Ecoterra, 2014, 11(2):1-8
Maria C. Otgon, Tiberiu Rusu, Andrei T. Rusu
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Environment Engineering, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
The multitude of methods can be grouped into three: absorption procedures (the majority), adsorption procedures, and diffusion procedures (the fewest). Most of the industrial applications of the caption procedures of CO2 were in the installations of ammonia producing and the chemical absorption procedures had them, and when the gas is under pressure, the physical absorption ones are applied, or the combined ones - chemical and physical absorption. This study demonstrates that the use of the best available technology for post-combustion CO2 capture, namely the chilled ammonia process (CAP), is closest to being commercialized.
Ecoterra, 2014, 11(2):9-17
Maria C. Otgon, Tiberiu Rusu, Andrei T. Rusu
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Environment Engineering, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
The paper shows that the sources which act on environmental factors through specific agents are considered possible pollutants. Depending on their physical and chemical properties, their aggressiveness toward the air-water-soil system can be determined. The paper characterizes the main waste obtained from natural gas extraction, specifically the drilling slurry, as well as the drilling fluid used as a raw material. Furthermore, the paper presents some proposals for reducing the risk of environmental pollution, discussing conventional versus unconventional drilling.
Ecoterra, 2014, 11(2):18-26
Venetia Sandu, Mircea Ivanoiu
Department of Mechanical Engineering. Transilvania University of Brasov, Brasov, Romania
The paper presents the similarities and differences between the educational approach performed by two actors in the field of environmental education: universities and non-governmental organizations. For universities case, the education approach is a three-step process implying a cognitive, a self-tooling and an customization phase which are based on the investigation of the community education needs and must be detected by means of targeted questionnaires which will allow customized course offer especially for life long education. For the NGOs case, it is considered that rising awareness process in environmental education may become more efficient if it is thought as a three-step process implying a cognitive, a creative and an active phase. The paper ideas are sustained by describing projects undertaken in Romania as well as their results performed both in universities and in local NGOs projects of reconstruction, conservation and environmental education.
Ecoterra, 2014, 11(2):27-45
Lajos Kátai-Urbán
National University of Public Service, Institute for Disaster Management, Budapest, Hungary
As a result of the appearance of New Disaster Management Regulations in the year of 2012, a unified Industrial Safety Authoritative and Supervision System was set fully operational on national, regional and local levels. Beyond the supervision of hazardous activities and the carriage of hazardous goods, there is also appeared the disaster management tasks of the authorities linked with the critical infrastructure elements. Based on general overview of the vulnerability of Hungary, in this paper I will review the measures related to the development of the legislation, the establishment of the organisational structure, and the tools and methods used for the purposes of industrial safety.
Ecoterra, 2014, 11(2):46-52
Corina M. Berkesy, Mihaela Begea
S.C. ICPE Bistriţa S.A., Bistrita, Romania
Laszlo E. Berkesy
University Babeş-Bolyai from Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Cluj–Napoca, Romania
Ioan M. Crăciun, Maria Someşan
S.C. ICPE Bistriţa S.A., Bistrita, Romania
Biomass contains important quantities of stored energy used more and more for commercial purposes. Other energy sources are renewable, easy to store and their negative effects are rather small what CO2 emissions concern compared to other categories of biofuels. To check the conformity with European standards is an efficient means to differentiate on a competitive market. And what is more, to make products or services to be conform with said standards, increases their compatibility against those produced or offered by others and thus potential sales go up and also improve their acceptance on a large scale. It also contributes to the growth of confidence of the clients, the growth of the market and of the technological evolution. To implement quality standards for wooden biomass allows an efficient and profitable competition through factors like: differentiation of the product. The better consumers are informed regarding their choice, the conformity with the accepted standards it becomes more and more important to implement them. In this paper we discuss the standards that are specific for wood biomass (pellets, briquettes, wood chips), as well as the implementation of said standards for heating products in our country based on wood biomass.
Ecoterra, 2014, 11(2):53-57
Ecaterina Matei, Andra Predescu, George Coman, Cristian Predescu
University “Politehnica” Bucharest, Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Bucharest, Romania
Laboratory accreditation is the best mechanism to provide assurance to customers on the quality and competence of the laboratory. The main steps of accreditation followed by a testing environmental laboratory are presented in this paper. An example could be Ecometallurgical Laboratory from University Politehnica of Bucharest (UPB-CCEEM). This laboratory is accredited for analyses of different parameters for surface and wastewaters, soils and also the composition of some alloys such as iron, aluminum and copper. Thus, the two practical elements which inter-relate and whose complexity and importance depend on the extent of the scope, namely the quality management system and the technical competence are presented in this paper, being developed on three levels: internal check achieved by the analyst, internal check achieved by the Quality Laboratory Chief and external check – inter-laboratories comparison schemes.
Ecoterra, 2014, 11(2):58-65
Constantin Bulimaga
Institute of Ecology and Geography, Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Chisinau, Moldova
Degree of pollution of land in EUC refers to the second level - low polluted. One of the most polluted areas in the urban ecosystem Chisinau (EUC) is the wastewater treatment plant (SEB) and land adjacent village of Bac, agricultural land in the vicinity of SEB. High content of heavy metals (MG) in soil SEB planning and related sectors is explained by the accumulation of large volumes of sludge at SEB containing essential amounts of MG and use of sludge as fertilizer for growing crops. Estimation of pollution SEB sector, demonstrated that summary index of pollution (Zc) is 27.43, which confirms that the land is moderately polluted. The value of this index characterizes the sector with a high level of ill health.
Ecoterra, 2014, 11(2):73-77
Elena E. Manea, Lăcrămioara D. Robescu
University “Politehnica” of Bucharest, Department of Hydraulics, Hydraulical Machinery and Environmental Engineering, Bucharest, Romania
Tiberiu Apostol
University “Politehnica” of Bucharest, Department of Producing and Using Energy, Bucharest, Romania
Solid waste disposal to landfills is an important technique in waste management, but the treatment of the leachate that is collected represents one of the major problems. This paper presents a simulation study on the leachate treatment that was conducted using STOAT, a dynamic sewage treatment works modelling package. Two biological nutrient removal treatment schemes were evaluated: nitrogen removal only (AO scheme) and the Bardenpho process (nitrogen and phosphate removal). The results have shown that AO scheme works better than Bardenpho, because the landfill leachate contains little phosphorus and the treatment process should be focused on removing BOD and ammoniacal nitrogen.
Ecoterra, 2014, 11(2):78-84
Irina A. Istrate
University “Politehnica” of Bucharest, Faculty of Biotechnical Systems Engineering, Bucharest, Romania
Tiberiu Apostol, Adrian Badea
University “Politehnica” of Bucharest, Department of Producing and Using Energy, Bucharest, Romania
This paper presents an alternative to the problem that appears in almost all the landfills where the leachate collection is not done in a proper manner. In this research the efficiency of electric field based treatment is studied. The experimental test used the leachate obtained from a municipal solid waste landfill. For the present paper the main objective was to verify if the electrochemical treatment can be applied for the reduction of COD, BOD, ammonia nitrogen, total suspended solids and to observe if due to the usage of stainless steel electrodes for this treatment we could encounter hexavalent chromium in the liquid sample. The results obtained may be considered to be satisfactory, particularly if we consider how simple it is to apply this technology. In order to use this type of technology, the applicability of this technique to a specific industrial refluent must be supported by some preliminary studies were the treatment efficiency should be estimated.