Rare earth elements (REEs) are important high-tech materials with widespread industrial applications and a high risk of supply disruption. Current physico-chemical methods for REE recovery are energy ...intensive, complex, and costly. Thus, it is crucial to undertake measures to secure future REE demand and protect the environment as well. Bioleaching as an alternative technology for the recovery and recycling of REEs from a variety of primary and secondary sources has been increasingly explored. The present review provides an overview on REE content of various primary and secondary sources, applied bioleaching microorganisms and methods, reactor setups, as well as a detailed description of known REE leaching mechanisms. The effects of different process parameters including temperature, pH, medium composition, pulp density, and particle size on efficiency of REE leaching are also evaluated in detail.
Canada is proposing a ban on asbestos, and the US Environmental Protection Agency has listed it among the first 10 materials it is investigating under the new Toxic Substances Control Act revisions. ...However, this effort is currently running up against enormous industry and political opposition. Here, we detail the activities in the early 1970s of the Friction Materials Standards Institute, an industry trade association, to stifle earlier attempts to regulate asbestos use in brake linings, one of the oldest and most obvious sources of asbestos exposure to mechanics, among others. (Am J Public Health. 2017: 1395-1399. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2017.303901).
We report the synthesis, characterization, electrochemical sensing and catalytic capability of the bimetallic heterojunction Al
O
/ZnO micro flowers (AZ MFs). In order to prepare this bifunctional ...material, the facile hydrothermal process was adopted. The material was thoroughly characterized for the crystal structure and morphology with Powder XRD, XPS and FE-SEM. The investigation of electrochemical sensing was done using hydroquinone (HQ) and the chemical catalysis was using rhodamine B (RhB) with our bimetallic Al
O
/ZnO micro flowers as these are harmful industrial pollutants. The process parameters like the influence of scan rate and pH was efficiently optimized for the electrochemical detection of HQ and kinetics for the time dependent catalytic degradation of RhB dye. The linear relationship between the peak current and the concentration of HQ was found to be in the range of 0.125-20.25 μM with an impressive detection limit of 11.2 nM. In the chemical catalytic degradation of the RhB dye, our bimetallic material thrived well during the reaction and degraded the material in 10 min. The performance of bimetallic Al
O
/ZnO micro flowers towards HQ detection and RhB degradation shows good stability, reproducibility and it can be efficiently utilized to treat the environmental pollutants.
PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the role of environmental awareness, environmental concerns, and green innovation toward green purchase intentions. This paper theoretically extends the ...existing knowledge on the subject matter and adds value to the existing knowledge.Design/methodology/approachBased upon the existing literature and relevant theories the study developed several assumptions/hypotheses. To test the hypothesis, a comprehensive data set that was collected through online survey method was utilized. For the empirical analysis the study employed structural equation modeling technique.FindingsThe results from the study indicated that environmental awareness significantly reinforce green purchase intentions. Whereas, the authors could not find evidence for the direct influence of green innovation on green purchase intentions. The analysis show, green product knowledge and environmental concerns partially mediate the relationship among environmental awareness and green purchase intentions. However, green product knowledge and environmental concerns fully mediate the relationship among green innovation and green purchase intentions.Originality/valueThe study measures the role of green innovation, environmental awareness, environmental concerns, and green product knowledge toward green purchase intentions which is pivotal for sustainable consumption. Similarly, the study adds value to the existing research on the management of environmental awareness and protection through reinforcing green purchases.
In the construction of ecological civilization, green innovation has become an important driving force for the sustainable development of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). This paper uses panel data of ...state-owned listed enterprises from 2008 to 2019 to explore mixed-ownership reform’s influence on the green transformation of SOEs and its specific mechanisms. The results show that the diversity of mixed shareholders, the depth of mixed equity, and the restriction of mixed equity significantly promote the SOEs’ green innovation. Moreover, there are distinctions in the impact of the shareholding ratio of heterogeneous shareholders on green innovation. Only the increase in the shareholding ratio of foreign shareholders has a positive correlation with green innovation. The mechanism tests indicate that the mixed-ownership reform plays a governance role in the green transformation of SOEs by optimizing the reasonable allocation of environmental protection subsidies and propelling environmental social responsibility’s active performance. Our study further subdivides the significant promotion effect of mixed-ownership reform on green innovation, finding that it only exists in the SOEs in heavily polluting industries and regions with a high degree of marketization. Finally, we find that the ownership structure adjustment caused by the mixed-ownership reform has improved SOEs’ environmental management system and facilitated its sustainable development capabilities.
EEEP (International Conference on Energy Engineering and Environmental Protection) is an annually held conference for all researchers home and abroad since 2016, aiming to provide a good platform for ...scholars and researchers in the field of energy and environmental protection to discuss the latest developments and achievements, work out good solutions, and make contributions.The Seventh International Conference on Energy Engineering and Environmental Protection (EEEP2022) was planned to be held in Zhuhai, China on November 19-21, 2022. For public health consideration during epidemic, the event had to be changed from onsite to online during November 19-20, 2022 for academic exchanges & discussions.There were over 50 participants from 5 different countries and regions, including China, Australia, Italy, Korea and Indonesia, attending EEEP2022. Conference program was divided into 3 sessions: keynote speeches, oral presentations and poster presentations. We greatly appreciate Prof. Wenzhe Tang from Tsinghua University, who presided over the conference, and all participants for attending and sharing!We are honored to invite 5 experts to give the impressive keynote speeches: A/Professor Farhad Shahnia from Murdoch University, Australia; Prof. Fushuan Wen from Zhejiang University, China; Prof. Wenzhe Tang from Tsinghua University, China; Asso. Prof. Gangtao Liang from Dalian University of Technology, China and Prof. Benedetto Nastasi from Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.Following the keynote speakers, 6 scholars made oral presentations respectively in the afternoon. And 9 poster presentations came after it. Reporters shared their latest research findings and audiences were actively involved in discussions.We would like to express our gratitude to the reviewers of these manuscripts, who provided their time and expertise to review papers and facilitate the smooth running of EEEP. We are extremely grateful for organizers, technical program committee and editors and extend our most sincere thanks to all the authors for their excellent contribution and work and participants for their active attending. Our sincere thanks also go to the IOP Publishing editors and managers for their helpful cooperation during the preparation of the proceedings.On behalf of the Organizing Committee of EEEP 2022.List of Technical Program Committee is available in this pdf.
Biosurfactants are surface-active biomolecules produced by microbes (bacteria, fungi, and yeast) and have several advantages over the chemical surfactants, such as lower toxicity, higher ...biodegradability, better environmental compatibility, higher foaming, high selectivity, and specific activity under extreme conditions such as temperature, pH, and salinity. Almost all the surfactants now available in the market are chemically synthesized. Recently, attention toward the biosurfactants was doubled, which is mainly due to their wide range of functional properties and the diverse synthetic capabilities of the microbes. Microbial biosurfactants are found to have a wide range of applications in environmental protection, which include enhancing oil recovery, controlling oil spills, biodegradation, and detoxification of oil-contaminated industrial effluents and soils. Biosurfactants produced by microorganisms have potential applications in pharmaceutical/medicine, food, cosmetic, pesticide, oil, and biodegradation industries. In this review article, we concentrated on three important aspects such as various types of biosurfactants, the group of microbes involved in the production of biosurfactants, and application of microbial biosurfactants.
PDF
