Manganese (Mn)-modified ferric oxide/nickel foam (Fe/Ni) catalysts were prepared using Ni as a carrier, Fe and Mn as active components to study NH₃–SCR of NOₓ at low temperature. The effects of different Fe loads and Mn-modified Fe/Ni catalysts on the DeNOₓ activity were investigated. Results show that when the amount of Fe is 10%, Fe/Ni catalyst has the highest NOₓ conversion. For the Mn-modified Fe/Ni catalysts, the NOₓ conversions firstly increase and then decrease with the Mn loading amount increasing. 3MnFe/Ni catalyst shows high NOₓ conversions, which reach 98.4–100% at 120–240 °C. The characterization analyses reveal that Mn-modified Fe/Ni catalysts increase the FeOₓ dispersion on Ni surface, improve significantly the valence ratio of the Fe³⁺/Fe²⁺, the content of lattice oxygen which promotes the catalyst storage and exchange oxygen capacity at low temperature, and the number of Brønsted active acid sites on the catalyst surface, and enhance the low-temperature redox capacity. These factors remarkably increase the NOₓ conversions at low temperature. Especially, 3Mn10Fe/Ni catalyst not only has excellent DeNOₓ activity but also has better water resistance. However, the anti-SO₂ poisoning performance needs to be improved. To further analyze the reason why different catalysts show different DeNOₓ performance, the reaction kinetics was also explored.

Soils can be contaminated by pharmaceuticals. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of soil conditions (influencing sorption and persistence of pharmaceuticals in soils) and plant type on the root uptake of selected pharmaceuticals and their transformation in plant-soil systems. Four plants (lamb’s lettuce, spinach, arugula, radish) planted in 3 soils were irrigated for 20 days (26) with water contaminated by one of 3 pharmaceuticals (carbamazepine, atenolol, sulfamethoxazole) or their mixture. The concentrations of pharmaceuticals and their metabolites in soils and plant tissues were evaluated after the harvest. Sulfamethoxazole and atenolol dissipated rapidly from soils. The larger concentrations of both compounds and an atenolol metabolite were found in roots than in leaves. Sulfamethoxazole metabolites were below the limits of quantifications. Carbamazepine was stable in soils, easily uptaken, accumulated, and metabolized in plant leaves. The efficiency of radish and arugula (both family Brassicaceae) in metabolizing was very low contrary to the high and moderate efficiencies of lamb’s lettuce and spinach, respectively. Compounds’ transformations mostly masked the soil impact on their accumulation in plant tissues. The negative relationships were found between the carbamazepine sorption coefficients and its concentrations in roots of radish, lamb’s lettuce, and spinach.

Human exposure to pesticide mixtures can occur from the diet and other sources. Realistic exposure and risk assessments should include multiple sources and compounds and include the relative hazards of the different compounds. The EU-funded Euromix project is developing new web-based tools to facilitate these calculations. A case study is presented that exemplifies their use for a population of UK residents, including exposure from crop-spraying. A UK pesticide usage survey provided information on real pesticide combinations applied to crops of wheat, potatoes, sugar beet and dessert apples. This information was combined with outputs from two alternative simulation models of spray drift to estimate dermal, oral and inhalation exposures of residents. These non-dietary exposures were combined with dietary exposure estimates using the Monte Carlo Risk Assessment software to produce a distribution of aggregated and cumulative exposures. Compounds are weighted by relative potency to generate a measure of overall risk. Uncertainty quantification was also included in the distribution of exposures. These tools are flexible to allow diverse sources of exposure and can provide important information to decision-makers and help to prioritise testing of pesticide mixtures. Including non-dietary sources changed the prioritisation of pesticide mixtures, when compared to dietary exposure alone.

Better cotton is introduced with the aim of a reduction in the use of environmentally detrimental farm inputs in order to attain sustainable cotton production. The present study is designed to assess the environmental and economic effects of better cotton in Pakistan using panel data comprising of two cropping seasons, 2015 and 2016. Panel methods were used in the present study. Findings show that better cotton increases the gross margin by 37% and yield by 9%, whereas it results in decreasing seed rate by 6%, fertilizers by 7%, pesticides by 7%, and irrigation by 14%. Since better cotton involves more labor use due to higher yield, labor increases by 3%. The study concludes that better cotton is more economically and environmentally sustainable than conventional cotton. The study suggests that public private partnership will be a good strategy to diffuse better cotton technologies among the farming communities.

An in situ wet chemical deposition method has been applied for the successful surface modification of Ce (IV)-incorporated hydrous Fe(III) oxide (CIHFO) with a hydrophilic graphene precursor, graphene oxide (GO). The surface area of as-prepared composite (GO-CIHFO) has enhanced (189.57 m² g⁻¹) compared with that of pristine CIHFO (140.711 m² g⁻¹) and has irregular surface morphology consisting of microcrystals (~ 2–3 nm) and mesoporous (3.5486 nm) structure. The GO-CIHFO composite shows enhanced fluoride scavenging capacity (136.24 mg F g⁻¹) than GO (3 mg F g⁻¹) and pristine CIHFO (32.62 mg F g⁻¹) at pH 7.0. Also, in acidic pH range and at 323 K temperature, the Langmuir capacity of as-prepared composite is 190.61 mg F g⁻¹. It has been observed that fluoride removal by GO–CIHFO occurs from solutions obeying pseudo-second-order kinetics and multilayer adsorption process. The film/boundary layer diffusion process is also the rate-determining step. The nature of the adsorption reaction is reasonably spontaneous and endothermic in thermodynamic sense. It was observed that 1.2 g.L⁻¹ of GO-CIHFO dosage can effectively optimise the fluoride level of natural groundwater samples (9.05 mg L⁻¹) to the desirable permissible limit. Reactivation of used material up to a level of 73.77% with a solution of alkaline pH has proposed reusability of nanocomposites ensuring sustainability of the proposed material as fluoride scavenger in future.

Through an analysis of data gathered from Chinese firms surveyed by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), this paper studies the motivations of Chinese firms to respond to the CDP. The results indicate that (1) Chinese firms are more inclined to respond to the CDP survey for the sense-making motivation; (2) Chinese firms are less inclined to respond to the CDP survey due to the existence of proprietary costs for information disclosure; (3) self-interested political motivation is a negative motivation for Chinese firms to respond to the CDP survey; state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are less inclined to respond to the CDP survey than are non-SOEs; and (4) Chinese firms did not consider a financing motivation when deciding whether to respond to the CDP survey. However, the results of our further research show that if firms actively respond to the CDP survey, their financing constraints can be significantly reduced. This paper studies the four motivations for Chinese firms to respond to the CDP survey, contributing to the research of carbon emission disclosure. This paper highlights the importance of corporate carbon awareness for carbon emission disclosure, builds an understanding of the internal driving forces of response to the CDP survey among Chinese firms, and thus promotes the increase of Chinese corporate disclosure of carbon emission.

This study evaluated the NOₓ adsorption and desorption performance as well as the casual relationship underlying a Mn-incorporated catalyst (Pt/Ba/Ce/xMn/γ-Al₂O₃). NOₓ adsorption and desorption are regarded as a prominent index for the NOₓ removal performance of NOₓ storage and reduction; we utilized NOₓ storage experiments with various inlet NO and O₂ concentrations and cycling adsorption/desorption experiments with a couple of adsorption time protocols for performance evaluation. In-suit DRIFT and NOₓ-TPD tests were implemented to reveal the instant stored species and their thermal stability. Eight percent of Mn catalyst at 350 °C was adopted in the described experiments for its desirable NOₓ adsorption characteristics. The optimal NOₓ storage performance was found under 10% O₂, deteriorating when the concentration was further increased. Furthermore, elevating NO concentration impaired the NOₓ adsorption due to the low NO₂/NOₓ ratio. It was also found that shorter adsorption time facilitated NOₓ removal via maintaining an unsaturated state for active storage components in terms of a fixed desorption time. The stored species existed as nitrites and nitrates with a good low-temperature thermal stability which however decayed at higher temperatures as exhibited in the DRIFT and NOₓ-TPD tests. These findings provided invaluable information for the application of Mn-incorporated catalyst for NOₓ removal in diesel exhaust purification to relieve the aerial pollution.

The peri-urban soil is exposed to pollutants because of its proximity to the city, which may influence the quality of agricultural products. In this study, the occurrence of 16 trace elements (TEs), 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and 33 contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) was analyzed in two soil sites of the peri-urban area of Barcelona (Spain) (S2 and S3) and a pristine site (S1). Levels of Pb (S2 164 and S3 150 mg kg⁻¹) are around 2.5 times higher than the guideline values. Values for Cu (178 mg kg⁻¹) in S2 are 1.8-fold higher, whereas for Zn, levels are slightly above the threshold in S2 (208 mg kg⁻¹) and S3 (217 mg kg⁻¹). The total concentrations of PAHs are significantly below the limits: 24 ng g⁻¹ dw (S1), 38 ng g⁻¹ dw (S2), 49 ng g⁻¹ dw (S3), whereas only some CECs are detected with low concentrations. We also developed a simple and rapid method to assess soil pollution. Here, we use two plant growth indexes (seed germination rate and root elongation at the initial stage) of three seeds (lettuce, tomato, and cauliflower) to assess soil chemical contamination on agriculture. In the peri-urban soil, the concentration of Pb was 2.5 times higher than the guideline values, whereas for Cu and Zn, values were slightly above their limits, while only few PAHs and CECs were detected. Results for principal component analysis suggest that root elongation is a more sensitive measurement endpoint than germination rate, especially for lettuce. The germination rate of tomato relied on the nitrate in the soil and decreased sharply in the site with pollution of Cu and As. Under the specific conditions of this study, cauliflower should not be recommended to assess environmental pollution due to its low sensitivity to pollutants. In conclusion, this is a low-cost, simple, and rapid method for evaluating the effects of chemical pollution of agriculture soils on seed growth.

Eggshell ash was used as an adsorbent to remove phosphorus from wastewater. Adsorbent dose, initial phosphorus concentration, and contact time were investigated to determine the optimum conditions. Results indicate that 5 g of eggshell ash adsorbent with 1.5 mg L⁻¹ of initial phosphorus concentration removed over 90% of the phosphorus. When the temperature was increased, phosphorus removal potential also increased. Specific surface area, morphological features, and structure of the adsorbent were characterized by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (SEM-EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Results showed prominent calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus in the eggshell ash surface after adsorption. The elemental composition of eggshell ash surfaces before adsorption did not contain phosphorus, revealing that calcium carbonate-based eggshell ash was co-precipitated with calcium phosphate. The adsorption mechanism was studied by applying Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. Experimental data fit well with the Langmuir model, which indicates monolayer adsorption. Eggshell ash was also applied as an adsorbent in wastewater at Srinakharinwirot University dormitories, resulting in 80% phosphorus removal within 2 h. These findings indicated that eggshell ash could be applied as an adsorbent for phosphorus treatment and removal from domestic and industrial wastewater.