This book introduces a new technology for environmental protection, namely plasma cleaning. It brings together technological advances and research on plasma generators and their application in environmental science and engineering, including contaminated soil remediation, waste water degradation, metal recovery from waste solution, sterilization and polluted air remediation. It provides a balanced and comprehensive discussion of the core principles, novel plasma reactors and diagnostics, and state-of-the-art environmental applications of plasma. As such, it represents a valuable reference guide for scientists, engineers and graduate students in the fields of environmental science and plasma physics.

Solid waste was already a problem long before water and air pollution issues attracted public attention. Historically the problem associated with solid waste can be dated back to prehistoric days. Due to the invention of new products, technologies and services the quantity and quality of the waste have changed over the years. Waste characteristics not only depend on income, culture and geography but also on a society's economy and, situations like disasters that affect that economy.

There was tremendous industrial activity in Europe during the industrial revolution. The twentieth century is recognized as the American Century and the twenty-first century is recognized as the Asian Century in which everyone wants to earn as much as possible . After Asia the currently developing Africa could next take thecenter stage. With transitions in their economies many countries have also witnessed an explosion of waste quantities.

Solid waste problems and approaches to tackling them vary from country to country. For example, while efforts are made to collect and disposehospital waste through separate mechanisms in India it is burnt together with municipal solid waste in Sweden. While trans-boundary movement of waste has been addressed in numerous international agreements, it still reaches developing countries in many forms. While thousands of people depend on waste for their livelihood throughout the world, many others face problems due to poor waste management.

In this context solid waste has not remained an issue to be tackled by the local urban bodies alone. It has become a subject of importance for engineers as well as doctors, psychologist, economists, and climate scientists and any others. There are huge changes in waste management in different parts of the world at different times in history. To address these issues, an effort has been made by the authors to combine their experience and bring together a new text book on the theory and practice of the subject covering the important relevant literature at the same time."

Solid waste management issues, technologies and challenges are dynamic. More so, in developing and transitory nations in Asia. This book, written by Asian experts in solid waste management, explores the current situation in Asian countries including Pacific Islands. There are not many technical books of this kind, especially dedicated to this region of the world. The chapters form a comprehensive, coherent investigation in municipal solid waste (MSW) management, including, definitions used, generation, sustainable waste management system, legal framework and impacts on global warming. Several case studies from Asian nations are included to exemplify the real situation experienced. Discussions on MSW policy in these countries and their impacts on waste management and minimization (if any) are indeed an eye-opener. Undoubtedly, this book would be a pioneer in revealing the latest situation in the Asian region, which includes two of the world's most dynamic nations in the economic growth. It is greatly envisaged to form an excellent source of reference in MSW management in Asia and Pacific Islands. This book will bridge the wide gap in available information between the developed and transitory/developing nations.

This book provides high-quality research results and proposes future priorities for more sustainable development and energy security. It covers a broad range of topics on atmospheric changes, climate change impacts, climate change modeling and simulations, energy and environment policies, energy resources and conversion technologies, renewables, emission reduction and abatement, waste management, ecosystems and biodiversity, and sustainable development. Gathering selected papers from the 7th Global Conference on Global Warming (GCGW2018), held in Izmir, Turkey on June 24-28, 2018, it: Offers comprehensive coverage of the development of systems taking into account climate change, renewables, waste management, chemical aspects, energy and environmental issues, along with recent developments and cutting-edge information Highlights recent advances in the area of energy and environment, and the debate on and shaping of future directions and priorities for a better environment, sustainable development and energy security Provides a number of practical applications and case studies Is written in an easy-to-follow style, moving from the basics to advanced systems. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for readers in academia and industry alike, and can be used at the graduate level or as a reference text for professors, researchers and engineers.

This book provides a comprehensive overview on mechanochemistry including its history, high-energy ball milling process, equipment used and fundamentals behind the observed scientific phenomena. It also shows that mechanochemistry is highly applicable in the field of waste treatment. The text reviews 1017 studies utilizing mostly high-energy ball milling for the treatment of various types of consumer, technogenic and agricultural waste. The text is divided into chapters based on individual waste types. The book presents an Appendix compiling all studies arranged according to the application that the recycled waste is meant for. In this way, readers from both academia and companies interested either in the treatment of a particular waste, or particular application might easily locate sections of interest.

The book contains high-quality research papers presented at Sixth International Conference on Solid Waste Management held at Jadavpur University, Kolkata India during November 23-26, 2016. The Conference, IconSWM 2016, is organized by Centre for Quality Management System, Jadavpur University in association with premier institutes and societies of India. The researchers from more than 30 countries presented their work in Solid Waste Management. The book is divided into two volumes and deliberates on various issues related to innovation and implementation in sustainable waste management, segregation, collection, transportation of waste, treatment technology, policy and strategies, energy recovery, life cycle analysis, climate change, research and business opportunities.

Plastic wastes in the municipal solid waste (MSW) stream and in the industrial sector are discussed in this book. Quantities of plastic wastes generated, characterization of the wastes, their environmental impact, and management of the waste stream are described. Also covered are costs of recycling processes, technology, and energy considerations.

The book discusses ways to overcome the side effects of using hydrocarbon-based products as energy sources. Hydrocarbons produce raw crude oil waste of around 600,000 metric tons per annum, with a range of uncertainty of 200,000 metric tons per year. The various chapters in this book focus on approaches to reduce these wastes through the application of potential microbes, in a process called bioremediation. The book is a one-stop reference resource on the methods, mechanisms and application of the bio-composites, in the laboratory and field. Focusing on resolving a very pressing environmental issue, it not only provides details of existing challenges, but also offers deeper insights into the possibility of solving problems using hydrocarbon bioremediation.

This book evaluates and discusses the main sustainability challenges encountered in the production of biofuel and bio- products from oil palm biomass. It starts off with the emphasis on oil palm production, oil palm products recovery and oil palm wastes utilization. The simultaneous production of these bio-products for sustainable development is discussed. This is followed by the key factors defining the sustainability of biofuel and bio-product production from oil palm biomass. The environmental issues including ecological, life cycle assessment and environmental impact assessment of oil palm plantation, milling and refining for the production of biofuels and bio-products are presented. Socio- economic and thermodynamic analysis of the production processes are also evaluated using various sustainability assessment tools such as exergy. Lastly, methods of improving biofuel production systems for sustainable development are highlighted.

Describes the current status of US medical waste management and disposal practices, ranging from handling the waste as nonhazardous municipal solid waste to strict segregation, packaging, labeling, and tracking. Treatment techniques include steam sterilization, incineration, recycling and reuse methods. Also covers EPA studies characterizing types, numbers and sizes of waste generators and wastes generated.

Chemical additives are used to enhance the properties of many industrial products. Since their release into the environment is a potential risk for man and nature, their fate and behavior were investigated in the framework of the European Union-funded project RISKCYCLE. The results are presented in two volumes, "Global Risk-Based Management of Chemical Additives I: Production, Usage and Environmental Occurrence" and "Global Risk-Based Management of Chemical Additives II: Risk-Based Assessment and Management Strategies." This book is the first of the two volumes and contains two main parts. The chapters of the first part provide a thorough review of the chemical additives used in the textile, plastics, lubricants, paper, leather and electronics industries, and describe the effect of each additive on the properties of the product. In the second part international case studies on the global trade of these chemicals and their impact on human health and the environment are presented.

This volume is an invaluable source of information for scientists and governmental agencies dealing with the risk assessment of chemicals on a global scale.

Water - and its governance - is becoming a global concern partly because it is turning into a goods in short supply, with devastating effects on literally billions of people, but also because it is the "carrier" ofglobal warming; whether through irregular weather patterns or through flooding, water is how global warming will be 'felt'. The lion's share of the globally available fresh water resources is to be found in transboundary systems. In spite of its significance, the generated knowledge on how to deal with transboundary waters is weak and leaves policy makers with seemingly unavoidable, trade-off dilemmas and prioritizations, often with detrimental effects. In order to disentangle this predicament this volume works with one case: the Lower Mekong Basin and covers state-of-the-art academic and practitioners' knowledge and hence appeals to a wide audience. The topic this volume addresses is situated in the nexus ofan IR- (International Relations) approach focussing on transboundary politics and its inclination to remain within the sphere of state sovereignty and national interest on the one hand, and Development studies, with its imperatives on participation, planning, and intervention, on the other.The dilemma, we argue, of better understanding transboundary water management lies in how to understand how these two rationalities can be simultaneously nurtured.
"Audience: "This book will be relevant to scholars, as it provides cutting-edge research, and students, since it covers the primary debates in the field, interested in resource management, regional politics, and development issues in the area. It also addresses the global debate on transboundary water management and presents an in-depth case of one of the globally most sophisticated attempts at pursuing sustainable river basin management. Finally, practitioners and policymakers would benefit greatly because all contributions have explicit policy relevance, launching suggestion on improvements in water management.

This book gathers selected high-quality research papers presented at the IconSWM 2018 conference, which explore various aspects of urban mining. In addition, they discuss how to achieve sustainable waste management systems, urban mining, landfill mining, material recovery, circular economy, etc., with the aid of effective waste management practices. Additional topics covered include maximum resource circulation and efficiency, key differences between landfill mining and urban mining, and how urban mining can be combined with the concepts of circular economy and sustainability.

The term "total petroleum hydrocarbons" (TPHs) is used for any mixture of several hundred hydrocarbons found in crude oil, and they represent the sum of volatile petroleum hydrocarbons and extractable petroleum hydrocarbons. The petrol-range organics include hydrocarbons from C6 to C10, while diesel-range organics are C10-C28 hydrocarbons. Environmental pollution by petroleum hydrocarbons is one of the major global concerns, particularly in oil-yielding countries. In fact, there are more than five million potentially contaminated areas worldwide that represent, in general, a lost economic opportunity and a threat to the health and well-being of humans and the environment. Petroleum-contaminated sites constitute almost one-third of the total sites polluted with chemicals around the globe. The land contamination caused by industrialization was recognized as early as the 1960s, but less than a tenth of potentially contaminated lands have been remediated due to the nature of the contamination, cost, technical impracticability, and insufficient land legislation and enforcement. This book is the first single source that provides comprehensive information on the different aspects of TPHs, such as sources and range of products, methods of analysis, fate and bioavailability, ecological implications including impact on human health, potential approaches for bioremediation such as risk-based remediation, and regulatory assessment procedures for TPH-contaminated sites. As such, it is a valuable resource for researchers, graduate students, technicians in the oil industry and remediation practitioners, as well as policy makers.

This book focuses on biogas production by anaerobic digestion, which is the most popular bioenergy technology of today. Using anaerobic digestion for the production of biogas is a sustainable approach that simultaneously also allows the treatment of organic waste. The energy contained in the substrate is released in the form of biogas, which can be employed as a renewable fuel in diverse industrial sectors. Although biogas generation is considered an established process, it continues to evolve, e.g. by incorporating modifications and improvements to increase its efficiency and its downstream applications. The chapters of this book review the progress made related to feedstock, system configuration and operational conditions. It also addresses microbial pathways utilized, as well as storage, transportation and usage of biogas. This book is an up-to-date resource for scientists and students working on improving biogas production.

Environmental pollutants have become a major global concern. The modern growth of industrialization, urbanization, modern agricultural development and energy generation have resulted in indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources for fulfilling the human desires and needs, which have contributed in disturbing the ecological balance on which the quality of environment depends. The modern technological advancements in chemical processes/operations have been raised to new products and also new pollutants in abundant level which are above the self cleaning capacity of the environment. One of the major issues in present times is the threat to human lives, due to the progressive deterioration of the environment.

This book discusses bioremediation technology-based remediation to restore contaminated sites and protect the environment. It studies the opportunities for more efficient biological processes in molecular biology and ecology. Notable accomplishments of these studies include the cleaning up of polluted water and contaminated land. The book includes invited papers by eminent contributors who provide cost-effective bioremediation strategies to immobilize contaminants for cleanup of environment. The book is directed towards postgraduate students in biotechnology/life sciences/environmental sciences/biosciences and researchers in universities and research institutes and industries.

In this day and age, it is unfortunate that the economic prosperity and development leads to disruption of the dynamic balance of the environment. The philosophy of sustainable development has been presented for a long period of time but it has not been able to bring about a substantial change in our society. The transformation of this philosophy into a practical reality seems to be far away - at least in the foreseeable future. In my opinion, the only way I see the revolution taking place is for us to incorporate 'sustainability' in our daily living and to keep pushing for a sustainable society. Meanwhile, we also need scientists to work on technologies that would lead us to that goal at a faster pace. Technologies that are 'completely' environmentally friendly are needed urgently. And if such technologies or ideas of one exists, a platform is required that showcases such ideas to the scientific and non-scientific audience. Through this book, I am happy to present the thoughts of seven different research groups whose work may lead us to the doorsteps of sustainable society. As scientists, most of us specialize in a sub-topic that may be related to one of the three environmental components - air, land, or water. Over a period of time, we become so engrossed with the sub-discipline of our specialization that we only have glimpses of what is happening in other disciplines.

Many lament the difficulty of siting hazardous waste facilities that are intended to benefit the public at large but are locally unwanted. Many label local opposition as purely self-interested; as simply a function of the NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) syndrome. Drawing upon the experience of states trying to site new low-level radioactive waste disposal facilities, Mary English argues that we need to think harder and look deeper, to understand--and, possibly, solve--the siting dilemma.

The 1980 Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act ushered in a new era in low-level radioactive waste disposal; one of vastly increased state responsibility. By a 1985 amendment, states were given until January 1993 to develop a new system of disposal facilities. English reviews the progress they have made, focusing on one difficulty: that of finding technically and socially acceptable sites. She then turns to issues concerning authority, trust, risk, and justice that help to shape the siting dilemma. This book is made highly readable by vivid examples drawn from recent efforts to site low-level waste disposal facilities. The volume will be a helpful resource to those in the public and private sectors who are immediately concerned with the siting of radioactive waste disposal facilities, hazardous waste facilities, solid waste landfills, incinerators, etc., as well as social scientists who are studying this problem.

The development and use of nuclear power in the United States has become stalemated. After the early promise of energy too cheap to meter, public concerns and legal challenges have stymied the nuclear power industry. Chief among these is the issue of safe disposal of nuclear waste. This volume, therefore, examines the dynamics of nuclear waste disposal policy. It is organized to address a wide range of issues found in the policy debate, e.g., the interrelationship between science and public choice, policy management and implementation, legal protection and liability, quality assurance and transportation, and so on. The volume provides a comprehensive view of the complex environment in which nuclear waste disposal policy develops.

This book chiefly focuses on environmental flow, water pollution and water quality. Several chapters also cover water treatment technologies and management. In today's context, climate change and climate variability are important issues in the water sector, which is called upon to develop adaptation strategies to cope with their negative impacts. Human health depends upon the quality of water used for drinking and irrigation purposes. These core issues are discussed and addressed in several chapters. The book explores the impact of climate change on water resources and considers various climatological scenarios. In this regard, it carries out a trend analysis and compares the performance of various Global Climate Models (GCMs). Further, it conducts a water quality analysis and water quality mapping so as to provide information on the most vulnerable areas in the context of water quality. Emerging pollutants, generated from paper mills, are identified in order to choose an appropriate treatment technology. Bioremediation techniques are included for the characterization of improved water quality parameters. The book also presents a low-cost treatment technology for fluoride removal, which can help water managers ensure potable water to stakeholders. In terms of maintaining river ecology in the downstream areas of water resources project sites, the book provides a number of case studies on assessment of environmental flows. Advanced treatment technologies that can be highly advantageous for removing water pollutants are presented. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for academics, water resources practitioners, scientists, water managers, environmentalists, administrators, NGOs, researchers and students who are involved in water management with a main focus on water pollution, the environment, climate change and health.

As the availability of fossils fuels becomes more limited, the negative impact of their consumption becomes an increasingly relevant factor in our choices with regards to primary energy sources. The exponentially increasing demand for energy is reflected in the mass generation of by-products and waste flows which characterize current society's development and use of fossil sources. The potential for recoverable material and energy in these ever-increasing refuse flows is huge, even after the separation of hazardous constituent elements, allowing safe and sustainable further exploitation of an otherwise 'wasted' resource. Fuel Cells in the Waste-to-Energy Chain explores the concept of waste-to-energy through a 5 step process which reflects the stages during the transformation of refuse flows to a valuable commodity such as clean energy. By providing selected, integrated alternatives to the current centralized, wasteful, fossil-fuel based infrastructure, Fuel Cells in the Waste-to-Energy Chain explores how the concept of waste-to-energy can be constructed and developed into a realistic solution. The entire spectrum of current and future energy problems is illuminated through the explanation of the operational, integration and marketing implications of high efficiency technological solutions using the real context of developed regions such as Europe. Up-to-date reviews are provided on the status of technology and demonstration, implementation and marketing perspectives. The detailed technological information and insight gathered from over twenty years of experience in the field makes Fuel Cells in the Waste-to-Energy Chain a valuable resource for all engineers and researchers in the fields of energy supply systems and waste conversion, as well as providing a key reference for discussions by policy makers, marketing experts and industry developers working in energy supply and waste management.

As landfills are closed and new and stricter legislation enacted, the problems of waste and pollution grow ever larger. Re-engineering production lines to reduce the source of unusable by-products is one answer, and developing new technologies to make use of these materials another. Recycling provides an immediate solution, and it is one that is becoming more and more popular in a variety of industries ranging from styrene to steel to newsprint. Like the other titles in the "Encyclopedia of Environmental Control Technology" series, this volume draws on contributors from around the world who are engaged in finding ways to solve the problems of waste and devising new strategies for recycling.

The ocean is the ultimate sink for all liquid waste and has for many years been the recipient of both treated and untreated sewage waste. This book offers a comprehensive study on the subject of ocean disposal of these effluents. The early chapters cover the philosophy of outfall design, properties of sewage from developed towns and an overview of water quality regulations in New Zealand, Great Britain and the U.S. Alternative ways of satisfying these regulations are discussed. The book also provides information required to design outfall pipelines and diffusers. The methods of calculating the initial dilution and the investigations necessary to compute the further dispersion of the effluent are discussed. A brief discussion of the problems of salt water intrusion, of outfall construction and post construction monitoring is presented at the end of the book.

Originally published in 1994, the first edition of Field Sampling Methods for Remedial Investigations soon became a premier resource in the field. The "Princeton Groundwater" course designated it as one of the top books on the market that address strategies for groundwater well installation, well completion, and groundwater sampling. This long-awaited second edition continues the tradition of providing guidance on how to develop cost-effective and defensible environmental sampling programs to support site characterization, site remediation, and building decontamination and decommissioning in both chemical and radioactive environments. The book provides guidance on how to: Implement the US EPA's latest Data Quality Objective's procedure Prepare and maintain defensible field documentation Use quality control sampling, data verification, data validation, and data quality assessment to assure the data collected is of adequate quality and quantity for its intended use Properly decontaminate drilling and field sampling equipment Determine appropriate health and safety requirements Manage investigation-derived waste Properly prepare sample bottles for shipment

This book discusses in detail the concepts of recycling and upcycling and their implications for the textiles and fashion sector. In addition to the theoretical concepts, the book also presents various options for recycling and upcycling in textiles and fashion. Although recycling is a much-developed and widely used concept, upcycling is also gaining popularity in the sector.