Environmental chemistry is a fast developing science aimed at deciphering fundamental mechanisms ruling the behaviour of pollutants in ecosystems. Applying this knowledge to current environmental issues leads to the remediation of environmental media, and to new, low energy, low emission, sustainable processes. Chapters review analysis and remediation of pollutants such as greenhouse gases, chiral pharmaceuticals, dyes, chlorinated organics, arsenic, toxic metals and pathogen in air, water, plant and soil. Several highlights include the overlooked impact of air pollutants from buildings for health risk, innovative remediation techniques such as bioreactors for gas treatment, electrochemical cleaning of pharmaceuticals, sequestration on Fe-Mn nodules, phytoremediation and photocatalytical inactivation of microbial pathogens. This book will be a valuable source of information for engineers and students developing novel applied techniques to monitor and clean pollutants in air, wastewater, soils and sediments.
This book presents advanced methods to analyse and clean pollutants, such as nanotechnology to treat water, techniques to remediate building materials, and bioindicators. It is very important that the understanding of these methods are brought to the attention of scientists, as cities and ecosystems are still polluted by toxic compounds despite efforts to clean the planet.
This book details first the chemistry of hydrogen production from biomass. Solutions to the CO2 issue are given in three chapters, which describe CO2 photo catalytic reduction, CO2 sequestration in terrestrial biomass, and plants as renewable fuels. Further chapters review the selenium cycle in ecosystems, advanced processes to treat water and ecological ways to dye textiles. Society growth during the last century has almost entirely relied on the carbon economy, which is the use of fossil fuels for energy and materials. The carbon economy has provided and will still provide many benefits. However, the increasing use of fossil fuels is partly responsible for the increase of atmospheric CO2 concentrations and in turn, global warming. There is therefore an urgent need for cleaner fuels such as hydrogen, as well as a need for a carbon neutral economy where each emitted CO2 molecule is fast sequestered in plants, algae, soils, sub soils and sediments.
Water is the driving force of all nature. This old quote from Leonardo da Vinci reminds us that without water life is simply not possible. As a consequence, water is probably the most important wealth for humanity. In spite of this, drinking water is still polluted by man-made toxicals gathered by waters in soils and the atmosphere. This book presents advanced methods to clean water and air. Chapters also focus on biofuels, greenhouse gases and genetically modified crops.
Using renewable fuels and materials, drinking clean water and food, and breathing safe air are major issues for a sustainable world. This book reviews biodiesel production from microalgae, a promising energy source that does not compete with food production. Several advanced techniques to clean polluted waters, such as electrochemistry, ferrites photocatalysis and low-cost filtration are presented. Chapters also show various living organisms used as bioindicators of toxic metals. Decreasing ecotoxicity of pesticides using suitable surfactants is reviewed. The last chapter evidences new pollutants in urban soils, halogenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.?
Pollution has no borders. This popular 70's saying from early ecologists is surprisingly still true nowadays despite overwhelming scientific evidence and public awareness of the occurrence of artificial toxic substances in water, food, air, living organisms and the environment. This book presents advanced reviews on pollutant occurrence, transfer, toxicity and remediation. The chapter on school air quality by Dambruoso et al. highlights the overlooked health issue of airborne pollutants in buildings. Children are particularly threatened because they spend 90% of their time indoors, even in summer. The chapter on industrial wastewater pollutants by Dsikowitzky and Schwarzbauer reviews pollutants from textile, petrochemical, paper, tire, chemical and pharmaceutical plants. The authors describe advanced analytical methods and ecotoxicity tests. Industrial pollutants include dioxins and furans that are also reviewed in the chapter by Mudhoo et al. The chapter on fly ash by Gianoncelli et al. presents many techniques to treat fly ash and, in turn, decrease pollutant concentrations. The authors also explain that fly ash can be recycled in agriculture, buildings and geopolymers. The chapter on antifouling paints used for ship protection, by Sousa et al., highlights the occurrence of toxic organotins in human organs such as heart, liver and breast milk. The chapter on surfactants by Rebello et al. focuses on safety concerns for humans and the ecosystems. Remediation techniques and green surfactants are presented. The chapters on toxic metals by Nava-Ruíz and Méndez-Armenta, Abarikwu and Ristic et al. describe sources, monitoring and diseases induced by lead, mercury, cadmium and thallium. The chapter on carcinogenic nitrosamines by Li et al. presents techniques and materials such as zeolites to remediate liquids and smoke containing nitrosamines.
All sub disciplines in Organic Geochemistry (Petroleum Geochemistry, Environmental Geochemistry etc.) are linked by the basic analytical approaches used for identification and quantitation of individual organic substances. Hence, a fundamental prerequisite for organic geochemists is the knowledge not only about the individual analytical techniques but more about their potential as well as their limitations.
In this issues basic analytical procedures and techniques are introduced comprising fundamental steps like sampling and sample storage, aspects of sample treatment like extraction and fractionation procedures and finally the specific techniques used for organic analyses on partially very low concentration levels such as mass spectrometry or infrared spectroscopy. Beside the technical aspects also application on organic-geochemical problems and the standard data evaluation practice is introduced. Finally, special chapters point to analytical pitfalls and to principal standard operation procedures.
The intention of this issue is to get the readers familiar with analytical Organic Geochemistry and to enable them to assess the quality and suitability of specific analytical approaches, in particular with respect to the organic-geochemical problems.
