RESUMO
For regulatory purposes, air pollution has been reduced to management of air quality control regions (AQCR), by inventorying pollution sources and identifying the receptors significantly affected. However, beyond being source-dependent, particulate matter can be physically and chemically altered by factors and elements of climate during transport, as they act as local environmental constraints, indirectly modulating the adverse effects of particles on the environment and human health. This case study, at an industrial site in a Brazilian coastal city - Joinville, combines different methodologies to integrate atmospheric dynamics in a strategic risk assessment approach whereby the influence of different wind regimes on environmental and health risks of exposure to PM2.5-bound elements, are analysed. Although Joinville AQCR has been prone to stagnation/recirculation events, distinctly different horizontal wind circulation patterns indicate two airsheds within the region. The two sampling sites mirrored these two conditions and as a result we report different PM2.5 mass concentrations, chemical profiles, geo-accumulation, and ecological and human health risks. In addition, feedback mechanisms between the airsheds seem to aggravate the air quality and its effects even under good ventilation conditions. Recognizably, the risks associated with Co, Pb, Cu, Ni, Mn, and Zn loadings were extremely high for the environment as well as being the main contributors to elevated non-carcinogenic risks. Meanwhile, higher carcinogenic risks occurred during stagnation/recirculation conditions, with Cr as the major threat. These results highlight the importance of integrating local airshed characteristics into the risk assessment of PM2.5-bound elements since they can aggravate air pollution leading to different risks at a granular scale. This new approach to risk assessment can be employed in any city's longer-term development plan since it provides public authorities with a strategic perspective on incorporating environmental constraints into urban growth planning and development zoning regulations.
RESUMO
Banana waste has the potential to produce ethanol with a low-cost and sustainable production method. The present work seeks to evaluate the separation of ethanol produced from banana waste (rejected fruit) using pervaporation with different operating conditions. Tests were carried out with model solutions and broth with commercial hollow hydrophobic polydimethylsiloxane membranes. It was observed that pervaporation performance for ethanol/water binary mixtures was strongly dependent on the feed concentration and operating temperature with ethanol concentrations of 1-10%; that an increase of feed flow rate can enhance the permeation rate of ethanol with the water remaining at almost the same value; that water and ethanol fluxes was increased with the temperature increase; and that the higher effect in flux increase was observed when the vapor pressure in the permeate stream was close to the ethanol vapor pressure. Better results were obtained with fermentation broth than with model solutions, indicated by the permeance and membrane selectivity. This could be attributed to by-products present in the multicomponent mixtures, facilitating the ethanol permeability. By-products analyses show that the presence of lactic acid increased the hydrophilicity of the membrane. Based on this, we believe that pervaporation with hollow membrane of ethanol produced from banana waste is indeed a technology with the potential to be applied.