A compensation mechanism for air pollutants generated by tourism-related land-based transportation: An exergy-based case study from Macao.

This paper discusses the compensation standard for exhaust pollution and devises a compensation mechanism for Macao's tourism-related transport sector based on an integration of chemical exergy and universal exergy, using data on gasoline consumption by automobile sector retrieved from the transportation industry. The results reveal that: (1) the exergy values of air pollutant emissions increased from 1.53 × 10 kJ in 2010 to 2.

Investigating the Rheology and Stability of Heavy Crude Oil-in-Water Emulsions Using APG08 Emulsifiers.

This work investigates the performance of isooctyl glucoside (APG08) as an emulsifier for the preparation of a Karamay heavy crude oil-in-water emulsion to facilitate its pipeline transportation. First, various factors affecting the rheology and stability of prepared emulsions were studied. The results revealed that the viscosity and stability of emulsions increased with increasing oil content, surfactant concentration, mixing speed, mixing time, and pH of the aqueous phase.

Components Interaction of Cotton Stalk under Low-Temperature Hydrothermal Conversion: A Bio-Oil Pyrolysis Behavior Perspective Analysis.

The conversion of agricultural and forestry waste biomass materials into bio-oil by mild hydro-thermal technology has a positive effect on extending the agricultural industry chain and alleviating the world energy crisis. The interaction investigation of biomass components during bio-oil formation can be significant for the efficient conversion of lignocellulose when different raw materials are fed together. In this paper, a bio-oil pyrolysis behavior (thermogravimetric analysis, TG) perspective component interaction investigation of cotton stalks under low-temperature hydro-thermal conversion (220 °C) was studied.

Policy, technical change, and environmental efficiency: Evidence of China's power system from dynamic and spatial perspective.

Feed-in tariff (FIT) and renewable portfolio standard (RPS) policies have been implemented to facilitate wind and solar power technologies with the aim of achieving sustainable development in power system. It is essential to study how efficient these policies are in accelerating technical progress and how efficient the power system is in balancing development and environmental protection. Dynamic network data envelopment analysis and the global Malmquist productivity index are first employed to study the environmental efficiency and technical progress, after which a dynamic spatial Durbin model is applied to analyze the impact of policies on technical progress.

Compression Properties and Fabrication of Closed-Cell Metal Matrix Syntactic Foams AlO/AZ91D.

Closed-cell metal syntactic foam is a new material consisting of hollow spheres embedded in metal matrix syntactic foams. These foams have good physical and mechanical properties and are increasingly used worldwide in industrial and high-tech fields. Magnesium matrix syntactic foams containing hollow AlO spheres ((AlO)/AZ91D) were successfully fabricated by hot press sintering at different temperatures.

Two birds with one stone: large catalytic areas and abundant nitrogen sites inspired by fluorine doping contributing to CORR activity and selectivity.

Electroreduction of CO based on metal-free carbon catalysts is an attractive approach for useful products. However, it remains a great chemical challenge due to its unsatisfactory activity and poor selectivity. Here, we report a successful case to greatly improve CO-to-CO conversion on carbon black (CB) and nitrogen-doped carbon black (N-CB).

Testing the stakeholders' partnership in a tourism waste management network: an ERGM approach.

The exponential random graph model (ERGM) is an effective approach for testing the dynamic and local processes of a network. This paper explores the structure of stakeholders' partnerships in a tourism waste management network using high-order dependency ERGMs based on relational data obtained from a field survey in Motuo County, China. The results reveal that (1) the network has many edges, indicating a tight network; (2) the geometrically weighted edge distribution shows a high transitive effect of the network; (3) the structural effect is more significant than the attribute effect; (4) there is a good agreement between the simulation results and observations, suggesting a tourism waste network with close connections and collaborative division of labor.

Study on Influencing Factors of Water Huff-n-Puff Oil Recovery in Matrix-Fracture Systems of the Tight Sedimentary Tuff Reservoirs.

Tight sedimentary tuff reservoirs (TSTRs) are a new type of tight oil reservoirs, which are mainly developed by water huff-n-puff (WHP). However, there is no quantitative study on the effect of water injection pressure (WIP) and fracture density (FD) on the oil recovery effect of WHP, and the reasons for the low flow-back rate (FR) of the injected water are also not fully explained. In this study, the real cores of TSTRs were used to simulate the seepage state of the matrix-fracture systems of the reservoir, the effects of WIP and FD on the WHP were quantitatively studied, and the reasons for the low FR of the injected water were comprehensively analyzed.

Applicability research of thermodynamic models of gas hydrate phase equilibrium based on different equations of state.

Choosing an appropriate equation of state and thermodynamic model is very important for predicting the phase equilibrium of a gas hydrate. This study is based on statistical thermodynamics, considering the changes in water activity caused by gas dissolution, and deriving and summarizing four thermodynamic models. Based on the 150 collected experimental data points, the accuracy of the four thermodynamic models in predicting the phase equilibrium of methane hydrate, ethane hydrate, and carbon dioxide hydrate were compared.

Reduction-Magnetic Separation of Pickling Sludge by Biomass Pyrolysis Reducing Gas.

The neutralization process of carbon steel pickling wastewater produces a large amount of steel hydrochloric acid pickling sludge (SHPS), and improper treatment of this sludge poses a serious threat to the environment. Considering that SHPS contains a large amount of iron oxide and given the huge demand for iron concentrate in China's ironmaking industry, refining iron oxide in SHPS into iron concentrate will have great environmental and economic benefits. This paper proposes a new method that uses biomass (corncob) to replace conventional coal-based reductants for the recovery of iron components in SHPS to simultaneously utilize two kinds of solid waste resources.

Determination and environmental risk assessment of organophosphorus flame retardants in sediments of the South China Sea.

As ubiquitous contaminants in the environment, organophosphorus flame retardants (OPFRs) would eventually settle in marine sediment. In this study, concentrations, spatial distributions, and ecological risks of seven OPFRs in sediment samples of the South China Sea (SCS) were investigated for the first time. Total concentration of all OPFRs ranged from 2.

Composition and Leaching Toxicity of Hydrochloric Acid Pickling Sludge Generated from the Hot-Dip Galvanized Steel Industry.

Steel hydrochloric acid pickling sludge (SHPS), containing the heavy metals Fe, Zn, and Ni and a high chloride salt content, is considered a type of hazardous solid waste because of its potential harm to human health and the environment. In addition, the SHPS yield is large, but the main treatment currently used is only safe for landfills. Although studying the composition and leaching toxicity of SHPS is of great importance, only a small amount of related literature is available.

A novel traffic accident detection method with comprehensive traffic flow features extraction.

With the rapidly increasing of automobiles, traffic accidents are gradually becoming more frequent. This creates a great need for effective traffic anomaly detection algorithms. Existing methods shed light on directly inferring the abnormalities from traffic flow, which is short in features extraction and representation of traffic flows.

Occurrence of synthetic musks in the sediment-seawater system of the Yellow Sea and East China Sea during wet and dry seasons.

Synthetic musks are aroma compounds used worldwide as substitutes for natural musks, which have become ubiquitous pollutants in the environment. The land-based input and partition behavior of synthetic musks in sediments and seawater are important for understanding their fate in the marine environment. In this study, a total of 292 seawater and sediment samples from 146 sites of the Yellow Sea and East China Sea were collected during wet and dry seasons and used to determine four synthetic musks, tonalide, galaxolide, musk xylene and musk ketone.

Construction of Z-scheme CdS/Ag/TiO NTs photocatalysts for photocatalytic dye degradation and hydrogen evolution.

The ternary CdS/Ag/TiO NTs photocatalysts with indirect Z-scheme heterojunctions were synthesized by the photoreduction deposition of Ag and successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) of CdS on TiO nanotube arrays (TiO NTs). The elemental composition, microstructure, photoresponse and photoelectrochemical property of the photocatalyst were systematically characterized. The results proved that compared with binary heterojunction, the light absorption range of the ternary CdS/Ag/TiO NTs photocatalyst was significantly extended, and the photoelectron transportation efficiency was improved.

ZnS anchored on porous N, S-codoped carbon as superior oxygen reduction reaction electrocatalysts for Al-air batteries.

The development of non-precious based oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts with outstanding catalytic performance is desirable but still a grand challenge for practical Al-air battery. Herein, we report a vulcanization-assisted pyrolysis strategy for creating zeolitic imidazolate framework-derived catalysts with a N, S co-doped carbon support and highly exposed ZnS and Zn-N sites. The trithiocyanuric acid (TCA) is found not only to introduce S into the carbon derived from ZIF-8 and ZnS to adjust the electronic structure of carbon matrix during the pyrolysis, but also result in a shrinkage of carbon framework with a hierarchical porous structure.

Comparison of the Design Space of Products with Different Initial Saturation.

Vacuum freeze-drying is a promising technology widely used in pharmaceuticals. Preparing products with prebuilt porosity has attracted considerable attention due to its potential in shortening process duration. However, the design space for the primary drying of initially unsaturated products remains unclear.

Numerical Simulations of Decomposition of Hydrate Particles in Flowing Water Considering the Coupling of Intrinsic Kinetics with Mass and Heat Transfer Rates.

During the hydrate exploitation in a shallow marine layer by the mechanical crushing, the hydrate particle decomposition in a wellbore is one of the most concerning problems. In this research, a hydrate dynamic decomposition model coupling intrinsic kinetics with mass and heat transfer rates was established. The model can simulate the hydrate particle decomposition process in flowing water.

Co-pyrolysis of sewage sludge/cotton stalks with KCO for biochar production: Improved biochar porosity and reduced heavy metal leaching.

The co-pyrolysis of sewage sludge and biomass is considered a promising technique for reducing the volume of sewage sludge, adding value, and decreasing the risk associated with this waste. In this study, sewage sludge and cotton stalks were pyrolyzed together with different amounts of KCO to evaluate the potential of chemical activation using KCO for improving the porosity of the biochar formed and immobilizing the heavy metals present in it. It was found that KCO activation effectively improved the pore structure and increased the aromaticity of the biochar.

Numerical simulation study on the crack propagation of conglomerate.

The conglomerate reservoir is rich in oil and gas reserves; however, the gravel's mechanical properties and laws are difficult to gain through laboratory experiments, which furthermore constrain the hydraulic fracturing design. To analyse the failure law of conglomerate, we simulated the uniaxial compression test based on discrete element software PFC2D and analysed the effect of different cementation strength, gravel content and gravel geometry on the rock deformation and failure characteristics. Results show that (i) as the cementation strength decreases, the compressive strength and elasticity modulus both reduce clearly, while the crack shapes get more complex and the critical value is 0.

Effects of biochar derived from sewage sludge and sewage sludge/cotton stalks on the immobilization and phytoavailability of Pb, Cu, and Zn in sandy loam soil.

Co-pyrolysis of sewage sludge and straws has been used to improve the pore structure and reduce the ecological risks of heavy metals in sewage sludge-derived biochars. However, to date, no study has focused on the effects of biochar derived from sewage sludge/straws on the immobilization and phytoavailability of heavy metals in soil. Here, we studied the effects of biochar derived from sewage sludge/cotton stalks (SCB) and that derived from sewage sludge alone (SSB) on the remediation of sandy loam soil contaminated by Pb, Cu, and Zn.

Lower cretaceous avian-dominated, theropod, thyreophoran, pterosaur and turtle track assemblages from the Tugulu Group, Xinjiang, China: ichnotaxonomy and palaeoecology.

Rich tetrapod ichnofaunas, known for more than a decade, from the Huangyangquan Reservoir (Wuerhe District, Karamay City, Xinjiang) have been an abundant source of some of the largest Lower Cretaceous track collections from China. They originate from inland lacustrine clastic exposures of the 581-877 m thick Tugulu Group, variously divided into four formations and subgroups in the northwestern margin of the Junggar Basin. The large Huangyangquan track assemblages occur in the Lower layer/Subgroup II.

The Effect of Temperature and Sputtered Particles on the Wettability of Al/AlO.

Two kinds of AlO ceramic samples with and without Al film deposited were designed respectively. The influences of temperature and high kinetic energy sputtering particles on the wettability and interface strength of Al/AlO were studied by comparing the wetting behavior of molten aluminum on two samples. The results show that molten aluminum does not wet the AlO sample without Al film deposited at 700 °C, the contact angle is 165°, and the interfacial shear strength is 28 MPa.

Cotton stalk-derived hydrothermal carbon for methylene blue dye removal: investigation of the raw material plant tissues.

Conversion of the abundant agricultural residual cotton stalk (CS) into useful chemicals or functional materials could alleviate the fossil fuels caused energy shortages and environmental crises. Although some advances have been achieved, less attention has been paid to the plant tissues effect. In this study, the plant tissue of CS was changed by part degradation of some components (hemicelluloses and lignin, for example) with the aid of acid/base (or both).