ALBERT

Description: A surface-modified nanoscale carbon black (MCB) as Ni adsorbent in contaminated soil was prepared by oxidizing the carbon black with 65% HNO3. The surface properties of the adsorbent were characterized by zeta potential analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIRs). Batch experiments were conducted to evaluate the improvement of Ni2+ adsorption by MCB. Greenhouse cultivation experiments were conducted to examine the effect of MCB on the DTPA-extractable Ni2+ in soil, Ni2+ uptake of ryegrass shoot, and growth of ryegrass. Results indicated that MCB had much lower negative zeta potential, more functional groups for exchange and complexation of cation, and more heterogeneous pores and cavities for the adsorption of cation than the unmodified parent one (CB). MCB showed enhanced sorption capacity for Ni (, 49.02 mg·g−1) compared with CB (, 39.22 mg·g−1). Greenhouse cultivation experiment results showed that the biomass of ryegrass shoot and the Ni uptake of the ryegrass shoot were significantly increased and the concentrations of DTPA-extractable Ni in soil were significantly decreased with the increasing of MCB amount. It is clear from this work that the MCB had good adsorption properties for the Ni and could be applied in the in situ immobilization and remediation of heavy metal contaminated saline-alkali soils.

Description: Crowd counting is of significant importance for numerous applications, e.g., urban security, intelligent surveillance and crowd management. Existing crowd counting methods typically require specialized hardware deployment and strict operating conditions, thereby hindering their widespread application. To acquire a more effective crowd counting approach, a device-free counting method based on Channel Status Information (CSI) is proposed. The wavelet domain denoising is introduced to mitigate environment noise. Furthermore, the amplitude or phase covariance matrix is extracted as the eigenmatrix. Moreover, both the spatial diversity and frequency diversity are leveraged to improve detection robustness. At the same experimental environment, the accuracy of the proposed CSI-based method is compared with a renowned crowd counting one, i.e., Electronic Frog Eye: Counting Crowd Using WiFi (FCC). The experimental results reveal an accuracy improvement of 30% over FCC.

Description: This study was conducted to explore the potential for 1,2-Dibromoethane (EDB) biodegradation by an acclimated microbial consortium under simulated dynamic groundwater conditions. The enriched EDB-degrading consortium consisted of anaerobic bacteria Desulfovibrio, facultative anaerobe Chromobacterium, and other potential EDB degraders. The results showed that the biodegradation efficiency of EDB was more than 61% at 15 °C, and the EDB biodegradation can be best described by the apparent pseudo-first-order kinetics. EDB biodegradation occurred at a relatively broad range of initial dissolved oxygen (DO) from 1.2 to 5.1 mg/L, indicating that the microbial consortium had a strong ability to adapt. The addition of 40 mg/L of rhamnolipid and 0.3 mM of sodium lactate increased the biodegradation. A two-phase biodegradation scheme was proposed for the EDB biodegradation in this study: an aerobic biodegradation to carbon dioxide and an anaerobic biodegradation via a two-electron transfer pathway of dihaloelimination. To our knowledge, this is the first study that reported EDB biodegradation by an acclimated consortium under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions, a dynamic DO condition often encountered during enhanced biodegradation of EDB in the field.

Description: The ground source heat pump (GSHP) is an environmentally friendly and energy-efficient technology, and the investigations on the simulation models of borehole heat exchanger (BHE) have made progress. However, the researches on engineering design and economic performance based on the simulation models of BHE are a few. This paper firstly describes the interior and exterior heat transfer according to the existing achievements, and the corresponding characteristics of models are explained. Afterwards, the detailed design procedures of BHE size are provided and the cost performance is highlighted. Accordingly, an actual engineering project which employs GSHP system as the air conditioning system is researched; the necessary expenses on BHE, heat pump units, and indoor end equipment are all taken into account. The initial investment, operating cost, and other factors that exert influences on the cost performance are demonstrated. In addition, comparisons between different systems are conducted to show the advantages of GSHP. By means of thermal transfer analysis and the design of engineering project, the practicability, energy saving, and environmental protection of GSHP are brought into play, which means the promotion of this technology is the general trend of development of air condition system.

Description: We propose a new optimization algorithm inspired by the formation and change of the cloud in nature, referred to as Cloud Particles Differential Evolution (CPDE) algorithm. The cloud is assumed to have three states in the proposed algorithm. Gaseous state represents the global exploration. Liquid state represents the intermediate process from the global exploration to the local exploitation. Solid state represents the local exploitation. The best solution found so far acts as a nucleus. In gaseous state, the nucleus leads the population to explore by condensation operation. In liquid state, cloud particles carry out macrolocal exploitation by liquefaction operation. A new mutation strategy called cloud differential mutation is introduced in order to solve a problem that the misleading effect of a nucleus may cause the premature convergence. In solid state, cloud particles carry out microlocal exploitation by solidification operation. The effectiveness of the algorithm is validated upon different benchmark problems. The results have been compared with eight well-known optimization algorithms. The statistical analysis on performance evaluation of the different algorithms on 10 benchmark functions and CEC2013 problems indicates that CPDE attains good performance.

Description: The selective catalytic reduction (SCR) is the most commonly used technique for decreasing the emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from heavy-duty diesel vehicles (HDDVs). However, the same injection strategy in the SCR system shows significant variations in NOx emissions even at the same operating mode. This kind of heterogeneity poses challenges to the development of emission inventories and to the assessment of emission reductions. Existing studies indicate that these differences are related to the exhaust temperature. In this study, an emission model is established for different source types of HDDVs based on the real-time data of operating modes. Firstly, the initial NOx emission rates (ERs) model is established using the field vehicle emission data. Secondly, a temperature model of the vehicle exhaust based on the vehicle specific power (VSP) and the heat loss coefficient is established by analyzing the influencing factors of the NOx conversion efficiency. Thirdly, the models of NOx emissions and the urea consumption are developed based on the chemical reaction in the SCR system. Finally, the NOx emissions are compared with the real-world emissions and the estimations by the proposed model and the Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES). This indicates that the relative error by the proposed method is 12.5% lower than those calculated by MOVES. The characteristics of NOx emissions under different operating modes are analyzed through the proposed model. The results indicate that the NOx conversion rate of heavy-duty diesel trucks (HDDTs) is 39.2% higher than that of urban diesel transit buses (UDTBs).

Description: Combined sewer overflow (CSO) pollution poses a serious threat to the urban water environment and is more severe in old urban areas. This research uses the old urban area in the sponge city pilot area in Tongzhou District, Beijing, as the study area. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) storm water management model (SWMM) was used to establish the hydrologic and hydraulic model of this area. The model parameters were calibrated and validated based on the measured rainfall and runoff data. The results show that the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient for calibration and validation is more than 0.74. Thirty-two sets of systematic CSO control schemes are formulated, which include the "gray (includes the pipes, pumps, ditches, and detention ponds engineered by people to manage stormwater) strategy" and "gray-green strategies", and the regularity of CSO control for "low impact development (LID) facilities at the source", "intercepting sewer pipes at the midway", and "storage tank at the end", are quantitatively analyzed. The results show that the LID facility has an average annual reduction rate of 22% for the CSO frequency and 35% to 49% for the CSO volume. The retrofitting of intercepting sewer pipes has an average annual reduction rate of 11% for the CSO frequency and 4% to 15% for the CSO volume, and the storage tank has an average annual reduction rate from 3% to 36% for the CSO volume; furthermore, the reduction rate decreases with the increase in the CSO volume reduction rate by LID facilities. When the CSO control target is stricter, the control effect of the "end" segment is more obvious, but the control efficiency is lower. By studying the variability of the storage tank volume under different control targets, it can be concluded that it is reasonable to set the CSO control target because the number of overflow events does not exceed four times per year for the study area.

Description: The effective setting of offsets between intersections on arterial roads can greatly reduce the travel time of vehicles through intersections. However, coordinated control systems of urban arterial roads often do not achieve the desired effect. On the contrary, they are very likely to increase the traffic congestion on arterial roads, resulting in more delays of the platoon with more exhaust emissions, if the coordinated control system does not have effective settings. Meanwhile, taking into account increasing environmental pollution, measures are needed to solve the conflict between environmental and traffic management. Thus, in order to ensure the smooth flow of urban arterial roads while considering the environment, this paper develops a bi-objective offset optimization model, with reducing delays of the platoon on arterial roads as the primary objective, and reducing exhaust emissions as the secondary objective. The proposed bi-objective model is based on the division of platoon operating modes on arterial roads, and more pollutant types, including NOx, HC, and CO, are considered when measuring environmental impact. Further, the modified hierarchical method, combining the branch and bound approach with the introductions of a relaxation coefficient, is employed to solve the model. By introducing a relaxation coefficient, the modified hierarchical method overcomes the defects of the traditional one. Finally, Xi Dajie Road in Beijing was taken as an example. The results showed that the bi-objective offset optimization model, considering both the delays and emissions of the platoon reduced delays by up to 20% and emissions by 7% compared with the existing timing plan. If compared with the offset optimization model considering delays only, such a model increases delays no more than 3% and reduces emissions by 6%.

Description: A new continuum model with consideration of driver’s forecast effect is obtained to study the density wave problem and the stop-and-go phenomena. The stability condition of the new model is derived by using linear analysis. The triangular shock wave, one type of density wave, which is determined by Burgers equation in the stable region, is discussed in great detail with reductive perturbation method. The local cluster appears when we perform the numerical simulations for the new model. It also proves that the driver’s forecast effect has the positive effect of reducing the local cluster.