A large amount of oil-based mud drilling cuttings (OBMDC) are generated during shale gas extraction, which adversely affects the environment. In order to realize the resource utilization of waste, the object of this paper is to study the feasibility of OBMDC to produce cement clinker. The results showed that at relatively low calcination temperature, adding a certain amount of OBMDC can produce cement clinker successfully and reduce fuel consumption. The compressive strength, hydration performance, and physical characteristics of clinker with 0, 3, 6, and 9% OBMDC were investigated by chemical analysis methods, X-ray diffraction, isothermal calorimetry, mercury intrusion, and energy dispersive spectroscopy. The results showed that the formulated cement has good hydration performance and the compressive strength also meets relevant standards. The heavy metal ions leaching test showed that the preparation of cement clinker by a low amount of OBMDC could effectively reduce the toxicity of OBMDC. In general, the preparation of cement clinker by OBMDC can realize the resource utilization of waste, effectively reduce its toxicity, and play a positive role in environmental protection.

The photodegradation of cyanide from steel industry wastewater was explored in pilot plant scale using hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) under UV irradiation. However, it was interesting to notice that only H₂O₂ or only UV was inefficient to degrade the cyanide from industrial wastewater. There was a synergy between H₂O₂ and UV radiation for the degradation of cyanide. The generated hydroxyl radicals from irradiated H₂O₂ were responsible for the efficient degradation of cyanide. Besides, the dissolved oxygen had a significant role on the degradation process. The photodecyanation rate was faster initially and decreased gradually thereafter ensuring the industrial viability of the process. The dozing rate of H₂O₂ and the UV lamp power were systematically optimized and they were found to be 8 l/m³ and 640 W, respectively. The photodecyanation kinetics was also explored simultaneously and the rate constant was found to be 3.21 × 10⁻² min⁻¹ at the selected dosage of 8 l/m³. This work demonstrates a scalable and facile decyanation technique from steel plant effluent without generation of toxic by-products.

The search for a balance between the energy-related challenges of the future and providing nutritional security has resulted in the development of a market for biofuels of successive generations. The larger their portion in biofuel production, the less the prices of agricultural products will increase. The use of algae, cyanobacteria and aquatic plants in the production of liquid fuels is an alternative. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of thermal hydrolysis on degradation of polysaccharides contained in biomass of cyanobacteria Arthrospira platensis and to assess the effectiveness of ethanol production from preconditioned biomass. The study is aimed at the selection of the most advantageous parameters of thermochemical hydrolysis to reach the experiment variant with the best effects, degree of polysaccharide degradation and effectiveness of alcohol fermentation. The experiment was divided into two stages; in stage I, the possibility of obtaining fermentable sugars by hydrothermal and chemical treatment of the substrate was tested. Stage II involved an assessment of the effectiveness of the pretreatment methods to produce bioethanol in alcohol fermentation. Yeast used in industrial ethanol production—Saccharomyces cerevisiae As4—was used in the alcohol fermentation. The results have shown that the temperature of 150 °C was the most beneficial for the process of thermohydrolysis, and the mash in the microwave-heated sample contained the highest concentration of alcohol (0.97 g/l), which is 98% more than in the control mash and 37% more than in the conventionally heated sample.

Exposure to lead (Pb) is a major risk factor in reproductive toxicity, somatic, and germ cell genotoxicity. Exposure via deteriorating Pb paints and contaminated air, soil, and water had been the primary routes. However, with increasing reports of Pb accumulation in mushrooms and other food items may increase the etiology of Pb poisoning. The study herein investigated somatic genotoxicity and reproductive abnormalities in mice fed extracts of Pb-contaminated Pleurotus ostreatus. Male mice were fed aqueous extracts of P. ostreatus cultivated in 0, 10, 20, 100, 200, 500, and 1000 mg/L of Pb-contaminated rice straw for 35 days. Testes were analyzed for Pb accumulation, histopathology and relative weight gain, caudal epididymis for abnormal sperm morphology, and bone marrow for micronucleus test. Concentration-related significant increase in Pb accumulation was observed in P. ostreatus and testes of exposed mice. Decrease testicular weight, congestion of blood vessels, necrosis, and disorganization of the seminiferous tubules were observed in treated mice. In addition, fold increase of 2.78, 3.39, 6.67, 7.21, 9.63, and 9.70 in abnormal sperm morphology in accordance with the Pb concentrations respectively, confirmed reproductive toxicity. Significant increase in micronucleated polychromatic (PCE) and normochromatic (NCE) erythrocytes and concentration-related decrease PCE-NCE ratio in the bone marrow of treated mice suggest genome instability. Pb-contaminated P. ostreatus increased somatic and germ cell genotoxicity in mice. This may predispose the mice to genetic related syndromes and reproductive syndromes. It further suggests caution in the consumption of metal laden wild mushrooms and crop plants.

Emerging economies are mostly plague by a massive consumption of non-renewable energy amidst an ever inceasing urbanization rate with little or no attention to the quality of the environmental. As such, this paper investigates the relationship between renewable energy, urbanization, economic growth, trade openness, and ecological footprint in CIVETS countries, namely, Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, and South Africa. The study employs augmented mean group estimator, panel cointegration, and causality tests. The findings reveal that renewable energy improves environmental quality, and trade is not particularly harmful to the environment. However, non-renewable energy consumption and urbanization are the chief contributors to environmental degradation in the CIVETS countries. Economic expansion mitigates environmental deterioration in Colombia, South Africa, and Turkey, but contributes to pollution in Egypt, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Finally, the causality test suggests that urbanization drives environmental degradation. Policy directions are discussed.

The purpose of this research study is to investigate the role of shadow economies in the levels of ecological footprint for the case of Turkey. Annual data set ranging from 1961 to 2014 was used with this respect. The results of this study verify the long-term and positively elastic impact of shadow economic activities on the level of ecological footprint in Turkey; that is, 1 % change in shadow economic activities results in a 1.008% change in ecological footprint in the same direction. This study, therefore, reaches a significant conclusion that in Turkey, shadow economies are long-term and essential drivers of environmental pollution.

The land use changes and farmers’ unreasonable land use behaviors continue to threaten China’s agricultural land, exacerbating the impact of pollution. The factors that persuade farm households to perform pro-environmental actions are preliminary efforts to strengthen environmental protection. The current study aims to better understand how the dual interest preferences of rural households are interrelated and influence their environmental behavior. A structured questionnaire was employed to collect the primary data from 4 provinces in China to develop new methods to measure the dual interest preferences of farmers and to study their impact on pro-environmental behaviors. The structural equation model (SEM) in Stata14 was used to analyze the relationship between latent and observed variables and to understand their impact on farmers’ environmental behavior. The results showed that all the observed variables have the expected signs and have a significant relationship with their latent variables. With the coefficients of 0.76, 0.88, and 0.64, the underlying variables related to the households’ dual interest preferences are statistically significantly correlated. The coefficient 0.34 of the latent variable ensures a direct and significant impact on farm households’ pro-environmental behavior, suggesting that non-uniformity preferences or conflicts exist between the short- and long-term economic interests. Similarly, a positive and significant coefficient of 0.28 suggests the non-uniformity of preferences in short-term economic and social interests. All the fitness indices ensured that our model fits well. To improve the environment and land quality, the current research has policy implications for the adoption of environment-friendly pesticide and organic fertilizers.

Colony formation in Microcystis aeruginosa played important roles in blooms formation. To study the effects of plant allelopathy on colony formation in M. aruginosa, unicellular M. aeruginosa was cultivated under laboratory conditions treated with various extract concentration of Carex cinerascens. The growth of M. aeruginosa in the treatments with 0.05 and 0.1 mg L⁻¹ extract of C. cinerascens was promoted but the growth in the treatments with 1.5, 3.0, and 6.0 mg L⁻¹ C. cinerascens extract was inhibited. Obvious colony formation in M. aeruginosa was observed in all treatments while no colony formation was detected in the control. The cell number per colony at the first day was the largest and decreased along with culture time. The cell number per colony in the control ranged from 3.0 to 4.0 during the experiment. However, the values in the five treatments at the first day were 33, 80, 58, 41, and 30, respectively. A positive exponential relationship between cell number per colony of M. aeruginosa and extracellular polysaccharides (EPS) content was found as well. Compared the fold-increase in cell number per colony and the fold-increase in total biomass of M. aeruginosa at various day, it was found that colony formation induced by extract of C. cinerascens was primarily dependent on promotion of cell adhesion during the first 2 days. The cell number per colony decreased afterward was due to the increasing proportion of single cells in the culture because single cells had a great higher growth rate than M. aeruginosa colonies under culture condition. Our results suggested that plant allelopathy be one of the major factor contributing to colony formation in M. aeruginosa.

At present, many researchers are increasingly aware of the importance of using models to identify heavy metal (HM) pollution sources. However, on the performance and application of different source identification models to HMs under different land use types had been studied little. In this study, comparison of absolute principal component scores-multiple linear regression (APCS-MLR) and positive matrix factorization (PMF) models and their application characteristics in identifying pollution sources were carried out by using 11 HMs in Zhongwei City farmland and Shizuishan industrial park, Ningxia. The results indicated that HM pollution in farmland mainly came from pesticides, fertilizers, and deposition of the Yellow River, while the pollution in industrial park mainly originated from atmospheric deposition and various industrial productions. The APCS-MLR model had the problem of less identification sources and the difficulty to explain the complex pollution, while the PMF model not only identified more pollution sources, but also distinguished heavy metal–related sources for two different land use types and different industrial production conditions. It is of great significance the formulation of agricultural-related pesticides’ and chemical fertilizers’ rational use and various industrial production–related raw materials put in and emission control strategies.

This paper proposes an effective and scientific method for the construction of a representative driving cycle for electric vehicles (EV) and takes it as a foundation for studying the energy consumption and equivalent emissions for EV. First, a test route is developed through the analysis of the topology of the Xi’an road structure and traffic flow. Second, the vehicle driving pattern data is gathered through an integrated method of chase car method and on-board method. The velocity-acceleration (V-A) grid method is used to divide speed and acceleration data into micro-states. Third, the proposed driving cycle construction method incorporates the Markov chain and Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation method. Then, a filter process is designed to screen out the most representative driving cycle. Finally, the comparison of the simulation result and test results shows the constructed EV driving cycle is in line with reality, and estimating the EV’s energy consumption per kilometer, driving range, and equivalent emissions under official driving cycles results in large relative errors. Therefore, the construction of a real-world driving cycle for specific cities or areas is necessary to evaluate energy consumption, driving range, and equivalent emissions of EV.