ABSTRACT
The present research deals with the Risk assessment of groundwater quality. 79 groundwater samples were collected from domestic and agricultural usage open and bore wells during January 2021(COVID-19 Pandemic Period). Groundwater samples were tested to determine the physicochemical parameters using standard testing procedure for the preparation of spatial distribution maps of each parameter based on the World Health Organization (WHO) standard. Multivariate statistical analysis has shown the source of groundwater pollution from secondary leaching of chemical weathering of rocks. From the Water Quality Index and bivariate plot reveals that less than 20% of the area comes under high and very high-risk zone. The types of hardness diagram showed 32.91% of the samples fall in hard brackish water as illustrated by the Piper trilinear diagram. The research outcome result shows that the least percentage of industrials effluents due to the COVID-19 pandemic, not working for all industries during lock down period.
ABSTRACT
Industrial activity of the past has created several contaminated brownfields, which, particularly in remote areas, are difficult to remedy from an economic point of view. In this project, a novel approach for in-situ removal of mineral hydrocarbons from soil was investigated. The underlying concept was to flush contaminated soil with emulsions of plant oil in water, to suck off the contaminant-laden emulsion from the ground water level and to separate oil and water using oil-binding non-wovens. The process development was carried out in a research project, where students from a university of applied sciences and from a technical college were involved. Based on the specific case of brownfield remediation, a collaborative learning experience for the students was created. Environmental protection and safeguarding is a topic of high interest to students, and there was a high motivation to obtain results. Due to the COVID19 pandemic, most collaboration was handled remotely via virtual teams. The chosen brownfield for this case study was a former petroleum refinery site in Lower Austria, were up to 40 g/kg of mineral hydrocarbons were found in the soil in the non-saturated zone. Mineral hydrocarbons show good solubility in plant oils. Emulsions of 5–10% of rapeseed oil in water were prepared and chosen, to have better wettability of the ground materials and lower viscosity. The goal was to develop a process that can extract 80–90% of mineral hydrocarbons in the soil, and which leaves only a minor fraction of the plant oil in the soil. When the trials, which were carried out in the lab and in the field, showed that the permeability of soil is very low, it was decided to develop a prototype for on-site soil washing. The soil of the chosen brownfield is partly made from gravel and sand, where an in-situ flushing process is possible. However, there is also clay, and that material hardly lets water or emulsion penetrate. For the on-site washing process, a laboratory-scale prototype was developed. It was built by the Linzer Technikum (LITEC) and tested with different soils at the university of applied sciences. The prototype could be built by LITEC, with an extraction vessel made of steel and a mixer. Trials were done to determine the degree of extraction of mineral oil and the fraction of plant oil that is not recaptured. 500 g of soil were mixed intensely with 500 g of solvent (water and emulsions). Table 1 presents the results for sand and clay. The process of washing out mineral hydrocarbon contamination from soil was found to show a good potential. The ground material should be sieved to remove coarse material (>10 mm), and the finer fraction can be subjected to the washing of plant oil in water, where the plant oil fraction can be between 5 and 50%, depending on degree of contamination. To reduce the amount of non-recaptured plant oil, a second and third washing cycle with a lower oil fraction, or with pure water, can be applied. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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We are pleased to provide you with the proceedings of 2022 4th International Conference on Resources and Environment Sciences (ICRES 2022).The conference was expected to be held during June 10-12, 2022 in Bangkok, Thailand, while the situation of COVID-19 pandemic is unpredictable and unstable. Most of conference participants could not travel to attend the conference venue to do oral presentations. Taking all conditions into consideration, conference committee decided to change physical conference into virtual conference. It was held online by ZOOM application successfully during the same date.The conference was highlighted by four outstanding Keynote Speakers and two invited speakers. Keynote speakers include Prof. Kaimin Shih, The University of Hong Kong, China with his topic "Metal Stabilization and Resource Recovery Examples in Urban Environment”;Prof. Nur Islami, University of Riau, Indonesia who presented a talk on "An Valuable Approach to Study Groundwater Contamination in a Shallow Aquifer System”;Prof. Danny Sutanto, University of Wollongong, Australia who shared a speech on "Solid-State Transformer for Smart Power Grid Applications”;Assoc. Prof. Phebe Ding, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia who presented a talk about "Role of Postharvest Technology in Producing Quality Fresh Horticultural Produces”. Additionally, two excellent invited speakers, Assoc. Prof. Chunrong Jia from University of Memphis, Tennessee, USA with speech title "Apportioning variability of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the ambient air in the Memphis Tri-State Area, USA”, and Assoc. Prof. Farhad Shahnia from Murdoch University, Australia with speech title "Recent and Future Research on Microgrid Clusters”.Each normal oral presenter had about 12 Minutes of Presentation and 3 Minutes of Question and Answer. Conference was organized in 5 sessions with various topics: Environmental Management, Waste Utilization and Sustainable Development, Wastewater Treatment, Water Analysis and Hydraulic Engineering, Renewable Energy Technology, Chemical Engineering and Fluid Mechanics, Resources and Environmental Science & Sustainable Development, Energy and Chemical Engineering.All accepted papers presented at the ICRES 2022 were included in this volume, which contained three chapters with topics: (1) Environmental Pollution and Control (2) Waste Management and Utilization (3) Clean Energy and Technology. All papers were subjected to peer-review by conference committee members and international reviewers. The papers were selected based on high quality and high relevancy to the conference scope.We would like to express our sincere gratitude to organizing committee and the volunteers who have dedicated their time and efforts in planning, promoting, and helping the conference. We hope that the readers would gain some valuable knowledge from this effort.List of Committees, Statement of Peer Review are available in this Pdf.
ABSTRACT
The 2022 International Conference on Environment, Resources and Energy Engineering (EREE2022) was scheduled to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, however, due to unexpected global surge in COVID-19 variant in the last three months, for safety and also travel restriction reasons, the conference was held virtually via “Zoom”.Delegates from around the world including Thailand, Bulgaria, Ecuador, Indonesia, Cambodia, Chile, Philippines and Sri Lanka took the opportunity to share their research results and discuss potential scientific and engineering development from their work that contributed to the success of the conference.All papers in these proceedings have passed the vigorous review process involving reviewers of the International Technical Committee. Authors benefited from valuable comments and improved their submissions to the satisfaction of reviewers. The virtual presentation serves as another opportunity for the conference delegates to address critiques in the real time online meetings with the expert audience.There were four keynote speakers and two invited speakers who gave talks covering different areas of the conference. The keynote speakers are (i) Prof Kaimin Shih (The University of Hong Kong, China) who gave a talk on on “Metal Stabilization and Resource Recovery Examples in Urban Environment”, (ii) Prof. Nur Islami (University of Riau, Indonesia) who gave a talk on “A Valuable Approach to Study Groundwater Contamination in a Shallow Aquifer System”, (iii) Prof Danny Sutanto (University of Wollongong, Australia) who gave a talk on “Solid State Transformer for Smart Power Grid Applications”, and (iv) Prof Phebe Ding (Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia) who gave a talk on ”Role of Postharvest Technology in Producing Quality Fresh Horticultural Products.”. The invited speakers are (i) Assoc. Prof Chunrong Jia (University of Memphis, Tennessee, USA) who gave a talk on “Apportioning variability of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs) in the ambient air in the Memphis Tri-State Area, USA”, and (ii) Assoc. Prof Farhad Shania (Murdoch University, Australia) who gave a talk on “Recent and Future Research in Microgrid Cluster”.The proceedings record papers presented during the conference, all of them have been divided into 3 sessions in the proceedings: Session 1-Resource & Environment Management and Sustainable Development, Session 2-Energy Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and Session 3 Renewable Energy Technology and Energy Consumption Analysis.The variety of research topics presented in the conference and novelty exhibited in the papers published in the proceedings once again demonstrated the value of EREE2022.On behalf of the conference committee, I would like to thank the Technical Program Committee members, the Conference Program Coordinator, the keynote speakers and all participants, whose papers are presented in the conference proceedings, all contributing to the success of the conference.List of Conference Committees are available in this Pdf.
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As the world navigates the COVID-19 pandemic, the surge in waste generation, the varied composition of waste, and its subsequent management has presented several challenges to many communities. Waste management techniques and cultivating an awareness of the environmental and health impacts of mismanaged wastes have varied with location, economics, and priorities of the region. Risk mitigation efforts including the wearing of masks, lockdowns, and stay at home orders intended to contain the spread of the virus have resulted in several unintended environmental implications. With the rise in consumer plastic consumption, single use PPE, take away food orders, and online shopping, many households across the globe have reported an increase in waste. While developed countries have been able to approach the surge by utilizing and expanding current municipal waste management programs, countries lacking this existing infrastructure battle an increased risk of continued infection and magnified environmental issues through open landfills, groundwater contamination, and limited community awareness. Adopting appropriate methods of risk communication and encouraging participation from the public to manage waste issues is critical to protecting the environment by limiting contamination, improving community involvement in reducing landfill waste, and encouraging recycling. It is imperative to develop waste management solutions while continuing the promotion of sustainable habits, combating the current pandemic situation, and preparing for future episodic events. Our study focuses on analyzing episodic waste generation during the pandemic, management strategies adopted globally, and identifying areas of possible improvement and alternate strategies that can be implemented. © ASCE.
ABSTRACT
The mismanagement of waste in protected areas may lead to significant and irreversible environmental, economic and social impacts, such as land degradation, resource depletion, surface and groundwater pollution, loss of biodiversity and impacts on the aesthetic value of these areas. This paper aims to identify the challenges and opportunities for sustainable solid waste management in privately protected areas, given the limited research conducted on this topic. A case study approach was followed, which focused on the Sabi Sand Wildtuin, a private nature reserve (PNR) in South Africa. Interviews were conducted with 30 participants, which included representatives from the management authority, commercial lodges, non-commercial properties and a waste service provider. Several challenges have been identified by interviewees. Behaviour was the most frequently mentioned challenge, where interviewees raised concerns about negative attitudes, unwillingness to implement waste management measures and a possible lack of support. Other frequently mentioned challenges included foreseen difficulties due to the size and location of the reserve and concerns around funding of waste management measures, especially given the financial implications of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) travel and tourism restrictions. The most frequently identified opportunities included creating jobs and improving livelihoods, providing assurance and transparency of what happens to waste ‘beyond the gate’ and improving awareness, knowledge and skills related to waste management. To optimise the opportunities towards sustainable solid waste management, PNRs should focus on aligning their strategic direction to achieve legal compliance and support community initiatives to establish waste-related infrastructure and services that cannot be implemented within the reserve. Conservation implications: The pursuit of waste-related opportunities within privately protected areas could enhance the implementation of sustainable solid waste management in PNRs, whilst also contributing to pollution prevention, community upliftment and other secondary benefits, which could ultimately result in increased conservation efforts.