Environmental certification: a scientific tool for sustainability. Evaluation of possible indicators for the environmental performance evaluation (EPE) of Ravenna province (Italy)

Environmental certification is becoming the main tool for application of sustainable development principles. The European Regulation Emas and the international standard ISO 14001 both require for certification, to perform an environmental management system to prevent environmental impacts and to continuously improve environmental performance. For a good environmental performance evaluation (EPE), certification needs to use scientific methodologies and to interface with scientific research; here we proposed emergy analysis as a valid method for EPE and emergetic environmental performance and condition indicators (EPIs, ECIs) to monitor a territorial system: Ravenna province (Italy). Together with emergy indicators were selected other indicators for a deeper EPE: emitted/adsorbed CO2, energy consumptions, air and water pollution measures. The paper showed that Ravenna system has a good environmental performance and demonstrated how different indicators from the most advanced chemical research (chemical-physical, analytical, etc.) contribute to a complete EPE of a complex territorial system and are useful for environmental certification and sustainable development.     

ISO 9001 has had no effect on quality in the in vitro medical diagnostics industry

ISO 9001 certification (currently ISO 9000:2000) implies that an organization is managed in a quality manner. ISO certification is primarily achieved by audits that show that a company follows its own procedures. These procedures are prepared by the company with few ISO requirements. ISO procedures are flawed in two ways: they can represent only part of what an organization does within a process, and they often lack sufficient detail. The latter limitation allows both adequate and inadequate tasks. Often, people pay attention to ISO only when audits are imminent, which contrasts with other quality initiatives that have goals directly related to quality with frequent measurements and continual involvement by staff. There does not appear to be any connection between company successes or failures and ISO certification, and failing an ISO audit is a rare event. All of this leads one to conclude that ISO 9001 has had no effect on quality. In addition, there is a danger that flexible or so-called horizontal ISO standards that lack detail will supplant more traditional standards, which prescribe a procedure that has been agreed to by a consensus of experts. Improving ISO 9001 starts with recognizing its limitations. Recommendations regarding ISO certification include: dropping it, minimizing resource allocation to it, and trying to change it.     

Exergy analysis on eco-industrial systems

1 Introduction Ecological industry is to realize the harmony de- velopment between economy and environment by planning industrial systems according to material cy- cle in the natural ecological system. It got grown rap- idly both in theories and practices since the 1990s[1,2]. Many countries including China have applied indus- trial ecology to industrial practices. It is deeply recog- nized that developing ecological industry and advanc- ing on a new industrialization mode is an important way…     

Pesticide analysis in ground water. Statistical evaluation of certification data of a multicomponent reference material

21 laboratories participated in the certification of a multicomponent ampouled reference material containing 24 pesticides. This paper describes the statistical analysis of the unbalanced data set returned by the participants in the certification. The simplest method of certification is achieved when laboratories report all the required data. In practice, however, with complex analytical methods such as multicomponent analyses of organic compounds, laboratories are not able to report all the required data. The response for each determinand in the material has been modelled in a three-factor nested model. For computational comfort the model has been rephrased into a general linear model. The statistical problems with unbalanced data are discussed in relation to ISO 5725 and ISO Guide 35. Tests for homogeneity are exact and uninfluenced by the unbalance in data. Unbalanced data cause dependencies between mean squares above the second lowest level of the model, thus exact hypothesis testing is not possible at higher levels. Approximate tests for variation between rounds and laboratories has been constructed by means of Satterthwaite’s formula [1]. A graphical plot of deviances from certified values has been applied to illustrate laboratory performance.     

Emergy Based Analysis of Italian Electricity Production System

The continuously increasing demand for electric power together with the demand of environmental friendly technologies require a deep acknowledgement of the directions to give to electric power production in order to satisfy both necessities. The aim of this work is to evaluate the sustainability of Italian electric system by using the emergy function, a methodology developed in the early80s by Odum, and its correlated indices. Emergy is a thermodynamic based function that calculates all the fluxes of energy requested to obtain a product going backward to the solar energy invested. We analyzed all the inputs concurring to the yield of electricity taking into account not only the final phases of the production but also all the sources and materials that had been necessary for the system to operate. We have performed a wide analysis of all the different types of production focusing on thermoelectric sector. We have obtained not only a thermodynamic analysis of electricity production but also an evaluation of the sustainability of the entire process and a scenario for a correct exploitation of resources. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Pesticide analysis in ground water. Statistical evaluation of certification data of a multicomponent reference material

21 laboratories participated in the certification of a multicomponent ampouled reference material containing 24 pesticides. This paper describes the statistical analysis of the unbalanced data set returned by the participants in the certification. The simplest method of certification is achieved when laboratories report all the required data. In practice, however, with complex analytical methods such as multicomponent analyses of organic compounds, laboratories are not able to report all the required data. The response for each determinand in the material has been modelled in a three-factor nested model. For computational comfort the model has been rephrased into a general linear model. The statistical problems with unbalanced data are discussed in relation to ISO 5725 and ISO Guide 35. Tests for homogeneity are exact and uninfluenced by the unbalance in data. Unbalanced data cause dependencies between mean squares above the second lowest level of the model, thus exact hypothesis testing is not possible at higher levels. Approximate tests for variation between rounds and laboratories has been constructed by means of Satterthwaite’s formula [1]. A graphical plot of deviances from certified values has been applied to illustrate laboratory performance. Received: 25 May 1997 / Revised: 6 December 1997 / Accepted: 15 January 1998     

Implementation of ISO 9001 in a medical testing laboratory

 The Department of Clinical Chemistry and Molecular Genetics, within the Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research at Westmead Hospital, is a medical testing laboratory operating within the public sector health system of New South Wales, Australia. It provides acute-care pathology services to Westmead Hospital (a 900-bed tertiary referral university teaching hospital) as well as to three district hospitals and three rural hospitals. In addition to these core clinical chemistry services, it offers approximately 150 specialised biochemistry, pharmacology, toxicology, trace metal and molecular genetics assays as a reference laboratory service. In 1993, the Department became Australia's first medical testing laboratory to be registered to ISO 9001-1987/AS3901-1987. In 1995, this certification was extended to AS/NZS ISO 9001-1994. We are currently preparing for further accreditation to ISO/IEC Guide 25-1990, with additional supplementary requirements for medical testing. This paper describes the Quality System that the Department developed and which has been successfully maintained and extended since original certification. Important features of the Quality System are: 1. Primary design of the Quality System to meet medical and customer needs, with subsequent addition of required ISO elements. 2. Use of national Quality Award criteria to identify key business processes. 3. Development of integrated technical non-conformance, customer complaint, staff suggestion, and quality system corrective action procedures. 4. Implementation without external resources. Our conclusions are that ISO 9000 Quality Systems can be applied to medical testing laboratories, and can be implemented with minimum resource costs. Improvements in technical and service quality and business performance have resulted from this process. However, implementation of ISO 9000 at the level of individual Departments is not ideal. Greater improvements are possible when this process is undertaken at the level of the entire organisation. Received: 9 September 1996 Accepted: 5 October 1996     

Certified reference materials to support a European thematic strategy for soil protection: the EUROSOILS (IRMM-443) experience

The recent proposal of thematic strategy for soil protection by the European Commission outlines that knowledge of problems associated with soil has increased considerably based on surveys, monitoring systems and data networks. Although this information is very useful, its value for the policy-making process is limited due to a lack of comparability. From this unsatisfying situation the need arises to develop an EU-wide monitoring system accompanied by suitable matrix reference materials. Experiences gained from the development and certification of IRMM-443 (The EUROSOILS) show how to approach the complex problem of providing suitable (i.e. representative) soil CRMs for the arising analytical needs to support existing and upcoming EU legislation.This paper presents briefly the quantitative findings of a certification exercise (adsorption coefficients for atrazine, lindane and 2,4-D, as well as pH in suspension). A comparison of these results with those of an intercomparison exercise organised in 1989 by the German UBA on very similar soils shows the significant improvement in the determination of soil adsorption coefficients that was induced by the EUROSOIL project. Indicative values of total and organic carbon content and nitrogen according to ISO Standards are also presented.Furthermore, the idea of reference soils and derived reference materials (for analytical purposes) as well as reference matrices (substrates for ecotoxicological testing) is highlighted and set into the context of horizontal standardisation of methods.     

Sterilization validation for medical compresses at IRASM multipurpose irradiation facility

In Romania, IRASM Radiation Processing Center is the unique supplier of radiation sterilization services—industrial scale (ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 13485:2003 certified). Its Laboratory of Microbiological Testing is the sole third party competent laboratory (GLPractice License, ISO 17025 certification in progress) for pharmaceutics and medical devices as well.We here refer to medical compresses as a distinct category of sterile products, made from different kind of hydrophilic materials (cotton, non-woven, polyurethane foam) with or without an impregnated ointment base (paraffin, plant extracts). These products are included in the class of medical devices, but for the sterilization validation, from microbiological point of view, there are important differences in testing method compared to the common medical devices (syringes, catheters, etc).In this paper, we present some results and practical solutions chosen to perform a sterilization validation, compliant with ISO 11137: 2006.     

抗硫性芳烃加氢催化剂研究进展

因环保立法限制,芳烃加氢日益受到重视.本文简述了芳烃加氢的热力学及动力学行为,归纳总结了不同的抗硫性芳烃加氢催化剂类型及其加氢机理.鉴于硫中毒对过渡金属催化剂性质的复杂影响,对过渡金属催化剂的硫中毒做了较为详尽的阐述.     

A programme to improve the quality of butyltin determinations in environmental matrices

One of the major prerequisites for the certification of various analytes in different Certified Reference Materials (CRMs) is that the analytical methods used are of verified performance and, hence, that no systematic errors have been left undetected. In the case of difficult measurements, research and feasibility studies are often necessary to ensure that the methods are operating under good quality control. The EC Standards Measurements and Testing Programme (SMT, formerly BCR) usually follows a step-by-step approach which consists in series of interlaboratory studies to assess and improve the quality of measurements prior to certification by comparing different analytical techniques. A programme following such stepwise approach has started in 1987 with the aim of improving the quality of butyltin determinations in environmental matrices. The project involved ca. 20 laboratories from different Member States of the European Union. The first interlaboratory study dealt with simple solutions containing mixtures of organotin compounds and a second exercise focused on the analysis of a tributyltin-spiked sediment. These exercises were continued by two certifications on butyltins in sediment, the first of which could not be successfully concluded owing to the high spread of results observed between the results of different techniques. The second certification allowed a CRM certified for its contents of di- and tributyltin (CRM 462) to be produced. This programme on Sn speciation is now focusing on the certification of butyltin and phenyltin compounds in candidate CRMs of mussel and sediment. This paper gives an account of the step-by-step approach followed and presents the results of the two certification exercises carried out so far. The preparation of the mussel candidate CRM is also described.     

Quality management, certification and accreditation in medical laboratories – the view of ECLM

 Increasing demands from health care planners and industrialists conducting clinical trials, as well as general competition, are forcing medical laboratories to seek third-party recognition of their quality management systems. There is a tendency to move from certification of a laboratory director, via certification of the laboratory quality system (ISO 9000 family), to accreditation needing proof of professional and technical competence in laboratory tasks. The requirements of accreditation are presented in several national schemes and in the European Standards series (EN 45 000) and the International Organization for Standardization's guide, ISO/IEC 25, to be amalgamated soon. The latter system provides transnational recognition through participation of the accrediting bodies in the European co-operation for Accreditation. Necessary supplementary guidelines exist for chemical laboratories (Eurachem) and medical laboratories CEAC/ECLM). Traceability and reliability of results are obtained by utilizing a global reference examination system and by participating in transdisciplinary work. The costs of achieving accreditation are considerable and mainly involve the production of quality handbooks and written work procedures by personnel. The rewards are an open system, smoother work, emphasis on prevention of mistakes, and satisfied stakeholders. Received: 5 October 1998 · Accepted: 20 October 1998     

Thermo-economic optimization of a hybrid photovoltaic and thermoelectric power generator using overall performance index

A thermo-economic assessment of a hybrid concentrated photovoltaic–thermoelectric power generator (CPV–TEG) is performed based on the first law of thermodynamics and principles of costing. This study aims at estimating the optimum water-cooled CPV–TEG design parameters that yield the maximum overall performance. The influence of key parameters (such as direct normal irradiance (DNI), geometric concentration, thermoelectric figure of merit, temperature ratio of thermoelectric junction and heat sink thermal resistance) and their significance on the performance and cost of the system is examined. A performance measure known as the overall performance index (OPI) is used to evaluate the optimum design of the CPV–TEG system operating within the limits of allowable cell temperatures. OPI can incorporate several performance indicators that are crucial for performance estimation of a hybrid system by using a mass coefficient for each indicator based on its priority in the overall system performance. OPI accounts for three performance indicators of the CPV–TEG system, namely: energy efficiency, cost of the solar receiver (COSR) and levelized cost of energy (LCOE). The variation of the OPI provides an indication of the performance of the hybrid system under different design parameters and the selection of the appropriate design of the system to be at a point where the OPI is a maximum. Two scenarios are considered such that different mass coefficients are assigned to the performance indicators when evaluating the system performance. In the first scenario (performance case), energy efficiency is given the highest priority while for the second scenario (economic case), the cost of the solar receiver (CPV–TEG system) is given more emphasis. Optimization is performed for the water-cooled CPV–TEG design such that the PV temperature is kept below the maximum allowable cell temperature of 100 °C. LCOE of 0.0392 $ kWh^?1 was obtained with an optimum OPI of 94.7% for the economic case.

     

Efficiency of alchemical free energy simulations. I. A practical comparison of the exponential formula, thermodynamic integration, and Bennett's acceptance ratio method

We investigate the relative efficiency of thermodynamic integration, three variants of the exponential formula, also referred to as thermodynamic perturbation, and Bennett's acceptance ratio method to compute relative and absolute solvation free energy differences. Our primary goal is the development of efficient protocols that are robust in practice. We focus on minimizing the number of unphysical intermediate states (λ-states) required for the computation of accurate and precise free energy differences. Several indicators are presented which help decide when additional λ-states are necessary. In all tests Bennett's acceptance ratio method required the least number of λ-states, closely followed by the "double-wide" variant of the exponential formula. Use of the exponential formula in only strict "forward" or "backward" mode was not found to be competitive. Similarly, the performance of thermodynamic integration in terms of efficiency was rather poor. We show that this is caused by the use of the trapezoidal rule as method of numerical quadrature. A systematic study focusing on the optimization of thermodynamic integration is presented in a companion paper.     

Mechanochemical Synthesis of Catalytic Materials

The mechanochemical synthesis of nanomaterials for catalytic applications is a growing research field due to its simplicity, scalability, and eco-friendliness. Besides, it provides materials with distinct features, such as nanocrystallinity, high defect concentration, and close interaction of the components in a system, which are, in most cases, unattainable by conventional routes. Consequently, this research field has recently become highly popular, particularly for the preparation of catalytic materials for various applications, ranging from chemical production over energy conversion catalysis to environmental protection. In this Review, recent studies on mechanochemistry for the synthesis of catalytic materials are discussed. Emphasis is placed on the straightforwardness of the mechanochemical route—in contrast to more conventional synthesis—in fabricating the materials, which otherwise often require harsh conditions. Distinct material properties achieved by mechanochemistry are related to their improved catalytic performance.     

Development and characterization of transparent waterborne polyurethane acrylate/fullerenols thin-film nanocomposite as thermal-insulating coating

Thermal-insulating coating can lower the energy consumption and cooling costs, which caters to the tendency of environmental protection and energy conservation. Transparent waterborne polyurethane acrylate thin-film nanocomposite was developed by incorporating the fullerenol C₆₀(OH)₁₂(ONa)₂ into the system using ultrasonic dispersion. The thin-film nanocomposite was then synthesized by ultraviolet radiation curing and chemical crosslinking, and its morphology and chemical structures were characterized. Thermogravimetric analysis and differential thermal gravity were used to evaluate the thermal stability. The surface and mechanical properties were tested by the pendulum hardness and MEK resistance. The optical and thermal-insulating properties were assessed by the ultravioletvisible-near infrared spectrophotometer and indoor environmental simulation experiment. The thermal-insulating measurements showed that the glass coated thin-film nanocomposite possessed better thermal-insulation effect than empty glass.     

Thermodynamic perturbation theory of simple liquids. A hierarchy of equations for expansion coefficients

The properties of an expansion of the statistical sum of a simple liquid with respect to the potential in thermodynamic perturbation theory are analyzed. The coefficients of this expansion are determined by the unperturbed potential, depend on temperature and density, and can be calculated by means of mathematical modeling. It is shown here that the derivatives of these coefficients with respect to temperature and density are expressed through the higher expansion coefficient (these relations are usually called a hierarchy of equations). These coefficients determine the expansion of the Helmholtz free energy and RDF with respect to the perturbation potential. The thermodynamic characteristics of the system (entropy, internal energy, pressure) are expressed through both the differential relations for the Helmholtz free energy and the integral expressions containing RDF. It is found that the hierarchy of equations obtained in this work makes these different methods equivalent. This is important for the application of thermodynamic perturbation theory because it becomes unnecessary to model any other equilibrium properties of the system apart from the expansion coefficients.     

Quality system implementation in Member States of the IAEA

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), through its Technical Co-operation Programme, has supported the establishment of many nuclear analytical and complementary laboratories in Member States. This included the development of capabilities for the use of various nuclear analytical techniques that include alpha, beta, and gamma spectrometry; radiochemical analysis; neutron activation analysis; energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis; and total reflection X-ray fluorescence. As economic, ecological, medical, and legal decisions are frequently based on laboratory results, they need to be based on accepted national and international standards.The IAEA has taken up this important issue to enhance and foster the competitiveness of nuclear analytical laboratories with the consideration that non-nuclear capabilities are equally important. The projects aim at enhanced quality awareness, a concise system for documentation, establishment of standard operating procedures, procedures for validation of methods, surveillance of method performance, systems for sample management, regular qualification of personnel, client liaison and safety. These projects follow the ISO/IEC 17025 standard and promote participating laboratories to maintain a self-sufficient quality system by which they might be able to obtain national accreditation.This contribution describes the general concept of these projects and discusses some of the results achieved.     

Biodegradability of polylactide bottles in real and simulated composting conditions

As new biodegradable polymers and their packaging applications are emerging, there is a need to address their environmental performance. In particular, there is a need to understand the time required for their complete disintegration, before these materials are deployed in commercial composting processes. Standards developed by ASTM and ISO evaluate the biodegradation of biodegradable plastic materials in simulated controlled composting conditions. However, a more detailed understanding of the biodegradation of complete packages is needed in order to have a successful composting operation. This paper investigates the biodegradation performance of polylactide (PLA) bottles under simulated composting conditions according to ASTM and ISO standards, and these results are compared with a novel method of evaluating package biodegradation in real composting conditions. Two simulated composting methods were used in this study to assess biodegradability of PLA bottles: (a) a cumulative measurement respirometric (CMR) system and (b) a gravimetric measurement respirometric (GMR) system. Both CMR and GMR systems showed similar trends of biodegradation for PLA bottles and at the end of the 58th day the mineralization was 84.2±0.9% and 77.8±10.4%, respectively. PLA bottle biodegradation in real composting conditions was correlated to their breakdown and variation in molecular weight. Molecular weight of 4100 Da was obtained for PLA bottles in real composting conditions on the 30th day. The biodegradation observed for PLA bottles in both conditions explored in this study matches well with theoretical degradation and biodegradation mechanisms; however, biodegradation variability exists in both conditions and is discussed in this paper.     

Feasibility studies for the preparation and certification of reference materials Part II: mineral oil contaminated waste materials

The 2-year international joint project HYCREF (Contract-No. G6RD-CT-2002-00854), funded by the European Commission in the 5th Framework programme, aimed to develop methods to prepare homogenous and stable water-, soil- and waste reference materials contaminated with mineral oil hydrocarbons and to test certify the mineral oil content by gas chromatographic methods. As mineral oil products are important sources for environmental contaminations, appropriate reference materials certified by using the new gas chromatographic methods (soil: ISO/FDIS 16703, waste: prEN 14039 and KW/04, water: ISO 9377-2) are highly needed. Additional to the HYCREF-results presented in part I–mineral contaminated soils–this second paper gives an overview of the feasibility study for the preparation and test certification of three waste reference materials (offshore marine sediment, building material and industrial waste). The following specifications, which had been defined in the project work plan, were reached successfully: uncertainty of the mineral oil content resulting from the certification exercise ≤5% and a between-bottle inhomogeneity of ≤3%. All three materials have been evaluated for long- and short term stability. They contain different levels and types of mineral oil and cover the full application range of ISO/FDIS 16703 and prEN 14039 (100–10,000 mg/kg). The expanded uncertainties U _cert of the three materials are about 6%. In this way, they are comparable to ERM^®-CC015a (U _cert=7.1%, mineral oil in a river sediment) and are suited to close the present gap of commercially available CRM for mineral oil determination in waste.