Thermal Decomposition of Olive-Solid Waste by TGA: Characterization and Devolatilization Kinetics under Nitrogen and Oxygen Atmospheres

Despite the fact that a few countries in the Mediterranean and the Middle East have limited crude oil reserves, they have abundant biomass feedstocks. For instance, Jordan relies heavily on the importation of natural gas and crude oil for its energy needs;but, by applying thermochemical conversion techniques, leftover olive oil can be used to replace these energy sources. Understanding the chemical, physical, and thermal characteristics of raw materials is essential to obtaining the most out of these conversion processes. Thermogravimetric analysis was used in this study to examine the thermal behavior of olive-solid residue (kernel) at three different heating rates (5, 20 and 40 C/min) in nitrogen and oxygen atmospheres. The initial degradation temperature, the residual weight at 500 and 700˚C and the thermal degradation rate during the devolatilization stage (below 400˚C) were all determined. It was found that in N2 and O2 atmospheres, both the initial degradation temperature and the degradation rate increase with increasing heating rates. As heating rates increase in the N2 atmosphere, the residual weight at 500 or 700˚C decreases slightly, but at low heating rates compared to high heating rates in the O2 atmosphere, it decreases significantly. This suggests that a longer lignin oxidation process is better than a shorter one. Coats and Redfern approach was used to identify the mechanism and activation energy for the devolatilization stage of pyrolysis and oxidation reactions. The process mechanism analysis revealed that the model of first-order and second-order reactions may adequately describe the mechanism of heat degradation of the devolatilization step of olive-solid waste for pyrolysis and oxidation processes, respectively.

Factors Research on the Influence of Leaching Rate of Nickel and Cobalt from Waste Superalloys with Sulfuric Acid

Unlike the reported leaching technologies of waste superalloys, the process of the “atomized spray-sulfuric acid leaching nickel and cobalt” technology was put forward in the present work according to the compositions of waste superalloys. The effects of sulfuric acid temperature, concentration, leaching time, stirring speed and size of superalloys on leaching of Ni and Co from waste superalloys have been mainly investigated, and the optimum leaching conditions were determined and reported. The leaching rates for nickel and cobalt were 96.68% and 96.63%, respectively, and the contents of nickel and cobalt in leaching slag were 6.77% and 0.96%, respectively. The obtained leaching solution containing Ni and Co could be used for production of Ni and Co products after removal.

Determination and Evaluation of the Rate of Solid Wastes Generation in Health Care Centers in Montevideo, Uruguay

Decree 586/009 establishes the main guidelines related to the management of Health Care Wastes (RAS). For this reason, it is used as a reference in the definition of any methodological proposal that intends to address all the aspects related to Intra-institutional Management of Residues generated in Health Care Centers (CAS) in Uruguay. In the first instance, this paper presents an application case based on the experience of previous work in a CAS in Montevideo. Providing special importance to the Evaluation of rates of sanitary waste removal rates in the hospital centers, which were determined based on historical data for the period from 2008 to 2011, referring to rates of removal of contaminated, common and recyclable sanitary waste. Based on the analysis of these data, information on their behavior is obtained, such as: number of common waste removed per day in the period, evolution of the monthly average of the daily rate of removal of common waste, evolution of the average daily waste removal rate from month to month in the period, average daily waste removal rate for each month of the year in the period considered, average daily rate of common waste removal for each day of the week, evolution of the monthly average of the daily rate of removal of contaminated waste, evolution of the monthly average daily withdrawal rate of contaminated waste in the period and mean of the daily rate of removal of contaminated waste for each month of the year in the period considered. Finally, the conclusions of this article present the procedure to perform a weighing campaign, which should be carried out to determine the common and contaminated waste generation rates in each of the main services of the CAS.

Modelling Recycling Targets:Achieving a 50%Recycling Rate for Household Waste in Denmark

Within the European Union (EU) a paradigm shift is currently occurring in the waste sector, where EU waste directives and national waste strategies are placing emphasis on resource efficiency and recycling targets. The most recent Danish resource strategy calculates a national recycling rate of 22% for household waste, and sets an ambitious goal of a 50% recycling rate by 2020. This study integrates the recycling target into the FRIDA model to project how much waste and from which streams should be diverted from incineration to recycling in order to achieve the target. Furthermore, it discusses how the existing technological, organizational and legislative frameworks may affect recycling activities. The results of the analysis show that with current best practice recycling rates, the 50% recycling rate cannot be reached without recycling of household biowaste. It also shows that all Danish municipalities will need to make efforts to recover all recyclable fractions, and that the increased recycling efforts of only selected municipalities will not be sufficient to reach the target.

Recovery of indium by acid leaching waste ITO target based on neural network

The optimized leaching techniques were studied by technical experiment and neural network optimization for improving indium leaching rate. Firstly, effect of single technical parameter on leaching rate was investigated experimentally with other parameters fixed as constants. The results show that increasing residual acidity can improve leaching rate of indium. Increasing the oxidant content can obviously increase leaching rate but the further addition of oxidant could not improve the leaching rate. The enhancement of temperature can improve the leaching rate while the further enhancement of temperature decreases it. Extension leaching time can improve the leaching rate. On this basis, a BPNN model was established to study the effects of multi-parameters on leaching rate. The results show that the relative error is extremely small, thus the BPNN model has a high prediction precision. At last, optimized technical parameters which can yield high leaching rate of 99.5%were obtained by experimental and BPNN studies：residual acidity 50-60 g/L, oxidant addition content 10%, leaching temperature 70 ℃ and leaching time 2 h.

Screening on oil-decomposing microorganisms and application in organic waste treatment machine

As an oil-decomposable mixture of two bacteria strains(Bacillus sp. and Pseudomonas sp.), Y3 was isolated after 50 d domestication under the condition that oil was used as the limited carbon source. The decomposing rate by Y3 was higher than that by each separate individual strain, indicating a synergistic effect of the two bacteria. Under the conditions that T=25—40℃,pH=6—8, HRT(Hydraulic retention time)=36 h and the oil concentration at 0.1%, Y3 yielded the highest decomposing rate of 95.7 %. Y3 was also applied in an organic waste treatment machine and a certain rate of activated bacteria was put into the stuffing. A series of tests including humidity, pH, temperature, C/N rate and oil percentage of the stuffing were carried out to check the efficacy of oil-decomposition. Results showed that the oil content of the stuffing with inoculums was only half of that of the control. Furthermore, the bacteria were also beneficial to maintain the stability of the machine operating. Therefore, the bacteria mixture as well as the machines in this study could be very useful for waste treatment.

Mechanical and Frost-resistance Properties of Rural Area Building Waste Hollow Bricks

Serving as recycled coarse aggregate,the pretreated rural building waste was added into the concrete hollow bricks in the varying replacement of 0,20%,40%,60%,80% and 100%.By testing its compressive strength,flexural strength,mass and strength loss after freeze-thaw cycles,the impact of the different replacement on mechanical and frost-resistance properties of concrete hollow bricks was presented through SEM analysis.The experimental results show that,with the increase in recycled coarse aggregate replacement rate,the mechanical and frost-resistance properties show a downward trend;when the replacement rate is 40%,28 d compressive strength and flexural strength of concrete hollow brick demonstrate the good peak value which meet the requirement of the national standard for ordinary small concrete hollow bricks;the interfacial structures of the pretreated recycled concrete is more complicated than those of concrete made of natural aggregate,but the former enjoys better interface bonding and tight structure.

Charging for the waste dumping of open-pit metal mines

Based on the externality theory and the environmental value theory, the hypothesis of charging for waste dumping of open-pit metal mines was put forth. The charging methods were designed according to the characteristics of waste dumping of openpit metal mines, including charging based on the dumping amount of the total waste, multi-charging factors, exceeding standard punishment charging, and so on. The main charging parameter is based on the dumping area rather than the total amount of waste dumping. The charging model of waste dumping of open-pit mines was formulated, and the charging rate was divided into two parts, i.e., the standard charging rate and the differential charging rate. The standard charging rate was derived using the equilibrium dynamic model, whereas the differential one was obtained by establishing the fuzzy synthesized evaluation model.

Application of UASB Reactor in Leachate Treatment of Beijing Asuwei Waste Sanitary Landfill Site

The UASB reactor was used to reconstruct leachate treatment project of Beijing Asuwei Waste Sanitary Landfill Site,and the commissioning with the UASB reactor was executed.Water quality indicators were determined in the debugging process,and the results showed that the VFA content in the anaerobic tank was controlled within 600 mg/L,which indicated that the water quality did not have the acidified phenomenon.The COD removal efficiency was 50%approximately and NH_3-N concentration showed as light decline when operation stability in anaerobic system.

Gasification of plastic waste as waste-to-energy or waste-to-syngas recovery route

The disposal of plastic solid waste (PSW) has become a major worldwide environmental problem. New sustainable processes have emerged, i.e. either advanced mechanical recycling of PSW as virgin or second grade plastic feedstock, or thermal treatments to recycle the waste as virgin monomer, as synthetic fuel gas, or as heat source (incineration with energy recovery). These processes avoid land filling, where the non-biodegradable plastics remain a lasting environmental burden. Within the thermal treatments, gasification and pyrolysis gain increased interest. Gasification has been widely studied and applied for biomass and coal, with results reported and published in literature. The application to the treatment of PSW is less documented. Gasification is commonly operated at high temperatures (> 600℃ to 800℃) in an air-lean environment (or oxygen-deficient in some applications): the air factor is generally between 20% and 40% of the amount of air needed for the combustion of the PSW. Gasification produces mostly a gas phase and a solid residue (char and ashes). The use of air introduces N2 in the product gases, thus considerably reducing the calorific value of the syngas, because of the dilution. The paper will review the existing literature data on PSW gasification, both as the result of laboratory and pilot-scale research. Processes developed in the past will be illustrated. Recently, the use of a sequential gasification and combustion system (at very high temperatures) has been applied to various plastic-containing wastes, with atmospheric emissions shown to be invariably below the legal limits. Operating results and conditions will be reviewed in the paper, and completed with recent own lab-scale experimental results. These results demonstrate that gasification of PSW can be considered as a first order reaction, with values of the activation energy in the order of 187 to 289 kJ/mol as a function of the PSW nature.

Characterization of Household Solid Waste and Management in Tripoli City—Libya

Waste stream characteristics must be understood to tackle waste management problem in Tripoli city, Libya. It is recognized that information on both quantity and composition of generation waste is important for the effective planning of household waste handling infrastructure. So, this study is aimed to evaluating the generation, composition and density of household solid waste in Tripoli city, Libya. The study is carried out according to the Annex 2.1 of: WHO 1996. It was conducted during one week in summer, autumn and winter 2011/2012. The daily household solid waste generation assessment has been carried out for 150 Libyan families where 947 people in three main parts of Tripoli city have been chosen randomly. A questionnaire was prepared according to Buenrostro et al. 2001 and Raje et al. 2001 using door-to-door surveying. The result showed that the average of total generation quantity, daily generation rate, total volume and density were 1415 kg, 0.64 kg/person/day, 19.3 m3 and 74.4 kg/m3 respectively in Tripoli city. Household solid waste contains 36.3% organic matter and 32.5% recyclable materials (glass, paper, plastic, metals). The total generation quantity, daily generation rate, total volume and density were in Tripoli city agreed with those for African and Arabic countries. But the problem is that Tripoli suffers from insufficient municipal solid waste management and lack of sanitary landfills.

Genetic Toxic Effects of Rare-earth Waste and Its Products on Peacock Fish

The micro-nuclei and abnormal nuclei rates of peacock fish are tested,genetic toxic effects of rare-earth waste and its products(cement,plastic) on peacock in water are investigated.Results show that the leachate of rare-earth waste can lead to micronuclei and abnormal nuclei rates of peacock fish an obvious increase(P<0.01). Products made of the waste cause the micronuclei rate to be increased because of its low radio active action,but the change in abnormal nuclei rate can't reach a remarkable level.It shows that rare-earth waste has a certain effect of causing mutation on aquatic organism.Harmfulness of products made from this waste is decreased largely,and resources can be effectively saved.

Removal of tin and extraction of indium from acid-dissolved solution of waste indium-tin targets

The recovery of indium from waste indium tin oxide （ITO） target has great significance for the economy and environment.Based on our previous study on the optimization of acid leaching technique,the present study focuses on tin removal via zinc substitution and indium recovery from a tin-free leach solution.The results show that when the amount of added zinc powder and reaction time increase,the tin removal effect can be improved.The optimal conditions obtained are as follows：additional content of zinc powder from 20 g/L to 25 g/L,reaction temperature of 60 ℃,and reaction time from 3 h to 4 h.Under this condition,the tin removal rate exceeds 98%,and the tin content in the tin removal solution is lower than 0.05 g/L.After tin removal,the substitution time could be reduced from 3-5 d to 1-2 d by neutralizing the residual acid by using alkaline residue and maintaining the pH value less than 2.The indium recovery rate is also improved when this condition is used.The indium content in the tin residue is reduced to lower than 0.1% and the acid-insoluble β-SnO2 could be obtained via the strong nitric acid leaching of the indium-containing tin residue.Indium could be recovered from ITO with a high purity of 99.995% via electrorefining.

Household Solid Waste Generation and Composition: A Case Study in Palapye, Botswana

The purpose of this case study was to conduct a case study in the generation rate, composition, and characterise solid wastes from low, middle and high income households during weekdays and weekends in Palapye, Botswana. The study was conducted through sampling and analysis of the wastes from sampled households from each of the three categories. Palapye village does not have an engineered solid waste management system in place;hence the study can be used as a starting point. The village is rapidly urbanising with many shopping complexes coming up which will generate high amounts of solid wastes of different compositions. The lowest generation rate was 0.038 kg/capita/day from low income households during weekends and the highest was 0.364 kg/capita/day generated from high income households during weekends. The composition of the wastes was dominated by food wastes ranging from 46.44% to 80.78% with low income households generating the highest percentage during weekdays. The average moisture contents of samples from low, middle and high income households were 71% ± 0.0%, 66.3% ± 1.25% and 74.3% ± 2.2% respectively during weekdays compared to 77% ± 0.0%, 66.5% ± 3.5% and 69.3% ± 3.3% during weekends. The average moisture contents from low, middle and high income households were 71% ± 0.0%, 66.3% ± 1.25% and 74.3% ± 2.2% respectively during weekdays compared to 77% ± 0.0%, 66.5% ± 3.5% and 69.3% ± 3.3% during weekends. The results can be used as part of the waste management planning purpose by the Administrative Council of the area.

Construction Waste Quantification and Benchmarking： A Study in Klang Valley, Malaysia

Construction industry is a major contributor of negative impact to the environment. Estimation of construction waste amount is crucial for implementing waste minimization program. Estimation of construction waste amount generated is a mean in assessing the potential for waste reduction. Decision-making should be based on quantified measurements expressed in numerical terms to effectively minimize waste produced. A better understanding of C＆D waste generation in terms of causes and sources can be achieved. Lack of benchmarking will hinder the implementation of more sustainable practices in the industry. The aim of this paper is to establish benchmarks on construction waste generation rate in Klang Valley （greater Kuala Lumpur）, Malaysia using appropriate waste quantification method. Nine projects in Klang Valley constructed between 2006-2010 have been selected for this study, which include residential and commercial building projects conducted by a wide range of contractors employing conventional and IBS systems. Wastage level and waste index approaches had been employed in this study as tools for quantifying waste and also for environmental assessment. Types of waste that generated at significant amount, such as concrete, timber, reinforcement bars, tiles, screeds, and plaster are considered. Other factors, such as waste management provision, Environmental Management System （EMS） employed, record-keeping, contractors＇ profile and other related policies are also assessed by conducting interviews with construction personnel. Based on the findings, overall site-management, size of project, and awareness of waste management among construction personnel are the most significant factors that contribute to construction waste generation. Currently, there is still relatively lack of waste minimization awareness among construction players in Malaysia as reflected by poor waste record-keeping, lack of waste sorting and recycling practice, low usage of IBS systems, and lack of supports from top management, clients, and authorities. The roles of construction authorities are essential in achieving the desired benchmark in waste generation rate for Malaysian context. Construction authorities as the policy maker and enforcer could develop and issue new regulations or incentives to stimulate and encourage waste management practices and the use of green building technology, establishing formally standardized systems in record-keeping of quantitative data, introduce useful guidelines and measures, conduct education and training to achieve sustainability and better environmental awareness among Malaysian construction players.

Use of Low Radioactive Rare-earth Waste for Sewage Treatment

Low radioactive rare earth waste (containing 232 Th,specific activity 5 000 8 000 Bq·kg -1 ) were diluted 20 times by cement,sand and carbide ash and were made into special cement.The radioactivity of this special cement complied with the healthy protect standard for radioactive materials (GB6566 86).Test results showed that this special cement could lower COD,the degradation rate increased as the time went on.In acidic medium,this special cement could remove E Coli effectively.Applying aeration and adding lumps of cement,the degradation of COD versus time complied with Logistic model through fitting by computer.The two “S” curves indicated that aeration and adding lumps of cement had synergistic action on sewage treatment.

Review of Research on Li-Ion Batteries Waste Management

Li-ion batteries (Libs) are a mature technology widely used for energy storage in various electronic devices. Nowadays, this technology has become a leading candidate for the portable electronics market and for electric vehicles due to its good performance. As a result, the demand for Libs containing critical metals, rare earth elements and precious metals is increasing day by day with the accelerated upgrades of consumer electronics, which promotes the supply risk of many mining resources. In addition, the problems associated with the production of end-of-life Lib are increasing on a global scale. Used Libs are e-waste containing significant levels of critical raw materials (such as Co, Li, Mn and Ni) along with harmful substances. Without proper management of Lib waste, these precious metals and toxic substances may end up in nature and cause environmental and public health problems. In order to preserve nature, ensure sustainable resource management and stimulate the circular economy, it has become crucial to properly manage and recycle end-of-life Li-ion batteries. By the way, conventional methods focusing on pyrometallurgical treatments combined with hydrometallurgical treatment are widely studied to recover design metals from Libs waste. It is in this context that we have conducted this bibliographic synthesis, focusing on the efficiency of the solvents employed and their competitiveness for a more environmentally friendly economic management. In this manuscript, recent leaching, solvent extraction, electrodeposition and precipitation strategies to recover precious metals from end-of-life Li-ion battery designs are reviewed and the evolution of these processes is discussed.

Analysis of Temperature Profiles and Cycle Time in a Large-Scale Medical Waste Incinerator

Temperature profiles and cycle times in a large-scale medical waste incinerator installed in a referral hospital were used to assess the performance and functionality of incinerator. The study was conducted using data collected from 8 cycles per days for 67 days. For proper combustion and destruction of toxic components in the primary chamber and destruction of pollutants and toxic components in the flue gas, it is desired to reach the maximum temperature in the chambers faster and maintain this maximum temperature for an extended time interval. The primary and secondary temperatures T1 and T2, respectively, were recorded at an interval of one minute for different cycles. Different amounts of wastes with varying proportions of sharps and other wastes were loaded into the incinerator and temperature profiles recorded. The analysis shows that the incinerator works at primary temperature less than the required recommended by manufacturer while the secondary chamber operates between 600 and above 950℃, although higher temperatures up to 1020℃ were observed. The average load preparation time was observed to be 14.6 minutes, while the chamber preheating time before daily initial loading was 25.45 minutes. Both temperature profiles were observed to have similar shapes for all combustion cycles studied, except when incinerator malfunctioning occurred. The average cycle time was established to be 32.7 minutes and 28.97 minutes based on time to drop to 550℃ after the maximum temperature and loading time intervals, respectively, although longer cycle times were observed. Temperature drop in both combustion chambers as a result of waste charging was observed in the interval of 5 minutes. The chamber heating rate was observed to decrease exponentially with time during both preheating and incineration operation.

Solid Waste Generation and Composition in Mexico： A Comparison between Rural and Urban Communities

This paper reports a generation and composition analysis of household solid waste in Mexico, using as a reference the characterization study performed in two communities, one urban and one rural. Data obtained are fundamental parameters for the planning of urban solid waste management systems in Mexico, complying this way with the established policy in the National Program for Waste Management and Prevention 2009-2012. The study was carried out during five days and two main parameters were assessed： （1） the daily generation rate per person and （2） the waste composition. The per capita waste generation was 0.958 kg for the urban community and 0.631 kg for the rural. The results showed that the mean composition of waste from both locations was statistically similar （a = 0.05）. In both locations the most important contribution was the fraction of food waste. In both locations more than 60% of the waste is potentially recyclable. The results of this study will be used by the municipal waste authorities in order to establish an integrated waste management plan.