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Application of Membrane Bioreactors for the Modification of Microfiltration Membrane Surface for Enhanced Antibiofouling Capability in Wastewater Treatment
Published in Subrata Borgohain Gogoi, Advances in Petroleum Technology, 2020
In general, extreme pH and salinity may give rise to difficulties in the biological treatment of industrial waste streams. Inhibition of many microorganisms and deflocculation of sludge flocs were frequently encountered problems when wastewater treatment systems were operated under these conditions. In addition, industrial wastewaters may contain a large variety of potentially inhibiting or toxic compounds, such as aromatics, phenols, chlorinated or fluorinated compounds, volatile organic compounds ( VOCs ), heavy metals, surfactants, biocides. Some of the toxic compounds may be mostly inert to biodegradation and may require additional physico-chemical treatment, either as pre- or posttreatment, depending on their effects on the biological process (e.g., heavy metals).
Role of Enzymes in Bioremediation of Organic Pollutants
Published in M.H. Fulekar, Bhawana Pathak, Bioremediation Technology, 2020
Smita Chaudhry, Rashmi Paliwal
Contamination by organic pollutants is a critical issue that places serious pressure on the global environment. Unfortunately, this pressure is continuously increasing with technological and industrial revolutions fulfilling the demand of growing populations. Organic pollutants such as pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), dyes, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene), plastics, biopolymers, phenols, chlorophenols, nitrocompounds, polyethene, etc., from various industrial activities are continuously being released into the adjoining land and/or water bodies. These toxic pollutants are characterized as ubiquitous compounds with both natural and anthropogenic sources. Human activities that are related to the release of such persistent organic pollutants (POPs) include not only the production and application but also the unsafe disposal of these compounds in nature. These substances are also present in the workplace environment, and the general population may get exposed to these chemicals even through food. Exposure to such toxic compounds can cause harmful effects on human health, which include neurological disorders; liver dysfunction; reproductive system problems; behavioral, immune, and endocrine disorders; and carcinogenic effects (Stojić et al., 2018).
Sustainability Analytics for Global Issues
Published in Ram Ramanan, Introduction to Sustainability Analytics, 2018
There are many regulations in place worldwide for managing toxic substances and hazardous waste and preventing their release into the environment. In the United States, these span an alphabet soup of regulations that range from those aimed at prevention of new toxic substances entering the environment, such as the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA),610 to those aimed at tracking the release and minimizing the release of toxic substances such as the TRI.611 Other regulations target the handling, treatment, and safe disposal of toxic substances and hazardous wastes, including the remediation of contaminated sites. These include the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA),612 and the CERCLA, commonly known as Superfund,613 among several others. CERCLA in particular deserves special attention for its construct in retroactive and several liability that transformed the environmental insurance industry and has drawn attention from the financial sector for reporting material environmental risks.
An overview of development and challenges in hydrogen powered vehicles
Published in International Journal of Green Energy, 2020
Seyed Ehsan Hosseini, Brayden Butler
The US DOE has set parameters for storage and system safety. For permeation and leakage, the system must fulfill SAE J2579 for system safety; for toxicity, the system must meet applicable standards; and failure analysis must be conducted and evaluated for the system. The permeation and leakage tests are for the entire storage system, rather than each component or storage material. The toxicity criteria are regulated by government standards such as the EPA’s Toxic Substances Control Act Chemical Substance Inventory (TSCA Inventory) and the US Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OHSHA). The safety instructions cover the transport system, manufacture, certification and operation of vehicles, fuel dispensing, and end of life issues, which each must comply with applicable federal, state, and local standards. The onboard storage systems should comply with SAE J2579 and the United Nations Global Technical Regulation No. 13 and the applicable standards for the country that the vehicle is deployed.
Modeling emissions for three-dimensional atmospheric chemistry transport models
Published in Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 2018
Volker Matthias, Jan A. Arndt, Armin Aulinger, Johannes Bieser, Hugo Denier van der Gon, Richard Kranenburg, Jeroen Kuenen, Daniel Neumann, George Pouliot, Markus Quante
The substances included in emission inventories can be divided into the “classical” pollutants, greenhouse gases (GHG), and toxic substances. The “classical” pollutants are sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), nonmethane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), ammonia (NH3), and particulate matter (PM). These species have to be considered by every comprehensive CTM for two reasons. Firstly, they are the so called criteria pollutants or their precursors. Criteria pollutants are substances that can harm human health and the environment and cause damage to buildings. For these substances (ozone [O3], nitrogen dioxide [NO2], CO, SO2, PM), air quality standards and concentration limits are enforced in all developed countries. Secondly, the “classical” pollutants are necessary to determine the oxidative state of the atmosphere and the particle number, mass, and surface area available for physicochemical interactions. Thus, they induce a direct feedback on the lifetime and transport patterns of most air pollutants. Greenhouse gases are sometimes reported together with the classical pollutants in the same inventory (e.g., in the Representative Concentration Pathway [RCPs] and in the Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research [EDGAR]). To a large extent, they have the same sources, but GHGs are not very reactive and therefore they are not further discussed here. The term “toxic substances” subsumes chemicals that have a known toxic or ecotoxic effect. They comprise a large and heterogeneous group of persistent organic pollutants (e.g., polyaromatic hydrocarbons [PAHs], polychlorinated biphenyls [PCBs], dioxins), VOCs (e.g., formaldehyde, acrolein), and heavy metals (e.g., Hg, Pb, Cd).
Sources and risk assessment of toxic elements in the agricultural soil of Tiantai County of Zhejiang province, China
Published in Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal, 2020
Xinzhe Lu, Fan Luo, Anqing Gu, Xianyao Chu, Hassan Younas, Xuefeng Hu
Toxic elements can enter in the human body by three pathways: ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact (Gu et al. 2016; Qing et al. 2015; Toth et al. 2016). Once the toxic elements are ingested into the human body, they gathered in the fatty tissues and seriously disturb the workability of human organs that also include disturbance of the nervous and the endocrine system. Several studies have reported that children are more likely to be affected by toxic element contamination as compared to adults (Huang et al. 2016; Peralta Videa et al. 2009).