Environment Complete

Intense sound levels produced by engineering equipment have become an acute issue. As most of engineering equipment require air supply, exhaust and good ventilation, it is not possible to control the noise by covering them with tight hoods. Louver with blades covered with acoustic materials and gaps that enable free circulation of air are used to this end. Three louver configurations were tested in the semi-anechoic chamber: bare metal louver blades, louver with blades covered with 20-mm-thick polystyrene foam slabs on both sides, and louver with blades covered with 15-mm-thick glass wool slab. According to the test results, louver with blades covered with glass wool slab demonstrated the best noise attenuation characteristics. The reduction of equivalent sound pressure level subject to blade inclination angle was from 10.8 to 12.5 dB. Sound pressure level reduction by louver with blades covered with polystyrene foam slabs was weaker: the reduction of equivalent sound pressure level was from 5.4 to 8.4 dB. Louver with blades not covered with any acoustic material demonstrated the least noise attenuation result from 1.9 to 3.9 dB. © 2020 Institute of Noise Control Engineering.

Ecological problems are inherent in the issue of air quality in the buildings. The main goal thus becomes the creation of indoor clime, where concentration of the detrimental impurities, such as carbon dioxide, would not exceed established norms. Thus, it is proposed to develop an alternative system of ventilation, which would ensure necessary indoor climate without outside air use. In order to decrease the levels of it inside the buildings, it is suggested to use a winter garden with much greenery, so that the air would be regenerated since the carbon dioxide would be absorbed and oxygen would be evolved. The current work reveals the study results of thermal, air and gas conditions in a winter garden upon the office building. The proposed methodology based on the ANSYS-CFX software, ensures a successful calculation of heating and aerial regimes within buildings that might differ in accordance with various engineering practices.

During the 1950s–1960s, the Merkys river basin, the largest protected area of Lithuania,underwent severe anthropogenic regulations. Within the Baltic States, the genetic diversity ofPhalaris arundinacea populations is unknown and how they might be affected by anthropogenicactivities such as river regulation. The objectives of this study were to compare molecularparameters (SSRs or microsatellite loci) within and among populations from natural river fragmentswith populations from regulated river parts. Study populations have greater genetic diversitywithin, rather than among, populations. The upstream portion of the Merkys basin populationshad lower genetic diversity compared with further downstream. The mean number of polymorphicSSR loci was lower for populations from regulated parts of the river basin compared with naturalones. Main principle coordinate analysis revealed populations of regulated rivers at marginal posi-tions. Bayesian clustering showed that current populations are admixtures of 3 distinct geneticgroups, based on STRUCTURE analysis (K = 3 groupings) in geographic subdivisions of (a) down-stream populations (Varėnė, Verseka, Upper Grūda, Lower Grūda, Upper Merkys, Lower Merkys),(b) upstream populations (Upper Šalčia, Beržė, Lower Šalčia, Visinčia, Lower Šaltykščia, Nedilė), and(c) the 2 regulated sites in the distinct geographic area of Taurupis and Upper Šaltykščia.P. arundinacea in the Merkys river basin does not all belong to a single, random‐mating populationencompassing its tributaries or among populations across its geographic scales. In severalinstances, river regulation might impair the genetic diversity of P. arundinacea populations.

Biochar as a filtering media has been attracted increasing attention for applications in urban storm-water runoff (USWR) management. Up-flow percolation tests were conducted with pine bark (PB) and biochars from PB (BCPB) for evaluating changes in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and total dissolved nitrogen (TDN) concentrations varying with pyrolysis temperatures (i.e., 300, 450, and 700 °C) and types of USWR (i.e., roof and pathway USWR). The most suitable pyrolysis temperature for limiting DOC leaching from BCPB depends on the types of USWR. For all the adopted pyrolysis temperature, BCPB released cumulative amount of DOC up to 0.01% of the TC content in the up-flow percolation tests with pathway USWR. High-temperature (i.e., 700 °C) BCPB released lower cumulative amount of DOC (up to 0.02% of the TC content) compared to the low-temperature (< 450 °C) BCPB in the roof USWR up-flow percolation tests. As for BCPB effectiveness in carbon sequestration, the amount of carbon that is not retained in BCPB because of leaching (DOC less than 0.1% of the TC content) may be considered negligible. Of the tested BCPB, only high-temperature BCPB removed TDN for both the types of USWR with cumulative removed quantities up to 0.006 g/kg dry weight, thus representing a better option for reducing N loads to receiving water basins.

The articles appearing in this special issue on Biochar as an Option for Sustainable Resource Management are mainly the extended versions of the contributions presented in Biochar COST Action meetings, especially at the International Biochar conference held September 2015 at Geisenheim University (Germany), which was the final conference of the COST Action TD1107.

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) interacts with dissolved trace metal affecting their mobility and bioavailability through the formation of DOC–metal complexes. Several types of biochar (BC) produced from slow pyrolysis of wood chips (WC), lignin (LG), and digested sewage sludge at 450 and 700°C were tested for DOC leaching via batch and up-flow percolation test methods. Trace metal (Cd, Cu, and Pb) speciation modelling in BC eluates was carried out combining measured data (i.e., DOC, pH, temperature, and dissolved trace metal concentrations) with data reported in the literature regarding fractions of DOC that are inert or active (i.e., fulvic acids (FA) and humic acids (HA)) in metal binding. BC from LG (BCLG) and WC (BCWC) at 700°C released lower cumulative amounts of DOC compared with BC at 450°C in the range 0.02–0.07% and 0.06–0.09% of total carbon content, respectively. For both pyrolysis temperatures, BCWC exhibited a higher tendency to release DOC compared to BCLG. Speciation modelling results showed the predominance of FA and HA complexes of Cd, Cu, and Pb in all the eluates from BCWC and BCLG irrespective of the inert fractions of DOC or the different fractions of active FA and HA considered.

Organic components, widely spread in water by industrial sources become emerging Contaminants in the water. Due deficient removal in conventional wastewater treatments, advanced treatment should be considered for industrial wastewaters removing. Advance oxidation processes (AOPs) can be used as an effective subset of chemical treatment for degradation of toxic from water in industrial processing plant. Two Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods based on hybrid SWARA-WASPAS are organized to investigate efficiency of different sort of AOPs: ozonation, fenton, electrochemical Oxidation, UV/Photo-catalysis, UV/H2O2. Based on MCDM, Fenton is the most possible AOPs for application in wastewater treatment areas. In this study, SWARA is deployed in evaluating criteria that were identified in literature review, and WASPAS is used for evaluating and ranking the methods. The main point of this study is based on real data.

Evaluation based on Distance from Average Solution (EDAS) is a new multicriteria decision making (MCDM) method, which is based on the distances of alternatives from the average scores of attributes. Classical EDAS has been already extended by using ordinary fuzzy sets in case of vague and incomplete data. In this paper, we propose an interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy EDAS method, which is based on the data belonging to membership, nonmembership, and hesitance degrees. A sensitivity analysis is also given to show how robust decisions are obtained through the proposed intuitionistic fuzzy EDAS. The proposed intuitionistic fuzzy EDAS method is applied to the evaluation of solid waste disposal site selection alternatives. The comparative and sensitivity analyses are also included.

Changing the concepts of economic development and introducing new amendments can hardly decrease the accumulation in the soil of such pollutants as metals, remain- ing there for a long time. The predictive models for describing the balance of metals in the soil, which are based on the ‘atmosphere–plant–soil’ system and reflect the complicated physical–chemical nature of the metals ’ migration, expressed by coefficients obtained in long-term observations in natural conditions, allow for evaluating long-term concentration of metals in the soil. The model BALANS evaluates self-purification of soil, taking into account the uptake of metals of aerogenic origin by the soil together with amendments, their physical–chemical migration and the type of microrelief determining its intensity as well as the absorbed biomass of plants and the removal of metals with crops. In this model, the half-period of metals’ washing out from the soil, found for the microrelief characteristic of low places, exceeds 200 years for Ni, Cr and Pb and makes 90 and 150 years for Zn and Cu, respectively.

The removal of the most prevalent heavy metal ions [cadmium(II), lead(II), copper(II), and zinc(II)] by adsorption on Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) biochar and Silver birch (Betula pendula) biochar has been investigated, following the determination of physical and chemical adsorption properties of biochar. The efficiency of adsorption of heavy metal ions [cadmium(II), lead(II), copper(II), and zinc(II)] on biochar was studied at different concentrations of heavy metals [onefold maximum contaminant level, twofold maximum contaminant level, fivefold maximum contaminant level (in accordance with the requirements set out in the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC), dosages of biochar (1.6–140 g), and biochar types (Scots pine (P. sylvestris L.) biochar and Silver birch (B. pendula) biochar produced at slow and fast pyrolysis) at constant pH of leaching solution, temperature, and contact time. Adsorption capacity of Scots pine (P. sylvestris L.) biochar and Silver birch (B. pendula) biochar was assessed by the application of extended Freundlich isotherm. In this study, biochar was evaluated as a potential adsorbent to efficiently reduce concentration of heavy metal ions in metal-contaminated water. The maximum adsorption capacity were reached of copper(II) on Silver birch (B. pendula) biochar (128.7 µg g−1) and of zinc(II) on Scots pine (P. sylvestris L.) biochar (107.0 µg g−1). Adsorption capacity of lead(II) on Silver birch (B. pendula) and Scots pine (P. sylvestris L.) biochar varied from 1.29 to 3.77 and from 2.37 to 4.49 µg g−1, respectively.