Industrial Pollution Control Research Articles

Implementation of Policy to Control Industrial Pollution in Bangladesh: Major Drawbacks

This study attempts to find out the major drawbacks in implementation of policies made to control industrial pollution in Bangladesh. Despite having an industrial policy Bangladesh faced a mass unplanned industrialization in some particular areas which could create severe damage to the local and national environment. This research is, in particular, a descriptive as well as explanatory research with cross-sectional time dimension. Analysis of institutional and administrative system to control industrial pollution by implementing relevant policy affirms absence of laws, acts and regulations based on contemporary economic condition of the country, lack of enough efficient and neutral street level bureaucrats, partiality in policy implementation, corrupt and politically motivated maneuvering of policy implementation system and deficiency of latest technology are the major drawbacks of industrial pollution control policy implementation.

China's environmental policy: an introduction

AbstractThis special issue covers several important aspects of China's environmental policy, ranging from evaluation of government programs (biogas and the Sloping Land Conversion Program) that aim directly to enhance the rural environment, to the reform of natural resource sectors (collective and state forest reforms) that set foundations for the sustainable use of natural resources, and to the impacts of urban environmental policies (including urban transportation management and industrial pollution control policy). We provide an overview of the topic and a brief introduction to each of the contributed papers.

China's provincial industrial pollution: the role of technical efficiency, pollution levy and pollution quantity control

AbstractUsing China's provincial economic and pollution data from 1992 to 2008, we employ data envelope analysis and econometric analyses to explicitly estimate technical efficiency and examine the role of technical efficiency, pollution control instruments (pollution levy and pollution quantity control) and prices of production inputs on pollution intensity. We find that an increase of labor wage and a decrease of capital cost are associated with an improvement in technical efficiency. The levy rates of air pollution improve technical efficiency but pollution quantity control targets have no statistically significant effect on technical efficiency. On the other hand, technical efficiency, the effective levy rates, pollution quantity control targets and capital cost have a negative effect but wage has a positive effect on pollution intensity. The importance of production input prices in pollution intensity and technical efficiency suggests alternative channels for industrial pollution control as well as cautions for the unintended consequence on the environment if any policy changes are made relating to labor and capital costs.

Characterization of Dust Particles Emitted Through Pulse-Jet Fabric Filters During Industrial Pollution Control

The present investigation elucidates the role of pulse-cleaning parameters and filter media designs on the extent of dust emission and emitted particle characteristics during industrial pollution control using the pulse-jet filtration process. The study is followed by statistical analysis based on L8 (27) orthogonal design methodology. The experimental study shows that the dust concentration in clean gas increases with an increase in pulse pressure and pulse duration, whereas it decreases with an increase in pulse cycle. However, the contribution of pulse pressure and pulse duration is much higher than the impact of pulse cycle. In regard to the impact of filter media design, a higher level of bag height (which also implies lower air-to-cloth ratio) and lower level of seamline spacing can lead to higher outlet emissions at the transitory stage. The role of pulse pressure, bag height, and seamline spacing are found to be very significant in regulating fine particles in the emission (PM2.5) and, consequently, the aforesaid factors affect all volume particles diameters (D10, D50, and D97) and weight mean particles diameter D (4, 3) of particles in bulk.

Industrial Pollution Regulation in the EU and in Macedonia, Serbia And Croatia

Industrial pollution control has substantial impact in the protection of the environment. In the European Union, there’s vast legislation in this field consisting mainly of the Directive on industrial emissions of 2010 aimed at consolidating the so far existing legislation in this field. The new Directive on industrial emissions aims to establish an integrated prevention and control of the pollution arising from industrial activities and it lays down rules designed to prevent or, where that is not practicable, to reduce emissions into air, water and land and to prevent the generation of waste, in order to achieve a high level of protection of the environment taken as a whole. Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia have made significant progress in this field in the recent years as part of their obligations under the Stabilization and Association Process. The purpose of this particular article is to evaluate the degree of alignment and implementation of the environmental legislation in this particular area with the legislation of EU as well its practical application, and to identify the existing deficiencies and necessary steps for action

Control of industrial air pollution through sustainable development

The environmental issue has become a major subject in the last few decades affecting science and technology throughout the world due to the serious environmental impacts caused by industrial air pollution. Consequently, pulse jet filtration has become the preferred choice all around the world. Researchers are continuously striving for new concepts of more energy-efficient and compact particulate collector which can meet future emission limits and operating requirements. The system can also satisfy stringent emission norms and if required, it can be embedded with new technique for simultaneous control of particulate and gaseous pollutants. In the recent past, stress is also being given to having control over the source to reduce or eliminate waste, and finally, on waste management. Prevention is frequently more cost-effective than control. The paper discusses all these methodology toward sustainability in the perspective of effective control of industrial air pollution.

Growing Green and Competitive—A Case Study of a Swedish Pulp Mill

The experiences of past efforts of industrial pollution control while maintaining competitiveness should be of great value to research and policy practice addressing sustainability issues today. In this article, we analyze the environmental adaptation of the Swedish pulp industry during the period 1970–1990 as illustrated by the sulfite pulp producer Domsjö mill. We investigate how this company managed to adapt to heavy transformation pressure from increasing international competition in combination with strict national environmental regulations during the 1960s to the early 1990s. In line with the so-called Porter hypothesis, the company was able to coordinate the problems that were environmental in nature with activities aiming at production efficiency goals and the development of new products. Swedish environmental agencies and legislation facilitated this “win-win” situation by a flexible but still challenging regulatory approach towards the company. From the early 1990s and onwards, the greening of the pulp industry was also a result of increased market pressure for green paper products.

Analysis of Persistent Organic Pollutants in Sediments of the Wanzhou Section of the Yangtze River

Organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls content can be obtained By measuring Wanzhou of the Yangtze River and Wanzhou Zhuxi River in sediment : Sediment content of organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls are increased the river down. Organochlorine pesticides in sediments are β-HCH> δ-HCH> α-HCH> γ-HCH, and pp'-DDE> pp '-DDD> op'-DDT> pp'-DDT. Organochlorine pesticides and PCBs of Wanzhou of the Yangtze River sediment in the distribution of the sampling points are similar characteristics. The main source of pollution is the direct discharge of industrial wastewater, agricultural pollution and soil erosion of farmland. Although OCPs and PCBs in water environment are very low, the impact on human health can not be ignored. Therefore certain measures are taken to clean emissions from industrial wastewater and agricultural non-point source pollution control.

Electrospun fibrous mats as a skeleton for fabricating hierarchically structured materials as sorbents for Cu2+

Based on the combination of the electrospinning and evaporation-induced self-assembly mesopore-forming technique, a facile strategy is developed to fabricate self-standing thiol-functionalized membranes with hierarchical structures (Macro-Mesopores and binding sites). This membrane is prepared using electrospun polystyrene (PS) fibers as the skeleton and non-ionic surfactant F127 as the structure-directing agent with co-condensation of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (MPTMS). The prepared membranes were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), nitrogen sorption, mercury intrusion porosimetry, and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra. The macropore constructed by the electrospun PS membrane ranged from 1 to 10 μm, while the highly ordered mesopore formed by F127 was around 5 nm and heavy metals binding cites of thiol groups were also presented, respectively. Using Cu2+ ions as the model bivalent cation, an excellent removal capacity of the prepared membrane was confirmed by the static sorption and dynamic filtration experiments with a high flux up to 1.30 × 104 L h−1 m−2bar−1. We find that regeneration of the membranes and the metal ion recovery can be facially realized by the treatment using acid solution. These results demonstrate that the developed strategy has significant potential for the design and fabrication of high-performance membranes with hierarchical structures and could find impactful application in the field of industrial catalysis, separation, and environmental pollution control and resources reuse.

Mathematical modelling of innovation-driven sustainable manufacturing: case study of industrial pollution control equipments used in steel manufacturing organisations

The world has witnessed enormous technological development during the last century, which has tremendously increased the environmental degradation. There is a strong need to confront these problems through systemic perspective analysis and modelling based on social, environmental and innovative capital of organisations characterising sustainability. Modelling, evaluating and measuring innovation-driven sustainable manufacturing is a crucial deed in the process of building more environmental-friendly societies. Thus, organisations should consider sustainable manufacturing as an innovation opportunity. In order to assess sustainability status of any manufacturing organisation, a handy and uncomplicated mathematical model based on industrial situation is necessary. In the present paper, an attempt has been made to formulate a simple innovation-driven sustainable manufacturing model, which is capable of performing a comprehensive assessment of relative sustainability status of various manufacturing organisations based on the case study of innovation-driven industrial pollution control equipments. Thus, a comprehensive mathematical model has been formulated and proposed for measuring and evaluating innovation-driven sustainable manufacturing. It is expected that the present work will be of immense interest to practicing engineers and researchers for investigating links between sustainable manufacturing and innovations in a more realistic manner.

Energy Recovery from Acid–Base Neutralization Process through pH-Sensitive Polymeric Ion Exchangers

Globally speaking, waste acid neutralization is a widely used industrial pollution control process. In principle, acid–base neutralization is a thermodynamically favorable reaction that involves the association of hydrogen and hydroxyl ions to form neutral water molecules with the generation of a significant amount of thermal energy (ΔH = −55.84 kJ/mol). However, it is not possible to recover the energy, because the increase in temperature of the bulk solution phase is often miniscule, because of the diluted nature of the waste acid solution and the high specific heat of water. Here, we demonstrate a methodology to recover a significant amount of useful energy by carrying out the neutralization reaction inside a pH-sensitive hydrophilic polymer (or biopolymer) phase containing covalently attached weak-acid or weak-base functional groups. When contacted with an acid or a base, the variation of pH causes the functional groups to reversibly acquire and lose its ionic character. This gives rise to an on–off pattern regarding the generation of osmotic pressure inside the polymer phase, causing it to reversibly swell and shrink, because of the movement of water into and out of the polymer phase. Laboratory experiments validate the reversibility of the swelling–shrinking pattern of a commercial weak-acid ion-exchange resin for multiple numbers of cycles with a concomitant generation of mechanical energy during the neutralization reaction. The process can be enhanced by tailoring the cross-linking and hydrophilicity of the polymer phase. The energy generated is free of carbon emission.

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS AND POLICIES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS

AbstractThis article explains how economic analysis can be applied to understand environmental problems and to suggest appropriate policies to deal with these problems. Economic analysis is performed using static and dynamic models, and one‐person and several‐person game theoretical models. Policy recommendations include the control of industrial pollution in China and the regulation of world CO2 emission through the application of a resolution by the United Nations.

An Empirical Study on Impact of Economic Development to Environmental Pollution in China

By using non-parametric additive panel model, this paper empirically studied the impact of economic development to environmental pollution in China. Our research results are summarized as follows: The relationship between environmental pollutants and economic variables including the industrial structure, technological level and pollution control show mostly inverted U shapes or inverted N shapes.

Cross-scale governance and the analysis of policy implementation for water management, with particular regard to climate adaptation, industrial pollution and impacts of agriculture

This paper explores cross-scale governance between the European Union (EU) and Member State level arising from the identification of key policy priorities by stakeholders in six river basins across Europe and their relationship to EU policy development and implementation. Particular emphasis is given to interpretation of Good Ecological Status in implementing the EU Water Framework Directive, climate adaptation for water management, application of agri-environment measures to reduce agricultural impacts on water and control of discharges from industry. The paper also examines lessons from wider sources of information such as legal analysis of transposition of EU law at national level and the rulings of the European Court of Justice. The analysis identifies a number of different types of ‘information’ transmission between the different governance scales. Information includes a range of governance issues, including transmission of rules. These are exact ‘information’ transmission (water quality standards), national elaboration of information transmitted (adapting to climate change), national simplification of information transmitted (industrial pollution control), distributed information transmission (in national transposition), fuzzy transmission of information (interpretation of Good Ecological Status) and barriers to transmission (available funding). The paper concludes by considering the importance of cross-scale analysis in assessing policy effectiveness and argues for further analysis drawing on cross-scale research derived from ecosystems analysis.

Analysis of black carbon, particulate matter, and gaseous pollutants in an industrial area in Korea

Abstract Continuous mass concentrations of black carbon (BC), particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), CO, NO2, SO2, benzene, toluene, and xylene were measured in an industrial area in Incheon City, Korea. Principal component analysis (PCA) results revealed that PC1 had high contributions from PM10, PM2.5, CO, and benzene (31.225%), and was strongly associated with vehicular emissions and industrial sources, the major contributors to air pollution in Incheon. PC2 was heavily enriched with NO2 and BC (24.555%), and was attributed to emissions from vehicles such as buses, vans, taxis, cars, motorcycles, and trucks. PC3 was highly enriched with toluene and xylene (20.884%), and thus represented solvent usage. PC4 was enriched with SO2 (12.884%), which could be attributed to the high S content in diesel fuel used in trucks, which may contribute to the high ambient levels of SO2 in the city. Cluster analysis (CA) revealed four subgroups: Cluster 1 (SO2), Cluster 2 (toluene and xylene), Cluster 3 (NO2 and BC), and Cluster 4 (PM10, PM2.5, CO, and benzene), which agree with the PCA results. This study showed that benzene had a higher correlation with PM2.5, PM10, and CO than toluene and xylene, providing insights into source contributions that, together with a source-species atmospheric dispersion model, can be used to devise new control strategies for industrial urban areas. Our results suggest that appropriate vehicle emission management coupled with industrial air pollution control should be applied to fine particulate (PM2.5) and gaseous pollutants including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes in the study area.

Broadband UV spectroscopy system used for monitoring of SO 2 and NO emissions from thermal power plants

A gas monitoring system based on broadband absorption spectroscopic techniques in the ultraviolet region is described and tested. The system was employed in real-time continuous concentration measurements of sulfur dioxide (SO 2) and nitric oxide (NO) from a 220-ton h −1 circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler in Shandong province, China. The emission coefficients (per kg of coal and per kWh of electricity) and the total emission of the two pollutant gases were evaluated. The measurement results showed that the emission concentrations of SO 2 and NO from the CFB boiler fluctuated in the range of 750–1300 mg m −3 and 100–220 mg m −3, respectively. Compared with the specified emission standards of air pollutants from thermal power plants in China, the values were generally higher for SO 2 and lower for NO. The relatively high emission concentrations of SO 2 were found to mainly depend on the sulfur content of the fuel and the poor desulfurization efficiency. This study indicates that the broadband UV spectroscopy system is suitable for industrial emission monitoring and pollution control.

Swedish agency for research cooperation's support to biotechnology programmes

The activities of the Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation (SAREC) are geared to helping developing countries build-up their research capacities. SAREC supports biotechnology related activities such as development of biotechnologies for industrial fermentation, food processing, disease management, and pollution control. Support is also provided to building up indigenous capacity in biosafety and biotechnology policy.

Further analysis and PMF application to the chemical composition data of IPCAJ's Kashima SPM study

The Industrial Pollution Control Association of Japan (IPCAJ) has conducted an air quality study. A brief summary has already appeared in previous papers. This set of data was not sufficiently analysed. This study attempts to examine the performance of the Positive Matrix Factorisation (PMF), a recently introduced technique in this field, on this multiple-site Kashima data set. The source apportionment study using the PMF model conducted for the Kashima data set identified six factors for each fine and coarse fraction. This result also seems to be appropriate, because spatial distribution and seasonal variation of the contributions for each emission source category could be explained reasonably. The PMF can analyse a data set that may be extracted from different populations, and it seems to be a powerful tool available for these kinds of complicated data sets.

The application of ozonation for the detoxification and biodegradability improvement of a textile auxiliary: Naphtalene sulphonic acid

From the environmental point of view, the textile industry dealing with operations such as fibre and fabric preparation, dyeing, finishing, printing etc. can be identified among the very chemical intensive sectors. Therefore the characterisation and management of textile auxiliaries within aqueous dyehouse effluents are becoming a challenging responsibility for the textile manufacturer. Although there is much speculation about the types and quantities of these chemicals released to the environment during textile manufacturing, there are only few data about the behaviour of these chemicals both in receiving water bodies and in wastewater treatment systems. Besides current understanding of industrial pollution control emphasizes the relevance of segregated stream management. This issue gains a further importance when segregated effluent streams containing auxiliaries with xenobiotic nature are considered. In this context the objective of the present study is to investigate the effect of ozonation on the toxicity and biodegradability of a naphthalene sulphonic acid derivative commonly applied in textile mills. The naphthalene sulphonic acid derivative prepared to simulate the actual situation in a dyebath discharge from a textile finishing industry has a COD of 1150 mg/l and a BOD of 10 mg/l, and pH of 5.5. Due to the highly soluble characteristic of the sulphonic groups the sample is completely soluble in nature. Ozonation experiments [conducted under the following conditions: 1200 mgO 3/h and 2400 mgO 3/h both at pH 5 and pH 11; 5325 mgO 3/h at both pH 12 and at the original pH (pH = 5.5)] show that the application of 5325 mgO 3/h ozone for 30 min at original pH can be considered as the optimum condition which is further evaluated in terms of inert COD fractions and acute toxicity. According to the experimental findings, raw naphtalene sulphonic acid derivative has an inert COD content of 1027 mg/l. With ozone application of 30 min 5325 mgO 3/h at original pH the inert COD concentration can be reduced down to 295 mg/l. The molecular weight cut-off experiments indicate that 58% of the COD originates from the 10 kDa–30 kDa fraction for the raw naphtalene sulphonic acid derivative. Due to chemical degradation under ozone, the fraction with the highest COD shifted to the < 1 kDa range for the ozonated naphtalene sulphonic acid derivative. Since the results related to the acute toxicity (in 50% v/v EC values) towards the marine algae Phaeodactylum tricornutum indicate that the toxicity of the formulation under investigation is increased considerably, it is recommended to run a further investigation by the use of another chemical oxidant instead of ozone.

A fuzzy approach to hierarchical multiobjective programming problems and its application to an industrial pollution control problem

In this paper, we focus on hierarchical multiobjective programming problems where multiple decision makers in a hierarchical organization have their own multiple objective functions, and propose an interactive algorithm based on the dual decomposition method to obtain the satisfactory solution which reflects not only the hierarchical relationships between multiple decision makers but also their own preferences for their objective functions. In the proposed algorithm, assuming that each of the decision makers has fuzzy goals for his/her objective functions, corresponding membership functions are elicited from the decision makers in their subjective manner. In order to deal with hierarchical multiobjective programming problems, a new kind of Pareto optimality concept in membership spaces is defined and the concept of decision powers of multiple decision makers in a hierarchical decision structure is introduced. The proposed algorithm is applied to the industrial pollution control problem in Osaka City in Japan in order to show the efficiency of the proposed method.