Decision support for environmental management of industrial non-hazardous secondary materials: New analytical methods combined with simulation and optimization modeling

Abstract

Non-hazardous solid materials from industrial processes, once regarded as waste and disposed in landfills, offer numerous environmental and economic advantages when put to beneficial uses (BUs). Proper management of these industrial non-hazardous secondary materials (INSM) requires estimates of their probable environmental impacts among disposal as well as BU options. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently approved new analytical methods (EPA Methods 1313-1316) to assess leachability of constituents of potential concern in these materials. These new methods are more realistic for many disposal and BU options than historical methods, such as the toxicity characteristic leaching protocol. Experimental data from these new methods are used to parameterize a chemical fate and transport (F&T) model to simulate long-term environmental releases from flue gas desulfurization gypsum (FGDG) when disposed of in an industrial landfill or beneficially used as an agricultural soil amendment. The F&T model is also coupled with optimization algorithms, the Beneficial Use Decision Support System (BUDSS), under development by EPA to enhance INSM management.

Resilience-performance trade-offs in managing social-ecological systems

“…Conventionally, approaches to resource allocation and environmental management focus on performance (Brouwer et al 2002, Ganji et al 2007, Homayoun-far et al 2010, Anghinolfi et al 2013, Önal et al 2016, Little et al 2017, Moradi and Rasaei 2017. These approaches focus on a few performance metrics of a system and search for policies that maximize expected utility or minimize expected cost.…”

Leaching Characteristics of Potentially Toxic Metals from Tailings at Lujiang Alum Mine, China

“…The leaching process by PTMs under environmental conditions can be simulated by using appropriate test conditions and conversion of the solid:liquid ratio and time scale [ 23 ]. In particular, standard soil column leaching tests can be performed to understand the long-term release behavior of PTMs under field conditions and to evaluate their environmental impacts [ 24 , 25 ]. Studies have shown that the migration behavior of PTMs depends greatly on the pH and contact time with leaching liquids [ 26 , 27 ].…”