Lite Initiatives

Archive for October, 2010

Air pollutants can have immediate as well, long term ill effects on human body and can cause simple or serious health maladies. It is realized that certain pollutants in air can really reduce life expectancy of humans. Air polluted by ozone irritates breathing of people and can cause asthma like symptoms or may be responsible for some of the diseases of the lung or heart. It’s already known that tobacco smoke, a form of polluted air, can cause many diseases connected with the respiratory system, most common of which is asthma. Recent medical reports go to extent of warning that continued exposure to some specific pollutants might be the cause of human infertility.

The ill effects of air pollutants on health could be wide ranging from physiological to biochemical changes. The maladies connected with the reparatory system like cough and asthma or cardiovascular system, are often caused by pollutants present in the air we breathe. Unless treated in time, these medical conditions could lead to hospitalization and might even cause premature death.

The state of our health is largely determined by the quality of air that we breathe. As the process of breathing involves respiratory system of which lungs form the most important part, these are severely affected by the quality of breathed air. Of course, we know air contains oxygen, essential for our survival, but it also contains pollutants.

Our respiratory system gets especially affected by air pollutants as its inner surface comprises of mucous membrane. The lungs have a natural ability for absorbing large volumes of air, and help to transport oxygen that is essentially needed.

Air pollutants like ozone, free radicals and metals can harm the cells in the lung tissues. Air sac, the point of lungs that absorbs oxygen and releases carbon dioxide can get damaged by ozone. The tissues in the airway are particularly prone to damage by pollutants, causing some of the serious injuries to the lungs or neurobehavioral disorders. It may also be the cause of cancers.

As we breathe polluted air, air pollutants enter our body. These naturally are absorbed by blood and on entering the blood stream they easily get transferred to our heart. Structural damages of the cardiovascular system can be caused by many of the chemical or biological pollutants contained in the inhaled air. Certain pollutants can have adverse effects on hearts ability to contract that could prove fatal. Organs inflamed because of air pollutants might release cytokines, which could cause malfunctioning of the cardiovascular system.

What can we do?

As you know prevention is better than cure. One possible way to help have better quality of air to breathe is the installation of systems for filtering air at commercial places and residences. Definite systems are available for indoor installation that significantly improve the quality of air.

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Air pollution simply is releasing of harmful substances into the air through various human activities. It is very common and dangerous. It is a general awareness among the people that air pollution is just smog, acid rain, CFC’s, and other forms of outdoor air pollution. But air pollution also can exist insidehomes and buildings. The health of  people is affected by chemical substances present in the air within buildings. Due to very rapid air pollution, holes are caused in the ozone layer of the earth thereby affecting the balance of nature. People should be aware of eco-friendly products.

Air pollution is caused by various number of reasons. Smoke emitted out of factories and chemical plants, crackers, cars, burning the wastes and garbage etc. There are many sources of indoor air pollution. Tobacco smoke, cooking and heating appliances, and vapors from building materials, paints, furniture, etc. which causes indoor pollution in the homes.

Air pollution causes many diseases. These can be for short term and long term. People suffer from various health problems such as asthma, heart and lung diseases. Long term effects can include chronic respiratory disease, lung cancer, heart disease, and even damage to the brain, nerves, liver, or kidneys more when the air is polluted.

Air pollution should really be reduced for a bright future. For the prevention of air pollution cutting of trees should be prohibited, littering of waste and garbage should be stopped, burning of crackers should be reduced. Eco-friendly products will be the key to a healthy nature.

Ecovillage products can be a great help for prevention of air pollution. Ecovillage products are eco-friendly products. One of the products is an eco-friendly non biodegradable umbrella. The fabric of this umbrella is made from recycled plastic which helps in reducing air pollution and is made without poisonous toxins. Another Ecovillage product is a natural paint That Cleans the air And Combats Mold and Mildew. This is also eco-friendly. As the air will be cleaned then it will ensure fresh air inside the house. Ecovillage offers eco- friendly handy non-toxic air freshener so that the air around is good and not like the ordinary one’s which makes the air more polluted.

IT CHALLENGES FACED BY BUSINESSES IN AFRICA

One is often perplexed when an organisation talks about business processes & change. Company executives begin to squirm in their seats, as they know that this will be the long haul to the promised land, probably leading to nowhere and sacrificing some along the way. Executives immediately believe that new IT systems are required to lead the way forward, i.e. – Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), etc. Many companies from first world countries with years of experience have failed miserably to enhance the power of IT. This is due to lack of understanding/covering the basics, before implementing an “IT system” to improve/resolve organisations business processes. Faced with myriad challenges, African business leaders are therefore not absolved of perplexed problems that first world countries face. African business leaders therefore, need to cover the basics prior to embarking on huge projects that produce undesired or no results to improve their businesses.

Several key IT challenges are pertinent to businesses in Africa. These are –

1) The strategic business challenge

Management of African businesses do not realise the impact of IT on business processes and how IT should integrate into the business to effectively gain competitive advantage. Just because the latest hardware technologies are acquired does not mean one would be competitive. Competitiveness would only be appropriate when IT is fully exploited for all its capabilities and opportunities. If business processes are not working effectively, IT will only speed up problems and not solve them. IT just like any other resource needs to be managed efficiently and effectively.

2) The globalisation challenge

African companies like Sasol, MTN, and many others have realised that in order for them to expand their operations they have to compete with the rest of the world. As a result, IT plays an important part in uniting local and international operations into one cohesive business unit. The South African government has been slow in embracing new opportunities that IT expansion and development could bring to companies and the ordinary citizen. This can be seen by government not granting more telecommunications business licences, and non-deregulation of internet broadband spectrum to service providers to expand IT infrastructure in Africa. This can be attributed to government not understanding the implication of IT and the lack of laws and policies governing the technology.

3) The information architecture and infrastructure challenge –

Many businesses in Africa have not identified their core competencies and how these drive the business; neither do they have sound back office business processes in place. African businesses have the view that, as long as we are connected to the outside world we can do business. Business competencies and goals should drive the business and not the technology. IT should only be a supporting backbone facilitating process. The non existence of IT and communications infrastructure and the exorbitant cost of installing such infrastructure also contribute to the challenge.

4) The Information Systems Investment Challenge

Businesses in Africa like the rest of the world see IT investment in terms of the monetary value of their hardware and software (physical assets). Costs associated with non-physical assets of IT are overlooked. Also, businesses are unaware of:

-          What productivity levels are due to IT or non IT influences;

-          The cost of lost sales opportunities from poorly managed e-commerce or e-business websites;

-          The determination of the return on IT investment.

5) The Responsibility and Control Challenges

As with all technologies, it has to be driven and controlled by human intervention. Most of the IT challenges emanate from the “Persware”, i.e. – people. As long as there is no smooth integration of IT into the people’s environment then challenges will not be resolved. With the high illiteracy levels and poor education on the African continent, it remains a challenge to train and develop people fast enough to catch up with technological innovations and ultimately control and maintain an IT infrastructure. In Africa this is quite pertinent as most people are used to doing things their way and are not fast enough in adapting to new ways of doing things.  On the other hand, people in remote areas of the African continent are fast becoming cellular phone users and this, I think, is one step closer to bridging the IT challenge in the communications divide.

Basic steps that can be used to address the challenges -

1) Agree on common user requirements

Ensure that business processes work efficiently and effectively. Business processes should be short and definitive. All users of IT in the organisation should agree and participate on common requirements which would work in all functional business areas and is acceptable to all parties.

2) Introduce changes in business procedures

Users or “Persware” support is important in anything that needs to be achieved in an organisation. Managers and employees should be able to exchange ideas and share a common vision and goal in achieving and implementing changes in business procedures. Through user participation, people will feel that they are part of the process and have contributed to changing procedures and as a result the organisation will succeed in its endeavours.

3) Coordinate applications development

People need to be informed in whatever the organisation plans to do. IT can disseminate information through: e-mail, intranet and internet, so that everyone is kept abreast of changes. All applications development will be coordinated between various departments so that everyone knows what the status quo is at any given time and no functional area is left far behind in implementing new processes.

4) Coordinate software releases

Everyone involved in the process from various functional areas need to be working on the same thing at the same time. Therefore, software releases should occur throughout the organisation at the same time, to ensure that everyone is working on the same page.

5) Encourage local users to support global systems

Local users need to be encouraged and given the feeling that they have ownership over the system. However, at the same time all users should adapt to new ideas and ways of doing things. African businesses now have to compete with the world and people who are slow to adapt and are inflexible will not survive in the age of IT. This can only be done through user participation in massive IT processes put in place; linking all operations throughout the world in sharing common ideas and knowledge through enterprise resource planning systems such as SAP.

6) Invest in people

African governments, organisations, etc, should invest in educating and developing African people with regards to the development and use of IT on the continent to develop its own in-house pool of IT specialists.

IT can be a panacea for businesses. This is even more so in the African context, where a number of challenges & opportunities exist. African business leaders have a chance to learn from the rest of the world, by avoiding mistakes that have plagued other multinationals.  In order to do this, business leaders on the African continent need to understand the challenges and implications once a decision is made in order to realise solutions.

The sand screens and micron filters were selected because of the durable and corrosion resistant fiberglass and PVC construction. The specific model of Eden micron filters was chosen to maintain the filter element flux at approximately 3.3 gpm/per 10″ equivalent.

Due to the relative remoteness of the installation site, multistage-centrifugal, high-pressure pumps have been selected for their reliability, availability of parts, economics of operation and easy maintenance. Centrifugal pumps in general are smoother, quieter, and require less ancillary equipment (i.e. pulsation dampeners) than positive displacement pumps. Hydropro has found that positive displacement pumps are much more prone to failure and lengthily downtimes than high-quality centrifugal pumps.

The Grundfos Booster Modules were chosen for several reasons. The inline style helped conserve space and provided ease of installation, allowing everything to be mounted on the same skid (with the exception of cleaning/flush tanks, raw water booster pumps, and chemical feeds). These submersible, multi-stage centrifugal pumps were also chosen because they are very efficient and quiet, and are constructed of corrosion resistant, 904L super austenitic stainless steel.

The high pressure feed and concentrate headers were made of 2205 duplex stainless steel for superior corrosion resistance, and the structural skid was constructed of FRP for low weight and zero maintenance. ERI´s Pressure Exchanger was chosen because of its high energy efficiency, dependability, and corrosion resistant materials.

Performance
Values for the projected power consumption rates that were presented in the proposal were based on a 27ºC feed stream of 45,000 mg/l TDS and a permeate flow rate of 100,000 gpd. The membrane manufactures projection software was used to determine the system parameters at a recovery of 35%, and these parameters were subsequently used to determine the projected power consumption. The result was an anticipated feed pressure of 900 psi and a specific power consumption rate of 3.02 kWh/m³.

Once the system was installed and operating, the specific power consumption was calculated based on actual system parameters and the result was a much lower value of 2.65 kWh/m³. There were several reasons the actual value was lower, the main reason however, was the conservative design. Because of some uncertainty in the feed water quality, the SWRO system was designed with a relatively low flux (approximately 8 gpm/ft2), and a somewhat large hydraulic envelope. As it turned out, the feed water TDS was closer to 36,000 ppm and fairly stable. The lower feed TDS enabled the system to operate at a lower membrane feed pressure of 790 psi and a higher permeate flow rate of 120,000 gpd, consequently using less energy than originally projected and making higher quality permeate.

Conclusion
With most of the system assembled, the installation was fairly straightforward and went smoothly. The two units were installed, started up, tested and operator training was completed in less than three weeks. There was, however, a problem with the feed water quality and the pretreatment system, which was discovered after only 24 hours of operation. It immediately became apparent that the raw water was loaded with particulate that was quickly fouling the sand screens and the micron filters. Fortunately, the feed system could be modified to flow into an existing 250,000 gallon seawater tank from the wells, and the SWRO feed was then drawn out of this tank. This settling tank solution worked quite well and provided a feed water with a pre-filter SDI of 1.25.

There was also one other performance issue that needed to be resolved. Initially, the permeate quality was less than what was projected, and it was not clear why. The system was extensively checked ant tested for leaks, and the possibility that seawater was somehow mixing with the permeate was eventually eliminated. It was finally determined that the membranes did not meet the design rejection required to produce the projected permeate TDS. Once the membranes were replaced, the system was making plenty of high quality permeate that was well below the maximum acceptable permeate TDS.

KAJUR and the residents of Ebye have since been enjoying low-cost, high-quality water for over a year now without any noteworthy system failures. They are so pleased, in fact, that KAJUR has recently awarded Hydropro another SWRO job utilizing work exchanger energy recovery.

Transact recently caught up with Kenneth Ivanic, Vice President of Environmental Markets at World Energy Solutions, to discuss insights from Carbon Expo and analyze today’s carbon market.

The market is desperate to know what is going to happen post-2012. On the commercial side, buyers are struggling with long-term concerns in the absence of any binding rule sets from either the EU or U.S. This lack of clarity makes it extremely difficult for buyers, who are used to hedging years out and whose daily job is to mitigate their company’s exposure. Not knowing if post-2012 will be a cricket match or a hockey game makes it awfully difficult to suit up appropriately. While buyers are doing their best to read the tea leaves, project developers and other suppliers are simply trying to get their projects funded and adjust to the new normal.

That said, I could still sense optimism among show participants in terms of the market and how they are moving forward in it. But overall, the takeaways from Cologne are that everyone is looking to figure out how to make this market work and awaiting that rule set – with a keen eye on the U.S. – that will provide near- and long-term market clarity and direction.

I think the key for buyers and sellers alike is to be realistic and to better understand the drivers of the deal from the other side of the transaction. For sellers, we advise being realistic in terms of post-2012 expectations. Sellers have been used to, and typically looking for, a fixed price or maybe even a higher floor price because they’ve been dealing in pre-2012 commodities. But in the post-2012 world, they have to accept that from a buyer’s point of view a floor price is very unattractive. Buyers want the safety of index-based pricing.

I’m struck by the difference a couple of years makes. I remember doing trades pre-recession, when folks were bullish on the voluntary market, and having sellers turn down US$6.00/tonne. Now sellers have to try to get comfortable with the notion that $3 or $4 per tonne can be quite a generous offer. It’s a lot like today’s housing market, where the power has moved from sellers to buyers, and buyers have plenty of inventory to choose from.

We are adapting to this by helping our customers adapt. Sellers today need to understand that buyers are more discerning, looking for – and demanding – exactly the kind of project they want, particularly given the uncertainties in the market. This puts transparency at a premium. Sellers should be prepared to negotiate on price, but, more importantly, they really need to sharpen their focus on providing project documentation and other items that promote clarity and make their projects stand out. Earlier this year, World Energy shared tips for transacting in this uncertain market called “Getting Buyers to Yes”

As reserves of crude oil constantly decrease and new oil sources are increasingly difficult to exploit the development of alternatives becomes more and more interesting. In the long term, the only option is the use of energy from renewable resources. The most important of these are electricity from sun, water or wind and biofuel from regrowable plants. Biofuel is used as a substitute for conventional gasoline in combustion engines. There are two types of biofuel: bioethanol and biodiesel. Bioethanol is identical to the alcohol that is used in alcoholic beverages. It is mostly produced from sugar cane, but also other plants such as potato or maize can be used. In Brazil, ethanol is used as a major fuel for cars. Conventional gasoline is substituted with ethanol to 25% and many flexible-fuel vehicles even allow the use of pure ethanol as fuel. Recently, bioethanol has been implicated in being the causative agent of drastically increasing prices for food in developing countries. This has raised debate over whether one should make fuel rather than enable the poor to feed themselves. In contrast to bioethanol, which is derived from carbohydrates, biodiesel is produced from various vegetable oils. Therefore, other plants are employed for the production of biodiesel. In Europe, mostly rapeseed oil is used, although rape is not a very efficient source for oil. Some more efficient sources are e.g. oil palms and jatropha. Oil palms are cultivated in tropical countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia. They give a much higher oil yield per acreage than e.g. rape. Unfortunately the growing demand for palm oil is leading to massive and irrevocable destruction of tropical rain forest. It is important to note that during the production of one liter of palm oil biofuel releases more carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere than by burning the equivalent amount of conventional fuel. The jatropha plant seems to be an interesting alternative, since it grows in semi-deserts, but still produces nuts with very high oil content.

Asthma is a horrible condition where periodic lung inflammation occurs leading to breath shortening, chest pains and coughs.

One of the fastest growing allergies, currently one in six children develop it. Having the ability to change the way we live our lives, this potential killer should be minimized at all times. Causes of asthma can be minimized in the home environment.

Dust, a term covering all the air-borne particles in a house, is often found at 3 million particles per cubic foot of air. When inhaled this dust can act to aggravate our air passages inducing allergies, one of which is well known, asthma.

Dust can consist of viruses, cigarette smoke, bacteria, dust mites, dead skin flakes, talcum powder, materials fabrics, solvents, kitchen waste, dry pet food or bedding, and pollen. All these constituents range in size massively from just under 0.001um, typical of many viruses, to just above 100um, e.g. dust mites.

Hayfever, asthma and other similar allergies are often aggravated in people by pollen. Pollen tends to be around 20-60 micron in diameter and therefore relatively easy to remove from the air column with an air purifier. Pollen, spores and mildew are routinely removed with many purifier models. HEPA and electrostatic air cleaners are best used to reduce these air pollutants.

Pathogens like bacteria and viruses can be removed with some powerful air purifiers. Common pathogens like E-coli, Staphylococcus, Influenza, Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Bacillus subtilis are able to be targeted and eliminated. Air purifiers with ultra violet capabilities are effective at destroying pathogens.

Noxious gasses such as formaldehyde, car exhaust fumes, cigarette fumes and the like can be combated by effective air purifiers in a number of ways. High speed electrons can be used to break down odors, photocatalytic filters with titanium apatite can absorb polluting particles, further breakdown can be promoted with yet more deodorizing catalytic action. Specific air purifiers aimed at reducing this type of pollutant are Blueair and IQAir GC Multigas air purifiers with SmokeStop filters, and Austin Air Plus purifiers.

Pet odors can be reduced by regularly cleaning their bedding, toys, food bowls, clumps of fur on or around the animal. This reduces all kinds of irritant particles, namely the air-borne dried saliva that has a large effect on allergy sufferers. HEPA and electrostatic air purifiers work best here.

As with all filtering machines, constant servicing is essential, i.e. cleaning or replacing the filters and other cleaning mechanisms regularly. A whole range of air purifiers exists from the basic heavy, loud operating mid to low effectiveness models to state of the art lightweight, quiet, multifunctional and effective, prices increase correspondingly.

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According to the latest reports, Spain is one of the top five worst ozone polluters in the world, and one of the furthest away from meeting protocols on greenhouse gas emissions as set out by the Kyoto Agreement.

In the Environmental Ministry Report released earlier this month, fifty of Spains biggest cities are more than exceeding governments guidelines for limits on air pollution. The worst offenders are Madrid, Seville, Valencia and Barcelona.

In Barcelona, the biggest contribution to these alarming figures are a massive increase in CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions produced from an influx of personal vehicles on the roads.

CO2 levels have more than doubled since the 1990s, when Cataloni’s most rapid phase of growth and development occurred. The Catalonian Generalitat’s Environment Ministry reports that 98 % of CO2 pollution is directly caused by road transport activity.

In 2006, a report released by the Encuasta de Movilidad indicated that just over 40% of Catalonians use a private vehicle for an average of three trips per day. Three times the figure for those that use public transport. This is despite a high awareness of the damage cars cause the environment as well as the higher costs of using a household vehicle compared to public transport costs.

It wasn’t until 2005 that the Spanish government actually passed laws relating to greenhouse gas emissions but these early reports reveal that laws in themselves are not enough.

A spokesman for Pollution Prevention confirms that air pollution is ‘one of the biggest problems threatening Spains environment today. Almost all cities in Spain are failing to comply with air quality regulations’.

With the naked eye it’s easy enough to observe the thick, dark haze that sits just above Barcelona’s skyline. But there are other signs of the damage affecting not only the environment, but also threatening to affect one of the citys biggest growth industries: tourism.

A recent increase in the amount of jellyfish, locally known as medeusas in waters of the Catalan coast have for the last few years been responsible for beach closures in and around Barcelona, preventing visitors access to one of the area’s biggest summer attractions- the Mediterranean Sea.

A jellyfish plague was first noticed in Catalonia in 2005. The Oceana Environment Group reported that numbers had tripled and that an average of 10 jellyfish per square meter were counted close to beaches surrounding Barcelona.

In 2006, 30,000 people were treated over the summer for jellyfish stings and a number of beaches were closed to prevent further injuries. Whilst not usually fatal, a jellyfish sting can cause pain and discomfort and in severe cases of allergic reaction, a heart attack may be triggered.

Increasing numbers of jellyfish have been attributed to rising sea temperatures, which are now at least 2 degrees above average for this time of year. Rising sea temperatures are caused when a buildup of greenhouse emissions prevent the dissipation of the suns heat. The smog produced from pollution acts like a layer of insulation, trapping the heat close to the earths surface.

Warmer waters boost the rate at which jellyfish grow and multiply, and their natural predators, larger fish such as tuna and swordfish have been migrating further away from the Mediterranean in favour of cooler currents found in the Atlantic ocean.

Small boats can be seen trawling for jellyfish and their larvae just off the coast in an effort to reduce the amount that make their way close to shore, but if a solution is not found to combat the problem on a long term basis, holiday makers will soon have to find alternative summer leisure activities other than a visit to the beach.

Aside from environmental problems, air pollution has been labeled responsible for an increase in the number of cases of illnesses including heart problems, cancer, asthma, allergies and other cardiovascular complications in patients. It appears that Catalonians are now choking on their own smoke.

On July 12th, the Catalonian Regional Government approved a plan to reduce the permitted traveling speed for cars on major roadways in Catalonia to less than 80 kms per hour in an effort to lower car emission levels.

These new limits will come into effect by this autumn and will affect Barcelona as well as 15 other municipalities in Catalonia, with a target reduction figure of 30%.

The affects of this plan remain to be seen. One can only hope that Catalonians will take action to reduce greenhouse gas emission, for the security of their health and the health of the Spanish coast.

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