The Concept of Environmental Leader

Leadership has shifted focus from the individual to the group or institute. Efforts to link leadership and the natural environment have already begun and the necessity for environmental leadership has never been higher than ever in the era of complex and evident environmental and social problems, such as climate change, global confl ict, limited resources, an overwhelming amount information, etc. There is no single solution for environmental problems that can solve the confl icts of diversifi ed community relations. Therefore, environmental leadership development is a priority element for improving the deteriorating environment. However, the current education system, especially in Asia, lacking in providing a holistic view of environmental issues, as well as inter- or trans-disciplinary and cross-cultural approaches, or a balance between the environmental, economic and social dimensions, using hands-on experience. In response, APIEL strives to fi ll this gap by improving education for environmental leadership with sustainability issues in mind. This chapter will review the concept of the environmental leader through a discourse on leadership. As well, it will introduce the authors’ experiences in fostering environmental leader by establishing and implementing environmental leadership education over the past four years. The discourse on environmental leadership illustrates how environmental leaders have been educated to cope with emerging environmental issues. The concepts of transformational/transformative-, eco-, collective, green, and communicative leadership provide a map to understand the evolution of the theory and practice of environmental leadership education.Chapter 2Part of "Environmental Leadership Capacity Building in Higher Education : Experience and Lessons from Asian Program for Incubation of Environmental Leaders

Significance of "effective" surface area of activated carbons on elucidating the adsorption mechanism of large dye molecules

In this study, the effects of activation time and temperature, as two of the most prominent parameters affecting the porous structure of the carbonaceous materials, have been evaluated. It has been demonstrated that increasing the activation degree enhances the porous structure of the prepared activated carbons. The Methylene Blue (MB) adsorption capacity of the activated carbon with the highest surface area has been determined to be higher than that of a commercial activated carbon, F400, although the surface areas of these two adsorbents are very close. It has been attributed to the higher "effective" surface area of the former adsorbent and thus accessibility of more pores for dye adsorption. Also, the mechanism of Methylene Blue adsorption by tyre char activated carbon has been elucidated by isotherm modeling. It has been demonstrated that since the exponent of the best-fit isotherm model, Redlich-Peterson, approaches unity, a monolayer dye adsorption on a surface with homogeneous active sites can be assumed. Considering the MB adsorption capacities of the produced activated carbons, the MB molecule size and the effective surface areas of the adsorbents, the MB coverage factors have been calculated and the possible MB adsorption orientation has been proposed and modeled. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Solvothermal synthesis of copper-doped BiOBr microflowers with enhanced adsorption and visible-light driven photocatalytic degradation of norfloxacin

© 2020 Elsevier B.V. Photocatalysts based on copper-doped bismuth oxybromide (Cu-doped BiOBr) were synthesised using a solvothermal method and assessed for their ability to degrade norfloxacin under visible light. The Cu atoms were successfully doped into the crystal lattice of BiOBr, yielding Cu-doped BiOBr microflowers with a morphology and crystal structure identical to that of pristine BiOBr. The as-prepared Cu-doped BiOBr showed activity superior to BiOBr in the photocatalytic degradation of norfloxacin under visible-light irradiation, which was attributed to its improved light-harvesting properties, enhanced charge separation and interfacial charge transfer. Furthermore, we found for the first time that the introduction of Cu into BiOBr enhanced the adsorption capacity between the photocatalyst and norfloxacin, which we considered to be the main contribution to its improved performance. Cu-doped BiOBr containing the optimal proportion of Cu and Bi (Cu:Bi = 0.03) had a photocatalytic degradation constant of 0.64 ×10−2 min−1, which is 2.28 times higher than that of undoped BiOBr. The primary oxidation pathway was determined to involve the transfer of photogenerated holes to norfloxacin. Finally, we demonstrated that the Cu-doped BiOBr photocatalyst retained 95% of its initial activity even after five successive catalytic cycles, confirming its recyclability

Development of highly permeable self-standing nanocomposite sulfonated poly ether ketone membrane using covalent organic frameworks

This study developed a new symmetric and ultrathin membrane by incorporating Schiff base network-1 (SNW-1), which are covalent organic framework (COF) nanoparticles, as fillers in the sulfonated poly ether ketone (SPEK) matrix to improve forward osmosis (FO) performance. The amine-rich and porous SNW-1 nanoparticles enhanced the surface wettability of the SPEK membranes and offered additional passages for the water molecules\u27 transport, which assisted in the elevation of membrane water flux. The modified membrane loaded with 20 wt% SNW-1 (COF-20) exhibited the best performance with a significantly higher water flux (28.5 L m−2 h−1) and lower specific reverse solute flux (SRSF, 0.05 g L−1) than that of the unmodified SPEK (COF-0) membrane (water flux of 12 L m−2 h−1 and SRSF of 0.16 g L−1) when experimented with deionized water and 1 M Na2SO4 as feed and draw solutions, respectively. The impressive FO performances of nanocomposite SPEK membranes suggest that SNW-1 nanoparticles could be used as fillers for improving the SPEK membrane\u27s performance in the FO application

Submerged versus side-stream osmotic membrane bioreactors using an outer-selective hollow fiber osmotic membrane for desalination

This study investigated the comparative performances, fouling mitigation efficiencies, and operational costs of side-stream and submerged osmotic membrane bioreactors (OMBR) systems using an outer-selective hollow fiber thin-film composite forward osmosis (OSHF TFC FO) membrane. Generally, the submerged OMBR system exhibited the higher fouling mitigation efficiency and a much slower flux decline rate when compared with that of the side-stream system. The side-stream OMBR system demonstrated an initial water flux of 15.8 LMH using 35 g/L NaCl as the draw solution, which was 2-fold higher than that of the submerged system when at its optimal performance. However, salinity accumulation in the reactor of the side-stream system was at a higher rate than for the submerged OMBR system. Both OMBR systems showed comparably high pollutant removal efficiencies over the experimental period. Annual operating costs for the side-stream OMBR system has been estimated to be 38% higher (OPEX) than for the submerged system. Membrane replacement cost accounted for the majority of the OPEX, over 89%, while the energy consumption and cleaning costs only accounted for relatively small portions. Therefore, reducing the membrane replacement cost is critical to realizing the commercial viability of the submerged OMBR system.This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) Industrial Transformation Research Hub ( IH170100009 ), the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) [ NPRP 9-052-2-020 ] and the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. T21-604/19-R ).Scopu

A Conductive Hydrophobic Polyaniline Sandwiched Polyvinylidene Fluoride Membrane for Early Detection of Surfactant-Induced Wetting in Membrane Distillation Using Impedance

Wetting of hydrophobic membranes is considered to be one of the major limitations that must be overcome to further the development of membrane distillation technology. Low surface tension liquids can induce wetting, which can significantly affect permeate conductivity after the complete wetting of the membrane pores. In this study, a thin conductive hydrophobic polyaniline (PANI) layer was sandwiched between two nonconductive polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) layers by the phase inversion method. The surface of this PANI-PVDF membrane was then electrosprayed with polytetrafluoroethylene to impart superhydrophobicity (water contact angle, ∼160°). Finally, the wetting of membranes was monitored and detected during direct contact membrane distillation of a low surface tension saline feed containing sodium dodecyl sulfate by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Compared with measuring conductivity of the permeate side, we found that measuring the cross-membrane impedance at a constant frequency (100 kHz) demonstrated more precise detection and a superior ability in distinguishing different stages of wetting and their intrusion. Further, our experiments demonstrated the possible strategies to elude membrane wetting by flushing distilled water periodically

Flame-made amorphous solid acids with tunable acidity for the aqueous conversion of glucose to levulinic acid

Solid acids of amorphous silica-alumina (a-SA) and amorphous silica-alumina-phosphate (a-SAPO) were prepared by flame spray pyrolysis (FSP). Careful tuning of the acidity of the solid acids was enabled by capitalizing on the advantage of FSP in preserving the metal stoichiometry (i.e., Si, Al, P) in the product nanoparticles. Although the amount of acids on these non-porous solid acids is an order of magnitude lower than the well-recognized strong acidic ZSM-5 zeolite, both exhibit comparable acid strengths. The a-SA and a-SAPO were characterized by a mixture of Brønsted (B) and Lewis (L) acids, and the B/L ratios were composition-tunable. The highest B/L ratios were recorded for a-SA (Al/(Al + Si) = 0.4) and a-SAPO (Si/(P + Si) = 0.25), giving the highest yields of levulinic acid (≥40% carbon yield) from the conversion of glucose in the aqueous phase without requiring the addition of liquid acids or metal halides. Under the same conditions, the almost exclusive Brønsted acid ZSM-5 yielded only 17% levulinic acid. The FSP-made solid acid catalyst exhibited good reusability over at least 4 consecutive runs.ChemE/Catalysis Engineerin