Potential of natural bed soil in adsorption of heavy metals in industrial waste landfill

Development of higher welfare could not be realized unless by energy consumption and other natural resources. Growth of industrial complexes has shown an unprecedented trend during recent years. Many of these towns have no treatment systems for the industrial wastes leachates. Besides, the chemical composition of wastes in such complexes varies considerably due to the different kinds of industries. It is endeavored in the present work to study the natural potential of soil to treat leachate of such industrial wastes. For this purpose, the Aliabad industrial complex in Tehran — Garmsar road was selected as the study area. The potential of adsorption of elements such as nickel, copper, cadmium, zinc, chromium, lead and manganese was investigated. The results indicated that the soil potential to adsorb heavy metals (except for manganese) was very high (95 %) in the adsorption of heavy metals (except for manganese). Further, chemical partitioning studies revealed that heavy metals are associated with various soil phases such as loosely bonded ions, sulfide and organics to various extents. Among the mentioned soil phases, one can deduce that major portion of metal contaminants is absorbed as loosely bonded ions. Organic bond and sulfide bond are in the 2^nd and 3^rd positions of metal contaminants adsorption, respectively. The results of the present study apparently showed that soil column had ample capacity to adsorb metal contaminants. Thus, determination of soil potential in adsorption of heavy metals during site selection is as important criteria.     

Metals removal during estuarine mixing of Arvand River water with the Persian Gulf water

In the present study, the removal of dissolved and colloidal Cd, Co, Cu, Ni and Zn in Arvand River water during estuarine mixing with the Persian Gulf water is investigated. The flocculation process was investigated for a series of mixtures with salinities ranging from 0.48 to 30.3^. The flocculation rates were indicative of the non-conservative behavior of studied metals during estuarine mixing. Rapid flocculation in the low salinity regimes was observed. The order of the final flocculation rate of metals in the river water was as follows: Co (91.2%)> Cd (86.9%)> Zn (83%)> Cu (75.2%)> Ni (74.3%). Salinity, pH, EC and dissolved oxygen do not govern the flocculation of metals during estuarine mixing. The results of the present investigation show that estuarine processes can be considered as an effective mechanism in self purification of colloidal metals that are anthropogenically introduced into the fresh water ecosystem.     

Unique first-forbidden β-decay rates for neutron-rich nickel isotopes in stellar environment

In astrophysical environments, allowed Gamow-Teller (GT) transitions are important, particularly for β-decay rates in presupernova evolution of massive stars, since they contribute to the fine-tuning of the lepton-to-baryon content of the stellar matter prior to and during the collapse of a heavy star. In environments where GT transitions are unfavored, first-forbidden transitions become important especially in medium heavy and heavy nuclei. Particularly in case of neutron-rich nuclei, first-forbidden transitions are favored primarily due to the phase-space amplification for these transitions. In this work the total β-decay half-lives and the unique first-forbidden (U1F) β-decay rates for a number of neutron-rich nickel isotopes, ^72–78Ni, are calculated using the proton-neutron quasi-particle random phase approximation (pn-QRPA) theory in stellar environment for the first time. For the calculation of the β-decay half-lives both allowed and unique first-forbidden transitions were considered. Comparison of the total half-lives is made with measurements and other theoretical calculations where it was found that the pn-QRPA results are in better agreement with experiments and at the same time are suggestive of inclusion of rank 0 and rank 1 operators in first-forbidden rates for still better results.     

Study of Gamow–Teller transitions in isotopes of titanium within the quasi particle random phase approximation

The Gamow–Teller (GT) transition is inarguably one of the most important nuclear weak transitions of the spin-isospin στ type. It has many applications in nuclear and astrophysics. These include, but are not limited to, r-process β-decays, stellar electron captures, neutrino cooling rates, neutrino absorption and inelastic scattering on nuclei. The quasiparticle random phase approximation (QRPA) is an efficient way to generate GT strength distribution. In order to better understand both theoretical systematics and uncertainties, we compare the GT strength distributions, centroid and width calculations for \({^{40\mbox{--}60}\mathrm{Ti}}\) isotopes, using the pn-QRPA, Pyatov method (PM) and the Schematic model (SM). The pn-QRPA and SM are further sub-divided into three categories in order to highlight the role of particle-particle (pp) force and deformation of the nucleus in the GT strength calculations. In PM, we study only the influence of the pp force in the calculation. We also compare with experimental results and other calculations where available. We found that the inclusion of pp force and deformation significantly improves the performance of SM and pn-QRPA models. Incorporation of pp force leads to pinning down the centroid value in the PM. The calculated GT strength functions using the pn-QRPA (C) and SM (C) models are in reasonable agreement with measured data.     

Concentration of selected radionuclides in seawater from Kuwait

No baseline existed for the radionuclides in Kuwait territorial water. With changing trend in the region to embrace nuclear energy, the baseline study is imperative to create a reference and to record the influence-functioning of upcoming power plants. The first one in Bushehr, Iran is ready to start and several more are likely to come-up in UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The present baseline concentration of the four considered radionuclide's show low concentration of tritium, polonium, strontium and cesium; their concentration is comparable to most oceanic waters.     

Role of γ-ray spectrometry in detecting potassic alteration associated with Um Ba’anib granitic gneiss and metasediments, G. Meatiq area, Central Eastern Desert, Egypt

The radiometric responses of the Gebel (G., which means mountain in Arabic) Meatiq area display the overall high radiation of the high grade metamorphic Um Ba’anib granite gneiss, metasediments, as well as Arieki adamellite rocks. Whereas, the low grade metamorphic ophiolitic nappes country reveal the lowest radiometric response. The eU, eTh, and K contents tend to increase with the youthfulness of the plutons with a maximum amounts in the more alkali varieties, e.g., Arieki adamellite (580 Ma), then the high grade metamorphic rocks of the younger Meatiqian orogeny (626?±?2 Ma). Also, these rocks reveal that the major radiometric anomaly with exposure rates ≈139 nGy/h, more than double of the global terrestrial values. While, the low grade metamorphic ophiolitic rocks reveal the lowest average exposure rates ≈46.8 nGy/h. The areas of high gamma ray values of F-parameter of Efimov (K × U/Th), ternary composite map, K map, K/eTh, and K/eU ratios maps are related to K enrichment conditions during formation (diagenesis) or deformation of the high grade metamorphic rocks and the Arieki adamellite intrusion. From the geochemical point of view, these areas are associated with rocks that are characterized by high-K calc-alkaline, calc-alkaline affinity, and enriched in REE.     

Adsorption of BTEX on Surfactant Modified Granulated Natural Zeolite Nanoparticles: Parameters Optimizing by Applying Taguchi Experimental Design Method

In this paper, a novel adsorbent developed by means of granulating of natural zeolite nanoparticles (i.e., clinoptilolite) was evaluated for possible removal of the petroleum monoaromatics (i.e., benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene, BTEX). To do this, the natural zeolite was ground to produce nanosized particulate, then modified by two cationic surfactants and granulated. The effect of various parameters including temperature, initial pH of the solution, total dissolved solids (TDS), and concentration of a competitive substance (i.e., methyl tert‐butyl ether, MTBE) were studied and optimized using a Taguchi statistical approach. The results ascertained that initial pH of the solution was the most effective parameter. However, the low pH (acidic) was favorable for BTEX adsorption onto the developed adsorbents. In this study, the experimental parameters were optimized and the best adsorption condition by determination of effective factors was chosen. Based on the S/N ratio, the optimized conditions for BTEX removal were temperature of 40°C, initial pH of 3, TDS of 0 mg/L, and MTBE concentration of 100 µg/L. At the optimized conditions, the uptake of each BTEX compounds reached to more than 1.5 mg/g of adsorbents.     

Impact of major organophosphate pesticides used in agriculture to surface water and sediment quality (Southern Caspian Sea basin,Haraz River)

Organophosphate pesticides are compounds that are not only toxic to both humans and wildlife but also difficult to degrade under natural environmental conditions. In Iran, agricultural practices are strongly dependent on the use of pesticides due to climatic and soil conditions, thus posing a potential risk to groundwater quality standards. Evaluating the concentration of organophosphate pesticides namely diazinon, fenitrothion, dichlorvos, ethion, profenofos, malathion and azinphos methyl in water samples in May (low precipitation rate), December (high precipitation rate) as well as the concentration in sediments along the Haraz River is taken into consideration in this study. Generally the pesticides concentration in water samples are relatively higher in May in comparison with that in December; this fact may be due to two major reasons: the first reason is attributed to the prompt raining after the treatment period of most orchards and dry farming lands that will terminate in more wash out of such pesticides towards the branches and main river channel, while the second reason may be considered as the less river water dilution rate in May because of lower precipitation rate. Furthermore, the relatively higher concentrations in downstream stations may be contributed to more intensified agricultural (specially rice paddies), urban and rural land uses in this region in comparison with upstream areas which contain mainly dry farming, grazing lands and orchards with relatively lower loads of pesticides. Additionally, as the Henry’s law constant of all pesticides considered in this study are relatively low, volatilization may not be regarded as an important route of dissipation. Diazinon, azinphos methyl and dichlorvos showed the highest water concentrations in comparison with other pesticides that may be justified by their extended use within the basin during last decades. Based on the chemical properties as well as remarkably higher values in sediment samples in comparison with water ones, it is concluded that the two pesticides, ethion and fenitrothion, persist in the environment due to non-degradable tendencies. Although the concentration of mentioned pesticides is not so high in the water samples, more precautions must be considered in their future use. Regarding the sorption coefficient variation alongside the river, the higher values in upstream and central parts may be attributed to the higher potential of different types of erosion regarding deeper slopes and also sand, gravel and carbonate mining activities at the banks and also river bed in such regions which is considered as an anthropogenic disturbance. In case of central parts, in addition to mentioned reasons, the existence of coal outcrops in the geologic texture of the study area may also be considered as a key role in augmentation of the sorption coefficient. Finally, the dominant clayey and loamy soils containing more organics may be attributed as the major reason of sorption tendency in downstream.     

Electron capture strength on odd-A nucleus 59Co in explosive astrophysical environment

The Gamow-Teller (GT) transitions within massive stars play sumptuous role in the dynamics of core collapse supernovae. GT strength distributions and electron capture rates have been calculated for odd-A nucleus ⁵⁹Co within the proton-neutron quasiparticles random phase approximation (pn-QRPA) formalism. The pn-QRPA results are compared with other model calculations and (n,p) reaction experiment carried out at TRIUMF charge-exchange facility. The pn-QRPA calculated a total B(GT ₊) strength of 3.3 for ⁵⁹Co to be compared with the shell model value of 2.5 and the 1.9±0.1 in the (n,p) charge-exchange reaction. Aufderheide et al. (1993) extracted total strength equaling 2.4±0.3. The placement of GT centroid at 5.6 MeV by the pn-QRPA model is in reasonable agreement with the shell model centroid at 5.1 MeV whereas the measured GT centroid was placed at 4.4±0.3 MeV in the (n,p) experiment. Fuller, Fowler and Newman (FFN) (1980, 1982a, 1982b), placed the GT centroid at too low excitation energy of 2.0 MeV in the daughter nucleus ⁵⁹Fe, and this misplacement led to the enhancement of FFN rates. The suppressed pn-QRPA and shell model electron capture rates are in good agreement with each other. The rates are suggestive of higher value of Y _e (electron-to-baryon ratio) and may contribute to a more massive homologously collapsing core resulting in a more energetic shock. It might be interesting for the simulators to check the effect of these suppressed rates on the fine-tuning of the time rate of Y _e , the concomitant heavy element nucleosynthesis, and, on the energetics of the subsequent shock wave.