Natural coagulants have received much attention for turbidity removal, thanks to their environmental friendliness. The present study investigates potential application of rice starch for removal of turbidity from aqueous solutions. It considers the effects of four main factors, namely settling time (40-140 min), pH (2-8), slow stirring speed (20-60 rpm), and rice starch dosage (0-200 mg/L), each at five levels, by means of central composite design. Results show that a quadratic model can adequately describe turbidity removal in case of non-autoclaved rice starch with statistics of R2= 0.95, R2adj.= 0.91, R2pred.= 0.77, AP = 23.75, and CV = 4.77. It has also been found that the performance of non-autoclaved rice starch is superior to the autoclaved variety, in terms of removal efficiency and floc size. In the optimal point, predicted by the model, a removal efficiency equal to 98.4% can be attained, using non-autoclaved rice starch, which is higher than that of the autoclaved rice starch (71.29%). The significant effective parameters have proven to be settling time along with pH. Overall, rice starch can be considered a promising high potential coagulant for removal of turbidity from water or wastewater.

Environmental assessments are essential in order to align the process of country's progress towards sustainable development. It is important for the project to be implemented in direction of sustainable development, which is to carry out a project in such a way that in both short and long term, the greatest advantages and the least harm are inflicted on the environment, economy, communities, and culture. Environmental assessment of gas pipelines is classified as a linear projects; therefore, the design and implementation of an appropriate method in accordance with the project's linearity, due to the use of GIS tools and multi-criteria decision-making methods, can be a good innovation for this study, in comparison to previous similar projects. The purpose of this study is to identify the best option for gas pipelines. Once the project's study scope is specified, the study based the sensitive environmental parameters of the area (based on the requirements of environmental impact assessment reports) on two methods of Analyzing Hierarchical Process (AHP) and overlaying methods for sub-parameters, ranking and prioritizing the area of evaluation. Based on the results, the first and second priorities belong to the parameter of distance and position in the protected areas with a weight of 29.9% and hydrology with a weight of 24.7%, followed by slope, vegetation, land use, and fault, which are ranked third to seventh, respectively. After identifying the best map option, the study extracts the critical points for the construction of pipelines, identifies the negative effects of the project, and presents the environmental impacts and preventive measures, reduction and compensation of negative effects in both construction and operation phases, along with a summary of the Environmental Management Program (EMP).

The transport mechanism of contaminated groundwater has been a problematic issue for many decades, mainly due to the bad impact of the contaminants on the quality of the groundwater system. In this paper, the exact solution of two-dimensional advection-dispersion equation (ADE) is derived for a semi-infinite porous media with spatially dependent initial and uniform/flux boundary conditions. The flow velocity is considered temporally dependent in homogeneous media however, both spatially and temporally dependent is considered in heterogeneous porous media. First-order degradation term is taken into account to obtain a solution using Laplace Transformation Technique (LTT) for both the medium. The solute concentration distribution and breakthrough are depicted graphically. The effect of different transport parameters is studied through proposed analytical investigation. Advection-dispersion theory of contaminant mass transport in porous media is employed. Numerical solution is also obtained using Crank Nicholson method and compared with analytical result. Furthermore, accuracy of the result is discussed with root mean square error (RMSE) for both the medium. This study has developed a transport and prediction 2-D model that allows the early remediation and removal of possible pollutant in both the porous structures. The result may also be used as a preliminary predictive tool for groundwater resource and management.

The present study aims at developing a forecasting model to predict the next year’s air pollution concentrations in the atmosphere of Iran. In this regard, it proposes the use of ARIMA, SVR, and TSVR, as well as hybrid ARIMA-SVR and ARIMA-TSVR models, which combined the autoregressive part of the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model with the support vector regression technique (ARIMA-SVR). The main concept of generating a hybrid model is to combine different forecasting techniques so as to reduce the time-series forecasting errors. The data used in this study are annual CO2, CO, NOx, SO2, SO3, and SPM concentrations in Iran. According to the results, the ARIMA-TSVR Model is preferable over the other models, having the lowest error value among them which account for 0.0000076, 0.0000065, and 0.0001 for CO2; 0.0000043, 0.0000012, and 0.000022 for NOx; 0.00032, 0.00028., and 0.0012 for SO2; 0.000021, 0.000014, and 0.00038 for CO; 0.0000088, 0.0000005, and 0.00019 for SPM; and 0.000021, 0.000019, and 0.0044 for SO3. Furthermore, the accuracy of all models are checked in case of all pollutants, through RMSE, MAE, and MAPE value, with the results showing that the hybrid ARIMA-TSVR model has also been the best. Generally, results confirm that ARIMA-TSVR can be used satisfactorily to forecast air pollution concentration. Hence, the ARIMA-TSVR model could be employed as a new reliable and accurate data intelligent approach for the next 35 years’ forecasting.

The ever increasing pile-up of electronic waste in dumping sites, especially in developing countries such as China, Pakistan, India and several African countries, might have caused a significant alteration in the microbial community of the contaminated sites. This change in the microbial population may have significant impact to the soil ecology function. The major pollutants of electronic waste are heavy metals like cadmium, lead, nickel, mercury, hexavalent chromium, arsenic and persistent organic pollutants like polychlorinated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers. In general, the toxic pollutants reduce the normal soil microbial biota but give rise to increase in the heavy metal resistant and organic pollutants remediating microbes. With the development of culture- independent approach as a tool for studying microbial diversity, the microbial community structures in toxic waste contaminated sites have been revealed gradually. Studies on the microbial community structure of electronic waste contaminated sites show that there are significant differences between the contaminated and the non-contaminated sites. Soil pH in the e-waste contaminated sites of various regions has been reported in a wide range varying from pH 4 to pH 12. However, the predominant phyla so far identified in the electronic waste contaminated sites, based on studies through culture independent approach, are Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, Chloroflexi, Crenarchaeota and Bacteroidetes accounting for more than 80% of the total sequence reads on an average. The genera like Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Clostridium, Rhodococcus, Achromobacter and many unclassified bacteria are the common types in the contaminated sites.

The city of Tehran undergoes an increasing growth in population as well as industrial activities, both of which increase the concentration of air pollutants. The current research tries to turn a limited and focused system of air contamination measurement and control to an unlimited and extensive one that examines the concentration of each of the contaminants in any area of Tehran. Accordingly, information from twenty air-pollution measurement stations at certain points of the city helps measuring the concentrations of contaminants like SO2, NO2, CO, O3, PM2.5, and PM10 throughout a year on a daily basis. The index of AQI has also been used as the air quality index to determine the level of pollution in the city. Using ARC-GIS software, the AQI or the air quality index has been zoned and a comprehensive map, designed. Moreover, in order to illustrate this map, a map of the zoning has been drawn up for this purpose on December, 26, 2016, considered an unhealthy day in Tehran, the results of which show that only 27.8% of the city is unhealthy and the rest of the city does not fall in unhealthy area. However, due to the lack of a comprehensive map for determining the AQI in different parts of the city, the whole city closes down, leading in an economic loss of about $ 1 million a day for the city.

In this study, the lethal toxicity, behavioral responses and hematotoxicity of formulated chlorpyrifos on Clarias gariepinus was evaluated. C. gariepinus fingerlings were exposed to 0.2 mg/L, 0.25 mg/L, 0.3 mg/L, 0.35 mg/L and 0.4 mg/L of the active ingredient chlorpyrifos to determine the lethal concentrations and behavioral effects. C. gariepinus juveniles (38.84±7.67g) were then exposed to 0.0256 mg/L and 0.0128 mg/L for 14 days to study somatic indices and haematological effects. The 24h, 48h, 72h and 96h LC50 were estimated as 0.292 (0.210 – 0.376) mg/L, 0.275 (0.252 – 0.297) mg/L, 0.263 (0.242 – 0.282) mg/L, and 0.256 (0.235 – 0.275) mg/L respectively. Hyper activity, loss of equilibrium, erratic swimming, trembling, respiratory distress and poor startle response were observed in fingerlings in response to acute toxic stress of chlorpyrifos. Liver somatic index (LSI) of exposed juveniles increased significantly (p<0.05) compared with control, while there was no statistically significant difference in all the haematological parameters of the exposed fishes compared with the control (p<0.05). The results indicate that the chlorpyrifos formulation was highly toxic and induced behavioral changes in C gariepinus fingerlings, while sub-lethal concentrations induced inflammation in the liver but had no effect on haematological parameters of Clarias gariepinus juveniles. LSI was sensitive to the sub-lethal concentrations and could serve as indicators or exposure to organophosphate insecticides.

The present study aims at investigating the feasibility of using solar energy as a power source to run electro-kinetic remediation in order to clean-up lead from three types of Iraqi soil. In order to do so, it carries out six tests with enhancement conditions, involving pH control and injection wells. Conducted in the city of Baghdad, Iraq, the experiment, is divided into two groups so that the effect of applying continuous and constant voltage from solar panels study, by means of charge control and battery along with non-continuous and non-constant DC voltage from solar panel could be studied. The DC voltage has been generated by two Solar panels, each with a maximum voltage of 17 volts. All experiments have commenced in March 2017, wherein the soil has been contaminated with a concentration of Pb, equal to 1500 mg/kg as well as initial moisture content equal to 30%. The remediation lasts for seven days, with a potential gradient of about 1.2 V/cm. At the end, the experimental results show that the overall removal efficiencies of 90.7%, 63.3%, and 42.8% have been achieved for sandy, sandy loam, and silty loam soils, respectively, when using solar panels with charge control and battery.

The present study monitors BTEX concentration in outdoor and indoor air of eight different microenvironments during summer 2017 and winter 2018 at Asaloyeh city, Iran's energy capital. It samples BTEX compounds by charcoal tubes, analyzing the samples by means of a gas chromatograph with a flame ionization detector. According to the obtained results, outdoor concentrations of BTEX have been higher than the indoor ones, for both seasons, with the highest outdoor and indoor BTEX being 21.70 and 18.59 μg/m3, respectively. Toluene has been the most abundant substance, among the investigated BTEX in all sampling points. Based on the MIR scale, m, p-xylene is the most dominant contributor to ozone formation potential among BTEX species. Indoor to outdoor (I/O) ratios of BTEX compounds range from 0.53 to 0.88 and 0.41 to 0.77 in winter and summer, respectively. The cumulative hazard index (HI) is within an acceptable range. The LTCR value of benzene concentration, obtained, exceeds the value of 1.0E-06, recommended by USEPA. Sensitivity analysis shows that benzene concentration, exposure duration, and inhalation rate have a greater impact on health risk assessment.

The present research investigates the ability of graphene oxide nanosheets for treatment of dairy wastewater, using In Situ Sludge Magnetic Impregnation” (ISSMI) to separate sludge after adsorption process. To increase the interaction between magnetic nanoparticles and graphene oxide, the former has been functionalized, using 3-Aminopropyl triethoxysilane, with the synthesized graphene oxide and magnetic nanoparticles being characterized by FT-IR, SEM, and NCHS analysis. The experiments have been conducted on the effluent of Pegah factory. The batch adsorption experiments have been carried out to investigate the effect of adsorbent dose, contact time, and pH on the removal of total nitrogen, total phosphorus, COD, and turbidity. At adsorbent dose of 320 mg L-1, the removal efficiencies of 90, 80, 84, and 94% have been observed for TN, TP, COD, and turbidity, respectively. The adsorbent data has been modeled by Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms, giving results that are compatible with Freundlich isotherm. TN, TP, and COD are mostly particulate materials in dairy wastewaters; therefore, when nanosheets aggregate, particulate materials are trapped between GO nanosheets; as a result, pollutants are distributed heterogeneously on the adsorbent's surface. Consequently, adsorption does not occur as monolayer on the surface of GO; for this reason, adsorption follows Freundlich model. Maximum absorption capacity of the adsorbent turns out to be 730 mg g-1 for total nitrogen, 600 mg g-1 for total phosphorus, 26000 mg g-1 for COD, and 5500 mg g-1 for turbidity. Adsorption kinetic has been studied with the first and second order equation, giving results that are compatible with second order equation.