Iranica Journal of Energy & Environment
Volume:6 Issue: 2, Spring 2015

The Solar Thermal Electricity (STE) has significant capability to satisfy apart of energy demands. An integrated assessment shows that STE could play a promising role in Iran, helping to reach ambitious climate safety targets. This paper is response to the urgent need to accelerate the evolution of advanced energy technologies to refer the universal challenges of clean energy and sustainable development. The extensive aim of this paper is to exhibit the essential role of energy technologies. The two most prominent solar energy technologies are photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP). PV systems are beneficial because of their flexible size; but they are costly and solely generate electricity. However, to investigate PV cell performance and power generation throughout Iran, 5 different regions across the country are considered. The obtained results showed that PV cells can generate electrical power from 155 to 385 Wh/module.day. This power generation is enough for the requirement of the isolated regions and can even utilize to support the grid. Economic analysis base on the payback period is included. The electricity generating costs estimation for five virtual cities in Iran shows a long-term reduction of power costs.

Air pollution is defined as the presence of any air pollutants in the air that have the potential to cause health effect or cause harm to the environment. This study was conducted to investigate the exposure levels to air pollutants among workers in a depot, and the relationship between the exposure levels and the respiratory level of the workers in the depot. The methods used in this study included measuring the concentration of air pollutants namely CO, CO2, total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs), PM10 and two types of heavy metals namely lead (PB) and arsenic (As). Lung function test was also done for workers who were exposed. Three sampling points were chosen to measure the concentrations of air pollutants, namely Loco, power generating car (PGC) and coach lines. Kuala Lumpur Central Office Depot was selected as the control station. Low volume sampler and sampling devices were used to measure the concentration of the air pollutants. This study found that there were three air pollutants with concentrations exceeding the standard limits of suspended particles PM10, lead, and arsenic. The highest concentrations of PM10 and Pb recorded were in the PGC line with 0.49 ± 0.03 mg/m3 and 160 ± 5.13 μg/m3, respectively. The highest concentration of As recorded was in coach line with 36.00 ± 15.50 μg/m3. Statistical test results showed that only the concentration of As had a significant difference between the sampling stations. For the lung function test, the values of forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1) for the exposed group were below normal. These findings showed that the depot workers had a lower respiratory level compared to the workers at the depot office. Statistical analysis showed a significant difference between spirometry diagnosis of employees who had served more than ten years and spirometry diagnosis of employees who had served for ten years and less. In conclusion, the depot workers who had long exposure to air pollutants had low respiratory levels.

In this paper, the effects of harmattan dust (aerosols) on visibility deterioration over Bauchi, a town in North-eastern Nigeria was investigated. The data of visibility readings for a period of ten (10) years were obtained by human identification of target objects and landmarks, most especially hills and buildings at known distances in a full 360 degrees circle around the observation point. The annual cycles of visibility in Bauchi for daily and monthly averages for ten years (1998-2007) were obtained. This enabled us to determine atmospheric extinction coefficient (βext.), which results in the scattering and absorption due to dust particles by using the Koschmieder relationship for the study area. Bauchi recorded a maximum visibility value of about 35000.0m in April/May 2005. The minimum visibility value of nearly zero was recorded on November/December 2000. However, during the months of June-September, the maximum atmospheric extinction coefficient value of 0.230 was recorded in 2007 and the minimum atmospheric extinction coefficient value of 0.164 was recorded in 1999. For the months of harmattan season (November to February), the maximum atmospheric extinction coefficient value of 0.689 was recorded in 2000/2001 and the minimum atmospheric extinction coefficient value of 0.270 was recorded in 2005/2006.

In this article, fracturing in large-scale metal structures such as main gas pipelines, fuel and oil tanks operated in Arctic were investigated. It is shown that catastrophic accidents involved in large thin-walled metal structures in large diameter pipelines, tanks and pressure vessels. The fractures occurred not only due to stretch propagation of brittle or viscous fractures, but also followed branching that leads to fragmented fractures with simultaneous movement of many cracks. The character of the fracture depends on the level of the fracture strength. At high levels cracks propagated at a high speed by a mechanism of separation; as a result of crack branching fragment damage occurred. At low level, cracks propagate at a low speed by a cutting mechanism; that does not cause extensive fracturing. The cracks may cause structural and environmental damages.

Heavy metals can be found abundantly in earth and being utilized as sources for human being usage. One of the most frequently utilized metals use was copper. Copper was used as a conductor for electrical and electronically product, battery productions, utensils and ornamental purposes due to their conductivity and malleability. Even though copper was very important for human being, excessive exposure of copper to the environment would lead to environmental problems. Since copper possessed an ability to be accumulated into the environment and enter the food chain, efficient techniques to remove copper from wastewater are vital. This paper was focused on biological approaches to remove copper from wastewater using bio flocculants produced by Bacillus subtillis. Important factor such as pH, concentrations of inorganic salt, bio flocculants dosage and initial concentrations of copper were also being studied since copper removal was very dependable on stated variables. Best pH operated for pure bio flocculants was recorded at pH of 6, with 2 mL CaCl2 and 5 g/L dosage of pure bio flocculants for 2, 3, 4 and 5 mg/L initial concentrations of copper. While the best pH operated for crude bio flocculants was recorded at pH 4, with 2mL CaCl2 and 2 and 5 mg/L initial concentrations of copper.

Pesticides poses great threat to the environmental sustainability by affecting its microbial flora and fauna. Fungi are well known for the secretion of extracellular hydrolases for the degradation of these hazardous chemicals from its ambient environment. Hydrolase secreting soil fungi Penicillium aculeatum ITCC 7980.10 was selected for the study of its monocrotophos degrading efficiency under in vitro conditions in phosphorus free liquid culture medium. Fungal strain was molecularly characterized by 18S rDNA analysis as Penicillium aculeatum JQ660374. Monocrotophos degrading efficiency of the isolate was studied under optimum conditions each, at an interval of 5 days for 15 days incubation period. The isolated strain possessed meagre extracellular phosphatase activity 28.33 ± 0.40 U which resulted in the formation of 614.62 ± 0.38 μg ml-1 inorganic phosphates. Degradation process was studied by spectrophotometric analysis at 254nm, HPTLC and FTIR. Spectrophotometric analysis revealed 98.88% degradation of monocrotophos with a prominent decrease in the standard peak of monocrotophos (standard rf 0.19- 0.21) within 15 days of incubation as evident by HPTLC chromatograms. Molecular mechanism as studied by FTIR analysis revealed hydrolytic cleavage of vinyl bond with the formation of PO–4. Degradation of monocrotophos followed first order kinetics with the rate constant (kdeg) of 0.0115 day-1 and half life of 2.53 days. The results of the study conclude that Penicillium aculeatum JQ660374 could be used as an efficient candidate for the detoxification of monocrotophos contaminated sites.

The main motivation of the present work is the efficiency and the high cost of the three major water treatment techniques used in many industrial applications (oxidation, adsorption and air stripping). The present work introduced a novel and combined technique that merges between the three major water treatment techniques, namely: stripping, oxidation and adsorption that are suitable for domestic and rural areas use. The effectiveness of the present technique was experimentally tested with one of the chemical contaminants namely Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether (MTBE). The experiments were conducted at different air flow rates 7, 8 and 10 (L/min), with difference residence time (2-20 min) at a different molar ratio of MTBE to hydrogen peroxide i.e. 1:10, 1:15 and 1:20. The results indicated that the optimum molar ratio between MTBE and hydrogen peroxide was 1:20 with air flow rate of 7 L/min, having the best performance (90%) to remove MTBE from the synthetic wastewater. From this research it can be concluded that, the overall design achieved the objectives. The combined system effectively removed MTBE from wastewater. The combined process should be able to solve the environmental problems and reduce pollutants in wastewater contained MTBE, before it is released to natural water sources.

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the physicochemical quality of urban sewage from the Annaba region and to recommend appropriate treatment for their reuse and reducing their harmful receptors such as Boukhadra (Site 1), El Bouni (Site 2) and Oued Forcha (Site 3). Analysis carried out for duration of one year (from March 2012 till February 2013). It was revealed that as an organic pollution resulted in a high BOD5 and COD which can reach respectively (140.66 ± 26.62 mg/l of O2) and (298.83 ± 84.40 mg/l of O2) in Site 1, Site 2 is (147.16 ± 33.10 mg/l of O2) for BOD5, and (280 ± 55.67 mg/l of O2) for COD and in site 3 the pollution load is represented by BOD5 (149.5 ± 22.71 mg/l of O2) and COD (287.33 ± 19.09 mg/l of O2). Regarding the TSS, their annual average in three sites were 352.83, 340.83 and 369.26 mg/l, respectively. The reported data were far exceeded the Algerian standard (50 mg/l). The annual average ratio BOD5/ COD for sites 1, 2 and 3 were in the order of 0.47, 0.52 and 0.5, respectively. These results lead the conclusion that the three sewage sites were polluted by organic pollution which was characterized by partially degradable.

The integrated system anaerobic reactor high rate algal pond (AR-HRAP) is an extensive treatment of the wastewater system which has many advantages, namely, a low occupation of land, possible energy self-sufficiency and a low cost of investment. In order to optimize the design of the system and adapt it to the regional context, we developed a design model based on the balance sheets of removing organic matter. This model is based on an engineering concept as taking into account the parameters of reactor design (flow rate, load, and retention time). However, this model ignores the night period during which photosynthesis does not take place; this can lead to oversize reactors. Therefore, this model was performed by introducing an operating coefficient 0 which represents the ratio of oxygen consumption in daytime and night. This model approaches and checked for retention time of 1.5 to 2 days in an anaerobic reactor and 3 to 4 days in the HRAP. The incoming raw organic loads to the system were in the order of 550 mg.l-1. The comparative study of the theoretical and experimental results confirms the interest of such approach.

The occurrence of organochlorine pesticide (OCPs) residues in surface water of Bertam and Terla River, Cameron Highlands was investigated. Monitoring work was carried out starting from August to December 2014 consisted of six stations. Nine of organochlorine residues were detected throughout that period of study, namely aldrin, heptachlor epoxide, endosulfan II, endosulfan sulfate, methoxychlor, endrin ketone, 4,4'-DDE, beta and gamma HCH. The level concentration of pollutant were found to be in the order endrin ketone (mean 0.317 μgL-1)> beta HCH (0.153 μgL-1)> endosulfan sulfate (0.112 μgL-1)> endosulfan II (0.072 μgL-1)> aldrin (0.071 μgL-1)> methoxychlor (0.06 μgL-1)> heptachlor epoxide (0.023 μgL-1)> 4,4'-DDE (0.011 μgL-1)> gamma HCH (<0.002 μgL-1). The highest total organochlorine residue is detected at 0.955 μgL-1. The highest concentrations for compounds namely methoxychlor (0.06 μgL-1), endrin ketone (0.63 μgL-1) and 4,4'-DDE (0.018 μgL-1) were found at station S2 (Kuala Terla). An analysis in tap water (station S5; Brinchang town) also found some compounds namely aldrin, endosulfan II, endrin ketone and 4,4'-DDE to be within the range of 0.008 to 0.18 μgL-1. To mitigate this present status from continuing to become worse, improving water quality for water supply or reuse for agriculture purpose in Cameron Highlands must be put in high priority among all stakeholders.

The textile effluents are considered as potential source of water contaminations. Thus the effective methods were adopted for the removal of dyes and colorants from the textile effluents. In the present research, the removal of textile dye Congo red was carried out by bentonite clay blend with kaolin. The kaolin-bentonite clay (KBC) was used as adsorbent. The adsorption properties of KBC towards Congo red were investigated, at various temperatures 303-318 ±2 K under the optimized conditions. The adsorption equilibrium data were fitted in Langmuir, Freundlich and Dubinin-Radushkevich adsorption isotherm models and the values of the respective constants were evaluated by employing standard graphical method. From the graph, it was founded that Langmuir model is the best fitted isotherm. Feasibility of adsorption process (RL) and sorption energy (Es) was also determined. The pH of adsorbent was estimated by pH drift method. Kinetics of dye removal was investigated that it follows pseudo second order rate constant. The surface morphology of adsorbent was observed by the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM).