Environmental Engineering and Management Journal

June 2014 Vol.13 No. 6

ISSN 1582 - 9596

Environmental Engineering and Management Journal An International Journal Editor-in-Chief:

Matei Macoveanu

Guest Editor:

George Artur Gaman

Managing Editor:

Maria Gavrilescu

SYMBIOSIS OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY IN TOXIC, EXPLOSIVE AND FLAMMABLE ATMOSPHERES: CURRENT KNOWLEDGE AND ADVANCES

“Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iasi

Environmental Engineering and Management Journal

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Environmental Engineering and Management Journal EDITORIAL BOARD Editor-in-Chief: Matei Macoveanu, Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, Romania Managing Editor: Maria Gavrilescu, Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, Romania Assistant Editors: Laura Bulgariu, Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, Romania Raluca-Maria Hlihor, Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, Romania

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Anca Duta Capra Transilvania University of Brasov Romania

Shin' ichi Nakatsuji University of Hyogo Japan

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Cristian Fosalau Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi Romania

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Anton Friedl Vienna University of Technology Austria

Marcel Ionel Popa Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi Romania

Hamidi Abdul Aziz Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang Malaysia

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Marcel Popa Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi Romania

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Ion Giurma Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi Romania

Valentin I. Popa Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi Romania

Hans Bressers University of Twente, Enschede The Netherlands

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Tudor Prisecaru University Polytechnica of Bucharest Romania

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Arjen Y. Hoekstra University of Twente, Enschede The Netherlands

Gabriel-Lucian Radu Polytechnica University of Bucharest Romania

Dan Cascaval Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi Romania

Nicolae Hurduc Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi Romania

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Ralf Isenmann Munich University of Applied Sciences Germany

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Marcel Istrate Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi Romania

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Ravi Jain University of Pacific, Baun Hall Stockton United States of America

Bogdan C. Simionescu Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi Romania

Igor Cretescu Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi Romania

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Florian Statescu Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi Romania

Silvia Curteanu Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi Romania

Nicolas Kalogerakis Technical University of Crete, Chania Greece

Carmen Teodosiu Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi Romania

Andrew J. Daugulis Queen's University Kingston Canada

Gheorghe Lazaroiu University Polytechnica of Bucharest Romania

Saulius Vasarevicius Vilnius Gediminas Technical University Lithuania

Valeriu David Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi Romania

Thomas Lindhqvist International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, Lund University, Sweden

Angheluta Vadineanu The University of Bucharest Romania

Katerina Demnerova University of Prague Czech Republic

Andreas Paul Loibner University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria

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Gheorghe Duca State University of Moldavia, Kishinew Republic of Moldavia

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Peter Wilderer Technical University Munich Germany

Emil Dumitriu Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi Romania

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Petra Winzer Bergische University Wuppertal Germany

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Editor-in-Chief: Matei Macoveanu, Iasi (RO) Managing Editor: Maria Gavrilescu, Iasi (RO) Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Protection Department of Environmental Engineering and Management – Editorial and Production Office 73 Prof.Dr.docent Dimitrie Mangeron Street, 700050 Iasi, Romania Phone: +40-232-278680, ext. 2240 Fax: +40-232-271759 e-mail: eemjournal.at.yahoo.com, eem_journal.at.yahoo.com, eemjeditor.at.yahoo.com, eemj_editor.at.yahoo.com, eemjournal.at.gmail.com, eemj.editor.at.gmail.com, eemj.office.at.gmail.com Editorial production and secretariat: Raluca-Maria Hlihor, Assistant Editor1 Laura Bulgariu, Assistant Editor2 Cristina Ghinea Isabela Simion Elena - Diana Comanita Laura Carmen Apostol Petronela Cozma Camelia Smaranda Dana Luminiţa Sobariu Published 12 issues per year, under the aegis of the “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iasi, Romania by EcoZone Publishing House of the Academic Organization for Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Development (OAIMDD), http://www.ecozone.ro Annual subscription rate 2012 (12 issues) Print: EUR EUR

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June 2014, Vol.13, No. 6, 1327-1558

http://omicron.ch.tuiasi.ro/EEMJ/

“Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iasi, Romania

CONTENTS ____________________________________________________________________________________________

Editorial Symbiosis of environmental protection and occupational safety in toxic, explosive and flammable atmospheres: current knowledge and advances George Artur Gaman …………………………………………………………………………...................

1327

Special issue selected papers Airborn soils pollution risk asessment near open - cast iron ore mines Mykola Kharytonov, Aissa Benselhoub.......................................................................................

1329

Sanitation policy and prevention of environmental contamination in South Africa Shafick Hoossein, Kevin Whittington-Jones, Roman Tandlich ...................................................

1335

Variation of annual, seasonal, nocturnal and diurnal concentrations of gaseous and particulate pollutants in six areas of Bucharest, Romania Gilda Rusu-Zagar, Catalin Rusu-Zagar, Andrei Iorga, Octavian Iorga, Laurentiu Zagar, Mihaela Mocanu..............................................................................................

1341

Preventing risk of noise exposure in working environment using noise mapping Silviu Nicolae Platon, Corina Anda Hionis.................................................................................

1349

Preventing working accidents by short-circuit currents in isolated neutral systems over 1 kV Constantin Beiu, Georgeta Buica, Cornel Toader.......................................................................

1355

Management and control of occupational risk related to maintenance activities of work equipment in companies by using software tools Anca Elena Antonov, Georgeta Buica, Constantin Beiu.............................................................

1361

Quality function deployment (QFD) based expert system for renewable energy structures. A wind turbine case study Monica Leba, Andreea Ionica, Remus Dobra, Vlad Mihai Pasculescu .....................................

1365

Rationale and criteria development for risk assessment tool selection in work environments Roland Iosif Moraru , Gabriel Bujor Băbuţ, Lucian Ionel Cioca................................................

1371

Modeling and simulation of power active filters for reducing harmonic pollution using the instantaneous reactive power theory Marius Marcu, Florin-Gabriel Popescu, Leon Pana..................................................................

1377

Multicriterial analysis of environmental impacts in thermoelectric power station areas Dan Codrut Petrilean, Sabin Ioan Irimie, Virginia Baleanu, Sorina Stanila .............................

1383

Simulated impact of acid rain on organic matter, phosphorus and other soil components Clementina Moldovan, Sebastian Sbirna, Clement Ionescu, Liana Simona Sbîrnă, Cristian Codreşi ......................................................................................

1389

Integrated it tools for the management of protected areas. Case study: biodiversity conservation in Jiu Valley National Park Csaba Lorint, Lucian Lupu-Dima, Eduard Edelhauser, Alina Lorint ........................................

1389

Analysis of transitory phenomena generated by underground explosions upon the ventilation networks Doru Cioclea, Ion Toth, Ion Gherghe, Cristian Tomescu, Marius Cornel Suvar Vlad Mihai Pasculescu.................................................................................................................

1401

Correlation of explosion parameters and explosion-type events for preventing environmental pollution Maria Prodan, Emilian Ghicioi, Dumitru Oancea.........................................................................

1409

Application of thermo-vision systems during intervention and rescue activities in toxic, flammable and explosive environments Artur Gaman, Daniel Pupazan, Cosmin Ilie................................................................................

1415

Best management practices applied to prevent and reduce concentrations of dust and gases released from power plants Marius Kovacs, Lorand Toth, Gheorghe Ghetie, Angela Draghici, Traian Vasiu Gheorghe Laurenţiu...............................................................................................

1421

Quality assurance for testing the protective performances of materials – an essential prerequisite in substantiating laboratory competency Mihaela Paraian, Florin Tiberiu Iacob-Ridzi, Emilian Ghicioi, Florin Paun Niculina Vatavu, Leonard Lupu ..................................................................................................

1427

Analysis of explosivity parameters and environmental safety for combustible dusts Adrian Jurca, Constantin Lupu, Mihaela Părăian, Niculina Vătavu, Florin Tiberiu Iacob-Ridzi ..........................................................................................................

1433

Environmental soundness of virtual simulations for coal bed degassing processes Nicolae-Ioan Vlasin, Constantin Lupu, Emilian Ghicioi, Emeric Chiuzan, Cristian Tomescu ………………………………………………………………………………………...

1439

Computerized simulation of mine ventilation networks for sustainable decision making process Marius Cornel Șuvar, Constantin Lupu, Victor Arad, Doru Cioclea Vlad Mihai Păsculescu, Nelu Mija …………………………………………………………………….

1445

Risk assessment of whole-body vibrations generated by industrial activities with environmental impact Gabriel Dragos Vasilescu, Emilian Ghicioi, Angelica Draghici, Nelu Mija .............................

1453

Procedure for metal cutting using explosives, with low environmental impact Ilie Ciprian Jitea, Constantin Lupu, Marius Suvar, Dana Rus ..................................................

1459

Design of a measurement model for environmental performance: application to the food sector Carlos Atienza-Sahuquillo, Virginia Barba-Sánchez .................................................................

1463

Comparative study on rosmarinic acid separation by reactive extraction with Amberlite LA-2 and D2EHPA. 2. Kinetics of the interfacial reactions Madalina Postaru, Lenuta Kloetzer, Anca-Irina Galaction, Alexandra Cristina Blaga, Dan Caşcaval ...................................................................................

1473

Visitor management tools for protected areas focused on sustainable tourism development: The Croatian experience Lidija Petric, Ante Mandic………………………………………………………………………………

1483

Dynamic change and influential factors of carbon footprint for energy consumption: a case study of Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China Xiangmei Li, Renbin Xiao, Yanli You .........................................................................................

1497

Safety and health analysis of workplaces exposed to styrene Lidija Korat, Zorka Novak Pintaric, Zeljko Knez…………………………………………………….

1509

Ensuring security and environmental safety at blasting workplaces Leonard Lupu, Emilian Ghicioi, Adrian Jurca, Florin Paun ………………………………………

1517

Study of variable heat exchange between a thickness limited cylindrical pipe and the rock massif for application in mine environment Dan Codrut Petrilean, Sorina Stanila, Sabin Ioan Irimie ………………………………………….

1523

Detection of accidental leaks in natural gas main pipelines by fuzzy logic tools Adrian Bucur, Vasile Rafa………………………………………………………………………………

1533

Application of specific models and software for identification, assessment and prevention of occupational risks in the Romanian healthcare sector Steluţa Elisabeta Nisipeanu, Ştefan Pece, Iulian Mădălin Ivan, Elena Ruxandra Chiurtu, Maria Haiducu, Daniela Mănuc………………………………………...

1537

Event Doctor Honoris Causa title awarded to Professor Fabio Fava from the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Italy ........................................................

1543

Book Reviews Control of Biological and Drug-Delivery Systems for Chemical, Biomedical, and Pharmaceutical Engineering Laurent Simon…………………………………………………………………………………...............

1549

Green Chemistry and Engineering A Pathway to Sustainability Anne E. Marteel-Parrish and Martin A. Abraham …………………………………………………..

1551

Odour Impact Assessment Handbook Vincenzo Belgiorno, Vincenzo Naddeo, Tiziano Zarra (Editors) …………………………………

1555


June 2014, Vol.13, No. 6, 1327-1328



EDITORIAL SYMBIOSIS OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY IN TOXIC, EXPLOSIVE AND FLAMMABLE ATMOSPHERES: CURRENT KNOWLEDGE AND ADVANCES

This special edition of Environmental Engineering and Management Journal is dedicated to current knowledge and research on environmental management and occupational health and safety in industrial activities generating toxic, explosive and/or flamable atmospheres. It includes papers reviewed and communicated during the International Symposium on Occupational Health and Safety (SESAM 2013) organized by the National Institute for Research and Development in Mine Safety and Protection to Explosion – INSEMEX Petroşani, along with the University of Petroşani and Labour Inspection Bucharest, held between October 23rd – October 25th in Sibiu, Romania. The event was organized by an international scientific committee comprising three invited speakers, who are traditional collaborators of the institute, namely: Prof.Dr.Sc.Eng. Józef Dubiński, Dr. Akos Debreczeni, Dr. Alois Adamus, as well as by a national committee including specialists and experts in the thematic area of the symposium: Dr. Artur George Găman, Dr. Constantin Lupu, Dr. Emilian Ghicioi, Dr. Sorin Burian, Dr. Ion Toth, Constantin Ciocoiu, Prof.Dr.Eng. Aron Poantă, whose efforts have led to successfully achievement of the symposium. By organizing this scientific meeting, INSEMEX Petroşani continues a long tradition of scientific events and provides a major support to all participants, both on the level of national economy and the representatives of state authorities and academia, to meet together as specialists in environmental protection and occupational health and safety.

This scientific event supports the dissemination of research, development and innovation activities, aiming to reach a major goal, namely the symbiosis of environmental protection and occupational safety for workers operating in toxic, explosive and flammable atmospheres. As shown by the symposium topics, the organizers intended to combine theoretical and practical aspects on environmental and labour protection, in an event where representatives of research institutes, universities, labour inspectorates, economic agents and other stakeholders met together in an harmonized scientific context. In terms of environmental protection, industry is one of the most important fields of anthropogenic activity. This is because sometimes industrial development does not take into account that the actual progress of human society depends not only on the industry products, but also on industrial sustainability, by the integration of all three components: economic, social, environmental. In accordance with the environmental policies of the Community, it is required to be established minimum requirements for preventing or reducing as minimum as possible the adverse effects upon the environment or human health. Also, the sustainable and economic development strategies of Romania within the European Union require to be ensured the minimal requirements related to occupational health and safety, based on the European Community acquis on occupational health and safety. Taking into account the previously mentioned, the event made possible the communication of scientific concerns of researchers, both in the area of

Editorial/Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 11 (2012), 6, 1327-1328

environmental protection field and occupational health and safety. Since the modern society combines the efforts of researchers for ensuring healthy workplaces climate as well as for air, water and soil protection, by decreasing the environmental impact as much as possible, several papers deal with new methods for assessing, preventing and fighting against pollutants arising from the underground or surface mining industry, by applying scientific and technical research developed in the past few years. The use of IT systems and software has become an extremely useful and versatile tool, which support the research activity in terms of modeling, simulation and optimization addressing the impacts of physical-chemical stressors on environmental factors, but also upon the occupational environment and workers. An enduring aspect entails the protection of human life in industries with explosion, flammability and toxicity hazards. In this regard, the researches for the improvement of rescue activity were addressed in

the symposium, in order to highlight the relevance of the enhancement of the protection against explosions and to facilitate the selection of optimal solutions for re-establishing the mining ventilation after the occurrence of major underground events, which generate burning gases exhausted to the atmosphere. Also, a constant concern of researchers is the characterization of safety properties of installations, products and materials used in several specific activities, such as: mining industry (minerals, oil, and gases), energy industry and chemical industry for the development eco-friendly technological processes. All studies illustrated in this issue are of high scientific and practical value, having the occupational health and safety and environmental management in industries with explosion and/or toxic hazard as bonding factor. The editors would like to thank the reviewers for their help in evaluating the papers included in this issue. Their cooperation was essential for the accomplishment of our project. Guest Editor:

George Artur Găman, PhD., Eng., General Director The National Institute for Research and Development in Mine Safety and Protection to Explosion – INSEMEX, Petrosani, Romania [email protected], Phone: 004025454621, Fax: 0040254546277

George Artur Găman – PhD., Eng. Ec. is the General Director of the National Institute for Research and Development in Mine Safety and Protection to Explosion – INSEMEX Petroşani, starting with 2014. He began his research career within INSEMEX in 1990, following all the researchers stages one by one, now being a senior researcher, 2nd degree. The scientific activity which he performed within the 24 years of experience in research, development and innovation mainly focused on the management of the activity for rescue and intervention in toxic/explosive/flammable atmospheres. He published 6 books in the field, developed many scientific papers and projects which led to the solving of safety and rescue issues in the industry. Also, besides the carried out scientific activity, he is an initiator of legal acts in the occupational health and safety field, founding member of the International Mines Rescue Body (IMRB) and the Romanian representative in its Executive Board. Ten years ago, he founded the Association for Surface Mining Rescuers (ASMS), which now counts 600 members, being also its president.

1328


June 2014, Vol.13, No. 6, 1329-1333



AIRBORN SOILS POLLUTION RISK ASESSMENT NEAR OPEN - CAST IRON ORE MINES Mykola Kharytonov, Aissa Benselhoub State Agrarian University, 25 Voroshilov St., 49600 Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine

Abstract According to the study results, the level of soil pollution with heavy metals in the northern part of Kryvyy Rih iron ore basin (Kryvyy Rih district, Ukraine) reach to “moderately threating”. In the southern part of Kryvyy Rih basin (Shyroke district, Ukraine) the level of soil pollution was between two assessments: “moderately threating” and “permissible”. The results of the study on buffer capacity of usual black soils show that the tested elements can be arranged in the following descending order: Pb>Cu>Zn>Mn. It was established that the introduction of quarry dust into soils can unbalance some of the main biochemical processes, such as decreases in the activity of hydrolytic enzymes. Thiscan lead to an irreversible degradation of soils in the zone of technogeneous pollution. When barley and soybean were grown in simulation studies, the introduction of quarry dust into soil in a dose of 1% resulted in a 15 to 25% decrease in biological productivity of plants. Key words: biotesting, blasting, buffer capacity, heavy metals, iron ore mining, soil pollution Received: December 2013; Revised final: June, 2014; Accepted: June 2014

1. Introduction Kryvyy Rih iron-ore basin from Ukraine is widely represented by mining and metallurgical enterprises. It is known that mining and smelting complex continually pollutes environment with more than 130 chemical agents. Their annual gross volume exceeds 1,100,000 tons. This figure includes more than 29,832.67 tons of nitrogen oxides, 135,438.31 tons of sulfur compounds, 1,277.95 tons of benzene, 70.45 tons of formaldehyde, 11,075.35 tons of inorganic dust, 32,846.69 tons of iron oxides and 350.55 tons of heavy metals including lead, manganese, chromium, zinc etc. (Karnaukh and Lugovskoy, 2008). Additionally, resulting from the production activity of mining industry, more than 6 billion tons of overburden dumped within city boundaries and 2.5 billion tons of fine-dispersed iron silicate slimes accumulated in slime storages can scatter for a distance of more than 70 km at strong winds. 

The major share of air pollution in Kryvyy Rih iron ore basin belongs to ore-dressing, metallurgical and coke plants (Babiy et al., 2003). However, pollution sources are controlled there and can be supplied with necessary gas and dust cleaning equipment if a proper care is taken. Much more complex are issues of dust and gas emissions during iron ore strip mining in quarries (Kharytonov et al., 2005). In this case, dust and gas emission sources are uncontrolled. This is why a special approach must be used in solution of the problem of suppression of quarry dust emissions and neutralization of harmful gases. The most intensive sources of dust and gas emissions into atmospheric air are massive explosions in quarries. Medical examination of quarry workers revealed diseases which are occupation-specific (Stezar et al., 2011; Zberovsky et al., 2006). The first three occupational diseases include airborn motivated ones as chronic bronchitis and silicosis.

Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: [email protected]

Kharytonov and Benselhoub/Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1329-1333

More than 170,000 workers are employed at industrial enterprises of Kryvyy Rih iron ore basin and 80,000 of them are working in unhealthy and adverse labor conditions (Karnaukh and Lugovskoy, 2008). As a result, the employed population of this region is exposed to a double technogeneous load resulting from their occupational (directly at the working place) and environmental (at the living place) factors. The main objective of this work consists in the assessment of the potential threats that quarry dustfall can generate onto soils in the areas adjacent to the iron ore mining enterprises. 2. Materials and methods Environmental toxicity studies of technogeneous soil pollution with heavy metals were carried out in a zone of Kryvbass iron-ore quarrying, Dnipropetrovsk region, southeastern Ukraine. Thereto, soil sampling was done in the arable lands which were belonging in FSU to several collective farms. In particular soil samples were taken near several enterprises in: - Kryvyy Rih district: site 1 – collective farm “Pivdenny”; site 2 – collective farm “Inguletsky”; site 3 – collective farm “Shevchenko”; site 4 – collective farm “Gvardiets”; - Shyroke district: site 1 – collective farm “Druzhba”, site 2 – collective farm “Zeleny Lug”; site 3 – collective farm “Chapayeva” site 4 – collective farm “22 z’yzd”; site 5 – collective farm “Ptakhofabrika”. A series of laboratory and vegetation studies were carried out after determination of the level of technogeneous load of soils with heavy metals (Sayet, 1990). The level of soil pollution is characterized by the factor of metal concentration anomaly, according to Eq. (1):

Кс 

СІ Сb

(1)

where: Сі – actual pollutant concentration of pollutant in soil, mg/kg; Сb – background pollutant, mg/kg. To assess polyelement pollution of soils with metals, a total index of pollution is calculated using Eq. (2): n





Z c   K ci  n  1

(2)

i 1

where п: number of elements. If concentration factor К с  1 , then Z с  1 which means that a і і threat to technogeneous exists from pollutants the degree of which is graded as follows: Zc 5.5). Rainwater is often more acidic because of to the emissions of SO2, NOx or organic acids (Stătescu et al., 2013). Typical pH values of acid rain resulting from anthropogenic emissions may be in a range of 2.5–5 (Calace et al., 2001). Acid rain is a serious environmental problem in the world and it is of a particular concern in Romania, as many soils have lately become acidic (Duan et al., 2002; Guo, 2002). This study investigated the dynamics of cations transformation under the influences of

Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: [email protected]; Phone: 0254 542580; Fax: 0254 543491

Moldovan et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1389-1392

simulated acid rain in a podzol sample taken from the Retezat National Park, a Romanian protected area situated in Hunedoara County. 2. Experimental A podzol sample from the Retezat National Park was submitted to the experiment (more specifically, the samples were collected at 10 - 20 cm depth). This soil has a pH level of 4.9, with a cation exchange capacity of 182 mmol/kg) and a base saturation of 34.9%. Sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and nitric acid (HNO3) of analytical purity were used in simulating acid rain. The acidity source of rain primarily consists of H2SO4 and HNO3 in a 9:1 ratio, so, in order to have a simulated acid rain reflecting the natural conditions, the acid solutions were prepared by using this ratio. The working solutions with pH = 2.5; 3; 3.5; 4; 4.5 and 5 were prepared in volumetric flasks by diluting the stock solutions with deionized water, whereas the control solution with pH = 7 was prepared by adding 0.1 mL of ammonia (17.2% N) into 5L of deionized water. A plastic cylinder with a 15 cm inner diameter containing a 35 cm-long soil column was used. Then, 1 kg of air-dried soil, passed through a 1 mm sieve and then mixed thoroughly, was poured into the cylinder in 2 cm increments, continuously stirring to prevent layering. Before and after filling the column, a piece of plastic filter and two pieces of paper filters were placed at its both ends, in order to prevent any soil waste (Hodson and Landan, 1997; Liu et al., 1990). A total of 28 column treatments, corresponding to seven pH levels and four time periods (after a week, after two weeks and then after three and four weeks) were used in this study. In order to reflect the natural rainfall conditions, an amount of 0.3L simulated acid rain was slowly sprayed, at a rate of 0.01L/min, at the top of each column, daily. After finishing the experiment, the soil in the column was dried and analyzed for cations by atomic adsorption spectrophotometry. The experimental procedure was performed using the conventional methods (proposed by Jackson et al., 1984). Statistical analysis was performed in Microsoft Excel 2010, by applying an F-test (Fisher’s test) for which the significance level α = 0.01 (1%), which equates to a trust level of 99% (Sbirna et al., 2011). The variational calculus consists in determining (Eq. 1):

Fα  EV/UV  MSB/MSW   (SSB/(df(b)))/(SSW/(df(w)) )

(1)

where: EV – explained variance; UV – unexplained variance; SSB – sum of squares between groups; SSW – sum of squares within groups; df(b) – number of degrees of freedom between groups; df(w) – number of degrees of freedom within groups; MSB – mean

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square between groups (variance between groups); MSW – mean square within groups (variance between groups). Our calculations leads to the value F0.01 = 3.17. This value being significantly bigger than 1, one may draw the conclusion that the null hypothesis has to be rejected, as the variance explained by the differences between groups considerably exceeds the one caused by accidental errors. 3. Results and discussions Over a 21 day experimental period, two distinct patterns of the soil phosphorus concentrations were observed: one at pH = 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 (Fig. 1) and the other at pH = 4.0, 4.5, 5.0 and 7.0 (Fig. 2). In the first case, concentrations of phosphorus increased from the beginning of the experiments to day 5, then decreased from day 5 to 15, and finally increased from day 15 to the end of the experiments. In the second case, concentrations of phosphorus increased consecutively from the beginning of the experiments to day 10 and decreased from day 10 to the end of the experiments (Hodson and Landan, 1997; Liu et al., 1990). Such a finding is useful for agricultural practices since soil phosphorus is one of the most important macronutrients for plant growth. In general, soil organic matter content slightly decreased and increased in time, as the soil was leached by the simulated acid rain at all pH levels (Fig. 3). A maximum concentration of soil fulvic acid was found after 15 days of the experiments due to the degradation of the soil organic matter (Fig. 4). The changes in concentrations of soil dications, Ca2+ and Mg2+, after treating the soil with simulated acid rain at seven different pH levels over this 21-day experimental period, are shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6. The initial concentration of Ca2+ ions was 53.4 mmol/kg. The concentration of this ion increased at the beginning of the experiment from this value to 53.2 – 53.6 mmol/kg after one week at different pH levels, and then permanently decreased, from day 8 to the end of the experiment, reaching a concentration value of 37.2 mmol/kg at pH = 2.5 at the end of the experiment, which equates to a loss of about 18.2 mmol/kg Ca2+. One may observe that about 34% of the original soil Ca2+ were leached out by the simulated acid rain. This occurred because many Ca2+ ions were displaced by the H+ ions under the strong acidic conditions that were created. To understand this process, let us take into account the fact that the sulfuric acid reacts with the calcium carbonate (Eq. 2) (Sbirna et al., 2011). CaCO3  H 2SO 4  CaSO 4  H 2CO3

(2)

The calcium sulfate is soluble in water and, on the other hand, the carbonic acid is very instable (Eq. 3) so the hydrogen ions originated in the acid are converted into hydrogen atoms in water.

Simulated impact of acid rain on organic matter, phosphorus and other soil components

H 2 CO 3  CO 2  H 2 O

(3)

Similar results were obtained for Mg2+; that is, the concentrations of soil Mg2+ decreased with time at all pH levels. This occurred for the same reason as in case of Ca2+. The decrease in Mg2+ concentration was steeper than that of Ca2+. About 48% of the original Mg2+ was leached out by the simulated acid rain at pH = 2.5 after four weeks (more specifically, Mg2+ concentration decreased from 7.23 to 3.85 mmol/kg). The changes in concentrations of soil monocations K+ and Na+, after being leached by simulated acid rain at the same seven pH levels, are shown in Figs. 7 and 8. The concentrations of soil monocations, K+ and Na+, also decreased in time at all pH levels.

It is apparent that the decrease in Na+ concentration was much steeper than that of K+. More specifically, the maximum concentration decrease in K+ was about 0.38 mmol/kg (between 1.87 and 1.42 mmol/kg), at pH = 2.5, after the whole experiment time, whereas the maximum concentration decrease in Na+ was about 2 mmol/kg (decreasing from 2.8 to 0.4 mmol/kg) at the same pH level and during the same period; that is, about 23% of the original K+ ions and 76% of the original Na+ ions were leached out by the simulated acid rain (at pH = 2.7). As previously mentioned, the statistical analysis with the F-test shows that the differences in concentrations of dications were significant at F0.01 = 3.17.

Fig. 1. Variations of phosphorus concentration in time, at pH = 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5

Fig. 2. Variations of phosphorus concentration in time, at pH = 4.0, 4.5, 5.0 and 7.0

Fig. 3. Variations of soil organic matter concentration in time

Fig. 4. Variations of soil fulvic acid concentration in time, at different pH values

Fig. 5. Variations of soil exchangeable Ca2+ concentration in time, at different pH values

Fig. 6. Variations of soil exchangeable Mg2+ concentration in time, at different pH values

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Fig. 7. Variations of soil exchangeable K+ concentration in time, at different pH values

Fig. 8. Variations of soil exchangeable Na+ concentration in time, at different pH values

The ions of calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium and other metals are attached to the clay and humus particles in the soil. The attractive electrostatic forces occurring between the positive metal ions and the negatively charged soil particles is strong enough to hold the metal ions in the soil despite the passage of water through it. However, if acid rain gets into the soil, it adds hydrogen ions, which displace these important nutrients in a process called leaching: the metal ions are washed deeper into the subsoil or – at contrary – washed out of the top soil, being no longer available to the roots of the plants, which is extremely inconvenient, as calcium ions are used for cell formation, as well as in the processes of transporting sugars, water and other nutrients from roots to leaves; magnesium ions are vital in photosynthesis and also as carriers of phosphorus – which is important in the production of DNA etc.; potassium ions also play a role in photosynthesis, protein synthesis, regulation of water use, activation of plant enzymes (over sixty kind of them), control of ionic balance; the sodium ions are also involved in mentaining the ionic balance, and the salinity tolerance as well.

mobilizing cations important for plant growth, namely Ca2+, Mg2+, K+ and Na+. Moreover, phosphorus and soil organic matter are also strongly affected by the action of acid rain.

4. Conclusions The experiments concerned a podzol sample from the Retezat National Park, which was submitted to the simulated acid rain. This soil exhibited a pH level of 4.9, with a cation exchange capacity of 182 mmol/kg) and a base saturation of 34.9%. Sulfuric acid and nitric acid of analytical purity were used in simulating the rain. The research leads to the conclusion that, indeed, acid rain has a strong impact on soil, by

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References Brady D., (1984), The Nature and Properties of Soils, 9-th edition, Prentice Hall, New York, London. Calace N., Fiorentini F., Petronio B.M., Pietroletti M. (2001) Effects of acid rain on soil humic compounds, Talanta, 54, 837–846. Duan L., Hao J., Xie S.D., Zhou D.P. (2002), Study about the soils in Korea, Geoderma, 110, 205–225. Guo Y., (2002), Acid rain problem and prevention in China (in Chinese), Journal of Shanxi Finance and Economics University, 24,106-112. Hodson M.E., Landan S.J., (1997), A long-term leaching experiment in a soil column, Environmental Pollution, 104, 11–19. Ivring P.M., (1983), Acidic precipitation effects. A review and analysis of research, Journal of Environmental Quality, 12, 442–453. Jackson D.R., Garrett B.C., Bishop T.A., (1984), Methods for assessing hazardous waste, Environmental Science and Technology, 18, 668–673. Liu K.H., Mansell R.S., Rhue R.D., (1990), Cation removal during application of acid solution into air dry soil columns, Soil Science Society of America Journal, S4, 1747–1753. Sbirna L.S., Mateescu M.D., Sbirna S., Moldovan C., Ionescu C., (2011), Evaluating by Simulation the Impact of Acid Rain on Cations in a Reddish-Brown Soil Sampled From Cosoveni, Dolj (Romania), Symposium_INMATEH - Agricultural Engineering, October 2011, 57-62. Stătescu F., Zaucă D.C., Pavel L.V., (2013), Soil structure and water-stable aggregates, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 12, 741-746


June 2014, Vol.13, No. 6, 1393-1399



INTEGRATED IT TOOLS FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF PROTECTED AREAS. CASE STUDY: BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION IN JIU VALLEY NATIONAL PARK Csaba Lorinţ1, Lucian Lupu-Dima2, Eduard Edelhauser3, Alina Lorinţ4 1,3

University of Petroşani, Management, Environmental Engineering and Geology Department, 20 University Str., 332006 Petroşani, Romania 2 University of Petroşani, Mining Engineering, Surveying and Civil Engineering Department, 20 University Str., 332006 Petroşani, Romania 4 Hunedoara Energetic Complex, Environmental Protection Department, 2 Timişoara Str., 332015 Petroşani, Romania

Abstract During the last decades, the biodiversity conservation became a constant concern for the specialists in environmental resource management by increasing the awareness of the complexity, fragility and inestimable value of our planet. Nowadays, this issue should be an ethical duty for all the 7.2 billion inhabitants of the planet. The biodiversity conservation should be approached as a multidisciplinary research field, developed in response to the actual world crisis. In this multidisciplinary field the IT has currently a crucial role, since the accountable management of environmental resources is difficult to be conceived without the help of this tool. The paper is part of this multidisciplinary approach, since it discusses the use of an integrated IT project for generating practical measures towards the biodiversity conservation of the Jiu Valley National Park (JVNP). Key words: biodiversity, conservation, environmental resources management, IT integrated tools, multidisciplinary approach Received: December 2013; Revised final: June, 2014; Accepted: June 2014

1. Introduction Environmental protection, in general and biodiversity protection, in particular, have as main objective the preservation of unspoiled natural ecosystems (ecofund) and genes (genofund) at global and regional levels, to ensure the balance between the natural components of the environment, on one hand and between them and human society, on the other hand. Biological communities developed over millions of years began to be affected by human activities. A large number of species declined rapidly: some are close to extinction as a result of excessive hunting or habitat destruction, onslaught of predators or competitors introduced by man. The main enemy of biodiversity is poverty: therefore the 

biodiversity protection passes necessarily through the improvement of human welfare and the fight against underdevelopment. Moreover, although the biodiversity is a global problem through its complexity, it can only be preserved by local direct measures (Ghinea and Gavrilescu, 2013; Lorinţ, 2012). Even if mass extinctions are considered natural processes, the species loss is dangerous when the rate of extinction is greater than the rate of speciation. It is considered that the normal rate of extinction of organisms is one species per century. However, the current rate of extinction is 100 to 1,000 times higher than the rates in the geological past (Pimm et al., 2014). This new episode of extinction, the so-called „sixth extinction” (Barnosky et al., 2011) is mostly due to human activity, causing

Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: [email protected]; Phone: + 40 724 355 717

Lorinţ et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1393-1399

the disappearance of one species per day (Lorinţ and Buia, 2011; Lorinţ, 2012). Regardless of the nature and cause of extinction, species loss is unprecedented and irreversible. In the mentioned context, and relying on the premises of Article 8 on “In Situ Conservation” of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which “establishes a system of protected area to conserve biodiversity” experts consider that the only real opportunity to protect species endangered by extinction remains the attempts to preserve communities and ecosystems where they belong, the so-called in situ conservation (United Nations, 1992). The main way to preserve the biodiversity in situ is through protected areas, differentiated by International Union for Conservation of Nature (Dudley, 2008) according to the degree of protection that is intended to be implemented and through the permitted or prohibited activities (Dudley, 2008). Conservation in situ remains therefore the optimal solution, ideal for conservative strategy (Lorinţ, 2012). An effective management requires the use of various resources - human, financial, physical and informational - in the most judicious way, in order to achieve the purpose the protected area needs to be established. For this, some functions are accessed: planning, organizing, directing and controlling, the latter corresponding to setting performance standards, their monitoring, comparison and taking corrective measures. From this perspective and through the EU Structural Instruments in the Sectoral Operational Programme “Environment”, Priority Axis 4 - entitled “Implementation of adequate management systems for nature protection” it is attempted the infrastructure development and management plans to protect biodiversity and network Nature 2000 as major field of intervention. According to the methodology of these tools, there are a number of priority activities, whose improvement should be considered by experts in the field, representing the subject and the object of a possible community funding. These activities are: A. Development / revision of the plans, strategies and management measures for protected areas and other related activities (specific preliminary work investment or conservation measures); B. Investments in public use infrastructure oriented towards environmental protection and management in protected areas; C and D. Activities of maintaining or improving the conservation status of habitats and species in natural protected areas; E. Activities of consultation, awareness and information; F. Activities of training and development of institutional capacity management of natural protected areas. Among these, the paper will consider below, the activities A, E and F.

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In this context, even if the implementation / management of an efficient informational system are not bringing direct conservationist actions on biodiversity, it is considered that the monitoring of habitats - ecosystems - species becomes the default role. Therefore, it may be designed the corrective measures where necessary, to determine those performance criteria, which will lead us to accomplishing the control function in the protected area and therefore to biodiversity conservation (Lorinţ et al., 2012, Alkan and Oğurlu, 2014). However, into a multidisciplinary approach, the IT has currently a crucial role, since the accountable management of environmental resources is difficult to be conceived without the help of this tool. In this way, the goal of this paper is to designs one of integrated IT project for generating practical measures towards the biodiversity conservation of the Jiu Valley National Park (JVNP), as a main objective. 2. The current situation of Jiu Valley National Park Jiu Valley National Park is a protected area established in 2005 by Government Decision no. 1581, being one of the youngest protected areas in our country. The park is located along the gorge formed by Jiu river, between Vâlcan and Parâng mountains, in the north of Gorj county. It is situated at a distance of 2 km from the city of Petrosani and 28 km from the city of Târgu Jiu, and is crossed by road E79. The total area of the park is 11,127 hectares, most of it belonging to the county of Gorj (10,545 ha), and the rest of it, to Hunedoara county (582 ha). The area is of impressive and extraordinary beauty, with wild places, amazing wealth of flora and fauna. Almost 80% of the park is covered with forests of beech and oak in combination with hornbeam or ash. The National Park, corresponds to the Category II in the IUCN - International Classifications: “National Park: protected area managed mainly for ecosystem protection and recreation” (Dudley, 2008; JVNP, 2012; Lorinţ, 2012). The park area perimeter includes terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, slightly influenced by human activities, and only traditional activities practiced by local communities from the national park are allowed, traditional activities covered by this management plan. Therefore, we can say that Jiu Valley National Park Administration of the National Forest Regia ROMSILVA aims to the protection and conservation of flora and fauna, natural habitats, terrestrial and aquatic community and national interests under protection regime by applying the national strategy of biodiversity conservation (Romanian Government 1999, 2008). A major goal is the promotion of cultural, traditional and historic values of the area and the sustainable development of local communities

Integrated IT tools for the management of protected areas

together with the conservation objectives of the protected area. All these rules are provided by the main instrument governing the general activities from protected areas, the management plan, which is currently in the approval stage (JVNP, 2012). Currently, the IT infrastructure situation of the JVNP is as follows (Lorinţ et al., 2012): - Hardware: two workstations, two laptops, one multifunction laser printer, one A0 scanner, one A1 plotter; - GPS Equipment: 10 Trimble Recon equipment, 10 GNSS receivers; -Video equipment: three compact digital cameras, one video camera; - Software: 4 antivirus license subscription for 24 months and 4 MS Office licenses; - Networking: one wireless router. 3. Integrated project description Management Information System (MIS) is basically concerned with processing data into information. Data collection involves the use of Information Technology (IT) comprising: computers and telecommunications networks (email, Voice Mail, Internet, telephone etc.). Computers are important for more quantitative, than qualitative, data collection, storage and retrieval. Special features are speed and accuracy, and storage of large amount of data. Telecommunications provide the means for one-way or two-way communication and for the transmission of messages. A MIS enables businesses to provide answers to managers in search of knowledge. MIS does this by combining raw data about the organization’s operations (contained in its basic information technology systems) with information gathered from employees in expert systems that reflect the organization’s procedures (Satyanarayana et al., 2009). MIS differs from regular information systems because the primary objectives of these systems are to analyze other systems dealing with the operational activities in the organization. In this way, MIS is a subset of the overall planning and control activities covering the application of humans, technologies, and procedures of the organization. As organizations grow, MIS allows information to move between functional areas and departments instantly, reducing the need for face-toface communications among employees, thus increasing the responsiveness of the organization (Fig. 1) (Laudon and Laudon, 2006, Sørensen et al., 2009, 2010, Satyanarayana et al., 2009). Information systems are the means by which organizations and people, using information technologies, gather, process, store, use and disseminate information. The domain of information systems requires a multi-disciplinary approach to studying the range of socio-technical phenomena which determine their development, use and effects in organizations and society (UK Academy for Information Systems). We consider that the most

relevant Information Systems for the Romanian organizations are the Management Information Systems (Edelhauser et al., 2012). Also for historical reasons, many of the different types of Information Systems found in commercial organizations are referred to as „Management Information Systems”. However, within a pyramid model, Management Information Systems are management-level systems that are used by middle managers to help ensure the smooth running of the organization in the short to medium term. The highly structured information provided by these systems allows managers to evaluate an organization's performance by comparing current with previous outputs (Edelhauser and Lupu-Dima, 2012). Unlike 10-15 years ago, the dynamics of the economic life imposes the companies to use integrated information systems, which should coordinate all the functional departments of a company. This tendency appeared as a natural reaction to the new challenges of the modern information technologies in a moment when the phenomenon of globalization and the competition between different companies started to increase. A more careful analysis points out the essential competitive advantages: quality information, collaborative dimension and openness to e-business, which are absolutely necessary in a modern economy (Edelhauser and Lupu-Dima, 2012). The technical solution will be represented by a computer project that integrates software, hardware and services which will ensure obtaining accurate information on the activities of conservation and biodiversity monitoring, management and forecasting problems that may arise over time. The technical solution will be an integrated system based on client / server architecture on three levels whose engine is the component GIS (Geographic Information System), which allows the integration of data, information and workflows aiming for biodiversity conservation activities from JVNP (Fig. 2) (Furdu et al., 2013; Lorinţ et al., 2012; Lupu-Dima and Edelhauser, 2012; Srivastava et al., 2013). This will create an efficient tool for tracking the conservation status of species and habitats along the entire JVNP area. The solution created by this project will allow the view of the entire data and information on a geo referenced map media type and the distribution of specific applications and web services to the users. The GIS server standard will enable the development of custom applications (modules AdCont, BioMon, BioInv, NGOs). There will be created a central storage of geospatial data managed by a relational database type COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf – commercial product as, for example, Oracle, MS SQL Server, DB2 etc.). The geospatial database model will sustain spatial object, rules and relations among those. The solution will offer an edit environment for multiuser data – the management environment of geospatial databses will allow the access and

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simultaneous editing of spatial data by multiple users, and will ensure the reconciliation of any editing conflict. The solution will be efficient for the processes of collection, introduction and editing of data and information, through the use of subtypes, domains and data validation rules, ensuring the integrity and security of long term collected data and information. Also, an adequate environment will be created to ensure the complete management of specific work processes and flows, including dedicated instruments for geospatial data collection, management, analysis, processing and dissemination (Lupu-Dima, 2012). The solution will dispose components for data collection and loading/storage in the geospatial database directly on site. The solution engine, namely the GIS system, will follow the interoperability standards issued by OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium): GML (Geography Markup Language), WMS (Web Map Service), WFS (Web Feature Service), SFSBG (Simple Features SQL Binary Geometry), (Lorinţ et al., 2012). The functional architecture of the integrated IT project is presented in Fig. 2.

4. Tasks of the integrated computer information project The main tasks, identified in the integrated computer information project are fulfilled by (Lorinţ et al., 2012): - administrator, - GIS analyst, - generic user (internal and external). The task distribution of tasks for every project beneficiary is the following:  Jiu Valley National Park - administrator, - analyst, - internal generic user.  internal general users (NGO) - internal generic user entitled for data access and own data update.  Interested public institutions (APM Gorj, APM Hunedoara, IBB, local public administration etc.) - external generic user entitled for data access.  general public - external generic user entitled for data access.

Fig. 1. Concept of management information systems

Fig. 2. Functional architecture of the integrated computer information project

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5. Components of the integrated computer information project The components of the integrated computer information project are the following (Lorinţ et al., 2012): - Component I: includes the design and implementation of an integrated computer information project in the GIS system (provided to include the design and implementation of an application and software license) as support infrastructure for type A activities, respectively development/review activities for plans, strategies and management measures of protected natural areas and other related activities (preliminary activities before concrete measurements for investments or preservation); - Component II: includes the supply, installation and configuration of basic equipment and infrastructure (hardware + software), which will be attached as support infrastructure for type F activities, activities of training and development of the institutional management capacity of the protected natural area. 6. Advantages of information project

the

integrated

computer

The synthesized advantages of using the integrated computer information project are (Lorinţ et al., 2012): - structured storage - the system will ensure the user access to a rich data and information content regarding the JVNP biodiversity, simply structured; - non-stop availability - users will be able to

- access the data and information managed by the system any time; - multi access – same data source may be accessed by different users at the same time; - increased work speed - the IT conversion of data, information and work flows which targets the inventory, mapping and JVNP biodiversity monitoring activities will allow their simple and quick observation, therefore diminishing the reaction time of the JVNP administration on different problems and issues which may occur leading to fast decisions on preservation measures when necessary. 7. Accessible activities for project implementation By implementing this new integrated computer information system, starting from its hardware architecture (Fig. 3), the persons who will use the IT solution will be able to do the following activities, depending on their tasks (Lorinţ et al., 2012):  administrators – will be found at JVNP level, having to: - manage the solution users; - manage the access rights of the users to the tables/Fields of the project relational data base; - manage the access rights of the users to the published mapping services; - manage the publishing and security of mapping services; - topological validate the data which may be loaded to the system; - set and supervise the backup procedures; - load the data to mobile equipment; - verify the data and load them to the database after validation.

Fig. 3. Hardware architecture of the integrated IT project

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 GIS analysts – will be found at JVNP level, having to: - georference the scanned plans / maps, satellite images or orthophotomaps; - collect vectorial data through vectorization from scanned plans / maps, satellite images or orthophotomaps; - generate analysis needed for park management and development decisions; - verify and aggregate data coming from different sources; - generate subject maps needed for operative decisions; - prepare data for web and mobile submodules.  internal general users JVNP - will have to: - collect field data with the solution mobile sub-modules AdCont, BioInv, BioMon; - verify, correct, fill-up, and validate the field collected data, using the solution web sub-modules AdCont, BioInv, BioMon; - observe maps and general system data, according to the requirements identified in the analysis stage.  internal general users (NGO) will have to: - collect field data with the solution mobile sub-module (NGO); - verify, correct, fill/up and validate the field collected data, using the web sub-module (NGO); - observe maps and particular data and information from the system.  external general users public institutions will have to observe, through subject maps and mapping services, data and information regarding the limits, internal areas of JVNP, land owners inside the park etc.  general public users - will have to observe, through interactive subject maps, within the geoportal (presentation module) non-confidential information and data (public data). 8. Conclusions Starting from the general objective of the integrated project, which is the development of concrete measures of biodiversity preservation for the targeted area, we may conclude that the implementation / management of a good IT system will not have direct conservative influences on the biodiversity. We may consider that for habitat – ecosystems – species monitoring its importance increases. Thus, there may be designed rectification actions where necessary, for establishing performance criteria which could lead to an increased control in the protected area and, implicitly, to biodiversity preservation. The synthesized advantages of using the integrated information project are:

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- structured storage - the system will ensure the user access to a rich data and information content regarding the JVNP biodiversity, simply structured; - non-stop availability - users will be able to access the data and information managed by the system any time; - multi access – same data source may be accessed by different users at the same time; - increased work speed - the IT conversion of data, information and work flows which targets the inventory, mapping and JVNP biodiversity monitoring activities will allow their simple and quick observation, therefore diminishing the reaction time of the JVNP administration on different problems and issues which may occur leading to fast decisions on preservation measures when necessary. Developed in this way, the project may ensure the theoretical and applicative support for financing through the Sectorial Operational Programme Environment. References Alkan H., Oğurlu İ., (2014), Changes in the environmental perception, attitude and behaviour of participants at the end of nature training projects, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 13, 419-428. Barnosky A.D., Matzke N., Tomiya S., Wogan G.O.U., Swartz B., Quental T.B., Marshall C., McGuire J. L., Lindsey E.L., Maguire K. C., Mersey B., Ferrer E. A., (2011), Has the Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived?, Nature, 471, 51–57. Edelhauser E., Corbu E. C., Ionică A., (2012), Management Decision and Information Technology in Romanian Organizations, Proceedings of the MS'12 International Conference, Decision Making Systems in Business Administration, World Scientific Proceedings Series on Computer Engineering and Information Science, Volume 8, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 10 – 13 December, 385-394. Edelhauser E., Lupu-Dima L., (2012), Management Information Systems. Past and Present in Romanian Organisations, The 11th International Conference on Informatics in Economy, Education, Research & Business Technologies (IE 2012), 10-11 May, Romania, IDS Number: BDG67, http://conferenceie.ro/uploads/docs/Program%20Secti uni%20IE2012.pdf. Furdu I., Tomozei C., Pandele I., (2013), Improving management of risks and natural disasters by regional GIS distributed application, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 12, 11-16. Ghinea C., Gavrilescu M., (2013), Inter-Reggio: concept of restoration projects of local streams, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 12, 1735-1746. Dudley N., (Ed.), (2008), Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories, Including IUCN, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland, On line at: http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/guidelines_for_appl ying_protected_area_management_categories.pdf. JVNP, (2012), Management Plan, On line at: http://www.defileuljiului.ro/index.php/valori/plan-demanagement/tag/plan%20de%20management.


Laudon K.C., Laudon J.P., (2006), Management Information Systems, Managing the Digital Firm, Pearson Prentice Hall Publishing House, New York. Lorinţ A., Onofre D., Buşioi N., Lorinţ C., (2012), Technical Memorandum-Integrated project to generate concrete measures for biodiversity preservation, Project: Innovative solutions for monitoring and conserving biodiversity in Jiu Valley National Park, (in Romanian), PetroAqua NGO for JVNP Administration of the National Forest Regia ROMSILVA, No. 2638/11.07.2012/Sectoral Operational Programme ENVIRONMENT/Priority Axis 4 “Implementation of Adequate Management Systems for Nature Protection”, Romania. Lorinţ C., (2012), Natural Protected Areas and Biodiversity Preservation (in Romanian), Universitas Press, Petroşani, Romania. Lorinţ C., Buia G., (2011), Geology (in Romanian), Universitas Press, Petroşani, Romania. Lupu-Dima L., (2012), Geographic Information Systems (in Romanian), Universitas Press, Petrosani, Romania. Lupu-Dima L., Edelhauser E., (2012), Opportunity for a GIS in mining, Annals of the University of Petrosani, Mining, XIII, 261-266. Pimm S.L., Jenkins C.N., Abell R., Brooks T.M., Gittleman J.L., Joppa L.N., Raven P.H., Roberts C.M., Sexton J.O., (2014), The biodiversity of species and their rates of extinction, distribution, and protection, Science, 344, 1246752. Srivastava Prashant K., Singh Sudhir K., Gupta Manika, Thakur Jay Krishna, Mukherjee Saumitra, (2013), Modelling impact of land use change trajectories on groundwater quality using remote sensing and GIS, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 12, 2343-2355.

United Nations (1992), Convention on Biological Diversity, Rio de Janeiro, On line at: https://treaties.un.org/doc/Treaties/1992/06/19920605 %2008-44%20PM/Ch_XXVII_08p.pdf. Romanian Government, (2008), National Sustainable Development Strategy - 2013-2020-2030, Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, United Nations Development Programme, The National Centre for Sustainable Development National Strategy for Sustainable Development 2013-2020-2030, On line at: http://www.insse.ro/cms/files/IDDT%202012/snddfinal-en.pdf. Satyanarayana R., Rallabandi S., Srikanth R., Vuda S., (2009), Management information system to help managers for providing decision making in an organization, International Journal of Reviews in Computing, 1, 1-6. Sørensen C., Bildsøe P., Fountas S., Pesonen L., Pedersen S., Basso B., Nash E., (2009), System Analysis and Definition of System Boundaries., Future Farm, Report No. 3.1, On line at: www.futurefarm.eu Sørensen C., Bildsøe P., Fountas S., Pesonen Pedersen S., Basso B., Nash E., (2009), Integration of Farm Management Information Systems to support real-time management decisions and compliance of management standards, Center for Research & Technology, Thessaly, Greece. On line at: http://www.futurefarm.eu. Sørensen, C.G., Fountas S., Nash E., Personen L., Bochtis, D., Pedersen S., Basso B., Blackmore S.B., (2010), Conceptual model of a future farm management information system, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 72, 37–47.

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ANALYSIS OF TRANSITORY PHENOMENA GENERATED BY UNDERGROUND EXPLOSIONS UPON THE VENTILATION NETWORKS Doru Cioclea, Ion Toth, Ion Gherghe, Cristian Tomescu, Marius Cornel Șuvar, Vlad Mihai Păsculescu National Institute for Research and Development in Mine Safety and Protection to Explosion – INSEMEX, 32-34 G-ral Vasile Milea Str., Petroșani, Hunedoara, Romania

Abstract The explosion phenomenon is an extremely complex physical-chemical process, which leads to the physical change of objects and objectives encountered on the propagation path, as wells as the chemical modification of the underground atmosphere from the area of influence. During the underground propagation of the explosion, the most affected objectives are the following: ventilation constructions, regulation and insulation doors and the insulation dams. Dynamic pressure waves generated by the explosion propagate both towards the workings for fresh air input and towards mine workings for exhausting return air. At the end of the path for exhausting return air is located the main ventilation station, which may be affected by the explosion type phenomenon. Due to this fact, the aeration capacity the mine may be endangered after the event. In this paper there is presented the analysis of transitory phenomena upon main ventilation stations, due to dynamic effects generated by underground explosions. Key words: transitory phenomena, underground explosions, ventilation network Received: December 2013; Revised final: June, 2014; Accepted: June 2014

1. Introduction In order to ensure air circulation over active underground mine workings, there are used powerful fans from the fresh air entrance points to the return air exit, located at the surface within main ventilations stations point (Baltaretu and Teodorescu, 1971; Matei and Moraru, 2000; Teodorescu et al., 1980). At the level of the mine ventilation station there is located a complex of mine workings grafted either over ventilation shafts or over ventilation risings. Related to the main ventilation station, there exists a complex of workings connected to a vertical shaft and which comprises the following elements, also presented graphically in Fig. 1:  vertical ventilation shaft, comprising two elements: 

- a part of the ventilation shaft to the intersection with the ventilation channel; - part of the ventilation shaft, from the intersection with the ventilation channel to the surface, provided with a sealing bridge.  ventilation channel, comprising two segments: - the segment of the ventilation channel from the intersection with the ventilation shaft to the intersection with the locks gallery; - the segment of the ventilation channel from the intersection with the locks gallery to the point where ventilation channel intersect.  locks gallery with access into the ventilation channel;

Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: [email protected]; Phone: + 40 254541621; Fax: +40 254546277

Cioclea et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1401-1407

 rising for accessing the ventilation channel, provided with sealing lid;  channel of fan no. 1, provided with normally open hatch closing during the operation of the fan located over it;  channel of fan no. 2, provided with normally closed hatch closing during the non-operation of the fan located over it;  honeycomb air stack related to fan no.1;  honeycomb air stack related fan no.2;  sealing bridge which obstructs the non-active honeycomb air stack. In case of the occurrence of an explosion type phenomenon in underground mining works, the whole ventilation network is affected, including the main ventilation station (McPherson, 2002). Nowadays, for studying ventilation networks there are used advanced Computational Fluid Dynamcis (CFD) tools, in order to establish the variation of specific parameters (Hargreaves and Lowndes, 2007; Ren and Balusu, 2010). Also, various research in the field aim to indentify new manners for achieving and optimum management of ventilation networks, including their management in extreme conditions (Wei, 2011; Wenyao et al., 2011). This paper presents an analysis of aerodynamic parameters which are specific for a main ventilation station, respectively the effect of an explosion type phenomenon occurring in underground mining works upon the main ventilation network. Also, there is performed and analysis of transitory phenomena specific for the occurrence of an explosion type phenomenon upon the main ventilation network (Cioclea, 2012). Achieving the above mentioned objectives has been performed by using the mathematical apparatus, respectively by using the 3D CANVENT specialized software for solving ventilation networks (Cioclea et al., 2012; Suvar et al., 2012; User Manual, 2000). 2. Aerodynamic parameters specific for the main ventilation station The aerodynamic parameters related to the complex of mine workings are the following: pressure loss H (Pa); air flow Q (m3/min); aerodynamic resistance R (Ns2/m8). In order to determine the aerodynamic parameters for the main ventilation station there shall be used direct measurements over the alignment of mine workings or calculations (Cioclea, 2006; Covaci, 1983; Gherghe, 2004; Patterson, 1992). In this regard, there will be used a complex of mine workings related to a main ventilation station presented in Fig. 2, where we have the following branches:  1-3, short-circuiting with the surface, characterized by Qsc, Rsc, Hsc;  2-3, branch related to the mine, characterized by Qm, Rm, Hm;  3-6, ventilation channel, characterized by Qc, Rc, Hc;

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 5-6, passing lock into the ventilation channel, characterized by Qsas, Rsas, Hsas;  4-6, Fan no. 2 path, characterized by QV2, RV2, HV2;  6-7, Fan no. 3 path, characterized by QV1, RV1, HV1. The air flows Qsc, Qm, Qc, Qsas, QV2, QV1 shall be determined through direct anemometric measurements over the branches 2-3, 3-6, 5-6,4-6, respectively indirectly over the branches 1-3 and 6-7 thus Eqs. 1-2: Q1 3  Q3 6  Q2  3 ( m3 / min )

(1)

3

Q6 7  Q3 6  Q5 6  Q4 6 ( m / min )

(2)

Pressure losses Hm, Hsc, Hc, Hsas, HV2, HV1 shall be determined through pressure measurements over all the branches 1-3, 2-3, 3-6, 5-6, 4-6, 6-7. Aerodynamic resistances shall be determined by calculation: in junction 3 we have to resistance in parallel connection, namely: R2-3, respectively R1-2. In this regard the equivalent resistance Re3 will be calculated using (Eq. 3): Re 3 



R13  R23 R23  R13

(3)



2

The Re3 equivalent resistance is connected in series with the resistance of the ventilation channel R3-6. The equivalent resistance of the two series connected resistances R1-6 is presented in (Eq. 4): R16 

R13  R23  R36





R23  R23

R23  R13





2

(4)

2

In junction no. 3, there are also three resistances connected in parallel, namely R5-6, R4-6 and R1-6. In this regard, (Eq. 5) presents the equivalent resistance Re6 which will be: Re6 



R56  R46 * R16 R46  R16  R56  R16  R56  R46



(5)

2

The equivalent resistance of the network Rr (Ns2/m8) is presented in (Eq. 6): Rr 



R56  R46 * R16 R46  R16  R56  R16  R56  R46



2

 R67

(6)

3. Explosion effect upon the main ventilation station 3.1. Types of effects generated by underground explosions Depending on the intensity, the explosion type phenomenon occurring underground may be of low, average or high intensity. Depending on the intensity, an explosion may develop a pressure up to 11 atmospheres.

Analysis of transitory phenomena generated by underground explosions upon the ventilation networks

Fig. 1. Complex of mine workings related to a main ventilation station

Fig. 2. Complex of mine workings used for calculation

The main ventilation station for firedamp mines is located always downstream the place where an underground explosion occurs, on the return air exhaust path, being the last segment of the ventilation network before the dynamic pressure wave reaches the atmosphere. Depending on the distance from the explosion epicenter, in the intensity of the explosion and on the structure of the main ventilation station, the generated pressure wave reaches the level of the main ventilation station approximately after 1 second from the occurrence of the event. The effect of an underground explosion affects the main ventilation station over a time period ranging between half a second and one second (Lupu et al., 2012).

Effects over the main ventilation station may be split into the following:  Non-destructive, when the intensity of the explosion is low enough so that the forces generated by the pressure wave are lower than the traction/compression/shearing/buckling strength of materials of which the ventilation constructions are built within the main ventilation station.  Destructive, the operation capacity of main fans being maintained, when the intensity of the explosion is high enough so that the forces generated by the forces generated by the dynamic pressure wave are higher than the traction/ compression/ shearing/ buckling strength of materials of which the ventilation constructions are built within the main 1537


ventilation station, but lower than the traction/ compression/ shearing/ buckling strength of materials of which the ventilation fans from the ventilation station are built.  Destructive, affecting the operation capacity of main fans, when the intensity of the explosion is high enough so that the forces generated by the forces generated by the dynamic pressure wave are higher than the traction/ compression/ shearing/ buckling strength of materials of which the ventilation constructions are built within the main ventilation station. At the same time, forces generated by the dynamic pressure wave can change the position and angles of guiding stator and rectifier blades, respectively of rotor blades.  Destructive, without maintaining the operation capacity of the main fans, when the intensity of the explosion is high enough so that the forces generated by the forces generated by the dynamic pressure wave are higher than the traction/compression/shearing/buckling strength of materials of which the ventilation constructions are built as well as of the materials of which the subassemblies of the main fans are built.

path, the wave generated by an underground explosion meets and destroys on direct line the sealing bridge located at the surface over the vertical shaft, as presented in Fig. 3. The sealing bridge is fixed and aims to maximally decrease the air-flow short-circuiting with the surface. In Fig. 3 there may be observed the manner in which, in the first phase, the dynamic wave destroys the sealing bridge and is released into the atmosphere as a powerful flurry. The expansion of hot gases takes place and, after that the hot burning gases decontraction phenomenon occurs due to their fast cooling when the reach the walls of the mine workings. After the dynamic effects specific to the transitory regime of the explosion, the fan from the main ventilation station returns to a post-event steady state. Post-event air flows are presented in Fig. 4. From this Figure, one may notice that over the shortcircuiting area of the vertical shaft, the air flow direction remained the same, but the circulated air flow increased considerably. This fact brings along a major decrease of the air flow circulated at mine level. 4. Transitory phenomena analysis

3.2. Analysis of the effect of explosions upon the main ventilation station

4.1. Phases of transitory phenomena

The most frequent situation regarding the effects of an explosion upon the main ventilation station is a second one, which generates destructive effects, but maintains the operation capacity of main fans, when the intensity of the explosion is high enough so that the forces generated by the dynamic pressure wave are higher than the traction/compression/shearing/buckling strength of materials of which the ventilation constructions are built within the main ventilation station (Oberholzer and Du Plessis, 2002). This case may be split in several sub-cases, as follows:  destruction of the sealing bridge located over the ventilation shaft;  destruction of the sealing bridge located over the ventilation shaft of lock type doors and of the access lid related to the rising for entering the ventilation channel;  destruction of the sealing bridge located over the ventilation shaft of lock type doors and of the access lid related to the rising for entering the ventilation channel, respectively of the closing hatch of the channel for the spare fan V2;  destruction of the sealing bridge located over the ventilation shaft of lock type doors and of the access lid related to the rising for entering the ventilation channel, of the closing hatch of the channel for the spare fan V2, respectively of the sealing bridge of the air stack related to the spare fan V2. As an example, there will be presented the sub-case in which the sealing bridge located over the ventilation shaft is destroyed. Over the propagation

Transitory phenomena at the level of a ventilation network and especially at the level of main ventilation stations occur only when an explosion takes place. These transitory phenomena occur during a very short time period and comprise several phases, as follows: a) manifestation of the real positive pressure at the level of the ventilation shaft; b) manifestation of the real positive pressure over the short-circuiting area; c) manifestation of the real positive pressure at the level of the ventilation channel; d) anifestation of the real positive pressure at the level of the passage lock; e) manifestation of the real positive pressure at the level of the V2 fan channel; f) manifestation of the positive real pressure at the level of the V1 fan channel; g) manifestation of the real negative pressure at the level of the V1 fan channel; h) manifestation of the real negative pressure at the level of the V2 fan channel; i) manifestation of the real negative pressure at the level of the passage lock; j) manifestation of the real negative pressure at the level of the ventilation channel; k) manifestation of the real negative pressure over the short-circuiting lock; l) manifestation of the real negative pressure at the level of the ventilation shaft; m) normal operation phase of the fan in newly generated conditions. For exemplification, points a), b) and c) are treated.

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Fig. 3. Destruction of the sealing bridge located at the surface

Fig. 4. Air flow currents after the event

4.2. Manifestation of the real positive pressure at the level of the ventilation shaft In normal operation conditions of the fans from within the main ventilation stations, these generate in each point of the network a depression which is proportional to the resistance to be fought against for circulating necessary air flows. When an explosion occurs, in front of the dynamic wave generated by the expansion of explosion gases, there arise high pressures which far exceed the depression exercised by the fan respectively adds to it. When the pressure waves moves over branch 2-3, the following judgments can be made:  a point y is considered over the branch 2-3, at a x distance which is infinitely lower than junction 3;  the explosion pressure +He is infinitely high compared to the depression generated by the fan in point y, –Hy.

 the resistance of the mine up to the y point, Ry, becomes infinitely low in relation with the real resistance of the mine. In these conditions, we may write that in point y we will have the conditions described by Eqs. (7, 8). Hy=Ry Q2y; Q2y= Hy/ Ry

(7)

Ry→0, the Qy >>>Q2-3, Qy→∞

(8)

Therefore, at the level of the entire network we have the relations presented in (Eq. 9): R1-3=0, then R1-6 =R1-3 + R3-6 so Rs  Rr  R67 



R56  R46 * R16 R46  R16  R56  R16  R56  R46



(9)

2

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4.3. Manifestation of the real positive pressure over the short-circuiting area When the dynamic wave exceeds junction 3 and moves over branch 1-3, the area of shortcircuiting with the surface, the following judgments can be made:  a point y is considered over the branch 1-3, at x distance which is infinitely lower than junction 3;  the explosion pressure +He is infinitely high compared to the depression generated by the fan in point y, –Hy  the resistance of the mine up to the y point, Ry becomes infinitely low in relation with the real resistance of the mine. In these conditions, we may write that in point y we have the relation presented in (Eq. 10). Hy=Ry Q2y; Q2y= Hy/ Ry

(10)

Ry→0, then -Qy→∞ - Qy >>>Q2-3 but Qy opposes to the normal air circulation directon over branch 1-3. In these conditions, the air flow Qy escapes at the surface and within the balance of the air flows at the level of the fan we have Q1-3=0. Therefore, for the entire mine we have the relations (Eq. 11): R1-3=0, R2-3=0, then: R1-6 = R3-6 so

Rs  Rr  R67 

R

46

R56 R46 *R36



2

 R36  R56  R36  R56  R46 (11)

4.4. Manifestation of the real positive pressure at the level of the ventilation channel; When the dynamic wave exceeds junction 3 and moves over branch 3-6, area of the ventilation channel, the following judgments can be made:  a point y is considered over the branch 3-6, at a x distance which is infinitely lower than junction 6;  the explosion pressure +He, is infinitely high compared to the depression generated by the fan in point y, –Hy  the resistance of the mine up to the y point, Ry, becomes infinitely low in relation with the real resistance of the mine. In these conditions, we may write that in point y we have the relations presented in (Eqs. 12-13): Hy=Ry Q2y Q2y= Hy/ Ry,

(12)

Ry→0, the Qy→∞, Qy >>>Q3-6

(13)

For the entire network we have the relation presented in (Eq. 14): R1-3=0, R2-3=0, R3-6=0, so R1-6 = 0 therefore:

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(Ns2/m8),

R s  R r  R6  7 



R56  R46 R46  R56



2

(Ns2/m8)

(14)

4. Conclusions  The analysis of aerodynamic parameters specific for mine workings within the main ventilation station carried out by using the balance of flows, depressions and an the resistances has highlighted that, compared to other constructive cases, in the case in which the main ventilation station is equipped with two fans located over two distinct channels, on ventilation channel provided with passing lock and connected to a vertical ventilation shaft which short-circuits with the surface, then: - the air flow circulated at the level of the fan is maximum and higher than the air flow circulated at mine level; - depression exercised at the level of the fan is minimal and higher than the depression exercised at mine level; - aerodynamic resistance of the ventilation network is minimal and much smaller than the equivalent resistance at mine level.  Effects of an underground explosion upon the main ventilation network may be split in: - non-destructive; - destructive, by maintaining the operation capacity of the main fans; - destructive, affecting the operation capacity of the main fans; - destructive, without maintaining the operation capacity of the main fans.  The most frequent situation regarding the effects of an explosion upon the main ventilation station is destructive case with the maintenance of the operation condition of main fans, which generates destructive effects but maintains the operation capacity of main fans, when the intensity of the explosion is high enough so that the forces generated by the forces generated by the dynamic pressure wave are higher than the traction/ compression/ shearing/ buckling strength of materials of which the ventilation constructions are built within the main ventilation station.  Transitory phenomena at the level of a ventilation network and especially at the level of the main ventilation stations occur only in case in which an explosion takes place. These transitory phenomena are carried out during a very short time period and comprise several successive phases as follows:  manifestation of the real positive pressure at the level of the ventilation shaft; over the shortcircuiting area; at the level of the ventilation channel; at the level of the passage lock; at the level of the V2 fan channel; at the level of the V1 fan channel;  manifestation of the real negative pressure at the level of the V1 fan channel; at the level of the V2 fan channel; at the level of the passage lock; at the


level of the ventilation channel; over the shortcircuiting lock; at the level of the ventilation shaft;  normal operation phase of the fan in newly generated conditions. References Baltaretu R., Teodorescu C., (1971), Ventilation and Occupational Safety in Mines (in Romanian), Didactical and Pedagogical Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania. Cioclea D., (2006), Ventilation network solving based on pressure measurements in order to establish air flows, depressions, aerodynamic resistances overt the workplaces, in order to put into operation the new VOD 2.1 fans station from shaft no. 10- Valea arsului, Research Study, National Institute for Research and Development in Mine Safety and Protection to Explosion INSEMEX, Petrosani, Romania. Cioclea D., (2012), Study of transitory phenomena generated by underground explosions at the level of main ventilation stations, (in Romanian), Research study, National Institute for Research and Development in Mine Safety and Protection to Explosion INSEMEX, Petrosani, Romania. Cioclea D., Lupu C., Toth I., Gherghe I., Boanta C., Radoi F., (2012), Fast network connections for ensuring decision operativity in mining ventilation, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 11, 1225-1228 Covaci S., (1983), Underground Mining (in Romanian), vol. I, Didactical and Pedagogical Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania. Gherghe I., (2004), Rationalization of ventilation networks in mines from Jiu Valley in terms of their restructuring and following the closure of inactive areas, (in Romanian), Research Study, National Institute for Research and development in Mine Safety and Protection to Explosion INSEMEX, Petrosani, Romania. Hargreaves D.M., Lowndes I.S., (2007), The computational modeling of the ventilation flows within a rapid development drivage, Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 22, 150–160.

Lupu C., Toth I., Cioclea D., Tomescu C., Chiuzan E., (2012), Mechanized exploitation of coal under unexpected risks of methane occurrence. Case study: Livezeni mine, Romania, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 11, 1229-1234 Matei I., Moraru R., (2000), Environmental Engineering and Underground Ventilation, (in Romanian), Technical Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania. McPherson M.J., (2002), The Westray Mine Disaster, In: Proceedings of the North American/Ninth US Mine Ventilation Symposium, Kingston, Canada, 8-12 June 2002, De Souza E. (Ed.), Taylor & Francis, DOI: 10.1201/9781439833742.ch1. Oberholzer J. W., Du Plessis J. J. L., (2002), The Testing of the Strength of Ventilation Structures, Proceedings of the North American/Ninth US Mine Ventilation Symposium, Kingston, Canada, On line at: http://www.qrc.org.au/conference/_dbase_upl/2002_sp k16_Oberholzer.pdf. Patterson A. M., (1992), The Mine Ventilation Practitioner’s DATA BOOK, M.V.S. of South Africa. Ren T., Balusu R., (2010), The Use of CFD Modelling as a Tool for Solving Mining Health and Safety Problems, In: 10th Underground Coal Operators' Conference, Aziz N. (Ed.), University of Wollongong & the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, 2010, 339-349. Suvar M., Cioclea D., Gherghe I., Pasculescu V., (2012), Advanced software for mine ventilation networks solving, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 11, 1235-1239. Teodorescu C., Gontean Z., Neag, I., (1980), Mining Ventilation (in Romanian), Technical Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania. User Manual, (2000), 3D Canvent User Manual, CANMET – Mining and Minerals Sciences Laboratories Underground Mine Environment and Ventilation, Canada. Wei G., (2011), Optimization of mine ventilation system based on bionics algorithm, Procedia Engineering, 26, 1614-1619. Wenyao N., Baokuan L., Wenmei G., (2011), The research on integrated visual information management system of the mine ventilation and safety, Procedia Engineering, 26, 2070-2074.

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June 2014, Vol.13, No. 6, 1409-1414



CORRELATION OF EXPLOSION PARAMETERS AND EXPLOSION-TYPE EVENTS FOR PREVENTING ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION Maria Prodan1,3, Emilian Ghicioi2, Dumitru Oancea3 1

National Institute for Research and Development in the Mine Safety and Protection to Explosion - INSEMEX, 33-34 G-ral Vasile Milea str., Petrosani, Romania 2 National Institute for Research and Development in the Mine Safety and Protection to Explosion - INSEMEX, 33-34 G-ral Vasile Milea str., Petrosani, Romania 3 University of Bucharest, Faculty of Chemistry, 4-12 Regina Elisabeta boulevard, Bucharest, Romania

Abstract The naturally or industrially occurring flammable mixtures containing combustible gases or/and dusts represent a potential risk of explosion with major consequences on the environment and human personnel. Methane and coal dust are among the best known components able of leading to the formation of such mixtures either in coal mining activities or in different industries using coal dust as fuel. In order to assess the risk of explosion and the explosion evolution in such composite mixtures, the knowledge of the characteristic explosion parameters under standardized conditions is necessary. In this paper the maximum explosion pressure pmax, maximum rate of pressure rise (dp/dt)max and explosion severity factor for methane-air mixtures, air - coal dust mixture and hybrid air-methane-coal dust mixture were determined in a standard 20 dm3 spherical explosion vessel. Key words: explosion, explosion hazzard, maximum explosion pressure, maximum rate of pressure rise Received: December 2013; Revised final: June, 2014; Accepted: June 2014

1. Introduction In the process industry, there are a lot of accidents that are caused by explosions (gas, dust or hybrid mixtures explosions) which may cause equipment failure, injuries and damages to people and to the surrounding environment (e.g. an explosion to a chemical factory can cause massive pollution to the environment), plant shut-down and, in some cases, the overall destruction of the factory, thus resulting in huge losses and, unfortunately, loss of lives (Al-Majed et al. 2014). Although the explosion hazard is well known from decades, the recurrence and the destructivity of these phenomena have pushed scientists towards advancement of knowledge for the aims of prediction, prevention and mitigation of industrial 

equipment (Amyotte et al. 2009). Despite the advancement of recent years on the comprehension of the explosions behavior, further knowledge is required as many aspects of this complex combustion phenomenon are still unclear (Agreda, 2010; Agreda et al. 2011). The knowledge of the explosion parameters of combustible materials - air mixtures, like maximum explosion pressure, pmax, maximum rate of explosion pressure rise (dp/dt)max, lower and upper explosion limits (LEL and UEL), plays a significant role in formulating safe working conditions for various industrial installations. Also, these parameters are important in protecting the environment when flammable gases are exhausted from the industrial installation and one must choose between thermal oxidation and catalytic oxidation

Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: [email protected]

Prodan et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1409-1414

(Rusu and Dumitriu, 2003). Results of experiments are dependent on the determination procedure and on many different parameters of the investigated process, such as energy and type of ignition source, size and shape of explosion chamber, initial temperature and pressure of the flammable mixture (Bai et al., 2011; Gieras et al., 2006; Shebeko et al., 1995). To compare the results obtained in different laboratories it is advisable that they should be performed in similar conditions, at least from the point of view of test cell volume and shape. A 20 dm3 spherical explosion vessel seems to be a convenient choice between small laboratory test cells and large scale systems (Li et al., 2012; Sanchirico et al., 2011). Therefore, to minimize the operational influences, a comparative study of the explosion parameters most commonly used to determine the risk of explosion of the binary mixtures methane-air and coal dust-air and of the ternary mixtures methane-coal dust-air was undertaken in these conditions recording the pressure history during the explosive combustion after central ignition. 2. Materials and method 2.1. Experimental set-up As shown in the previous work (Prodan et al. 2013) the experimental set-up originally configured for determining explosion parameters of combustible dusts has been improved in order to determine the explosion parameters of combustible gases and hybrid mixtures (combustible dust- gas air mixtures). For the determination of the gas explosion parameters the experimental set-up had to improved, with a series of instruments as seen in the Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. Experimental set-up for the determination of explosion parameters

The experimental set-up consists of: the explosion vessel (1) is a spherical explosion proof enclosure, made of stainless steel with a volume of 20 dm3; the compressor (2) which produces compressed air necessary to achieve an explosive

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mixture and removal of reaction products resulted from the explosion; ball valves (3,4,5) for intake air, fuel gas inlet and vacuum; precision electronic gauge for measuring fuel gas required to achieve explosive mixture (6); silica filter for water vapor (7); vacuum gauge (8); valves for explosion containment vessel (9, 12); electrodes to achieve the necessary spark for explosion initiation (10); mechanical stirrer to mix the explosive mixture (11); vacuum pump (13); System for measuring the concentration of the test mixture consisting of recirculation pump (14) and interferometer (15); computer equipped with software for data acquisition and experimental processing (16); fuel gas cylinder with pressure regulator and manometers (17); data acquisition system (18). 2.2. Experimental methods For the gaseous fuel, the explosion vessel was evacuated with the help of a vacuum pump, filled with the necessary combustible gas calculated using the partial pressures method, so that the mixture initial pressure was 1 atm. In order to homogenize the explosive mixture, this was stirred for 5 minutes with a mechanical stirrer. The composition of the explosive mixture was then verified with a portable instrument based on the phenomenon of light refraction and interference, which varies depending on the density of the medium through which a light beam, by recirculation of the mixture in the test vessel without altering the chemical composition, respectively the concentration of the gas mixture. The test mixture was ignited using a spark of 10 Joules energy, controlled by the software of the experimental set-up and the pressuretime curve was recorded. For the combustible dust-air mixtures, the explosion vessel was evacuated, with the vacuum pump. The dust was dispersed with the help of the rebound nozzle, an outlet valve controlled by the software and compressed air so that the initial pressure was 1 atm. The outlet valve is opened and closed by means of an auxiliary pneumatic piston. Compressed air valves are electrically operated. The mixtures were ignited using chemical igniters with 5kJ energy and the pressure-time curve was recorded. For hybrid mixtures, the explosion vessel was evacuated with the vacuum pump. Then the combustible gas was added in the vessel so that the inside pressure reached the value that the software allowed the dispersion of combustible dust by the compressed air volume needed to form the explosive mixture, so that the initial pressure was 1 atm. The mixture was also ignited using chemical igniters with 5kJ energy and the pressure-time curve was recorded. 3. Results and discussion The first direction of this work was to perform tests on air-methane mixtures with the experimental set-up reconfigured and to compare the

Correlation of explosion parameters and explosion-type events for preventing environmental pollution

obtained results with the literature data. Methane is one of the most known and used fuel gases. Although it might be the best examined gas regarding explosion safety, but until now not all dependencies and combustion behavior are known. To ensure also the safe handling of methane in all situations it is important to know the safety related properties at all necessary conditions (SAFEKINEX, 2002). The resulted explosion parameters are listed in Table 1 (the explosion pressure, maximum rate of pressure rise and deflagration index Kg = (dp/dt)max·V1/3 with V the volume of the explosion vessel for methane-air mixtures of the following concentrations: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15 % v/v at similar initial conditions (temperature 20ºC and pressure 1 atm). The pressuretime curve for 6 % v/v methane-air mixture, which corresponds to the methane lower explosion limit, is given in Fig. 2. The data obtained were compared with the results of the project Safekinex: Safe and efficient hydrocarbon oxidation process by kinetics and explosion expertise, No. EVG-1-CT-2002-00072 of the 5th Framework Program on Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development with a consortium of 13 partners from 6 countries, including institutes with wide experience in researching the explosion type phenomenon, such as the Delft University of Technology, Ludwigshafen and INERIS, France. The methods for determining the explosion parameters for methane-air mixture were similar with the method described and used for this work, based on the explosion vessel with the volume of 20 L. The results obtained in this work were in accordance with the results obtained by the similar methods for determining explosion parameters for methane-air mixtures, as can be seen from Figs. 3 and 4. For the explosion pressure (Fig. 3), the results obtained by all the four institutes have a small dispersion, which shows that the conditions for initial temperature, pressure and mixture concentration was similar. For the deflagration index Kg (Fig. 4), it is noticed a large dispersion for the concentrations near the stoichiometric ratio, this dispersion decreases near the lower and upper explosion limits. For the dispersion around the stoichiometric ratio one reason could be the differences between the ignition sources of the mixture, being very important the shape, energy and the duration of the ignition source. Going to the lower and upper explosion limit, the influence of the ignition source on the explosion behaviour is apparently lower. In the present work performed at Insemex a permanent spark with an approx. energy of IE = 10 J was used for igniting the mixture while TU Delft and BASF used an exploding wire igniter, with energy between 10 to 20 J and INERIS used a single spark igniter with energy of 20J. The second direction of this paper was to perform test with the experimental set-up in order to

determine the explosion parameters for one certain coal dust. The experiments were carried out on the coal dust collected from Lonea Mine, IIIrd seam, from active mining workings, Jiu Valley, Romania. The dust was subjected to the sample preparation operations: drying at room temperature to remove moisture, grinding in the ball mill to obtain 0.2 mm granulation for the moisture and the ash content analysis, selecting the dust size particle with 63 μm diameter for the coal dust-air mixture. The minimum explosive concentration (CmEx) for this coal dust has been determined as 35 g/m3, needed to perform the tests on hybrid mixtures, described below. The data obtained for the coal dust analysed are listed in Table 2. The third and the last direction of this paper was to perform the tests with the experimental set-up in order to determine the explosion parameters for certain coal dust and methane - air mixtures (hybrid mixtures). The data obtained for the certain coal dust and methane mixtures analysed are listed in Table 3. In the Figs. 5-7 there are given the explosion pressure-time curves for methane from 2 to 5 % v/v and 35, 70 and 125 g/m3 coal dust - air mixtures. The behaviour of the hybrid mixtures near lower explosion limit of methane was particularly examined. It can be seen that methane, even at lower concentration than LEL, mixed with coal dust exhibits a synergetic effect, influencing the explosion behaviour of the hybrid mixture. Explosion pressure and rate of pressure rise versus dust concentration curves in Figs. 8 and 9 show that the hybrid mixtures have a different behaviour. Near the minimum explosive concentration of the dust (35 g/m3), the explosion pressure and the rate of pressure rise are increased with the increasing methane concentration. However, it is to be noticed that for 5%v/v the maximum pressure and the maximum rate of pressure rise are lower than ones for 2%v/v methane. One explanation could be due to the differences in the ignition and propagation mechanisms: in the first case the gas is primarily ignited and burned (with self-propagation) so that the reaction products like CO2 and water vapours can act like inhibitors for the dust particles which will be subsequently ignited and burned. Near 125g/m3 the explosion pressure and rate of pressure rise decreases due to methane participation to the combustion process and the reaction products like CO2 and water vapours which could act like inhibitors for the dust particles not yet ignited. The knowledge of the explosion parameters of combustible materials-air mixtures plays a significant role in formulating safe working conditions for various industrial operations and in explosion risk assessment for preventing human losses and injuries, to prevent materials losses and environmental pollution with toxic explosion products.

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Table 1. Explosion parameters for methane-air mixtures Concentration [%v/v] 5 6 7 8 9 9.5 10 11 13 15

pmax [bar] 1.7 5.2 6.4 7.1 7.6 7.7 8 7.2 3.1 1

Fig. 2. Explosion pressure-time curve for a mixture of methane concentration of 6% air volume temperature of 20 oC

(dp/dt)max [bar/s] 4 29 113 168 246 220 228 127 5 0

Kg [m*bar/s] 1 8 31 46 67 60 62 35 1 0

Fig. 3. Explosion presure – concentration for methane – air mixtures

Fig. 4. Kmax - concentration for methane – air mixtures Table 2. Explosion parameters for coal dust – air mixtures Concentration [g/m3] 125 70 50 40 35

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pmax [bar] 6.6 4.2 3 2.5 1.4

(dp/dt)max [bar/s] 246 46 41 51 49

Correlation of explosion parameters and explosion-type events for preventing environmental pollution

Table 3. Explosion parameters for coal dust – methane - air mixtures Dust concentration [g/m3] 35

70

125

Gas concentration [%v/v] 2 3 4 5 2 3 4 5 2 3 4 5

pmax [bar] 4.2 5.5 5.4 3.3 4.4 5.1 5 5.2 6.2 6.1 6.3 6.4

(dp/dt)max [bar/s] 160 170 141 60 132 111 154 133 168 166 218 195

Fig. 5. Explosion pressure for coal dust 35 g/m3 and methane 25% v/v

Fig. 6. Explosion pressure for coal dust 70 g/m3 and methane 25% v/v

Fig. 7. Explosion pressure for coal dust 125 g/m3 and methane 2-5 % v/v

Fig. 8. Explosion pressure for coal dust – methane – air mixtures function of dust concentration

Fig. 9. Rate of pressure rise for coal dust – methane – air mixtures function of dust concentration

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4. Conclusions The outcomes resulted in this work were in accordance with the results obtained by the similar methods for determining explosion parameters for methane-air mixtures. Depending of the shape, energy and the duration of the ignition source, the explosion parameters may vary near the stoichiometric ratio of methane. Methane mixed with coal dust even at lower concentration that lower explosion limit was involved in the burning process, influencing the explosion behaviour of explosive mixture (hybrid mixture – coal dust – methane - air). Compared with dust explosions, hybrid mixtures have a different behaviour. Near the minimum explosive concentration of the dust, the explosion pressure and the rate of pressure rise increase with the increase of methane concentration. Near 125 g/m3 the explosion pressure and rate of pressure rise are decreased due to methane participation to the combustion process and the reaction products like CO2 and water vapours which act like inhibitors for the dust particles not yet ignited. The explosion parameters of combustible materials-air mixtures, like maximum explosion pressure, pmax, maximum rate of pressure rise (dp/dt)max, lower and upper explosion limits (LEL and UEL), are essential in formulating safe working conditions for various industrial installations. Acknowledgments This work was supported financially by the Romanian Research National Authority in the project PN 07450310.

References Agreda A.G., (2010), Study of hybrid mixture explosions, PhD Thesis, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy. Agreda A.G., Di Benedetto A., Russo P., Salzano E., Sanchirico R., (2011), Dust/gas mixtures explosion regimes, Powder Technology, 205, 81–86.

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Al-Majed A., Adebayo A.R., Hossain M.E., (2014), A novel technology for sustainable oil spills control, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 13, 231-492. Amyotte P.R., Pegg M.J., Khan F.I., (2009), Application of inherent safety principles to dust explosion prevention and mitigation, Process Safety and Environment Protection, 87, 35-39. Bai C., Gong G.D., Liu Q., Chen Y., Niu G., (2011), The explosion overpressure field and flame propagation of methane/air and methane/coal dust/air mixtures, Safety Science, 49, 1349–1354. Gieras M., Klemens R., Rarata G., Wolanski P., (2006), Determination of explosion parameters of methane-air mixtures in the chamber of 40 dm3 at normal and elevated temperature, Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 19, 263-270. Li Q., Lin B., Dai H., Zhao S., (2012), Explosion characteristics of H2/CH4/air and CH4/coal dust/air mixtures, Powder Technology, 229, 222–228. Prodan M., Ghicioi E., Szollosi A., Nalboc I., Paraian M., (2013), Development of the methods for determining air-fuel gas explosion parameters, International Conference on Manufacturing Science and Education MSE 2013, Sibiu, Romania. Rusu A.O., Dumitriu E., (2003), Destruction of volatile organic compounds by catalytic oxidation, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 2, 273-302. SAFEKINEX, (2002), Report on the experimentally determined explosion limits, exposion pressures and rates of explosion pressure rise. Part 1: methane, hydrogen and propylene, Project SAFEKINEX, Contract No. EVG1-CT-2002-00072, On line at: http://www.morechemistry.com/SAFEKINEX/deliver ables/44.Del.%20No.%208.pdf. Sanchirico R., Di Benedetto A., Garcia-Agreda A., Russo P., (2011), Study of the severity of hybrid mixture explosions and comparison to pure dust-air and vapourair explosions, Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 24, 648-655. Shebeko Y.N., Tsarichenko S.G., Korolchenko A.Y., Trunev A.V, Navzenya V.Y., Papkov S.N., Zaitzev A. A., (1995), Burning velocities and flammability limits of gaseous mixtures at elevated temperatures and pressures, Combustion and Flame, 102, 427–437.


June 2014, Vol.13, No. 6, 1415-1419



APPLICATION OF THERMO-VISION SYSTEMS DURING INTERVENTION AND RESCUE ACTIVITIES IN TOXIC, FLAMMABLE AND EXPLOSIVE ENVIRONMENTS Artur Găman, Daniel Pupăzan, Cosmin Ilie INCD-INSEMEX Petrosani, 32-34 G-ral Vasile Milea Str., Petrosani, Hunedoara, Romania

Abstract The success of rescue in toxic, flammable and explosive environments can accurately be quantified by the number of injured caught at the event that occurs, identified, reanimated and transported safely to the nearest hospital or point of granting the first aid. Unfortunately, in most cases, the area where these activities are developed, research is more or less accessible due to the presence of smoke, toxic or explosive gases or lack of visibility. For this reason, most often we are witnessing a rescuer’s specific oversized resource consumption in an attempt to identify and locate accident victims in areas without visibility or with hazardous atmosphere. Application of thermo-vision systems allow the localization of victims from industry accidents, aiming to the efficient rescue operation with low costs and risks, for both injured and the rescuers involved in such areas. Key words: fire, intervention, rescue, thermal imaging technique Received: December 2013; Revised final: June, 2014; Accepted: June 2014

1. Introduction Protecting humans in the work seeks to eliminate and/or reduce the potential causes of injury. All these goals are achievable by actions addressing the elimination and/or reduction of risks. At international level in the field of rescue in toxic, explosive and flammable environments thermal imaging technique is used to locate possible victims, to identify fire areas for the development of actions specific to emergency team interventions, in terms of enhanced safety (Laciok et al., 2013). The need to identify and assess occupational risks for rescue interventions in environments with smoke is an important element in determining the mode of action of rescue formations (Găman, 2007; Pupazan et al., 2012). For this purpose, intervention and rescue teams in toxic /flammable /explosive with /or without smoke, should know the rules and working procedures to: 

• identify of hazards and assess the priority and importance of occupational risk assessment; • possess the knowledge necessary to eliminate, reduce or avoid the risk; • to intervene in the causal process of dangerous incidents and work accidents to interrupt the progress chain of these risk categories. • use modern equipment to intervene in hostile environments. All objects emit infrared energy (heat) as a function of their temperature. The infrared energy emitted by an object is known as its heat signature. In general, the hotter an object is, the more radiation it emits. A thermal imager (also known as a thermal camera) is essentially a heat sensor that is capable of detecting tiny differences in temperature. The device collects the infrared radiation from objects in the scene and creates an electronic image based on information about the temperature differences.


Găman et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1415-1419

Because objects have rarely the same temperature as other objects around them, a thermal camera can detect them and they will appear as distinct in a thermal image (Rouse, 2011). Thermal imaging has wide applications in industrial environments, rescue operations. Physiological activities, particularly responses, in human beings and other warm-blooded animals can also be monitored also for the real-time measurement of human thermal comfort (Revel et al., 2013). This paper discusses the application of thermo-vision technique in the rescue activity by a specialized team in a training polygon specially created for this purpose. The aim of the paper is to allow subsequent introduction of this technique in the Intervention Regulation for Rescue Teams, given the good results provided by thermo vision, leading to improved security for teams that intervene in toxic /explosive /flammable environments. 2. The use of thermo-vision in intervention and rescue actions 2.1. Principles of thermo vision The success of a rescue in toxic, flamable and explosive environments can accurately be counted by the number of injured caught at the event that are identified, reanimate and transported safely to the nearest hospital or the first aid point. Unfortunately, in most cases, the area where it takes place research is more or less accessible due to flooding with smoke, toxic or explosive gases or lack of vision. For this reason, most often we are witnessing rescuers oversizing resource consumption in an attempt to identify and locate accident victims in areas without visibility or hazardous atmosphere (Găman, 2007). Application of thermo-vision systems allows the localization of victims from industrial accidents which generate toxic, explosive or blind areas, aiming to ensure efficient rescue operations with low cost and risk, from both injured and the rescuers involved in such areas perspective (Laciok, 2013). Thermo-vision or infrared viewing is a technique where a camera (or scanner) detects and displays a map of the radiation intensity over a range of the electromagnetic spectrum (Popovici and Codreanu, 2003). The term defines thermal image obtained using thermal cameras in military applications, civilian oversight or intervention of fire teams. Thermo-vision can be useful for (Albatici and Tonelli, 2010; Cretescu et al., 2013; Dudić et al., 2012; He et al., 2009): - managing distribution networks (water, heat, gas, pipelines etc.), detecting and locating networks that are placed on the terrestrial or underground, analysis of heat; diagnostic, fault tracing, prevention of accidents; insulation quality control; - pursuing building heat loss: recording heat leakage through roofs and walls of buildings, shooting on surface of urban concentrations;

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- monitoring of waste dumps, landfills, chemical tanks, contamination, environmental loads - research in geology, tectonic deformation detection, contamination; - monitoring of hydropower facilities, dams, identifying water pollution, identifying sources of water pollution; - climate analysis (monitoring urban agglomerations in the tropical days); - identification of underground constructions, archaeological sites, abandoned mines. The detector of thermo-vision camera measures the electromagnetic radiation field of the object in infrared. This may be expressed numerically in the wavelength range between 0.75 μm and 1 mm. (User Manual, 2014). Thermo graphic map obtained by photographing is influenced by the characteristics of the observed object and the characteristics of the environment in which it is located. It is therefore necessary to determine the objectives to be submitted observations and the method used during the analysis. Thermography can be used to monitor the thermal contrast manifestations (Handbook, 2008). Thermo graphic pictures are restricted by meteorological conditions that occur in measurements. Clouds and their shadows have a negative influence on thermography, as higher air speed of 3m/s, high soil moisture, in some applications, even vegetation or direct solar radiation. Thermo-vision is a modern technique, high performance, allowing real-time visualization and generation of thermal paper ("thermal imaging" thermo grams) biological or technical systems under investigation. To achieve thermal scanning activity is used specialized equipment called thermal imager / thermography, similar in size and appearance to the well-known cameras of everyday life. Thermo-vision is a way of viewing objects from the point of view of the infrared radiation (IR) emitted by the latter and not in that of the visible radiation which can be detected without difficulty by the human eye. Ordinary, man can see surrounding objects because of light reflected from them. The human eye is capable of seeing a narrow portion of the electromagnetic spectrum called "visible". The human eye has no ability to see the rest of the electromagnetic spectrum, or radiation that includes the IR spectrum. However, for a long time it is known that any body temperature above 0K emits infrared energy. The primary source of infrared radiation is heat bodies. IR energy is generated by the vibration and rotation of atoms and molecules in any biological or technical system. The law on which thermo-vision is based are: the Planck's law, which introduced the hypothesis of energy quanta, the spectral density of a body emission, and established a formula verified experimentally on all frequency range; the Stefan Boltzmann, who established the link between energy transmittance of the body and its absolute temperature; the Wien displacement law, which

Application of thermo-vision systems during intervention and rescue activities

established the link between body temperature and the wavelength of maximum spectral density of emission. Physic-mathematical basis was established, practical use in the field was that the measurement of infrared radiation emitted by an object can estimate with great accuracy its temperature. As the object temperature is higher, the infrared radiation produced is more intense. The human body normal temperature is radiating the infra-red around the wavelength of 10mm. Although we cannot see infrared domain, we are surrounded daily by this type of radiation. Although the eyes are unable to see outside the visible spectrum, skin nerves allow our body to feel this radiation as heat. The need for thermal generation of maps and images that can be interpreted in various fields of science and everyday life has led to increasing interest of companies to develop special equipment to extend human vision and infrared radiation field. Thus, thanks to new technologies, thermal imagers have been fabricated and allow visualizing IR energy radiated, transmitted and reflected by biological or technical systems; the end result is visualization of temperature (temperatures) in the measured object. Detectors structures used in contactless thermometry, thermal and infrared thermography are working the IR part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which includes radiation with wavelengths between 0.78 mm and 1000mm. IR region can be divided into

three sub-regions: the near IR (0.78 to 3 m), middle infrared (3 - 30mm) and far IR (30 - 300mm). 2.2. Case study in the training polygon To highlight the usefulness of thermo-vision application for intervention and rescue actions in toxic /explosive /flammable environments, are presented some examples by using a DRAGER type camera in a training polygon where several simulations of interventions found in reality, can be performed. Some situations are presented, in which two rescuers simulate various activities (walking normally effort making using ergometers, victim localization near a power source, moving through confined spaces), in which is highlighted the possibility that, through the thermo-vision technique, in various accidents, possible sources of fire can be identified, persons moving through dangerous environments can be monitored and victims caught by events can be identified (fire, explosion etc.). Therefore, we have the following situations: - simulation of movement by using a traveling staircase (Fig. 1); - effort making using ergometers (Fig.2); - victim localization (Fig. 3); - identifying fire source with possible victim (Fig. 4); - identifying a person in confined spaces (Fig. 5).

Fig. 1. Using a traveling staircase during interventions

Fig.2. Ergometers

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Fig.3. Victim localization during interventions

Fig.4. Identifying fire source with possible victim

Fig. 5. Identifying a person in confined spaces

2.3. Results After tests carried out in the training polygon it was demonstrated that through thermal imaging technique a person who operates in diverse environments can be identified, both in movement and in static condition and also possible sources of heat, that can become potential sources of explosive atmospheres initiation, can be easily identified. 3. Conclusions In the case of intervention and rescue activities in toxic, flammable and explosive environments, interventions and rescue teams can use

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the thermo-vision system, with the following advantages: - it creates the perspective of quick location of the victims of the events resulted in toxic/explosive atmospheres with the highest accuracy, having also direct implications upon :  chances of injured survival  individual security of members of rescue teams  can eliminate unnecessary displacements to areas with high risk of injury in the search of victims, their location being done accurately  diminished financial effort borne by the operator by blocking technology flows and productive infrastructure over a period of time

Application of thermo-vision systems during intervention and rescue activities

- measuring equipment does not emit harmful radiations to intervention teams; - thermal scanning system does not require direct contact with the system; - thermal scanning is non-invasive and can be repeated as often as needed; - allows real-time analysis before and after interventions on equipment/installations of the utmost importance in order to obtain useful information for investigating evolution in time; - scanning can be achieved also on moving objects or inaccessible; - to assess in terms of thermal of hazardous objects/ equipment: chemicals, energized electrical, electrical equipment, hot bodies; - can achieve thermal maps of large areas; - introduction of this technique in the Intervention Regulation for Rescue Teams, given the good results provided by thermo vision, can lead to improved security for teams that intervene in toxic /explosive /flammable environments. References Albatici R., Tonelli A.M., (2010), Infrared thermovision technique for the assessment of thermal transmittance value of opaque building elements on site, Energy and Buildings, 42, 2177–2183. Cretescu I., Craciun I., Benchea R.E., Kovács Z., Iavorschi A., Sontea V., Macoveanu M., (2013), Development of an expert system for surface water quality monitoring in the context of sustainable management

of water resources, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 12, 1721-1734. Dudić S.P., Ignjatović I.M., Šešlija D.D., Blagojević V.A., Stojiljković M.M., (2012), Leakage quantification of compressed air on pipes using thermovision, Thermal

Science, 16, 555-565. Gaman A. G., (2007), Principles, techniques and procedures used during interventions performed in toxic / explosive / flammable atmospheres, (in Romanian), INSEMEX Publishing House, Petrosani, Romania Handbook, (2008), Thermography, (in Romanian), Test Line SRL Bucharest, Romania, On line at: http://www.testline.ro/custom_images/dl/ghid_buzuna r_-_termografie_ro.pdf He M.-c., Gong W.-l., Li D.-j., Zhai H.-m., (2009), Physical modeling of failure process of the excavation in horizontal strata based on IR thermography, Mining Science and Technology (China), 19, 689–698. Laciok L., Rybinski J., Szajewska A., (2013), Exploitation of thermo-visual cameras during fire incidents in production centres, Bezpieczenstwo i Technika Pozarnicza/Safety & Fire Technique, 30, 75-80. Popovici M., Codreanu N.D., (2003), Thermovision and thermography in the industry, (in Romanian), On line at: http://www.electronica-azi.ro/articol/1247. Pupăzan D., Găman A., Ilie C., (2012), Information system for simulation and assessment of rescuers interventions in toxic, explosive and flammable environments, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 11, 1337-1341. Rouse M., (2011), Thermal imaging, On line at: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/thermalimaging. User Manual, (2014), Thermo-vision Cameras, (in Romanian), Drager Safety SRL, Bucharest, Romania.

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BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES APPLIED TO PREVENT AND REDUCE CONCENTRATIONS OF DUST AND GASES RELEASED FROM POWER PLANTS Marius Kovacs1, Lorand Toth1, Gheorghe Gheţie1, Angela Drăghici1, Traian Vasiu2 Gheorghe Laurenţiu2 1

INCD INSEMEX National 32-34 G-ral Vasile Milea Street, 332047 Petroşani, Romania 2 S.C. Electrocentrale Deva MINTIA, 1 Santierului street., Deva, Hunedoara, Romania

Abstract Employers notified about working places under special conditions are required to develop Preventive and Protective Revised Plan, in order to ensure the improvement of workers safety and health protection, including specific measures and actions, so that those working places comply with the norms and operate under normal conditions by the late 31 December 2013. This paper considers some outcomes of the Nucleu Program PN 07450226 funded by Romanian National Authority for Research (ANCS) and developed during 2012-2013. The objective of this paper addresses the development of economically sustainable technical solutions for reducing the concentration of particulate matters and gases at their sources in power plants, in order to normalize the environmental conditions of special working places. During the first phase of the project, we identified dust and gas sources generated by machinery and equipment in working places with special conditions in Turceni and Deva power plants and also set the criteria and requirements for designing solutions to prevent and reduce these emissions, according to European practices in energy industry. Technical solutions envisage the development and application of effective projects for the abatement of various sources of dust and gas. Key words: BREFs, dust, gas, particulate matters, power plants, prevention Received: December 2013; Revised final: June, 2014; Accepted: June 2014

1. Introduction Airborne contaminants can be found in gaseous form (gases and vapors) or aerosol (dust, aerosols, fumes, smoke, vapor). In this context, particulate matters draw special attention, as a consequence of the fact that they are associated with widespread classic lung illnesses, as well as systemic poisoning, especially at higher levels of exposure (Kjellstrom et al., 2009; Nisipeanu et al., 2012). Successful approach of workplace health issues and safety rules require the cooperation and participation of both employers and workers in health and safety programs. Also it involves the consideration of issues addressing occupational health, industrial hygiene, 

toxicology, education, safety engineering, ergonomics, psychology etc. However, the human factor, as the central element of any significant activity, cannot be seen isolated from the context of the relations with the elements of production system (Cristea, 2002; Hasle and Limborg; 2006). The working tasks that a worker must perform involve production equipment and tools, as well as the environment in which these tasks are performed. Any dysfunction of the elements of production system could lead sometimes to injuries or changes in the human body’s state of health (Buica et al., 2012; Yoon et al., 2013). In order to ensure a safe workplace and workers security, a causal chain, whose last link is

Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: [email protected]; Phone: +40 254/541621; Fax:+40 254/546277

Kovacs et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1421-1426

the relation between the victim and the injuring material agent should be established. Workers’ health and safety against the risks generated by physical occupational noxes (noise, vibration, and electromagnetic field), chemical, physico-chemical and biological occupational noxes in special conditions working places is ensured by regulations issued by the ministry that handles labor market (Darabont and Pece, 2001; Morawska and Salthammer, 2006). 2. Identification of sources generating dust and gas in working places with special conditions of Turceni and Deva power plants The main activities of S.C. Complexul Energetic Turceni S.A and S.C. Electrocentrale Deva are carried out in large combustion plants (LCPs). S.C. Complexul Energetic Turceni S.A owns 4 large combustion plants, namely: IMA 1, consisting of energy blocks no. 1 and 2; IMA 2 with energy blocks 3 and 4; IMA 3 with energy blocks 5 and 6; IMA 4 with power unit No 7. These large combustion plants, considered IPPC installations by reference documents, use lignite and naphtha as base fuels. Combustion plants are equipped with electric filters for ash retention and for IMA 1 and IMA 2 blocks No. 3, 4, 5 and 6 are partially implemented wet limestone desulphurization installations for reducing sulfur dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. The combustion plants use Jiu Valley lignite and naphtha as base fuels. These combustion plants are equipped with performant electric filters, low NOx burners and dry desulphurization instalations. The mentioned thermal power plants burn significant quantities of coal per unit of time, which leads to emission of effluent air and noxes with high concentration discharged into the environment. Although most emissions are discharged in the environment through pollutant dispersion chimneys, using fans, an important part of noxes from fugitive emissions (leaks) of the systems for remediation of polluted air are also found in some working places, inside the plant. Therefore these working places can synergically add noxes releasese specific to technological operations performed. 3. Design criteria for reducing pollution levels in working places with special conditions Considering the noted deficiencies, an analysis of each noxes generating facility was required, in order to determine the framework solutions for air remediation, followed by their engineereing by a specialized unit and their implementation in special conditions working places. In developing framework solutions for reducing dusts and gases at generating sources in special conditions working places, the folowing were considered:

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- best available techniques (BAT) for: discharge, storage and handling of fuels and additives, fuel combustion, fuel pretreatment, reducing heavy metal emissions and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and, - recommended technical requirements of European reference documents (BREFs) regarding the design of air remediation installations for dusts and gases used in large combustion plants and the provision of microclimate conditions in working places (BREF, 2005). Developing and designing these framework solutions must take into account the provisions of the Regulatory document for the design, manufacture and operation of ventilation and air conditioning instalations, Call I5 - 2010 published in order no.1659/2011 by the Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism (Cristea, 1976). Analysis of the criteria and technical requirements recommended by the European reference documents (BREFs) regarding the design of air remediation installations for dusts and gases used in large combustion plants and the provision of microclimate conditions in working places, showed that, for dusts and gases air remediation in working places the following methods/techniques may be applied: a. moistening the material using water spray nozzles, powered by medium/high water pressure generating pumps, in order to form a fog with as small as possible discharge and dimension of water particles, which will greatly enhance the efficiency of dusts reduction; b. entrapment of dust and/or gases using general or local ventilation systems and retention of dust orgases, as necessary (Voicu, 2001). The safest method of retaining noxes is to entrap them at source, by means of local ventilation. An important condition for any effective capture system is the releasing of dust and/or gas inside a casing. The most appropriate economic solution is the enclosure of the dust source. In some cases just a good enclosure is sufficient. For closed local suction devices (casings), calculating relations for the air flow required to be suctioned from the casing were presented: depression method, based on the velocity through suction leaks/openings and based on experimental data. Local ventilation through air aspirating and, if necessary, air de-dusting and/or remediation of gas polluted air from working places require higher investments related to: design, performing, control operations, maintenance, etc. c. moistening the material and dust capture using general and/or local ventilation, with air de-dusting as needed (Darabont and Pece, 2001). Worldwide, in order to abate dust in working places from thermoelectric power plants, humidifying techniques are applied more frequently than ventilation-de-dusting techniques because of the advantages they present, namely: low cost of investment and maintenance, limited building-up and

Best management practices applied to prevent and reduce concentrations of dust and gases released from power plants

release of dust in suspension, represents a simple method with high efficiency (in particular for respirable dust) and may be applied in open spaces, with good results. 4. Development of solutions for retaining dust and gases from equipment generating emissions in power plants This section discussed framework solutions to prevent and abate dust and gas, applicable to shredding, filing, grinding, cutting and transport equipments in coal managing divisions and other divisions of power plants.

coal before the conveyer exits the casing (Cecala et al., 2012). 4.3. Framework design for dust abatement in coal ranking operations In the case of a crushing flow sheet, using a rock breaker, bolter or griddle ranking and a breakdown crusher all vertically positioned (superposed), captation and containment of the dust generated by these equipments may be accomplished in common, with the use of a ventilation-de-dusting installation.

4.1. Dust abatement in coal deposits In order to prevent dust building-up and dust release on the entire surface of the deposit, including the access gateways in the open spaces of surface coal deposits, where transporting, loading/ unloading, leveling coal stockage by means of mechanical equipment operations are performed, moistening using the Wrench’s “Dust Destroyer” type “fog cannon” can be applied (Fig.1). The equipment consists of an axial fan with a capacity of 500-800 m3/min and a working pressure of 500 mm water column, provided with two concentric circular ducts on which about 30 special nozzles are installed, powered by high-pressure water hoses with 5-10 bar pressure water. The installation can be fixed on a platform (trolley) or on a special vehicle equipped with a water tank, pressure pump and automatic fog cannon rotation system.

Fig. 2. Framework design of coal moistening in crushing operations using the jaw breaker and hammer crusher (Cecala et al., 2012)

Every dust generating source must be isolated through enclosure, while dusted generated by each equipment in air is sucked in and de-dusted with the help of a joint ventilation installation, through a single filter bag installation, as seen in Fig. 3. This system has a series of disadvantages related to the possibility of ducts colmation, which leads to decreased amount of sucket air flow and decresed speed of dust induction into the equipment casing and, in the end, to decreased de-dusting installation efficiency; difficulties in maintaining and adjusting the sistem’s aerodinamic parameters and so on. 4.4. Framework design for dust abatement in loading/unloading in/off silos/bunkers

Fig.1. Coal moistening using “Dust Destroyer“ type fog cannon

4.2. Framework design for dust abatement in coal crushing and grinding operations In Fig. 2 it is shown the framework design for dust abatement through enclosure of the jaw breaker or hammer crusher and coal moistening during crushing operations. Both nozzles are installed in the crusher’s casing. One nozzle is oriented toward the impact area of coal discharged from the crusher and the conveyer, and the second nozzle moistens the

Loading and unloading coal in and off silos may produce high concentrations of particulate emissions for workers and, through dispersion in the atmosphere, may affect the surrounding environment. If the mass flow rate of dust emission from a stationary source exceeds 0.5 kg/h, it is necessary to isolate the source (the equipment) through enclosure, to capture by means of ventilation and de-dusting installation, so that the concentration of particulates released into the environment atmosphere is less than 50 mg/m3, according to the Romanian Law 104/2011. Applying coal moisturing to prevent build-up and release of dust in suspension can be achieved by using medium/high pressure pump installations and certified water spray nozzles. Fig. 4 ilustrates the solution for reduction of dust by means of coal

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moistening using certified microfog generating atomizers or air-water atomizers. To prevent pollutant spreading into the environment when unloading coal from a silo, it was provided with casing insulation (9). Atomizers (5) are installed on both sides of the silo, (1) and in the belt conveyer‘s casing (10) and (11). If coal moistening cannot be applied, it is recommended to adopt the solution of reducing the dust emission already released in the work environment, by retaining it with the use of a microciclon, Fig. 5.

According to literature, the air flow intake from silos must be 1500 ÷ 2000 m3/h/m2 silos section. 4.5. Framework design for dust confuting in mechanized transport using belt conveyers Dust emissions in belt conveyors can be located in the following points: active belt branch (upper belt arm), transhipments, and the lower branch of the band (Cheng, 1973).

Fig.3. Reduction of dust emissions applicable to coal preparation: 1- conveyer, 2- crusher, 3- vibrating griddle, 4- isolating system (casing), 5- suction hood, 6- ventilation duct, 7- multicyclon, 8-exhauster, 9- chimney

Fig. 4. Prevention dust build-up by coal moitening at silos/bunkers

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Best management practices applied to prevent and reduce concentrations of dust and gases released from power plants

Fig. 5. De-dusting when loading/unloading coal into/from silos/bunkers

Prevention of dust buit-up and dust releases into the working environment can be accomplished by enclosures and coal moistening, at the unloading/reloading point, with the use of installations equipped with medium/high pressure pumps and micronic fog generating atomizers, Fig. 6. If dust emission released during reloading is reduced, equipment enclosure is sufficient for preventing dust dispersion in the working environment.

Suction pipe sizing is made in order to have an aspirated airspeed of aproximativly 18m/s. An example of correct enclosure of the unloading/reloading points is shown in Fig. 8.

Fig. 8. Belt enclosure system in the points of coal loading and unloading: 1 - rubber curtain, 2 - Device for cleaning the inner branch of the conveyer; 3 - counterweight, 4 - the collar. Fig. 6. Reducing dust by moistening coal at unloading/discharge: 1- the rubber screen , 2 – cleaning papeconveyors, 3- counterweight, 4- the collar, 5- water spray, 6 – water pipe, 7- pump, 8- water supply pipe, 9-valve

INSEMEX designed and implemented an automatic water spraying system, which consists of two sensors, electronic control unit, solenoid valve, nozzles etc. Schematic diagram and placement of the system’s main components is shown in Fig 7.

Fig. 7 Schematic diagram of the control unit: 1,2- atomizers, 3- compressed air power circuit

The Q air flow rate to be sucked through the pipe located above the upper belt is calculated by assuming the speed through openings and leakages to be 1.00 m/s for belt conveyers that move at a speed of 1.00 m/s. In Fig. 9 it is shown a micro cyclone enclosure and ventilation /de-dusting system.

Fig. 9. Reducing dust by ventilation/de-dusting when unloading/reloading coal: 1 – the rubber screen, 2 – cleaning tapecoveyors, 3 – counterweight, 4 – the collar, 5 – water spray, 6 – pipes, multicyclone, exhaustor

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4.6. Disposal of toxic gases resulted from workshops and test laboratories Usually, through chimney hoods and laboratory niches of indoor spaces are discharged low mass flows and concentrations of toxic gases, there being no need of using installation to neutralize them. Discharge of these noxes is made through a chimney into the air inside the unit, the height of which must be designed so that we achieve an adequate dispersion. Fig.10. shows the solution for gas discharge during welding operations. With the help of the exhauster (5) the polluted air resulting from the electric or autogenous welding operation is evacuated through the chimney (6), into the air inside the unit.

Fig. 10. Disposal of gas and dust emissions resulted from welding operations: 1- workbench, 2- side walls, 3- slot, 4ducts, 5- centrifugal exhauster, 6- chimney for evacuation into the atmosphere

5. Conclusions Deficiencies identified in field entail both rehabilitation and/or re-technologisation of ventilation and ventilation-dedusting systems and reconsidering the application of coal moistening method, as being a high efficient and low cost simple method, for preventing build-up and release of dust in special conditions working places. Based on the criteria and recommendations for choosing and designing solutions to prevent and reduce particulate emissions, shown in European reference documents, framework solutions applicable to major sources found in special condition working places were presented, namely: surface coal deposits, silos/bunkers, crushers, griddles, mills and high capacity belt conveyers. Framework solution for confuting gases resulted from workshops and laboratories with the help of ventilation systems and disposal of gases and odors from inside the unit were also presented.

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References BREF, (2005), Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC), Reference Document on the Best Available Techniques for Large Combustion Plants, On line at: http://eippcb.jrc.es. Buica G., Antonov A.E., Beiu C., Iorga I., (2012), Safety measures – tools for reducing the cost of working accidents in electrical installations, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 11, 12471255. Cecala A.B., O’Brien A.D., Schall J., Colinet J.F., Fox W.R., Franta R.J., Joy J., Reed W.R., Reeser P.W., Rounds J.R., Schultz M.R., (2012), Dust Control Handbook for Industrial Minerals Mining and Processing, Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Office of Mine Safety and Health Research, Pittsburgh, Spokane, USA, On line at: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/UserFiles/works/pdf s/2012-112.pdf. Cheng L., (1973), Formation of airborne - respirable dust at belt conveyor transfer points, American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal, 32, 540-546. Cristea A., (2002), Design Issues of Industrial Ventilation Systems, Technical Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania. Cristea A., (1976), Ventilation and Air Conditioning. Adjusting and Testing of Ventilation, vol. 3, Technical Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania. Darabont A., Pece S., (2001), Occupational Health and Safety Management (in Romanian), AGIR Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania. Hasle P., Limborg H.J., (2006), A review of the literature on preventive occupational health and safety activities in small enterprises, Industrial Health, 44, 6-12. Kjellstrom T., Holmer I., Lemke B., (2009), Workplace heat stress, health and productivity – an increasing challenge for low and middle-income countries during climate change, Global Health Action, 2, 10.3402/gha.v2i0.2047. Morawska L., Salthammer T., (2006), Indoor Environment: Airborne Particles and Settled Dust, John Wiley & Sons, New York. Nisipeanu S.E., Haiducu M., Chiurtu R.E., Rus M.A., Stepa R.A., (2012), Good practices and trends in labor organizations at European level, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 11, 12611265. Voicu V., (2001), Pollutants Reduction in Industry, Technical Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania. Yoon S.J., Lin H.K., ChenG., Yi S., Choi J., Rui Z., (2013), Effect of occupational health and safety management system on work-related accident rate and differences of occupational health and safety management system awareness between managers in South Korea's construction industry, Safety and Health at Work, 4, 201–209.


June 2014, Vol.13, No. 6, 1427-1432



QUALITY ASSURANCE FOR TESTING THE PROTECTIVE PERFORMANCES OF MATERIALS - AN ESSENTIAL PREREQUISITE IN SUBSTANTIATING LABORATORY COMPETENCY Mihaela Paraian1, Florin Tiberiu Iacob-Ridzi2, Emilian Ghicioi1, Florin Păun1 Niculina Vatavu1, Leonard Lupu1 1

The National Institute of Research and Development for Safety in Mines and Explosion Protection Petrosani (INCD-INSEMEX), 32-34 G-ral Vasile Milea Str., Petrosani, Romania 2 Petrosani City Hall, Hunedoara, Romania

Abstract Static electricity represents one of the potential ignition sources for the explosive atmospheres. The test methods for materials, in general, and especially the test methods for textile fabrics for assessment of the protective performances in static electricity, have known a permanent evolution alongside newly developed electrostatically dissipative materials. Within the National Institute of Research and Development for Safety in Mines and Explosion Protection (INCD-INSEMEX) new testing stands had been developed and new testing methods had been implemented for assessment of the charge dissipative capacity, in accordance with the European standards requirements. By modernizing the laboratory testing/research-development capacity, the physical tools for testing of materials are assured, having in view conformity assessment with the European Directives requirements, in the framework of the Notified Body for Conformity Assessment (OEC-INSEMEX). The paperwork presents aspects regarding competency testing provided in the RENAR policy for accredited or accrediting-in-progress laboratories, as requirement for proving and monitoring laboratory competency for testing/calibration in the field for which accreditation was applied for/granted. Key words: electrostatics, explosive atmosphere, laboratory tests, materials Received: December 2013; Revised final: June, 2014; Accepted: June 2014

1. Introduction Increasingly often, Notified Bodies are challenged about discrepancies in test results, when tests are repeated e.g. for Market Surveillance purposes. Although it is obvious that test methods may be inconsistent in terms of the repeatability and reproducibility of test results, there are a number of reasons that may be the cause of significant discrepancies (Egan, 2002). Slight variations in the production process, for instance, may result in product changes that lead to different test results. Also, the effects of storage may have changed product characteristics, even if a product from the same batch as the type-tested sample is available for 

comparison testing. Finally, the reproducibility of test results depends on the uncertainties of measurements that apply for the test method (Report, 2012). In order to improve the comparability and reproducibility of test results and to ensure the quality of their own test procedures, Notified Bodies organize inter-laboratory test schemes and Round Robin testing. These help finding out about problems related to the application of specific test, and may not least make sure that discrepancies in test results are not due to a lack of precision in the test method (Report, 2012). The testing laboratory for non-electric equipment, electrostatics, materials and personal


Paraian et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1427-1432

protective equipment (LENExEMEIP) within the Group of Testing Laboratories (GLI-INSEMEX), accredited at the national level in Romania, as support for OEC-INSEMEX, ensures the physical tools for materials testing in order to assess the conformity of personal protective equipment with the essential safety and health requirements (EC Directive, 1989). The Personal Protective Equipment Directive (EC Directive, 1989) was transposed in Romania by two governmetal decisions (GD 115, 2004; GD 809, 2005). The EC Directive (1989 stipulates: “PPE intended for use in explosive atmospheres must be so designed and manufactured that it cannot be the source of an electric, electrostatic or impact-induced arc or spark likely to cause an explosive mixture to ignite”. Preventing the formation of electrostatic charges on person or on adjacent elements suppose an assembly of measures and means to ensure adequate paths to earth (dissipation) for the charges. This can be achieved by making use of dissipative clothing, footwear with a proper electric conductivity and adequate flooring or other means for discharging the charges to earth. The requirements for assessment/testing of material and personal protective equipment from a point of view of the protective performances against dangerous electrostatic electricity are given in specific standards (SR EN 1149-2, 2003; SR EN 1149-3, 2004; SR EN 1149-1, 2006; SR EN 1149-5, 2008). It can be noticed that the test methods address measurement of the electric resistance and ability to dissipate the charges on charged materials by friction (tribo-electrization). According to SR EN 1149-5 (2008), the electrostatic dissipative material shall meet at least one of the following requirements: - t50% < 4s or S > 0.2, tested according to the test method 2 (induction charging) of SR EN 1149-3 (2004), where t50% is the half decay time of charge and S is a protective coefficient; - a surface resistance of less than or equal to 2.5×109 Ω, on at least one surface, when material is tested according to SR EN 1149-1 (2006). For materials containing conductive threads in a stripe or grid pattern the spacing of the conductive threads in one direction shall not exceed 10 mm in any part of the garment. As specified in the SR EN 1149-3 (2004) Annex, tribo-charging tests' repeatability and reproducibility are never at the same level with the ones regarding resistance measurement, but in SR EN 1149-3 (2004) method they are at a satisfactory level, and the charging capacity of various materials can be well compared through these tests. Comparison between the results obtained by two laboratories showed differences of less than a factor of eight for test method 1. An inter-laboratory trial for method 2, using 5 different materials and 5 participating laboratories, in 3 different locations, showed a repeatability and reproducibility standard deviation as illustrated in Table 1.

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Table 1. Results obtained by the test laboratories Parameter Repeatability standard deviation, sr Reproducibility standard deviation, sR Half discharge time Repeatability variance Reproducibility variance

S 0.004 0.009 t50 30% 40%

Thus, accuracy of the results obtained in the accredited test laboratory has to be confirmed in the future by inter-laboratory tests, as well. For the above mentioned reasons, the standardized requirements for materials do not take into consideration Method 1 but only Method 2 (SR EN 1149-3, 2004). In that direction, within INSEMEX, a modern test stand had been carried out and experimented for determination of the half decay time of charges on textile materials or the screening factor, for the purpose of assessing the dissipative capacity of charges on textile materials used in manufacturing protective garment, Method 2 (SR EN 1149-3, 2004). The paper brings into debate and discourse about the aspects related to testing laboratories compentency, accredited or with accredditation in progress, from a perspective of the importance of ensuring repeatibility and reproducibility of the tests performed when taking part into inter-laboratory testing schemes. The paper actuality is brought by the necessity and importance of applying standardized methods, performing tests on adequate test stands with competent personnel, thus getting accurate results. The results obtained allow assessment of textile materials from a point of view of explosion protection performances, having in view assuring a high level of safety and health at work. The paperwork objective addresses the importance of ensuring quality of tests when testing the protection performance of textiles used in protective garments, which is an essential requirement in order to prove laboratory's competency. 2. Test stand for measuring the charge dissipation capacity - charging by induction 2.1. Test method principle The test method principle is the following: charging of the test specimen, carried out by an induction effect. Immediately under the test specimen, horizontally arranged, a field-electrode is positioned, without contacting the specimen. A high voltage is rapidly applied to the field-electrode. If the specimen is conductive, or contains conducting elements, charge of opposite polarity to the fieldelectrode is induced on the specimen. Field from the field-electrode which impinges on the conducting elements does not pass through the test specimen and the net field is reduced in a way that is characteristic of the material under test. This effect is measured and

Quality assurance for testing the protective performances of materials

registered behind the specimen with a suitable fieldmeasuring probe. As the amount of induced charge on the test specimen increases, the net field registered by the measuring probe decreases. It is this decrease in field that is used to determine the half decay time and the shielding factor. 2.2. Description of the test stand for measurement of the charge dissipation capacity The principle graph of the test stand for measurement of the charge dissipation capacity - the induction charging method, for the purpose of laboratory testing of textiles used in manufacturing of garments used in environments with explosive atmospheres having in view conformity assessment with the essential safety requirements in EC Directive (1989) is shown in Fig. 1. The test stand arrangement (Fig. 1) consists in: Field-electrode (a polished stainless steel disc, (70±1) mm diameter, fixed to an insulating support) (8), Support ring (a metal ring, (100±1) mm internal diameter, connected to earth and positioned concentric to the field-electrode); Specimen clamping rings (7), Voltage generator capable of producing a (1200±50) V step voltage on the field electrode within 30 ms (direct current voltage supply of 5000 V and a HT fast switch) (9), Field-measuring probe (a metal disc, (30,0±0,1) mm diameter (3), surrounded by an earthed guard ring (4) and connected to an electronic electrometer (1) then to an oscilloscope (2) to record the time related data from the field-measuring probe output. The time resolution and response time of the recording device has to be 50 μs. Fig. 2 shows the test stand carried out in the LENExEMEIP laboratory. 3. Quality assurance for calibration of the test stand

test

results

and

The general requirements for testing and calibration laboratories competency (SR EN ISO/CEI 17025, 2005) clause 5.9 stipulate that the laboratory has to have available procedures for quality management in order to control validity of the tests and calibrations performed. This control should be planned and checked and it may comprise, among others, the following: a) regular use of certified material and internal quality management through secondary referenced material; b) taking part in comparison programs among laboratories or capacity tests (ability); c) repeated tests or calibrations by applying the same or difference procedures; d) new tests and calibrations for the kept objectives; e) correlation between results of various features of one object.

REMARK: The selected procedures shall be suitable to the type and volume of the works to be performed. RENAR, the national body that had accredited GLI – INSEMEX considers attending with satisfactory results in competency tests as an important means of proving technical competency of laboratories. The RENAR policy is that all the accredited laboratories have to take part in competency tests, where this sort of schemes is available, competent and relevant for their accredited field at national level, European or even international level (Policy, 2013). RENAR had developed and implemented an accreditation scheme of competency tests providers. RENAR also recognizes the competency tests schemes provided by:  competency tests providers, accredited according to the requirements (SR EN ISO CEI 17043, 2010);  regulating authorities in regulated fields;  competency tests schemes organized within European Accreditation or APLAC;  national metrology institutes within regional metrology organizations. If non of the above is applicable, the laboratory shall assess the competency tests provider, clause 4.6 (SR EN ISO CEI 17025, 2005), SR EN ISO 15189, 2013) pursuing the requirements (SR EN ISO CEI 17043, 2010). 4. Inter-laboratory testing in the field of protective garment. Proficiency Testing/ Interlaboratory Comparison 4.1. Inter-laboratory comparison (ILC) Interlaboratory comparison programs provide organization, performance and evaluation of calibrations or tests on the same or similar items or materials by two or more laboratories in accordance with predetermined conditions. Interlaboratory comparisons are used to:  assist in developing a laboratory's uncertainties  cross-training of laboratory personnel  establish correlation between labs  check individual testing performance of laboratory personnel  determine characteristics of a material to a particular degree of accuracy. 4.2. Proficiency testing (PT) Proficiency testing is the determination of laboratory performance by means of comparing and evaluating calibrations or tests on the same or similar items or materials by two or more laboratories in accordance with predetermined conditions.

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Proficiency tests are used for:  accreditation bodies to assess the ability of a laboratory to display technical competence  ensure compliance to published quality standards  ensure conformance to uncertainties stated in scopes and accreditation  determine the performance of individual laboratories for specific tests or measurements  monitor laboratories' continuing performance  identify process improvement opportunities. In the Meeting Report of the Horizontal Committee of Notified Bodies (Report of the meeting of the Horizontal Committee of Notified Bodies for PPE, 2012) a list is given, showing the Round-Robin (inter-laboratory) tests that have been carried out in the Vertical Group 5-Protective Clothing, Hand and Arm Protection since 1997 up to 2012 within the framework of the Co-ordination of Notified Bodies for personal protective equipment (planned, ongoing and concluded): a simulated certification process, penetration by liquid chemicals (Gutter test), abrasion, tear and puncture (SR EN 388, 2004), colour measurement (SR EN 471, 2008), chromium +6 content in leather, permeation by liquid chemicals

(permeation cell test), motorcycles clothing: impact test, inward leakage of aerosols of fine particles into suits, gloves against mechanical risk: abrasion (SR EN 530, 2011), (SR EN 388, 2004), cut resistance (SR EN 388, 2004), protective clothing against radioactive contamination, permeation; testing of gloves, formaldehyde (N 80), abrasion and cut resistance (SR EN 530, 2011), (SR EN 388, 2004), undertaken in (SR EN 1073-2, 2003). There had been no Round-Robin test organized for the tests given in the EN 1149 series. During this year, LEITAT Technological Center had organized a PPE Round-Robin, (SR EN 1149-3, 2004), material Wovwn fabric, where the INSEMEX laboratory also attended. The three fabrics, of monolayer type, dimensions 300×300 mm, sent by the organizer, had been tested on the new test stand carried out in LENExEMEIP after a 48 hours conditioning at a (23±10C) temperature and (25±5%) relative humidity. In Fig. 3 it is shown the curve obtained for sample no. 1 on side 1. According to the test round results, the techical competency of the laboratory can be proven or, if necessary, the need of improving the method.

Fig. 1. Arrangement of equipment for measurement of the dissipative capacity of charges - induction charging

Fig. 2. Test stand for measurement of the dissipative capacity of charges - induction charging carried out in the LENExEMEIP laboratory

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Quality assurance for testing the protective performances of materials

Fig. 3. Test result for sample no.1 on side 1, measurement of the dissipative capacity of charges - induction charging, on the LENExEMEIP laboratory test stand

5. Conclusions In LENExEMEIP testing laboratory within GLI-INSEMEX, accredited laboratory at a national level, a new test method had been implemented and a new modern test stand had been carried out, for determination of the half decay time of charges on textile materials or the screening factor according to SR EN 1149-3, Method 2. The results obtainted allow a further assessment of the charge dissipation capacity of textiles used in the protective garments. To have a basis of comparison tests should be performed with precise test methods which take into consideration the factors of influence and can ensure adequate repeatability and reproducibility. In order to ensure testing quality, the ENExEMEIP laboratory took part in a Round-Robin PPE, organized by LEITAT Technological Center, that could prove technical competency of the laboratory, or if case, the need of improving the applied method. References EC Directive, (1989), Council Directive 89/686/EEC of 21 December 1989 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to personal protective equipment 9 (amended by the Council Directive 93/68/EEC (OJ L 220 of 30/8/93), Council Directive 93/95/EEC (OJ L 276 of 9/11/93) and Directive 96/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council), Official Journal, L 399 of 30/12/89, L 236 of 18/9/96. Egan M., (2002), Setting standards: strategic advantages in international trade, Business Strategy Review, 13, 51– 64.

GD 115, (2004), Governmetal Decision No.115 of 02.05.2004 establishing the essential safety requirements of personal protective equipment and conditions for placing on market (in Romanian), Romanian Official Journal, No. 166 of 26/02/2004. GD 809, (2005), Governmental Decision No. 809 of 14 July 2005 amending Government Decision No. 115/2004 establishing the essential safety requirements of personal protective equipment and conditions for placing on the market (in Romanian), Romanian Official Journal, No. 723 of 10/08/2005. Paraian M., (2012), Development of test methods for assessment of electrostatic protective performances of the personal protective equipment used in industries with explosion hazard (in Romanian) Policy, (2013), Policy Regarding the Use of Competency Tests and Inter-Laboratory Comparisons in Accreditation, (2013) / RENAR Code: P-04 of May 2013, On line at: http://www.renar.ro/files/OEC/download/renardocuments/P04%20Utilizare%20inc.de%20comp%20ed.01.08.201 2.pdf Report, (2012), Report of the meeting of the Horizontal Committee of Notified Bodies for PPE - Annex 6 b, Horizontal Committee of Notified Bodies, On line at: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/mechanical/files/ ppe/ppe_horizontal_rfu_en.pdf. SR EN 1149-2, (2003), Protective clothing - Electrostatic properties - Part 2: Test method for measurement of the electrical resistance through a material (vertical resistance) (in Romanian) On line at: http://www.asro.ro/romana/standard/standarde%20201 4/PPE%20WEB.htm. SR EN 1073-2, (2003), Protective clothing against radioactive contamination - Part 2: Requirements and test methods for non-ventilated protective clothing against particulate radioactive contamination (in Romanian). On line at:

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SR

SR

SR

SR

http://www.asro.ro/romana/standard/standarde%20201 4/PPE%20WEB.htm. EN 1149-3, (2004), Protective clothing - Electrostatic properties - Part 3: Test methods for measurement of charge decay, On line at: http://www.asro.ro/romana/standard/standarde%20201 4/PPE%20WEB.htm. EN 388, (2004), Protective gloves against mechanical risks, (Romanian). On line at: http://www.asro.ro/romana/standard/standarde%20201 4/PPE%20WEB.htm. EN ISO/CEI 17025, (2005), General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories, (in Romanian), On line at: http://www.asro.ro/romana/standard/standarde%20201 4/PPE%20WEB.htm. EN 1149-1, (2006), Protective clothing - Electrostatic properties - Part 1: Test method for measurement of surface resistivity (in Romanian). On line at: http://www.asro.ro/romana/standard/standarde%20201 4/PPE%20WEB.htm.

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SR EN 1149-5, (2008), Protective clothing - Electrostatic properties - Part 5: Material performance and design requirements (in Romanian). On line at: http://www.asro.ro/romana/standard/standarde%20201 4/PPE%20WEB.htm. SR EN 471, (2008), High-visibility warning clothing for professional use - Test methods and requirements, (Romanian). On line at: http://www.asro.ro/romana/standard/standarde%20201 4/PPE%20WEB.htm. SR EN ISO/CEI 17043, (2010), Conformity assessment General requirements for proficiency testing (in Romanian). SR EN 530, (2011), Abrasion resistance of protective clothing material - Test methods (in Romanian). On line at: http://www.asro.ro/romana/standard/standarde%20201 4/PPE%20WEB.htm SR EN ISO 15189, (2013), Medical laboratories Requirements for quality and competence (in Romanian). On line at: http://www.asro.ro/romana/standard/standarde%20201 4/PPE%20WEB.htm.


June 2014, Vol.13, No. 6, 1433-1438



ANALYSIS OF EXPLOSIVITY PARAMETERS AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY FOR COMBUSTIBLE DUSTS Adrian Jurca1, Constantin Lupu1, Mihaela Părăian1, Niculina Vătavu1, Florin Tiberiu Iacob-Ridzi2 1

The National Institute of Research and Development for Safety in Mines and Explosion Protection Petrosani (INCD-INSEMEX) 32-34 G-ral Vasile Milea Str., Petrosani, Romania 2 Petrosani City Hall, Hunedoara, Romania

Abstract In industrial plants many types of combustible dusts are generated, processed, handled and stored. When ignited, they can burn rapidly and with a considerable explosion force, when mixed with air in proper proportions. This is the reason why adequate precautions have to be adopted, to ensure all equipment is appropriately protected so that the ignition likelihood of the explosive atmosphere is diminished. Explosion preventing and protection precautions aim to stop explosion occurrence, by eliminating or avoiding the conditions leading to explosions. The paper presents methods of determining dust explosion characteristics and combustion as well as their importance for a proper development and selection of prevention and protection measures. Once known, the protection/prevention measures can be correlated with the safety characteristics. For explosion protection and prevention a series of minimum mandatory requirements have to be fulfilled, for a safe handling and processing of solid materials having fine particle dimensions, among which some are mentioned: knowing the characteristics influencing safety, control and monitoring dust releases in technological processes, installations design for migrating and accumulation of dusts, respectively implementing a rigorous cleaning program at workplaces. Key words: combustible dusts, explosion protection, potentially explosive atmosphere, protective systems Received: December 2013; Revised final: June, 2014; Accepted: June 2014

1. Introduction Many types of combustible dusts are generated, processed, handled and stored in industrial facilities. When ignited, they can burn rapidly and with a considerable explosion force, when mixed with air in proper proportions. This is why adequate precautions have to be adopted, to ensure all equipment is appropriately protected so that the ignition likelihood of the explosive atmosphere is diminished (Magyari et al., 2012). The purpose of explosion preventing and protection measures is to avoid explosion occurrence, by eliminating or reducing the conditions leading to explosions (HSE 103, 2003). The paper objective is 

to describe the methods of determining the explosion and combustion characteristics in order to properly prepare and select the preventive and protection measures. Once known, the protection/prevention measures can be correlated with the safety characteristics. Taking into consideration the purpose of explosion prevention and protection in the present scientific knowledge context, it had been imposed that a series of minimum mandatory requirements need to be implemented (Abbasi and Abbasi, 2007; Eckhoff, 2005). They should ensure a safe handling and processing of solid materials with particles of small dimensions, having as a starting point the characteristics influencing the safety in technological processes (Amyotte et al., 2009; EC Directive, 1999).


Jurca et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1433-1438

Fig. 1 shows the variety of industries affected by combustible dusts resulted from technological processes specific to each area (Stahl, 2010). In many cases, explosive atmospheres accumulation and ignition sources cannot be avoided, case when, if the combustible dust is present in suspension mixed with air (with enough oxygen) within the explosion limits, and if an ignition source of enough energy is also present, an explosion might occur (Fig. 2).

Fig. 1. Variety of combustible dusts in industry

Fig. 2. Explosion pentagon

In its essence, the paper deals with the issues originated by the presence of combustible dusts in technological installation and shows the importance and purpose of determining the explosion parameters in laboratory conditions by means of a modern test stand. The paper actuality is given by the present trend at national and international level of ensuring a very high level of work safety and health within the work environments conveying combustible dusts. 2. Importance of explosion characteristics for explosion prevention and protection Explosion protection and prevention aim to avoid explosions by diminishing or invalidate the conditions that could give rise to explosions. The explosion and combustion characteristics of powders have to be known, in order to develop and adopt adequate preventive and protective precautions (Giby, 2007; Pu et al., 2007; Wypych et al., 2005). Firstly, the characteristics of powders have to be determined for fine-granulation dust, to find the

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worst case scenario condition which could be encountered in practice. This is especially important if, during a process, the particle size changes or if the number of small particles increases (for example milling, grinding, exhaust or settling down) (Field, 2012). Tests on dust deposits are carried out in general on granulation categories smaller than 250 μm, and testing of dust clouds are carried out on granulation categories smaller than 63 μm. Previous to testing, it might be required for the test samples to be prepared by proper treatments. It is required to take into consideration that these safety features are not physical constants, but they depend on the techniques employed for determining them, on the size and shape of particles, moisture content and presence of additives even in insignificant concentrations (Cârloganu, 1986). Once known, protective measures/prevention and safety features can be correlated, as shown in Table 1 (GestisDUST-Ex, 2013). Explosion hazard is defined as the most representative explosive detrimental event that may occur due to an ignition in a technological installation. In order to determine the worst fuel explosion the first step must be determination of the explosion characteristics of combustible dust in conformity with the accepted test procedures, as provided in the specialty literature (Ebadat, 2010; Pu et al., 2007). This testing methodology establishes the most illustrative worst conditions related to combustible dust concentration, homogeneity and turbulence, expressed by the two main explosion parameter: maximum explosion overpressure - pmax and the maximum explosion overpressure rise - (dp/dt)max (parameter defining the maximum dust deflagration index - KSt max), which are the basis of assessing and designing the protective systems of types: explosion resistant design, explosion relief systems, explosion suppression systems, and flame and explosion propagation prevention systems. Explosion suppression represents a technique through which combustion of an explosive atmosphere is detected and stopped in a incipient phase, explosive atmosphere combustion in closed volumes or partially closed, thus limiting the development of pressures that could cause failuresFig. 3. The suppressing systems are so designed and conceived that they react at an incipient explosion, in the earliest stage possible of an incident, and their counter-action must be with the optimum effect, taking into account two of the most important explosion parameters of combustible substances (dp/dt)max - the maximum rate of explosion pressure rise [bar/s] and pmax - the maximum explosion pressure [bar] (EN 14373, 2006). Maximum explosion pressure - pmax is the maximum pressure value occurring during an explosion of an air-dust mixture at optimum concentration, in a confined vessel, in specified testing conditions (Fig. 4).

Analysis of explosivity parameters and environmental safety for combustible dusts

Maximum rate of explosion pressure rise, (dp/dt)max is the maximum value of pressure rise on the time unit in a confined vessel, during an explosion, of a air-dust mixture at optimum concentration, in specified testing conditions, Fig. 5 (the cubic law). The cubic law is given by the formula (Eq. 1): 1

 dp     V 3  const  K St  dt  max

where: KSt - parameter specific to dusts and tests, calculated according to cubic law. Its value is numerically equal to the maximum explosion pressure rise in a 1m3 vessel, in specified test conditions; V - vessel volume [m3]. The combustible dusts are classified according to the explosion index values, KSt, classification shown in Table 2.

(1)

Table 1. Correlation between preventive/protection measures and the safety characteristics Preventive / protective measures Prevention of combustible dusts Limiting concentration Inertization Prevention of ignition sources

Pertinent characteristics Combustibility, explosivity Explosion limits - LEL Limiting oxygen concentration - LOC The minimum ignition energy, the temperature of ignition, auto-ignition, exothermic decomposition, electrostatic behavior, Sensitivity to impact, smoldering point Maximum explosion overpressure - pmax KSt – value , Maximum explosion overpressure KSt – value, Maximum explosion overpressure

Explosion resistant design Explosion relief Explosion suppression

Fig. 3. Evolution of pressure value in time, for normal and suppressed explosions

Fig. 4. Graphic representation of the maximum explosion pressure – pmax

Fig. 5. Graphic representation of the maximum explosion pressure increase rate – (dp/dt)max

Table 2. Classification the combustible dust explosion of according to explosion index KSt Dust explosion index St 0 St 1 St 2 St 3

KSt [bar·m·s-1] 0 > 0 ÷ 200 > 200 ÷ 300 > 300

Characteristic No explosion Weak explosion Strong explosion Very strong explosion

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3. Apparatus for the determination of explosion characteristics

(dp/dt)m [for 3 series]= maximum value of each series:

One of the devices used to determine the safety parameters for combustible dusts is the KSEP20 type, consisting in a spherical explosion vessel, explosion resistant, manufactured in stainless steel with a volume of 20 dm3 (Fig. 6). A water curtain has the role of heat absorbent. For testing, the dust is dispersed in the sphere from the pressurized dust recipient, through a fast acting valve and a dispersing nozzle. The fast acting valve is pneumatically open and closed, with the help of an auxiliary piston. The compressed air valves are electrically activated. The ignition source is placed in the center of the sphere. According to the determined parameter, by means of software, the commands are sent to the testing installation. On the inner wall of the explosion vessel two piezoelectric pressure transducers are placed, to record pressure variations in the explosion produced inside the vessel. After test completion, data is collected with this software on the basis of generating diagrams needed to assess the explosion parameters (Jurca et al., 2005). Fig. 7 shows an example for the collecting mode, respectively for generating the diagram according to the collected data for the combustible dust Niacin USP (Nicotinic acid) - C6H5NO2. The analyzed explosion parameters are: maximum explosion pressure - pmax [bar] and the maximum rate of explosion pressure rise (dp/dt)max [bar/s]. Table 3 shows the test results for combustible dust Niacin USP (Nicotinic acid) C6H5NO2. Explosion parameters pmax and (dp/dt)max are defined as the average of the maximum values obtained for each series of tests (all 3 series) (SR EN 14034-1+A1, 2011), (SR EN 14034-2+A1, 2011). Subsequently, explosion index Kmax is calculated according to the (dp/dt) max; pm [for 3 series] = maximum value of each series:

dp dp dp series 3 series 2  series 1   dp  (4) dt dt dt    3  dt  max  dp  (5)    889 [bar / s ]  dt  max

pmax 

 p series 1   p series 2   p series 3 (2) m

pmax  7.66 [bar ]

m

m

3

(3)













Considering the cubic law presented and the value of the volume where the tests were carried out, V = 0.02 m3, the following relations result: 1

1

V 3  0.02 3  0.27144 1

(6)

 dp     V 3  const  K St  dt  max

(7)

 dp  K max  0.27144     241[bar  m / s]  dt  max

(8)

Considering the obtained result, as well as the classification in Table 2, the combustible dust explosion index tested results as: St 2. 4. Conclusions For explosion protection and prevention a series of minimum mandatory requirements have to be fulfilled, for a safe handling and processing of solid materials having fine particle dimensions, among which are mentioned: knowing the characteristics influencing safety, control and monitoring dust releases in technological processes, installations design for migrating and accumulation of dusts, respectively implementing a rigorous cleaning program at workplaces. Determination the security characteristics has an important role in the first phase of the explosion risk assessment, and in assessment phase of the equipment and protective systems intended for use in potentially explosive environments.

Fig. 6. Testing installation KSEP-20 type: 1: Water outlet opening, 2: Pressure transducers, 3: Manometer, 4: Dust recipient (0.6 dm3), 5: Air inlet opening 6: Ignition source, 7: dispersing nozzle, 8: Fast acting valve, 9: Water inlet opening, 10: Outlet opening (air, reaction products)

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Analysis of explosivity parameters and environmental safety for combustible dusts

Fig. 7. Integrated system for results collecting Table 3. Test results for Nicotinic Acid Test

Series

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3

Dust concentration [g/m3] 60 125 250 500 750 1000 1250 250 500 750 1000 250 500 750 1000

References Abbasi T., Abbasi S.A., (2007), Dust explosions–Cases, causes, consequences, and control, Journal of Hazardous Materials, 140, 7–44. Amyotte P.R., Pegg M.J., Khan F.I., (2009), Application of inherent safety principles to dust explosion prevention and mitigation, Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 87, 35-39. Cârloganu C., (1986), Rapid Combustion of Gas and Dust, Technical Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania. Csaszar T., Păsculescu D., Burian S., Darie M., Ionescu J., (2012), Method of assessment for energy limited supply sources, designed for use in potentially explosive atmospheres, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 11, 1281-1285. Ebadat V., (2010), Dust explosion hazard assessment, Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 23, 907–912. EC Directive, (1999), Directive 1999/92/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 1999 on minimum requirements for improving the safety and health protection of workers potentially at risk from explosive atmospheres, Official Journal of European Communities, L 023, 2000-01-28, 57-64.

pm [bar] 1.2 4.8 7.0 7.7 7.2 6.9 6.6 7.5 7.6 7.3 7.1 7.4 7.7 7.4 6.9

dp/dt [bar/s] 201 285 684 917 846 754 694 680 850 826 837 542 900 884 864

Eckhoff R.K., (2005), Current status and expected future trends in dust explosion research, Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 18, 225–237. EN 14373, (2006), Explosion suppression systems, On line at: http://www.dustexplosion.info/standards.htm. Field P., (2012), Dust Explosions, Elsevier, Amsterdam. Gestis-DUST-Ex, (2013), Database Combustion and explosion characteristics of dusts, Institute for Occupational Safety of the German Federation of Institutions for Statutory Accident Insurance and Prevention, On line at: http://www.dguv.de/medien/ifa/en/gestis/expl/pdf/man ual45e.pdf. Giby J., (2007), Combustible dusts: A serious industrial hazard, Journal of Hazardous Materials, 142, 589– 591. HSE 103, (2003), Safe Handling of Combustible Dusts: Precautions against Explosions, On line: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/hsg103.pdf. Jurca A., Ghicioi E., Părăian M., Burian S., Darie M., Sicoi S., Păun F. (2005), Implementation and carrying out of laboratory test stands required for conformity assessment of equipment intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres generated by combustible dusts (in Romanian), Report C 43/2005, IRECEEX, INSEMEX Petroşani, Romania.

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Magyari M., Burian S., Friedmann M., Moldovan M., (2012), Factors affecting the flameproof motor enclosures design for exploitation in explosive gas mixtures, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 11, 1311-1316. Pu Y.K., Jia F., Wang S.F., Skjold T., (2007), Determination of the maximum effective burning velocity of dust–air mixtures in constant volume combustion, Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 20, 462–469. SR EN 14034-1+A1, (2011), Determination of explosion characteristics of dust clouds - Part 1: Determination of the maximum explosion pressure pmax of dust clouds (in Romanian), On line: http://standardizare.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/seria-

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de-standarde-sr-en-14034-1a12011-determinareacaracteristicilor-de-explozie-ale-norilor-de-praf/. SR EN 14034-2+A1:2011, (2011), Determination of explosion characteristics of dust clouds - Part 2: Determination of the maximum rate of explosion pressure rise (dp/dt)max of dust clouds (Romanian). Stahl R., (2010), The Basics of Dust-Explosion Protection, On line at: http://www.rstahl.com/fileadmin/Dateien/tgus/Docum ents/ExProtection_Dust-Basics.pdf. Wypych P., Cook D., Cooper P., (2005), Controlling dust emissions and explosion hazards in powder handling plants, Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensification, 44, 323–326.


June 2014, Vol.13, No. 6, 1439-1444



ENVIRONMENTAL SOUNDNESS OF VIRTUAL SIMULATIONS FOR COAL BED DEGASSING PROCESSES Nicolae-Ioan Vlasin, Constantin Lupu, Emilian Ghicioi, Emeric Chiuzan, Cristian Tomescu National Institute for Research and Development in Mine Safety and Protection to Explosion – INSEMEX Petroşani, 32-34 G-ral Vasile Milea Str., 332047 Petroşani, Hunedoara County, Romania

Abstract Mining industry, by underground coal exploitations allows the release of important methane quantities in the atmosphere. Methane can be found stored both in coal deposits, as well as in sterile rocks from the proximity of coal beds. By carrying out the degassing process in advance of the exploitation, there can be obtained at least three benefits simultaneously: a new source of fuel for heating devices, methane emissions reduction and ventilation costs reduction. With the help of computer, simulations of the coal bed degassing process can show in safe conditions the differences between the situations that include this procedure and the situations in which the exploitation is performed without prior degassing of the coal beds. Key words: ANSYS, degassing, environment, methane, simulation Received: December 2013; Revised final: June, 2014; Accepted: June 2014

1. Introduction Generally, all geological seams contain certain amounts of gases. By mining activities, some of these gases may be released in low enough concentrations to be taken into account (Kędzior, 2009; Ruban et al., 2012). However, the methane released from coal beds, together with minor amounts of hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen and helium is the main component of fire damp in a coal mine, which could arise some problems (Flores et al., 2008; Kotarba, 2001). Because of the lower level of sulfur oxides, hydrocarbons and carbon monoxides it releases when combusted, methane gas is viewed as a fuel with many environmental advantages (Díaz Aguado and González Nicieza, 2007; MacDonald, 1990). Safety work in coal mines substantially depends on extensive research of the gas kinetics processes taking place inside the coal or barren 

massive (processes changing with the changing of the mining excavations geometry) and on the measures taken based on this research, to reduce methane concentrations at the workplace (Lupu et al., 2012; Özgen Karacan et al., 2011). The methane emission poses short term effects, like explosion hazard and long term effects (e.g. on global warning). In atmosphere the methane contributes in range of 1-4% (of antropogenic nature) to the annual global greenhouse gas emission (Lelieveld et al., 2005; Stanescu and Bobirica, 2013). On the other hand, the coal deposit must satisfy much higher production, longer generation period and ideal recovery efficiency of the methane (Höök and Aleklett; 2010; Iatco et al., 2013; Xue et al., 2013) Once the safety parameters of the underground workplace have been achieved through the mining ventilation process, degassing in advance of the coal exploitation is avoided although the amount of methane released into the atmosphere is


Vlasin et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1439-1444

significant. At the level of one coal face of 100 m length and 3.6 m height, the methane emissions from the work face reach a value of approximately 0.108kg/s, so approximately 9330kg/24h. The quantities are related to a production of 1440tons/day (Vlasin et al., 2013). The release of methane to the atmosphere from producing and abandoned coal mines accounts for ten percent of global anthropogenic methane emissions. Methane adsorbed to the internal surface of coal matrix can be captured and recovered prior to the mining process, enhancing the health and safety of the underground workforce and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, while providing a clean burning energy source. The development of a strategic degasification plan is crucial to the success of both coal bed methane extraction and coal mining (VCCER, 2011). 2. Degassing process Degassing is an effective means for the drainage of the methane content in coal deposits and in sterile rocks from the proximity of coal beds. This process needs a detailed analysis of the factors influencing the methane emissions, their forecast, a diversified analysis of mining ventilation, a clear knowledge of the reserve deposit and the exploitation dynamics (Krause and Skiba, 2014; Özgen Karacan et al., 2011). Degassing purpose is to capture the methane gas through boreholes drilled according to a certain scheme and draining the gas through a pipeline network to the surface by means of the depression developed of the vacuum pumps. Boreholes are drilled from specific underground locations (degassing niches) and can have lengths between 20 and 100 meters. The most used and beneficial degassing schemes are those with rising boreholes, whose efficiency is 1.1 to 1.5 times higher than descending boreholes. Drilling locations must take into account (Lazar et al., 2014; Liu and Cheng; 2014):  the geometrical characteristics of the coal deposit, the nature of the rocks from the roof and the nest, the risk factors for gas dynamics phenomena;  the gas pressure in the rock massif;  the amount of methane that could be released;  the type and destination of the mining work. From technological perspective, the capture works may be boreholes made in coal beds, boreholes made to voids or cracks created above the coal bed, dams for the isolation of old mining works or drainage galleries made in coal beds. Fig. 1 presents a placement scheme of the boreholes in the vicinity of a retreating longwall face. 3. Computational model 3.1. Geometry and meshing For the virtual model, the geometry of a retreating longwall face was greatly simplified

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without affecting the final results of the simulation, complex geometry requiring an increased computational effort. The coal massif is 46.9m long, 25m width and 10m high (Fig. 2). The longwall face is 2.5m high, 3m wide and has the same length as the coal massif. The bottom gallery that supplies fresh air in the stope is 30m long. The other gallery, upper gallery for the return air, is 40m long and continues up with a shaft of 50m high. The upper surface of the shaft is set to represent the ventilation fan. At a distance of 22 m from the longwall face, there are made three boreholes in the coal massif. The boreholes are 25, 30 and 40m long and merge into a pipe that follows the upper gallery and climb along the shaft to the surface. Normally, the pipe is mounted on the gallery wall and climbs through the shaft. In virtual case, the pipeline is out of gallery and out of shaft in order to avoid contact regions that do not help in simulation. For the discretization network, there has been taken into account the reduced resources consumption, but while keeping a high accuracy of the simulated process. Meshing is an important part of the work; a huge number of elements can lead to blockage of the computer system, while a coarse mesh will give inadequate results, far from reality. In this case, the mesh grid consists of about 2,265,000 elements with focus on proximity and curvature area (Fig. 3). The minim size of the cells is about 41mm. Meanwhile, the mesh must meet the requirements of the Fluent’s solvers. Another requirement was the designation of a common region representing the longwall face between the coal massif and the longwall working. The coal massif was considered as porous medium. 3.2. Input data and virtual simulation The equation of the required air supply to dilute the released methane from the stope is as follows: Qf 

qr  T  100 K C  24  60

(1)

where: qr - methane relative flow relating to the stope (value of 10 for firedamp mines); T - daily production of the stope; C - 1%: methane concentration taking in account; K - non-uniformity index for gas releases (values of 1.1 for mines with up to 15m3/t methane released). A value of 15m3/t methane released was taken in account, which corresponds to 1048m3/min to a daily production of 915tons/day. For the degassing system, the pump creates a flow of 100 m3/min. The CFD tool used to achieve the simulation was ANSYS multiphysics package, which includes the necessary software to generate the geometry and the mesh. Part of this package, ANSYS Fluent is a powerful instrument providing, among others, the availability of parallel computing of the flow issues.

Environmental soundness of virtual simulations for coal bed degassing processes

Fig. 1. Scheme of the boreholes for a retreating longwall face

Fig. 2. The geometry of the virtual system

Fig. 3. The mesh without and with the coal massif

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4. Results In the case of a non-existing degassing system, the methane flow rate measured to the shaft’s exhaust fan has a value of about 0.1210 kg/s CH4 (Fig. 4). In the second case, with an existing degassing system, there are two outlets from the underground works: the first one is the exhaust fan of the shaft (like in the previous case), and second outlet is the pump of degassing system (in the virtual geometry is the surface on the top of the pipeline). The methane flow rate was measured again at the level of the ventilation fan (Fig. 5) and to the outlet of the degassing pipeline (Fig. 6). Generally, the first hundred of iterations are omitted, until the simulation calculation is stable.

After that, it can be observed that the sum of the two values of flow (to the fan and to the pump) is almost equal with the value of the flow to the fan from the first case (0.1060+0.0145=0.1205kg/s). Negative sign means the mass leaves the discretized domain. Making a comparison between the results of the virtual simulation treated here and the results from practice, the values of the computed flows can be successfully integrated into the real range of values measured to degassing systems of mining enterprises in Jiu Valley, Romania (Lupu, 2007). In Fig. 7 there are represented the path lines for CH4 mass fractions (a), pressure (b) and velocities (c) inside the coal massif, along the coal face, galleries and shaft and inside the degassing pipeline during the computational simulation.

Fig. 4. Flow rate to the exhaust fan of the shaft (non-existing degasification)

Fig. 5. Flow rate to the exhaust fan (existing degassing system)

Fig. 6. Flow rate to the outlet of the degassing pipe

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Environmental soundness of virtual simulations for coal bed degassing processes

Table 1. Comparison between real and computed results of degassing process CH4 flow rate from degassing [m3/min] 6.8 4.68 1.26 1.3

Mining Enterprise Lupeni Paroseni Livezeni Simulation

a)

CH4 flow rate from ventilation [m3/min] 39.2 28.94 17.85 9.53

CH4 total flow rate [m3/min] 46.0 33.62 19.11 10.83

b)

Degassing Efficiency [%] 14.7 13.9 6.6 12.0

c)

Fig. 7. Path lines of CH4 mass fraction, pressure and velocities

5. Conclusions The main reason of degassing projects and for methane recovery is the mine safety due to the major risk of explosion. Reducing the methane quantities in coal beds may shrink the methane concentration in working area, thereby improving the safety and reducing the costs of mining ventilation process, or reducing to minimum the downtimes due to high level of methane. Another important reason is to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission involving methane, knowing that it is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Also, the research in methane recovery from abandoned and active mines or from the underground of future mines can create opportunities to generate energy. Computational Fluid Dynamics technics allow the prediction of the degasification efficiency with enough accuracy. References Alexeev A.D., Ulyanova E.V., Starikov G.P., Kovriga N.N., (2004), Latent methane in fossil coals, Fuel, 83, 1407–1411. Díaz Aguado M.B., González Nicieza C., (2007), Control and prevention of gas outbursts in coal mines, Riosa– Olloniego coalfield, Spain, International Journal of Coal Geology, 69, 253–266. Flores R.M., Rice C.A., Stricker G.D., Warden A., Ellis M.S., (2008), Methanogenic pathways of coal-bed gas in the Powder River Basin, United States: The geologic factor, International Journal of Coal Geology, 76, 52–75. Höök M., Aleklett K., (2010), Trends in U.S. recoverable coal supply estimates and future production outlooks, Natural Resources Research, 19, 189-208. Iatco C., Bostan I., Lazar C., Burciu A., (2013), Reconsidering economic coal resources in drafting energy strategies. The case of Romania,

Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 12, 2025-2030. Kędzior S., (2009), Accumulation of coal-bed methane in the south-west part of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin (southern Poland), International Journal of Coal Geology, 80, 20-34. Kotarba M.J., (2001), Composition and origin of coalbed gases in the Upper Silesian and Lublin basins, Poland, Organic Geochemistry, 32, 163–180. Krause E., Skiba J., (2014), Formation of methane hazard in longwall coal mines with increasingly higher production capacity, International Journal of Mining Science and Technology, 24, 403–407. Lazar J., Kanduč T., Jamnikar S., Grass F., Zavšek S., (2014), Distribution, composition and origin of coalbed gases in excavation fields from the Preloge and Pesje mining areas, Velenje Basin, Slovenia, International Journal of Coal Geology, 131, 363–377. Lelieveld J., Lechtenböhmer S., Assonov S.S., Brenninkmeijer C.A.M., Dienst C., Fischedick M., Hanke T., (2005), Greenhouse gases: Low methane leakage from gas pipelines, Nature 434, 841-842. Liu Q., Cheng Y., (2014), Measurement of pressure drop in drainage boreholes and its effects on the performance of coal seam gas extraction: a case study in the Jiulishan Mine with strong coal and gas outburst dangers, Natural Hazards, 71, 1475-1493. Lupu C., (2007), Methane from Coal Mines (in Romanian), INSEMEX Publishing House, Petrosani, Romania. Lupu C., Toth I., Cioclea D., Tomescu C., Chiuzan E., (2012), Coal mine methane: A review of capture and utilization practices with benefits to mining safety and to greenhouse gas reduction, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 86, 121–156. MacDonald G.J., (1990), The future of methane as an energy resource, Annual Review of Energy, 15, 53-83. Özgen Karacan C., Ruiz F.A., Cotè M., Phipps S., (2011), Coal mine methane: A review of capture and utilization practices with benefits to mining safety and to greenhouse gas reduction, International Journal of Coal Geology, 86, 121–156. Xue Q., Liu L., Chen Y.-j., Wang J., (2013), Investigation of the recovery efficiency of the methane using vertical wells operating in landfills, Environmental

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Engineering and Management Journal, 12, 18551859. Ruban A.D., Zaburdyaev V.S., Kharchenko A.V., (2012), Coal bed methane drainage with long directional boreholes, Journal of Mining Science, 48, 436-439. Stanescu R., Bobirica L., (2013), Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases from municipal landfills – between theory and reality. Mitigation of methane emissions, Environmental Engineering and management Journal, 12, 1669-1678. VCCER, (2011), A Regional Handbook for Coalbed Methane Degasification in the Southern Shanxi Province China, Virginia Center for Coal and Energy

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Research, , Online at: https://www.globalmethane.org/Data/FinalHandbook_ VATech2008Grant.pdf Vlasin N., Lupu C., Ghicioi E. Suvar M., Pasculescu V., (2013), Highlighting Gas Emissions from Coal Mines into the Atmosphere through Computerised Methods, Proc. 1st Int. Conf. on Computational Science and Engineering (CSE '13), Recent Advances in Intelligent Control, Modelling and Computational Science, Valencia, 128-132, On line at: http://www.wseas.us/elibrary/conferences/2013/Valencia/ICCS/ICCS-20.pdf.


June 2014, Vol.13, No. 6, 1445-1451



COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION OF MINE VENTILATION NETWORKS FOR SUSTAINABLE DECISION MAKING PROCESS Marius Cornel Șuvar1, Constantin Lupu1, Victor Arad2, Doru Cioclea1 Vlad Mihai Păsculescu1, Nelu Mija1 1

National Institute for Research and Development in Mine Safety and Protection to Explosion – INSEMEX Petroşani, 32-34 G-ral Vasile Milea Str., 332047, Petroşani, Hunedoara, Romania 2 University of Petroşani, 20 Universitatii Str., 332006 Petroșani, Hunedoara County, Romania

Abstract The simulation of different situations that may occur in the operation of the mine ventilation network is performed on its virtual model, developed and optimized using dedicated software. Depending on the chosen scenario, on the network model are applied a number of changes (addition of new ventilation workings, addition / removal of branches and nodes, changes in aerodynamic parameters: pressure, air flow driven by the fan etc.), the ultimate goals being: to assess how the new model obtained respond to anticipated requirements, diagnose of existing or potential problems, providing a quick feedback to the operator by making available all the data necessary for decision making process. The complexity of the simulation lies in the need to execute a number of operations due to changes of the network structure and symbolism carried out on the virtual model. This article aims to simplify this process through automation and efficiency using software subroutines, subroutines containing the entire chain of operations performed for each step of the simulation, in order to reduce the simulation time and the level of complexity required for understanding the phenomena that occur in the mine ventilation networks. Key words: 3D-CANVENT, automation, mine ventilation, simulation and solving, ventilation network modeling Received: December 2013; Revised final: June, 2014; Accepted: June 2014

1. Introduction Mine ventilation control is a complex task of particular importance for ensuring the health and safety of underground mine workers. Whether we refer to the design phase of ventilation network or at its current operation, which involves among other things, workings for preparation for restructuring of the network, following the dynamic evolution of the mining works, the use of specialized, performant software is a mandatory requirement (Özgen Karacan, 2008; Șuvar et al., 2012). The advantages of using computer simulations are multiple considering various situations that may occur at some point in the mine workings operation or structure, from the point of view of the ventilation 

network and can be summarized as follows (Asfour and Gadi, 2007; Cioclea et al., 2012; Kocsis et al., 2003): • computer simulations are useful tool in making the right decisions; • computer simulations provide modern exploring possibilities for the system analysis based on the virtual, three-dimensional model of the existing network; the engineering team can explore and evaluate new operating procedures, or methods without further expenses and disruption of experimenting within the real system; • computer simulations are very useful tool, both in the initial design phase and for preparing the restructuring of the network. Besides the programmed changes of the ventilation network

Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: [email protected]; Phone: +40 254541621; Fax: +40 254 546277

Șuvar et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1445-1451

structure, an underground mining operation may suffer significant changes during its operating life as new production areas open and old production stopes and close; unpredictable events may occur, or technically possible situations which could influence, sometimes substantially, the integrity and efficiency of the system. In order to minimize the effect of occurrence of such events, a series of “what-if” type simulations may be performed, using the same specialized software applications, to identify and visualize in real time the changes they may occur in the ventilation network (Cioclea, 2011; Kocsis et al., 2003; Lowndes et al., 2005). This paper aims to show the importance of computer simulation using specialized software application like 3D-CANVENT®, and presents a new approach regarding the automation of these simulations, using macros or subroutines in order to increase efficiency and visibility at the user level in the same tine reducing the level of complexity of understanding the phenomena that occur in a mine ventilation network. 2. Ventilation network modeling for Livezeni Mine, Romania 2.1. Short presentation of the Livezeni Mine ventilation network Livezeni Mine is located in the center of the Jiu Valley Coal Basin, in the Petroșani city area, Hunedoara County. The Livezeni mining site is part of the Petroșani coal basin, a distinct geological unit in the Meridional Carpathians, composed of crystalline schist (Fig. 1). Functionally, Livezeni Mine presents five main workings for access to coal deposit: three vertical shafts for fresh air intake: shift with skip and auxiliary main shaft, located in the mine premises, respectively auxiliary shaft No. 3, in the eastern part of the mining field; 2 ventilation shafts, located as following: ventilation shaft east, including the main ventilation station east, in the western extremity of the mine field, respectively ventilation shaft no. 2,

with ventilation station no. 2, in the eastern part of the mining field. The mining field of Livezeni Mine is structured mainly on the horizon 300, but also presents other horizons: 100, 350 and 475 respectively. At the modeling time, the mining unit has in exploitation 3 panels (longwall workings): Panel 4 North, Panel 5A and Panel 6. Existing coal reserves in these blocks are exploited by framework methods approved for Jiu Valley mines, longwalls and coal caving behind the front face (individual supports, SVJ pillars and articulated beams), as well as classic longwall workings with powered roof supports. 2.2. Modeling the Livezeni Mine ventilation network, using 3D-CANVENT® Software Achieving the model of the ventilation network related to Livezeni mining unit represents a complex process, which implies a large volume of activities, requiring the following steps (Cioclea, 2011; Hardcastle, 2011):  obtaining the spatial map of the mine and the basic topographic drawings, at each horizon level;  marking the nodes (junctions between the galleries) on the spatial map of the mine;  collecting geodesic coordinates for the nodes of the network;  carrying out pressure and airflow measurements for each branch of the network;  calculating specific parameters and their transposition in an accessible format which is compatible with 3D-CANVENT;  data input into the CANVENT database;  ventilation network modelling (Fig. 2);  ventilation network optimization or balancing;  results achievement - in this final phase, the data regarding the graphical solving of the ventilation network (Cioclea et al, 2013). After modeling, there have resulted a number of 201 junctions and 267 branches.

Fig. 1. The Jiu Valley Coal Basin and the Livezeni Mine

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Computerized simulation of mine ventilation networks for sustainable decision making process

Fig. 2. Spatial map of the Livezeni Mine ventilation network, in the current state, after modeling

3. Case study: Simulation of an explosion at the level of the longwall working Panel 4 North The fresh air that enters into the underground through the Main and Auxiliary Shaft from inside Livezeni Mine premises, reaches the conjugated directional galleries horizon 300, follows the transport plane corresponding Panel 4 North, the connection plane with base gallery Panel 4 North, hence the base gallery, vents the front line, the vitiated air being discharged. This happens through the following route: head gallery, ventilation plane for Panel 4 North, ventilation plane block VI “Stanca”, Degeratu ventilation rising and hence on the connection plane with the horizon 475 to the connection gallery to Ventilation Shaft No. 2 and through this, to surface. In the following we intend to treat the occurrence of a medium intensity explosion phenomenon at the level of Panel 4 North, and we will study its effects in terms of structural changes occurring in the ventilation network, and functional changes at the Main Ventilation Stations, respectively (Cioclea, 2011; Lupu et al., 2010). 3.1. Structural changes induced by the explosion from the simulated scenario At the time of explosion, in the actual site of initial ignition, physical and chemical changes occur. The explosion of firedamp mixture does not differ from any other explosive phenomenon – the mixture changes in a very short time, by burning, into a large amount of gases, with a much larger volume than the initial mixture. At the time of the explosion, the temperature greatly increases due to exogenous chemical reaction between methane and oxygen, and could reach up to 1850 ˚C. Another effect that produces human victims and destruction of mine workings is the mechanical effect due to the sudden relaxation of the developed gases. The blast spreads across mining works, causing the destruction of the facilities, roof supports, gallery caving, bending rails etc. (Baltaretu et al., 1971; Lupu et al., 2010).

Thus, in the event of an underground explosion phenomenon, major disruptions occur into the ventilation network, generated by partial or total destruction of isolation and regulation doors, destruction of isolation workings or caving which takes places on mine workings adjacent to explosion epicenter. In a mine opening the expansion is constrained by the airway surfaces giving rise to high velocities of propagation. Initially, the flame front travels more slowly than the shock wave and the explosion is known as a deflagration. However, if the unburned zone ahead of the flame front becomes more conductive to combustion by approaching closer to stochastic condition (approximately 9.6 percent methane) then the flame front will accelerate and the peak pressure at the shock wave rises. Although the shock wave velocity also increases, the distance between the two narrows. This may continue until the flame front catches up with the shock wave. The explosion is then described as a detonation. The speed of the explosion and the peak pressure at the shock wave then escalate significantly. Conversely, if the unburned zone between the flame front and the shock wave moves away from stochastic conditions (e.g. by lack of fuel or the presence of stonedust) then the explosion will weaken (McPherson, 2009). Dynamic pressure waves generated by the explosion are propagated to both mine workings for fresh air inlet and the vitiated air outlet. At the end of the exhaust path of vitiated air is located the main ventilation station which can be severely affected by the phenomenon of explosion. The occurrence of such an unexpected event strongly affects the structure of the ventilation networks, modifying distributions of the airflow in each branch, and by changing the direction of movement, affecting the integrity of the isolation workings, and so on, which can lead to hazardous situations (risk of explosion in other areas of the mine workings, the intoxication of workers etc). It is, therefore, a matter of ongoing importance that all personnel involved in the design and operation of underground openings should have some knowledge pertaining to the prevention and

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detection of subsurface fires and explosions, as well as procedures of personnel warning systems, escapeways, firefighting, toxic gases, training, fire drills and the vital need for prompt response to an emergency situation (McPherson, 2009). In the scenario subjected to computer simulation using the 3D CANVENT software, we assumed that the blast is located in Panel 4 North of the 4 Livezeni mine, the wavefront propagating through the mine workings both downstream and upstream, destroying ventilation works (ventilation doors) on the network branches, up to the ventilation shafts, as follows: - downstream, on the ventilation plane corresponding to Panel 4 North, ventilation plane Stanca, affecting ventilation doors of the convergent galleries for connection with Panel 5A and 6, ventilation plane Valache, then on the transverse galleries from horiz. 350 and 475, reaching the Ventilation Shaft no. 2; - upstream, following the main galleries from horiz. 300, to the two main shafts, Auxiliary and with skip. 3.2. Functional changes in the simulation scenario, using 3D-CANVENT®: results and discussion Following the completion of the simulation, a new model resulted for the ventilation network. This model reflects a new natural distribution of the airflows al each branch level, under the action of the depression developed by two main ventilation stations. We can also observe changes in the distribution of the airflows, respectively of the aerodynamic parameters specific to the main

ventilation stations, as follows:  at the level of conjugated directional gallery, horizon 300, a significant decrease of the airflow, from 24.41 m3/s to 15.59 m3/s;  at Panel 4N level, a drastic decrease of the circulated airflow, from 14.43 m3/s to 0.07 m3/s;  at Panel 6 level, a decrease of the airflow from 3.74 m3/s to 0 m3/s;  at Panel 5A level, a decrease of the airflow from 2.96 m3/s to 0 m3/s;  at the Main Ventilation Station Shaft East, it can be observed an increase of the airflow, from 28.21 m3/s to 33.06 m3/s.  the depression developed by the active fan from Main Station of Shaft East has decreased significantly from 1140 Pa to 685 Pa. At the level of Main ventilation Station Shaft No. 2, it can be observed a significant increase of the airflow, from 42.37 m3/s to 56.07 m3/s. The depression developed by the active fan from the Main Ventilation Station from Shaft No. 2 has dropped significantly, from 2124 Pa to 1447 Pa. The most dangerous aspects from the occupational health and safety point of view are represented both by the inversions of the directions of airflows on certain branches and ventilation circuits (branches with airflows represented in red, in the Figs. 3 and 4), as well as the drastic decrease in the circulated airflows at the stopes level. These aspects lead to increased concentration of explosive, toxic and asphyxiating gases where airflows reversal occurs (Cioclea, 2011; Lupu et al, 2010; Teodorescu et al., 1980).

Fig. 3. Functional changes of the ventilation network, in the central shafts area. Inversions of the directions of the airflows (branches with airflows marked in red) and airflows changes

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Fig. 4. Functional changes of the ventilation network, in the eastern area. Inversions of the directions of the airflows (branches with airflows marked in red) and airflows changes

3.3. Automation possibilities for the simulation of the described scenario In the activity of the responsible staff for controlling the ventilation system of any mining unit, there are situations that require the development of computer simulations for specific or potential situations. Whether we refer to the stage of staff training or to the activities of analysis, exploration, planning the expansion or restructuring of the network, computer simulations play a very important role (Arad et al., 2007; McPherson, 2009). The main purpose is to increase efficiency at the user level, to increase visibility while reducing the level of complexity requested for understanding of the phenomena that occur into the ventilation network, modeled and solved using specialized application (e.g. 3D-CANVENT). In this context, there had been searched solution to automate the execution of the needed steps involved in simulation processes, of the above described nature. It was intended that these solutions to act as an interface between the user and the 3D CANVENT software. In this research we will refer to AutoHotKey (2014), an open-source application that provides almost limitless possibilities of automation and optimization of the user activity. Using this development environment, we can create small subroutines of "macro" type, which contains the operations required for each step of the simulation. The internal programming language, being in command mode, defines AutoHotKey been more of a development environment and coding language than an application. Each script is a text file created independently of the used editor, and contains commands to be executed by the program (AutoHotKey). A script may contain hotkeys (shortcuts or combination of keys with different

functions: open, save or print a file etc.) or emulate mouse clicks, navigation through menus, etc. The script is parsed sequentially, from top to end, but it is possible to insert instructions to jump to a specified line of code, in order to execute particular subroutines. The subroutines created with AutoHotKey language can assign / retrieve values to / from variables, can run loops and even manipulate windows and folders, proving a very good integration with the native Windows libraries. There can be written even more advanced programs, user interfaces of Windows GUI type, customized forms for data input and process, modifying the system registers or using Windows API functions, by calling the libraries from .dll files. The created scripts can be then compiled in executable files that can be run on machines that not have AutoHotKey installed, may be assigned to a combination of keys, so that they can be activated by the user whenever desired. Besides the benefits of zero cost, given by the status of open-source application, AutoHotKey has other features that recommend it: easy of programming, flexibility, access to documentation and discussions forum, etc. The online community forum for AutoHotkey has around 27,300 registered users and around 482,000 posts as of January 2012 (AutoHotKey web page). The using of scripts created by this software instrument (Fig. 6.a) to interact with the 3DCANVENT application for the simulation of the technical possible events that may occur into the mine ventilation network, significantly reduce the time preparing the simulation. The command lines composing the script interact with the 3DCANVENT interface, modifying data associated to ventilation network model: junction coordinates airways lengths, airway symbol and ventilation constructions, information regarding resistances, the measured flow rates etc.

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Once the simulation was run, all the involved steps, as were described in the previous section, are stored in the source code of the script; each subsequent running of the script gives the user an almost instant feedback, providing all technical data related to the ventilation network: airflow distribution at each branch level, pressure loss distribution, the areas with airflow reversion, aerodynamic parameters specific to the main ventilation stations, and so on, data which provide optimal decision making, thus ensuring a higher degree level of occupational health and safety. After running the desired subroutine, the user has unlimited and concurrently access to both modeled and solved ventilation network as well as to modeled, solved and simulated network (Fig. 5). Using this approach in programming the subroutines to control the simulations of the events for each

known area with high potential risk from the ventilation network spatial scheme, and the selection of different scenarios through a simple graphical user interface, any operator, even having a lower level of knowledge in using 3D-CANVENT software can briefly analyze and interpret the changes occurred from different simulations on the ventilation network model (Fig. 6.b) (Hardcastle, 2011). 4. Conclusions Modern techniques of computerized simulation represents today a very useful tool for assisting the mine ventilation, in order to ensure an optimal microclimate at workplace, in accordance with the legislative requirements regarding the occupational health and safety.

Fig. 5. Comparative image of the ventilation network model, before and after the simulation

Fig. 6. a. Script created with AutoHotKey for 3D-CANVENT task automation; b. Simple graphic user interface

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By automating the simulation process there can be carried out macro subroutines, containing the entire series of operations on the areas concerned from the ventilation network structure, for each mining unit of interest, subroutines that can be selected via an easy interface and provide fast user feedback. Using the results of these simulations we can build after a knowledge base, specific to each mining unit, which can help improving the occupational health and safety level through forecasting and establishing a priori a set of operations required for insulation and limitation of the post incident effects. References Arad S., Cierpisz S., Arad V., (2007), The Informatics System Infrastructure in Coal Preparation Plant from Romania, IEEE International Conference on Computer as a Tool, EUROCON, Warsaw, 9-12 September, 2007, 657 – 661, IEEE Publisher, DOI: 10.1109/EURCON.2007.4400557. Asfour O.S., Gadi M.B., (2007), A comparison between CFD and Network models for predicting wind-driven ventilation in buildings, Building and Environment, 42, 4079–4085. AutoHotkey, (2014), AutoHotkey Tutorial: Macro and Hotkey Creation, On line at: http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/Tutorial.htm. Băltăreţu R., Teodorescu C., (1971), Mining Ventilation and Occupational Safety (in Romanian), Didactic and Pedagogical Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania. Cioclea D., (2011), Diminishing the Explosion Risk at Jiu Valley’s Coal Underground Mines by Computerized Management of Ventilation Networks, (in Romanian), Sectoral Project carried out by INCD INSEMEX Petrosani, Romania. Cioclea D., Lupu C., Toth I., Gherghe I., Boantă C., Rădoi F., (2012), Fast network connections for ensuring decision operativity in mining ventilation, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 11, 1225-1228.

Cioclea D., Toth I., Gherghe I., Tomescu C., Șuvar M., Păsculescu V., (2013), Interactive System for Ventilation Networks Management, Recent Advances in Computer Science and Applications. Proc. the 4th International Conference on Applied Informatics and Computing Theory (AICT’13) Valencia, Spain, August 6-8, 2013, 15, 132 – 135, ISSN 1790-5109 - ISBN 978-960-474-317-9 Kocsis C.K., Hall R., Hardcastle S.G., (2003), The integration of mine simulation and ventilation simulation to develop a 'Life-Cycle' mine ventilation system. Application of Computers and Operations Research in the Minerals Industries, South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Online at: http://www.saimm.co.za/Conferences/Apcom2003/22 3-Kocsis.pdf. Lowndes I.S., Fogarty T., Yang Z.Y., (2005), The application of genetic algorithms to optimise the performance of a mine ventilation network: the influence of coding method and population size, Soft Computing, 9, 493-506. Lupu C., Toth I., Ghicioi E., Prodan M., (2010), Study of Explosions in Coal Mines, Insemex Publishing House, Petroșani, Romania. McPherson M.J., (2009), Subsurface Ventilation and Environmental Engineering, Second Edition, Chapman & Hall, London - New York. Özgen Karacan C., (2008), Modeling and prediction of ventilation methane emissions of U.S. longwall mines using supervised artificial neural networks, International Journal of Coal Geology, 73, 371–387. Şuvar M., Cioclea D., Gherghe I., Păsculescu V., (2012), Advanced software for mine ventilation networks solving, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 11, 1235-1239. Teodorescu C., Gontean Z., Neag I., (1980), Mining Ventilation, Technical Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania. Hardcastle S.G., (2011), 3D-CANVENT: An Interactive Mine Ventilation Simulator, Proceedings of the 7th US Mine Ventilation Symposium, On line at: http://www.onemine.org/search/summary.cfm/3DCan vent-An-Interactive-Mine-VentilationSimulator?d=123456789012345678901234567890123 45678901234567890123456789012342662.

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June 2014, Vol.13, No. 6, 1453-1458



RISK ASSESSMENT OF WHOLE-BODY VIBRATIONS GENERATED BY INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITIES WITH ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT Gabriel Dragos Vasilescu, Emilian Ghicioi, Angelica Drăghici, Nelu Mija National Institute for Research and Development in Mine Safety and Protection to Explosion–INSEMEX Petroşani, 32-34 G-ral Vasile Milea Str., 332047 Petroşani, Hunedoara County, Romania

Abstract This paper describes the model for forecasting the exposure risk of workers to global occupational vibrations. The research has been achieved within the PN 07 45 01 18 Project in the framework of the NUCLEU/2012-2013 Program. This project has a national and European interest, entailing the increase of occupational health and safety level and ensuring sustainable environmental quality and comfort at workplaces. The scientific novelty is given by the complex and interdisciplinary aspect of the research results regarding the analysis and assessment of exposure risk to global vibrations, as a viable and certain solution for promoting the sustainable management of workplaces situated in environments with vibrations. Key words: diagnosis, distribution, forecast, mechanical vibrations, occupational risk Received: December 2013; Revised final: June, 2014; Accepted: June 2014

1. Introduction For establishing the potential causes of injuries and/or occupational disease, the term risk factor is increasingly used in specialized analyses. The interest of the specialists for studying the risk factors (including the risk generated by exposure to mechanical vibrations) is perfectly justified by the possibility to establish prevention methods, starting from the potential risks of injury or occupational disease due to the exposure to this type of noxious (Griffin, 2012; Johanning, 2011). According to the specialized literature, as well as the current trends manifested at the highest level of european and international practice, it is more often required to develop research on the occupational risk emerged from the exposure of the workers to vibrations with influence on the whole body, in order to diagnose and foresee the accidents and/or professional illness (Covello and Merkhofer, 1993; Vasilescu, 2008a, b). 

Thereby, the major objectives of any research is to perform an exploratory and prospective research of the activities unfolded in presence of generating sources of global vibration, in order to establish the forecast of the risk of exposure to these types of vibrations (Dentoni and Massacci, 2013; HSE, 2005; Nadabaica et al., 2012). Once provided, the results can be used for modelling various risk scenarios and also to establish different areas of acceptability, specific to the development of work processes in sustainable conditions of safety and health (Cruz, 2004; Haimes, 2004; HSE, 2005). From theory to practice, the research in the area of risk to whole-body vibrations generated by industrial activities with environmental impact addresses ways to conceptualize the structural components that allow the determination of a relative share of hazards identified through the harmful values of the vibration parameters (Dentoni and Massacci, 2013; Eger et al., 2010; Smets et al., 2010). In order to achieve all of the above, the paper

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Vasilescu et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1453-1458

is relying on researches based on modern mathematical models, in the field of exposing to professional vibration. Also, this document provides viable solutions and alternatives for ensuring the sustainability of the safety operation of all work systems which are equipped with sources generating vibrations. The relevance of the field approached in order to ensure the development of knowledge emerges from the fact that, by solving multiple problems, specific to the occupational safety to combat the risk of exposure to professional vibration, a serious number of conceptual and methodological contributions will be brought. All these contributions will be helpful for preventing the risk of exposure to occupational vibration with socio-economic implications. The most frequent cases are found at the economic operators, equipped with working equipment generating vibrations and also carring out activities in industrial areas with potentially explosive/ toxic atmosphere. The contribution in this work resides from the use of various mathematical tools (the usage of Gumbel Distribution Function with exponential decreasing, whose variables can be explained) and also from the implementation of a model that could foresee the risk of exposure to professional vibrations that affect the entire body. A practical way of experimentation and exploitation of the forecasting model results from the document for security on professional vibration, which is an integrated document for procedural insurance of the diagnosis and forecast of risk of exposure to this type of mechanical vibration developed within NUCLEU Project (2013). 2. Material and methods 2.1. Legal basis for the assessment of risks arising from the exposure to global occupational vibrations The Romanian Law 319 (2006) on occupational health and safety with further modifications and completions establishes the general principles regarding the prevention and control of occupational risks, as well as the general directions for implementing these principles. The European Directive 2002/44/EC (EC Directive, 2002) has been transposed in the national law by a governmental decision (GD 1876, 2005). Within this regulation there are established exposure limit values and exposure action values, at the same time specifying the obligations of employers regarding the determination and assessment of risks, the provisions aimed at avoiding or reducing exposure, as well as the details for ensuring the worker information and training. According to these regulations, for wholebody vibrations, the daily exposure limit value standardised to an eight-hour reference period shall be 1.15 m/s² and the daily exposure action value standardized to an eight-hour reference period shall

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be 0.5 m/s². Also, the risks arising from exposure to mechanical vibration shall be eliminated at their source or reduced to a minimum (EC Directive, 2002; GD 1876, 2005). In order to quantify the exposure to different values of whole-body mechanical acceleration in the work process, we applied Eqs. (1-3) (EU Good Practice Guide WBV, 2005; NUCLEU Project, 2013): 2

 A( 8 )  PEi    100  0 .5 

(ka wi ) 2   i

(1)

1 Tej

(2)

where: A(8) – daily exposure to whole-body vibrations (m/s2); PE – points of exposure which quantify the whole-body mechanical vibrations values; k – multiplying factor (equal to 1.4 for x and y axes and1.0 for z axis); aw – weighted acceleration (m/s2); Tej –daily duration of exposure to whole-body vibrations (hours); T0 – reference period (8 hours). Based on these mathematical relations, different values of exposure to whole-body mechanical vibrations during the work process were calculated (Table 1), as well as for their quantification through points of exposure (Neugebauer and Hartung, 2002). Following the application of the kawi=f(Tej) mathematical relation (from the last column of Table 1), the kawi grid of values is obtained, which corresponds to whole-body mechanical vibrations generated during the work process for different values of the A(8) parameter. Following the application of the PEi= f(kawi,Tej) mathematical relation, the points of exposure grid of values is obtained, grid which corresponds to whole-body mechanical vibrations generated during the work process for different values of the A(8) parameter (Table 1). Below, there is presented the differential equation which quantifies the risk of exposure to different levels of whole-body mechanical vibrations generated during the work process Eqs. 4-14 (Desroches, 1995; NUCLEU Project, 2013; Vasilescu, 2008): g ( xi )  G ( xi )

(4)

respectively   g ( xi )  G( xi )     

2 ln i





e

2 ln i



e



e



     

2 ln i ( xi    2 ln i ) 

( xi    2 ln i )



ee 



2 ln i



( xi    2 ln i )

(5) which accepts as solution the following G(kawi) repartition function:

Forecasting of the risk to whole-body vibrations generated by industrial activities with environmental impact

G ( xi ) 

e



e



2 ln i ( x i    

which accepts as solution the following G(kawi) repartition function:

2 ln i )



(6)

where: xi - variable of the function which can be explicated in form of kawi values or PEi points of exposure; g(xi) - probability density function for the xi variable values; G(xi) – repartition (probability) function for the xi values; µ - average valued of the xi variable;  - standard deviation of the xi variable values; i – order index of the xi variable. Depending on the kawi parameters or on the PEi points, the functions may be put in Eqs. (7-9): g ( kawi )  G ( kawi ) (7)

G( PEi )  e



2lni





e

2lni



e



e



2lni ( kawi





ee

( kawi 2lni ) 

2lni





(9)

g ( PEi )  G ( PEi )   g( PEi )  G( PEi )     

   g( kawi )  G( kawi )    

2 ln i ( PEi    2 ln i )



or Eqs. (10-13):

respectively

 2lni )      

e



2lni





e

2lni



e

2lni ( PEi



e





e



e

( PEi 2lni ) 

2lni



(10)

 2lni )      

(11)

( PEi 2lni )

which accepts as solution the G(PEi) repartition function (Eq. 12):

(8)

( kawi 2lni )

G( PEi ) 

e



e



2 ln i ( PEi    2 ln i )



(12)

Table 1. Values of exposure to whole-body vibrations during the work process and their quantification through points of exposure PEi (points of exposure)

A(8) (m/s2)

i

i

0.1

4

0.08

0.282

0.2

16

0.32

0.565

36

0.72

0.848

64

1.28

1.131

0.3

0.4 100

2.00

1.414

0.5 144

2.88

1.697

0.6 0.7

196

3.92

1.979

256

5.12

2.262

0.8 324

6.48

2.545

0.9 400

8.00

2.828

1.0 484

9.68

3.111

529

10.58

3.252

1.1

1.15

Customizing the relation(3) for each value corresponding to the A(8) parameter

ka wi  0.282

1 T ej

ka wi  0.565

1 Tej

ka wi  0.848

1 Tej 1

ka wi  1.131

Tej 1

ka wi  1.414

Tej 1

ka wi  1.697

ka wi  1.979 ka wi  2.262 ka wi  2.545

kawi  2.828 kawi  3.111 kawi  3.252

Tej

1 Tej 1 Tej 1 Tej

1 Tej 1 Tej 1 Tej

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Vasilescu et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1453-1458 576

11.52

3.394

1.2 676

13.52

3.676

1.3 784

15.68

3.959

900

18.00

4.242

1.4

1.5 1,024

20.48

4.525

1.6 1,156

23.12

4.808

1,296

25.92

5.091

1,444

28.88

5.374

1,600

32.00

5.656

1.7

1.8

1.9

2.0

Based on G(xi) repartition function, the average risk of exposure is determined to different values of whole-body mechanical vibrations, respectively (Eqs. 13, 14):

Ri ( xi )   xiG( xi )dxi

(13)

for a continuous domain of xi values Ri (xi ) 

x G(x ), i

i

(14)

for a discrete domain of xi valuesi

Taking into account the results obtained by applying Eq. (14), assessment grids were developed (Table 2) for evaluating the risk of exposure to different values of whole-body mechanical acceleration during the work process, depending on its levels or on the value of the points of exposure. 3. Results and discussion In conceptually and methodologically terms, the fairness of choosing the mathematical formula for calculating the quantitive indicators used to predict the risk, as well as the corresponding risk parameters, was strictly verified through the experimental aplication of a generalized forecast model. There are two variants: exposure to global vibration and quantification of the risk, based on the vibration parameters or exposure points (NUCLEU Project, 2013). Thereby, all the observations performed in the paper reveal the possibility of affecting the workers who perform activities in the presence of sources generating vibrations (Crisan et al., 2012). The results obtained from determining the parameters of professional vibrations, with action on 1456

1

kawi  3.394 kawi  3.676 ka wi  3.959

kawi  4.242 kawi  4.525

kawi  4.808

Tej 1 Tej 1 Tej

1 Tej 1 Tej

1 Tej

ka wi  5.091 kawi  5.374 kawi  5.656

1 Tej

1 Tej 1 Tej

the whole body, performed on two different workplaces (EAF Platform and Distribution Workplace) part of ‘ArcelorMittal SA Hunedoara’, revealed the fact that all values obtained exceed the limits admitted by the regulations in force (Table 3). Thereby, comparing and interpreting the obtained values with the information existing in the matrix for evaluation of vibration exposure risk (Table 4), it was possible to appreciate a different level of risk for each workplace evaluated previously (Table 5). 5. Conclusions In order to estimate and assess the risk of exposure to whole-body vibrations, there has been designed a diagnosis and forecasting mathematical model, based on the exponential decay distribution function, which has variables that can be written depending on the average acceleration values or depending on points of exposure. The outcomes of the research presented in this scientific article could help improve and develop the production of instruments for graphical and analytical modeling and virtual simulation of the phenomenon of occupational disease, as a result of hazardous exposure to vibration at work. References Covello V.T., Merkhofer M.W., (1993), Risk Assessment Methods. Approaches for Assessing Health and Environmental Risks, Springer, Berlin-HeidelbergNew pringer, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York. Crisan G.C., Pintea C.-M., Chira C., (2012) Risk assessment for incoherent data, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 11, 21232132.

Forecasting of the risk to whole-body vibrations generated by industrial activities with environmental impact

Table 2. Assessment of the risk of exposure to different values of whole-body mechanical acceleration during the work process Values of the whole-body mechanical acceleration, kawi m/s2 kawi  0.5

Estimation of the risk of exposure to different values of the whole-body mechanical acceleration kawi*G(kawi) kawi*G(kawi  0.5)

Assessment of the risk of exposure to different values of whole-body mechanical acceleration during the work process Low (L)

0.5 < kawi  1.15 1.15 < kawi Resulted value for the points of exposure, PEi

Medium (M) High (H) Assessment of the risk of exposure to different values of whole-body mechanical acceleration during the work process

PEi  100.00

kawi*G(0.5 < kawi  1.15) kawi*G(1.15 < kawi) Estimation of the risk of exposure depending on the resulted value for thepoints of exposure, PEi*G(PEi) PEi *G(PEi  100.00)

100.00 < PEi  529.00

PEi *G(100.00 < PEi  529.00)

Medium (M)

529.00 < PEi

PEi *G(529.00 < PEi)

High (H)

Low (L)

Table 3. Values of the whole-body mechanical acceleration during the work process No.

Place of measurment

1.

EAF Platform

2.

Distribution workplace

Values of the whole-body mechanical acceleration, (m/s2) STEEL WORKS 1.95 CASTING OF STEEL 1.45

Limit value of exposure, (m/s2)

Overtaking value of exposure, (m/s2)

1.15

0.80

1.15

0.30

Table 4. Matrix for assessing of the risk of exposure to whole-body mechanical vibrations Values of the whole-body mechanical acceleration m/s2 kawi  0.5

Estimation of the risk of exposure to different values of the whole-body mechanical acceleration kawi* G(kawi  0.5) kawi* G(0.5 < kawi  1.15)

0.5 < kawi  1.15 1,15 < kawi Resulted value for the points of exposure PEi PEi  100.00 100.00 < PEi  529.00 529.00 < PEi

kawi* G(1.15 < kawi) Estimation of the risk of exposure depending on the resulted value for the points of exposure PEi*G(PEi) PEi * G(PEi  100.00) PEi * G(100.00 < PEi  529.00) PEi * G(529.00 < PEi)

Assessment of the risk of exposure to whole-body mechanical vibrations Low (L) Medium (M) High (H) Assessment of the risk of exposure to whole-body mechanical vibrations Low (L) Medium (M) High (H)

Note: Acceptable risk level Unacceptable risk level

Technical and organizational measures to prevent of the risk of exposure to whole-body mechanical vibrations Technical and organizational measures to control of the risk of exposure to whole-body mechanical vibrations Technical measures to reduce of the risk of exposure to whole-body mechanical vibrations

Table 5. Rezults of the risk of exposure to whole-body vibrations No.

1.

Workplace

EAF Platform

Estimation kawi m/s2 PEi (points of exposure) kawi* G(1.15 < kawi) PEi * G(529.00 < PEi)

Assessment

Acceptability

Measures

Unacceptable risk

Technical measures to reduce of the risk of exposure to whole-body mechanical vibrations

Unacceptable risk

Technical measures to reduce of the risk of exposure to whole-body mechanical vibrations

STEEL WORKS High

CASTING OF STEEL 4.

Distribution workplace

kawi* G(1.15 < kawi) PEi * G(529.00 < PEi)

High

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Vasilescu et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1453-1458

Cruz M., (2004), Operational Risk Modelling and Analysis. Theory and Practice, Risk Book, Incisive Financial Publishing Ltd, London. Dentoni V., Massacci G., (2013), Occupational exposure to whole-body vibration: unfavourable effects due to the use of old earth-moving machinery in mine reclamation, International Journal of Mining, Reclamation and Environment, 27, 127-142. Desroches A., (1995), Probabilistic Methods and Concepts for Basic Safety, (in French), Lavoisier Tec & Doc, Paris, France. EC Directive, (2002), Directive 2002/44/EC of the European parliament and ofthe Council of 25 June 2002 on the minimum health and safety requirements regarding the exposure of workers to the risks arising from physical agents (vibration) (sixteenth individual Directive within the meaning of Article 16(1) of Directive 89/391/EEC), Official Journal of European Communities, L 177, 6.7.2002, 13–20. Eger T., Stevenson J., Boileau P.-É., Salmoni A., (2008), Predictions of health risks associated with the operation of load-haul-dump mining vehicles: Part 1. Analysis of whole-body vibration exposure using ISO 2631-1 and ISO-2631-5 standards, International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 38, 726–738. EU Good Practice Guide WBV, (2005), Good Practice Guide on Whole-Body Vibrations, On line at: http://resource.isvr.soton.ac.uk/HRV/VIBGUIDE/200 8_11_08%20WBV_Good_practice_Guide%20v6.7h% 20English.pdf GD 1876, (2005), Government Decision 1876/2005 on the minimum occupational health and safety requirements regarding the exposure of workers to the risks arising from vibrations, Romanian Official Monitor, Part I No. 81 of 30/01/2006. Griffin M.J., (2012), Handbook of Human Vibration, Academic Press, New York. Haimes Y.Y., (2004), Risk Modeling Assessment, and Management, Second edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Publication, New York.

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HSE, (2005), Whole-Body Vibration. The Control of Vibration at Work, Regulations 2005, Guidance on Regulations, Health and Safety Executive, The Office of Public Sector Information, Information Policy Team, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, UK, On line at: http://www.qub.ac.uk/safetyreps/sr_webpages/safety_downloads/whole_body_vibr ation.pdf Johanning E., (2011), Diagnosis of whole-body vibration related health problems in occupational medicine, Journal of Low Frequency Noise, Vibration and Active Control, 30, 207-220. Law 319, (2006), Law No. 319 of 14 July 2006 on safety and health of workers at work, Romanian Official Monitor, No. 646/26 July 2006. Nadabaica D.-C., Bibire L., Andrioai G., (2012), Study of the advantages of predictive maintenance in the monitoring of rolling bearings, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 11, 22332238. Neugebauer G., Hartung E. (2002), Mechanical Vibrations at the Workplace, VTI Verlag Bochum. NUCLEU Project, (2013), Generalized model to forecast the risk of exposure of workers to vibration training, specific environmental activities in potentially explosive and/or toxic, (in Romanian), Nucleu program, Project PN 07 45 01 18, INCD INSEMEX, Petrosani, Romania. Smets M.P.H., Eger T.R., Grenier S.G., (2010), Wholebody vibration experienced by haulage truck operators in surface mining operations: A comparison of various analysis methods utilized in the prediction of health risks, Applied Ergonomics, 41, 763–770. Vasilescu G.D., (2008a), Unconventional Methods to Analyse and Evaluate Occupational Risk, INSEMEX Publishing House, Petrosani, Romania. Vasilescu G.D., (2008b), Probabilistic Calculation Methods Used in the Diagnosis and Prognosis of Industrial Risk (in Romanian), INSEMEX Publishing House, Petrosani, Romania.


June 2014, Vol.13, No. 6, 1459-1462



PROCEDURE FOR METAL CUTTING USING EXPLOSIVES, WITH LOW ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT Ilie Ciprian Jitea, Constantin Lupu, Marius Șuvar, Dana Rus National Institute for Research and Development in Mine Safety and Protection to Explosion–INSEMEX Petroşani, 32-34 G-ral Vasile Milea Str., 332047, Petroşani, Hunedoara County, Romania

Abstract Researches aim to develop new knowledge in the metal cutting field, using a relatively new technique with a low number of applications nationwide, namely the flexible explosive charge with cumulative effect for fast and precise cutting of metals. The procedure of cutting with explosives is a process that involves using and handling materials in their solid phase.This procedure is especially applied in cases where materials are mostly metals and it uses a directed and controlled cumulative explosive effect. Thereby, developing a safe and complex method of cutting and starting to use technologies that are innovative, clean and ecological, there will be advantages, both technical (different applications on materials with different shapes, sizes, structures, stresses), economic (productivity, reductions of consumption, materials and costs) and environmental (reducing emission of greenhouse gases generated from the current cutting technologies). Key words: cutting procedure, environment, explosion, explosive materials Received: December 2013; Revised final: June, 2014; Accepted: June 2014

1. Introduction During time, there were continuous concerns about the development of new and advantageous techniques, able to revolutionize the ‘world’ of cutting metals (in solid phase) (ferrous and nonferrous) using new methods with reduced national applications, meaning a flexible explosive charge with cumulative effect for a fast and precise cutting of metals (Calvin, 2001; Eskikaya et al., 1994; Holmberg, 2003). Cutting using explosives is a manufacturing process of solid materials, especially metals, using cumulative explosive effect, directed and controlled, for fast and precise cutting of a variety of building materials and metal constructions (Fratila, 2009; Holmberg, 2003; Meyer et al., 2008; Schumann et al., 1986). This paper discussess some aspects related to the development of the cutting procedure using 

explosives, specifically the development of some specific and safe cutting systems. Also, this work describes new innovative, clean and ecological technologies that offer technical, economic and environmental advantages. The inter-disciplinary character of the topic approached in this paper becomes clear from the systematic research of the corresponding modality of adaptation of the cutting technology, according to the characteristics of the metals for using suitable explosives with maximum economic efficiency (USEPA, 2000). Also, in determining the effectiveness of this unconventional technology it was found necessary to evaluate the measurable technical parameters (detonation velocity, specific consumption of explosives etc.) (Berta, 1990; Ciocoiu, 1998; Persson et al., 1996). Knowing all the characteristics for civil use explosives specific to this cutting method and also the conditions regarding the physical and mechanical characteristics of the environment where they will be

Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: [email protected]; Phone: + 40 254541561; Fax: + 40 254541561

Jitea et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1459-1462

used, will allow a better appreciation of the energy transfer from the explosive to the material or part subjected to the cutting process, a significant factor in the optimization of cutting technology. Thereby, the implementation of the results obtained from the correlation of the above listed parameters, will increase the reliability of cutting technology with minimal impact on the environment (Lupu, 2012). 2. Material and methods Explosives are special groups of substances (chemical compounds or mixtures) that undergo rapid chemical changes under the application of an external impulsion (mechanical and/or thermal), accompanied by a rapid release of heat, formed of a large volume of gas at high pressure and temperature, capable to perform mechanical work by relaxation. The chemical phenomenon of rapid decomposition of an explosive, in which its inner energy is transferred outwards, in order to perform a mechanical work and dislocate the environment, is called explosion (Eskikaya et al., 1994). In order to appreciate the dislocation and crushing capacity of environment in which they are used, respectively taking appropriate security measures necessary for the handling and using the explosives, it is required to know the following characteristics (Fodor, 2007) - thermodynamics: oxygen balance sheet, heat of explosion, blast temperature, the volume of explosion gases, pressure of explosion gases and strength of the explosive (specific energy); - physico-chemical: cartridge density, humidity, chemical stability, exudation, the volume of toxic gases of explosion; - ballistic: velocity of detonation, sensitivity at transmission of detonation, working capacity (explosive potential), capacity, the power of TNT equivalent; - safety: shock sensitivity, sensitivity to friction, firedamp-proof and safety from the coal dust, temperature resistance (thermoresistance), tendency to deflagration. 3. Experimental The procedure for fast and precise cutting of metals is performed using a flexible explosive charge with cumulative effect, resulted by directing the explosion energy in a squirt form, and the best effect is obtained only when the charge is created as a cone with a top angle having a pre-established value. The geometry of the cumulative explosive charge is fixed on a metal rod with special characteristics which, once detonated, can generate a material with a very high temperature, having a big penetration capacity. In order to ensure enough time to form before the penetration of the metal surface, the explosive charge is placed at the optimum distance from the surface of the material which will

1460

be cut. This distance (stand-off) is constructively ensured in the explosive charge and the metal support, according to their type and dimensions. The technology allows and helps cutting big surfaces even underwater, hardly accessible, in a very short time, and the execution will be very precise. If the explosive is detonated on the surface of a metalic piece, the high-pressure impulsion created will subject the metal to a mechanical and thermal stress with a very high speed (over 5000 m/s). The procedure area is extremely wide, therefore any type of metal can be cut, the characteristic impact pressures being about hundreds of thousands of bars. Fig. 1 presents the principle of the cumulative procedure of cutting with explosion.

Fig. 1. The cumulative procedure of cutting with explosion

The procedure is applied in a various range, depending on the use. It can be used where other conventional cutting techniques can’t be applied (e.g. underwater). Frequently, it can be used for cutting steel (with a thickness between 5mm and 30mm), non-metallic materials and multi-laminated materials. Fig. 2 shows an example of a strip made of a flexible metal material, supported by a pressed plastic explosive. This charge is covered in a foam cover with low density, which has a double adhesive strip, used for fixing the product on the material that has to be cut. Fig. 3 present an introductory example that uses a detonator introduced in the cavity created in the middle of the plastic explosive. 4. Results and discussion The specialized laboratory for detonation techniques (LTI) from the National Institute of Research and Development for Mine Safety and Explosion Protection (INCD INSEMEX) Petrosani,

Procedure for metal cutting using explosives, with low environmental impact

in cooperation with LABSATEX laboratory, belonging to The Centre of Scientific Research for Defense and Ecology, CBRN of the Ministry of Defense developed inter-laboratories tests at the Experimental polygon.

Fig. 2. A strip made of a flexible metal material, supported by a pressed plastic explosive

using different systems for measurement, respectively: LABSATEX used electrical probes connected to normal relays, closed/opened and LTI INCD INSEMEX used an opto-electronic system with fiber optics (EXPLOMET FO) (Table 1). In order to establish the efficiency of the unconventional technologies, it must be evaluated based on some measurable technical parameters (detonation power, specific consumption of explosive), supported by the evaluation of its impact on the environment and the evaluation of all costs for cutting (Lloyds, 2013). The values of the tests, presented in Table 1, led to a likely result for the parameter of the medium detonation speed, which can reach up to 5% for each test and the dispersion reaches up to ±10% from the mean value. 5. Conclusions

Fig. 3. System of a plastic explosive

The speed of detonation was measured and determination for plastic explosives based on Hexogen, Hitex – HGU type, manufactured by CCSACBRNE (PROTOCOL, 2011). The measurement and determination of the speed of detonation was accomplished according to the requests specified in the harmonized standards SR EN 13630-11 (2003) and SR EN 13631-14 (2003),

The outcomes presented within this paper are based on deep, complex research with a multidisciplinary applicative character on different areas, mostly promoting innovative methods and technologies for cutting metals in safe and sustainable conditions. The innovative cutting procedure described in this paper could bring technical, economical and environmental advantages in a specific area of use, with application on each type of metals, the characteristic impact pressures being about hundreds of thousands of bars. Also, this innovative technology for cutting metals using cumulative explosive effect, directed and controlled, can be successfully used to carry out hard and complex works which are difficult to perform with the current conventional cutting technologies, but only when the environmental parameters are fully respected under applicable regulations.

Table 1. Results of the tests performed at the Probation polygon – INCD INSEMEX Petrosani (Plastic explosive type HITEXHGU; Dimensions of the explosive cordon: 1200 mm; Density of the explosive cordon: 1.41 g/cm2; Measurements length: 1000 mm)

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

Detonation speed (m/s2)

Time (s)

No. LTI 144.3 147.4 144.8 145.3 143.6 142.4 144.8 141.7 145.5 144.0 144.1 142.2 141.2 142.7 143.3

LABSATEX 142.46 144.11 139.35 141.07 144.82 142.33 139.79 143.50 142.01 143.71 140.29 139.86 140.75 141.68 142.42

LTI 6930 6784 6906 6882 6964 7022 6906 7057 6873 6944 6940 7032 7082 7007 6978

LABSATEX 7019.5 6939.1 7176.2 7088.7 6905.1 7025.9 7153.6 6968.6 7041.7 6958.5 7128.1 7150.0 7104.8 7058.1 7021.5

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Jitea et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1459-1462

Besides, using this procedure will help cutting big surfaces in difficult spaces, such as underwater, in very short time, resulting smooth surfaces with very fine roughness, as well as with low environmental impact. Currently, INCD INSEMEX Petrosani owns infrastructure and logistics necessary for the experimentation, tests and evaluation for certificating this type of products. References Berta, G., (1990), Explosives - an Engineering Tool, Ital Esplosivi, Milan, Italy. Calvin J.K., (2001), The Design of Blasting (in Romanian), INSEMEX Publishing House, Petrosani, Romania. Ciocoiu C., (1998), The Dynamic of Detonation, Academia Gornicza – Hutnicza, Jaszowiec, Poland. Eskikaya S., Evergen T., Bilgin N., (1994), An Unconventional Method on the Effectiveness of Fire in the Mines of ELI, Proc. of the 16th World Mining Congress, 12-16 September, Sofia, Bulgaria. Fodor D., (2007), Engineering Materials and Techniques of Blasting Work (in Romanian), vol.I, Corvin Press, Deva, Romania. Fratila D.F., (2009), Minimization of cutting fluids ecological impact by near dry machining, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 8, 335-339. Holmberg R., (2003), Explosives and Blasting Technique, Swets & Zeitlinger B.V., Lisse, The Netherlands. Lloyds, (2013), The challenges and implications of removing shipwrecks in the 21st Century, On line at: http://www.lloyds.com/~/media/lloyds/reports/emergi

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ng%20risk%20reports/wreck%20report%20final%20v ersion%20aw.pdf. Lupu C., (2012), Health and safety in industries with explosion hazard: current research knowledge, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 11, 1221-1224. Meyer R., Köhler J., Homburg A., (2008), Explosives, John Wiley&Sons, New York. Persson, P.A.., Holmberg, R., Lee, J., (1996), Rock Blasting and Explosives Engineering, CRC Press Boca Raton, New York. PROTOCOL, (2011), Cooperation protocol about the execution of inter-laboratories comparative tests, concluded between INCD INSEMEX Petrosani and The Centre of Scientific Research for Defense CBRN and Ecology, from the Ministry of Defense. Schumann St., Freund H.U., Geiger W., (1986), The cutting of steel tubes by explosives techniques. Cutting performance and effects on environment, Propellants, Explosives, Pyrotechnics, 11, 133–139. SR EN 13630-11, (2003), Explosives for civil uses. Detonating cords and safety fuses. Part 11: Determination of velocity of detonation of detonating, On line at: http://magazin.asro.ro/index.php?pag=3&lg=2&cls=1 &dom=71&gr=100&sgr=30&id_p=13338812. SR EN 13631-14, (2003), Explosives for civil uses. Explosives. Part 14: Determination of detonation velocity, On line at: http://magazin.asro.ro/index.php?pag=3&lg=2&cls=1 &dom=71&gr=100&sgr=30&id_p=13337398. USEPA, (2000), A Guide for Ship Scrappers: Tips for Regulatory Compliance, On line at: http://www.epa.gov/oecaerth/resources/publications/ci vil/federal/shipscrapguide.pdf.


June 2014, Vol.13, No. 6, 1463-1472



DESIGN OF A MEASUREMENT MODEL FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE: APPLICATION TO THE FOOD SECTOR Carlos Atienza-Sahuquillo1, Virginia Barba-Sánchez2 1

University of Castilla-La Mancha, Department of Business Science, Faculty Industrial and Engineering, Edificio Infante Don Juan Manuel, Paseo de los Estudiantes s/n, Albacete 02006, Spain 2 University of Castilla-La Mancha, Department of Business Science, Faculty of Computer Science Engineering, Edificio Infante Don Juan Manuel, Paseo de los Estudiantes s/n, Albacete 02006, Spain

Abstract In light of recent environmental crises, companies are rethinking their relations with key stakeholders who live in the environments in which they operate. To meet the expectations of groups concerned about the environment, companies must adopt a responsible attitude for their surroundings to maintain sustainable development. Environmental monitoring is not always easy, given the many environmental consequences generated by business activities. This study proposes an innovative measurement model for environmental management that adopts a systematic method for measuring and evaluating the environmental aspects of a firm’s activities and provides support for decision making about investments in environmental matters, to maximize the reduction of environmental impacts at minimal cost. This model has been implemented in five food companies, representing one of the sectors with the greatest number of production centers in Spain. The longitudinal case study makes it possible to evaluate the system over a period of time, uncover areas that require further improvement, and validate the management system. The empirical findings indicate that the implementation of the measurement model reduces a firm’s environmental impacts in a relatively short period of time by providing the necessary tools to improve the management of certain environmental aspects of an enterprise’s production processes. The study discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the model and offers recommendations for further research. Key words: corporate social responsibility, measurement model for environmental management, food sector Received: November, 2011; Revised final: December, 2013; Accepted: December, 2013

1. Introduction In recent years, there have been several environmental events that have received significant media attention, such as the explosion of and subsequent oil spill from a BP platform in the Gulf of Mexico and the disastrous events at the Fukushima nuclear power station in Japan. These incidents have demonstrated to authorities, the public in general, and companies around the world that it is necessary to improve legislation and establish controls to limit negative environmental impacts. In the developed world, new environment-related regulation is playing

an important role in sustainable development from an environmental point of view (Chakrabarti and Mitra, 2005; Costanza, 2009; Stead et al., 1998). Developing countries will also need to adopt these mechanisms to avoid further environmental imbalances in the decades to come. It is from within the corporate fabric of different countries, and the industrial sector in particular, where the majority of potential environmental impacts are generated and, therefore, the greatest potential to improve environmental practice exists (Banerjee, 2001; Johnstone et al., 2004; Junquera and Del Brío, 2012; Strannegård, 2000).

 Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed: e-mail: [email protected]; Phone: +34 902 204 100 (# 8254); Fax: +34 902 204 130

Atienza-Sahuquillo and Barba-Sánchez/Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1463-1472

One element that currently differentiates many firms is the establishment of a commitment to the stakeholders affected by business activities and the subsequent implementation of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy (McWilliams et al., 2006; Smith, 2003; Woolman, 2011). Tang and Tang (2012) showed that the degree to which stakeholders view a firm’s engagement in CSR as important is growing. Prior literature has shown particular interest in the implementation of CSR measures, such as KLD STATS or MSCI iRatings databases (see Appendix I). According to Dahlsrud (2008), environmental management, one of the five dimensions defining CSR, plays a key role in this context. The incorporation of sound environmental practices in a business strategy has many demonstrated benefitsHe, 2010; Lupu et al., 2012), such as a competitive advantage for green marketing, media recognition, the minimization of risk and future costs, and positive recognition from stakeholders. Furthermore, it has become a requirement for any company that wants to go public. Many of today’s companies have implemented an environmental management system (EMS) to reduce negative environmental impacts (Argandoña, 2004). Furthermore, by establishing an EMS, a company can adapt legislation to its daily activities and improve its image with customers, suppliers, and public institutions (Ghoshal, 2005). Some companies that have successfully implemented an EMS have had it certified by bodies accredited under international standards, such as ISO14001:2004 or EU Regulation number 1836/1993, which is known as EMAS (EcoManagement and Audit Scheme). However, not all firms have had their EMS certified, and many others have struggled in their efforts to develop their programs. For example, increased management costs result from issues such as improper locations of landfills, lack of trained staff, or simply the timeconsuming efforts needed to improve environmental performance (He, 2010). In principle, all firms require a work system that helps them comply with at least basic environmental responsibilities, and they all must have some such a system in place and documented (Burke and Gaughran, 2006; GonzálezBenito and González-Benito, 2005). To improve this work system, companies need management tools that enable them to develop a work methodology that helps them prioritize their environmental efforts, assess the potential impact of such efforts, and achieve their environmental objectives (Barba-Sánchez and Atienza-Sahuquillo, 2010; Mondéjar-Jiménez et al., 2013; Yüksel, 2008). In this respect, the main objective of the current research is to design and validate a measurement model for corporate environmental management to enable the systematic and rigorous evaluation of the environmental aspects of a firm’s processes according to the importance attached by enterprise stakeholders to the environmental impact they

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produce. The aim of this model is to optimize environment-related decision making by enabling firms to focus on the aspects of their processes that have the greatest potential to minimize environmental impacts. The measurement model for environmental management that we propose is based on a selfchecking system that lists all the environmental impacts of a firm’s processes so that they may be evaluated on the basis of objective criteria. This evaluation ranks all the environmental impacts generated by a firm in decreasing order of importance (see the definition of “significance of aspects” in Appendix I) so that appropriate action may be taken to prioritize the established order and account for changes over time. We offer an innovative system that improves both the efficiency and sustainability of business management (Coopey, 2003; Kaafarani and Stevenson, 2011; Kolk and Mauser, 2002). In the following section, we examine the proposed methodology, which features an in-depth study of five plants over a six-year period. We discuss the results, with a special emphasis on the environmental aspects identified and the criteria for evaluation. Finally, we present our conclusions and discuss some limitations of the study. 2. Methodology We employed a case study method. This method is used to document experiences in specific companies that have implemented a theoretical model. The resulting documentation is then used to analyze the viability of the model and make appropriate improvements (Lee, 1989). A case study method can deepen existing relationships between the implementation and development of the theoretical model, before its definitive formalization (Creswell, 2009; Eisenhardt, 1989). Because the aim of this research is to design and implement a measurement model for environmental management and to enable the verification of its validity, the following steps are necessary:  identify the environmental aspects of the food industry and group them into environmental categories;  establish evaluation criteria;  use the evaluation criteria established in various factories in the sector;  order the environmental aspects on the basis of their significance in all the studied factories;  formalize environmental objectives for each factory on this significance;  measure the results of system implementation and asses to validation of the form of calculation established;  assess the effectiveness of the established criteria and make necessary changes to improve the model. Fig. 1 provides a graphic representation of our proposed process.

Design of a measurement model for environmental performance: application to the food sector

2.1. Case studies We chose the food sector to implement this measurement model, because there are several such companies in Spain. Within this sector, we narrowed our industry choice to the meat industry, considering its high level of representativeness within the sector (Muñoz and Sosvilla, 2010). The first plant selected had a linear integration of the various processes, from slaughtering to the initial butchering to subsequent preparation of meat products. The prototype factory (Plant 1) was located in Castilla-La Mancha (Spain), and its EMS meets the requirements of ISO 14001 and has been certified since 2000 by the Asociación Española de Normalización y Certificación (AENOR) (Spanish Association for Standardization and Certification). To increase the generabizabiliby of the model for validation purposes, the model was implemented in a four additional meat processing plants in 2005 (Table 1). To ensure that the environmental aspects identified would have a high degree of overlap with those identified in Plant 1 and thus establish a comparative context for our study, we selected four other plants with similar characteristics to Plant 1. The appropriate stages of the qualitative study (Bansal, 2005; Neuman, 2006) were carried out at the four plants, which simultaneously helped develop improvements for the model. With the additional testing of the model in these plants, we were able to validate our proposed model of the environmental impacts of the food industry. 2.2. Design of the measurement model First, the environmental aspects were identified (Appendix II) for subsequent 33+evaluation and assessment.

The methodology used to identify the different environmental aspects was based on the analysis and disaggregation of the production processes - from the organization’s general processes to the more specific operational levels, examining only those elements that generated some type of environmental impact. Measurement Model for Environmental Management

Improvement of the Model

Validation of the Model

Design of the Model

Review of the Model

Implementation of the Model

Fig. 1. Research design steps

One of the authors had prior professional experience in environmental management in the food industry, which significantly aided this stage of the research. Second, environmental aspects of the firms’ processes were assessed for normal, abnormal, and emergency situations, grouped into inputs used, waste, spillage, and emissions. According to Wood (2003), the evaluation of environmental aspects is an analytical procedure designed to form an objective opinion about the consequences of impacts resulting from the implementation of an activity.

Table 1. Description of industrial plants involved in the validation of the model Identification Type of plant Size Number of employees Production processes Annual production capacity (M.T.) Destination of product Capital structured Annual average revenue 2005–2010 (million €) Treatment processes Prior management system

Plant 1 Manufacturing Medium





245

281

222

225

190

Slaughtering (pig, bovine) Quartering (pork, beef) Processing meat products

Slaughtering (pig, bovine) Quartering (pork, beef)



Slaughtering (pig) Quartering (pork)

32,000

38,000

35,000

36,000

24,000

Local & Export

National & Export

Local & Export

Local

Local & Export

Public limited company





60

65

40

50

42

Wastewater, organic waste

Wastewater

Wastewater

Wastewater

Wastewater

ISO 14001

None

None

None

None

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In this research, we therefore propose the following formula to calculate the significance of each aspect:

number of units it generates in a fiscal year. This score also ranges from 1 to 5 points and is defined separately for different categories of environmental issues (Tables 3 - 6).

Significance of aspect = Fr x AQ x RQ x Tx (1) Table 2. Criteria for calculating frequency

where Fr = valuation of the aspect on the basis of the frequency with which it occurs, AQ = valuation of the aspect on the basis of the absolute quantity of units generated, RQ = valuation of the aspect on the basis of the relative quantity of units generated, and Tx = valuation of the aspect on the basis of its toxicity. Third, the following criteria to determine the parameters used in the establishment of significance were established: •Frequency (Fr). A score from 1 to 5 points was assigned to each identified environmental aspect according to the frequency with which it appears. This criterion applies equally to every environmental aspect (Table 2). •Absolute Quantity (AQ). A score is assigned to each environmental aspect according to the

Frequency Very high High Medium Low Very low

Description Occurs at least once a day Occurs at least once a week Occurs at least once a month Occurs at least once a quarter Occurs at least once a year

Score 5 4 3 2 1

•Relative Quantity (RQ). The relative quantity of units generated is an indicator that is sensitive to improvements generated in environmental behavior. It shows improvement (a score of less than 1) or worsening (a score of greater than 1) for a specific environmental aspect compared with the calculation from the previous year. To obtain this value, the ratio for the previous year (Ratio AA in Eq. 2) and that for the current year (Ratio AC in Eq. 3) were calculated for each environmental aspect, using the relationships (2, 3):

Table 3. Criteria for calculating the absolute quantity in consumption ABSOLUTE QUANTITY Very High High Medium Low Very low

Water (liters/year) > 100,000,000 From 50,000,001 to 100,000,000 From 25,000,001 to 50,000,000 From 5,000,000 to 25,000,000 < 5,000,000

CONSUMPTION Auxiliary Electricity (kw/year) Materials (kg/year) > 5,000,000 > 500,000 From 4,000,001 From 400,001 to 5,000,000 to 500,000 From 3,000,000 From 300,001 to 4,000,000 to 400,000 From 2,000,001 From 200,000 to 3,000,000 to 300,000 < 2,000,000 < 200,000

Fossil Fuels (units/year)

SCORE

> 5,000,000 From 2,500,001 To 5,000,000 From 1,250,001 To 2,500,000 From 750,000 to 1,250,000 < 750,000

5 4 3 2 1

Table 4. Criteria for calculating the absolute quantity of spillages ABSOLUTE QUANTITY Very high High Medium Low Very low

SPILLAGES (LITERS/YEAR)

SCORE

> 100,000,000 From 50,000,001 to 100,000,000 From 25,000,001 to 50,000,000 From 5,000,000 to 25,000,000 < 5,000,000

5 4 3 2 1

Table 5. Criteria for calculating the absolute quantity of emissions

Very high High Medium Low

Refrigerant Gases (Kg/year) > 10,000 From 5,001 to 10,000 From 2,501 to 5,000 From 1,250 to 2,500

EMISSIONS Noise Measuring Points Exceeding 68 dB (day) or 53 Db (night) The four measuring points Three measuring points Two measuring points One measuring point

Very low

< 1,250

No measuring point

ABSOLUTE QUANTITY

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Odor (points)

SCORE

4 3 2 1

5 4 3 2

None

1


Table 6. Criteria for calculating the absolute quantity of waste ABSOLUTE QUANTITY Very high High Medium Low Very low

WASTE Nonhazardous (kg/year) > 3,000,000 From 1,500,001 to 3,000,000 From 500,001 to 1,500,000 From 100,000 to 500,000 < 100,000

SCORE

Hazardous (kg/year) > 5,000 from 2,501 to 5,000 from 1,251 to 2,500 from 725 to 1,250 < 725

5 4 3 2 1

Table 7. Criteria for calculating the toxicity of spillages TOXICITY Very high High Medium Low Very low

SPILLAGES The score of the most unfavorable parameter is greater than 98% of the legally established maximum. The score of the most unfavorable parameter is between 95% and 98% of the legally established maximum. The score of the most unfavorable parameter is between 90% and 95% of the legally established maximum. The score of the most unfavorable parameter is between 85% and 90% of the legally established maximum. The score of the most unfavorable parameter is lower than 85% of the legally established maximum.

SCORE 5 4 3 2 1

Table 8. Criteria for calculating the toxicity of emissions TOXICITY Very high High Medium Low Very low

EMISSIONS The score of the most unfavorable parameter is greater than 98% of the established maximum. The score of the most unfavorable parameter is between 95% and 98% of the established maximum The score of the most unfavorable parameter is between 90% and 95% of the established maximum. The score of the most unfavorable parameter is between 85% and 90% of the established maximum. The score of the most unfavorable parameter is lower than 85% of the established maximum.

SCORE legally

5

legally

4

legally

3

legally

2

legally

1

Table 9. Criteria for calculating the toxicity of waste TOXICITY Very high High Medium Low Very low

WASTE Hazardous waste for disposal activities and potential emergency situations Hazardous waste not for disposal activities Nonhazardous waste for disposal activities and Category 1 material (MER) Nonhazardous waste, capable of being segregated, for disposal activities and Category 2 material (MAR) Nonhazardous waste for disposal activities

Units generated in the previous year Kilos produced in the previous year (2) Units generated in the current year Ratio AC  Kilos produced in the current year (3)

Ratio AA 

We then relationship (4): Re lative Quantity 

calculated Ratio AC Ratio AA

the

total

by

the

(4)

For the score calculated in the first year, because there are often no data for the previous year, we assigned a score of 1, to avoid distorting the valuation.

SCORE 5 4 3 2 1

•Toxicity (Tx). A score was assigned to each environmental aspect, on the basis of the toxicity rating (Tables 7–9). Inputs earned scores equal to 1, to avoid distorting the valuation. Finally, we rated each aspect and calculated its significance. For example, in the case of wastewater (the only spillages we have), the absolute quantity was 3 (“medium”) in 2005, because the spillage of wastewater was 48.911.220 liters (see Table 4). To calculate the relative quantity, we used the following values (see Eq. 2–4): Ratio AA = 23.151.800/32.538.440. Ratio AC = 22.977.540/33.001.270. Relative quantity = Ratio AC/Ratio AA = 0.98.

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In this particular example, in 2010, the relative quantity was 0.98, and we can calculate its significance as follows (Eq. 1): Significance of wastewater = 5  2  0.98  5 = 49. 3. Results and discussion By analyzing the flow diagrams for the different production activities, we could identify the various environmental aspects in these plants; we present them in Appendix II. After establishing the evaluation criteria, we calculated their significance using the proposed formula and ordered them appropriately to establish which ones should receive preferential treatment. As is shown in Table 10, the marks allocated to each criterion vary between the initial and final years of the study period (by way of example, we provide data for Plant 1), though in the case of frequency, the variations are minimal, because the different environmental aspects occur as a result of a production process that is standardized and stable over time. There was a decrease in the absolute quantity, due to improvements in the performance of the production process and the maximization of resources used. The relative quantity criterion took a value of 1 for the first year of the study, due to the lack of reliable data for the previous year; however, it could take different values over the various years, depending on how this aspect is managed in relation to the current period. Finally, toxicity remained intact in the majority of cases, though a decrease was sometimes visible as a result of the improvements made in the process, which led to better compliance with existing legislation. Table 11 shows the final results regarding the significance of the various environmental aspects at the beginning and end of the study period for the five analyzed plants. During the years analyzed, there was a positive evolution in terms of the decrease in the significance of potentially hazardous environmental aspects, which confirms that the main objective of implementing the proposed model was achieved -

namely, the reduction of potentially harmful environmental aspects. In this respect, the proposed model served to identify the weakest and most polluting points in the production process, which in turn enabled responsible managers at each plant to optimize their investment decisions related to environmental matters. Finally, Fig. 2 shows the application results of the full study. Because these plants carry out similar activities, we expected that the results would be similar. In this context, even though various aspects were not used in certain plants or for a certain period of time, we decided to retain all of them, so that the greatest possible number of environmental aspects would be covered, which allows our study to serve as a reference point for this industry sector. Their presence did not distort the results of this study, because our focus was on determining the significance of each aspect over time for each plant. In global terms, the significant results for each plant behaved in fairly similar ways, in terms of development; there was also a decline in total significance for each plant. In global terms, this reduction was 1.98% on an annual basis across all plants. The management teams of all the plants became involved in the implementation and development of the measurement model for environmental management, which helped achieve the established objectives. Plant 4 showed notably better results because it started from a more unfavorable position and thus had greater scope for improvement. During the study period, a new wastewater treatment process (total oxidation) and a new sludge treatment mechanism (band filter) were installed in the plant, leading to decreases in oil waste (low consumption engines) and the level of emitted noise (bearing replacement). In contrast, because Plant 1 gained ISO 14001 certification a year before the implementation of this model, it started from a more favorable initial situation than the other plants; however, after the implementation of this model, it also managed to reduce its environmental impact.

Fig. 2. Overview of Total Annual Significance

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Table 10. Calculation of the significance for Plant 1 (2005–2010) Environmental Aspects Discharge of wastewater Wastewater treatment sludge Used oil waste Water consumption Flue gas emission Manure residue Odor emission Contaminated rag waste Electrical energy consumption Offal and bone waste Urban solid waste Cooked blood waste Fluorescent tube waste Ammonia emission Noise emission Cleaning solvent waste Contaminated plastic container waste Contaminated metal container waste Contaminated glass container waste Medical material waste Used oil filter waste Lead battery waste Card and paper waste Carbon dioxide consumption Fuel leak waste (Emergency Situations) Nontreated wastewater discharge (ES) Ammonia leak emission (ES) Chlorine consumption Fuel consumption Propane consumption Container consumption Seizure waste Saline battery waste Boiler ash waste Metal waste Wooden pallet waste Photocopy toner waste Cartridge and printer ribbon waste Total

Frequency 2005 2010 5 5 5 5 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 3 3 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 3 3 4 4 5 5 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 5 5 5 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 1 1 1 1 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 1

Absolute 2005 2010 3 2 3 2 2 1 4 4 1 1 3 3 3 3 1 1 3 3 3 3 1 1 3 3 1 1 3 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Relative 2005 2010 1 0.98 1 0.96 1 0.88 1 0.95 1 1.00 1 0.98 1 1.00 1 0.87 1 0.99 1 1.02 1 1.10 1 1.00 1 1.09 1 1.00 1 1.00 1 1.00 1 1.00 1 1.00 1 1.00 1 1.00 1 1.00 1 1.00 1 1.00 1 1.00 1 1.00 1 1.00 1 1.00 1 1.00 1 1.00 1 1.00 1 1.00 1 0.97 1 1.00 1 1.00 1 1.00 1 1.00 1 1.00 1 1.00

Toxicity 2005 2010 5 5 2 2 4 4 1 1 4 3 1 1 1 1 5 5 1 1 1 1 3 3 1 1 4 4 1 1 2 2 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 1 1 1 1 5 5 5 5 5 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 5 5 5 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Significance 2005 2010 75 49 30 19 32 14 20 19 20 15 15 15 15 15 15 13 15 15 15 15 15 17 15 15 12 13 12 12 10 10 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 2 434 375

PLANT 4 2005 2010 125 87 50 24 48 21 25 25 20 15 25 24 25 20 15 17 15 16 25 25 15 15 25 20 12 12 12 12 30 10 12 8 8 8

PLANT 5 2005 2010 100 104 50 38 32 32 25 25 40 30 25 22 25 25 30 18 25 20 20 20 15 15 20 20 24 12 12 12 30 30 8 8 8 8

Table 11. Significance of environmental aspects (2005–2010) Environmental aspects Discharge of wastewater Wastewater treatment sludge Used oil waste Water consumption Flue gas emission Manure residue Odor emission Contaminated rag waste Electrical energy consumption Offal and bone waste Urban solid waste Cooked blood waste Fluorescent tube waste Ammonia emission Noise emission Cleaning solvent waste Contaminated plastic container waste

PLANT 1 2005 2010 75 49 30 19 32 14 20 19 20 15 15 15 15 15 15 13 15 15 15 15 15 17 15 15 12 13 12 12 10 10 8 8 8 8

PLANT 2 2005 2010 125 116 50 51 16 15 25 25 40 15 20 25 25 25 15 15 20 14 25 20 15 19 15 15 24 12 12 12 10 10 8 8 4 15

PLANT 3 2005 2010 100 111 40 21 16 16 20 11 20 15 25 17 15 15 15 14 20 14 20 16 15 13 15 10 12 12 8 3 10 10 8 8 8 4

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Contaminated metal container waste Contaminated glass container waste Medical material waste Used oil filter waste Lead battery waste Card and paper waste Carbon dioxide consumption Fuel leak waste (Emergency Situations) Nontreated wastewater discharge (ES) Ammonia leak emission (ES) Chlorine consumption Fuel consumption Propane consumption Container consumption Seizure waste Saline battery waste Boiler ash waste Metal waste Wooden pallet waste Photocopy toner waste Cartridge and printer ribbon waste Total significance

8 8 8 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 3 2 2 1 434

8 8 8 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 3 2 2 2 375

The implementation and monitoring of a selfchecking system for environmental aspects establishes an objective valuation for firms, as shown by the formula applied in this model. Furthermore, the evaluation of environmental aspects establishes a hierarchy to help address business objectives, as a result of model implementation. Finally, in line with findings by Yüksel (2008), He (2010), Junquera and Del Brío (2012) and Nikolaou et al. (2013), we note that the establishment of a self-checking system lowers a firm’s overall environmental impact. Greater awareness among staff when handling water, energy, and inputs has positive effects for reducing negative environmental impacts. 4. Conclusions The implementation and monitoring of this measurement model helps companies reduce their environmental impacts and become more efficient and sustainable. They are more efficient because the establishment of an EMS helps optimize management costs as a result of the savings arising from the reduction in the use of inputs and other improvements related to environmental aspects. They are more sustainable due to improved workforce awareness and management of the environmental problems caused by the company. In addition, the information provided by this model serves as the basis for decision making regarding investments in environmental improvements, by identifying and prioritizing the aspects with the greatest effect on the reduction of environmental impacts. This study has three main limitations: the plants studied, the industry sector studied, and the methodological limitations. Regarding the first, the plants studied are all similar in size, which may have produced a size bias. For the further development of

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8 4 4 5 5 10 5 5 5 5 3 5 5 1 5 5 5 1 1 1 2 539

8 4 4 5 5 6 6 5 5 5 5 5 5 1 6 5 5 1 1 1 3 502

8 8 8 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 3 2 2 1 469

8 8 8 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 5 5 3 2 2 2 413

8 8 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 2 3 2 588

8 8 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 2 3 2 460

8 8 4 5 5 3 1 5 5 5 1 5 5 1 5 5 5 2 2 2 1 572

8 8 8 5 5 10 1 5 5 5 1 5 5 1 5 5 5 2 2 2 2 535

this model, it would be helpful to examine meat processing plants of different sizes, though do so would have required simplifying the proposed documentation. In terms of the limitations arising from the choice of this particular industrial sector, we have proposed a standard measurement model that can be implemented in any kind of firm, with no prior adaptation to its formulation, though it is necessary to estimate the parameters relating to absolute quantity for each firm according to its size. Finally, our use of the case study approach has certain methodological limitations. While this approach is fully acceptable for the analysis of complex and understudied situations in which the participants’ experiences are basic, such as is the case of the current study, its use makes it difficult to establish cause-and-effect relationships between the study objects. Furthermore, it is limited to providing descriptive analyses and indications regarding the behavior of these objects. Further research should focus on testing the model in other meat processing plants with different profiles, as well as in other sectors of the food industry. It would also be appropriate to complement the results presented here with a quantitative analysis, which would strengthen the model and the results obtained. Acknowledgments This study is supported by the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha of Spain (Consejería de Educación, Ciencia y Cultura-PPII10-0236-2047).

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Lee A. S., (1989). A scientific methodology for MIS case studies, MIS Quarterly, 13, 33-50. Lupu M. L., Trofin, O., Trofin N., (2012), Environmental performance-part of management performance, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 11, 393-405. McWilliams A., Siegel D.S., Wright P.M., (2006), Corporate social responsibility: Strategic implications, Journal of Management Studies, 43, 1-18. Mondéjar-Jiménez J., Vargas-Vargas M., Segarra-Oña M., Peiró-Signes A., (2013), Categorizing variables affecting the proactive environmental orientation of firms, International Journal of Environmental Research, 7, 495-500. Muñoz C., Sosvilla S., (2010), Economic report of the food processing industry 2009 (in Spanish), Spanish Federation of Industries of the Supply and Tipsy, Madrid, Spain. Neuman W. L., (2006), Basics of social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches, Allyn & Bacon, Boston. Nikolaou I.E., Evangelinos K.I., Verigon E., (2013), Environmental management of manufacturing SMEs: Evidences from Lesuos, Greece, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 12, 21572168. Smith N. C., (2003), Corporate social responsibility: Whether or how?, California Management Review, 45, 52-76. Stead E., McKinney M.M., Stead J.G., (1998), Institutionalizing environmental performance in U.S. industry: Is it happening and what if it does not?, Business Strategy and the Environment, 7, 261-270. Strannegård L., (2000), Flexible couplings: Combining business goals and environmental concern, Business Strategy and the Environment, 9, 163-174. Tang Z., Tang J., (2012), Stakeholder-firm power difference, stakeholder’ CSR orientation, and SMEs’ environmental performance in China, Journal of Business Venturing, 27, 436-455. Wood C., (2003), Environmental Impact Assessment: A Comparative Review, John Wiley and Sons, New York. Woolman S., (2011), Greenwashing, greenbranding and greengrowth: From corporate social responsibility to a new conception of company stakeholder responsibility, South African Journal of Business Management, 42, 16-27. Yüksel H., (2008), An empirical evaluation of cleaner production practices in Turkey, Journal of Cleaner Production, 16, S50-S57.

Appendix I. Definitions Emissions: gases, particles, and noise emitted into the atmosphere as a result of productive activity. Environmental aspects: elements of the activities, processes, products, and services of an organization that can interact with environmental factors (air, water, land, natural resources, flora, fauna, human beings and their relationships). Environmental impacts: quantification of any change in the environment, whether adverse or beneficial, produced by an organization’s activities, products and services. Inputs used: resources used in the various productive processes. KLD STATS: database that has provided a snapshot of corporate social responsibility ratings since 1991 for the 3,000 largest U.S. publicly traded companies. It contains

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quantitative measures of over 90 social and environmental indicators that are grouped into seven broad categories: community, corporate governance, diversity, employees, environment, human rights, and products. MSCI iRatings: database that offers three separate environmental, social and governance (ESG) analyses. Each company is evaluated in terms of the environment, community and society, employees and its supply chain, customers and governance. A company’s ESG score is mapped on a nine-point letter scale, with ratings from AAA (highest) to C (lowest). Significance of aspects: importance that the environmental aspect has for the enterprise according to the environmental impact that it produces in its reference surroundings by considering stakeholder perceptions. Significant environmental aspects: the environmental aspects that are the most important. Spillages: liquid discharges into the natural environment as a result of productive activities. Waste: solid waste produced in the various productive activities. Appendix II. Environmental aspects identified a) The consumption identified in the various activities are: - Water, which is used mainly for plant and tool cleaning and sanitary use, for the operation of certain production processes such as blanching and washing down channels, and for steam generation. - The electricity used for normal plant operation. - The carbon dioxide used to anaesthetize prior to slaughter. - The chlorine used to disinfect drinking water from the plant’s own well. - The fuel used to produce steam as the power supply for the steam boilers. - The propane required for scorching in the slaughter process. - The wrappings used to wrap all kinds of meat products. These mainly consist of plastic (polyethylene, polystyrene and cellophane) and cardboard and paper that are used at the point of sale and are controlled by the recycling fee charged by the company Ecoembalajes Spain S.A. (Ecoembes). Ecoembes is a government foundation which manages waste in Spain and fixes the fee payable by each company according to how many kilograms of waste they generate. b) Hazardous and nonhazardous waste products, classified for slaughterhouses by Regulation (EC) 1774/2002 (EC Regulation, 2002), identified in the various activities are: - Sewage sludge obtained in the process of the treatment of wastewater that is sent by gravity to the sludge container. Classified as Category 3 according to EC Regulation (2002). - Used oil from the compressors of the industrial cooling plant and some engines used in various machines. - Manure from the liquid contents of the digestive tract and hair. Classified as Category 3 according to EC Regulation (2002).

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Used oil-soaked rags used to clean mechanical parts, oil change points, hands, etc. - Offal and bones produced by quartering and slaughtering, respectively. Classified as Category 3 according to EC Regulation (2002). - Solid waste (MSW) from the various activities, primarily formed by waste from cleaning floors and toilets. Collected in small containers in the plant and taken to MSW containers. - Cooked blood from slaughter and bleeding. Classified as Category 3 EC Regulation (2002). - Fluorescent tubes used to light all plant facilities. - Cleaning solvent used to clean mechanical parts. - Plastic containers that contained hazardous products mainly from additives for steam boilers and detergents and disinfectants used to clean the plant. - Medical supplies from the plant’s first aid kit. - Oil filters from the various machines. - Metal containers that contained hazardous products such as lubricants, paints, varnishes and various products used in plant maintenance. - Glass containers that contained hazardous products such as reagents used in the laboratory. - Lead batteries from various vehicles. - Cardboard and paper mainly from the packaging used to transport auxiliary material and for administrative documents. - Fuel spill in an emergency situation (ES). Due to improper container handling. - Veterinary waste produced by inspections. Classified as Category 2 according to EC Regulation (2002). - Saline batteries used in various kinds of equipment. - Boiler ash from cleaning steam boilers. - Scrap metal obtained from various modifications to the plant and machinery. - Waste wooden pallets used for frozen product storage. - Toner used in photocopiers used by the administration. - Cartridges and printer ribbons used by the administration. c) The emissions produced by the various activities are: - Combustion gases produced in the steam boiler, usually carbon dioxide, oxygen, unburnt hydrocarbons, oxides of sulfur and nitrous fumes. - Odors naturally produced by the activity. - Ammonia generated in small leaks that may occur and emitted into the atmosphere. - Noise caused by the animals and the machines used in the various processes. - Ammonia in emergency situations (ES), which could be produced by the rupture of the storage system or cooling circuits. d) The spillages identified in the various activities are: - Waste water from the different cleaning processes used for plant, machinery and channels. - Discharge of water in emergency situations (ES), which could occur if there is any accidental spillage of untreated water. -


June 2014, Vol.13, No. 6, 1473-1482



COMPARATIVE STUDY ON ROSMARINIC ACID SEPARATION BY REACTIVE EXTRACTION WITH AMBERLITE LA-2 AND D2EHPA 2. KINETICS OF THE INTERFACIAL REACTIONS Mădălina Poştaru1, Lenuţa Kloetzer2, Anca-Irina Galaction1, Alexandra Cristina Blaga2, Dan Caşcaval2 1

“Grigore T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Iasi, Faculty of Medical Bioengineering, Dept. of Biomedical Science, M. Kogălniceanu 9-13, 700454 Iasi, Romania 2 “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iasi, Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Protection, Dept. of Organic, Biochemical and Food Engineering, D. Mangeron 73, 700050 Iasi, Romania

Abstract The study on the kinetics of reactive extraction of rosmarinic acid with two extractants, Amberlite LA-2 and D2EHPA, underlined the strong influence of extractant type, solvent polarity, and 1-octanol content on the relative magnitude of the diffusional or kinetic resistances and on the interfacial reaction rate. Thus, indifferent of the extractant type, the highest values of interfacial mass flows and reaction rates have been reached for extraction in dichloromethane. The addition of 1-octanol in the solvent phase led to the increase up to two times of the interfacial reaction rates only for the reactive extraction with Amberlite LA-2. This effect is amplified by reducing the solvent dielectric constant. In the case of extraction with D2EHPA, the rate of the interfacial reaction is not modified in presence of 1-octanol. The values of interfacial reactions rates between the rosmarinic acid and the two extractants calculated with the proposed kinetic equations are in concordance with the experimental results, the standard deviations varying between 5.03% for reactive extraction with D2EHPA and 5.76% for extraction with Amberlite LA-2. Key words: Amberlite LA-2, di-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid, reactive extraction, rosmarinic acid Received: August, 2013; Revised final: April, 2014; Accepted: May, 2014

1. Introduction Rosmarinic acid is member of the phenolic compounds class (molecular weight 360.3 g/mol), being an ester of caffeic acid and 3-(3,4dihydroxyphenyl)lactic acid (Fig. 1) (Petersen and Simmonds, 2003). This compound was firstly isolated from rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) (Scarpati and Oriente, 1958). The interest for rosmarinic acid was amplified in the last decade due to its biological activity, this acid exhibiting antioxidant, astringent, antiinflammatory, antimutagenic, anticancerous, antiallergic, antibacterial, and antiviral (anti-HIV) 

effects (Georgiev et al., 2006; Huang and Zheng, 2006; Park et al., 2008; Petersen and Simmonds, 2003).

Fig. 1. Chemical structure of rosmarinic acid The extraction of rosmarinic acid from plants, such as monocotyledonous (Cannaceae, Zosteraceae,

Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; Fax: 0040232271311

Poştaru et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1473-1482

Potamogetonaceae), dicotyledonous (Laminaceae, Boraginaceae, Curcubitaceae, Rubiaceae, etc.), as well as Blechnaceae, Anthocerotaceae, etc. (common names: rosemary, lemon balm, thyme, mint, sage, oregano, lavender, and clover) requires large amount of solvents and offers rather low productivity (Petersen and Simmonds, 2003; Zelic et al., 2005; Zinsmeister et al., 1991). Rosmarinic acid could be obtained also by chemical synthesis, but with high materials and energy consumption, the yield being lowered by the racemic mixture formation (Eicher at al., 1996; Erkan et al., 2008; Zinsmeister et al., 1991). Moreover, both types of applied methods at larger scale for acid extraction or synthesis lead to high amount of liquid and solid wastes (Fortuna et al., 2011). In these circumstances, the rosmarinic acid production by biosynthesis or enzymatic synthesis became very attractive (Gavrilescu and Chisti, 2005). The biosynthesis methods use cells cultures of Coleus blumei, Salvia miltiorrhiza, Anchusa officinalis, Lavandula vera whose productivity was enhanced by simultaneous cultivation of some microorganism, namely Pseudomonas, Agrobacterium rhizogenes, or Phytium aphanidermatum (Bauer et al., 2004; Chen et al., 1999; Petersen et al., 1993). Moreover, the growth and viability of plant cells, as well as the rosmarinic acid productivity can be improved by addition of elicitors in the culture media (proline and analogs, dimethylsulfoxide, yeast extract, pantothenic acid) (Park and Martinez, 1992; Szabo et al., 1999; Yang and Shetty, 1998). The enzymatic synthesis of rosmarinic acid uses rosmarinic acid synthase, which is able to catalyze the reaction between 3(3,4dihydroxyphenyl)lactic acid and caffeoyl-coenzyme A (Rao et al., 1991). Currently, the separation and purification of rosmarinic acid from plant extracts, cells cultures or enzyme media were achieved by ion exchange technique, electrodialysis, electrophoresis, physical extraction, supercritical fluid extraction, and nonfacilitated pertraction (Baskan et al., 2007; Boyadzhiev and Dimitrova, 2006; Chen et al., 1999; Georgiev et al., 2006; Zelic et al., 2005). In most cases, these techniques are not eco-friendly and generate important amount of pollutants (Gavrilescu and Chisti, 2005). The physical extraction constitutes a viable solution for many downstream technologies, due to its technical accessibility and high efficiency. Its application for rosmarinic acid separation is possible because this acid is soluble in water immiscible solvents, as esters, ethers, paraffins, chloroform, and long chain alcohols (Boyadzhiev and Dimitrova, 2006; Scarpati and Oriente, 1958). However, its distribution coefficient between aqueous and organic phases is relatively low (over-unity value is obtained only for ethyl acetate and diisopropyl ether (Boyadzhiev and Dimitrova, 2006)). Moreover, its reextraction from the organic phase requires the use

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of an aqueous alkaline solution, the chemical stability of rosmarinic acid being strongly affected for pH values higher than 8 (Shen, 2008). For these reasons, our previous works were focused on the separation of rosmarinic acid by an alternative technique, namely reactive extraction (Kloetzer et al., 2013). Since the chemical structure of rosmarinic acid contains both acidic and basic groups, the reactive extraction has been carried out by using two types of extractants: an extractant from high molecular weight amines category, lauryl trialkylmethylamine (Amberlite LA-2), and one of organophosphoric derivates type, di-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid (D2EHPA). According to these studies, the reactive extraction of rosmarinic acid occurs by means of an interfacial reaction between the solute and the extractant. The interfacial reaction mechanism is controlled by the extractant type, organic phase polarity, and presence of phase modifier (1-octanol), the following extraction mechanisms being possible (Kloetzer et al., 2013): a) extraction using Amberlite LA-2 without 1octanol  dichloromethane RA-COOH(aq) + Q(o) RA-COOH.Q (o)  butyl acetate RA-COOH(aq) + 2 Q(o) RA-COOH.Q2 (o)  n-heptane RA-COOH(aq) + 4 Q(o) RA-COOH.Q4 (o) b) extraction using Amberlite LA-2 with 1octanol dichloromethane RA-COOH(aq) + Q(o) RA-COOH.Q (o) butyl acetate RA-COOH(aq) + Q(o)

RA-COOH.Q (o)

n-heptane RA-COOH(aq) + 2 Q(o)

RA-COOH.Q2 (o)

c) extraction using D2EHPA without and with 1-octanol dichloromethane, butyl acetate, n-heptane RA(O+H2)2(aq) + 2 HP(o) RA(O+H2)2 P-2(o) + 2 H+(aq) (RA-COOH and RA(O+H2)2 symbolize the undissociated and, respectively, protonated form of rosmarinic acid, while Q and HP the extractants of aminic and organophosphoric acid types (Kloetzer et al., 2013)). On the basis of the proposed mechanisms, the previous studies are developed by investigating the kinetics of interfacial reactions between rosmarinic acid and the two extractants (Amberlite LA-2 and D2EHPA). For this purpose, the limiting steps controlling the extraction process, the kinetic equations describing the values of interfacial reaction rates, and the values of the specific reaction rates

Comparative study on rosmarinic acid separation by reactive extraction with Amberlite LA-2 and D2EHPA

C836 type and have been recorded throughout each experiment. Depending on the prescribed pH-value, the pH adjustment was made with a solution of 3% sulfuric acid. Any pH change was recorded during the extraction experiments. The extraction process was analyzed by means of the rosmarinic acid mass flow from aqueous phase to solvent, n. For calculating this parameter, the rosmarinic acid concentrations in the initial aqueous solution and in the raffinate have been measured by high performance liquid chromatography technique (HPLC) as described in the literature (Boyadziev and Dimitrova, 2006). For analyzing the acid concentration in the raffinate, the sample volume was of 0.2 ml and did not affect the overall volume of the aqueous phase in the Lewis cell. The acid concentration into the solvent phase has been calculated using the mass balance for the extraction system.

have been determined in relation with the extractant type, solvent polarity, and 1-octanol concentration in the organic phase. 2. Material and methods The experiments have been carried out in two separated steps. Initially, the nature and relative influence of the limiting steps of the overall extraction process, for both extractants, have been established. Then, the values of the rates of the interfacial reactions have been calculated for the kinetic regime. The experimental equipment consisted on the extraction cell of Lewis type, described in previous papers (Caşcaval et al., 2007). In the first stage, the experiments have been carried out in continuous regime, each phase being separately fed with a volumetric flow of 2.15 l/h. According to the previous results, the steady-state regime is reached after 20 minutes (Caşcaval et al., 2007). The aqueous and organic phases have been independently mixed with two double perforated blade impellers, their rotation speed varying between 0 and 1200 rpm. The interface between the aqueous and organic phases remained flat, its area being of 2.83·10-3 m2. In the second stage, the studies were performed in batch system, at a rotation speed value of 1200 rpm for both compartments of Lewis cell, this level of mixing intensity corresponding to the kinetic regime. For both stages of the experiment the temperature was 25oC. The initial concentration of rosmarinic acid in the aqueous phase was 10 g/L (0.027 M). The reactive extraction was carried out using three solvents with different dielectric constants (Table 1). A phase modifier, 1-octanol (dielectric constant of 10.3 at 25oC (Galaction et al., 2011)) has been dissolved into the mentioned solvents, its volumetric fraction being 0 and 0.20. In the organic phase (solvent or solvent and 1-octanol) the extractants, namely Amberlite LA-2 and D2EHPA, were dissolved separately. Each extractant concentration in the organic solvents was 60 g/L (0.16 M for Amberlite LA-2 and 0.18 M for D2EHPA, respectively). The extraction experiments were carried out at the optimum pH-value of aqueous phase, according to the previous results (Kloetzer et al., 2013). Thus, the pH of aqueous phase was 2 for the reactive extraction with Amberlite LA-2 and 3 for the reactive extraction with D2EHPA. The pH-values were determined using a digital pH-meter of Consort

3. Results and discussion 3.1. Reactive extraction with Amberlite LA-2 For establishing the limiting steps of the separation process of rosmarinic acid by reactive extraction with Amberlite LA-2, the influence of mixing intensity on solute mass flows, n, from aqueous to organic phase has been analyzed initially for solvents without 1-octanol. The solute mass flux is calculated by means of the relationship (1): n

W  C A0  C AR  [mol/m2h] A

(1)

where: A - area of the interfacial mass transfer, m2 CA0 - initial concentration of rosmarinic acid in aqueous solution, mol/L CAR - initial concentration of rosmarinic acid in raffinate, mol/L W - volumetric flow, L/h. The variations of solute mass flows with rotation speed are plotted in Fig. 2. Due to the higher dielectric constant and, consequently, to the superior capacity to solve the interfacial compound, the highest values of the interfacial mass flow are reached for dichloromethane. However, regardless of the solvent type, the experimental results indicated the existence of two variation domains of rosmarinic acid mass flow with the rotation speed related to the diffusional and kinetic regime, respectively.

Table 1. Dielectric constants of the studied solvents at 25oC (Galaction et al., 2011) Solvent Dielectric constant solvent without 1-octanol Dielectric constant solvent with 20% vol. 1-octanol

n-Heptane

n-Butyl acetate

Dichloromethane

1.90

5.01

9.08

5.13

7.67

9.54

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Fig. 2. Influence of rotation speed on rosmarinic acid mass flow for reactive extraction with Amberlite LA-2 without 1-octanol

As it can be observed from Fig. 2, the extent of the rotation speed domain for which either diffusion or chemical reaction controls the overall separation efficiency depends on the solvent polarity and, implicitly, on the interfacial reaction mechanism (the value of the rotation speed corresponding to the change of the nature of limiting step was defined as critical rotation speed (Galaction et al., 2012)). In absence of 1-octanol, for dichloromethane and butyl acetate, the kinetic regime is reached at rotation speeds over 800 rpm. But, this value is the consequence of two different phenomena. Thus, for dichloromethane, the relative importance of kinetic and diffusional regimes is controlled by the superior polarity of organic phase, which exhibits a positive effect on the diffusion rate and solubilization of the interfacial compound. Moreover, the chemical structure of the interfacial compound is the simplest one, RA-COOH.Q, thus enhancing the chemical reaction rate between rosmarinic acid and Amberlite LA-2 (Kloetzer et al., 2013). In the case of butyl acetate, the critical rotation speed should exceed 800 rpm, as the result of lower polarity of this solvent and, implicitly, of higher diffusional resistance. But, the structure of the interfacial compound is of aminic adducts type, RACOOH.Q2, being more complex than that formed in dichloromethane. Therefore, the rate of chemical reaction between rosmarinic acid and Amberlite LA2 is diminished compared to the extraction in dichloromethane, this leading to the extension of the rotation speed domain related to the kinetic regime to 800 rpm. According to the above discussed effects, the diffusional resistance and the corresponding limit of rotation speed should be increased in the case of extraction in low-polar solvent, namely n-heptane. However, as it can be seen from Fig. 2, the rotation speed domain related to the diffusional regime is limited between 0 and 600 rpm. This result suggests that the magnitude of the kinetic resistance is increased compared to those recorded for the other

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two solvents. In the previous experiments it was concluded that the aminic adducts are formed preferentially in n-heptane, by interfacial reaction between one molecule of rosmarinic acid and four molecules of Amberlite LA-2, the general chemical structure of these compounds becoming RACOOH.Q4 (Kloetzer et al., 2013). Consequently, the extraction mechanism becomes more complex and the formation of the interfacial compound requires more molecules of reactants than for the former two solvents, this leading to amplification of the kinetic resistance. For calculating the interfacial reaction rate between rosmarinic acid and Amberlite LA-2 in absence of 1-octanol in the organic phase, the experiments have been carried out in the kinetic regime for all solvents, namely at 1200 rpm. Considering the proposed mechanisms, the interfacial equilibrium suggests a chemical reaction of second order for dichloromethane, third order for butyl acetate, and of fifth order for n-heptane, respectively. The corresponding kinetic equations are expressed by Eqs. (2-4):  dichloromethane

dC P  k 2  C A0  C P   CQ0  C P  d

(2)

 butyl acetate

dC P 2  k 3  C A0  C P   C Q0  2  C P  d

(3)

 n-heptane



dC P  k 5  C A0  C P   C Q0  4  C P d

4

(4)

where: CQ0 - initial concentration of Amberlite LA-2, mol/L CP - interfacial product concentration, mol/L ki - specific reaction rate of the corresponding chemical reaction, li-1/moli-1.s. Because CQ0 >> CA0, and, implicitly, CQ0 >> CP, the previous equations can be written as expressed by Eqs. (5-7):  dichloromethane

dC P   k 2  C A0  C P  d

(5)

 butyl acetate

dC P   k 3  C A0  C P  d

(6)


 n-heptane

dC P   k 5  C A0  C P  d

(7)

the apparent specific reaction rate, ki’, being defined by the relationships (8-10):

 k 2  k 2  CQ0

(8)

 k 3  k 3  C Q2 0

(9)

 k 5  k 5  C Q4 0

(10)

The experimental values of interfacial reaction rates have been calculated by means of the curves describing the variation of the interfacial product concentration during the extraction process (Fig. 3). For all considered solvents, the apparent specific reaction rates could be calculated from the slopes of the straight lines obtained by plotting ln

C A0 vs. time (Fig. 4). C A0  C P

For the reactive extraction of rosmarinic acid with Amberlite LA-2 in absence of 1-octanol, the following values for the apparent specific reaction rates and specific reaction rates have been obtained:  dichloromethane -1 k 2  2.14 105 [s ]

k 2  1.34 104

[L/mol.s]

 butyl acetate k 3  1.22  10  5

[s-1]

k 3  4.76 104

[L2/mol2.s]

s-1

k 5  9.32 103

[L4/mol4.s]

 n-heptane k 5  6.11  10 6

The efficiency of reactive extraction of rosmarinic acid with Amberlite LA-2 can be improved by adding 1-octanol in the organic phase (Kloetzer et al., 2013). This effect is due both to the alcohol positive influence on solute mass flow, especially for solvents with lower dielectric constant, by increasing their ability to solve the solute, and to the modification of the mechanism of the interfacial reaction between the solute and extractant (Galaction et al., 2011). From Fig. 5 it can be seen that the addition of 1-octanol into the organic solvent improves the solute transfer from the aqueous to organic phase and modifies the relative importance of diffusional or kinetic limiting steps, compared to the extraction system without 1-octanol. Therefore, for extraction system with dichloromethane containing 1-octanol, the value of critical rotation speed is reduced from 800 to 600 rpm. Because the addition of alcohol does not modify the interfacial reaction mechanism, this reduction can be attributed to the diminution of the relative importance of diffusional resistance in presence of 1-octanol in the organic phase.

Fig. 3. Variation of interfacial product concentration during the reactive extraction with Amberlite LA-2 without 1octanol

Fig. 5. Influence of rotation speed on rosmarinic acid mass flow for reactive extraction with Amberlite LA-2 with 1octanol Fig. 4. Graphical calculation of the apparent specific rates of interfacial reactions between rosmarinic acid and Amberlite LA-2 without 1-octanol

In the case of butyl acetate, the alcohol addition does not influence the relative importance of the diffusional and the kinetic resistance. Although

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the addition of 1-octanol improves the interfacial compound solubility into butyl acetate, which could lead to the decrease of the critical rotation speed, the change of the interfacial reaction mechanism by reducing the number of the extractant molecules reacting with rosmarinic acid induces the acceleration of the interfacial reaction rate and, implicitly, the diminution of the kinetic resistance. Thus, these two effects induced by the addition of 1octanol counteract each other and the critical rotation speed is maintained at 800 rpm. The most important reduction of number of Amberlite LA-2 molecules participating to the formation of the interfacial compound by 1-octanol addition was recorded for extraction with n-heptane (Kloetzer et al., 2013). For this reason, the magnitude of the positive influence of 1-octanol on the chemical reaction rate overcomes its effect on the diffusional rate, the critical rotation speed being increased from 600 rpm, in absence of alcohol, to 800 rpm. For calculating the interfacial reaction rate between rosmarinic acid and Amberlite LA-2 in presence of 1-octanol, the experiments have been carried out also at 1200 rpm. Owing to the changes of the interfacial reaction mechanism, the kinetic equations become as given by Eqs. (11, 12) (Kloetzer et al., 2013):  dichloromethane and butyl acetate

dC P  k 2  C A0  C P   CQ0  C P  d

ln

C A0 vs. time in Fig. 7. Thus, for the reactive C A0  C P

extraction of rosmarinic acid with Amberlite LA-2 in presence of 1-octanol into the organic phase, the calculated values for apparent specific reaction rates and specific reaction rates are:  dichloromethane -1 k 2  2.17 105 s

k 2  1.36 104

[L/mol.s]

k 2  1.19 104

[L2/mol2.s]

k 3  4.72 104

[L4/mol4.s]

 butyl acetate k 2  1.91  10  5

s-1

 n-heptane -1 k 3  1.21 105 s

(11)

 n-heptane

dC P 2  k 3  C A0  C P   C Q0  2  C P  d

(12)

Fig. 6. Variation of interfacial product concentration during the reactive extraction with Amberlite LA-2 with 1-octanol

Using the same assumptions as above mentioned and considering that the apparent specific reaction rates are defined as those for the extraction without 1-octanol, the kinetic equations can be written as Eqs. (13, 14):  dichloromethane and butyl acetate

dC P   k 2  C A0  C P  d

(13)

 n-heptane

dC P   k 3  C A0  C P  d

(14)

The experimental value of the interfacial chemical reactions rate corresponding to a concentration of 1-octanol in the organic phase of 20% vol. can be calculated from Fig. 6. Similar to the extraction systems without 1-octanol, the apparent specific reaction rates could be found from the slopes of the straight lines obtained by plotting

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Fig. 7. Graphical calculation of the apparent specific rates of interfacial reactions between rosmarinic acid and Amberlite LA-2 with 1-octanol

By means of the specific reaction rates, the average values of interfacial reaction rates have been calculated for the first 60 minutes of the extraction process with Amberlite LA-2, for the three solvents without and with 1-octanol. The results are comparatively presented in Fig. 8. Because the addition of 1-octanol in dichloromethane does not


modify the mechanism of the reaction between rosmarinic acid and Amberlite LA-2, Fig. 8 indicates that the rate of reaction occurring at the separation interface between the aqueous solution and dichloromethane is not changed in presence of alcohol.

Fig. 8. Average values of the interfacial reaction rates for reactive extraction of rosmarinic acid with Amberlite LA-2 without and with 1-octanol

However, as the result of reducing the number of extractant molecules participating to the reaction with rosmarinic acid in the presence of alcohol, the mechanisms of interfacial reactions for extractions in butyl acetate and n-heptane become less complex compared to the systems without alcohol. For these two solvents, the addition of 1-octanol in the organic phase leads to the increasing of the reaction rate between rosmarinic acid and Amberlite LA-2 for 1.6 times for butyl acetate and 2 times for n-heptane, respectively. The correlation between the experimental and calculated values of interfacial reaction rates for extraction systems with and without 1-octanol is indicated in Fig. 9. It can be seen that the maximum deviation is +11.25% and the average deviation is 5.76%.

3.2. Reactive extraction with D2EHPA The previous experiments indicated that the mechanism of reactive extraction of rosmarinic acid with D2EHPA is not influenced by solvent polarity or by addition of 1-octanol (Kloetzer et al., 2013). Similar to the reactive extraction with Amberlite LA2, by analyzing the dependence between rosmarinic acid mass flow and mixing intensity, the relative magnitude of the two limiting steps can be determined. For extraction systems without 1octanol, the graphical correlations between the acid mass flow and the rotation speed at the optimal pHvalue, pH = 3, are plotted in Fig. 10. Due to the higher efficiency of reactive extraction with D2EHPA compared to that of extraction with Amberlite LA-2, in this case the interfacial mass flows are superior to those corresponding to the extraction with the amine. In the same time, the variations plotted in Fig. 10 suggest the extension of the rotation speed domain corresponding to the diffusional regime by reducing the dielectric constant of the solvent from dichloromethane to n-heptane. Because the mechanism of interfacial reaction between the solute and extractant is similar for all three solvents, this increase of the critical rotation speed is the consequence of the decrease from dichloromethane to n-heptane of the solvent ability to dissolve the interfacial compound (the critical rotation speed increases from 600 rpm for dichloromethane to 800 rpm for butyl acetate, and to about 1000 rpm for nheptane).

Fig. 10. Influence of rotation speed on rosmarinic acid mass flow for reactive extraction with D2EHPA without 1octanol

Fig. 9. Correlation between the experimental and calculated values with equations (2) - (4) of interfacial reaction rates between rosmarinic acid and Amberlite LA-2

In order to calculate the interfacial reaction rate of rosmarinic acid with D2EHPA, the experiments where performed at a rotation speed value corresponding to kinetic regime, namely 1200 rpm. As it was above mentioned, for the extraction system without 1-octanol, the interfacial equilibrium suggests a chemical reaction of third order for all three considered solvents. Therefore, the kinetics of the interfacial reactions can be described mathematically by Eq. (15):

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 n-heptane

dC P 2  k 3  C A0  C P   C HP0  2  C P  d

(15)

k 3  7.52  10 6

s-1

k 3  2.32 104

[L2/mol2.s]

where: CHP0 - initial concentration of D2EHPA, mol/L . Because CHP0 >> CA0, and, consequently, CHP0 >> CP, Eq. (15) is simplified, becoming in the form of Eqs. (16, 17):

dC P   k 3  C A0  C P  d

(16)

 2 k 3  k 3  C HP 0

(17)

The variations of the interfacial product concentrations for the first 60 minutes of extraction process are plotted in Fig. 11 for the three solvents without 1-octanol.

Fig. 12. Graphical calculation of the apparent specific rates of interfacial reactions between rosmarinic acid and Amberlite LA-2 without 1-octanol

The addition of 1-octanol exhibits a positive effect on the solute interfacial transfer rate from the aqueous phase to the solvent one. This effect, which is more important for the solvents with low dielectric constant, is suggested in Fig. 13 by the reduction of the critical rotation speeds compared to those recorded for reactive extraction with D2EHPA without alcohol (in presence of 1-octanol, the value of critical rotation speed decreased from 800 to 600 rpm for butyl acetate, and from 1000 to 800 rpm for n-heptane). Due to the higher polarity of this solvent, the effect of 1-octanol on critical rotation speed was not observed for dichloromethane. Fig. 11. Variation of interfacial product concentration during the reactive extraction with D2EHPA without 1octanol

Using the same algorithm as in the case of reactive extraction with Amberlite LA-2, the apparent specific reaction rates for the extraction with D2EHPA can be calculated from the slopes of the straight lines obtained by plotting the dependence between ln

C A0 C A0  C P

and extraction duration (Fig.

12). Thus, the following values of the apparent specific reaction rates and corresponding specific reaction rates have been obtained:  dichloromethane k 3  1.44  10  5

s-1

k 3  4.46 104

[L2/mol2]

 butyl acetate k 3  1.17  10 5

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s-1

k 3  3.60 104

[L2/mol2.s]

Fig. 13. Influence of rotation speed on rosmarinic acid mass flow for reactive extraction with D2EHPA with 1octanol

Because the mechanism of interfacial reaction between rosmarinic acid and D2EHPA is not modified in presence of 1-octanol, Eqs. (14) - (16) can be taken into consideration for calculating the values of reaction rates for the extraction systems


containing this alcohol. The experimental values of interfacial reaction rates can be determined from Fig. 14. Using the straight lines slopes plotted in Fig. 15, the apparent specific reaction rates and specific reaction rates are calculated for the reactive extraction with D2EHPA in solvents containing 1octanol.

differences between the extraction systems without and with 1-octanol, excepting a slight increase of the reaction rate in presence of this alcohol for the lowpolar solvents, butyl acetate and n-heptane (Fig. 16). The correlation between the experimental and calculated values of the interfacial reaction rates is graphically presented in Fig. 17 and suggests a good concordance between them. According to the plotted data, the maximum deviation is +10.12% and the standard one ±5.03%.

Fig. 14. Variation of interfacial product concentration during the reactive extraction with D2EHPA with 1-octanol Fig. 16. Average values of the interfacial reaction rates for reactive extraction of rosmarinic acid with D2EHPA without and with 1-octanol

Fig. 15. Graphical calculation of the apparent specific rates of interfacial reactions between rosmarinic acid and D2EHPA with 1-octanol

The obtained values are given below:  dichloromethane k 3  1.45  10  5

s-1

k 3  4.47  10  4

[L2/mol2.s]

4. Conclusions

 butyl acetate k 3  1.19  10  5

s-1

2 2 k 3  3.69 104 [L /mol .s]

 n-heptane k 3  8.61  10  6

s-1

Fig. 17. Correlation between the experimental and calculated values with equation (15) of interfacial reaction rates between rosmarinic acid and D2EHPA

k 3  2.66 104 [L /mol .s] 2

2

The comparison between the average values of the interfacial reaction between the acid and the organophosphoric extractant indicated no significant

The mechanism of reactive extraction of rosmarinic acid depends on the extractant type and polarity of the organic phase. The addition of 1octanol has a significant influence in the extraction system with Amberlite LA-2, leading to the increase of interfacial reaction rate for butyl acetate and nheptane. Regardless of the 1-octanol content, the mechanism of the reactive extraction of rosmarinic acid with D2EHPA was similar for all considered solvents. Using the proposed kinetic equations for the

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studied extraction systems, the values of the specific reaction rates have been calculated and compared with the experimental values showing a good correlation. Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Grant ID PN-II-ID-PCE2011-3-0088 authorized by The National Council for Scientific Research - Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation (CNCSUEFISCDI).

References Baskan S., Oztekin N., Bedia Erim F., (2007), Determination of carnosic acid and rosmarinic acid in sage by capillary electrophoresis, Food Chemistry, 101, 1748-1752. Bauer N., Lejak-Levanic D., Jelaska S., (2004), Rosmarinic acid synthesis in transformed callus culture of coleus blumei benth, Zeitschrift fur Naturforschung C, 59, 554-560. Boyadzhiev L., Dimitrova V., (2006), Extraction and Liquid Membrane Preconcentration of Rosmarinic Acid from Lemon Balm (Melissa Officinalis L.), Separation Science and Technology, 41, 877-886. Caşcaval D., Galaction A.I., Nicuţă N., Blaga A.C., (2007), Selective separation of gentamicins from the biosynthetic mixture by reactive extraction, Separation and Purification Technology, 57, 264-269. Chen H., Chen F., Zhang Y.L., Song J.Y., (1999), Production of rosmarinic acid and lithospermic acid B in Ti transformed salvia miltiorrhiza cell suspension cultures, Process Biochemistry, 34, 777-784. Eicher T., Ott M., Speicher A., (1996), New synthesis of rosmarinic acid and related compounds, Synthesis, 6, 755-762. Erkan N., Ayranci G., Ayranci E., (2008), Antioxidant activities of rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) extract, blackseed (Nigella sativa L.) essential oil, carnosic acid, rosmarinic acid and sesamol, Food Chemistry, 110, 76-82. Fortuna M.E., Simion I.M., Gavrilescu M., (2011), Sustainability in environmental remediation, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 12, 1987-1996. Galaction A.I., Kloetzer L., Caşcaval D., (2011), Influence of solvent polarity on the mechanism and efficiency of formic acid reactive extraction with tri-n-octylamine from aqueous solutions, Chemical Engineering & Technology, 34, 1341-1346. Gavrilescu M., Chisti, Y., (2005), Biotechnology - a sustainable alternative for chemical industry, Biotechnology Advances, 23, 471-499.

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Georgiev M., Pavlov A., Ilieva M., (2006), Selection of high rosmarinic acid producing Lavandula vera MM cell lines, Process Biochemistry, 41, 2068-2071. Huang S.S., Zheng R.L., (2006), Rosmarinic acid inhibits angiogenesis and its mechanism of action in vitro, Cancer Letters, 239, 271-280. Kloetzer L. Poştaru M., Galaction A.I., Blaga A.C., Caşcaval D., (2013), Comparative study on rosmarinic acid separation by reactive extraction with Amberlite LA-2 and D2EHPA 1, Interfacial reactions mechanism and influencing factor, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 52, 13785-13794. Park C.H., Martinez B.C., (1992), Enhanced release of rosmarinic acid from Coleus blumei permeabilized by dimethyl sulfoxide while preserving cell viability and growth, Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 40, 459464. Park S.U., Uddin M.R., Xu H., Kim Y.K., Lee S.Y., (2008), Biotechnological applications for rosmarinic acid production in plant, African Journal of Biotechnology, 7, 4959-4965. Petersen M., Hausler E., Karwatzki B., Meinhard J., (1993), Proposed biosynthetic pathway for rosmarinic acid in cell cultures of Coleus blumei benth, Planta, 189, 10-14. Petersen M., Simmonds M.S.J., (2003), Rosmarinic acid, Phytochemistry, 62, 121-125. Rao N.N., Wandrey C., Petersen M., Alfermann A.W., (1991) Enzymatic process for the preparation of rosmarinic acid, Patent US 5,011,775. Scarpati M.L., Oriente G., (1958), Isolamente e constituzione dell’acido rosmarinico (dal Rosmarinus off), Ricerca Scientifica, 28, 2329-2333. Shen D., (2008), Development of anti-inflammatory agents from the aromatic plants, Origanum spp. and Mentha spp. and analytical methods on the quality control of bioactive phenolic compounds, Ph.D.-thesis, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick. Szabo E., Thelen A., Petersen M., (1999), Fungal elicitor preparations and methyl jasmonate enhance rosmarinic acid accumulation in suspension cultures of Coleus blumei, Plant Cell Reports, 18, 485-489. Yang R., Shetty K., (1998), Stimulation of rosmarinic acid in shoot cultures of oregano (Origanum vulgare) clonal line in response to proline, proline analogue, and proline precursors, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 46, 2888-2893. Zelic B., Hadolin M., Bauman D., Vasic-Racki D., (2005), Recovery and purification of rosmarinic acid from rosemary using electrodialysis, Acta Chimica Slovenica, 52, 126-130. Zinsmeister H.D., Becker H., Eicher T., (1991), Moose, eine Quelle biologisch aktiver Naturstoffe?, Angewandte Chemie, 103, 134-151.


June 2014, Vol.13, No. 6, 1483-1495



VISITOR MANAGEMENT TOOLS FOR PROTECTED AREAS FOCUSED ON SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT: THE CROATIAN EXPERIENCE Lidija Petrić, Ante Mandić University of Split, Faculty of Economics, Cvite Fiskovića 5, 21 000 Split, Croatia

Abstract The protected natural areas are becoming increasingly popular vacation destinations with both international and domestic travellers. Protected area may be an area of land and/or sea dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and managed through legal or other means. It might have many different purposes. This means that biodiversity protection, though a critically important function is far from being the only purpose and is often not the primary purpose of many protected areas. As an ever-growing activity, tourism in protected areas produces benefits and cost that often interact in complex ways. Therefore, it is obvious that special attention has to be paid to the protected areas governance model and its effectiveness, especially in terms of the planning and control process enhancement for the purpose of avoiding possible conflicts over nature protection and tourism development. This paper focuses on the analysis of problems that protected areas are facing in relation to tourism development, in particular from the Croatian protected areas’ point of view (specifically, national parks and nature parks). Additionally it offers some recommendations concerning possible environmental management strategies, specifically those related to visitor management, whose tools ought to be implemented in order to keep both the protected areas’ system and tourism development sustainable. These recommendations are to be discussed from the prospective of the new governance system implementation that might help in achieving the sustainability goals of Croatian protected areas. Key words: Croatia, protected areas, sustainability, tourism, visitor management tools Received: August, 2013; Revised final: May, 2014; Accepted: June, 2014

1. Introduction The specific evolution from mass tourism to sustainable tourism has resulted in a new tourist offer based on preserved and indigenous resources. An ever rising tourist interest in such resources leads to the need for their protection from possible degradation (Pérez-Kallens et al., 2013). According to the Institute for Tourism report (IT, 2006), demand for nature-based tourism in the early 2000 contributes 7% to the world’s total tourism demand with its annual growth rates ranging from 10% to 30%. Additionally, adventure tourism demand, which is also nature-based, has been growing 

annually by 8% and ecotourism demand has contributed total world’s tourist demand between 7% and 10% with its growth rates ranging between 2% and 4%. Ecotourism, the main topic of this research, is usually considered to be more than just nature-based tourism (Hernández-Mogollón et al., 2013). According to the World Conservation Union’s Commission on National Parks and Protected Areas (IUCN), ecotourism is defined as an “environmentally responsible travel and visitation to relatively undisturbed natural areas, in order to enjoy and appreciate nature (and any accompanying cultural features - both past and present) that

Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: [email protected]; Phone: +385 21 430 670; Fax: +385 21 430 701

Petrić and Mandić/Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1483-1495

promotes conservation, has low visitor negative impact and provides for beneficially active socioeconomic involvement of local populations” (as cited in Tsaur et al., 2006). United Nations World Tourist Organization (UNWTO) defines it as an activity that improves the quality of life of the local community, offers extraordinary experience to visitors, and maintains the quality of the environment on which it depends (Sanjay, 2000). Drumm and Moore (2005) see ecotourism as a journey to a relatively undisturbed, intact natural area in order to study, admire and enjoy the landscape and its wildlife as well as its cultural heritage. Hundreds of articles and books have been written so far dealing with the ecotourism definition and related issues. As Weaver and Lawton (2007) have reported, it was only in the period from 1997 to 2007 that at least 300 of refereed English language journal articles and an equally large number of books and book chapters have been written on this topic. However, the authors have agreed that despite such an abundance of literature and definitions, consensus has been reached that “ecotourism should satisfy three core criteria, i.e. (1) attractions should be predominantly nature-based, (2) visitor interactions with those attractions should be focused on learning or education, and (3) experience and product management should follow principles and practices associated with ecological, socio-cultural and economic sustainability” (Weaver and Lawton, 2007). What is seen as the greatest benefit of ecotourism is the acquisition of personal experience and education that allow the visitors to understand and start appreciating the natural and spatial values that may frequently be taken for granted (Obenaus, 2005). However, due to the ever rising threats posed to the protected areas by the growth of both the visitor numbers as well as the number of tourism suppliers, it is of the utmost importance to manage such areas holistically and in an integrated way, by designing effective management plans and governance regimes to implement them. A good and effective governance regime includes not only governments but also other stakeholders, actors and non-state agencies and requires a multi-faceted and multi-disciplinary approach (Buteau-Duitschaever et al., 2010; Ioppolo et al., 2013; Sampford, 2002). To this end, apart from the benefits gained from the traditional scientific methods on environment and its management, it is also important to recognize the importance of engaging local ecological knowledge in the management of protected areas. In order to fully engage this alternative knowledge system (as opposed to the western/scientific management approach currently in place), local people need to be partners at all stages of research and management (Gerhardinger et al., 2009).

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2. Research theoretical framework 2.1. Tourism and protected areas Although it might be assumed that the term 'protected' implies that any activities are banned from such areas, nowadays they are seen as a perfect location to develop ecotourism and meet the needs of specific segments in the tourist market (Obenaus, 2005). However, as stated earlier, to generate the positive effects for the local community, protected areas have to be properly managed. The starting point of this process is the classification of a concrete area under one of the categories of protected parts of nature (Dudley, 2008). The mere classification of a particular area as a protected part of nature and determination of its formal geographical boundaries does not necessarily mean that the area has been adequately protected. The protection and adequate use of the resources has to be defined by the legal framework and realised by the corresponding strategic plans implemented by a proactive and expert management (IUCN, 1994). This ensures optimization and achievement of all goals without negative effects on the particular protected area. The IUCN 2007 Guidelines stimulate the protection of its ecosystem bio-integrity and development of its recreational and tourist potential, which requires the management bodies of national parks to actively promote sustainability by developing recreation and tourism (Mayer et al., 2010). The development of ecotourism in protected areas is increasingly seen as an ideal development strategy for rural and peripheral areas (Geić, 2011; Petrić, 2011). The decision on development of ecotourism in a protected natural area such as a national park has to be preceded by a complex process based on a number of assessments of its effects (Dharmaratne et al., 2000; Eagles et al., 2002; Obenaus, 2005). In an atmosphere of increasing dissatisfaction with the consumerist attitudes of the government and society in general, ecotourism is perceived as a promoter of sustainable development and environmental awareness (Björk, 2000). It is also an increasingly important source of revenue in the protected areas, since they are typically financed through public (often insufficient) sources (Björk, 2000). Besides, it helps increase employment and income for the locals, it stimulates and diversifies the local economy, encourages local manufacture of goods, supports research and development of good environmental practices etc. The Austrian data show that as much as 33% of the total revenues from tourism are (directly and indirectly) generated by the national parks (Obenaus, 2005). On the other hand, the benefits generated by tourism in protected areas are accompanied by rising costs: financial, economic, socio-cultural and environmental (Eagles et al., 2002; Petrić and Mikulić, 2012).

Visitor management tools for protected areas focused on sustainable tourism development: The Croatian experience

Most of the rising costs are caused by uncontrolled expansion of the number of tourists accompanied by the expansion of investment in tourist infrastructure (boom-bust cycle), which leads to the short-term increase in tourist consumption and consequently revenues, but is followed by an economic decline, thus generating problems for the environment and spatial planning (Epler Wood, 2002). Only way to deal with this problem is to define the limits of acceptable change in terms of interrelated carrying capacities, which can be spatial, perceptual, social and economic (Gösling, 1999). Based on these capacities, a proper management system ought to be introduced with the set of tools aimed at avoiding and/or minimizing negative effects of tourism development. 2.2. Managing development of tourism in protected areas as a precondition of sustainable development The model of managing protected areas, especially national parks, largely depends on the financing model. There are two basic models of national park financing: a) Budget financing, characteristic for North American national parks, by which the government allocates part of tax revenues to national parks. The revenues depend on the government budget, disregarding the number of visitors to the park. b) Self-financing, characteristic for South-East African national parks, where revenues result from ticket sales, accommodation and services fees, and donations. The number of visitors here is of utmost importance (Eagles and McCool, 2000). As for the European protected areas governance and financing regime, different patterns could be observed. Hence, apart from the model of the government financed protected area management bodies that exist in most European countries, some countries (such as Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, UK) have vested most management and budgetary responsibilities for nature conservation at subnational (regional) level. Some protected areas are managed and financed by the local authorities in partnership with other stakeholders (e.g. Dutch national parks, French and Italian regional nature parks, West German nature parks, and all Swiss parks). Some protected areas with the lower level of protection are managed by the non-governmental organisations (such as Belgium’s Natagora and Natuurpunt) or by the partially privatized government enterprises (e.g. Finish Metsähallitus). In Central and Eastern Europe, protected areas run by non-governmental organisations are still the exception rather than the rule (Nolte et al., 2010). However, regardless the financing model in use, managing the number of visitors, either attracting or limiting them, is of crucial importance for the sustainability of a protected area. Managing visitor flows requires detailed information on interaction between visitors and the environment, and on their time and spatial distribution (Cole and

Daniel, 2003). According to Eagles et al. (2002), it is possible to control the number of visitors to a park by using various strategies: supply management, demand management, resource management, and space usage effect management. Within these strategic approaches, a number of authors (Eagles et al., 2002; Page, 2011; Petrić, 2011; Weaver, 2006, etc.) point to the possibility of using different visitor management tools that can be generally divided into four groups: institutional tools, economic tools, managerial tools, and information technology tools. Institutional, or, according to Weaver (2006), hard tools include: area zoning, limiting of free access, concentration or dispersion of tourist flows, limiting some activities, spatial planning, application of eco-certificates, setting quotas and limiting the size of visitor groups. This group of tools is the basis for setting the sustainability principles in the protected natural area. Their number and intensity allows the managers to take a restrictive but sufficiently flexible approach to decision making. Hence, their implementation is dominant in the management of Croatian protected areas. Zoning is the crucial institutional instrument in managing protected area. It is applied to limit the movement of visitors and ensure the adequate balance between the concentration and dispersion of visitors and activities within the park. Zoning is a complex process differing from park to park and depending on the size of the protected area (Obenaus, 2005). Rollins (as cited in Fennell, 1999) states that the zoning process must be primarily based on the features of natural resources rather than on recreational potential. The zoning process involves the managerial choice between the strategy of concentration and dispersion of recreational activities within the park (Eagles et al., 2002). To implement the zoning system successfully, it is necessary to simultaneously apply other institutional tools, among which spatial planning is a basic one. All other institutional tools can be applied individually or as part of the zoning decisions. Although belonging to the category of institutional tools (once they have been adopted), when dealing with limiting visitor pressure, eco-certificates are not so important. Regarding the way of their application, they could rather be categorised as managerial (marketing) tools. Thus, for example, some protected areas have decided to acquire the Pan Parks certificate to attract environmentally sensitive visitors. Economic tools to manage visitor flows are: price differentiation, environmental-tourist taxes, Environmental Management Charge (EMC), visitor payback, incentives to private and public sector aimed at spatial and time dispersion of tourist traffic, stimulation of rational use of energy and other resources by public or private sector. The first three tools are restrictive and they can significantly affect the number of visitors. On the other hand, since every economic instrument eventually translates into a cost to the visitor, the optimal solution would rather be to manage the visitor flow by institutional tools. When

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introducing differentiated prices, it is necessary to take into account the attendance rate to a particular protected area. Visitor payback is based on collecting donations from visitors. As such, the instrument can be implemented anywhere providing that there are visitors willing to donate. Managerial (soft tools) include reservation techniques, information management, training of planners, local community education, and choice of specific market segments, i.e. target marketing and market control by agreements with the main service providers. Application of these tools is characteristic for the areas that are achieving the upper limit of carrying capacity, or for those coping with excessive attendance. The fourth group relates to the information technology tools that involve geographical-information systems and decisionmaking support systems. These highly sophisticated tools are in fact technical support to the management process, thus contributing to an easier managing of visitor flow and monitoring of any exceeding of a park (destination) capacity. Implementation of these tools requires a complex and systematic approach to the management of protected areas as micro destinations. The information system for the protection of nature in Croatia is managed by the National Institute for Nature Protection which manages all the records necessary to set up the geographical-information system and decisionmaking support system. Unfortunately, sometimes all of the above tools are not sufficient to ensure sustainability and protection of some valuable area because of human irresponsibility that can come from any group of stakeholders. 3. Case study: protected areas in Croatia 3.1. Institutional framework of development and management of protected areas Protected natural areas, particularly national parks and nature parks, which are the object of this research, make an important segment in the tourist offer of the Republic of Croatia. Therefore, it is no wonder that they are regulated by a number of legal acts and strategic documents (OG, 2013a), among which the most important are: a. Sustainable development strategy of Croatia b. Environmental protection plan of Croatia c. Environmental protection program d. Report on environmental conditions e. Protected area management plans f. Spatial plans. Environmental protection in Croatia requires cooperation and coordination of numerous institutions and bodies such as the Government, ministries, counties, the National Institute for Nature Protection, the National Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund.

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The Nature Protection Law (OG, 2013a), based on the generally accepted classification of IUCN, defines nine categories of protection of attractive natural areas on the territory of Croatia, among which the most significant are strict nature reserve, national park, special reserve, and nature park. In the context of tourism exploitation, national parks and nature parks are the most important areas under direct government protection. In June 2008, the Croatian protected areas, including those under preventive protection, covered 7,457.31 sq km. The total protected area comprises 11.32% of land and 3.38% of the territorial sea, or 8.51% of the total area of Croatia, which includes 8 national parks and 11 nature parks (MC, 2008). Most of the protected areas are located in the coastal region (6 national parks and 6 nature parks). Among these, there are 3 marine national parks and 2 marine parks of nature (Fig. 1). It is important to stress that coastal region is the most visited by both domestic and international tourists. Thus, in 2012 out of 62.7 mil overnights realized in Croatia, 96% were realized in the seven coastal counties, compared to only 4% of overnights realized in the remaining 14 counties (MT, 2012). 3.2. Tourism development in the Croatian protected areas Managing protected areas and developing tourism within them is a very challenging process. Due to the ambiguity of the key documents such as spatial plans and management plans, their managers are often compelled to act in a disorganised way, sometimes making arrangements that may not have positive effects nor be in the best interest of the area itself or its visitors. The research carried out by the World Bank (Valuation of Tourism Benefits for Croatia’s Protected Areas) confirms a continuing rise of the number of visitors to Croatian national parks, but also points to the increasing problem of congestion occurring at their entrances and exits (Spurgeon et al., 2010). The data from this research as well as those from the research made by the Institute for Tourism (IT, 2006), reveal the high propensity of domestic and foreign visitors to 'consume' the protected areas, which will be further elaborated in this paper. Spatial organization, the usage and protection mode in national parks and nature parks are regulated by spatial plans (MC, 2008). According to the data presented on the National Institute for Nature Protection web site, the following national parks have spatial plans: Brijuni (2001), Kornati (2003), Krka (1990), Mljet (2012), Paklenica (1999), Risnjak (2001), and Sjeverni (Northern) Velebit (2012), while for the national park Plitvička jezera (Plitvice lakes) there is a proposal of the spatial plan (National Institute for Nature Protection, 2013a).


Fig. 1. Spatial distribution of National Parks and Nature Parks in Croatia (Croatia Camping Union, 2013)

Among the eight national parks, only three have recently created new spatial plans, while the rest have spatial plans that are more than ten years old, and the spatial plan for the NP Krka is 23 years old (a new one is being prepared). The situation in the nature parks is even worse. Only a few of them have spatial plans, while for most of them they are only being prepared. According to the National Institute for Nature Protection, the following nature parks have spatial plans: Kopački rit (2006), Lonjsko polje (2010), Telašćica (1988) – a new spatial plan under preparation, Učka (2006), while for Biokovo, the Lastovsko otočje (Lastovo Archipelago), Papuk, Vrana Lake and Žumberak they are being prepared, and there is a spatial plan proposal for Medvednica nature park (National Institute for Nature Protection, 2013b). Concerning the current situation in strategic spatial and developmental planning, it is obvious that ecotourism cannot adequately affirm its positive environmental, economic or ethical aspects. Protected areas are managed by public institutions established by the Croatian Government. According to the regulations of the Environmental Protection Law (OG, 2013b), management of the strict reserve, national park, regional park, and protected landscape is to be based on the ten year management plan, which clearly defines the mode of protection, usage and management of the protected area, and provides the guidelines for protection and preservation of its natural values, taking into account the needs of the local population. Management plans were worked out and adopted by the following national parks: Plitvička jezera (MC, 2007a), Paklenica (MC, 2007b), Risnjak (MC, 2007c), Sjeverni Velebit (MC, 2007d) and nature parks: Velebit (MC, IBRD/GEF, 2007), Učka (PI Učka, 2010) and Lonjsko polje (PI Lonjsko polje, 2008).

The national parks Brijuni, Krka, Kornati and Mljet, as well as nature parks Lastovo, Medvednica, Telašćica and Papuk are still preparing them. Unfortunately, it must be noted that, in spite of the defined obligation of monitoring, none of the management plans completed so far include any scenarios or measures that are to be taken if the values of the protected area are threatened. Furthermore, the plans do not include a clear strategy of visitor flow management, but only a seasonal differentiation of the entrance ticket price. When working out spatial plans and management plans for protected areas, all legal acts defining the use of such areas have to be taken into account. The Nature Protection Law (OG, 2013a) strictly defines which activities can be carried out in any protected natural areas. Paradoxically, the Law does not clearly state both the activities that can threaten the protected features, or which business activities can be undertaken, except for the national parks. Such ambiguities have to be corrected by regulations provided in the management plans. Additional problems of the national parks and nature parks in Croatia are lack of financial and human resources (Petrić, 2008; Petrić and Mikulić, 2012). Namely, the main financial resource for national parks and nature parks is the government budget, while only a small part of resources results from the park activities. The Nature Protection Law is partly to blame for this situation, because while it prescribes a strong autonomy of the institutions that run the national parks, it significantly limits the management of nature parks. Another problem of the Croatian protected areas is a lack of qualified workforce, especially in the field of tourism and recreation (Petrić, 2008; Petrić and Mikulić, 2012).

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4. Results of empirical research and discussion

implementation of strategic management documents and tools used by the Croatian protected areas.

4.1. Research methodology 4.2. Research results The need for a more detailed insight in the current application of modern scientific ideas in the Croatian protected areas management led to a specific empirical research. The sample included the management of all 8 national parks of Croatia, e.g. Brijuni, Kornati, Krka, Mljet, Paklenica, Plitvička jezera, Risnjak, Sjeverni Velebit, and the 11 nature parks, e.g. Biokovo, Kopački rit, Lonjsko polje, Medvednica, Papuk, Telašćica, Učka, Velebit, Vransko jezero, Žumberak – Samoborsko gorje, Lastovsko otočje. The intended sample comprised experts expected to be familiar with the issue. The survey was performed by a questionnaire consisting of 13 questions, of which six were structured, three openended, and four asked for agreement/disagreement on a 1-7 Likert scale. As this study starts from the theoretical assumption that the implementation of various strategic management documents is an indispensable precondition for sustainability of protected areas, particularly in the context of an increasing interest of visitors, the empirical part of the study sets out to investigate to what extent these documents are developed and used, with a special highlight on the visitor flow management plans with the related tools. The research was carried out in March 2013. The questionnaire was e-mailed to the managers of all national parks and nature parks. As a relatively small number of responses was obtained after the first emailing, it was repeated in April, and eventually responses were obtained by the managers of 6 national parks (Brijuni, Kornati, Krka, Paklenica, Plitvička jezera, Sjeverni Velebit) and 8 nature parks (Biokovo, Lonjsko polje, Medvednica, Papuk, Učka, Velebit, Žumberak, Lastovsko otočje). The sample comprised in total 19 protected areas, while the responses were obtained from 14 of them, which makes a 73.68 % response rate (75% of national parks and 73 % of nature parks). This provides a quite reliable picture of the current situation in the

From the data collected it is evident that the largest number of visitors is recorded by the national park Plitvička jezera, followed by the national park Krka, both of them being located on either an important tourist road or nearby well known tourist destinations in the coastal counties. In 2012 the number of visitors to the national park Plitvička jezera exceeded for the first time a million (amounting to 1,061,616), while Krka national park realized more than 750,000 visitors. This suggests a strong need to implement the strategies of visitor flow management to minimize the threat of degradation of their natural resources. In all the national parks there was a slight decline of visitors in 2009 due to the negative economic trends in the most important emissive markets at that time. The recovery was recorded already in the following year and the rising trend continued throughout 2011. Special attention is to be paid to the national park Kornati. Since it is an archipelago, statistical recording of visitors is difficult. According to the information obtained from the management, up to 2007 individual tickets were sold per person, and from then on the tickets were charged to vessels, while organized visits were charged per number of visitors up to 2008 and from then on per number of boat entrances. The fact that this national park covers an area of 320 sq km and 150 islands makes it difficult to control the number of visitors and their activities. The 2008 data refer to the number of tourist boats visiting the archipelago in the pre-season, main season and post-season, while the number of people should be much higher. Taking into account the data supplied by the research done by the Institute for tourism (IT, 2012) stating that the number of passengers per boat were from 1 (1% of respondents) to 7 and more (13.6% of respondents), it can be concluded that the number of visitors to Kornati was much higher than shown in the Fig. 2.

Fig. 2. Total numbers of visitors in National parks from 2006 to 2011 (Based on data collected through own research from National parks official websites)

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These are alarming data, taking that there is neither precise control of boats entering the national park area nor any strategy to manage the flow of visitors, as the archipelago is an extremely sensitive biological system. On the other hand, in spite of their extraordinary natural value, the national parks Paklenica and Sjeverni (Northern) Velebit record an unexpectedly small number of visitors. This may signal the poor implementation or even non-existence of strategies to attract visitors. Another reason can be that in the mountainous area it is difficult to monitor the number of visitors and sell them entrance tickets. That is why the real number of visitors largely exceeds the recorded one. A similar situation is evident in some nature parks, as will be expounded below. Fig. 3 reveals that Biokovo mountain (also located along one of the most visited tourist rivieras, e.g. Makarska Riviera in the Split-Dalmatia County) and the Lastovsko otočje are nature parks with the most recorded visitors. In most of the observed nature parks, the number of visitors dropped in 2009, followed by a recovery in 2010, except in Papuk that records a continuing decline of visitors. Recording the number of visitors is another noticeable problem for some nature parks. Of the 8 nature parks observed here, 2 (Žumberak and Učka) do not record the number of visitors at all. The number of visitors presented in the Fig. 3 is based on the estimates by their management. Furthermore, as a group of islands, the Lastovsko otočje does not have an official entrance or exit, so the estimation of the number of visitors is based on the number of nautical day-tickets sold. In spite of the continuing rise of visits, Medvednica and Lonjsko polje do not record the total number of visitors, but only those who buy the tickets for some of the attractions in the area. Such a complex situation makes it impossible not only to establish and implement necessary visitor flow management tools, but also to implement the entire management strategy.

The surveyed respondents were asked to estimate the importance of tourism as the source of revenue in the protected area on a Likert scale anchored with 1 (extremely small importance) and 7 (extremely high importance). The mean response in the observed national parks was 5.6, which confirmed tourism as a strong generator of income both currently and in the future, unless the Croatian model of financing national parks is not radically changed. However, these data reveal that all the national parks, and especially those with a low number of visitors, will have to invest in activities that will attract more visitors in order to achieve higher revenues. This makes the requirement for the systematic planning of an optimal number of visitors, and preparation and implementation of the visitor flow management strategy, even more urgent. The managers of the observed nature parks assessed the importance of tourism as income generator with a lower rating, 4.25, but considering the low number of recorded visitors and the current mode of financing, such assessment was expected. This can be confirmed by the fact that the nature parks with the highest number of recorded visitors (Biokovo and Lastovo) rated the importance of tourism with the highest response (7). Among the 6 observed national parks, 4 (Sjeverni Velebit, Plitvička jezera, Krka, Paklenica) have adopted the management plan, while in 2 of them (Kornati, Brijuni) it has still been worked on. The preparation of management plans was financed by the national parks themselves, by the Karst Ecosystem Conservation Project (KEC), by the grants of Global Environment Fund, by IBRD (The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) and by the Croatian Ministry of Culture. Among the observed nature parks, Medvednica, Lonjsko polje, Velebit, Papuk, and Učka have adopted management plans, while in Biokovo, the Lastovo Archipelago and Žumberak it is being processed.

Fig. 3. Total numbers of visitors in Nature parks from 2006 to 2011 (Based on data collected through own research from Nature parks official websites)

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The survey also required the managers of national and nature parks with adopted management plans to state their degree of agreement with some key statements (1 for low and 7 for high degree of agreement): 1) The development of tourism in protected natural areas has a negative effect on the sensitive natural resources. The mean rating in national parks was 5.25, which confirms that their managers recognize the potentially negative effects of tourism. In nature parks the mean rating was considerably lower (2.6). This can be explained in two ways. Namely, it is possible to conclude that the nature park managers do not perceive the negative consequences of tourism in protected natural areas due to the comparatively low number of visitors, while another conclusion may be that the surveyed managers recognized the value of adequate management plans, which among other things also propose measures to prevent and eliminate the negative effects of tourism in protected natural areas. 2) Management plan as the basic strategic document in management of protected areas significantly contributes to the minimization of negative effects of tourism on the environment. The mean rating in the national parks was 5.25, while in nature parks it was 5.2. These responses lead to the conclusion that both national park and nature park managers recognize the potential of the strategic documents such as the management plan in minimizing the negative effects of tourism on the environment, and also their limitations if there are no clear measures to implement them. It is to be noted that the rating of the National park Plitvička jezera was 4, and of the nature park Velebit was 3. Since the former is a national park with the highest number of visitors and the latter is a nature park with a continuing rise of visitors, such ratings could lead to the conclusion that their managers recognized the need to work out

additional planning documents such as the visitor flow management strategy, which could complete the process of strategic planning in given protected areas. 3) The current management plan contains adequate guidelines for active response to all environmental challenges that might arise in the future. The mean rating in national parks was 5 while in nature parks it was 3.8. This shows that as the basis for prevention of environmental degradation the strategic documents are seen as deficient or inadequately adapted to the needs of the protected area or the needs of the public institutions using them. It may also mean that respondents are not familiar enough with the significance of such a document or with the need for development planning. If the guidelines are not defined by the Management plans, it is necessary to create them by other strategic documents such as Visitor flow management strategy, which may ensure minimization of potential environmental degradation. 4) The current planning documents do not contain adequate tools of visitor flow management in protected areas. The mean rating in national parks was 4.75, while in nature parks it was 4. The national parks Krka and Plitvička jezera, which are also the two most frequently visited protected areas in Croatia, have defined visitor flow management tools, unlike Sjeverni Velebit and Paklenica. Precise interpretation of responses can lead to the conclusion that pointing to the visitor flow management tools the managers mainly think of zoning, and if they list some other tools it is obvious that they have not been worked out in a separate strategic document such as visitor flow management plan. In nature parks the situation is even worse. The questionnaire offered 19 visitor flow management tools and asked the protected area managers to identify those they currently use. The Fig. 4 shows the frequency of their implementation in the national parks.

Fig. 4. Visitor flow management tools in the National Parks (Based on data collected through own research)

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It is to be noted that the Brijuni national park (it achieved national recognition after it was revealed that the former Yugoslav president Tito used it as one of his favourite residences) and Paklenica did not state any of the 19 tools as a measure actively applied on their territory. Taking into account the remaining national parks, it can be concluded that the most frequently used tools are: area zoning and limitation of some activities (actively applied in four of the six observed national parks), and also limitation of free access, dispersion of tourist flows, selection by price differentiation, education of local community and use of GIS (geographical-information systems). The application of such tools leads to the conclusion that visitor flow management is mainly performed by zoning, as a tool defined by the Management plan, and by differentiating entrance tickets. An insight into ticket prices, for example in the national park Plitvička jezera, reveals that the pricing policy cannot ensure an adequate time redistribution of tourist demand. Namely, only two periods are differentiated (November to March and April to October) with a comparatively small difference in price for particular categories of visitors, and it should be much greater if visitors are to be motivated to come during the low season. Also, by offering additional discounts, the pricing policy is adapted to attracting large groups of visitors and families with children, which enhances the pressure on the area. In the national park Krka, the pricing policy is to some extent different. They determine three pricing periods for individual and group visits. The ticket price differs significantly between the low/shoulder seasons and the high season (30 kunas for individual tickets in the off season and 95 kunas in the peak season). Implementation of the same tools can also be analysed in the observed nature parks. It is obvious that the most frequently applied tools are area zoning and limitation of activities, as well as education of the local community (Fig. 5). This leads to the conclusion that the tools are elements of the management plan and that their implementation does

not result from a separate document such as a visitor flow management plan. It is also to be noted that the managers of Lonjsko Polje and Lastovo Archipelago did not admit the implementation of any of these measures. The contribution of the implemented visitor flow management tools to better preservation of resources in protected areas was rated 5 by the national parks managers. Considering that these tools were the elements of the management plan in 5 national parks (excluding Plitvička jezera), it can be concluded that a lot remains to be done to develop detailed tools in separate documents that will consider not only the geospatial features of the area, its needs, its current and desired condition and biological diversity, but also the expected market trends and trends in tourism. This can be confirmed by the fact that all managers agreed that all protected natural areas should nowadays have a completed visitor flow management strategy, and that such strategies will have an increasing importance in the future, primarily due to the expected rise of visitors. The mean rating obtained from the nature parks’ managers was 4.12. The tools applied result mainly from the management plan as the only strategic management document possessed by most of the nature parks. The only exception is the nature park Učka whose management plan anticipates the preparation of a special document to regulate the visitor flows in that protected area. It is to be noted that the nature parks’ managers also recognized the need to work out a document to regulate the visitor flows in spite of the small number of recorded visitors. A special disadvantage for some nature parks (Žumberak and Učka) is that they do not have any system in place to monitor the number of visitors. In the final part of the questionnaire, the respondents were presented with a list of problems that they potentially faced when managing protected areas. They were asked to assess the importance of the proposed problems (1- low importance, 7- high importance).

Fig. 5. Visitor flow management tools in the Nature Parks (Based on data collected through own research)

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The problems proposed by the researchers were: 1) Poor communication and cooperation with the institutions in charge of protected areas, 2) Lack of understanding by the Government for the specific problems facing the managers of protected areas, 3) Lack of financial resources needed for preparation of studies, plans, and strategies, 4) Lack of adequately trained human resources, especially in the areas of marketing and management, 5) Poor knowledge of trends in the tourist market, 6) Low awareness of the need to protect the extremely valuable natural areas. The results reveal that the greatest problem recognized by the national parks managers was the poor communication and cooperation with the institutions in charge of protected areas (rated 4.4) and lack of understanding by the Government for the specific problems they face (rated 4). Lack of financial resources for preparation of the needed studies, plans, and strategies and the low awareness of the need to protect the extremely valuable natural areas were rated 3.6 and 2.8 respectively, while the least important problem was the poor knowledge of trends in the tourist market (2.6). The managers of nature parks saw the lack of financial resources for preparation of the needed studies, plans, and strategies (rated 5.9) and the low awareness of the need to protect the extremely valuable natural areas (rated 5.3) as the most serious problems. They also see the lack of understanding by the Government for the specific problems they are facing as a significant problem (rated 4.4). They consider the lack of adequately trained human resources a problem of relatively low importance (2.8), as well as the poor knowledge of trends in the tourist market (2.9). Poor communication and cooperation with the institutions in charge of protected areas obtained an average rating of 3. Comparing the significance given to particular problems by managers of national parks and managers of nature parks, it is obvious that in national parks the significant problems are communication with institutions in charge of them and lack of understanding for their managing problems by the Government, while in nature parks the significant problems are lack of financial resources needed for preparation of planning documents and the relatively low awareness on the need to protect the extremely valuable natural areas. The above presented results might also be confirmed by the fact that five Croatian marine protected areas, i.e. Brijuni, Kornati, Mljet, Telašćica and Lastovsko otočje have recently joined an international initiative aimed at improving the management effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the south and east Mediterranean and supporting the creation of new ones.

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It is called MedPAN South Project, officially led by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Mediterranean. It has made a network of more than 20 national and international organizations to deliver an ambitious programme of support for the MPAs and relevant authorities in the 11 Global Environment Facility (GEF) eligible countries of the south and east Mediterranean (Gomei and Di Carlo, 2012). The MedPAN South Project aims to enhance the effective conservation of regionally important coastal and marine biodiversity features by supporting 11 countries in the south and east Mediterranean to improve the management effectiveness of their existing MPAs and establish new ones, and by strengthening MedPAN, the Mediterranean network of MPA managers. The MedPAN South Project authorities had created a list of problems (challenges) that marine protected areas had to face with if they wished to become eligible to join the project. Being almost the same as the ones proposed in this research, they additionally affirm that Croatian protected areas’ governance authorities are faced with:  the lack of well-defined conservation objectives and management plans;  insufficient funds;  insufficient and poorly trained field staff;  insufficient information about protected areas status and basic ecological issues;  weak networking and capacity sharing among MPA managers, practitioners and responsible  authorities;  high interference with other human activities occurring in coastal zones, mainly tourism and fisheries;  weak MPA integration into landscape and broader development plans;  lack of local support because of little information available and participation (Gomei and Di Carlo, 2012). 5. Recommendations for further actions The above explained situation poses the need to design an optimal model to manage Croatia’s protected areas. Due to a number of problems, there has recently been a dispute in Croatia (though a very short one) on the possible changes in the mode of management of protected natural areas, and the proposed solutions have been between the two opposing options - whether to keep the current model where each protected area has its own management or integrate all the management functions in one body following the U.S. model. The former option has prevailed, meaning that the model has not changed at all. Since it achieved very little success thus far, there is an urgent need to make it more efficient especially as the new proposals include a more intensive use of resources for economic purposes, primarily in tourism.


In that sense a number of practical tools might be proposed, such as The Consolidation Scorecard devised by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) (Martin and Reiger, 2003), the Rapid Assessment and Prioritization of Protected Areas Management (RAPPAM) concept, the Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool developed by inter alia the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Conservation Action Planning Methodology and many others (Fritz -Vietta et al., 2008, Nolte et al., 2010). Besides, the model that has recently been often recommended for an integrated system of territorial planning and performance measurement, that can easily be applied in protected areas management process is the Balance Scorecard (BSC) model, developed by Kaplan and Norton in 1996 (Notarstefano and Volo, 2012), with adaptations and practical applications done by Ioppolo et al. (2013) on the case of two islands, Djerba in Tunisia and Hvar in Croatia. The Balance Scorecard is a strategic analytic tool by which an organisation or a local territory system or in this case, a public institution managing protected area, can measure its performances not only through financial indicators but also through internal processes’ perspective, new public governance perspective, learning and innovation perspective and territorial strategy development perspective (Iopppolo et al., 2013). The idea of the BSC model, as presented by Notarstefano and Volo (2012), is that if each stakeholder is held accountable for making contributions, and they are measured on their contribution to all the areas that drive the long term viability, sustainability and profitability of the territory, they will shape their behaviour to the necessities for such wide range and long term performance. Hence, this model represents a departure from traditional performance measures based predominantly on economic and financial indicators, and a transition to a balanced approach that includes multiple measures. Such approach supports the creation of a local (or a protected area) governance system that identifies a shared sustainable development strategy. Unfortunately, the protected areas’ governance model that is in use in Croatia is still pretty far from being efficient, which can be seen not only in terms of deficiencies of both strategic documents and a number of visitor management tools in use, but also in terms of participation and cooperation among the key stakeholders, management and marketing knowledge, capability of human resources etc., all of which have been perceived inefficient to a greater or lesser extent by a number of protected areas’ managers. 6. Conclusions Development of tourism in the protected areas is an extremely complex and delicate process. For successful affirmation of all the positive effects of this economic activity, it is necessary to take a strategic approach to tourism and spatial planning.

Such an approach has to take into account the current condition of these resources, the desired social, economic and environmental effects, and the principles of sustainability that have to be implemented. Croatia is faced with the challenge of managing abundant natural and anthropogenic resources aiming to improve its attractiveness to tourists. The survey carried out in Croatian protected areas shows a rising trend in visitor numbers in the recent years and numerous problems facing these areas. In national parks and nature parks, particularly those located on the islands and mountains, controlling the number of visitors is an evident problem, which may be related to the present governance model and its poor effectiveness resulting in inadequate strategic planning and implementation of guidelines stated in the plans. The survey confirms the existence of management plan as the basic strategic document in a number of national parks and nature parks, but unfortunately not in all of them. None of them developed a visitor flow management strategy containing concrete tools, which is a quite a handicap considering an ever rising trend of visitor numbers. The rise of tourism as an activity that can significantly contribute to the financing of the observed national parks and nature parks will be an additional challenge for their managers. They will have to balance the optimal number of visitors to maximize the positive economic effects and minimize the negative environmental and sociocultural effects. References Björk P., (2000), Ecotourism from a conceptual perspective, an extended definition of a unique tourism form, International Journal of Tourism Research, 2, 189-202. Buteau – Duitschaever C.W., McCutcheon B., Eagles F.J. P., Havitz M.E., Glover T.D., (2010), Park visitors’ perceptions of governance: a comparison between Ontario and British Columbia provincial parks management models, Tourism Review, 65, 31-55. Cole N.D., Daniel C.T., (2003), The science of visitor management in parks and protected areas: from verbal reports to simulation models, Journal for Nature Conservation, 11, 269-277. Croatia Camping Union, (2013), Spatial distribution of National parks and Nature parks in Croatia, On line at: http://www.camping.hr/croatia-travel/national-parks, http://www.camping.hr/croatia-travel/nature-parks Dharmaratne S. G., Yee Sang, F., Walling, J. L., (2000), Tourism Potentials for financing protected areas, Annals of Tourism Research, 3, 590-610. Drumm A., Moore A., (2005), Ecotourism development – a manual for conservation planners and managers: an introduction to ecotourism planning, The Nature Conservancy, 1, 31-49. Dudley N. (Ed.), (2008), Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Gland, Switzerland, On line at:

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June 2014, Vol.13, No. 6, 1497-1508



DYNAMIC CHANGE AND INFLUENTIAL FACTORS OF CARBON FOOTPRINT FOR ENERGY CONSUMPTION: A CASE STUDY OF WUHAN CITY, HUBEI PROVINCE, CHINA Xiangmei Li1, Renbin Xiao2, Yanli You3 1 Hubei University of Economics, Wuhan, 430205 Hubei, P. R. China Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Institute of Systems Engineering, Wuhan, 430074 Hubei, P. R. China 3 Huazhong University of Science and Technology, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Wuhan, 430074 Hubei, P. R. China

2

Abstract As the threat posed by global climate change becomes more acute, action must be taken to mitigate carbon emission. Carbon footprint, as a widely used term and concept, is increasingly being recognized as a valuable indicator in the field of GHG and carbon emissions management. However, few attempts have been made to investigate precise relationship between carbon footprint and influential factors. In this paper, STIRPAT model was employed to reveal the dynamic relationships between carbon footprint and influential factors by means of the ridge regression for a case study of Wuhan city, Hubei province in central China. The results are as follows: (1) Carbon footprint for energy consumption has increased from 188.46 ten thousands hm2 in 1995 to 331.50 ten thousands hm2 in 2009, which of the annual average growth rate was 4.12%. (2) Coal consumption accounted for the largest share in carbon footprint for energy consumption. Petroleum and natural gas consumption showed fluctuating trend. (3) According to STIRPAT model, population and economic development were the main influential factors of carbon footprint for energy consumption. 1% increase of population has resulted in 3.229% increase in carbon footprint for energy consumption, and 1% increase of per capita GDP in 0.261%. (4) The relationship between per capita GDP and carbon footprint for energy consumption did not prove the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). (5) Comparing with other provincial cities in China, the per capita carbon footprint in Wuhan city is lower than Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, while much more than Chongqing city. Key words: carbon footprint (CF), dynamic analysis, driving factors, energy consumption, STIRPAT model, Wuhan City Received: September, 2012; Revised final: July, 2013; Accepted: October, 2013

1. Introduction With the accelerated process of the urbanization, the production and life of mankind are increasingly relying on huge energy consumption. A large amount of fossil energy adopted by mankind is thought as the primary cause that brings about an increasing greenhouse gases (GHGs), and then contributes to the climate warming (Ang and Zhang, 2000; Gavrilescu, 2008; IPCC, 2007). According to data of the World Resource Institute (WRI), China has exceeded America in carbon emissions, and 

ranked first around the world in 2009. Moreover, due to China’s economic scale increasing year by year, emission of the carbon dioxide associated with rapid energy consumption will show a clipping upward trend. On the global climate conference in Copenhagen in 2009, the Chinese government announced that a goal of reducing the emission intensity (carbon dioxide emission per unit gross domestic product) in 2020 by 40% -45% relative to 2005 (Xinhua net, 2009). To achieve the goal, it is considered as a binding target introduced into the mid-long term planning of national economy and

Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: [email protected]; Phone: +86-27-87541979; Fax: +86-27-87543130

Li et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1497-1508

social development. Therefore, there is an urgent need to analyze quantitatively the dynamic relationships between carbon footprint and influential factors so that decision makers can make appropriate policies to reduce and manage their carbon emissions. The term ‘carbon footprint’ (abbreviated as CF hereafter), is increasingly being used in article about the need to mitigate climate change by reducing our carbon dioxide emissions (Hammond, 2007; Tang et al., 2013). The term is also used interchangeably with other terms such as ‘carbon accounting’ or ‘carbon inventory’ (Wright et al., 2011), precisely as “carbon weight” or “carbon mass” (Jarvis, 2007; Xu et al., 2013). Although carbon footprint has widespread public appearance as an indicator relating a certain amount of GHG emissions to a certain activity, product or populations’ (Ang and Zhang, 2000; Wright et al., 2011), there is confusion and little consensus over what the term actually means or what the process measures. The term is currently used to mean anything from the direct emissions of CO2 from the activities of an individual to the amount of land required to sequester emissions from fossil fuel. Wiedmann and Minx (2007) defined carbon footprint as a measure of the total amount of carbon dioxide emissions that is directly and indirectly caused by an activity or is accumulated over the life stages of a product. The relatively common view is that carbon footprint itself is rooted in the context of ecological footprint (Wackernagel and Rees, 1996), which attempted to describe the biologically productive area required to sustain a given human population expressed as global hectares. When considered in ecological footprinting studies, carbon footprint represents the land area required to sequester CO2 emissions from fossil fuel consumption produced by mankind (Global Footprint Network, 2007). That is, carbon footprints are spatial indicators, measured in hectares or square metres (Global Footprint Network, 2007; Hammond, 2007). Since the CF was put forward, it has obtained a great deal of attention from scholars and policymakers around the world (Brown et al., 2008; Chambers et al., 2007; Greening, 2004; Greening et al., 1998, 1999, 2001; Kenny and Gray, 2009; Matthews et al., 2008; Weber and Matthews, 2008). The assessments of carbon footprint, which are compiled by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (abbreviated as IPCC hereafter), World Resources Institute (abbreviated as WRI hereafter), and World Bank, track emissions profiles at different scales, such as individuals/households, products, organizations, countries, and cities. Weber and Matthews (2008), and Kenny and Gray (2009) calculated emissions profiles for households and individuals. Greening (2004) and Greening et al. (1998; 1999; 2001) studied the changing characteristics of carbon emission intensity in different departments for OECD (economic cooperation and development) countries.

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Matthews et al. (2008) leverage input-out lifecycle assessment (IO-LCA) methods to track all activities across the supply chain for a specific industry. In urban areas, Brown et al. (2008) investigated the carbon footprints for the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States in 2005. Sovacool et al. (2010) compares the carbon footprints of 12 metropolitan areas by examining the fuels used by vehicles, the energy used in buildings and industry, emissions from agriculture, and emissions from waste. Lin et al. (2013) evaluate carbon footprint for Xiamen city in 2009 to help understand the characteristics of Chinese urban carbon emissions. To identify the driving forces of CF dynamics, Dong et al. (2013) calculated the agricultural carbon footprint of Zhejiang Province, China for the years from 1997 to 2007 and identified the key driving forces of CF dynamics using a decomposition analysis. Diakoulaki and Mandaraka (2007) applied decomposition analysis to investigate the main factors contributing to the carbon dioxide emissions and the mechanisms influencing energy consumption. However, the residual term is a common problem in general decomposition models, such as the Laspeyres index decomposition analysis and the Divisia index decomposition analysis (Sun, 1998). In some models the residual is omitted that causes a large estimation error, while in some models the residual is regarded as an interaction that still leaves a new puzzle for the reader. To determine the magnitude of the environmental impacts, Madu (2009) used STIRPAT model to determine the precise relationship between drivers and impacts by using the ordinary least square (OLS) regression statistics. Due to the presence of serious multicollinearity, the OLS regression often does not properly reveal the relationship between driving forces and environmental impacts. Discussion in the context indicated that further work is needed to apply new approaches to reveal the dynamic relationships between carbon footprint and influential factors and to give us valid, plausible results and sound advice for policy-making. To provide a more precise look into the carbon footprints of urban area, the paper used the calculating methods of IPCC and World Wide Fund for Nature (abbreviated as WWF hereafter) to perform an investigation into dynamic measurement of the CF for energy consumption in Wuhan city, Hubei province, China, during 1995-2009. It is particularly worth mentioning that ridge regression is used to establish the STIRPAT model and to identify key CF contributing factors. In addition, an attempt was made to identify policies that have the most potential for reducing human impacts on the environment, and to decarbonize the studied area. The work can provide scientific basis for policy making of energy saving and pollution reduction, and be beneficial to sustainable development in Wuhan city.

Dynamic change and influential factors of carbon footprint for energy consumption

2. Research background Wuhan city is located in the central part of China, between 113°41’-115°05’E and 29°58’31°22’ N. The Yangtze River and its largest tributary Han River meets here, which divides Wuhan into three parts of Hankou, Hanyang and Wuchang, commonly known as ‘the three towns of Wuhan’. The terrain is dominated by plains and supplemented by hills, with many lakes or ponds lying in Wuhan city. Therefore, Wuhan city has a reputation of ‘city of hundred lakes’. It covers an area of 8494.41km2 with a total population of 8.36 million in 2009. With rapid economic development, Wuhan’s regional GDP reached 462.09 billion Yuan in 2009, up from 5.34 billion Yuan in 1980. Its ratio of three industrial structures is 3.2:46.4:50.4. The urbanization ratio also reaches to 64.70% in 2009 (Wuhan Statistical Bureau, 2010). In 2004, the Chinese government firstly put forward the rising strategy in central China, which was another development strategy following the three regional policies, i.e., opening up the eastern coastal areas, greatly developing western areas, and revitalizing the old industrial base of the northeast. Wuhan city, as a central hinterland megapolis of China, has entered a critical period of economic development, which inevitably consumed a large amount of energy. This is bound to bring about a larger pressure on natural ecosystem and affect the socio-economic sustainable development. Simultaneously, to realize a fundamental change of economic growth mode, Wuhan city has been approved as the demonstration city of building ‘the resource-saving and environment-friendly society’ (abbreviated as ‘two types of society’ hereafter) by Chinese government in December 2007, which would contributed to promoting it to continuously strengthen the comprehensive strength and capability of sustainable development, and offer experience and demonstration for other region’s development. At the same time, it should be noted that constructing ‘two types of society’ would put forward higher requirement to resource consumption and environment protection. Wuhan city, as old industrial base in China, has been higher proportion of high-carbon heavy industry, lower energy efficiency and extensive mode in economic development. Therefore, it should urgently demand to provide practical reference and basis for region’s low-carbon economic development. It should be noted that rapid economic growth in Wuhan city was at the expense of large energy consumption in the past years. Meanwhile, the ecological environmental pressure increased constantly in the region. With the rapid economic growth, the expansion of population size and the improvement of the household consumption level, the available data showed that the energy consumption in Wuhan city increased from 21.2335

million tons of standard coal to 37.4191 million ones during 1995-2009 (Table 1), and the average annual growth rate is 4.13 %, which showed an obvious increasing tendency. Hence, it is apparently significant references to study on the dynamic change and its influence factors of carbon footprint for energy consumption for achieving low-carbon economy in other areas. 3. Methodology 3.1. Computational Model of CF for Energy Consumption According to the ‘Energy statistics reporting system’ compiled by National Bureau of Statistics of China, the energy consumption in the paper refers to terminal energy consumption. The primary types of energy consumption include as follows, i.e., coal, coke, crude oil, fuel oil, gasoline, diesel, kerosene, refinery gas, liquefied petroleum gas, coke oven gas and so on. In this paper, the primary energy consumption, GDP and population data were obtained from Wuhan Statistical Yearbooks (Wuhan Statistical Bureau, 1995─2009). In addition, based on the method provided by ‘IPCC National greenhouse gas emission inventory guideline’ (IPCC, 2006), the paper adopted the Eq. (1) to calculate the total carbon footprint (abbreviated as TCF hereafter) for energy consumption in Wuhan city.

C 

10



i 1

E i Fi

(1) where i is the type of energy, i=1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10; Ei refers to the i-th energy consumption (calculated by standard coal); Fi refers to carbon emission factor of energy consumption (IPCC, 2006) (Table 2). Ecological Footprint can track human demand on ecosystems by adding together the equivalent areas of world average biologically productive land and water required to provide the renewable resources that people use, provide space for infrastructure, and absorb the CO2 waste that human activities produce (Kenny and Gray, 2009; Simion et al., 2013). Ecological Footprint tracks demand in the following categories: cropland, grazing land, forest land, fishing grounds, built-up land and carbon. The first five types of Footprint are defined as Footprint of resource use (WWF, 2010). Therefore, Ecological Footprint includes the Footprint of resource and CF. In this paper, we focus on the CF. ‘China Ecological Footprint Report 2010’ pointed out that CF is the largest and most rapidly growing component of Ecological Footprint both globally and in China. In 2007, CF accounted for 54% of China’s Ecological Footprint (WWF, 2010). In the paper, CF for energy consumption, as one part of the ecological footprint, is measured by the amount of land area required to sequester carbon emissions.

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Table 1. Energy consumption of Wuhan city during 1995-2009 (104 ton SCE) year

Total

coal

coke

Crude oil

Fuel oil

gasoline

kerosene

diesel

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

2123.35 2259.98 2335.92 2285.71 2189.45 2485.33 2265.24 2356.15 2615.67 3274.48 3255.39 3828.17 3884.03 3914.27 3741.91

892.57 917.71 960.82 962.44 917.01 926.39 863.67 950.27 1084.50 1435.10 1742.10 1891.60 1863.90 1793.92 1672.25

301.46 298.23 305.74 307.78 309.28 335.58 320.59 331.34 379.43 368.92 411.12 441.93 422.65 506.28 485.07

326.17 359.09 412.40 333.81 390.49 430.29 365.58 412.45 435.27 530.24 584.18 580.95 611.07 569.31 646.93

63.27 64.53 48.49 35.39 24.58 25.16 25.62 21.97 25.47 29.21 38.96 29.58 26.50 27.29 11.68

14.42 16.14 16.54 17.12 2.73 5.38 2.22 7.61 5.34 4.92 21.68 44.24 9.13 8.26 7.15

32.81 40.19 33.46 31.27 6.39 6.40 6.49 2.77 15.53 9.82 21.14 42.21 20.63 14.48 10.60

7.29 13.81 15.07 15.67 0.12 0.24 0.32 0.25 0.21 0.61 0.92 2.27 0.31 0.40 0.54

refinery gas 5.88 7.44 8.32 8.64 14.96 11.66 11.65 13.58 17.39 22.69 24.97 26.36 29.89 28.48 28.20

liquefied petroleum gas 0.20 0.32 0.68 1.52 0.61 0.48 0.58 0.12 3.53 2.74 0.48 0.45 0.63 0.66 0.71

Coke oven gas 73.62 72.67 79.33 84.18 88.27 90.59 74.82 89.68 97.13 90.54 112.01 129.05 122.79 140.38 176.50

Table 2. Carbon emission factor for different types of fuels(104t．(104t)-1) Type of energy coal coak crude oil fuel oil gasoline

Carbon emission factor 0.7559 0.855 0.5857 0.6185 0.5538

Type of energy diesel kerosene refinery gas liquefied petroleum gas coke gas

Carbon emission factor 0.5921 0.5714 0.4602 0.5042 0.3548

where, Cf refers to TCF (10 hm )；FCL refers to the ratio of the conversion coefficient between carbon emissions and woodland area (t/hm2), and the value is set as 6.49t/hm2 (The coefficient, equal to 6.49 t /hm2, is determined by the amount of CO2 absorbed by woodlands, as the conversing factor between carbon emissions for energy consumption and ecological footprint, which is provided by world wide fund for nature (abbreviated as WWF)).

To eliminate limitations of not allowing hypothesis test of the IPAT equation and the nonlinear relationship between environmental impact and multifactor, Dietz and Rosa reformulated IPAT into STIRPAT (Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology) stochastic models (Dietz and Rosa, 1994, 1997). The STIRPAT model has been concerned by many scholars since its introduction, which had been widely used in the field of environmental change (Madu, 2009), transport energy use (Poumanyvong et al., 2012), land utilization (Wang et al., 2008) etc. It was used to analyze the impact tendency caused by the influential factors. The standard STIRPAT model is as follows (Eq. 3):

3.2. STIRPAT model

I  aP b A c T d e

In the early 1970s, the well-known IPAT identity was first proposed and developed by Ehrlich, Holdren and Commoner to describe the environmental impact of anthropomorphic factors (Commoner, 1971, 1972; Ehrlich and Holdren, 1971, 1972). The IPAT identity deemed that the environmental impact is the product of population (P), affluence (A, per capita consumption or production) and technology (T, impact per unit of economic activity). Waggoner and Ausubel (2002) have used IPAT as a starting point for assessing potential action and policy levers to alter impacts. They reconceptualize the IPAT identity, renaming it ImPACT, by disaggregating T into consumption per unit of GDP (C) and impact per unit of consumption (T) so that I=/PACT.

where the constant a scales the model, b, c and d are the estimated exponents of P, A and T, respectively, and e is the error term (IPAT’s proportionality assumption sets a = b = c = d = e = 1). An additive regression model in which all variables are in logarithmic form facilitates estimation and hypothesis testing. We took natural logarithms of both sides of Eq. (3) and got the formula of the logarithmic form as follows (Eq. 4):

The specific calculation formula is as follows (Eq. 2):

C

f



C FC L

(2) 4

1500

2

ln( I )  ln(a )  b ln( P )  c ln( A)  d ln(T )  e

(3)

(4)

In order to investigate whether exist an inverted U-shaped relationship between the total carbon footprint and affluence, we decomposed the


independent variable, i.e. lnA into lnA and (lnA)2, and then the model is adjusted as follows (Eq. 5). ln(C f )  ln(a)  b ln( P)  c1 ln( A)  c2 (ln( A))2  d ln(T )  e

(5) where Cf is environmental impact measured by CF for energy consumption. P is population, A is affluence measured by per capita GDP and T is technology measured by energy consumption per unit of GDP. All the variables were converted to natural logarithms for ease of estimation. The constant a scales the model, while b, c1, c2, and d are the coefficients of the independent variables and were all obtained from the regression. 4. Results and analysis 4.1. Trend analysis of per capita CF for energy consumption In this paper, Wuhan’s per capita CF was assessed during 1995–2009 by Eqs. (1)─(2) (Table 3, Fig. 1). According to Table 3, the per capita CF in Wuhan city increased from 0.266hm2 to 0.397 hm2, and its average growth rate is 2.9%. Meanwhile, Fig. 1 shows that the dynamic change trend of Per capita CF can be divided into three periods. During 1995─2001, per capita CF ranged from 0.266 hm² in 1995 to 0.243 hm² in 2001, that was in a state of fluctuation; During 2002─2006, the per capita CF ranged from 0.261 hm² in 2002 to 0.428 hm² in 2006, that was in a state of increase quickly; During 2007─2009, the per capita CF ranged from 0.413 hm² in 2007 to 0.397 hm² in 2009, that was in a downward tendency. Obviously, the per capita CF for energy consumption in Wuhan has undergone tortuous fluctuation, rapid growth and slow decline periods. Moreover, per capita CF for Wuhan began to decline in 2007, which could contributed to constructing experimental area of ‘two types of society’, to strengthening the energy-saving and pollution reduction and to striving to completing the target of ‘the Eleventh Five-year period’ (2006─2010). 4.2. Analysis of CF structures As mentioned above, ten kinds of energy were adopted in calculating the CF for energy consumption in Wuhan city. In this part, it is assumed that the ten kinds of energy were divided into three categories, i.e. the coal, petroleum and natural gas class. The coal class includes coal and coke; the petroleum category includes crude oil, fuel oil, gasoline, diesel and kerosene; the natural gas category includes refinery gas, liquefied petroleum gas and coke oven gas. Fig. 2 shows the constituents of CF for energy consumption in Wuhan city during 1995─2009. In the studied period, the average CF of the coal category accounts for 77.57% of TCF, that of the

petroleum category 19.7%, and that of the natural gas category 2.73%. Especially, in 2009, the CF of the coal category accounted for 78.04% of the TCF, that of the petroleum category 18.43% and the natural gas category 3.53%, respectively. It is found that the CF of coal category had a higher proportion, but that of clean energy had a lower proportion. Therefore, it suggests that there are two reasons leading to above the phenomenon. On the one hand, it was mainly related to the industrial structure. The industry in Wuhan city mainly includes steel, equipment manufacturing, electronic information, energy and so on, which also showed that the problem of energy structure excessively relying on coal still remained. On the other hand, although the renewable energy is developed currently, due to the plentiful coal and few crude oil, along with a great price rising in international oil market, the coal consumption would play an important role in the energy consumption structures. For example, the shift to cleaner fuels is not significant and thus has not contributed to the dampening of carbon emission growth despite the perceived impression that the role of natural gas is rapidly expanding in Chinese cities’ energy systems. Therefore, the fuel mix substitution, from oil and hard coal to natural gas and the increasing use of renewable energy sources, allowed reducing the carbon dioxide emission intensity of industrial activities. The reduction of emissions of industries can be achievable by the large improvements of abatement technologies and reduction of GDP share of these industrial sectors (Andreoni and Galmarini, 2012). Moreover, the application of renewable energy should also be a target of critical analysis as sometimes the GHG emissions resulting from the life cycle of the renewable devices are higher than the conventional energy use. 4.3. Relationship Analysis between TCF economic development

and

According to the calculation results, the TCF for energy consumption increased from 1.885 million hm² to 3.315 million hm². And its average growth rate is 4.12%. As is shown in Fig. 3, the dynamic change trend of TCF is similar to the per capita CF (Fig. 1). That is to say, the tendency of TCF can be divided into three periods. During 1995─2001, the TCF ranged from 1.885 million hm² in 1995 to 1.840 million hm² in 2001; during 2002─2006, the TCF ranged from 2.005 million hm² in 2002 to 3.50.6 million hm² in 2006; during 2007─2009, the TCF ranged from 3.420 hm² in 2007 to 3.315 hm² in 2009. Simultaneously, we can see from Fig. 3 that the GDP is in a state of growth, which increases from 60.691 billion RMB to 462.086 billion RMB, with the average annual growth rate 15.6%. To further analyze the change trend between TCF and economic development, we can obtain the cure of TCF and GDP.

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Table 3. The per capita CF for Wuhan, 1995-2009 Time (Year)

Total population (person)

Total CF (hm2)

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

7,100,100 7,159,400 7,239,000 7,317,900 7,402,000 7,491,900 7,582,300 7,6810,000 7,811,900 7,859,000 8,013,600 8,188,400 8,282,100 8,332,400 8,355,500

1,884,619 1,955,175 2,047,960 1,971,681 1,918,936 2,002,183 1,840,329 2,004,455 2,267,171 2,745,272 3,252,905 3,505,705 3,420,137 3,414,237 3,314,980

Per capita CF (hm2 per capita) 0.266 0.273 0.283 0.270 0.259 0.267 0.243 0.261 0.290 0.349 0.4060 0.428 0.413 0.410 0.397

0.45

Natural gas Oil Coal

100

0.40

90 80

0.35

70

Percent %

2

Per capita carbon footprint (hm )

Per capita carbon footprint

0.30

60 50 40 30

0.25

20

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

2008

2010

10

Year

0 1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

2008

year

Fig. 1. Change trends of carbon footprint for energy consumption in Wuhan city

5000

3600000

Total carbon footprint GDP

2

3000

2800000 2600000

2000

2400000 2200000

4

Total carbon footprint (10 hm )

3000000

4000 GDP (10 million yuan)

4

3400000 3200000

Fig. 2. The constituents of carbon footprint for energy consumption in Wuhan city during 1995-2009

1000

2000000 1800000

0 1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

2008

2010

Year

Fig. 3. Change trends of total carbon footprint, GDP and intensity of carbon footprint in Wuhan city during 1995-2009

Table 4 shows the different values of the increase rate of GDP and that of the TCF during several different periods, which summarize the overall development trend of GDP and TCF. Moreover, as is shown in Fig. 3 and Table 4, 1502

although the growth rate of GDP from 1995 to 2009 remained 16.757% evenly, that of TCF showed the negative growth rate, i.e. -0.40% from 1995 to 2001 and -1.55% from 2007 to 2009 respectively, except for from 2002 to 2006. This fully exhibited the


dynamic relationships between economic development and environmental degradation during studied period. In addition, with the deeply adjusting the industrial structure and transforming the mode of economic development, the growth rate of GDP increased without that of TCF rates increase all the time, but the slowdown of the TCF was not very obvious. It is concluded that there need greater efforts to improve the energy efficiency. 4.4. Analysis of the influential factors Owing to the differences in dimension, economic significance and appearance of the influential factors, it need standardize the influential factors before analyzing the impact of influential factors on TCF with STIRPAT model. We adopted Eq. (6) to standardizing process.

W

i



wi w i ,m ax

(6)

where the subscript i indicates the observational units; W is the standardization value of the influential

w

factors; w is the initial value of that; and max is the maximum of that in studied period. Table 5 showed the analyzing results from the STIRPAT model by using the ordinary least square (OLS) regression. The regression yielded a model with a coefficient of determination of 0.904, an Fvalue of 23.564 and a p-value of 0.000. The collinearity statistics showed that the Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) ranged between 15 and 45. This is an indication that there is a multicollinearity between the variables since the rule is that multicollinearity is of concern when VIF is higher than 10 (Frees, 1996). In the paper, the values for population, per capita GDP, the square of per capita GDP and energy consumption per unit of GDP were 41.722, 32.073, 16.151 and 18.939, respectively, indicating the multicollinearity. The presence of serious multicollinearity often does not properly reveal the relationship between independent variables and dependent variables. Obviously, the analyzing results of the OLS regression in the paper did not reveal the real relationship between TCF and the influential factors, unless some remedial measures for multicollinearity were adopted in the regression process. There are several remedial measures for multicollinearity. One measure to lessen the multicollinearity is to drop the highly correlated variables from the model, but such a measure might result in an uncertain estimation due to the loss of information. Another measure is to form one or several composite indexes based on the highly correlated variables, i.e. principal components regression, which can be used with OLS, but the measure may be difficult to attach concrete meaning to the indexes. In addition, ridge regression, as a

modified form of OLS regression, has become an effective method to remedy multicollinearity. Ridge regression is a method of biased estimation, aiming at analyzing the collinearity data. By abandoning unbiased estimation of OLS method, ridge regression may well be the preferred estimator since it will have a larger probability of being close to the true parameter value. Moreover, the ridge standardized regression estimators are obtained by introducing a biasing constant k into the least squares equations, which reflected the amount of bias in the estimator. How to determine the value of the constant k was the key in the ridge regression. Generally, the constant k was calculated at a preset step length, i.e. 0.05, within the interval between 0 and 1. At this stage, the appropriate value of k was determined. After that, according to the appropriate value of k, the coefficients of ridge regression could be acquired by repeating the same procedure. The package named ‘Ridge regression. sps’ available in SPSS 18.0 software was implemented in this paper to establish the model of ridge regression. When the preset step length of k was set as 0.05, the Ridge Trace and the ‘R-square vs k’ were gotten, which are shown in Figs. 4 and 5 respectively. The Ridge Trace indicated a declining trend in coefficients of the independent variables (Fig. 4). In Fig. 4, x1, x2, x3, x4 represent LnP, LnA, (LnA)2, LnT respectively. And the ‘R-square vs k’ showed the tendency of R-square with the k (Fig. 5). The appropriate k value was determined according to three criteria: the variations of the independent variables became steady, the trend of the R-square for k became steady, and the VIFs of each variable were small enough (Golam Kibria and Saleh, 2012). However, at this stage, the appropriate and smallest value of k was not determined, where was not deemed that the regression coefficients first became stable in the ridge trace. So the step length of k was set as 0.01 and within the interval between 0 and 0.2. When the value of the k increased to 0.04, all the criteria were achieved, and the analyzing results of the ridge regression with k=0.04 were presented in Table 6. As was shown in the Table 6, the testing values of independent variables could explain a significant relationship between the dependent and independent variables. So we could conclude that the obtained regression equation was valid. Therefore, the STIRPAT model in the paper is as follows (Eq. 7): ln(C f )  0.174  3.229 ln( P )  0.261ln( A)  0.034(ln( A)) 2  0.088ln(T )

(7) The results indicated that the growth of population and economy had a positive influence on CF for energy consumption. Population has an elasticity of much larger than 1, meaning that a 1% change in population induces 3.229% change in the CF, while a 1% change ofn per capita GDP would induce 0.261% change in the CF.

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Table 4. The increase rate of TCF and GDP within several periods The increase rate of TCF -0.4% 15% -1.55%

1995－2001 2002－2006 2007－2009

The increase rate of GDP 14.05% 16.24% 19.98%

Table 5. Analysis of the results of the OLS regression Items Constant lnP lnA (lnA)2 lnT

Unstandardized Coefficients B Std.error 0.776 0.341 7.865 2.924 0.43 0.276 0.206 0.11 0.388 0.173

Standardized Coefficients Beta t 2.279 1.702 2.69 0.864 1.558 0.736 1.869 0.956 2.243

Collinearity statistics Tolerance VIF 0.024 41.722 0.031 32.073 0.062 16.151 0.053 18.939

Sig. 0.046 0.023 0.15 0.091 0.049

Fig. 5. R2 vs. K

Fig. 4. The ridge trace (k=0～0.3)

Table 6. Analysis of the results of the ridge regression (K=0.04) Items Constant lnP lnA (lnA)2 lnT R2 Adjust R2 F-statistic Prob(F-statistic)

Coefficients B 0.174 3.229 0.261 0.034 0.088 0.859 0.803 15.297 0.0003

Meanwhile, the adjusted R2 of the equation is 0.803, which showed that population, per capita GDP and energy consumption per capita GDP could explain 80.3% of impact of the energy consumption. In addition, the coefficients of the index (population, per capita GDP and energy consumption per capita GDP) are significant at 0.05 level. As is shown in Eq. (7), the coefficient of quadratic term of lnA was positive, which showed that there did not appear the so-called environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. EKC postulates an inverted U-shaped relationship between the level of environmental degradation and income growth.

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Std.error 0.190 1.102 0.124 0.069 0.101 -

T

Sig.T

0.9152 2.930 2.110 0.488 0.875 -

0.382 0.015 0.061 0.636 0.402 -

That is to say, environmental degradation increases with per capita income during the early stages of economic growth, and then declines with per capita income after arriving at a threshold. According to the above results, it could conclude that the inflection point of the CF for energy consumption did not come according to the current economic development of the Wuhan city. It has been found that there exited inverted U-shaped relationship between economic development and the CF for energy consumption in developed countries, but per capita income difference is more large when the inflection point of GDP appeared.


4.5. Comparison with other cities

The inflection point of GDP is as low as $13,260 (Galeotti et al., 2006), medium to $25,100 (Panayotou et al., 1999) and as high as from $35,428t $80,000 (Holtz-Eakin and Selden, 1995). The economy of Wuhan city was not as developed as coastal areas, and per capita GDP in Wuhan city reached 55,303RMB (Equivalent to $8660, assumed 1RMB = 0.1566 dollars) in 2009, which is much lower than the lowest value of per capita GDP achieving the inflection point, i.e. $13,260. This fully indicated that Wuhan city was still in the stage of industrialization and its economic development inevitably caused the increase of the CF for energy consumption. To further study the relationship between economic development and environmental degradation in Wuhan city in the future, we assumed that the increase rates of the driving factors (population, per capita GDP and energy consumption per unit of GDP) during 2010─2020 are same with that during 1995─2009. Then the obtained data of the driving factors are used to calculate the total carbon footprint during 2010─2020 by Eq. (7). The relationship curve of the total carbon footprint and per capita GDP can be gotten (Fig. 6). Until 2020, the per capita carbon footprint in 2020 was 1.68 hm2, an increase of 1.414 hm2 from 1995. As is shown in Fig. 6, during 1995─2020, economic development relied on energy consumption, and the growing carbon footprint indicated that economic growth is at the expense of resource consumption and environmental pollution. It is clear that by 2020, there do not exist the EKC hypothesis between economic development and environmental protection.

To better understanding of carbon emissions in Wuhan city, a comparative analysis of carbon footprint among cities is necessary for decisionmakers to confirm or refute best practices and policies in energy security, climate change mitigation, and local pollution abatement. Dhakal (2009) investigated urban energy use and carbon emissions from cities in China, and found that the 35 largest cities, which contain 18% of the population, contribute 40% of China’s energy uses and CO2 emissions. In four provincial cities — Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing, the per capita energy usage and CO2 emissions have increased several-fold. To be more comparative with other cities, the total energy related CO2 emissions of Wuhan city below is obtained by amplifying total carbon emission with 44/12. Comparing with Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, the per capita carbon footprint in Wuhan city is lower than the three provincial cities, while much more than Chongqing city (Table 7). This might show that because these cities represent the rapid urbanization, economic growth, and the accelerated changes in technology, lifestyle, and societal transformation, their coal-based energy structure and unique economic development have heavily impacted CO2 emissions. Moreover, the more developed the economy, the higher the per capita carbon footprint is. Wuhan city, in central China, its per capita carbon footprint is in intermediate level, corresponding to its economic development.

1800

4

2

Total carbon footprint (10 hm )

1600 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0 0

50000

100000

150000

200000

250000

per capita GDP (Yuan)

Fig. 6. Relationship curve between total carbon footprint and per capita GDP during 1995-2020 in Wuhan city Table 7. Comparison of per capita carbon footprint of typical cities City Year Registered population (million) Gross regional product, billion US＄ Total energy related CO2 emissions, million tons Total carbon footprinta, million hm2 Per capita carbon footprint, hm2 a

Beijing 2006 11.98 98.7 142.10 21.89 1.83

Shanghai 2006 13.68 130.0 228.74 35.25 2.57

Tianjin 2006 9.49 54.7 117.61 18.12 1.91

Chongqing 2006 31.99 43.8 103.97 16.02 0.50

Wuhan 2009 8.36 72.36 78.9b 12.16 1.45

Author’s calculation is based on Eq.(2).

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5. Conclusions and policy implications 5.1. Conclusions In this paper, STIRPAT model was employed to reveal the dynamic relationships between carbon footprint and influential factors by means of the ridge regression for a case study of Wuhan city, Hubei province in central China. The calculating methods of IPCC and WWF are used to perform an investigation into dynamic measurement of the CF for energy consumption. The ridge regression is used to establish the STIRPAT model and to identify key CF contributing factors. Research result showed as follows. The per capita carbon footprint had gone through three periods which were tortuous-fluctuation, rapid growth and slow decline, from 0.266 hm2 in 1995 to 0.397 hm2 in 2009, that of the annual average growth rate was 2.9%. This demonstrates the importance of scientific decision-making of energy saving and pollution reduction for sustainable development in Wuhan city in the future. Coal consumption accounted for the largest share, i.e. 77.57% in carbon footprint for energy consumption. Petroleum and natural gas consumption showed fluctuating trend. According to STIRPAT model, population and economic development were the main influential factors of carbon footprint for energy consumption. 1% increase of population has resulted in 3.229% increase in carbon footprint for energy consumption, and 1% increase of per capita GDP in 0.261%. Meanwhile, studies have shown that the relationship between per capita GDP and carbon footprint for energy consumption did not prove the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). It may have some distance from the level of economic development where the inflection point appeared. According to STIRPAT model, the total carbon footprint in 2020 will reach 16.0 million hm2. Accordingly, the per capita carbon footprint in 2020 was 1.68 hm2, an increase of 1.414 hm2 from 1995. Population and affluence were the main controllable effectors in the future planning stage, and the special focus may place on the population control. Although the population share of large cities may be small in the context of developing countries, that large cities’ energy and carbon emission impacts are disproportionately large.

follows. First of all, optimizing the composition of energy consumption and improving the efficiency of energy utilization. Vigorously developing clean energy played an active role in the substitution of coal consumption. At the same time, because the coal would be still the major energy consumption in Wuhan city, policies such as increasing science and technology investment, seeking cleaner technology of coal and improving enhancing energy utilization efficiency should be the first choice for Wuhan city in realizing carbon emissions reductions. Secondly, optimizing the industrial structure and building low-carbon industrial system. In three major industries, the primary and tertiary industry have low carbon characteristics. However, the secondary industry, especially the heavy chemical industry has a ‘high carbon’ feature obviously. Currently, the steel and petrochemical in the four pillar industries of Wuhan city are high energy consuming industries. Therefore, in order to achieve the low-carbon development in the long term, hightech industry with high added value and high technology should be vigorously developed. Simultaneously, the tertiary industry should be developed also to realize the optimization and upgrade of industrial structure. According to the present state of industry and development potential in Wuhan City, the key area of low-carbon industry in the future should mainly focus on the high-tech industries, such as electronic information, new energy, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing, and labor and knowledgeintensive service industries, such as eco-tourism, modern logistics, creative industries, and so on. Last but not least, the policy tools are needed to mitigate the carbon footprint for energy consumption. By using financial tax revenue, the government should enhance financial support for low carbon industries, increase the level of public transport facilities, and impose the public with the highly polluting motor vehicles. At the same time, low-carbon industry is set as the orientation of the inviting investment. Overall, the approach of introducing the STIRPAT model by the ridge regression into the environmental degradation analysis was found to be useful in finding key influential factors and revealing the dynamic relationships between carbon footprint and influential factors. This will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the region.

5.2. Policy implications Acknowledgement Since there does not appear to be a invert-U relationship between energy use and income, Wuhan city may consider reducing energy consumption as a serious environmental policy that does not harm long run growth prospects. Alternatively, policies considering the composition of energy consumption, industrial structure and technological advancement may also be applied to mitigate environmental pressure. The detailed countermeasures are as

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This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71171089), the National Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province China (2012FFB02702) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (201003471).

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June 2014, Vol.13, No. 5, 1509-1516



SAFETY AND HEALTH ANALYSIS OF WORKPLACES EXPOSED TO STYRENE Lidija Korat1, Zorka Novak Pintarič2, Željko Knez2 1

Labor Inspectorate of the Republic of Slovenia, Parmova 33, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Maribor, Smetanova 17, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia

2

Abstract The objective of this work was to analyse safety and health at work regarding the exposure of workers to styrene, and to establish the basis for an exposure control system over the entire Republic of Slovenia. The main goals were to determine the number of exposed workers, the levels of exposure at workplaces, and the effects to workers health. The measurements of the airborne styrene concentrations and the biological monitoring of the exposed workers were performed. One thousand four hundred and sixty one workers, i.e. 6.5 % of those included in this study, were exposed to styrene concentrations between 0.01 and 700 ppm. The highest exposure occurred during the manual lamination of huge surfaces where the Occupational Exposure Limit (OEL) was occasionally exceeded by 35 times. One hundred and eighty nine female workers, representing 45.1 % of all workers in manual lamination, were frequently exposed to such high concentration, many of them in the fertile period. Biological monitoring revealed that characteristic indicator of styrene in biological samples exceeded biological limit values within the group of manual and lacquering workers, even if styrene airborne concentrations were lower than the OEL value. The presented survey can serve as a guide for performing similar analyses for other dangerous substances at workplaces, which are not yet adequately examined. Key words: biological monitoring, health, safety, styrene, surveillance Received: December, 2011; Revised final: December, 2012; Accepted: December, 2012

1. Introduction Styrene is widespread chemical compound in industry. It is used predominantly in the production of polystyrene plastic and resin (James and Castor, 2011), as an intermediate in the synthesis of materials used for ion-exchange resins (Arai and Kanazawa, 2014) and to produce copolymers such as styreneacrylonitrile (SAN), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR). The Food and Drug Administration permits styrene to be used as a direct additive for synthetic flavouring as well as an indirect additive in polyester resin, in ion-exchange membranes, and in rubber articles intended for the use with foods (IARC, 1979; CDC, 1983; HSDB, 2010; Negoescu et al., 2013). 

Exposure to styrene may occur by inhalation, ingestion, or dermal absorption (ATSDR, 2010). Exposures occur mainly in the industry for the production of styrene and in processes where styrene is used (WHO, 1983; Tint et al., 2009). The highest potential exposure occurs in the reinforced-plastics industry (Dalton et al., 2007; Fustinoni et al., 2008; Rihs et al., 2008; Sato et al., 2009; Van Rooij et al., 2008). Other potential sources are exhaust gases of motor vehicles (Hampton et al., 1982; Hampton et al., 1983), tobacco smoke (Vainiotalo et al., 2008), and other incineration/pyrolytic processes (WHO, 1983). Styrene is classified as hazardous to health in inhalation, as irritant to mucosa (EC, 2000; WHO, 1983), and as a potential to cause cancer (OEHHA,

Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed: e-mail: [email protected], Phone: +386 2 2294 461, Fax: +386 2 252 7774

Korat et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1509-1516

2010). The average odour detection for styrene is 0.73 ppm for unadjusted operators. This value is taken as the threshold for the detection of styrene. The smell is getting stronger, but not unpleasant, at about 100 ppm. At short exposure to a concentration of over 200 ppm styrene vapours irritate the eyes and nose (WHO, 1983). In some studies, an increased risk of hearing impairment was associated with those workers exposed to noise and styrene (Campo et al., 2013; Campo et al., 2014; Morata et al., 2002; ŚliwińskaKowalska et al., 2003; Johnson, 2007). An increased probability for significant hearing loss was observed even at low styrene concentrations between 3.5 to 22 ppm; the probability increases quickly at higher styrene concentrations, especially at the noise levels above 85 dB (A) (Morata et al., 2011). Besides, the influence of exposure to styrene on impaired postural stability (Toppila et al., 2006) and vestibular system (Zamysłowska-Szmytke and Śliwińska-Kowalska, 2011) has been documented at very low exposure of 36.8 mg/m3 (9 ppm). The 2003 European Community directive on noise (EC Directive 10, 2003) requires that the interactions between noise and ototoxic chemicals have to be taken into account in the risk assessment of exposed populations, however, the guidelines for implementing these recommendations remained undefined. Another research reported that exposure to styrene could impair color vision (Kishi et al., 2001) even if the exposure concentration was lower than 10 ppm in exposure duration of more than six months (Gong et al., 2002). Furthermore, if the maximum concentration of styrene exposure transiently exceeded 50 ppm in the past, the styrene related damage might remain. At present, there has been no estimation on the incidence of workers exposed to styrene in the Republic of Slovenia. It was also unknown where the exposure in their work procedures occurred, and the concentrations they were exposed to. The objective of this research was to define those sectors in which employees are exposed to styrene, determine the percentage of the exposed workers, measure the concentrations of styrene at workplaces, and to perform biological monitoring of characteristic indicators in biological samples (spot urine) in order to study the relations between the exposure to styrene and the risk for workers' health. Based on this research, a system for monitoring and control of working exposure to styrene over the entire country should be established. This study could serve as a case study for carrying out similar analyses for other dangerous substances, which workers are exposed to at their workplaces. 2. Material and methods 2.1. Selection of employers and employees The main effort within this research has been given to collecting data about fields of industry and workplaces where workers in the Republic of

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Slovenia are exposed to styrene. The inspection campaign included 73 employers with 22 457 employees, where the exposure to styrene was expected. Data were gained by the national central register and the data bases of Chemicals Bureau of the Republic of Slovenia which makes a national list of chemicals being produced or being entered to the Republic of Slovenia. The inspection surveillance was carried out according to a unified protocol. During the process it was checked whether the employers treat styrene exposure as a special hazard and harmful substance. Additionally, those workplaces, where biological monitoring on styrene was going to be performed, were connected to risk assessment. The education of employees regarding the dangerous characteristics of styrene, styrene concentrations and the use of personal protective equipment were checked. The supervision was carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, and other associated regulations on safety and health at work, such as the Rules on safety statement with risk assessment, Rules on preventive medical examinations of workers, Rules on workplace investigations, inspections and tests of funds for work, Rules of personal protective equipment used by workers at work, Rules on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to noise at work. 2.2. Air sampling and analysis Styrene in the ambient air was measured by pumping air from the breathing zone of the workers through charcoal sampling tubes with a personal sampling pump. The adsorbed styrene was extracted from the charcoal with CS2 and analyzed according to the NIOSH recommended standard procedure (NIOSH, 1994). In addition, samples were taken with gas-tight syringes and analyzed for styrene directly in the field with high-resolution gas chromatography (GC) with a flame ionization detector (FID) using standard analytical conditions. The results were timeweighted to 8 hours. The measurements were performed usually on Thursdays, the same day as biological monitoring, but never on Monday or Friday. The measurements methodology was unified across the country, and comparable to EU regulations. 2.3. Biological monitoring and urine analysis During the inspection campaign biological monitoring was carried out with 300 exposed employees, 170 female and 130 male, aged between 19 and 59, the average age was 40 (standard deviation SD 9.38). Employees were exposed to styrene from 1 to 36 years; the average exposure was 8.5 years (SD 9.59). One urine sample was taken on Thursday after an 8-hour exposure. Samples were taken in the Health care centers which were closest to workers. After drawing urine samples were cooled to

Safety and health analysis of workplaces exposed to styrene

5 C and transported to the lab where they were analyzed. If it was not possible to ensure the analysis within 24 hours samples were frozen. The inspection campaign was aimed at biological monitoring in different workplaces in different fields of industry in order to assess the real exposure and risk for health of workers. Before biological monitoring specific criteria were set and specific conversations were made including the following: (i) All employees were asked not to take medicine and drink no alcohol two days before testing; (ii) Smoking should be limited to less than 20 cigarettes daily; (iii) Employees being biologically monitored should not suffer of any metabolic diseases, like diabetes, chronic liver failure, or kidney failure; (iv) Before biological monitoring a conversation was made with all workers in the presence of the authorized doctor. During the conversation the influence of styrene to their health, the purpose and way of performing biological monitoring were explained to workers, as well as the previous three criteria; (v) Employees working in such workplaces where personal protective equipment (respiratory organs and body protection) is compulsory were informed about the personal protective equipment and again shown how to use it in a proper way. 3. Assessment methodology Biological monitoring is the assessment of worker's exposure to a hazardous agent through the measurement of a biomarker which results from contact with the agent. The biomarker is typically an agent or its metabolite in a biological specimen derived from the worker, e.g. styrene in expired air, styrene in blood, and mandelic and phenylglyoxylic acids (metabolites of styrene) in urine. The biomarker can be also an effect of the agent, such as elevated levels of zinc protoporphyrin in blood, caused by exposure to lead. Biological monitoring can be used in cooperation with occupational healthcare professionals for assessing the risk to workers from exposure hazards, and to demonstrate the adequacy of control technologies and intervention strategies. According to the Slovenian internal acts, either mandelic acid or phenylglyoxylic acid in urine could be used as biomarkers of exposure to styrene, as well as the styrene in blood or in the expired air. The biological limit values (BLV) are defined as follows: mandelic acid 0.74 mol/mol creat or 1000 mg/g creat; phenylglyoxylic acid 0.18 mol/mol creat or 240 mg/g creat; styrene in blood 0.19 μmol/L or 20.0 μg/L, and styrene in the expired air 1.66 μmol/L or 40 ppm (measured 16 hour after exposure) or 0.75 μmol/L or 18 ppm (measured at the time of the exposure). These values are defined by the Rules on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to chemical substances at work, which prescribed compulsory biological monitoring on workers exposed to styrene as soon as of 31

December 2005. A limit value for the total of mandelic acid and phenylglyoxylic acid is not defined, such as e.g. in Germany where the biological agent tolerance (BAT) value of mandelic acid plus phenylglyoxilic acid is 600 mg/g creat measured at the end of the exposure, i.e. at the end of the work shift (TRGS 903). Measuring styrene in the expired air is rather unreliable due to the variations in its concentration, while determining styrene in blood requires in-thebody procedure. These two biomarkers were therefore rejected. Since EU countries only rarely perform biological monitoring of phenylglyoxylic acid exclusively, the decision was made to carry out biological monitoring of mandelic acid in urine. Due to the styrene characteristic of bioaccumulation in the human body, a Thursday after 8 hours of work was the time proposed as most appropriate for sample performance. Laboratories, which were able to perform analyses of mandelic acid in urine, were specified. The analyses of the prepared samples were performed based on the HPLC chromatographic separation following the procedure by Ogata and Taguchi (1987). Concentrations of urinary metabolite mandelic acid - were expressed as a function of creatinine concentration, determined by the Jaffe reaction. The results were quantitatively evaluated by the method of calibration curve. The method was applicable in the range between 0.05 to 2.5 mg/mL of urine. 4. Results and discussion 4.1. Assessment of exposure of employees to styrene in the Republic of Slovenia In 2001, the occupational limit value of styrene in Slovenia was decreased from 100 ppm to 20 ppm, i.e. from 430 mg/m3 to 86 mg/m3, while the occupational exposure limit values for styrene within the EU countries vary between 11.6 and 100 ppm (IFA, 2010). It was determined during the surveillance campaign that Slovenian workers were exposed to styrene during the following technological procedures: (i) laminate production with manual application and pistol jet sprinkle of fibers, (ii) the pultrusion laminate production, (iii) the impregnation of products and semi-products in electro industry with polyester resin, (iv) the production of expanded polystyrene, (v) the lacquering, (vi) the processing of styrene butadiene rubber, (vii) the usage of impregnated agents that contain styrene, (viii) processing plastic materials for a variety of products, (ix) the synthesis of polyester, vinyl ester and acryl butadiene styrene resins, production of coating materials that contain styrene, and (x) during incidents among polyester resin import-export employers without production. The characteristics of the exposed employees are presented in the left-hand side of Table 1 together

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It was established that the styrene concentrations during the pultrusion laminate production with a local exhaust and in closed procedures were below limit values. If the equipment was not closed, there was an increased release of styrene into the workplace, and the concentrations could exceed limit values several times over, up to 60.6 ppm. During the impregnation of intermediate products and products with polyester resin in electro industry, increased concentrations of styrene (up to 139.5 ppm) occasionally occurred when changing technological parameter settings, so employers must be aware of this and provide for additional measures.

with the range of the eight-hour time-weighted average (TWA) styrene concentrations measured at all workplaces where workers were exposed to styrene. The supervision findings showed that the exposure with the highest styrene concentration occurred during manual application of polyester and vinyl ester resin in laminate production, and during the pistol jet sprinkle of fibers. During these technological procedures styrene airborne concentrations exceeded the occupational limit values unless safety measures were performed. Particularly high levels were observed during the manual lamination of huge surfaces when styrene concentration reached more than 700 ppm.

N

%

N

Manual 4747 419 230 54.9 189 applying Laminating the first layer (compliance with protective measures)

28

15

12

39

45

62

3

20.0

50

50

50 1

3.10 – 60.60 0.22139.50

3866

46

35

76.1

11

23.9

100

100

100

1362

223

141

63.2

82

36.8

40

50

Lacquering (furniture production) Tire production

1358

80

44

55

36

45 80

100

not required short sleeves2

0.011.00 0.017.50

2500

84

84

100

0

0

0

100

Impregnation with latex Plastics material Synthesis of resin, aftertreatment and coating materials Synthesis of resin

905

38

25

13

34.2

0.010.02 0.06

119

38.9

0 45

0 18

14

5.6

not required not required not required 100

100

100

6747

306

187

944

250

236

94.4

0.062.24 0.50 – 531.9

3 15 14 15

68.0

467

Average (Range)

SD 366.2

0.97 (0.95 – 1.00) 5.80 (0.027.50)

-

-

-

15

74.05 (13.5 270)

63.5

0.057 (0.055 – 0.059)

11

54.1 (13.5 – 135.1) 78.4 (2.7 – 256.8) 40.5 (27.0 – 67.6) 148.7 (27.0 – 554.1)

35.1

0.80 (0.503.00) 5.20 (0.708.37) 1.80 (1.202.18) 92.2 (58.4531.9)

14 994

87.8

-

Analytics

55.4 18.9 148.7

32.0

sporadic compulsory use; in this technology the majority of employees used short sleeves to protect the body; 3measured at all workplaces where workers were exposed to styrene; 4measured at those workplaces where workers were referred to biological monitoring; SD = standard deviation

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2

9.5

33.8

-

3

1461

47.3 (27.0 – 54.1) 255.4 (27.0 – 1283.8)

141.9

58.4 (20.0700.0) 6.10 (3.508.20) 2.10 (0.703.10) 5.20 (1.208.10)

-

Produce coating materials

22 457

324.3

-

23

1

243.2 (13.5 – 1351.3) 243.2 (81.1 – 527.1) 67.6 (27.0 – 108.1) 81.1 (13.5 – 256.7)

-

After-treatment resin

Total

8-hour TWA Styrene concentration (ppm)4

Biological monitoring 162

Impregnation (electroindustry Expanded PS

65.8 0 61.1

Urine concentration of mandelic acid (mg/g creat)

up to 700 25

80

Average (Range)

% 45.1

Manual and machine applying - short sleeves Pultrusion

Examined workers, N

8-hour TWA Styrene concentration (ppm)3

Usage of personal protective equipment (%)

% of employers that educate employees on the characteristics of styrene

% of employers that treat the exposure as specifically dangerous

Women exposed to styrene

Men exposed To styrene

Total number of employees exposed to styrene

Total number of employyees

Type of technology procedure

Table 1. Results of styrene exposure assessment and biological monitoring in Slovenia


Even though the concentrations of styrene were not exceeded during lacquering in furniture production, workers mainly wore short sleeves and were not aware of the risk that styrene also passes through the skin. In the synthesis of polyester resins, vinyl ester and acrylic butadiene styrene resins, their further processing, and manufacturing coating materials containing styrene the increased concentrations (up to 531.9 ppm) occasionally occurred during the analysis of the input components and finished products. No other features were identified in other activities. The lack of knowledge of styrene characteristics was observed in 45 % of workers. The lack of connection between styrene exposure as particularly hazardous substance and the employer’s risk assessment was observed in 39 % of employers. In defining necessary safety measures the percentage of violations was even higher. It caused some concern that during technological procedures female workers were frequently exposed to styrene and were very often in the fertile age group. The supervision showed that at their own discretion employers assured work breaks to all workers who used personal protective equipment. Nevertheless, these breaks were insufficient. 4.2. Biological monitoring and solutions for lowering biological values of styrene After defining those workplaces where styrene is present, an analysis was performed to conclude whether the biological limit (1000 mg/g creat) was exceeded. Workers in several technology procedures were referred to biological monitoring with the exception of tyre production and latex impregnation where airborne concentrations were very low. Workers in manual applying and resin synthesis were divided into several subgroups in order to study the impacts of various factors, such as wearing short sleeves, to concentrations of mandelic acid in urine. The results of biological monitoring are shown in the right-hand side of Table 1. The last column provides the average value and the range of the eight-hour time-weighted average styrene concentrations measured at those workplaces where biological monitoring of workers was performed. It should be noted, that the levels of styrene metabolites in urine can be influenced by various factors, such as the type of exposure, working conditions, personal characteristics of the worker, sampling strategy, and different methods of analysis. In this research, the same sampling strategy and analytical method were used, as all the analyses were performed by the same laboratory. The results were compared within each activity separately thus considering different levels of physical work required. Certain deviations in the results gathered were also due to imprecision of the analytical methods, especially with low concentrations of creatinine in the urine.

The results of the biological monitoring indicated that high individual exposures occurred in two groups of workers: hand lamination and lacquering workers. Some employers and professional workers were mistakenly convinced that the concentrations of styrene in the air, which were rather lower than occupational limit values, automatically assured that biological limit values were not surpassed. Lacquering in furniture production (Table 1) is an example where the maximum airborne concentration of styrene at workplaces (7.5 ppm) was lower than the occupational limit value (20 ppm), but nevertheless, the maximum measured concentration of mandelic acid in urine (1283.8 mg/g creat) exceeded the biological limit value (1000 mg/g creat). It was established that during manual lamination, workers used the face masks with inappropriate filter type AX instead of type A, which would be more suitable for styrene with high boiling point. The filters were not changed regularly. The masks were placed on face inappropriately, and used only temporarily during the work shift. In some cases, illegal work in other plastic facilities outside normal working hours was discovered. In the case of lacquering operations, the styrene concentrations at work places were not exceeded, and therefore, workers were not aware of the potential harmful health effects. The majority of employees used short sleeves, and refused to use face masks. Besides, the use of organic solvents, such as ethylbenzene which also decomposes to mandelic acid, contributed to the increased values of selected biomarker. As the presence of ethylbenzene during the lacquering operations cannot be neglected, the procedure will be initiated for changing the legislation so that individual effect of styrene could be determined. The causes for the exceeded occupational limit values can be summarized as follows:  failure to use personal protective equipment,  the use of inappropriate personal protective equipment,  inappropriate use of personal protective equipment, in particular, improper use of protective masks or a prolonged use of the filter (filters were not replaced in due time before saturation),  possible impacts of other agents (chemicals, medicinal products, alcohol, drugs ...),  working overtime for other employers in plastics. A stricter observance of safety measures is apparently necessary for those exposures to styrene, where the occupational limit values were exceeded. The employers must provide any measures to reduce the levels of styrene metabolites below the permissible biological limit values. Some measures to reduce the levels of styrene, recommended to the employer, are:  Changes and improvements in technologies to reduce emissions of styrene in the workplace.

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 Familiarization of employees with the results of biological monitoring and follow-up, for example sanctions for non-use of personal protective equipment by the employer and the labour inspector, e.g. possible permanent termination of his/her employment by reason of incapacity and without rights for the state’s Employment Service.  Notification of the workers’ council or workers' representative for safety and health at work on the results of the biological monitoring.  Implementation of re-education on the use and maintenance of personal protective equipment.  Implementation of re-education by an authorized medical practitioner on the impact of inhalation, skin contact and ingestion of styrene on health. 4.3. Technological and organizational measures for lowering the exposure of employees to styrene Employees in the manufacture of laminates with manual applying of polyester and vinyl ester resins, and in pistol jet sprinkle fiber production were exposed to the highest concentrations of styrene as shown in Table 1. In addition to a specific education of employees on hazardous properties of styrene and the inclusion of it in risk assessment, the employers were advised to check and strengthen the technical, organizational and individual protection measures, as described in the continuation. 4.3.1. Technical safety measures One of the obligations of the employer is to implement technical safety measures (ILO, 1981). The safety measure with the highest priority over all other is to replace hazardous chemical substances and/or processes with a chemical substance and/or process that is not dangerous or is less dangerous – if it is technically possible (EC Directive 39, 1989; EC Directive 24, 1998). The chemical industry has developed a polyester resin with low styrene content in the past and thus replaced the polyester resin with a higher content of styrene. The content of styrene in polyester/vinyl ester resins has been reduced to the optimum, so no changes are expected in this area. It is therefore necessary to focus on changing the technological process, so there are no emissions of styrene in the workplace or these are minimal. Throughout the world many of such processes were developed, e.g. laminating with the injection processes, the production of laminates with other infusion processes, laminating with the pre-preg process - autoclave and others (Gurit Group, 2011). Some employers will have to pay more attention to the mixing of hazardous chemical substances in closed systems and separate rooms. Where the technology of material reinforcement (laminates) cannot be performed or organized in a way that there is no release of vapor or aerosol of styrene in the air at the workplace, it is necessary to install an air conditioning device at the source of the 1514

release of these substances for effective local exhaust ventilation. If the system of capturing the source of the styrene release is not perfect, the work space should have an additional, general ventilation system for the discharge of polluted air and sufficient supply of fresh air, so that styrene is effectively removed from the workplace resulting in fresh and clean air in the breathing zone. 4.3.2. Organizational safety measures The implementation of organizational safety measures usually does not require large capital investment, but it can contribute significantly to risk reduction. The most typical organizational measures are as follows: (i) Reducing the number of workers who are exposed or potentially exposed to styrene emissions. Therefore, some employers will have to divide technology rooms with partitions, in order to avoid unnecessary exposure of workers; (ii) Reducing the stock of chemical substances in the workplace if the workplace has larger quantities of chemical substances than necessary for the normal daily production; (iii) Employers shall reduce the duration and intensity of exposure with appropriate internal organization and make sure that workers are exposed to hazardous chemical agents the shortest time possible and that the intensity of exposure is minimized; (iv) They will also need to establish appropriate hygiene measures, which will include cleaning of the resulting dust, waste disposal, cleaning of work surfaces, cleaning of the walls and the like; (v) In investment planning and updating of work equipment employers must give preference to a greater security for their workers; (vi) Regular maintenance of the work equipment and monitoring the proper operation of all pieces of equipment must be ensured, mainly of the extraction system, since the supervision showed that a proper cleaning of the ventilation system is often lacking; (vii) Work procedures should be designed so that the risk to employees is minimized. However, supervisions show that due to employers’ ignorance and poor interest there is a lack of interest in changing the technology; (viii) Very little is done for the safe storage and disposal of waste in this activity; (ix) Regular monitoring and reviewing the implementation of the abovementioned organizational measures and activities, aimed at reducing the risk to employees, is very important. It is also necessary to check the employees' skills and compliance with the instructions for safe operation. 4.3.3. Individual safety measures Where the risks for the safety and health of the employees from exposure to styrene in the lamination of large areas cannot be reduced by technical and organizational measures, the third and final series of measures (by order of priority) shall be used – the individual safety measures (Directive 98/24/EC). This means providing employees with appropriate personal protective equipment, so as to


protect the respiratory tract, hands, as well as to protect the body and prevent styrene to pass into it through the skin. Employers must ensure that the personal protective equipment includes both respiratory and bodily protection. In the course of supervision it was established that as many as 38 % of employees are not using respiratory protection, while 70 % of employees only use short sleeved clothes. In these workplaces employees must use respiratory protection, long sleeves. Nitrile gloves should be worn during manual operations where workers' skin can come into contact with styrene containing liquids. 5. Conclusion The results of this research identified those workplaces in the Republic of Slovenia where the highest concentrations of styrene occurred, and the biological limit value of mandelic acid in the workers’ urine samples was exceeded. The most frequent causes for high exposure were improper and insufficient use of personal protection, and workers’ failure to comply with the labor legislation. A procedure for biological monitoring of styrene in compliance with state legislation was prescribed. This research enabled to establish a monitoring and control system of working exposure to styrene within the entire Republic of Slovenia. References Arai S., Kanazawa T., (2014), Electroless deposition and evaluation of Cu/multiwalled carbon nanotube composite films on acrylonitrile butadiene styrene resin, Surface & Coatings Technology, 254, 224–229. ATSDR, (2010), Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Toxicology Profile for Styrene U. S. Public Health Service, U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, GA, On line at: http: //www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp53.pdf. Campo P., Morata T.C, Hong O., (2013), Chemical exposure and hearing loss, Disease-a-Month, 59, 119138. Campo P., Venet T., Thomas A., Cour C., Brochard C., Cosnier F., (2014), Neuropharmacological and cochleotoxic effects of styrene. Consequences on noise exposures, Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 44, 113-120. CDC, (1983), Criteria for recommended standard: Occupational exposure to styrene, Centers for Disease Control, Cincinnati, OH: U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, PB84148295. Dalton P., Lees P.S.J., Gould M., Dilks D., Stefaniak A., Bader M., Ihrig A., Triebig G., (2007), Evaluation of long-term occupational exposure to styrene vapor on old factory function, Chemical Senses, 32, 739-747. EC Directive 391, (1989), Directive 89/391/EEC on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work, Official Journal of the European Communities, L 183/1, 29. 6. 1989.

EC Directive 24, (1998), Directive 98/24/EC on the protection of the health and safety of workers from the risks related to chemical agents at work, Official Journal of the European Communities, L 131/11, 5. 5. 1998. EC Directive 10, (2003), Directive 2003/10/EC on the minimum health and safety requirements regarding exposure of workers to the risks arising from physical agents (noise), Article 4 of Section II, Official Journal of the European Union, L 42/38, 15. 2. 2003. EC, (2000), EUROPEAN COMMISSION-European Chemicals Bureau, IUCLID DATA SET for substance ID: 100-42-5. Fustinoni S., Campo L., Manini P., (2008), An integrated approach to biomonitoring exposure to styrene and styrene-(7,8)-oxide using a repeated measurements sampling design, Biomarkers, 13, 560-578. Gong Y., Kishi R., Katakura Y., Tsukishima E., Fujiwara K., Kasai S., Satoh T., Sata F., Kawai T., (2002), Relation between colour vision loss and occupational styrene exposure level, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 59, 824-829. Gurit Group, (2011), International industrial group specialising in the development, production and marketing of advanced composite materials and technologies, Zurich, Switzerland, On line at: http://www.gurit.com. Hampton C.V., Pierson W.R., Harvey T.M., Updegrove W.S., Marano R.S., (1982), Hydrocarbon gases emitted from vehicle on the road, 1, A qualitative gas chromatography/mass spectrometry survey, Environmental Science & Technology, 16, 287-298. Hampton C.V., Pierson W.R., Harvey T.M., Schuetzle D., (1983), Hydrocarbon gases emitted from vehicle on the road, 2. Determination of emission rates from diesel and spark-ignition vehicles, Environmental Science & Technology, 17, 699-708. HSDB, (2010), Hazardous Substances Data Bank, Styrene, National Library of Medicine, On line at: http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov. IARC, (1979), Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risk to Humans, Styrene, polystyrene and styrene-butadiene copolymers, Vol. 19, Some monomers, plastics and synthetic elastomers, and acrolein, International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organization, Geneva, 231-274. IFA, (2010), Institut fűr Arbeitsschutz der Deutschen Gesetzlichen Unfallversicherung, GESTIS International Limit Values, On line at: http://Limitvalue.ifa.dguv.de/Webform_gw.aspx. ILO, (1981), Occupational Safety and Health Convention, No. 155, Part IV, Action at the level of the undertaking, International Labour Organization, On line at: http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=1000:12100:0: :no::p12100_ilo_code:c155. James D.H., Castor W.M., (2011), Styrene. Ullmann’s Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, On line at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14356007. a25_329.pub2/full. Johnson A.C., (2007), Relationship between styrene exposure and hearing loss: Review of human studies, International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, 20, 315-325. Kishi R., Eguchi T., Yuasa J., Katakura Y., Arata Y., Harabuchi I., Kawai T., Masuchi A., (2001), Effects of low-level occupational exposure to styrene on color vision: Dose relation with a urinary metabolite, Environmental Research, 85, 25-30.

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Morata T.C., Johnson A.C., Nylen P., Svensson E.B., Cheng J., Krieg E.F., Lindblad A.C., Ernstgård L., Franks J., (2002), Audiometric findings in workers exposed to low levels of styrene and noise, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 44, 806814. Morata T.C., Śliwińska-Kowalska M., Johnson A.C., Starck J., Pawlas K., Zamyslowska-Szmytke E., Nylen P., Toppila E., Krieg E., Pawlas N., Prasher D., (2011), A multicenter study on the audiometric findings of styrene-exposed workers, International Journal of Audiology, 50, 652-660. Negoescu C. C., Iacob Tudose E. T., Mămăligă I., Bunduc N., (2013), Aspects on polymer-solvent equilibrium and diffusion in polymeric membranes, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 12, 1583-1591. NIOSH, (1994), Manual of Analytical Methods, Method 1501: Hydrocarbons, aromatic. Fourth Edition, U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, OH. OEHHA, (2010), Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, Styrene, California, On line at: http://www.oehha.org/air/chronic_rels/pdf/100425.pdf Ogata M. and Taguchi T., (1987), Quantitation of urinary metabolites of toluene, xylene, styrene, ethylbenzene, benzene and phenol by automated high performance liquid chromatography, International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, 59, 263-272. Rihs H.P., Triebig G., Werner P., Rabstein S., Heinze E., Pesch B., Brűning T., (2008), Association between genetic polymorphisms in styrene-metabolizing enzymes and biomarkers in styrene-exposed workers, Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health Part A, 71, 866-873. Sato T., Kishi R., Gong Y., Katakura Y., Kawai T., (2009), Effects of styrene exposure on vibration perception threshold, Neurotoxicology, 30, 97-102.

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Śliwińska-Kowalska M., Zamyslowska-Szmytke E., Szymezak W., Kotylo P., Fiszer M., Wesolowski W., Pawlaczyk-Luszczynska M., (2003), Ototoxic effects of occupational exposure to styrene and co-exposure to styrene and noise, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 45, 15-24. Tint P., Järvis M., Reinhold K., Paas O., (2009), Risk assessment and measurement of hazards in Estonian enterprises, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 8, 1165-1170. Toppila E., Forsman P., Pyykkö I., Starck J., Tossavainen T., Uitti J., Oksa P., (2006), Effect of styrene on postural stability among reinforced plastic boat plant workers in Finland, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 48, 175-180. TRGS 903, (2006), Technical Rules for Hazardous Substances, Biological limit values, (in German), Committee on Hazardous Substances, On line at: http://www.baua.de/de/Themen-von-A-Z/ Gefahrstoffe/TRGS/TRGS-903.html. Vainiotalo S., Vaananen V., Vaaranrinta R., (2008), Measurement of 16 volatile organic compounds in restaurant air contaminated with environmental tobacco smoke, Environmental Research, 108, 280288. Van Rooij J.G.M., Kasper A., Triebig G., Werner P., Jongeneelen F.J., Kromhout H., (2008), Trends in occupational exposure to styrene in the European glass fibre-reinforcement plastics industry, Annals of Occupational Hygiene, 52, 337-349. WHO, (1983), World Health Organization, Environmental Health Criteria 26 Styrene, Geneve, On line at: http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc26.htm. Zamysłowska-Szmytke E., Śliwińska-Kowalska M., (2011), Vestibular and balance findings in nonsymptomatic workers exposed to styrene and dichloromethane, International Journal of Audiology, 50, 815-822.


June 2014, Vol.13, No. 6, 1517-1522



ENSURING SECURITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY AT BLASTING WORKPLACES Leonard Lupu, Emilian Ghicioi, Adrian Jurca, Florin Păun National Institute for Research and Development for Mining Safety and Explosion Proof Protection, 32-34 G-ral Vasile Milea Str., Petroşani, Romania

Abstract Using the blasting machines in explosive atmosphere involves the fulfillment of certain basic safety requirementst in Europe. Testing blasting machines to assess compliance with specific requirements is particularly important given the existing risk of explosion that has to be minimized so as to ensure safety of life, health and environment and to prevent damage to property and the environment. This paper addresses the analysis of the essential health and safety requirements for blasting machines used in explosive atmosphere and the application and development of testing and evaluation methods. Key words: blasting machine, explosive atmosphere, explosion protection Received: December 2013; Revised final: June, 2014; Accepted: June 2014

1. Introduction In certain workplaces, explosive atmospheres can be generated by combustible gases, mists or vapours or by flammable dusts. Since explosions can produce loss of life and severe injuries, as well as major damage, the correct exploitation of working equipment can be of great help in this context. As examples there could be considered the spaces where work activities generate or discharge flammable gases or vapours, such as paint spraying devices, or in workplaces managing fine dusts (Magyari et al, 2012; Meyer et al., 2008; Salzano and Cozzani; 2006; van den Berg, 1985). Blasting machines used in explosive atmosphere shall constitute potential sources of ignition with danger of explosion, which can occur due to the gas and/or combustible dust in the atmosphere, where explosive gas/dust mixture can appear (Ghicioi et al., 2012; Kortnik and Bratun, 2010). Studies and experimental research on the risk of explosion of these devices are particularly important in view of ensuring the security of life and 

human health, to prevent damage to property and reduce environmental pollution and to free movement of goods (Cozzani and Salzano, 2004; Eckhoff, 2005; Magyari et al., 2012). Precise determinations of blasting machines security features used in potentially explosive atmospheres can be made by developing laboratory research and tests, so as to account the accordance with the European and international principles and practices. Improving testing equipment within the testing stands for use in underground mines firedamp will have a positive impact for compliance with security requirements at blast works performed in explosive environments (SR EN 1127-2, 2003). In the Romanian legislation, as part of the European Union aquis, there are strict provisions regarding occupational safety and health, especially for workers operating in potentially explosive atmospheres in underground mines susceptible to firedamp. Also, many researches are developed by the specialists in this area to improve the security and safety for workplaces, occupational healt and


Lupu et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1517-1522

environment (Bakhshandeh Amnieha et al., 2010; Khandelwal and Kankar, 2011; Lupu, 2012a). In this context, the paper addresses the developing of new testing methods and devices for testing the blasting machines in terms of output energy, ignition energy, verification of output energy limiting device. The main research has been performed within the framework of a project developed in NUCLEU programme by the National Institute for Research and Development for Mining Safety and Explosion Proof Protection (INSEMEX), Petrosani, Romania. 2. Development of methods for experimental determination of the electric parameters of the blasting machines 2.1. Laboratory set-up and methods The existing research test stand within the dedicate laboratory within the National Institute for Research and Development for Mining Safety and Explosion Proof Protection was modernized by acquiring a new machinery and equipment consisting in a high performance oscilloscope with memory clocked at 1 GHz printer (Fig. 1). One of the most important tests of the blasting machines consists in determining the output energy (Blasting initiators, 2010; http://www.researchenergy.com/energy_testers.htm; http://www.idealblasting.com/et4j1energytester.aspx). The electrical signal generated by the blasting machine is the subject of this test, so we need transpose it in the form of oscillogram (Fodor, 1998; Geist et al., 2012).

the form of oscillogram (Crepaldi et al., 2012; Seifarth et al., 2008) (Fig. 2). In order to be able to read the oscillogramme (the characteristics curve) required to assess the test results, we used the oscilloscope associated software. By means of this software we were able to visualize both the discharge time and the maximum and minimum values of the discharge, with a higher accuracy (Salimi et al., 2013). Within the GLI-LIEx laboratory, tests had been carried out on several types of blasting machines, in order to determine the output voltage, ignition energy and verification of the output energy limiting device. 2.2. Laboratory tests for determining the output voltage A test series was performed to determine the output voltage for the Schaffler type 844T blasting machine intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres. An oscilloscope type Tektronics MSO with 1 GHz frequency (Fig. 2) was used to record oscillograms. Oscilloscope probe was connected into the circuit, according to the test procedure, and we started recording the oscillogram. Oscilloscope probe was connected into the circuit, according to the test procedure, and we started recording the oscillogram.

Fig. 2. Oscilloscope Tektronics MSO 4104B

Fig. 1. Experimental set-up with new equipment acquired

Oscillograms are capacitive electrical discharges with duration of a few milliseconds and they have the form of curves specific to each blating machine (Ghicioi, 2007). A very careful concern was addressed to the accuracy or precision of the oscillograms recording, resulting in the interpretation of data. As with the test to determine the output energy, we used the new high sensitivity and performance oscilloscope with 1 GHz - Tektronix MSO 4104B, for all other tests, where the electrical signal generated by the blasting machine is the security parameter that must pursued and taken over 1518

A test series was performed to determine the output voltage for the Schaffler type 844T blasting machine intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres. An oscilloscope type Tektronics MSO with 1 GHz frequency was used to record oscillograms. Oscilloscope probe was connected into the circuit, according to the test procedure, and we started recording the oscillogram. As seen in Fig. 3, after recording oscillograms we have focused our attention on the maximum area of maximum rise of the output voltage. We used 20x zoom function of the oscilloscope in the interest area, while the cursor "a" was inserted to the maximum output voltage. Another test was performed to determine the output voltage for a blasting machine type AICmI-1, using an oscilloscope connected into the circuit according to the test procedure and we started recording the oscillograms. As seen in Fig. 4, after recording oscillograms we have concentrated our attention on the upper part of the screen, in the area of maximum rise of the output voltage, at the beginning of discharge.

Ensuring security and environmental safety at blasting workplaces

Fig. 3. Oscillogram of the output voltage for blasting machine Schaffler type 844 T

We had inserted the cursor "a" to the maximum value of the oscillogram and in the right side box we have the other values which are the cursor "b" and the difference in the values of the two cursors. 2.3. Laboratory tests for determining the output energy A capacitor type blasting machine with a maximum circuit resistance (Re), connected across its output terminals needs to provide an initiating energy of at least KRe, for the required duration. An output current, higher than the sum of all the series currents for detonators ignition shall be ensured, as well.

t2

t2



Waf  K  Re  Re  i 2 ( t )dt  Re  t1 2t 1  2t 2  U 2  C   Re C Re C e e 2  



U2

t 1 Re

2

e

 2t Re C dt



   

(1) where: Waf the output energy of blasting machine; K firing impulse of blasting machine; Re maximum initiating circuit resistance; U the output voltage of blasting machine; C capacitance [F]; Iserie the series firing current in A for the detonator; n number of parallel circuits; S safety factor; t1 time of initiation of blasting machine; t2 period after the output current has dropped below a defined value.

Fig. 4. Oscillogram of the output voltage for blasting machine type AICmI-1

1519


Fig. 5 shows the output current graph as function of time unit, from beginning of ignition up to the moment when the output current decreases to a value equal to the series ignition current of the detonators. The energy delivered by the blasting machine during this period is represented by the shaded area under the graph curve. The energy (1) is calculated from the integral of the squared current over this period of time multiplied by the maximum initiating curcuit resistance (Re) (SR EN 1367326:2006) (Eq. 1).

Fig. 5. Discharge curve profile: 1 - discharge curve, 2 area used to calculate the blasting machines output energy, 3 - electric detonator series firing current and safety factor (nSIserie), 4 – output energy cut-off time for blasting machine intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres of gas

We performed a test to determine output energy for an blasting machine Schaffler type 844T used in potentially explosive atmospheres and was used to record oscillograms Tektronix MSO 4104B oscilloscope with 1 GHz frequency. Oscilloscope probe was connected into the circuit according to the test procedure and we proceeded to record the characteristic curve.

As it can be seen in Fig. 6, after recording oscillograms we inserted two cursors "a" and "b", one at the beginning and one at the end of the characteristic curve. For this area we have defined a mathematical function that makes possible the calculation output energy of oscillogram. Mathematical function is shown in Fig. 6 (red right zone), that has an increase in time and can allow the determination of the maximum value of the energy. The second test was performed to determine output energy for an blasting machine type AICmI-1 and was used to record oscillograms Tektronix MSO 4104B oscilloscope with 1 GHz frequency. Oscilloscope probe was connected into the circuit according to the test procedure and we proceeded to record the characteristic curve. After recording oscillograms (Fig. 7), we inserted two cursors "a" and "b": one at the beginning and one at the end of the characteristic curve. For the area between the two cursors we have defined a mathematical function that allows the calculation of energy out of oscillogram. Mathematical function is shown in the Fig. 7 as a red line, which increases in time, while energy is the maximum value of this curve. In Fig. 8 we presented the mathematical functions for calculation output energy for blasting machine (Lupu, 2012b). 2.4. Laboratory tests for determining the ignition time of the energy output We carried out a test of check a discharge devices of output energy for an blasting machine Schaffler type 844T used in potentially explosive atmospheres and was used to record oscillograms Tektronix MSO 4104B oscilloscope with 1 GHz frequency. Oscilloscope probe was connected into the circuit according to the test procedure and we proceeded to record the characteristic curve.

Fig. 6. Oscillogram of the output energy for blasting machine Schaffler type 844 T

1520

Ensuring security and environmental safety at blasting workplaces

Fig. 7. Oscillogram of the output energy for blasting machine type AICmI-1

Fig. 8. Defining mathematical function – output energy for blasting machine

In Fig. 9 we inserted two cursors "a" and "b" one at the beginning and one at the end of the characteristic curve. The discharge time of energy output represents the time between the two cursors and value is displayed in the top right box. 3. Conclusions Accurate verification for blasting machines to assess compliance with specific requirements is particularly important considering the existence the risk of explosion. Result of performing an analysis of the requirements for blasting machines used in potentially explosive atmospheres is necessary to modernize laboratory test methods. In this regard it is necessary modernization research equipment for the development of tests in

order to arrive at a most advanced technical level of the laboratory equipment. With a high level of performance of the equipment used in the tests we get the best results for evaluating the blating machine. References Kortnik J., Bratun J., (2010), Use of electronic initiation systems in mining industry, RMZ – Materials and Geoenvironment, 57, 403-414. Bakhshandeh Amnieha H., Mozdianfard M.R., Siamak A., (2010), Predicting of blasting vibrations in Sarcheshmeh copper mine by neural network, Safety Science, 48, 319–325. Blasting initiators, (2010), Moving earth, wind, water and fire, On line at: http://www.elementminingltd.com/element_mining_br ochure.pdf.

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Fig. 9. Oscillogram of the discharge devices for blasting machine type AICmI-1 Bo L., Xiang X., Chong L., (2013), Dynamic mechanical compression of rock material with different weathering degrees, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 12, 1797-1801. Cozzani V., Salzano E., (2004), Threshold values for domino effects caused by blast wave interaction with process equipment, Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 17, 437–447. Crepaldi M., Dapra D., Bonanno A., Aulika I., Demarchi D., Civera P., (2012), A very low-complexity 0.3–4.4 GHz 0.004 mm - all-digital ultra-wide-band pulsed transmitter for energy detection receivers, Circuits and Systems, 59, 2443-2455, DOI: 10.1109/TCSI.2012.2188954. Eckhoff R.K., (2005), Current status and expected future trends in dust explosion research, Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 18, 225–237. Fodor D, (1998), Use of Explosives in Industry (in Romanian) INFOMIN Publishing House, Deva, Romania. Geist A.V., Balagurov M.V., Bachurin P.A., Korobkov, D.V., (2012), Semiconductor Converter of the Electrical Energy for Mining Electrical Equipment Supply, 2012 IEEE 13th International Conference and Seminar of Young Specialists on Micro/Nanotechnologies and Electron Devices (EDM), 2-6 July 2012, Erlagol, Altai, 10.1109/EDM.2012.6310239. Ghicioi E., (2007), Method for Diagnosing Electrical Detonators, INSEMEX Publishing House, Petrosani, Romania. Ghicioi E., Paraian M., Lupu L., Jurca A., (2012), Anew method for verification of ignition systems Integrated in special trucks, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 11, 1299-1303. Khandelwal M., Kankar P.K., (2011), Prediction of blastinduced air overpressure using support vector machine, Arabian Journal of Geosciences, 4, 427-433. Lupu C., (2012a), Occupational health and safety in industries with explosion hazard: current knowledge and research, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 11, 1221-1224.

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Lupu L., (2012b), Development of methods for evaluation and testing of blasting machines (in Romanian), „Nucleu” Program Project PN-07-45-02-2010, INSEMEX, Petrosani, Romania. Magyari M., Burian S., Friedmann M., Moldovan L., (2012), Factors affecting the flameproof motor enclosures design for exploitation in explosive gas mixtures, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 11, 1311-1316. Meyer R., Köhler J., Homburg A., (2008), Explosives, John Wiley and Sons, New York. Salimi B., Abdul-Malek Z., Mirazimi S.J., Zamir K.M., (2013), Investigation of Short Base Line Lightning Detection System by using Time of Arrival Method, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Intelligent Informatics ISI’12, August 4-5 2012, Chennai, India, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-32063-7_16. Salzano E., Cozzani V., (2006), A fuzzy set analysis to estimate loss intensity following blast wave interaction with process equipment, Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 19, 343–352. Seifarth C., Jurenz T., Scholl G., (2008), Sub-microsecond ultra-wideband transceiver for time-critical wireless sensor networks, Frequenz, 62, 191–194. SR EN 1127-2, (2003), Explosive atmospheres Explosion prevention and protection. Part 1: Basic concepts and methodology for mining., On line at: http://magazin.asro.ro/index.php?pag=3&lg=2&cls=1 &dom=13&gr=230&id_p=13462377. SR EN 13763-26, (2005), Explosives for civil uses – Detonators and relays – Part 26: Definitions methods and requirements for devices and accessories for reliable and safe function of detonators and relays, On line at: http://magazin.asro.ro/index.php?pag=4&lg=2&oferta= 2007-2&dom=71.100&tip_a=ics. van den Berg A.C., (1985), The multi-energy method: A framework for vapour cloud explosion blast prediction, Journal of Hazardous Materials, 12, 1–10.


June 2014, Vol.13, No. 6, 1523-1531



STUDY OF VARIABLE HEAT EXCHANGE BETWEEN A THICKNESS LIMITED CYLINDRICAL PIPE AND THE ROCK MASSIF FOR APPLICATION IN MINE ENVIRONMENT Dan Codruț Petrilean1, Sorina Stănilă1, Sabin Ioan Irimie2 1 University of Petroşani, 20 University Str., 332006 Petroşani, Romania “Politehnica” University of Timisoara, 2 Victoriei Square, 300006 Timisoara, Romania

2

Abstract The problem the paper deals with is the determination of ground heat distribution on different distances inside a cylindrical mine work. Both interior radius and the exterior radii of the cylinder are known. The use of the range of temperatures is useful for the calculation of the heat exchange rock - air. Results dissemination allow the development of a mathematical, model which may be applied to a series of natural conditions as well as to different geometrical shapes closer or not to the form of a cylinder. Key words: air, dimensionless temperature, mathematical model, Newton method, temperature distribution, variable heat exchange Received: December 2013; Revised final: June, 2014; Accepted: June 2014

1. Introduction In underground systems like mines heat is emitted from a variety of sources. In most coal mines in the world, airflow ventilation system itself is enough to remove the heat that is produced. In deep mines, however, heat is usually the dominant problem in the workplace and may require the use of refrigeration (Brake, 2001; McPherson, 2012). Understanding the basic principles of refrigeration environment in deep mines, considering principles, practices, risks and opportunities for engineers or other personnel who may be involved in the design and exploitation of refrigeration systems on a mining site is particularly important for the securing of working environments. Therefore, mathematical tools can support the design of refrigerating systems as well as their automation, since they can offer theoretical data and models for temperature distribution and heat transfer in mine environment and atmosphere. As the mining work is a cylindrical one (Fig. 1), it will be assimilated to a cylindrical ring (infinitely long) through which a radial heat exchange takes place. 

Air may be found inside the mining work as it is placed in a solid environment. There is mainly a radial heat exchange either from the interior or from the exterior of the ring, the axial one being insignificant (Bejan, 1996; Holman, 2002). Therefore, the mathematical models which quantify the distribution of temperature ranges in this cylinder should have a research application area for the following matters (Hardygóra et al., 2004; Hartman et al., 2012; He, 2009; Kurowska, 1999): - refrigeration systems used to dig mine shafts and other mine works carried out in either stable or unstable terrains, namely quick sands; - construction of underground tunnels with environmental impact; - consolidation through freezing of unstable grounds for underground main transport line works; - underground storage facilities, underground chambers, or the construction of bridges; - determination of the thermal comfort in underground mines, namely to provide data regarding the distribution of temperature in the rock massif surrounding the mine work up to its wall.

Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: [email protected]; Phone: +40721373261

Petrilean et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1523-1531

Fig. 1. Schematic representation of mining work ventilation system 1 – compressor station; 2 – buffer tank; 3 – main pipe; 4 – water and oil separator; 5 – splitters; 6 – consumers

The heat exchange from the warm rock through the cooled down ring and from here to the mining work is usually made unstationarily, therefore the isotherms depend both on the radius r as well as on the time τ. For example, this energetic exchange takes place when carrying out works on unstable grounds, freezing therefore the water-bearing rocks in order to consolidate them. In a stationary operation the problem is partially solved, while in a variable operation it requires a series of limit conditions. The operating agent of the installation flowing through the pipe receives the heat from the environment and from the frozen water while around the pipe the environment is consolidated through freezing (EPA, 2012; USEPA, 1997). The problems for heat transfer between air and the rock massif were dealt with by some scientists (Bejan, 1996; Ebadian and Lin; 2011; Őzişik, 1989). The new elements brought forward and studied by the present paper are the following: - development of a mathematical model for variable heat exchange allowing an exact quantification of the distribution of the values of the dimensionless temperature of the rock massif depending on the current radius of the cylinder of the work for known values of similitude criteria Bi and Fo as well as of the relative coefficient of heat transfer. In order to solve the problem, the inner radius of the cylinder of the work and the radius for the depth of the working environment are considered to be known; - finding the numerical solution of the variable thermal transfer equation using Newton’s method, providing solutions for various Fo, Bi, h, r1, r0 values; - developement of nomograms to allow for the value of the temperature on the ordinate to be read starting from the abscissa of known values of the radius of the cylinder of the work and intersecting the Bi and Fo curves. 1524

2. Overview on mathematical modeling The paper develops a mathematical model for the variable heat exchange which will allow the quantification of the variation of the dimensionless temperature as a result of the air-rock heat exchange, depending on the existing conditions, and on the radius of the work considered to be cylindrical. Considering a circular pipe, energy exchange occurs only radially (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Cylindrical pipe inside the rock massif

In the system of cylindrical coordinates, the form of the equation of thermal conduction is (Őzişik, 1989):   2T r , , y ,  1  T r , , y ,        r r r 2  T r , , y ,    a  1  2T r , , y ,   2T r , , y ,         r 2  2  y2 (1)

Study of variable heat exchange between a thickness limited cylindrical pipe and the rock massif

The literature admitted that the last two terms can be considered null. Therefore the form of the basic equation of variable thermal conduction for solid bodies, without interior dimensionless heat sources is given by (Holman, 2002):  Eq. (2):

1  T r ,   2T r ,  1 T r ,     a  r r  r2

(2)

r0  r    0     t  ta is the dimensionless temperature tr  ta satisfying the initial condition and the nonhomogenous boundary conditions (3):

with: V r1   1, V ' r0   h  V r0   0 The form of the general solution is given by (9):

V r   c1 ln r  c2

(9)

The two constants c1 and c2 are obtained using the systems (10, 11):

c1 ln r  c2  1   c1  r  hc1 ln r0  c2   0  1

(10)

where: T 

t r,0  t r and therefore T r ,0  1

(3)

t ,   t r for which T ,   1  Eq. (4): 

T r ,  r

r  r0

   T r , 

r  r0

0

(4)

r  r0

 h  T r , 

r  r0

0

(5)

 [m-1] is the relative coefficient of heat  transfer, which can be obtained knowing the thermalphysical properties of the wall of the mine work. Due to non-homogenous conditions, the form of the solution is given by Eq. (6): where: h 

T r ,   V r   W r , 

(6)

where: V(r) satisfies in Eq. (2) the boundary conditions T r1 ,0  0 and Eq. (5), while W(r, ) in homogenous boundary conditions (7): W r1 ,   0

h  r0 r 1  h  r0 ln 1 r0

; c2  1 

h  r0 ln r1 1  h  r0 ln

so that Eq. (9) becomes (12): r h r0 ln r1 V r   1  r 1  h r0 ln 1 r0

r1 r0

(11)

(12)

2.2. Determining W(r, ) This function results if Eq. (13) is fulfilled (Őzişik, 1989):

 Eq. (5): T r ,  r

c1 

W r

şi

r  r0

 h W

r  r0

0 (7)

 2W 1 W 1  W    r r a  r 2

The form of the homogenous limit conditions of Eq. (13) (9) is given by the system (14) under the initial condition (15).

W r1 ,   0 W r

r r0

 h W

d 2V 1 dV  0 d r 2 r dr

or

1 V"  V '  0 r (8)

r  r0

0

W r ,0  1  V r   

h r0 ln

(14) r r1

(15) r1 1  h r0 ln r0 Particular solutions are sought for Eq. (13) with its form W r ,   X r   T   where, after separating the variables, Eq. (16) results:

2.1. Determininig V(r): The function V(r) derives from Eq. (8):

(13)

T'  a T

X   X

1 X' r

(16)

As the left part of Eq. (16) depends on , and the right part depends only on r, the two ratios are 1525


equal only if they are equal to the same constant k, according to Eq. (17). T'  a T

1 X' r k X

X  

(17)

Two differential equations result:  Eq. (18): T ' k  a  T  0   1  X " r X ' k  X  0

(18)

The boundary conditions (14) are relapsed on the function X(r) (Eq. 19):

X(r1 )  0

(25) X where:   . r0 This equation may be either graphically solved, or by using a specialised numerical calculations software resulting in an infinity number of positive values X1, X2, …, Xn. It also results an infinity of basic values 1 , 2 …n. The Xn functions corresponding to these basic values are also obtained, their form being expressed by Eq. (26), which represents the basic functions of the limit problem (16) and (17).

X n r   J 0  n r  y0  n r1   J 0  n r1  y0  n r  (26)

(19)

X' r0   h  X ( r0 )  0

First, the limit problem is solved, respectively the second equation in system (16) and (17). It is then observed that the only acceptable values of parameter k are negative, because for k  0 the form of the particular solutions for the first equation of system (16) is T    e k a and increase exponentially in time, not corresponding therefore physically. For k    2 , the second equation in system (16) becomes (20): r  X' '  X'  2  r  X  0

X r   A  J 0  r   B  y0  r 

r1

X n r  

 r X

X n r  

2 2 r0  X n r0   h  r0   n  r0 X n r0      2  n2   n  r1 h   n r0    'n r0  

2

2

r0

2 n

r  dr (27)









(28)

(29)

(21)

The following system results from equations (16) and (18) for the determination of A and B (Eq. 22):  A  J0  r1   B y0  r1   0   A  h  J0  r0     J0'  r0   B h  y0  r0     y0'  r0   0

 

The ratio of functions Xn(r) is given in the form (27) or (28), together with the explicit forms (29, 30).

 n r0   J1  n  r1  y0  n  r0   J 0  n  r0  y1  n  r1 

(20)

The general solution is given by Eq. (21):



r  r  J 0  X  y0   1  X   J 0   1  X   y0  X  X  r0   r0   r0  h  r1   r1  J 0    X  y1 ( X )  J 1 ( X ) y0   X   r0   r0 



(22) which is a null solution only if the determinant of the system is null (Eq. 23).

 n' r0    n J1  n r0  y1  n r1   J1  n r1  y1  n r0  (30) 2 Considering k   n , the first equation of system (16) becomes (31), with the general solution (32), or when cn = 1, Tn    e  an  the form of the particular solutions of Eq. (13) will become (34), with the boundary conditions (35). 2

Tn'   n2  a  T  0

Tn    cn  e

(31)

an2 

(32)

W r ,   X r  T  

(34)

Wn r ,   X n r Tn    X n r   e (35) hJ 0  r1   y0  r0   J 0  r0  y0  r1    y0  r1   J 0'  r0   J 0  r1   y0'  r0   0 (23) In order to obtain a solution for Eq. (13), The solutions of equation (23) represent the which satisfies the initial condition (14) the principle values of the limit problem of the second equation of of overlapping effects is used. As Eq. (13) is linear, systems (18) and (19). Using the recurrence formulas then the function (36) is the solution to this equation (24) together with Eq. (23) it will result the expression verifying the boundary conditions (14). Constants cn (25). are therefore determined in order for (27) to satisfy the



J 0'  X    J1  X ;

1526

y0'  X    y1  X 



(24)

 an2 

initial condition (14) as well, using the orthogonality of functions Xn(r).

Study of variable heat exchange between a thickness limited cylindrical pipe and the rock massif 



W r ,  

cn  Wn r ,  



c

where: Bi = r0·h, Fo 

 X n r   e an  2

n

n 1

n 1

(36) Considering   0 in (36) and (14) the relation (37) is obtained. r r1

h  r0 ln

W r ,0  



c

(37) n X n r  r1 n  1 1  h  r0 ln r0 Writing A in the form (38), formula (36) becomes (39), while values cn are given by Eq. (40). h  r0

A

1  h r0 ln

A  ln

cn 





r  r1

c

(38)

r1 r0

n

X n r 

(39)

n 1

r1

A 2

Xn

 rX

r ln r dr

n

(40)

r1

r0

Using the calculation by parts and recurrence, Eq. (41) is obtained for cn. Then, by replacing X n

2

in Eq. (41) it results the form (42) for cn.

cn   cn  

 n2 X n

h

2

(41) 2h X n r0   1r1  n r0    n' r0  (42)





3. Numerical method for solving the variable thermal transfer equation. Discussion

In order to solve the variable thermal transfer Eq. (44), both the solution for the thermal transfer Eq. (25) as well as the representation of the basic functions of the limit problem, Eq. (26), shall be determined. Therefore, in order to determine the numerical solutions of the thermal transfer Eq. (25) the following values will be considered: r0 = 4, r1 = 6, h = 12.574, which are frequently met in mine works in Jiu Valley. The use of numerical calculation software requires the following steps: - choosing the starting points through iterative algorithm with the following form: X init  0.1 X final i  0  nn  1



Xb 





 2h

Xb  Xa

n1

0







  n2 r0 X n r0    n r1 h   n r0    'n r0  (43)

The general solution of the criteria form heat transfer equation is given by the relationship (44). T r ,   V r   W r ,   1 

Bi ln

r r1





  

A1  root Fa Xb Xb i

1  Bi ln

r1 r0

 (45)

for i  0....nn  1 Xb   A1i  i r0

(46)

A1



 J  r  y  r   J  r  y  r   e 4 n2 Fo  0 n 1 0 n  0 n 0 n1   Bi  2 ' n 1 h  Bi   n r0 X n r0    n r1 h   n r0    n r0  

i

The value of μ is calculated in the formof Eq. (46):

2

J 0  n r  y0  n r1   J 0  n r1  y0  n r   e an

 h 2 r

nn  1

A1

2

cn  Xnr   e an 

n1



X final  X init

for i  0  nn  1

Considering Xn(r) and (42) in (36) we can obtain Eq. (43).

W r ,  

 100 nn  30

- solving the thermal transfer Eq.(25) with the unknown X, can be done considering the values X0, X1, ... , Xnn-1 in the buffer variable Xb (relation 45).

2

r0   n2 r0

Relation (44) was established considering the invariable heat transfer between the airway shaft and the rock massif found around a cylindrical mine work with a limited radial extension. Using relation (44) the distribution of ground temperature depending on the radius r of the cylinder of the work may be established.

Xa  X init  i i

h  r0  X n r0 

a  r02





An nn 1 dimension Yb vector is generated; all the values of the vector Yb are equal to zero. This vector is used for the graphical representation of the solutions marked with (Xb,Yb) of the Fa(X) = 0 equation (47).

(44) 1527


Yb 

for i  0  nn  1

varies depending on the underground conditions within the limits λ = 0.5÷3; α = 12÷25.

C1  0 i

Dimensionless temperature variation

(47)

where Fa(X) = 0 represents the thermal transfer, Eq. (25) written correspondingly. The correctness of the algorithm may be verified following the solutions obtained in Fig. 3 for Yb=0.

Dimensionless temperature

C1

T  r Bi0 Fo0 1 T  r Bi0 Fo1 T  r Bi0 Fo2 T  r Bi0 Fo3 T  r Bi0 Fo4 T  r Bi0 Fo50.5

4

5

6

7

8

r

Radius of the work

Fig. 5. Function T(r, Bi, Fo, h) for a constant Bi (Bi=1) and a variable Fo (Fo=0.01 ,0.03, 0.05, 0.07, 0.09, 0.1), and h=12.57

Fig. 3. Fa(X) function in relation to X and the solutions of equation Fa(X) = 0, Yb =0

It results therefore from Fig. 3 that there are all the solutions for equation Fa(X) = 0, Yb= 0. The representation of the basic functions of the limit problem (18) and (19), according to relation (26) is given in Fig. 4.



T  r Bi1 Fo0

1

T  r Bi1 Fo1 T  r Bi1 Fo2 T  r Bi1 Fo3 T  r Bi1 Fo4 T  r Bi1 Fo50.5

4

5

6

7

8

r

Radius of the work

Fig. 6. Function T(r, Bi, Fo, h) for a constant Bi (Bi =2) and a variable Fo (Fo=0.01, 0.03, 0.05, 0.07, 0.09, 0.1), and h=12.57

Fig. 4. The variation of functions to limit according to Eq. (26)

Based on the specialized calculation software previously presented, which was run for different frequent practical situations, knowing the values of r0, r1 and h, the nomograms representing the function T(r, Bi, Fo, h) shall be developed for the variable thermal transfer, equation (44), namely: a) function T(r, Bi, Fo, h) for a variable Fo and a constant Bi (Figs. 5 and 6). b) Function T(r, Bi, Fo, h) for a constant Fo and a variable Bi (Figs. 5-10). The relative coefficient of heat transfer h depends on the coefficient of conduction and convection, which according to the speciality literature

1528

Considering a similar reasoning, correspondingly repeating the mathematical calculation algorithm the nomograms representing functions T(r, Bi, Fo, h) may be obtained for a number of h values (e.g. h = 7, minimum value, respectively h = 48, maximum value or any other intermediate value depending on the underground conditions). Fo and Bi invariants remain within the limits. For instance, Figs. 13 and 14 present the nomograms representing the dependence T(r, Bi, Fo, h) for h = 7 and respectively for h = 48. Based on the nomograms presented in Figs. 514 the following findings can be highlighted: values obtained regarding the 1. The dimensionless temperature are comprised within the range (0÷1), proving therefore the correctness of the applied reasoning concerning the mathematical model for variable thermal transfer;



T  r Bi0 Fo0 1





4

5

6

T  r Bi0 Fo 1

1

T  r Bi1 Fo 1 T  r Bi2 Fo 1 T  r Bi3 Fo 1 T  r Bi4 Fo 1 T  r Bi5 Fo 10.5

4

7

Radius of the work

Radius of the work




1


5

6

T  r Bi0 Fo3

1


7

4

5 r

Radius of the work

Radius of the work



T  r Bi0 Fo4 1 T  r Bi1 Fo4 T  r Bi2 Fo4 T  r Bi3 Fo4 T  r Bi4 Fo4 T  r Bi5 Fo40.5

5

6

7

Fig. 10. Function T(r, Bi, Fo, h) for a variable Bi (Bi =1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) and a constant Fo (Fo=0.07) and h = 12.57



6

r

Fig. 9. Function T(r, Bi, Fo, h) for a variable Bi (Bi =1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ,6) and a constant Fo (Fo=0.05) and h = 12.57

4

7

Fig 8. Function T(r, Bi, Fo, h) for a variable Bi (Bi =1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) and a constant Fo (Fo=0.03) and h = 12.57


4

6 r


T  r Bi0 Fo2

5

r

7

T  r Bi0 Fo5

1


4

5

6

r

r

Radius of the work

Radius of the work

Fig. 11. Function T(r, Bi, Fo, h) for a variable Bi (Bi =1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ,6) and a constant Fo (Fo=0.05) and h = 12.57

7


1529



1




T 0( r ) T 1( r ) T 2( r ) T 3( r )

0.5

4

4.5

5

5.5

6

T 1( r ) T 2( r ) T 3( r )

0.5

4

4.5

5

r

r

Radius of the work

Radius of the work

Fig. 13. Dimensionless temperature variation depending on the radius of the work for Bi = 2, 3, 4, 5 and Fo=0.1; h = 7

2. Comparing the nomograms in Figs. 5 and 6, insignificant differences between the curves Bi = ct., (Bi = 1, 4); and Fo =var.(Fo = 0.01÷0.1) may be noticed, resulting that the nomograms are slightly sensitive to the change of Fo; 3. Knowing the exact value on the abscissa of the radius of the work and the Fo and Bi curves in the nomograms presented by Figs. 7 - 14, the exact value of the dimensionless temperature may be easily established; 4. Considering a constant r the dimensionless temperature decreases as the Bi invariant increases (Figs. 7 - 14); 5. Comparing the nomograms in Figs. 12 – 14, it is observed that as the relative coefficient of heat transfer increases the Bi and Fo curves get closer to the superior side of the range 0 – 1, or for a constant r, knowing the values of Fo and Bi, the value of the dimensionless temperature increases together with increase of the relative coefficient of heat transfer. 6. Increasing the value of λ and decreasing the value of α, the value of the dimensionless temperature increases. 4. Conclusions

The paper builds a mathematical model of non-stationary heat transfer, which allows the determination of temperature distribution in mine environment, associated with a cylinder. Knowing the isotherm spectrum surrounding the cylinder of the work is useful for the quantification of the thermal flux going through the ground. The obtained mathematical model allows for the variable heat transfer equation to be solved, the solution representing the expression of the dimensionless temperature of any spot of the rock massif. Solving the heat transfer equation is done by using Newton’s numerical method using the Bessel function of order 0, case I, and Bessel function of order 0, case II. 1530

1 T 0( r )

5.5

6

Fig 14. Dimensionless temperature variation depending on the radius of the work for Bi = 2, 3, 4, 5 and Fo=0.1; h = 48

Based on the presented nomograms, starting from the abscissa of known values of the radius of the cylinder of the work and intersecting the Bi and Fo curves, the values on the ordinate of T(r,τ) is obtained. The determined values of T(r,τ) confirm the validity of the variable heat transfer relation (34), because its real domain is T(r,τ) = (0÷1). A number of numerical solutions for a series of values r0, r1, h is frequently met inside underground works. By changing (increasing) the number of nn points in order for all the solutions of the equation Fa(X) = 0, Yb =0 to exist and repeating the numerical calculation programme with the previously described steps it is possible to develop nomogram families to represent the dependency T r,   f Bi, Fo, r, r1 , h according to concrete values of the design data. Therefore, using the numerical method to solve the variable heat transfer equation, solutions for multiple know values r0 and r1, h, are obtained, which are frequently met in the practice of mine works, allowing the quantification of temperature values. These values are useful for the design data in opening works. The importance of the developed nomograms resides in the fact that they allow for a spectrum of temperatures to be appreciated according to the radius of the mine work, allowing therefore for the problem of regulating the thermal regime in underground mines to be solved. This is essential for establishing the baseline temperature field when deciding to introduce mine temperature control units for the proper functioning of the mine units and worker comfort. Nomenclature

r0 inner radius of the cylinder of the work (m); r1 radius for the depth of the working environment (m); rcurrent radius of the cylinder of the work (m); ta air temperature inside the pipe (centigrade); tr temperature of the rocks (centigrade);


-

angle of direction of the cylindrical coordinates; acoefficient of thermal diffusion (m2/s); ycurrent coordinate measured along the axis of the mine work (m) Tdimensionless temperature of the mine work hrelative coefficient of heat transfer (m-1); kconstant μratio between the solution of the equation and the interior radius of the cylinder of the work;  time (s); αcoefficient of convection (W·m-2·centigrade1 ); λcoefficient of conduction of the rock (W·m1 ·centigrade-1); eEuler number; c1, c2, cn - miscellaneous constants; J0 Bessel function of order 0, case I; Y0 Bessel function of order 0, case II; Yb Vector of dimension nn-1; Fo and Bi - Fourier and Biot invariants; V(r) and W(r,) - functions satisfying various conditions; Xinit inferior limit of the interval Xfin superior limit of the interval iindex of relapse Xa starting points for Newton’s method Xb buffer variable in which all the solutions are found A1 intermediate variable in which the solutions for step i are found nn – number of points References Bejan A., (1996), Thermal Design & Optimisation, John Wiley, New York. Brake D.J., (2001), Key engineering considerations in the specification and selection of mine refrigeration plants, The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Proceedings, 306, 1-16.

Ebadian M.A., Lin C.X., (2011), A review of high-heat-flux heat removal technologies, Journal of Heat Transfer, 133, 110801, doi:10.1115/1.4004340. EPA, (2012), Environmental good practice guide for ground source heating and cooling, Environment Protection Agency, Environment Agency Horizon House, Bristol, On line at: http://www.gshp.org.uk/pdf/EA_GSHC_Good_Practice _Guide.pdf. Hardygóra M., Paszkowska G., Sikora M., (2004), Mine Planning and Equipment Selection 2004: Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Symposium on Mine Planning and Equipment Selection, Wroclaw, Poland, 1-3 September 2004, CRC Press. Hartman H.L., Mutmansky J.M., Ramani R.V., Wang Y.J., (2012), Mine Ventilation and Air Conditioning, John Wiley and Sons, New York. He M.-c., (2009), Application of HEMS cooling technology in deep mine heat hazard control, Mining Science and Technology, 19, 269–275. Kandlikar S.G., (2005), High flux heat removal with microchannels - a roadmap of challenges and opportunities, Heat Transfer Engineering, 26, 5-14. Kurowska E., (1999), Disturbance of geothermal field of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin due to mining activity, Bulletin of Hydrogeology, 17, 77-82, On line at: https://pangea.stanford.edu/ERE/pdf/IGAstandard/EGC/ 1999/Kurowska.pdf. Holman P., (2002), Heat Transfer, ninth ed., McGraw-Hill Education. McPherson M.J., (2012), Subsurface Ventilation and Environmental Engineering, Springer, Amsterdam. Őzişik M.N., (1989), Boundary Value Problems of Heat Conduction, U.S.A, Dover Phonix Edition, Mineola. Taft B.S., (2013), Non-condensable gases and oscillating heat pipe operation, Frontiers in Heat Pipes (FHP), 4, 013003, DOI: 10.5098/fhp.v4.1.3003. USEPA, (1997), Manual on Environmental Issues Related to Geothermal Heat Pump Systems, National Service Center for Environmental Publications (NSCEP), Washington DC. Witrant M., (2013), Mining Ventilation Control, On line at: http://www.gipsa-lab.grenobleinp.fr/~e.witrant/classes/13_MVC_Sogamoso.pdf

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June 2014, Vol.13, No. 6, 1533-1536



DETECTION OF ACCIDENTAL LEAKS IN NATURAL GAS MAIN PIPELINES BY FUZZY LOGIC TOOLS Adrian Bucur, Vasile Rafa SNTGN TRANSGAZ SA , 11 George Enescu Str., Mediaș, Sibiu, România

Abstract Pipeline crack-like defects are detected and localized through the monitoring of the transport parameters of the transmission network. Under SCADA monitoring, accidental gas loss is reduced and the negative environmental impact of the hydrocarbons is avoided. This paper presents a method for the localization of accidental gas leaks, the pressure gradient method combined with a fuzzy analysis method, which operates simultaneously both numerical data and lexical arguments in order to accurately localize the damage in the field. Key words: accidental loss, flow rate, fuzzy, natural gas, pressure gradient Received: December 2013; Revised final: June, 2014; Accepted: June 2014

1. Introduction The development of the oil and gas industry has imposed the necessity for a safe transport combined with the possibility to detect defects and accidental leaks. In particular, long distance pipelines in the vicinity of residential areas or crossing cultivated fields must be equipped with detection systems for accidental leaks and/or should be applied an analysis method regarding the transport by keeping under surveillance of the main key parameters such as: pressure, flow rate, density, temperature, transmission velocity etc. (Kishawy and Gabbar, 2010; Lechtenböhmer et al., 2007). The equipment for monitoring the flow rate and the pressure of receiving and delivering gas system and the method used for the detection and monitoring of the transporting parameters must ensure the safe delivery of the gas volumes contracted by the consumers (SNTGN TRANSGAZ, 2011; Wei et al., 2013). Several methods of analysis based on the above network parameters have been developed in order to detect possible accidental leaks in the 

pipeline system, in such manner the transport to be entirely complete (Candelieri and Messina, 2012; Macdonald and Cosham, 2005; Turkowski et al., 2007). Thus, a procedure and an algorithm were sought for increasing the accuracy of defects, for their detection and also to reduce the defect detection time, which in practice constitute an issue regarding the diagnostication and localisation of the defects. There are various methods available for pipeline leak detection and localization (Ahadi and Bakhtiar, 2010; Bimpas et al., 2010; da Silva et al., 2005). We propose the pressure gradient method, this method requiring the installation of pressure sensors along the pipeline route. By this method, the pressure and flow parameters are monitored sequentially, by pipeline sections, and the defects are localized following occurrence of an abnormality – flow rate increase, flow velocity increase and pressure drop. Due to the complexity of the actual leak diagnosis one method is not enough to solve the problem. This problem is solved by the combination of several heuristic methods. This paper proposes a new localization method using the fuzzy decisions theory.


Bucur and Rafa/Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1533-1536

2. Detection of accidental gas leaks

where: QxAL and QxDL are the pipeline section mass

The state of the fluid passing through the pipeline is defined by pressure, density, velocity and temperature. Usually pipeline radius of curvature is much bigger than pipeline diameter, and hydrocarbons density and pipeline cross section area are constant. The equations of continuity and motion are (Eqs. 1-2):(Chaudhry, 1979)

flow rates before and after the leak area; Qx is the

 Q A  0 t x 1 Q P 1 Q 2 2rQ 2       g  sin  2 A t x 2 A x DA2

(1)

(3)

Assuming that there is a pipeline crack in a xL point of pipeline section shown in Fig. 1, we can write Eq. (4). Q x L   P x L ,  0

(4)

where: λ- hydraulic resistance coefficient. In the assumed situation the pipeline will be treated as a set of two pipeline sections or as two different sections: QxDL  QxAL  Qx

(5)

L

Fig. 1. Pressure and flow rate

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P x

P x

PxL  PLA



xL

x  xL

 xL  x  L

(2)

where P is the pressure (Pa), Q the mass flow rate (kg/s),  is the density of the liquid (kg/m3), x is the length of the pipeline (m), t the time (s), g is the gravitational acceleration (m/s2), A is the cross section area (m2). D is the pipeline diameter (m) and r is the friction coefficient (Soare and Stratula, 2002). Considering that the velocity and compressibility of the gas transmitted is negligible and the pipeline is horizontal, Eq. (2) becomes Eq. (3): 2 rQ 2 P  x DA2

L

pipeline accidental discharge zone. Assuming that the pressure gradients are distributed equally on each pipeline section, we can write Eqs. 6-8 (Feng and Zhang, 2005):

(6)

PLD  PxL L  xL

PLD  PL A  L  xL 

P x

x xL

(7) P x

P  x

xL  x L

xL  x L

(8)

Starting from the assumption that an accidental gas leak is a stochastic incident, and that the pressure and the r parameter are not constant in the two pipeline sections, being more difficult to determine the r parameter, we propose the using in practice of the pressure transmitters localization method. Thus, four transmitters can be mounted at the ends of the pipeline section in the positions: LA,LB starting and LC,LD arrival, as presented in Fig. 2. In this case the pressure gradient 6,7, may be as follows: P x P x

 x xL

 xL  x  L

PLB  PL A LAB

(9)

PLD  PLC LCD

(10)

In general the pressure values determined are usually distorted by noise and vibrations. Thus, the use of instantaneous measured pressure values in the calculation of the pressure gradient for the two sections may give big errors.

Fig. 2. Pressure gradient; A- no pipeline defect, B- pipeline defect

Detection of accidental leaks in natural gas main pipelines by fuzzy logic tools

Therefore, pressure gradients are calculated using a given amount of data, limited by the time within which an accidental discharge had been detected. 3. Localization of accidental leaks through the fuzzy decisions method The fuzzy logic introduced by Lotfi Zadeh in 1965 is a super set of the conventional Boolean logic, which has been extended to comprise the concept of partial truth – values of the truth comprised between `completely true` and `completely false (Zadeh, 1965). The basic structure of the fuzzy decisionmaking method proposed for the localization of the accidental leak area is presented in Fig. 2. For detecting an accidental fluid leak, the input data must be converted into fuzzy qualitative values through the fuzzification (Alexandrescu, 2001). There is a variety of options for the membership functions, e.g. the triangle, the Gaussian and the exponential functions. Fig. 3 presents a classical structure of a fuzzy system consisting of four basic components: the fuzzifier, the rules, the inference engine, the defuzzifier. Once the rules set, the fuzzy system may be regarded as an input – output conversion, quantitatively expressed as y=f(x). The rules provided by the experts are expressed by diagnosis statements. Thus the form of a Ri diagnosis fuzzy rule is: “Ri: IF the transmission pipeline operates at a PLA pressureis in parameters, and PLD is very low THEN the result of the pipeline operation reasoning is: loss due to cracks”.

The role of the fuzzifier is to convert numeric values into fuzzy sets required for the activation of the rules, which have corresponding fuzzy sets associated to the linguistic values. The inference engine applies a conversion of the sets of rules into fuzzy sets. Here it is implemented the rules treatment module. In general it is necessary the mutual conversion from fuzzy sets into numeric value, which is the task of the defuzzifier. 4. Fuzzy logic gas transmission monitoring using the matlab 7.9.0 programme Accidental natural gas leaks create an explosive environment which associated with an ignition source might incur the explosion and fire hazard. The MATLAB programme offers a possibility for the implementation of the fuzzy logic. Thus, by the module `Fuzzy toolbox` it has been created a basic application establishing three analysis rules. The programme defines the input and output variables and sets the general form of the membership functions: the Gaussian function for transmission (gaussmf), the trapezoidal function for natural gas (trapmf), and the triangular function for losses (trimf). Once the universe of the discourse and the defining parameters are set, the fuzzy system rule base is edited. In our example there are two input variables and one exit variable (Alexandrescu, 2001). The input variables: transmission, natural gas are under the `if` condition, and the output variables under the `then` condition. The input-output variables can be combined by the logical connectors. In our case the `or` connector is used (Figs. 4-6).

Fig. 3. Structure of localization based on the fuzzy decision-making method

As a distinctive feature, the fuzzy system can simultaneously control numerical data and lexical knowledge. It actually represents a nonlinear conversion applied to the input vector in a scalar output. Therefore, considering the fuzzy rule structure above, we outline the following issues:  conversion of linguistic variables into numerical correspondents means a scale of values;  linguistic variables have each a limited range of terms;  logical connections of the linguistic variables are of the type: AND, OR.

Fig. 4. The `Fuzzy inference system editor

5. Conclusions By using the pipeline leaks localization method, the pressure gradient method and the analysis of the results based on the rules set by the fuzzy decisions method, the duration of the accidental natural gas leak is significantly reduced and the defect is more accurately localized.

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Bucur and Rafa/Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1533-1536

Fig. 5. The rule editor

By MATLAB software media, the fuzzy logic offers an increased quality performance outlook for natural gas transmission and for the SCADA monitoring. 6. References Ahadi M., Bakhtiar M.S., (2010), Leak detection in waterfilled plastic pipes through the application of tuned wavelet transforms to Acoustic Emission signals, Applied Acoustics, 71, 634–639. Alexandrescu C., (2001), Fuzzy Systems – Applications in Matlab (in Romanian), Politehnica Publishing House, Timisoara, Romania. Bimpas M., Amditis A., Uzunoglu N., (2010), Detection of water leaks in supply pipes using continuous wave sensor operating at 2.45 GHz., Journal of Applied Geophysics, 70, 226–236. Candelieri A., Messina E., (2012), Sectorization and analytical leaks localization in the H2OLEAK project: clustering-based services for supporting water distribution networks management, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 11, 953-962. Chaudhry M.C., (1979) Applied Hydraulic Transients, Van Nostrand Reinhold Press, New York. Feng J., Zhang H., (2005), Diagnosis and localization of pipeline leak based on fuzzy decision-making method, Acta Automatica Sinica, 31, 484-490. Kishawy H.A., Gabbar H.A., (2010), Review of pipeline integrity management practices, International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping, 87, 373–380. Lechtenböhmer S., Dienst C., Fischedick M., Hanke T., Fernandez R., Robinson D., Kantamaneni R., Gillis B.,

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Fig. 6. The rule viewer (2007), Tapping the leakages: Methane losses, mitigation options and policy issues for Russian long distance gas transmission pipelines, International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 1, 387–395. Macdonald K.A., Cosham A., (2005), Best practice for the assessment of defects in pipelines – gouges and dents, Engineering Failure Analysis, 12, 720–745. Meng L., Yuxing L., Wuchang W., Juntao F., (2012), Experimental study on leak detection and location for gas pipeline based on acoustic method, Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 25, 90-102. da Silva H.V., Morooka C.K., Guilherme I.R., da Fonseca T.C., Mendes J.R.P., (2005), Leak detection in petroleum pipelines using a fuzzy system, Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 49, 223–238. Soare A., Stratula C., (2002), Transporting and Storage of Fluids (in Romanian), University of Ploiesti Publishing House, Ploiesti, Romania. SNTGN TRANSGAZ SA, (2011), Maintenance of Pipelines Designated for Transporting of Natural Gases (in Romanian), Technical Publishing House, Bucharest. Turkowski M., Bratek A., Słowikowski M., (2007), Methods and systems of leak detection in long range pipelines, Journal of Automation Mobile Robotics and Intelligent Systems, 1, 39-46. Wei G., Hong J., Wei X., (2013), Analysis of additive load of pipe jacking construction on adjacent pile, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 12, 1815-1818. Zadeh L., (1965), Fuzzy sets, Information and Control, 8, 338-353. http:// www.mathworks.ch/products/simulink.


June 2014, Vol.13, No. 6, 1537-1541



APPLICATION OF SPECIFIC MODELS AND SOFTWARE FOR IDENTIFICATION, ASSESSMENT AND PREVENTION OF OCCUPATIONAL RISKS IN THE ROMANIAN HEALTHCARE SECTOR Steluţa Elisabeta Nisipeanu1, Ştefan Pece1, Iulian Mădălin Ivan1, Elena Ruxandra Chiurtu1, Maria Haiducu1, Daniela Mănuc2 1

National Research and Development Institute on Occupational Safety-INCDPM “Alexandru Darabont”Bucharest, 35A Ghencea Blvd., Bucharest, Romania 2 University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila” Bucharest, 3-5 Dionisie Lupu Str., Bucharest, Romania

Abstract This paper describes the application of a specific model and software designated as EVASAN to identify, assess and prevent the occupational health and safety risks in the Romanian health care sector, developed in the POSDRU/81/3.2/S/48872 project COMPEFSAN by the "Alexandru Darabont" National Research and Development Institute on Occupational Safety Bucharest, in partnership with the "Carol Davila" University of Medicine and Pharmacy Bucharest, the Romanian Institute on Economical Social Research and Polls IRECSON and Academy of Economic Studies of Bucharest. The model and software application aims at raising the efficiency of assessing the risks of occupational injuries and diseases in hospitals and other health care institutions (clinics, nursing homes, treatment and recovery centers etc.), in accordance with Romanian laws. The tools allow identifying, assessing and preventing occupational health and safety risks for the personnel in healthcare sector, being a support in occupational health and for safety inspectors, during the assessement of workplaces in the medical facilities. Key words: health care sector, injuries, occupational risks, preventive measures, software application Received: December 2013; Revised final: June, 2014; Accepted: June 2014

1. Introduction Risk assessment and effective health and safety management are the key issues for preventing and reducing worker exposure to occupational hazards. Better health and safety performance in the healthcare sector are beneficial not only for workers, but also for everyone receiving treatment and reduces costs (Buica et al., 2012). Approximately 10% of workers in the European Union are employed in the health and welfare sector, with a significant proportion in hospitals. This makes healthcare one of the biggest employment sectors in Europe, covering a vast range



of different jobs. Women represent around 77% of the workforce (https://osha.europa.eu). In Romania, a specific modern model and the associated software application was developed within the POSDRU Project (2011), implemented by “Alexandru Darabont” National Research and Development Institute on Occupational Safety INCDPM Bucharest, as the coordinator, together with the "Carol Davila" University of Medicine and Pharmacy Bucharest, IRECSON Bucharest and the Academy of Economic Studies from Bucharest. The software EVASAN is applied to identify, assess and prevent occupational health and safety risks in the Romanian health care sector.

Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: [email protected]; Phone: 0213122677; Fax: 0213157822

Nisipeanu et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1537-1541

In particular, the new developed tool aims to assess the risks of occupational injury and diseases for the personnel in hospitals and other healthcare institutions (clinics, sanatoriums, treatment and recovery bases etc.) in accordance with Law 319 (2006) and GD 1425 (2006) The model can be applied in hospitals and other healthcare institutions, both for the workplaces in healthcare facilities (surgery, urology, oncology, orthopedics, internal medicine, dental medicine, imaging, nuclear medicine, radiotherapy, sterilization units, intensive care etc.), as well as for the employees (doctors, nurses, stretchers, caregivers etc.). 2. Models and tools applied in occupational health assessment Differrent assessment tools are used by the occupational health and safety experts in the health care facilities in the European Union as tools for assessment and management of the occupational risks in hospitals in Italy (Castaldi et al., 2011); ARAVIS method for occupational risk assessment in healthcare units is applied in France (http://www.risques-pme.fr/exemples-dinterventions/demarches-collectives/medicosocial/prevention-maitrise-risques-secteur-sanitairesocial/43.aspx); SOBAN method for occupational risk assessment is used in Belgium (http://www.sobane.be/sobane/default.aspx?id=2481 2); a specific method for occupational risk assessment is used in Radcliffe Hospital Oxford (http://www.ouh.nhs.uk/about/working-for-us/preemployment/documents/workhealthassessmentformF ULL.doc.); check-lists for occupational risk identification are used in hospitals in Italy, France, Belgium (http://osha.europa.eu/publications/magazine/6). These tools were identified and analyzed in order to develop other modern specific models to identify, assess and prevent any problem associated to occupational health and safety risks in the Romanian healthcare sector. Our goals addressed the analysis of these methods in terms of their compatibility with the existing occupational prevention and protection systems in Romania and with the occupational health and safety risks identification and assessment tools already implemented in other sectors (Pece and Dascalescu, 1998). In developing of the modern specific models to identify, assess and prevent occupational health and safety risks, we started from the English model used in Oxford Radcliffe Hospital (http://www.ouh.nhs.uk/about/working-for-us/preemployment/documents/workhealthassessmentformF ULL.doc.), considered as the simplest model to implement, which is compatible with other occupational risk assessment tools used in our country (INCDPM Method (Pece and Dascalescu, 1998), Labour Inspection Guide (http://www.inspectiamuncii.ro/ssmimm/linkuri/Ghid

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De%20EvaluareARiscului.pdf), Guide of the European Occupational Safety and Health Agency (https://osha.europa.eu/en/publications/reports/worke rs-participation-in-OSH_guide)). The following tools for the identification and assessment of occupational risks in health care units were developed after the analyses of the European occupational assessment tools (Castaldi et al., 2011):  check-list of occupational health and safety risks in the medical field;  check-list of occupational health and safety risks for surgery;  check-list of occupational health and safety risks for dental offices; Based on these tools we developed a specific model for identification, assessment and prevention of the occupational health and safety risks in the Romanian health care sector. The main goal of the model is to identify all occupational health and safety risks based on a predetermined check-list and to determine the level of the occupational risks based on the combination of severity/gravity and probability (frecquency) of occurrence of the highest foreseeable consequence of risk action on human health (Pece and Dascalescu, 1998). The specific model can be used:  both for workplaces in health care units as surgery, urology, oncology, orthopedics, internal medicine, imaging, nuclear medicine, radiotherapy, sterilization, intensive care and so on;  as well as for jobs as doctor, nurse, nurse stretcher, caregiver and so on. The specific model follows the known steps as: establishing the assessment team, workplace activity description, identification of all existing occupational risks, setting the highest foreseeable consequence on human health, setting the severity/gravity of the consequence, setting the class of probability/frequency of the consequence, establishing the level of each occupational risk, fill in the risk assessment sheet, setting the hierarchy risks in descending order and including preventive and protective measures for each identified risk. The severity/gravity of occupational risks consequences on human health is classifed into 5 categories:  Negligible- LTI/ITM under 3 days  Minor – LTI/ITM over 3 days, without hospitalization  Moderate – LTI/ITM over 3 days, with hospitalization  Major –DISABILITY ( I, II, III degree)  Catastrophic – DEATH. The probability/frequency of the occupational risks consequences on human health is classified as follows:  RARE – accident in exceptional circumstances (no accident in 5 years)  UNLIKELY - accident is not expected (at least one accident in 5 years)

Application of specific models and software for identification, assessment and prevention of occupational risks

 POSSIBLE – occasionally accident (at least one accident per year)  PROBABLE – probably accident (at least one accident per month)  ALMOST CERTAIN – permanent problem (at least one accident per week). Based on the combination of severity/gravity and probability/frecquency of the risk consequences on human health, the risk level scale is determined:  LOW RISK  ACCEPTABLE RISK  UNWANTED RISK (acceptable only on short-term)  UNACCEPTABLE RISK (Castaldi et al., 2011). The model is completed with two documents:  OCCUPATIONAL RISKS ASSESSMENT SHEET, which includes all identified occupational risks and risk level for each one,  PREVENTIVE MEASURES SHEET, which includes technical and organizational preventive and protective measures for each identified risk (Clemente et al., 2010). In order to facilitate the access to the application, a web interface was built and the application was linked to the project website: http://www.sanatateainsiguranta.ro. In order to ensure the confidentiality of occupational risks assessments made using the application, the access is based on user ID and password received by the assessment team after completing an application request access to the project website administrator. The application is accessed through a secure and encrypted link using HTTPS protocol. The application of the method is done by filling in the occupational risks assessment sheet (which includes all the occupational identified risks and the level of risk for each one) and safety preventive measures sheet (which includes technical and organizational measures proposed for each identified risk), the information is defined in the software application. Working tools in software application are: predetermined check-lists of occupational risks in health care units, predetermined list of foreseeable consequences of risks on human health, severity of the consequences scale, probability consequences scale, combinations gravity - probability scale, risk levels scale, occupational risk assessment sheet, preventive measures sheet.

The occupational risks were grouping on the main categories existing in the literature (biological risks, ergonomic risks, chemical risks, physical risks, psychosocial risks and other non-specific risks) in order to allow the risk identification in the specific categories to which they belong (Nisipeanu et al., 2011). For an easy use of the software application, it provides guidelines and explanations for filling in each field or record required to generate correct results. The software application allows displaying the occupational risk assessment sheet in order of decreasing level and preventive measures proposed for each identified risk (Ivan et al., 2011). We present below some main steps in using the EVASAN software application: Step 1: Enter the application with an user name and password accepted by the INCDPM website administrator. Step 2: Add a new user entering the module "Users manager: Users" section and clicking Add (Fig. 1). Step 3: The assessment process starts by pressing the button "Add". It will open the "Define new health care unit" window, which contains "Details on health care unit" with the following fields: "Name", "Address" and "Presentation". These fields will be filled in with the name, adress and a short presentation of the health care unit. The fields "Carried out activity", "Personnel structure", "Technical equipment and materials used", "Used substances" and "Workplace atmosphere" will be filled in according to the assessed healthcare unit. To identify the risks, it is necessary to go back to the main page that opens in the main menu "Components" the field "Identified risks". Adding identified risks is done by pressing the button "Add", which will open a window with the list of occupational risk factors. From this list, we can identify the specific occupational risk factors of the assessed workplace. To change an identified risk, that risk is checked and the "Edit" button is clicked, which will open the "Edit identified risks" window. Changes will be saved by clicking "Save". The next step is to determine the highest foreseeable consequence on human health. The occupational physician determined for each identified risk the maximum foreseeable consequence on the human body and its location.

Fig. 1. Example of a software window

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Nisipeanu et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1537-1541

The choice from the "Consequences" field of the consequence of the identified risk will open the "Consequences location" window. From the "Gravity" field, the grade of severity of the consequences is selected. From the "Probability" field the probability class (frequency) of the consequence can be selected. Setting the class of probability (frequency) can be done in one of the classes of probability: rare, unlikely, possible, probable, almost certain, by the occupational physician and the evaluator, based on the result in the previous step. Selecting the link "Add or edit proposed measures" will open "Proposed measures manager" window. With "Add" button it is opened the "Add new measure" window. From the "Proposed measure" field, preventive technical and organizational measured are selected for each identified occupational risk in order to eliminate or minimize the risk. After adding measures, the "Save&Close" button will open "Proposed manager measures" window. For all identified occupational risks we will follow the steps described above. Risks hierarchy is setting in descending order of risk level. At the end of the risk assessment process, the software application generates risk assessment report in printed format, containing introduction, brief overview of the unit that carried out the assessment, summarizing of the assessment method used, the assessment team, the assessment results (occupational risks assessment sheet and preventive measures sheet), interpretation of the results and conclusions.

identified a number of specific risks with UNWANTED or UNACCEPTABLE risk level such as:  biological risks (exposure to airborne biological agents, contaminated blood or other body fluids classified in group 2 and 3),  ergonomic risks (orthostatic and unconfortable positions, long-term physical effort),  chemical risks (exposure to irritant, caustic, toxic, carcinogenic and mutagenic agents),  physical risks (cuts, punctures, slips, trips, burns),  psyhosocial risks (violence, stress, mental strain),  non-specific risks (electric shock, fire). The results of the occupational risk assessment in different health care units indicated that:  5.26% of the identified risks are LOW level;  52.63% of the identified risks are ACCEPTABLE level;  42.10% of the identified risks are UNWANTED level;  0.01% of the identified risks are UNACCEPTABLE level. Following the experimental application of the model and software in healthcare units, improvement requirements have been identified, in order to complete and improve the model and the software application EVASAN, so as to became an easily and useful tool for the health and safety specialists in the health care sector in Romania.

3. Experimental

5. Conclusions

The specific model was tested in 11 healthcare units in different areas in Romania, such as:  surgical wards in 7 hospitals in Bucharest, Brasov, Timisoara;  infectious diseases and orthopedic wards in 2 hospitals in Bucharest and Iasi;  dental and medical offices in Bucharest. The assessment teams were made of at least 2 INCDPM experts, 1 UMF partner expert and representative personnel from the assessed healthcare units. The risk assessment included the occupational risks identification, the assessment itself, preventive and protection proposing measures for each identified risk. The assessment results were recorded by each team in a Safety Evaluation Report, including Occupational Risks Assessment Sheet and Preventive Measures Sheet. The assessed health care units have been received the results of the occupational risk assessment and a summary of the applicable preventive and protective measures.

In this paper, a modern model and software application designated as EVASAN were developed for identification, assessment and prevention of the specific occupational risks in the health care sector. The software is an useful tool for assessing the occupational injuries and disease risks in hospitals and other healthcare institutions (clinics, nursing homes, treatment and recovery centers and so on). Also the software application proved to be a very useful training tool and will be used in all the training courses organized by INCDPM.

4. Results and discussion The results of the occupational risk assessments carried out in healthcare units have

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References Buica G., Antonov A.E., Beiu C., Iorga I., (2012), Safety measures-tools for reducing the cost of working accidents in electrical installations, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 11, 12471248. Castaldi T., Deitinger P., Iavicoli S., Mirabile M., Natali E., Persechino B., Rondinone B.M., (2011), Assessment and management of the occupational stress risk, INAIL, Rome, 21-26. Clemente M., Iugoli A.R., Miccio A., Saldutti E. (2010), The health and safety surveillance on INAIL units, INAIL, Rome, 3-11.

Application of specific models and software for identification, assessment and prevention of occupational risks

GD, (2006), Governmental Decision No. 1425/2006 on approval the methodological norms for application of the Law no. 319/2006 on occupational safety and health, published in Romanian Official Monitor, part I, No. 882 from 30th of October 2006. Ivan I.M., Mitrache L., Ciocarlea V., Smidu E., Trifu A., (2011), Software application for identification, assessment and prevention of the occupational risks in the Romanian health care sector, EVASAN-IT, Course Brochure Project POSDRU/81/3.2/S/48872, INCDPM, Bucharest, Romania. Law 3019, (2006), Law No. 319/2006 on occupational safety and health, published in Romanian Official Monitor, Part I, No. 646, 26th of July 2006. Nisipeanu S.E., Pece St., Chiurtu E.R., Haiducu M., (2011), Modern model and software application for

identification, assessment and prevention of the occupational risks in the Romanian health care sector, The Romanian Occupational Medicine Review, 61, 6066. Pece St., Dascalescu A., (1998), Method of occupational accidents and illness assessment on workplaces, Report on PHARE-MMPS-INCDPM Project, Bucharest, Romania. POSDRU Project (2011), Increasing the Competitiveness, Efficiency and Occupational Health and Safety of the Personnel in the Health Care Sector to Ensure Better Opportunities of Participation in a Modern Labour Market", coordinator: The National Research and Development Institute on Occupational Safety INCDPM “Alexandru Darabont”, Bucharest, Romania.

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Event DOCTOR HONORIS CAUSA TITLE AWARDED TO PROFESSOR FABIO FAVA FROM THE ALMA MATER STUDIORUM UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA, ITALY

On 16th of May 2014 the Senate of the Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, Romania, awarded the honorary title of Doctor Honoris Causa to Professor Fabio Fava, during a celebratory open session. The proposal for the Doctor Honoris Causa award was initiated by the Department of Environmental Engineering and ManagementFaculty of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Protection as a resultant of the exceptional cooperation with Prof. Fava, in teaching and scientific

research and for his leadership Industrial and Environmental Biotechnology and, Microbiology in the Frame of the Knowledge-Based Bio and Green Economy. The awarding ceremony was held in the Senate Aula of the Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, in the presence of distinguished guests from University of Applied Sciences and Arts North Switzerland, Babes-Bolyai University of ClujNapoca, Romania, Transilvania University of Brasov, Romani, staff members of the host University, PhD and MSc students from the same universities. Professor Fabio Fava is Full Professor of Industrial and Environmental Biotechnology at the Faculty of Engineering (currently School of Engineering and Architecture) of the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Italy since 2005. He served the same school as Dean's Delegate for International Relations from 2005 to 2012. Currently, he is the Coordinator of the PhD Programme in Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering of the University of Bologna. Fabio Fava was born in 1963. He was graduated Cum laude in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies at the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna and then he earned his PhD in Applied Microbiology from the Institute of Chemical Technology of the University of Prague, Czech Republic.

Event/Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 11 (2012), 6, 1543-1547

He was visiting scientist at the following US institutions, namely: New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJ, USA); Hazardous Substance Management Research Center (NJ, USA); Rutgers University (NJ, USA) in 1993, 1994 and 1999, respectively. During his stay in USA, he received a fellowship from NATO (Brussels) and has been a scientific consultant of the Hazardous Substance Management Research Center (NJ, USA).

Professor Fava is performing R&D in the field of industrial and environmental biotechnology. He published about 220 scientific papers, 110 of which on medium/high impact factors peer-review international journals of industrial and environmental biotechnology. He coordinated the Research Project NATO Science for Peace No. 973720 on the development and assessment of innovative intensified technologies for the bioremediation of (chlorinated) hydrocarbon-contaminated soils. Also, he participated in the a) EU Coordination Action Eurodemo (FP VI) on the comparison of verified technologies applied in Europe in the sustainable remediation of contaminated sites, b) Aegean Center of Excellence BIO-ACE (FP VI), on the development of innovative biotechnological processes for the (bio)chemical industry and the environment remediation, c) the European Defense Agency (EDA) project NBC Modeling and Simulation (ERG1 TA 113-034), d) the COST action FP0602 Biotechnology For Lignocellulose & Biorefineries (BIOBIO) and e) the ERA-NET Industrial Biotechnology (as observer).

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Professor Fava is the coordinator of the FP7 projects NAMASTE (on the integrated exploitation of citrus and cereal processing byproducts with the production of food ingredients and new food products) and BIOCLEAN (aiming at the development of biotechnological processes and strategies for the bioremediation and the tailored depolymerization of major oil-deriving plastics). He also coordinates the Unit of the University of Bologna participating in the FP7 projects: ECOBIOCAP and ROUTES (on the production of microbial polymers from different organic waste and food processing effluents); MINOTAURUS and WATER4CROPS (on the intensified bioremediation of contaminated wasteand ground-water and the integrated valorization and decontamination of wastewater coming from the food processing industry and biorefinery); ULIXES and KILL SPILL (on the development of strategies for intensifying the in situ bioremediation of marine sediments contaminated by (chlorinated) hydrocarbons and the isolation and industrial exploitation of microbes from such contaminated matrices). Professor Fava is Associate Editor of BMC Microbiology (IF2013: 2.98), Research Editor of Microbial Cell Factories (IF2013: 4.25) and member of the Editorial Board of the international journals New Biotechnology (IF2013: 2.106), Journal of Biotechnology (IF2013: 2.884) and Environmental Engineering and Management Journal (IF2013: 1.258).

Dr. Fava was involved in the organization of a NATO-Advanced Study Institute on new approaches to the risk assessment and bioremediation of contaminated sites (Prague, CZ, 2001) and was one of the co-organizers of the NATO-Advanced Research Workshop on the assessment and remediation of contaminated sediments held in Bratislava (SR) in 2005.

Doctor Honoris Causa title awarded

He co-chaired the European Summer School on the Innovative Technologies for The (Bio)Monitoring and (Bio)Remediation of Contaminated Sites held in Bologna (Italy) in 2004, two international summer schools funded by FEMS Federation of European Microbiological Societies on the management, assessment and (bio)remediation of contaminated sediments (Genoa, Italy, 2005) and an International Summer School on the Industrial Biotechnology Strategies and Tools for the Valorization of Organic Wastes (Bologna, Italy, 2006). Further, he has been Co-Chair of the 4th European Bioremediation Conference held in Chania, Greece, in 2008 and of the 5th European Bioremediation Conference held in Chania, Greece, in 2011. Dr. Fava was the chairman of the 14th International Biotechnology Symposium and Exhibition (14th IBS) (Rimini, Italy, September 1418, 2010)(1620 delegates from 72 Nations) promoted by the University of Bologna together with the Italian KBBE Technology Platforms, the European Technology Platforms of the same area, IUPAC, European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB), EuropaBio, International Society of Environmental Biotechnology (ISEB), European Society of Environmental Biotechnology (ESEB) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and

Development (OECD). Also, he chaired the international conference Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology in the Frame of the Knowledge-Based Bio and Green Economy, EMB2012 (Bologna, 2012) (400 delegates from 50 different nationals) promoted by the University of Bologna together with the European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB) and the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) an in cooperation with EuropaBio, International Society of Environmental Biotechnology (ISEB), Asian Federation of Bioechnology, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and other international and Italian associations. Finally, Dr. Fava is the Chair of the Scientific/Technical Committee of the annual Exhibition Ecomondo (held in Rimini, Italy) on Material and Energy Recovery and Sustainable Development (http://en.ecomondo.com/). Professor Fabio Fava is the Past Chair and the current Deputy Chairman of the Environmental Biotechnology section of the European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB) and the chairman of the Industrial & Environmental Biotechnology section of the Italian Technology Platform on Sustainable Chemistry (SusChem Italy).

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Event/Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 11 (2012), 6, 1543-1547

He joined the Industrial Biotechnology Expert Group of the European Technology Platform on Sustainable Chemistry (ETP SusChem) from 2005-2011. He is the Italian Government delegate in the Task Force on Industrial Biotechnology of the Working Party on Biotechnology of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, Paris). Further, he is joining the High Level Group on Key Enabling Technologies and the Expert Group on Biobased Products of the DG-Enterprise and Industry of European Commission (Brussels), as well as the Expert Group on Eco-Industries of the JRC Directorate at the European Commission. Finally, he is the Italian Representative in Programme Committee of Societal Challenge 2: European Bioeconomy Challenges: Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, Marine, Maritime and Inland Water Research of Horizon2020 at the European Commission (DG Research and Innovation). Besides, he is member of several national and international associations and conferences/workshop scientific committees. He has been project evaluator for a number of different national and international grant agencies, including DG Research in Brussels (FP6 and FP7 projects), and peer reviewer of several international journals in the area of industrial and environmental biotechnology and microbiology.

Professor Fabio Fava is the promoter and the supporter of the cooperation between the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Italy and the Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Protection - Department of Environmental Engineering and Management, addressing teaching and research areas as follows: - in terms of Erasmus agreements (including Erasmus Plus agreement), joint doctoral supervision, postdoctoral programs

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- development of a tight cooperation between the Department of Environmental Engineering and Management: • cooperation with the research group Chemical and biological processes applied in environmental engineering and management” supervised by Prof. Maria Gavrilescu and Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and materials Engineering (DICAM) (in the area of life cycle assessment, waste management, environmental biotechnology, emerging pollutants in the environment), joint publication of research results in international journals; • cooperation with Prof. Carmen Teodosiu in organizing the 7th International Conference on Environmental Engineering and Management and the special issue of New Biotechnology journal dedicated to ICEEM07 - member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Environmental Engineering and Management Journal (EEMJ) (http://omicron.ch.tuiasi.ro/EEMJ/), and as Guest Editor for several reference numbers of the journal, for which the sponsorship of the publication was ensured by Prof. Fava - cooperation in the organization of scientific events such as: the Exploratory Workshop Progress in Environmental Engineering, Biotechnology and Management, in the Frame of Sustainable Knowledge-Based Economy (19 - 21 September 2012, www.we62.xhost.ro) in his quality of member of the International Scientific Committee; 7th International Conference on Environmental and Engineering Management, Vienna, 18-21 September 2013 (ICEEM07), as a member of the International Scientific Committee, and chairman of the section Environmental Biotechnology; also, he facilitated the sponsorship of the conference by Ecomondo – the Mediterranean Platform for Sustainable Growth, and the connection with the Editorial Board of New Biotechnology journal in the view of publication of a special issue dedicated to ICEEM07 - joint contribution of Gheorghe Asachi Technical University od Iasi and Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna within the International Scientific Committees of the 5th European Bioremediation Conference July 4-7, 2011 (Chania, Crete) and the international conference Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology in the Frame of the Knowledge-Based Bio and Green Economy, April 10-12, 2012 (Bologna, Italy). - Romanian PhD students and postdocs were involved in the organization of the international conference Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology in the frame of the Knowledge-Based Bio and Green Economy, Bologna, April 10-12, 2012; - as chairman of the Environmental Biotechnology Section of the European Federation of Biotechnology, Prof. Fava included Gheorghe Asachi Technical University in the group of experts who contributed to the statement of the main directions and priorities of environmental biotechnology within Horizon 2020. In this context, it is remarkable the

Doctor Honoris Causa title awarded

participation of the Technical University of Iasi in the development of position papers on R&D needs in the field of biomonitoring, evaluation of the ecological risks, and bioremediation of emerging chemical and biological micropollutants in soils, sediments, groundwater, industrial and municipal wastewaters, aquaculture effluents, freshwater and marine ecosystems, which were transmitted to the European Commission. These documents were published in a special issue of New Biotechnology, the official journal of the European Federation of Biotechnology. - promotes Technical University of Iasi in the context of international cooperation, for a better understanding among members of the international scientific community who share cultural values and different economic situations, to actively participate in exchange and promotion of scientific and

technological exchanges; cooperation in some project proposals in the framework of Horizon 2020 has already been envisaged and some details are already established. In honouring Professor Fabio Fava, the Senate of the Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, Romania acknowledged the value of his academic activity and the inspiration of his research of exceptional range and power, his distinguished qualities of mind and heart. Professor Maria Gavrilescu Department of Environmental Engineering and Management Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Protection “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iasi, Romania

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Book Review CONTROL OF BIOLOGICAL AND DRUG-DELIVERY SYSTEMS FOR CHEMICAL, BIOMEDICAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL ENGINEERING Laurent Simon John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey ISBN: 978-0-470-90323-0, 2013, XVI+366 pages

The book, Control of Biological and DrugDelivery Systems for Chemical, Biomedical, and Pharmaceutical Engineering, deals with multidisciplinary knowledge of process dynamics and basic control theory for analysing various processes met in chemical, biomedical and pharmaceutical engineering. The control of biological and drugdelivery systems is highly important to develop biobased products meant for a long and healthy life to billions of people worldwide. This book is the first of its kind to present specific concepts taught at the undergraduate level, especially for chemical and biomedical engineering students. Nevertheless, its focus on drug-delivery systems and various topics in the biological sciences is expected to be of interest for specialists in pharmaceutical engineering and systems biology. For instance, readers will learn how stability criteria can be applied to achieve new insights into the regulation of biological pathways and lung mechanics. Also, they can learn how the concept of a time constant can be employed to obtain the dynamics of diffusive processes. The author, Laurent Simon, PhD, is Associated Professor of Chemical Engineering and Associate Director of the Pharmaceutical Engineering Program at New Jersey Institute of Technology. His research and teaching interests focus on modelling, analysis, and control of drug delivery systems. Dr. Laurent Simon has received the Excellence in

Teaching Award, Master Teacher Designation, and Newark College of Engineering Saul K. Fenster Innovation in Engineering Education Award. In very clear language, Dr. Laurent Simon outlines the role of process dynamics and control in a number of disciplines and introduces mathematical modeling based on the physical knowledge of a given system. The book is structured on 16 different chapters. The author does a great job describing the techniques developed to linearize process models, and introducing the concept of deviation variables. Laplace transforms of several functions and ordinary and partial differential equations are computed and techniques of inverting Laplace transforms are provided. Also, partial fraction expansion and the residue theorem are applied to solve differential equations. A fundamental approach for controller analysis and design, the derivation of transfer functions from input-output models is also discussed. Strategies to derive reduced-order models are presented and control methodologies are developed. Frequency response analyses are studied and various ways to draw Bode and Nyquist are described. The fundamentals of cascade and feed-forward control designs are covered. A technique for determining the relaxation time for lumped- and distributed-parameter systems is explained. Finally, the book describes how to estimate the time needed to reach a steady-state value based on

Book Review/Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 6, 1549-1550

Laplace transforms. Each chapter has an up-to-date well documented list of references. Written by a leading expert and educator in the field, the book is rich in illustrations so that the information provided is easily comprehensible. He gives many examples of possible applications so that the reader can grasp the actual use of the theory. Thus, readers get detailed examples from the biological sciences and novel drug technologies, 160 solved problems, and demonstrations of how Matlab and Mathematica can be used to solve complex drug delivery problems.

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In conclusion I highly recommend this book to specialists in chemical and biomedical engineering, working in industry or universities, to under or postgraduate students, to PhD students and to all those interested in topics concerning pharmaceutical engineering, process control, and systems biology. Marius Sebastian Secula Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Protection “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iasi, Romania


June 2014, Vol.13, No. 6, 1551-1553



Book Review GREEN CHEMISTRY AND ENGINEERING A Pathway to Sustainability Anne E. Marteel-Parrish and Martin A. Abraham John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey, 2014 ISBN 978-0-470-41326-5, XIV + 361 pages

In the last decades, humanity faced huge challenges in the sustainability of our lifestyles and systems. Global environmental issues including energy sources, water access and use, land use and ecological damage require urgent and relevant answers. In this context, green chemistry and green engineering are instruments used increasingly more by scientists and engineers to make decisions having positive impact on the environment. Green chemistry, also called sustainable chemistry addresses the design of chemical processes and products aiming to reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances. Green chemistry is also recognized as sustainable chemistry and it applies to organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, biochemistry, analytical chemistry, physical chemistry and chemical engineering as well. Green chemistry refers to the life cycle of a product, including its design, manufacture, use, and disposal. In addition, green engineering can be defined as environmentally conscious manners, values, and principles, combined with science and technology, all directed toward improving environmental quality. Green engineering encompasses all of the engineering disciplines, and is compatible with sound engineering design principles. Green engineering deals with the design of materials, processes, systems, and devices with the objective of minimizing environmental impact, including energy utilization and waste production. The term refers to the entire life cycle of a product or process, from extraction of raw materials to final disposal of materials that cannot

be reused or recycled at the end of the useful life of a product. It is very important to shift our society in a really sustainable direction. First of all, it is particularly important to teach the new generation of chemists and chemical engineers in order to understand and to practice green chemistry. Many universities have courses and degrees on green chemistry. In this context, the book Green Chemistry and Engineering. A Pathway to Sustainability is addressed to academic staff, scientists, students and various stackeholders who want to learn about chemistry and engineering from an environmentally friendly point of view. The book is structured in three main sections: the first three chapters deal with the foundation of green chemistry and engineering. The next three chapters deal with the matter as the heart of green chemistry. Different types of reactions, quantitative aspects of chemistry in reactions and processes, the role of kinetics and catalysis and the role of thermodynamics and equilibrium in multiphase systems are presented. The last part of the book includes the last four chapters and presents the applications of green chemistry and engineering through the use of renewable materials, the current and future state of energy production and consumption, the relationships between green chemistry and economics and with the importance of toxicology to green chemistry. The first chapter, Understanding the issues, underlines the importance of chemistry on the development of human society. A brief history of


chemistry and the green chemistry concept are presented. Principles of green chemistry and green engineering are discussed in Chapter 2. The definitions of green chemistry and green engineering and their principles are given and explained. The strong connection between green chemistry and engineering and sustainability is also discussed. Chapter 3 deals with the chemistry as an underlying force in ecosystem interactions. The importance of chemistry is emphasized within the following topics: nature and the environment, energy and its production from chemical sources, waste and pollution prevention, ecotoxicology, and green living. Chapter 4 entitled Matter: the heart of green chemistry discusses matter and its properties, the three states of matter, their application in green chemistry and green engineering, and how the understanding of the intrinsic nature of materials can lead to an improved design and a reduction in the environmental impact of the products. Chapter 5 briefly discusses the chemical reactions. Definition of chemical reactions as well as balancing of chemical equations is presented. The most common patterns of chemical reactions are summarized in this chapter, together with clarifying examples. The efficiency of a chemical reaction is explained and some examples of calculation are included. Chapter 6 introduces the reader in the fields of kinetics, catalysis and reaction engineering. The definition of reaction rate and the kinetics of parallel and consecutive reaction are presented. The basics of chemical equilibrium and the factors affecting the reaction rate are also discussed. Catalysis and catalysts represent an important subchapter of chapter 6. Other issues refer to kinetics of catalytic reactions, types of catalysis and their impact on green chemistry. Due to the fact that chemical reactions are conducted in reactors, elements of reaction engineering are included. The design equations of main types of reactors (batch, stirred, plug flow) are explained. In a logical sequence, Chapter 7 deals with thermodynamics, separations, and equilibrium. The chapter starts with the presentation of the two laws of thermodynamics. Valuable examples illustrating the energy effects of processes for ideal gases are included. Real gases – as opposed to an ideal gas – exhibit properties that cannot be explained entirely using the ideal gas law. In this respect, Chapter 7 deals with the behavior of real gases: compressibility effects; variable specific heat capacity; nonequilibrium thermodynamic effects; issues with molecular dissociation and elementary reactions with variable composition. Some considerations regarding the importance of phase equilibrium in chemical engineering are made. Examples illustrating how to determine composition of vapor phase, solubility of a gas in a liquid and solubility of a solid in a liquid are included.

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An introduction in renewable materials is the issue of Chapter 8. This chapter explores the sources of renewable feedstock, mainly carbohydrates, lignin, lipids and proteins, followed by the production of chemicals based on this kind of resources. Finally, some current applications of renewable materials are presented. Chapter 9 deals with the current and future state of energy production and consumption. The chapter includes challenging issues like: current state of energy consumption, enthalpy of chemical reactions; non-conventional energy resources; renewable sources of energy in the 21st century; the future of energy sources. A particular chapter (Chapter 10) refers to the economics of green and sustainable chemistry. This chapter helps the reader to understand the roles that green chemistry and green engineering play in the concept of sustainability. In fact, the Chapter 10 introduces the concepts, economic benefits, and needed thinking in order to increase the viability and introduction of technologies that employ green chemistry and green engineering. Among the most important issue there are: chemical manufacturing and economic theory; economic impact of green chemistry; business strategies regarding application of green chemistry; incorporation of green chemistry in process design and sustainability; case studies demonstrating the economic benefits of green chemistry. Chapter 11 deals with the connection between green chemistry and toxicology. A environmental chemist must know the basics of toxicology, how the adverse effects of chemicals affect the living organisms. In this respect, the chapter presents the fundamental principles of toxicology, chemically induced toxicity, computational toxicity and green chemistry; applications of toxicology into green chemistry initiatives. By gathering the most important information both from fundamental sciences, research and industry, the work of Marteel-Parrish and Abraham becomes an important tool for environmental engineers and researchers and also for specialists working in chemical industry. The book can be a guide for policy makers, companies staff, authorities or other decisional factors, all involved in environmental protection and not only. About the authors: ANNE E. MARTEEL-PARRISH, PhD, is Chair of the Chemistry Department at Washington College, in Maryland, and the inaugural holder of the college's Frank J. Creegan Chair in Green Chemistry. Among her honors, Dr. Marteel-Parrish is the recipient of the American Chemical Society's Committee on Environmental Improvement Award for Incorporating Sustainability into Chemistry Education. MARTIN A. ABRAHAM, PhD, is Professor of Chemical Engineering and Founding Dean of the

Green Chemistry and Engineering. A Pathway to Sustainability

College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics at Youngstown State University. A Fellow of the American Chemical Society and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Dr. Abraham maintains an active research program in reaction engineering and catalysis.

He also serves as Editor for the AIChE's quarterly journal Environmental Progress and Sustainable Energy. Dan Gavrilescu Adrian Cătălin Puiţel Department of Natural and Synthetic Polymers Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Protection “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iasi, Romania

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Book Review ODOUR IMPACT ASSESSMENT HANDBOOK Vincenzo Belgiorno, Vincenzo Naddeo, Tiziano Zarra (Editors) John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Soussex, United Kinngdom, 2013 ISBN: 978-1-119-96928-0, XVIII+288 pages

The emissions of odours from different sources of human activity are considered as one of the most important problems of the nowadays society. Even if in most of the cases the concentration of odorous compounds is very low and should not represent a threat to human health, the bad smells are a source of disturbance for the communities and represent a threat to the touristic activities. The main objective of the handbook under discussion is to set a theoretical and practical basis in the field of odour impact assessment. The first part of the book (written by the Editors) has an introductory role and is dedicated to the definition of the odour, the means of quantification and corresponding effects and finally odour impact assessment approaches. By providing this important information, the authors make sure that the aim of the further book chapters is better understood. In this first introductive chapter of the book an odour is defined as a property of a substance or a mixture of substances that, depending on the concentration are capable of stimulating the olfactive sense and generate the corresponding sensation. In other ways, odours are perceived as a sensorial response to the inhalation of air containing a certain amount of chemical compounds usually denoted as odorous substance. In contrast, fresh air or clean air is perceived as free of smell, contaminants or at most having a pleasant odour such as that of flowers or fresh cut grass. Quantification of odours is made be means of dynamic olfactometry, electronic noses and furthermore by using specific chemicals, to create a

relative indication of the amount of odorous substance present in a certain environment. These aspects are discussed in detail in the third chapter of the book. Furthermore, the effects of odours, ranging to mild discomfort to embarrassment, health and economic trouble are briefly mentioned together with the means of impact approaches. In the second part of the book, (authored by V. Naddeo, V. Belgiorno and T. Zarra) the means of Odour Characterization and Exposure Effects are described. The most important characteristics of odours are concentration, perceptibility and threshold, intensity, difusibility and volatility, quality and hedonic tone or offensiveness. The Chemistry of Odours subchapter describes the causes of odour formation and the main physical and chemical properties of odorous compounds such as water solubility, vapor pressure and means of chemical or biological degradation. Diffusibility is the parameter of a substance that defines its degree of volatility. The concentration at which an odour is just detectable to a ‘typical’ human nose is referred to as the ‘threshold’ concentration. The highest value of the concentration at which the same odour is detected – is referred as OT100% due to the fact that in a panel evaluation the odour is perceived by all of the panelists. A mean of evaluation is trough odour index defined by the relation OI = Pvap/OT100% , where Pvap is the vapour tension of the substance (ppm) and OT100% is the odour threshold at 100% (ppm). The concentration at which an odour is just detectable to a ‘typical’ human nose is referred. In particular, quality of an odour defines its character


and allows the means of cataloguing the scents in different classes. Furthermore, in the sub-chapter Odorous Compounds, Thresholds and Sources the odour production activities and processes are described together with the main categories of organic and inorganic chemical compounds. It is emphasized that the main chemical-physical properties ocurring during the formation of odours are vapor pressure and water solubility which determine the passing from or to the liquid state. In case of degradation phenomena chemical or biochemical processes are involved. This is why attention of the authors is headed into providing some important data regarding the main classes of odorous substances. The final subchapters describe the importance of public health relevance of odour exposure and odour annoyance and nuisance. In general odourous compounds are capable of producing beyond annoyance and nuisance, serious injuries or even death. These aspects are pointed out by several examples of chemical compounds. In the third part of the book, Instruments and Methods for Odour Sampling and Measurement (written by T. Zarra, V. Naddeo and V. Belgiorno) the main tools for odor sampling and measurement are described. The importance of the measurement is stated in the introduction chapter, this being logically followed by a description of sampling techniques and procedures. The results of the measurements are in a strong dependence on sampling, independently from the adopted measurement technique (dynamic olfactometry, chemical analysis or electronic nose). Appropriate and specific sampling programs are important and are preliminary defined according to the types of sources, measurement methods and other variables. In the sub-chapter Measurement of Odorous Substances, the measurement is regarded as a complex activity due to the fact that current measurement methods are generally divided into three categories: sensorial, analytical and mixed methods. The most advanced and used analytical technique to measure odorous compounds is gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, followed by the colorimetric tubes, portable multi-gas detectors and gas analyzers. Dynamic olfactometry is currently the most used sensorial technique and involves the use a dilution instrument (namely, the olfactometer) to present an odour, at different concentrations levels, in a controlled way to a panel of assessors. The further described triangular odour bag method is another air dilution tehnique used for further estimation of emission rate. Field assessment is particularly important in approval and monitoring proceedings as well as urban development planning. Odour sensors (also called artificial noses), which are in use for many years incorporate a sensor element that reacts to odours. The gas sensor array consists of several different types of sensing materials that contribute to the different gases sensing. In the fourth part of the book, the chapter Strategies for Odour Control (authors: J.M. Estrada, R. Lebrero, G. Quijano, N.J.R. Kraakman, R. Muñoz)

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are discussed. Since odour emissions are often a result of human activities the minimization and the control of odour dispersion is of particular importance in areas close to inhabited places. Odour control strategies include the use of covers, turbulence-inducing structures and the establishment of buffer zones is examples of costefficient strategies for odour dispersion control. The means of control of odour effects on an exposed community is the use of chemical additives designed to mask, neutralize or minimize the perception of malodorous emissions. The measures for the control of odour emissions include end-of-pipe treatment technologies despite the associated investment and operating costs. The fifth part of the book is dedicated to the subject of Dispersion Modelling for Odour Exposure Assessment (authors: M. Piringer and G. Schauberger). Starting with describing odour perception by humans, whereby odour intensity, frequency and duration are the dominant parameters, it aims at presenting the most important types of odour dispersion models, which are categorized in two classes of models: Gauss and Lagrange. These models are used depending on the distance to the source of emissions as well as on the meteorological conditions or pollutant types. Several examples of dispersion models are described together with information on the algorithms used estimate shortterm odour concentrations. Aspects regarding the dose–response relationship between the odour frequency and the percentage of ‘annoyed’ and ‘seriously annoyed’ people are also included. Odour impact criteria are important in modelling and establishing separation distances by using dispersion models. Models have certain limitations as evidenced by the sub-chapter Evaluation of Odour Dispersion Models and sometimes the validation is difficult, while the confidence is low. The sixth part of the book concerns the subject included in the chapter Odour Regulation and Policies (written by S. Sironi, L. Capelli, L. Dentoni and R. Del Rosso) and treated as an important issue in the industrialized countries. The importance of the subject is a direct consequence of the fact that odourous compounds are pollutants with a significant negative impact on both the quality of life and economic activity. However, due to the little threat on human healt in a large majority of cases, the odour problem has gained attention only in the last decades. This is why standardized procedures and regulations have emerged in the recent year. Most of the regulatory documents are based on air quality standards and limit values and aim at overall air quality. Regulations aimed at defining Maximum Emissions Standards (MES) represent an evolution on the subject of regulation of odour emissions. Furthermore, there are certain regulatory acts that are based on direct exposure assessment limits. The Regulation Based on ‘No Annoyance’ takes into account the so called "annoyances indexes” that need to be defined order to be quantified Source

Odour Impact Assessment Handbook

identification is also important. The Regulation Based on Application of Best Practice sub-chapter takes into account various directives and other documents on the issues like best available technologies or practices, which generally target the industrial facilities regarded as possible sources of odours. In the end of the sixt part, a comparative Table is provided. The Procedures for Odour Impact Assessment (authors: V. Naddeo, V. Belgiorno and T. Zarra) is a comprehensive synthesis on the problems regarding the impact assessment of odours. The factors contributing to odour impact are briefly reviewed as a prequel to the next chapter dealing with the odour Impact Assessment from Exposure Measurement. This type of asessment is to be used in the cases when the odorous activities exist and generate negative effects. The asessment is based on the significance of negative effects experienced by people occupying land near the activity. The determination of the type of the effect either acute or chronic is particularly important and helps the selection of the assessment tools such as field sniff testing, complaints and odour diaries, community surveys and continuous monitoring by e-noses. In the section Odour Impact Assessment from Sources the methods for impact evaluation from dispersion modelling are discussed. The main stages of this procedure concern the identification and characterization of odour sources, estimation or measurement of odour emission rate; characterization of meteorological conditions; characterization of topography of a possible exposed area; identification of receptors and their sensitivity; evaluation of the exposure levels by modelling results; assessment of odour impacts. The results of complex study have multiple uses: prediction of the impact of new solutios or proposals, proposal, comparisons on exposure levels or regarding the cost effectiveness of odour mitigation options; evaluation of the effects of changing weather conditions on odour dispersion; as an indication on the need of improvement or to design of adequate chimneys. In the final part of the studies on odours, impact measures to odour control should be included. In the chapter Mitigation of Odour Impact a general explanation of how it is possible tackle odour issues is provided. There is also information on the types of control measures and the response of industry on the different regulatory pressures.

Control of odourous substances generally considers the main three aspects: control of odour emission rate; control of odour sources; end of pipe treatment. Odour Monitoring and plans for odour monitoring have a particular importance and aim at impact and exposure assessment, helps investigation on sources and pathway, measure of the releases and process control. The final part of the work is an applicative approach, which contains important case studies as good practices for assessment, control and prediction of odour impacts. These examples are focused on the main activities generating odourous emmisions: Urban Wastewater Treatment Plant (J. Lehtinen); Composting Plant (S. Giuliani, T. Zarra, M. Reiser, V. Naddeo, M. Kranert, V. Belgiorno); Landfill of Solid Waste (A.C. Romain and J. Nicolas); Industrial Activities (I. Sówka); Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) Plants (K. Y. Wang). Finally, the last chapter in the eight part is dedicated to Assessment, Control and Management of Odour in Sensitive Areas (authors: N. Kalogerakis and M. Lazaridis). In this chapter, the notion of sensitive areas refers to areas nearby waste water treatment plants. These facilities are often sources of odourous compounds emissions including sulfurous organic compounds, hydrogen sulfide, phenols and indoles, ammonia, volatile amines and volatile fatty acids; hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and ammonia (NH3) and are considered most frequent sources of annoyances. By containing the work of 28 contributors from 13 different countries providing information from the population and from the technical-scientific world the book constitutes itself as an important instrument for a wide range of people either working in the research or educational institutions, for the authorities involved in environmental managing and monitoring or for any professional interested in assessing the environmental impact. Dan Gavrilescu Adrian Cătălin Puiţel Department of Natural and Synthetic Polymers Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Protection “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iasi, Romania

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(1)

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References should be alphabetically listed at the end of paper, with complete details, as follows: Books: Names and initials of authors; year, article title; editors; title of the book (italic); edition; volume number; publisher; place; page number: Mauch K., Vaseghi S., Reuss M., (2000), Quantitative Analysis of Metabolic and Signaling Pathways in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, In: Bioreaction Engineering, Schügerl K., Bellgardt K.H. (Eds.), Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, 435-477. Faber K., (2000), Biotransformations in Organic Chemistry – A Textbook, vol.VIII, 4th Edition, Springer, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York. Handbook, (1951), Handbook of Chemical Engineer, vol. II, (in Romanian), Technical Press, Bucharest, Romania. Symposia volumes: Names and initials of authors; year; article title; full title; symposium abbreviated; volume number; place; date; page number: Clark T. A., Steward D., (1991), Wood and Environment, Proc. 6th Int. Symp. on Wood and Pulping Chemistry, Melbourne, vol. 1, 493. Journal papers: Names and initials of authors; year (between brackets); full title of the paper; full name of the journal (italic); volume number (bold); first and last page numbers: Tanabe S., Iwata H., Tatsukawa R., (1994), Global contamination by persistent organochlorines and their ecotoxicologcial impact on marine mammals, Science of the Total Environment, 154, 163-177. Patents: Names and initials of authors; year; patent title; country; patent number: Grant P., (1989), Device for Elementary Analyses. USA Patent, No. 123456. Dissertations: Names and initials of authors; year; title; specification (Ph. D. Diss.); institution; place: Aelenei N., (1982), Thermodynamic study of polymer solutions, PhD Thesis, Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry Petru Poni, Iasi, Romania. Star K., (2008), Environmental risk assessment generated by natural hazards, MSc Thesis, Institute of Hazard Research, Town, Country. Legal regulations and laws, organizations: Abbreviated name; year (between round brackets); full name of the referred text; document type; author; URL address: ESC, (2007), Improving access to modern energy services for all fundamental challenge, Economic and Social Council, ENV/DEV/927, On line at: http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/envdev927 .doc.htm EPA, (2007), Biomass Conversion: Emerging Technologies, Feedstocks, and Products, Sustainability Program, Office of Research and Development, EPA/600/R-07/144, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., On line at:

http://www.epa.gov/Sustainability/pdfs/Biomass%20 Conversion.pdf EC Directive, (2000), Directive 2000/76/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 December 2000, on the incineration of waste, Annex V, Official Journal of the European Communities, L 332/91, 28.12.2000, Brussels. GD, (2004), Governmental Decision no. 1076/2004 surnamed SEA Governmental Decision, regarding the procedure for strategic environmental impact assessment for plans or programs, published in Romanian Official Monitor, part I, no. 707 from 5th of August, 2004. Web references The full URL should be given in text as a citation, if no other data are known. If the authors, year, title of the documents are known and the reference is taken from a website, the URL address has to be mentioned after these data. Burja C., Burja V., (2008), Adapting the Romanian rural economy to the European agricultural policy from the perspective of sustainable development, MPRA, Munich Personal RePEc Archive, On line at: http://mpra.ub.unimuenchen.de/7989/1/MPRA_paper_7989.pdf Web references must not be listed separately, after the reference list. All references must be provided in English with a specification of original language in round brackets. Citation in text Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Do not cite references in the abstract. Unpublished results, personal communications as well as URL addresses are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. Citation of a reference as "in press" implies that the item has been accepted for publication. Papers which have been accepted for publication should be included in the list of references with the name of the journal and the specification "in press". Reference style Text: All citations in the text may be made directly (or parenthetically) and should refer to: - single author: the author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication: “as previously demonstrated (Smith, 2007)”; “as Smith (2007) demonstrated” - two authors: both authors' names and the year of publication: (Arnold and Sebastian, 2008; Smith and Hansel, 2006; Stern and Lars, 2009) - three or more authors: first author's name followed by "et al." and the year of publication: “As has recently been shown (Werner et al., 2005)…”, “Kramer et al. (2000) have recently shown ...." Citations of groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically.

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