Searching for solutions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions by agricultural policy decisions--Application of system dynamics modeling for the case of Latvia.

European Union (EU) Member States have agreed to limit their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from sectors not covered by the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (non-ETS). That includes also emissions from agricultural sector. Although the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has established a methodology for assessment of GHG emissions from agriculture, the forecasting options are limited, especially when policies and their interaction with the agricultural system are tested. Therefore, an advanced tool, a system dynamics model, was developed that enables assessment of effects various decisions and measures have on agricultural GHG emissions. The model is based on the IPCC guidelines and includes the main elements of an agricultural system, i.e. land management, livestock farming, soil fertilization and crop production, as well as feedback mechanisms between the elements. The case of Latvia is selected for simulations, as agriculture generates 22% of the total anthropogenic GHG emissions in the country. The results demonstrate that there are very limited options for GHG mitigation in the agricultural sector. Thereby, reaching the non-ETS GHG emission targets will be very challenging for Latvia, as the level of agricultural GHG emissions will be exceeded considerably above the target levels. Thus, other non-ETS sectors will have to reduce their emissions drastically to "neutralize" the agricultural sector's emissions for reaching the EU's common ambition to move towards low-carbon economy. The developed model may serve as a decision support tool for impact assessment of various measures and decisions on the agricultural system's GHG emissions. Although the model is applied to the case of Latvia, the elements and structure of the model developed are similar to agricultural systems in many countries. By changing numeric values of certain parameters, the model can be applied to analyze decisions and measures in other countries.

Valorization of solid waste products from olive oil industry as potential adsorbents for water pollution control--a review.

The global olive oil production for 2010 is estimated to be 2,881,500 metric tons. The European Union countries produce 78.5% of the total olive oil, which stands for an average production of 2,136,000 tons. The worldwide consumption of olive oil increased of 78% between 1990 and 2010. The increase in olive oil production implies a proportional increase in olive mill wastes. As a consequence of such increasing trend, olive mills are facing severe environmental problems due to lack of feasible and/or cost-effective solutions to olive-mill waste management. Therefore, immediate attention is required to find a proper way of management to deal with olive mill waste materials in order to minimize environmental pollution and associated health risks. One of the interesting uses of solid wastes generated from olive mills is to convert them as inexpensive adsorbents for water pollution control. In this review paper, an extensive list of adsorbents (prepared by utilizing different types of olive mill solid waste materials) from vast literature has been compiled, and their adsorption capacities for various aquatic pollutants removal are presented. Different physicochemical methods that have been used to convert olive mill solid wastes into efficient adsorbents have also been discussed. Characterization of olive-based adsorbents and adsorption mechanisms of various aquatic pollutants on these developed olive-based adsorbents have also been discussed in detail. Conclusions have been drawn from the literature reviewed, and suggestions for future research are proposed.

Biotreatability of wastewater generated during machinery washing in a wood-based industry: COD, formaldehyde and nitrogen removal.

This paper describes biotreatability tests for treating a wastewater stream generated by wood-floor industries after cleaning and washing of machinery used to apply urea-formaldehyde resins onto wood-fiber boards. A biological system consisting of an anaerobic-intermittently aerated reactor in lab-scale was constructed. Since the investigated wastewater is intermittently generated, the system was designed to operate in batch mode. The treatment focused on removal of formaldehyde and COD, as well as the efficiency of nitrification-denitrification. The proposed cheap and relatively simple-to-operate biological system achieved COD and formaldehyde removal rates of 65+/-11% and 93+/-4% respectively. In spite of anaerobic ammonium removal and denitrification, the intermittently-aerated reactor showed poor performance for nitrification. Therefore, a better understanding of constraints for the process improvement is necessary. Regardless the constraints faced during the investigation, the proposed system can be considered feasible to partially reduce a great amount of biodegradable compounds in urea-formaldehyde-based wastewaters. However, to comply with strict threshold limits for industrial effluent discharges, the use of biological treatment combined with more advanced processes is needed to achieve a better quality of the final effluent.

Viabilidade do uso de efluentes tratados por zona de raízes na irrigação: estudo de caso na Vila Dois Rios - Ilha Grande, RJ / Constructed of the use of efluente treated by try to use it in irrigation: case study in the Vila Dois Rios - Ilha Grande, RJ

A escassez de água doce, atualmente está gerando diversos tipos de problemas, devido aos usos múltiplos e demanda crescente, principalmente para as necessidades fisiológicas humanas, e atividades econômicas como a indústria, e a irrigação para produção de alimentos. Os países mais atingidos por esta escassez buscam alternativas de. Uma destas alternativas são as águas residuárias tratadas. Atualmente a atividade humana que representa o maior consumo de água é a irrigação, o que a torna a atividade com maior necessidade de recursos alternativos. O uso de águas residuárias para a irrigação, requer uma qualidade microbiológica e físico-química que não traga riscos ao meio ambiente e principalmente à saúde pública. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo analisar a qualidade microbiológica e físico-química do efluente de um sistema de tratamento biológico de esgotos domésticos de pequeno gerador utilizando o processo de Zona de Raízes como polimento final, e a viabilidade de utilizá-lo para a irrigação de acordo com algumas diretrizes existentes para proteção à saúde pública. Foram analisados alguns parâmetros, sendo que os de maior importância para a saúde pública foram os parâmetros biológicos Escherichia coli e ovos de Helmintos, além do indicador coliforme totais. O sistema foi analisado em um período de 6 meses e demonstrou viabilidade para a aplicação e utilização do efluente na irrigação, principalmente para fins de culturas industrialmente processadas, silvicultura, plantas forrageiras, culturas frutíferas arbóreas e também de cereais.