Different cyanogenic bacterial strains (Chromobacterium violaceum, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Bacillus megaterium) were cultivated under cyanide-forming conditions in the presence of metal-containing solids such as nickel powder or electronic scrap. All microorganisms were able to form water-soluble metal cyanides, however, with different efficiencies. C. violaceum was able to mobilize nickel as ...

Nuclear energy is among the most viable alternatives to our current fossil fuel-based energy economy. The mass deployment of nuclear energy as a low-emissions source requires the reprocessing of used nuclear fuel to recover fissile materials and mitigate radioactive waste. A major concern with reprocessing used nuclear fuel is the release of volatile radionuclides such as xenon and krypton that...

This paper focuses on one aspect of occupational dioxin exposure that is novel and unexpected. Exposures in excess of the German threshold limit value of 50 pg international toxicity equivalent (I-TEQ)/m3 are very frequent, unpredictable, and sometimes very high--up to 6612 pg I-TEQ/m3--during thermal oxygen cutting at scrap metal and demolition sites. The same procedure involving virgin steel ...

The production of aluminum billetsdstarting from the conversion of bauxite to alumina, the processing of alumina to aluminum, and the final cast productdis studied using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. The aluminum supply chain consists of a refinery, a smelter, and a casting plant. In the LCA model, the environmental loads of four different case scenarios were investigated. The scenari...

There are important economic and environmental incentives to recycling. Unfortunately, secondary aluminum frequently contains undesirable impurity elements. These limit the amount of material that can be recovered, since usual practice has been meet alloy specifications by dilution (that is, blending with primary metal). In 2019, China curtailed importation scrap metal, which changed market in ...

o We further analyse a sub-set of commodity-related goods jewellery, fuel and metals. These goods offer a clean quasi-experimental setting to look at the effects of a pure change in price on criminal activity. Specifically, they are homogenous in their quality and supported by efficient resale markets (for example, the scrap metal recycling industry). Price changes for these goods are also exog...

An important problem in metallurgy of iron and steel is management of hydrated, fine-grained, iron-bearing waste which can be formed as a result of gas scrubbing. The article presents a model of application of converter slurry in a closed-circuit flow system. The correct preparation of slag, namely briquetting with defined additives, allows for application of such slag in the steel-making proce...