Biodeterioration is one of the most important processes in metal pipeline corrosion, and it can be due to physical, chemical, and biological factors. Coatings rich in silver have been used to inhibit this undesirable phenomenon. In this study, the antimicrobial properties of several silver-containing products used as a coating in pipelines were determined on a pilot scale in order to evaluate the ability of silver to inhibit biofilm formation. The results showed that the coating with silver zeolite at a concentration of 2000 mg L–¹ inhibited the formation of a microbial biofilm and prevented the biodeterioration process. Therefore, from our study, it can be concluded that silver zeolite shows greater protection capacity than other silver preparations and presents advantages in relation to other silver coatings that are currently available

Coastal water quality in urban cities is increasingly impacted by human activities such as agricultural runoff, sewage discharges, and poor sanitation. However, environmental factors controlling bacteria abundance remain poorly understood. The study employed multiple indicators to assess ten beach water qualities in Ghana during minor wet seasons. Environmental parameters (e.g. temperature, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids) were measured in situ using the Horiba multiple parameter probe. Surface water samples were collected to measure total suspended solids, nutrients, and chlorophyll-a via standard methods and bacteria determination through membrane filtration. Environmental parameters measured showed no significant variation for the sample period. However, bacteria loads differ significantly (p = 0.024) among the beaches and influenced significantly by nitrate (55.3%, p = 0.02) and total dissolved solids (17.1%, p = 0.017). The baseline study detected an increased amount of total coliforms and faecal indicator bacteria (Escherichia coli and Enterococcus spp.) in beach waters along the coast of Ghana, suggesting faecal contamination, which can pose health risks. The mean ± standard deviations of bacteria loads in beach water are total coliforms (4.06 × 10³ ± 4.16 × 10³ CFU/100 mL), E. coli (7.06 × 10² ± 1.72 × 10³ CFU/100 mL), and Enterococcus spp. (6.15 × 10² ± 1.75 × 10³ CFU/100 mL). Evidence of pollution calls for public awareness to prevent ecological and health-related risks and policy reforms to control coastal water pollution. Future research should focus on identifying the sources of contamination in the tropical Atlantic region.

The longitudinal dispersion coefficient (LDC) of river pollutants is considered as one of the prominent water quality parameters. In this regard, numerous research studies have been conducted in recent years, and various equations have been extracted based on hydrodynamic and geometric elements. LDC’s estimated values obtained using different equations reveal a significant uncertainty due to this phenomenon’s complexity. In the present study, the crow search algorithm (CSA) is applied to increase the equation’s precision by employing evolutionary polynomial regression (EPR) to model an extensive amount of geometrical and hydraulic data. The results indicate that the CSA improves the performance of EPR in terms of R² (0.8), Willmott’s index of agreement (0.93), Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (0.77), and overall index (0.84). In addition, the reliability analysis of the proposed equation (i.e., CSA) reduced the failure probability (Pf) when the value of the failure state containing 50 to 600 m²/s is increasing for the Pf determination using the Monte Carlo simulation. The best-fitted function for correct failure probability prediction was the power with R² = 0.98 compared with linear and exponential functions.

In the present work, a natural zeolite was first treated with a sodium chloride salt and subsequently modified with different cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) concentrations for dicloxacillin removal. All the employed materials are characterized by several analytical techniques. Antibiotic sorption behavior was evaluated according to diverse parameters such as the effect of contact time, initial concentration, and pH by a batch system. Experimental results showed that the cationic surfactant treatment benefited dicloxacillin sorption. Kinetic results indicated that the equilibrium time was reached at 54 h and a maximum adsorption capacity of 1.072 and 1.051 mg/g for both modified zeolites at 25 mmol/L and 50 mmol/L, respectively. According to the kinetic data, the pseudo-second-order model adjust the best. Obtained adsorption equilibrium results, adsorption isotherms adjust well to the linear model for both adsorbents with both materials, indicating a partition mechanism. Dicloxacillin species present at different pH values and the net surface charge of the modified adsorbents influence the adsorption process.

This study aims to augment the performance of a solar desalination unit. To experimental examine this idea, a modified solar still with three different microparticles doped in black paint-coated absorber were designed, fabricated, and tested in Jaipur, India. Three different microparticles such as copper, aluminum, and tin with particle size of 50–80 μm with weight concentration of 10% were doped in black paint and then coated on the absorber of solar still. The coated absorber of solar still were compared with the conventional solar still without any microparticle coating to obtain the effect of different coating materials on the water productivity, thermal performance, economic, and environment-economics analysis of solar still. The result showed that under the water depth of 1 cm, coating of copper, aluminum, and tin on absorber augmented the full-day water yield by 33.13, 22.18, and 11.53%, compared to conventional solar still without any coating. In addition, full-day energy and exergy efficiency of solar still with copper-coated absorber exhibited maximum values compared to all other solar stills, owing to the higher thermal conductivity and excellent solar-thermal conversion behaviors of copper. The cost of water per liter estimated through economic analysis was found to be US $ 0.0074 for conventional solar still, which was significantly reduced to US $ 0.0066 in the case of solar still with copper-coated absorber along with the payback time of 2.7 months. The environment-economic assessment estimated that solar still with copper-coated absorber plate has reduced the 13.19 tons of CO₂ emission. It is concluded that augmented heat transfer rate from water basin to inner glass surface through utilization of microparticle coating would pave a pathway to develop energy-efficient low-cost solar-based desalination system.

Recalcitrant dyes found in textile wastewater represent a threat for sustainable textile production due to their resistance to conventional treatments. This study assessed an alternative co-composting system for the treatment of recalcitrant textile dyes where textile industrial sludge, sewage wastewater, or sewage sludge were used as microbial compost inocula. The biodegradation efficiency of bioreactor trials and compost quality of the co-composting system were assessed by visible spectrophotometry and by a phytotoxicity test. The co-composting system (dry weight (dw) basis) consisted of 200 g of restaurant organic residues + 200 g sewage sludge (or 100 mL sewage wastewater, or 200 g textile sludge) + 100 mL of a 10% dye solution (Reactive Red 195, or Synolon Brown, or Orange Remazol, or Yellow Synozol, or Reactive Orange 122, or Reactive Black 5). After 60 days of composting, all dyes were biodegraded according to spectrophotometric data, with efficiency varying from 97.2 to 99.9%. Inoculum efficiency ranking was textile sludge > sewage sludge > sewage wastewater. Regarding compost quality, a phytotoxicity study with lettuce showed no toxicity effect. Thus, co-composting can be a low-cost and efficient method for recalcitrant textile dye biodegradation and for managing textile sludge in terms of waste recycling, contributing to environmental sustainability.

This study analyses the long-run effects of economic growth, energy consumption and financial development on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in Turkey using annual time series data for the period 1965–2018. This research investigates the relationship between the variables using a RALS-EG (residual augmented least squares–Engle and Granger) cointegration test procedure developed by Lee et al. Stud Nonlinear Dyn Econ 19:397–413, (2015). In addition, this study uses a bootstrap causality analysis developed by Hacker and Hatemi-J J Econ Stud 39:144–160, (2012) to specify the causal relationship between the series. RALS cointegration test results show a long-run relationship between CO₂ emissions and economic growth, energy consumption and financial development. According to a dynamic ordinary least squares estimation, economic growth has a negative and statistically significant effect on CO₂ emissions, whereas energy consumption and financial development have positive and statistically significant effects on CO₂ emissions in the long run. In particular, energy consumption is the most effective parameter of environmental pollution in Turkey. However, the causality test results indicate a unidirectional causal relationship from financial development to CO₂ emissions, economic growth and energy consumption. Increasing the investment in renewable energy sources will be an effective policy tool to improve the environmental quality in Turkey.

The concept of climate neutral has been introduced in the agricultural production system to re-examine the connotation of agricultural carbon footprint (CF). According to the integrated accounting framework of the agricultural CF we built, then selected a case from China, and carried out the climate economic effect quantitative analysis of the agricultural production system. The results indicated that CO₂ emissions accounted the largest percentage of total carbon emissions by 52.05%, which was driven strongly by the application of agricultural fertilizers and consumption of diesel oil and CH₄ emissions (ME) from cattle fed intestinal fermentation, and the driving force behind carbon sequestration was derived from the woody cash crops of carbon sequestration by vegetation and the input of residual carbon from straw returning to field and root stubble in the soil carbon pool. The carbon sink finally realized in the agricultural production system and the agricultural CF index reflected the surplus of 1.801 Mt C in the study area. In addition, we used the indicators of carbon density, carbon intensity, and carbon efficiency to judge the trade-offs of cost-benefit between the agroecosystem and economic system, so as to put forward some potential mitigation strategies for the study area. The mitigative effect of agricultural production system on climate neutral need to be further estimated in a more rigorous manner while controlling for more uncertainties in the future.

There is mixed evidence surrounding the relationship between tobacco use and COVID-19 infection/progression. The current study investigates beliefs and tobacco use behaviors and COVID-19 infection among a sample of smokers and never-smokers. Data were collected using an online survey distributed through Telegram, a cloud-based social media networking application in Iran from April 1 to May 31, 2020. The study participants included never-smokers (n = 511), current (past-month) waterpipe smokers (n = 89), current cigarette smokers (n = 158), and ex-smokers (n = 172). Multinomial logistic regression was used to compare tobacco use groups with never- smokers on beliefs, controlling for potential confounders. The study participants (n = 944) was mostly male (64%), had > high school education (76%), and lived in an urban area (91%), with mean ± SD age of 35.3 ± 10.8. Key findings of this study are that compared with never-smokers: (1) cigarette smokers were less likely to believe that smoking cigarette can lead to spreading COVID-19; (2) waterpipe smokers were more likely to believe that smoking waterpipe at home was a safe practice, that waterpipe protects against COVID-19, and smoking waterpipe may lead to a more rapid recovery from COVID-19; (3) both waterpipe and cigarette smokers believed that using e-cigarettes in public places was a safe practice during the COVID-19 pandemic; and (4) more than half of the ex-smokers stopped smoking due to COVID-19 and most of them planned to continue abstaining from smoking after the pandemic. Our findings underscore the need to raise awareness about the unsupported claims of a lower hazard of using tobacco products or possible protective effects against COVID-19 and to promote cessation programs.