Issue 2

There is a relation between the environmental impacts to the high emissions in the environment and the natural resources depletion, which can be measured with the useful life of the products, affected by the manufacturing technologies and the sustainable development. In this background, the present article aims to evaluate the environmental impact generated by the manufacturing technology in an agricultural machinery industry, in the grain trailer production, regarding the lifecycle from the cradle to the gate. The study consists in a practical adoption in the industry, where the product and the production flow were identified, the inventory analysis was performed and later the environmental impact was evaluated, considering three categories of ending damage (endpoint): human health, ecosystem and the scarcity of resources, in addition to twenty-two environmental impact categories (midpoint). There is a strong correlation among the use of carbon steel and stainless, the laser machining process and the environmental impact, where the human health damage category is the most impacted in the carbon dioxide element, gas associated to the greenhouse effect. The consumerism of the natural resources for the energy generation is the category which most affected in the scarcity of the fossil resources.

In the present work, corn stalk was used as a low cost adsorbent for removal of anionic dye (" CBB"). Corn stalk was treated with two methods to inform Modified corn stalk with magnetic particles (MMCS) and Modified corn stalk with sulfuric acid (SMCS). Comparison between raw and treated corn stalk in dye removal was done. The effect of various parameters as dye concentration (5 to 25 mg/L), particle size (4 mm-125 µm), adsorbent dose (1 to 10 g/L), shaking rate (100 to 250 rpm) , Temperature (15 to 45̊ C) and pH (3 to 11) was investigated versus time interval. The results summarize that the highest % removal of dye 85 % by using raw corn stalk followed by SMCS about 80% and 50% for MMCS. Different kinetic models were applied, the results suggested that adsorption of CBB dye for raw and treated corn stalk follows the pseudo second order model

Sodium dodecyl sulfate sulfate modified Algerian cork powder (SDS-ACP) with interesting biosorption capacity was prepared for dye removal from aqueous media. The decolorization performance of SDS-ACP was studied using methylene blue (MB) as a model dye. Experiments were conducted in batch sysytem. The effects of initial pH, biosorbent dose, dye concentration, contact time and temperature were investigated. The kinetic modelling study showed that the experimental data are perfectly adjustable to the pseudo-second order model, with regression coefficients close to the unity and the intraparticle diffusion is not only the key controlling-step in the biosprption process. Langmuir isotherm was the most suitable model for describing the biosorption equilibrium results, which confirm the monolayer coverage and the maximum biosorption uptake of SDS-ACP was 117mg/g. Thermodynamic parameters such as Gibbs free energy, entropy and enthalpy were also evaluated showing that the biosorption process was spontaneously feasible and exothermic in nature. The application treatment has shown that SDS-ACP is a suitable lignocellulosic-type biosorbent for the decolorization of MB-colored solutions

Researches to foresee the possible effects of climate change on the environment and living beings for taking necessary precautions on time have increased in recent years. In the improvement of these studies, especially the reduction of estimation errors by downscaling the outputs of global climate models played an important role. In this study, a model that can predict monthly precipitation amounts in the future by using downscaling methods in different global climate models were applied in Antakya district of Hatay province, and the model results were evaluated. The predictive parameters for global climate models were determined using downscaling methods by applying correlation analysis for the study area. As a result of this analysis, it was seen that the air temperature and specific humidity values at the pressure level of 925 hPa and the geopotential height value at the 300 hPa pressure level had the best correlation for the years 1970-2005. The usability of three different global climate models (CanESM2, GISS-E2H, and CSIRO Mk 3-6-0) for the forecast of future rainfall in the Antakya district of Hatay province was investigated using multiple linear regression analysis, one of the downscaling methods. As a result of the statistical analysis, it was seen that the use of the downscaling method increased the accuracy of all prediction models.

A pilot-scale sequencing batch reactor (SBR) for anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) of bacteria culture was used along with a batch experimental reaction device to study the effect of NO2--N concentration on the activity of anammox bacteria and the recovery of N2H4 on anammox bacteria after inhibition by high concentrations of NO2--N. The optimal influent NO2--N concentration in the pilot-scale reactor was 72.0 mg/L, with its total nitrogen consumption being approximately 40.0 g/d. Influent water NO2--N concentrations greater than 100 mg/L had a serious inhibitory effect on the anammox bacteria. At an influent NO2--N concentration of 120.35 mg/L, the addition of 10.0-15.0 mg/L of N2H4, restored the activity of granular anammox bacteria; the total nitrogen consumption was increased by 69.96%. Microbiological analysis showed that a change in NO2--N concentration within the range of 18.87-115.39 mg/L did not affect the microbial population structure of the pilot-scale reactor, wherein Candidatus Kuenenia was the dominant bacterial species. In samples collected at stages A0 (sludge inoculation), A20 (the number indicates the NO2--N concentration, which, in this stage, was 20 mg/L), A40, A60, A80, and A100, the proportion of Candidatus Kuenenia was 27%, 23%, 36%, 26%, 34%, and 33%, respectively.

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.

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 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.

Contamination in water bodies with antibiotics and resistance genes is becoming an increasing threat to global health. Overuse of antibiotics has become a serious ecological problem worldwide. There is growing concern that antibiotics are losing their effectiveness due to increased antibiotic resistance in bacteria. During the last twenty years, the consumption of antibiotics has increased rapidly, which has been cited as one of the world’s worst abusers of antibiotics. Several studies have been conducted to solve this issue. Developed countries have introduced several methods but constructed wetlands have been found low cost technology. Although constructed wetlands (CWs) offer a potential way to remove these antibiotics from water supplies, knowledge of their mechanisms is limited. In this review, we highlight important aspects of antibiotic pollution in waters, the removal efficiency of constructed wetlands for antibiotic removal and that antibiotic pollution affects many things which taken together poses several challenges for environmental scientists. It has been discovered that four main factors are affecting the performance of constructed wetlands used for the treatment of antibiotics in water supplies, the types configurations of constructed wetlands, hydraulic load rates, substrates, plants, and microorganisms. Further researches focusing on these factors are recommended to improve the removal efficiency of antibiotics in constructed wetlands. Outcomes of the study could help wastewater treatment plant engineers with providing reliable design data and outline a road map for future researches.