A Comparative Study of Human Health Impacts Due to Heavy Metal Emissions from a Conventional Lignite Coal-Fired Electricity Generation Station, with Post-Combustion, and Oxy- Fuel Combustion Capture Technologies

Carbon dioxide capture has become an important component for ensuring reduction of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Even though emission reduction technologies such as electrostatic precipitators (ESP) and flue gas desulfurization (FGD) are in place at most electricity-generating stations today, the large point source emitters of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other emissions, such as heavy metals, to the atmosphere are still fossil fuel electricity-generating stations. When CO2 capture is employed, these emissions can be further reduced. However, despite its important ability to reduce atmospheric emissions, the CO2 capture technology in fact still releases some emissions through its stacks into the air. Since the safety and stability of the CO2 capture technology are fundamental considerations for widespread social acceptance, the potential liability associated with the capture technology is cited as an important barrier to successful CO2 capture implementation. Liability of the technology is further clouded by a failure to clearly define what is at risk, especially regarding human health and safety. This research study will focus on investigating the risks associated with human health and safety resulting from the different versions of the technology including: (i) no capture system, (ii) post-combustion, and (iii) oxy-fuel combustion CO2 capture technology at the Boundary Dam Power Station (BDPS) in Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada. The research objective of this study was to evaluate the risk to human health associated with the BDPS in Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada, using the American Meteorological Society’s Environmental Protection Agency Regulatory Model (AERMOD) and cancer and non-cancer risk equations. This research presents the air dispersion modeling of the conventional lignite-fired electricity generation station at the BDPS, the inclusion of post-combustion CO2 capture technology, and the oxy-fuel carbon dioxide capture process. The heavy metals were measured near the power plant located in Estevan, Saskatchewan. This study shows that the emissions from the three stacks posed cancer risks of less than one chance in a million (1 × 10−6). There were only two emissions from the “no capture” scenario that caused inhalation cancer risks of more than 1 × 10−6. In terms of non-cancer risks, the pollutant’s concentration from the three stacks was unlikely to cause any non-cancer health effects

Integrating Spatial-Temporal Risk Factors for an Ambulance Allocation Strategy: A Case Study in Bangkok

Dedicated emergency medical services (EMS) are important to patients’ chances of survival. In particular, the quicker such services arrive at the scene of an incident, the higher the survival rate. Therefore, the management of ambulance bases is an essential aspect of emergency medical services. Further, the locations of ambulance bases are determined based on patient demand. However, in practice, many elements should be taken into account in a risk assessment of given areas within a locale. Specifically, each area should be assessed for the number and severity of accidents that ordinarily take place there, the number and size of the public events it hosts, its population density, and the number of elderly people resident. In this study, we use a spatial-temporal approach to integrate those factors into a risk assessment of areas relative to each other in a locale. Based on this risk assessment, we determine the optimal locations for ambulance bases in order to minimize response time. We validate our approach using Bangkok as a case study

Analysis of environmental impacts of drone delivery on an online shopping system

In rural areas, drones are designed to replace road deliveries so as to overcome infrastructure challenges; though drones notably consume less fuel and consequently have a smaller impact on the environment, their full life cycle assessment should still be evaluated to comprehensively understand their environmental impact. This study presents a life cycle assessment study on drone delivery in Thailand using CML2001, the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method, to convert life cycle inventory data into environmental impacts. The observed results show that an online shopping system using drone delivery is one of the most environmentally friendly transportation options throughout a wide range of scenarios. However, the parts production contributed to significant impacts on environmental issues while the drone operation showed the least impact to all impact categories. The dominant contributors to global warming, abiotic depletion (ADP elements and fossil), acidification air, eutrophication, ozone layer depletion, and photochemical ozone creation impact categories were the coal mining and electricity generating station operation. However, the carbon fibers and the battery, are the main contributors to other impact categories, which include the human toxicity, freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity, marine aquatic ecotoxicity, and terrestric ecotoxicity. Keywords: LCA, GHG emissions, CML2001, Online shopping, Drone deliver

Preliminary Life Cycle Analysis of Greenhouse Gas Emissions at Transportation Phase of a Beverage Drink for Green Logistics

As the transportation sector is one of the main emitters of large quantities of pollutions to the atmosphere, industries have been trying to cope with this issue and launch many campaigns or projects to reduce air pollutions. In any industries around the world, an electric vehicle is a part of alternative transportation mode which has recently experienced considerable growth. The paper aims to evaluate energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the food sector for the entire life cycle and particularly focusing on green road transportation. The focus of the analysis covers the mango powder drink mix transportation, distribution, and disposal aspects, especially for road transportation. The observed results showed that the electric vehicles have emissions reduction potential and consequently showed low impacts in Global Warming Potential (GWP) impact category. The environmental impact assessment identified that the primary source of energy use and GHG emissions was the transportation process from Hong Keaw plantation to King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL) (0.025 kgCO2eq)

Integrating Spatial-Temporal Risk Factors for an Ambulance Allocation Strategy: A Case Study in Bangkok

Dedicated emergency medical services (EMS) are important to patients’ chances of survival. In particular, the quicker such services arrive at the scene of an incident, the higher the survival rate. Therefore, the management of ambulance bases is an essential aspect of emergency medical services. Further, the locations of ambulance bases are determined based on patient demand. However, in practice, many elements should be taken into account in a risk assessment of given areas within a locale. Specifically, each area should be assessed for the number and severity of accidents that ordinarily take place there, the number and size of the public events it hosts, its population density, and the number of elderly people resident. In this study, we use a spatial-temporal approach to integrate those factors into a risk assessment of areas relative to each other in a locale. Based on this risk assessment, we determine the optimal locations for ambulance bases in order to minimize response time. We validate our approach using Bangkok as a case study