Sharif Digital Repository

The treatment of refractory wastewater and energy utilization are challenging environmental issues. Carbonate as the most common anion abounds in the aquatic environment. Here, we proposed a novel method to degrade carbonate-containing wastewater and simultaneous electricity generation via the combined oxidation of CO3[rad]− and O2[rad]− radicals. The CO3[rad]− radical was produced by the photoelectrode of TiO2/Si photovoltaic cell with the rear Si photovoltaic cell providing external bias, and the O2[rad]− radical was produced from the generation of H2O2 on a gas diffusion electrode (GDE), and they were both further enhanced from the activation reaction of H2O2 with HCO3− electrolyte. The... 

Renewable energies as a solution for environmental issues have always been a key research area due to Demand Response Programs (DRPs). However, the intermittent nature of such energies may cause economic and technological challenges for Independent System Operators (ISOs) besides DRPs, since the acceptable effective solution may exceed the requirement of further investigations. Although, previous studies emphasized employing Demand Response and Renewable Energies in power systems, each problem was investigated independently, and there have been few studies which have investigated these problems simultaneously. In these recent studies, authors neither analyzed these problems simultaneously... 

Nowadays, the salinisation of groundwaters causes a substantial reduction in the yield of agricultural lands. To reduce the impact of this problem on the profitability of the lands, farmers tend to use desalination processes. However, this transition is not simple and some technical, economic, and environmental issues should be considered. In this study, we highlight some key factors for the use of desalination processes in the agricultural sector. Also, we conduct a techno-economic evaluation of using reverse osmosis desalination in a pistachio orchard as a high-value crop. Moreover, because of the solar energy potential in the location of the case study, the use of solar panels is assessed... 

Worldwide energy and environmental issues are forcing researchers to develop a green approach to produce a clean energy. However, traditional methods in reforming of fossil fuels to produce hydrogen (H2) are causing CO2 emission. Hydrogen is therefore an indirect greenhouse gas with a global warming potential. Hydrogen with high specific energy density can be considered as an efficient energy carrier as compared to fossil fuels. But hydrogen production from water splitting reaction has low efficiency, which limits its generation by green approach. For addressing this issue, different chemical hole scavengers have been applied, which is causing further environmental and economic problems. By... 

The presence of pharmaceutical micropollutants in water and wastewater is considered a serious environmental issue. To eliminate these pollutants, biodegradation of pharmaceuticals using enzymes such as laccase, is proposed as a green method. In this study, immobilized laccase was used for the removal of two model pharmaceutical compounds, carbamazepine and diclofenac. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane modified with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were synthesized as a tailor-made support for enzyme immobilization. Covalently immobilized laccase from Trametes hirsuta exhibited remarkable activity and activity recovery of 4.47 U/cm2 and 38.31%, respectively. The results also... 

Energy and economy play a substantial role in environmental issues such as the emission of greenhouse gases. CO2 is one of the greenhouses that is hugely produced in industrial processes and other human being activities. The major share of CO2 emission is related to the energy-related activities. As a result, modeling the amount of produced CO2 by utilization of different energy sources must be considered. Moreover, by considering economic indicators such as gross domestic product, the accuracy of the model could be improved. In the present work, artificial neural network (ANN) with two transfer functions including normalized radial basis and tansig is used to model CO2 production of... 

The main objective of the current study is to investigate the impacts of environmental evolutions at global scale on Iran's environmental planning. Thereby, all political movements towards solving environmental issues in Iran were accurately reviewed to find out the impressibility of the events by the global environmental evolutions. The findings indicated that Iran has joined the conventions and protocols with a time lag. During the period 1948-1993, the mean time lag between holding an international convention until its approval in Iran was eleven years while from 1994 to 2007, the average lag time was shortened to four years. As the results show, attention to environmental issues was... 

Noise pollution in urban areas has many harmful effects on the citizens. There are varieties of noise generation sources of which the traffic noise could be a major source. The point which is perhaps less noticed is that sound level is not the only parameter to indicate the extent and intensity of noise pollution. Situation of urban land uses, distribution of population centers and types of passages can deeply affect the concern on this environmental issue but not with a similar ratio. This article presents an overlaying technique to define noise prone areas using all different factors involved. A case study was carried out in the District 14 of Tehran Metropolitan City where there are busy... 

Global economic expansion and increasing concentration of people in the large cities, especially in developing countries leads to some environmental issues such as air pollution. Relocation of the firms as a great air pollutant can be an appropriate alternative for diminishing these pollutions. Yet, there is a lack of research about factors precluding firm relocation with respect to decision making factors when determining whether or not to relocate. Thus, the purpose of this case study is to examine firm relocation decision-making factors and to apprehend the role of environment issues in making them using a combination of SWOT matrix and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The combination... 

To mitigate the environmental issues related to the utilisation of ordinary portland cement (OPC) in concrete mixtures, attempts have been carried out to find alternative binders such as rice husk ash (RHA) as replacements for OPC. This study contributes to moving from the traditional laboratory-based methods for the determination of compressive strength (CS) towards machine learning-based approaches by developing three accurate models (i.e. artificial neural network (ANN), multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS) and M5P model tree) for the estimation of the CS of concretes containing RHA. For this purpose, the models were developed employing 909 data records collected through... 

Nowadays, transportation sector consumes about 27 percent of the whole energy in Iran. Therefore, after domestic and business sectors which consume about 40 percent of the whole energy, transportation is placed in the second rank. However, the financial value of transportation is of the highest importance. Moreover, having 55percent of gasoline product consumption transportation has been also ranked as the largest consumer of gasoline products. Gasoline consumption in transport showed an increase until 1979. During 1980-1981, it decreased slightly and from 1982 have had a permanent upward trend. Oil products consumption in transport sector in 1950 has been less than average 15 million... 

Presence of sulfur components in liquid fuels should be controlled due to environmental issues and process considerations. In order to decrease the level of sulfurous compounds in crude gas-oil with 5750 ppmw sulfur, electrochemical oxidative desulfurization has been investigated over electrodes of copper and stainless steel because of their easy operation and mild process conditions. In this research, the effects of stirring rate, temperature, applied potential, sodium hydroxide addition as electrolyte media and water volume have been examined on the sulfur removal efficiency. The results show that electrical conductivity of gas-oil sharply increases with addition of electrolyte up to 613... 

The respiratory system is a vital organ system which makes breathing and gas exchange possible for human's body. The loss of functionality in this system is due to either genetical problems or environmental issues like pollution or toxic gases which in many cases is inevitable. These circumstances may cause different respiratory diseases which may not be curable presently but their side effects can be partly controlled by careful and timely analysis improving the quality of patient's life. So, an appropriate device for conducting different analysis can be effective for people who suffer from respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, occupational lung... 

In connection to present energy demand and waste management crisis in Pakistan, refuse-derived fuel (RDF) is gaining importance as a potential co-fuel for existing coal fired power plants. This research focuses on the co-combustion of low-quality local coal with RDF as a mean to reduce environmental issues in terms of waste management strategy. The combustion characteristics and kinetics of coal, RDF, and their blends were experimentally investigated in a micro-thermal gravi-metric analyzer at four heating rates of 10, 20, 30, and 40 °C/min to ramp the temperature from 25 to 1000 °C. The mass percentages of RDF in the coal blends were 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40%, respec-tively. The results show... 

Increasing concerns about unbridled fossil fuel consumption and a growing generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) in Iran and related environmental challenges require adoption of more sustainable approaches in energy and waste management. Energy recovery from waste can play an important role to achieve environmentally sustainable development that has been defined for the country as a main policy. Iran’s growing urban population generates massive amounts of MSW that mostly end up in landfills. A population of 75 million is generating 50,000 tonnes of MSW every day that mostly are buried in landfills. Detrimental emissions from landfills and many other long-lasting environmental issues have... 

Increasing energy demand has led to a substantial growth in the use of wind energy across the world, which can be attributed to the low initial and running costs and rapid and easy deployment of this technology. The development of hydrogen from wind energy is an excellent way to store the excess wind power produced, as the produced hydrogen can be used not only as clean fuel but also as input for various industries. Considering the good wind potentials of Yazd province, the variety of industries that are active in this area, and the central location of this province in Iran, which gives it ample access to major transport routes and other industrial hubs, hydrogen production from wind power... 

Oil spills are serious environmental issues that potentially can cause adverse effects on marine ecosystems. In some marine areas, like the Baltic Sea, there is a large number of wrecks from the first half of the 20th century, and recent monitoring and field work have revealed release of oil from some of these wrecks. The risk posed by a wreck is governed by its condition, hazardous substances contained in the wreck and the state of the surrounding environment. Therefore, there is a need for a common standard method for estimating the risks associated with different wrecks. In this work a state-of-the-art model is presented for spatial and stochastic risk assessment of oil spills from... 

The main goal of environmental education program developers is to train resourceful experts to work, study and solve environmental issues. Thus, it is essential to conform educational knowledge and skills according to countries needs along with scientific and technological progress. The present study aimed to assess needs of educational programs by considering climate change issues in Iranian Universities. Therefore, needs of higher education sector have been identified and some recommendations were given in line with objectives of training programs. The study applied random selection method to determine a number of environmental professionals to answer the designed questioner. Delphi method... 

The main goal of environmental education program developers is to train resourceful experts to work, study and solve environmental issues. Thus, it is essential to conform educational knowledge and skills according to countries needs along with scientific and technological progress. The present study aimed to assess needs of educational programs by considering climate change issues in Iranian Universities. Therefore, needs of higher education sector have been identified and some recommendations were given in line with objectives of training programs. The study applied random selection method to determine a number of environmental professionals to answer the designed questioner. Delphi method...