Given the increase in energy consumption and the advancement of urbanization, the expected level for the prevention and control of air pollution has not been achieved, and urban air quality has deteriorated significantly. Environmental air ecological compensation has become an important method to control air pollution to realize sustainable economic and societal development. The object, method, and standard for compensation were discussed based on the case study of the environmental air ecological compensation mechanism in the Hubei Province of China. Results show that the compensation mechanism solves the negative externality of the environment caused by the fuzzy air property rights to a certain extent. Besides, the mechanism addresses the dilemma caused by the fragmented management of the local government to the collective action and promotes the transformation from the traditional pollution control mode of the regulated enterprises to the governance mode to strengthen government regulation.

The purpose of the study is to estimate the operating cost of the electrokinetic methods in the removal of toxic metals (TMs) from granite mine tailing soil with the help of the proposed cost estimation models. The conventional electrokinetic technologies have not considered the cost estimation in the removal of TMs from polluted soils. In this study, we incorporated the chelates such as citric acid and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) enhanced electrokinetic soil remediation process followed by a cost estimation of the processes. Our study proposed the cost estimation models to determine the operating cost of the conventional and enhanced electrokinetic treatment processes, specifically for the removal of six TMs such as chromium (Cr), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn) and manganese (Mn) from granite mine tailing soil. We investigated the chelating enhanced electrokinetic removal of TMs about six times more than the conventional process for 20 days of operation. Furthermore, we estimated that the operating cost of the conventional and enhanced electrokinetic processes was about US$ 110 to US$ 508 per cubic meter of treated soil. The total operating cost was about US$ 110 to US$ 1006 per cubic meter of treated soil including enhancers cost. We believe the chelating enhanced electrokinetic treatment of soil was more effective than conventional treatment for removal of TMs from contaminated soil.

Sikkim is a small Indian state located in the Himalayan region with 10.67 thousand hectares under cultivation and rice production of 19.69 thousand tonnes. Mechanized rice harvesting can play a crucial role in reducing grain loss and operational cost. To mechanize rice harvesting in hilly areas, a feasibility study has been undertaken to evaluate the field performance of self-propelled Vertical Conveyor Reaper (VCR) for the harvesting of rice as well as economically in terraces of Daramdin Government farm, Sikkim. In India, out of total 488 MT crop residue, about 24% of it was burnt in agricultural fields during 2017, resulting in emissions of particulate matter (PM2.5), elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC) and additionally CO2 equivalent greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O) were also added to the atmosphere. VCR has been evaluated under the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) code in field & laboratory conditions. The pre and post-harvesting field parameters for operating the VCR have been determined. The field capacity and efficiency of VCR were 0.1203 ha/h and 72.03% at 1.52 km/h, compared to 0.0178 ha/h in manual operation. At lower speed and better control, terrace-1 losses were 0.58% less than terrace-2. The harvesting cost/ha calculated considering the field capacity was Rs.1140.59/ha (US$16.44) and Rs. 1368.61/ha (US$19.73) for gear-1 and gear-2 respectively, which leads to considerable savings in time and labour which was 85.2% and 30.8% for the operational cost (gear-1) giving maximum efficiency. Also, instead of manual operation where stubble height remains at 70 mm, VCR harvest the crop at a maximum height of 11-13 mm, which further reduces the crop residue burning in fields and results in mitigation of air pollution. Therefore, in hilly terraces or plane areas where the use of reaper is feasible, its use may be promoted as efficient harvesting and environmental strategy both.

Waste disposal and management is a serious concern especially in most of the developing countries. Both big and small business holders may influence the quality of their immediate environment. The present study investigated the nature of waste and attitude of different business units towards waste disposal practices around the industrial area of Rosslyn, Pretoria, South Africa. Mixed method approach was used to carry out the research. 138 questionnaires were administered to owners of small and medium-sized business units and managers of big companies. Questionnaires were used to collect information on the nature of waste and attitude towards waste disposal and management. It was noted that the industrial area in Rosslyn is dominated largely by small and medium-sized business enterprises. The level of education of most of the small-sized business units was below matric level. The most common types of waste generated were papers, plastics and discarded food in some disposable materials. The small business holders did not consider waste separation as an important issue and also the purchase of different waste bins for wastes separations. The small business holders believed that it is the responsibility of the government to provide different waste bins. From the companies that render services to big companies, metals are separated for recycling mainly because they can be sold to other companies. Concern for the environment or human did not have any impact on waste management. The study concluded that though there are waste bins in the study area, these seem inadequate thus leading to improper waste management systems around the industrial area in Rosslyn. Workers and small companies’ holders did not see any reason why they should be concerned about proper waste management. Campaigns and education on waste management should be intensified to change attitudes towards proper waste management.

Natural waters vary in chemical composition and the factors controlling the composition include physical, chemical and biological processes. Water is one of the most important natural resources for all the living organisms because it is required for various metabolic activities. In addition, water is required for various domestic purposes, irrigation and power generation and the industries. Amongst various organic components, the iron and manganese are an important trace metal required for all the biological systems. The occurrence of iron and manganese, in the present study, was reported from Ramgarh Lake in Gorakhpur, India. Two sampling stations were selected for the present study. The iron and manganese have several effects due to their high concentration. The study was carried out for one year (January 2017 to December 2017). The significance of iron and manganese is discussed in the present investigation.

Cashew is an immigrant tree from eastern Brazil and is regarded as one of the top three commercial crops of India. In general, Cashew nutshell contains 25-34% oil and was not much used earlier; however, commercial and industrial applications are being developed in the recent decade. In this present study, 100 kg of dried cashew shells yielded around 18.5 to 22.6% of cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL) while 58-63% of waste dark solid oil cake retained in extraction chamber. Eventually, these oil cakes were rich in fibre, protein and energy contents and offered as good alternative to traditional applications in the production of environmentally friendly organic fertilizer for vegetable crops. Also, this study investigated the safety of using CNSL cake as fertilizer for leaf & vegetable; and also noted improvised physico-chemical properties of soil which enhanced the soil fertility thereby leading to high crop yield and nutritional quality. Furthermore, CNSL was also proven to be a phytopesticide for eradication of serious pests, Odontopus varicornis, on cotton plant. Interestingly, toxicity study proved that the applications of CNSL was not only limited to biofertilizer but was also proven to be an effective biopesticide for the control of pest and insects.

This study was conducted on the oldest water treatment plant in the city of Basra, which is the Al-Buradieiah Water Treatment Plant (BWTP) during the period from December 2017 to March 2018. The study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of the plant by calculating the efficiency of sedimentation, filtration and sterilization basins, as well as to examine the water quality by examining the physical and chemical characteristics of raw water and treated water in this plant and then compare it with the World Health Organization (WHO) and Iraqi standards. The results of this study showed that the efficiency of sedimentation basins is 54%, while the efficiency of filtration basins is 24% and sterilization efficiency ranging from 37 to 65%. As well as, laboratory results of treated water quality have also shown that the turbidity equal to (7.24 NTU), electrical conductivity (EC) equal to 5040 µS/cm, the total dissolved solids (TDS) equal to 3380 mg/L and the total suspended solids (TSS) equal to 190 mg/L of the water outside from the BWTP. All these water quality results are higher than the WHO and Iraqi standard limitations except the value of pH, which is 6.9 and within the permissible limits.

In this study, the adsorption performance of rice wine lees on reactive brilliant red (X-3B) was studied. Five aspects of SEM, FTIR characterization of rice wine lees, initial X-3B pH, rice wine lees dosage and initial dye concentration were studied. The characterization of rice wine lees indicated that it was a good adsorbent due to its larger specific surface area. And the experiment results showed that pH had a great influence on the adsorption effect of rice wine lees, and the adsorption performance decreased with the increase of pH. At the same time, the removal rate of reactive brilliant red X-3B increased with the increase of the dosage of rice wine lees and decreased with the increase of initial concentration of dyes. In the meanwhile, the experimental data were fitted to find that the adsorption of Reactive Brilliant Red X-3B by rice wine lees followed the Langmuir isotherm model. The adsorption kinetics was consistent with the intraparticle diffusion model and the maximum adsorption capacity was 12.376 mg/g.

Using a unique dataset of 524 households from an urban hill town of Darjeeling in India, this study addresses two key issues of (a) determining the drivers of risk perception from water use, and (b) understanding whether water treatment decisions and choice of water sources are jointly made by the households. The results from probit model show that the age of the head, perception of the aesthetic qualities of water (odour and colour), education level of the head, the volume of improved water used, water treatment decision and expenditure on the water are the significant drivers of risk perception. The results of a rare investigation on the likelihood of the joint decision of treating water and choice of water source show that these decisions are indeed jointly made in the study area. Households decision to treat water from an unimproved source and the choice of improved water can be seen as substitutes.

Effectiveness of macroalgae was investigated for enhancing wastewater treatment processes. Bioremediation using macroalgae could remove nitrate and phosphate contaminants in the water where algae assimilate nitrogen and phosphorus and convert them to biomass. This study evaluates the effects of high nitrate concentration on the kinetics of cell growth during nitrate and phosphate removal by a macroalga Cladophora glomerata. The algal growth and nitrate removal from media containing initial nitrate concentrations of 5mg/L to 400 mg/L were monitored in batch growth, whereas control media has no additional nitrate. Light exposure was kept for 12 and 20 hours. The purpose of this research was to find out the effect of various nitrate concentrations on nitrate and phosphate removal with macroalgal growth. Maximum growth kinetic reaches ?=0.075/day in 20 hours light exposure with 100 mg/L initial nitrate concentration. Nitrate and phosphate reach about 90% removal rates on the fifth day. Nitrate concentration was not significantly affected by biomass growth (Pearson correlation: 0.295). But, phosphate concentration has a moderate correlation with macroalgae biomass (Pearson correlation: 0.533).