Curbing environmental impact
of oil spills
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visiting London can browse through them at IHQ
 Clean
spill of health?
Researchers working in Egypt have created a novel method
for cleaning up crude oil spills. They make use of crosslinked
cinnamoyloxyethylmethacrylate (CEMA) combined with a co-polymer
isoctyl acrylate (IOA). This co-polymer helps to promote a
less crystalline structure, increasing its oil holding capacity.
They were then combined with a crosslinking promoter to create
a three-dimensional network structure with oil absorbent properties.
This material has advantages over present oil
absorbents such as polypropylene fibre or fabrics and foam
sheets due to their relatively poor oil absorbent capacity
and bulkiness. The material had good oil absorbent capacity
and was able to be reused with little loss of oil holding
capacity.
Crosslinked cinnamoyloxyethyl methacrylate
and isooctyl acrylate copolymers as oil sorbers, Ayman M Atta,
Rasha AM El-Ghazawy, Reem K Farag, Ahmed F El-Kafrawy, Abdel-Azim
A Abdel-Azim, Polymer International, DOI: 10.1002/pi.1820
(Available on EarlyView)
The honey trap for beetles
Longhorned beetles are significant pests which can cause
serious economic damage boring into wood structures, even
causing collapse in seriously infested buildings. Researchers
in Germany and the US have looked at methods to control the
old-house borer beetles (Hylotrupes bajulus) without using
toxic insecticides.
They baited traps with a mixture of male sex
pheromones and monoterpenes — volatile organic compounds
extracted from Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L). The beetles
responded best to high concentration of monoterpenes, although
shunned those with very high concentrations. The addition
of the male pheromone caught significantly more females than
males and the best combination involved a mixture of both
attractants.
Enhancement of attraction and trap catches
of the old-house borer, Hylotrupes bajulus (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae),
by combination of male sex pheromone and monoterpenes, Gadi
VP Reddy, Regina Fettköther, Uwe Noldt, Konrad Dettner,
Pest Management Science, DOI: 10.1002/ps.1044 (Available on
EarlyView)
Soaking up a stink
Hydrogen sulphide is a gaseous by-product of many industries
including wastewater treatment, paper manufacturing and petroleum
refining. This gas is responsible for the unpleasant ‘rotten
egg’ smell and can be detected by people at concentrations
as low as one part per billion.
Ensuring complete cleansing of this gas is extremely
important as the smell can lower quality of life as well as
being damaging to vegetation and highly corrosive. Researchers
at the University of La Coruña, Spain, have developed
a method to remove hydrogen sulphide using a biotrickling
filter. This combines both inorganic longevity with excellent
biological removal of the gas. A filter of plastic rings with
a very high surface area has hydrogen sulphide degrading bacteria
trickled onto it from above, and as the gas rises it is degraded
by the bacteria. Degradation rates of up to 100% were achieved,
making this an excellent technology for treatment of waste
gases.
Autotrophic deodorisation of hydrogen sulfide
in a biotrickling filter, Yaomin Jin, María C Veiga,
Christian Kennes, Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology,
DOI: 10.1002/jctb.1275 (Available on EarlyView)
Beating egg fraud
It is illegal to misrepresent goods sold and this applies
to selling battery eggs as barn or free-range. Scientists
working in the UK and Australia have now found a quick, cheap
and effective way to screen eggs to check their origins.
When an egg is laid it picks up fluorescent
dust from whatever surface it is laid onto. Under UV light
this dust can be visualised and the pattern of the surface
it was laid onto is visible. Eggs laid in battery cages could
be distinguished from those laid in barn or free range conditions
due to the lines on the eggs. Eggs laid in battery cages tended
to have fine white parallel lines, whereas barn or free range
did not.
The test’s effectiveness is, however, reduced
when eggs are washed. As eggs in Europe remain unwashed it
could be used at both the packaging stage and in retail outlets
(see page 6).
Method for checking label accuracy in barn
and free range eggs, Neville G Gregory, Mark J Gepp, Peter
J Babidge, Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture,
DOI: 10.1002/jsfa.2152 (Available on EarlyView)
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