Chemical durability and surface alteration of lanthanide zirconates (A2Zr2O7: A = La-Yb)

Chemical durability of lanthanide zirconates (A₂Zr₂O₇) (A = La-Yb) under near-field environments is important for evaluating their application as potential nuclear waste forms. In this work, A₂Zr₂O₇ (A = La-Yb) are synthesized by spark plasma sintering with controlled microstructure and their chemical durability are evaluated in a nitric acid solution (pH = 1). Scanning transmission electron microscopy analysis reveals an amorphous passivation film either enriched with Zr or lanthanide. The complex chemistry of the passivation films can be correlated with a transition in corrosion mechanisms from a preferential release of lanthanide in La₂Zr₂O₇ to a preferential release of Zr in Er₂Zr₂O₇ and Yb₂Zr₂O₇. These results suggest a dominant mechanism of incongruent dissolution and surface reorganization for the formation of passivation films. Strong correlations are identified between the leaching rates and cation ionic size, ionic potential, electronegativity differences between A-site cation and Zr, and bonding valence sum of oxygen, suggesting important impacts of structural and bonding characteristics in controlling chemical durability of lanthanide zirconates.     

海南小型露天采石场矿山地质环境治理方法探讨：以日富石场为例

海南小型露天采石场矿山数量多且呈遍地开花式分布，且不规范的开采对环境造成较大的破坏，与绿色矿山之路背道而行，相对大型矿山规范化的治理，小型矿山治理比较滞后，本文以日富采石场地质环境治理为例，通过摸清当地的地质环境条件，结合矿山现状，因地制宜地制定出日富采石场地质环境治理的具体措施，通过治理可获得林地2.6hm2，矿山安全隐患及地貌景观等矿山地质环境问题得到有效地防治，有效解决农业灌溉及周边虾塘养殖用水缺乏问题，实现较好的社会经济效益，为今后治理类似矿山提供参考。     

Ammonia mitigation and induction effects on hydrogen environment embrittlement of SCM440 low-alloy steel

The effect of ammonia (NH₃) contained in hydrogen (H₂) gas on hydrogen environment embrittlement (HEE) of SCM440 low-alloy steel was studied in association with the NH₃ concentration, loading rate, and gas pressure. NH₃ worked as both mitigator of the HEE and inducer of hydrogen embrittlement (HE) depending on the testing conditions. The mitigation of the HEE was achieved by the deactivation of the iron (Fe) surface for H₂ dissociation caused by the preferential adsorption of NH₃ on the Fe surface, which is enhanced by the increase in the NH₃ concentration and decrease in the H₂ gas pressure. NH₃ induced HE was caused due to creating hydrogen by the NH₃ decomposition. Since the NH₃ decomposition rate is low, the induction effect was observed when the loading rate was low. The effect of NH₃ was determined by the competition of the mitigation and induction effects.     

Graduate Student Literature Review: Considerations for nutritional grouping in dairy farms

Each cow in a group has different nutritional requirements even if the group is formed by cows of similar age, number of lactations, and lactation stage. Common dairy farm management setup does not support formulating a diet that accurately matches individual nutritional requirements for each cow; therefore, a proportion of cows in the group will be overfed and another proportion underfed. Overfeeding and underfeeding cows increases the risk of metabolic diseases, decreases milk production, and increases nutrient waste. Consequently, profitability of dairy farms and the environment are negatively affected. Nutritional grouping is a management strategy that aims to allocate lactating cows homogeneously according to their nutritional requirements. Groups of cows with more uniform nutritional requirements facilitates the formulation of more accurate diets for the group. Current availability of large data streams on dairy farms facilitates the design of algorithms to implement nutritional grouping. Our review summarizes important factors to consider when grouping cows, describes nutritional grouping approaches, and summarizes benefits of implementing nutritional grouping in dairy farms.     

Motion trajectory prediction model of hydrogen leak and diffusion in a stable thermally-stratified environment

The motion trajectory of hydrogen leakage is an essential safe issue for the application of hydrogen energy. A dimensionless fast-running motion trajectory prediction model is proposed to predict the dispersion characteristics of the buoyant jet of hydrogen leakage for the accident. The impact of different leakage angles, leakage velocity and thermal stratification of ambient air on hydrogen leakage behavior was analyzed. The new developed model was verified by experimental results in literatures. Leakage hydrogen can flow upwards freely in a uniform environment. However, it shows an oscillating trajectory at a certain height in a thermally stratified environment, which is so called “locking phenomenon”. The trajectory of hydrogen leakage is upward and hydrogen gathers at the top of the space to form stratification in a uniform environment, while the hydrogen leakage shows an oscillating trajectory at a certain height in a thermal stratification environment. With the increase of Froude number Fr, it shows that the stable height and maximum height of the leakage airflow have a trend of rising first and then falling in a thermally stratified environment. The findings are expected to give guidance in real-world situations, for example, a larger Fr value and a larger temperature gradient can lead to a decrease in the stable height in the thermally stratified environment. It is found that the fitting of the stable height with different temperature gradients satisfies the power function relationship. This work is expected to be helpful for reducing hydrogen leakage accumulation and explosion risk.     

Ion migration behavior and its interaction with sintering environment in cation conductor during flash sintering

Flash sintering has been reported in various ceramics. Nevertheless, anion and cation conductors exhibit different flash-sintering behaviors, and the interaction mechanism between the conductive species and the sintering environment has remained unclear. Herein, we report the flash-sintering phenomena of a typical cation conductor, Na₃Zr₂(SiO₄)₂(PO₄) with anode region surrounded by air and NaNO₃ environments. The results prove that the ionic behavior and joule heating distribution can be controlled by changing the electrode environment. Four possible scenarios describing the ion migration behavior and interaction with the environment are proposed for providing a guidance for controlling the ion interaction behavior during flash sintering.     

Evaluation of small-scale combustion of an insensitive high explosive formulation containing 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (NTO), 2,4-dinitroanisole (DNAN), and 1,3,5-trinitroperhydro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX)

ABSTRACT

Energetic materials are often disposed by open-burning or open-detonation as it is a cost-effective and efficient means of destroying explosive material, and often minimizes the need to transport hazardous explosives to treatment facilities. This practice is often scrutinized for the negative environmental impact of the odorous and unsightly toxic gaseous emissions as well as the resulting deposition residues, which often contain unburned energetic materials. With the increasing use of Insensitive High Explosive compositions in munitions, it is essential that the potential environmental impact of their disposal is assessed before their extensive use to prevent the kind of contamination incidents experienced with legacy explosives. Therefore, the aim of this work was to develop a controlled laboratory experiment to identify the gaseous emissions and the energetic material residues that are generated through the combustion of the IHE components 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (NTO), 2,4-dinitroanisole (DNAN), and 1,3,5-trinitroperhydro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX). A sealed vial containing small (mg) quantities of energetic material was heated until the energetic material combusted. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GCMS) was used to calculate the oxygen consumption and to identify the gases that were generated. The solid residues were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to quantify unburned energetic material. Results showed that DNAN was the most resistant to burning, thus leaving significant quantities of unreacted starting material in the vial. An interesting observation for the IHE formulation was that DNAN also inhibited the combustion of NTO and RDX. The gases emitted during the open burning of IHE components and mixtures included CO, CO₂, and N₂O as expected, but the proportions differed when the components and mixture were compared, reflecting the influence of DNAN on the burning behavior. From our data, we concluded that open-burning DNAN-based formulations is an environmentally unfavorable waste-management practice for the disposal of IHEs mainly due to generation of solid residues as well as unburnt DNAN.     

Estimating long-term time-resolved indoor PM2.5 of outdoor and indoor origin using easily obtainable inputs

To evaluate the separate impacts on human health and establish effective control strategies, it is crucial to estimate the contribution of outdoor infiltration and indoor emission to indoor PM_2.5 in buildings. This study used an algorithm to automatically estimate the long-term time-resolved indoor PM_2.5 of outdoor and indoor origin in real apartments with natural ventilation. The inputs for the algorithm were only the time-resolved indoor/outdoor PM_2.5 concentrations and occupants’ window actions, which were easily obtained from the low-cost sensors. This study first applied the algorithm in an apartment in Tianjin, China. The indoor/outdoor contribution to the gross indoor exposure and time-resolved infiltration factor were automatically estimated using the algorithm. The influence of outdoor PM_2.5 data source and algorithm parameters on the estimated results was analyzed. The algorithm was then applied in four other apartments located in Chongqing, Shenyang, Xi'an, and Urumqi to further demonstrate its feasibility. The results provided indirect evidence, such as the plausible explanations for seasonal and spatial variation, to partially support the success of the algorithm used in real apartments. Through the analysis, this study also identified several further development directions to facilitate the practical applications of the algorithm, such as robust long-term outdoor PM_2.5 monitoring using low-cost light-scattering sensors.     

浅议生态环境监测机构的风险控制

现阶段,为了探索创新性的发展途径,生态环境监测机构应始终增强风险控制意识。应加强风险管理,立足于风险控制,以求不断健康发展。     

A recurrent neural network using historical data to predict time series indoor PM2.5 concentrations for residential buildings

Due to the severe outdoor PM2.5 pollution in China, many people have installed air-cleaning systems in homes. To make the systems run automatically and intelligently, we developed a recurrent neural network (RNN) that uses historical data to predict the future indoor PM2.5 concentration. The RNN architecture includes an autoencoder and a recurrent part. We used data measured in an apartment over the course of an entire year to train and test the RNN. The data include indoor/outdoor PM2.5 concentration, environmental parameters and time of day. By comparing three different input strategies, we found that a strategy employing historical PM2.5 and time of day as inputs performed best. With this strategy, the model can be applied to predict the relatively stable trend of indoor PM2.5 concentration in advance. When the input length is 2 h and the prediction horizon is 30 min, the median prediction error is 8.3 µg/m³ for the whole test set. For times with indoor PM2.5 concentrations between (20,50] µg/m³ and (50,100] µg/m³, the median prediction error is 8.3 and 9.2 µg/m³, respectively. The low prediction error between the ground-truth and predicted values shows that the RNN can predict indoor PM2.5 concentrations with satisfactory performance.