Utilization of Cellular Glass Insulation Waste in Construction Materials

This research investigated the feasibility of using cellular glass insulation waste as fine aggregate in concrete paving block production. The effect of mixing proportions of cellular glass insulation waste at 0-40 % by volume was studied. Results show that the amount of cellular glass waste can be used as a substitute for fine aggregate or sand up to 20 %. Concrete specimens tested for compressive strength were found to be within an acceptable range of the interlocking concrete block paving standard set by Thailand Industrial Standards Institute. The compressive strength at 28 d was 41.50 MPa, with density ranging from 2.18 to 2.20 g cm-3. Thus, recycling of cellular glass wastes for concrete paving block production can reduce expenditures in purchasing natural aggregates and can minimize environmental impact attributed to solid waste disposal

Production of Pelletized Fuel from Biodiesel-Production Wastes: Oil Palm Fronds and Crude Glycerin

Biomass from agricultural residue is regarded as an important source of renewable energy in Thailand due to tremendous annual production. One of the country's largest and most available crop residues is obtained from oil palm plantations. The residue is mainly used for biodiesel feedstock. Thus, this study was aimed to investigate the potential of using oil palm fronds to produce pelletized fuel. To improve the calorific property of the fuel, crude glycerin obtained from biodiesel-processing production was combined with ground fronds as a biomass binder. The glycerin content, ranging from 19 to 45% (by weight), enhanced the heating value of the oil palm fronds from 17.2 MJ/kg (no addition of glycerin) to 17.8-20.4 MJ/kg. The fuel properties, which were examined by the proximate and ultimate analyses, comply with the quality demands of pelletized fuel suggested by the European Biomass Industry Association. Although the combustion ash content was found to be higher than the criterion, the ash chemical composition was found to be suitable for being used as a cement-replacement material. The result of preconditioning the crude glycerin with pH adjustment indicated that the preconditioning did not appear to have the effect on the fuel quality of the palm frond pellets

Life Cycle Assessment of Producing Electricity in Thailand: A Case Study of Natural Gas Power Plant

Environmental impacts from natural gas power plant in Thailand was investigated in this study. The objective was to identify the hotspot of environmental impact from electricity production and the allocation of emissions from power plant was studied. All stressors to environment were collected for annual natural gas power plant operation. The allocation of environmental load between electricity and steam was done by WRI/WBCSD method. Based on the annual power plant operation, the highest of environmental impact was fuel combustion, followed by natural gas extraction, and chemical reagent. After allocation, the result found that 1 kWh of electricity generated 0.425 kgCO2eq and 1 ton of steam generated 225 kgCO2eq. When compared based on 1GJ of energy product, the result showed that the environmental impact of electricity is higher than steam product. To improve the environmental performance, it should be focused on the fuel combustion, for example, increasing the efficiency of gas turbine, and using low sulphur content of natural gas. This result can be used as guideline for stakeholder who engage with the environmental impact from power plant; furthermore, it can be useful for policy maker to understand the allocation method between electricity and steam products

Life Cycle Assessment of Plastic Resin: A Case Study of the Petrochemical Industry in Thailand for the Production of HDPE Resin

Life cycle sustainability is an important tool for assessing product performance based on the three pillars of environment, economy and society. This study examined the life cycle impact, cost and social implications of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) resin. Environmental assessment revealed nonrenewable energy as the greatest impact followed by carcinogens, respiratory inorganics and global warming while economically, the operational cost of HDPE resin production was significantly highest. The social impact assessment following the United Nation Environmental Programme (UNEP)/ Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) guidelines demonstrated optimal performance for all indicators except for gender ratio and disabled employee criteria which were lower human rights indicators than other companies. The subcategory of occupational health and safety should be specified in future aspects, such as rate of disease from company operation. Energy efficiency and material acquisition should be improved to reduce the environmental impact and positively redress declining costs, leading to decrease in disease rate among workers in the local community. Results suggested that improving environmental impact would increase economic performance through optimal energy efficiency, while the social life cycle assessment indicator should mainly focus on health and safety in the event of disease arising from business operations

Greenhouse Gases and Energy Intensity of Granite Rock Mining Operations in Thailand: A Case of Industrial Rock-Construction

This paper is aimed to systematically assess greenhouse gases (GHGs) and energy intensity of the granite rock mining operations in Thailand and also identify a range of feasible options to minimize their GHG emissions. Mining factories A, B and C, located in the Eastern region of Thailand, were selected as research case studies. The results indicated that the 3-year average of GHGs emissions from factories A to C was 3387 718 kgCO2e per year with approximately 2.92 kgCO2e per ton of granite rock produced over 2012 to 2014. Of this, the carbon intensity of grid-electricity consumption for the crushed rock production was 1.84 kgCO2/kWh. Diesel fuel combustion for transport activities in the mining factories was the greatest contributor to GHGs emissions (68 %) compared to the purchased electricity and explosion process, with 31 % and 1 %, respectively. In-Pit Crushing and Conveying (IPCC) installation, haul truck payload optimization and management, and reduction in tire rolling resistance have shown potential to reduce carbon emissions accounted for 20 % to 70 %

Water Quality Classification by Integration of Attribute-Realization and Support Vector Machine for the Chao Phraya River

The water quality index (WQI) is an essential indicator to manage water usage properly. This study aimed at applying a machine learning-based approach integrating attribute-realization (AR) and support vector machine (SVM) algorithm to classify the Chao Phraya River’s water quality. The historical monitoring dataset during 2008-2019 including biological oxygen demand (BOD), conductivity (Cond), dissolved oxygen (DO), faecal coliform bacteria (FCB), total coliform bacteria (TCB), ammonia (NH3-N), nitrate (NO3-N), salinity (Sal), suspended solids (SS), total nitrogen (TN), total dissolved solids (TDS), and turbidity (Turb), were processed via four studied steps: data pre-processing by means substituting method, contributing parameter evaluation by recognition pattern study, examination of the mathematic functions for quality classification, and validation of obtained approach. The results showed that NH3-N, TCB, FCB, BOD, DO, and Sal were the main attributes contributing orderly to water quality classification with confidence values of 0.80, 0.79, 0.78, 0.76, 0.69, and 0.64, respectively. Linear regression was the most suitable function to river water data classification than Sigmoid, Radial basis and Polynomial. The different number of attributes and mathematic functions promoted the different classification performance and accuracy. The validation confirmed that AR-SVM was a potent approach application to classify river water’s quality with 0.86-0.95 accuracy when applied three to six attributes

COVID-19 Experience Transforming the Protective Environment of Office Buildings and Spaces

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected human life in every possible way and, alongside this, the need has been felt that office buildings and workplaces must have protective and preventive layers against COVID-19 transmission so that a smooth transition from ‘work from home’ to ‘work from office’ is possible. However, a comprehensive understanding of how the protective environment can be built around office buildings and workspaces, based on the year-long experience of living with COVID-19, is largely absent. The present study reviews international agency regulation, country regulation, updated journal articles, etc., to critically understand lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and evaluate the expected changes in sustainability requirements of office buildings and workplaces. The built environment, control environment, and regulatory environment around office buildings and workplaces have been put under test on safety grounds during the pandemic. Workers switched over to safely work from home. Our findings bring out the changes required to be affected in the three broad environmental dimensions to limit their vulnerability status experienced during the pandemic. Office building designs should be fundamentally oriented to provide certain safety protective measures to the workers, such as touch-free technologies, open working layouts, and workplace flexibilities to diminish the probability of getting infected. Engineering and administrative control mechanisms should work in a complementary way to eliminate the risk of disease spread. Country regulation, agency regulations, and operational guidelines need to bring behavioral changes required to protect workers from the COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 Experience Transforming the Protective Environment of Office Buildings and Spaces

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected human life in every possible way and, alongside this, the need has been felt that office buildings and workplaces must have protective and preventive layers against COVID-19 transmission so that a smooth transition from ‘work from home’ to ‘work from office’ is possible. However, a comprehensive understanding of how the protective environment can be built around office buildings and workspaces, based on the year-long experience of living with COVID-19, is largely absent. The present study reviews international agency regulation, country regulation, updated journal articles, etc., to critically understand lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and evaluate the expected changes in sustainability requirements of office buildings and workplaces. The built environment, control environment, and regulatory environment around office buildings and workplaces have been put under test on safety grounds during the pandemic. Workers switched over to safely work from home. Our findings bring out the changes required to be affected in the three broad environmental dimensions to limit their vulnerability status experienced during the pandemic. Office building designs should be fundamentally oriented to provide certain safety protective measures to the workers, such as touch-free technologies, open working layouts, and workplace flexibilities to diminish the probability of getting infected. Engineering and administrative control mechanisms should work in a complementary way to eliminate the risk of disease spread. Country regulation, agency regulations, and operational guidelines need to bring behavioral changes required to protect workers from the COVID-19 pandemic

An Analysis of Energy and Carbon Intensities and Exergy Efficiency in Natural Gas Combined-Cycle Power Plants: A Case Study of Thailand

The objectives of this study were to estimate energy and carbon intensities of natural gas combined-cycle power plants and to improve the energy efficiency of power plants through an exergy analysis. Three plants in Thailand were evaluated as case studies in this research using data collected in 2013 – 2014. The results showed that the average carbon and energy intensities of three Combined-Cycle Power Plants were 0.436 kg CO2/kWh and 7.995 GJ/MWh, respectively. The range of the energy intensity in this study was slightly lower than that of other studies; however, the results of the carbon intensity were in the same range. The result of the exergy analysis illustrated that Heat Recovery Steam generator (HRSG) has the greatest exergy destruction due to the wide temperature range. To summarize, natural gas combined-cycle power plants require less energy and emit less carbon compared to other technologies or fuels. The exergy efficiency of HRSG was 60%, with an exergy destruction rate of 66.88 MW. One approach to improve the efficiency of power plants is to improve the efficiency and performance of HRSG