We investigated the issue of noise pollution in the Bidboland gas refineryby noise measurement and surveys. The Bidboland gas refinery has several process units.The sound pressure levels were measured at several places, such as units of 200, 300,400, 500, boiler, powerhouse area, cooling towers pumps, and maintenance area, and thecorresponding noise maps were produced by using sound plan software. We identified thesources of noise pollution. We first measured the mean A-weighted sound pressure levelin each study unit and analyzed the obtained data in Microsoft Excel. The noisiest unitswere identified and some suggestions were offered to reduce the sound exposure level. Itwas specifically noted through the surveys that the noise levels detected in all testedindustries was much above 80 dBA limit specified by regulations. In lieu, variousmeasures to control the noise pollution were contemplated and discussed.

An in situ particle imaging system for measurement of high concentrations of suspended particles ranging from 30 μm to several mm in diameter, is presented. The system obtains quasi-silhouettes of particles suspended within an open-path sample volume of up to 5 cm in length. Benchmarking against spherical standards and the LISST-100 show good agreement, providing confidence in measurements from the system when extending beyond the size, concentration and particle classification capabilities of the LISST-100. Particle-specific transmittance is used to classify particle type, independent of size and shape. This is applied to mixtures of oil droplets, gas bubbles and oil-coated gas bubbles, to provide independent measures of oil and gas size distributions, concentrations, and oil-gas ratios during simulated subsea releases. The system is also applied to in situ measurements of high concentrations of large mineral flocs surrounding a submarine mine tailings placement within a Norwegian Fjord. | publishedVersion

The terrestrial moss Hypnum cupressiforme was collected in the surroundings of oil plant Slovnaft (Slovakia) and oil industry in Ploiesti (Romania) to monitor heavy metal atmospheric deposition. A comparative evaluation of heavy metal atmospheric deposition recorded at the two locations versus a background area in Europe as Norway is presented. The highest concentrations were observed for V, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni and As at Ploiesti and for V, Cr, Fe, Co, and Ag at Slovnaft. This moss is very useful as biomonitoring organism to indicate and characterize deposition of atmospheric pollutants nearby oil plants

The mosses Pleurozium schreberi, Hylocomium splendes and Dicranum scoparium were used as biomonitors to study the atmospheric deposition of heavy metals on the territory of Slovakia. The samples of mosses were collected on 86 permanent plots. Comparison with limit values from Norway shows strong pollution of the examined areas of Slovakia with many different heavy metals. The maximum level of pollution by heavy metals was observed in the region Gemer-Spis. The most important feature of sampling is that it correlates with the European Moss-Survey-2000 and the results obtained will be incorporated in the Atlas of Heavy Metal Atmospheric Deposition in Europe