Analysis of corrosive environmental factors of seabed sediment

The corrosivity of seabed sediment at spots at different distances from seashore was studied based on in situ investigations in the northern sea area of the Yellow River mouth. The results show that there is close relation between distance from seashore and corrosivity of seabed sediment.

Emergy Assessment of a Wheat-Maize Rotation System with Different Water Assignments in the North China Plain

Sustainable water use is seriously compromised in the North China Plain (NCP) due to the huge water requirements of agriculture, the largest use of water resources. An integrated approach which combines the ecosystem model with emergy analysis is presented to determine the optimum quantity of irrigation for sustainable development in irrigated cropping systems. Since the traditional emergy method pays little attention to the dynamic interaction among components of the ecological system and dynamic emergy accounting is in its infancy, it is hard to evaluate the cropping system in hypothetical situations or in response to specific changes. In order to solve this problem, an ecosystem model (Vegetation Interface Processes (VIP) model) is introduced for emergy analysis to describe the production processes. Some raw data, collected by investigating or observing in conventional emergy analysis, may be calculated by the VIP model in the new approach. To demonstrate the advantage of this new approach, we use it to assess the wheat-maize rotation cropping system at different irrigation levels and derive the optimum quantity of irrigation according to the index of ecosystem sustainable development in NCP. The results show, the optimum quantity of irrigation in this region should be 240-330 mm per year in the wheat system and no irrigation in the maize system, because with this quantity of irrigation the rotation crop system reveals: best efficiency in energy transformation (transformity = 6.05E + 4 sej/J); highest sustainability (renewability = 25%); lowest environmental impact (environmental loading ratio = 3.5) and the greatest sustainability index (Emergy Sustainability Index = 0.47) compared with the system in other irrigation amounts. This study demonstrates that application of the new approach is broader than the conventional emergy analysis and the new approach is helpful in optimizing resources allocation, resource-savings and maintaining agricultural sustainability.

电厂燃煤中主要有害元素的种类、迁移及潜在环境影响

Distributions of elements especially hazard trace elements in coals and their wastes from a coal fired power plant have been studied in detail using knowledge of Geology, Mineralogy, Geochemistry and Environmental chemistry. The key work is on the small particle sizes of fly ashes which escaped from electric precipitator and discharged into atmosphere. By means of X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectrometer (SEM-EDS), the characteristics of minerals and morphologies were studied. Different types of fly ash were formed in different stages and processes. More than 50% of small fly ashes belonged to inhalable particles (PM10). The very fine fly ashes preferred to attach on surface of bigger fly ash or conglutinate with each other and this decreased the environmental impact of tiny fly ashes. The trace elements in coal, fly ashes, slags and small particle sizes of fly ashes had been analysed by means of Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). As particle sizes decreasing, distributions of most elements increased, but in contrary to most studies, this increasing trend was not very obviously because of the tendency of attachment of tiny fly ashes. The occurrence of 30 elements including hazard trace elements of Cd, Cr, Ni, Co, Pb, Zn, As, Se, Cu, V was studied by means of sequential chemical extract. The annual discharge of hazard trace elements of slag, fly ash, small fly ash (PM10), tiny fly ash (PM2.5) and air was calculated by mass balance. S, V, Cu, Pb, Se, Mo, Cd from power plant had potential impacts on environment. Hazard trace elements from the power plant had little effect on soil and aerosol comparing to those from other industrial sources and the effects were mostly on downwind direction. Both the high performance electric precipitator and high chimney made the hazard trace elements from power plant being transported far away but little environmental impacts.