Microbial communities and biodegradation in lab-scale BTEX-contaminated groundwater remediation using an oxygen-releasing reactive barrier.

To remediate benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX) -contaminated groundwater, a biotreatment process including biostimulation and bioaugmentation was simulated using oxygen-releasing reactive barriers (ORRB) and water with added BTEX in a lab-scale system. The results showed that the capability for BTEX removal decreases in the order of benzene, toluene, p-xylene, ethylbenzene for both added-nitrogen and no-added-nitrogen under BTEX concentrations at 30 mg l(-1). The removal efficiencies in ORRB systems were higher in the nitrogen-added condition for biostimulation compared with the no-nitrogen-added condition; moreover, an increased pattern for removal was observed during the bioaugmentation process. The oxygen content was found to be inversely proportional to the distance from the ORRB, as evidenced by observing that the average bacteria densities were two orders higher when located at 15 cm compared with 30 cm from the ORRB. The microbial community structure was similar in both cases of added-nitrogen and the no-added-nitrogen conditions.

The use of additives as the stimulator on mycelial biomass and exopolysaccharide productions in submerged culture of Grifola umbellata.

In this study, various additives including organic acids, alcohols, vegetable oils, surfactants and polymers were added in the cultural medium to investigate their stimulatory effects on Grifola umbellate mycelia growth and exopolysaccharide (EPS) production. It was found that the commonly used stimulatory additives, effective in other mushrooms' cultures, exhibited negative results in Grifola umbellata submerged culture. In contrast, the polymer additive, polyethylene glycol (PEG), displayed an effective stimulatory effect on both biomass and EPS productions. With the addition of PEG8 (molecular weight: 8,000 Da), the mycelial biomass production at day 12 was increased from 4.69 to 6.30 g/L, accounting for a 34% increase. Meanwhile, the EPS production was enhanced from 0.478 to 0.767 g/L, accounting for 60% increase.

The development of a 3D risk analysis method.

Much attention has been paid to the quantitative risk analysis (QRA) research in recent years due to more and more severe disasters that have happened in the process industries. Owing to its calculation complexity, very few software, such as SAFETI, can really make the risk presentation meet the practice requirements. However, the traditional risk presentation method, like the individual risk contour in SAFETI, is mainly based on the consequence analysis results of dispersion modeling, which usually assumes that the vapor cloud disperses over a constant ground roughness on a flat terrain with no obstructions and concentration fluctuations, which is quite different from the real situations of a chemical process plant. All these models usually over-predict the hazardous regions in order to maintain their conservativeness, which also increases the uncertainty of the simulation results. On the other hand, a more rigorous model such as the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model can resolve the previous limitations; however, it cannot resolve the complexity of risk calculations. In this research, a conceptual three-dimensional (3D) risk calculation method was proposed via the combination of results of a series of CFD simulations with some post-processing procedures to obtain the 3D individual risk iso-surfaces. It is believed that such technique will not only be limited to risk analysis at ground level, but also be extended into aerial, submarine, or space risk analyses in the near future.

The simulation of air recirculation and fire/explosion phenomena within a semiconductor factory.

The semiconductor industry is the collection of capital-intensive firms that employ a variety of hazardous chemicals and engage in the design and fabrication of semiconductor devices. Owing to its processing characteristics, the fully confined structure of the fabrication area (fab) and the vertical airflow ventilation design restrict the applications of traditional consequence analysis techniques that are commonly used in other industries. The adverse situation also limits the advancement of a fire/explosion prevention design for the industry. In this research, a realistic model of a semiconductor factory with a fab, sub-fabrication area, supply air plenum, and return air plenum structures was constructed and the computational fluid dynamics algorithm was employed to simulate the possible fire/explosion range and its severity. The semiconductor factory has fan module units with high efficiency particulate air filters that can keep the airflow uniform within the cleanroom. This condition was modeled by 25 fans, three layers of porous ceiling, and one layer of porous floor. The obtained results predicted very well the real airflow pattern in the semiconductor factory. Different released gases, leak locations, and leak rates were applied to investigate their influence on the hazard range and severity. Common mitigation measures such as a water spray system and a pressure relief panel were also provided to study their potential effectiveness to relieve thermal radiation and overpressure hazards within a fab. The semiconductor industry can use this simulation procedure as a reference on how to implement a consequence analysis for a flammable gas release accident within an air recirculation cleanroom.