Search results for: water extraction

Authors: Areena Bhatti

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The geometric arrangement of planet and moon is the result of a self-organizing system. In our solar system, the planets and moons are constantly orbiting around the sun. The aim of this theory is to compare the motion of a solar system with the motion of water droplet when poured into a water body. The basic methodology is to compare both motions to know how they are related to each other. The difference between both systems will be that one is extremely fast, and the other is extremely slow. The role of this theory is that by looking at the fast system we can conclude how slow the system will get to an end. Just like ripples are formed around water droplet that move away from the droplet and water droplet forming those ripples become small in size will tell us how solar system will behave in the same way. So it is concluded that large and small systems can work under the same process but with different motions of time, and motion of the solar system is the slowest form of water droplet motion.

Keywords: motion, water, sun, time

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Authors: M. A. Ashour

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As it is known Egypt is one of the countries having oldest sugarcane industry, which goes back to the year 710 AD. Cane plantations are the main agricultural product in five governorates in Upper Egypt (El-Menia, Sohag, Qena, Luxor, and Aswan), producing not less than 16 million tons a year. Eight factories (Abou-korkas, Gena, Nagaa-Hamadi, Deshna, Kous, Armant, Edfuo, and Komombo), located in such upper Egypt governorates generates huge amount of wastes during the manufacturing stage, the so called bagasse which is the fibrous, and cellulosic materials remaining after the era of the sugarcane and the juice extraction, presents about 30% of such wastes. The amount of bagasse generated yearly through the manufacturing stage of the above mentioned 8 factories is approximately about 2.8 million tons, getting red safely of such huge amount, presents a serious environmental problem. Storage of that material openly in the so hot climate in upper Egypt, may cause its self-ignition under air temperature reaches 50 degrees centigrade in summer, due to the remained residual content of sugar. At the same time preparing places for safely storage for such amount is very expensive with respect to the valueless of it. So the best way for getting rid of bagasse is converting it into an added value environmentally friendly material, especially till now the utilization of it is so limited. Since oil pollution became a serious concern, the issue of environmental cleaning arises. With the structure of sugarcane bagasse, which contains fiber and high content of carbon, it can be an adsorbent to adsorb the oil contamination from the water. The present study is a trail to introduce a new material for the purification of water systems to score two goals at once, the first is getting rid of that harmful waste safely, the second is converting it to a commercial valuable material for cleaning, and purifying the water from oil spills, and petroleum pollution. Introduced the new material proved very good performance, and higher efficiency than other similar materials available in the local market, in both closed and open systems. The introduced modified material can absorb 10 times its weight of oil, while don't absorb any water.

Keywords: environment, water resources, agricultural wastes, oil pollution control, sugarcane

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Authors: Endalew Jibat, Feyera Senbeta, Tesfaye Zeleke, Fitsum Hagos

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Water governance considers multi-sector participation beyond the state; and for sustainable use of water resources, appropriate laws, policies, regulations, and institutions needs to be developed and put in place. Water policy, a critical and integral instrument of water governance, guided water use schemes and ensures equitable water distribution among users. The Ethiopian Central Rift Valley (CRV) is wealthy of water resources, but these water resources are currently under severe strain owing to an imbalance in human-water interactions. The main aim of the study was to examine the state of water resources governance in the CRV of Ethiopia, and the impact of the Ethiopian Water Resources Management Policy on water governance. Key informant interviews (KII), focused group discussions, and document reviews were used to gather data for the study. The NVivo 11 program was used to organize, code, and analyze the data. The results revealed that water resources governance practices such as water allocation and apportionment, comprehensive and integrated water management plans, water resources protection, and conservation activities were rarely implemented. Water resources management policy mechanisms were not fully put in place. Lack of coherence in water policy implementation, absence of clear roles and responsibilities of stakeholders, absence of transparency and accountability in irrigation water service delivery, and lack of meaningful participation of key actors in water governance decision-making were the primary shortcomings observed. Factors such as over-abstraction, deterioration of buffer zone, and chemical erosion from surrounding farming have contributed to the reduction in water volume and quality in the CRV. These challenges have influenced aquatic ecosystem services and threaten the livelihoods of the surrounding communities. Hence, reforms relating to policy coherence and enforcement, stakeholder involvement, water distribution strategies, and the application of water governance principles must be given more emphasis.

Keywords: water resources, irrigation, governance, water allocation, governance principles, stakeholders engagement, central rift valley

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Authors: Mandana Karimi, Martha McMahon

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One of the most important consequences of water scarcity worldwide is the increase in conflicts over water issues, reduced access to clean water, food shortages, energy shortages, and reduced economic development. The extreme weather conditions in British Columbia are because of climate change, which is leading to water scarcity becoming a serious issue affecting British Columbians, aquatic ecosystems, the BC water policy, agriculture, and the economy. In light of climate change and water stress, the British Columbia government introduced a new water legislation in 2016 named the Water Sustainability Act to manage water resources in British Columbia. So, this study aimed to present a deep understanding emanating from the political and social dimensions of the new water policy in BC in the agriculture sector and which sociological paradigm governs the current water policy (WSA) in BC. Policy analysis based on the water problem representation approach was used to present the problem and solutions identified by the water policy in the agricultural sector in BC. The results of the policy analysis highlighted that the Water Sustainability Act is governed by a positivist and modernist approach because the groundwater license is the measurable situation to access the adequate quantity of water for the farmers. In addition, by the positivist paradigm water resources are conceptualized as a commodity to be bought and sold. Under the positivist approach, the measurable parameter of groundwater is also applied based on the top-down approach for water management to show the use of water resources for economic development. In addition, the findings of the policy analysis suggest that alternative paradigms, such as relational ontology, ecofeminism, and indigenous knowledge, could be applied in introducing water policies to shift from the positivist or modernist paradigm. These new paradigms present the potential for environmental policies like the Water Sustainability Act, based on partnership, and collaboration and with an explicit emphasis on protecting water for nature.

Keywords: water governance, Water Sustainability Act, water policy, small-scale farmer, policy analysis

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Authors: M. B. Sokoto, I. U. Abubakar

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The study was carried out on effect of water stress and variety on growth of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), during 2009/10 and 2010/11 dry seasons. The treatments consisted of factorial combination of water stress at three critical growth stage which was imposed by withholding water at (Tillering, Flowering, Grain filling) and Control (No stress) and two varieties (Star 11 TR 77173/SLM and Kauze/Weaver) laid out in a split-plot design with three replications. Water stress was assigned to the main-plot while variety was assigned to the sub-plots. Result revealed significant (P<0.05) effect of water stress, water stress at tillering significantly (P<0.05) reduced plant height, LAI, CGR, and NAR. Variety had a significant effect on plant height, LAI, CGR and NAR. In conclusion water stress at tillering was observed to be most critical growth stage in wheat, and water stress at this period should be avoided because it results to decrease in growth components in wheat. Wheat should be sown in November or at least first week of December in this area and other area with similar climate. Star II TR 77173/LM is recommended variety for the area.

Keywords: wheat, growth, water stress, variety, Sudan savannah

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Authors: Givi Gavardashvili, Eduard Kukhalashvili, Tamriko Supatashvili, Giorgi Natroshvili, Konstantine Bziava, Irma Qufarashvili

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In the article to research water levels in the Zhinvali water reservoirs by field and theoretical research and using GPS and GIS technologies has been established dynamic of water reservoirs changes in the suitable coordinates and has been made water reservoir maps and is lined in the 3D format. By using of GPS coordinates and digital maps has been established water horizons of Zhinvali water reservoir in the absolute marks and has been calculated water levels volume. To forecast the filling of the Zhinvali water reservoir by solid sediment in 2018 conducted field experimental researches in the catchment basin of river Tetri (White) Aragvi. It has been established main hydrological and hydraulic parameters of the active erosion-debris flow tributaries of river Tetri Aragvi. It has been calculated erosion coefficient considering the degradation of the slope. By calculation is determined, that in the river Tetri Aragvi catchment basin the value of 1% maximum discharge changes Q1% = 70,0 – 550,0 m3/sec, and erosion coefficient - E = 0,73 - 1,62, with suitable fifth class of erosion and intensity 50-100 tone/hectare in the year.

Keywords: Zhinvali soil dam, water reservoirs, water levels, erosion, debris flow

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Authors: Yi Jin, Xu Tang, Cuiyang Feng

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The ‘11th five-year’ and ‘12th five-year’ plans have clearly put forward to strictly control the total amount and intensity of energy and water consumption. The synergy effect of energy and water has rarely been considered in the process of energy and water saving in China, where its contribution cannot be maximized. Energy sectors consume large amounts of energy and water when producing massive energy, which makes them both energy and water intensive. Therefore, the synergy effect in these sectors is significant. This paper assesses and optimizes the synergy effect in three energy sectors under the background of promoting energy and water saving. Results show that: From the perspective of critical path, chemical industry, mining and processing of non-metal ores and smelting and pressing of metals are coupling points in the process of energy and water flowing to energy sectors, in which the implementation of energy and water saving policies can bring significant synergy effect. Multi-objective optimization shows that increasing efforts on input restructuring can effectively improve synergy effects; relatively large synergetic energy saving and little water saving are obtained after solely reducing the energy and water intensity of coupling sectors. By optimizing the input structure of sectors, especially the coupling sectors, the synergy effect of energy and water saving can be improved in energy sectors under the premise of keeping economy running stably.

Keywords: critical path, energy sector, multi-objective optimization, synergy effect, water

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Authors: M. Saba, A. Iaaly, E. Carlier, N. Georges

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This research focuses on assessing the ground water quality of Northern Lebanon affected by saline water intrusion. The chemical, physical and microbiological parameters were collected in various seasons spanning over the period of two years. Results were assessed using Geographic Information System (GIS) due to its visual capabilities in presenting the pollution extent in the studied region. Future projections of the excessive pumping were also simulated using GIS in order to assess the extent of the problem of saline intrusion in the near future.

Keywords: GIS, saline water, quality control, drinkable water quality standards, pumping

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Authors: B. Laurita

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The importance of Water Harvesting (WH) as an effective mean to deal with water scarcity is universally recognized. The collection and storage of rainwater, floodwater or quick runoff and their conversion to productive uses can ensure water availability for domestic and agricultural use, enabling a lower exploitation of the aquifer, preventing erosion events and providing significant ecosystem services. At the same time, it has been proven that it can reduce the insurgence of water conflicts if supported by a cooperative process of planning and management. On the other hand, the construction of water harvesting structures changes the hydrological regime, affecting upstream-downstream dynamics and changing water allocation, often causing contentions. Furthermore, dynamics existing between water harvesting and water conflict are not properly investigated yet. Thus, objective of this study is to analyze the relations between water harvesting and the insurgence of water conflicts, providing a solid theoretical basis and foundations for future studies. Two search engines were selected in order to perform the study: Google Scholar and Scopus. Separate researches were conducted on the mutual influences between water conflicts and the four main water harvesting techniques: rooftop harvesting, surface harvesting, underground harvesting, runoff harvesting. Some of the aforementioned water harvesting techniques have been developed and implemented on scales ranging from the small, household-sided ones, to gargantuan dam systems. Instead of focusing on the collisions related to large-scale systems, this review is aimed to look for and collect examples of the effects that the implementation of small water harvesting systems has had on the access to the water resource and on water governance. The present research allowed to highlight that in the studies that have been conducted up to now, water harvesting, and in particular those structures that allow the collection and storage of water for domestic use, is usually recognized as a positive, palliative element during contentions. On the other hand, water harvesting can worsen and, in some cases, even generate conflicts for water management. This shows the necessity of studies that consider both benefits and negative influences of water harvesting, analyzing its role respectively as triggering or as mitigating factor of conflicting situations.

Keywords: arid areas, governance, water conflicts, water harvesting

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Authors: M. Bertsiou, E. Feloni, E. Baltas

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The proper management of the water supply and electricity is the key issue, especially in small islands, where sustainability has been combined with the autonomy and covering of water needs and the fast development in potential sectors of economy. In this research work a hybrid system in Fournoi island (Icaria), a small island of Aegean, has been evaluated in order to produce hydropower and cover water demands, as it can provide solutions to acute problems, such as the water scarcity or the instability of local power grids. The meaning and the utility of hybrid system and the cooperation with a desalination plant has also been considered. This kind of project has not yet been widely applied, so the consideration will give us valuable information about the storage of water and the controlled distribution of the generated clean energy. This process leads to the conclusions about the functioning of the system and the profitability of this project, covering the demand for water and electricity.

Keywords: hybrid system, water, electricity, island

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Authors: Tsu-Hsu Yen

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The interfacial gas adsorption presents a frequent challenge and opportunity for micro-/nano-fluidic operation. In this study, we investigate the wettability, gas accumulation, and nanobubble formation on various homogeneous surface conditions by using MD simulation, including a series of 3D and quasi-2D argon-water-solid systems simulation. To precisely determine the wettability on various substrates, several indicators were calculated. Among these wettability indicators, the water PMF (potential of mean force) has the most correlation tendency with interfacial water molecular orientation than depletion layer width and droplet contact angle. The results reveal that the aggregation of argon molecules on substrates not only depending on the level of hydrophobicity but also determined by the competition between gas-solid and water-solid interaction as well as water molecular structure near the surface. In addition, the surface nanobubble is always observed coexisted with the gas enrichment layer. The water structure adjacent to water-gas and water-solid interfaces also plays an important factor in gas out-flux and gas aggregation, respectively. The quasi-2D simulation shows that only a slight difference in the curved argon-water interface from the plane interface which suggests no noticeable obstructing effect on gas outflux from the gas-water interfacial water networks.

Keywords: gas aggregation, interfacial nanobubble, molecular dynamics simulation, wettability

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Authors: Bina Gupta, Rashmi Singh, Harshit Mahandra

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Molybdenum is a strategic metal and finds applications in petroleum refining, thermocouples, X-ray tubes and in making of steel alloy owing to its high melting temperature and tensile strength. The growing significance and economic value of molybdenum have increased interest in the development of efficient processes aiming its recovery from secondary sources. Main secondary sources of Mo are molybdenum catalysts which are used for hydrodesulphurisation process in petrochemical refineries. The activity of these catalysts gradually decreases with time during the desulphurisation process as the catalysts get contaminated with toxic material and are dumped as waste which leads to environmental issues. In this scenario, recovery of molybdenum from spent catalyst is significant from both economic and environmental point of view. Recently ionic liquids have gained prominence due to their low vapour pressure, high thermal stability, good extraction efficiency and recycling capacity. Present study reports recovery of molybdenum from Mo-Co spent leach liquor using Cyphos IL 102[trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium bromide] as an extractant. Spent catalyst was leached with 3 mol/L HCl and the leach liquor containing Mo-870 ppm, Co-341 ppm, Al-508 ppm and Fe-42 ppm was subjected to extraction step. The effect of extractant concentration on the leach liquor was investigated and almost 85% extraction of Mo was achieved with 0.05 mol/L Cyphos IL 102. Results of stripping studies revealed that 2 mol/L HNO3 can effectively strip 94% of the extracted Mo from the loaded organic phase. McCabe-Thiele diagrams were constructed to determine the number of stages required for quantitative extraction and stripping of molybdenum and were confirmed by counter current simulation studies. According to McCabe-Thiele extraction and stripping isotherms, two stages are required for quantitative extraction and stripping of molybdenum at A/O= 1:1. Around 95.4% extraction of molybdenum was achieved in two stage counter current at A/O= 1:1 with negligible extraction of Co and Al. However, iron was coextracted and removed from the loaded organic phase by scrubbing with 0.01 mol/L HCl. Quantitative stripping (~99.5 %) of molybdenum was achieved with 2.0 mol/L HNO3 in two stages at O/A=1:1. Overall ~95.0% molybdenum with 99 % purity was recovered from Mo-Co spent catalyst. From the strip solution, MoO3 was obtained by crystallization followed by thermal decomposition. The product obtained after thermal decomposition was characterized by XRD, FE-SEM and EDX techniques. XRD peaks of MoO3correspond to molybdite Syn-MoO3 structure. FE-SEM depicts the rod like morphology of synthesized MoO3. EDX analysis of MoO3 shows 1:3 atomic percentage of molybdenum and oxygen. The synthesised MoO3 can find application in gas sensors, electrodes of batteries, display devices, smart windows, lubricants and as catalyst.

Keywords: cyphos IL 102, extraction, Mo-Co spent catalyst, recovery

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Authors: Khosru M. Salim, Md. Jasim Uddin, Mohammad Rejwan Uddin

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Developing countries like Bangladesh has huge population lives in the rural areas out of electricity. They are using manually operated tube well for collecting underground water to meet their daily demand. A human labour is required to lift water from tube well. Sometimes, it is impossible for a elementary school going child to operate a tube well in the school. Solar powered water pump could be a sustainable water pumping solution in the rural area of Bangladesh. To minimize the cost, a 0.5 horse power solar water pump is designed considering the requirement of water for a typical house hold in this research. A prototype of the 0.5 hp capacity system is implemented and tested in the rooftop of the university lab to validate the performances. Based on the experimental data, the performance of the system is analyzed and presented in this paper.

Keywords: water pump, solar photovoltaic module, performance analysis, feasibility study

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Authors: R. N. Khare, J. P. Sahu, Rajesh Kumar Tamrakar

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Tests were conducted to determine the property of soil with variation of H2SO4 content for soils under different stage. The soils had varying amounts of plasticity’s ranging from low to high plasticity. The unsaturated soil behavior was investigated for different conditions, covering a range of compactive efforts and water contents. The soil characteristic curves were more sensitive to changes in compaction effort than changes in compaction water content. In this research paper two types of water (Ground water Ph =7.9, Turbidity= 13 ppm; Cl =2.1mg/l and surface water Ph =8.65; Turbidity=18.5; Cl=1mg/l) were selected of Bhilai Nagar, State-Chhattisgarh, India which is mixed with a certain type of soil. Results shows that by the presence of ground water day by day the particles are becoming coarser in 7 days thereafter its size reduces; on the other hand by the presence of surface water the courser particles are disintegrating, finer particles are accumulating and also the dry density is reduces. Plasticity soils retained the smallest water content and the highest plasticity soils retained the highest water content at a specified suction. In addition, soil characteristic for soils to be compacted in the laboratory and in the field are still under process for analyzing the bearing capacity. The bearing capacity was reduced 2 to 3 times in the presence of H2SO4.

Keywords: soil compaction, H2SO4, soil water, water conditions

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Authors: Abraham Dayan

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Remediation of soil containing volatile contaminants is often conducted by vapor extraction (SVE) technique. The operation is based on injection of air at ambient temperatures with or without thermal soil warming. Thermal enhancements of soil vapor extraction (TESVE) processes are usually conducted by soil heating, sometimes assisted by added steam injections. The current study addresses a technique which has not received adequate attention and is based on using exclusively hot air as an alternative to the common TESVE practices. To demonstrate the merit of the hot air TESVE technique, a sandy soil containing contaminated water is studied. Numerical and analytical tools were used to evaluate the rate of decontamination processes for various geometries and operating conditions. The governing equations are based on the Darcy law and are applied to an expanding compressible flow within a sandy soil. The equations were solved to determine the minimal time required for complete soil remediation. An approximate closed form solution was developed based on the assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium and on a linearized representation of temperature dependence of the vapor to air density ratio. The solution is general in nature and offers insight into the governing processes of the soil remediation operation, where self-similar temperature profiles under certain conditions may exist, and the noticeable role of the contaminants evaporation and recondensation processes in affecting the remediation time. Based on analyses of the hot air TESVE technique, it is shown that it is sufficient to heat the air during a certain period of the decontamination process without compromising its full advantage, and thereby, entailing a minimization of the air-heating-energy requirements. This in effect is achieved by regeneration, leaving the energy stored in the soil during the early period of the remediation process to heat the subsequently injected ambient air, which infiltrates through it for the decontamination of the remaining untreated soil zone. The characteristic time required to complete SVE operations are calculated as a function of, both, the injected air temperature and humidity. For a specific set of conditions, it is demonstrated that elevating the injected air temperature by 20oC, the hot air injection technique reduces the soil remediation time by 50%, while requiring 30% of additional energy consumption. Those evaluations clearly unveil the advantage of the hot air SVE process, which for insignificant cost of added air heating energy, the substantial cost expenditures for manpower and equipment utilization are reduced.

Keywords: Porous Media, Soil Decontamination, Hot Air, Vapor Extraction

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Authors: Tomas Drevinskas, Ruta Mickiene, Audrius Maruska, Nicola Tiso, Algirdas Salomskas, Raimundas Lelesius, Agneta Karpovaite, Ona Ragazinskiene, Loreta Kubiliene

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Antiviral effect of substances accumulated by plants and natural products is known to ethno-pharmacy and modern day medicine. Antiviral properties are usually assigned to volatile compounds and polyphenols. This research work is divided into several parts and the task of this part was to investigate potential plants, potential substances and potential preparation conditions that can be used for the preparation of antiviral agents. Sixteen different medicinal plants, their parts and two types of propolis were selected for screening. Firstly, extraction conditions of non-volatile compounds were investigated: 3 pre-selected plants were extracted with 5 different ethanol – water mixtures (96%, 75%, 60%, 40%, 20 %, vol.) and bidistilled water. Total phenolic content, total flavonoid content and radical scavenging activity was determined. The results indicated that optimal extrahent is 40%, vol. of ethanol – water mixture. Further investigations were performed with the extrahent of 40%, vol. ethanol – water mixture. All 16 of selected plants, their parts and two types of propolis were extracted using selected extrahent. Determined total phenolic content, total flavonoid content and radical scavenging activity indicated that extracts of Origanum Vulgare L., Mentha piperita L., Geranium macrorrhizum L., Melissa officinalis L. and Desmodium canadence L. contains highest amount of extractable phenolic compounds (7.31, 5.48, 7.88, 8.02 and 7.16 rutin equivalents (mg/ ml) respectively), flavonoid content (2.14, 2.23, 2.49, 0.79 and 1.51 rutin equivalents (mg/ml) respectively) and radical scavenging activity (11.98, 8.72, 13.47, 13.22 and 12.22 rutin equivalents (mg/ml) respectively). Composition of the extracts is analyzed using HPLC.

Keywords: antiviral effect, plants, propolis, phenols

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Authors: Hadi Barghlame, M. A. Lotfollahi-Yaghin, Mehdi Mohammad Rezaei

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In this paper, the effect of admixtures on the tensional strength of concrete in Urmia-lake water have been investigated. We made different types of concretes with the ratio of w/c and replaced different percentages of micro-silica, air-entraining, super plasticizer, corrosion-inhibiting, and caulk with two types of cement I and II as well as investigating in both ordinary water and Urmia-lake water. The tensional strength was investigated on these samples.

Keywords: Urmia-lake water, tensional strength, concrete, admixtures

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Authors: Mohammad Abotalib, Hamid Alhamadi

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In Kuwait, electricity is generated from two primary sources that are heavy fuel combustion and natural gas combustion. As Kuwait relies mainly on petroleum-based products for electricity generation, identifying and understanding the environmental trade-off of such operations should be carefully investigated. The life cycle assessment (LCA) tool is applied to identify the potential environmental impact of electricity generation under three scenarios by considering the material flow in various stages involved, such as raw-material extraction, transportation, operations, and waste disposal. The three scenarios investigated represent current and futuristic electricity grid mixes. The analysis targets six environmental impact categories: (1) global warming potential (GWP), (2) acidification potential (AP), (3) water depletion (WD), (4) acidification potential (AP), (4) eutrophication potential (EP), (5) human health particulate matter (HHPM), and (6) smog air (SA) per one kWh of electricity generated. Results indicate that one kWh of electricity generated would have a GWP (881-1030) g CO₂-eq, mainly from the fuel combustion process, water depletion (0.07-0.1) m³ of water, about 68% from cooling processes, AP (15.3-17.9) g SO₂-eq, EP (0.12-0.14) g N eq., HHPA (1.13- 1.33)g PM₂.₅ eq., and SA (64.8-75.8) g O₃ eq. The variation in results depend on the scenario investigated. It can be observed from the analysis that introducing solar photovoltaic and wind to the electricity grid mix improves the performance of scenarios 2 and 3 where 15% of the electricity comes from renewables correspond to a further decrease in LCA results.

Keywords: energy, functional uni, global warming potential, life cycle assessment, energy, functional unit

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Authors: Ximena Castillo, Jaime Pizarro

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This research describes the development of a very cheap mesoporous silica material similar to hexagonal mesoporous silica (HMS) and using a silicate extract as precursor. This precursor is obtained from cheap fly ash by an easy calcination process at 850 °C and a green extraction with water. The obtained mesoporous fly ash material had a surface area of 282 m2 g-1 and a pore size of 5.7 nm. It was functionalized with ethylene diamino moieties via the well-known SAMMS method, followed by a DRIFT analysis that clearly showed the successful functionalization. An excellent adsorbent was obtained for the adsorption of sulfate anions by the solid’s modification with copper forming a copper-ethylenediamine complex. The adsorption of sulfates was studied in a batch system ( experimental conditions: pH=8.0; 5 min). The kinetics data were adjusted according to a pseudo-second order model with a high coefficient of linear regression at different initial concentrations. The adsorption isotherm that best fitted the experimental data was the Freundlich model. The maximum sulfate adsorption capacity of this very cheap fly ash based adsorbent was 146.1 mg g-1, 3 times greater than the values reported in literature and commercial adsorbent materials.

Keywords: fly ash, mesoporous materials, SAMMS, sulfate

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Authors: N. J. Shanono, J. G. Ndiritu

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The poor performance of water resource systems (WRS) has been reportedly linked to not only climate variability and the water demand dynamics but also human behaviour-driven unlawful activities. Some of these unlawful activities that have been adversely affecting water sector include unauthorized water abstractions, water wastage behaviour, refusal of water re‐use measures, excessive operational losses, discharging untreated or improperly treated wastewater, over‐application of chemicals by agricultural users and fraudulent WRS operation. Despite advances in WRS planning, operation, and analysis incorporating such undesirable human activities to quantitatively assess their impact on WRS performance remain elusive. This study was then inspired by the need to develop a methodological framework for WRS performance assessment that integrates the impact of human behaviour with WRS performance assessment analysis. We, therefore, proposed a conceptual framework for assessing the impact of human behaviour on WRS performance using the concept of socio-hydrology. The framework identifies and couples four major sources of WRS-related values (water values, water systems, water managers, and water users) using three missing links between human and water in the management of WRS (interactions, outcomes, and feedbacks). The framework is to serve as a database for choosing relevant social and hydrological variables and to understand the intrinsic relations between the selected variables to study a specific human-water problem in the context of WRS management.

Keywords: conceptual framework, human behaviour; socio-hydrology; water resource systems

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Authors: Gaurav Kumar, Baldev Setia

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Water is essential for sustenance of life and the ecosystem. Among the various uses of water, the water required for drinking and domestics has the priority over other needs. Water that is required for human consumption must be available in sufficient quantity and should be of good quality. Keeping in view the futuristic needs of water of Kurukshetra town, a durable and cost-effective water supply system with the help of Ranney well has been proposed. This has been proposed on the premise that Brahmsarovar, the largest static water body in the state of Haryana provides sufficient recharge to the groundwater aquifer. In the study, a 30 year design period has been adopted and the water demand up to the year 2050 has been computed. The proposed Ranney well to be constructed in the vicinity of the Brahmsarovar will have a caisson of diameter of 12 m and will be laid at a depth of 30 m below MSL. The laterals, 20 in number, 300 mm in diameter and 15 m in length will be located in two layer separated by 1.5 m. the impact on environment because of the construction and working of the Ranney well is also studied and it has been found that there are no adverse impacts of the proposed scheme. However, the present study is limited to the hydraulics design of the scheme and does not address the structural design of components of Ranney well and the cost involved.

Keywords: drawdown, Ranney well, LPCD, MSL, transmissibility, storativity

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Authors: Piyush Pal, Rahul Dev

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Water is essential for life and fresh water is a finite resource that is becoming scarce day by day even though it is recycled by hydrological cycle. The fresh water reserves are being polluted due to expanding irrigation, industries, urban population and its development. Contaminated water leads to several health problems. With the increasing demand of fresh water, solar distillation is an alternate solution which uses solar energy to evaporate water and then to condense it, thereby collecting distilled water within or outside the same system to use it as potable water. The structure that houses the process is known as a 'solar still'. In this paper, ‘Modified double slope solar still (MDSSS)’ & 'Modified double slope basin type multiwick solar still (MDSBMSS)' have been designed to convert saline, brackish water into drinking water. In this work two different modified solar stills are fabricated to study the performance of these solar stills. For modification of solar stills, Fibre Reinforced Plastic (FRP) and Acrylic sheets are used. The experiments in MDSBMSS and MDSSS was carried on 10 September 2015 & 5 November 2015 respectively. Performances of the stills were investigated. The amount of distillate has been found 3624 Ml/day in MDSBMSS on 10 September 2015 and 2400 Ml/day in MDSSS on 5 November 2015.

Keywords: contaminated water, conventional solar still, modified solar still, wick

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Authors: Rominkumar Busa, Shahira K. C., Lijiya A.

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Text recognition is an important area in computer vision which deals with detecting and recognising text from an image. The Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is a saturated area these days and with very good text recognition accuracy. However the same OCR methods when applied on text with small font sizes like the text data of chart images, the recognition rate is less than 30%. In this work, aims to extract small text in images using the deep learning model, CRNN with CTC loss. The text recognition accuracy is found to improve by applying image enhancement by super resolution prior to CRNN model. We also observe the text recognition rate further increases by 18% by applying the proposed method, which involves super resolution and character segmentation followed by CRNN with CTC loss. The efficiency of the proposed method shows that further pre-processing on chart image text and other small text images will improve the accuracy further, thereby helping text extraction from chart images.

Keywords: small text extraction, OCR, scene text recognition, CRNN

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Authors: Hlamulo Makelane

Abstract:

The study aims at providing new insights regarding research and development (R&D) public and private activities based on the national R&D survey of the past five years. The main question of the study is what role does water R&D plays on water security; to then analyze what lessons could be extracted to improve the security of water through R&D. In particular, this work concentrates on three main aspects of R&D investments: (i) the level of expenditures, (ii) the sources of funding related to water R&D, and (iii) the personnel working in the field, both for the public and private sectors. The nonlinear regression approached will be used for data analysis based on secondary data gathered from the South African nation R&D survey conducted annually by the Centre for science, technology and innovation indicators (CeSTII).

Keywords: water, R&D, investment, public sector, private sector

Procedia PDF Downloads 237

Authors: Siti Nur Muhamad, Mohamad Abu Ubaidah Amir, Adenen Shuhada Abdul Aziz, Siti Sarah Mohd Isnan, Ainul Husna Abdul Rahman, Nur Afiqah Rosly, Roshamida Abd Jamil

Abstract:

The International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments (BWM Convention) will commencing on 8 September 2017 after ratified by 51 States in September 2016. However, there is no value recovered for the treated ballast water as it simply discharged during de-ballasting. In order to evaluate value creation of treated ballast water, three seawater applications which are seawater toilet flushing, cooling tower and desalination was studied and compared with treated ballast seawater. An exploratory study was conducted in Singapore as a case study as this country is facing water scarcity issues and a busy port in the world which received more than 28 billion m3 of ballast water in 2015. Surprisingly the treatment technology between seawater toilet flushing and ballast water management has similarity as both applications use screening and disinfection process and quality standard and analysis between treated ballast water with seawater applications found that seawater toilet flushing have the same quality parameter with treated ballast water. Thus, the treated ballast water can replace the raw seawater for seawater desalination. As such, with reduction of cost for screen unit, desalination water can exceed water production by NEWater in Singapore as the cost can recover the energy needed for desalination. It can conclude that treated ballast water has high recovery value and can be reused in seawater application.

Keywords: ballast water treatment, desalination, BWM convention, ballast water management

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Authors: Ntandoyenkosi Moyo

Abstract:

Majority of rural Eastern Cape villages of South Africa households do not have access to safe water supply. Due to changes in climatic conditions for example higher temperatures, these sources become not reliable in supplying adequate and safe water to the population. These rural populations due to the drying up of water resources have to find other alternative ways to get water. Climate change has an impact on the reliability of water resources and this has an impact on rural communities. This study seeks to establish what alternative ways do people use when affected by unfavorable conditions like less rainfall and increased temperatures. The study also seeks to investigate any local and provincial intervention in the provision of water to the village. Interventions can be in the form of programmes or initiatives that involve water supply strategies. The community should participate fully in making sure that their place is serviced. The study will identify households with improved sources (JOJO tanks) and those with unimproved sources (rivers) and investigate what alternatives they resort to when their sources dry up. The study also investigates community views on whether they have any challenges of water supply (reliability and adequacy) as required by section 27(1) (b) of the constitution which states that everyone should have access to safe and clean water.

Keywords: rural water resources, temperature, improved sources, unimproved sources

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Authors: Olu Ale, Olugbenga Aribisala, Sanmi Awopetu

Abstract:

Groundwater (Wells) is obtained from several well-defined and different water-bearing geological layers or strata. The physical, chemical and bacteriological quality of the water contributed from each of these water-bearing formations and resultant effects of indiscriminate wastes disposal will be dependent on the dissolution of material within the formation. Therefore, water withdrawn from any ground water source will be a composite of these individual aquifers. The water quality was determined by actual sampling and analysis of the completed wells. This study attempted to examine the physicochemical and bacteriological water quality of twenty five selected wells comprising twenty boreholes (deep wells) and five hand dug wells (shallow wells). The twenty five wells cut across the entire Ado Ekiti Metropolitan area. The water samples collected using standard method was promptly taken to water laboratory at the Federal Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti for analysis, physical, chemical and bacteriological tests were carried out. Quality characteristics tested were found to meet WHO’s standard and generally acceptable, making it potable for drinking in most situations, thus encouraging the use of groundwater. Possible improvement strategies to groundwater exploitation were highlighted while remedies to poor quality water were suggested.

Keywords: bacteriological, physicochemical, quality, wells, Ado Ekiti

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Authors: M. Zielina, W. Dabrowski, E. Radziszewska-Zielina

Abstract:

Several different cements have been tested to evaluate their potential to leach calcium, chromium and aluminum ions in soft water environment. The research allows comparing some different cements in order to the potential risk of water contamination. This can be done only in the same environment. To reach the results in reasonable short time intervals and to make heavy metals measurements with high accuracy, demineralized water was used. In this case the conditions of experiments are far away from the water supply practice, but short time experiments and measurably high concentrations of elements in the water solution are an important advantage. Moreover leaching mechanisms can be recognized, our experiments reported here refer to this kind of cements evaluation.

Keywords: concrete corrosion, hydrogen sulfide, odors, reinforced concrete sewers, sewerage

Procedia PDF Downloads 208

Authors: Cuiyang Feng, Xu Tang, Yi Jin

Abstract:

Coal is the most important primary energy source in China, which exerts a significant influence on the rapid economic growth. However, it makes the water resources to be a constraint on coal industry development, on account of the reverse geographical distribution between coal and water. To ease the pressure on water shortage, the ‘3 Red Lines’ water policies were announced by the Chinese government, and then ‘water for coal’ plan was added to that policies in 2013. This study utilized a structural path analysis (SPA) based on the multi-regional input-output table to quantify the virtual water flows caused by coal consumption in different stages. Results showed that the direct water input (the first stage) was the highest amount in all stages of coal consumption, accounting for approximately 30% of total virtual water content. Regional analysis demonstrated that virtual water trade alleviated the pressure on water use for coal consumption in water shortage areas, but the import of virtual water was not from the areas which are rich in water. Sectoral analysis indicated that the direct inputs from the sectors of ‘production and distribution of electric power and heat power’ and ‘Smelting and pressing of metals’ took up the major virtual water flows, while the sectors of ‘chemical industry’ and ‘manufacture of non-metallic mineral products’ importantly but indirectly consumed the water. With the population and economic growth in China, the water demand-and-supply gap in coal consumption would be more remarkable. In additional to water efficiency improvement measures, the central government should adjust the strategies of the virtual water trade to address local water scarcity issues. Water resource as the main constraints should be highly considered in coal policy to promote the sustainable development of the coal industry.

Keywords: coal consumption, multi-regional input-output model, structural path analysis, virtual water

Procedia PDF Downloads 302

Authors: P. Mormile, M. Rippa, G. Bonanomi, F. Scala, Changrong Yan, L. Petti

Abstract:

Photo-reflective films represent, in the panorama of agricultural films, a valid support for Spring and Summer cultivations, both in open field and under greenhouse. In fact, thanks to the high reflectivity of these films, thermal aggression, that causes serious problems to plants when traditional black mulch films are used, is avoided. Yellow or silver colored photo-reflective films protect plants from damages, assure the mulching effect, give a valid support to Integrated Pest Management and, according to recent trials, greatly contribute in saving water. This further advantage is determined by the high water condensation under the mulch film and this gives rise to reduction of irrigation. Water saving means also energy saving for electric system of water circulation. Trials performed at different geographic and ambient context confirm that the use of photo-reflective mulch films during the hot season allows to save water up to 30%.

Keywords: photo-selective mulches, saving water, water circulation, irrigation

Procedia PDF Downloads 516