Hazardous Reduction Research Articles

A waste extended input-output-based Transformer-LSTM method for analyzing hazardous waste reduction patterns: A case study of shanghai

Population growth, economic development, and industrialization have resulted in a notable surge in the hazardous waste (HW) generation, consequently leading to adverse effects on human health and environmental safety. In this work, a Waste Extended Input-Output-based Transformer-Long Short-Term Memory (WEIO-TL) method was developed to simulate the HW generation patterns of various economic industries in the supply chain and generate the desired strategies for reducing HW generation. The WEIO-TL method was applied to Shanghai to identify its HW reduction path and potential by 2035. Multiple scenarios were designed to investigate the impacts of different degrees of economic and technological development on HW generation. The primary results indicated that the economic proportion of each key industry and the technological innovation capability were the main factors influencing the HW generation in Shanghai. The six key industries identified by the WEIO were the chemical industry (CI), other services (OS), transportation equipment (MTE), computers, communication, and other electronic equipment (MCCOEE), wholesale and retail trades (WRT), and construction (C). HW generation would peak at 1570.9 kt in 2025 and subsequently decrease to 949.0 kt by 2035 under the optimal scenario based on the optimal TL model (R2 and RMSE values of 0.976 and 5.968), associated with industry structure optimization (i.e., part of high-polluting industries would be shifted to service) and technological innovation capability improvement. The results of the study will serve as a theoretical foundation to guide other cities toward achieving "zero waste."

Comparative e-waste plastics biodegradation efficacy of monoculture Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PE10 and bacterial consortium under in situ condition.

A significant amount of electronic obsoletes or electronic waste (e-waste) is being generated globally each year; of these, ~20% of obsolete electronic items have plastic components. Current remediation practices for e-waste have several setbacks due to its negative impact on the environment, agro-ecosystem, and human health. Therefore, comparative biodegradation studies of e-waste plastics by monoculture Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PE10 and bacterial consortium consisting of Achromobacter insolitus strain PE2 (MF943156), Acinetobacter nosocomialis strain PE5 (MF943157), Pseudomonas lalkuanensis PE8 (CP043311), and Stenotrophomonas pavanii strain PE15 (MF943160) were carried out in situ. Biological treatment of e-waste with these candidates in soil ecosystems has been analyzed through diversified analytical techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric-derivative thermogravimetry-differential thermal analysis (TG-DTG-DTA), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Both P. aeruginosa strain PE10 and the bacterial consortium have a tremendous ability to accelerate the biodegradation process in the natural environment. However, FTIR analysis implied that the monoculture had better efficacy than the consortium, and it was consistent until the incubation period used for the study. Some polymeric bonds such as ν C=C and δ C-H were completely removed, and ν C=C ring stretching, νasym C-O-C, νsym C-H, etc. were introduced by strain PE10. Furthermore, thermal analysis results validated the structural deterioration of e-waste as the treated samples showed nearly two-fold weight loss (WL; 6.8%) than the untreated control (3.1%) at comparatively lower temperatures. SEM images provided the details of surface disintegrations. Conclusively, individual monoculture P. aeruginosa strain PE10 could be explored for e-waste bio-recycling in agricultural soil ecosystems thereby reducing the cost, time, and management of bioformulation in addition to hazardous pollutant reduction.

Institutions That Influence Cross-Boundary Forest Management: Four Cases of Shared Stewardship in Practice

Abstract The USDA Forest Service’s 2018 Shared Stewardship Strategy emphasizes the need to coordinate work with actors across boundaries to increase the pace and scale of land management, particularly as it relates to forest restoration and wildfire mitigation. We researched how the Strategy was being implemented at the project level by conducting forty-four interviews with individuals closely involved with four large-scale cross-boundary hazardous fuels reduction projects. Our objectives were to identify institutions that facilitated and challenged cross-boundary work under the Strategy and document how actors innovated to overcome challenges they encountered. We found that Shared Stewardship had the greatest opportunity to shift the larger forest management paradigm within states that created new institutions specifically to support the Strategy and its objectives. However, numerous institutional challenges such as yearly funding levels and complex bureaucratic requirements, frustrated efforts to increase the pace and scale of management actions under the Strategy. Study Implications: We conducted research on cross-boundary projects that met the intent of the USDA Forest Service’s Shared Stewardship Strategy. We found that the cross-boundary tenets of the Strategy were best supported when states worked together with the federal government to create new institutions that facilitate multijurisdictional work. Our interviewees said that various bureaucratic hurdles remain difficult to navigate, and that they believe annual funding appropriations are not currently enough to support significant increases in the pace and scale of management. Our interviewees said Shared Stewardship supported cross-boundary actions, but more remains to be done to best support multijurisdictional work.

Hybrid nanoparticles emulsified vegetable oil as an environmentally friendly and sustainable leather fatliquoring agent

Introducing sustainability by a reduction in chemical input has added value to technology innovations, especially in the leather fatliquoring process. Major concern of sustainable leather fatliquoring process lies in factors like usage of natural oil, avoidance of hazardous substances and reduction in organic load to the environment. Due to their special features, such as their ease of preparation and environmental friendliness, Pickering emulsions and their applications have received significant attention in recent years. The present study reports a novel sustainable leather fatliquoring process by usage of hybrid particles (alumina coated with silica) stabilised Pickering emulsions as fatliquor instead of conventional sulphated oil based fatliquor. Eco fatliquoring agent with a particular choice of vegetable oil stabilised by hybrid alumina functionalised with silica (Al-O-SiO2)/ hybrid nanoparticles through Pickering emulsion was reported. During the post tanning process, the uses of this developed fatliquoring agent causes a reduction in the 30% of fatliquoring agent input and 40% reduction in dye input. The presence of alumina nanoparticles resulted in an immediate improvement of the abrasion resistance, softness, and physical properties of the crust leather. Utilizing hybrid particles (Al-O-Si) as a stabiliser readily improves the uptake of other post tanning chemicals. Thus, the prepared fatliquoring agent suitably softened the leather and significantly improved the mechanical properties, light fastness, and fullness with the reduction in the pollution load. To divulge the sustainability of the fatliquoring process, the sustainability analysis for the developed product was analyzed and presented. As compared to the conventional fatliquoring process the E factor of the experimental process was estimated to be lower (at a value of 0.25) which indicates minimum emissions. Based on cost estimation, leather fatliquoring is economically viable when using the prepared fatliquoring agent.

Pd quantum dot induced changes in the photocatalytic, electrocatalytic, photoelectrochemical and thermoelectric performances of galvanically synthesized Sb2Se3 thin films

We present a novel solution-based galvanic (electrochemical) synthesis of antimony selenide light absorber thin films on FTO (Fluorine doped tin oxide) coated glass substrates. The structural, surface morphological, compositional, optical and electrical properties of the samples were characterized using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), UV–Vis and Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and Electrochemical Impedance spectroscopy (EIS). X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) was employed to determine the elemental state composition of as-deposited and annealed Sb2Se3 films containing Pd. The annealed Sb2Se3:Pd films exhibited hydrogen evolution in neutral buffer medium with small potential of 164 mV and a Tafel slope of 39 mV/decade. Pd incorporation enhances the efficiency towards HER performance, which shows the 10 mAcm−2 current density at a low overpotential of 244 mV with reasonable durability. Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting was observed at a potential of 0.41 V versus a reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) with 3.2 mA cm−2 at 0 V versus RHE, under air mass 1.5 global illumination in a neutral electrolyte. To check the performance of this material for waste water treatment photodegradation of hazardous dyes and metal ion reduction experiments were performed. The photodegradation percentages of MG, MB and RhB dyes with annealed Sb2Se3:Pd thin film catalysts and H2O2 were 99.32% in 10 min, 98.95% in 20 min and 99.16% in 30 min, respectively. Cu2+ ions were photocatalytically reduced with the same catalyst to an extent of 98.9% in 20 min. Thermoelectric measurements on annealed Sb2Se3:Pd yielded the best Figure of merit and power factor values of 39.8 μW/cmK2 and 10.81 × 10−3, respectively at 373 K.

Treatment of industrial ferric sludge through a facile acid-assisted hydrothermal reaction: Focusing on dry mass reduction and hydrochar recyclability performance

Large amounts of Fenton sludge and waste activated sludge (WAS) are mixed as ferric sludge (FS) in most industrial wastewater treatment plants. The treatment of such waste represents a challenge and quantity-dependent cost, so that a reliable way for FS waste reduction is required. In this study, we develop a facile acid-assisted hydrothermal treatment (HT) for the cost-efficient treatment of hazardous FS waste. Sulfuric acid was dosed at 0.25 mL/g dry solid (DS) to the HT process, which significantly increased the total solid mass reduction (TMR) by 25.1 % and dry mass reduction (DMR) by 104.4 %. The participation of sulfuric acid during the HT process changed the HT reaction pathway from dehydration to demethylation based on the analysis of the derivative thermogravimetric and Van Krevelen diagram. The addition of sulfuric acid improved the release of Fe from FS by 52.9 %, which contributed to the DMR. During the acid-assisted HT, Fe(III) was effectively reduced to Fe(II) within the produced hydrochar, which can be recycled for the Fenton reaction during the degradation of actual industrial wastewater such as pharmaceutical wastewater. Moreover, Sulfuric acid facilitated the generation of sulfonated hydrochar, which was efficient as an adsorbent for the complete removal of some metals such as Cu(II) - cation metal (98.8 %) and Cr(VI) - anion metal (99.9 %). This study firstly provides a novel and reliable approach for hazardous FS reduction and pointed out the recycling of hydrochar as the supplement for the Fenton reaction and adsorbents for some hazardous heavy metals.

Tuning of vanadium valence for value-added recycling and utilization of vanadium from spent Selective Catalytic Reduction Catalysts

Spent hazardous selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalysts are both wastes and secondary resources. The harmless disposal and value-added utilization are necessary. In this paper, we propose a green route to sustainable reutilize vanadium from hazardous wastes as vanadium dioxide (VO2) cathodes for aqueous zinc ion batteries.The valence tuning from V5+, V4+, and V3+ in spent catalysts to V4+ in leaching solution has been realized by reduction acid leaching to ensure the complete recycle. The leaching rate of vanadium is 93.6%, and the vanadium content in the slag phase is less than 0.04%. Most V and few Fe and Al are extracted by P204 in organic phase, then diluted sulfuric acid is used for stepwise stripping from mixed V, Fe, and Al solution. Then high-purity (99.9%) vanadyl sulfate (VOSO4) solution is obtained after extraction and purification, which is used for the preparation of VO2 materials The assembled batteries by prepared VO2 exhibited a discharge capacity of 204.6 mA h g−1 at the first five cycles, and 172.5 mA h g−1 after 100 cycles at 0.1 A g−1. The capacity retention rate is 84.31% after 100 cycles. The mechanism and environmental analysis of greenhouse gas emission of reduction acid leaching are discussed, which reduces carbon emissions by 89.50% compared with routine acid leaching. Moreover, the phase transformation, metal element flow as well as species evolution are described for the deep understanding of valence tuning at molecular level. This paper presents a prospective approach for the short-cut and value-added utilization recovery of vanadium from hazardous wastes.

Exploring Barriers to the Adoption of Internet of Things-Based Precision Agriculture Practices

The production of row crops in the Midwestern (Indiana) region of the US has been facing environmental and economic sustainability issues. There has been an increase in trend for the application of fertilizers (nitrogen & phosphorus), farm machinery fuel costs and decreasing labor productivity leading to non-optimized usage of farm inputs. Literature describes how sustainable practices such as profitability (return on investments), operational cost reduction, hazardous waste reduction, delivery performance and overall productivity might be adopted in the context of precision agriculture technologies (variable rate irrigation, variable rate fertilization, cloud-based analytics, and telematics for farm machinery navigation). The literature review describes low adoption of Internet of Things (IoT)-based precision agriculture technologies, such as variable rate fertilizer (39%), variable rate pesticide (8%), variable rate irrigation (4%), cloud-based data analytics (21%) and telematics (10%) amongst Midwestern row crop producers. Barriers to the adoption of IoT-based precision agriculture technologies cited in the literature include cost effectiveness, power requirements, wireless communication range, data latency, data scalability, data storage, data processing and data interoperability. Therefore, this study focused on exploring and understanding decision-making variables related to barriers through three focus group interview sessions conducted with eighteen (n = 18) subject matter experts (SME) in IoT- based precision agriculture practices. Dependency relationships described between cost, data latency, data scalability, power consumption, communication range, type of wireless communication and precision agriculture application is one of the main findings. The results might inform precision agriculture practitioners, producers and other stakeholders about variables related to technical and operational barriers for the adoption of IoT-based precision agriculture practices.

A novel lead-based pseudo dimensional stable anode toward efficient and clean extraction of metallic manganese

Although the application of the dimensionally stable anode (DSA) is of great value to meet the environmental demands for sustainable development of electrometallurgy, the unsatisfactory stability and high-costs hinder its industrialization in Mn metallurgy. Hereby, a novel lead-based pseudo dimensional stable anode (LBP-DSA) was proposed firstly to overcome the intrinsic defects of the lead-based anodes and inherit the advanced characteristics of the DSA. The unique advantage for the hierarchical skeleton of LBP-DSA (lead-based/TiB2/γ-MnO2) was discussed in detail. To begin with, a sufficiently robust lead-based/TiB2 substrate was constructed to eliminate the lead pollution in electrolysis system. The key role of TiB2 interlayer was devoted to solidify the lead substrate and provide suitable anchors for subsequent layer adhesion. Subsequently, the as-synthesized γ-MnO2 on different substrates were comparatively analyzed to highlight that the tantalizing oxygen evolution selectivity relied on screening the lead pollution in γ-MnO2 lattice. Beneficial from the synergistic effects of TiB2 with γ-MnO2, our LBP-DSA exhibited a great potential in energy-saving and hazardous anode slime reduction. The satisfactory long-term stability and corrosion resistance made the LBP-DSA as a promising candidate for cleaner production of metallic manganese.

Biological Synthesis and Characterisation of Silver Nanoparticles of Zingiber officinalis and Evaluation of its Biological Activity

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) belongs to Zingiberaceae family is one of the famous spices all over the world. It is a perennial creeping plant with long leaves, yellow green flowers and thick tuberous rhizome. Silver nanoparticles’ potential uses in Green Chemistry have received attention. The current study focuses on the rapid biological production of silver nanoparticles using different plant materials and characterizations using UV-visible spectrophotometry, IR, SEM, and HPLC investigations. Within 15 minutes of adding sodium carbonate, an aqueous extract of dried Zingiber officinalis rhizome reduces silver nitrate. No further reduction and stabilizing chemicals are required for the entire process, showing a green synthesis. Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus use biosynthesized “Zinger-AgNps” as a competent antibacterial agent. Zinger-AgNps were evaluated as its catalytic capability to reduce the model pollutant methylene blue. Both of them are displayed 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl-specific free radical scavenging activity (DPPH). Silver biological material nanoparticles are created by utilizing less hazardous and nontoxic reduction agents, such as ascorbic acid and sodium citrate. The antioxidant and lipid peroxidation inhibition properties of ginger prevent peroxidative damage, indicating the benefits of ginger in the prevention of microbial food spoilage, free-radical-induced damage and rancidity. The sodium citrate aggregation for silver nanoparticles, firm surface contact, and synthesized silver nanoparticles are used to study antibacterial efficacy and antioxidant activity.

Managed Wildfire: A Strategy Facilitated by Civil Society Partnerships and Interagency Cooperation

Federal land managers in the United States are permitted to manage wildfires with strategies other than full suppression under appropriate conditions to achieve natural resource objectives. However, policy and scientific support for “managed wildfire” appear insufficient to support its broad use. We conducted case studies in northern New Mexico and southwestern Utah to examine how managers and stakeholders navigated shifting barriers and opportunities to use managed wildfire from 2018 to 2021. The use of managed wildfire was fostered through an active network of civil society partnerships in one case, and strong interagency cooperation and existing policies and plans in the other. In both, the COVID-19 pandemic, drought, and agency direction curtailed recent use. Local context shapes wildfire response strategies, yet centralized decision-making and policy also can enable or constrain them. Future research could refine the understanding of social factors in incident decision-making, and evaluation of risks and tradeoffs in wildfire response. Implications Managers and stakeholders seeking to restore fire’s ecological roles in their own landscapes through the use of managed wildfires could use these findings to cultivate supportive local environments for their objectives. Both case studies offer examples of how managed wildfires may be facilitated through civil society partnerships and interagency cooperation. Networks of civil society and agency partners can encourage policy change at multiple levels through concerted efforts over time, particularly by building a larger case through localized examples of collaborative projects and a body of regionally relevant scientific evidence. Strong interagency cooperation on both mitigation and response can also foster an environment of mutual understanding, even given differing missions and mandates for managed wildfire. Management implications Federal wildfire response must consider multiple objectives that may compete across scales, social-ecological contexts, and timeframes. These include minimizing negative impacts on human values, responding to immediate risks of fire exposure, managing land sustainably under longer timeframes; and meeting accomplishment targets, such as acres of hazardous fuels reduction, ecological restoration, and other resource objectives. Federal wildfires and land managers are permitted to manage wildfires for natural resource objectives but face challenges of ambiguous terminology, conflicting policies, drought, increasing numbers of homes in wildlands, and unanticipated events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Conditions, opportunities, and barriers to manage wildfire vary substantially by locality and are dependent on local actors, yet also subject to higher-level changes in policy direction. Beyond improved risk analytics and decision support tools, enabling social and internal institutional conditions may also facilitate opportunities for use of managed wildfire. Social science can provide evidence and frameworks including concrete lessons learned, expanded use of after-action reviews, process monitoring, briefings with leadership, and science application through boundary-spanning organizations.

Magnetic Graphene Oxide/Carboxymethyl-Imidazolium-Grafted Chitosan Schiff Base Nanocomposite: A New PdNPs Support for Efficient Catalytic Reduction of Hazardous Nitroarenes

The relevance of aryl amines as raw materials for a variety of applications has prompted substantial research into developing highly efficient protocols for hazardous nitroarenes reduction. To that end, a new sustainable and heterogeneous palladium nanocatalyst was fabricated by immobilization of PdNPs on the new magntic support composed of carboxymethyl-imidazolium ionic liquid-grafted chitosan Schiff base and magnetic graphene oxide (CMICSB-MGO) nanocomposites. The spectral, thermal, and microscopic analyses results revealed the successful formation of the magnetic support and nanocatalyst. The activity of the new nanocatalyst (CMICSB-MGO-Pd) in the catalytic reduction of hazardous nitroarenes to convert them into valuable aminoarenes was studied. The findings demonstrated that the new nanocatalyst has excellent catalytic activity, superior recoverability, as well as outstanding reusability under very mild reaction conditions. Moreover, this nanocatalyst can be recycled up to 8 catalytic runs, without significant loss in its efficacy or Pd leaching. Thus, the new magnetic support and nanocatalyst are more eco-friendly and sustainable choices for large-scale use and could pave the way for developing other metal-based catalysts for versatile applications in the future.

Electrochemical Synthesis of High-Nitrogen Materials and Energetic Materials.

Electrochemical synthesis is a valuable method for the preparation of molecules. It is innately eco-friendly, as potentially hazardous oxidation and reduction agents are replaced with electrochemical potentials. Electrochemistry is commonly applied globally in the synthesis of numerous chemicals, but the energetic materials field lags in this regard. In this review, we endeavor to cover the entire history of synthetic electrochemistry for the preparation of energetic materials and detail the electrochemical transformations of high-nitrogen materials that are relevant for the preparation of new energetic molecules. We hope this review serves as a starting point to inform those involved in synthetic energetic materials chemistry, and those interested in other applications of high-nitrogen molecules, about the environmentally friendly electrochemical methods available for such compounds.

Anaerobically Digesting Hazardous Waste Pichia pastoris Associated with Butyric Acid Cleaner Production.

Recombinant Pichia pastoris semisolid hazardous waste treatment is difficult and traditional solid waste treatment is not applicable. However, P. pastoris wastes have features of high density and enriched proteins/polysaccharides, which could supply nitrogen/carbon sources for butyric acid production. The waste P. pastoris was first treated using NaOH to form a waste yeast suspension, and then the suspension was mixed with glucose to obtain a starting medium containing 5.6 g DCW/L (dry cell weight) yeast to initiate butyrate fermentation. The suspension was intermediately supplemented to bring the total waste yeast concentration to 26.3 g DCW/L while continuously feeding the concentrated glucose solution. With the proposed strategy, butyrate concentration reached high levels of 51.0–54.0 g/L using Clostridium tyrobutyricum as the strain. Amino acids/oligosaccharides/SO42– in the suspension, raw material costs, complicated pretreatment process, and butyric acid cleaner production could be effectively utilized, reduced, eliminated, and realized. However, the apparent waste P. pastoris reduction rate was only 49% per batch, thus a “tanks in-series type’s repeated waste treating system” model was developed to theoretically explore the possibility of increasing the waste yeast reduction rate R. The simulation results indicated that when setting the treatment unit numbers at 4, waste solid concentration could decrease from 26.3 to 3.37 g DCW/L and the hazardous waste yeast reduction rate R would increase from 49 to 97%.

Self-supported Ag nanoparticles on AgTi2(PO4)3 for hazardous dyes reduction in industrial wastewater

Silver based-nanoparticles (Ag NPs) have been recently shown to be promising catalysts for the degradation of toxic organic dyes in wastewater despite the challenges of recycling. In this paper, self-supported Ag NPs were obtained at the surface of AgTi2(PO4)3 NASICON-type phosphates through in situ chemical reduction by sodium borohydride (NaBH4). The adopted approach enables the self-growth of zero-valent Ag NPs on the NASICON matrix, and concomitantly leads to the formation of Ag1−xNaxTi2(PO4)3. The crystalline structure, morphology and phase composition of the Ag nanocomposite has been characterized by several techniques. The catalytic performance of the as-fabricated Ag NPs/Ag1−xNaxTi2(PO4)3 has then been verified in the reduction of methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) dyes, chosen as target pollutants. Our findings reveal a good catalytic activity with an efficiency and time of reaction of respectively ∼ 96.30% and 320 s in the case of the MB reduction and ∼ 94.60% and 270 s in the case of the MO reduction. Additionally, the initial AgTi2(PO4)3 phase can be regenerated via simple calcination route and recycled up to five times with no appreciable loss of catalytic activity.

Honeybee-based biohybrid system for landmine detection

Legacy landmines in post-conflict areas are a non-discriminatory lethal hazard and can still be triggered decades after the conflict has ended. Efforts to detect these explosive devices are expensive, time-consuming, and dangerous to humans and animals involved. While methods such as metal detectors and sniffer dogs have successfully been used in humanitarian demining, more tools are required for both site surveying and accurate mine detection. Honeybees have emerged in recent years as efficient bioaccumulation and biomonitoring animals. The system reported here uses two complementary landmine detection methods: passive sampling and active search. Passive sampling aims to confirm the presence of explosive materials in a mine-suspected area by the analysis of explosive material brought back to the colony on honeybee bodies returning from foraging trips. Analysis is performed by light-emitting chemical sensors detecting explosives thermally desorbed from a preconcentrator strip. The active search is intended to be able to pinpoint the place where individual landmines are most likely to be present. Used together, both methods are anticipated to be useful in an end-to-end process for area surveying, suspected hazardous area reduction, and post-clearing internal and external quality control in humanitarian demining.

The change of water content and role of microbe in the sludge drying process

In this study, the pure terephthalic acid sludge was treated by a drying process which was an economical and environmentally method. The water change and metabolic pathways for bacterial community function prediction were analyzed. The microbial community changes were studied by high-throughput sequencing to draw the dynamic succession model. Then multiple statistics was used to determine the key factors of the reduction. The results showed that the main stage of water loss in the PTA sludge drying process was the high temperature period where the water lost by evaporation accounted for more than 90% of the total removal. The main metabolic pathways for bacterial community function were amino acid (7.72%–8.71% of Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes relative abundance and 8.26%–9.51% of Cluster of orthologous groups of proteins relative abundance) and carbohydrate metabolism. The model describing the dynamic succession of microbial communities showed that the dominant bacteria changed from Nitrospira, Novosphingobium and Azohydromonas to Pseudomonas, Paeniglutamicibac and Pelotomaculum. The key factors for water loss were Gemmatimonas, Novosphingobium and Azohydromonas with the correlation coefficients of 0.887, 0.772, 0.783, respectively; the key factors for dry matter loss were Pelotomaculum, total organic matter, dissovlved organic carbon and carbon/nitrogen ratio; the key factors for toxic substance loss were Brevundimonas, Novosphingobium and Gemmatimonas. These results provided theoretical support for the application and demonstration for hazardous waste sludge reduction.

Dust Transport from Inland Australia and Its Impact on Air Quality and Health on the Eastern Coast of Australia during the February 2019 Dust Storm

Dust storms originating from Central Australia and western New South Wales frequently cause high particle concentrations at many sites across New South Wales, both inland and along the coast. This study focussed on a dust storm event in February 2019 which affected air quality across the state as detected at many ambient monitoring stations in the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE) air quality monitoring network. The WRF-Chem (Weather Research and Forecast Model—Chemistry) model is used to study the formation, dispersion and transport of dust across the state of New South Wales (NSW, Australia). Wildfires also happened in northern NSW at the same time of the dust storm in February 2019, and their emissions are taken into account in the WRF-Chem model by using Fire Inventory from NCAR (FINN) as emission input. The model performance is evaluated and is shown to predict fairly accurate the PM2.5 and PM10 concentration as compared to observation. The predicted PM2.5 concentration over New South Wales during 5 days from 11 to 15 February 2019 is then used to estimate the impact of the February 2019 dust storm event on three health endpoints, namely mortality, respiratory and cardiac disease hospitalisation rates. The results show that even though as the daily average of PM2.5 over some parts of the state, especially in western and north western NSW near the centre of the dust storm and wild fires, are very high (over 900 µg/m3), the population exposure is low due to the sparse population. Generally, the health impact is similar in order of magnitude to that caused by biomass burning events from wildfires or from hazardous reduction burnings (HRBs) near populous centres such as in Sydney in May 2016. One notable difference is the higher respiratory disease hospitalisation for this dust event (161) compared to the fire event (24).

Catalytically Active Powder Compositions for Hazardous Emission Reduction Systems

A catalytically active coating based on the aluminum–aluminum hydroxide system (doped with copper, cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, chromium, and tungsten oxides) has been developed. It is experimentally established that the coating has a high catalytic activity, great adhesive properties, and a high porosity. This coating is recommended for systems that reduce the toxicity of exhaust gases of different technological processes, where the gas emitted into the atmosphere contains harmful organic substances and carbon monoxide.

Radio frequency heating and reduction of Graphene Oxide and Graphene Oxide - Polyvinyl Alcohol Composites

Graphene oxide (GO) is one of the most frequently-used graphene-family materials, but it must often be reduced in order to restore electrical conductivity for the target applications. We have demonstrated the use of non-contact fringing field RF applicators to rapidly heat and reduce GO, both in its neat form and inside a polymer matrix such as polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). For this study, GO and GO-PVA films were prepared by the vacuum filtration method. The results demonstrate quick non-contact heating of GO and GO-PVA composite films by application of RF fields. Heating rates as high as 10.9 °C/s and 1.5 °C/s have been observed for GO and GO-PVA, respectively. RF-reduced GO and GO-PVA samples have shown conductivities of 102 S/m and 10−1 S/m, respectively. In addition, C/O ratio has increased from 2.44 to 5.22 when GO is exposed to RF waves which confirm that GO samples are reduced by the RF treatment. Unlike time-consuming or hazardous conventional reduction methods, RF waves resistively heat GO with electric fields in seconds to form reduced GO.