scholarly journals A Feasibility Study on the Use of an Atmospheric Water Generator (AWG) for the Harvesting of Fresh Water in a Semi-Arid Region Affected by Mining Pollution

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (16) ◽  
pp. 3278
Author(s):  
Julio Mendoza-Escamilla ◽  
Francisco Hernandez-Rangel ◽  
Pedro Cruz-Alcántar ◽  
María Saavedra-Leos ◽  
Josefa Morales-Morales ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Fresh Water ◽  
Feasibility Study ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Water Shortage ◽  
Mining Area ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Human Consumption ◽  
Atmospheric Water

Worldwide, the shortage of fresh water has increased exponentially due to population growth and contamination of available water, especially in water tables that provide water for general consumption. One of the main pollutants of water is arsenic (As), present in the environment and in most mining/metallurgical processes, which is a major health risk, especially as a carcinogen. In the region of Matehuala, San Luis Potosi (SLP), Mexico, a highly productive mining area, arsenic concentrations of 138.1 mg/kg have been found in soils—6.2 times higher than what is allowed in domestic soils, while in water it is reported up to 158 mg/L, exceeding permissible limits for human consumption. In addition to As pollution, the region suffers from water shortage both in the city and in rural communities. Therefore, it is necessary to explore new technologies to provide the population with fresh water. This paper presents a feasibility study on the use of an atmospheric water generator (AWG) to capture fresh water in the region of Matehuala, SLP. The region was found to have the necessary environmental conditions to use AWGs, with an annual average relative humidity (RH) of approximately 60%. Using a mathematical model of a dehumidifier, water harvesting can be evaluated under the region’s prevailing climatic conditions. The month with lowest harvest was found to be January, with 0.89 to 3.6 L/day, while the month with largest harvest was August at 3.9 to 18 L/day and water production costs of 0.0093 and $ 0.038 USD/L, respectively. The study concludes that the use of AWGs would help alleviate water shortages, thus benefiting marginalized people or communities, preserving ecosystems and the environment.

scholarly journals PRODUCTION OF POTABLE WATER WITH THE USE OF SOLAR DESALINIZERS IN THE BRAZILIAN SEMI-ARID

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 134
Author(s):  
Jose Adailton Lima Silva ◽  
Thais Mara Souza Pereira ◽  
Francisco José Loureiro Marinho ◽  
Vera Lucia Antunes De Lima ◽  
Pedro Vieira de Azevedo
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Solar Energy ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Water Shortage ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Human Consumption ◽  
Energy Potential ◽  
Semi Arid

The semi-climatic conditions of the Brazilian Semi-arid have conditioned the water shortage, which has forced numerous rural families to consume brackish waters unfit for human consumption. Added to this is the fact that the poor management of local water resources is an aggravating factor to unavailability of water, especially drinking water. The technologies have proved to be medium for the efficient management of water resources. The present study aimed to analyze the use of solar desalinizers can offer drinking water with the use of solar energy. An experimental and qualiquantitative research was carried out, based: data collection; Field studies, with accounting for the production of drinking water; Conducting physical-chemical analyzes of water; And participatory research with families that consume the waters from desalinators. As result, there were: there is, locally, a great solar energy potential; There was an average production of 40 liters / day, which met the needs (2 liters / person / day) of 20 individuals distributed in 5 families; physico-chemical analyzes proved the potability of the water coming from the desalinators; And the use of desalinators has made possible socioeconomic and environmental benefits. It was concluded that desalinators are socially disseminable, economically viable, and environmentally sound technology.

Pathways ahead for New Zealand hill country farming

2016 ◽  
Vol 78 ◽  
pp. 73-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
F.G. Scrimgeour
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Hill Country ◽  
The Status ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Hill Farming ◽  
The Hill

This paper provides a stocktake of the status of hill country farming in New Zealand and addresses the challenges which will determine its future state and performance. It arises out of the Hill Country Symposium, held in Rotorua, New Zealand, 12-13 April 2016. This paper surveys people, policy, business and change, farming systems for hill country, soil nutrients and the environment, plants for hill country, animals, animal feeding and productivity, and strategies for achieving sustainable outcomes in the hill country. This paper concludes by identifying approaches to: support current and future hill country farmers and service providers, to effectively and efficiently deal with change; link hill farming businesses to effective value chains and new markets to achieve sufficient and stable profitability; reward farmers for the careful management of natural resources on their farm; ensure that new technologies which improve the efficient use of input resources are developed; and strategies to achieve vibrant rural communities which strengthen hill country farming businesses and their service providers. Keywords: farming systems, hill country, people, policy, productivity, profitability, sustainability

scholarly journals Sunlight-assisted degradation of textile pollutants and phytotoxicity evaluation using mesoporous ZnO/g-C3N4 catalyst

RSC Advances ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (43) ◽  
pp. 26800-26812
Author(s):  
H. Leelavathi ◽  
N. Abirami ◽  
R. Muralidharan ◽  
Helen P. Kavitha ◽  
S. Tamizharasan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fresh Water ◽  
Human Consumption ◽  
The World ◽  
Mesoporous Zno

Accessibility of adequate safe and fresh water for human consumption is one of the most significant issues throughout the world and extensive research is being undertaken to resolve it.

scholarly journals Janus Membrane with Novel Directional Water Transport Capacity for Efficient Atmospheric Water Capture

Nanoscale ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Wu ◽  
Baona Ren ◽  
Haohong Pi ◽  
Xin Zhao ◽  
Miaomiao Hu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fresh Water ◽  
Water Transport ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Transport Capacity ◽  
Atmospheric Water ◽  
Human Survival ◽  
Survival And Development ◽  
Energy Independence

Fresh water scarcity becomes a crisis to human survival and development. Atmospheric water capture with remarkable advantages such as energy-independence, low-cost, etc., has been supposed as a promising way to...

scholarly journals Planting Systems for Modern Olive Growing: Strengths and Weaknesses

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 494
Author(s):  
Riccardo Lo Bianco ◽  
Primo Proietti ◽  
Luca Regni ◽  
Tiziano Caruso
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Biotic And Abiotic Stress ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Mediterranean Countries ◽  
Social Concerns ◽  
The World ◽  
Fruit Growing ◽  
Cultivar Diversity

The objective of fully mechanizing olive harvesting has been pursued since the 1970s to cope with labor shortages and increasing production costs. Only in the last twenty years, after adopting super-intensive planting systems and developing appropriate straddle machines, a solution seems to have been found. The spread of super-intensive plantings, however, raises serious environmental and social concerns, mainly because of the small number of cultivars that are currently used (basically 2), compared to over 100 cultivars today cultivated on a large scale across the world. Olive growing, indeed, insists on over 11 million hectares. Despite its being located mostly in the Mediterranean countries, the numerous olive growing districts are characterized by deep differences in climate and soil and in the frequency and nature of environmental stress. To date, the olive has coped with biotic and abiotic stress thanks to the great cultivar diversity. Pending that new technologies supporting plant breeding will provide a wider number of cultivars suitable for super-intensive systems, in the short term, new growing models must be developed. New olive orchards will need to exploit cultivars currently present in various olive-growing areas and favor increasing productions that are environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable. As in fruit growing, we should focus on “pedestrian olive orchards”, based on trees with small canopies and whose top can be easily reached by people from the ground and by machines (from the side of the top) that can carry out, in a targeted way, pesticide treatments, pruning and harvesting.

Product Selling vs. Pay-Per-Use Service: A Strategic Analysis of Competing Business Models

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantinos Ladas ◽  
Stylianos Kavadias ◽  
Christoph Loch
Keyword(s):  
Operations Management ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Business Models ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Information Goods ◽  
High Demand ◽  
Additional Advantage ◽  
Delivery Costs ◽  
Relative Profitability

We present a model that suggests possible explanations for the observed proliferation of “pay-per-use” (PPU) business models over the last two decades. Delivering “fractions” of a product as a service offers a cost advantage to customers with lower usage but requires extra delivery costs. Previous research focused on information goods (with negligible production costs) and predicted that PPU, when arising as a differentiation to selling in equilibrium, would fundamentally achieve lower profits than selling. We extend the theory by covering goods with any production cost in duopolistic competition. We show that PPU business models can be more profitable than selling (especially at midrange production costs), as long as their delivery costs are not too high, a requirement that is more easily fulfilled as new technologies reduce these costs. Moreover, if firms are imperfectly informed about their customers’ usage profiles, PPU’s effective pricing of customers’ varying usage offers an additional advantage over selling. This requires companies to employ accounting methods that do not inappropriately allocate production costs over stochastic usage levels. If PPU service provision suffers from queueing inefficiencies, this does not fundamentally change the relative profitability of the PPU and selling models, provided that PPU providers can attract sufficiently high demand to benefit from pooling economies. This paper was accepted by Charles Corbett, operations management.

Envisaged transfer projects: New technologies in the water sustainability

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naseer Ahmed Abbasi ◽  
Xiangzhou Xu
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Water Shortage ◽  
Environmental Aspects ◽  
Water Shortages ◽  
The World

<p><strong>Abstracts:</strong> Influenced by global climate change, water shortages and other extreme weather, water scarcity in the world is an alarming sign. This article provides evidences regarding the Tunnel and Tianhe project’s feasibility and their technical, financial, political, socioeconomic and environmental aspects. Such as how to utilize the water vapour in the air and to build a 1000 km long tunnel project to fulfill the goal of solving water shortage in China. The projects are promising to solve the problem of water, food and drought in the country. In addition, the telecoupling framework helps to effectively understand and manage ecosystem services, as well as the different challenges associated with them. Such efforts can help find the ways for proper utilization of water resources and means of regulation.</p><p><strong>Key words: </strong>Sustainability; water shortage; transfer project</p>

scholarly journals The effect of activation of the lactoperoxidase system and souring on certain potential human pathogens in cows' milk

1997 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
J.G.K. Kangumba ◽  
E.H. Venter ◽  
J.A.W. Coetzer
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Alternative Methods ◽  
Human Consumption ◽  
Socioeconomic Conditions ◽  
Human Pathogens ◽  
Pathogenic Potential ◽  
E Coli ◽  
Lactoperoxidase System ◽  
Potential Alternative ◽  
System Activation

Conventional methods of ensuring the safety and soundness of cows' milk for human consumption, such as pasteurisation, are not always practical in poor socioeconomic conditions or in rural communities that lack modern amenities. Activation of lactoperoxidase (LP) system and souring of milk were investigated as potential alternative methods to sustain the safety of milk by inhibiting certain microorganisms with known pathogenic potential. The activation of the LP-system inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli by the order of 2 log values. The inhibition of Brucella abortus was negligible. The replication of Coxiella burnetti in milk was not disturbed even after 17 h of LP-system activation at 20 oC, but the outcome of the LP-system treatment on Mycobacterium bovis could not be determined as the conventional culturing technique used to grow this organism did not allow full recovery. Souring inhibited the growth of S. aureus and E. coli also by the order of 2 log values. From the results obtained in this investigation are concluded that the activation of the LP-system and souring can be used to inhibit the growth of S. aureus and E. coli in cows' milk, thereby increasing its safety.

Investigation of Hybrid Fuel Cell (HFC) Technology Applications on the Future Passenger Railroad Transportation

Joint Rail ◽  
2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Moghbelli ◽  
Y. Gao ◽  
R. Langari ◽  
M. Ehsani
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Consumption ◽  
Fuel Economy ◽  
High Speed ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Weak Link ◽  
Transportation System ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Passenger Railroad

Due to the consideration of fragile security, and longer check-in times and inconveniences due to increased air travel security examination since September 11th 2001, more and more people have turn to ground transportation. Unfortunately, the inefficient, environment-unfriendly and unsafe passenger cars and buses are the only choices available for middle distance trips. Development of high efficiency, clean and high speed railroad passenger transportation system has become more necessary to overcome this weak link. In this paper, the applicability of hybrid drive train technologies for middle-distance passenger train locomotives will be investigated. A systematic design of the diesel based hybrid locomotive helps to increase efficiency, improve fuel economy, reduce emissions and also reduce mass production costs. Furthermore, professional management and maintenance of railroad train locomotives make such new technologies more practical than for road vehicles. The success of such transportation system will have a great positive impact on our social activities, quality of life, energy supply, environment and economy. A diesel based hybrid electric locomotive (HEL) with batteries or an ultracapacitor is an option to reduce fuel consumption and emissions and provide better performance and fuel economy. The reduced fuel consumption helps reduce the amount of pollutants released. Engineering estimation indicate that emissions will be reduced by 70% and fuel efficiency will be increased by at least 30% in hybrid locomotives.

scholarly journals Diseases of Gastropoda

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle F. O’Brien ◽  
Sarah Pellett
Keyword(s):  
Fresh Water ◽  
Food Source ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Etiological Agent ◽  
Human Consumption ◽  
Intermediate Hosts ◽  
The World ◽  
Herpesvirus 1 ◽  
World Organisation

Gastropods (class Gastropoda) form the largest of the classes in the phylum Mollusca and inhabit terrestrial, fresh water and marine environments. A large number of these species are of major conservation importance and are an essential component of ecosystems. Gastropods may be deemed as pests, having a negative impact in horticulture and agriculture, whereas others may be used as a food source for human consumption and therefore are beneficial. Gastropods are susceptible to primary diseases and also act as intermediate hosts for diseases which affect other animals, including humans. The diseases described include two that are notifiable to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE): Xenohaliotis californiensis and Abalone viral ganglioneuritis caused by Haliotid herpesvirus-1 (HaHV-1). Research into the diseases of gastropods has often focused on those species that act as intermediate disease hosts, those that are used in research or those cultured for food. In this paper we review the viral, bacterial, fungal, parasitic and miscellaneous conditions that have been reported in gastropods and mention some of the factors that appear to predispose them to disease. The pathogenicity of a number of these conditions has not been fully ascertained and more research is needed into specifying both the etiological agent and significance in some of the diseases reported.

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