scholarly journals Current Practice of Managing the Waste of the Waste: Policy, Market, and Organisational Factors Influencing Shredder Fines Management in Sweden

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 9540
Author(s):  
Tharaka Gunaratne ◽  
Joakim Krook ◽  
Hans Andersson

The recycling-industry residue called shredder fines (fines) presents a disposal problem, incurs handling costs, and reduces resource efficiency in general. This study aims to identify the challenges of facilitating fines valorisation in the Swedish context. Hence, the shredding company perspective of the underlying factors that sustain the current practice of fines management is established by studying the case of a specific shredding company using semi-structured interviews. Utilisation in landfill covering offers the company a secure outlet and a legislatively-compliant low-cost disposal option for fines. Additionally, lack of specific regulatory standards, unfavourable regulation of waste reutilisation, and lack of market demand for secondary raw materials (SRMs) create disincentives to develop valorisation options. Also, the lack of corporate-level focus on the issue has resulted in a lack of organising for and capacities to improve the handling of the material. Initiating fines valorisation needs to challenge these prevailing circumstances and thus necessitates governmental interventions. Simultaneously, favourable conditions for SRM utilisation are needed; that is, established outlets for fines-derived SRMs and clear regulatory and market playing rules that reduce uncertainty and investment risk of developing tailored processes for upgrading and resource recovery need to be available.

Author(s):  
M. Sathish ◽  
R. Aravindhan ◽  
J. Raghava Rao

Chromium tanning finds a prominant place in leather manufacturing for permanent stabilization of hide/skin matrix. Though, it has multiple advantages in terms of high thermal stability, easy process and low cost etc., the current practice is not environmentally sustainable. Poor chromium exhaustion and TDS load generation are the major environmental threats of conventional chromium tanning systems. On the other hand, salt-free chromium tanning is identified as one of the efficient alternative approaches for hide/skin matrix stabilization. However, it has not been commercially practiced due to the several practical difficulties. In this work attempts have been made to develop a practically viable high-performance salt-free chromium tanning system using deliming liquor as tanning float and changing the order of addition of masking salt. The developed methodologies completely avoid the use of salt/basification process and it is suitable for all kinds of raw materials and tannery houses. Besides, the process enjoys 71-77% reduction in TDS load and the uptake of chromium is around 90%. The physical strength characteristics are on par with conventional process and the leathers exhibit good grain tightness and roundness. The developed methodologies are simple and do not require any specialty chemicals.     


Author(s):  
C. Kress ◽  
M. Franchetti

In 2010, the United States generated over 31 million tons of plastic waste, and from that total, only 8% was recycled. With demand for lower cost plastics and public attention to environmental concerns increasing, the expanding recycling industry has provided an opportunity to lower raw material costs and create sustainable jobs. Traditionally, manual or optical methods that used infrared technologies were utilized to sort plastic wastes for recycling. Once these plastic wastes were sorted, they were cleaned, shredded, and melted into raw materials. These methods are costly and can experience high nonconformance rates during the sortation processes. This paper discussed an emerging technique that utilizes a novel process that sorts shredded plastic particles by using electromagnetic (EM) waves and Ferro fluids. The process involves placing various types of shredded plastic particles of into a tank filled with Ferro fluid. The plastic particles and Ferro fluid are then subjected to an EM wave by the use of an EM coil. The EM wave alters the viscosity of the Ferro fluid and causes the shredded plastic particles to rise and sink at different vertical levels within the Ferro fluid tank, based on their respective densities. This method allows for an efficient, accurate, and low cost method to sort plastic particles as compared to conventional technologies. Overviews of the model development, experimental design, and test results are provided that demonstrates proof-of-concept. The results of the study indicated that the EM separation method may offer significant cost, efficiency, and accuracy improvements over conventional methods.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-48
Author(s):  
Teodoro Astorga Amatosa ◽  
Michael E. Loretero

Bamboo is a lightweight and high-strength raw materials that encouraged researchers to investigate and explore, especially in the field of biocomposite and declared as one of the green-technology on the environment as fully accountable as eco-products. This research was to assess the technical feasibility of making single-layer experimental Medium-Density Particleboard panels from the bamboo waste of a three-year-old (Dendrocalamus asper). Waste materials were performed to produce composite materials using epoxy resin (C21H25C105) from a natural treatment by soaking with an average of pH 7.6 level of sea-water. Three different types of MDP produced, i.e., bamboo waste strip MDP (SMDP), bamboo waste chips MDP (CMDP) and bamboo waste mixed strip-chips MDP (MMDP) by following the same process. The experimental panels tested for their physical-mechanical properties according to the procedures defined by ASTM D1037-12. Conclusively, even the present study shows properties of MDP with higher and comparable to other composite materials; further research must be given better attention as potential substitute to be used as hardwood materials, especially in the production, design, and construction usage.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Wang ◽  
Nachuan Yang ◽  
Yi Shuai ◽  
Yunpeng Zhang ◽  
Kanghua Chen

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 2910
Author(s):  
Chaoyi Ding ◽  
Chun Liu ◽  
Ligang Zhang ◽  
Di Wu ◽  
Libin Liu

The high cost of development and raw materials have been obstacles to the widespread use of titanium alloys. In the present study, the high-throughput experimental method of diffusion couple combined with CALPHAD calculation was used to design and prepare the low-cost and high-strength Ti-Al-Cr system titanium alloy. The results showed that ultra-fine α phase was obtained in Ti-6Al-10.9Cr alloy designed through the pseudo-spinodal mechanism, and it has a high yield strength of 1437 ± 7 MPa. Furthermore, application of the 3D strength model of Ti-6Al-xCr alloy showed that the strength of the alloy depended on the volume fraction and thickness of the α phase. The large number of α/β interfaces produced by ultra-fine α phase greatly improved the strength of the alloy but limited its ductility. Thus, we have demonstrated that the pseudo-spinodal mechanism combined with high-throughput diffusion couple technology and CALPHAD was an efficient method to design low-cost and high-strength titanium alloys.


Author(s):  
Steven Masiano ◽  
Edwin Machine ◽  
Mtisunge Mphande ◽  
Christine Markham ◽  
Tapiwa Tembo ◽  
...  

VITAL Start is a video-based intervention aimed to improve maternal retention in HIV care and adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Malawi. We explored the experiences of pregnant women living with HIV (PWLHIV) not yet on ART who received VITAL Start before ART initiation to assess the intervention’s acceptability, feasibility, fidelity of delivery, and perceived impact. Between February and September 2019, we conducted semi-structured interviews with a convenience sample of 34 PWLHIV within one month of receiving VITAL Start. The participants reported that VITAL Start was acceptable and feasible and had good fidelity of delivery. They also reported that the video had a positive impact on their lives, encouraging them to disclose their HIV status to their sexual partners who, in turn, supported them to adhere to ART. The participants suggested using a similar intervention to provide health-related education/counseling to people with long term conditions. Our findings suggest that video-based interventions may be an acceptable, feasible approach to optimizing ART retention and adherence amongst PWLHIV, and they can be delivered with high fidelity. Further exploration of the utility of low cost, scalable, video-based interventions to address health counseling gaps in sub-Saharan Africa is warranted.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junzhen Ren ◽  
Pengqing Bi ◽  
Jianqi Zhang ◽  
Jiao Liu ◽  
Jingwen Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract Developing photovoltaic materials with simple chemical structures and easy synthesis still remains a major challenge in the industrialization process of organic solar cells (OSCs). Herein, an ester substituted poly(thiophene vinylene) derivative, PTVT-T, was designed and synthesized in very few steps by adopting commercially available raw materials. The ester groups on the thiophene units enable PTVT-T to have a planar and stable conformation. Moreover, PTVT-T presents a wide absorption band and strong aggregation effect in solution, which are the key characteristics needed to realize high performance in non-fullerene-acceptor (NFA)-based OSCs. We then prepared OSCs by blending PTVT-T with three representative fullerene- and NF-based acceptors, PC71BM, IT-4F and BTP-eC9. It was found that PTVT-T can work well with all the acceptors, showing great potential to match new emerging NFAs. Particularly, a remarkable power conversion efficiency of 16.20% is achieved in a PTVT-T:BTP-eC9-based device, which is the highest value among the counterparts based on PTV derivatives. This work demonstrates that PTVT-T shows great potential for the future commercialization of OSCs.


Pharmaceutics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1186
Author(s):  
Carmen S. Favaro-Trindade ◽  
Fernando E. de Matos Junior ◽  
Paula K. Okuro ◽  
João Dias-Ferreira ◽  
Amanda Cano ◽  
...  

Nanoencapsulation via spray cooling (also known as spray chilling and spray congealing) has been used with the aim to improve the functionality, solubility, and protection of drugs; as well as to reduce hygroscopicity; to modify taste and odor to enable oral administration; and many times to achieve a controlled release profile. It is a relatively simple technology, it does not require the use of low-cost solvents (mostly associated to toxicological risk), and it can be applied for lipid raw materials as excipients of oral pharmaceutical formulations. The objective of this work was to revise and discuss the advances of spray cooling technology, with a greater emphasis on the development of lipid micro/nanoparticles to the load of active pharmaceutical ingredients for oral administration.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Ribeiro ◽  
C. Vilarinho ◽  
J. Araújo ◽  
J. Carvalho

The increasing of world population, industrialization and global consuming, existing market products existed in the along with diversification of raw materials, are responsible for an exponential increase of wastes. This scenario represents loss of resources and ultimately causes air, soils and water pollution. Therefore, proper waste management is currently one of the major challenges faced by modern societies. Textile industries represents, in Portugal, almost 10% of total productive transforming sector and 19% of total employments in the sector composed by almost 7.000 companies. One of the main environmental problems of textile industries is the production of significant quantities of wastes from its different processing steps. According to the Portuguese Institute of Statistics (INE) these industries produce almost 500.000 tons of wastes each year, with the textile cotton waste (TCW) being the most expressive. It was estimated that 4.000 tons of TCW are produced each year in Portugal. In this work an integrated TCW valorisation procedure was evaluated, firstly by its thermal and energetic valorisation with slow pyrolysis followed by the utilization of biochar by-product, in lead and chromium synthetic wastewater decontamination. Pyrolysis experiments were conducted in a small scale rotating pyrolysis reactor with 0.1 m3 of total capacity. Results of pyrolysis experiments showed the formation of 0,241 m3 of biogas for each kilogram of TCW. Results also demonstrated that the biogas is mostly composed by hydrogen (22%), methane (14 %), carbon monoxide (20%) and carbon dioxide (12%), which represents a total high calorific value of 12.3 MJ/Nm3. Regarding biochar, results of elemental analysis demonstrated a high percentage of carbon driving its use as low cost adsorbent. Adsorption experiments were conducted with lead and chromium synthetic wastewaters (25, 50 and 100 mg L−1) in batch vessels with controlled pH. It was evaluated the behaviour of adsorption capacity and removal rate of each metal during 120 minutes of contact time using 5, 10 and 50 g L−1 of adsorbent dosage. Results indicated high affinity of adsorbent with each tested metal with 78% of removal rate in chromium and 95% in lead experiments. This suggests that biochar from TCW pyrolysis may be appropriated to wastewaters treatment, with high contents of heavy metals and it can be an effective alternative to activated carbon.


2000 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
N.C. Wagner ◽  
S. Ramaswamy ◽  
U. Tschirner

AbstractA pre-economic feasibility study was undertaken to determine the potential of cereal straw for industrial utilization in Minnesota. Specifically, utilizing straw for pulp and paper manufacture was of interest. The availability of cereal straw fiber supplies at various locations across the state of Minnesota, along with pre-processing issues such as transportation, harvesting, handling, and storage, are discussed and priced. The greatest economic advantage of straw for industrial use appears to be the low cost of the raw material compared to traditional raw materials. This also provides an excellent opportunity for additional income for farmers. The methodology and information provided here should be helpful in evaluating the feasibility of utilizing straw for other industrial purposes in other parts of the world. However, in some Third World countries, long-standing on-farm, traditional uses of cereal straws for fuel, fiber, and animal feed may limit their availability for industrial utilization.


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