Environmental Technology最新文献

Fire smoke, consisting of solid particles and liquid droplets, poses risks of asphyxiation, poisoning, making it a significant contributor to fire-related fatalities and environmental pollution. The exploration of effective smoke control methods represents a vital approach to reducing the threat of fire smoke to public health and safety. This study aims to determine the characteristics of elimination for the fire smoke generated from burning four typical materials, thereby validating the universality of electric agglomeration smoke elimination technology. The results indicate that the elimination efficiency of electric agglomeration varies with the material type of the smoke. The rate of change in smoke transmittance from fast to slow is: polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polystyrene (PS), wood, and styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), respectively. With an external potential of 4 kV, PVC smoke reaches the safe threshold after 12.1 s, while SBR smoke achieves it in just 4.9 s. Analysis of the microscopic morphology of agglomerates with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) reveals that particle size distribution is an important factor affecting electric agglomeration elimination. This is because larger initial particles carry a greater charge, enabling the formation of larger agglomerates for more efficient removal. This study provides theoretical guidance for the practical application of electric agglomeration in eliminating smoke particles.

Hydrogen fluoride (HF) corrosion of boiler water-cooled wall pipes at high temperature hinders the co-disposal of fluorinated hazardous wastes and coal by combustion. In this paper, common water-cooled wall pipes (15CrMoG and 20G) were utilized to perform gaseous HF corrosion experiments at high temperature on a horizontal tube furnace. The effects of temperature on HF corrosion of different water-cooled wall pipes in 0.2% HF were investigated. Corrosion kinetics curve was obtained by calculating the mass increase due to corrosion. The microscopic morphology and physical phase composition of water-cooled wall pipes after HF corrosion were analyzed. The corrosion resistances of the two water-cooled wall pipes decrease with increasing the temperature. The corrosion weight gain curves of 15CrMoG and 20G at 550 ℃ are ΔW^1.9144= 0.2100t and ΔW^1.8356= 0.1344t, respectively. The average corrosion rates of 15CrMoG and 20G are 0.0177 and 0.0125 mg/(cm²·h), respectively. The corrosion resistance of 15CrMoG is superior compared to 20G. The HF corrosion at high temperature consists of non-alternating fluorination and oxidation of the metal matrix. This study is of great significance for the protection of boilers with HF corrosion at high temperature.

With the increasing focus on environmental friendliness and sustainable development, extensive research has been conducted on the biodegradation of plastics. The non-hydrolyzable, highly hydrophobic, and high-molecular-weight properties of polyethylene (PE) pose challenges for cell interaction and biodegradation of PE substrates. To overcome these obstacles, PE films were treated with low-temperature plasma before biodegradation. The morphology, surface chemistry, molecular weight, and weight loss of PE films after plasma treatment and biodegradation were studied. The plasma treatment decreased the surface water contact angle, formed C-O and C = O groups, and decreased the molecular weight of PE films. With the increased pretreatment time, the biodegradation efficiency rose to 2.6% from 0.63% after 20 days of incubation. The mechanism was proposed that the surface oxygen-containing groups formed by plasma treatment can facilitate the bio-accessibility and be further decomposed and utilised by the microbes. This study provided an effective and rapid pretreatment strategy for improving biodegradation of PE.

Renewable and biodegradable polysaccharides attract attention as environmentally friendly adsorbents for the removal of heavy metals from wastewater. One such group, is carrageenan, of which were recently successfully employed to adsorb representative lanthanide and actinide ions. Herein, iota-carrageenan-based hydrogels were used to adsorb europium ions (Eu³⁺) from water solutions, followed by desorption of the ions from the hydrogel beads and recycling of the beads three times. It was found that sorption yields from a 500 mg/L Eu³⁺ ion solution with beads that were prepared with 1 or 2 wt/v% aqueous solution of iota-carrageenan with CaCl₂ (0.5 M) reached maximum sorption yield of 50% and 65%, correspondingly, after 1 h. In addition, the sorption kinetics followed the pseudo second-order model controlled by chemisorption. Desorption yields in the first cycle using NaNO₃ (1 M) with both preparations were 57% and 74%, respectively. The sorption yields increased during the second and third cycles and were efficient in the overall pH range. Cryo-SEM, SEM, SEM-EDS and TGA analyses verified the adsorption and desorption of Eu³⁺ ions to and from the iota beads and that the Ca²⁺ ions that initially crosslinked the hydrogel were replaced during the cycles by Eu³⁺ or Na⁺ ions. In addition, the beads were stable and easily reusable for several sorption/desorption cycles. Furthermore, after sorption, the beads were characterised by a porous structure, such that beads prepared with a 2 wt/v% aqueous solution of iota-carrageenan yielded a more porous, ordered structure, and after desorption, the bead textures became even more porous.