Reclamation of Post-Technological Landscapes: International Experience

Introduction. Anthropogenic activities cause large-scale environmental problems. The growing volumes of toxic emissions contribute to soil, water, and air pollution, thus posing a serious threat to all living systems and the global ecosystem. New reclamation methods are a relevant research topic as they help to restore and preserve ecosystems. Study objects and methods. The research covered sixteen years of scientific publications from PubMed of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (USA), Elsevier (Scopus, ScienceDirect), Web of Science, and the national electronic library service eLibrary.ru. Results and discussion. The authors reviewed various scientific publications to define the main technogenic objects that have a toxic effect on biota. Soil is more vulnerable to destructive effects, and mining wastes are responsible for the largest share of technogenically disturbed objects. Pollutants include many compounds, such as heavy metals, hydrocarbons, sulfur compounds, acids, etc. Reclamation technologies reduce the man-induced impact on the environment, e.g. pollutants can be completely or partially destroyed, processed into non-toxic products, completely removed, stabilized into less toxic forms, etc. This review provides information on the main methods of reclamation of disturbed soils and substantiates the prospect of developing integrated reclamation technologies. Conclusion. The present review featured the main pollutants of anthropogenic origin and the traditional soil reclamation methods. The most prospective new technologies of soil reclamation appeared to be a combination of such biological methods as phytoremediation, bioaugmentation, and biostimulation.

Disparities in COPD Hospitalizations: A Spatial Analysis of Proximity to Toxics Release Inventory Facilities in Illinois

Disproportionate distribution of air pollution is a major burden on the health of people living in proximity to toxic facilities. There are over 1000 Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) facilities distributed across the state of Illinois. This study investigates and spatially analyzes the relationship between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) hospitalizations and toxic emissions from TRI facilities. In addition, this study investigates the connection between COPD hospitalizations and socioeconomic variables. Accounting for dispersion of air pollution beyond the TRI facilities source was attained using the inverse distance weighting interpolation approach. Multiple statistical methods were used including principal components analysis, linear regression, and bivariate local indicators of spatial association (BiLISA). The results from the linear regression model and BiLISA clustering maps show there is a strong connection between COPD hospitalizations and socioeconomic status along with race. TRI emissions were not statistically significant, but there are three major clusters of high COPD hospitalizations with high TRI emissions. Rural areas also seem to carry a higher burden of pollution-emitting facilities and respiratory hospitalizations.

Does Water Scarcity Affect Environmental Performance? Evidence from Manufacturing Facilities in Texas

It is well known that manufacturing operations can affect the environment, but hardly any research explores whether the natural environment shapes manufacturing operations. Specifically, we investigate whether water scarcity, which results from environmental conditions, influences manufacturing firms to lower their toxic releases to the environment. We created a data set that spans 2000–2016 and includes details on the toxic emissions of 3,092 manufacturing facilities in Texas. Additionally, our data set includes measures of the water scarcity experienced by these facilities. Our econometric analysis shows that manufacturing facilities reduce their toxic releases into the environment when they have experienced drought conditions in the previous year. We examine facilities that release toxics to water as well as facilities with no toxic releases to water. We find that the reduction in total releases (to all media) is driven mainly by those facilities that release toxic chemicals to water. Further investigation at a more granular level indicates that water scarcity compels manufacturing facilities to lower their toxic releases into media other than water (i.e., land or air). The impact of water scarcity on toxic releases to water is more nuanced. A full-sample analysis fails to link water scarcity to lower toxic releases to water, but a further breakdown shows that manufacturing facilities in counties with a higher incidence of drought do lower their toxic releases to water. We also find that facilities that release toxics to water undertake more technical and input modifications to their manufacturing processes when they face water scarcity. This paper was accepted by David Simchi-Levi, operations management.

Environmental and Sustainability Analysis of a Supercritical Carbon Dioxide-Assisted Process for Pharmaceutical Applications

Drug delivery systems (DDS) are artificial devices employed to enhance drug bioavailability during administration to a human body. Among DDS, liposomes are spherical vesicles made of an aqueous core surrounded by phospholipids. Conventional production methods are characterized by several drawbacks; therefore, Supercritical assisted Liposome formation (SuperLip) has been developed to overcome these problems. Considering that the use of high pressures involves high energy cost, in this paper, sustainability indicators were calculated to quantitatively evaluate the emissions related to the attainment of liposomes containing daunorubicin (a model antibiotic drug) using the SuperLip process. The indicators were depicted using a spider diagram to raise the actual weaknesses of this technique; some variations were proposed in the process layout to solve the critical issues. According to the literature, many studies related to the pharmaceutical industry are expressed in terms of solid, liquid waste, and toxic emissions; however, liposomes have never explicitly been considered for an analysis of environmental sustainability.

RSM-Based Optimization of the Parameters Affecting TiO2-Mediated UV Photocatalysis of Vehicular Emissions in Enclosed Parking Garages

In the preceding times, the number of enclosed parking garages has increased significantly in developing nations. The toxic emissions from vehicular exhausts are expected to drastically compromise the environmental conditions of the parking garages. Subsequently, exposure of humans to these accumulated pollutants is also expected to degrade their health. Therefore, in the present investigation, efforts were made to estimate the applicability of TiO2-mediated UV photocatalysis in degrading the concentration of vehicular emissions, viz., NOx and SO2, in the enclosed parking garages (EPGs). In this regard, an artificial EPGs’ environment was created and experiments were designed using the Box-Behnken design in combination with response surface methodology. The process parameters chosen for maximizing the degradation of the pollutants were a concentration of TiO2 emulsion (20 to 120 ml/m2), UV irradiance (1 to 5 mW/cm2), and relative humidity (10 to 50%). Optimization of the laboratory experiments revealed that at optimal conditions of the process parameters, i.e., a concentration of TiO2 emulsion = 77.50 ml / m 2 , intensity of UV irradiance = 3 mW / c m 2 , and relative humidity = 43.2 % , maximum degradation of the NOx and SO2, i.e., 61.24% and 55.05%, respectively, was achieved. Further, it was revealed that relative humidity may prove to be the limiting factor while using the TiO2-mediated UV photocatalysis in humid areas. Findings of this study may prove beneficial in urban planning as it may assist scientific auditory and local authorities in identifying the applicability of TiO2-based photocatalysis in mitigating the impacts of vehicular emissions.

Comparative analysis of the exergy efficiency of methods for protecting gas exhaust ducts of boiler plants

This paper reports the results of studying the exergy effectiveness of thermal methods for anti-corrosion protection of the gas-draining tracts of boiler plants. These include the method of mixing heated air into flue gases, the method of passing part of the hot gases of the boiler through the bypass chimney, and a flue gas drying method. The research involved the devised comprehensive procedure based on an exergy approach. The dependences of exergy loss Elos and the heat- exergy criterion ε on the following parameters of thermal methods have been established: the amount of heated air N mixed into flue gases, the proportion of bypassed flue gases K, and the amount of dried flue gases R. A comparative analysis of the effectiveness of heat recovery systems when applying the methods considered has been performed. It has been established that for the method of mixing, Elos and ε at ambient temperature ten=10 °C demonstrate the lowest values, that is, the efficiency of the system, in this case, is the highest. The most effective, when implementing the bypass method, is the heat recovery system at ten=10 °C. Under the method of drying, at all values of the amount of dried flue gases, the loss of exergy is the lowest at ten=0 °C. As regards the heat- exergy criterion, at values R≤20 %, the lowest values of ε are observed at ten=10 °C. At R>20 %, the lowest values of ε are at ten=0 °C. Thus, the efficiency of the system when implementing the method of drying is the highest at ten=0 °C and at the amount of dried air of R>20 %. The study reported here would provide the necessary information for designing optimal heat recovery schemes. The development of this study is to establish the relationship between the exergy and environmental efficiency of thermal protection methods in order to further reduce toxic emissions.

A study on the potential for sustainable waste management in the Greater Toronto Area

Performance of the residential waste management practices in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) was studied. The study encompassed identification of waste management practices and analysis of data concerning different management options followed by the Regional Municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel, York and the City of Toronto during 2002 to 2008. Historically, wastes from the GTA were disposed of in the landfills. Majority wastes [sic] from the GTA were exported to Michigan under a contract which is going to be expired [sic] at the end of 2010. Residents already [sic] opposed to accept new landfills. Toxic emissions from the incinerators are also of great concern to them. Integrated waste management system comprising source reduction, recycling and reuse, diversion through green bin SSO program and the aerobic/anaerobic processing of organic waste treatment can be considered to succeed in achieving the most effective and sustainable solution to the residential waste management problems in the GTA.