Research on residual strength characteristics of high water materials based on improved H-B criterion.

To develop a new gangue polymer filling material with low compressive ratio, this paper intends to add high water cementing material to the gangue for backfilling. Uniaxial and tri-axial bearing experiments were conducted to study its bearing characteristics and residual strength. Based on Hock-Brown model theory, it is proposed that friction angle φr can be introduced to substitute model parameter mi, and the degree of cohesion loss can characterize the value of s. So the improved H-B model is established to characterize the residual strength of materials with ductile failure characteristics. The results show that the compressive strength of high water filling material increases linearly corresponding to the rise of confining pressure, and its strength characteristics conform to Mohr-Coulomb strength criterion. The ductile failure characteristics of the sample endow it with high residual strength, which in turn qualifies it for underground filling. After the introduction of cohesion and friction angle, the improved H-B criterion can fit the residual strength curve of the high water filling material more competently. The fitting coefficient of the samples with three water contents is 1.00, 0.99, and 1.00, respectively. The improved H-B model of residual strength demonstrates the change rule of residual strength of the samples corresponding to the change of confining pressure; under tri-axial loading, the angle between fracture surface and axial direction becomes larger as the confining pressure rises; and the failure mode of the material transforms from splitting failure to shear failure.

Bioprodução de pediocina por Pediococcus pentosaceus ET34 em resíduo agroindustrial hidrolisado bagaço de cana-de-açúcar / Bioproduction of Pediocin by Pediococcus pentosaceus ET34 in hydrolyzed sugar cane bagasse agroindustrial residue

Um dos grandes desafios nas indústrias alimentícia, farmacêutica e agropecuária é a busca por novos compostos para substituir os antibióticos. Como possíveis candidatos estão as bacteriocinas para serem utilizados paralelamente aos antibióticos ou até substituí-los. As bactérias ácido-láticas podem produzir substâncias inibitórias semelhantes às bacteriocinas (BLIS - bacteriocin-like inhibitory substances) que possuem efeito bacteriostático ou bactericida contra diferentes grupos de bactéria sendo largamente utilizadas como bioconservantes alimentares. Neste contexto, o objetivo deste trabalho foi o emprego de um resíduo agroindustrial, o hidrolisado de bagaço de cana-de-açúcar, como fonte de carbono em cultivos fermentativos para produção do BLIS pela cepa Pediococcus pentosaceus ET 34. Resultados revelaram que as células de ET34 foram capazes de crescer utilizando este resíduo agroindustrial como fonte de carbono e ensaios utilizando planejamento fatorial demonstraram que a agitação não influencia na produção de BLIS. Ao escalonar o cultivo em biorreatores, foi verificado que tanto o crescimento como a atividade antimicrobiana foram semelhantes aos obtidos em bancada com exceção da condição de 25% (v/v) de HBC (hidrolisado de bagaço de cana) que devido a maior viscosidade do meio, resultou em uma diminuição no crescimento e de produção de BLIS. O BLIS produzido por células de ET34 utilizando o HBC como fonte de carbono foi parcialmente purificado por sulfato de amônio e demonstrou atividade contra Listeria monocytogenes ATCC 934 e Salmonella enterica CECT 724. Desta maneira, pode-se concluir que Pediococcus pentosaceus ET34 foi capaz de crescer em meio contendo HBC como fonte de carbono produzindo BLIS em seu sobrenadante com ação frente a diferentes bactérias patogênicas. A possibilidade de utilizar uma fonte alternativa de carbono pode diminuir o custo de processo consideravelmente. Além disso, ensaios de planejamento fatorial, superfície de resposta e escalonamento em biorreator de bancada indicaram que concentrações baixas de HBC (5-15%, v/v) a 35 °C resultaram na maior produção de BLIS

The great challenge in the food, pharmaceutical and agricultural industries is the search for new compounds to replace antibiotics. Bacteriocins are possible candidates that can be used in parallel with the antibiotics or even to replace them. Lactic-acid bacteria can produce bacteriocin inhibitory substances (BLIS - bacteriocin-like inhibitory substances) that have a bacteriostatic or bactericidal effect against different bacterial species and are widely used as food bioconservatives. In this context, the aim of this work was to use of an agroindustrial waste, hydrolyzed sugarcane bagasse, as a carbon source in fermentative cultures for the production of BLIS by Pediococcus pentosaceus ET 34 strain. Results revealed that ET34 cells were able to grow using this agroindustrial residue as a carbon source, and trials using factorial design showed that agitation did not influence on the production of BLIS. When it was perform cultivation scale up in bioreactors, it was verified that both the growth and the antimicrobial activity were similar to those obtained in the workbench with the exception of the condition of 25% (v/v) of HBC (sugarcane bagasse hydrolyzate) that due to its higher viscosity, resulted in a decrease in growth and BLIS production. BLIS produced by ET34 cells using HBC as a carbon source that was partially purified by ammonium sulfate showed activity against Listeria monocytogenes ATCC 934 and Salmonella enterica CECT 724. Thus, it can be concluded that Pediococcus pentosaceus ET34 was able to grow in medium containing HBC as carbon source producing BLIS in its supernatant with action against different pathogenic bacteria. The possibility of using an alternative carbon source can greatly reduce the process cost. In addition, factorial design, response surface and scale up trials in bench bioreactors indicated that low concentrations of HBC (5-15% v/v) at 35 ºC resulted in higher BLIS production

Multilayer Hybrid Deep-Learning Method for Waste Classification and Recycling.

This study proposes a multilayer hybrid deep-learning system (MHS) to automatically sort waste disposed of by individuals in the urban public area. This system deploys a high-resolution camera to capture waste image and sensors to detect other useful feature information. The MHS uses a CNN-based algorithm to extract image features and a multilayer perceptrons (MLP) method to consolidate image features and other feature information to classify wastes as recyclable or the others. The MHS is trained and validated against the manually labelled items, achieving overall classification accuracy higher than 90% under two different testing scenarios, which significantly outperforms a reference CNN-based method relying on image-only inputs.

Determination of the Biological Efficiency and Antioxidant Potential of Lingzhi or Reishi Medicinal Mushroom, Ganoderma lucidum (Agaricomycetes), Cultivated Using Different Agro-Wastes in Malaysia.

This study investigates the cultivation of Ganoderma lucidum using different agricultural biomasses from Malaysia. Five different combinations of rubber wood sawdust, empty fruit bunch fiber, and mesocarp fiber from oil palm, alone and in combination, were used to cultivate G. lucidum. Although all the substrate combinations worked well to grow the mushroom, the highest biological efficiency was obtained from the combination of empty fruit bunch fiber with sawdust. A total yield of 27% was obtained from empty fruit bunch fiber with sawdust, followed by sawdust (26%), empty fruit bunch fiber (19%), mesocarp fiber with sawdust (19%), and mesocarp fiber (16%). The quality of mushrooms was proved by proximate analysis and detection of phenolic compounds and flavonoids. The antioxidant activity verified by DPPH, ferric-reducing ability of plasma, and ABTS analyses revealed that the empty fruit bunch fiber with sawdust had higher activity than the other substrates.

Methods to estimate the transfer of contaminants into recycling products - A case study from Austria.

Recycling of waste materials is desirable to reduce the consumption of limited primary resources, but also includes the risk of recycling unwanted, hazardous substances. In Austria, the legal framework demands secondary products must not present a higher risk than comparable products derived from primary resources. However, the act provides no definition on how to assess this risk potential. This paper describes the development of different quantitative and qualitative methods to estimate the transfer of contaminants in recycling processes. The quantitative methods comprise the comparison of concentrations of harmful substances in recycling products to corresponding primary products and to existing limit values. The developed evaluation matrix, which considers further aspects, allows for the assessment of the qualitative risk potential. The results show that, depending on the assessed waste fraction, particular contaminants can be critical. Their concentrations were higher than in comparable primary materials and did not comply with existing limit values. On the other hand, the results show that a long-term, well-established quality control system can assure compliance with the limit values. The results of the qualitative assessment obtained with the evaluation matrix support the results of the quantitative assessment. Therefore, the evaluation matrix can be suitable to quickly screen waste streams used for recycling to estimate their potential environmental and health risks. To prevent the transfer of contaminants into product cycles, improved data of relevant substances in secondary resources are necessary. In addition, regulations for material recycling are required to assure adequate quality control measures, including limit values.

Recycling of plastic waste: Screening for brominated flame retardants (BFRs).

Flame retardants are chemicals vital for reducing risks of fire and preventing human casualties and property losses. Due to the abundance, low cost and high performance of bromine, brominated flame retardants (BFRs) have had a significant share of the market for years. Physical stability on the other hand, has resulted in dispersion and accumulation of selected BFRs in the environment and receiving biota. A wide range of plastic products may contain BFRs. This affects the quality of waste plastics as secondary resource: material recycling may potentially reintroduce the BFRs into new plastic product cycles and lead to increased exposure levels, e.g. through use of plastic packaging materials. To provide quantitative and qualitative data on presence of BFRs in plastics, we analysed bromophenols (tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), dibromophenols (2,4- and 2,6-DBP) and 2,4,6-tribromophenol (2,4,6-TBP)), hexabromocyclododecane stereoisomers (α-, ß-, and γ-HBCD), as well as selected polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in samples of household waste plastics, virgin and recycled plastics. A considerable number of samples contained BFRs, with highest concentrations associated with acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS, up to 26,000,000ngTBBPA/g) and polystyrene (PS, up to 330,000ng∑HBCD/g). Abundancy in low concentrations of some BFRs in plastic samples suggested either unintended addition in plastic products or degradation of higher molecular weight BFRs. The presence of currently restricted flame retardants (PBDEs and HBCD) identified in the plastic samples illustrates that circular material flows may be contaminated for extended periods. The screening clearly showed a need for improved documentation and monitoring of the presence of BFRs in plastic waste routed to recycling.

The feather-degrading bacterial community in two soils as revealed by a specific primer targeting serine-type keratinolytic proteases.

Feather waste represents a huge resource of protein, but is underutilized due to its recalcitrant nature. Feather-degrading bacteria can biologically degrade feathers and have great potential for industries. In this study, we first designed a primer set (BC) suitable for exploring the diversity of the keratinolytic bacterial community with denatured gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). With the BC primer set, the difference in the keratinolytic bacterial community between a feather-dumping (FD) soil and a non feather-dumping (NFD) soil and the influence of feather addition (enrichment culture) on the keratinolytic bacterial community were investigated. DGGE and sequencing showed that keratinolytic bacteria in these soils belong to 2 phyla (Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria) and 9 genera (Micromonospora, Verrucosispora, Actinopolymorpha, Knoellia, Hyalangium, Stigmatella, Archangium, Cystobacter, and Luteimonas). Feather addition decreased the species richness of the keratinolytic bacteria in FD soil, but greatly increased the diversity, species richness and abundance in NFD soil. Moreover, feather addition to NFD soil induced some keratinolytic bacteria that were absent in all of the other soils. Collectively, these data indicate that keratinolytic bacteria are diverse in both FD and NFD soil, and some novel keratinolytic bacteria taxa might be revealed by using the BC primer set.

A novel method for material characterization of reusable products.

Product reuse contributes favorably to waste management and resource recovery by diverting products from terminal disposal to second-hand urban markets. Many organizations with social mission incorporate in their activities the process of reuse, thus making valuable products available to second-hand customers through their thrift stores. Data management and product classification are an important aspect of quantitative analysis of second-hand products circulating through reuse organizations. The New York City Center for Materials Reuse has, for the last 10years, organized the reuse activities of most not for profit organizations, and collected valuable information on the strengths and weaknesses of their operations. One such finding is the casual, and inconsistent approach used by these organizations to keep a record of the level and value of the reuse efforts they undertake. This paper describes a novel methodology developed to standardize record keeping and characterize commonly reused post-consumer products by assessing the outgoing product flow from reuse organizations. The approach groups material composition of individual products into main product categories, creating a simplified method to characterize products. Furthermore, by linking product categories and material composition, the method creates a matrix to help identify the material composition of products handled by reuse organizations. As part of the methodology, whenever adequate data are not available about certain types of products, a process identified as "field characterization study" is proposed and incorporated in the implementation to develop meaningful and useful data on the weight and material composition. Finally, the method incorporates the estimation of the environmental impact of reuse using standard models available through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other worldwide entities. The diversified weight and size of products poses a challenge to the statistical significance of the estimated weights. A case study is presented, illustrating how the proposed methodology can be applied to estimate environmental benefits from the sale of second-hand products in reuse organizations.

The determination of waste generation and composition as an essential tool to improve the waste management plan of a university.

When many people work in organized institutions or enterprises, those institutions or enterprises become big meeting places that also have energy, water and resources necessities. One of these necessities is the correct management of the waste that is daily produced by these communities. Universities are a good example of institution where every day a great amount of people go to work or to study. But independently of their task, they use the different services at the University such as cafeterias, canteens, and photocopy and as a result of their activity a cleaning service is also needed. All these activities generate an environmental impact. Nowadays, many Universities have accepted the challenge to minimize this impact applying several measures. One of the impacts to be reduced is the waste generation. The first step to implement measures to implement a waste management plan at a University is to know the composition, the amount and the distribution of the waste generated in its facilities. As the waste composition and generation depend among other things on the climate, these variables should be analysed over one year. This research work estimates the waste generation and composition of a Spanish University, the Universitat Jaume I, during a school year. To achieve this challenge, all the waste streams generated at the University have been identified and quantified emphasizing on those which are not controlled. Furthermore, several statistical analyses have been carried out to know if the season of the year or the day of the week affect waste generation and composition. All this information will allow the University authorities to propose a set of minimization measures to enhance the current management.

Legal regulation of the management of waste.

Healthcare providers such as hospitals and clinics have a duty of care under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and its regulations to ensure that the waste they produce does not cause pollution or present a hazard to health. Nurses are well placed to ensure that the trust they work for discharge that duty. In this article, Richard Griffith outlines the legislation regulating the safe management and disposal of waste and considers how the law applies to nurses.

Statistical analyses of the results of 25 years of beach litter surveys on the south-eastern North Sea coast.

In the North Sea, the amount of litter present in the marine environment represents a severe environmental problem. In order to assess the magnitude of the problem and measure changes in abundance, the results of two beach litter monitoring programmes were compared and analysed for long-term trends applying multivariate techniques. Total beach litter pollution was persistently high. Spatial differences in litter abundance made it difficult to identify long-term trends: Partly more than 8000 litter items year(-1) were recorded on a 100 m long survey site on the island of Scharhörn, while the survey site on the beach on the island of Amrum revealed abundances lower by two orders of magnitude. Beach litter was dominated by plastic with mean proportions of 52%-91% of total beach litter. Non-parametric time series analyses detected many significant trends, which, however, did not show any systematic spatial patterns. Cluster analyses partly led to groupings of beaches according to their expositions to sources of litter, wind and currents. Surveys in short intervals of one to two weeks were found to give higher annual sums of beach litter than the quarterly surveys of the OSPAR method. Surveys at regular intervals of four weeks to five months would make monitoring results more reliable.

Upgrading of PVC rich wastes by magnetic density separation and hyperspectral imaging quality control.

Polyvinylchloride (PVC) is one of the most produced polymers in Europe, with a share of 11% in terms of mass (8 milliontons) of total polymer consumption, but in 2010 only 5% of the total PVC production came from recycled materials, where other polymer recycling achieves a level of 15% on average. In order to find an innovative process to extract PVC from window frames waste, a combination of two innovative technologies was tested: magnetic density separation (MDS) and hyperspectral imaging (HSI). By its nature, MDS is a flexible high precision density separation technology that is applicable to any mixture of polymers and contaminants with non-overlapping densities. As PVC has a very distinctive high density, this technology was tested to obtain high-grade PVC pre-concentrates from window frame waste. HSI was used to perform a quality control of the products obtained by MDS showing that PVC was clearly discriminated from unwanted rubber particles of different colors. The results showed that the combined application of MDS and HSI techniques allowed to separate and to check the purity of PVC from window frame waste.

Low densities of drifting litter in the African sector of the Southern Ocean.

Only 52 litter items (>1cm diameter) were observed in 10,467 km of at-sea transects in the African sector of the Southern Ocean. Litter density north of the Subtropical Front (0.58 items km(-2)) was less than in the adjacent South Atlantic Ocean (1-6 items km(-2)), but has increased compared to the mid-1980s. Litter density south of the Subtropical Front was an order of magnitude less than in temperate waters (0.032 items km(-2)). There was no difference in litter density between sub-Antarctic and Antarctic waters either side of the Antarctic Polar Front. Most litter was made of plastic (96%). Fishery-related debris comprised a greater proportion of litter south of the Subtropical Front (33%) than in temperate waters (13%), where packaging dominated litter items (68%). The results confirm that the Southern Ocean is the least polluted ocean in terms of drifting debris and suggest that most debris comes from local sources.

Reliable classification of moving waste materials with LIBS in concrete recycling.

Effective discrimination between different waste materials is of paramount importance for inline quality inspection of recycle concrete aggregates from demolished buildings. The moving targeted materials in the concrete waste stream are wood, PVC, gypsum block, glass, brick, steel rebar, aggregate and cement paste. For each material, up to three different types were considered, while thirty particles of each material were selected. Proposed is a reliable classification methodology based on integration of the LIBS spectral emissions in a fixed time window, starting from the deployment of the laser shot. PLS-DA (multi class) and the hybrid combination PCA-Adaboost (binary class) were investigated as efficient classifiers. In addition, mean centre and auto scaling approaches were compared for both classifiers. Using 72 training spectra and 18 test spectra per material, each averaged by ten shots, only PLS-DA achieved full discrimination, and the mean centre approach made it slightly more robust. Continuing with PLS-DA, the relation between data averaging and convergence to 0.3% average error was investigated using 9-fold cross-validations. Single-shot PLS-DA presented the highest challenge and most desirable methodology, which converged with 59 PC. The degree of success in practical testing will depend on the quality of the training set and the implications of the possibly remaining false positives.

Selective collection as a pretreatment for indirect solid recovered fuel generation.

Effective selective collection (SC) has been increasing in many countries of the European Union. As a consequence the composition of residual municipal solid waste (RMSW) is changing not only because of economic development, but also due to the collection system. The input of RMSW treatment plants is thus not homogeneous. This paper analyses two case studies involving a total of five SC scenarios and their impact on the generation of solid recovered fuel (SRF) with/without bio-drying, post-treatment and packaging take back programs (TBPs). These case studies are based on two types of SC: kerbside and drop-off. The latest regulation on SRF classification is taken into account: energy content, Cl and Hg concentrations are assessed and discussed. The role of the respirometric index (RI) is also analyzed. Results show that when SC is highly efficient RMSW can be classified directly as SRF, but only if the introduction of RI does not set stringent respirometric targets. The role of packaging TBPs is important as the residual waste remaining after the packaging has been processed, can be valorized increasing the lower heating value (LHV) of the residual RMSW and minimizing the streams that should be landfilled. The source separation of food waste has a significant impact on the suitability of bio-drying: when the SC of food waste is very efficient, its percentage in the RMSW may be too low for effective bio-drying.

Relationships among the abundances of plastic debris in different size classes on beaches in South Korea.

Plastic debris on six beaches near the Nakdong River Estuary, South Korea, was sampled in May and September 2012 and classified into three size classes, large microplastics (1-5 mm), mesoplastics (5-25 mm), and macroplastics (>25 mm). The relationships among the abundances of the size classes were then examined. The abundances of each size category in May (before rainy season) and in September (after rainy season) were 8205 and 27,606 particles/m(2) for large microplastics, 238 and 237 particles/m(2) for mesoplastics, and 0.97 and 1.03 particles/m(2) for macroplastics, respectively. Styrofoam was the most abundant item both in microplastic and mesoplastic debris, while intact plastics were most common in macroplastic debris. The abundances of meso- and micro-plastics were the most strongly correlated. There was a higher correlation between the abundances of macro- and meso-plastics than between macro- and micro-plastics.

Evaluation of a classification method for biodegradable solid wastes using anaerobic degradation parameters.

We studied the biochemical and anaerobic degradation characteristics of 29 types of materials to evaluate the effects of a physical composition classification method for degradable solid waste on the computation of anaerobic degradation parameters, including the methane yield potential (L0), anaerobic decay rate (k), and carbon sequestration factor (CSF). Biochemical methane potential tests were conducted to determine the anaerobic degradation parameters of each material. The results indicated that the anaerobic degradation parameters of nut waste were quite different from those of other food waste and nut waste was classified separately. Paper was subdivided into two categories according to its lignin content: degradable paper with lignin content of <0.05 g g VS(-1), and refractory paper with lignin content >0.15 g g VS(-1). The L0, k, and CSF parameters of leaves, a type of garden waste, were similar to those of grass. This classification method for degradable solid waste may provide a theoretical basis that facilitates the more accurate calculation of anaerobic degradation parameters.

[Investigation of waste classification and collection actual effect and the study of long acting management in the community of Beijing].

The current position of waste separation and collection are investigated in 600 separation pilot communities of Beijing. According to survey date, it was revealing that correct classification rate and correct putting rate is not high in the pilot communities. It is an important factor that different awareness levels affect correct separation and putting rate, and according to the different breadth of knowledge, awareness divided into two ranges which is 75.6% and 15.5% respectively. However, majority about 60.1% of the population's waste classification knowledge still stay on preliminary stage in the community, and about 24.4% population don't aware of the waste classification. The correct rate of classification operations and putting is relatively low at 4.5% and 31.2% respectively. At the same time, the attention and breadth of publicity and education is not enough, and the management system has not formed. The waste classification recommendations of residents in the community: The publicity of classified knowledge should be strengthen, about 36.84%; then the supervision of waste classification correct putting should also be strengthen, about 35.39%. As a whole, most residents, more than 90%, think that soft power construction should be improved. Therefore, in order to induct residents operating classification practices, it is recommended that promoting the involvement and depth of classification publicity to make use of various Medias and foster ways. The evaluation index system of community's waste classification, combining the hardware facility and the publicity and education, should be build. At the same time, the supervision system which has the better operability should be established, that means the residents will gain long-term sustainability supervision using incentive and punishment ways. In addition, waste classification effect should be become the assessment indexes about city community governance, and improving the public administration level.

Origin and abundance of marine litter along sandy beaches of the Turkish Western Black Sea Coast.

Beach debris abundance was estimated from surveys on 10 beaches of the Turkish Western Black Sea Coast. Debris was collected from 20 m long transects during four different seasons; sorted and categorized by type, usage and origin. Litter density varied from 0.085 to 5.058 items m(-2). Debris was mainly composed of unidentifiable small size (2-7 cm) plastic pieces and beverage-related litter such as bottles and bottle caps. About half of the labeled litter was of foreign origin, including 25 different countries, 23% of which are in the Black Sea region. The south-western Black Sea Coast seems to receive foreign litter from two main sources: land-based debris from the neighboring countries and seaborne debris due to international shipping. Standardized methodology and indicators need to be designated all over the Black Sea basin in order to quantify and qualify coastal litter pollution, monitor compliance with MARPOL and develop regionally effective mitigation measures.

Formation of deposits on the surfaces of superheaters and economisers of MSW incinerator plants.

Mineralogical and chemical investigations of deposits from superheaters and economisers from a MSWI plant in Mannheim, Germany, lead to a classification system which provides information about the most critical parameters leading to fouling and corrosion. With the help of this classification system parameters like the geometry of boilers and the waste input can be changed in order to prolong run times between revisions and enhance energy efficiency of MSWI plants.