-207) and sub-fraction F(IV) significantly inhibited cell proliferation and migration of HaCaT cells. Since there is a close interplay between these actions and inflammatory processes, here we focused on the fractions' influence on pro-inflammatory biomarkers. HaCaT keratinocytes were treated with RF20-(SP-207), F(IV) (both at 50μg/mL) and ellagic acid (10μM) for 24h under TNF-α (20ng/mL) stimulated and non-stimulated conditions. Gene expression of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, RANTES and MCP-1 was analyzed by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and cellular protein secretion of IL-8, RANTES and MCP-1 was determined by ELISA based assays. RF20-(SP-207) and F(IV) significantly decreased the expression and cellular protein secretion of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, RANTES and MCP-1. The diminishing effects on inflammatory target gene expression were slightly less pronounced under TNF-α stimulated conditions. In conclusion, the recovered polyphenol fraction RF20-(SP-207) from rose oil distillation waste water markedly modified inflammatory target gene expression in vitro, and, therefore, could be further developed as alternative treatment of acute and chronic inflammation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Recycling paper-pulp waste liquors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sarbolouki, M. N.

1981-01-01

Papermills in U.S. annually produce 3 million tons of sulfite waste liquor solids; other fractions of waste liquor are monomeric sugars and lignosulfonates in solution. Recovery of lignosulfonates involves precipitation and cross-linking of sulfonates to form useful solid ion-exchange resin. Contamination of sugars recovered from liquor is avoided by first converting them to ethanol, then removing ethanol by distillation.

Municipal solid waste composition determination supporting the integrated solid waste management system in the island of Crete

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gidarakos, E.; Havas, G.; Ntzamilis, P.

A one-year survey was conducted in the greater region of Crete (located at the lower region of the Aegean Sea) for the purpose of identifying waste composition (including chemical and physical characterization), as well as any seasonal variation. The investigation was carried out repeatedly at seven landfills and one transfer station in Crete, in four phases. Each sampling phase corresponded to a season (autumn, winter, spring, summer). ASTM D5231-92(2003) standard method and RCRA Waste Sampling Draft Technical Guidance were used. Hand sorting was used for classifying the collected wastes into the following categories: plastics, paper, metals, aluminium, leather-wood-textiles-rubbers, organic wastes,more » non-combustibles and miscellaneous. Further analysis included proximate and ultimate analysis of combustible materials. Metals such as lead, cadmium and mercury were also investigated. The results show that there has been a significant decrease of organic wastes during the last decade due to the increase of packaging materials, as a result of a change in consumption patterns. Three main waste categories were determined: organic wastes, paper and plastics, which combined represent 76% of the total waste in Crete. Furthermore, a high fraction of glass and a seasonal variation of aluminium indicate a strong correlation of waste composition with certain human activities, such as tourism. There is also a variation between the municipal solid waste (MSW) composition in the region of Crete (2003-2004) and MSW composition suggested in the National Solid Waste Planning (2000) [National Solid Waste Planning, 2000. Completion and particularization of Common Ministerial Act 113944//1944/1997: National Solid Waste Planning, June 2000]. The results of this survey are to be utilized by the regional solid waste authorities in order to establish an integrated waste treatment site, capable of fulfilling the regional waste management demands.« less

Mesophilic anaerobic co-digestion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste with the liquid fraction from hydrothermal carbonization of sewage sludge.

PubMed

De la Rubia, M A; Villamil, J A; Rodriguez, J J; Borja, R; Mohedano, A F

2018-06-01

In the present study, the influence of substrate pre-treatment (grinding and sieving) on batch anaerobic digestion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) was first assessed, then followed by co-digestion experiments with the liquid fraction from hydrothermal carbonization (LFHTC) of dewatered sewage sludge (DSS). The methane yield of batch anaerobic digestion after grinding and sieving (20 mm diameter) the OFMSW was considerably higher (453 mL CH 4 STP g -1 VS added ) than that of untreated OFMSW (285 mL CH 4 STP g -1 VS added ). The modified Gompertz model adequately predicted process performance. The maximum methane production rate, R m , for ground and sieved OFMSW was 2.4 times higher than that of untreated OFMSW. The anaerobic co-digestion of different mixtures of OFMSW and LFHTC of DSS did not increase the methane yield above that of the anaerobic digestion of OFMSW alone, and no synergistic effects were observed. However, the co-digestion of both wastes at a ratio of 75% OFMSW-25% LFHTC provides a practical waste management option. The experimental results were adequately fitted to a first-order kinetic model showing a kinetic constant virtually independent of the percentage of LFHTC (0.52-0.56 d -1 ) and decreasing slightly for 100% LFHTC (0.44 d -1 ). Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Arsenic partitioning among particle-size fractions of mine wastes and stream sediments from cinnabar mining districts.

PubMed

Silva, Veronica; Loredo, Jorge; Fernández-Martínez, Rodolfo; Larios, Raquel; Ordóñez, Almudena; Gómez, Belén; Rucandio, Isabel

2014-10-01

Tailings from abandoned mercury mines represent an important pollution source by metals and metalloids. Mercury mining in Asturias (north-western Spain) has been carried out since Roman times until the 1970s. Specific and non-specific arsenic minerals are present in the paragenesis of the Hg ore deposit. As a result of intensive mining operations, waste materials contain high concentrations of As, which can be geochemically dispersed throughout surrounding areas. Arsenic accumulation, mobility and availability in soils and sediments are strongly affected by the association of As with solid phases and granular size composition. The objective of this study was to examine phase associations of As in the fine grain size subsamples of mine wastes (La Soterraña mine site) and stream sediments heavily affected by acid mine drainage (Los Rueldos mine site). An arsenic-selective sequential procedure, which categorizes As content into seven phase associations, was applied. In spite of a higher As accumulation in the finest particle-size subsamples, As fractionation did not seem to depend on grain size since similar distribution profiles were obtained for the studied granulometric fractions. The presence of As was relatively low in the most mobile forms in both sites. As was predominantly linked to short-range ordered Fe oxyhydroxides, coprecipitated with Fe and partially with Al oxyhydroxides and associated with structural material in mine waste samples. As incorporated into short-range ordered Fe oxyhydroxides was the predominant fraction at sediment samples, representing more than 80% of total As.

Trace metal content in inhalable particulate matter (PM2.5-10 and PM2.5) collected from historical mine waste deposits using a laboratory-based approach.

PubMed

Martin, Rachael; Dowling, Kim; Pearce, Dora C; Florentine, Singarayer; McKnight, Stafford; Stelcer, Eduard; Cohen, David D; Stopic, Attila; Bennett, John W

2017-06-01

Mine wastes and tailings are considered hazardous to human health because of their potential to generate large quantities of highly toxic emissions of particulate matter (PM). Human exposure to As and other trace metals in PM may occur via inhalation of airborne particulates or through ingestion of contaminated dust. This study describes a laboratory-based method for extracting PM 2.5-10 (coarse) and PM 2.5 (fine) particles from As-rich mine waste samples collected from an historical gold mining region in regional, Victoria, Australia. We also report on the trace metal and metalloid content of the coarse and fine fraction, with an emphasis on As as an element of potential concern. Laser diffraction analysis showed that the proportions of coarse and fine particles in the bulk samples ranged between 3.4-26.6 and 0.6-7.6 %, respectively. Arsenic concentrations were greater in the fine fraction (1680-26,100 mg kg -1 ) compared with the coarse fraction (1210-22,000 mg kg -1 ), and Co, Fe, Mn, Ni, Sb and Zn were found to be present in the fine fraction at levels around twice those occurring in the coarse. These results are of particular concern given that fine particles can accumulate in the human respiratory system. Our study demonstrates that mine wastes may be an important source of metal-enriched PM for mining communities.

A multi-criteria ranking of different technologies for the anaerobic digestion for energy recovery of the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes.

PubMed

Karagiannidis, A; Perkoulidis, G

2009-04-01

This paper describes a conceptual framework and methodological tool developed for the evaluation of different anaerobic digestion technologies suitable for treating the organic fraction of municipal solid waste, by introducing the multi-criteria decision support method Electre III and demonstrating its related applicability via a test application. Several anaerobic digestion technologies have been proposed over the last years; when compared to biogas recovery from landfills, their advantage is the stability in biogas production and the stabilization of waste prior to final disposal. Anaerobic digestion technologies also show great adaptability to a broad spectrum of different input material beside the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (e.g. agricultural and animal wastes, sewage sludge) and can also be used in remote and isolated communities, either stand-alone or in conjunction to other renewable energy sources. Main driver for this work was the preliminary screening of such methods for potential application in Hellenic islands in the municipal solid waste management sector. Anaerobic digestion technologies follow different approaches to the anaerobic digestion process and also can include production of compost. In the presented multi-criteria analysis exercise, Electre III is implemented for comparing and ranking 5 selected alternative anaerobic digestion technologies. The results of a performed sensitivity analysis are then discussed. In conclusion, the performed multi-criteria approach was found to be a practical and feasible method for the integrated assessment and ranking of anaerobic digestion technologies by also considering different viewpoints and other uncertainties of the decision-making process.

Bio oil synthesis by coupling biological biomass pretreatment and catalytic hydroliquefaction process.

PubMed

Hamieh, S; Beauchet, R; Lemee, L; Toufaily, J; Koubaissy, B; Hamieh, T; Pouilloux, Y; Pinard, L

2014-03-01

The bio-oil synthesis from a mixture of wastes (7wt.% straw, 38wt.% wood, and 45wt.% grass) was carried out by direct liquefaction reaction using Raney Nickel as catalyst and tetralin as solvent. The green wastes were biologically degraded during 3 months. Longer the destructuration time; higher the yield into oil is. Biological pretreatment of green wastes promotes the liquefaction process. Among the components of degraded biomass, Humin, the major fraction (60-80wt.%) that was favored by the biological treatment, yields to a bio oil extremely energetic with a HHV close to biopetroleum (40MJ kg(-1)), contrariwise, Fulvic acids (2-12wt.%), the minor fraction is refractory to liquefaction reaction. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Anaerobic co-digestion of food waste and landfill leachate in single-phase batch reactors

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Liao, Xiaofeng; Zhu, Shuangyan; Zhong, Delai

Highlights: • Anaerobic co-digestion strategy for food waste treatment at OLR 41.8 g VS/L. • A certain amount of raw leachate effectively relieved acidic inhibition. • The study showed that food waste was completely degraded. - Abstract: In order to investigate the effect of raw leachate on anaerobic digestion of food waste, co-digestions of food waste with raw leachate were carried out. A series of single-phase batch mesophilic (35 ± 1 °C) anaerobic digestions were performed at a food waste concentration of 41.8 g VS/L. The results showed that inhibition of biogas production by volatile fatty acids (VFA) occurred withoutmore » raw leachate addition. A certain amount of raw leachate in the reactors effectively relieved acidic inhibition caused by VFA accumulation, and the system maintained stable with methane yield of 369–466 mL/g VS. Total ammonia nitrogen introduced into the digestion systems with initial 2000–3000 mgNH{sub 4}–N/L not only replenished nitrogen for bacterial growth, but also formed a buffer system with VFA to maintain a delicate biochemical balance between the acidogenic and methanogenic microorganisms. UV spectroscopy and fluorescence excitation–emission matrix spectroscopy data showed that food waste was completely degraded. We concluded that using raw leachate for supplement water addition and pH modifier on anaerobic digestion of food waste was effective. An appropriate fraction of leachate could stimulate methanogenic activity and enhance biogas production.« less

Thermal valorization of post-consumer film waste in a bubbling bed gasifier

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Martínez-Lera, S., E-mail: susanamartinezlera@gmail.com; Torrico, J.; Pallarés, J.

2013-07-15

Highlights: • Film waste from packaging is a common waste, a fraction of which is not recyclable. • Gasification can make use of the high energy value of the non-recyclable fraction. • This waste and two reference polymers were gasified in a bubbling bed reactor. • This experimental research proves technical feasibility of the process. • It also analyzes impact of composition and ER on the performance of the plant. - Abstract: The use of plastic bags and film packaging is very frequent in manifold sectors and film waste is usually present in different sources of municipal and industrial wastes.more » A significant part of it is not suitable for mechanical recycling but could be safely transformed into a valuable gas by means of thermal valorization. In this research, the gasification of film wastes has been experimentally investigated through experiments in a fluidized bed reactor of two reference polymers, polyethylene and polypropylene, and actual post-consumer film waste. After a complete experimental characterization of the three materials, several gasification experiments have been performed to analyze the influence of the fuel and of equivalence ratio on gas production and composition, on tar generation and on efficiency. The experiments prove that film waste and analogue polymer derived wastes can be successfully gasified in a fluidized bed reactor, yielding a gas with a higher heating value in a range from 3.6 to 5.6 MJ/m{sup 3} and cold gas efficiencies up to 60%.« less

Changes on aggregation in mine waste amended with biochar and marble mud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ángeles Muñoz, María; Guzmán, Jose; Zornoza, Raúl; Moreno-Barriga, Fabián; Faz, Ángel; Lal, Rattan

2016-04-01

Mining activities have produced large amounts of wastes over centuries accumulated in tailing ponds in Southeast Spain. Applications of biochar may have a high potential for reclamation of degraded soils. Distribution, size and stability of aggregates are important indices of soil physical quality. However, research data on aggregation processes at amended mining tailings with biochar are scanty. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effects of seven different treatments involving biochar and marble mud (MM) on the aggregation in mine waste (MW). Seven different treatments were tested after 90 days of incubation in the laboratory. These treatments were the mix of MW and: biochar from solid pig manure (PM), biochar from cotton crop residues (CR), biochar from municipal solid waste (MSW), marble mud (MM), PM+MM, CR+MM, MSW+MM and control without amendment. High sand percentages were identified in the MW. The biochars made from wastes (PM, CR, MSW) were obtained through pyrolysis of feedstocks. The water stability of soil aggregates was studied. The data on total aggregation were corrected for the primary particles considering the sandy texture of the MW. Moreover, partial aggregation was determined for each fraction and the mean weight diameter (MWD) of aggregates was computed. Soil bulk density and total porosity were also determined. No significant differences were observed in total aggregation and MWD among treatments including the control. For the size range of >4.75 mm, there were significant differences in aggregates > 4.75 mm between CR+MM in comparison with that for CT. There were also significant differences between MSW and PM+MM for the 1-0.425 mm fraction, and between CT and MM and CR for 0.425-0.162 mm aggregate size fractions. Therefore, CR-derived biochar applied with MM enhanced stability of macro-aggregates. Furthermore, soil bulk density was also the lowest bulk density and total porosity the highest for the CR-derived biochar treatment because macro aggregate stability is largely responsible for macro-porosity. The decrease in bulk density may be an indication of a positive effect for mine waste reclamation. Conversely, no differences were observed among treatments in micro-aggregate stability. Apparently, low organic matter contents in MW needed to be co-amended with labile organic amendments to effectively increase soil aggregation. Furthermore, the presence of Fe hydroxides could also increase the micro-aggregation. Additional research is needed to understand the mechanisms of mine soil reclamation. Acknowledgement : This work has been funded by Fundación Séneca (Agency of Science and Technology of the Region of Murcia, Spain

Biochemical methane potential tests of different autoclaved and microwaved lignocellulosic organic fractions of municipal solid waste.

PubMed

Pecorini, Isabella; Baldi, Francesco; Carnevale, Ennio Antonio; Corti, Andrea

2016-10-01

The aim of this research was to enhance the anaerobic biodegradability and methane production of two synthetic Organic Fractions of Municipal Solid Waste with different lignocellulosic contents by assessing microwave and autoclave pre-treatments. Biochemical Methane Potential assays were performed for 21days. Changes in the soluble fractions of the organic matter (measured by soluble chemical oxygen demand, carbohydrates and proteins), the first order hydrolysis constant kh and the cumulated methane production at 21days were used to evaluate the efficiency of microwaving and autoclaving pretreatments on substrates solubilization and anaerobic digestion. Microwave treatment led to a methane production increase of 8.5% for both the tested organic fractions while autoclave treatment had an increase ranging from 1.0% to 4.4%. Results showed an increase of the soluble fraction after pre-treatments for both the synthetic organic fractions. Soluble chemical oxygen demand observed significant increases for pretreated substrates (up to 219.8%). In this regard, the mediocre results of methane's production led to the conclusion that autoclaving and microwaving resulted in the hydrolysis of a significant fraction of non-biodegradable organic substances recalcitrant to anaerobic digestion. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Distribution and availability of trace elements in municipal solid waste composts.

PubMed

Paradelo, Remigio; Villada, Antía; Devesa-Rey, Rosa; Moldes, Ana Belén; Domínguez, Marta; Patiño, Jacobo; Barral, María Teresa

2011-01-01

Trace element contamination is one of the main problems linked to the quality of compost, especially when it is produced from urban wastes, which can lead to high levels of some potentially toxic elements such as Cu, Pb or Zn. In this work, the distribution and bioavailability of five elements (Cu, Zn, Pb, Cr and Ni) were studied in five Spanish composts obtained from different feedstocks (municipal solid waste, garden trimmings, sewage sludge and mixed manure). The five composts showed high total concentrations of these elements, which in some cases limited their commercialization due to legal imperatives. First, a physical fractionation of the composts was performed, and the five elements were determined in each size fraction. Their availability was assessed by several methods of extraction (water, CaCl(2)-DTPA, the PBET extract, the TCLP extract, and sodium pyrophosphate), and their chemical distribution was assessed using the BCR sequential extraction procedure. The results showed that the finer fractions were enriched with the elements studied, and that Cu, Pb and Zn were the most potentially problematic ones, due to both their high total concentrations and availability. The partition into the BCR fractions was different for each element, but the differences between composts were scarce. Pb was evenly distributed among the four fractions defined in the BCR (soluble, oxidizable, reducible and residual); Cu was mainly found in the oxidizable fraction, linked to organic matter, and Zn was mainly associated to the reducible fraction (iron oxides), while Ni and Cr were mainly present almost exclusively in the residual fraction. It was not possible to establish a univocal relation between trace elements availability and their BCR fractionation. Given the differences existing for the availability and distribution of these elements, which not always were related to their total concentrations, we think that legal limits should consider availability, in order to achieve a more realistic assessment of the risks linked to compost use.

Radioactive demonstration of final mineralized waste forms for Hanford waste treatment plant secondary waste (WTP-SW) by fluidized bed steam reforming (FBSR) using the bench scale reformer platform

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Crawford, C.; Burket, P.; Cozzi, A.

2014-08-01

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) is responsible for the retrieval, treatment, immobilization, and disposal of Hanford’s tank waste. Currently there are approximately 56 million gallons of highly radioactive mixed wastes awaiting treatment. A key aspect of the River Protection Project (RPP) cleanup mission is to construct and operate the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). The WTP will separate the tank waste into high-level and low-activity waste (LAW) fractions, both of which will subsequently be vitrified. The projected throughput capacity of the WTP LAW Vitrification Facility is insufficient to complete the RPP mission in themore » time frame required by the Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order, also known as the Tri-Party Agreement (TPA), i.e. December 31, 2047. Therefore, Supplemental Treatment is required both to meet the TPA treatment requirements as well as to more cost effectively complete the tank waste treatment mission. In addition, the WTP LAW vitrification facility off-gas condensate known as WTP Secondary Waste (WTP-SW) will be generated and enriched in volatile components such as 137Cs, 129I, 99Tc, Cl, F, and SO4 that volatilize at the vitrification temperature of 1150°C in the absence of a continuous cold cap (that could minimize volatilization). The current waste disposal path for the WTP-SW is to process it through the Effluent Treatment Facility (ETF). Fluidized Bed Steam Reforming (FBSR) is being considered for immobilization of the ETF concentrate that would be generated by processing the WTP-SW. The focus of this current report is the WTP-SW.« less

Estimating Residual Solids Volume In Underground Storage Tanks

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Clark, Jason L.; Worthy, S. Jason; Martin, Bruce A.

2014-01-08

The Savannah River Site liquid waste system consists of multiple facilities to safely receive and store legacy radioactive waste, treat, and permanently dispose waste. The large underground storage tanks and associated equipment, known as the 'tank farms', include a complex interconnected transfer system which includes underground transfer pipelines and ancillary equipment to direct the flow of waste. The waste in the tanks is present in three forms: supernatant, sludge, and salt. The supernatant is a multi-component aqueous mixture, while sludge is a gel-like substance which consists of insoluble solids and entrapped supernatant. The waste from these tanks is retrieved andmore » treated as sludge or salt. The high level (radioactive) fraction of the waste is vitrified into a glass waste form, while the low-level waste is immobilized in a cementitious grout waste form called saltstone. Once the waste is retrieved and processed, the tanks are closed via removing the bulk of the waste, chemical cleaning, heel removal, stabilizing remaining residuals with tailored grout formulations and severing/sealing external penetrations. The comprehensive liquid waste disposition system, currently managed by Savannah River Remediation, consists of 1) safe storage and retrieval of the waste as it is prepared for permanent disposition; (2) definition of the waste processing techniques utilized to separate the high-level waste fraction/low-level waste fraction; (3) disposition of LLW in saltstone; (4) disposition of the HLW in glass; and (5) closure state of the facilities, including tanks. This paper focuses on determining the effectiveness of waste removal campaigns through monitoring the volume of residual solids in the waste tanks. Volume estimates of the residual solids are performed by creating a map of the residual solids on the waste tank bottom using video and still digital images. The map is then used to calculate the volume of solids remaining in the waste tank. The ability to accurately determine a volume is a function of the quantity and quality of the waste tank images. Currently, mapping is performed remotely with closed circuit video cameras and still photograph cameras due to the hazardous environment. There are two methods that can be used to create a solids volume map. These methods are: liquid transfer mapping / post transfer mapping and final residual solids mapping. The task is performed during a transfer because the liquid level (which is a known value determined by a level measurement device) is used as a landmark to indicate solids accumulation heights. The post transfer method is primarily utilized after the majority of waste has been removed. This method relies on video and still digital images of the waste tank after the liquid transfer is complete to obtain the relative height of solids across a waste tank in relation to known and usable landmarks within the waste tank (cooling coils, column base plates, etc.). In order to accurately monitor solids over time across various cleaning campaigns, and provide a technical basis to support final waste tank closure, a consistent methodology for volume determination has been developed and implemented at SRS.« less

Evaluation of Biodegradability of Waste Before and After Aerobic Treatment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suchowska-Kisielewicz, Monika; Jędrczak, Andrzej; Sadecka, Zofia

2014-12-01

An important advantage of use of an aerobic biostabilization of waste prior to its disposal is that it intensifies the decomposition of the organic fraction of waste into the form which is easily assimilable for methanogenic microorganisms involved in anaerobic decomposition of waste in the landfill. In this article it is presented the influence of aerobic pre-treatment of waste as well as leachate recirculation on susceptibility to biodegradation of waste in anaerobic laboratory reactors. The research has shown that in the reactor with aerobically treated waste stabilized with recilculation conversion of the organic carbon into the methane is about 45% higher than in the reactor with untreated waste stabilized without recirculation.

Potential use of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste in anaerobic co-digestion with wastewater in submerged anaerobic membrane technology.

PubMed

Moñino, P; Jiménez, E; Barat, R; Aguado, D; Seco, A; Ferrer, J

2016-10-01

Food waste was characterized for its potential use as substrate for anaerobic co-digestion in a submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor pilot plant that treats urban wastewater (WW). 90% of the particles had sizes under 0.5mm after grinding the food waste in a commercial food waste disposer. COD, nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations were 100, 2 and 20 times higher in food waste than their average concentrations in WW, but the relative flow contribution of both streams made COD the only pollutant that increased significantly when both substrates were mixed. As sulphate concentration in food waste was in the same range as WW, co-digestion of both substrates would increase the COD/SO4-S ratio and favour methanogenic activity in anaerobic treatments. The average methane potential of the food waste was 421±15mLCH4g(-1)VS, achieving 73% anaerobic biodegradability. The anaerobic co-digestion of food waste with WW is expected to increase methane production 2.9-fold. The settleable solids tests and the particle size distribution analyses confirmed that both treatment lines of a conventional WWTP (water and sludge lines) would be clearly impacted by the incorporation of food waste into its influent. Anaerobic processes are therefore preferred over their aerobic counterparts due to their ability to valorise the high COD content to produce biogas (a renewable energy) instead of increasing the energetic costs associated with the aeration process for aerobic COD oxidation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of initial moisture content on the in-vessel composting under air pressure of organic fraction of municipal solid waste in Morocco.

PubMed

Makan, Abdelhadi; Assobhei, Omar; Mountadar, Mohammed

2013-01-03

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of initial moisture content on the in-vessel composting under air pressure of organic fraction of municipal solid waste in Morocco in terms of internal temperature, produced gases quantity, organic matter conversion rate, and the quality of the final composts.For this purpose, in-vessel bioreactor was designed and used to evaluate both appropriate initial air pressure and appropriate initial moisture content for the composting process. Moreover, 5 experiments were carried out within initial moisture content of 55%, 65%, 70%, 75% and 85%. The initial air pressure and the initial moisture content of the mixture showed a significant effect on the aerobic composting. The experimental results demonstrated that for composting organic waste, relatively high moisture contents are better at achieving higher temperatures and retaining them for longer times.This study suggested that an initial moisture content of around 75%, under 0.6 bar, can be considered as being suitable for efficient composting of organic fraction of municipal solid waste. These last conditions, allowed maximum value of temperature and final composting product with good physicochemical properties as well as higher organic matter degradation and higher gas production. Moreover, final compost obtained showed good maturity levels and can be used for agricultural applications.

Strategies for the anaerobic digestion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste: an overview.

PubMed

Hartmann, H; Ahring, B K

2006-01-01

Different process strategies for anaerobic digestion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) are reviewed weighing high-solids versus low-solids, mesophilic versus thermophilic and single-stage versus multi-stage processes. The influence of different waste characteristics such as composition of biodegradable fractions, C:N ratio and particle size is described. Generally, source sorting of OFMSW and a high content of food waste leads to higher biogas yields than the use of mechanically sorted OFMSW. Thermophilic processes are more efficient than mesophilic processes in terms of higher biogas yields at different organic loading rates (OLR). Highest biogas yields are achieved by means of wet thermophilic processes at OLRs lower than 6 kg-VS x m(-3) d(-1). High-solids processes appear to be relatively more efficient when OLRs higher than 6 kg-VS x m(-3)d(-1) are applied. Multi-stage systems show in some investigations a higher reduction of recalcitrant organic matter compared to single-stage systems, but they are seldom applied in full-scale. An extended cost-benefit calculation shows that the highest overall benefit of the process is achieved at an OLR that is lower and a hydraulic retention time (HRT) that is longer than those values of OLR and HRT, at which the highest biogas production is achieved.

State of the art and future perspectives of thermophilic anaerobic digestion.

PubMed

Ahring, B K; Mladenovska, Z; Iranpour, R; Westermann, P

2002-01-01

The state of the art of thermophilic digestion is discussed. Thermophilic digestion is a well established technology in Europe for treatment of mixtures of waste in common large scale biogas plants or for treatment of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste. Due to a large number of failures over time with thermophilic digestion of sewage sludge this process has lost its appeal in the USA. New demands on sanitation of biosolids before land use will, however, bring the attention back to the use of elevated temperatures during sludge stabilization. In the paper we show how the use of a start-up strategy based on the actual activity of key microbes can be used to ensure proper and fast transfer of mesophilic digesters into thermophilic operation. Extreme thermophilic temperatures of 65 degrees C or more may be necessary in the future to meet the demands for full sanitation of the waste material before final disposal. We show data of anaerobic digestion at extreme thermophilic temperatures.

[Investigation of the process of personal hygiene items biodegradation by cellulose-fermenting microorganisms].

PubMed

Il'in, V K; Starkov, L V; Kostrov, S V; Belikodvorskaia, G A; Chuvil'skaia, N A; Mukhamedieva, L N; Mikos, K N

2004-01-01

Cellulose-containing wastes are one of the heaviest and biggest ingredients of solid domestic wastes piling up during spaceflight. For the most part these are disposable personal hygiene items used in large quantities in the absence of shower. These wastes contain human body products which are very dangerous from the sanitary-epidemiological standpoint. The purpose was to explore potentiality of microbial biodegradation of cellulose-containing hygiene items anaerobically with dry mass transformation into liquid and biogas. Among specific objectives were test cultivation of active strains of reference cultures of cellulose-fermenting anaerobic thermophilic bacteria on hygiene items as the only source of carbon, evaluation of ways and need of pretreatment of gauze pads to stimulate biodegradation, and chemical analysis of resulting biogas. From the investigation it was concluded that gauze pads are susceptible to biodegradation by anaerobic bacteria producing a low toxicity gas fraction. Therefore, the proposed technology can be considered as a candidate for integration into the spacecrew life support system.

Improvement of the management of residual waste in areas without thermal treatment facilities: A life cycle analysis of an Italian management district

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Di Maria, Francesco, E-mail: francesco.dimaria@unipg.it; Micale, Caterina; Morettini, Emanuela

2015-10-15

Highlights: • LCA analysis of two option for residual waste management. • Exploitation of mechanical physical sorting facility for extracting recyclable from RMSW. • Processing the mechanically sorted organic fraction in bioreactor landfill. • Sensitivity analysis demonstrate high influence for impact assessment of substitution ratio for recycle materials. - Abstract: Starting from an existing waste management district without thermal treatment facilities, two different management scenarios for residual waste were compared by life cycle assessment (LCA). The adoption of a bioreactor landfill for managing the mechanically sorted organic fraction instead of bio-stabilization led to reduction of global warming and fresh watermore » eutrophication by 50% and 10%, respectively. Extraction of recyclables from residual waste led to avoided emissions for particulate matter, acidification and resource depletion impact categories. Marginal energy and the amount of energy recovered from landfill gas marginally affected the LCA results. On the contrary the quality of the recyclables extracted can significantly modify the eco profile of the management schemes.« less

Quantitative Characterization of Aqueous Byproducts from Hydrothermal Liquefaction of Municipal Wastes, Food Industry Wastes, and Biomass Grown on Waste

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Maddi, Balakrishna; Panisko, Ellen; Wietsma, Thomas

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a viable thermochemical process for converting wet solid wastes into biocrude which can be hydroprocessed to liquid transportation fuel blendstocks and specialty chemicals. The aqueous byproduct from HTL contains significant amounts (20 to 50%) of the feed carbon, which must be used to enhance economic sustainability of the process on an industrial scale. In this study, aqueous fractions produced from HTL of industrial and municipal waste were characterized using a wide variety of analytical approaches. Organic chemical compounds present in these aqueous fractions were identified using two-dimensional gas chromatography equipped with time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Identified compoundsmore » include organic acids, nitrogen compounds, alcohols, aldehydes, and ketones. Conventional gas chromatography and liquid chromatography methods were employed to quantify the identified compounds. Inorganic species, in the aqueous stream of hydrothermal liquefaction of these aqueous byproducts, also were quantified using ion chromatography and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy. The concentrations of organic chemical compounds and inorganic species are reported, and the significance of these results is discussed in detail.« less

A Cleaner Process for Selective Recovery of Valuable Metals from Electronic Waste of Complex Mixtures of End-of-Life Electronic Products.

PubMed

Sun, Zhi; Xiao, Y; Sietsma, J; Agterhuis, H; Yang, Y

2015-07-07

In recent years, recovery of metals from electronic waste within the European Union has become increasingly important due to potential supply risk of strategic raw material and environmental concerns. Electronic waste, especially a mixture of end-of-life electronic products from a variety of sources, is of inherently high complexity in composition, phase, and physiochemical properties. In this research, a closed-loop hydrometallurgical process was developed to recover valuable metals, i.e., copper and precious metals, from an industrially processed information and communication technology waste. A two-stage leaching design of this process was adopted in order to selectively extract copper and enrich precious metals. It was found that the recovery efficiency and extraction selectivity of copper both reached more than 95% by using ammonia-based leaching solutions. A new electrodeposition process has been proven feasible with 90% current efficiency during copper recovery, and the copper purity can reach 99.8 wt %. The residue from the first-stage leaching was screened into coarse and fine fractions. The coarse fraction was returned to be releached for further copper recovery. The fine fraction was treated in the second-stage leaching using sulfuric acid to further concentrate precious metals, which could achieve a 100% increase in their concentrations in the residue with negligible loss into the leaching solution. By a combination of different leaching steps and proper physical separation of light materials, this process can achieve closed-loop recycling of the waste with significant efficiency.

Beyond land application: Emerging technologies for the treatment and reuse of anaerobically digested agricultural and food waste.

PubMed

Sheets, Johnathon P; Yang, Liangcheng; Ge, Xumeng; Wang, Zhiwu; Li, Yebo

2015-10-01

Effective treatment and reuse of the massive quantities of agricultural and food wastes generated daily has the potential to improve the sustainability of food production systems. Anaerobic digestion (AD) is used throughout the world as a waste treatment process to convert organic waste into two main products: biogas and nutrient-rich digestate, called AD effluent. Biogas can be used as a source of renewable energy or transportation fuels, while AD effluent is traditionally applied to land as a soil amendment. However, there are economic and environmental concerns that limit widespread land application, which may lead to underutilization of AD for the treatment of agricultural and food wastes. To combat these constraints, existing and novel methods have emerged to treat or reuse AD effluent. The objective of this review is to analyze several emerging methods used for efficient treatment and reuse of AD effluent. Overall, the application of emerging technologies is limited by AD effluent composition, especially the total solid content. Some technologies, such as composting, use the solid fraction of AD effluent, while most other technologies, such as algae culture and struvite crystallization, use the liquid fraction. Therefore, dewatering of AD effluent, reuse of the liquid and solid fractions, and land application could all be combined to sustainably manage the large quantities of AD effluent produced. Issues such as pathogen regrowth and prevalence of emerging organic micro-pollutants are also discussed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Resource recovery from municipal solid waste by mechanical heat treatment: An opportunity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kamaruddin, Mohamad Anuar; Yusoff, Mohd Suffian; Ibrahim, Nurazim; Zawawi, Mohd Hafiz

2017-04-01

Municipal solid waste (MSW) stream in Malaysia consists of 50 to 60 % of food wastes. In general, food wastes are commingled in nature and very difficult to be managed in sustainable manner due to high moisture content. Consequently, by dumping food wastes together with inert wastes to the landfill as final disposal destination incurs large space area and reducing the lifespan of landfill. Therefore, certain fraction of the MSW as such; food wastes (FW) can be diverted from total disposal at the landfill that can improve landfill lifespan and environmental conservation. This study aims to determine the resource characteristics of FW extracted from USM cafeteria by means of mechanical heat treatment in the presence of autoclaving technology. Sampling of FW were conducted by collecting FW samples from disposal storage at designated area within USM campus. FW characteristics was performed prior and autoclaving process. The results have demonstrated that bones fraction was the highest followed by vegetable and rice with 39, 27 and 10%, respectively. Meanwhile, based on autoclaving technique, moisture content of the FW (fresh waste) were able to be reduced ranging from 65-85% to 59-69% (treated waste). Meanwhile, chemical characteristics of treated FW results in pH, TOC, TKN, C/N ratio, TP, and TK 5.12, 27,6%, 1.6%, 17.3%, 0.9% and 0.36%. The results revealed that autoclaving technology is a promising approach for MSW diversion that can be transformed into useful byproducts such as fertilizer, RDF and recyclable items.

Mid-term effects of mine soil reclamation by use of aided phytostabilization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zornoza, Raúl; Faz, Ángel; Martínez-Martínez, Silvia; Acosta, Jose Alberto; Gómez, María Dolores; Yanardag, Ibrahim

2014-05-01

Abandoned tailing ponds show environmental and human health hazards by the transfer of heavy metals through erosion or leaching. To reduce these hazards, a reclamation strategy has been developed on a tailing pond based on aided phytostabilization. In 2011 marble mud and pig slurry were applied on the tailing pond surface. In spring 2012 thirteen native vegetal species were introduced. During two years (2012-2013) the evolution of different soil properties and the bioavailable fraction of the heavy metals Cd, Pb and Zn has been monitored. Results showed that pH, aggregates stability, organic carbon, nitrogen and cation exchange capacity increased with the application of the amendments and the development of vegetation, while the bioavailable fraction of the heavy metals drastically decreased (90-99%). Thus, the strategy followed resulted positive to reduce the availability of heavy metals, improving soil quality and fertility. These results are promising in areas with extractive activity of carbonated materials, since the generated wastes can be used for reclamation of soils affected with heavy metals, turning a waste into a by-product. Key words: amendments, geochemistry, heavy metals, mining, tailing pond. Acknowledgements: This work has been funded by the European Union LIFE+ project MIPOLARE (LIFE09 ENV/ES/000439).

Tandospirone reduces wasting and improves cardiac function in experimental cancer cachexia.

PubMed

Elkina, Yulia; Palus, Sandra; Tschirner, Anika; Hartmann, Kai; von Haehling, Stephan; Doehner, Wolfram; Mayer, Ulrike; Coats, Andrew J S; Beadle, John; Anker, Stefan D; Springer, Jochen

2013-12-10

Cancer cachexia is thought to be the cause of >20% of cancer related deaths. Symptoms of cancer cachexia patients include depression and anorexia significantly worsening their quality of life. Moreover, in rodent models of cancer cachexia atrophy of the heart has been shown to impair cardiac function. Here, we characterize the effects of the antidepressant and anxiolytic drug tandospirone on wasting, cardiac function and survival in experimental cancer cachexia. The well-established Yoshida hepatoma rat model was used and tumor-bearing rats were treated with 1mg/kg/d (LD), 10mg/kg/d (HD) tandospirone or placebo. Weight, body composition (NMR), cardiac function (echocardiography), activity and food intake were assessed. Noradrenalin and cortisol were measured in plasma and caspase activity in skeletal muscle. Ten mg/kg/d tandospirone decreased the loss of body weight (p=0.0003) compared to placebo animals, mainly due to preservation of muscle mass (p<0.001), while 1mg/kg/d tandospirone was not effective. Locomotor activity (p=0.0007) and food intake (p=0.0001) were increased by HD tandospirone. The weight (p=0.0277) and function of heart (left ventricular mass, fractional shortening, stroke volume, ejection fraction, all p<0.05) were significantly improved. In the HD tandospirone group, plasma levels of noradrenalin and cortisol were significantly reduced by 49% and 52%, respectively, which may have contributed to the lower caspase activity in the gastrocnemius muscle. Most importantly, HD tandospirone significantly improved survival compared to placebo rats (HR: 0.34; 95% CI: 0.13-0.86; p=0.0495). Tandospirone showed significant beneficial effects in the Yoshida hepatoma cancer cachexia model and should be further examined as a prospective drug for this syndrome. © 2013.

A system dynamics approach for healthcare waste management: a case study in Istanbul Metropolitan City, Turkey.

PubMed

Ciplak, Nesli; Barton, John R

2012-06-01

Healthcare waste consists of various types of waste materials generated at hospitals, medical research centres, clinics and laboratories. Although 75-90% of this waste is classified as 'domestic' in nature, 20-25% is deemed to be hazardous, which if not disposed of appropriately, poses a risk to healthcare workers, patients, the environment and even the whole community. As long as healthcare waste is mixed with municipal waste and not segregated prior to disposal, costs will increase substantially. In this study, healthcare waste increases along with the potential to decrease the amounts by implementing effective segregation at healthcare facilities are projected to 2040. Our long-term aim is to develop a system to support selection and planning of the future treatment capacity. Istanbul in Turkey was used as the case study area. In order to identify the factors affecting healthcare waste generation in Istanbul, observations were made and interviews conducted in Istanbul over a 3 month period. A system dynamics approach was adopted to build a healthcare waste management model using a software package, Vensim Ple Plus. Based on reported analysis, the non-hazardous municipal fraction co-disposed with healthcare waste is around 65%. Using the projected waste generation flows, reducing a municipal fraction to 30% has the potential to avoid some 8000 t year(-1) of healthcare waste by 2025 and almost 10 000 t year(-1) by 2035. Furthermore, if segregation practices ensured healthcare waste requiring incineration was also selectively managed, 77% of healthcare waste could be diverted to alternative treatment technologies. As the throughput capacity of the only existing healthcare waste treatment facility in Istanbul, Kemerburgaz Incinerator, has already been exceeded, it is evident that improved management could not only reduce overall flows and costs but also permit alternative and cheaper treatment systems (e.g. autoclaving) to be adopted for the healthcare waste.

Separation and characterization of magnetic fractions from waste-to-energy bottom ash with an emphasis on the leachability of heavy metals.

PubMed

Wei, Yunmei; Mei, Xiaoxia; Shi, Dezhi; Liu, Guotao; Li, Li; Shimaoka, Takayuki

2017-06-01

Magnetic fractions were extracted from pulverized waste-to-energy (WTE) bottom ashes using a combined wet-dry extraction method. The resulting magnetic and non-magnetic fractions were subjected to compositional, mineralogical, and redox state analyses by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), respectively. The distribution and leaching toxicity of heavy metals were assessed to evaluate potential effects on the environment. Compositional analyses revealed that Fe accounted for 35% of the magnetic fraction of pulverized ashes, which was approximately seven times that of the raw ash. In addition to Fe, elemental Ni, Mn, and Cr were also significantly enriched in the magnetic fractions. The mineralogical analysis determined that Fe was primarily present as hematite and magnetite, and metallic iron was also identified in the magnetic fraction samples. The XPS analysis further proved the existence of zero-valence Fe. However, a significant amount of Fe remained in the non-magnetic fractions, which could partially be ascribed to the intergrowth structure of the various minerals. The elevated concentrations of toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP)-extracted Mn, Ni, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn were primarily ascribed to the lower buffering capability of the magnetic fractions, with the enrichment of Mn, Ni, and Cr in the magnetic fractions also contributing to this elevation.

Test Report for Permanganate and Cold Strontium Strike for Tank 241-AN-102

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Duncan, James B.; Huber, Heinz J.; Smalley, Colleen S.

Tanks 241-AN-102 and 241-AN-107 supernatants contain soluble Sr-90 and transuranic elements that require removal prior to vitrification to comply with the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant immobilized low-activity waste specification (WTP Contract, DE-AC27-01RV 14136, Specification 2.2.2.8, "Radionuclide Concentration Limitations") and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission provisional agreement on waste incidental to reprocessing (letter, Paperiello, C. J., "Classification of Hanford Low-Activity Tank Waste Fraction"). These two tanks have high concentrations of organics and organic complexants and are referred to as complexant concentrate tanks. A precipitation process using sodium permanganate (NaMnO{sub 4}) and strontium nitrate (Sr(NO{sub 3}){sub 2}) was developed and testedmore » with tank waste samples to precipitate Sr-90 and transuranic elements from the supernate (PNWD-3141, Optimization of Sr/TRU Removal Conditions with Samples of AN-102 Tank Waste). Testing documented in this report was conducted to further evaluate the use of the strontium nitrate/sodium permanganate process in tank farms with a retention time of up to 12 months. Previous testing was focused on developing a process for deployment in the ultrafiltration vessels in the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. This environment is different from tank farms in two important ways: the waste is diluted in the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant to ~5.5 M sodium, whereas the supernate in the tank farms is ~9 M Na. Secondly, while the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant allows for a maximum treatment time of hours to days, the in-tank farms treatment of tanks 241-AN102 and 241-AN-107 will result in a retention time of months (perhaps up to12 months) before processing. A comparative compilation of separation processes for Sr/transuranics has been published as RPP-RPT-48340, Evaluation of Alternative Strontium and Transuranic Separation Processes. This report also listed the testing needs for the permanganate precipitation process to be field-deployable. A more comprehensive listing of future testing needs to allow the process to be field deployable are contained in RPP-PLAN-51288, Development Test Plan for Sr/TRU Precipitation Process.« less

Comparison of the mopping ability of chemically modified and unmodified biological wastes on crude oil and its lower fractions.

PubMed

Nduka, John Kanayochukwu; Ezenweke, Linus Obi; Ezenwa, Emmanuel Tagbo

2008-11-01

Activated and unactivated powders of goat hair and coir (coconut husk) separated into two particle sizes were used to mop up spills of crude oil, diesel, kerosene and petrol. It was observed that the materials (sorbents) mopped up appreciable volumes of the hydrocarbon liquids (sorbates) within 90 min of contact. Activation, particle size of sorbents and molecular weight (chain length) of sorbates (hydrocarbon) are major determining factors. Carbonization and particle size enhanced the mopping ability as follows--carbonized 325 microm > uncarbonized 325 microm > carbonized 625 microm > uncarbonized 625 microm, thus activated sorbents with large surface area (small particle size) mopped more hydrocarbons than unactivated of the same particle size. The sorbates were mopped in the order--crude oil > diesel > kerosene > petrol. It was further observed that goat hair (keratin protein) with oleophilic and aquaphobic properties adsorbed more of all the hydrocarbons than coir at all sizes and treatment. Large quantities of the mopped oils were recovered by mere pressing while the waste sorbents with 0.5-2.0% leachable residual oil could be utilized as alternative to fire wood.

Determination of the Extent of Trace Metals Pollution in Soils, Sediments and Human Hair at e-Waste Recycling Site in Ghana.

PubMed

Tokumaru, Takashi; Ozaki, Hirokazu; Onwona-Agyeman, Siaw; Ofosu-Anim, John; Watanabe, Izumi

2017-10-01

The concentrations of trace elements (Mg, Al, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, As, Se, Rb, Sr, Y, Mo, Cd, In, Sn, Sb, Cs, Ba, Tl, Pb, and Bi) in soils, sediment, human hair, and foodstuff collected around the electronic waste (e-waste) recycling sites in Accra, Ghana were detected using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). High levels of Cu, Zn, Mo, Cd, In, Sn, Sb, and Pb were observed in soils collected from the e-waste recycling sites. Four sequential extraction procedures were used to evaluate the mobility and bioavailability of metals (Cu, Zn, Cd, Sb, and Pb). Especially, the results showed that Cd and Zn in soils were mostly recovered in exchangeable fraction (respectively 58.9 and 62.8%). Sediment collected from around the site had enrichment of Zn, Sn, Sb, Mo, In, Pb, and Bi. The concentrations of Cu, Mo, Cd, Sb, and Pb in human hair were significantly higher than those collected from the control site (p < 0.01). Additionally, hierarchical cluster analysis reviewed that these elements were derived from e-waste activities. The results of Pb isotopic ratios in the samples indicate that Pb in human hair possibly originated from contaminated soils, fish, and foodstuff.

Thermochemical valorization and characterization of household biowaste.

PubMed

Vakalis, S; Sotiropoulos, A; Moustakas, K; Malamis, D; Vekkos, K; Baratieri, M

2017-12-01

Valorization of municipal solid waste (MSW), by means of energy and material recovery, is considered to be a crucial step for sustainable waste management. A significant fraction of MSW is comprised from food waste, the treatment of which is still a challenge. Therefore, the conventional disposal of food waste in landfills is being gradually replaced by recycling aerobic treatment, anaerobic digestion and waste-to-energy. In principle, thermal processes like combustion and gasification are preferred for the recovery of energy due to the higher electrical efficiency and the significantly less time required for the process to be completed when compared to biological process, i.e. composting, anaerobic digestion and transesterification. Nonetheless, the high water content and the molecular structure of biowaste are constraining factors in regard to the application of thermal conversion pathways. Investigating alternative solutions for the pre-treatment and more energy efficient handling of this waste fraction may provide pathways for the optimization of the whole process. In this study, by means of utilizing drying/milling as an intermediate step, thermal treatment of household biowaste has become possible. Household biowaste has been thermally processed in a bench scale reactor by means of torrefaction, carbonization and high temperature pyrolysis. According to the operational conditions, fluctuating fractions of biochar, bio-oil (tar) and syngas were recovered. The thermochemical properties of the feedstock and products were analyzed by means of Simultaneous Thermal Analysis (STA), Ultimate and Proximate analysis and Attenuated Total Reflectance (ATR). The analysis of the products shows that torrefaction of dried household biowaste produces an energy dense fuel and high temperature pyrolysis produces a graphite-like material with relatively high yield. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development And Initial Testing Of Off-Gas Recycle Liquid From The WTP Low Activity Waste Vitrification Process - 14333

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McCabe, Daniel J.; Wilmarth, William R.; Nash, Charles A.

2014-01-07

The Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) process flow was designed to pre-treat feed from the Hanford tank farms, separate it into a High Level Waste (HLW) and Low Activity Waste (LAW) fraction and vitrify each fraction in separate facilities. Vitrification of the waste generates an aqueous condensate stream from the off-gas processes. This stream originates from two off-gas treatment unit operations, the Submerged Bed Scrubber (SBS) and the Wet Electrospray Precipitator (WESP). Currently, the baseline plan for disposition of the stream from the LAW melter is to recycle it to the Pretreatment facility where it gets evaporated and processedmore » into the LAW melter again. If the Pretreatment facility is not available, the baseline disposition pathway is not viable. Additionally, some components in the stream are volatile at melter temperatures, thereby accumulating to high concentrations in the scrubbed stream. It would be highly beneficial to divert this stream to an alternate disposition path to alleviate the close-coupled operation of the LAW vitrification and Pretreatment facilities, and to improve long-term throughput and efficiency of the WTP system. In order to determine an alternate disposition path for the LAW SBS/WESP Recycle stream, a range of options are being studied. A simulant of the LAW Off-Gas Condensate was developed, based on the projected composition of this stream, and comparison with pilot-scale testing. The primary radionuclide that vaporizes and accumulates in the stream is Tc-99, but small amounts of several other radionuclides are also projected to be present in this stream. The processes being investigated for managing this stream includes evaporation and radionuclide removal via precipitation and adsorption. During evaporation, it is of interest to investigate the formation of insoluble solids to avoid scaling and plugging of equipment. Key parameters for radionuclide removal include identifying effective precipitation or ion adsorption chemicals, solid-liquid separation methods, and achievable decontamination factors. Results of the radionuclide removal testing indicate that the radionuclides, including Tc-99, can be removed with inorganic sorbents and precipitating agents. Evaporation test results indicate that the simulant can be evaporated to fairly high concentration prior to formation of appreciable solids, but corrosion has not yet been examined.« less

Environmental assessment of mining industry solid pollution in the mercurial district of Azzaba, northeast Algeria.

PubMed

Seklaoui, M'hamed; Boutaleb, Abdelhak; Benali, Hanafi; Alligui, Fadila; Prochaska, Walter

2016-11-01

To date, there have been few detailed studies regarding the impact of mining and metallogenic activities on solid fractions in the Azzaba mercurial district (northeast Algeria) despite its importance and global similarity with large Hg mines. To assess the degree, distribution, and sources of pollution, a physical inventory of apparent pollution was developed, and several samples of mining waste, process waste, sediment, and soil were collected on regional and local scales to determine the concentration of Hg and other metals according to their existing mineralogical association. Several physico-chemical parameters that are known to influence the pollution distribution are realized. The extremely high concentrations of all metals exceed all norms and predominantly characterize the metallurgic and mining areas; the metal concentrations significantly decrease at significant low distances from these sources. The geo-accumulation index, which is the most realistic assessment method, demonstrates that soils and sediments near waste dumps and abandoned Hg mines are extremely polluted by all analyzed metals. The pollution by these metals decreases significantly with distance, which indicates a limited dispersion. The results of a clustering analysis and an integrated pollution index suggest that waste dumps, which are composed of calcine and condensation wastes, are the main source of pollution. Correlations and principal component analysis reveal the important role of hosting carbonate rocks in limiting pollution and differentiating calcine wastes from condensation waste, which has an extremely high Hg concentration (˃1 %).

The Component Slope Linear Model for Calculating Intensive Partial Molar Properties: Application to Waste Glasses

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Reynolds, Jacob G.

2013-01-11

Partial molar properties are the changes occurring when the fraction of one component is varied while the fractions of all other component mole fractions change proportionally. They have many practical and theoretical applications in chemical thermodynamics. Partial molar properties of chemical mixtures are difficult to measure because the component mole fractions must sum to one, so a change in fraction of one component must be offset with a change in one or more other components. Given that more than one component fraction is changing at a time, it is difficult to assign a change in measured response to a changemore » in a single component. In this study, the Component Slope Linear Model (CSLM), a model previously published in the statistics literature, is shown to have coefficients that correspond to the intensive partial molar properties. If a measured property is plotted against the mole fraction of a component while keeping the proportions of all other components constant, the slope at any given point on a graph of this curve is the partial molar property for that constituent. Actually plotting this graph has been used to determine partial molar properties for many years. The CSLM directly includes this slope in a model that predicts properties as a function of the component mole fractions. This model is demonstrated by applying it to the constant pressure heat capacity data from the NaOH-NaAl(OH{sub 4}H{sub 2}O system, a system that simplifies Hanford nuclear waste. The partial molar properties of H{sub 2}O, NaOH, and NaAl(OH){sub 4} are determined. The equivalence of the CSLM and the graphical method is verified by comparing results detennined by the two methods. The CSLM model has been previously used to predict the liquidus temperature of spinel crystals precipitated from Hanford waste glass. Those model coefficients are re-interpreted here as the partial molar spinel liquidus temperature of the glass components.« less

Swarm motility inhibitory and antioxidant activities of pomegranate peel processed under three drying conditions.

PubMed

John, K M Maria; Bhagwat, Arvind A; Luthria, Devanand L

2017-11-15

During processing of ready-to-eat fresh fruits, large amounts of peel and seeds are discarded as waste. Pomegranate (Punicagranatum) peels contain high amounts of bioactive compounds which inhibit migration of Salmonella on wet surfaces. The metabolic distribution of bioactives in pomegranate peel, inner membrane, and edible aril portion was investigated under three different drying conditions along with the anti-swarming activity against Citrobacter rodentium. Based on the multivariate analysis, 29 metabolites discriminated the pomegranate peel, inner membrane, and edible aril portion, as well as the three different drying methods. Punicalagins (∼38.6-50.3mg/g) were detected in higher quantities in all fractions as compared to ellagic acid (∼0.1-3.2mg/g) and punicalins (∼0-2.4mg/g). The bioactivity (antioxidant, anti-swarming) and phenolics content was significantly higher in peels than the edible aril portion. Natural anti-swarming agents from food waste may have promising potential for controlling food borne pathogens. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Influence of fermentation liquid from waste activated sludge on anoxic/oxic- membrane bioreactor performance: Nitrogen removal, membrane fouling and microbial community.

PubMed

Han, Xiaomeng; Zhou, Zhen; Mei, Xiaojie; Ma, Yan; Xie, Zhenfang

2018-02-01

In order to investigate effects of waste activated sludge (WAS) fermentation liquid on anoxic/oxic- membrane bioreactor (A/O-MBR), two A/O-MBRs with and without WAS fermentation liquid addition were operated in parallel. Results show that addition of WAS fermentation liquid clearly improved denitrification efficiency without deterioration of nitrification, while severe membrane fouling occurred. WAS fermentation liquid resulted in an elevated production of proteins and humic acids in bound extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) and release of organic matter with high MW fractions in soluble microbial product (SMP) and loosely bound EPS (LB-EPS). Measurement of deposition rate and fluid structure confirmed increased fouling potential of SMP and LB-EPS. γ-Proteobacteria and Ferruginibacter, which can secrete and export EPS, were also found to be abundant in the MBR with WAS fermentation liquid. It is implied that when WAS fermentation liquid was applied, some operational steps to control membrane fouling should be employed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

FTIR-PAS: a powerful tool for characterising the chemical composition and predicting the labile C fraction of various organic waste products.

PubMed

Bekiaris, Georgios; Bruun, Sander; Peltre, Clément; Houot, Sabine; Jensen, Lars S

2015-05-01

Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy has been used for several years as a fast, low-cost, reliable technique for characterising a large variety of materials. However, the strong influence of sample particle size and the inability to measure the absorption of very dark and opaque samples have made FTIR unsuitable for many waste materials. FTIR-photoacoustic spectroscopy (FTIR-PAS) can eliminate some of the shortcomings of traditional FTIR caused by scattering effects and reflection issues, and recent advances in PAS technology have made commercial instruments available. In this study, FTIR-PAS was used to characterise a wide range of organic waste products and predict their labile carbon fraction, which is normally determined from time-consuming assays. FTIR-PAS was found to be capable of predicting the labile fraction of carbon as efficiently as near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) and furthermore of identifying the compounds that are correlated with the predicted parameter, thus facilitating a more mechanistic interpretation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Production of biofuel from waste cooking palm oil using nanocrystalline zeolite as catalyst: process optimization studies.

PubMed

Taufiqurrahmi, Niken; Mohamed, Abdul Rahman; Bhatia, Subhash

2011-11-01

The catalytic cracking of waste cooking palm oil to biofuel was studied over different types of nano-crystalline zeolite catalysts in a fixed bed reactor. The effect of reaction temperature (400-500 °C), catalyst-to-oil ratio (6-14) and catalyst pore size of different nanocrystalline zeolites (0.54-0.80 nm) were studied over the conversion of waste cooking palm oil, yields of Organic Liquid Product (OLP) and gasoline fraction in the OLP following central composite design (CCD). The response surface methodology was used to determine the optimum value of the operating variables for maximum conversion as well as maximum yield of OLP and gasoline fraction, respectively. The optimum reaction temperature of 458 °C with oil/catalyst ratio=6 over the nanocrystalline zeolite Y with pore size of 0.67 nm gave 86.4 wt% oil conversion, 46.5 wt% OLP yield and 33.5 wt% gasoline fraction yield, respectively. The experimental results were in agreement with the simulated values within an experimental error of less than 5%. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Brewery Waste Reuse for Protease Production by Lactic 
Acid Fermentation

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Summary This study evaluated the use of three solid brewery wastes: brewer’s spent grain, hot trub and residual brewer’s yeast, as alternative media for the cultivation of lactic acid bacteria to evaluate their potential for proteolytic enzyme production. Initially, a mixture experimental design was used to evaluate the effect of each residue, as well as different mixtures (with the protein content set at 4%) in the enzyme production. At predetermined intervals, the solid and liquid fractions were separated and the extracellular proteolytic activity was determined. After selecting the best experimental conditions, a second experiment, factorial experimental design, was developed in order to evaluate the protein content in the media (1 to 7%) and the addition of fermentable sugar (glucose, 1 to 7%). Among the wastes, residual yeast showed the highest potential for the production of extracellular enzymes, generating a proteolytic extract with 2.6 U/mL in 3 h. However, due to the low content of the fermentable sugars in the medium, the addition of glucose also had a positive effect, increasing the proteolytic activity to 4.9 U/mL. The best experimental conditions of each experimental design were reproduced for comparison, and the enzyme content was separated by ethanol precipitation. The best medium produced a precipitated protein with proteolytic activity of 145.5 U/g. PMID:28867951

Characterization of activated carbon prepared from chicken waste and coal

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yan Zhang; Hong Cui; Riko Ozao

Activated carbons (ACs) were prepared from chicken waste (CW) and coal (E-coal) blended at the ratios of 100:0, 80:20, 50:50, 20:80, and 0:100. The process included carbonization in flowing gaseous nitrogen (300 mL min{sup -1}) at ca. 430{sup o}C for 60 min and successive steam activation (0.1 mL min{sup -1} water injection with a flow of N{sub 2} at 100 mL min{sup -1}) at 650{sup o}C for 30 min. Chicken waste is low in sulfur content but is high in volatile matter (about 55 wt %), and ACs with higher specific surface area were more successfully obtained by mixing withmore » coal. The specific surface area of the CW/Coal blend AC can be estimated by SSA{sub BET} = -65.8x{sup 2} + 158x + 168, where SSA{sub BET} is the specific surface area in m{sup 2} g{sup -1} as determined by the BET method using CO{sub 2} as the adsorbent, where x is the coal fraction by weight in the CW/coal blend ranging from 0.0 to 1.0 (e.g., x = 0.0 signifies the blend contains no coal and x = 1.0 signifies the blend consists of 100% coal). 26 refs., 7 figs., 3 tabs.« less

Conversion of coal-fired bottom ash to fuel and construction materials.

PubMed

Koca, Huseyin; Aksoy, Derya Oz; Ucar, Reyhan; Koca, Sabiha

2017-07-01

In this study, solid wastes taken from Seyitomer coal-fired power plant bottom ashes were subjected to experimental research to obtain a carbon-rich fraction. The possible recycling opportunities of remaining inorganic fraction in the cement and concrete industry was also investigated. Flotation technique was used to separate unburned carbon from inorganic bottom ashes. Collector type, collector, dispersant and frother amounts, and pulp density are the most important variables in the flotation technique. A number of flotation collectors were tested in the experiments including new era flotation reactives. Optimum collector, dispersant and frother dosages as well as optimum pulp density were also determined. After experimental work, an inorganic fraction was obtained, which included 5.41% unburned carbon with 81.56% weight yield. These properties meets the industrial specifications for the cement and concrete industry. The carbon content of the concentrate fraction, obtained in the same experiment, was enhanced to 49.82%. This fraction accounts for 18.44% of the total amount and can be mixed to the power plant fuel. Therefore total amount of the solid waste can possibly be recycled according to experimental results.

Utilization of Cacao Pod Husk (Theobroma cacao l.) as Activated Carbon and Catalyst in Biodiesel Production Process from Waste Cooking Oil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rachmat, Devita; Johar Mawarani, Lizda; Dewi Risanti, Doty

2018-01-01

Cocoa pod husk (Theobroma cacao l.) is a waste from cocoa beans processing. In this research we employ cocoa pod husk as activated carbon to decrease the value of FFA (Free Fatty Acid) in waste cooking oil and as K2CO3 catalyst in biodiesel production process from waste cooking oil. Cocoa pod husk was crusched and grounded into powder that passed thorugh 60 mesh-screen. As activated carbon, cocoa pod husk was firstly carbonized at three variant temperatures i.e 250°C, 300°C and 350°C. The activation process was done using HCl 2M as activator. Based on the results of XRD and FTIR, the carbonization at all variant temperatures does not cause a significant changes in terms of crystallite structure and water content. The pore of activated carbon started to form in sample that was carbonized at 350°C resulting in pore diameter of 5.14644 nm. This result was supported by the fact that the ability of this activated carbon in reducing the FFA of waste cooking oil was the most pronounced one, i.e. up to 86.7% of FFA. It was found that the performance of cocoa pod husk’s activated carbon in reducing FFA is more effective than esterification using H2SO4 which can only decrease 80.8%. On the other hand, the utilization as K2CO3 catalyst was carried out by carbonization at temperature 650°C and extraction using aquadest solvent. The extraction of cocoa pod husk produced 7.067% K2CO3 catalyst. According to RD results the fraction of K2CO3 compound from the green catalysts is the same as the commercial (SAP, 99%) that is ≥ 60%. From the obtained results, the best yield percentage was obtained using K2CO3 catalyst from cacao pod husk extract, i.e. 73-85%. To cope with biodiesel conversion efficiency, a two-step process consisting pretreatment with activated carbon carbonized at 350°C and esterification with K2CO3 from cocoa pod husk catalyst was developed. This two-step process could reach a high conversion of 85%. From the results it was clear that the produced biodiesel fuel was within the recommended SNI 7182: 2015 standard.

Creation of Technosols to decrease metal availability in pyritic tailings with addition of biochar and marble waste

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moreno-Barriga, Fabián; Acosta, José A.; Ángeles Muñoz, María; Faz, Ángel; Zornoza, Raúl

2017-04-01

Creation of Technosols with the use of different materials is a sustainable strategy to reclaim mine tailings and reduce metal mobility. For this purpose, a short-term incubation experiment was designed with biochars derived from pig manure (PM), crop residues (CR) and municipal solid waste (MSW) added to tailings alone or in combination with marble waste (MaW). We aimed to assess the efficiency of the different amendments to decrease Cd, Pb and Zn availability in the Technosols and the fractions where metals were retained. Results showed that all amendments reduced metal mobility, directly related to increases in pH. Those materials with higher content of carbonates were more effective to immobilize metals ( 99%). MSW was highly effective to decrease metal mobility owing to the higher carbonate content, but addition of MaW was needed to enhance metal immobilization with PM and CR. Decreases in Cd mobility were related to retention by the carbonate, Mn/Fe oxides and oxidizable (organic compounds) fractions. Decreases in Pb mobility were related to retention in the Mn/Fe oxides and residual fractions, while decreases in Zn mobility were related to retention in Mn/Fe oxides and oxidizable fractions. The increase in the retention of metals in all fractions was directly associated to increases in pH. Association of Zn and Pb with the oxidizable fraction was also related to the recalcitrance of the organic compounds, and so dependent on biochar type. SEM/EDX showed that biochar showed great affinity to interact with iron oxides, calcium sulfates and phyllosilicates. Acknowledgements This work was supported by Fundación Séneca (Agency of Science and Technology of the Region of Murcia, Spain) [grant number 18920/JLI/13].

Microbial stabilization and mass reduction of wastes containing radionuclides and toxic metals

DOEpatents

Francis, A.J.; Dodge, C.J.; Gillow, J.B.

1991-09-10

A process is provided to treat wastes containing radionuclides and toxic metals with Clostridium sp. BFGl to release a large fraction of the waste solids into solution and convert the radionuclides and toxic metals to a more concentrated and stable form with concurrent volume and mass reduction. The radionuclides and toxic metals being in a more stable form are available for recovery, recycling and disposal. 18 figures.

Microbial stabilization and mass reduction of wastes containing radionuclides and toxic metals

DOEpatents

Francis, Arokiasamy J.; Dodge, Cleveland J.; Gillow, Jeffrey B.

1991-01-01

A process is provided to treat wastes containing radionuclides and toxic metals with Clostridium sp. BFGl to release a large fraction of the waste solids into solutin and convert the radionuclides and toxic metals to a more concentrated and stable form with concurrent volume and mass reduction. The radionuclides and toxic metals being in a more stable form are available for recovery, recycling and disposal.

Life cycle assessment of a household solid waste source separation programme: a Swedish case study.

PubMed

Bernstad, Anna; la Cour Jansen, Jes; Aspegren, Henrik

2011-10-01

The environmental impact of an extended property close source-separation system for solid household waste (i.e., a systems for collection of recyclables from domestic properties) is investigated in a residential area in southern Sweden. Since 2001, households have been able to source-separate waste into six fractions of dry recyclables and food waste sorting. The current system was evaluated using the EASEWASTE life cycle assessment tool. Current status is compared with an ideal scenario in which households display perfect source-separation behaviour and a scenario without any material recycling. Results show that current recycling provides substantial environmental benefits compared to a non-recycling alternative. The environmental benefit varies greatly between recyclable fractions, and the recyclables currently most frequently source-separated by households are often not the most beneficial from an environmental perspective. With optimal source-separation of all recyclables, the current net contribution to global warming could be changed to a net-avoidance while current avoidance of nutrient enrichment, acidification and photochemical ozone formation could be doubled. Sensitivity analyses show that the type of energy substituted by incineration of non-recycled waste, as well as energy used in recycling processes and in the production of materials substituted by waste recycling, is of high relevance for the attained results.

Methane yield in source-sorted organic fraction of municipal solid waste.

PubMed

Davidsson, Asa; Gruvberger, Christopher; Christensen, Thomas H; Hansen, Trine Lund; Jansen, Jes la Cour

2007-01-01

Treating the source-separated organic fraction of municipal solid waste (SS-OFMSW) by anaerobic digestion is considered by many municipalities in Europe as an environmentally friendly means of treating organic waste and simultaneously producing methane gas. Methane yield can be used as a parameter for evaluation of the many different systems that exist for sorting and pre-treating waste. Methane yield from the thermophilic pilot scale digestion of 17 types of domestically SS-OFMSW originating from seven full-scale sorting systems was found. The samples were collected during 1 year using worked-out procedures tested statistically to ensure representative samples. Each waste type was identified by its origin and by pre-sorting, collection and pre-treatment methods. In addition to the pilot scale digestion, all samples were examined by chemical analyses and methane potential measurements. A VS-degradation rate of around 80% and a methane yield of 300-400Nm(3) CH(4)/ton VS(in) were achieved with a retention time of 15 days, corresponding to approximately 70% of the methane potential. The different waste samples gave minor variation in chemical composition and thus also in methane yield and methane potential. This indicates that sorting and collection systems in the present study do not significantly affect the amount of methane produced per VS treated.

Impact of the pre-collection phase at different intensities of source segregation of bio-waste: An Italian case study.

PubMed

Di Maria, Francesco; Micale, Caterina; Morettini, Emanuela

2016-07-01

The contribution of the N2O and CH4 emissions generated during pre-collection of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste was investigated for an existing Italian collection district in a life cycle perspective. This district consisted of about 24,000 inhabitants generating 35.6Mg/day of municipal solid waste, of which 7.27Mg/day was the organic fraction. Different source segregation intensities and collection frequencies (day(-1)) were analyzed. The amount of the organic fraction not segregated at source was assumed to be collected commingled with the residual waste. The main findings showed that the lower was the collection frequency, the lower was the fuel consumption of the collection vehicles. For a source segregation intensity of 0%, the amount of fuel consumed ranged from 3.92L to 1.73L for each Mg of organic fraction as the collection frequency was decreased from 1day(-1) to 14day(-1), respectively. The maximum fuel consumption for the collection of 1Mg of organic fraction for a source segregation intensity of 50% was from 8.6L/Mg to 2.07L/Mg for a collection frequency of 1day(-1) and 14day(-1), respectively. On the other hand the lower was the collection frequency, the higher was the amount of greenhouse gas generated during the pre-collection phase. The life cycle analysis showed that these emissions could affect the global warming potential of the scenarios analyzed up to 40%, exceeding the reduction of the emissions due to lower fuel consumption. In any case, as already reported by other authors, the uncertainty analysis confirmed the higher value for the uncertainty associated to the emissions from biological processes compared to those generated by industrial and combustion ones. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Renewable energy recovery through selected industrial wastes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Pengchong

Typically, industrial waste treatment costs a large amount of capital, and creates environmental concerns as well. A sound alternative for treating these industrial wastes is anaerobic digestion. This technique reduces environmental pollution, and recovers renewable energy from the organic fraction of those selected industrial wastes, mostly in the form of biogas (methane). By applying anaerobic technique, selected industrial wastes could be converted from cash negative materials into economic energy feed stocks. In this study, three kinds of industrial wastes (paper mill wastes, brown grease, and corn-ethanol thin stillage) were selected, their performance in the anaerobic digestion system was studied and their applicability was investigated as well. A pilot-scale system, including anaerobic section (homogenization, pre-digestion, and anaerobic digestion) and aerobic section (activated sludge) was applied to the selected waste streams. The investigation of selected waste streams was in a gradually progressive order. For paper mill effluents, since those effluents contain a large amount of recalcitrant or toxic compounds, the anaerobic-aerobic system was used to check its treatability, including organic removal efficiency, substrate utilization rate, and methane yield. The results showed the selected effluents were anaerobically treatable. For brown grease, as it is already well known as a treatable substrate, a high rate anaerobic digester were applied to check the economic effect of this substrate, including methane yield and substrate utilization rate. These data from pilot-scale experiment have the potential to be applied to full-scale plant. For thin stillage, anaerobic digestion system has been incorporated to the traditional ethanol making process as a gate-to-gate process. The performance of anaerobic digester was applied to the gate-to-gate life-cycle analysis to estimate the energy saving and industrial cost saving in a typical ethanol plant.

The composition, heating value and renewable share of the energy content of mixed municipal solid waste in Finland.

PubMed

Horttanainen, M; Teirasvuo, N; Kapustina, V; Hupponen, M; Luoranen, M

2013-12-01

For the estimation of greenhouse gas emissions from waste incineration it is essential to know the share of the renewable energy content of the combusted waste. The composition and heating value information is generally available, but the renewable energy share or heating values of different fractions of waste have rarely been determined. In this study, data from Finnish studies concerning the composition and energy content of mixed MSW were collected, new experimental data on the compositions, heating values and renewable share of energy were presented and the results were compared to the estimations concluded from earlier international studies. In the town of Lappeenranta in south-eastern Finland, the share of renewable energy ranged between 25% and 34% in the energy content tests implemented for two sample trucks. The heating values of the waste and fractions of plastic waste were high in the samples compared to the earlier studies in Finland. These high values were caused by good source separation and led to a low share of renewable energy content in the waste. The results showed that in mixed municipal solid waste the renewable share of the energy content can be significantly lower than the general assumptions (50-60%) when the source separation of organic waste, paper and cardboard is carried out successfully. The number of samples was however small for making extensive conclusions on the results concerning the heating values and renewable share of energy and additional research is needed for this purpose. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Long term analysis of the biomass content in the feed of a waste-to-energy plant with oxygen-enriched combustion air.

PubMed

Fellner, Johann; Cencic, Oliver; Zellinger, Günter; Rechberger, Helmut

2011-10-01

Thermal utilization of municipal solid waste and commercial wastes has become of increasing importance in European waste management. As waste materials are generally composed of fossil and biogenic materials, a part of the energy generated can be considered as renewable and is thus subsidized in some European countries. Analogously, CO(2) emissions of waste incinerators are only partly accounted for in greenhouse gas inventories. A novel approach for determining these fractions is the so-called balance method. In the present study, the implementation of the balance method on a waste-to-energy plant using oxygen-enriched combustion air was investigated. The findings of the 4-year application indicate on the one hand the general applicability and robustness of the method, and on the other hand the importance of reliable monitoring data. In particular, measured volume flows of the flue gas and the oxygen-enriched combustion air as well as corresponding O(2) and CO(2) contents should regularly be validated. The fraction of renewable (biogenic) energy generated throughout the investigated period amounted to between 27 and 66% for weekly averages, thereby denoting the variation in waste composition over time. The average emission factor of the plant was approximately 45 g CO(2) MJ(-1) energy input or 450 g CO(2) kg(-1) waste incinerated. The maximum error of the final result was about 16% (relative error), which was well above the error (<8%) of the balance method for plants with conventional oxygen supply.

Determination of as-discarded methane potential in residential and commercial municipal solid waste.

PubMed

Chickering, Giles W; Krause, Max J; Townsend, Timothy G

2018-06-01

Methane generation potential, L 0 , is a primary parameter of the first-order decay (FOD) model used for prediction and regulation of landfill gas (LFG) generation in municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills. The current US EPA AP-42 default value for L 0 , which has been in place for almost 20 years, is 100 m 3 CH 4 /Mg MSW as-discarded. Recent research suggests the yield of landfilled waste could be less than 60 m 3 CH 4 /Mg MSW. This study aimed to measure the L 0 of present-day residential and commercial as-discarded MSW. In doing so, 39 waste collection vehicles were sorted for composition before samples of each biodegradable fraction were analyzed for methane generation potential. Methane yields were determined for over 450 samples of 14 different biodegradable MSW fractions, later to be combined with moisture content and volatile solids data to calculate L 0 values for each waste load. An average value of 80 m 3 CH 4 /Mg MSW was determined for all samples with 95% of values in the interval 74-86 m 3 CH 4 /Mg MSW as-discarded. While no statistically significant difference was observed, commercial MSW yields (mean 85, median 88 m 3 CH 4 /Mg MSW) showed a higher average L 0 than residential MSW (mean 75, median 71 m 3 CH 4 /Mg MSW). Many methane potential values for individual fractions described in previous work were found within the range of values determined by BMP in this study. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Enhancement of the recycling of waste Ni-Cd and Ni-MH batteries by mechanical treatment.

PubMed

Huang, Kui; Li, Jia; Xu, Zhenming

2011-06-01

A serious environmental problem was presented by waste batteries resulting from lack of relevant regulations and effective recycling technologies in China. The present work considered the enhancement of waste Ni-Cd and Ni-MH batteries recycling by mechanical treatment. In the process of characterization, two types of waste batteries (Ni-Cd and Ni-MH batteries) were selected and their components were characterized in relation to their elemental chemical compositions. In the process of mechanical separation and recycling, waste Ni-Cd and Ni-MH batteries were processed by a recycling technology without a negative impact on the environment. The technology contained mechanical crushing, size classification, gravity separation, and magnetic separation. The results obtained demonstrated that: (1) Mechanical crushing was an effective process to strip the metallic parts from separators and pastes. High liberation efficiency of the metallic parts from separators and pastes was attained in the crushing process until the fractions reached particle sizes smaller than 2mm. (2) The classified materials mainly consisted of the fractions with the size of particles between 0.5 and 2mm after size classification. (3) The metallic concentrates of the samples were improved from around 75% to 90% by gravity separation. More than 90% of the metallic materials were separated into heavy fractions when the particle sizes were larger than 0.5mm. (4) The size of particles between 0.5 and 2mm and the rotational speed of the separator between 30 and 60 rpm were suitable for magnetic separation during industrial application, with the recycling efficiency exceeding 95%. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bio-drying and size sorting of municipal solid waste with high water content for improving energy recovery.

PubMed

Shao, Li-Ming; Ma, Zhong-He; Zhang, Hua; Zhang, Dong-Qing; He, Pin-Jing

2010-07-01

Bio-drying can enhance the sortability and heating value of municipal solid waste (MSW), consequently improving energy recovery. Bio-drying followed by size sorting was adopted for MSW with high water content to improve its combustibility and reduce potential environmental pollution during the follow-up incineration. The effects of bio-drying and waste particle size on heating values, acid gas and heavy metal emission potential were investigated. The results show that, the water content of MSW decreased from 73.0% to 48.3% after bio-drying, whereas its lower heating value (LHV) increased by 157%. The heavy metal concentrations increased by around 60% due to the loss of dry materials mainly resulting from biodegradation of food residues. The bio-dried waste fractions with particle size higher than 45 mm were mainly composed of plastics and papers, and were preferable for the production of refuse derived fuel (RDF) in view of higher LHV as well as lower heavy metal concentration and emission. However, due to the higher chlorine content and HCl emission potential, attention should be paid to acid gas and dioxin pollution control. Although LHVs of the waste fractions with size <45 mm increased by around 2x after bio-drying, they were still below the quality standards for RDF and much higher heavy metal pollution potential was observed. Different incineration strategies could be adopted for different particle size fractions of MSW, regarding to their combustibility and pollution property. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of initial moisture content on the in-vessel composting under air pressure of organic fraction of municipal solid waste in Morocco

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of initial moisture content on the in-vessel composting under air pressure of organic fraction of municipal solid waste in Morocco in terms of internal temperature, produced gases quantity, organic matter conversion rate, and the quality of the final composts. For this purpose, in-vessel bioreactor was designed and used to evaluate both appropriate initial air pressure and appropriate initial moisture content for the composting process. Moreover, 5 experiments were carried out within initial moisture content of 55%, 65%, 70%, 75% and 85%. The initial air pressure and the initial moisture content of the mixture showed a significant effect on the aerobic composting. The experimental results demonstrated that for composting organic waste, relatively high moisture contents are better at achieving higher temperatures and retaining them for longer times. This study suggested that an initial moisture content of around 75%, under 0.6 bar, can be considered as being suitable for efficient composting of organic fraction of municipal solid waste. These last conditions, allowed maximum value of temperature and final composting product with good physicochemical properties as well as higher organic matter degradation and higher gas production. Moreover, final compost obtained showed good maturity levels and can be used for agricultural applications. PMID:23369502

Generation and collection of restaurant waste: Characterization and evaluation at a case study in Italy.

PubMed

Tatàno, Fabio; Caramiello, Cristina; Paolini, Tonino; Tripolone, Luca

2017-03-01

Because restaurants (as a division of the hospitality sector) contribute to the generation of commercial and institutional waste, thus representing both a challenge and an opportunity, the objective of the present study was to deepen the knowledge of restaurant waste in terms of the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of waste generation and the performance achievable by the implementation of a separate collection scheme. In this study, the generated waste was characterized and the implemented separate collection was evaluated at a relevant case study restaurant in a coastal tourist area of Central Italy (Marche Region, Adriatic Sea side). The qualitative (compositional) characterization of the generated total restaurant waste showed considerable incidences of, in decreasing order, food (28.2%), glass (22.6%), paper/cardboard (19.1%), and plastic (17.1%). The quantitative (parametric) characterization of the generated restaurant waste determined the unit generation values of total waste and individual fractions based on the traditional employee and area parameters and the peculiar meal parameter. In particular, the obtained representative values per meal were: 0.72kgmeal -1 for total waste, and ranging, for individual fractions, from 0.20 (for food) to 0.008kgmeal -1 (for textile). Based on the critical evaluation of some of the resulting unit waste generation values, possible influences of restaurant practices, conditions, or characteristics were pointed out. In particular, food waste generation per meal can likely be limited by: promoting and using local, fresh, and quality food; standardizing and limiting daily menu items; basing food recipes on consolidated cooking knowledge and experience; and limiting plate sizes. The evaluation of the monthly variation of the monitored separate collection, ranging from an higher level of 52.7% to a lower level of 41.4%, indicated the following: a reduction in the separate collection level can be expected at times of high working pressure or the closing of a seasonal business (typical for restaurants in tourist areas); and the monthly variation of the separate collection level is inversely correlated with that of the unit generation of total waste per meal. The interception rates of the different restaurant waste fractions collected separately presented a ranking order (i.e., 96.0% for glass, 67.7% for paper/cardboard, 34.4% for food, 20.6% for metal, and 17.9% for plastic) similar to the order of efficiencies achievable at both small and large urban levels. Finally, the original concept of the customer equivalent person (P ce ) was introduced and behaviorally evaluated at the case study restaurant, providing the values of 0.42 and 0.39kgP ce -1 day -1 for the food waste generation and the landfilling of biodegradable waste by the customer equivalent person, respectively. These values were compared, respectively, with the food waste generation per person at the household level and the landfilling of biodegradable waste per inhabitant at the territorial level. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Thermophilic anaerobic co-digestion of organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) with food waste (FW): Enhancement of bio-hydrogen production.

PubMed

Angeriz-Campoy, Rubén; Álvarez-Gallego, Carlos J; Romero-García, Luis I

2015-10-01

Bio-hydrogen production from dry thermophilic anaerobic co-digestion (55°C and 20% total solids) of organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) and food waste (FW) was studied. OFMSW coming from mechanical-biological treatment plants (MBT plants) presents a low organic matter concentration. However, FW has a high organic matter content but several problems by accumulation of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and system acidification. Tests were conducted using a mixture ratio of 80:20 (OFSMW:FW), to avoid the aforementioned problems. Different solid retention times (SRTs) - 6.6, 4.4, 2.4 and 1.9 days - were tested. It was noted that addition of food waste enhances the hydrogen production in all the SRTs tested. Best results were obtained at 1.9-day SRT. It was observed an increase from 0.64 to 2.51 L H2/L(reactor) day in hydrogen productivity when SRTs decrease from 6.6 to 1.9 days. However, the hydrogen yield increases slightly from 33.7 to 38 mL H2/gVS(added). Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An integrated approach to energy recovery from biomass and waste: Anaerobic digestion-gasification-water treatment.

PubMed

Milani, M; Montorsi, L; Stefani, M

2014-07-01

The article investigates the performance of an integrated system for the energy recovery from biomass and waste based on anaerobic digestion, gasification and water treatment. In the proposed system, the organic fraction of waste of the digestible biomass is fed into an anaerobic digester, while a part of the combustible fraction of the municipal solid waste is gasified. Thus, the obtained biogas and syngas are used as a fuel for running a cogeneration system based on an internal combustion engine to produce electric and thermal power. The waste water produced by the integrated plant is recovered by means of both forward and inverse osmosis. The different processes, as well as the main components of the system, are modelled by means of a lumped and distributed parameter approach and the main outputs of the integrated plant such as the electric and thermal power and the amount of purified water are calculated. Finally, the implementation of the proposed system is evaluated for urban areas with a different number of inhabitants and the relating performance is estimated in terms of the main outputs of the system. © The Author(s) 2014.

Reclamation of heavy metals from contaminated soil using organic acid liquid generated from food waste: removal of Cd, Cu, and Zn, and soil fertility improvement.

PubMed

Dai, Shijin; Li, Yang; Zhou, Tao; Zhao, Youcai

2017-06-01

Food waste fermentation generates complicated organic and acidic liquids with low pH. In this work, it was found that an organic acid liquid with pH 3.28 and volatile low-molecular-weight organic acid (VLMWOA) content of 5.2 g/L could be produced from food wastes after 9-day fermentation. When the liquid-to-solid ratio was 50:1, temperature was 40 °C, and contact time was 0.5-1 day, 92.9, 78.8, and 52.2% of the Cd, Cu, and Zn in the contaminated soil could be washed out using the fermented food waste liquid, respectively. The water-soluble, acid-soluble, and partly reducible heavy metal fractions can be removed after 0.5-day contact time, which was more effective than that using commercially available VLMWOAs (29-72% removal), as the former contained microorganisms and adequate amounts of nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorous, and exchangeable Na, K, and Ca) which favored the washing process of heavy metals. It is thus suggested that the organic acid fractions from food waste has a considerable potential for reclaiming contaminated soil while improving soil fertility.

Recycling of Waste Acetone by Fractional Distillation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weires, Nicholas A.; Johnston, Aubrey; Warner, Don L.; McCormick, Michael M.; Hammond, Karen; McDougal, Owen M.

2011-01-01

Distillation is a ubiquitous technique in the undergraduate organic chemistry curriculum; the technique dates back to ca. 3500 B.C.E. With the emergence of green chemistry in the 1990s, the importance of emphasizing responsible waste management practices for future scientists is paramount. Combining the practice of distillation with the message…

Application of cotton burr/stem in thermoplastic composites

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Cotton gin waste (CGW) is a waste stream from a ginning operation that is rich in ligno-cellulosic fibers. Currently, there are no major commercial-scale applications for this material except for a small fraction that goes into either composting or is land applied. For a majority of gins across the ...

CHARACTERISTICS OF ORGANIC EMISSIONS FROM HAZARDOUS WASTE INCINERATION PROCESSES UNDER THE NEW EPA DRAFT RISK BURN GUIDANCE: MEASUREMENT ISSUES

EPA Science Inventory

EPA's recently published draft Risk Burn Guidance recommends that hazardous waste combustion facilities complete a mass balance of the total organics (TOs) that may be emitted from the combustor. TOs, consisting of three distinct fractions (volatile, semivolatile, and nonvolatile...

Management of Ir-192 Disused Sealed Sources with Long-Lived Radioactive Contaminants

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dellamano, Jose Claudio; Ferreira, Robson de Jesus; Potiens, Ademar Jose Jr.

2015-07-01

Iridium-192 sealed sources are the most widely used sealed source in industrial applications in Brazil. They are not recyclable and in the end of the useful life, they are discarded as radioactive waste. The recommended management strategy of this waste is decay in storage and disposal as exempt waste because the half-life is only 73.8 days. Presently, thousands of Ir- 192 sources are under storage waiting release. Surprisingly, sources that were under storage for more than ten years and for which no measurable contact dose rate was expected still present significant remaining radioactivity. The examination of the gamma spectra ofmore » these sources showed the presence of Co-60 and the gamma emission lines from the Ir-192m2 isomer, the metastable isotope with half-life of 241 years, which is also formed by the irradiation of natural iridium. The aim of the study reported in this paper is to characterize the Ir-192 disused sources under interim storage at the Radioactive Waste Management Department, considering the presence of minor contaminants in the irradiated iridium and the fraction of the total initial activity of the sources that is attributable to that metastable isotope. The radioactive inventories at the end of the irradiation and after the decay period were predicted using the Scale 6.0 code and the results were compared with activity measurements of the disused sources by gamma spectrometry. (authors)« less

Current EU-27 technical potential of organic waste streams for biogas and energy production.

PubMed

Lorenz, Helge; Fischer, Peter; Schumacher, Britt; Adler, Philipp

2013-11-01

Anaerobic digestion of organic waste generated by households, businesses, agriculture, and industry is an important approach as method of waste treatment - especially with regard to its potential as an alternative energy source and its cost-effectiveness. Separate collection of biowaste from households or vegetal waste from public green spaces is already established in some EU-27 countries. The material recovery in composting plants is common for biowaste and vegetal waste. Brewery waste fractions generated by beer production are often used for animal feeding after a suitable preparation. Waste streams from paper industry generated by pulp and paper production such as black liquor or paper sludge are often highly contaminated with toxic substances. Recovery of chemicals and the use in thermal processes like incineration, pyrolysis, and gasification are typical utilization paths. The current utilization of organic waste from households and institutions (without agricultural waste) was investigated for EU-27 countries with Germany as an in-depth example. Besides of biowaste little is known about the suitability of waste streams from brewery and paper industry for anaerobic digestion. Therefore, an evaluation of the most important biogas process parameters for different substrates was carried out, in order to calculate the biogas utilization potential of these waste quantities. Furthermore, a calculation of biogas energy potentials was carried out for defined waste fractions which are most suitable for anaerobic digestion. Up to 1% of the primary energy demand can be covered by the calculated total biogas energy potential. By using a "best-practice-scenario" for separately collected biowaste, the coverage of primary energy demand may be increased above 2% for several countries. By using sector-specific waste streams, for example the German paper industry could cover up to 4.7% and the German brewery industry up to 71.2% of its total energy demand. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Thermochemical pretreatments of organic fraction of municipal solid waste from a mechanical-biological treatment plant.

PubMed

Álvarez-Gallego, Carlos José; Fdez-Güelfo, Luis Alberto; de los Ángeles Romero Aguilar, María; Romero García, Luis Isidoro

2015-02-09

The organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) usually contains high lignocellulosic and fatty fractions. These fractions are well-known to be a hard biodegradable substrate for biological treatments and its presence involves limitations on the performance of anaerobic processes. To avoid this, thermochemical pretreatments have been applied on the OFMSW coming from a full-scale mechanical-biological treatment (MBT) plant, in order to pre-hydrolyze the waste and improve the organic matter solubilisation. To study the solubilisation yield, the increments of soluble organic matter have been measured in terms of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), soluble chemical oxygen demand (sCOD), total volatile fatty acids (TVFA) and acidogenic substrate as carbon (ASC). The process variables analyzed were temperature, pressure and NaOH dosage. The levels of work for each variable were three: 160-180-200 °C, 3.5-5.0-6.5 bar and 2-3-4 g NaOH/L. In addition, the pretreatment time was also modified among 15 and 120 min. The best conditions for organic matter solubilisation were 160 °C, 3 g NaOH/L, 6.5 bar and 30 min, with yields in terms of DOC, sCOD, TVFA and ASC of 176%, 123%, 119% and 178% respectively. Thus, predictably the application of this pretreatment in these optimum conditions could improve the H2 production during the subsequent Dark Fermentation process.

Dilute sulfuric acid fractionation of Korean food waste for ethanol and lactic acid production by yeast.

PubMed

Kim, Yong Seon; Jang, Ji Yeon; Park, Seong Jik; Um, Byung Hwan

2018-04-01

Fermentation of food waste biomass can be used to produce biochemicals such as lactic acid and ethanol in a cost-effective manner. Korean food waste (KFW) dewatered by a screw press contains 23.1% glucan on a dry basis and is a potential raw material for the production of ethanol and lactic acid through fermentation. This study was conducted to optimize the dilute acid fractionation conditions for KFW fermentation with respect to the H 2 SO 4 concentration (0-0.8% w/v), temperature (130-190 °C), and residence time (1-128 min) using response surface methodology. Dilute sulfuric acid fractionation was carried out using a 30-mL stainless steel reactor under conditions, and then the dilute acid fractionation was scaled-up in 1-L and 7-L stainless steel reactors under the optimal conditions. The hydrolysate was concentrated, liquid-liquid extracted and neutralized for lactic acid and ethanol production. The highest concentration of glucose obtained from the KFW was 26.4 g/L using fractionation with 0.37% w/v H 2 SO 4 at 156 °C for 123.6 min. Using recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae containing a codon-optimized lactate dehydrogenase, the yield of lactic acid and ethanol was 77% of the theoretical yield for 17.4 g/L of fermentable sugar at pH 5.5. Additionally, the yield of ethanol produced by Issatchenkia orientalis was 89% of the theoretical yield for 25 g/L of fermentable sugar at pH 3. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Anaerobic digestion as a waste disposal option for American Samoa

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rivard, C

1993-01-01

Tuna sludge and municipal solid waste (MSW) generated on Tutuila Island, American Samoa, represent an ongoing disposal problem as well as an emerging opportunity for use in renewable fuel production. This research project focuses on the biological conversion of the organic fraction of these wastes to useful products including methane and fertilizer-grade residue through anaerobic high solids digestion. In this preliminary study, the anaerobic bioconversion of tuna sludge with MSW appears promising.

Speciation and leaching of trace metal contaminants from e-waste contaminated soils.

PubMed

Cui, Jin-Li; Luo, Chun-Ling; Tang, Chloe Wing-Yee; Chan, Ting-Shan; Li, Xiang-Dong

2017-05-05

Primitive electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) recycling activities have caused serious environmental problems. However, little is known about the speciation and leaching behaviors of metal contaminants at e-waste contaminated sites. This study investigated trace metal speciation/mobilization from e-waste polluted soil through column leaching experiments involving irrigation with rainwater for almost 2.5 years. Over the experimental period, Cu and Zn levels in the porewater were 0.14±0.08mg/L, and 0.16±0.08mg/L, respectively, increasing to 0.33±0.16mg/L, and 0.69±0.28mg/L with plant growth. The amounts of Cu, Zn, and Pb released in surface soil (0-2cm) contributed 43.8%, 22.5%, and 13.8%, respectively, to the original levels. The released Cu and Zn were primarily caused by the mobilization of the carbonate species of metals, including Cu(OH) 2 , CuCO 3 , and Zn 5 (CO 3 ) 2 (OH) 6 , and amorphous Fe/Mn oxides associated fractions characterized by sequential extraction coupling with X-ray absorption spectroscopy. During the experiments, trace metals were not detected in the effluent, and the re-sequestration of trace metals was mainly attributed to the adsorption on the abundant Fe/Mn oxides in the sub-layer soil. This study quantitatively elucidated the molecular speciation of Cu and Zn in e-waste contaminated soil during the column leaching process. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Anaerobic co-digestion of sewage sludge and food waste using temperature-phased anaerobic digestion process.

PubMed

Kim, H W; Han, S K; Shin, H S

2004-01-01

This study was performed to overcome the low efficiency of anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge and food waste by combining temperature-phased digestion, sequencing batch operation, and co-digestion technology. It was demonstrated that the temperature-phased anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (TPASBR) system for the co-digestion of sewage sludge and food waste resulted in enhanced volatile solids (VS) reduction and methane production rate. At the organic loading rate (OLR) of 2.7 g VS/l/d, the TPASBR system showed the higher VS reduction (61.3%), CH4 yield (0.28 l/g VS(added)) and CH4 production rate (0.41 l CH4/l/d) than those (0.29 l CH4/l/d) of the mesophilic two-stage ASBR (MTSASBR). In the specific methanogenic activity (SMA) tests on thermophilic biomass of the TPASBR system, the average SMA of acetate (93 ml CH4/gVSS/d) was much higher than those of propionate (46 ml CH4/g VSS/d) and butyrate (76 ml CH4/g VSS/d). Also, higher specific hydrolytic activity (SHA, 217 mg COD/g VSS/d) of the biomass supported fast hydrolysis under thermophilic conditions. The track study revealed that the most active period of the 24 h cycle was between 6 and 12 h. The enhanced performance of the TPASBR system could be attributed to longer solids retention time, fast hydrolysis, higher CH4 conversion rate, and balanced nutrient condition of co-substrate. It was verified that this combination could be a promising and practical alternative for the simultaneous recycling of two types of organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) with high stability.

Antibacterial mode of action of violacein from Chromobacterium violaceum UTM5 against Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

PubMed

Aruldass, Claira Arul; Masalamany, Santhana Raj Louis; Venil, Chidambaram Kulandaisamy; Ahmad, Wan Azlina

2018-02-01

Violacein, violet pigment produced by Chromobacterium violaceum, has attracted much attention recently due to its pharmacological properties including antibacterial activity. The present study investigated possible antibacterial mode of action of violacein from C. violaceum UTM5 against Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains. Violet fraction was obtained by cultivating C. violaceum UTM5 in liquid pineapple waste medium, extracted, and fractionated using ethyl acetate and vacuum liquid chromatography technique. Violacein was quantified as major compound in violet fraction using HPLC analysis. Violet fraction displayed bacteriostatic activity against S. aureus ATCC 29213 and methicillin-resistant S. aureus ATCC 43300 with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 3.9 μg/mL. Fluorescence dyes for membrane damage and scanning electron microscopic analysis confirmed the inhibitory effect by disruption on membrane integrity, morphological alternations, and rupture of the cell membranes of both strains. Transmission electron microscopic analysis showed membrane damage, mesosome formation, and leakage of intracellular constituents of both bacterial strains. Mode of action of violet fraction on the cell membrane integrity of both strains was shown by release of protein, K + , and extracellular adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) with 110.5 μg/mL, 2.34 μg/mL, and 87.24 ng/μL, respectively, at 48 h of incubation. Violet fraction was toxic to human embryonic kidney (HEK293) and human fetal lung fibroblast (IMR90) cell lines with LC 50 value of 0.998 ± 0.058 and 0.387 ± 0.002 μg/mL, respectively. Thus, violet fraction showed a strong antibacterial property by disrupting the membrane integrity of S. aureus and MRSA strains. This is the first report on the possible mode of antibacterial action of violet fraction from C. violaceum UTM5 on S. aureus and MRSA strains.

Inhalation dose due to presence of 131I in air above septic tank system of an endocrinology hospital.

PubMed

Mietelski, J W; Grabowska, S; Nowak, T; Bogacz, J; Gaca, P; Bartyzel, M; Budzanowski, M

2005-01-01

We present here measurements of the 131I concentration for both: gaseous and aerosol fraction of 131I in the air above the septic tank containing wastes from medical application of this isotope. Aerosols were collected using air filters, whereas gaseous forms of iodine were trapped in KI impregnated charcoal double layer cartridge. Besides an active method (pumping of the air through system of filters) an attempt for using a passive method (charcoal traps) for monitoring of radio-iodine is described. For better characterisation of a site the external kerma was determined by means of G-M and TLD techniques as well as the activity kept in the septic tank was measured by gamma spectrometry. Results show that the activity of the aerosol fraction can be neglected compared to that of the gaseous fraction. He measured activity of air is low, on the level of 1 Bq m(-3), even during simulated failure of the ventilation system. Estimated inhalation dose for the serviceman of septic tanks is low ( approximately 10%) compared with external dose obtained by such person due to gamma radiation from the tank (on the level approximately 500 nSv h(-1)). Therefore, the concept of passive monitoring of the iodine in air was abandoned. Also estimated is the efficiency of 131I reduction by a charcoal filter of the ventilation system and 131I input to the environment by the ventilation chimney.

Characterization Data Package for Containerized Sludge Samples Collected from Engineered Container SCS-CON-210

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fountain, Matthew S.; Fiskum, Sandra K.; Baldwin, David L.

This data package contains the K Basin sludge characterization results obtained by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory during processing and analysis of four sludge core samples collected from Engineered Container SCS-CON-210 in 2010 as requested by CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company. Sample processing requirements, analytes of interest, detection limits, and quality control sample requirements are defined in the KBC-33786, Rev. 2. The core processing scope included reconstitution of a sludge core sample distributed among four to six 4-L polypropylene bottles into a single container. The reconstituted core sample was then mixed and subsampled to support a variety of characterization activities. Additionalmore » core sludge subsamples were combined to prepare a container composite. The container composite was fractionated by wet sieving through a 2,000 micron mesh and a 500-micron mesh sieve. Each sieve fraction was sampled to support a suite of analyses. The core composite analysis scope included density determination, radioisotope analysis, and metals analysis, including the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Hazardous Waste Facility Permit metals (with the exception of mercury). The container composite analysis included most of the core composite analysis scope plus particle size distribution, particle density, rheology, and crystalline phase identification. A summary of the received samples, core sample reconstitution and subsampling activities, container composite preparation and subsampling activities, physical properties, and analytical results are presented. Supporting data and documentation are provided in the appendices. There were no cases of sample or data loss and all of the available samples and data are reported as required by the Quality Assurance Project Plan/Sampling and Analysis Plan.« less

Dimensional and chemical characterization of particles at a downwind receptor site of a waste-to-energy plant

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Buonanno, G., E-mail: buonanno@unicas.i; Stabile, L.; Avino, P.

2010-07-15

In the last years numerous epidemiological studies were carried out to evaluate the effects of particulate matter on human health. In industrialized areas, anthropogenic activities highly contribute to the fine and ultrafine particle concentrations. Then, it is important to characterize the evolution of particle size distribution and chemical composition near these emission points. Waste incineration represents a favorable technique for reducing the waste volume. However, in the past, municipal waste incinerators (MWIs) had a bad reputation due to the emission of toxic combustion byproducts. Consequently, the risk perception of the people living near MWIs is very high even if inmore » Western countries waste incineration has nowadays to be considered a relatively clean process from a technical point of view. The study here presented has an exemplary meaning for developing appropriate management and control strategies for air quality in the surrounding of MWIs and to perform exposure assessment for populations involved. Environment particles were continuously measured through a SMPS/APS system over 12 months. The monitoring site represents a downwind receptor of a typical MWI. Furthermore, elements and organic fractions were measured by means of the Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis and using dichotomous and high volume samplers. Annual mean values of 8.6 x 10{sup 3} +- 3.7 x 10{sup 2} part. cm{sup -3} and 31.1 +- 9.0 mug m{sup -3} were found for number and mass concentration, typical of a rural site. Most of the elements can be attributed to long-range transport from other natural and/or anthropogenic sources. Finally, the Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons present low concentrations with a mean value of 24.6 ng m{sup -3}.« less

Waste wood as bioenergy feedstock. Climate change impacts and related emission uncertainties from waste wood based energy systems in the UK.

PubMed

Röder, Mirjam; Thornley, Patricia

2018-04-01

Considering the urgent need to shift to low carbon energy carriers, waste wood resources could provide an alternative energy feedstock and at the same time reduce emissions from landfill. This research examines the climate change impacts and related emission uncertainties of waste wood based energy. For this, different grades of waste wood and energy application have been investigated using lifecycle assessment. Sensitivity analysis has then been applied for supply chain processes and feedstock properties for the main emission contributing categories: transport, processing, pelletizing, urea resin fraction and related N 2 O formation. The results show, depending on the waste wood grade, the conversion option, scale and the related reference case, that emission reductions of up to 91% are possible for non-treated wood waste. Compared to this, energy from treated wood waste with low contamination can achieve up to 83% emission savings, similar to untreated waste wood pellets, but in some cases emissions from waste wood based energy can exceed the ones of the fossil fuel reference - in the worst case by 126%. Emission reductions from highly contaminated feedstocks are largest when replacing electricity from large-scale coal and landfill. The highest emission uncertainties are related to the wood's resin fraction and N 2 O formation during combustion and, pelletizing. Comparing wood processing with diesel and electricity powered equipment also generated high variations in the results, while emission variations related to transport are relatively small. Using treated waste wood as a bioenergy feedstock can be a valid option to reduce emissions from energy production but this is only realisable if coal and landfill gas are replaced. To achieve meaningful emission reduction in line with national and international climate change targets, pre-treatment of waste wood would be required to reduce components that form N 2 O during the energy conversion. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Rare Earth Elements in Alberta Oil Sand Process Streams

DOE PAGES

Roth, Elliot; Bank, Tracy; Howard, Bret; ...

2017-04-05

The concentrations of rare earth elements in Alberta, Canada oil sands and six oil sand waste streams were determined using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP–MS). The results indicate that the rare earth elements (REEs) are largely concentrated in the tailings solvent recovery unit (TSRU) sample compared to the oil sand itself. The concentration of lanthanide elements is ~1100 mg/kg (1100 ppm or 0.11 weight %), which represents a >20× increase in the concentration compared to the oil sand itself and a >7× increase compared to the North American Shale Composite (NASC). The process water, which is used to extractmore » the oil from oil sands, and the water fraction associated with the different waste streams had very low concentrations of REEs that were near or below the detection limits of the instrument, with the highest total concentration of REEs in the water fraction being less than 10 μg/L (ppb). Size and density separations were completed, and the REEs and other potentially interesting and valuable metals, such as Ti and Zr, were concentrated in different fractions. These results give insights into the possibility of recovering REEs from waste streams generated from oil sand processing.« less

Rare Earth Elements in Alberta Oil Sand Process Streams

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Roth, Elliot; Bank, Tracy; Howard, Bret

The concentrations of rare earth elements in Alberta, Canada oil sands and six oil sand waste streams were determined using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP–MS). The results indicate that the rare earth elements (REEs) are largely concentrated in the tailings solvent recovery unit (TSRU) sample compared to the oil sand itself. The concentration of lanthanide elements is ~1100 mg/kg (1100 ppm or 0.11 weight %), which represents a >20× increase in the concentration compared to the oil sand itself and a >7× increase compared to the North American Shale Composite (NASC). The process water, which is used to extractmore » the oil from oil sands, and the water fraction associated with the different waste streams had very low concentrations of REEs that were near or below the detection limits of the instrument, with the highest total concentration of REEs in the water fraction being less than 10 μg/L (ppb). Size and density separations were completed, and the REEs and other potentially interesting and valuable metals, such as Ti and Zr, were concentrated in different fractions. These results give insights into the possibility of recovering REEs from waste streams generated from oil sand processing.« less

Solid waste treatment as a high-priority and low-cost alternative for greenhouse gas mitigation.

PubMed

Ayalon, O; Avnimelech, Y; Shechter, M

2001-05-01

The increased concern about environmental problems caused by inadequate waste management, as well as the concern about global warming, promotes actions toward a sustainable management of the organic fraction of the waste. Landfills, the most common means to dispose of municipal solid waste (MSW), lead to the conversion of the organic waste to biogas, containing about 50% methane, a very active greenhouse gas (GHG). One unit of methane has a global warming potential of 21 computed for a 100-year horizon or 56 computed for 20 years. The waste sector in Israel contributes 13% of total greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions for a time horizon of 100 years (for a time horizon of 20 years, the waste sector contribution equals to more than 25% of total GHG emissions). The ultimate goal is to minimize the amount of methane (CH4) by converting it to CO2. This can be achieved by physicochemical means (e.g., landfill gas flare, incineration) or by biological processes (e.g., composting, anaerobic digestion). Since the waste in Israel has a high organic material content, it was found that the most cost-effective means to treat the degradable organic components is by aerobic composting (investment of less than US$ 10 to reduce emission of one ton CO2 equivalent per year). Another benefit of this technology is the ability to implement it within a short period. The suggested approach, which should be implemented especially in developing countries, could reduce a significant amount of GHG at relatively low cost and short time. The development of a national policy for proper waste treatment can be a significant means to abate GHG emissions in the short term, enabling a gain in time to develop other means for the long run. In addition, the use of CO2 quotas will credit the waste sector and will promote profitable proper waste management.

Comparison of waste pumpkin material and its potential use in extruded snack foods.

PubMed

Norfezah, M N; Hardacre, A; Brennan, C S

2011-08-01

Material was produced from Crown pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima) processed from fractions of the fruit which are regarded as waste stream products (peel, flesh and seed). The flour from the three different fractions (peel, flesh and seed) of Crown pumpkin flour was incorporated into an extruded snack product formulation at levels 10%, 30% and 50% (w/w with corn grit) and processed in a twin-screw extruder to make 10 expanded snack products. Proximate analysis was carried out to determine the nutritional value of the raw pumpkin and pumpkin flour. A physical analysis of the product was used to determine its color, the expansion ratio, bulk density and texture. Inclusion of waste stream material (peel and seed) at 10%, yielded extruded products with similar expansion and density characteristics to the control sample; however, an inclusion of greater than 10% yielded significant challenges to product quality (hardness of the product).

An approach for modeling thermal destruction of hazardous wastes in circulating fluidized bed incinerator.

PubMed

Patil, M P; Sonolikar, R L

2008-10-01

This paper presents a detailed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based approach for modeling thermal destruction of hazardous wastes in a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) incinerator. The model is based on Eular - Lagrangian approach in which gas phase (continuous phase) is treated in a Eularian reference frame, whereas the waste particulate (dispersed phase) is treated in a Lagrangian reference frame. The reaction chemistry hasbeen modeled through a mixture fraction/ PDF approach. The conservation equations for mass, momentum, energy, mixture fraction and other closure equations have been solved using a general purpose CFD code FLUENT4.5. Afinite volume method on a structured grid has been used for solution of governing equations. The model provides detailed information on the hydrodynamics (gas velocity, particulate trajectories), gas composition (CO, CO2, O2) and temperature inside the riser. The model also allows different operating scenarios to be examined in an efficient manner.

Possible interactions between recirculated landfill leachate and the stabilized organic fraction of municipal solid waste.

PubMed

Calabrò, Paolo S; Mancini, Giuseppe

2012-05-01

The stabilized organic fraction of municipal solid waste (SOFMSW) is a product of the mechanical/biological treatment (MBT) of mixed municipal solid waste (MMSW). SOFMSW is considered a 'grey' compost and the presence of pollutants (particularly heavy metals) and residual glass and plastic normally prevents agricultural use, making landfills the typical final destination for SOFMSW. Recirculation of leachate in landfills can be a cost-effective management option, but the long-term sustainability of such a practice must be verified. Column tests were carried out to examine the effect of SOFMSW on leachate recirculation. The results indicate that organic matter may be biologically degraded and metals (copper and zinc) are effectively entrapped through a combination of physical (adsorption), biological (bacterial sulfate reduction), and chemical (precipitation of metal sulfides) processes, while other chemicals (i.e. ammonia nitrogen and chloride) are essentially unaffected by filtration through SOFMSW.

Anaerobic co-digestion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste with FOG waste from a sewage treatment plant: Recovering a wasted methane potential and enhancing the biogas yield

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Martin-Gonzalez, L., E-mail: lucia.martin@uab.ca; Colturato, L.F.; Font, X.

2010-10-15

Anaerobic digestion is applied widely to treat the source collected organic fraction of municipal solid wastes (SC-OFMSW). Lipid-rich wastes are a valuable substrate for anaerobic digestion due to their high theoretical methane potential. Nevertheless, although fat, oil and grease waste from sewage treatment plants (STP-FOGW) are commonly disposed of in landfill, European legislation is aimed at encouraging more effective forms of treatment. Co-digestion of the above wastes may enhance valorisation of STP-FOGW and lead to a higher biogas yield throughout the anaerobic digestion process. In the present study, STP-FOGW was evaluated as a co-substrate in wet anaerobic digestion of SC-OFMSWmore » under mesophilic conditions (37 {sup o}C). Batch experiments carried out at different co-digestion ratios showed an improvement in methane production related to STP-FOGW addition. A 1:7 (VS/VS) STP-FOGW:SC-OFMSW feed ratio was selected for use in performing further lab-scale studies in a 5 L continuous reactor. Biogas yield increased from 0.38 {+-} 0.02 L g VS{sub feed}{sup -1} to 0.55 {+-} 0.05 L g VS{sub feed}{sup -1} as a result of adding STP-FOGW to reactor feed. Both VS reduction values and biogas methane content were maintained and inhibition produced by long chain fatty acid (LCFA) accumulation was not observed. Recovery of a currently wasted methane potential from STP-FOGW was achieved in a co-digestion process with SC-OFMSW.« less

Changes in metal speciation and pH in olive processing waste and sulphur-treated contaminated soil.

PubMed

de la Fuente, C; Clemente, R; Bernal, M P

2008-06-01

Degradation of organic matter from olive mill waste and changes in the heavy metal fractionation of a metal-contaminated calcareous soil were studied in a laboratory experiment, in which the olive mill waste was mixed with the soil and then incubated under aerobic conditions. The soil was calcareous (15% CaCO(3)) with high Zn and Pb concentrations (2058 and 2947 mg kg(-1), respectively). The organic amendment was applied at a rate equivalent to 20 g kg(-1) soil, and unamended soil was run as a control. To discern if changes in metal solubility were due to the acidic character of the waste, elemental sulphur was applied to soil as a non-organic acidifying material. The S(0) rates used were 3.14, 4.71 and 6.28 g kg(-1). The mineralisation of total organic-C (TOC) from the waste reached 14.8% of the original TOC concentration after 56 days of incubation. The CO(2)-C produced from S(0)-treated soils showed the carbonate destruction by the H(2)SO(4) formed through S(0) oxidation. The organic waste increased EDTA-extractable Zn and Pb concentrations and CaCl(2)-extractable Mn levels in soil after two days of incubation. The changes in metal availability with time indicated that the oxidation of phenols from the waste reduced Mn (IV) oxides, releasing Zn and Pb associated with this mineral phase. Organic waste addition did not decrease soil pH; the acidifying effect of S(0) did not change metal fractionation in the soil.

Anaerobic co-digestion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste with FOG waste from a sewage treatment plant: recovering a wasted methane potential and enhancing the biogas yield.

PubMed

Martín-González, L; Colturato, L F; Font, X; Vicent, T

2010-10-01

Anaerobic digestion is applied widely to treat the source collected organic fraction of municipal solid wastes (SC-OFMSW). Lipid-rich wastes are a valuable substrate for anaerobic digestion due to their high theoretical methane potential. Nevertheless, although fat, oil and grease waste from sewage treatment plants (STP-FOGW) are commonly disposed of in landfill, European legislation is aimed at encouraging more effective forms of treatment. Co-digestion of the above wastes may enhance valorisation of STP-FOGW and lead to a higher biogas yield throughout the anaerobic digestion process. In the present study, STP-FOGW was evaluated as a co-substrate in wet anaerobic digestion of SC-OFMSW under mesophilic conditions (37 degrees C). Batch experiments carried out at different co-digestion ratios showed an improvement in methane production related to STP-FOGW addition. A 1:7 (VS/VS) STP-FOGW:SC-OFMSW feed ratio was selected for use in performing further lab-scale studies in a 5L continuous reactor. Biogas yield increased from 0.38+/-0.02 L g VS(feed)(-1) to 0.55+/-0.05 L g VS(feed)(-1) as a result of adding STP-FOGW to reactor feed. Both VS reduction values and biogas methane content were maintained and inhibition produced by long chain fatty acid (LCFA) accumulation was not observed. Recovery of a currently wasted methane potential from STP-FOGW was achieved in a co-digestion process with SC-OFMSW. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Non-pertechnetate Technetium Sensor Research and Development

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bryan, Samuel A.; Rapko, Brian M.; Branch, Shirmir D.

Several significant uncertainties remain regarding the understanding and modeling of the fate and speciation of technicium-99 ( 99Tc) in Hanford waste tanks, glass, and low-temperature waste forms. A significant (2% to 25%) fraction of the 99Tc in the water-soluble portion of the tank waste may be present as one or more non pertechnetate species that have not been identified and to date, cannot be effectively separated from the wastes. This task will provide a sensor specifically tuned to detect the Tc(I)-carbonyl species believed to constitute the main fraction of the non-pertechnetate form of technetium. By direct measurement of the non-pertechnetatemore » species, such a sensor will help reduce the uncertainties in the modeling of the fate and speciation of 99Tc in Hanford tanks and waste forms. This report summarizes work performed in FY2016 that was sponsored by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and demonstrates the protocol for using fluorescent Tc(I)-tricarbonyl complex as a means to detect the non-pertechnetate species within tank waste solutions. The protocol was optimized with respect to ligand concentration, solvent choice, reaction temperature and time. This work culminated in the quantitation of Tc(I)-tricarbonyl within a waste simulant, using a standard addition method for measurement. This report also summarizes the synthesis and high-yield preparation of the low-valence technetium species, [Tc(CO) 3(H 2O) 3] +, which will be used as the technetium standard material for the demonstration of the non-pertechnetate species in actual wastes.« less

Health risk assessment as an approach to manage an old landfill and to propose integrated solid waste treatment: A case study in Italy.

PubMed

Paladino, O; Massabò, M

2017-10-01

The aim of the present paper is to show how an approach based on human health risk analysis can be used as a decisional tool for the evaluation of impacts on population and for deciding between different waste treatment processes. The situation in which the increasing production of solid wastes cannot be confined in the old existing Municipal Solid Waste landfill (settled in Genoa, Liguria Region, Italy) is used as a case study. Risk assessment for human health due to air, surface water, groundwater and soil contamination is performed in different scenarios for the old landfill and compared with alternative Waste-to-Energy management solutions that consider thermal treatment by gasification of the total waste or gasification of the dry fraction coupled with anaerobic digestion of the wet fraction, plus biogas combustion with or without sludge and bottom ash/slag disposal in the old landfill. Hazard Index (HI) and Cancer Risk (CR) in case of operating landfill and under the suspected situation of failure of the sealing system, were respectively 1.15 and 1.1∗10 -7 . Unacceptable HI were found due to groundwater contamination, while HI due to river pollution was slightly under the threshold. Vegetables ingestion was the most important pathway and ammonia the most responsible of toxic adverse effects. Fish ingestion and dermal contact with contaminated water were found to be the most important exposure pathways for carcinogenic risk, due mainly to BTEX. HI and CR in the supposed scenario of total waste gasification were respectively 9.4∗10 -1 and 1.1∗10 -5 while they were respectively 3.2∗10 -1 and 6∗10 -6 in case of gasification of the dry fraction. CR in both scenarios was over the threshold mainly due to dioxins, where milk and meat ingestion were found to be the highest risk pathways. Inhalation resulted as the highest not-carcinogenic risk exposure pathway, mainly due to NOx. Decision making was made by weighing up the different scenarios, and results suggested to definitively close the landfill and to eliminate gasification of the total waste as a possible waste treatment process. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Biotechnological production of phenyllactic acid and biosurfactants from trimming vine shoot hydrolyzates by microbial coculture fermentation.

PubMed

Rodríguez-Pazo, Noelia; Salgado, José Manuel; Cortés-Diéguez, Sandra; Domínguez, José Manuel

2013-04-01

Coculture fermentations show advantages for producing food additives from agroindustrial wastes, considering that different specified microbial strains are combined to improve the consumption of mixed sugars obtained by hydrolysis. This technology dovetails with both the growing interest of consumers towards the use of natural food additives and with stricter legislations and concern in developed countries towards the management of wastes. The use of this technology allows valorization of both cellulosic and hemicellulosic fractions of trimming vine shoots for the production of lactic acid (LA), phenyllactic acid (PLA), and biosurfactants (BS). This work compares the study of the potential of hemicellulosic and cellulosic fractions of trimming vine shoots as cheaper and renewable carbon sources for PLA and BS production by independent or coculture fermentations. The highest LA and PLA concentrations, 43.0 g/L and 1.58 mM, respectively, were obtained after 144 h during the fermentation of hemicellulosic sugars and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) carried out by cocultures of Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus pentosus. Additionally, cell-bond BS decreased the surface tension (ST) in 17.2 U; meanwhile, cell-free supernatants (CFS) showed antimicrobial activity against Salmonella enterica and Listeria monocytogenes with inhibition halos of 12.1±0.6 mm and 11.5±0.9 mm, respectively.

Household Hazardous Waste and Automotive Products: A Pennsylvania Survey.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shorten, Charles V.; And Others

1995-01-01

A significant fraction of household hazardous waste (HHW) is generated by home mechanics who use such products as motor oil, cleaners and solvents, and batteries. This survey assessed the following aspects: (1) perceptions of their health-related effects; (2) perceptions of their pollution potential; and (3) their use and disposal. (LZ)

Effect of the raw materials and mixing ratio of composted wastes on the dynamic of organic matter stabilization and nitrogen availability in composts of Sub-Saharan Africa.

PubMed

Kaboré, Théodore Wind-Tinbnoma; Houot, Sabine; Hien, Edmond; Zombré, Prosper; Hien, Victor; Masse, Dominique

2010-02-01

The effect of raw materials and their proportions in initial mixtures on organic matter (OM) stabilization and nitrogen (N) availability during pit composting in Sub-Saharan Africa was assessed using biochemical fractionation and laboratory incubations to characterize composts sampled throughout the composting process. Stabilization of OM occurred more rapidly in mixtures with slaughter-house wastes, it was progressive in mixture with household refuses while tree leaves compost remained unstable. Carbon mineralization from compost samples was positively correlated to water soluble and hemicellulose-like organic fractions. Mixtures containing large proportions of household refuses reached the highest stability and total N but available N remained weak. Slaughter-house wastes in the initial mixtures made possible to reach good OM stabilization and the largest N availability. The nature of initial mixing influenced composting parameters, OM stabilization and N availability. It is suggested mixing household refuses and slaughter-house wastes with tree leaves to reach better amending and fertilizer qualities of composts.

Effects of biodrying process on municipal solid waste properties.

PubMed

Tambone, F; Scaglia, B; Scotti, S; Adani, F

2011-08-01

In this paper, the effect of biodrying process on municipal solid waste (MSW) properties was studied. The results obtained indicated that after 14d, biodrying reduced the water content of waste, allowing the production of biodried waste with a net heating value (NHV) of 16,779±2,074kJ kg(-1) wet weight, i.e. 41% higher than that of untreated waste. The low moisture content of the biodried material reduced, also, the potential impacts of the waste, i.e. potential self-ignition and potential odors production. Low waste impacts suggest to landfill the biodried material obtaining energy via biogas production by waste re-moistening, i.e. bioreactor. Nevertheless, results of this work indicate that biodrying process because of the partial degradation of the organic fraction contained in the waste (losses of 290g kg(-1) VS), reduced of about 28% the total producible biogas. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Semi-quantitative analysis of solid waste flows from nano-enabled consumer products in Europe, Denmark and the United Kingdom - Abundance, distribution and management.

PubMed

Heggelund, Laura; Hansen, Steffen Foss; Astrup, Thomas Fruergaard; Boldrin, Alessio

2016-10-01

Many nano-enabled consumer products are known to be in the global market. At the same, little is known about the quantity, type, location etc. of the engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) inside the products. This limits the scientific investigations of potential environmental effects of these materials, and especially the knowledge of ENM behaviour and potential effects at the end-of-life stage of the products is scarce. To gain a better understanding of the end-of-life waste treatment of nano-enabled consumer product, we provide an overview of the ENMs flowing into and throughout waste systems in Europe, Denmark and the United Kingdom. Using a nanoproduct inventory (nanodb.dk), we performed a four-step analysis to estimate the most abundant ENMs and in which waste fractions they are present. We found that in terms of number of products: (i) nano silver is the most used ENM in consumer products, and (ii) plastic from used product containers is the largest waste fraction also comprising a large variety of ENMs, though possibly in very small masses. Also, we showed that the local waste management system can influence the distribution of ENMs. It is recommended that future research focus on recycling and landfilling of nano-enabled products since these compartments represent hot spots for end-of-life nanoproducts. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Leaching assessments of toxic metals in waste plasma display panel glass.

PubMed

Chen, Mengjun; Jiang, Pengfei; Chen, Haiyan; Ogunseitan, Oladele A; Li, Yungui

2015-06-01

The plasma display panel (PDP) is rapidly becoming obsolete, contributing in large amounts to the electronic waste stream. In order to assess the potential for environmental pollution due to hazardous metals leached from PDP glass, standardized leaching procedures, chemical speciation assessments, and bioavailability tests were conducted. According to the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP), arsenic in back glass was present at 4.46 ± 0.22 mg/L, close to its regulation limit of 5 mg/L. Zn is not available in the TCLP, but its TCLP leaching concentration in back glass is 102.96 ± 5.34 mg/L. This is because more than 90% of Zn is in the soluble and exchangeable and carbonate fraction. We did not detect significant levels of Ag, Ba, or Cu in the TCLP leachate, and the main fraction of Ag and Ba is residual, more than 95%, while the fraction distribution of Cu changes SEP by SEP. Ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA)- and diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA)-extractable Ag, As, Ba, Cu, Zn, and Ni indicate a lower biohazards potential. These results show that, according to the EPA regulations, PDP glass may not be classified as hazardous waste because none of the metals exceeded their thresholds in PDP leachate. However, the concentrations of As and Zn should be lowered in the manufacturing process and finished product to avoid potential pollution problems. The plasma display panel is rapidly becoming obsolete because of the liquid crystal display. In this study, the leachability of heavy metals contained in the waste plasma display panel glass was first examined by standardized leaching tests, typical chemical speciation assessments, and bioavailability tests, providing fundamental data for waste PDP glass recovery, recycling, and reuse.

The component slope linear model for calculating intensive partial molar properties /application to waste glasses and aluminate solutions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Reynolds, Jacob G.

2013-01-11

Partial molar properties are the changes occurring when the fraction of one component is varied while the fractions of all other component mole fractions change proportionally. They have many practical and theoretical applications in chemical thermodynamics. Partial molar properties of chemical mixtures are difficult to measure because the component mole fractions must sum to one, so a change in fraction of one component must be offset with a change in one or more other components. Given that more than one component fraction is changing at a time, it is difficult to assign a change in measured response to a changemore » in a single component. In this study, the Component Slope Linear Model (CSLM), a model previously published in the statistics literature, is shown to have coefficients that correspond to the intensive partial molar properties. If a measured property is plotted against the mole fraction of a component while keeping the proportions of all other components constant, the slope at any given point on a graph of this curve is the partial molar property for that constituent. Actually plotting this graph has been used to determine partial molar properties for many years. The CSLM directly includes this slope in a model that predicts properties as a function of the component mole fractions. This model is demonstrated by applying it to the constant pressure heat capacity data from the NaOH-NaAl(OH){sub 4}-H{sub 2}O system, a system that simplifies Hanford nuclear waste. The partial molar properties of H{sub 2}O, NaOH, and NaAl(OH){sub 4} are determined. The equivalence of the CSLM and the graphical method is verified by comparing results determined by the two methods. The CSLM model has been previously used to predict the liquidus temperature of spinel crystals precipitated from Hanford waste glass. Those model coefficients are re-interpreted here as the partial molar spinel liquidus temperature of the glass components.« less

The Component Slope Linear Model for Calculating Intensive Partial Molar Properties: Application to Waste Glasses and Aluminate Solutions - 13099

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Reynolds, Jacob G.

2013-07-01

Partial molar properties are the changes occurring when the fraction of one component is varied while the fractions of all other component mole fractions change proportionally. They have many practical and theoretical applications in chemical thermodynamics. Partial molar properties of chemical mixtures are difficult to measure because the component mole fractions must sum to one, so a change in fraction of one component must be offset with a change in one or more other components. Given that more than one component fraction is changing at a time, it is difficult to assign a change in measured response to a changemore » in a single component. In this study, the Component Slope Linear Model (CSLM), a model previously published in the statistics literature, is shown to have coefficients that correspond to the intensive partial molar properties. If a measured property is plotted against the mole fraction of a component while keeping the proportions of all other components constant, the slope at any given point on a graph of this curve is the partial molar property for that constituent. Actually plotting this graph has been used to determine partial molar properties for many years. The CSLM directly includes this slope in a model that predicts properties as a function of the component mole fractions. This model is demonstrated by applying it to the constant pressure heat capacity data from the NaOHNaAl(OH){sub 4}-H{sub 2}O system, a system that simplifies Hanford nuclear waste. The partial molar properties of H{sub 2}O, NaOH, and NaAl(OH){sub 4} are determined. The equivalence of the CSLM and the graphical method is verified by comparing results determined by the two methods. The CSLM model has been previously used to predict the liquidus temperature of spinel crystals precipitated from Hanford waste glass. Those model coefficients are re-interpreted here as the partial molar spinel liquidus temperature of the glass components. (authors)« less

Biological nutrients removal from the supernatant originating from the anaerobic digestion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste.

PubMed

Malamis, S; Katsou, E; Di Fabio, S; Bolzonella, D; Fatone, F

2014-09-01

This study critically evaluates the biological processes and techniques applied to remove nitrogen and phosphorus from the anaerobic supernatant produced from the treatment of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) and from its co-digestion with other biodegradable organic waste (BOW) streams. The wide application of anaerobic digestion for the treatment of several organic waste streams results in the production of high quantities of anaerobic effluents. Such effluents are characterized by high nutrient content, because organic and particulate nitrogen and phosphorus are hydrolyzed in the anaerobic digestion process. Consequently, adequate post-treatment is required in order to comply with the existing land application and discharge legislation in the European Union countries. This may include physicochemical and biological processes, with the latter being more advantageous due to their lower cost. Nitrogen removal is accomplished through the conventional nitrification/denitrification, nitritation/denitritation and the complete autotrophic nitrogen removal process; the latter is accomplished by nitritation coupled with the anoxic ammonium oxidation process. As anaerobic digestion effluents are characterized by low COD/TKN ratio, conventional denitrification/nitrification is not an attractive option; short-cut nitrogen removal processes are more promising. Both suspended and attached growth processes have been employed to treat the anaerobic supernatant. Specifically, the sequencing batch reactor, the membrane bioreactor, the conventional activated sludge and the moving bed biofilm reactor processes have been investigated. Physicochemical phosphorus removal via struvite precipitation has been extensively examined. Enhanced biological phosphorus removal from the anaerobic supernatant can take place through the sequencing anaerobic/aerobic process. More recently, denitrifying phosphorus removal via nitrite or nitrate has been explored. The removal of phosphorus from the anaerobic supernatant of OFMSW is an interesting research topic that has not yet been explored. At the moment, standardization in the design of facilities that treat anaerobic supernatant produced from the treatment of OFMSW is still under development. To move toward this direction, it is first necessary to assess the performance of alternative treatment options. It study concentrates existing data regarding the characteristics of the anaerobic supernatant produced from the treatment of OFMSW and from their co-digestion with other BOW. This provides data documenting the effect of the anaerobic digestion operating conditions on the supernatant quality and critically evaluates alternative options for the post-treatment of the liquid fraction produced from the anaerobic digestion process.

Experimental testing of hot mix asphalt mixture made of recycled aggregates.

PubMed

Rafi, Muhammad Masood; Qadir, Adnan; Siddiqui, Salman Hameed

2011-12-01

The migration of population towards big cities generates rapid construction activities. These activities not only put pressure on natural resources but also produce construction, renovation and demolition waste. There is an urgent need to find out ways to handle this waste owing to growing environmental concerns. This can reduce pressure on natural resources as well. This paper presents the results of experimental studies which were carried out on hot mix asphalt mixture samples. These samples were manufactured by adding recycled aggregates (RA) with natural crushed stone aggregates (CSA). Three levels of addition of RA were considered in the presented studies. RA were obtained from both the concrete waste of construction, renovation and demolition activities and reclaimed asphalt pavement. Separate samples were manufactured with the coarse and fine aggregate fractions of both types of RA. Samples made with CSA were used as control specimens. The samples were prepared and tested using the Marshall method. The performance of the samples was investigated in terms of density-void and stability/flow analysis and was compared with the performance criteria as given by National Highway Authority for wearing course material in Pakistan. Based on this data optimum asphalt contents were determined. All the samples made by adding up to 50% RA conform to the specification requirements of wearing course material as given by National Highway Authority in terms of optimum asphalt contents, voids in mineral aggregates and stability/flow. A statistical analysis of variation of these samples confirmed that addition is also possible statistically.

Thermogravimetric characteristics of typical municipal solid waste fractions during co-pyrolysis.

PubMed

Zhou, Hui; Long, YanQiu; Meng, AiHong; Li, QingHai; Zhang, YanGuo

2015-04-01

The interactions of nine typical municipal solid waste (MSW) fractions during pyrolysis were investigated using the thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA). To compare the mixture results with the calculation results of superposition of single fractions quantitatively, TG overlap ratio was introduced. There were strong interactions between orange peel and rice (overlap ratio 0.9736), and rice and poplar wood (overlap ratio 0.9774). The interactions of mixture experiments postponed the peak and lowered the peak value. Intense interactions between PVC and rice, poplar wood, tissue paper, wool, terylene, and rubber powder during co-pyrolysis were observed, and the pyrolysis at low temperature was usually promoted. The residue yield was increased when PVC was blended with rice, poplar wood, tissue paper, or rubber powder; while the residue yield was decreased when PVC was blended with wool. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of scale and Froude number on the hydraulics of waste stabilization ponds.

PubMed

Vieira, Isabela De Luna; Da Silva, Jhonatan Barbosa; Ide, Carlos Nobuyoshi; Janzen, Johannes Gérson

2018-01-01

This paper presents the findings from a series of computational fluid dynamics simulations to estimate the effect of scale and Froude number on hydraulic performance and effluent pollutant fraction of scaled waste stabilization ponds designed using Froude similarity. Prior to its application, the model was verified by comparing the computational and experimental results of a model scaled pond, showing good agreement and confirming that the model accurately reproduces the hydrodynamics and tracer transport processes. Our results showed that the scale and the interaction between scale and Froude number has an effect on the hydraulics of ponds. At 1:5 scale, the increase of scale increased short-circuiting and decreased mixing. Furthermore, at 1:10 scale, the increase of scale decreased the effluent pollutant fraction. Since the Reynolds effect cannot be ignored, a ratio of Reynolds and Froude numbers was suggested to predict the effluent pollutant fraction for flows with different Reynolds numbers.

Energy implications of the thermal recovery of biodegradable municipal waste materials in the United Kingdom.

PubMed

Burnley, Stephen; Phillips, Rhiannon; Coleman, Terry; Rampling, Terence

2011-01-01

Waste management policies and legislation in many developed countries call for a reduction in the quantity of biodegradable waste landfilled. Anaerobic digestion, combustion and gasification are options for managing biodegradable waste while generating renewable energy. However, very little research has been carried to establish the overall energy balance of the collection, preparation and energy recovery processes for different types of wastes. Without this information, it is impossible to determine the optimum method for managing a particular waste to recover renewable energy. In this study, energy balances were carried out for the thermal processing of food waste, garden waste, wood, waste paper and the non-recyclable fraction of municipal waste. For all of these wastes, combustion in dedicated facilities or incineration with the municipal waste stream was the most energy-advantageous option. However, we identified a lack of reliable information on the energy consumed in collecting individual wastes and preparing the wastes for thermal processing. There was also little reliable information on the performance and efficiency of anaerobic digestion and gasification facilities for waste. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

On radiocarbon and plutonium leakage to groundwater in the vicinity of a shallow-land radioactive waste repository.

PubMed

Gudelis, A; Gvozdaite, R; Kubareviciene, V; Druteikiene, R; Lukosevicius, S; Sutas, A

2010-06-01

A shallow-land radioactive waste repository operated in boggy forest environment from 1963 to 1989. During the operation period, a considerable amount of technogenic radionuclides, in solidified state, was disposed into the vault established in the geological structure at the depth of up to 3m. Environmental monitoring activities started after the closure of the repository in 1989. Recent investigations revealed transfer of radiocarbon and plutonium to the groundwater in the prevailing flow direction. Activity concentration of (239,240)Pu in non-filtered fraction of the groundwater from observation well no. 4 determined by alpha-spectrometry was 6.4 x 10(-5) Bq l(-1) in 2005, and 3.2 x 10(-4) Bq l(-1) in 2006. Further analysis of colloid-facilitated transport of plutonium is planned. Variation of (14)C activity concentration in the same well was monitored in 2006. It varied from 0.2+/-0.1 Bq l(-1) in October to 2.8+/-0.6 Bq l(-1) in June and July. Results imply further research into radiocarbon transfer to atmosphere and selected plant species. Copyright (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

U.S. Geological survey program on toxic waste--ground-water contamination; proceedings of the Second technical meeting, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, October 21-25, 1985

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ragone, S.E.

1988-01-01

This study characterizes the clay minerals in sediments associated with a plume of creosote-contaminated groundwater. The plume of contaminated groundwater near Pensacola, FL, is in shallow, permeable, Miocene to Holocene quartz sand and flows southward toward Pensacola Bay. Clay-size fractions were separated from 41 cores, chiefly split-spoon samples at 13 drill sites. The most striking feature of the chemical analyses of the clay fractions from uncontaminated site 2 and contaminated sites 4,5,6, and 7 is the variability of iron oxide (species in some samples as Fe2O3); total iron oxide abundance is lowest (2.5%) in uncontaminated sample 2-40, but is > 4.5% (4.5 to 8.5%) in the remaining assemblages. One feature suggesting interaction between the indigenous clays and the waste plume is the presence of nontronite-rich smectite. Nontronite commonly has been identified as the product of hydrothermal alteration and deep-sea weathering of submarine basalts; it is not a common constituent of Cenozoic Gulf Coast sediments. At the Pensacola site, relatively abundant nontronitic smectite is confined to contaminated sands or associated muds; it is least abundant or absent in sands and muds peripheral to the waste plume. The geochemistry of the waste plume, its substantial dissolved, (chiefly ferrous iron), mildly acidic (pH 5-6), and low redox composition, provides an environment similar to that previously determined for the low-temperature synthesis of nontronite. Data from clay-size fractions confirm conclusions that neoformed pyrite in some grain coatings occurs in an assemblage with excess iron over that required in the pyrite. Continuing studies to evaluate these tentative conclusions include: (1) chemical analysis of clay fractions from remaining sites to further examine the apparent relation between iron content and abundance of nontronitic smectite; (2) clay separation and analysis, and pore fluid extraction (squeezing or ultracentrifugation) and analysis from a continuous core through the mud lens to determine pore fluid composition (presence or absence of waste fluid), and character of associated clay minerals; and (3) clay separation and analysis in both permeable sands and the intervening mud lens that are clearly outside the limits of the waste plume to further document the effects of the plume. (See also W90-00022) (Lantz-PTT)

Crystal accumulation in the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant high level waste melter: Summary of 2017 experiments

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fox, K.; Fowley, M.

A full-scale, transparent mock-up of the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Project High Level Waste glass melter riser and pour spout has been constructed to allow for testing with visual feedback of particle settling, accumulation, and resuspension when operating with a controlled fraction of crystals in the glass melt. Room temperature operation with silicone oil and magnetite particles simulating molten glass and spinel crystals, respectively, allows for direct observation of flow patterns and settling patterns. The fluid and particle mixture is recycled within the system for each test.

Investigation of Municipal Solid Waste to Alcohol Conversion for Army Use

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-03-01

fuel ethanol and other byproducts. To convert the cellulosic fraction of MSW to fermentable sugars, the first process uses a single stage of dilute acid...ethanol and other byproducts. To convert the cellulosic fraction of MSW to fermentable sugars, the first process uses a single stage of dilute acid...of the cellulosic fraction to produce fermentable sugars. The first process, developed by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), employs a single

Anaerobic digestion potential of urban organic waste: a case study in Malmö.

PubMed

Davidsson, Asa; Jansen, Jes la Cour; Appelqvist, Björn; Gruvberger, Christopher; Hallmer, Martin

2007-04-01

A study of existing organic waste types in Malmö, Sweden was performed. The purpose was to gather information about organic waste types in the city to be able to estimate the potential for anaerobic treatment in existing digesters at the wastewater treatment plan (WWTP). The urban organic waste types that could have a significant potential for anaerobic digestion amount to about 50 000 tonnes year(-1) (sludge excluded). Some of the waste types were further evaluated by methane potential tests and continuous pilot-scale digestion. Single-substrate digestion and co-digestion of pre-treated, source-sorted organic fraction of municipal solid waste, wastewater sludge, sludge from grease traps and fruit and vegetable waste were carried out. The experiments showed that codigestion of grease sludge and WWTP sludge was a better way of making use of the methane potential in the grease trap sludge than single-substrate digestion. Another way of increasing the methane production in sludge digesters is to add source-sorted organic fraction of municipal solid waste (SSOFMSW). Adding SSOFMSW (20% of the total volatile solids) gave a 10-15% higher yield than could be expected by comparison with separate digestion of sludge respective SSOFMSW. Co-digestion of sludge and organic waste is beneficial not just for increasing gas production but also for stabilizing the digestion process. This was seen when co-digesting fruit and vegetable waste and sludge. When co-digested with sludge, this waste gave a better result than the separate digestion of fruit and vegetable waste. Considering single-substrate digestion, SSOFMSW is the only waste in the study which makes up a sufficient quantity to be suitable as the base substrate in a full-scale digester that is separated from the sludge digestion. The two types of SSOFMSW tested in the pilot-scale digestion were operated successfully at mesophilic temperature. By adding SSOFMSW, grease trap sludge and fruit and vegetables waste to sludge digesters at the wastewater treatment plant, the yearly energy production from methane could be expected to increase from 24 to 43 GWh.

Method for removing hydrocarbon contaminants from solid materials

DOEpatents

Bala, Gregory A.; Thomas, Charles P.

1995-01-01

A system for removing hydrocarbons from solid materials. Contaminated solids are combined with a solvent (preferably terpene based) to produce a mixture. The mixture is washed with water to generate a purified solid product (which is removed from the system) and a drainage product. The drainage product is separated into a first fraction (consisting mostly of contaminated solvent) and a second fraction (containing solids and water). The first fraction is separated into a third fraction (consisting mostly of contaminated solvent) and a fourth fraction (containing residual solids and water). The fourth fraction is combined with the second fraction to produce a sludge which is separated into a fifth fraction (containing water which is ultimately reused) and a sixth fraction (containing solids). The third fraction is then separated into a seventh fraction (consisting of recovered solvent which is ultimately reused) and an eighth fraction (containing hydrocarbon waste).

Method for removing hydrocarbon contaminants from solid materials

DOEpatents

Bala, G.A.; Thomas, C.P.

1995-10-03

A system is described for removing hydrocarbons from solid materials. Contaminated solids are combined with a solvent (preferably terpene based) to produce a mixture. The mixture is washed with water to generate a purified solid product (which is removed from the system) and a drainage product. The drainage product is separated into a first fraction (consisting mostly of contaminated solvent) and a second fraction (containing solids and water). The first fraction is separated into a third fraction (consisting mostly of contaminated solvent) and a fourth fraction (containing residual solids and water). The fourth fraction is combined with the second fraction to produce a sludge which is separated into a fifth fraction (containing water which is ultimately reused) and a sixth fraction (containing solids). The third fraction is then separated into a seventh fraction (consisting of recovered solvent which is ultimately reused) and an eighth fraction (containing hydrocarbon waste). 4 figs.

Apparatus for removing hydrocarbon contaminants from solid materials

DOEpatents

Bala, G.A.; Thomas, C.P.

1996-02-13

A system is described for removing hydrocarbons from solid materials. Contaminated solids are combined with a solvent (preferably terpene based) to produce a mixture. The mixture is washed with water to generate a purified solid product (which is removed from the system) and a drainage product. The drainage product is separated into a first fraction (consisting mostly of contaminated solvent) and a second fraction (containing solids and water). The first fraction is separated into a third fraction (consisting mostly of contaminated solvent) and a fourth fraction (containing residual solids and water). The fourth fraction is combined with the second fraction to produce a sludge which is separated into a fifth fraction (containing water which is ultimately reused) and a sixth fraction (containing solids). The third fraction is then separated into a seventh fraction (consisting of recovered solvent which is ultimately reused) and an eighth fraction (containing hydrocarbon waste). 4 figs.

Apparatus for removing hydrocarbon contaminants from solid materials

DOEpatents

Bala, Gregory A.; Thomas, Charles P.

1996-01-01

A system for removing hydrocarbons from solid materials. Contaminated solids are combined with a solvent (preferably terpene based) to produce a mixture. The mixture is washed with water to generate a purified solid product (which is removed from the system) and a drainage product. The drainage product is separated into a first fraction (consisting mostly of contaminated solvent) and a second fraction (containing solids and water). The first fraction is separated into a third fraction (consisting mostly of contaminated solvent) and a fourth fraction (containing residual solids and water). The fourth fraction is combined with the second fraction to produce a sludge which is separated into a fifth fraction (containing water which is ultimately reused) and a sixth fraction (containing solids). The third fraction is then separated into a seventh fraction (consisting of recovered solvent which is ultimately reused) and an eighth fraction (containing hydrocarbon waste).

Quantitative assessment of distance to collection point and improved sorting information on source separation of household waste.

PubMed

Rousta, Kamran; Bolton, Kim; Lundin, Magnus; Dahlén, Lisa

2015-06-01

The present study measures the participation of households in a source separation scheme and, in particular, if the household's application of the scheme improved after two interventions: (a) shorter distance to the drop-off point and (b) easy access to correct sorting information. The effect of these interventions was quantified and, as far as possible, isolated from other factors that can influence the recycling behaviour. The study was based on households located in an urban residential area in Sweden, where waste composition studies were performed before and after the interventions by manual sorting (pick analysis). Statistical analyses of the results indicated a significant decrease (28%) of packaging and newsprint in the residual waste after establishing a property close collection system (intervention (a)), as well as significant decrease (70%) of the miss-sorted fraction in bags intended for food waste after new information stickers were introduced (intervention (b)). Providing a property close collection system to collect more waste fractions as well as finding new communication channels for information about sorting can be used as tools to increase the source separation ratio. This contribution also highlights the need to evaluate the effects of different types of information and communication concerning sorting instructions in a property close collection system. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mechanical-biological treatment: performance and potentials. An LCA of 8 MBT plants including waste characterization.

PubMed

Montejo, Cristina; Tonini, Davide; Márquez, María del Carmen; Astrup, Thomas Fruergaard

2013-10-15

In the endeavour of avoiding presence of biodegradable waste in landfills and increasing recycling, mechanical-biological treatment (MBT) plants have seen a significant increase in number and capacity in the last two decades. The aim of these plants is separating and stabilizing the quickly biodegradable fraction of the waste as well as recovering recyclables from mixed waste streams. In this study the environmental performance of eight MBT-based waste management scenarios in Spain was assessed by means of life cycle assessment. The focus was on the technical and environmental performance of the MBT plants. These widely differed in type of biological treatment and recovery efficiencies. The results indicated that the performance is strongly connected with energy and materials recovery efficiency. The recommendation for upgrading and/or commissioning of future plants is to optimize materials recovery through increased automation of the selection and to prioritize biogas-electricity production from the organic fraction over direct composting. The optimal strategy for refuse derived fuel (RDF) management depends upon the environmental compartment to be prioritized and the type of marginal electricity source in the system. It was estimated that, overall, up to ca. 180-190 kt CO2-eq. y(-1) may be saved by optimizing the MBT plants under assessment. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Determining the biomass fraction of mixed waste fuels: A comparison of existing industry and {sup 14}C-based methodologies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Muir, G.K.P., E-mail: Graham.Muir@glasgow.ac.uk; Hayward, S.; Tripney, B.G.

2015-01-15

Highlights: • Compares industry standard and {sup 14}C methods for determining bioenergy content of MSW. • Differences quantified through study at an operational energy from waste plant. • Manual sort and selective dissolution are unreliable measures of feedstock bioenergy. • {sup 14}C methods (esp. AMS) improve precision and reliability of bioenergy determination. • Implications for electricity generators and regulators for award of bio-incentives. - Abstract: {sup 14}C analysis of flue gas by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and liquid scintillation counting (LSC) were used to determine the biomass fraction of mixed waste at an operational energy-from-waste (EfW) plant. Results were convertedmore » to bioenergy (% total) using mathematical algorithms and assessed against existing industry methodologies which involve manual sorting and selective dissolution (SD) of feedstock. Simultaneous determinations using flue gas showed excellent agreement: 44.8 ± 2.7% for AMS and 44.6 ± 12.3% for LSC. Comparable bioenergy results were obtained using a feedstock manual sort procedure (41.4%), whilst a procedure based on selective dissolution of representative waste material is reported as 75.5% (no errors quoted). {sup 14}C techniques present significant advantages in data acquisition, precision and reliability for both electricity generator and industry regulator.« less

Physical and mechanical properties of mortars containing PET and PC waste aggregates.

PubMed

Hannawi, Kinda; Kamali-Bernard, Siham; Prince, William

2010-11-01

Non-biodegradable plastic aggregates made of polycarbonate (PC) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste are used as partial replacement of natural aggregates in mortar. Various volume fractions of sand 3%, 10%, 20% and 50% are replaced by the same volume of plastic. This paper investigates the physical and mechanical properties of the obtained composites. The main results of this study show the feasibility of the reuse of PC and PET waste aggregates materials as partial volume substitutes for natural aggregates in cementitious materials. Despite of some drawbacks like a decrease in compressive strength, the use of PC and PET waste aggregates presents various advantages. A reduction of the specific weight of the cementitious materials and a significant improvement of their post-peak flexural behaviour are observed. The calculated flexural toughness factors increase significantly with increasing volume fraction of PET and PC-aggregates. Thus, addition of PC and PET plastic aggregates in cementitious materials seems to give good energy absorbing materials which is very interesting for several civil engineering applications like structures subjected to dynamic or impact efforts. The present study has shown quite encouraging results and opened new way for the recycling of PC waste aggregate in cement and concrete composites. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Gypsum and organic matter distribution in a mixed construction and demolition waste sorting process and their possible removal from outputs.

PubMed

Montero, A; Tojo, Y; Matsuo, T; Matsuto, T; Yamada, M; Asakura, H; Ono, Y

2010-03-15

With insufficient source separation, construction and demolition (C&D) waste becomes a mixed material that is difficult to recycle. Treatment of mixed C&D waste generates residue that contains gypsum and organic matter and poses a risk of H(2)S formation in landfills. Therefore, removing gypsum and organic matter from the residue is vital. This study investigated the distribution of gypsum and organic matter in a sorting process. Heavy liquid separation was used to determine the density ranges in which gypsum and organic matter were most concentrated. The fine residue that was separated before shredding accounted for 27.9% of the waste mass and contained the greatest quantity of gypsum; therefore, most of the gypsum (52.4%) was distributed in this fraction. When this fine fraction was subjected to heavy liquid separation, 93% of the gypsum was concentrated in the density range of 1.59-2.28, which contained 24% of the total waste mass. Therefore, removing this density range after segregating fine particles should reduce the amount of gypsum sent to landfills. Organic matter tends to float as density increases; nevertheless, separation at 1.0 density could be more efficient. (c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Catalytic Pyrolysis of Waste Plastic Mixture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sembiring, Ferdianta; Wahyu Purnomo, Chandra; Purwono, Suryo

2018-03-01

Inorganic waste especially plastics still become a major problem in many places. Low biodegradability of this materials causes the effort in recycling become very difficult. Most of the municipal solid waste (MSW) recycling facilities in developing country only use composting method to recover the organic fraction of the waste, while the inorganic fraction is still untreated. By pyrolysis, plastic waste can be treated to produce liquid fuels, flammable gas and chars. Reduction in volume and utilization of the liquid and gas as fuel are the major benefits of the process. By heat integration actually this process can become a self-sufficient system in terms of energy demand. However, the drawback of this process is usually due to the diverse type of plastic in the MSW creating low grade of liquid fuel and harmful gases. In this study, the mixture of plastics i.e. polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is treated using pyrolysis with catalyst in several operating temperature. PET is problematic to be treated using pyrolysis due to wax-like byproduct in liquid which may cause pipe clogging. The catalyst is the mixture of natural zeolite and bentonite which is able to handle PP and PET mixture feed to produce high grade liquid fuels in terms of calorific value and other fuel properties.

Comparative Analysis of the Possibility to Use Urban Organic Waste for Compost or Biogas Productions. Application to Rosario City, Argentina

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Piacentini, Rubén D.; Vega, Marcelo

2017-10-01

The city waste is one of the main urban problems to be solved, since they generate large impacts on the environment, like use of land, contamination of the soil, water and air, and human diseases, among others. In Rosario city, placed in the Argentina Humid Pampa and having about 1 million inhabitants, the Municipality is developing different strategies in order to reduce the waste impact (295 000 Tons in 2016). One of the most important actions was the construction of the Bella Vista compost plant in 2012 (within the largest in South America). In the present work we analysed the possibility to use urban organic waste (that for Rosario city represents about 58% of the total waste in the last years) for: a) compost production and b) biogas production, with compost as a by-product. We determined the produced compost and biogas and the corresponding greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, considering three possible scenarios: A reference scenario (Sr ) where 24 100 Tons of urban solid waste per year is transported from the city houses and buildings to a transfer landfill and then to the a final disposal landfill; a scenario number one (S1 ) in which the same fraction of waste is transported to the Compost plant and transformed to compost and a scenario number two (S2 ) where the same quantity of waste is used for the production of biogas (and compost). Applying the IPCC 2006 Model, we compare the results of the annual GHG emissions, in order to select the best alternative: to expand the Compost plant or to build a Biogas (plus compost) plant. We also discussed the extension of the present analysis to the situation in which all the capability of the Compost plant (25% of the 2016 waste production of the city) is used and the impact these plants are having for a better quality of life of persons involved in the informal waste activity.

The Best-of-2-Worlds philosophy: developing local dismantling and global infrastructure network for sustainable e-waste treatment in emerging economies.

PubMed

Wang, Feng; Huisman, Jaco; Meskers, Christina E M; Schluep, Mathias; Stevels, Ab; Hagelüken, Christian

2012-11-01

E-waste is a complex waste category containing both hazardous and valuable substances. It demands for a cost-efficient treatment system which simultaneously liberates and refines target fractions in an environmentally sound way. In most developing countries there is a lack of systems covering all steps from disposal until final processing due to limited infrastructure and access to technologies and investment. This paper introduces the 'Best-of-2-Worlds' philosophy (Bo2W), which provides a network and pragmatic solution for e-waste treatment in emerging economies. It seeks technical and logistic integration of 'best' pre-processing in developing countries to manually dismantle e-waste and 'best' end-processing to treat hazardous and complex fractions in international state-of-the-art end-processing facilities. A series of dismantling trials was conducted on waste desktop computers, IT equipment, large and small household appliances, in order to compare the environmental and economic performances of the Bo2W philosophy with other conventional recycling scenarios. The assessment showed that the performance of the Bo2W scenario is more eco-efficient than mechanical separation scenarios and other local treatment solutions. For equipment containing substantial hazardous substances, it demands the assistance from domestic legislation for mandatory removal and safe handling of such fractions together with proper financing to cover the costs. Experience from Bo2W pilot projects in China and India highlighted key societal factors influencing successful implementation. These include market size, informal competitors, availability of national e-waste legislation, formal take-back systems, financing and trust between industrial players. The Bo2W philosophy can serve as a pragmatic and environmentally responsible transition before establishment of end-processing facilities in developing countries is made feasible. The executive models of Bo2W should be flexibly differentiated for various countries by adjusting to local conditions related to operational scale, level of centralized operations, dismantling depth, combination with mechanical processing and optimized logistics to international end-processors. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Efficient conversion of brown grease produced by municipal wastewater treatment plant into biofuel using aluminium chloride hexahydrate under very mild conditions.

PubMed

Pastore, Carlo; Lopez, Antonio; Mascolo, Giuseppe

2014-03-01

Wastes produced by oil/water separation at the wastewater treatment plant of Bari West (Southern Italy) were taken, characterized and converted. About 12% of this material was composed of greases, mainly made of free fatty acids (50%) and soaps (34%), and was easily separable by the aqueous phase through a hot centrifugation. After chemical activation of this fatty fraction, a direct esterification was carried out under very mild conditions (320K and atmospheric pressure), converting more than 90% of the original free fatty acids into the respective methyl esters in less than 4h, by using AlCl3·6H2O. The activation energy correlated to the use of this catalyst was also calculated (Eaest=43.9kJmol(-1)). The very low cost of the biodiesel produced (0.45€L(-1)) and the associated relevant specific energy (5.02MJ kgFAMEs(-1)) make such a process a really sustainable and effective example of valorization of a waste. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Changes in microbial community during hydrogen and methane production in two-stage thermophilic anaerobic co-digestion process from biowaste.

PubMed

Zahedi, S; Solera, R; Micolucci, F; Cavinato, C; Bolzonella, D

2016-03-01

In this paper, the microbial community in a two-phase thermophilic anaerobic co-digestion process was investigated for its role in hydrogen and methane production, treating waste activated sludge and treating the organic fraction of municipal solid waste. In the acidogenic phase, in which hydrogen is produced, Clostridium sp. clusters represented 76% of total Firmicutes. When feeding the acidogenic effluent into the methanogenic reactors, these acidic conditions negatively influenced methanogenic microorganisms: Methanosaeta sp., (Methanobacteriales, Methanomicrobiales, Methanococcales) decreased by 75%, 50%, 38% and 52%, respectively. At the same time, methanogenic digestion lowered the numbers of Clostridium sp. clusters due to both pH increasing and substrate reduction, and an increase in both Firmicutes genera (non Clostridium) and methanogenic microorganisms, especially Methanosaeta sp. (208%). This was in accordance with the observed decrease in acetic (98%) and butyric (100%) acid contents. To ensure the activity of the acetate-utilizing methanogens (AUM) and the acetogens, high ratios of H2-utilizing methanogens (HUM)/AUM (3.6) were required. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

40 CFR 63.4910 - What notifications must I submit?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... need to submit copies of any test reports. (i) Mass fraction of organic HAP for one coating, for one thinner, and for one cleaning material. (ii) Volume fraction of coating solids for one coating. (iii... mass of organic HAP contained in the waste materials for which you are claiming an allowance in...

40 CFR 63.4910 - What notifications must I submit?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... need to submit copies of any test reports. (i) Mass fraction of organic HAP for one coating, for one thinner, and for one cleaning material. (ii) Volume fraction of coating solids for one coating. (iii... mass of organic HAP contained in the waste materials for which you are claiming an allowance in...

40 CFR 63.4910 - What notifications must I submit?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... need to submit copies of any test reports. (i) Mass fraction of organic HAP for one coating, for one thinner, and for one cleaning material. (ii) Volume fraction of coating solids for one coating. (iii... mass of organic HAP contained in the waste materials for which you are claiming an allowance in...

40 CFR Table Hh-4 to Subpart Hh of... - Landfill Methane Oxidation Fractions

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... gas sent off-site). If a single monitoring location is used to monitor volumetric flow and CH4... 40 Protection of Environment 21 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Landfill Methane Oxidation Fractions... (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) MANDATORY GREENHOUSE GAS REPORTING Municipal Solid Waste Landfills Pt...

Co-pyrolysis of polypropylene waste with Brazilian heavy oil.

PubMed

Assumpção, Luiz C F N; Carbonell, Montserrat M; Marques, Mônica R C

2011-01-01

To evaluate the chemical recycling of plastic residues, co-pyrolysis of polypropylene (PP) waste with Brazilian crude oil was evaluated varying the temperature (400°C to 500°C) and the amount of PP fed to the reactor. The co-pyrolysis of plastic waste in an inert atmosphere provided around 80% of oil pyrolytic, and of these, half represent the fraction of diesel oil. This study can be used as a reference in chemical recycling of plastics, specially associated with plastics co-pyrolysis.

Hydrothermal carbonization of autoclaved municipal solid waste pulp and anaerobically treated pulp digestate

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

In this study, the autoclaved organic fraction of municipal solid waste pulp (OFMSW) and the digestate from OFMSW pulp after anaerobic digestion (AD) were processed by hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) at 200, 250, and 300 °C for 30 min and 2 h. The focus of this work was to evaluate the potential fo...

Extraction and recovery of pectic fragments from citrus processing waste for co-production with ethanol

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Steam treatment of citrus processing waste (CPW) at 160°C followed by a rapid decompression (steam explosion) at either pH 2.8 or 4.5 provides an efficient and rapid fragmentation of protopectin in CPW and renders a large fraction of fragmented pectins, arabinans, galactans and arabinogalactans solu...

Indicators of waste management efficiency related to different territorial conditions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Passarini, Fabrizio, E-mail: fabrizio.passarini@unibo.it; Vassura, Ivano, E-mail: ivano.vassura@unibo.it; Monti, Francesco, E-mail: fmonti84@gmail.com

2011-04-15

The amount of waste produced and the control of separate collection are crucial issues for the planning of a territorial Integrated Waste Management System, enabling the allocation of each sorted waste fraction to the proper treatment and recycling processes. The present study focuses on assessing indicators of different waste management systems in areas characterized by different territorial conditions. The investigated case study concerns the municipalities of Emilia Romagna (northern Italy), which present a rather uniform socioeconomic situation, but a variety of geographic, urban and waste management characteristics. A survey of waste generation and collection rates was carried out, and correlatedmore » with the different territorial conditions, classifying the municipalities according to altitude and population density. The best environmental performances, in terms of high separate collection rate, were found on average in rural areas in the plain, while the lowest waste generation was associated with rural hill towns.« less

Leaching characteristics, ecotoxicity, and risk assessment based management of mine wastes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, J.; Ju, W. J.; Jho, E. H.; Nam, K.; Hong, J. K.

2016-12-01

Mine wastes generated during mining activities in metal mines generally contain high concentrations of metals that may impose toxic effects to surrounding environment. Thus, it is necessary to properly assess the mining-impacted landscapes for management. The study investigated leaching characteristics, potential environmental effects, and human health risk of mine wastes from three different metal mines in South Korea (molybdenum mine, lead-zinc mine, and magnetite mine). The heavy metal concentrations in the leachates obtained by using the Korean Standard Test Method for Solid Wastes (STM), Toxicity Characteristics Leaching Procedure (TCLP), and Synthetic Precipitation Leaching Procedure (SPLP) met the Korea Waste Control Act and the USEPA region 3 regulatory levels accordingly, even though the mine wastes contained high concentrations of metals. Assuming that the leachates may get into nearby water sources, the leachate toxicity was tested using Daphnia Magna. The toxic unit (TU) values after 24 h and 48 h exposure of all the mine wastes tested met the Korea Allowable Effluent Water Quality Standards (TU<1). The column leaching test showed that the lead-zinc mine waste may have long-term toxic effects (TU>1 for the eluent at L/S of 30) implying that the long-term effect of mine wastes left in mining areas need to be assessed. Considering reuse of mine wastes as a way of managing mine wastes, the human health risk assessment of reusing the lead-zinc mine waste in industrial areas was carried out using the bioavailable fraction of the heavy metals contained in the mine wastes, which was determined by using the Solubility/Bioavailability Research Consortium method. There may be potential carcinogenic risk (9.7E-05) and non-carcinogenic risk (HI, Hazard Index of 1.0E+00) as CR≧1.0E-05 has carcinogenic risk and HI≧1.0E+00 has non-carcinogenic risk. Overall, this study shows that not only the concentration-based assessment but ecological toxic effect and human health risk based assessments can be utilized for mining-impacted landscapes management.

Separation of the metallic and non-metallic fraction from printed circuit boards employing green technology.

PubMed

Estrada-Ruiz, R H; Flores-Campos, R; Gámez-Altamirano, H A; Velarde-Sánchez, E J

2016-07-05

The generation of electrical and electronic waste is increasing day by day; recycling is attractive because of the metallic fraction containing these. Nevertheless, conventional techniques are highly polluting. The comminution of the printed circuit boards followed by an inverse flotation process is a clean technique that allows one to separate the metallic fraction from the non-metallic fraction. It was found that particle size and superficial air velocity are the main variables in the separation of the different fractions. In this way an efficient separation is achieved by avoiding the environmental contamination coupled with the possible utilization of the different fractions obtained. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Waste valorization by biotechnological conversion into added value products.

PubMed

Liguori, Rossana; Amore, Antonella; Faraco, Vincenza

2013-07-01

Fossil fuel reserves depletion, global warming, unrelenting population growth, and costly and problematic waste recycling call for renewable resources of energy and consumer products. As an alternative to the 100 % oil economy, production processes based on biomass can be developed. Huge amounts of lignocellulosic wastes are yearly produced all around the world. They include agricultural residues, food farming wastes, "green-grocer's wastes," tree pruning residues, and organic and paper fraction of urban solid wastes. The common ways currently adopted for disposal of these wastes present environmental and economic disadvantages. As an alternative, processes for adding value to wastes producing high added products should be developed, that is the upgrading concept: adding value to wastes by production of a product with desired reproducible properties, having economic and ecological advantages. A wide range of high added value products, such as enzymes, biofuels, organic acids, biopolymers, bioelectricity, and molecules for food and pharmaceutical industries, can be obtained by upgrading solid wastes. The most recent advancements of their production by biotechnological processes are overviewed in this manuscript.

Anaerobic digestion of organic fraction of municipal solid waste combining two pretreatment modalities, high temperature microwave and hydrogen peroxide

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Shahriari, Haleh, E-mail: haleh.shahriari@gmail.com; Warith, Mostafa; Hamoda, Mohamed

2012-01-15

Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Microwave and H{sub 2}O{sub 2} pretreatment were studied to enhance anaerobic digestion of organic waste. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The whole waste pretreated at 115 Degree-Sign C or 145 Degree-Sign C had the highest biogas production. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Biogas production of the whole waste decreased at 175 Degree-Sign C due to formation of refractory compounds. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Pretreatment to 145 Degree-Sign C and 175 Degree-Sign C were the best when considering only the free liquid fraction. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer H{sub 2}O{sub 2} pretreatment had a lag phase and the biogas production was not higher than MW pretreated samples. - Abstract: In order to enhance anaerobicmore » digestion (AD) of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW), pretreatment combining two modalities, microwave (MW) heating in presence or absence of hydrogen peroxide (H{sub 2}O{sub 2}) were investigated. The main pretreatment variables affecting the characteristics of the OFMSW were temperature (T) via MW irradiation and supplemental water additions of 20% and 30% (SWA20 and SW30). Subsequently, the focus of this study was to evaluate mesophilic batch AD performance in terms of biogas production, as well as changes in the characteristics of the OFMSW post digestion. A high MW induced temperature range (115-175 Degree-Sign C) was applied, using sealed vessels and a bench scale MW unit equipped with temperature and pressure controls. Biochemical methane potential (BMP) tests were conducted on the whole OFMSW as well as the liquid fractions. The whole OFMSW pretreated at 115 Degree-Sign C and 145 Degree-Sign C showed 4-7% improvement in biogas production over untreated OFMSW (control). When pretreated at 175 Degree-Sign C, biogas production decreased due to formation of refractory compounds, inhibiting the digestion. For the liquid fraction of OFMSW, the effect of pretreatment on the cumulative biogas production (CBP) was more pronounced for SWA20 at 145 Degree-Sign C, with a 26% increase in biogas production after 8 days of digestion, compared to the control. When considering the increased substrate availability in the liquid fraction after MW pretreatment, a 78% improvement in biogas production vs. the control was achieved. Combining MW and H{sub 2}O{sub 2} modalities did not have a positive impact on OFMSW stabilization and enhanced biogas production. In general, all samples pretreated with H{sub 2}O{sub 2} displayed a long lag phase and the CBP was usually lower than MW irradiated only samples. First order rate constant was calculated.« less

Phytoavailability and fractions of iron and manganese in calcareous soil amended with composted urban wastes.

PubMed

Gallardo-Lara, Francisco; Azcón, Mariano; Polo, Alfredo

2006-01-01

Little is known about the effects of applying composted urban wastes on the phytoavailability and distribution of iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn) among chemical fractions in soil. In order to study this concern several experiments in pots containing calcareous soil were carried out. The received treatments by adding separately two rates (20 and 80 Mg ha-1) of municipal solid waste (MSW) compost and/or municipal solid waste and sewage sludge (MSW-SS) co-compost. The cropping sequence was a lettuce crop followed by a barley crop. It was observed that treatments amended with composted urban wastes tended to promote slight increases in lettuce yield compared to the control. The highest Fe levels in lettuce were found when higher rates of MSW-SS co-compost were applied; these values were significant compared to those obtained in the other treatments. In all cases, the application of organic materials increased the concentration and uptake of Mn in lettuce compared to the control; however, these increases were significant only when higher rates of MSW compost were applied. The organic amendments had beneficial delayed effects on barley yields, showing, in most cases, significant increases compared to the control. In this context, treatments with MSW compost were found to be more effective than the equivalent treatments amended with MSW-SS co-compost. Compared to the control, composted urban wastes increased Fe concentration in straw and rachis, and decreased Fe concentration in barley grain. Similarly, a decreased concentration of Mn in the dry matter of barley crop grown in soils treated with composted urban wastes was observed.

Food flows in the United Kingdom: The potential of surplus food redistribution to reduce waste.

PubMed

Facchini, Elisa; Iacovidou, Eleni; Gronow, Jan; Voulvoulis, Nikolaos

2017-12-07

The increasing amount of food waste generated as a direct consequence of its excessive production, mismanagement, and wasteful behaviors represents a real challenge in promoting resource efficiency. In the United Kingdom (UK), the lack of robust mass flow data hinders the ability both to understand and address food waste challenges and to devise long-term sustainable prevention strategies. In recognition of these challenges, this paper seeks to (i) provide insights into the UK's annual estimates of food mass flows, including imports, exports, distribution, consumption, surplus food production, and final disposal; and (ii) scrutinize the uptake and redistribution of surplus food as a potential food waste prevention strategy. Evidence collected from several enterprises and community-led initiatives in the UK, and London specifically, supports that there is an increasing potential of making a shift towards food redistribution and reuse. Further analysis has shown that the outreach of food redistribution initiatives in the UK is currently limited, possibly because redistribution efforts remain largely fragmented and independent from each other. It is concluded that a national commitment could be instrumental in encouraging the roll-out of this practice, and governmental support through fiscal incentives could lead to the development of a larger and coherent surplus food redistribution system, ultimately enabling food waste prevention and recovery of food's multidimensional value. This paper deals with the topical issue of the increasing amount of food waste generated as a direct consequence of excessive production, mismanagement, and wasteful behavior, representing a real challenge in achieving sustainability and resource efficiency. Currently, only a small fraction of food is redistributed back into the system. Yet, a considerable fraction of food waste generated is edible; thus, better planning, storage, and coordination amongst the different stakeholders in the food supply chain is required in order to prevent its wastage and promote its reuse in accordance with the waste hierarchy.

Experimental evidence of colloids and nanoparticles presence from 25 waste leachates

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hennebert, Pierre, E-mail: pierre.hennebert@ineris.fr; Avellan, Astrid; Yan, Junfang

Highlights: • This work is the first assessment of colloids in waste leachates. • Analytical methods are proposed and discussed. • All the waste have at least one element in colloidal form, and some elements are always colloidal. • Man-made nanoparticles are observed. • It can change the interpretation of leachate elemental concentration. - Abstract: The potential colloids release from a large panel of 25 solid industrial and municipal waste leachates, contaminated soil, contaminated sediments and landfill leachates was studied. Standardized leaching, cascade filtrations and measurement of element concentrations in the microfiltrate (MF) and ultrafiltrate (UF) fraction were used tomore » easily detect colloids potentially released by waste. Precautions against CO{sub 2} capture by alkaline leachates, or bacterial re-growth in leachates from wastes containing organic matter should be taken. Most of the colloidal particles were visible by transmission electron microscopy with energy dispersion spectrometry (TEM–EDS) if their elemental MF concentration is greater than 200 μg l{sup −1}. If the samples are dried during the preparation for microscopy, neoformation of particles can occur from the soluble part of the element. Size distribution analysis measured by photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS) were frequently unvalid, particularly due to polydispersity and/or too low concentrations in the leachates. A low sensitivity device is required, and further improvement is desirable in that field. For some waste leachates, particles had a zeta potential strong enough to remain in suspension. Mn, As, Co, Pb, Sn, Zn had always a colloidal form (MF concentration/UF concentration > 1.5) and total organic carbon (TOC), Fe, P, Ba, Cr, Cu, Ni are partly colloidal for more than half of the samples). Nearly all the micro-pollutants (As, Ba, Co, Cr, Cu, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sb, Sn, V and Zn) were found at least once in colloidal form greater than 100 μg l{sup −1}. In particular, the colloidal forms of Zn were always by far more concentrated than its dissolved form. The TEM–EDS method showed various particles, including manufactured nanoparticles (organic polymer, TiO{sub 2}, particles with Sr, La, Ce, Nd). All the waste had at least one element detected as colloidal. The solid waste leachates contained significant amount of colloids different in elemental composition from natural ones. The majority of the elements were in colloidal form for wastes of packaging (3), a steel slag, a sludge from hydrometallurgy, composts (2), a dredged sediment (#18), an As contaminated soil and two active landfill leachates. These results showed that cascade filtration and ICP elemental analysis seems valid methods in this field, and that electronic microscopy with elemental detection allows to identify particles. Particles can be formed from dissolved elements during TEM sample preparation and cross-checking with MF and UF composition by ICP is useful. The colloidal fraction of leachate of waste seems to be a significant source term, and should be taken into account in studies of emission and transfer of contaminants in the environment. Standardized cross-filtration method could be amended for the presence of colloids in waste leachates.« less

Examining of solid waste generation and community awareness between city center and suburban area in Medan City, Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khair, H.; Putri, C. N.; Dalimunthe, R. A.; Matsumoto, T.

2018-02-01

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management is still an issue in many cities in Indonesia including Medan. Understanding the waste generation, its characteristic and communities involvement could provide effective solid waste management. This research compares waste generation from people who live in the city center and suburban area. The research also examines the willingness and participation of community about environmental aspect, especially solid waste management. The method of waste generation used Indonesian Nasional Standard 19-3964-1994. The city center generates 0.295 kg/person/day of solid waste and 0.180 kg/person/day for suburbs. The result showed that there are the common amount of waste compositions between the city center and suburban area. The majority waste composition was an organic fraction. Questionnaires were distributed to examine the community awareness. The descriptive statistic used to analyze the data. The result showed that people living in the city center are slightly higher in community awareness than in the suburb. This paper highlights that area of living could give some effect to solid waste generation, waste composition and rate of awareness.

Alternative polymer separation technology by centrifugal force in a melted state

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dobrovszky, Károly; Ronkay, Ferenc, E-mail: ronkay@pt.bme.hu

2014-11-15

Highlights: • Waste separation should take place at high purity. • Developed a novel, alternative separation method, where the separation occurred in a melted state by centrifugal forces. • Possibility of separation two different plastics into neat fractions. • High purity fractions were established at granulates and also at prefabricated blend. • Results were verified by DSC, optical microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. - Abstract: In order to upgrade polymer waste during recycling, separation should take place at high purity. The present research was aimed to develop a novel, alternative separation opportunity, where the polymer fractions were separated by centrifugal forcemore » in melted state. The efficiency of the constructed separation equipment was verified by two immiscible plastics (polyethylene terephthalate, PET; low density polyethylene, LDPE), which have a high difference of density, and of which large quantities can also be found in the municipal solid waste. The results show that the developed equipment is suitable not only for separating dry blended mixtures of PET/LDPE into pure components again, but also for separating prefabricated polymer blends. By this process it becomes possible to recover pure polymer substances from multi-component products during the recycling process. The adequacy of results was verified by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurement as well as optical microscopy and Raman spectroscopy.« less

Recycling potential of post-consumer plastic packaging waste in Finland.

PubMed

Dahlbo, Helena; Poliakova, Valeria; Mylläri, Ville; Sahimaa, Olli; Anderson, Reetta

2018-01-01

Recycling of plastics is urged by the need for closing material loops to maintain our natural resources when striving towards circular economy, but also by the concern raced by observations of plastic scrap in oceans and lakes. Packaging industry is the sector using the largest share of plastics, hence packaging dominates in the plastic waste flow. The aim of this paper was to sum up the recycling potential of post-consumer plastic packaging waste in Finland. This potential was evaluated based on the quantity, composition and mechanical quality of the plastic packaging waste generated by consumers and collected as a source-separated fraction, within the mixed municipal solid waste (MSW) or within energy waste. Based on the assessment 86,000-117,000 tons (18 kg/person/a) of post-consumer plastic packaging waste was generated in Finland in 2014. The majority, 84% of the waste was in the mixed MSW flow in 2014. Due to the launching of new sorting facilities and separate collections for post-consumer plastic packaging in 2016, almost 40% of the post-consumer plastic packaging could become available for recycling. However, a 50% recycling rate for post-consumer plastic packaging (other than PET bottles) would be needed to increase the overall MSW recycling rate from the current 41% by around two percentage points. The share of monotype plastics in the overall MSW plastics fraction was 80%, hence by volume the recycling potential of MSW plastics is high. Polypropylene (PP) and low density polyethylene (LDPE) were the most common plastic types present in mixed MSW, followed by polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polystyrene (PS) and high density polyethylene (HDPE). If all the Finnish plastic packaging waste collected through the three collection types would be available for recycling, then 19,000-25,000 tons of recycled PP and 6000-8000 tons of recycled HDPE would be available on the local market. However, this assessment includes uncertainties due to performing the composition study only on mixed MSW plastic fraction. In order to obtain more precise figures of the recycling potential of post-consumer plastic packaging, more studies should be performed on both the quantities and the qualities of plastic wastes. The mechanical and rheological test results indicated that even plastic wastes originating from the mixed MSW, can be useful raw materials. Recycled HDPE showed a smaller decline in the mechanical properties than recycled PP. The origin and processing method of waste plastic seemed to have less effect on the mechanical quality than the type of plastic. The applicability of a plastic waste for a product needs to be assessed case by case, due to product specific quality requirements. In addition to mechanical properties, the chemical composition of plastic wastes is of major importance, in order to be able to restrict hazardous substances from being circulated undesirably. In addition to quantity and quality of plastic wastes, the sustainability of the whole recycling chain needs to be assessed prior to launching operations so that the chain can be optimized to generate both environmental and economic benefits to society and operators. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Environmental Geochemistry and Acid Mine Drainage Evaluation of an Abandoned Coal Waste Pile at the Alborz-Sharghi Coal Washing Plant, NE Iran

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jodeiri Shokri, Behshad, E-mail: b.jodeiri@hut.ac.ir; Doulati Ardejani, Faramarz; Ramazi, Hamidreza

In this paper, an abandoned waste coal pile, which is resulted from Alborz-Sharghi coal washing plant, NE of Iran was mineralogically and geochemically characterized to evaluate pyrite oxidation, acid mine drainage (AMD) generation, and trace element mobility. After digging ten trenches and vertical sampling, a quantitative method including the atomic absorption test, and the quality-based methods including optical study were carried out for determination of pyrite fractions in the waste pile. The geochemical results revealed that the fraction of remaining pyrite increased with depth, indicating that pyrite oxidation is limited to the shallower depths of the pile which were confirmedmore » by variations of sulfate, pH, EC, and carbonate with depth of the pile. To evaluate the trend of trace elements and mineralogical constituents of the waste particles, the samples were analyzed by using XRD, ICP-MS, and ICP-OES methods. The results showed the secondary and neutralizing minerals comprising gypsum have been formed below the oxidation zone. Besides, positive values of net neutralization potential indicated that AMD generation has not taken in the waste pile. In addition, variations of trace elements with depth reveal that Pb and Zn exhibited increasing trends from pile surface toward the bottom sampling trenches while another of them such as Cu and Ni had decreasing trends with increasing depth of the waste pile.« less

Quantification of chemical contaminants in the paper and board fractions of municipal solid waste.

PubMed

Pivnenko, K; Olsson, M E; Götze, R; Eriksson, E; Astrup, T F

2016-05-01

Chemicals are used in materials as additives in order to improve the performance of the material or the production process itself. The presence of these chemicals in recyclable waste materials may potentially affect the recyclability of the materials. The addition of chemicals may vary depending on the production technology or the potential end-use of the material. Paper has been previously shown to potentially contain a large variety of chemicals. Quantitative data on the presence of chemicals in paper are necessary for appropriate waste paper management, including the recycling and re-processing of paper. However, a lack of quantitative data on the presence of chemicals in paper is evident in the literature. The aim of the present work is to quantify the presence of selected chemicals in waste paper derived from households. Samples of paper and board were collected from Danish households, including both residual and source-segregated materials, which were disposed of (e.g., through incineration) and recycled, respectively. The concentration of selected chemicals was quantified for all of the samples. The quantified chemicals included mineral oil hydrocarbons, phthalates, phenols, polychlorinated biphenyls, and selected toxic metals (Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, and Pb). The results suggest large variations in the concentration of chemicals depending on the waste paper fraction analysed. Research on the fate of chemicals in waste recycling and potential problem mitigation measures should be focused on in further studies. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The effects of different mixing intensities during anaerobic digestion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lindmark, Johan, E-mail: Johan.lindmark@mdh.se; Eriksson, Per; Thorin, Eva, E-mail: Eva.Thorin@mdh.se

2014-08-15

Highlights: • Effects of mixing on the anaerobic digestion of municipal solid waste. • Digestion of fresh substrate and post-digestion at three mixing intensities were evaluated. • Mixing performed at 150 RPM, 25 RPM and minimally intermittently. • Increased biogas production rates and yields at lower mixing intensities. - Abstract: Mixing inside an anaerobic digester is often continuous and is not actively controlled. The selected mixing regime can however affect both gas production and the energy efficiency of the biogas plant. This study aims to evaluate these effects and compare three different mixing regimes, 150 RPM and 25 RPM continuousmore » mixing and minimally intermittent mixing for both digestion of fresh substrate and post-digestion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste. The results show that a lower mixing intensity leads to a higher biogas production rate and higher total biogas production in both cases. 25 RPM continuous mixing and minimally intermittent mixing resulted in similar biogas production after process stabilization, while 150 RPM continuous mixing resulted in lower production throughout the experiment. The lower gas production at 150 RPM could not be explained by the inhibition of volatile fatty acids. Cumulative biogas production until day 31 was 295 ± 2.9, 317 ± 1.9 and 304 ± 2.8 N ml/g VS added during digestion of fresh feed and 113 ± 1.3, 134 ± 1.1 and 130 ± 2.3 N ml/g VS added during post digestion for the 150 RPM, 25 RPM and minimally mixed intensities respectively. As well as increasing gas production, optimal mixing can improve the energy efficiency of the anaerobic digestion process.« less

Biosorption studies on waste cotton seed for cationic dyes sequestration: equilibrium and thermodynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sivarajasekar, N.; Baskar, R.; Ragu, T.; Sarika, K.; Preethi, N.; Radhika, T.

2017-07-01

The immature Gossypium hirsutum seeds—an agricultural waste was converted into a novel adsorbent and its effectiveness for cationic dyes removal was discussed in this study. Characterization revealed that sulfuric acid activated waste Gossypium hirsutum seed (WGSAB) contains surface area 496 m2 g-1. The ability of WGSAB to adsorb basic red 2 (BR2) and basic violet 3 (BV3) from aqueous solutions has been studied. Batch adsorption studies were carried out at different initial dye concentrations (100-300 mg l-1), contact time (1-5 h), pH (2-12) and temperature (293-323 K) to understand the adsorption mechanism. Adsorption data were modeled using Langmuir, Freundlich and Toth adsorption isotherms. Equilibrium data of the adsorption process fitted very well to the Toth model for both dyes. The Langmuir maximum adsorption capacity was 66.69 mg g-1 for BV3 and 50.11 mg g-1 for BR2 at optimum conditions. The near unity value of Toth isotherm constant (BR2: 0.999 and BV3: 1.0) indicates that WGSAB surface is heterogeneous in nature. The maximum adsorption capacity predicted by Toth isotherm of BV3 (66.699 mg g-1) is higher than BR2 (50.310 mg g-1). The kinetic investigation revealed that the BR2 and BV3 were chemisorbed on WGSAB surface following Avrami fractional order kinetics. Further, the fractional order and rate constant values are almost similar for every concentration in both the dyes. The thermodynamic parameters such as Δ H 0, Δ S 0 and Δ G 0 were evaluated. The dye adsorption process was found to be spontaneous and endothermic for the two dyes. Regeneration of WGSAB exhausted by the two dyes could be possible via acetic acid as elutant.

40 CFR 63.4710 - What notifications must I submit?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

...). You do not need to submit copies of any test reports. (i) Mass fraction of organic HAP for one coating, for one thinner, and for one cleaning material. (ii) Volume fraction of coating solids for one coating... and the mass of organic HAP contained in the waste materials for which you are claiming an allowance...

Fermented Citrus reticulata (ponkan) fruit squeezed draff that contains a large amount of 4'-demethylnobiletin prevents MK801-induced memory impairment.

PubMed

Kawahata, Ichiro; Suzuki, Tatsuya; Rico, Evelyn Gutiérrez; Kusano, Shuichi; Tamura, Hiroshi; Mimaki, Yoshihiro; Yamakuni, Tohru

2017-10-01

A previous study reported biotransformation of a citrus peel polymethoxyflavone, nobiletin, by Aspergillus enabling production of 4'-demethylnobiletin, and the product's antimutagenic activity. However, the effects of fermented citrus peel on the basal forebrain-hippocampal system remain unidentified. Citrus reticulata (ponkan) fruit squeezed draffs are generated as mass waste in beverage factories. In this study using PC12D cells and cultured central nervous system neurons, we therefore examined whether Aspergillus kawachii-fermented citrus fruit squeezed draff could affect cAMP response element (CRE)- and choline acetyltransferase gene (ChAT) promoter region-mediated transcriptional activities relevant to memory formation and cholinergic function. Our current fermentation yielded approximately 80% nobiletin bioconversion, and a sample of hot-water extract of the fermented fruit squeezed draff was stronger than that of the unfermented one in facilitating CRE-mediated transcription in cultured hippocampal neurons as well as in PC12D cells. A sample of 0-80% ethanol-eluted fraction of Diaion HP-20 column-adsorbed components of the preparation obtained by the fermentation concentration-dependently and more strongly facilitated CRE-mediated transcription than did the fraction of the unfermented one in both cell culture systems. In a separate study, this polymethoxyflavone-rich fraction of the fermented fruit squeezed draff showed a potent ability to facilitate CRE-mediated and ChAT transcription in a co-culture of hippocampal neurons and basal forebrain neurons. Repeated oral gavage of mice with the fermented fraction sample prevented MK801-impaired memory formation in mice. These findings suggest that the 4'-demethylnobiletin-rich fraction prepared from the Aspergillus-fermented ponkan squeezed draff has a potential anti-dementia effect.

Copper induction and differential expression of laccase in Aspergillus flavus

PubMed Central

Gomaa, Ola M.; Momtaz, Osama A.

2015-01-01

Aspergillus flavus was isolated from soil and exhibited laccase activity under both constitutive and copper induced conditions. Spiking the medium with 1 mM copper sulfate resulted in an increase in the activity which reached 51.84 U/mL, a distinctive protein band was detected at 60 kDa. The extracellular enzyme was purified 81 fold using gel filtration chromatography and resulted in two different laccase fractions L1 and L2, the latter had a higher enzymatic activity which reached 79.57 U/mL and specific activity of 64.17 U/μg protein. The analysis of the spectrum of the L2 fraction showed a shoulder at 330 nm which is characteristic for T2/T3 copper centers; both copper and zinc were detected suggesting that this is an unconventional white laccase. Primers of laccase gene were designed and synthesized to recover specific gene from A. flavus . Sequence analysis indicated putative laccase (Genbank ID: JF683612) at the amino acid level suggesting a close identity to laccases from other genera containing the copper binding site. Decolorization of textile waste water under different conditions showed possible application in bioremediation within a short period of time. The effect of copper on A. flavus was concentration dependent. PMID:26221119

A pilot-scale steam autoclave system for treating municipal solid waste for recovery of renewable organic content: Operational results and energy usage

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

A pilot-scale (1800'kg per batch capacity) autoclave used in this study reduces municipal solid waste to a debris contaminated pulp product that is efficiently separated into its renewable organic content and non-renewable organic content fractions using a rotary trommel screen. The renewable organi...

A novel approach of anaerobic co-digestion between organic fraction of food waste and waste sludge from municipal wastewater treatment plant: Effect of mixing ratio

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nga, Dinh Thi; Ngoc, Tran Thi Minh; Van Ty, Nguyen; Thuan, Van Tan

2017-09-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of mixing ratio of co-anaerobic digestion between dewatered waste sludge from municipal wastewater treatment plant (DS) and organic fraction of food waste (FW). The experiment was carried out in 3L reactors for 16 days at ambient temperature. Four mixing ratios of DW and FW was investigated including 100 % DS : 0 % FW (Run S100); 75% DS : 25 % FW (Run S75); 50% DS : 50% FW (Run S50); and 25% DS : 75% FW (Run S25) in term of VS concentration. As a result, the Run S50 achieved best performance among the four funs indicated in biogas accumulation of 32.48 L biogas and methane yield of 358.9 400ml CH4/g VS removal after 16 days operation at ambient temperature. Biogas accumulation of Run S25 was higher than that of Run S75. Run S100 produced the lowest of biogas of all runs. It is concluded that co-anaerobic digestion of different organic sources could enhance the performance of methane fermentation.

Interval linear programming model for long-term planning of vehicle recycling in the Republic of Serbia under uncertainty.

PubMed

Simic, Vladimir; Dimitrijevic, Branka

2015-02-01

An interval linear programming approach is used to formulate and comprehensively test a model for optimal long-term planning of vehicle recycling in the Republic of Serbia. The proposed model is applied to a numerical case study: a 4-year planning horizon (2013-2016) is considered, three legislative cases and three scrap metal price trends are analysed, availability of final destinations for sorted waste flows is explored. Potential and applicability of the developed model are fully illustrated. Detailed insights on profitability and eco-efficiency of the projected contemporary equipped vehicle recycling factory are presented. The influences of the ordinance on the management of end-of-life vehicles in the Republic of Serbia on the vehicle hulks procuring, sorting generated material fractions, sorted waste allocation and sorted metals allocation decisions are thoroughly examined. The validity of the waste management strategy for the period 2010-2019 is tested. The formulated model can create optimal plans for procuring vehicle hulks, sorting generated material fractions, allocating sorted waste flows and allocating sorted metals. Obtained results are valuable for supporting the construction and/or modernisation process of a vehicle recycling system in the Republic of Serbia. © The Author(s) 2015.

Pyrolysis of waste tyres: a review.

PubMed

Williams, Paul T

2013-08-01

Approximately 1.5 billion tyres are produced each year which will eventually enter the waste stream representing a major potential waste and environmental problem. However, there is growing interest in pyrolysis as a technology to treat tyres to produce valuable oil, char and gas products. The most common reactors used are fixed-bed (batch), screw kiln, rotary kiln, vacuum and fluidised-bed. The key influence on the product yield, and gas and oil composition, is the type of reactor used which in turn determines the temperature and heating rate. Tyre pyrolysis oil is chemically very complex containing aliphatic, aromatic, hetero-atom and polar fractions. The fuel characteristics of the tyre oil shows that it is similar to a gas oil or light fuel oil and has been successfully combusted in test furnaces and engines. The main gases produced from the pyrolysis of waste tyres are H(2), C(1)-C(4) hydrocarbons, CO(2), CO and H(2)S. Upgrading tyre pyrolysis products to high value products has concentrated on char upgrading to higher quality carbon black and to activated carbon. The use of catalysts to upgrade the oil to a aromatic-rich chemical feedstock or the production of hydrogen from waste tyres has also been reported. Examples of commercial and semi-commercial scale tyre pyrolysis systems show that small scale batch reactors and continuous rotary kiln reactors have been developed to commercial scale. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Annual budget of Gd and related Rare Earth Elements in a river basin heavily disturbed by anthropogenic activities.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hissler, Christophe; Stille, Peter; Guignard, Cédric; François Iffly, Jean; Pfister, Laurent

2014-05-01

The real environmental impact of micropollutants in river systems can be difficult to assess, essentially due to uncertainties in the estimation of the relative significance of both anthropogenic and natural sources. The natural geochemical background is characterized by important variations at global, regional or local scales. Moreover, elements currently considered to be undisturbed by human activities and used as tracers of continental crust derived material have become more and more involved in industrial or agricultural processes. The global production of lanthanides (REE), used in industry, medicine and agriculture, for instance, has increased exponentially from a few tons in 1950 to projected 185 kt in 2015. Consequently, these new anthropogenic contributions impact the natural cycle of the REE. Gd and related REE are now worldwide recognized as emergent micropollutants in river systems. Nevertheless, there is still a gap concerning their temporal dynamics in rivers and especially the quantification of both the anthropogenic and natural contributions in surface water. The acquisition of such quantitative information is of primordial interest because elements from both origins may present different bioavailability and toxicity levels. Working at the river basin scale allows for quantifying micropollutant fluxes. For this reason, we monitored water quality and discharge of the Alzette River (Luxembourg, Europe) over two complete hydrological cycles (2010-2013). The substantial contamination, is principally due to the steel industry in the basin, which has been active from 1875 until now, and to the related increase of urban areas. The particulate and dissolved fractions of river water were monitored using a multitracer approach (standard parameters for water quality including REE concentrations, Pb, Sr, Nd radiogenic isotopes) with two sampling setups (bi-weekly and flood event based sampling). This extensive sampling design allowed quantifying the annual budget of the REE in the particulate and dissolved fractions of the river water and the waste water treatment plant effluents. Enrichments in Gd have been observed for the dissolved fraction of the water during low water levels. This enrichment has not been detected in the surrounding soils of the basin and can be related to the effluents of the waste water treatment plants, which control the REE chemistry of the dissolved fraction during the low water period. When flood events occur, the Gd anomaly progressively disappears and gives way to the chemical signature of the basin soils. The REE and intense hydrological monitoring we performed at the same time allowed for the annual quantification of the anthropogenic vs. natural REE fluxes in the river water of this heavily polluted basin.

Characteristics of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste and methane production: A review.

PubMed

Campuzano, Rosalinda; González-Martínez, Simón

2016-08-01

Anaerobic digestion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) is a viable alternative for waste stabilization and energy recovery. Biogas production mainly depends on the type and amount of organic macromolecules. Based on results from different authors analysing OFMSW from different cities, this paper presents the importance of knowing the OFMSW composition to understand how anaerobic digestion can be used to produce methane. This analysis describes and discusses physical, chemical and bromatological characteristics of OFMSW reported by several authors from different countries and cities and their relationship to methane production. The main conclusion is that the differences are country and not city dependant. Cultural habits and OFMSW management systems do not allow a generalisation but the individual analysis for specific cities allow understanding the general characteristics for a better methane production. Not only are the OFMSW characteristics important but also the conditions under which the methane production tests were performed. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Process for removing thorium and recovering vanadium from titanium chlorinator waste

DOEpatents

Olsen, Richard S.; Banks, John T.

1996-01-01

A process for removal of thorium from titanium chlorinator waste comprising: (a) leaching an anhydrous titanium chlorinator waste in water or dilute hydrochloric acid solution and filtering to separate insoluble minerals and coke fractions from soluble metal chlorides; (b) beneficiating the insoluble fractions from step (a) on shaking tables to recover recyclable or otherwise useful TiO.sub.2 minerals and coke; and (c) treating filtrate from step (a) with reagents to precipitate and remove thorium by filtration along with acid metals of Ti, Zr, Nb, and Ta by the addition of the filtrate (a), a base and a precipitant to a boiling slurry of reaction products (d); treating filtrate from step (c) with reagents to precipitate and recover an iron vanadate product by the addition of the filtrate (c), a base and an oxidizing agent to a boiling slurry of reaction products; and (e) treating filtrate from step (d) to remove any remaining cations except Na by addition of Na.sub.2 CO.sub.3 and boiling.

Aluminium alloys in municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash.

PubMed

Hu, Yanjun; Rem, Peter

2009-05-01

With the increasing growth of incineration of household waste, more and more aluminium is retained in municipal solid waste incinerator bottom ash. Therefore recycling of aluminium from bottom ash becomes increasingly important. Previous research suggests that aluminium from different sources is found in different size fractions resulting in different recycling rates. The purpose of this study was to develop analytical and sampling techniques to measure the particle size distribution of individual alloys in bottom ash. In particular, cast aluminium alloys were investigated. Based on the particle size distribution it was computed how well these alloys were recovered in a typical state-of-the-art treatment plant. Assessment of the cast alloy distribution was carried out by wet physical separation processes, as well as chemical methods, X-ray fluorescence analysis and electron microprobe analysis. The results from laboratory analyses showed that cast alloys tend to concentrate in the coarser fractions and therefore are better recovered in bottom ash treatment plants.

Evaluating inhibition conditions in high-solids anaerobic digestion of organic fraction of municipal solid waste.

PubMed

Schievano, Andrea; D'Imporzano, Giuliana; Malagutti, Luca; Fragali, Emilio; Ruboni, Gabriella; Adani, Fabrizio

2010-07-01

High-solids anaerobic digestion (HSAD) processes, when applied to different types of organic fractions of municipal solid waste (OFMSW), may easily be subjected to inhibition due to organic overloading. In this study, a new approach for predicting these phenomena was proposed based on the estimation of the putrescibility (oxygen consumption in 20 h biodegradation, OD(20)) of the organic mixtures undergoing the HSAD process. Different wastes exhibiting different putrescibility were subjected to lab-scale batch-HSAD. Measuring the organic loading (OL) as volatile solids (VS) was found unsuitable for predicting overload inhibition, because similar VS contents corresponded to both inhibited and successful trials. Instead, the OL calculated as OD(20) was a very good indicator of the inhibiting conditions (inhibition started for OD(20)>17-18 g O(2)kg(-1)). This new method of predicting inhibition in the HSAD process of diverse OFMSW may be useful for developing a correct approach to the technology in very different contexts. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Glass Property Data and Models for Estimating High-Level Waste Glass Volume

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vienna, John D.; Fluegel, Alexander; Kim, Dong-Sang

2009-10-05

This report describes recent efforts to develop glass property models that can be used to help estimate the volume of high-level waste (HLW) glass that will result from vitrification of Hanford tank waste. The compositions of acceptable and processable HLW glasses need to be optimized to minimize the waste-form volume and, hence, to save cost. A database of properties and associated compositions for simulated waste glasses was collected for developing property-composition models. This database, although not comprehensive, represents a large fraction of data on waste-glass compositions and properties that were available at the time of this report. Glass property-composition modelsmore » were fit to subsets of the database for several key glass properties. These models apply to a significantly broader composition space than those previously publised. These models should be considered for interim use in calculating properties of Hanford waste glasses.« less

Small-scale studies of roasted ore waste reveal extreme ranges of stable mercury isotope signatures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, Robin S.; Wiederhold, Jan G.; Jew, Adam D.; Brown, Gordon E.; Bourdon, Bernard; Kretzschmar, Ruben

2014-07-01

Active and closed Hg mines are significant sources of Hg contamination to the environment, mainly due to large volumes of mine waste material disposed of on-site. The application of Hg isotopes as source tracer from such contaminated sites requires knowledge of the Hg isotope signatures of different materials potentially released to the environment. Previous work has shown that calcine, the waste residue of the on-site ore roasting process, can exhibit distinct Hg isotope signatures compared with the primary ore. Here, we report results from a detailed small-scale study of Hg isotope variations in calcine collected from the closed New Idria Hg mine, San Benito County, CA, USA. The calcine samples exhibited different internal layering features which were investigated using optical microscopy, micro X-ray fluorescence, micro X-ray absorption spectroscopy (μ-XAS), and stable Hg isotope analysis. Significant Fe, S, and Hg concentration gradients were found across the different internal layers. Isotopic analyses revealed an extreme variation with pronounced isotopic gradients across the internal layered features. Overall, δ202Hg (±0.10‰, 2 SD) describing mass-dependent fractionation (MDF) ranged from -5.96 to 14.49‰, which is by far the largest range of δ202Hg values reported for any environmental sample. In addition, Δ199Hg (±0.06‰, 2 SD) describing mass-independent fractionation (MIF) ranged from -0.17 to 0.21‰. The μ-XAS analyses suggested that cinnabar and metacinnabar are the dominant Hg-bearing phases in the calcine. Our results demonstrate that the incomplete roasting of HgS ores in Hg mines can cause extreme mass-dependent Hg isotope fractionations at the scale of individual calcine pieces with enrichments in both light and heavy Hg isotopes relative to the primary ore signatures. This finding has important implications for the application of Hg isotopes as potential source tracers for Hg released to the environment from closed Hg mines and highlights the need for detailed source signature identification.

Extraction of medium chain fatty acids from organic municipal waste and subsequent production of bio-based fuels.

PubMed

Kannengiesser, Jan; Sakaguchi-Söder, Kaori; Mrukwia, Timo; Jager, Johannes; Schebek, Liselotte

2016-01-01

This paper provides an overview on investigations for a new technology to generate bio-based fuel additives from bio-waste. The investigations are taking place at the composting plant in Darmstadt-Kranichstein (Germany). The aim is to explore the potential of bio-waste as feedstock in producing different bio-based products (or bio-based fuels). For this investigation, a facultative anaerobic process is to be integrated into the normal aerobic waste treatment process for composting. The bio-waste is to be treated in four steps to produce biofuels. The first step is the facultative anaerobic treatment of the waste in a rotting box namely percolate to generate a fatty-acid rich liquid fraction. The Hydrolysis takes place in the rotting box during the waste treatment. The organic compounds are then dissolved and transferred into the waste liquid phase. Browne et al. (2013) describes the hydrolysis as an enzymatically degradation of high solid substrates to soluble products which are further degraded to volatile fatty acids (VFA). This is confirmed by analytical tests done on the liquid fraction. After the percolation, volatile and medium chain fatty acids are found in the liquid phase. Concentrations of fatty acids between 8.0 and 31.5 were detected depending on the nature of the input material. In the second step, a fermentation process will be initiated to produce additional fatty acids. Existing microorganism mass is activated to degrade the organic components that are still remaining in the percolate. After fermentation the quantity of fatty acids in four investigated reactors increased 3-5 times. While fermentation mainly non-polar fatty acids (pentanoic to octanoic acid) are build. Next to the fermentation process, a chain-elongation step is arranged by adding ethanol to the fatty acid rich percolate. While these investigations a chain-elongation of mainly fatty acids with pair numbers of carbon atoms (acetate, butanoic and hexanoic acid) are demonstrated. After these three pre-treatments, the percolate is brought to a refinery to extract the non-polar fatty acids using bio-diesel, which was generated from used kitchen oil at the refinery. The extraction tests in the lab have proved that the efficiency of the liquid-liquid-extraction is directly linked with the chain length and polarity of the fatty acids. By using a non-polar bio-diesel mainly the non-polar fatty acids, like pentanoic to octanoic acid, are extracted. After extraction, the bio-diesel enriched with the fatty acids is esterified. As a result bio-diesel with a lower viscosity than usual is produced. The fatty acids remaining in the percolate after the extraction can be used in another fermentation process to generate biogas. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Modeling and Comparison of Options for the Disposal of Excess Weapons Plutonium in Russia

DTIC Science & Technology

2002-04-01

fuel LWR cooling time LWR Pu load rate LWR net destruction frac ~ LWR reactors op life mox core frac Excess Separated Pu HTGR Cycle Pu in Waste LWR MOX...reflecting the cycle used in this type of reactor. For the HTGR , the entire core consists of plutonium fuel , therefore a core fraction is not specified...cooling time Time spent fuel unloaded from HTGR reactor must cool before permanently stored 3 years Mox core fraction Fraction of

Elucidating microbial community adaptation to anaerobic co-digestion of fats, oils, and grease and food waste.

PubMed

Amha, Yamrot M; Sinha, Pooja; Lagman, Jewls; Gregori, Matt; Smith, Adam L

2017-10-15

Despite growing interest in co-digestion and demonstrated process improvements (e.g., enhanced stability and biogas production), few studies have evaluated how co-digestion impacts the anaerobic digestion (AD) microbiome. Three sequential bench-scale respirometry experiments were conducted at thermophilic temperature (50 °C) with various combinations of primary sludge (PS); thickened waste activated sludge (TWAS); fats, oils, and grease (FOG); and food waste (FW). Two additional runs were then performed to evaluate microbial inhibition at higher organic fractions of FOG (30-60% volatile solids loading (VSL; v/v)). Co-digestion of PS, TWAS, FOG, and FW resulted in a 26% increase in methane production relative to digestion of PS and TWAS. A substantial lag time was observed in biogas production for vessels with FOG addition that decreased by more than half in later runs, likely due to adaptation of the microbial community. 30% FOG with 10% FW showed the highest increase in methane production, increasing 53% compared to digestion of PS and TWAS. FOG addition above 50% VSL was found to be inhibitory with and without FW addition and resulted in volatile fatty acid (VFA) accumulation. Methane production was linked with high relative activity and abundance of syntrophic fatty-acid oxidizers alongside hydrogenotrophic methanogens, signaling the importance of interspecies interactions in AD. Specifically, relative activity of Syntrophomonas was significantly correlated with methane production. Further, methane production increased over subsequent runs along with methyl coenzyme M reductase (mcrA) gene expression, a functional gene in methanogens, suggesting temporal adaptation of the microbial community to co-digestion substrate mixtures. The study demonstrated the benefits of co-digestion in terms of performance enhancement and enrichment of key active microbial populations. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bayesian nitrate source apportionment to individual groundwater wells in the Central Valley by use of elemental and isotopic tracers

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ransom, Katherine M; Grote, Mark N.; Deinhart, Amanda; Eppich, Gary; Kendall, Carol; Sanborn, Matthew E.; Sounders, A. Kate; Wimpenny, Joshua; Yin, Qing-zhu; Young, Megan B.; Harter, Thomas

2016-01-01

Groundwater quality is a concern in alluvial aquifers that underlie agricultural areas, such as in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Shallow domestic wells (less than 150 m deep) in agricultural areas are often contaminated by nitrate. Agricultural and rural nitrate sources include dairy manure, synthetic fertilizers, and septic waste. Knowledge of the relative proportion that each of these sources contributes to nitrate concentration in individual wells can aid future regulatory and land management decisions. We show that nitrogen and oxygen isotopes of nitrate, boron isotopes, and iodine concentrations are a useful, novel combination of groundwater tracers to differentiate between manure, fertilizers, septic waste, and natural sources of nitrate. Furthermore, in this work, we develop a new Bayesian mixing model in which these isotopic and elemental tracers were used to estimate the probability distribution of the fractional contributions of manure, fertilizers, septic waste, and natural sources to the nitrate concentration found in an individual well. The approach was applied to 56 nitrate-impacted private domestic wells located in the San Joaquin Valley. Model analysis found that some domestic wells were clearly dominated by the manure source and suggests evidence for majority contributions from either the septic or fertilizer source for other wells. But, predictions of fractional contributions for septic and fertilizer sources were often of similar magnitude, perhaps because modeled uncertainty about the fraction of each was large. For validation of the Bayesian model, fractional estimates were compared to surrounding land use and estimated source contributions were broadly consistent with nearby land use types.

Interpretation of leaching data for cementitious waste forms using analytical solutions based on mass transport theory and empiricism

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Spence, R.D.; Godbee, H.W.; Tallent, O.K.

1989-01-01

The analysis of leaching data using analytical solutions based on mass transport theory and empiricism is presented. The waste forms leached to generate the data used in this analysis were prepared with a simulated radioactive waste slurry with traces of potassium ion, manganese ions, carbonate ions, phosphate ions, and sulfate ions solidified with several blends of cementitious materials. Diffusion coefficients were estimated from the results of ANS - 16.1 tests. Data of fraction leached versus time is presented and discussed.

Separation and collection of coarse aggregate from waste concrete by electric pulsed power

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shigeishi, Mitsuhiro

2017-09-01

Waste concrete accounts for a substantial fraction of construction waste, and the recycling of waste concrete as concrete aggregate for construction is an important challenge associated with the rapid increase in the amount of waste concrete and the tight supply of natural aggregate. In this study, we propose a technique based on the use of high-voltage pulsed electric discharge into concrete underwater for separating and collecting aggregate from waste concrete with minimal deterioration of quality. By using this technique, the quality of the coarse aggregate separated and collected from concrete test specimens is comparable to that of coarse aggregate recycled by heating and grinding methods, thus satisfying the criteria in Japan Industrial Standard (JIS) A 5021 for the oven-dry density and the water absorption of coarse aggregate by advanced recycling.

Sequential chemical treatment of radium species in TENORM waste sludge produced from oil and natural gas production.

PubMed

El Afifi, E M; Awwad, N S; Hilal, M A

2009-01-30

This paper is dedicated to the treatment of sludge occurring in frame of the Egyptian produced from oil and gas production. The activity levels of three radium isotopes: Ra-226 (of U-series), Ra-228 and Ra-224 (of Th-series) in the solid TENORM waste (sludge) were first evaluated and followed by a sequential treatment for all radium species (fractions) presented in TENORM. The sequential treatment was carried out based on two approaches 'A' and 'B' using different chemical solutions. The results obtained indicate that the activity levels of all radium isotopes (Ra-226, Ra-228 and Ra-224) of the environmental interest in the TENORM waste sludge were elevated with regard to exemption levels established by IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), International basic safety standards for the protection against ionizing radiation and for the safety of radiation sources. GOV/2715/Vienna, 1994]. Each approach of the sequential treatment was performed through four steps using different chemical solutions to reduce the activity concentration of radium in a large extent. Most of the leached radium was found as an oxidizable Ra species. The actual removal % leached using approach B was relatively efficient compared to A. It is observed that the actual removal percentages (%) of Ra-226, Ra-228 and Ra-224 using approach A are 78+/-2.8, 64.8+/-4.1 and 76.4+/-5.2%, respectively. Whereas in approach A, the overall removal % of Ra-226, Ra-228 and Ra-228 was increased to approximately 91+/-3.5, 87+/-4.1 and 90+/-6.2%, respectively.

The effects of different mixing intensities during anaerobic digestion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste.

PubMed

Lindmark, Johan; Eriksson, Per; Thorin, Eva

2014-08-01

Mixing inside an anaerobic digester is often continuous and is not actively controlled. The selected mixing regime can however affect both gas production and the energy efficiency of the biogas plant. This study aims to evaluate these effects and compare three different mixing regimes, 150 RPM and 25 RPM continuous mixing and minimally intermittent mixing for both digestion of fresh substrate and post-digestion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste. The results show that a lower mixing intensity leads to a higher biogas production rate and higher total biogas production in both cases. 25 RPM continuous mixing and minimally intermittent mixing resulted in similar biogas production after process stabilization, while 150 RPM continuous mixing resulted in lower production throughout the experiment. The lower gas production at 150 RPM could not be explained by the inhibition of volatile fatty acids. Cumulative biogas production until day 31 was 295 ± 2.9, 317 ± 1.9 and 304 ± 2.8N ml/g VS added during digestion of fresh feed and 113 ± 1.3, 134 ± 1.1 and 130 ± 2.3N ml/g VS added during post digestion for the 150 RPM, 25 RPM and minimally mixed intensities respectively. As well as increasing gas production, optimal mixing can improve the energy efficiency of the anaerobic digestion process. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Concentration of precious metals during their recovery from electronic waste.

PubMed

Cayumil, R; Khanna, R; Rajarao, R; Mukherjee, P S; Sahajwalla, V

2016-11-01

The rapid growth of electronic devices, their subsequent obsolescence and disposal has resulted in electronic waste (e-waste) being one of the fastest increasing waste streams worldwide. The main component of e-waste is printed circuit boards (PCBs), which contain substantial quantities of precious metals in concentrations significantly higher than those typically found in corresponding ores. The high value and limited reserves of minerals containing these metals makes urban mining of precious metals very attractive. This article is focused on the concentration and recovery of precious metals during pyro-metallurgical recycling of waste PCBs. High temperature pyrolysis was carried out for ten minutes in a horizontal tube furnace in the temperature range 800-1350°C under Argon gas flowing at 1L/min. These temperatures were chosen to lie below and above the melting point (1084.87°C) of copper, the main metal in PCBs, to study the influence of its physical state on the recovery of precious metals. The heat treatment of waste PCBs resulted in two different types of solid products, namely a carbonaceous non-metallic fraction (NMFs) and metallic products, composed of copper rich foils and/or droplets and tin-lead rich droplets and some wires. Significant proportions of Ag, Au, Pd and Pt were found concentrated within two types of metallic phases, with very limited quantities retained by the NMFs. This process was successful in concentrating several precious metals such as Ag, Au, Pd and Pt in a small volume fraction, and reduced volumes for further processing/refinement by up to 75%. The amounts of secondary wastes produced were also minimised to a great extent. The generation of precious metals rich metallic phases demonstrates high temperature pyrolysis as a viable approach towards the recovery of precious metals from e-waste. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mechanical-biological waste treatment and the associated occupational hygiene in Finland

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tolvanen, Outi K.; Haenninen, Kari I.

2006-07-01

A special feature of waste management in Finland has been the emphasis on the source separation of kitchen biowaste (catering waste); more than two-thirds of the Finnish population participates in this separation. Source-separated biowaste is usually treated by composting. The biowaste of about 5% of the population is handled by mechanical-biological treatment. A waste treatment plant at Mustasaari is the only plant in Finland using digestion for kitchen biowaste. For the protection of their employees, the plant owners commissioned a study on environmental factors and occupational hygiene in the plant area. During 1998-2000 the concentrations of dust, microbes and endotoxinsmore » and noise levels were investigated to identify possible problems at the plant. Three different work areas were investigated: the pre-processing and crushing hall, the bioreactor hall and the drying hall. Employees were asked about work-related health problems. Some problems with occupational hygiene were identified: concentrations of microbes and endotoxins may increase to levels harmful to health during waste crushing and in the bioreactor hall. Because employees complained of symptoms such as dry cough and rash or itching appearing once or twice a month, it is advisable to use respirator masks (class P3) during dusty working phases. The noise level in the drying hall exceeded the Finnish threshold value of 85 dBA. Qualitatively harmful factors for the health of employees are similar in all closed waste treatment plants in Finland. Quantitatively, however, the situation at the Mustasaari treatment plant is better than at some Finnish dry waste treatment plants. Therefore is reasonable to conclude that mechanical sorting, which produces a dry waste fraction for combustion and a biowaste fraction for anaerobic treatment, is in terms of occupational hygiene better for employees than combined aerobic treatment and dry waste treatment.« less

Temporal evolution of the environmental performance of implementing selective collection in municipal waste management systems in developing countries: A Brazilian case study.

PubMed

Ibáñez-Forés, Valeria; Bovea, María D; Coutinho-Nóbrega, Claudia; de Medeiros-García, Hozana R; Barreto-Lins, Raissa

2018-02-01

The aim of this study is to analyse the evolution of the municipal solid waste management system of João Pessoa (Brazil), which was one of the Brazilian pioneers cities in implementing door-to-door selective collection programmes, in order to analyse the effect of policy decisions adopted in last decade with regard to selective collection. To do it, this study focuses on analysing the evolution, from 2005 to 2015, of the environmental performance of the municipal solid waste management (MSWM) system implemented in different sorting units with selective collection programmes by applying the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology and using as a starting point data collected directly from the different stakeholders involved in the MSWM system. This article presents the temporal evolution of environmental indicators measuring the environmental performance of the MSWM system implemented in João Pessoa by sorting unit, for each stage of the life cycle of the waste (collection, classification, intermediate transports, recycling and landfilling), for each waste fraction and for each collection method (selective collection or mixed collection), with the aim of identifying the key aspects with the greatest environmental impact and their causes. Results show on one hand, that environmental behaviour of waste management in a door-to-door selective collection programme significantly improves the behaviour of the overall waste management system. Consequently, the potential to reduce the existing environmental impact based on citizens' increased participation in selective collection is evidenced, so the implementation of awareness-raising campaigns should be one of the main issues of the next policies on solid waste. On the other hand, increasing the amount of recyclable wastes collected selectively, implementing alternative methods for valorising the organic fraction (compost/biomethanization) and improving the efficiency of the transportation stage by means of optimizing vehicles or routes, are essential actions to reduce the overall net environmental impact generated by the MSWM system. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The composition, heating value and renewable share of the energy content of mixed municipal solid waste in Finland

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Horttanainen, M., E-mail: mika.horttanainen@lut.fi; Teirasvuo, N.; Kapustina, V.

Highlights: • New experimental data of mixed MSW properties in a Finnish case region. • The share of renewable energy of mixed MSW. • The results were compared with earlier international studies. • The average share of renewable energy was 30% and the average LHVar 19 MJ/kg. • Well operating source separation decreases the renewable energy content of MSW. - Abstract: For the estimation of greenhouse gas emissions from waste incineration it is essential to know the share of the renewable energy content of the combusted waste. The composition and heating value information is generally available, but the renewable energymore » share or heating values of different fractions of waste have rarely been determined. In this study, data from Finnish studies concerning the composition and energy content of mixed MSW were collected, new experimental data on the compositions, heating values and renewable share of energy were presented and the results were compared to the estimations concluded from earlier international studies. In the town of Lappeenranta in south-eastern Finland, the share of renewable energy ranged between 25% and 34% in the energy content tests implemented for two sample trucks. The heating values of the waste and fractions of plastic waste were high in the samples compared to the earlier studies in Finland. These high values were caused by good source separation and led to a low share of renewable energy content in the waste. The results showed that in mixed municipal solid waste the renewable share of the energy content can be significantly lower than the general assumptions (50–60%) when the source separation of organic waste, paper and cardboard is carried out successfully. The number of samples was however small for making extensive conclusions on the results concerning the heating values and renewable share of energy and additional research is needed for this purpose.« less

Recycling of coal combustion wastes.

PubMed

Oz, Derya; Koca, Sabina; Koca, Huseyin

2009-05-01

The separation of unburned carbon from coal-fired power plant bottom ashes was conducted in order to increase the possibility of the recycling of coal combustion wastes. A two-stage flotation technique was used for this study. In the rougher flotation experiments the amounts of collector, dispersant and frother, pulp density, pH, particle size distribution, flotation time and flotation temperature were tested as variables. After rougher flotation experiments, at optimum conditions, the carbon content of the concentrate increased from 13.85 to 51.54% at a carbon recovery of 54.54%. Under the same conditions, the carbon content was reduced to 4.54% at a weight yield of over 80% in the tailings fraction. This fraction meets the industrial specifications and can be utilized as a cement additive. After the cleaner flotation experiment the carbon content of the product was enhanced to 64.81% with a 52.16% carbon recovery. This fraction can be blended back into the coal feed to the power plant boilers.

Leaching behaviour of hazardous demolition waste.

PubMed

Roussat, Nicolas; Méhu, Jacques; Abdelghafour, Mohamed; Brula, Pascal

2008-11-01

Demolition wastes are generally disposed of in unlined landfills for inert waste. However, demolition wastes are not just inert wastes. Indeed, a small fraction of demolition waste contains components that are hazardous to human health and the environment, e.g., lead-based paint, mercury-contained in fluorescent lamps, treated wood, and asbestos. The objective of this study is to evaluate the release potential of pollutants contained in these hazardous components when they are mixed with inert wastes in unlined landfills. After identification of the different building products which can contain hazardous elements and which can be potentially pollutant in landfill scenario, we performed leaching tests using three different lysimeters: one lysimeter containing only inert wastes and two lysimeters containing inert wastes mixed with hazardous demolition wastes. The leachates from these lysimeters were analysed (heavy metals, chlorides, sulphates fluoride, DOC (Dissolved Organic Carbon), phenol index, and PAH). Finally, we compared concentrations and cumulative releases of elements in leachates with the limits values of European regulation for the acceptance of inert wastes at landfill. Results indicate that limit values are exceeded for some elements. We also performed a percolation column test with only demolition hazardous wastes to evaluate the specific contribution of these wastes in the observed releases.

Effect of medium components on the production of a biosurfactant from Candida tropicalis applied to the removal of hydrophobic contaminants in soil.

PubMed

Batista, Ranielly M; Rufino, Raquel D; Luna, Juliana M; de Souza, José Edson G; Sarubbo, Leonie A

2010-05-01

The influence of medium constituents on the production of biosurfactants by Candida tropicalis cultivated in waste frying oil was investigated according to a fractional factorial 2(5-1) design. The combined effect of the C/N(inorganic), C/Fe, C/Mg, and C/P ratios and yeast extract on surface tension reduction, biosurfactant yield, emulsification activity, and biomass were studied. The highest biosurfactant yield was reached when low C/Mg and low C/P ratio variables were combined, while the cell growth was favored by increasing the nitrogen concentration. The highest surface tension net decrease, on the other hand, was observed at low yeast extract concentration, low C/Fe, and high C/P ratios. Emulsification indices against lubrication and automobile waste oil of approximately 65 to 95% were observed. The crude biosurfactant produced in the medium--formulated with 2% waste frying oil, 0.067% NH4Cl, 0.025% MgSO4.7H2O, 0.067% KH2PO4, and 0.0026% FeCl3.6H2O--removed approximately 78 to 97% of the petroleum and motor oil adsorbed in sand samples.

Summary Report of Laboratory Testing to Establish the Effectiveness of Proposed Treatment Methods for Unremediated and Remediated Nitrate Salt Waste Streams

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Anast, Kurt Roy; Funk, David John

The inadvertent creation of transuranic waste carrying hazardous waste codes D001 and D002 requires the treatment of the material to eliminate the hazardous characteristics and allow its eventual shipment and disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). This report documents the effectiveness of two treatment methods proposed to stabilize both the unremediated and remediated nitrate salt waste streams (UNS and RNS, respectively). The two technologies include the addition of zeolite (with and without the addition of water as a processing aid) and cementation. Surrogates were developed to evaluate both the solid and liquid fractions expected from parent waste containers,more » and both the solid and liquid fractions were tested. Both technologies are shown to be effective at eliminating the characteristic of ignitability (D001), and the addition of zeolite was determined to be effective at eliminating corrosivity (D002), with the preferred option1 of zeolite addition currently planned for implementation at the Waste Characterization, Reduction, and Repackaging Facility. During the course of this work, we established the need to evaluate and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed remedy for debris material, if required. The evaluation determined that Wypalls absorbed with saturated nitrate salt solutions exhibit the ignitability characteristic (all other expected debris is not classified as ignitable). Follow-on studies will be developed to demonstrate the effectiveness of stabilization for ignitable Wypall debris. Finally, liquid surrogates containing saturated nitrate salts did not exhibit the characteristic of ignitability in their pure form (those neutralized with Kolorsafe and mixed with sWheat did exhibit D001). As a result, additional nitrate salt solutions (those exhibiting the oxidizer characteristic) will be tested to demonstrate the effectiveness of the remedy.« less

Energetic valorization of wood waste: estimation of the reduction in CO2 emissions.

PubMed

Vanneste, J; Van Gerven, T; Vander Putten, E; Van der Bruggen, B; Helsen, L

2011-09-01

This paper investigates the potential CO(2) emission reductions related to a partial switch from fossil fuel-based heat and electricity generation to renewable wood waste-based systems in Flanders. The results show that valorization in large-scale CHP (combined heat and power) systems and co-firing in coal plants have the largest CO(2) reduction per TJ wood waste. However, at current co-firing rates of 10%, the CO(2) reduction per GWh of electricity that can be achieved by co-firing in coal plants is five times lower than the CO(2) reduction per GWh of large-scale CHP. Moreover, analysis of the effect of government support for co-firing of wood waste in coal-fired power plants on the marginal costs of electricity generation plants reveals that the effect of the European Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is effectively counterbalanced. This is due to the fact that biomass integrated gasification combined cycles (BIGCC) are not yet commercially available. An increase of the fraction of coal-based electricity in the total electricity generation from 8 to 10% at the expense of the fraction of gas-based electricity due to the government support for co-firing wood waste, would compensate entirely for the CO(2) reduction by substitution of coal by wood waste. This clearly illustrates the possibility of a 'rebound' effect on the CO(2) reduction due to government support for co-combustion of wood waste in an electricity generation system with large installed capacity of coal- and gas-based power plants, such as the Belgian one. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of supercritical water treatment on heavy metals in medical waste incinerator fly ash.

PubMed

Bo, Da; Zhang, Fu-Shen; Zhao, Lijuan

2009-10-15

In this work, medical waste (MW) incinerator fly ashes from different types of incinerators were subjected to supercritical water (SCW) and SCW+H(2)O(2) (SCWH) treatments. Sequential extraction experiments showed that, after SCW treatment, heavy metals in exchangeable and carbonate forms in the ashes could be transferred into other relatively stable forms, e.g., Ba and Cr into residual fraction, Cu and Pb into organic matter fraction. SCWH treatment could stabilize heavy metals in Fe-Mn oxides and residual fractions. However, the behavior of As was quite different from heavy metals, which could be leached out from residue fraction after SCW and SWCH treatments. The leached As tended to absorb onto Fe-Mn oxides and organic matters under near neutral environment, but it could react with Ca(2+) at lower pH, increasing the mobility of this element. Therefore, it is necessary to neutralize acidic ash to near neutral condition before subjecting it to SCW and SCWH treatments so as to effectively stabilize hazardous elements in the ash. Consequently, it is believed that SCWH treatment is an effective alternative for hazardous elements detoxification in MW fly ash.

Size charge fractionation of metals in municipal solid waste landfill leachate.

PubMed

Oygard, Joar Karsten; Gjengedal, Elin; Røyset, Oddvar

2007-01-01

Municipal solid waste landfill leachates from 9 Norwegian sites were size charge fractionated in the field, to obtain three fractions: particulate and colloidal matter >0.45microm, free anions/non-labile complexes <0.45microm and free cations/labile complexes <0.45microm. The fractionation showed that Cd and Zn, and especially Cu and Pb, were present to a large degree (63-98%) as particulate and colloidal matter >0.45microm. Cr, Co and Ni were on the contrary present mostly as non-labile complexes (69-79%) <0.45microm. The major cations Ca, Mg, K, and Mn were present mainly as free cations/labile complexes <0.45microm, while As and Mo were present to a large degree (70-90%) as free anions/non-labile complexes <0.45microm. Aluminium was present mainly as particulate and colloidal matter >0.45microm. The particulate and colloidal matter >0.45microm was mainly inorganic; indicating that the metals present in this fraction were bound as inorganic compounds. The fractionation gives important information on the mobility and potential bioavailability of the metals investigated, in contrast to the total metal concentrations usually reported. To study possible changes in respective metal species in leachate in aerated sedimentation tanks, freshly sampled leachate was stored for 48h, and subsequently fractionated. This showed that the free heavy metals are partly immobilized during storage of leachate with oxygen available. The largest effects were found for Cd and Zn. The proportion of As and Cr present as particulate matter or colloids >0.45microm also increased.

Report: new guidelines for characterization of municipal solid waste: the Portuguese case.

PubMed

da Graça Madeira Martinho, Maria; Silveira, Ana Isabel; Fernandes Duarte Branco, Elsa Maria

2008-10-01

This report proposes a new set of guidelines for the characterization of municipal solid waste. It is based on an analysis of reference methodologies, used internationally, and a case study of Valorsul (a company that handles recovery and treatment of solid waste in the North Lisbon Metropolitan Area). In particular, the suggested guidelines present a new definition of the waste to be analysed, change the sampling unit and establish statistical standards for the results obtained. In these new guidelines, the sampling level is the waste collection vehicle and contamination and moisture are taken into consideration. Finally, focus is on the quality of the resulting data, which is essential for comparability of data between countries. These new guidelines may also be applicable outside Portugal because the methodology includes, besides municipal mixed waste, separately collected fractions of municipal waste. They are a response to the need for information concerning Portugal (e.g. Eurostat or OECD inquiries) and follow European Union municipal solid waste management policies (e.g. packaging waste recovery and recycling targets and the reduction of biodegradable waste going to landfill).

Rheological characterisation of biologically treated and non-treated putrescible food waste.

PubMed

Baroutian, Saeid; Munir, M T; Sun, Jiyang; Eshtiaghi, Nicky; Young, Brent R

2018-01-01

Food waste is gaining increasing attention worldwide due to growing concerns over its environmental and economic costs. Understanding the rheological behaviour of food waste is critical for effective processing so rheological measurements were carried out for different food waste compositions at 25, 35 and 45 °C. Food waste samples of various origins (carbohydrates, vegetables & fruits, and meat), anaerobically digested and diluted samples were used in this study. The results showed that food waste exhibits shear-thinning flow behaviour and viscosity of food waste is a function of temperature and composition. The composition of food waste affected the flow properties. Viscosity decreased at a given temperature as the proportion of carbohydrate increased. This may be due to the high water content of vegetable & fruits as the total solids fraction is likely to be a key controlling factor of the rheology. The Herschel-Bulkley model was used successfully to model food waste flow behaviour. Also, a higher strain was needed to break down the structure of the food waste as digestion time increased. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Identification of Non-Pertechnetate Species In Hanford Tank Waste, Their Synthesis, Characterization, And Fundamental Chemistry

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kenneth R. Ashely; Norman Schroeder; Jose A. Olivares

2004-12-10

This proposal had three major goals: (1) develop capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry as a characterization technique, (2) separate a non-pertechnetate fraction from a waste sample and identify the non-pertechnetate species in it by CEMS, and (3) synthesize and characterize bulk quantities of the identified non-pertechnetate species and study their ligand substitution and redox chemistry.

Humic Substances in Organic Wastes and their Effects on Amended Soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Senesi, N.; Ciavatta, C.; Plaza, C.

2009-04-01

Soil humic substances (HS) are universally recognized to play a major role in a wide number of agronomic and environmental processes. For example, soil HS are able to bind mineral particles together, thus promoting a good soil structure, constitute an important source of nutrients for plants and microorganisms, contribute largely to the acid-base buffering capacity of soils, and exert a marked control on the biological availability, physico-chemical behavior, and environmental fate of toxic metal ions and xenobiotics. For these reasons, the knowledge of the short- and long-term effects of organic amendments on the status, quality, and reactivity of indigenous soil HS is of paramount importance. The objective of this presentation is to provide an overview of the chemical and physico-chemical data available in the literature for the evaluation of the effects of organic wastes of various origin and nature used as soil amendments on the composition, structure, and chemical reactivity of native soil HS. In general, HS-like components of organic wastes are typically characterized by a relatively larger presence of aliphatic, amide, and polysaccharide structures, simple structural components of wide molecular heterogeneity, smaller contents of oxygen, acidic functional groups, and organic free radicals, and smaller degrees of aromatic ring polycondensation, polymerization, and humification than native soil HS. Further, with respect to native soil HS, HS-like fractions from organic wastes generally exhibit smaller binding capacities and affinities for metal ions and organic xenobiotics. Appropriate treatment processes of raw organic wastes able to produce environmentally safe and agronomically efficient soil amendments, such as composting, yield HS-like fractions characterized by chemical and physico-chemical features that approach those of native soil HS. In general, aliphatic, polysaccharide, and lignin structures and S- and N-containing groups of the HS-like fractions of organic wastes can be partially incorporated into native soil HS determining modifications at various extents of their composition, structure, and chemistry. The changes occurred in amended soil HS are more evident when untreated organic materials are used. However, with increasing time after land application, the effects observed become less and less apparent with a clear trend to approach the molecular properties typical of native soil HS.

Solid residues from Italian municipal solid waste incinerators: A source for "critical" raw materials.

PubMed

Funari, Valerio; Braga, Roberto; Bokhari, Syed Nadeem Hussain; Dinelli, Enrico; Meisel, Thomas

2015-11-01

The incineration of municipal solid wastes is an important part of the waste management system along with recycling and waste disposal, and the solid residues produced after the thermal process have received attention for environmental concerns and the recovery of valuable metals. This study focuses on the Critical Raw Materials (CRM) content in solid residues from two Italian municipal waste incinerator (MSWI) plants. We sampled untreated bottom ash and fly ash residues, i.e. the two main outputs of common grate-furnace incinerators, and determined their total elemental composition with sensitive analytical techniques such as XRF and ICP-MS. After the removal of a few coarse metallic objects from bottom ashes, the corresponding ICP solutions were obtained using strong digestion methods, to ensure the dissolution of the most refractory components that could host significant amounts of precious metals and CRM. The integration of accurate chemical data with a substance flow analysis, which takes into account the mass balance and uncertainties assessment, indicates that bottom and fly ashes can be considered as a low concentration stream of precious and high-tech metals. The magnesium, copper, antimony and zinc contents are close to the corresponding values of a low-grade ore. The distribution of the elements flow between bottom and fly ash, and within different grain size fractions of bottom ash, is appraised. Most elements are enriched in the bottom ash flow, especially in the fine grained fractions. However, the calculated transfer coefficients indicate that Sb and Zn strongly partition into the fly ashes. The comparison with available studies indicates that the CRM concentrations in the untreated solid residues are comparable with those residues that undergo post-treatment beneficiations, e.g. separation between ferrous and non-ferrous fractions. The suggested separate collection of "fresh" bottom ash, which could be processed for further mineral upgrading, can constitute an attractive option of the waste management system, when physical-mechanical devices are not available or could not be implemented in old MSWI systems. The suggested procedure may lead to the improvement of recovery efficiency up to 83% for CRM and 94% for other valuable metals. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Recycling silicon wire-saw slurries: separation of silicon and silicon carbide in a ramp settling tank under an applied electrical field.

PubMed

Tsai, Tzu-Hsuan; Shih, Yu-Pei; Wu, Yung-Fu

2013-05-01

The growing demand for silicon solar cells in the global market has greatly increased the amount of silicon sawing waste produced each year. Recycling kerf Si and SiC from sawing waste is an economical method to reduce this waste. This study reports the separation of Si and SiC using a ramp settling tank. As they settle in an electrical field, small Si particles with higher negative charges have a longer horizontal displacement than SiC particles in a solution of pH 7, resulting in the separation of Si and SiC. The agreement between experimental results and predicted results shows that the particles traveled a short distance to reach the collection port in the ramp tank. Consequently, the time required for tiny particles to hit the tank bottom decreased, and the interference caused by the dispersion between particles and the fluid motion during settling decreased. In the ramp tank, the highest purities of the collected SiC and Si powders were 95.2 and 7.01 wt%, respectively. Using a ramp tank, the recycling fraction of Si-rich powders (SiC < 15 wt%) reached 22.67% (based on the whole waste). This fraction is greater than that achieved using rectangular tanks. Recycling Si and SiC abrasives from the silicon sawing waste is regarded as an economical solution to reduce the sawing waste. However, the separation of Si and SiC is difficult. This study reports the separation of Si and SiC using a ramp settling tank under an applied electrical field. As they settle in an electrical field, small Si particles with higher negative charges have a longer horizontal displacement than SiC particles in a solution of pH 7, resulting in the separation of Si and SiC. Compared with the rectangular tanks, the recycling fraction of Si-rich powders using a ramp tank is greater, and the proposed ramp settling tank is more suitable for industrial applications.

Characterization of Size-Fractionated Airborne Particles Inside an Electronic Waste Recycling Facility and Acute Toxicity Testing in Mice.

PubMed

Kim, Yong Ho; Wyrzykowska-Ceradini, Barbara; Touati, Abderrahmane; Krantz, Q Todd; Dye, Janice A; Linak, William P; Gullett, Brian; Gilmour, M Ian

2015-10-06

Disposal of electronic waste (e-waste) in landfills, incinerators, or at rudimentary recycling sites can lead to the release of toxic chemicals into the environment and increased health risks. Developing e-waste recycling technologies at commercial facilities can reduce the release of toxic chemicals and efficiently recover valuable materials. While these e-waste operations represent a vast improvement over previous approaches, little is known about environmental releases, workplace exposures, and potential health impacts. In this study, airborne particulate matter (PM) was measured at various locations within a modern U.S.-based e-waste recycling facility that utilized mechanical processing. In addition, composite size fractionated PM (coarse, fine and ultrafine) samples were collected, extracted, chemically analyzed, and given by oropharyngeal aspiration to mice or cultured with lung slices for lung toxicity tests. Indoor total PM concentrations measured during the study ranged from 220 to 1200 μg/m(3). In general, the coarse PM (2.5-10 μm) was 3-4 times more abundant than fine/ultrafine PM (<2.5 μm). The coarse PM contained higher levels of Ni, Pb, and Zn (up to 6.8 times) compared to the fine (0.1-2.5 μm) and ultrafine (<0.1 μm) PM. Compared to coarse PM measurements from a regional near-roadway study, Pb and Ni were enriched 170 and 20 times, respectively, in the indoor PM, with other significant enrichments (>10 times) observed for Zn and Sb, modest enrichments (>5 times) for Cu and Sr, and minor enrichments (>2 times) for Cr, Cd, Mn, Ca, Fe, and Ba. Negligible enrichment (<2 times) or depletion (<1 time) were observed for Al, Mg, Ti, Si, and V. The coarse PM fraction elicited significant pro-inflammatory responses in the mouse lung at 24 h postexposure compared to the fine and ultrafine PM, and similar toxicity outcomes were observed in the lung slice model. We conclude that exposure to coarse PM from the facility caused substantial inflammation in the mouse lung and enrichment of these metals compared to levels normally present in the ambient PM could be of potential health concern.

The recovery of polyphenols from olive mill waste using two adsorbing vegetable matrices.

PubMed

Ena, Alba; Pintucci, Cristina; Carlozzi, Pietro

2012-02-20

Olive mill wastewater (OMW) is considered one of the most pollutive waste materials in the Mediterranean basin. However, its phenolic fraction should be recovered, since it has been shown to have incredible benefits for health. In the present study, the adsorbent and desorbent capacities of Azolla and granular activated carbon (GAC) were investigated. The GAC was found to be more efficient than Azolla in both the adsorption and the desorption of phenols. The total characterization of two powder products obtained from Azolla and GAC desorption is reported, together with their antioxidant and antiradical activities. In the Azolla powder product, total polyphenols were more than twice as numerous as those found in the GAC powder product. The GAC powder contained hydroxytyrosol in concentrations that were 3.5 times higher than those of Azolla. On the other hand, both powder products showed great antiradical activities: the IC₅₀ was found to be 102 mg ml⁻¹ for the Azolla and 199 mg ml⁻¹ for the GAC powders respectively. The oxygen radical absorbance capacity was very high: 4097 μmol TE g⁻¹ Azolla powder product and 1277 μmol TE g⁻¹ of GAC powder products. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Nonoxidative removal of organics in the activated sludge process

PubMed Central

Modin, Oskar; Persson, Frank; Wilén, Britt-Marie; Hermansson, Malte

2016-01-01

ABSTRACT The activated sludge process is commonly used to treat wastewater by aerobic oxidation of organic pollutants into carbon dioxide and water. However, several nonoxidative mechanisms can also contribute to removal of organics. Sorption onto activated sludge can remove a large fraction of the colloidal and particulate wastewater organics. Intracellular storage of, e.g., polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), triacylglycerides (TAG), or wax esters can convert wastewater organics into precursors for high-value products. Recently, several environmental, economic, and technological drivers have stimulated research on nonoxidative removal of organics for wastewater treatment. In this paper, we review these nonoxidative removal mechanisms as well as the existing and emerging process configurations that make use of them for wastewater treatment. Better utilization of nonoxidative processes in activated sludge could reduce the wasteful aerobic oxidation of organic compounds and lead to more resource-efficient wastewater treatment plants. PMID:27453679

STAT3 activation in skeletal muscle links muscle wasting and the acute phase response in cancer cachexia.

PubMed

Bonetto, Andrea; Aydogdu, Tufan; Kunzevitzky, Noelia; Guttridge, Denis C; Khuri, Sawsan; Koniaris, Leonidas G; Zimmers, Teresa A

2011-01-01

Cachexia, or weight loss despite adequate nutrition, significantly impairs quality of life and response to therapy in cancer patients. In cancer patients, skeletal muscle wasting, weight loss and mortality are all positively associated with increased serum cytokines, particularly Interleukin-6 (IL-6), and the presence of the acute phase response. Acute phase proteins, including fibrinogen and serum amyloid A (SAA) are synthesized by hepatocytes in response to IL-6 as part of the innate immune response. To gain insight into the relationships among these observations, we studied mice with moderate and severe Colon-26 (C26)-carcinoma cachexia. Moderate and severe C26 cachexia was associated with high serum IL-6 and IL-6 family cytokines and highly similar patterns of skeletal muscle gene expression. The top canonical pathways up-regulated in both were the complement/coagulation cascade, proteasome, MAPK signaling, and the IL-6 and STAT3 pathways. Cachexia was associated with increased muscle pY705-STAT3 and increased STAT3 localization in myonuclei. STAT3 target genes, including SOCS3 mRNA and acute phase response proteins, were highly induced in cachectic muscle. IL-6 treatment and STAT3 activation both also induced fibrinogen in cultured C2C12 myotubes. Quantitation of muscle versus liver fibrinogen and SAA protein levels indicates that muscle contributes a large fraction of serum acute phase proteins in cancer. These results suggest that the STAT3 transcriptome is a major mechanism for wasting in cancer. Through IL-6/STAT3 activation, skeletal muscle is induced to synthesize acute phase proteins, thus establishing a molecular link between the observations of high IL-6, increased acute phase response proteins and muscle wasting in cancer. These results suggest a mechanism by which STAT3 might causally influence muscle wasting by altering the profile of genes expressed and translated in muscle such that amino acids liberated by increased proteolysis in cachexia are synthesized into acute phase proteins and exported into the blood.

STAT3 Activation in Skeletal Muscle Links Muscle Wasting and the Acute Phase Response in Cancer Cachexia

PubMed Central

Kunzevitzky, Noelia; Guttridge, Denis C.; Khuri, Sawsan; Koniaris, Leonidas G.; Zimmers, Teresa A.

2011-01-01

Background Cachexia, or weight loss despite adequate nutrition, significantly impairs quality of life and response to therapy in cancer patients. In cancer patients, skeletal muscle wasting, weight loss and mortality are all positively associated with increased serum cytokines, particularly Interleukin-6 (IL-6), and the presence of the acute phase response. Acute phase proteins, including fibrinogen and serum amyloid A (SAA) are synthesized by hepatocytes in response to IL-6 as part of the innate immune response. To gain insight into the relationships among these observations, we studied mice with moderate and severe Colon-26 (C26)-carcinoma cachexia. Methodology/Principal Findings Moderate and severe C26 cachexia was associated with high serum IL-6 and IL-6 family cytokines and highly similar patterns of skeletal muscle gene expression. The top canonical pathways up-regulated in both were the complement/coagulation cascade, proteasome, MAPK signaling, and the IL-6 and STAT3 pathways. Cachexia was associated with increased muscle pY705-STAT3 and increased STAT3 localization in myonuclei. STAT3 target genes, including SOCS3 mRNA and acute phase response proteins, were highly induced in cachectic muscle. IL-6 treatment and STAT3 activation both also induced fibrinogen in cultured C2C12 myotubes. Quantitation of muscle versus liver fibrinogen and SAA protein levels indicates that muscle contributes a large fraction of serum acute phase proteins in cancer. Conclusions/Significance These results suggest that the STAT3 transcriptome is a major mechanism for wasting in cancer. Through IL-6/STAT3 activation, skeletal muscle is induced to synthesize acute phase proteins, thus establishing a molecular link between the observations of high IL-6, increased acute phase response proteins and muscle wasting in cancer. These results suggest a mechanism by which STAT3 might causally influence muscle wasting by altering the profile of genes expressed and translated in muscle such that amino acids liberated by increased proteolysis in cachexia are synthesized into acute phase proteins and exported into the blood. PMID:21799891

The bioavailability and adverse impacts of lead and decabromodiphenyl ether on soil microbial activities.

PubMed

Chen, Lei; Zhang, Wei; Zhang, Rong; Lin, Kuangfei; He, Lei; Wu, Liqun

2015-08-01

Lead (Pb) and decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE209) are the main pollutants at electronic waste (e-waste) recycling sites (EWRSs), and their potential toxic effects on soil organisms have received extensive attention. However, the impact on soil microorganisms of joint exposure to the two chemicals remains almost unknown. Therefore, indoor incubation tests were performed to explore the adverse impacts of Pb and BDE209 on soil microbial activities and chemical transformation for the first time. The results have demonstrated that BDE209 was barely degraded in all treated groups, indicating that the presence of Pb hardly affected BDE209 dissipation. The fractions analysis according to Tessier suggested that Pb gradually transformed towards more stable fractions in the slightly alkaline soil, thus reducing the bioavailability of Pb. Additionally, increased Pb doses caused significantly higher bioavailability (p < 0.05), and the same trend was clearly observed after simultaneous exposure to BDE209. Generally, single Pb or BDE209 exposure markedly inhibited (p < 0.05 or 0.01) soil microbial biomass C (C mic), while soil basal respiration (SBR) indicated the opposite response trend (inhibition or stimulation for BDE209 or Pb alone, respectively). Compared to the controls, Pb dramatically (p < 0.01) facilitated soil metabolic quotient (qCO2) during the incubation period. After joint exposure to Pb and BDE209, C mic generally declined with increasing exposure concentration, following certain dose-response relationships. However, SBR and qCO2 were highly significantly stimulated (p < 0.01), and more doses of Pb and BDE209 resulted in higher values. The results of these observations have provided a basic understanding of the potential ecological risk of Pb and BDE209 in soil at EWRSs.

The composition-explicit distillation curve technique: Relating chemical analysis and physical properties of complex fluids.

PubMed

Bruno, Thomas J; Ott, Lisa S; Lovestead, Tara M; Huber, Marcia L

2010-04-16

The analysis of complex fluids such as crude oils, fuels, vegetable oils and mixed waste streams poses significant challenges arising primarily from the multiplicity of components, the different properties of the components (polarity, polarizability, etc.) and matrix properties. We have recently introduced an analytical strategy that simplifies many of these analyses, and provides the added potential of linking compositional information with physical property information. This aspect can be used to facilitate equation of state development for the complex fluids. In addition to chemical characterization, the approach provides the ability to calculate thermodynamic properties for such complex heterogeneous streams. The technique is based on the advanced distillation curve (ADC) metrology, which separates a complex fluid by distillation into fractions that are sampled, and for which thermodynamically consistent temperatures are measured at atmospheric pressure. The collected sample fractions can be analyzed by any method that is appropriate. The analytical methods we have applied include gas chromatography (with flame ionization, mass spectrometric and sulfur chemiluminescence detection), thin layer chromatography, FTIR, corrosivity analysis, neutron activation analysis and cold neutron prompt gamma activation analysis. By far, the most widely used analytical technique we have used with the ADC is gas chromatography. This has enabled us to study finished fuels (gasoline, diesel fuels, aviation fuels, rocket propellants), crude oils (including a crude oil made from swine manure) and waste oils streams (used automotive and transformer oils). In this special issue of the Journal of Chromatography, specifically dedicated to extraction technologies, we describe the essential features of the advanced distillation curve metrology as an analytical strategy for complex fluids. Published by Elsevier B.V.

RADIOACTIVE DEMONSTRATIONS OF FLUIDIZED BED STEAM REFORMING AS A SUPPLEMENTARY TREATMENT FOR HANFORD'S LOW ACTIVITY WASTE AND SECONDARY WASTES

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jantzen, C.; Crawford, C.; Cozzi, A.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of River Protection (ORP) is responsible for the retrieval, treatment, immobilization, and disposal of Hanford's tank waste. Currently there are approximately 56 million gallons of highly radioactive mixed wastes awaiting treatment. A key aspect of the River Protection Project (RPP) cleanup mission is to construct and operate the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). The WTP will separate the tank waste into high-level and low-activity waste (LAW) fractions, both of which will subsequently be vitrified. The projected throughput capacity of the WTP LAW Vitrification Facility is insufficient to complete the RPP mission in themore » time frame required by the Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order, also known as the Tri-Party Agreement (TPA), i.e. December 31, 2047. Therefore, Supplemental Treatment is required both to meet the TPA treatment requirements as well as to more cost effectively complete the tank waste treatment mission. The Supplemental Treatment chosen will immobilize that portion of the retrieved LAW that is not sent to the WTP's LAW Vitrification facility into a solidified waste form. The solidified waste will then be disposed on the Hanford site in the Integrated Disposal Facility (IDF). In addition, the WTP LAW vitrification facility off-gas condensate known as WTP Secondary Waste (WTP-SW) will be generated and enriched in volatile components such as Cs-137, I-129, Tc-99, Cl, F, and SO4 that volatilize at the vitrification temperature of 1150 C in the absence of a continuous cold cap. The current waste disposal path for the WTP-SW is to recycle it to the supplemental LAW treatment to avoid a large steady state accumulation in the pretreatment-vitrification loop. Fluidized Bed Steam Reforming (FBSR) offers a moderate temperature (700-750 C) continuous method by which LAW and/or WTP-SW wastes can be processed irrespective of whether they contain organics, nitrates, sulfates/sulfides, chlorides, fluorides, volatile radionuclides or other aqueous components. The FBSR technology can process these wastes into a crystalline ceramic (mineral) waste form. The mineral waste form that is produced by co-processing waste with kaolin clay in an FBSR process has been shown to be as durable as LAW glass. Monolithing of the granular FBSR product is being investigated to prevent dispersion during transport or burial/storage but is not necessary for performance. A Benchscale Steam Reformer (BSR) was designed and constructed at the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) to treat actual radioactive wastes to confirm the findings of the non-radioactive FBSR pilot scale tests and to qualify the waste form for applications at Hanford. Radioactive testing commenced in 2010 with a demonstration of Hanford's WTP-SW where Savannah River Site (SRS) High Level Waste (HLW) secondary waste from the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) was shimmed with a mixture of I-125/129 and Tc-99 to chemically resemble WTP-SW. Ninety six grams of radioactive product were made for testing. The second campaign commenced using SRS LAW chemically trimmed to look like Hanford's LAW. Six hundred grams of radioactive product were made for extensive testing and comparison to the non-radioactive pilot scale tests. The same mineral phases were found in the radioactive and non-radioactive testing.« less

Diesel fuel blending components from mixture of waste animal fat and light cycle oil from fluid catalytic cracking.

PubMed

Hancsók, Jenő; Sági, Dániel; Valyon, József

2018-06-11

Sustainable production of renewable fuels has become an imperative goal but also remains a huge challenge faced by the chemical industry. A variety of low-value, renewable sources of carbon such as wastes and by-products must be evaluated for their potential as feedstock to achieve this goal. Hydrogenation of blends comprising waste animal fat (≤70 wt%) and low-value fluid catalytic cracking light cycle oil (≥30 wt%), with a total aromatic content of 87.2 wt%, was studied on a commercial sulfided NiMo/Al 2 O 3 catalyst. The fuel fraction in the diesel boiling range was separated by fractional distillation from the organic liquid product obtained from the catalytic conversion of the blend of 70 wt% waste animal fat and 30 wt% light cycle oil. Diesel fuel of the best quality was obtained under the following reaction conditions: T = 615-635 K, P = 6 MPa, LHSV = 1.0 h -1 , H 2 /feedstock ratio = 600 Nm 3 /m 3 . The presence of fat in the feedstock was found to promote the conversion of light cycle oil to a paraffinic blending component for diesel fuel. Thus, a value-added alternative fuel with high biocontent can be obtained from low-value refinery stream and waste animal fat. The resultant disposal of waste animal fat, and the use of fuel containing less fossil carbon for combustion helps reduce the emission of pollutants. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dry-thermophilic anaerobic digestion of organic fraction of municipal solid waste: methane production modeling.

PubMed

Fdez-Güelfo, L A; Alvarez-Gallego, C; Sales, D; García, L I Romero

2012-03-01

The influence of particle size and organic matter content of organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) in the overall kinetics of dry (30% total solids) thermophilic (55°C) anaerobic digestion have been studied in a semi-continuous stirred tank reactor (SSTR). Two types of wastes were used: synthetic OFMSW (average particle size of 1mm; 0.71 g Volatile Solids/g waste), and OFMSW coming from a composting full scale plant (average particle size of 30 mm; 0.16 g Volatile Solids/g waste). A modification of a widely-validated product-generation kinetic model has been proposed. Results obtained from the modified-model parameterization at steady-state (that include new kinetic parameters as K, Y(pMAX) and θ(MIN)) indicate that the features of the feedstock strongly influence the kinetics of the process. The overall specific growth rate of microorganisms (μ(max)) with synthetic OFMSW is 43% higher compared to OFMSW coming from a composting full scale plant: 0.238 d(-1) (K=1.391 d(-1); Y(pMAX)=1.167 L CH(4)/gDOC(c); θ(MIN)=7.924 days) vs. 0.135 d(-1) (K=1.282 d(-1); Y(pMAX)=1.150 L CH(4)/gDOC(c); θ(MIN)=9.997 days) respectively. Finally, it could be emphasized that the validation of proposed modified-model has been performed successfully by means of the simulation of non-steady state data for the different SRTs tested with each waste. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects on soil phosphorus dynamics of municipal solid waste compost addition to a burnt and unburnt forest soil.

PubMed

Turrión, María-Belén; Bueis, Teresa; Lafuente, Francisco; López, Olga; San José, Esther; Eleftheriadis, Alexandros; Mulas, Rafael

2018-06-12

The main aim of this research was to assess the effects of municipal solid waste compost (MSWC) addition to a burnt and unburnt calcareous soil, on the distribution of soil P forms in particle-size and extractable fractions. Three MSWC doses (1, 2 and 4% w/w) were added to burnt and unburnt soil samples and were incubated for 92 days at 29 °C and 75% of field capacity moisture. A particle-size fractionation followed by a sequential P extraction procedure was carried out. The burnt soil showed significantly lower concentrations of organic P forms (P org ) and significantly higher concentrations of stable P forms than the unburnt soil. Besides, in both burnt and unburnt soils, most P-forms presented higher concentrations in the clay fractions than in the sand and silt fractions, possibly due to the different proportions of microbial synthesized and plant-derived substances in the different particle-size fractions. Finer fractions of MSWC showed higher total P and P org concentrations than coarser fractions. Our results showed that the highest dose of MSWC was the most effective one for the rehabilitation of the burnt soil. MSWC amendment also caused an increase in soil P availability in the unburnt soil which initially contained relatively low levels of P. During the incubation process, a high proportion of organic P contained in the MSWC was mineralized into inorganic P forms. These forms were precipitated with Ca cations which are very abundant in these calcareous soils, significantly increasing the P fraction extracted by HCl in both amended soils. Hence, adding compost to the soil involved an increase in the available P reservoir in the long term. The combination of particle-size fractionation, chemical sequential extraction and incubation experiments can be a valuable tool for splitting soil phosphorus into different fractions regarding their availability in relation to short and long-term transformations in soil. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Evaluation and application of site-specific data to revise the first-order decay model for estimating landfill gas generation and emissions at Danish landfills.

PubMed

Mou, Zishen; Scheutz, Charlotte; Kjeldsen, Peter

2015-06-01

Methane (CH₄) generated from low-organic waste degradation at four Danish landfills was estimated by three first-order decay (FOD) landfill gas (LFG) generation models (LandGEM, IPCC, and Afvalzorg). Actual waste data from Danish landfills were applied to fit model (IPCC and Afvalzorg) required categories. In general, the single-phase model, LandGEM, significantly overestimated CH₄generation, because it applied too high default values for key parameters to handle low-organic waste scenarios. The key parameters were biochemical CH₄potential (BMP) and CH₄generation rate constant (k-value). In comparison to the IPCC model, the Afvalzorg model was more suitable for estimating CH₄generation at Danish landfills, because it defined more proper waste categories rather than traditional municipal solid waste (MSW) fractions. Moreover, the Afvalzorg model could better show the influence of not only the total disposed waste amount, but also various waste categories. By using laboratory-determined BMPs and k-values for shredder, sludge, mixed bulky waste, and street-cleaning waste, the Afvalzorg model was revised. The revised model estimated smaller cumulative CH₄generation results at the four Danish landfills (from the start of disposal until 2020 and until 2100). Through a CH₄mass balance approach, fugitive CH₄emissions from whole sites and a specific cell for shredder waste were aggregated based on the revised Afvalzorg model outcomes. Aggregated results were in good agreement with field measurements, indicating that the revised Afvalzorg model could provide practical and accurate estimation for Danish LFG emissions. This study is valuable for both researchers and engineers aiming to predict, control, and mitigate fugitive CH₄emissions from landfills receiving low-organic waste. Landfill operators use the first-order decay (FOD) models to estimate methane (CH₄) generation. A single-phase model (LandGEM) and a traditional model (IPCC) could result in overestimation when handling a low-organic waste scenario. Site-specific data were important and capable of calibrating key parameter values in FOD models. The comparison study of the revised Afvalzorg model outcomes and field measurements at four Danish landfills provided a guideline for revising the Pollutants Release and Transfer Registers (PRTR) model, as well as indicating noteworthy waste fractions that could emit CH₄at modern landfills.

Evaluation of the influence of mechanical activation on physical and chemical properties of municipal solid waste incineration sludge.

PubMed

Caprai, V; Florea, M V A; Brouwers, H J H

2018-06-15

Despite numerous studies concerning the application of by-products in the construction field, municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) residues are not widely used as secondary building materials. In some European countries, washing treatment to the full bottom ash (BA) fraction (0-32 mm) is applied, isolating more contaminated particles, smaller than 0.063 mm. Therefore, a MWSI sludge is produced, having a high moisture content, and thus a limited presence of soluble species. In order to enhance its performance as building material, here, dry mechanical activation is applied on MSWI sludge. Thereafter, a reactivity comparison between reference BA and untreated and treated MSWI sludge is provided, evaluating their behaviour in the presence of cement and their pozzolanic activity. Moreover, the mechanical performances, as 25% substitution of Portland cement (PC) are assessed, based on the EN 450. Mechanical activation enhances MSWI sludge physically due to the improved particle morphology and packing. Chemically, the hydration degree of PC is enhanced by the MSWI sludge by ≈25%. The milling treatment proved to be beneficial to the residues performances in the presence of PC, providing 32% higher strength than untreated sample. Environmentally, the compliance with the unshaped material legislation is successfully verified, according to the Soil Quality Decree. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Post-anaerobic digestion thermal hydrolysis of sewage sludge and food waste: Effect on methane yields, dewaterability and solids reduction.

PubMed

Svensson, Kine; Kjørlaug, Oda; Higgins, Matthew J; Linjordet, Roar; Horn, Svein J

2018-04-01

Post-anaerobic digestion (PAD) treatment technologies have been suggested for anaerobic digestion (AD) to improve process efficiency and assure hygenization of organic waste. Because AD reduces the amount of organic waste, PAD can be applied to a much smaller volume of waste compared to pre-digestion treatment, thereby improving efficiency. In this study, dewatered digestate cakes from two different AD plants were thermally hydrolyzed and dewatered, and the liquid fraction was recirculated to a semi-continuous AD reactor. The thermal hydrolysis was more efficient in relation to methane yields and extent of dewaterability for the cake from a plant treating waste activated sludge, than the cake from a plant treating source separated food waste (SSFW). Temperatures above 165 °C yielded the best results. Post-treatment improved volumetric methane yields by 7% and the COD-reduction increased from 68% to 74% in a mesophilic (37 °C) semi-continuous system despite lowering the solid retention time (from 17 to 14 days) compared to a conventional system with pre-treatment of feed substrates at 70 °C. Results from thermogravimetric analysis showed an expected increase in maximum TS content of dewatered digestate cake from 34% up to 46% for the SSFW digestate cake, and from 17% up to 43% in the sludge digestate cake, after the PAD thermal hydrolysis process (PAD-THP). The increased dewatering alone accounts for a reduction in wet mass of cake leaving the plant of 60% in the case of sludge digestate cake. Additionaly, the increased VS-reduction will contribute to further reduce the mass of wet cake. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Energy implications of the thermal recovery of biodegradable municipal waste materials in the United Kingdom

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Burnley, Stephen, E-mail: s.j.burnley@open.ac.uk; Phillips, Rhiannon, E-mail: rhiannon.jones@environment-agency.gov.uk; Coleman, Terry, E-mail: terry.coleman@erm.com

2011-09-15

Highlights: > Energy balances were calculated for the thermal treatment of biodegradable wastes. > For wood and RDF, combustion in dedicated facilities was the best option. > For paper, garden and food wastes and mixed waste incineration was the best option. > For low moisture paper, gasification provided the optimum solution. - Abstract: Waste management policies and legislation in many developed countries call for a reduction in the quantity of biodegradable waste landfilled. Anaerobic digestion, combustion and gasification are options for managing biodegradable waste while generating renewable energy. However, very little research has been carried to establish the overall energymore » balance of the collection, preparation and energy recovery processes for different types of wastes. Without this information, it is impossible to determine the optimum method for managing a particular waste to recover renewable energy. In this study, energy balances were carried out for the thermal processing of food waste, garden waste, wood, waste paper and the non-recyclable fraction of municipal waste. For all of these wastes, combustion in dedicated facilities or incineration with the municipal waste stream was the most energy-advantageous option. However, we identified a lack of reliable information on the energy consumed in collecting individual wastes and preparing the wastes for thermal processing. There was also little reliable information on the performance and efficiency of anaerobic digestion and gasification facilities for waste.« less

Heavy metal contamination characteristic of soil in WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) dismantling community: a case study of Bangkok, Thailand.

PubMed

Damrongsiri, Seelawut; Vassanadumrongdee, Sujitra; Tanwattana, Puntita

2016-09-01

Sue Yai Utit is an old community located in Bangkok, Thailand which dismantles waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). The surface soil samples at the dismantling site were contaminated with copper (Cu), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), and nickel (Ni) higher than Dutch Standards, especially around the WEEE dumps. Residual fractions of Cu, Pb, Zn, and Ni in coarse soil particles were greater than in finer soil. However, those metals bonded to Fe-Mn oxides were considerably greater in fine soil particles. The distribution of Zn in the mobile fraction and a higher concentration in finer soil particles indicated its readily leachable character. The concentration of Cu, Pb, and Ni in both fine and coarse soil particles was mostly not significantly different. The fractionation of heavy metals at this dismantling site was comparable to the background. The contamination characteristics differed from pollution by other sources, which generally demonstrated the magnification of the non-residual fraction. A distribution pathway was proposed whereby contamination began by the deposition of WEEE scrap directly onto the soil surface as a source of heavy metal. This then accumulated, corroded, and was released via natural processes, becoming redistributed among the soil material. Therefore, the concentrations of both the residual and non-residual fractions of heavy metals in WEEE-contaminated soil increased.

Speciation of lipids and humus-like colloidal compounds in a forest soil reclaimed with municipal solid waste compost.

PubMed

Zancada, M Cristina; Almendros, Gonzalo; Sanz, Jesús; Román, Román

2004-02-01

The progressive transformations of lipid and humus-like fractions in soil after massive input (400 Mg ha(-1)) of urban waste have been studied during an 87-week experiment in field plots of a degraded Calcic Regosol in Central Spain. Structural changes in the macromolecular fractions were small when compared with the qualitative and quantitative changes in lipid composition. The intense depletion of the lipid fraction with time and the decrease of the humic acid to fulvic acid ratio were the most significant quantitative indices of the compost transformation in soil. Changes in soil lipid fractions were especially noted in relation to their speciation status and distribution patterns (carbon preference index and relative chain length). Three subfractions were considered: (I) direct extraction with petroleum ether, (II) liquid-liquid extraction after soil treatment with 2 M H3PO4 and (III) after soil treatment with 0.1 M NaOH. Although lipid concentration tends to decrease with time, lipids in the fraction tightly bonded to soil (III) remained qualitatively and quantitatively constant in the course of the field experiment. Gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric analyses showed that the more stable the association of lipid to the soil matrix, the fewer the changes observed in the distribution pattern of the fatty acids during the progressive transformation stages.

From Vegetable Waste to New Agents for Potential Health Applications: Antioxidant Properties and Effects of Extracts, Fractions and Pinocembrin from Glycyrrhiza glabra L. Aerial Parts on Viability of Five Human Cancer Cell Lines.

PubMed

Aiello, Francesca; Armentano, Biagio; Polerà, Nicoletta; Carullo, Gabriele; Loizzo, Monica Rosa; Bonesi, Marco; Cappello, Maria Stella; Capobianco, Loredana; Tundis, Rosa

2017-09-13

Glycyrrhiza glabra cultivation and harvesting produces substantial quantities of aerial parts as waste. With the aim to prospect an innovative valorization of these byproducts, the aerial parts were harvested in May and October and analyzed for their chemical profile, antioxidant properties, and effects on viability of five cancer cell lines. Pinocembrin was the main constituent. A significant protection of lipid peroxidation was observed with the May total extract (IC 50 of 4.2 ± 0.4 μg/mL at 30 min of incubation). The effects on viability of HeLa, MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, Caco-2, and PC3 human cancer cells were investigated. All samples shown a remarkable activity with IC 50 values below 25 μg/mL. Samples from plants harvested in May exhibited greater activity than those harvested in October. MCF-7 and HeLa were the most sensitive cells with IC 50 in the range 2.73-3.01 and 3.28-5.53 μg/mL, respectively. G. glabra aerial parts represent a good source of valuable products.

Characteristics and potential sources of polychlorinated biphenyl pollution in a suburban area of Guangzhou, southern China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Qilu; Wang, Yan; Luo, Chunling; Li, Jun; Zhang, Gan

2017-05-01

In this study, 52 paired gas and particle samples were collected from a suburban field in Guangzhou in 2012 using a high-volume active air sampler; they were then analysed for 30 polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners via gas chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. Total PCB concentrations ranged from 97.4 to 853 pg m-3. This was a moderate level compared with other cities, undeveloped areas, and electronic waste disposal sites. Atmospheric concentrations of PCBs did not exhibit notable diurnal or seasonal variations, except for a few high measurement. Tetra- and tri-CBs were the predominant PCB compounds, with an average combined contribution of 81.9%. CB-77 was the dominant congener in the particle phase due to a few samples with extremely high mass fraction of CB-77 and relatively low concentrations of other PCBs. Based on measurements of pollution characteristics including diurnal and seasonal variations, we used correlation analysis, principal component analysis and back trajectory modeling to deduce that electronic manufacturing and recycling activities, pigment/paint production, and waste incineration plants are possible sources of PCBs in Guangzhou. Of these sources, the high observed contributions of CB-77 originated mainly from the pigment/paint industry.

Spectroscopic Properties of Tc(I) Tricarbonyl Species Relevant to the Hanford Tank Waste

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Levitskaia, Tatiana G.; Andersen, Amity; Chatterjee, Sayandev

2015-12-04

Technetium-99 (Tc) exists predominately in soluble forms in the liquid supernatant and salt cake fractions of the nuclear tank waste stored at the U.S. DOE Hanford Site. In the strongly alkaline environments prevalent in the tank waste, its dominant chemical form is pertechnetate (TcO4-, oxidation state +7). However, attempts to remove Tc from the Hanford tank waste using ion-exchange processes specific to TcO 4 - only met with limited success, particularly processing tank waste samples containing elevated concentrations of organic complexants. This suggests that a significant fraction of the soluble Tc can be present as non-pertechnetate low-valent Tc (oxidation statemore » < +7) (non-pertechnetate). The chemical identities of these non-pertechnetate species are poorly understood. Previous analysis of the SY-101 and SY-103 tank waste samples provided strong evidence that non-pertechnetate can be comprised of [Tc(CO) 3] + complexes containing Tc in oxidation state +1 (Lukens et al. 2004). During the last two years, our team has expanded this work and demonstrated that high-ionic-strength solutions typifying tank waste supernatants promote oxidative stability of the [Tc(CO) 3] + species (Rapko et al. 2013; Levitskaia et al. 2014). It also was observed that high-ionic-strength alkaline matrices stabilize Tc(VI) and potentially Tc(IV) oxidation states, particularly in presence organic chelators, suggesting that the relevant Tc compounds can serve as important redox intermediates facilitating the reduction of Tc(VII) to Tc(I). Designing strategies for effective Tc processing, including separation and immobilization, necessitates understanding the molecular structure of these non-pertechnetate species and their identification in the actual tank waste samples. To-date, only limited information exists regarding the nature and characterization of the Tc(I), Tc(IV), and Tc(VI) species. One objective of this project is to identify the form of non-pertechnetate in the Hanford waste. To do this, we are developing a spectral library of reference non-pertechnetate compounds that can be compared against actual waste samples. The emphasis of the fiscal year 2015 work was Tc(I) tricarbonyl [Tc(CO) 3] + compounds. The key findings are summarized below.« less

Impact of different particle size distributions on anaerobic digestion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste.

PubMed

Zhang, Y; Banks, C J

2013-02-01

Particle size may significantly affect the speed and stability of anaerobic digestion, and matching the choice of particle size reduction equipment to digester type can thus determine the success or failure of the process. In the current research the organic fraction of municipal solid waste was processed using a combination of a shear shredder, rotary cutter and wet macerator to produce streams with different particle size distributions. The pre-processed waste was used in trials in semi-continuous 'wet' and 'dry' digesters at organic loading rate (OLR) up to 6kg volatile solids (VS) m(-3)day(-1). The results indicated that while difference in the particle size distribution did not change the specific biogas yield, the digester performance was affected. In the 'dry' digesters the finer particle size led to acidification and ultimately to process failure at the highest OLR. In 'wet' digestion a fine particle size led to severe foaming and the process could not be operated above 5kgVSm(-3)day(-1). Although the trial was not designed as a direct comparison between 'wet' and 'dry' digestion, the specific biogas yield of the 'dry' digesters was 90% of that produced by 'wet' digesters fed on the same waste at the same OLR. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comprehensive process for the recovery of value and critical materials from electronic waste

DOE PAGES

Diaz, Luis A.; Lister, Tedd E.; Parkman, Jacob A.; ...

2016-04-08

The development of technologies that contribute to the proper disposal and treatment of electronic waste is not just an environmental need, but an opportunity for the recovery and recycle of valuable metals and critical materials. Value elements in electronic waste include gold, palladium, silver, copper, nickel, and rare earth elements (RE). Here, we present the development of a process that enables efficient recycling of metals from scrap mobile electronics. An electro recycling (ER) process, based on the regeneration of Fe 3+ as a weak oxidizer, is studied for the selective recovery of base metals while leaving precious metals for separatemore » extraction at reduced chemical demand. A separate process recovers rare earth oxides from magnets in electronics. Furthermore, recovery and extraction efficiencies ca. 90 % were obtained for the extraction of base metals from the non-ferromagnetic fraction in the two different solution matrices tested (H 2SO 4, and HCl). The effect of the pre-extraction of base metals in the increase of precious metals extraction efficiency was verified. On the other hand, the extraction of rare earths from the ferromagnetic fraction, performed by means of anaerobic extraction in acid media, was assessed for the selective recovery of rare earths. We developed a comprehensive flow sheet to process electronic waste to value products.« less

Characterization of microbial and chemical composition of shuttle wet waste with permanent gas and volatile organic compound analyses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peterson, B. V.; Hummerick, M.; Roberts, M. S.; Krumins, V.; Kish, A. L.; Garland, J. L.; Maxwell, S.; Mills, A.

2004-01-01

Solid-waste treatment in space for Advanced Life Support, ALS, applications requires that the material can be safely processed and stored in a confined environment. Many solid-wastes are not stable because they are wet (40-90% moisture) and contain levels of soluble organic compounds that can contribute to the growth of undesirable microorganisms with concomitant production of noxious odors. In the absence of integrated Advanced Life Support systems on orbit, permanent gas, trace volatile organic and microbiological analyses were performed on crew refuse returned from the volume F "wet" trash of three consecutive Shuttle missions (STS-105, 109, and 110). These analyses were designed to characterize the short-term biological stability of the material and assess potential crew risks resulting from microbial decay processes during storage. Waste samples were collected post-orbiter landing and sorted into packaging material, food waste, toilet waste, and bulk liquid fractions deposited during flight in the volume F container. Aerobic and anaerobic microbial loads were determined in each fraction by cultivation on R2A and by acridine orange direct count (AODC). Dry and ash weights were performed to determine both water and organic content of the materials. Experiments to determine the aerobic and anaerobic biostability of refuse stored for varying periods of time were performed by on-line monitoring of CO 2 and laboratory analysis for production of hydrogen sulfide and methane. Volatile organic compounds and permanent gases were analyzed using EPA Method TO15 by USEPA et al. [EPA Method TO15, The Determination of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in Ambient Air using SUMMA, Passivated Canister Sampling and Gas Chromatographic Analysis, 1999] with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and by gas chromatography with selective detectors. These baseline measures of waste stream content, labile organics, and microbial load in the volume F Shuttle trash provide data for waste subsystem analysis and atmospheric management within the ALS Project.

Characterization of microbial and chemical composition of shuttle wet waste with permanent gas and volatile organic compound analyses

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Peterson, B. V.; Hummerick, M.; Roberts, M. S.; Krumins, V.; Kish, A. L.; Garland, J. L.; Maxwell, S.; Mills, A.

2004-01-01

Solid-waste treatment in space for Advanced Life Support, ALS, applications requires that the material can be safely processed and stored in a confined environment. Many solid-wastes are not stable because they are wet (40-90% moisture) and contain levels of soluble organic compounds that can contribute to the growth of undesirable microorganisms with concomitant production of noxious odors. In the absence of integrated Advanced Life Support systems on orbit, permanent gas, trace volatile organic and microbiological analyses were performed on crew refuse returned from the volume F "wet" trash of three consecutive Shuttle missions (STS-105, 109, and 110). These analyses were designed to characterize the short-term biological stability of the material and assess potential crew risks resulting from microbial decay processes during storage. Waste samples were collected post-orbiter landing and sorted into packaging material, food waste, toilet waste, and bulk liquid fractions deposited during flight in the volume F container. Aerobic and anaerobic microbial loads were determined in each fraction by cultivation on R2A and by acridine orange direct count (AODC). Dry and ash weights were performed to determine both water and organic content of the materials. Experiments to determine the aerobic and anaerobic biostability of refuse stored for varying periods of time were performed by on-line monitoring of CO2 and laboratory analysis for production of hydrogen sulfide and methane. Volatile organic compounds and permanent gases were analyzed using EPA Method TO15 by USEPA et al. [EPA Method TO15, The Determination of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in Ambient Air using SUMMA, Passivated Canister Sampling and Gas Chromatographic Analysis,1999] with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and by gas chromatography with selective detectors. These baseline measures of waste stream content, labile organics, and microbial load in the volume F Shuttle trash provide data for waste subsystem analysis and atmospheric management within the ALS Project. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of COSPAR.

Characterization of microbial and chemical composition of shuttle wet waste with permanent gas and volatile organic compound analyses.

PubMed

Peterson, B V; Hummerick, M; Roberts, M S; Krumins, V; Kish, A L; Garland, J L; Maxwell, S; Mills, A

2004-01-01

Solid-waste treatment in space for Advanced Life Support, ALS, applications requires that the material can be safely processed and stored in a confined environment. Many solid-wastes are not stable because they are wet (40-90% moisture) and contain levels of soluble organic compounds that can contribute to the growth of undesirable microorganisms with concomitant production of noxious odors. In the absence of integrated Advanced Life Support systems on orbit, permanent gas, trace volatile organic and microbiological analyses were performed on crew refuse returned from the volume F "wet" trash of three consecutive Shuttle missions (STS-105, 109, and 110). These analyses were designed to characterize the short-term biological stability of the material and assess potential crew risks resulting from microbial decay processes during storage. Waste samples were collected post-orbiter landing and sorted into packaging material, food waste, toilet waste, and bulk liquid fractions deposited during flight in the volume F container. Aerobic and anaerobic microbial loads were determined in each fraction by cultivation on R2A and by acridine orange direct count (AODC). Dry and ash weights were performed to determine both water and organic content of the materials. Experiments to determine the aerobic and anaerobic biostability of refuse stored for varying periods of time were performed by on-line monitoring of CO2 and laboratory analysis for production of hydrogen sulfide and methane. Volatile organic compounds and permanent gases were analyzed using EPA Method TO15 by USEPA et al. [EPA Method TO15, The Determination of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in Ambient Air using SUMMA, Passivated Canister Sampling and Gas Chromatographic Analysis,1999] with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and by gas chromatography with selective detectors. These baseline measures of waste stream content, labile organics, and microbial load in the volume F Shuttle trash provide data for waste subsystem analysis and atmospheric management within the ALS Project. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of COSPAR.

Anaerobic co-digestion of recalcitrant agricultural wastes: Characterizing of biochemical parameters of digestate and its impacts on soil ecosystem.

PubMed

Muscolo, Adele; Settineri, Giovanna; Papalia, Teresa; Attinà, Emilio; Basile, Carmelo; Panuccio, Maria Rosaria

2017-05-15

Anaerobic digestion (AD) of organic wastes is a promising alternative to landfilling for reducing Greenhouse Gas Emission (GHG) and it is encouraged by current regulation in Europe. Biogas-AD produced, represents a useful source of green energy, while its by-product (digestate) is a waste, that needs to be safely disposal. The sustainability of anaerobic digestion plants partly depends on the management of their digestion residues. This study has been focused on the environmental and economic benefits of co-digest recalcitrant agricultural wastes such olive wastes and citrus pulp, in combination with livestock wastes, straw and cheese whey for biogas production. The aim of this work was to investigate the effects of two different bioenergy by-products on soil carbon stock, enzymes involved in nutrient cycling and microbial content. The two digestates were obtained from two plants differently fed: the first plant (Uliva) was powered with 60% of recalcitrant agricultural wastes, and 40% of livestock manure milk serum and maize silage. The second one (Fattoria) was fed with 40% of recalcitrant agricultural wastes and 60% of livestock manure, milk serum and maize silage. Each digestate, separated in liquid and solid fractions, was added to the soil at different concentrations. Our results evidenced that mixing and type of input feedstock affected the composition of digestates. Three months after treatments, our results showed that changes in soil chemical and biochemical characteristics depended on the source of digestate, the type of fraction and the concentration used. The mainly affected soil parameters were: Soil Organic Matter (SOM), Microbial Biomass Carbon (MBC), Fluorescein Diacetate Hydrolysis (FDA), Water Soluble Phenol (WSP) and Catalase (CAT) that can be used to assess the digestate agronomical feasibility. These results show that the agronomic quality of a digestate is strictly dependent on percentage and type of feedstocks that will be used to power the digester. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Conventional and microwave pyrolysis of a macroalgae waste from the Agar-Agar industry. Prospects for bio-fuel production.

PubMed

Ferrera-Lorenzo, N; Fuente, E; Bermúdez, J M; Suárez-Ruiz, I; Ruiz, B

2014-01-01

A comparative study of the pyrolysis of a macroalgae industrial solid waste (algae meal) in an electrical conventional furnace and in a microwave furnace has been carried out. It was found that the chars obtained from both pyrolyses are similar and show good properties for performing as a solid bio-fuel and as a precursor of activated carbon. Bio-oils from conventional pyrolysis have a greater number of phenolic, pyrrole and alkane compounds whereas benzene and pyridine compounds are more predominant in microwave pyrolysis with a major presence of light compounds. The bio-gas fraction from microwave pyrolysis presents a much higher syngas content (H2+CO), and a lower CO2 and CH4 proportion than that obtained by conventional pyrolysis. Yields are similar for both treatments with a slightly higher gas yield in the case of microwave pyrolysis due to the fact that microwave heating favors heterogeneous reactions between the gases and the char. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The function of Sn(II)-apatite as a Tc immobilizing agent

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Asmussen, R. Matthew; Neeway, James J.; Lawter, Amanda R.; Levitskaia, Tatiana G.; Lukens, Wayne W.; Qafoku, Nikolla P.

2016-11-01

At the U.S. Department of Energy Hanford Site, Tc-99 is a component of low-activity waste (LAW) fractions of the nuclear tank waste and removal of Tc from LAW streams would greatly benefit the site remediation process. In this study, we investigated the removal of Tc(VII), as pertechnetate, from deionized water (DIW) and a LAW simulant through batch sorption testing and solid phase characterization using tin (II) apatite (Sn-A) and SnCl2. Sn-A showed higher levels of Tc removal from both DIW and LAW simulant. Scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/XEDS) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) of reacted Sn-A in DIW showed that TcO4- is reduced to Tc(IV) on the Sn-A surface. The performance of Sn-A in the LAW simulant was lowered due to a combined effect of the high alkalinity, which lead to an increased dissolution of Sn from the Sn-A, and a preference for the reduction of Cr(VI).

Characterisation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released by the composting of different waste matrices.

PubMed

Schiavon, Marco; Martini, Luca Matteo; Corrà, Cesare; Scapinello, Marco; Coller, Graziano; Tosi, Paolo; Ragazzi, Marco

2017-12-01

The complaints arising from the problem of odorants released by composting plants may impede the construction of new composting facilities, preclude the proper activity of existing facilities or even lead to their closure, with negative implications for waste management and local economy. Improving the knowledge on VOC emissions from composting processes is of particular importance since different VOCs imply different odour impacts. To this purpose, three different organic matrices were studied in this work: dewatered sewage sludge (M1), digested organic fraction of municipal solid waste (M2) and untreated food waste (M3). The three matrices were aerobically biodegraded in a bench-scale bioreactor simulating composting conditions. A homemade device sampled the process air from each treatment at defined time intervals. The samples were analysed for VOC detection. The information on the concentrations of the detected VOCs was combined with the VOC-specific odour thresholds to estimate the relative weight of each biodegraded matrix in terms of odour impact. When the odour formation was at its maximum, the waste gas from the composting of M3 showed a total odour concentration about 60 and 15,000 times higher than those resulting from the composting of M1 and M2, respectively. Ethyl isovalerate showed the highest contribution to the total odour concentration (>99%). Terpenes (α-pinene, β-pinene, p-cymene and limonene) were abundantly present in M2 and M3, while sulphides (dimethyl sulphide and dimethyl disulphide) were the dominant components of M1. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mechanism of removal and retention of heavy metals from the acid mine drainage to coastal wetland in the Patagonian marsh.

PubMed

Idaszkin, Yanina L; Carol, Eleonora; María Del Pilar, Alvarez

2017-09-01

The attenuation of the acid mine drainage is one of the most important environmental challenges facing the mining industry worldwide. Mining waste deposits from an ancient metallurgical extraction of heavy metals were found near to the San Antonio marsh in Patagonia. The aim of this work was to determinate which mechanisms regulate the mobilization and retention of metals by acid drainage. A geological and geomorphological survey was carried out and samples from the mining waste deposits and the marsh were collected to determine soil texture, Eh pH, organic matter, Cu, Pb, Zn and Fe content, and soil mineralogical composition. Metals in marsh plants were determined in above- and below-ground structures. In the mining waste deposits polymetallic sulphides were recognized where the oxidation and formation of oxy-hydroxides and sulphates of Fe, Cu, Pb and Zn occurs. Then, by the alteration of those minerals, the metals enter in solution and are mobilized with the surface drainage towards the marsh where adsorption in the soils fine fraction and organic matter and/or by plants occurs. Locally, in the mining waste deposits, the precipitation/dissolution of Cu, Pb, and Zn sulphates take place in small centripetal drainage basins. In topographically lower portions of the marsh desorption and removal of metals by tidal flow could also be happen. The results allow to concluding that the marsh adjacent to the mining waste deposits is a geochemically active environment that naturally mitigates the contamination caused by acid drainage. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Waste to biodiesel: A preliminary assessment for Saudi Arabia.

PubMed

Rehan, M; Gardy, J; Demirbas, A; Rashid, U; Budzianowski, W M; Pant, Deepak; Nizami, A S

2018-02-01

This study presents a preliminary assessment of biodiesel production from waste sources available in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for energy generation and solution for waste disposal issues. A case study was developed under three different scenarios: (S1) KSA population only in 2017, (S2) KSA population and pilgrims in 2017, and (S3) KSA population and pilgrims by 2030 using the fat fraction of the municipal solid waste. It was estimated that S1, S2, and S3 scenarios could produce around 1.08, 1.10 and 1.41 million tons of biodiesel with the energy potential of 43423, 43949 and 56493 TJ respectively. Furthermore, annual savings of US $55.89, 56.56 and 72.71 million can be generated from landfill diversion of food waste and added to the country's economy. However, there are challenges in commercialization of waste to biodiesel facilities in KSA, including waste collection and separation, impurities, reactor design and biodiesel quality. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Modular life cycle assessment of municipal solid waste management.

PubMed

Haupt, M; Kägi, T; Hellweg, S

2018-05-31

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is commonly applied to examine the environmental performance of waste management systems. The system boundaries are, however, often limited to either one tonne of material or to specific waste treatments and are, therefore, lacking a systems perspective. Here, a framework is proposed to assess complete waste management systems based on actual waste flows, assessed with a detailed material flow analysis (MFA) in a modular MFA/LCA approach. The transformation of the MFA into a product-process-matrix facilitates a direct link between MFA and LCA, therefore allowing for the assessment of variations in flows. To allow for an up-to-date and geographically specific assessment, 190 LCA modules were set up based on primary industrial data and the ecoinvent database. The LCA modules show where there have been improvements in different recycling processes over the past years (e.g. for paper recycling) and highlight that, from an environmental perspective, closed-loop recycling is not always preferable to open-loop recycling. In a case study, the Swiss municipal solid waste management system, of which there is already a detailed MFA, was modeled using the new LCA modules and applying the modular MFA/LCA approach. Five different mass flow distribution scenarios for the Swiss municipal solid waste management system were assessed to show the environmental impact of political measures and to test the sensitivity of the results to key parameters. The results of the case study highlight the importance of the dominant fractions in the overall environmental impacts assessment; while the metal fraction has the highest impact on a per kilogram basis, paper, cardboard, glass and mixed municipal solid waste were found to dominate the environmental impacts of the Swiss waste management system due to their mass. The scenarios also highlight the importance of the energy efficiency of municipal solid waste incineration plants and the credits from material substitution as key variables. In countries with advanced waste management systems such as Switzerland, there is limited improvement potential with further increases in recycling rates. In these cases, the focus of political measures should be laid on (i) the utilization of secondary materials in applications where they replace high-impact primary production, and (ii) an increased recovery of energy in waste-to-energy plants. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Property-close source separation of hazardous waste and waste electrical and electronic equipment--a Swedish case study.

PubMed

Bernstad, Anna; la Cour Jansen, Jes; Aspegren, Henrik

2011-03-01

Through an agreement with EEE producers, Swedish municipalities are responsible for collection of hazardous waste and waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). In most Swedish municipalities, collection of these waste fractions is concentrated to waste recycling centres where households can source-separate and deposit hazardous waste and WEEE free of charge. However, the centres are often located on the outskirts of city centres and cars are needed in order to use the facilities in most cases. A full-scale experiment was performed in a residential area in southern Sweden to evaluate effects of a system for property-close source separation of hazardous waste and WEEE. After the system was introduced, results show a clear reduction in the amount of hazardous waste and WEEE disposed of incorrectly amongst residual waste or dry recyclables. The systems resulted in a source separation ratio of 70 wt% for hazardous waste and 76 wt% in the case of WEEE. Results show that households in the study area were willing to increase source separation of hazardous waste and WEEE when accessibility was improved and that this and similar collection systems can play an important role in building up increasingly sustainable solid waste management systems. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Municipal solid waste management in Tehran: Changes during the last 5 years.

PubMed

Malmir, Tahereh; Tojo, Yasumasa

2016-05-01

The situation of waste management in Tehran was a typical example of it in developing countries. The amount of municipal solid waste has been increasing and the city has depended on landfill for municipal solid waste management. However, in recent years, various measures have been taken by the city, such as collecting recyclables at the source and increasing the capacity of waste-processing facilities. As a result, significant changes in the waste stream are starting to occur. This study investigated the nature of, and reasons for, the marked changes in the waste stream from 2008 to 2012 by analysing the municipal solid waste statistics published by the Tehran Waste Management Organization in 2013 and survey data on the physical composition of the municipal solid waste. The following trends were identified: Although the generation of municipal solid waste increased by 10% during the 5-year period, the amount of waste directly disposed of to landfill halved and resource recovery almost doubled. An increase in the capacity of a waste-processing facility contributed significantly to these changes. The biodegradable fraction going to landfill was estimated by using the quantity and the composition of each input to the landfill. The estimated result in 2012 decreased to 49% of its value in 2008. © The Author(s) 2016.

Micro-scale anaerobic digestion of point source components of organic fraction of municipal solid waste

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chanakya, H.N.; Sharma, Isha; Ramachandra, T.V.

The fermentation characteristics of six specific types of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) were examined, with an emphasis on properties that are needed when designing plug-flow type anaerobic bioreactors. More specifically, the decomposition patterns of a vegetable (cabbage), fruits (banana and citrus peels), fresh leaf litter of bamboo and teak leaves, and paper (newsprint) waste streams as feedstocks were studied. Individual OFMSW components were placed into nylon mesh bags and subjected to various fermentation periods (solids retention time, SRT) within the inlet of a functioning plug-flow biogas fermentor. These were removed at periodic intervals, and their compositionmore » was analyzed to monitor decomposition rates and changes in chemical composition. Components like cabbage waste, banana peels, and orange peels fermented rapidly both in a plug-flow biogas reactor (PFBR) as well as under a biological methane potential (BMP) assay, while other OFMSW components (leaf litter from bamboo and teak leaves and newsprint) fermented slowly with poor process stability and moderate biodegradation. For fruit and vegetable wastes (FVW), a rapid and efficient removal of pectins is the main cause of rapid disintegration of these feedstocks, which left behind very little compost forming residues (2-5%). Teak and bamboo leaves and newsprint decomposed only to 25-50% in 30 d. These results confirm the potential for volatile fatty acids accumulation in a PFBR's inlet and suggest a modification of the inlet zone or operation of a PFBR with the above feedstocks.« less

Micro-scale anaerobic digestion of point source components of organic fraction of municipal solid waste.

PubMed

Chanakya, H N; Sharma, Isha; Ramachandra, T V

2009-04-01

The fermentation characteristics of six specific types of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) were examined, with an emphasis on properties that are needed when designing plug-flow type anaerobic bioreactors. More specifically, the decomposition patterns of a vegetable (cabbage), fruits (banana and citrus peels), fresh leaf litter of bamboo and teak leaves, and paper (newsprint) waste streams as feedstocks were studied. Individual OFMSW components were placed into nylon mesh bags and subjected to various fermentation periods (solids retention time, SRT) within the inlet of a functioning plug-flow biogas fermentor. These were removed at periodic intervals, and their composition was analyzed to monitor decomposition rates and changes in chemical composition. Components like cabbage waste, banana peels, and orange peels fermented rapidly both in a plug-flow biogas reactor (PFBR) as well as under a biological methane potential (BMP) assay, while other OFMSW components (leaf litter from bamboo and teak leaves and newsprint) fermented slowly with poor process stability and moderate biodegradation. For fruit and vegetable wastes (FVW), a rapid and efficient removal of pectins is the main cause of rapid disintegration of these feedstocks, which left behind very little compost forming residues (2-5%). Teak and bamboo leaves and newsprint decomposed only to 25-50% in 30d. These results confirm the potential for volatile fatty acids accumulation in a PFBR's inlet and suggest a modification of the inlet zone or operation of a PFBR with the above feedstocks.

Changes in soil properties and in the growth of Lolium multiflorum in an acid soil amended with a solid waste from wineries.

PubMed

Nóvoa-Muñoz, J C; Simal-Gándara, J; Fernández-Calviño, D; López-Periago, E; Arias-Estévez, M

2008-10-01

The agronomic utility of a solid waste, waste perlite (WP), from wine companies was assessed. In this sense, the natural characteristics of the waste were measured, followed by the monitoring of its effects on the chemical properties of acid soils and the growth of Lolium multiflorum. Taking into account that heavy metals associated to the waste (such as Cu, Zn and Mn) could cause problems when used as amendment, the changes in their total levels and in their soil fractionation were also studied, together with their total contents in L. multiflorum. The high content in C (214gkg(-1)), N (25gkg(-1)), P (534mgkg(-1)) and K (106gkg(-1)) of WP turned it into an appropriate amendment to increase soil fertility, solving at the same time its disposal. WP contributed to increase soil pH (in 2 pH units) and cation exchange capacity (CEC increased in 3cmolckg(-1)units), but reduced the potential Cu phytotoxicity due to a change in Cu distribution towards less soluble fractions. The growth of L. multiflorum adequately responds to the treatment with WP at addition rates below 2.5gkg(-1), whereas the imbalance between nutrients can justify the reduction in biomass production at higher WP addition rates. The levels of heavy metals analyzed in L. multiflorum biomass (8-85gkg(-1)) do not seem to cause undesirable effects on its growth.

Demonstration of the waste tire pyrolysis process on pilot scale in a continuous auger reactor.

PubMed

Martínez, Juan Daniel; Murillo, Ramón; García, Tomás; Veses, Alberto

2013-10-15

This work shows the technical feasibility for valorizing waste tires by pyrolysis using a pilot scale facility with a nominal capacity of 150 kWth. A continuous auger reactor was operated to perform thirteen independent experiments that conducted to the processing of more than 500 kg of shredded waste tires in 100 h of operation. The reaction temperature was 550°C and the pressure was 1 bar in all the runs. Under these conditions, yields to solid, liquid and gas were 40.5 ± 0.3, 42.6 ± 0.1 and 16.9 ± 0.3 wt.% respectively. Ultimate and proximate analyses as well as heating value analysis were conducted for both the solid and liquid fraction. pH, water content, total acid number (TAN), viscosity and density were also assessed for the liquid and compared to the specifications of marine fuels (standard ISO 8217). Gas chromatography was used to calculate the composition of the gaseous fraction. It was observed that all these properties remained practically invariable along the experiments without any significant technical problem. In addition, the reaction enthalpy necessary to perform the waste tire pyrolysis process (907.1 ± 40.0 kJ/kg) was determined from the combustion and formation enthalpies of waste tire and conversion products. Finally, a mass balance closure was performed showing an excellent reliability of the data obtained from the experimental campaign. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Biosolid colloid-mediated transport of copper, zinc, and lead in waste-amended soils.

PubMed

Karathanasis, A D; Johnson, D M C; Matocha, C J

2005-01-01

Increasing land applications of biosolid wastes as soil amendments have raised concerns about potential toxic effects of associated metals on the environment. This study investigated the ability of biosolid colloids to transport metals associated with organic waste amendments through subsurface soil environments with leaching experiments involving undisturbed soil monoliths. Biosolid colloids were fractionated from a lime-stabilized, an aerobically digested, and a poultry manure organic waste and applied onto the monoliths at a rate of 0.7 cm/h. Eluents were monitored for Cu, Zn, Pb, and colloid concentrations over 16 to 24 pore volumes of leaching. Mass-balance calculations indicated significantly higher (up to 77 times) metal elutions in association with the biosolid colloids in both total and soluble fractions over the control treatments. Eluted metal loads varied with metal, colloid, and soil type, following the sequences Zn = Cu > Pb, and ADB > PMB > LSB colloids. Colloid and metal elution was enhanced by decreasing pH and colloid size, and increasing soil macroporosity and organic matter content. Breakthrough curves were mostly irregular, showing several maxima and minima as a result of preferential macropore flow and multiple clogging and flushing cycles. Soil- and colloid-metal sorption affinities were not reliable predictors of metal attenuation/elution loads, underscoring the dynamic nature of transport processes. The findings demonstrate the important role of biosolid colloids as contaminant carriers and the significant risk they pose, if unaccounted, for soil and ground water contamination in areas receiving heavy applications of biosolid waste amendments.

Mutagenic substances in pyrolysate obtained by burning polyvinylchloride-product at 1000 degrees C.

PubMed

Yonezawa, Y; Saigusa, S; Takahagi, M; Nishioka, H

1999-06-25

In order to detect possible mutagenic substances in pyrolysate obtained by burning polyvinyl chloride product (PVC-P) at approximately 1000 degrees C, mutagenicity of rough extracts obtained by extraction with various solvents for the products was investigated by means of reversion mutation assay using Salmonella typhimurium TA98 and TA100 with or without microsomal metabolic activation (S9 mix). Strong mutagenicity in TA98 without S9 mix was observed in acetone-extract of PVC-P. The extract was fractionated into acidic, neutral and basic by liquid-liquid distribution and the mutagenicity in TA98 without S9 mix was found in the neutral fraction. Identification of mutagenic substances in the neutral fraction from acetone extract, which showed the strongest mutagenicity, was attempted by means of thin layer chromatography and capillary gas chromatography. The results suggest that mutagenic substances from pyrolysate of PVC-P are benzanthrone and an isomer of benzo(c)cinnoline. The results also suggest that burning wastes containing plastic products is not always safe even if at 1000 degrees C and further research on the problem is necessary. Copyright 1999 Elsevier Science B.V.

40 CFR 61.154 - Standard for active waste disposal sites.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 8 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Standard for active waste disposal... for Asbestos § 61.154 Standard for active waste disposal sites. Each owner or operator of an active... visible emissions to the outside air from any active waste disposal site where asbestos-containing waste...

40 CFR 61.154 - Standard for active waste disposal sites.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 9 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Standard for active waste disposal... for Asbestos § 61.154 Standard for active waste disposal sites. Each owner or operator of an active... visible emissions to the outside air from any active waste disposal site where asbestos-containing waste...

40 CFR 61.154 - Standard for active waste disposal sites.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 9 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Standard for active waste disposal... for Asbestos § 61.154 Standard for active waste disposal sites. Each owner or operator of an active... visible emissions to the outside air from any active waste disposal site where asbestos-containing waste...

40 CFR 61.154 - Standard for active waste disposal sites.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 8 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Standard for active waste disposal... for Asbestos § 61.154 Standard for active waste disposal sites. Each owner or operator of an active... visible emissions to the outside air from any active waste disposal site where asbestos-containing waste...

40 CFR 61.154 - Standard for active waste disposal sites.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 9 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Standard for active waste disposal... for Asbestos § 61.154 Standard for active waste disposal sites. Each owner or operator of an active... visible emissions to the outside air from any active waste disposal site where asbestos-containing waste...

Determination of heavy metals and halogens in plastics from electric and electronic waste.

PubMed

Dimitrakakis, Emmanouil; Janz, Alexander; Bilitewski, Bernd; Gidarakos, Evangelos

2009-10-01

The presence of hazardous substances and preparations in small waste electrical and electronic equipment (sWEEE) found in the residual household waste stream of the city of Dresden, Germany has been investigated. The content of sWEEE plastics in heavy metals and halogens is determined using handheld X-ray fluorescence analysis (HXRF), elemental analysis by means of atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) and ion exchange chromatography (IEC). Mean value of results for heavy metals in samples (n=51) by AAS are 17.4 mg/kg for Pb, 5.7 mg/kg for Cd, 8.4 mg/kg for Cr. The mass fraction of an additive as shown by HXRF (n=161) can vary over a wide range. Precise deductions as regards sWEEE plastics content in hazardous substances and preparations cannot be made. Additional research would be expedient regarding the influence of hazardous substances to recycling processes, in particular regarding the contamination of clean fractions in the exit streams of a WEEE treatment plant. Suitable standards for calibrating HXRF for use on EEE plastics or complex electr(on)ic components do not exist and should be developed.

Converting the organic fraction of solid waste from the city of Abu Dhabi to valuable products via dark fermentation--Economic and energy assessment.

PubMed

Bonk, Fabian; Bastidas-Oyanedel, Juan-Rodrigo; Schmidt, Jens Ejbye

2015-06-01

Landfilling the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) leads to greenhouse gas emissions and loss of valuable resources. Sustainable and cost efficient solutions need to be developed to solve this problem. This study evaluates the feasibility of using dark fermentation (DF) to convert the OFMSW to volatile fatty acids (VFAs), fertilizer and H2. The VFAs in the DF effluent can be used directly as substrate for subsequent bioprocesses or purified from the effluent for industrial use. DF of the OFMSW in Abu Dhabi will be economically sustainable once VFA purification can be accomplished on large scale for less than 15USD/m(3)(effluent). With a VFA minimum selling price of 330 USD/tCOD, DF provides a competitive carbon source to sugar. Furthermore, DF is likely to use less energy than conventional processes that produce VFAs, fertilizer and H2. This makes DF of OFMSW a promising waste treatment technology and biorefinery platform. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Characteristics of products from fast pyrolysis of fractions of waste square timber and ordinary plywood using a fluidized bed reactor.

PubMed

Jung, Su-Hwa; Kim, Seon-Jin; Kim, Joo-Sik

2012-06-01

Fractions of waste square timber and waste ordinary plywood were pyrolyzed in a pyrolysis plant equipped with a fluidized bed reactor and a dual char separation system. The maximum bio-oil yield of about 65 wt.% was obtained at reaction temperatures of 450-500 °C for both feed materials. For quantitative analysis of bio-oil, the relative response factor (RRF) of each component was calculated using an effective carbon number (ECN) that was multiplied by the peak area of each component detected by a GC-FID. The predominant compounds in the bio-oils were methyl acetate, acids, hydroxyacetone, furfural, non-aromatic ketones, levoglucosan and phenolic compounds. The WOP-derived bio-oil showed it to have relatively high nitrogen content. Increasing the reaction temperature was shown to have little effect on nitrogen removal. The ash and solid contents of both bio-oils were below 0.1 wt.% due to the excellent performance of the char separation system. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bioregenerative technologies for waste processing and resource recovery in advanced space life support system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chamberland, Dennis

1991-01-01

The Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS) for producing oxygen, water, and food in space will require an interactive facility to process and return wastes as resources to the system. This paper examines the bioregenerative techologies for waste processing and resource recovery considered for a CELSS Resource Recovery system. The components of this system consist of a series of biological reactors to treat the liquid and solid material fractions, in which the aerobic and anaerobic reactors are combined in a block called the Combined Reactor Equipment (CORE) block. The CORE block accepts the human wastes, kitchen wastes, inedible refractory plant materials, grey waters from the CELLS system, and aquaculture solids and processes these materials in either aerobic or anaerobic reactors depending on the desired product and the rates required by the integrated system.

Variable-Volume Flushing (V-VF) device for water conservation in toilets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jasper, Louis J., Jr.

1993-01-01

Thirty five percent of residential indoor water used is flushed down the toilet. Five out of six flushes are for liquid waste only, which requires only a fraction of the water needed for solid waste. Designers of current low-flush toilets (3.5-gal. flush) and ultra-low-flush toilets (1.5-gal. flush) did not consider the vastly reduced amount of water needed to flush liquid waste versus solid waste. Consequently, these toilets are less practical than desired and can be improved upon for water conservation. This paper describes a variable-volume flushing (V-VF) device that is more reliable than the currently used flushing devices (it will not leak), is simple, more economical, and more water conserving (allowing one to choose the amount of water to use for flushing solid and liquid waste).

Extended producer responsibility for consumer waste: the gap between economic theory and implementation.

PubMed

Dubois, Maarten

2012-09-01

Although economic theory supports the use of extended producer responsibility (EPR) to stimulate prevention and recycling of waste, EPR systems implemented in Europe are often criticized as a result of weak incentives for prevention and green product design. Using a stylized economic model, this article evaluates the efficiency of European EPR systems. The model reveals that the introduction of static collection targets creates a gap between theory and implementation. Static targets lead to inefficient market outcomes and weak incentives for prevention and green product design. The minimum collection targets should be complemented with a tax on producers for the non-collected waste fraction. Because such a tax internalizes the cost of waste disposal, more efficient price signals will lead to better incentives for waste management in a complex and dynamic market.

Mutielemental concentration and physiological responses of Lavandula pedunculata growing in soils developed on different mine wastes.

PubMed

Santos, Erika S; Abreu, Maria Manuela; Saraiva, Jorge A

2016-06-01

This study aimed to: i) evaluate the accumulation and translocation patterns of potentially hazardous elements into the Lavandula pedunculata and their influence in the concentrations of nutrients; and ii) compare some physiological responses associated with oxidative stress (concentration of chlorophylls (Chla, Chlb and total), carotenoids, and total protein) and several components involved in tolerance mechanisms (concentrations of proline and acid-soluble thiols and total/specific activity of catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD)), in plants growing in soils with a multielemental contamination and non-contaminated. Composite samples of soils, developed on mine wastes and/or host rocks, and L. pedunculata (roots and shoots) were collected in São Domingos mine (SE of Portugal) and in a reference area with non-contaminated soils, Corte do Pinto, with the same climatic conditions. São Domingos soils had high total concentrations of several hazardous elements (e.g. As and Pb) but their available fractions were small (mainly <5.8 % of the total). Translocation behaviour of elements was not clear according to the physiological importance of the elements. In general, plant shoots from São Domingos had the highest elements concentrations, but only As, Mn and Zn reached phytotoxic concentrations. Concentration of Chlb in shoots from São Domingos was higher than those from Corte do Pinto. No significant differences were obtained between concentrations of Chla, total protein, proline and acid-soluble thiols in shoots collected in both areas, as well as SOD activity (total and specific) and specific CAT activity. Total CAT activity varied with population being lower in the shoots of the plants from São Domingos, but no correlation was obtained between this enzymatic activity and the concentrations of the studied elements in shoots. Lavandula pedunculata plants are able to survive in soils developed on different mine wastes with multielemental contamination and low fertility showing no symptoms (visible and physiological) of phytotoxicity or deficiency. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

FY16 Annual Accomplishments - Waste Form Development and Performance: Evaluation Of Ceramic Waste Forms - Comparison Of Hot Isostatic Pressed And Melt Processed Fabrication Methods

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Amoroso, J.; Dandeneau, C.

FY16 efforts were focused on direct comparison of multi-phase ceramic waste forms produced via melt processing and HIP methods. Based on promising waste form compositions previously devised at SRNL, simulant material was prepared at SRNL and a portion was sent to the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANSTO) for HIP treatments, while the remainder of the material was melt processed at SRNL. The microstructure, phase formation, elemental speciation, and leach behavior, and radiation stability of the fabricated ceramics was performed. In addition, melt-processed ceramics designed with different fractions of hollandite, zirconolite, perovskite, and pyrochlore phases were investigated. for performancemore » and properties.« less

Changes in carbon fractions during composting and maturation of organic wastes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garcia, Carlos; Hernandez, Teresa; Costa, Francisco

1991-05-01

Seven mixtures from four organic residues—an aerobic sewage sludge, a city refuse, a peat residue, and a grape debris—were composted, and the changes undergone by their different carbon fractions during their composting and maturation were studied. In most cases a decrease in carbon fractions during the composting and maturation processes was observed. The extractable carbon, however, increased during maturation. Organic matter mineralization was greater in the composts with city refuse than in those with sewage sludge. The samples with peat residue showed the lowest decreases in carbon fractions. During maturation, an increase of humiclike fraction was observed, which was reflected by a decrease in the soluble carbon-precipitated carbon ratio at pH 2. Water-soluble carbon was the carbon fraction most easily degradable by microorganisms, and its amount correlated significantly with composting time in all the samples.

Solid waste prevention and management at green festivals: A case study of the Andanças Festival, Portugal.

PubMed

Martinho, Graça; Gomes, Ana; Ramos, Mário; Santos, Pedro; Gonçalves, Graça; Fonseca, Miguel; Pires, Ana

2018-01-01

Research on waste prevention and management at green festivals is scarce. The present study helps to fill this gap by analyzing waste prevention/reduction and management measures implemented at the Andanças festival, Portugal. Waste characterization campaigns and a questionnaire survey were conducted during the festival. The results show that the largest amount of waste generated was residual waste, followed by food and kitchen waste and packaging waste. The amount of waste generated per person per day at the festival was lower than that of other festivals for both the entire venue and the canteen. Concerning food and kitchen waste generated at the canteen, the amounts are in accordance with the findings of previous studies, but the amount of the edible fraction is comparatively low. Source separation rates are high, in line with other festivals that engage in food-waste source separation. Factors affecting the participation of attendees in waste prevention measures at the festival are the type of participant, their region of origin, the frequency of visits, and whether they are attending as a family. Efforts must be made to increase the awareness of attendees about waste prevention measures, to develop guidelines and methods to quantify the waste prevention measures, and to formulate policies aimed at increasing the application of the zero-waste principle at festivals. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Costs associated with the management of waste from healthcare facilities: An analysis at national and site level.

PubMed

Vaccari, Mentore; Tudor, Terry; Perteghella, Andrea

2018-01-01

Given rising spend on the provision of healthcare services, the sustainable management of waste from healthcare facilities is increasingly becoming a focus as a means of reducing public health risks and financial costs. Using data on per capita healthcare spend at the national level, as well as a case study of a hospital in Italy, this study examined the relationship between trends in waste generation and the associated costs of managing the waste. At the national level, healthcare spend as a percentage of gross domestic product positively correlated with waste arisings. At the site level, waste generation and type were linked to department type and clinical performance, with the top three highest generating departments of hazardous healthcare waste being anaesthetics (5.96 kg day -1 bed -1 ), paediatric and intensive care (3.37 kg day -1 bed -1 ) and gastroenterology-digestive endoscopy (3.09 kg day -1 bed -1 ). Annual overall waste management costs were $US5,079,191, or approximately $US2.36 kg -1 , with the management of the hazardous fraction of the waste being highest at $US3,707,939. In Italy, reduction in both waste arisings and the associated costs could be realised through various means, including improved waste segregation, and linking the TARI tax to waste generation.