Global NEST Journal

The aim of this paper is to estimate the amount of aeolian dust, deposited by dry and wet processes, that is deposited to the eleven marine regions of the Mediterranean-Black Sea Marine System (MBMS) and to compare it to the riverine influxes (i.e. suspended and dissolved sediment loads). This research is based on information for aeolian dust deposition at several coastal stations, around the MBMS, following an extended research of the available literature. For data elaboration, processing, and visualization a G.I.S. environment was utilized. The total annual amount of dust input for the whole system has been estimated to 59.9 × 106 tonnes, of which 57.2 × 106 tonnes are deposited in the Mediterranean Sea and only 2.7 ×106 tonnes in the Black Sea. The contribution of dust input (load), corresponding to 6.2% and 0.8% of the total amount of suspended and dissolved load, for the Mediterranean and Black Sea respectively, reveals the significant role of the aeolian dust inputs to the MBMS marine environment, in particular, at its southern Mediterranean domain.

Many eutrophic lakes contain rapidly growing hydrophytes. Overgrown biomass is usually me-chanically harvested and thrown away, leading to resource waste and secondary environmental pollution. Microbial degradation is an economically and environmentally friendly approach for managing hydrophytic waste, fuelling the search for efficient biomass degraders. Here, we present isolation and characterization of Aspergillus sydowii WIU-01, a novel cellulolytic fungus. Strain WIU-01 was isolated from air. The degradation rate (29.75 vs. 21.95%) and endoglucanase activi-ty (0.31 vs. 0.16 U mL–1) of the fungus were higher in Canna indica (emergent plant) medium than in Hydrilla verticillata (submerged plant) medium, accordingly. Further, fungal endoglucanase ac-tivity was significantly positively correlated with the degradation rate, neutral detergent fiber con-tent, and acid detergent fiber content of hydrophyte powder. Fungal biomass was significantly negatively correlated with reducing sugar and cellulose content of hydrophyte medium, but was significantly positively correlated with hemicellulose, acid detergent lignin, and ash content of the medium. Collectively, these observations indicate that A. sydowii decomposes emergent and sub-merged plant mass without acid–base sample pretreatment, albeit its endoglucanase activity is rela-tively low. This highlights the role of cellulolytic microorganisms in the natural environment and the notion that the environment can be a source of cellulolytic microorganisms for potential envi-ronmentally friendly applications.

The degradation of Remazol Black (RBB) by S-TiO2 photocatalyst was investigated. X-ray diffraction, fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and UV-vis specular reflectance spectroscopy has been used to characterize S-TiO2. The results suggested that the optical absorption edge of TiO2 was red-shifted by the addition of S dopants and the bandgap energy was 3.02 eV. The sulfur species were found to be evenly dispersed on the TiO2 crystal lattice as cationic sulfur (S6+) which corresponds to the cationic substitution on TiO2. The particle size decreased to 4-14 nm after S doping, which indicates that the addition of S dopants has contributed to an improvement in the photocatalyst surface area. The degradation of RBB was achieved 94% after 120 min visible light irradiation, a remarkable increase compared to bare TiO2 which was only able to degrade 48% of RBB at the same time. Optimization of the pH showed that the optimum pH for RBB degradation was 3.0, and the photocatalyst dose was 0.8 g L-1. Kinetic study showed that S-TiO2 photocatalytic degradation of RBB followed the pseudo-second-order kinetics model. Reducing the bandgap has been found to increase the activity of photodegradation in the visible light region.

Nowadays, the increase in population and industrial growth that generates lot of waste products which creates disposal problems and severe environmental hazards. The cement industry is one of the important sectors which liberates greenhouse gas such as carbon dioxide. The consumption of waste products which eradicate the disposal issues and also it diminishes the emission of greenhouse gases to the environment. This is an important reason for the introduction of cement-free Geopolymer Concrete. This paper was invented to understand the suitability of Geopolymer Concrete cured at ambient temperature in the construction industry and the effect of molarity on strength properties. Totally, five types of Geopolymer Concrete mixes were prepared by altering the molarities of sodium hydroxide like 4M, 6M, 8M, 10M and 12M. The compressive strengths (1, 3, 7, 14 and 28 days), splitting tensile strengths (7, 14 and 28 days) and flexural strengths at 28 days were studied for aforesaid molarities. Generally, the rise in molarity increases the compressive strength. The ultimate strength was achieved up to 57.53MPa at 28 days for 8M Geopolymer Concrete. For the validation of compressive strength predicted by Destructive test (DT), the Non-Destructive tests (NDT) (Rebound Hammer and Ultrasonic pulse velocity) were carried out at resembled age of curing. Regression analysis is also done between compressive strength established by DT and NDT results. The arrived linear regression equations were well correlated with the experimental results and the co-efficient (R2) values varied from 0.8970-0.9967.