A document analysis of the visibility of sustainability in TVE teacher education programme: the case of a Malaysian HEI

There has been a global call for institutions of learning to engage in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) by leading world organisations. Although scholars advocate for an interdisciplinary approach to sustainability, the research literature shows that majority of sustainability issues are addressed through fields such as environmental and developmental education. There has also been a call for the integration of Sustainable Development (SD) in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programmes by various scholars and bodies such as the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). The issue, however, is that Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) programmes are not yet embracing this call to integrate ESD into their programmes. Hence, it is imperative to reiterate the intersection between TVE and SD and how the former can contribute significantly to the SD agenda. Therefore, by completing a qualitative documentary analysis of a TVE programme, using a Malaysian Higher Education Institution (HEI) as a case study, this paper discusses the visibility of sustainability in TVE programmes as well as explores the overarching goal of ESD and why it is especially crucial for TVE. Findings reveal that the concept of sustainability is only barely reflected in the TVE teacher training curriculum. Recommendations for practice change and further research are presented and discussed

Environmental Sustainability of Current Waste Management Practices

Environmentally sustainable and economic waste management is of significant importance to various fields, including the healthcare, mining, industrial, metal-processing, municipal and commercial sectors. This book provides a global perspective and covers a wide range of state-of-the-art topics on waste management, recycling, material and energy recovery, industrial waste, etc. Information in the form of in-depth reviews and research articles will be a valuable resource for academics, professionals and regional as well as international organizations

A comprehensive review of industrial symbiosis

Industrial symbiosis, which allows entities and companies that traditionally be separated, to cooperate among them in the sharing of resources, contributes to the increase of sustainability with environmental, economic and social benefits. Examples of industrial symbiosis have grown over the years with increasing geographic dispersion. Thus, through a comprehensive review of previous studies, this work aims to trace the trend of industrial symbiosis research and to map the existing case studies around the world, with a critical analysis of its impact. The analysis of the 584 selected publications allowed tracing the evolution of these according to their content and the type of article, as well as its distribution by journals. Based on the literature review, the main lines for research in industrial symbiosis are assessed, as well as an updated study of the published case studies is provided with emphasis on the location, type of industry and employed methodologies. Several challenges are then identified for future research. The results reveal the number of articles on industrial symbiosis has greatly increased since 2007 and China is the country with the largest number of publications and cases of industrial symbiosis, followed by the United States. The methods for quantifying impacts and analysing industrial symbiosis networks were the most widely used. The analysis of the published case studies allowed an overview of the industrial symbiosis in the world and showed that the potential for application is enormous, both in developed countries and in countries with developing economies, and although the most present economic activities in the synergies are associated with the manufacturing sector, the possibilities of industrial symbiosis are not restricted to these activities nor to the number of entities involved. The symbioses between industry and the surrounding community also have great potential for development with numerous advantages for both parties.publishe

Modeling Particulate Emissions in Europe. A Framework to Estimate Reduction Potential and Control Costs

This paper presents the extension of the Regional Air Pollution Information and Simulation (RAINS) model that addresses present and future emissions of fine particulates in Europe, the potential for controlling these emissions and the costs of such emission reductions. Together with the existing modules dealing with the emissions of the precursor emissions of secondary aerosols such as sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), ammonia (NH3) and volatile organic compounds (VOC), this extension enables the comparison of the potentials and costs for controlling primary emissions of fine particles with those of secondary aerosols and to find cost-minimal approaches for reducing ambient levels of particulate matter. The emissions of particulate matter (PM) in the RAINS model are calculated for three different size classes: the fine fraction (PM2.5), the coarse fraction (PM10 - PM2.5) and large particles (PM_>10 5m). Summed up, these three fractions represent total suspended particles (TSP). Fine particles are emitted from a large number of sources with large differences in their technical and economic properties. The methodology distinguishes 392 source categories for stationary energy combustion, industrial processes, mobile sources and agriculture. For each of these sectors, the study explores the applicable options for reducing PM emissions, their efficiency and their costs. Emissions characteristics of the individual sectors are strongly determined by country-specific conditions. The methodology estimates emission control costs of standard technologies under the specific conditions characteristic for the various European countries. Based on the assumption of the general availability of control technologies with equal technical properties and costs, a number of country-specific circumstances (level of technological advancement, installation size distribution, labor costs, etc.) are used to estimate the costs for the actual operation of pollution control equipment. For the individual source sectors, emissions are estimated based on statistical information on economic activity and emission factors that reflect hypothetical emissions if no control measures were applied. These emission factors were taken from the literature and were, to the maximum possible extent, adapted to the country-specific conditions. Actual emissions are calculated taking into account the application of emission control measures in a given sector, for which also costs are estimated. The methodology was implemented for all European countries, covering the period from 1990 to 2010. At an aggregated level, estimates for past years (1990, 1995) correspond well with other national and international inventories. However, discrepancies are found for some detailed results for individual sectors and activities, and more work will be necessary to clarify them. This preliminary implementation suggests for Europe a 50 percent decline of primary emissions of fine particles between 1990 and 1995, mainly due to the economic restructuring in central and eastern European countries. The recently tightened regulations on large combustion plants and mobile sources will further reduce PM emissions, so that for 2010 European PM emissions are expected to be 60 percent below the level of 1990. However, less improvement is expected for the health-relevant fraction of fine particles (PM2.5). It needs to be emphasized that these preliminary estimates are still associated with considerable uncertainties, and more work, involving national experts, will be necessary to obtain a verified and generally accepted European data base to estimate the potential for further reductions of fine particles in Europe. The present implementation (version 2.00) of the RAINS PM module on the Internet (www.iiasa.ac.at/rains/Rains-online.html) provides free access to the input data and results to facilitate interaction with national experts

Contributions to predicting contaminant leaching from secondary materials used in roads

Slags, coal ashes, and other secondary materials can be used in road construction. Both traditional and secondary materials used in roads may contain contaminants that may leach and pollute the groundwater. The goal of this research was to further the understanding of leaching and transport of contaminants from pavement materials. Towards this goal, a new probabilistic framework was introduced which provided a structured guidance for selecting the appropriate model, incorporating uncertainty, variability, and expert opinion, and interpreting results for decision making. In addition to the framework, specific contributions were made in pavement and embankment hydrology and reactive transport, Bayesian statistics, and aqueous geochemistry of leaching. Contributions on water movement and reactive transport in highways included probabilistic prediction of leaching in an embankment, and scenario analyses of leaching and transport in pavements using HYDRUS2D, a contaminant fate and transport model. Water flow in a Minnesota highway embankment was replicated by Bayesian calibration of hydrological parameters against water content data. Extent of leaching of Cd from a coal fly ash was estimated. Two dimensional simulations of various scenarios showed that salts in the base layer of pavements are depleted within the first year whereas the metals may never reach the groundwater if the pavement is built on adsorbing soils. Aqueous concentrations immediately above the groundwater estimated for intact and damaged pavements can be used for regulators to determine the acceptability of various recycled materials. Contributions in the aqueous geochemistry of leaching included a new modeling approach for leaching of anions and cations from complex matrices such as weathered steel slag. The novelty of the method was its simultaneous inclusion of sorption and solubility controls for multiple analytes. The developed model showed that leaching of SO4, Cr, As, Si, Ca, Mg, and V were controlled by corresponding soluble solids. Leaching of Pb was controlled by Pb(VO4)3 solubility at low pHs and by surface precipitation reactions at high pHs. Leaching of Cd and Zn were controlled by surface complexation and surface precipitation, respectively

Assessment and Characterization of Airborne Dust in Coal Surface Mine

Now a day’s dust pollution is the major environmental issue inside an opencast mine, which has various effects on human life. There are a number of fugitive sources, and activities which cause dust pollution inside an opencast mine eg. Drilling, transportation, blasting, crushing, conveying, overburden face, haul road etc. Among these dust, there are some toxic and carcinogenic dust which are when exposed to the workers that lead to different serious health effects like silicosis and lungs cancer. So measurement of these dust concentration is necessary to know the impact of various mining activity on the surrounding environment. From the above view, this current project mainly focuses on the dust sampling by using high volume dust sampler i.e. Envirotech APM 460 NL and Envirotech APM 550, measuring the personal dust exposure of different workmen at different mining sites by using Personal Dust Sampler (Model Arelco Ineris CIP 10), and characterization of the dust collected from the filter paper by using FTIR (Fourier Transform Infra-Red spectroscopy). For this purpose Lajkura Opencast Project was chosen which produces 30 MT of coal per year for convenience, because as it is a large opencast mine so better knowledge can be gained from this mine regarding the concentration and effects of the dust. The dust sampling and monitoring was conducted during the month of March 2016 to get a good assess of dust. From the measurement through Envirotech APM 460NL the dust concentration was found out to be 1074µg/m3 and 984 µg/m3, and through Envirotech APM 550 dust concentration is found out to be 196 µg/m3. Personal dust exposure is also measured and the measured concentration was found to vary between 0.8mg/m3 to 1.3 mg/m3. From the characterization of the dust sample the compound that we found are Silica, Sulfates, Sulfoxide, and Carboxylates etc

Life Cycle Assessment of Small Modular Reactors Using U.S. Nuclear Fuel Cycle

In an ever-evolving energy market, it is vital that nuclear technology adapts to become more economically and environmentally feasible. The promising economics and flexibility of small modular reactors (SMRs) may make them the technology of the future for the nuclear industry, offering a simple solution to many of the problems that have plagued the industry in the last decade. Though the economics of SMRs is often a topic of discussion, it is also important to understand the environmental aspects of this technology when implemented in a U.S. market. A life cycle assessment (LCA) of small modular reactors using a U.S. nuclear fuel cycle has been performed to this end, taking care to use U.S. technologies and facilities in every stage of the assessment where possible. The resulting impacts per MWh of electricity produced were found to be 7.64 m3 for water depletion, 0.88 kg oil-eq for fossil depletion, 2.03 kg Fe-eq for metal depletion, 4.55 kg CO2-eq for climate change, 18.02 1,4-DB-eq for human toxicity, and 441.07 kBq 235U-eq for ionizing radiation. In terms of climate change, the results were found to be comparable to the 8.4 kg CO2-eq found by Carless et. al1 for the Westinghouse SMR and like the 3.89 kg CO2-eq found by adjusting the findings of the National Energy Technology Laboratory.2 Most of the climate change impact was found to be in the fuel processing stages, due to high electricity and fossil fuel demands, as well as in construction because of concrete production. These assumptions were verified by performing a sensitivity analysis on electricity source, mine types, transportation, and material disposition during decommissioning. By comparison to other energy generators, nuclear energy, in general, performs similarly to renewable resources with respect to climate change, and small modular reactors perform slightly better than their larger counterparts. These results aid in confirming the overall feasibility of small modular reactor technology in an energy market concerned with climate change impacts

Venezuela Revisited: Foreign Investment, Technology, and Related Issues

A brief history of foreign investment in Venezuela is necessary to understand recent changes in Venezuelan foreign investment policy. The development of selected industrial sectors, including principally petroleum and mining, but also agriculture, electric power, manufacturing, banking, and insurance, has played a significant role in shaping Venezuelan foreign investment policy. The laws, policies, and their application can then be reviewed in practical terms to provide the practitioner with an understanding of the stated objectives of the host government within the context of Third World movements toward greater control over economic activities