Indoor acids and bases.

Numerous acids and bases influence indoor air quality. The most abundant of these species are CO2 (acidic) and NH3 (basic), both emitted by building occupants. Other prominent inorganic acids are HNO3 , HONO, SO2 , H2 SO4 , HCl, and HOCl. Prominent organic acids include formic, acetic, and lactic; nicotine is a noteworthy organic base. Sources of N-, S-, and Cl-containing acids can include ventilation from outdoors, indoor combustion, consumer product use, and chemical reactions. Organic acids are commonly more abundant indoors than outdoors, with indoor sources including occupants, wood, and cooking. Beyond NH3 and nicotine, other noteworthy bases include inorganic and organic amines. Acids and bases partition indoors among the gas-phase, airborne particles, bulk water, and surfaces; relevant thermodynamic parameters governing the partitioning are the acid-dissociation constant (Ka ), Henry's law constant (KH ), and the octanol-air partition coefficient (Koa ). Condensed-phase water strongly influences the fate of indoor acids and bases and is also a medium for chemical interactions. Indoor surfaces can be large reservoirs of acids and bases. This extensive review of the state of knowledge establishes a foundation for future inquiry to better understand how acids and bases influence the suitability of indoor environments for occupants, cultural artifacts, and sensitive equipment

Best Available Techniques (BAT) Reference Document for Large Combustion Plants. Industrial Emissions Directive 2010/75/EU (Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control)

The BAT Reference Document (BREF) for Large Combustion Plants is part of a series of documents presenting the results of an exchange of information between the EU Member States, the industries concerned, non-governmental organisations promoting environmental protection, and the Commission, to draw up, review, and -where necessary- update BAT reference documents as required by Article 13(1) of Directive 2010/75/EU on Industrial Emissions. This document is published by the European Commission pursuant to Article 13(6) of the Directive. This BREF for Large Combustion Plants concerns the following activities specified in Annex I to Directive 2010/75/EU: - 1.1: Combustion of fuels in installations with a total rated thermal input of 50 MW or more, only when this activity takes place in combustion plants with a total rated thermal input of 50 MW or more. - 1.4: Gasification of coal or other fuels in installations with a total rated thermal input of 20 MW or more, only when this activity is directly associated to a combustion plant. - 5.2: Disposal or recovery of waste in waste co-incineration plants for non-hazardous waste with a capacity exceeding 3 tonnes per hour or for hazardous waste with a capacity exceeding 10 tonnes per day, only when this activity takes place in combustion plants covered under 1.1 above. In particular, this document covers upstream and downstream activities directly associated with the aforementioned activities including the emission prevention and control techniques applied. The fuels considered in this document are any solid, liquid and/or gaseous combustible material including: - solid fuels (e.g. coal, lignite, peat); - biomass (as defined in Article 3(31) of Directive 2010/75/EU); - liquid fuels (e.g. heavy fuel oil and gas oil); - gaseous fuels (e.g. natural gas, hydrogen-containing gas and syngas); - industry-specific fuels (e.g. by-products from the chemical and iron and steel industries); - waste except mixed municipal waste as defined in Article 3(39) and except other waste listed in Article 42(2)(a)(ii) and (iii) of Directive 2010/75/EU. Important issues for the implementation of Directive 2010/75/EU in the Large Combustion Plants sector are the emissions to air of nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, hydrogen chloride and fluoride, organic compounds, dust, and metals including mercury; emissions to water resulting especially from the use of wet abatement techniques for the removal of sulphur dioxide from the flue gases; resource efficiency and especially energy efficiency. This BREF contains 12 Chapters. Chapters 1 and 2 provide general information on the Large Combustion Plants industrial sector and on the industrial processes used within this sector. Chapter 3 provides data and general information concerning the environmental performance of installations within the sector in terms of water consumption, the generation of waste and general techniques used within this sector. It also describes in more detail the general techniques to prevent or, where this is not practicable, to reduce the environmental impact of installations in this sector that were considered in determining the BAT. Chapters 4 to 9 provide the following information given below on specific combustion processes (gasification, combustion of solid fuel, combustion of liquid fuel, combustion of gaseous fuel, multi-fuel combustion and waste co-incineration). Chapter 10 presents the BAT conclusions as defined in Article 3(12) of the Directive. Chapter 11 presents information on 'emerging techniques' as defined in Article 3(14) of the Directive. Concluding remarks and recommendations for future work are presented in Chapter 12.JRC.B.5-Circular Economy and Industrial Leadershi

Best Available Techniques (BAT) Reference Document for Waste Incineration: Industrial Emissions Directive 2010/75/EU (Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control)

The Best Available Techniques (BAT) Reference Document (BREF) for Waste Incineration is part of a series of documents presenting the results of an exchange of information between EU Member States, the industries concerned, non-governmental organisations promoting environmental protection, and the Commission, to draw up, review and – where necessary – update BAT reference documents as required by Article 13(1) of Directive 2010/75/EU on Industrial Emissions (the Directive). This document ispublished by the European Commission pursuant to Article 13(6) of the Directive. The BREF for Waste Incineration covers the disposal or recovery of waste in waste incineration plants and waste co-incineration plants, and the disposal or recovery of waste involving the treatment of slags and/or bottom ashes from the incineration of waste. Important issues for the implementation of Directive 2010/75/EU in the waste incineration (WI) sector include emissions to air, emissions to water, and the efficiency of the recovery of energy and of materials from the waste. Chapter 1 provides general information on the WI sector. Chapter 2 provides information on the common processes and general techniques that are applied across the WI sector for: the pre-treatment, storage and handling of different types of waste; the thermal treatment; energy recovery; flue-gas cleaning; waste water treatment; and the treatment of solid residues. Chapter 3 reports the current ranges of the emission and consumption levels reported in the WI sector. Techniques to consider in the determination of BAT (i.e. techniques that are widely applied in the WI sector) are reported in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 presents the BAT conclusions as defined in Article 3(12) of the Directive. Chapter 6 presents information on 'emerging techniques' as defined in Article 3(14) of the Directive. Chapter 7 contains concluding remarks and recommendations for future work.JRC.B.5-Circular Economy and Industrial Leadershi

Recovery of Waste Materials: Technological Research and Industrial Scale-Up

Increases in population, booming economy, rapid urbanization and the rise of living standard have exponentially accelerated waste production. Currently, 2 billion tons per year of municipal solid waste is produced worldwide and about 33% of this amount remains uncollected by different municipalities.. However, the entire waste production process concerns different streams and origins other than municipal solid waste, including industrial, agricultural, construction and demolitions waste; and hazardous, medical and electronic waste. Published papers, as a whole, concern different waste materials such as the recovery of different building materials, the treatment of waste deriving from electrical and electronic equipment, the utilization of stainless-steel slags, agricultural and domestic waste and plastics. In conclusion, the works demonstrate scientific and technological relevance in terms of the topics dealt with, but the problems addressed in this Special Issue proceed beyond the solution that the scientific community is able to propose. In fact, our industrial system, at the end of its cycle of production and consumption, has not developed the capacity to absorb and reuse waste and byproducts. We have not yet managed to adopt a circular model of production capable of preserving resources for present and future generations

Sustainability in Geotechnics: The Use of Environmentally Friendly Materials

Implementing environmentally friendly and cost-effective solutions is a pressing need to fulfill the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set to be achieved by 2030. Thus, the requirement to execute the design, construction and maintenance of civil engineering structures and infrastructures as sustainably as possible are big challenges currently faced by civil and geotechnical engineers. This book, compiling the papers published during the 2020–2021 biennium in the Topical Collection, “Sustainability in Geotechnics: The Use of Environmentally Friendly Materials”, is intended help tackle those challenges. Several topics are covered by the 23 papers published herein, including: sustainable ground improvement techniques; replacement of raw materials such as soils and aggregates by recycled materials; soil reinforcement with alternative materials; sustainable solutions using geosynthetics; low-carbon solutions for stabilization of contaminated soils; and bioengineering techniques to prevent soil erosion. The Guest Editor expects that this book can be very useful towards the achievement of more environmentally friendly solutions, in particular in the field of geotechnical engineering

Volatile Organic Compounds in Indoor Air: Scientific, Medical and Instrumental Aspects : [preprint]

The focus of this review is on examination of sources of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in indoor air, their concentration, rate of emission and effects of external factors on them, fate and interaction of VOCs with indoor surfaces, materials and products, health effects and toxicity of VOCs, methods of sampling, preconcentration and analysis of VOCs, technology of sick building syndrome prevention and control, investigation of main problems of phytoremediation of indoor air, particularly substantial variation among plant species in the rate and type of VOCs that can be removed, uptake and transport VOCs in phytoremediation systems, principal mechanisms of detoxification of VOCs in ornamental plants.У центрі уваги цього огляду знаходиться аналіз джерел летких органічних сполук (ЛОС) в повітрі приміщень.This study was supported by a Grant from the Department of Horticulture, University of Georgia, USA, in 2008; Supervisor Professor Stanley J. Kay

Future Trends in Advanced Materials and Processes

The Special Issue “Future Trends in Advanced Materials and Processes” contains original high-quality research papers and comprehensive reviews addressing the relevant state-of-the-art topics in the area of materials focusing on relevant or innovative applications such as radiological hazard evaluations of non-metallic materials, composite materials' characterization, geopolymers, metallic biomaterials, etc