The Biochar Blog

Archive for July, 2010

Product Description
Environmental: Indoor Air Pollution Product Description Indications for Use: Eye/Throat/Lung Irritation, headache, breathing difficulties, fatigue, nausea, body aches & pains and mild depression from indoor… More >>

Design Requirements
Traditionally Hydropro has always put the needs of the customer into the forefront of its company philosophy. By doing this, Hydropro has always stayed abreast of the latest advancements in technology in the water treatment field. In this case, mostly because of the remote location (nearly everything, including fuel for the diesel generators, is delivered by ship), the most important customer needs were associated with conserving energy and maintaining reliability. Availability of replacement parts was also a major concern due to the remote location and the lead-time required to ship items to the island. Another concern Hydropro had to address was ease of operation and ease of maintenance, as the remote island of Ebye did not have any skilled RO plant operators. The end result would incorporate all these requirements to produce a reliable supply of potable water from a seawater source for the citizens of Ebye.

In the original RFP, KAJUR requested twin 75,000 gpd SWRO units (expandable to 100,000 gpd) designed for a seawater feed of 45,000 mg/l TDS. The proposal presented by Hydropro was for two Seawater Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment units each designed to produce 75,000 gallons per day. Permeate water was projected to be of less than 300 mg/l TDS based on feed water from seawater wells with a maximum TDS of 50,000 mg/l and an SDI of less than 3. Each unit was designed to be easily expandable to a daily capacity of 100,000 gallons by the addition of one pressure vessel containing seven seawater membranes. All instrumentation, piping, valves, headers and pumps were pre-sized to accommodate the expansion.

Each proposed SWRO system consisted of four pressure vessels containing seven membrane elements each arranged in a single, one-pass array. With the expansion, the system would consist of five pressure vessels in a single staged array. Each system was designed to operate at a 30-40% recovery rate, with a maximum trans-membrane (feed to product) pressure of 1100 psi at a feed water TDS of 50,000 mg/l. With a feed water TDS of 46,000 mg/l, the trans-membrane pressure was projected to be approximately 900 psi at startup and 950 psi after three years of operation.

System Design
The final, installed 100,000 gpd Hydropro design consisted of the following major components and unit operations for each SWRO unit:

• Sand and Particulate Filters: Two HYDROPRO Tubular filter units Model STF5M2-400- PVC/150 each consisting of one PVC housing with a 150-micron wedge wire PVC screen for the removal of sand and particles, with automatic purge valves
• Micron Filters: Three heavy-duty filter housings constructed of FRP/PVC and built to ASME Code X, the housings are Eden Model 24EFC each accommodating six (6) 40″ long five micron polypropylene cartridges
• RO High Pressure Booster Pumps: Two high pressure feed booster pumps Grundfos Model BM 17-27R (installed in series) – horizontal centrifugal, multi-stage construction of 904L Super Austenitic Stainless Steel, each driven by a 35 HP submersible type motor rated at 460V/60Hz/3Ø utilizing a Soft start motor starter and VFD RO Low Pressure Booster Pump: One booster pump Grundfos Model BM 30-4R – horizontal centrifugal, multi-stage type of 904L Super Austenitic Stainless Steel, driven by a 7.5 HP submersible type motor rated at 460V/60Hz/3Ø controlled by a variable frequency drive
• Membrane Modules: One FRP construction structural frame, five pressure vessels of FRP construction rated at 1200 psi operating pressure, 35 Thin Film Composite membrane elements ¬ 8″ x 40″, 2205 DUPLEX SS headers for feed and concentrate and Sch. 80 PVC for the permeate headers and low pressure feed, suction and concentrate piping, Allen- Bradley PLC SLC 5/04 based control system – installed in a NEMA 4X enclosure with system switches lights etc. installed on the panel door
• Chemical Feed Systems: One anti-scalant dosing system and one chlorine dosing system
• Freshwater Flush/Membrane Cleaning System

The system skid was designed and fabricated for a compact footprint due to limited installation space and to allow for shipping both units in a single container.
The entire system was pre-assembled as much as possible to minimize field services.

Indoor air pollution belongs to one of the top five environmental health risks. It is a fact that air pollutants in your home may be containing harmful particles for our health. It is a wise way to control it or even to eliminate it. However, it is better to know the harmful particles that come in the air in your home.

What are the pollutants that come in indoor air pollution?

Generally, indoor air pollution contains pollutants, such as particulate matters and gaseous pollutants. Those particulate matters include dust, smoke, animal dander, pollen, tobacco smoke or other particles which are generated from the combustion appliances such as cooking stoves. It can also contain tiny organism such as viruses, bacteria, dust mites, and molds.

The gaseous pollutants are mostly generated from the process of combustion including vehicle exhaust, gas cooking stoves, and also tobacco smoke. Building material can also bring pollutants such as paints, adhesives, cleaning products, pesticides, and varnishes.

How to cope with indoor air pollution?

There are some ways you can do to cope with your indoor air pollution. The first thing you can do is to give ventilation for your home with clean outdoor air. However, if the contaminants come to the outdoor environment, you have to find an alternative. This cleaning device can be a good option for your problem.  

Air cleaning device is designed to be able to remove virtually all the pollutants contained in the indoor environment. There are basically two types of air cleaning device, whole house air and portable air cleaning device. Portable air cleaner is ideal for small room or specific are. Meanwhile, whole house air cleaner can cover larger area in your home.

Incoming search terms:

• how to deal with generated pollution

Product Description
This journal aims to promote communication among policy makers, experts, and professionals in government, industry, academia, and civil society. It serves as an international forum for exchange of ideas and views on the … More >>

As the name implies, biofuels are fuels derived from organic material. Since they can be made in many ways, they are classified as 1st generation, 2nd generation, and 3rd generation.

First generation bio-fuels are the more common fuels that are produced from food crops and animal fats. Some examples include bio-diesel, vegetable oil, and bio-gas.

Second generation bio-fuels are made from waste biomass, making them a more sustainable solution as compared to their 1st gen counterparts. They include various alcohols (such as ethanol) and diesel derived from wood and even human excrement.

Third generation bio-fuels are generally made from algae that are farmed on a massive scale.  By way of photosynthesis and the breaking down of carbon dioxide, the carbohydrates extracted from these micro-organisms is used to make various fuels.
So what separates bio-fuels from fossil fuels?

Bio-fuels differ from fossil fuels in the following ways:

Where bio-fuels can be made very quickly, fossil fuels take millions of years to be made. The pollution from fossil fuels is far more severe. Although burning bio-fuels also creates emissions, the carbon dioxide is more environmentally friendly and absorbed easily by crops and organisms. Fossil fuels are non-renewable, whereas bio-fuels tend be more renewable. As long as there is human excrement, there will be bio-fuels.  Furthermore, with the help of crop rotation, there can be an endless supply of bio-fuels.

This leads us on to the advantages of bio-fuels:

As more people use bio-fuels, it lowers the demand on pollution creating fossil-fuels. This helps reduce harmful carbon emissions, making bio-fuels more friendly for the environment. And since they can be made from almost any organic substance, bio-fuels are a cheap alternative for consumers.

Bio-fuels sound too good to be true. There must be some disadvantages to producing and using them.  So, are there any?
Like any new technology, of course there are disadvantages

Although they are environmentally friendly, bio-fuels have been ironically criticized by the environmental community, for the reasons given below:

It has long been debated on the usefulness on first generation bio-fuels as compared to the shortage of food they could cause. Producing bio-fuels from crops make the food worthless for us to eat. And some people believe that we should rather use those crops to cure world hunger than to power our vehicles and homes. The large farmlands necessary to produce first and third generation bio-fuels can result in us encroaching on the natural ecology of plants and animals.

So you can see, biofuels are still a contentious issue. However, we believe that with the correct management – such as crop rotation – and improved technology biofuels can be a sustainable solution that will do more good than harm. But only time will tell.

Polluted air can cause some health problems related to respiratory system such as asthma. Yet, do you know that polluted air can cause heart disease? There have been a lot of studies about the effect of contaminated air to the health. Those studies indicated that the level of toxic component was varied within the same city.

Some other studies also showed that short term exposure to the contaminated air could lead to a higher risk of death because of cardiovascular and pulmonary event. Then how could air pollution cause heart disease?

The even spread of air pollution can lead us to have long exposure to polluted air. It can bring us to a greater risk of it. High level of contaminated air can cause some illness such as allergies, fatigue, and difficult breathing. It will be more threatening for those who have heart disease. This can make that condition become worse as the serious consequences of air pollution.

It has been shown that long exposure to high level of contaminated air has a straight correlation with the ailment of cardiovascular. It can directly cause an increase of cardiovascular heart disease. The worse thing is that it can cause death.

Most of the pollutants which are found in polluted air are tobacco smoke, carbon monoxide, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), and nitrogen dioxide in which all of those pollutants are harmful for the health of the human being. Considering the serious problems caused by this contaminated air, minimizing the risk of the risk of contaminated air is not compromising. You have to do serious and real thing for it.

One of the best ways to minimize the risk of polluted air for health is by keeping the air in your home clean and healthy. You can install air cleaning device which can eliminate all the airborne pollutants in your home. It can help you reduce the exposure to the polluted air. It will be very beneficial for improving your health.

PROS AND CONS OF GLOBALISATION

                        While developing countries which, in the past, were against globalisation, have wide opened their doors for globalisation, many people in developed countries like USA are angry against globalisation. American jobs and wage levels are severely affected by the influx of cheap imports and shifting of production to low cost overseas locations. According to a Business Week/Harris poll  in early 2000, more than two-thirds of Americans believe that globalisation drags down U S wages. A strong majority of the Americans feel that trade policies have not adequately addressed the concerns of American workers, international labour standards, or the environment. The important pros and cons of globalisation according to the above survey are the following. Productivity grows more quickly when countries produce goods and services in which they have comparative advantage Living standards can go up faster.

Global competition and imports keep a Hd on prices, so inflation is less likely to derail
economic growth. An open economy spurs innovation with fresh ideas from abroad. Export jobs often pay more than other jobs. Unfettered capital flows give the US access to foreign investment and keep interest rates low. The adverse effects of globalisation according to the survey are: Millions of Americans have lost jobs due to imports or production shifts abroad. Most
find new jobs that pay less. Millions of others fear losing their jobs, especially at those companies operating under
competitive pressure. Workers face pay cut demands from employers, which often threaten to export jobs. Service and white collar jobs are increasingly vulnerable to operations moving offshore. U S employees can lose their comparative advantage when companies build advanced
factories in low-wage countries, making them as productive as those at home.

            True, globalisation can benefit the developing countries in several ways. It is, however, apprehended that unregulated globalisation will cause serious problems for developing countries.

            The almost universal acceptance of the market economy and the globalisation driven by private enterprise tend to aggravate most of the harmful effects traditionally attributed to neocolonialism.

            The global dominance of industries by MNCs is on [he increase. Many countries are indiscriminate in liberalising foreign investment. Pepsi, Coke and L’junk foods” are allowed even in countries like China.

            A number of countries allow high foreign stake even in industries where that is not really required. This could affect domestic enterprise of developing countries.

            There has been a large number of cases of takeover of national firms by foreign firms. In some of these cases, the domestic firms are driven to a situation of having to hand over the majority or complete equity to the foreign partners of joint ventures because of the inability of the Indian partners to bring in additional capital or some other incapability.”

            Replacement of traditional and indigenous products by modern products, resulting in the ruin of traditional crafts and industries and the livelihood of people in these sectors have also been happening in several countries.

            There should also be benefits for employment from a liberal financial regime. Removing restrictions on capital flows should attract more FDI, creating more jobs for the poor by integrating them into international systems of production.”24

            It is criticised that developed nations receive most of the FD1, A very small number of the developing countries, which are the relatively developed or large or fast growing in the developing world account for the lion’s share of the FDI flows to this category. What the critics do not appreciate is that, as foreign investment flows are based on economic rational, it is unrealistic to expect the pattern of flow to be different.

            Another criticism is that the liberalisation increases the economic inequality. Even in China, the liberalisation has created many island of affluence. If inequality increases because of the worsening of the living conditions of the poor, it certainly is unjustifiable. But, if the increase in inequality is the result of improving the economic conditions of a section, while there is no economic deterioration of any section, or because of the disproportionate benefits, the question is whether the economic progress of some sections should be curbed so that there will not be a widening of the inequality.

            The liberalisation may increase inequality. Further, several sectors and sections may not directly and immediately benefit from mere liberalisation. There may also be shocks and other adverse effects on the weaker sections. It is, therefore, necessary that there should be real socioeconomic reforms rather than mere liberalisation. Targeted poverty eradication programmes and social safety net are very important.

            The fast growth and overall development resulting from liberalisation could have a major’ impact on poverty. Naisbitt points out that there were an estimated 200 to 270 million Chinese -living in absolute poverty in 1978 (the year in which the liberalisation began) and their number came down to 100 million by 1985.2 Foreign capital has significantly boosted investment and economic growth in China. China has leaped forward on the export front too. Foreign funded enterprises contribute a substantial chunk of the exports from China. Other countries which carry out proper reforms in real earnest should also” be expected to reap such gains in varying degrees. But-, half-hearted and confused measures and implementational problems may create more problems than they solve.

            Although the MNCs, by the virtue of their size and resources, have certain advantages they may also have limitations or disadvantages in certain spheres or aspects of business. Small and medium firms often have some edge over the very large ones in respects of standardised products -or technologies like greater flexibility and adaptability, lower overheads, intimacy with the customers, etc. Lower costs is a great advantage which firms from developing countries enjoy. It may be noted that the major component of growth of several India pharmaceutical firms is the foreign market. They are relying mostly on bulk drugs and generics.

            What is often ignored while discussing the impact of the product patent is that patented drugs account for only about 15 per cent of the India drug market. There are several more products which. would go off patent in the coming years which can also be taken up the India firms. The new patent regime should be expected help the Indian industry by prompting it to give added thrust to R&D and thereby enabling Indian firms also to develop patented products. Positive signs are already there on the horizon.

There are also many evidences of the better technology brought in by the MNCs inducing or provoking Indian firms to absorb “similar technology leading to their enhanced competitiveness and market expansion.

C.Pavithira

M.Phil Scholar

Department of Commerce

Periyar University, Salem-11