The European directive 2000/53/EC implies a "reuse and recovery" rate for end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) of 95% to be reached by the year 2015. One of the options to increase the actual average European "reuse and recovery" rate of approximately 78% (EU 15, 2008) is incineration of automotive shredder residue (ASR) with energy-recovery. The mass balance and the congener fingerprints for PCDD/Fs, dioxin-like PCBs, PCBs and PAHs in a real scale fluidized bed combustor (FBC) incinerating 25% ASR with 25% refuse derived fuel (RDF) and 50% waste water treatment sludge (WWT sludge) were investigated. The PCDD/F, dioxin-like PCB, PCB and PAH concentrations in this input waste mix were more than hundred times higher than in the usual waste feed of the incinerator (30% RFD and 70% WWT sludge). In the outputs of the FBC, however, the concentrations of these POP groups were comparable or only slightly higher than in the outputs generated during the incineration of the usual waste feed. The considered POPs in the waste were destroyed efficiently and the formation of new POPs during cooling of the flue gas appeared to a large extent independent of the POP concentrations in the incinerated waste.

Background:Few clinical diagnostic tools to rule in or rule out depression have been validated in primary care. From a previous systematic review study, it became clear that in terms of research, a validated clinical diagnostic tool (effective, reliable and usable) was needed by European General Practitioner (GP) investigators in order to include patients for research studies in daily practice care and for cross-sectional studies between psychiatrists and GPs.

During an eight day trial automotive shredder residue (ASR) was added to the usual waste feed of a Fluidized Bed Combustor (FBC) for waste-to-energy conversion; the input waste mix consisted of 25% ASR, 25% refuse-derived fuel (RDF) and 50% wastewater treatment (WWT) sludge. All inputs and outputs were sampled and the concentration of the 17 PCDD/Fs with TEF-values was determined in order to obtain "PCDD/F fingerprints". The ASR contained approximately 9000 ng PCDD/Fs/kg(DW), six times more than the RDF and 10 times more than the WWT sludge. The fingerprint of ASR and RDF was dominated by HpCDD and OCDD, which accounted for 90% of the total PDDD/F content, whereas the WWT sludge contained relatively more HpCDFs and OCDF (together 70%). The flue gas cleaning residue (FGCR) and fly and boiler ash contained approximately 30,000 and 2500 ng PCDD/Fs/kg(DW), respectively. The fingerprints of these outputs were also dominated by HpCDFs and OCDF. The bottom ash contained only OCDD and OCDF, in total 8 ng PCDD/Fs/kg (DW). From the comparison of the bottom ash fingerprints with the fingerprints of the other output fractions and of the inputs, it could be concluded that the PCDD/Fs in the waste were destroyed and new PCDD/Fs were formed in the post combustion process by de novo synthesis. During the ASR-co-incineration, the PCDD/F congener concentrations in the fly and boiler ash, FGCR and flue gas were 1.25-10 times higher compared to the same output fractions generated during incineration of the usual waste mix (70% RDF and 30% WWT sludge). The concentration of the higher chlorinated PCDD/Fs increased most. As these congeners have the lowest TEF-factors, the total PCDD/F output, expressed in kg TEQ/year, of the FBC did not increase significantly when ASR was co-incinerated. Due to the relatively high copper levels in the ASR, the copper concentrations in the FBCs outputs increased. As copper catalysis the de novo syntheses, this could explain the increase in PCDD/F concentrations in these outputs.

In addition to structural information, detailed knowledge of the local chemical environment proves to be of ever greater importance, for example for the development of new types of materials as well as for specific modifications of surfaces and interfaces in multiple fields of materials science, or various biomedical and chemical applications. But the ongoing miniaturization, and therefore, reduction of the amount of material available for analysis constitute a challenge to the detection limits of analytical methods.In the case of time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS), several methods of secondary ion yield enhancement have been proposed. This article focuses on the investigation of the effects of two of these methods, metal-assisted SIMS and polyatomic primary ion (PI) bombardment. For this purpose, thicker layers of organic molecules (polymers and dyes), both pristine, and metallized with different amounts of gold, were analyzed using monoatomic (Ar + , Ga + , Xe + , Bi + ) and polyatomic (SF 5 + , Bi 3 + , C 60 + ) PIs. It was found that polyatomic ions generally induce a significant increase of the secondary ion yield. On the other hand, with gold deposition, a yield enhancement can only be detected for monoatomic ion bombardment. Copyright

Static secondary ion mass spectrometry (S-SIMS) emerges as one of the most adequate methods for the surface characterisation of polymers with an information depth of essentially one monolayer. The continuing search for increased analytical sensitivity and specificity has led to exploring the use of polyatomic primary ions as an alternative to the traditionally applied monoatomic projectiles. As part of a systematic investigation on polyatomic bombardment of organic and inorganic solids, this paper focuses on selected polyesters. Mass spectra and ion yields are compared for layers deposited on silicon wafers by spincoating solutions with different concentrations of poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL), poly(butylene adipate) (PBA) and poly(ethylene adipate) (PEA). Accurate mass measurements have been used to support the assignment of the ions and link the composition of the detected ions to the analyte structure. Use of polyatomic projectiles increases the yield of structural ions with a factor of +/-15, +/-30 and +/-10 for PCL, PBA and PEA, respectively, in comparison to bombardment with Ga+ primary ions, while the molecular specificity is improved by the detection of additional high m/z ions.