Resource utilization in the sub-sectors of the textile industry: opportunities for sustainability.

It was aimed to determine the specific resource use and reduction potential profiles in various textile sub-sectors (cotton woven fabric dyeing-finishing, wool woven fabric dyeing-finishing, synthetic woven fabric dyeing-finishing, cotton knitted fabric, synthetic knit fabric dyeing-finishing, non-woven fabric, dyeing-finishing of knitted fabric). The main focus was to elucidate opportunities for sustainability in terms of decreasing resource utilization in the textile sector. On-site surveys and detailed data collection studies were carried out at 150 textile facilities. Average specific values for water, auxiliary chemicals, dyestuff, electricity, and steam consumptions, and related reduction potentials were calculated and compared within facilities and sub-sectors. The minimum specific resource consumption values reported in the Best Available Techniques Reference Document (BREF) for the textile industry and data of similar facilities from the literature were evaluated and used. A detailed environmental performance profile of the Turkish textile sector in terms of resource usage and reduction potential was generated. The highest specific water consumption was found in the wool-woven fabric sub-sector (345 ± 262 L/kg product). Although the specific auxiliary chemical consumption shows similarities within sub-sectors, the highest specific auxiliary chemical consumption (397 ± 237 g/kg product) was found in the synthetic woven fabric sub-sector. The sub-sector with the highest specific dyestuff consumption (30 ± 13 g/kg product) was the cotton knitted fabric sub-sector. The wool woven fabric industry had the highest specific electricity (7 ± 5.3 kWh/kg product) and steam (20 ± 11 kg steam/kg product) consumption. In addition, for all the studied sub-sectors country-wide, the lowest and highest reduction potentials in resource uses were 18 ± 15% and 73 ± 13%, respectively, suggesting a need for major full-scale implementations of cleaner production for enhancing sustainability in the textile industry.

Seasonal monitoring of microbial activity using conventional approaches in a full-scale urban biological wastewater treatment plant.

Activated sludge processes contain various groups of microorganisms with different metabolic properties, which are responsible for contaminants removal. Therefore, it is important to elucidate the general structure and functional properties of biomass in activated sludge processes. For this purpose, a full-scale domestic biological wastewater treatment plant in Tunceli (Turkey), Tunceli WWTP (wastewater treatment plant), was monitored to observe seasonal variations in process performance and biomass properties for a year. It was observed that nitrifying bacteria developed abundantly in the rainy and cool spring season as they were suppressed in summer because their large losses took place due to an environment containing high alkalinity values. In September, aerobic heterotrophic, nitrify, denitrify, and anaerobic activities increased. It can be said that the biomass contained young and mature microorganism in this environment in which the sludge volume index (SVI) value increased to 196 mL/g. As a result of the improvement in the structural and functional properties of biomass, the nitrogen removal efficiency reached 99%. Throughout the whole study, the structural improvement observed in biomass was reflected in its removal activity. The amount of biomass and removal activity decreased with the abundance of organic matter in the influent at the period in which biomass was closer to being categorized in the aged sludge class. The results showed that as the lowest mixed liquid suspended solids (MLSS) and mixed liquid volatile suspended solids (MLVSS) values of the year were 530 and 400 mg/L, respectively, in November 2017, MLSS and MLVSS values reached the highest amount (1700 and 1400 mg/L, respectively) in December 2017 when aerobic heterotrophic activity accelerated with a decrease in organic matter level.

Removal of pesticides from secondary treated urban wastewater by reverse osmosis.

The residues of pesticides that reach water resources from agricultural activities in several ways contaminate drinking water resources and threaten aquatic life. This study aimed to investigate the performance of three reverse osmosis (RO) membranes (BW30-LE, SW30-XLE, and GE-AD) in rejecting four different pesticides (tributyl phosphate, flutriafol, dicofol, and irgarol) from secondary treated urban wastewater and also to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the rejection of these pesticides. RO experiments were conducted using pesticide-spiked wastewater samples under 10 and 20 bar transmembrane pressures (TMP) and membrane performances were evaluated. Overall, all the membranes tested exhibited over 95% rejection performances for all pesticides at both TMPs. The highest rejections for tributyl phosphate (99.0%) and irgarol (98.3%) were obtained with the BW30-LE membrane, while for flutriafol (99.9%) and dicofol (99.1%) with the GE-AD membrane. The increase in TMP from 10 to 20 bar did not significantly affect the rejections of all pesticides. The rejection performances of RO membranes were found to be governed by projection area as well as molecular weight and hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity of pesticides. Among the membranes tested, the SW30-XLE membrane was the most prone to fouling due to the higher roughness.

Formation of nitrogen functionalities in biochar materials and their role in the mitigation of hazardous emerging organic pollutants from wastewater.

Emerging organic pollutants (EOPs) are serious environmental concerns known for their prominent adverse and hazardous ecological effects, and persistence in nature. Their detrimental impacts have inspired researchers to develop the strategic tools that reduce and overcome the challenges caused by EOPs' rising concentration. As such, biochar becomes as a promising class of biomass-derived functional materials that can be used as low-cost and environmentally-friendly emerging catalysts to remove EOPs. Herein, in-depth synthetic strategies and formation mechanisms of biochar-based nitrogen functionalities during thermochemical conversion are presented. Most prominently, the factors affecting N-surface functionalities in biochar are discussed, emphasizing the most effective N-doping approach, including intrinsic N-doping from biomass feedstock and extrinsic N-doping from exogenous sources. Moreover, biochar-assisted EOPs removal in line with interactions of nitrogen functionalities and contaminants are discussed. The possible reaction mechanisms, i.e., radical and non-radical degradation, physical adsorption, Lewis acid-base interaction, and chemisorption, driven by N-functionalities, are addressed. The unresolved challenges of the potential applications of biochar-mediated functionalities for EOPs removal are emphasized and the outlooks of future research directions are proposed at the end.

Spatial distribution and source identification of persistent organic pollutants in the sediments of the Yesilirmak River and coastal area in the Black Sea.

Surface sediments from the Yesilirmak River and the near coastal area in the Black Sea were collected using sediment traps to assess the spatial distributions of persistent organic pollutants and find their potential sources. Analyses were carried out to determine the concentrations of the persistent organic pollutants of seventeen polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans, sixteen polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, seven polychlorinated biphenyls, and eight organochlorine pesticides using high-resolution gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry systems. Analysis showed that the three main components of persistent organic pollutants (polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and organochlorine pesticides) primary sources are industrial activities. In addition, the widespread occurrence of persistent organic pollutants in the watershed surface sediments taken from the Yesilirmak River basin showed that agricultural and urban areas are also diffuse persistent organic pollutants sources.

A practical approach for the determination of environmental quality standards-based discharge limits: the case of Tersakan sub-basin of Yesilirmak River in Turkey.

The control of point source discharges to rivers has become more significant since the establishment of environmental quality standards (EQSs). Many countries, including Turkey, have set EQS values for various contaminants. One important challenge regarding these EQSs is to reconcile the effluent limits that are technically and economically achievable with the ones that are required to accomplish the EQSs. The Tersakan sub-basin of Yesilirmak River acquires good examples of this challenge due to the industrial and agricultural discharge activities present. In this study, a new, simplistic, and less data-driven approach is developed to facilitate this compromise and implemented for all suitable discharge points within the sub-basin. The foundation of this approach is that effluent discharges may mix and become diluted within negligibly short distances from the point of discharge where exceedance of EQSs can be permissible. The approach modularly combines different analytical solutions of the advective-dispersive mass transport equation that are applicable under different mixing conditions and estimates maximum allowable discharge concentrations of contaminants. The results of the case study in the Tersakan sub-basinindicate that none of the studied discharges need load reduction to achieve EQSs. However, in various points, tridecane, nickel, bis(2-ethylhexyl) terephthalate, NH4-N, total phosphorus, and free cyanide have consumed more than 10% of their discharge quotas estimated by the mentioned approach. Therefore, for the sub-basin, these six contaminants and their corresponding two discharge points may require more attention in the future.

Occurrence of micropollutants in the Yesilirmak River Basin, Turkey.

The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) (2000/60/EC) is the most visionary piece of European environmental legislation that aims to achieve good water status of both surface water and groundwater bodies. The Directive provides a fundamental basis for surface water monitoring activities in the European Member States. The objective of this study is to investigate the occurrence of micropollutants in the Yesilirmak River and to develop a cost-effective monitoring strategy based on spatiotemporal data. A 2-year seasonal monitoring program was conducted between 2016 and 2018, and the water samples were analyzed for 45 priority substances as defined by the WFD and 250 national river basin-specific pollutants. In the basin, 166 pollutants were quantified in at least one of the samples with individual concentrations ranging from 6 × 10-6µg/L to 100 mg/L. Fifty-four pollutants with a frequency of occurrence greater than 5% were selected for further evaluation. Based on statistical evaluation of the data, 20 pollutants were identified as the pollutants of primary concern. These 20 pollutants were grouped under three categories (metals, biocides, and industrial organic compounds) and their spatiotemporal distributions in the basin were assessed to establish a monitoring strategy specific to each pollutant category. The results of the study revealed that the common season for the monitoring of all pollutant categories was the spring. This study provides a generic methodology for the development of a cost-effective water quality monitoring strategy, which can be applicable for use in different basins and pollutant datasets.

A strategy for the implementation of water-quality-based discharge limits for the regulation of hazardous substances.

Many developing countries apply technology-based discharge standards that set quantitative limits on pollutant discharges. These standards do not inherently consider ambient constraints and, therefore, cannot guarantee to protect aquatic life from hazardous pollutants. It is a challenge for developing countries to enforce water-quality-based limits for wastewater discharges and guarantee the intended use of water. This study aims to develop a strategy that suits the needs of developing countries for a transition from technology-based discharge standards to water-quality-based discharge limits. To this end, a pilot monitoring program was carried in the Gediz River Basin in Turkey. Surface water, industrial, and urban wastewater samples were collected and analyzed for 45 priority pollutants identified by the European Union and 250 national river basin specific pollutants. The monitoring results revealed that the environmental quality standards (EQSs) were exceeded for 8 priority, and 28 specific pollutants. This finding indicated that the existing technology-based discharge standards are not satisfactory to guarantee the intended water quality, and there is a need for adopting a new strategy for the implementation of water-quality-based discharge limits in Turkey. As a widely applied approach for determining water-quality-based discharge limits, firstly, conservative mass balance with and without consideration of mixing zone was evaluated. The results indicated that this approach was not applicable due to the receiving environment concentrations being higher than the EQSs. As an alternative approach, the dilution methodology, which considers the level of dilution occurring at the immediate discharge point, was tested. The results proved that the dilution methodology is the most appropriate strategy for developing countries with relatively poor surface water quality to improve the water quality to the level where the conservative mass balance approach can be applicable.

Imidacloprid elimination by O3 and O3/UV: kinetics study, matrix effect, and mechanism insight.

The removal of imidacloprid (IMI) from water by ozonation (O3) and photo-ozonation (O3/UV) was comparatively studied, paying particular attention to the kinetics, matrix effect, and mechanistic aspects of the processes. The IMI removal by O3 was considerably enhanced at alkaline pHs, leading to almost complete removal under 20 min with a pseudo-first-order rate constant of 0.2374 min-1 at pH 8.25. Three different matrices, Milli-Q water, full-scale vacuum rotating membrane bioreactor plant effluent (VRMBR WW), and laboratory-scale instantaneous fed-batch reactor bioreactor effluent (Bio WW) spiked with IMI, were tested. The ozonation, coupled with UV, improved IMI removal remarkably regardless of the wastewater matrix, and there occurred a six times decrease in ozonation time requirement for 99% IMI elimination at pH 7.25. The IMI degradation mechanism proved that IMI is an ozone-resistant pollutant and is mainly degraded by OH• via an indirect mechanism. The second-order rate constants for IMI degradation with OH• were calculated as 2.23 × 1011 and 9.08 × 1011 M-1 s-1 for the O3 alone and O3/UV processes, respectively. The IMI degradation pathway analysis showed that IMI lost NO2, HNO2, and then Cl- from its structure, and the O3/UV process yielded fewer by-products than O3.

A new screening index for pesticides leachability to groundwater.

Given the fact that pesticides exist in the aquatic environment at very low concentrations, it is clear that their analysis require expensive analytical techniques. Water authorities in Turkey are in need of assessing the likelihood of pesticide occurrence in groundwater in order to identify minimum number of pesticides that would be included in monitoring programs. To this purpose, the pesticides used in Turkey are ranked and those having higher leaching potentials are identified using pesticide screening leaching indexes. A total of 15 indexes (AF, AFR/AFT, Hamaker's RF, Briggs's RF, LPI, VI, LIX, GUS, Hornsby, LEACH, MLEACH, PLP, GWCP, LIN and GLI) was adopted and leaching potentials of 157 pesticides used in Turkey were estimated. Because each index is based on different pesticide/soil characteristics, each produced a different ranking. In order to emphasize variation in rankings and bring out a strong pattern, the statistical technique of Principal Component Analysis was used and a new composite index named as "YASGEP-P" was developed, the most relevant components (indices) were identified and the corresponding factor scores were calculated. This new index came out as a composite of GUS, LIX, MLEACH, LIN, Briggs's RF, Hamaker's RF, PLP and AFR indices. It was seen that all these indices except AFR are almost equally dominant and increase the value of YASGEP-P index, whereas AFR is also dominant but causes a decrease in YASGEP-P index value. The new index developed tends to discriminate between the relatively more soluble/less sorbable and more sorbable/less soluble pesticides. With the use of this composite index, the pesticides used in Turkey were sorted from the most leachable to least leachable and the priority pesticides to be monitored in the groundwaters were identified.

Identification of management strategies and generation factors for spent lead acid battery recovery plant wastes in Turkey.

The recovery of spent or waste lead acid batteries is important both for the management of lead input to the environment and to meet the lead demand of the market in a more energy and cost effective manner than primary production. As an important producer of lead acid batteries for the Middle Eastern and Eastern European market, Turkey seems to meet 22%-52% of its total lead demand by waste lead acid battery recovery. In this study, the wastes from Turkish waste lead acid battery recovery plants are identified and management strategies that are both technically sufficient and economically feasible for each of these wastes are complied. Furthermore, ranges of the amount of each waste generated per mass of final lead produced in these plants are estimated. Some of the most significantly generated wastes are lead containing dusts, wash water treatment sludges and slags from smelting furnaces with generation rates between 5-250, 1-150 and 5-100 kg t-1 of product lead, respectively. Many of these can be fed back to the recovery process inside the plants except a subset of slags that are called 'final slag' and have low (5%-6%) lead content. Final slags can either be recovered for the production of cement, road-filling materials or abrasives proven that they are in a non-leachable, stable state or should be stored at hazardous waste landfills. For improved environmental performance, newly emerging techniques that eliminate the generation of such slags are also discussed and suggested.

Identification of waste management strategies and waste generation factors for thermal power plant sector wastes in Turkey.

Thermal power plants are of great environmental importance in terms of the huge amounts of wastes that they produce. Although there are process-wise differences among these energy production systems, they all depend on the logic of burning out a fuel and obtaining thermal energy to rotate the turbines. Depending on the process modification and the type of fuel burned, the wastes produced in each step of the overall process may change. In this study, the most expected process and non-process wastes stemming from different power generation processes have been identified and given their European Waste Codes. Giving priority to the waste minimization options for the most problematic wastes from thermal power plants, waste management strategies have been defined. In addition, by using the data collected from site visits, from the literature and provided by the Turkish Republic Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, waste generation factor ranges expressed in terms of kilogram of waste per energy produced annually (kg/MWh) have been estimated. As a result, the highest generation was found to be in fly ash (24-63 for imported coal, 200-270 for native coal), bottom ash (1.3-6 for imported coal, 42-87 for native coal) and the desulfurization wastes (7.3-32) produced in coal combustion power plants. The estimated waste generation factors carry an important role in that they aid the authorities to monitor the production wastes declared by the industries.

Substance flow analysis of mercury in Turkey for policy decision support.

Identification and quantification of mercury flows in Turkey are essential for better policy development regarding to the implementation of water-related legislation. To this end, substance flow analysis (SFA) of mercury in Turkey was conducted in order to identify and quantify mercury releases to different environmental compartments and help policy decision makers to better understand their options to reduce mercury flows. For the quantification of mercury flows, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Mercury Toolkit, which is develop by UNEP Chemicals Branch with the aim of assisting countries to develop their own mercury inventory, was used. Results of the study showed that a total of 34.61 t of mercury is released annually from the activities in Turkey to different environmental compartments. It was found that most of the mercury releases were to the atmosphere (74 %) and smaller amounts were to land (21 %) and to water (5 %). Mercury naturally found in the lithosphere was found to be responsible for most of the releases while intentional mercury uses have smaller shares and decreasing importance because of the phasing out of mercury.

Fate of triclosan in laboratory-scale activated sludge reactors - Effect of culture acclimation.

Triclosan (TCS); a widely used antimicrobial biocide, exists in several pharmaceutical and personal care products. Due to its wide usage, TCS is detected in wastewater at varying concentrations. Biological treatability of TCS and its effect on chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency were investigated running laboratory-scale pulse-fed sequencing batch reactors with acclimated and non-acclimated cultures. The culture was acclimatized to TCS by gradually increasing its concentration in the synthetic feed wastewater from 100 ng/L to 100 mg/L. There were no effects of TCS on COD removal efficiency up to the TCS concentration of 500 ng/L for both acclimatized and non-acclimatized cases. However, starting from a concentration of 1 mg/L, TCS affected the COD removal efficiency adversely. This effect was more pronounced with non-acclimatized culture. The decrease in the COD removal efficiency reached to 47% and 42% at the TCS concentration of 100 mg/L, under acclimation and non-acclimation conditions respectively. Adsorption of TCS into biomass was evidenced at higher TCS concentrations especially with non-acclimated cultures. 2,4-dichlorophenol and 2,4-dichloroanisole were identified as biodegradation by-products. The occurrence and distribution of these metabolites in the effluent and sludge matrices were found to be highly variable depending, especially, on the culture acclimation conditions.

Triclosan removal from surface water by ozonation - Kinetics and by-products formation.

Removal of triclosan from surface water by ozonation was investigated. The results showed that complete elimination of triclosan from a surface water bearing 1-5 mg/L triclosan via continuous ozonation at 5 mg/L, require an ozonation time of 20-30 min depending on pH. Triclosan oxidation followed pseudo-first order kinetics with an apparent reaction rate constant varying from 0.214 min-1 to 0.964 min-1 depending on pH, initial triclosan concentration and water composition. Although the effect of pH was complex due to possible existence of different moieties, higher TCS removal efficiencies were obvious at weak-base conditions. Experiments performed to identify degradation by-products showed the formation of four by-products, namely, 2,4-dichlorophenol, 4-chlorocatechol and two unidentified compounds. Additionally, 2,4-dichloroanisole was detected when a methyl moieties exist in water. By-products were found to be eliminated upon further ozonation. The required exposure time varied from 20 to 30 min depending on pH of water. The ozone demand exerted for the complete oxidation of triclosan and its by-products was calculated as 13.04 mg ozone per mg of triclosan. A triclosan degradation pathway, which was found to be highly pH dependent, was proposed.

Hazardous waste management system design under population and environmental impact considerations.

This paper presents a multi objective mixed integer location/routing model that aims to minimize transportation cost and risks for large-scale hazardous waste management systems (HWMSs). Risks induced by hazardous wastes (HWs) on both public and the environment are addressed. For this purpose, a new environmental impact definition is proposed that considers the environmentally vulnerable elements including water bodies, agricultural areas, coastal regions and forestlands located within a certain bandwidth around transportation routes. The solution procedure yields to Pareto optimal curve for two conflicting objectives. The conceptual model developed prior to mathematical formulation addresses waste-to-technology compatibility and HW processing residues to assure applicability of the model to real-life HWMSs. The suggested model was used in a case study targeting HWMS in Turkey. Based on the proposed solution, it was possible to identify not only the transportation routes but also a set of information on HW handling facilities including the types, locations, capacities, and investment/operational cost. The HWMS of this study can be utilized both by public authorities and private sector investors for planning purposes.

Solid waste management scenarios for Cetinje in Montenegro.

This study presents the options for source-segregation and selective collection of recyclable waste fractions for Cetinje, Montenegro, with the aim of meeting the European Union 50% waste recycling target in 2023, and extending collection and disposal system that builds on the existing strengths of the city. To this end, three options were considered: (1) source separation and separate collection of dry recyclable materials and central sorting of residual waste; (2) source separation and collection of co-mingled dry recyclable materials, and central sorting in a clean material recovery facility of comingled recyclables and central sorting of residual waste; (3) collection of mixed waste (current situation) and subsequent central sorting. Scenarios 1 and 2 were found to meet the European Union 50% recycling target in 2023, provided that a fast implementation of the new separate collection schemes to fine sort the co-mingled collected recyclable materials is available. Finally, a financial evaluation was made for the options and the investment and operational costs over a 20-year period were estimated. Unit costs for Scenario 3 were found to be lower than for Scenario 1 and 2. As Scenario 3 will not meet the future European Union recycling targets, Scenario 2 has been pointed as the most feasible scenario for Cetinje, with reference to the expected lower total costs compared with Scenario 1.

Use of theoretical waste inventories in planning and monitoring of hazardous waste management systems.

Hazardous waste (HW) generation information is an absolute necessity for ensuring the proper planning, implementation, and monitoring of any waste management system. Unfortunately, environmental agencies in developing countries face difficulties in gathering data directly from the creators of such wastes. It is possible, however, to construct theoretical HW inventories using the waste generation factors (WGFs). The objective of this study was to develop a complete nationwide HW inventory of Turkey that relies on nation-specific WGFs to support management activities of the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urbanization (MoEU). Inventory studies relied on WGFs from: (a) the literature and (b) field studies and analysis of waste declarations reflecting country-specific industrial practices. Moreover, new tools were introduced to the monitoring infrastructure of MoEU to obtain a comprehensive waste generation data set. Through field studies and a consideration of country specific conditions, it was possible to more thoroughly elucidate HW generation trends in Turkey, a method that was deemed superior to other alternatives. Declaration and literature based WGFs also proved most helpful in supplementing field observations that could not always be conducted. It was determined that these theoretical inventories could become valuable assets in supporting regulating agencies in developing countries for a more thorough implementation of HW management systems.

Challenges in development and implementation of health-risk-based soil quality guidelines: Turkey's experience.

Management of contaminated sites is a critical environmental issue around the world due to the human health risk involved for many sites and scarcity of funding. Moreover, clean-up costs of all contaminated sites to their background levels with existing engineering technologies may be financially infeasible and demand extended periods of operation time. Given these constraints, to achieve optimal utilization of available funds and prioritization of contaminated sites that need immediate attention, health-risk-based soil quality guidelines should be preferred over the traditional soil quality standards. For these reasons, traditional soil quality standards are being replaced by health-risk-based ones in many countries and in Turkey as well. The need for health-risk-based guidelines is clear, but developing these guidelines and implementation of them in contaminated site management is not a straightforward process. The goal of this study is to highlight the problems that are encountered at various stages of the development process of risk-based soil quality guidelines for Turkey and how they are dealt with. Utilization of different definitions and methodologies at different countries, existence of inconsistent risk assessment tools, difficulties in accessing relevant documents and reports, and lack of specific data required for Turkey are among these problems. We believe that Turkey's experience may help other countries that are planning to develop health-risk-based guidelines achieve their goals in a more efficient manner.

Application of the contingent valuation method in a developing country: a case study of the Yusufeli dam in northeast Turkey.

Hydroelectric power plants and dams often play an important role in developing countries in terms of their contribution to economy. In accordance with the energy policies of Turkish Republic, Yusufeli Dam and Hydroelectric Power Plant in Northeastern Turkey have been initiated. In this study, the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) was conducted in Yusufeli Village to determine the environmental costs of the Yusufeli Project. The purpose is to assess the willingness to pay (WTP) of Yusufeli Village residents for restoration of the environmental impacts of the dam project and also to investigate the underlying economic, psychological, and social motivations for WTP. WTP was calculated as US$761 per person which can further be used in the cost-benefit analysis. The results from the study suggest that application of the CVM in rural and urban areas located in the same region can show differences.