Journal Articles - Environment and Environmental Protection - 2020

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Browsing Journal Articles - Environment and Environmental Protection - 2020 by Title

  • Publication
    Air Quality Monitoring with Focus on Wireless Sensor Application and Data Management
    ( 2020)
    Tan Loi Huynh
    ;
    Sathita Fakprapai
    ;
    Thi Kim Oanh Nguyen
    This chapter provides a review of air quality monitoring techniques ranging from traditional to advanced. It highlights types and measurement principles of sensors for the monitoring of particulate matters and gases with their advantages and shortcomings. The chapter provides a detailed account of the case studies of sensor calibrations and applications with online data publicizing, conducted by the Air Quality Research group at the Asian Institute of Technology. The air quality management system uses several technical tools to provide information on the air quality. Key technical tools include air quality monitoring, air pollution emission inventory and air quality modeling. For the environmental monitoring, the wireless sensor network is applied for air quality, water quality and natural disasters such as landslides, forest fires or volcanic eruptions. The use of wireless low-cost sensors widens the spatial and temporal distributions of the monitoring data which is important for the health effect assessment and overall air quality management.
  • Publication
    Challenges and opportunities to approach zero waste for municipal solid waste management in Ho Chi Minh City
    ( 2020)
    Thi Phuong Loan Nguyen
    ;
    Alice Sharp
    ;
    Sandhya Babel
    Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is a mega city with a total population of more than ten million. The quantity of solid waste generated has been increasing significantly over the past two decades, and the average generated solid waste was 1,164 tonnes/day in 1992 and 8,845 tonnes/day in 2017. Municipal solid waste (MSW) management has been considered as one of the most severe environmental problems as the quantity of solid waste has increased while infrastructure for collection and treatment is not sufficient. The paper focuses on evaluating challenges and suggesting opportunities for reducing the amount of waste disposal in landfills through interception and separation of the waste at source. After the waste separation, the biodegradable organic materials and recyclable materials from MSW can be collected for further use. Based on the current situation of MSW management, technologies such as composting, biogas recovery and electricity generation either from anaerobic digestion plants or sanitary landfills are appropriate. Incineration for high calorific value waste can be adopted for energy recovery. Effective recycling technologies to convert waste into valuable products seem to be a solution for approaching zero waste for MSW management in HCMC.
  • Publication
    Endocrine disrupting activities and geochemistry of water resources associated with unconventional oil and gas activity
    ( 2020)
    Christopher D. Kassotis
    ;
    Jennifer S. Harkness
    ;
    Phuc H. Vo
    ;
    Danh C. Vu
    ;
    Kate Hoffman
    ;
    Katelyn M. Cinnamon
    ;
    Jennifer N. Cornelius-Green
    ;
    Avner Vengosh
    ;
    Chung-Ho Lin
    ;
    Donald E. Tillitt
    ;
    Robin L. Kruse
    ;
    Jane A. McElroy
    ;
    Susan C. Nagel
    The rise of hydraulic fracturing and unconventional oil and gas (UOG) exploration in the United States has increased public concerns for water contamination induced from hydraulic fracturing fluids and associated wastewater spills. Herein, we collected surface and groundwater samples across Garfield County, Colorado, a drilling-dense region, and measured endocrine bioactivities, geochemical tracers of UOG wastewater, UOG-related organic contaminants in surface water, and evaluated UOG drilling production (weighted well scores, nearby well count, reported spills) surrounding sites. Elevated antagonist activities for the estrogen, androgen, progesterone, and glucocorticoid receptors were detected in surface water and associated with nearby shale gas well counts and density. The elevated endocrine activities were observed in surface water associated with medium and high UOG production (weighted UOG well score-based groups). These bioactivities were generally not associated with reported spills nearby, and often did not exhibit geochemical profiles associated with UOG wastewater from this region. Our results suggest the potential for releases of low-saline hydraulic fracturing fluids or chemicals used in other aspects of UOG production, similar to the chemistry of the local water, and dissimilar from defined spills of post-injection wastewater. Notably, water collected from certain medium and high UOG production sites exhibited bioactivities well above the levels known to impact the health of aquatic organisms, suggesting that further research to assess potential endocrine activities of UOG operations is warranted.
  • Publication
    The efficiency of solar water heating system with heat pump software application designed for resorts in Vietnam
    ( 2020)
    Tri Nhut Do
    ;
    Duy Tue Nguyen
    Solar energy is a free and nearly endless source of energy. Vietnam has the advantage of harnessing solar energy for many essential purposes because of its geographic location in the tropics. This allows electricity usage to be minimized in solar chemistry and energy conversion from solar energy into electricity; or to completely replace electricity usage in applications such as heating, cooling, ventilation, water treatment, cooking processes, and heating processes. In this paper, three solar water heating systems with a heat pump are designed for resorts located at three famous tourist destinations in Vietnam: Phu Quoc island and the towns of Bao Loc, and Sa Pa. These places represent the Southern, Central, and Northern regions of Vietnam, respectively. Ecotect and Grasshopper software applications are employed with the latest weather, heat, and radiation data and was obtained from climate.onebuilding.org. Data analysis is based on Ecotect software and the computational design is done in Grasshopper software. These software applications show that Phu Quoc island is the most efficient place to exploit solar energy, followed by Bao Loc, which is lower due to the fog, and Sa Pa, where solar radiation is low. In order to increase the water heating efficiency in places with very low solar radiation, a heat pump is considered along with a conventional solar water heating system and optimum azimuth angle of 180o South for the solar collector. This method is an efficient solution that can be applied in Sa Pa as well as in other places in Vietnam where there is a lack of solar radiation. The solar energy factor (SEF) is significantly increased from 14.37 to 57.47 and the solar fraction (SF) per year is increased from 93.5 to 98.3% using this method.