Wetland projects developed in Brazil

The first studies with constructed wetlands undertaken in Brazil were the result of observations made from the Amazon flood plains. The first attempt to use this capacity to change the quality of the water, in the sense of purification performed in Brazil using constructed wetland systems, was made by Salati et al. After that, new technologies were developed in a focused attempt to increase the efficiency of the system and reduce investments. Over these 18 years, persuading the Brazilian scientific community as well as the environmental control agencies to give due attention to this kind of research has required endless efforts. Only in recent years have major institutions responsible for sewage treatment and potable water supply been concerned with this type of technology for solving real problems. These institutions are as follows: SABESP (Basic Sanitation Company of Sao Paulo State), SANEPAR (Sanitation Company of Parana State) and CESP (Electric Company of Sao Paulo State). One of the private institutions that has systematically worked in the design and projects of constructed wetlands is the Institute of Applied Ecology. This institution has enhanced and developed a water depuration system based on the purifying capacity of the soil. The wetlands with filtering soils are systems formed by overlapping layers of crushed stone, gravel and soil planted with rice. This technology has been used in sewage treatment and also in water supply systems.

Tratamento de águas residuárias por alagados construídos de fluxo subsuperficial horizontal, utilizando Vetiver (Chrysopogon zizanoides L.): avaliação e desempenho de três leitos distintos

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Estudo sobre o potencial de alguns latossolos da região do Vale do Paraíba, estado de São Paulo, para uso em camadas estruturais de pavimentos de baixo volume de tráfego

The main purpose of this research is to raise, through lab rehearsals, the geometric properties of some oxisols from the region of Vale do Paraíba as well as comparing them to demands prescribed by Technical Specifications ESP08/05 of the Road Department of the State of Paraná, for sub-base or fine grained lateritic soil base (SAFL) and in the Technical Specification ET-DEP00/006 of the Road Department of the State of São Paulo (DER/SP) for subbase or crushed stone base. According to the results that were obtained it will be feasible to appraise the usage of these sorts of soils in structure layers of low-weight traffic pavements

Qualidade da construção civil de estrutura de concreto armado, alvenaria de vedação e revestimento externo de obras verticais

The main purpose of this research is to raise, through lab rehearsals, the geometric properties of some oxisols from the region of Vale do Paraíba as well as comparing them to demands prescribed by Technical Specifications ESP08/05 of the Road Department of the State of Paraná, for sub-base or fine grained lateritic soil base (SAFL) and in the Technical Specification ET-DEP00/006 of the Road Department of the State of São Paulo (DER/SP) for subbase or crushed stone base. According to the results that were obtained it will be feasible to appraise the usage of these sorts of soils in structure layers of low-weight traffic pavements

The Brazilian experience of sugarcane ethanol industry

Biomass has gained prominence in the last few years as one of the most important renewable energy sources. In Brazil, a sugarcane ethanol program called ProAlcohol was designed to supply the liquid gasoline substitution and has been running for the last 30 yr. The federal government's establishment of ProAlcohol in 1975 created the grounds for the development of a sugarcane industry that currently is one of the most efficient systems for the conversion of photosynthate into different forms of energy. Improvement of industrial processes along with strong sugarcane breeding programs brought technologies that currently support a cropland of 7 million hectares of sugarcane with an average yield of 75 tons/ha. From the beginning of ProAlcohol to the present time, ethanol yield has grown from 2,500 to around 7,000 l/ha. New technologies for energy production from crushed sugarcane stalk are currently supplying 15% of the electricity needs of the country. Projections show that sugarcane could supply over 30% of Brazil's energy needs by 2020. In this review, we briefly describe some historic facts of the ethanol industry, the role of sugarcane breeding, and the prospects of sugarcane biotechnology.