Platinum group metal (PGM) refining processes produce large quantities of wastewater, which is contaminated with the compounds that make up the solvents/extractants mixtures used in the process. These compounds often include solvesso, beta-hydroxyxime, amines, amides and methyl isobutyl ketone. A process to clean up PGM refinery wastewaters so that they could be re-used in the refining process ...

The Pollution Prevention Program provides free technical assistance to North Carolina industries and municipalities on ways to reduce, recycle and prevent wastes before they become pollutants. This non-regulatory program, located in the Division of Environmental Management, addresses water and air quality, toxic materials, and solid and hazardous waste. Designated as the lead agency in waste re...

Chile will soon have to find solutions for dealing with rapidly growing quantities of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) due to its strong economy and fast increase of internet and communications technology usage. To support this process, the state of the Chilean recycling infrastructure as well as government, industry and consumer efforts to deal with ewaste were analyzed. Curren...

The modern industrial cycle is mainly based on non-renewable mineral resources extracted from the Earth’s crust. After being processed and transformed into commodities, the products of mining become manufactured products which go through the economic system and are then discarded in the form of gaseous, liquid or solid waste. Eventually, the mass of the output in the form of waste must balance ...

due to the high price of virgin vegetable oils and the drawbacks of the homogeneous catalytic transesterification, in this work an economically profitable alternative process was proposed for biodiesel synthesis in which transesterification of the low-cost waste cooking oil (wco) with methanol in a heterogeneous system was done. alumina impregnated with sodium hydroxide was utilized as a solid ...

Electronic waste (e-waste) is one of the fastest increasing waste streams worldwide due to unprecedented growth of the electronics industry, rapid obsolescence and subsequent disposal of electronic devices. Printed circuit boards (PCBs), the central component of electronic devices, are highly complex. PCBs are an important resource of metals, and contain substantial amounts of copper, tin, lead...

Electro-oxidation, also called electrochemical advanced oxidation, uses electricity to generate hydroxyl radicals to perform oxidation in wastewater treatment. A new commercially available electro-oxidation process—Zimpro® Electro-oxidation (ZEO)—is especially effective for treating the highly problematic spent caustic streams produced by sweetening operations in petroleum refineries and ethyle...

CONFLICT OF INTEREST NONE DECLARED Waste management is one of the key ecological challenges of the modern world. As dental practitioners, we must recognize that some of the materials and procedures we use to provide dental health services may present challenges to the environment. Realizing this, we can begin to take measures to minimize the production of these wastes and their potential enviro...

Biorefineries have been established since the 1980s for biofuel production, and there has been a switch lately from first to second generation feedstocks in order to avoid the food versus fuel dilemma. To a lesser extent, many opportunities have been investigated for producing chemicals from biomass using by-products of the present biorefineries, simple waste streams. Current facilities apply i...