Development of triple bottom line indicators for sustainability assessment framework of Malaysian palm oil industry

The production of crude palm oil has environmental, economic and social implications. A sustainability assessment framework is needed to improve the sustainability performance of crude palm oil production in a carbon-constrained economy. The objective of this paper is to develop Performance Measures for triple bottom line assessment in the Malaysian palm oil industry, which includes Key Performance Indicators and Higher Performance Indicators for implementing the sustainability assessment framework. The Performance Measures of the triple bottom line assessment were built on the framework of Lim and Biswas (Sustainability 7(12):16561–16587, 2015). The measures were further developed through a participatory approach involving stakeholders and area experts, including Government, Industry, Academia and Local Smallholders/Non-Government Organisations. The developed framework presents a final list of Performance Measures, Key Performance Indicators and Higher Performance Indicators using a structured process and introduces weighting factors to the indicators to reflect the difference in the perceived level of importance. The calculation methods of the assessment framework were verified, and finally, the framework was tested using hypothetical data

Towards a better control of the wastewater treatment process: excitation-emission matrix fluorescence spectroscopy of dissolved organic matter as a predictive tool of soluble BOD5 in influents of six Parisian wastewater treatment plants

The online monitoring of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in raw sewage water is expected to better control wastewater treatment processes. Fluorescence spectroscopy offers one possibility for both the online and real-time monitoring of DOM, especially as regards the DOM biodegradability assessment. In this study, three-dimensional fluorescence spectroscopy combined with a parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) has been investigated as a predictive tool of the soluble biological oxygen demand in 5 days (BOD5) for raw sewage water. Six PARAFAC components were highlighted in 69 raw sewage water samples: C2, C5, and C6 related to humic-like compounds, along with C1, C3, and C4 related to protein-like compounds. Since the PARAFAC methodology is not available for online monitoring, a peak-picking approach based on maximum excitation-emission (Ex-Em) localization of the PARAFAC components identified in this study has been used. A good predictive model of soluble BOD5 using fluorescence spectroscopy parameters was obtained (r (2) = 0.846, adjusted r (2) = 0.839, p < 0.0001). This model is quite straightforward, easy to automate, and applicable to the operational field of wastewater treatment for online monitoring purposes