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Introduction: Cleaner productions in textile industry is achieved by reducing water and chemicals' consumption, saving energy, reducing production of air pollution and solid wastes, reducing toxicity and noise pollution through many solutions. The purpose of the present research was to apply Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats [SWOT] and Quality Systems Planning Matrix [QSPM] techniques in identifying and prioritizing production in raw materials' warehouse of Yazdbaf Textile Factory
Materials and Methods: In this research, effective internal and external factors in cleaner production were identified by providing the required information through field visit and interview with industry managers and supervisors of raw materials' warehouse. Finally, to form matrix of internal and external factors 17 important internal factors and 7 important external factors were identified and selected respectively. Then, QSPM matrix was formed to determine the attractiveness and priority of the selected strategies by using results of internal and external factors and SWOT matrixes
Results: According to the results, the total score of raw materials' warehouse in Internal Factor Evaluation [IFE] matrix is equal to 2.90 which shows the good situation of warehouse than the internal factors. However, the total score in External Factor Evaluation [EFE] matrix is 2.14 and indicates the relative weak situation of warehouse than the external factors
Conclusion: Based on the obtained results, continuity, monitor, and improvement of the general plan of qualitative control [QC] of raw materials and laboratory as well as more emphasis on quality indexes according to its importance in the production processes were selected as the most important strategies
Subject(s)
Textiles , Strategic PlanningABSTRACT
Introduction: Soil has an important role in nutrient cycle and an important function in storage, refinement, and movement of nutrients for the living and non-living parts. Soil pollution of heavy metals and elements is one of the common pollution impacts of human activities, especially industry. Realization of distribution pattern of these elements and their anthropogenic sources is a major part of environmental protection plans. In the present study, concentration of two major heavy metals were investigated and mapped using geostatistical methods throughout western part of Karoon river in Ahwaz city. Four land areas including urban areas, agricultural, industrial, and bare soils were applied
Materials and Methods: In this research, at first, 40 sample plots were determined randomly from the study area and soil samples were taken from surface layer with the depth of 20 centimeters. Afterwards, the data were entered into SAS 9.3 and Arc GIS 10.2 applications for data analysis and mapping
Results: Results showed that Pb and Cd concentrations had the lowest standard rate in western parts of city while their highest rate was in river shores, south-west, and northern parts. Hence, the soil is over polluted in these areas comparing to WHO standards
Conclusion: A significant correlation was observed between Pb and Cd elements. Regarding results achieved by the semi-variance model, it is concluded that pollutions have anthropogenic sources in this area. According to the results, most important factors of pollution in this area were smelting and steel factories as well as agricultural pesticides
Subject(s)
Rivers , Soil , Geographic Information Systems , Lead , Cadmium , Spatial AnalysisABSTRACT
Background: Data mining [DM] is an approach used in extracting valuable information from environmental processes. This research depicts a DM approach used in extracting some information from influent and effluent wastewater characteristic data of a waste stabilization pond [WSP] in Birjand, a city in Eastern Iran
Methods: Multiple regression [MR] and neural network [NN] models were examined using influent characteristics [pH, Biochemical oxygen demand [BOD[5]], temperature, chemical oxygen demand [COD], total suspended solids [TSS], total dissolved solid [TDS], electrical conductivity [EC] and turbidity] as the regression input vectors. Models were adjusted to input attributes, effluent BOD[5] [BODout] and COD [CODout]. The models performances were estimated by 10-fold external cross-validation. An internal 5-fold cross-validation was also used for the training data set in NN model. The models were compared using regression error characteristic [REC] plot and other statistical measures such as relative absolute error [RAE]. Sensitivity analysis was also applied to extract useful knowledge from NN model
Results: NN models [with RAE = 78.71 +/- 1.16 for BODout and 83.67 +/- 1.35 for CODout] and MR models [with RAE = 84.40% +/- 1.07 for BODout and 88.07 +/- 0.80 for CODout] indicate different performances and the former was better [P < 0.05] for the prediction of both effluent BOD5 and COD parameters. For the prediction of CODout the NN model with hidden layer size [H] = 4 and decay factor = 0.75 +/- 0.03 presented the best predictive results. For BODout the H and decay factor were found to be 4 and 0.73 +/- 0.03, respectively. TDS was found as the most descriptive influent wastewater characteristics for the prediction of the WSP performance. The REC plots confirmed the NN model performance superiority for both BOD and COD effluent prediction
Conclusion: Modeling the performance of WSP systems using NN models along with sensitivity analysis can offer better understanding on exploring the most significant parameters for the prediction of system performance. The findings of this study could build the foundation for prospective work on the characterization of WSP operations and optimization of their performances with a view to conducting statistical approaches
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Introduction: Antibiotics as a type of pharmaceutical compounds are widely used in modern medicine and veterinary industries. They enter the environment in different ways, including agricultural runoff, direct discharge of urban wastewater treatment or human waste, direct disposal of medical, veterinary industrial waste and etc. Antibiotics have been able to influence the microbial population. Their continuous presence in the environment can lead to bacterial resistance and in recent years the issue has caused serious concerns in the scientific community
Methods: Unfortunately, In spite of the extensive investigations, there is still a considerable lack of integrated and classified information to assess the environmental risks of antibiotics. Therefore, in the current study, the removal of these compounds from aqueous solutions was studied. This study was carried out on the basis of surveys accomplished in recent decades and also the ones published in databases such as Google Scholar, PubMed, Elsevier, Scopus, Springer, Magiran and SID using Anti-bacterial agents, Antibiotic, Wastewater, removal methods as the keywords
Results: Advanced treatment processes such as ozonation, advanced oxidation, activated carbon, Nano filtration and reverse osmosis can remove higher levels of antibiotics
Conclusion:Generally, the biological and chemical processes alone are not effective for antibiotics, removal from aquatic environments, while combination of advanced oxidation and biological treatment processes can effectively reduce the amount of antibiotic
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Introduction: The modeling aims to simulate or optimize a process in physical, chemical or biological environments and the derived model will provide a considerable assistance to generate data and predict unknown condition, in case of sufficient suitability. Unsuitable disposal and elimination of waste tires have polluted the environment and human life areas, it also have caused removal of a huge amount of recyclable materials and energy. Besides, attached growth biological processes of wastewater treatment are faced with very high costs of the beds used in such methods. Thus, this study targeted at the following topics: reuse of waste tires, reduction of the costs associated with preparation of biological wastewater treatment system beds, and increased productivity of refineries
Materials and Methods: The current experimental study was conducted in pilot scale, in which ability of Fixed Bed Sequence Batch Reactor [FBSBR] and Sequencing Batch Reactor [SBR] was evaluated by synthetic wastewater in diverse loadings. Ultimately, the derived data were analyzed using the statistical software packages SPSS and MS Excel
Results: The maximum removal efficiencies of dissolved chemical oxygen demand for FBSBR and SBR reactors were 98.3 % and 97.9 %, respectively. In addition, Stover-Kincannon model provided a very suitable fitness [R[2] > 0.99] for loading the bioreactor FBSBR
Conclusion: According to the results, not only waste tires can be reused, but also these wastes can be employed as a proper biological bed in wastewater refineries to improve their efficiency
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Introduction: Countries around the world are looking for an appropriate, stable, and affordable replacement for the natural energies. Therefore, the waste is considered as an available resource to produce energy, which by controlling, its effects on the environment could be minimized
Materials and Methods: To conduct this review article, the scientific data related to the topic were gathered from scientific databases such as Google Scholar, PubMed, Elsevier, Scopus, Springer, Magiran, and SID using waste to energy, Biogas, Incinerator, Landfill, and Pyrolysis as the keywords. In addition, 53 articles were used for this research [from 1993 until 2016]
Results: The results indicated that from a technical point of view, according to Iran's current environment and the properties of the produced waste, most methods mentioned in the study are applicable. However, the important issue is to choose the best technologies with the best functionality in Iran, based on the composition of the municipal solid waste, proved technologies, and the municipal solid waste management strategies
Conclusion: This study recommends construction of incineration plants with an appropriate location for processing municipal, household, and industrial hazardous wastes, as well as energy recovery. In addition, promoting application of household biogas reservoirs in villages and use of pyrolysis for some industries to converse industrial waste into fuel, are further suggested
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Background: Although various surface disinfectants have been introduced, most of them are toxic. The use of natural antimicrobial agent e.g. phytol, extracted from Leptadenia pyrotechnica is a new strategy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial activity, toxicity, and stability of phytol
Methods: The serial concentrations of phytol were prepared, and separately incubated with four microbial isolates. Then, its Minimum Inhibitory Concentration [MIC] was measured for each microorganism. For toxicity test, serial concentrations [62.5, 125, 250, 500 and 1000 [micro]g/mL] of phytol were incubated with mouse skin cells, and then cell viability was calculated by MTT assay. For stability test, three common surfaces [stone, steel, and MDF] were considered. Then, 100 [micro]L of phytol was separately spread over their surface, and they have been kept at lab panel for 12, 24 and 36 hours. After incubation, two samples were obtained from each surface and inoculated on nutrient agar plates. Finally, colony count was read for each surface. T-test was used to evaluate the significant differences between groups, and P>0.05 considered as level of significant difference
Results: The MIC50 of phytol against E.coli, C.albicans, and A.niger was 62.5 [micro]g/mL, and against S.aureus was >1000 [micro]g/mL. MTT assay showed that the toxicity of phytol was dose and time dependent. The stability test demonstrated that phytol was stable on the stone, MDF, and steel surfaces until 36 hours
Conclusion: It can be concluded that phytol has high antimicrobial activity, high stability, and low toxicity. This substance must be evaluated at actual conditions
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Background: Co[II] constitutes a part of vitamin B12, hence, it is necessary for human health. However, at concentrations higher than the permissible limits, humans and animals suffer adverse chronic effects. It is necessary to reduce the concentration to a permissible level. In the present study, pre-purification and thermal modification of chicken's feather increased their porosity and they were used to adsorb Co[II] ions from aqueous solutions
Methods: Chicken feather was procured from a slaughter house, washed with detergent and dried at laboratory temperature. To increase the porosity and remove the organic pollutants attached to the feather, feathers were heated in the oven for 1 hour at 165 degree C. Some batch experiments were conducted to optimize the parameters affecting the adsorption process, such as solution pH, initial concentration of Co[II] and contact time, at a constant agitating speed and temperature
Results: The pH[zpc] of chicken's feather granules obtained was 5.3. The results showed that a time of 60 minutes, pH value of 9 and initial concentration of 10 mg/l were the optimum conditions for Co[II] removal by the adsorption process. Increasing the initial concentration of Co[II] from 10 to 50 decreased the removal efficiency from 52% to 26%. The pseudo-first order kinetic model provided the best correlation [R[2] = 0.998] for adsorption of Co[II] on chicken's feather granules
Conclusion: The increase in electrostatic repulsion forces between positive charges of Co[II] ions decreased the removal efficiency at higher concentrations of Co[II] ions. The maximum efficiency of Co[II] adsorption was obtained at pH= 9, which is higher than the pH[zpc] of the adsorbent
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Background: Yazd waste stabilization pond facilities consist of three stabilization pond systems, module 1, module 2 and module 3 that AWSP module 1 has started its operation. The existing facilities have had several problems in their operation. The objectives of this research were to evaluate the performance of stabilization ponds in wastewater treatment of the city of Yazd, due to several problems in their operation, and to prepare a scheme of its upgrading, if necessary
Methods: During the period from December to June 2010, data analysis were carried out for both raw and treated wastewater
Results: Results of these investigations showed that the average effluent concentrations of Biochemical Oxygen Demand 5 [BOD[5]], Chemical Oxygen Demand [COD] and Suspended Solid [SS] taken from anaerobic pond and secondary facultative ponds of module 1 were 306.9, 135.18, 139.75 and 136.75, 69.025, 136.5 mg/L, respectively
Conclusion: These results indicated that the effluent of the anaerobic pond of module 1 was complied with the Iranian treated wastewater standards for agricultural reuse in terms of BOD[5] and COD concentrations; hence the secondary facultative ponds could be changed to other primary facultative ponds in order to increase the capacity of wastewater treatment plant
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Background: Solvents, which are widely used in industry, are able to dissolve another substance for creating a solution. Solvents have various effects on human health based on their type and chemical composition
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study to investigate the harmful effects of solvents on wood painters in Yazd city. To achieve information, a census questionnaire was prepared and distributed among wood painters. The studied parameters include the mean score of knowledge, attitude, and practice of wood painters about harmful effects of dyes and solvents on body according to age, work experience, education, hours worked per day, and smoking. The data of survey were analyzed by Chi-square test and T-test in SPSS
Results: The average age and work experience of wood painters were 29 and 7.5 years, and the age of 25 years and work experience of 5 years had the highest frequency among them. Analysis of data indicated that 71.8% of people had middle school and lower education level, 68.3% was married, 31.7% was single, and 37.5% was smoking. Average working hours were 8 hours in day
Conclusion: Results show that attitudes had significant correlation with education level and different age groups. None of the studied parameters were not significant correlation with performance. Also, there was significant correlation between knowledge with experience