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Pear cinnamon (Curcuma amada Roxb.) rhizome essential natural oils while method to obtain environmental friendly biocides: Comparability of the compound make up, medicinal, insecticidal and larvicidal qualities of crucial natural skin oils produced by simply various methods.
Petrochemical industries have been widely recognised as important emission sources of airborne contaminants including heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PAHs, which affect the quality of air, soil and vegetation. In this study, our aim was to examine the phytotoxicity and phytogenotoxicity of soils and air in the vicinity of a petrochemical plant, in order to assess the potential threat of such industrial objects for crops and natural vegetation, in the cases when the allowable concentrations of contaminants are not exceeded and the plants in the vicinity visually do not seem to be affected. For phytotoxicity and phytogenotoxicity assessment, the Phytotoxkit and respectively Vicia RTA and TRAD MCN bioassays were used. According to our results, in spite of relatively low content of heavy metals and PAHs (hardly any exceedance of standards), the phytotoxicity and especially phytogenotoxicity of soil samples collected up to 18 km from the refinery were detected by the bioindicators. The phytogenotoxicity of air was also indicated within the distance of up to 12 km. We concluded that to obtain the complete view of the environmental risks in a surveyed area, a combination of chemical analysis of environmental samples with the bioindication methods should be implemented. In addition, setting the acceptable levels of contaminants should involve a more extensive use of bioindication methods (especially genotoxicity assessment).At the end of 2015, the rupture of an iron ore tailings dam resulted in the standstill of a pelletizing plant in the city of Anchieta, southeastern Brazil. Despite the negative environmental impact due to the dam rupture, the pelletizing plant standstill has provided a valuable opportunity for the assessment of the changes in local air quality. This work presents a statistical analysis of the spatial and temporal patterns of PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NO2, and O3, between 2012 and 2018, aiming to identify the trends in the air quality since the pelletizing plant standstill. This work also shows the analysis of the short-term and long-term exposures and the exceedances of the local air quality standards (AQS), as well as the study of the directional patterns of the pollutants associated with the prevailing winds. Since 2016, a meaningful improvement in the air quality of Anchieta was observed, coinciding with the pelletizing plant standstill. Since then, PM10 annual averages have decreased between 10 and 30%, while SO2 annual averages have decreased between 38 and 64%, depending on the monitoring station, which has led to a significant reduction in the exceedances of the AQS thresholds for these pollutants. Besides, the results suggest, qualitatively, a strong influence of the industrial emissions on the health of the Anchieta's population. The restart of the pelletizing plant production is expected in 2020; nevertheless, the results suggest the need for major improvements in the pollution control systems of the pelletizing plant before its resumption. Graphical abstract.Use of biodiesel in diesel engine helps to reduce HC, CO, and smoke emissions due to their enormous oxygen content, whereas NOx emissions formed by Zeldovich mechanism shoot up. Implementation of Bharat Stage (BS) VI by April 2020 in India has created extreme pressure on automobile manufacturers to include after treatment technology in their systems. Selective catalytic reduction (SCR), a NOx control technology, is operated using aqueous urea solution as the reductant. There are several parameters that need to be monitored to enhance the NOx conversion efficiency of SCR retrofit. The uniformity index of ammonia, which determines the conversion efficiency, is greatly influenced by parameters like exhaust gas temperature, injection angle, injector position, mass flow rate, and SCR geometry. This paper considers two types of SCR design, namely SCR with and without mixer design and their impact on NOx reduction. The effect of mass flow rate on urea conversion in SCR design without mixer is 27%, but the impact is reduced greatly in SCR design with mixer with less than 2% variation. The UI resulting from different cases ranges from 0.59 to 0.83. Using Taguchi technique and CFD tool, the impact of parameters on both the SCR designs has been investigated and the optimum SCR design is reported.This study investigated the performance of aerobic windrow systems by using coffee by-products and green waste to reduce gaseous emissions. Thereafter, a comparison with the current treatment and gaseous emissions at a Coffee Mill in Costa Rica was made. Two different studies where performed in Germany (pile I and II) and one study in a Coffee Mill in Costa Rica (pile III). Temperature, water content, and pH were the key parameters controlled over 35 days in all the systems. Moreover, CH4 emission rates were quantified by a FTIR and by a portable gas detector device where the emissions reached values 100 times higher when coffee by-products as a unique material for the composting process was used. Results show that highest emission rates during the composting process for pile I was 0.007 g(m2)-1 h-1, for pile II 0.006 g(m2)-1 h-1, and for pile III 3.1 g(m2)-1 h-1. It was found that CH4 emissions could be avoided if the mixture and the formation of the windrow piles were performed following the key parameter for composting, and the usage of additional material is used. With this, the reduction of CH4 emissions at the Mill in Costa Rica could be achieved in the future.Energy is a basic need for the fulfillment of human activities, and usage of energy causes a rise in the carbon emission levels. This paper examines the impact of trade openness, urbanization, imports and exports on carbon emission, and energy intensity for 192 countries from higher, upper-middle, lower-middle, and low-income groups. The data are taken from the year 1990 to 2017 and Generalized method of moments (GMM) is applied for the empirical analyses. Results showed that energy use has less impact on carbon emission in high-income and lower-middle-income economies as compared to the other three sub-panels. Likewise, as a whole, urbanization showed inverse association with emission, on the other hand, it showed positive association with energy intensity in the high-income group. Trade openness showed a positive and highly significant influence on emission as well as on energy intensity. Exports and imports exposed different relations with carbon emission and energy intensity. Outcomes of a Granger causality test yielded an indication of varied causality associations between the variables across the income-based sub-panels. The study suggested the need for improvement in technologies and facilities across the countries for the decline of carbon emission and the enhancement of energy intensity.In the present study, a geopolymer from dolochar ash was synthesized and used for the removal of heavy metal ions such as Co(II), Ni(II), Cd(II), and Pb(II) from the aqueous solution through the adsorption process. The geopolymer was characterized by a series of analytical techniques. The XRD pattern revealed the loss of dolochar ash crystallinity on geoploymerization. The peak at 982 cm-1 observed in the FTIR spectrum due to Si-O-Si and Si-O-Al bonds confirmed the formation of geopolymer. BET surface area analyses indicated the mesoporous nature of the sample. The adsorption experiments revealed the higher removal efficiency of the geopolymer in comparison with the feed dolochar ash. The effects of different experimental factors such as pH, temperature, reaction time, and initial concentration of metal ions on metal uptake efficiency were evaluated to optimize the removal efficiency. The maximum removal of 98-99% was achieved when the pH, temperature, and initial metal ion concentration were 7.8, 343 K, and 10 ppm, respectively. The adsorption process followed the pseudo-second-order rate equation and validated the Langmuir adsorption model. Thermodynamic parameters such as ΔH, ΔS, and ΔG confirmed that the process to be spontaneous and endothermic. This geopolymer was found to compete efficiently with many adsorbents reported in the literature for water treatment.Recently, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions become the hottest issue in the transportation sector. The air transport sector contributes approximately 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions. MS177 Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft is one of the issues taken seriously by the transportation sector. However, air transportation has implemented several ways to reduce carbon emissions, and one of them is by launching a carbon offset program. This study estimates the willingness among Malaysian airline passengers to pay for a carbon offset program to have a better environmental performance. Using a double-bounded dichotomous choice of contingent valuation method (CVM) estimates how much air passengers would be willing to pay to offset carbon emissions generated by their travel. The results obtained from this study suggest that the additional fee for airline tickets will be RM86.00 can be charged to have a better environmental performance.The ecological restoration of mining areas has always been emphasized in ecological research. This study has investigated herb species diversity of plantations in a reclamation area of the Antaibao opencast coal mine in China after 6 years, aiming to investigate the changes over time and spontaneous succession patterns. One hundred fifty-six species of naturally colonizing herb belonging to 26 families and 86 genera in the six plantations were chosen. Most of 24 herb-dominant species belong to Gramineae, Compositae, and Papilionaceae. Species diversity, meteorology, and soil were recorded. Over time, although the dominant degree of Gramineous has decreased and the degree of Labiatae and Polygonaceae has increased, it still indicated that Gramineae, Compositae, and Papilionaceae occupied an important position in the herb community and played an important role in natural vegetation recovery in reclamation area of the Antaibao opencast coal mine. The diversity of herb species showed significant differences between different plots and years. Correlation analysis indicates that the most important factors for herb species diversity are soil bulk density, average winter temperature, and the mean autumn rainfall.Zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) has a sodalite topology. ZIF-8 is composed of zinc ion coordinated by four imidazolate rings. The pore aperture of ZIF-8 is 3.4 Å, which readily retains large gas molecules like N2. In this work, mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs) have been fabricated by utilizing ZIF-8 and pristine cellulose acetate (CA) for O2/N2 separation. Membranes of pristine CA and MMMs of ZIF-8/CA at various ZIF-8 concentrations were prepared in tetrahydrofuran (THF). Permeation results of the fabricated membranes revealed increasing selectivity for O2/N2 with increasing pressure as well as ZIF-8/CA concentration up to 5% (w/w). The selectivity of O2/N2 increased 4 times for MMMs containing 5% (w/w) of ZIF-8/CA as compared with the pristine CA membrane. A thermodynamic model has also been developed to predict the permeability of gases through polymeric membranes. The results were compared with literature data as well as the pristine CA membrane produced in this work for model validation.
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