Recycling of Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs) in Electronic Waste

The management of used electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) or e‐waste is a significant problem worldwide due to rapid uptake of the technology and early obsolescence of EEE. Cathode ray tubes (CRTs) from used televisions and computer monitors represent a major e‐waste problem as they consist of glass with different compositions. The front panel is a lead‐free barium‐strontium glass whereas parts such as the funnel hidden inside are composed of glass with lead oxides. Regulations require the glass from waste CRTs to be recycled or re‐utilized. Closed‐loop recycling and open‐loop recycling are two principal ways of recycling CRT glass. The aim of this paper is to examine the technical characteristics and composition of the CRTs, its generation, environmental impacts and related regulatory requirements and to review the current technologies and their limitations for recycling CRT glass and its end use.     

Multi‐Criteria Analysis for Optimization of Sodium Chromate Production from Chromic Waste

The proposal of application of multi‐criteria analysis and technological quality method for optimization of technological processes on the case study of sodium chromate production variants from waste was presented. The research on the use of chromic waste for the production of sodium chromate made it possible to determine the optimal process parameters. Technological quality method was used to define the value of criterions for multi‐criteria analysis while multi‐criteria analysis allowed determining the impact of criterions weights for ranking variants of technological process. Both methods in a complex way evaluate the degree of modernization of technologies, describing them qualitatively within the area of environmental, technical, and the economic effects of the proposed technological variants. Based on the proposed evaluating criteria both methods yield comparable results. The most advantageous alternatives provided realization of the sodium chromate production process with the use of in‐process recycling of chromic mud, off‐site recycling of chromic tannery waste and on‐site recycling of waste from the old chromic heaps.     

Green Electronics through Legislation and Lead Free Soldering

Management of used electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) is becoming a major issue as each year around 20 to 50 million tonnes of electronic waste (e‐waste) is generated worldwide. EEE contains over 1000 materials of which lead (Pb) has been one of the targets of the regulators forcing manufacturers to adopt lead free products. Industry has come up with several lead free solders with preference given to alloys containing tin, silver, and copper but there is no ,drop‐in' substitute to leaded solder. Issues with lead free solders such as temperature, intermetallics, tin whisker, tin pest, and reliability are yet to be resolved. The paper investigated the contribution of lead free soldering to green electronics in a holistic way. Global lead free movement has reached a point of no return. However, it is necessary to make sure that life span of EEE is not shortened thereby resulting in an unforeseen increase in e‐waste or problem shifting does not occur by shifting a problem from one life cycle to another or from one category/media to another.     

Bio‐based Ester Oils for Use as Lubricants in Metal Working

The potential application of bio‐based ester oils for use as lubricants in metal working has been investigated for sustainable production processes in the future. When waste edible and animal fats came into focus as starting materials, it was already proven, that ester oils produced from plant fats performed very well as cooling lubricants. Waste fats were first characterized by analyzing and monitoring samples for one complete year. Inorganic and organic contaminations were found to be low and without seasonal variations. Fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) were produced by transesterification of the waste fats and they were separated into fractions with saturated FAME or unsaturated FAME by fractional crystallisation (winterisation). Further transesterification with 2‐ethylhexanol led to products that could be successfully tested as lubricants. The development of an extraction process aimed at the recycling of oil containing grinding mud by enabling the recirculation of lubricating oil and reutilization of oil‐free metal chips.     

Sustainable Management of Electronic Waste (e-Waste)

Electronic waste or e-waste is one of the fastest growing areas of the international waste stream and is increasing at a much higher rate than all other waste streams. Fast growing electronics industries arising from the demands of information and communication technologies around the world coupled with the rapid product obsolescence and lack of end-of-life management options, have all led to the unsustainable management of the waste stream. Computers are manufactured from over 1,000 materials, many of which are toxic, and they contribute significantly to the e-waste stream, which is estimated to be ca. 20 to 50 million tonnes annually. Design for environment cleaner production, extended producer responsibility, standards and labeling, product stewardship, recycling and remanufacturing are some of the practices adopted by various countries around the world to deal with the e-waste stream. An overview of these practices is presented and the manner in which they contribute to the sustainable management of e-waste is discussed.     

A Comparative Study of the Use of Organoclay‐Based Formulations and Organic Amendment to Reduce the Leaching of the Herbicide MCPA in Soil

MCPA (4‐chloro‐2‐methylphenoxyacetic acid) is an acidic herbicide widely used on olive crops in Spain. Due to its anionic form at natural soil pH, there is high risk of leaching and groundwater contamination by the use of this herbicide. The aim of this work was to study the effects of organoclay‐based formulations of MCPA and olive oil waste amendment on MCPA leaching in a sandy loam soil. For this purpose, batch adsorption and column leaching studies were performed. The organoclays used to prepare the clay‐based formulations of MCPA were obtained by treating Wyoming montmorillonite (SWy‐2) and Arizona montmorillonite (SAz‐1) with an amount of hexadecyltrimethylammonium (HDTMA) cation equal to 100% of the CEC of the montmorillonites. The organic residue used in this study was a solid waste from olive oil production (olive oil waste, OOW). The soil was amended with the organic residue at the rate of 10% (w/w). Batch release and column leaching studies indicated that organoclay‐based formulations of MCPA reduced the release rate and the leaching of the herbicide as compared to the use of a conventional formulation containing the herbicide in an immediately available form. The increase in soil organic matter of the soil upon amendment with the organic residue also resulted in greater adsorption and reduced leaching of MCPA in the soil. Accordingly, both the use of organoclay‐based formulations and the amendment of soil with OOW are proposed as efficient strategies to reduce extensive leaching losses associated with the application of MCPA in high‐risk scenarios, such as Mediterranean olive groves.     

Kinetic Studies and Anaerobic Co‐digestion of Vegetable Market Waste and Sewage Sludge

The effect of anaerobic co‐digestion of vegetable market waste and sewage sludge was studied extensively. The effects of co‐digestion were compared with the separate digestion of vegetable market waste and sewage sludge. The batch studies were carried out using three bench scale reactors having 1.5 L working volume. The cumulative biogas production shows that the organic waste available from the vegetable waste contains easily biodegradable organic matter compared with the sewage sludge. First order reaction kinetics is maintained throughout the methanation fermentation. The reductions in volatile solids (VS) in the three reactors were in the range of 63–65 %. The specific gas production for vegetable waste was higher (0.75 L biogas/g VS_in and 1.17 L biogas/g VS_des) than for the sewage sludge (0.43 L biogas/g VS_in and 0.68 L biogas/g VS_des). Consequently, the specific gas production for the co‐digestion of the mixture of vegetable waste and sewage sludge (0.68 L biogas/g VS_in and 1.04 L biogas/g VS_des) was considerably higher than for the sewage sludge only. Batch kinetics of anaerobic digestion is useful in predicting the performance of digesters and for the design of appropriate digesters.     

Regeneration and Reuse of a Seaweed‐Based Biosorbent in Single and Multi‐Metal Systems

A seaweed‐waste material resulting from the processing of Ascophyllum nodosum was previously shown to be very efficient at removing Zn(II), Ni(II) and Al(III) both in single and multi‐metal waste streams. In this study, the regeneration of the biosorbent using an acid wash resulted in the release of high metal concentrations during multiple desorption cycles. Maximum desorption efficiencies (DE) of 183, 122 and 91% were achieved for Zn(II), Ni(II) and Al(III), respectively, for subsequent metal loading cycles, significantly exceeding the desorption rates observed for conventional sorbents. The regeneration of the sorbent was accomplished with very little loss in metal removal efficiency (RE) for both single and multi‐metal systems. Values of 92, 96 and 94% RE were achieved for Zn(II), Ni(II) and Al(III), respectively, for the 5^th sorption cycle in single metal aqueous solutions. A slight decrease was observed for the same metals in multi‐metal systems with maximum REs of 85, 82 and 82% for Zn(II), Ni(II) and Al(III), respectively. This study showed that the novel sorbent derived from a seaweed industrial waste would be suitable for multiple metal sorption cycles without any significant loss in RE.     

Wide‐azimuth angle gathers for anisotropic wave‐equation migration

Extended common‐image‐point gathers (CIP) constructed by wide‐azimuth TI wave‐equation migration contain all the necessary information for angle decomposition as a function of the reflection and azimuth angles at selected locations in the subsurface. The aperture and azimuth angles are derived from the extended images using analytic relations between the space‐ and time‐lag extensions using information which is already available at the time of migration, i.e. the anisotropic model parameters. CIPs are cheap to compute because they can be distributed in the image at the most relevant positions, as indicated by the geologic structure. If the reflector dip is known at the CIP locations, then the computational cost can be reduced by evaluating only two components of the space‐lag vector. The transformation from extended images to angle gathers is a planar Radon transform which depends on the local medium parameters. This transformation allows us to separate all illumination directions for a given experiment, or between different experiments. We do not need to decompose the reconstructed wavefields or to choose the most energetic directions for decomposition. Applications of the method include illumination studies in complex areas where ray‐based methods fail, and assuming that the subsurface illumination is sufficiently dense, the study of amplitude variation with aperture and azimuth angles.     

Performance Assessment of Pump‐and‐Treat Systems

Pump‐and‐treat (P&T) is a widely applied remedy for groundwater remediation at many types of sites for multiple types of contaminants. Decisions regarding major changes in the remediation approach are an important element of environmental remediation management for a site using P&T. While existing guidance documents provide information on design, operation, and optimization for P&T systems, these documents do not provide specific technical guidance to support remedy decisions regarding when to transition to a new remedy or to initiate closure of the P&T remedy. A structured approach for P&T performance assessment was developed and is described herein, using analysis of three example P&T systems. These examples highlight key aspects of the performance assessment decision logic and represent assessment outcomes associated with optimizing the P&T system, transitioning from P&T to natural attenuation, and supplementing P&T with another technology to hasten transition to natural attenuation.     

Relations between rainfall–runoff‐induced erosion and aeolian deposition at archaeological sites in a semi‐arid dam‐controlled river corridor

Process dynamics in fluvial‐based dryland environments are highly complex with fluvial, aeolian, and alluvial processes all contributing to landscape change. When anthropogenic activities such as dam‐building affect fluvial processes, the complexity in local response can be further increased by flood‐ and sediment‐limiting flows. Understanding these complexities is key to predicting landscape behavior in drylands and has important scientific and management implications, including for studies related to paleoclimatology, landscape ecology evolution, and archaeological site context and preservation. Here we use multi‐temporal LiDAR surveys, local weather data, and geomorphological observations to identify trends in site change throughout the 446‐km‐long semi‐arid Colorado River corridor in Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA, where archaeological site degradation related to the effects of upstream dam operation is a concern. Using several site case studies, we show the range of landscape responses that might be expected from concomitant occurrence of dam‐controlled fluvial sand bar deposition, aeolian sand transport, and rainfall‐induced erosion. Empirical rainfall‐erosion threshold analyses coupled with a numerical rainfall–runoff–soil erosion model indicate that infiltration‐excess overland flow and gullying govern large‐scale (centimeter‐ to decimeter‐scale) landscape changes, but that aeolian deposition can in some cases mitigate gully erosion. Whereas threshold analyses identify the normalized rainfall intensity (defined as the ratio of rainfall intensity to hydraulic conductivity) as the primary factor governing hydrologic‐driven erosion, assessment of false positives and false negatives in the dataset highlight topographic slope as the next most important parameter governing site response. Analysis of 4+ years of high resolution (four‐minute) weather data and 75+ years of low resolution (daily) climate records indicates that dryland erosion is dependent on short‐term, storm‐driven rainfall intensity rather than cumulative rainfall, and that erosion can occur outside of wet seasons and even wet years. These results can apply to other similar semi‐arid landscapes where process complexity may not be fully understood. Published 2015. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA     

Gully cut‐and‐fill cycles as related to agro‐management: a historical curve number simulation in the Tigray Highlands

Gully cut‐and‐fill dynamics are often thought to be driven by climate and/or deforestation related to population pressure. However, in this case‐study of nine representative catchments in the Northern Ethiopian Highlands, we find that neither climate changes nor deforestation can explain gully morphology changes over the twentieth century. Firstly, by using a Monte Carlo simulation to estimate historical catchment‐wide curve numbers, we show that the landscape was already heavily degraded in the nineteenth and early twentieth century – a period with low population density. The mean catchment‐wide curve number (> 80) one century ago was, under the regional climatic conditions, already resulting in considerable simulated historical runoff responses. Secondly, twentieth century land‐cover and runoff coefficient changes were confronted with twentieth century changing gully morphologies. As the results show, large‐scale land‐cover changes and deforestation cannot explain the observed processes. The study therefore invokes interactions between authigenic factors, small‐scale plot boundary changes, cropland management and sociopolitical forces to explain the gully cut processes. Finally, semi‐structured interviews and sedistratigraphic analysis of three filled gullies confirm the dominant impact of (crop)land management (tillage, check dams in gullies and channel diversions) on gully cut‐and‐fill processes. Since agricultural land management – including land tenure and land distribution – has been commonly neglected in earlier related research, we argue therefore that it can be a very strong driver of twentieth century gully morphodynamics. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparative Evaluation of Single‐Well LNAPL Tracer Testing at Five Sites

Light nonaqueous phase liquid (LNAPL) tracer testing is a technique used to directly measure LNAPL flow in situ and evaluate LNAPL mobility and recoverability. The test method consists of adding a fluorescent oil‐soluble tracer to LNAPL within a well, isolating small volumes of LNAPL with known tracer concentrations for use as in‐well calibration standards, and measuring the rate of tracer concentration decline in the well over time. The test measures LNAPL flux through the well, which is directly related to LNAPL mobility and recoverability in the surrounding formation. Test results for a total of 29 wells at five sites are presented. Results from LNAPL tracer testing were comparable to results obtained through other methods, and the method offers a time‐averaged result measured over a relatively long period, in ambient conditions, and reflects the influences of heterogeneity and hydraulic changes. In some cases, tracer concentration decline followed unexpected patterns, and these data have led to a better understanding of test assumptions, mechanisms influencing tracer distribution, and options to improve test execution and data interpretation. Method improvements developed over the course of the field studies included refinement of pre‐test screening of LNAPL fluorescence and improvements to measurement equipment. Overall, the field studies confirmed the technical validity and usefulness of the LNAPL tracing technique to support LNAPL mobility and recoverability assessments.     

Cost‐effective non‐metric photogrammetry from consumer‐grade sUAS: implications for direct georeferencing of structure from motion photogrammetry

The declining costs of small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS), in combination with Structure‐from‐Motion (SfM) photogrammetry have triggered renewed interest in image‐based topography reconstruction. However, the potential uptake of sUAS‐based topography is limited by the need for ground control acquired with expensive survey equipment. Direct georeferencing (DG) is a workflow that obviates ground control and uses only the camera positions to georeference the SfM results. However, the absence of ground control poses significant challenges in terms of the data quality of the final geospatial outputs. Notably, it is generally accepted that ground control is required to georeference, refine the camera calibration parameters, and remove any artefacts of optical distortion from the topographic model. Here, we present an examination of DG carried out with low‐cost consumer‐grade sUAS. We begin with a study of surface deformations resulting from systematic perturbations of the radial lens distortion parameters. We then test a number of flight patterns and develop a novel error quantification method to assess the outcomes. Our perturbation analysis shows that there exists families of predictable equifinal solutions of K₁‐K₂ which minimize doming in the output model. The equifinal solutions can be expressed as K₂ = f (K₁) and they have been observed for both the DJI Inspire 1 and Phantom 3 sUAS platforms. This equifinality relationship can be used as an external reliability check of the self‐calibration and allow a DG workflow to produce topography exempt of non‐affine deformations and with random errors of 0.1% of the flying height, linear offsets below 10 m and off‐vertical tilts below 1°. Whilst not yet of survey‐grade quality, these results demonstrate that low‐cost sUAS are capable of producing reliable topography products without recourse to expensive survey equipment and we argue that direct georeferencing and low‐cost sUAS could transform survey practices in both academic and commercial disciplines. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Use of Waste Materials in the Passive Remediation of Mine Water Polution

The contamination and resulting degradation of water coursesby effluents from abandoned and active mines is a world-wideproblem. Traditional methods of remediating the dischargesfrom mines involve the addition of chemicals and the utilisationof artificial energy sources. Over the last 15–20 years passivetreatment systems have been developed that harness naturalchemical and biological processes to ameliorate the potentiallytoxic effects of such discharges. There are many different typesof passive system, including compost wetlands, reducing andalkalinity producing systems (RAPS), permeable reactive barriersand inorganic media passive systems. Different waste materialscan be utilised as reactive media within each of these systems,dependent upon the type of mine water and treatment technology.In many cases the reactivity of these recycled waste materialsis key to the remedial performance of these systems. The materialsused may be organic (e.g., composts) or inorganic (e.g., blast furnaceslag) and where possible are sourced locally in order to minimisetransport costs. The remediation of mine waters in itself canproduce large quantities of waste products in the form of ironoxide sludge. Potential uses of this material in the productionof pigments and in the treatment of phosphate contaminatedwaters is also currently under investigation.The exploitation of what are traditionallythought of as waste materials within treatmentsystems for polluted waters is an expandingtechnology which provides great scope for recycling.     

Strategies to Make Methods Based on Flow Injection Analysis Greener

The implementation of flow injection analysis (FIA) systems and correlated techniques in the laboratory routine provides an increase of analytical throughput and the reduction of risks of analyte losses and contamination. Naturally, it contributes to the reduction of reagent consumption and minimization of waste generation. This paper presents and discusses an overview of the main strategies adopted to make methods based on FIA systems more environmentally friendly, and offers a review of these methods that covers the period from January 2002 to December 2019. Strategies based on reagent management (adoption of procedures without reagents, replacement of toxic reagents, recycling and reuse of reagents and, use of immobilized reagents), the online waste treatment, and the improvements of FIA systems (flow system configurations that avoid reagent wastage, use of green detectors, automation, and miniaturization) are approached in this perspective.     

Seismic isolation using granulated tire–soil mixtures for less‐developed regions: experimental validation

In this study, shaking‐table experiments were conducted with a novel seismic isolation system (Geotechnical Seismic Isolation, GSI) to validate its dynamic performance during earthquakes. This isolation technique uses shredded rubber–soil mixtures to reduce the structural response to earthquakes, and thus may not only provide economical structural safety for buildings in less‐developed regions, but could also consume a large amount of waste tires worldwide. The present experimental results show that the GSI system has potential to significantly mitigate seismic hazards. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Suppression of near‐surface scattered body‐to‐surface waves: a steerable and nonlinear filtering approach

We present an approach based on local‐slope estimation for the separation of scattered surface waves from reflected body waves. The direct and scattered surface waves contain a significant amount of seismic energy. They present great challenges in land seismic data acquisition and processing, particularly in arid regions with complex near‐surface heterogeneities (e.g., dry river beds, wadis/large escarpments, and karst features). The near‐surface scattered body‐to‐surface waves, which have comparable amplitudes to reflections, can mask the seismic reflections. These difficulties, added to large amplitude direct and back‐scattered surface (Rayleigh) waves, create a major reduction in signal‐to‐noise ratio and degrade the final sub‐surface image quality. Removal of these waves can be difficult using conventional filtering methods, such as an filter, without distorting the reflected signal. The filtering algorithm we present is based on predicting the spatially varying slope of the noise, using steerable filters, and separating the signal and noise components by applying a directional nonlinear filter oriented toward the noise direction to predict the noise and then subtract it from the data. The slope estimation step using steerable filters is very efficient. It requires only a linear combination of a set of basis filters at fixed orientation to synthesize an image filtered at an arbitrary orientation. We apply our filtering approach to simulated data as well as to seismic data recorded in the field to suppress the scattered surface waves from reflected body waves, and we demonstrate its superiority over conventional techniques in signal preservation and noise suppression.     

Time scale effect and uncertainty in reconstruction of paleo‐hydrology

Tree‐ring‐based reconstructions of paleo‐hydrology have proved useful for better understanding the irregularities and extent of past climate changes, and therefore, for more effective water resources management. Despite considerable advances in the field, there still exist challenges that introduce significant uncertainties into paleo‐reconstructions. This study outlines these challenges and address them by developing two themes: (1) the effect of temporal scaling on the strength of the relationship between the hydrologic variables, streamflow in this study, and tree growth rates and (2) the reconstruction uncertainty of streamflow due to the dissimilarity or inconsistency in the pool of tree‐ring chronologies (predictors in reconstruction) in a basin. Based on the insight gained, a methodology is developed to move beyond only relying on the annual hydrology‐growth correlations, and to utilize additional information embedded in the annual time series at longer time scales (e.g. multi‐year to decadal time scales). This methodology also generates an ensemble of streamflow reconstructions to formally account for uncertainty in the pool of chronology sites. The major headwater tributaries of the Saskatchewan River Basin, the main source of surface water in the Canadian Prairie Provinces, are used as the case study. It is shown that the developed methodology explains the variance of streamflows to a larger extent than the conventional approach and better preserves the persistence and variability of streamflows across time scales (Hurst‐type behaviour). The resulting ensemble of paleo‐hydrologic time series is able to more credibly pinpoint the timing and extent of past dry and wet periods and provides a dynamic range of uncertainty in reconstruction. This range varies with time over the course of the reconstruction period, indicating that the utility of tree‐ring chronologies for paleo‐reconstruction differs for different time periods over the past several centuries in the history of the region. The proposed ensemble approach provides a credible range of multiple‐century‐long water availability scenarios that can be used for vulnerability assessment of the existing water infrastructure and improving water resources management. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hybrid platform for high‐tech equipment protection against earthquake and microvibration

To ensure the high quality of ultra‐precision products such as semiconductors and optical microscopes, high‐tech equipment used to make these products requires a normal working environment with extremely limited vibration. Some of high‐tech industry centres are also located in seismic zones: the safety of high‐tech equipment during an earthquake event becomes a critical issue. It is thus imperative to find an effective way to ensure the functionality of high‐tech equipment against microvibration and to protect high‐tech equipment from damage when earthquake events occur. This paper explores the possibility of using a hybrid platform to mitigate two types of vibration. The hybrid platform, on which high‐tech equipment is installed, is designed to work as a passive isolation platform to abate mainly acceleration response of high‐tech equipment during an earthquake and to function as an actively controlled platform to reduce mainly velocity response of high‐tech equipment under normal working condition. To examine the performance of the hybrid platform, the analytical model of a coupled hybrid platform and building system incorporating with magnetostrictive actuators is established. The simulation results obtained by applying the analytical model to a high‐tech facility indicate that the proposed hybrid platform is feasible and effective. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.