La Palma - Nova Classis: a Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus encampment during the Second Punic War in Iberia

This paper presents the discovery of the oldest Roman camp on the Iberian Peninsula, a camp from the Second Punic War situated in La Palma (Tarragona, Spain), by the mouth of the River Ebro. Although no structural remains have been found, the site's strategic in- terest along with many coins, arms and fragments of amphoras and other objects indicate that a military camp was established here between 218 and 209 BC. Written sources, mainly Polybius and Livy, suggest that La Palma was where the legions of Publius Cornelius Scipio gathered before the attack on Carthago Nova in 209 BC. The paper ends by suggesting that La Palma may be the Roman camp of Nova Classis mentioned by Livy during the events of the war in 217 BC.

Balancing effluent quality, economic cost and greenhouse gas emissions during the evaluation of (plant-wide) control/operational strategies in WWTPs

The objective of this paper was to show the potential additional insight that result from adding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to plant performance evaluation criteria, such as effluent quality (EQI) and operational cost (OCI) indices, when evaluating (plant-wide) control/operational strategies in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The proposed GHG evaluation is based on a set of comprehensive dynamic models that estimate the most significant potential on-site and off-site sources of CO2, CH4 and N2O. The study calculates and discusses the changes in EQI, OCI and the emission of GHGs as a consequence of varying the following four process variables: (i) the set point of aeration control in the activated sludge section; (ii) the removal efficiency of total suspended solids (TSS) in the primary clarifier; (iii) the temperature in the anaerobic digester; and (iv) the control of the flow of anaerobic digester supernatants coming from sludge treatment. Based upon the assumptions built into the model structures, simulation results highlight the potential undesirable effects of increased GHG production when carrying out local energy optimization of the aeration system in the activated sludge section and energy recovery from the AD. Although off-site CO2 emissions may decrease, the effect is counterbalanced by increased N2O emissions, especially since N2O has a 300-fold stronger greenhouse effect than CO2. The reported results emphasize the importance and usefulness of using multiple evaluation criteria to compare and evaluate (plant-wide) control strategies in a WWTP for more informed operational decision making