Evaluation of rainfall and wetland water area variability at Thirlmere Lakes using Landsat time-series data

Thirlmere Lakes is a group of five freshwater wetlands in the southwest fringe of Sydney, Australia, that is subject to cyclic wetting and drying. The lakes are surrounded by activities that have led to increasing pressure on the local surface and groundwater supply including farming and mining. The mine has been operating for more than 30 years, and in recent times, there has been speculation that the surface subsidence and underground pumping may have some impact on surface water and groundwater hydrology. A study was undertaken using satellite imagery to examine the relation between water area changes and rainfall variability. The study utilised Landsat time-series data during the period 1982–2014 to calculate changes in the lake water area (LA), through the normalised difference water index (NDWI) threshold. High classification accuracy was achieved using NDWI against high-resolution data that are available for the years 2008 (88.4 %), 2010 (92.8 %), and 2013 (96.9 %). The LA measurement was correlated against 11 historic observations that occurred in 2009, 2010, and 2011 during drier wetland conditions. Correlation analysis of the LA with the residual rainfall mass spread across the past 30 years has found that rainfall variability is a major dominant factor associated with the wetland changes. The underground mining operations, if verified by independent investigations, probably play a minor or negligible contributor to variations in total wetland area during the study period. This study has demonstrated that remote sensing is a technique that can be used to augment limited historic data.     

Activated sludge acclimation for toluene and DEHP degradation in a two-phase partitioning bioreactor

The effect of activated sludge acclimation on the biodegradation of toluene in the presence of a biodegradable non-aqueous phase liquid, di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), in a two-phase partitioning bioreactor was characterized. The influence of the presence of DEHP, at a ratio of 0.1 % (volume ratio), and of the acclimation of activated sludge (AS) on the biodegradation of hydrophobic VOC was studied. AS was acclimated to both toluene and DEHP simultaneously. Using acclimated cells, 73 and 96 % improvement of the mean biodegradation rates was recorded for toluene and the organic solvent (DEHP), respectively, if compared to the values recorded in the absence of acclimation, during tests performed in Erlenmeyer flasks. Degradation rates were further improved by the use of acclimated AS in a reactor with a large head space; degradation yields for toluene and DEHP were above 99 and 89 %, respectively.     

Way forward to achieve sustainable and cost-effective biofuel production from microalgae: a review

Driven by policies aimed at enhancing energy security and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, the production and use of biofuels have significantly increased in recent years. Microalgae owing to its multiple advantages which include high lipid content, sustainable biomass production, effective land and water utilization are the most potential biofuel feedstock that can provide drop-in fossil fuel replacements without stimulating competition for agricultural resources and are considered to be more environmentally benign than the first- and second-generation biofuel feedstocks. However, there are many existing technical and scientific impediments that are yet to be resolved. Keeping this in view, the present review provides a concise account of the microalgal species known to accumulate high levels of lipid and describes the main factors that should be taken into consideration while selecting suitable algal strains for mass cultivation. The underlining advantages and limitations of raceway pond and photobioreactor cultivation systems are also examined. The recent advances in genetic engineering of microalgae to improve biomass and lipid productivity are then highlighted, which include the ongoing debate over the biosafety issues pertinent to the use of genetically modified algae. Furthermore, a wide range of high-value products that can be co-produced from microalgae have been discussed. The review concludes with a comprehensive summary of the major techno-economic constraints to commercialization of algal-derived biofuels along with promising methods for overcoming these challenges in order to produce cost-competitive and environmentally sustainable biofuel.     

Influence of varying nitrogen levels on lipid accumulation in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Chlorella</Emphasis> sp.

Microalgal lipids can be enhanced through varying nitrogen (N) content, and limited supply of nitrogen source seems to be valuable approach for increased lipid accumulation in microalgae. In this study, Chlorella sp. IM-02 was observed under fluorescence microscope for increased number of lipid bodies under nitrogen scarcity. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was used to determine spectral changes due to varying lipid content under nitrogen-starved (N₀, without sodium nitrate), nitrogen-limited (N_0.1, N_0.25, N_0.5 and N_1.0 representing 0.1, 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 g/L of sodium nitrate, respectively) and nitrogen-sufficient (N_1.5, i.e., 1.5 g/L sodium nitrate) setting. Chlorophyll content was also monitored under these conditions as growth indicator. Various biochemical components viz. total carbohydrates, total proteins and total lipids were also estimated under varying nitrogen levels spectrophotometrically. On fourth day itself, maximum lipid productivity was observed in case of N_0.5, which is having one-third of nitrogen concentration present in original growth media, BG-11. This concludes N_0.5 as suitable nitrogen provision for better production of lipids in Chlorella sp. IM-02 without much compromising the biomass production as both growth and lipid quantity are key parameters affecting the lipid productivity of any microalgal strain.     

Prediction of ground vibration due to quarry blasting based on gene expression programming: a new model for peak particle velocity prediction

Blasting is a widely used technique for rock fragmentation in opencast mines and tunneling projects. Ground vibration is one of the most environmental effects produced by blasting operation. Therefore, the proper prediction of blast-induced ground vibrations is essential to identify safety area of blasting. This paper presents a predictive model based on gene expression programming (GEP) for estimating ground vibration produced by blasting operations conducted in a granite quarry, Malaysia. To achieve this aim, a total number of 102 blasting operations were investigated and relevant blasting parameters were measured. Furthermore, the most influential parameters on ground vibration, i.e., burden-to-spacing ratio, hole depth, stemming, powder factor, maximum charge per delay, and the distance from the blast face were considered and utilized to construct the GEP model. In order to show the capability of GEP model in estimating ground vibration, nonlinear multiple regression (NLMR) technique was also performed using the same datasets. The results demonstrated that the proposed model is able to predict blast-induced ground vibration more accurately than other developed technique. Coefficient of determination values of 0.914 and 0.874 for training and testing datasets of GEP model, respectively show superiority of this model in predicting ground vibration, while these values were obtained as 0.829 and 0.790 for NLMR model.