Iranica Journal of Energy and Environment (IJEE)

1 - 5

Authors: Sakine Fatemi, Ali Asghar Ghoreyshi, Ghasem D. Najafpour, Mostafa Rahimnejad

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is an emerging biotechnology, which converts the organic substrates to electricity by electrogenic bacteria. In this study, electricity generation was evaluated in a dual chamber mediator-less microbial fuel cell. Graphite plates were used as electrodes and glucose with initial concentration of 4 g/L was used as electron donor. Anode chamber of the fabricated MFC was inoculated with two mixed cultures; anaerobic effluent of dairy manufacture (called A) and anaerobic effluent of wastewater treatment plant (called B). Saccharomyces cerevisiae PTCC 5269 was used as pure culture. Power generation using these three inoculums was evaluated in the same condition including room temperature, without agitation and using glucose with initial concentration of 4 g/L as substrate. The performance of MFC was analyzed by the measurement of polarization curve. Maximum power and current densities of 30.99 mW/m2 and 391.68 mA/m2; 25.90 mW/m2 and 320.7604 mA/m2 were obtained when culture B and A were used as inoculums, respectively. Power and current densities were 10.0224 mW/m2 and 253.2964 mA/m2 when S. cerevisiae was used as pure culture in MFC. Therewith, chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiencies of 54, 71 and 75% were achieved when S. cerevisiae, mix cultures A and B were used as inoculums, respectively. The investigation was targeted for the capability of mediator-less microbial fuel cell as combined wastewater treatment and electricity production unit.

14 - 18

Authors: Hossein Zare, Ghasem Najafpour, H. Heydarzadeh, Mostafa Rahimnejad, Ali Tardast

Biodegradation of ethyl acetate in batch and continuous cultures was investigated. Pseudomonas putida was selected as a biological agent to biodegrade ethyl acetate. In batch experiment, biodegradation of ethyl acetate was performed in the range of 25-35°C. Walnut shells treated with alkaline solution as natural packing materials provided an appropriate environment for the growth and immobilization of microorganisms. The active biofilm was fully established on the surface of natural packing material. In the early stage, experiments were performed at Empty Bed Resistance Time (EBRT) of 60 s. Maximum removal efficiency of 99% was achieved at inlet concentrations lower than 430 ppm of ethyl acetate. The removal efficiency dropped to 80% with an increase of inlet concentration of ethyl acetate. In order to enhance the removal efficiency, the EBRT was increased from 60 to 75 s. At EBRT of 75 s, the removal efficiency was maintained above 80% even though the inlet concentration increased to 5150 ppm. Michaelis-Menten and Logistic models were perfectly fitted to experimental data. In addition, the kinetic parameters of presented models were defined

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Authors: Muna Hanim Abdul Samad, Hafedh Abed Yahya

Conservation of the built environment through reusing historic buildings maximizes the use of existing materials. The research question is how to retain the integrity of historic mosques through using sustainable material? The main purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of materials on conservation of historic mosques in old Mosul city with sustaining the integrity of the mosques. The study applies qualitative method of analysis. The method of collecting data is by making direct observation. The techniques for collecting data are by writing descriptions and making an inventory of the variety and arrangement of the materials used in the historic mosques. The research uses open coding to analyse the data by identification of emerging themes from the raw data. The goal is to create descriptive and multi-dimensional categories and build a conceptual model from the categories, which are grouped. This study highlights the themes of materials used in historic mosques in Mosul old city and show that the integrity of mosques affected by the materials, which were used in these mosques. The research showed that the elements that the damages occurred in as a result of the use of inadequate materials which used in such elements. The research recommends that experience is vital in conversation of the historical buildings and require to performed identification, evaluation, registration and treatment activities. In some cases, additional areas or levels of expertise may be needed, depending on the complexity of the task and the nature of the historic building involved.

37 - 42

Authors: Khai Ern Lee, Norhashimah Morad, Tjoon Tow Teng, Beng Teik Poh

Preparation, Characterization and Application of Mg(OH)2- In this study, a series of inorganic-organic composite polymer was prepared. Magnesium hydroxide and polyacrylamide was composed in a composite matrix to prepare Mg(OH)2-PAM (MHPAM) inorganic-organic composite polymer. The characteristics of MHPAM inorganic-organic composite polymer was investigated in terms of chemical, physical, physical, thermal and morphological properties through FT-IR, conductivity, intrinsic viscosity, TGA and TEM, respectively. Results showed that the properties of MHPAM composite polymers varied with the compositions in the composite polymers. Different compositions of MHPAM inorganic-organic composite polymers were applied in removing reactive dye from aqueous solution. MHPAM inorganic-organic composite polymer with Mg(OH)2 : PAM ratio of 90 : 10 gave the best dye removal (%) where it was able to remove 98% of reactive dye at pH 11.00 with a dosage of 500 mg/L. Kinetics study was carried out using different dye concentration and it was found that the experimental data fitted the pseudo-second-order model better compared to pseudo-first-order model.

50 - 59

Authors: Islam M. Rafizul, Muhammed Alamgir

This study demonstrates the influence of lysimeter operational condition and tropical seasonal variation of leachate characteristics generated from municipal solid waste (MSW) deposited in landfill lysimeter at KUET campus, Bangladesh. Three different situations of landfill were considered here as well as both the open dump lysimeter-A having a base liner and sanitary landfill lysimeter-B and C at two different types of cap liner were simulated. The leachate characteristics, leachate generation and climatic influence parameter had been continually monitored, from June 2008 to May 2010. This period covers both dry and rainy season. The leachate generation followed the rainfall pattern and the open dump lysimeter-A without top cover was recorded to have the highest leachate generation. Moreover, the open dump lysimeter-A had lower concentration and load of total kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), ammonia nitrogen (NH4-N) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC), while chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biological oxygen demand (BOD5) concentration were higher compared with sanitary lysimeter-B and C. On the other hand, sanitary lysimeter-B, not only had lowest leachate generation, but also produced reasonably low COD and BOD5 concentration compared with open dump lysimeter-A. Based on evaluated results, it was also concluded that metal concentrations which were comparatively higher in leachate of open dump lysimeter were Ca and K, however, the heavy metal concentrations of Cd, Cu, Zn and Mn, and those apparently lower were metals of Na, Mg and Fe as well as heavy metals of Cr, Pb and Ni. However, significant release of heavy metals under open dump lysimeter was observed compared to sanitary lysimeter. Moreover, meaningful correlation between DOC and leaching of Cu and Pb was observed. Result reveals that lysimeter operational mode had direct effect on leachate quality. Finally, it can be concluded that the knowledge of leachate quality will be useful in planning and providing remedial measures of proper liner system in landfill design and leachate treatment.

66 - 73

Authors: Nur Rafidah Yahaya, Marfaiza Murad, Norhashimah Morad, Fera Fizani Ahmad Fizri

Mining is not only an essential component of social and economic development since prehistoric time, but it also gives a large impact on our civilization. Gold is a noble metal that is highly valued. The extraction of minerals from earth is known as traditional mining. Gold also can be extracted from electronic waste or e-waste, and this new concept is called urban mining. There are many stages in traditional and urban mining process. However, in this study, the focus was on crushing and grinding processes to produce 1 kg of gold. Crushing and grinding are processes in the milling stage. This research evaluates and compares the environmental impacts of crushing and grinding processes, based on electricity consumption. About 50 to 65% of total electricity in milling was used for crushing and grinding processes. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was used as a tool to evaluate the environmental burdens of electricity usage in converting ore and electronic waste to gold bars. The Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) of this process was interpreted by using Eco-indicator 99 assessment methods in SimaPro software. The impact categories included in this study were carcinogens, respiratory organics, respiratory inorganics, radiation, climate change, ozone layer, ecotoxicity, acidification or eutrophication, land use and minerals. The results showed that crushing and grinding from traditional mining gave the largest impact to the environment with single score of 399 Pt compared to the urban mining with only 1.81 Pt score. The highest impact in both types of mining is to human health.

79 - 84

Authors: Sri Darwati

The main problem of landfill management in Indonesia is the difficulty in getting a location for Final Processing Sites (FPS) due to limited land and high land prices. Besides, about 95% of existing landfills are uncontrolled dumping sites, which could potentially lead to water, soil and air pollution. Based on data from the Ministry of Environment (2010), The Act of the Republic of Indonesia Number 18 Year 2008 Concerning Solid Waste Management, prohibits open dumping at final processing sites and in ratification, the Local Governments have to convert the open dump sites into controlled or sanitary landfill. The Research Institute for Human Settlements has been conducting multi-year researches related to the rehabilitation of dumpsites toward sustainable landfill. The research methods are literature reviews, experiments, laboratory analysis and field observations. A pilot model of dumpsite rehabilitation was carried out in 2010 at the Final Processing Site at Cikundul in Sukabumi City, consisting of (1) mining landfill (2) construction of landfill cells in a former mining area with a semi aerobic landfill and an anaerobic landfill and (3) landfill operations using decomposed material from landfill mining as a soil cover. The purpose of the study is to develop a sustainable approach for landfill management and rehabilitation through landfill mining and implementation of semi aerobic landfill. Findings in the construction of landfill mining indicate that (1) the construction of landfill mining is constrained by leachate that is trapped in a pile of waste, therefore, the leachate needs to be pumped to leachate treatment installations, (2) the volume of waste excavation is expanding due to the high plastic content of about 26% in landfills (3) the potency of decomposed materials from landfill mining is 40–83% for landfill operations or greening.. The performance of landfill systems shows that leachate quality of semi aerobic landfill tends to be lower than that of anaerobic landfill. Gas composition at semi aerobic landfill in FPS Sukabumi shows about 6–10% CH4 and about 15–16% O2; for an aerobic landfill, the gas composition is about 47–57% CH4 and about 2–3% O2. In conclusion the concept mining landfill could be developed especially for big cities where it is difficult to find a new site for landfill or to get soil cover for landfill operation. In a sustainable approach, the excavated area can be turned into a new area for landfill cell so that the capacity of existing Final Processing Site can be expanded using the block landfill concept. The landfill should be divided into three blocks: compost block, composting block and active block. Usage of the three blocks are rotated with the intention of using solid waste on the compost block as soil material for the active block through landfill mining.

291 - 298

Authors: F. Asghari, M. Jahanshahi, A.A. Ghoreyshi

Expanded bed adsorption (EBA) is an integration technology for capturing target bioproducts directly from unclarified feedstock, designing and applying a good adsorbent affects its performance. In present work, a novel matrix has been developed for expanded bed adsorption process. The prepared matrix was manufactured using water-in-oil emulsification method. Desirable adsorbents tend to be of small size, high density as well as high porosity. Here, the prepared matrices had regular spherical shape, wet density of 1.95, followed logarithmic normal size distribution within the range of 50-200 µm, mean diameter of 126.4 µm, and 91.93% prosily. The Richardson-Zaki equation expressed the bed expansion and operation flow rate for the prepared matrix and Streamline DEAE. In addition, the theoretical prediction of correlation parameters (Ut and n) was also measured. To characterize the hydrodynamic properties in the expanded bed, the residence time distribution method was used. The physical and hydrodynamic properties of the fabricated matrix were studied and compared with those of the commercial Streamline DEAE matrix. The results indicated that the prepared matrices showed good expansion and stability in the bed, and are thus suitable for expanded bed applications.

307 - 313

Authors: Hassan Sharifi Pajaie, Majid Taghizadeh, Ali Eliassi

Hydrogen production from steam reforming of methanol is performed in an adiabatic fixed bed heterogeneous reactor by using Cu/ZnO/Al2O3/CeO2/ZrO2 nanocatalyst. The catalyst was prepared by co-precipitation method and characterized by TGA, XRD, SEM and BET. By changing the mean average temperature of the catalyst bed (or reactor operation temperature) from 230 to 270oC, variations in methanol conversion were monitored. The results showed that the conversion of methanol was strongly dependent on the reaction temperature. In addition, the effects of weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) on methanol conversion were investigated. According to the results, the maximum conversion was obtained at 270 oC with WHSV of 15 h−1.

320 - 328

Authors: Saibu M. Olufemi

The paper examined whether investment serves as a channel through energy could promote economic growth in Nigeria. A model that incorporated energy as a separate input and as an indirect input was developed and estimated. The results showed that the potential of investment to enhance economic growth is significantly depressed by the energy resources dependence. Although pubic investment was found to be a channel through which energy resources enhanced economic growth in Nigeria. There is evidence that Dutch disease/resource curse problem is a Nigerian phenomenon as energy abundance is found to significantly impair economic growth in Nigeria.

333 - 340

Authors: Adel Heidari, Gholamreza Chegini, Mohammad Hossein Kianmehr, Seyed Reza Hassan-Beygi, Javad Khazaei

Section on Some Engineering Parameters of Lilium Stalk Some physical and mechanical property testing of main stalks of Lilium was conducted to provide information for future automatic machine design. Shear, compression and bending properties of Lilium stalks were determined with using a universal testing machine. The experiments were conducted at three rate of loading levels from 30 to 50 mm/min, three knife bevel angle levels from 30 to 60 degree and at two levels the stalk; upper and lower. The results showed that all the mentioned above parameters had significant effect on the measured mechanical properties (P<0.01). In all three loading rate, an increasing the shear strength and specific cutting energy were observed as the knife bevel angle increased. The highest compression strength and specific compressing energy were 6.86 MPa and 21.34 mJ/mm2 at the lower level, while the lowest compression strength and specific compressing energy were 2.90 MPa and 10.69 mJ/mm2 at the upper level. As the loading rate of the stalk increased, the bending strength decreased, indicating a reduction in the brittleness of the stalk. The average values for modulus of elasticity were found to be 23.48 and 15.96 MPa for stalk regions of upper and lower, respectively.

347 - 353

Authors: Alireza Azimi, Touraj Tavakoli, Hamid Khademhosseini Beheshti, Amir Rahimi

In this article, an indirect forced convection solar dryer is used to study the kinetic of drying for eggplant. The effective moisture diffusivity calculated by slop method follows the solar intensity with the maximum value of 1.68E-09 at 15 PM. Performance of solar dryer is determined by defining the efficiency of collector and an effectiveness factor as the ratio of the drying rate in indirect solar dryer to drying rate in the open sun. The collector efficiency and the effectiveness factor inversely vary with respect to drying time. Results showed that in the beginning of the process the drying rate in the solar dryer and open sun drying method are 3.5 and 2 g H2O. g ds-1. h-1, respectively. Several well-known mathematical models are applied in order to select the best model to present the eggplant drying behavior. Midilli and Kucuck model refers to drying process of product with correlation coefficients (R2) which are 0.9998 for solar dryer and 0.9996 for open sun.

361 - 369

Authors: M. Gorji, M. Hatami, A. Hasanpour, D.D. Ganji

In this article, nonlinear thermal Analysis of air-heating flat-plate solar collectors was conducted to obtain temperature distribution inside the heat transfer unit. Due to temperature-dependency of specific heat coefficient of air, the governing differential equation had a noticeable nonlinear nature. Therefore, for the solution of nonlinear equation a highly accurate and simple analytical method which is called Differential Transformation Method (DTM) and basic numerical method, Runge-Kutta (RG) was employed. As a significant result, it is depicted that the DTM results have an interesting conformity with numerical ones. After this verification, the effects of physical applicable parameters on temperature distribution, useful gained heat and thermal efficiency of collectors were investigated. It was concluded that increase in dimension of collector may not increase the efficiency (about 10% decreased). However an increase in the effectiveness coefficient (τα) and air mass flow rate ( ) enhanced the performance of solar collectors and the process efficiency increased up to 12%.

380 - 384

Authors: Muhammad Hanif Khalil, Muhammad Ramzan, Masood Ur Rahman Muhammad, Muhammad Aamir Khan

The present research study is on development and performance evaluation of a solar thermal collector that warms up air as transferring medium of heat for drying of grains. A 6 meter long, 4 meter wide and 0.3 meter thick solar thermal collector was constructed in which a V-corrugated steel sheet was used as absorber and a 6 mm thick glass used as glazing. The collector body was fabricated from plywood. The solar thermal collector is linked with a 4 meter high grain storage bin having a diameter of 2 meter. Performance of this collector was evaluated from November 2011 to January 2012 at seven different convective flow rates of air (7.5, 14.16, 28.30, 56.6, 112.2, 168.5 and 224.4 kg.h-1). The statistical analysis showed that increase in mass flow rate significantly (P > 0.003) increases the performance of the solar collector. Also there was decrease in performance by the change of months of year. The efficiency was 10% higher in November 2011 as compared to January 2012. It was concluded that for drying of grains the solar thermal collector must be operated at high mass flow rates of air from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm to get maximum performance from the solar thermal collector used for grain drying.

202 - 209

Authors: Ebrahimi-Nik Mohammadali, Mohammad Javad Sheikhdavoodi, Morteza Almassi, Andrea Kruse, Houshang Bahrami

The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of hydrogen production from sugarcane bagasse by supercritical water gasification (SCWG) at low temperature and in presence of alkali catalyst. Experiments were carried out in a batch autoclave reactor at 400 °C and 9% solid content. Effect of reaction time and alkali catalyst on gas yield, gas composition, carbon gasification efficiency (CGE) and hydrogen gasification efficiency (HGE) were investigated. Influence of reaction time on gas yield and composition as well as on CGE was found to be insignificant. Extending the reaction time even up to 4 h could not cause an attractive conversion of bagasse. In the presence of catalysts (K2CO3, KHCO3, NaHCO3 and NaOH), sugarcane bagasse was partially gasified in SCW and hydrogen-rich gas containing CO2 as the main carbon compound was produced. Among the implemented catalysts, K2CO3 was identified to be the most effective for improvement of HGE. Use of the catalyst under our experimental conditions, the maximum HGE of 19% was achieved; however the highest CGE occurred with KHCO3. Results showed that feed to catalyst ratio of 2 was high enough to reach the greatest possible gasification of hydrogen at 400 °C and 45 min. More CGE and HGE would be possible only by increasing the temperature, pressure and/or reaction time.

213 - 224

Authors: Paria Sefeedpari

Energy is considered as an important production factor in many systems and therefore should be managed in parallel with other main production resources including land, labor and capital. In this paper, the energy efficiency scores of some selected dairy farms, using the non-parametric data envelopment analysis approach was assessed. The results for efficient farmers based on two DEA models showed that with an energy conservation policy, farmers can perform better in stock farming. The total energy consumption was 72.8 GJ/cow and the top two energy consuming inputs as feed intake and electricity drew the fact that promoting input utilization efficiency seems critical. The mean technical efficiency score of 0.88 made this ample need more apparent. Machinery, electricity and feed were suggested as the main inputs for optimization due to their high contribution in energy saving (46 and 36%, respectively). The least amount of ESTR (Energy Saving Target Ratio) for human labor indicated that it is employed efficiently. By practicing efficiently, dairy farmers are potentially capable of reducing their energy consumption by 16.8%. In this study, adopting new methodologies, cutting the excess use of inputs such as feed stuffs through using standard feeding rations and providing consultancy and extension programs are recommended.

232 - 240

Authors: K. Sudhakar, M. Premalatha

In view of ever increasing global demand for energy, there has been substantial interest in developing renewable biologically produced fuel. Microalgae are one such emerging resource considered as an alternative for biodiesel production. However its realistic potential is often either over estimated or underestimated. In view of this, a rigorous assessment is carried out to evaluate the realistic potential of micro algal biodiesel based on photosynthesis, thermodynamics and physical assumptions. This paper identifies six best regions in each continent for algal biomass cultivation considering both sunlight and local climatic conditions. The mean hourly meteorological data, sunlight, ambient temperature and rainfall information for the identified potential site is combined to estimate annual biomass production, lipid production and carbon mitigation potential. Maximum possible algal biomass yield and oil productivity have been estimated for six global sites at three different scenarios of photosynthetic efficiency 11.42, 6 and 3%. The upper optimistic biomass, oil yield and carbon fixation potential was calculated to be 533 T/ha/yr, 1, 25, 333 L/ha/yr. and 95 Tons CO2/ha/yr. This study provides a baseline data for theoretical maximum, minimum and best estimates of open pond microalgae production systems.

246 - 254

Authors: M. Mohammadyan

This review deals with field studies of particles indoors and exposure to particulate concentrations on recent surveys of homes. The results of indoor and personal exposure concentrations are presented. In addition the effect of other related air pollution factors which might have an effect on exposure to particles are discussed. This paper surveys of particle concentrations and sources in homes from 1981 to 2011. Three major studies which in the USA and a large scale study in Europe that carried out to measure personal exposure and indoor home particle concentrations. A number of small personal exposure studies in homes are also briefly summarized. Personal exposure studies in the USA, EXPOLIS cities and Toronto, and others similar studies have documented that the personal exposure to PM2.5 concentrations was higher than those measured indoors. Most of these studies found a suitable relationship between residential indoor and personal exposure to particulate matter. Personal exposure to respirable particulate matter highly correlated with indoor air. Ambient concentrations obtained from Fixed Site Monitors poorly correlated with total personal exposure to particulate matter concentrations. Some indoor particle source such as smoking, cooking and resuspension of indoor dust may increase subjected to personal exposure and indoor particulate concentrations.

259 - 263

Authors: H.R. Tavakoli, M. Talebzadeh Amiri

this paper, the peak ground acceleration over the bedrock (PGA) is calculated by a probabilistic and deterministic seismic hazard assessment. The active fault map of the region is prepared. For this purpose, all active faults in a radius of 100 km of Amol City center are recognized and their seismic and rapture parameters are determined. Afterwards, for seismic hazard analysis, the seismic parameters of study region are determined and seismic zones classification is preformed. Maximum earthquake, seismic parameters, and occurrence rate are determined. seismic hazard analysis are performed using 3 different attenuation relationship, resulted in seismic hazard curves for Amol City center, and peak ground acceleration (PGA) for design levels MCE, OBE and benefit life structure 50 and 100 years are presented. For the PGA quantities design levels OBE, MCE for horizontal and vertical dimensions were equal to sequences of 0.33, 0.5 and 0.3, 0.53 g, respectively.

270 - 279

Authors: Islam M. Rafizul, Mahmud M. Minhaz, 1Muhammed Alamgir

An important part of maintaining a solid waste landfill is managing the leachate through proper treatment to prevent pollution into the surrounding ground and surface water. Any assessment of potential impact of a landfill on groundwater quality requires consideration of the component of leachate most likely to cause an envionental impact as well as the source of concentration of those components. Leachate pollution index (LPI) is an environmental index used to quantify and compare the leachate contamination potential of solid waste landfill. This index is based on concentration of 18 pollutants in leachate and their corresponding significance. That means, for calculating the LPI of a landfill, concentration of these 18 parameters are to be known. However, sometimes the data for all the 18 pollutants included in the LPI may not be available to calculate the LPI. In this study, the possible errors involved in calculating the LPI due to nonavailability of data are reported by the author. The leachate characteristic data for solid waste landfill at Chittagong in Bangladesh have been used to estimate these errors. Based on this study, it can be concluded that the errors may be high if the data for the pollutants having significantly high or low concentration are not available. However, LPI can be reported with a marginal error if the concentrations of the nonavailable pollutants are not completely biased.

284 - 290

Authors: M. Omidpanah, S.A.A. Oloomi

Semiconductor materials with coatings have a wide range of applications in MEMS and NEMS. This work uses transfer-matrix method for calculating the radiative properties. Dopped silicon is used and the coherent formulation is applied. The Drude model for the optical constants of doped silicon is employed. Results showed that for the visible wavelengths, more emittance occurs in high concentrations and the reflectance decreases as the concentration increases. In these wavelengths, transmittance is negligible. Donars and acceptors act similar in visible wavelengths. The effect of wave interference can be understood by plotting the spectral properties such as reflectance or transmittance of a thin dielectric film versus the film thickness and analyzing the oscillations of properties due to constructive and destructive interferences. But this effect has not been shown at visible wavelengths. At room temperature, the scattering process is dominated by lattice scattering for lightly doped silicon, and the impurity scattering becomes important for heavily doped silicon when the dopant concentration exceeds 1018cm-3.

104 - 108

Authors: S. Fatemi, A.A. Ghoreyshi, G. Najafpour, M. Rahimnejad

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is an emerging biotechnology which converts the organic substrates to electricity by electrogenic bacteria. In this study electricity generation was evaluated in a dual chambered mediator-less microbial fuel cell. Graphite plates were used as electrodes and glucose with initial concentration of 4 g.l-1 was used as electron donor. Anode chamber of the fabricated MFC was inoculated with two mixed cultures; anaerobic effluent of dairy manufacture (called A) and anaerobic effluent of wastewater treatment plant (called B). Saccharomyces cerevisiae PTCC 5269 was used as pure culture. Power generation using these three inoculums was evaluated in the same condition including room temperature, without agitation and using glucose with initial concentration of 4 g.l-1 as substrate. The performance of MFC was analyzed by the measurement of polarization curve. Maximum power and current densities of 30.99 mW.m-2 and 391.68 mA.m-2; 25.90 mW.m-2 and 320.7604 mA.m-2 were obtained when culture B and A were used as inoculums, respectively. Power and current densities were 10.0224 mW.m-2 and 253.2964 mA.m-2 when S. cerevisiae was used as pure culture in MFC. Therewith chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiencies of 54, 71 and 75 % were achieved when S. cerevisiae, mix cultures A and B were used as inoculums, respectively. The investigation was targeted for the capability of mediator-less microbial fuel cell as combined wastewater treatment and electricity production unit.

118 - 122

Authors: Ali Alemian, Ghasem D. Najafpour, Maryam khavarpour, Ali-Asghar Ghoreyshi, Hamid Heydarzadeh darzi

Removal of hydrogen sulfide from mixed gas was successfully carried out in a batch reactor. The isolated microorganism from Ramsar hot spring was cultured and adapted in an environment with hydrogen sulfide. At 35℃, maximum cell dry weight was 0.43 g/l. For the hydrogen sulfide removal, effect of temperature in the range of 25 to 45℃ was investigated. The experimental results showed that the removal efficiency significantly increased with an increase in temperature from 25 to 35℃, then; a slightly decrease in media temperature at 45℃ appeared. Maximum and minimum removal efficiencies of hydrogen sulfide were 72 and 25%, respectively. At 35℃, based on first order biochemical kinetic; the rate of substrate utilization was 0.06 h-1.

129 - 133

Authors: T.Y Ling, M.J. Dana, S. Bostam, L. Nyanti

Wetlands are important spawning and nursery ground for fish and prawns. However, wetlands have been reported to be polluted in different parts of the world. One of the pollution sources is domestic wastewater. Therefore, in this study, domestic wastewater quality was studied at three major housing areas. Samplings were conducted in three trips. Results showed that pH ranged from 6.64 to 7.31 and temperature ranged from 23.5 to 31.7 oC. DO values were low, that is, below 3.5 mg/L for all trips at all areas studied indicating that it was not suitable for aquatic life. Nutrients such as ammoniacal nitrogen and soluble reactive phosphorus of the housing areas ranged from 11.1 to 17.2 mg/L and 1.05 to 2.43 mg/L respectively. Biochemical oxygen demand and total suspended solids concentrations at all the housing areas exceeded the Standard B maximum permitted values of Effluent Discharge Standard of Environmental Quality Act 1974. Loadings of pollutants from housing areas in Kuching were computed. This study shows that domestic wastewater was low in DO, high in oxygen demand, high in solids and nutrients thus loading the rivers with pollutants. Therefore, domestic wastewater must be treated before being channeled to the adjacent water bodies to avoid eutrophication in the receiving water and to recover nutrients.

143 - 156

Authors: Koel Banerjee, S.T. Ramesh, R. Gandhimathi,, P.V. Nidheesh, K.S. Bharathi

The present study deals with the application of Watermelon Shell, an agricultural waste, for the adsorptive removal of Cu(II) from its aqueous solutions. This paper incorporates the effects of time, dose,temperature, concentration, particle size, agitation speed and pH. Analytical techniques have been employed to find pore properties and characteristics of adsorbent materials. Batch kinetic and isotherm studies have also been performed to understand the ability of the adsorbents. The adsorption behavior of the Cu(II) has beenstudied using Freundlich, Langmuir and Tempkin adsorption isotherm models. The monolayer adsorption capacity determined from the Langmuir adsorption equation has been found as 111.1 mg/g. Kineticmeasurements suggest the involvement of pseudo-second-order kinetics in adsorptions and is controlled by a particle diffusion process. Adsorption of Cu(II) on adsorbents was found to increase on decreasing initial concentration, increasing pH up to 8, increasing temperature, increasing agitation speed and decreasing particlesize. Overall, the present findings suggest that watermelon outer shell is environmentally friendly, efficient and low-cost biosorbent which is useful for the removal of Cu(II) from aqueous media.

162 - 166

Authors: Mohsen Kazemi, Atefe Ameri

In this research was investigated effect of different concentrations of Nickel (0, 1.5 and 2.5 mM), Salicylic Acid (0, 1 and 2 mM), Cobalt (0, 1 and 2 mM) and sucrose (0, 2.5%) on flower longevity, Acc-oxidase activity, anthocyanin leakage, Microbial population, Water uptake and SPAD value as a measure of leaf greenness of Lily. To evaluate the effect of these treatments was carried out a study based on randomized complete design with five replications. Results of this experiment showed that the best treatment in extending the longevity of the flowers were solutions containing 2 mM SA, 2 mM SA+ 2.5% sucrose and 2.5mM Ni+ 2 mM SA+2 mM Co with 2.5% sucrose. SA, Ni and Co decreased anthocyanin leakage whereas the highest of concentrations of SA, Ni and Co reduced Acc-oxidase activity. The Maximum of chlorophyll content was observed for flower kept in solution containing 2 mM SA and 2 mM SA+ 2.5% sucrose than control and solution containing Ni and Co. Ni and Co treatments had no positive effect on increasing Water uptake and fresh weight of Lily. Overall, the results suggest that SA, Ni, CO and sucrose increases vase life by improving the membrane stability and reducing oxidative stress damages during Lily flower senescence.

173 - 179

Authors: Masoomeh Mahmoodi, Alireza Safahieh, Yadollah Nikpour, Kmal Ghanemi

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) concentrations in sediments measured from five stations in coastal area of Bushehr-Iran. Total PAHs concentration ranged from 844.9 to 4790.3 ng g-1 in summer and 935.0 to 4972.0 ng g-1 in winter. Significant difference was observed between total PAHs concentration in studied stations (P<0.05). Among the studied stations tPAHs concentration was higher in Rafael and followed by Sheghab station. The lowest level of tPAHs observed in Abshirinkon station. There was no significant difference between tPAHs concentration in August and February (P>0.05). Based on the number of aromatic rings in the molecular structure, the composition pattern of PAHs was different within studied stations. The studied stations receives their PAHs from both petrogenic and pyrolitic sources. The level of PAHs contamination in the Bushehr coastline founded to be moderate to high compared with other studied locations. Regular monitoring of PAHs contaminant in the region is recommended.

197 - 201

Authors: Jafar Chapokpour, Ebrahim Amiri Tokaldany

Rockfill structures are one of the most applicable structures in hydraulic engineering. Rockfill dams are always used to mitigate flood in the river to prevent damage in downstream of river basin. Since this type detention dams should carry large amount of sediment particles. Therefore a consideration should be taken to prevent from siltation of its pore system. To achieve this subject a minimum hydraulic gradient should be existed on the structure which is called critical hydraulic gradient for initiation of motion. Previously some semi theoretical researches were done on this aspect with different investigators but any general consideration wasnot accomplished to develop an equation which covers all available data series. In this research tried to collect all available data series for extraction a relationship with acceptable accuracy in the subject of sediment transport in porous media. An alteration was made on two basic existence relationships because of deflectionfrom Darcy law. Then the coefficients of developed equation related to geometrical characteristics of rockfill media. Ultimately a favorable equation obtained with acceptable accuracy.

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Authors: Khandakar Md Habib Al Razi, Moritomi Hiroshi

The fully coupled WRF/Chem (Weather Research and Forecasting/Chemistry) model is used to simulate air quality over the Sea of Japan coastal area. Anthropogenic surface emissions database used as input for this model are mainly based on Global hourly emissions data (dust, sea salt, biomass burning), RETRO (REanalysis of the TROpospheric chemical composition), GEIA (Global Emissions Inventory Activity) and POET (Precursors of ozone and their Effects in the Troposphere). Climatologic concentrations of particulate matters derived from Regional acid Deposition Model (RADM2) chemical mechanism and Secondary Organic Aerosol Model (MADE/SORGAM) with aqueous reaction were used to deduce the corresponding aerosols fluxes for input to the WRF/Chem. The model was firstly integrated for 48 hours continuously starting from 00:00 UTC of 14 March 2008 to evaluate ozone concentrations and other precursor pollutants were analyzed. WPS meteorological data were used for the simulation of WRF/Chem model in this study. Despite the low resolution of the area global emissions and the weak density of the local point emissions, it has been found that WRF/Chem simulates quite well with the diurnal variation of the chemical species concentrations over the Sea of Japan coastal area. The simulations conducted in this study showed that due to the geographical and climatologically characteristics, it is still environmentally friendly by the transported pollutants in this region.

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Authors: Bharathi Kandaswamy Suyamboo, Ramesh Srikrishna Perumal

An effective biosorbent was developed from Citrullus Lanatus Rind and its various biosorption characteristics were studied for removing a basic dye (Crystal Violet) from its aqueous solution. A series of experiments were conducted in a batch system to assess the effects of the system variables such as contact time, biosorbent dosage, pH, initial dye concentration, temperature, particle size and agitation speed. The biosorbent studied exhibits high efficiency for crystal violet adsorption and the equilibrium states could be achieved in 180 min for the different initial concentrations. The equilibrium adsorption data were analyzed by the Langmuir, Freundlich, Tempkin and Harkins-Jura isotherm models. The equilibrium data indicates the following order to fit the isotherms: Freundlich > Tempkin > Harkins-Jura isotherm > Langmuir. The maximum dye adsorption capacity was found to be 11.99 mg/g at 50oC. The biosorption kinetics was found to follow pseudo-second-order rate kinetic model, with good correlation (R2 = 0.99) and the intra particle diffusion as one of the rate determining steps. Different thermodynamic parameters, like Gibb’s free energy (ΔG), enthalpy (ΔH) and entropy (ΔS) of the adsorption process have also been evaluated. The thermodynamic parameters of crystal violet biosorption indicated, the process was spontaneous and endothermic. The results indicated that the biosorbent studied was found to be a promising alternative for the adsorption of crystal violet from aqueous solution.

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Authors: Meysam Sharifirad

In this article, the electrochemical synthesis and the characterization of Cu nanoparticles dispersed poly (o-aminophenol) (POAP) nanotube electrode is reported. The morphology of the electrode was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Catalytic activity and stability for the oxidation of methanol were studied by using cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were performed. The results show that poly (o-aminophenol) nanotubes electrodes significantly enhance the catalytic activity of copper nanoparticles for oxidation of methanol. The results obtained affirm that the dispersion of the copper particles is connected with catalytic response to a higher activity. The nanotubular morphology of poly (o- aminophenol) helps in the effective dispersion of Cu particles facilitating the easier access of methanol to the catalytic sites. The poly (o-aminophenol) nanotubes modified with copper nanoparticles cause a great increase in electroactivity and the electro-catalytic oxidation of methanol.

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Authors: Zahra Vaseghi, Ghasem D. Najafpour, Samaneh Mohseni, Soleiman Mahjoub, Maryam N. Hosseinpour

Lipase was produced under desired growth conditions in a novel tray bioreactor using the fungus strain of Rhizopus oryzae. Several agricultural residues/products including sugarcane bagasse, wheat bran, corn meal, barely bran and equal mixtures of sugarcane bagasse with agricultural residues were applied as solid substrate. Lipase produced from the pure sugarcane bagasse showed higher activities than other substrates; which resulted enzyme activities of 155.76 and 138.37 U/gds for the top and middle trays respectively. Furthermore, the influence of carbon and nitrogen supplements was investigated. Addition of carbon sources as substrate was found to be ineffective, while lipase activity remarkably increased by supplementation of bagasse with adequate amount of nitrogen source. Among the nitrogen supplements, urea as a suitable nitrogen source was considered; as a result the average lipolytic activity of 229.355 U/gds was achieved. In addition, various concentrations of vegetable oils including canola oil, soybean oil, olive oil and castor oil were applied. The inducing effect of vegetable oil on lipase activity was investigated. Among them, olive oil and canola oil increased lipolytic activity of lipase with an average value of 192.26 and 183.57 U/gds, respectively.

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Authors: Gholamreza Abdollahzadeh, Amirhosein Maleki Kambakhsh

The necessity of making buildings taller and height of new buildings is now one of the major problems in building design and codes of interest is located. With height, the need for further ductility and the capability of energy dissipation can be a significant role in the proper and safe design of structures to play. It seems that changes the height of buildings can be treated directly on the response modification factor of structures and thus the seismic performance of structures under severe earthquake to be effective. This research is an attempt to evaluate the ductility, over-strength and response modification factors of the Open Chevron Eccentrically Braced Frames (EBFs) with 5, 10, 15 and 20 stories under Tabas, Naghan, Bam and El-Centro strong ground motions. These frames were analyzed by using static pushover analysis, linear dynamic and incremental nonlinear dynamic analysis, and the values of these factors for different models have been determined separately and it is resulted that with increasing the height of buildings, the ductility reduction factor and the response modification factor of EBFs, decrease, but this variation hasn’t any influence on the over strength reduction factor.

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Authors: Jafar Chapokpour, Firouz Ghasemzadeh, Javad Farhoudi

In this paper a numerical investigation is given for a Rankine type vortex flow inside the cylindrical vortex chamber using FLOW-3D. The FLOW-3D is a general purpose computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package. The fluid motion is described with non-linear, transient, second-order differential equations. Additionally the free surface also exists in many simulations carried out with FLOW-3D because flow parameters and materials properties, such as density, velocity and pressure experience a discontinuity at it. After analysis of the vortex by mentioned details, the finding of time-averaged velocity components, turbulent components, turbulence dissipation, in the 2D briefed sections of chamber were depicted. It was found that there are different flow patterns like clockwise/anticlockwise vortices and some sink points combined with each other in different time intervals, decaying and generating along the time. Also the turbulence intensity and dissipations around the boundary conditions of chamber like central flushing discharge are higher than the flow body. It was also found that this CFD package was not able to simulate thoroughly the central air core of chamber after filling of chamber. This analysis is validated by comparison with previous experimental data that was measured in vortex settling basin.