Article
Ecology
Thiago Fernandes Barbosa, Luis Reis, Jorge Raposo, Domingos Xavier Viegas
Summary: Wildland fires are common around the world, especially in the European-Mediterranean region, USA, and Australia. Climate changes have led to increased frequency and intensity of these fires, particularly in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) areas. A protective device for LPG cylinders made of a thin fabric with an aluminum coating was tested and shown to effectively protect the cylinders from fire, preventing extreme events such as explosions.
Review
Environmental Sciences
Rafik Ghali, Moulay A. Akhloufi
Summary: In recent years, there has been a rise in wildland fires worldwide due to various factors. Climate change is expected to be the main driver for the increasing number of these fires in the coming years. The development of remote fire detection systems based on deep learning models and vision transformers shows promising solutions for addressing this issue. However, there is a lack of published studies on the implementation of deep learning models for wildland fire classification, detection, and segmentation tasks. This paper provides a comprehensive review and analysis of these vision methods and their performances, highlighting the superiority of deep learning approaches over traditional machine learning methods and discussing the research gaps and future directions in this field.
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Talal Alshehri, Jingjing Wang, Sheryl A. Singerling, Julien Gigault, Jackson P. Webster, Sandrine J. Matiasek, Charles N. Alpers, Mohammed Baalousha
Summary: This study investigated the concentrations and nature of incidental nanomaterials (INMs) in wildfire ashes collected after the 2020 fire season in northern California. The concentrations of metals and metalloids were higher in structural/vehicle-derived ashes compared to vegetation-derived ashes and soils. The study identified various carbonaceous INMs and metal-bearing INMs in the form of nanoparticles in the ashes, highlighting the importance of further research on their formation, transformation, reactivity, fate, and effects.
JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Gian Luca Spadoni, Jose V. Moris, Giorgio Vacchiano, Mario Elia, Matteo Garbarino, Emanuele Sibona, Antonio Tomao, Anna Barbati, Lorenzo Sallustio, Luca Salvati, Carlotta Ferrara, Saverio Francini, Enrico Bonis, Ilaria Dalla Vecchia, Andrea Strollo, Marco Di Leginio, Michele Munafo, Gherardo Chirici, Raoul Romano, Piermaria Corona, Marco Marchetti, Antonio Brunori, Renzo Motta, Davide Ascoli
Summary: This study examined the impact of active land planning and management on wildfires in Italy and found that territories with more active land governance experienced lower wildfire impacts, even under severe climate and flammability conditions. These findings support current strategies aimed at creating fire-resistant and resilient landscapes through agroforestry, rural development, and nature conservation.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Thermodynamics
Mingyan Wang, Jiyun Wang, Xiaoyang Yu, Ruowen Zong
Summary: In this study, a fire test was conducted on an 80 L fuel tank filled with diesel to a certain capacity, and a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was developed to predict the pressurization rate and temperature distributions in the tank. The results showed that the temperature stratification diminished with increasing filling level and the liquid phase was isothermal due to convection. The high filling level slowed down the pressurization of the fuel tank. The combined experimental and numerical analysis provides valuable guidance for the design of thermal protection systems and fire risk management of fuel tank explosions.
APPLIED THERMAL ENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Giordano Emrys Scarponi, Gabriele Landucci, Albrecht Michael Birk, Valerio Cozzani
Summary: Accurate and robust models for predicting pressurized tanks' behavior under fire exposure are essential for enhancing fire protection system design. A CFD modeling approach validated against full engulfing pool fire tests was used to simulate partial engulfment conditions, showing good agreement with experimental measurements. The results obtained are valuable for supporting risk management, emergency response planning, and improving fire protection system design.
PROCESS SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
(2021)
Article
Forestry
Thiago Fernandes Barbosa, Luis Reis, Jorge Raposo, Tiago Rodrigues, Domingos Xavier Viegas
Summary: This study evaluates the pressure relief device (PRD), cylinder type, and the effects of jet fires and BLEVEs. Through fire tests and hydrostatic tests on LPG cylinders made of steel and composite materials, the importance of PRD and proper cylinder selection and location in avoiding major accidents is revealed. The study also describes jet fires, fireball radiation, and the maximum distance reached by cylinder fragments. Recommendations to prevent accidents are provided.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF WILDLAND FIRE
(2023)
Review
Forestry
Felipe Vasquez, Ania Cravero, Manuel Castro, Patricio Acevedo
Summary: Wildfires pose significant environmental and economic challenges, necessitating the selection of appropriate technologies and decision support systems. Research shows that using different types of DSS can solve problems related to wildfire detection, prediction, prevention, and monitoring, but there are still many challenges to be addressed in real-world applications.
Editorial Material
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Matthew R. Auer
Summary: Climate change, demographic shifts, and insurance issues are leading to an expansion of high-intensity wildfire risk areas in the United States, increasing the burden on property owners living in these regions. Polycentric governance institutions can help make wildfire mitigation more equitable and ensure responsibility for fireproofing is shared.
SUSTAINABILITY SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Natalia Flores Quiroz, Lesley Gibson, Willem Stefaan Conradie, Patrick Ryan, Ryan Heydenrych, Ashton Moran, Armandt van Straten, Richard Walls
Summary: This study analyzes the fire spread mechanisms, firebreak efficiency, the influence of roof and wall types, vegetation, and weather conditions of the 2017 Knysna fires in South Africa. It found that the combination of severe medium-term drought and extreme fire weather conditions led to the destruction of homes up to 1 km inside the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI). The presence of dense, highly flammable alien invasive vegetation contributed to the spread of the fire.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DISASTER RISK REDUCTION
(2023)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Arash Modaresi Rad, John T. Abatzoglou, Jason Kreitler, Mohammad Reza Alizadeh, Amir AghaKouchak, Nicholas Hudyma, Nicholas J. Nauslar, Mojtaba Sadegh
Summary: Exposure to wildfires is increasing across the US, posing risks to both population and critical infrastructure. From 2000 to 2019, 594,850 people resided within the perimeters of large wildfires, with a significant increase in primary population exposure. Additionally, roads and transmission powerlines are also widely exposed to wildfires, with a notable increase over the past two decades.
NATURE SUSTAINABILITY
(2023)
Article
Thermodynamics
Piotr Dzierwa, Jan Taler, Patryk Peret, Dawid Taler, Marcin Trojan
Summary: This paper presents the characteristics of heat accumulation system operation in a Polish combined heat and power plant, utilizing cogeneration units and a non-pressure hot water accumulator. Numerical analysis and CFD simulations were conducted to study the charging process of the heat accumulator, analyzing the impact of mesh density on the results obtained and considering heat losses from the hot water tank.
Review
Forestry
Jerrold E. Winandy, Felix Wiesner, Babar Hassan, Jeffrey J. Morrell
Summary: Wood is considered more environmentally sustainable due to its low embodied energy, workability, and renewability, but it is prone to biological degradation and fire. Effective designs and treatments are used to address biodegradation, while fire resistive coatings or impregnation with fire retardants are explored to improve fire performance in timber construction.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Longzhong Shi, Bo Chen, Xuan Chen, Zhuo Chen
Summary: This article investigates the impact of wildfires on property values in the wildland-urban intermix (WUIM) and wildland-urban interface (WUIF) in Colorado. The study finds significant differences in the effects of wildfires on property values between WUIM and WUIF. Larger fires depreciate property values in WUIM, but increase property values in WUIF. Additionally, both small and large fires have a negative impact on property values in both WUIM and WUIF.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Miranda H. Mockrin, Dexter H. Locke, Alexandra D. Syphard, Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne
Summary: There is growing concern about the increasing size, frequency, and destructiveness of wildfires. Creating and maintaining defensible space around buildings is a commonly used strategy to mitigate the impact of wildfires. However, this study suggests that building materials and environmental context are more important factors for building survival than vegetation around buildings.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Industrial
Pascale Vacca, Eulalia Planas, Christian Mata, Juan Antonio Munoz, Frederic Heymes, Elsa Pastor
Summary: The combustion of artificial fuels at Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) homeowner scale is a significant contributor to fire spread through a property, posing major safety issues at the community level. Real-scale burning tests were conducted to gather quantitative data on these fuels and evaluate vulnerabilities of WUI properties through Performance-Based Design methodologies, with results indicating that certain fuel packs are more hazardous than others.
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Mariasole Cipolletta, Marco D'Ambrosio, Valeria Casson Moreno, Valerio Cozzani
Summary: This study proposes an inherent safety methodology for assessing the safety performance of biodiesel production processes and selecting the safest and most sustainable design option. Comparative assessment of major biodiesel production technologies enhances the understanding of safety-critical aspects of novel processes.
JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Industrial
Lorenzo Rossi, Valeria Casson Moreno, Gabriele Landucci
Summary: This study proposes a vulnerability model for process pipelines impacted by floods in industrial areas, and applies it to an industrial case-study to assess the failure probability of pipelines during flooding scenarios.
RELIABILITY ENGINEERING & SYSTEM SAFETY
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Dina Guglielmi, Alessio Paolucci, Valerio Cozzani, Marco Giovanni Mariani, Luca Pietrantoni, Federico Fraboni
Summary: Human reliability analysis is a major concern for organizations, but existing methods often neglect the impact of human factors. This study introduces a new evaluation method that treats human factors as safety barriers against errors. A test case demonstrates the significant role of human factors in reducing error probability.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Industrial
Xiaoxue Guo, Long Ding, Jie Ji, Valerio Cozzani
Summary: The allocation strategy of safety measures in the domino effect is often subjective and uncertain. This study proposes a cost-effective risk reduction optimization model that relates risk to economic cost through mathematical functions, enabling objective allocation of safety investment.
RELIABILITY ENGINEERING & SYSTEM SAFETY
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Marco Bellegoni, Federica Ovidi, Leonardo Tempesti, Alessandro Mariotti, Leonardo Tognotti, Gabriele Landucci, Chiara Galletti
Summary: This study develops a methodology to support the selection and positioning of hazardous gas detectors in complex industrial layouts. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are used to quantify the extension of hazardous gas clouds. The methodology uses a twofold algorithm to determine the optimal sensor positions and the most cost-effective number of sensors.
JOURNAL OF LOSS PREVENTION IN THE PROCESS INDUSTRIES
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Industrial
Valeria Casson Moreno, Giulia Marroni, Gabriele Landucci
Summary: In the past twenty years, physical security threats to chemical and process facilities have become increasingly relevant worldwide. However, there is currently no comprehensive approach in the literature to account for the effect of physical protection systems (PPSs) in conventional process safety analysis and their contribution to prevention and mitigation actions through safety barriers. This study aims to develop a probabilistic study dedicated to chemical and process facilities, taking into account the combined contribution of safety barriers and PPSs in preventing cascading events triggered by security attacks.
RELIABILITY ENGINEERING & SYSTEM SAFETY
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Marine
Giulia Marroni, Valeria Casson Moreno, Federica Ovidi, Tommaso Chiavistelli, Gabriele Landucci
Summary: This study focuses on developing a simplified methodology to assess the risks associated with LNG carriers and fueled ships in port areas, particularly identifying accident scenarios involving ship routes and vulnerable targets. The methodology verifies compliance with port regulations and the feasibility of ship courses, identifies reference accidental scenarios based on standard ship features, provides guidance for hazard identification, estimation of frequencies and consequences, and adopts a customized risk matrix for decision-making on prevention and mitigation measures. Applying this methodology to a real case study of an important Italian harbor demonstrates its capability in supporting land use planning.
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Francesco Zanobetti, Gianmaria Pio, Sepideh Jafarzadeh, Miguel Munoz Ortiz, Valerio Cozzani
Summary: The urgent need to reduce harmful pollutants in maritime transport led to the development of alternative propulsion systems based on clean fuels or carbon-neutral energy vectors. However, these alternative solutions present safety concerns. An innovative methodology was developed to assess the inherent safety performance of alternative systems during early design stages. A case study of long-distance maritime transportation was conducted comparing the inherent safety performances of LNG, LH2, and LNH3 systems to the benchmark MGO. Uncertainty and robustness of the safety ranking were tested using a Monte Carlo analysis, revealing similar safety performances for LNG technologies, limitations in LH2 safety due to immature storage technologies, and safety issues related to the toxicity of LNH3.
PROCESS SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
(2023)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Federica Ricci, Valeria Casson Moreno, Valerio Cozzani
Summary: Natech accidents are becoming more important due to their increasing occurrence and severe consequences, which are intensified by climate change and global warming. This study focuses on Natech accidents triggered by heat waves and analyzes past accidents to identify key factors and lessons learned for preventing and mitigating future incidents.
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Francesco Zanobetti, Sergey Martynov, Valerio Cozzani, Haroun Mahgerefteh
Summary: A methodology based on multi-objective optimization is proposed to support the preliminary design of CO2 transport pipelines for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) systems. The proposed method considers economic and environmental aspects and determines Pareto optimal design solutions using Level Diagrams and Nominal Pipe Size as a decision variable. The results show that the multi-objective method outperforms single-objective indicators and effectively considers environmental sustainability constraints, contributing to 46% of the overall performance measure.
JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Industrial
Alessio Misuri, Federica Ricci, Riccardo Sorichetti, Valerio Cozzani
Summary: The study proposes a novel methodology for the quantitative risk assessment of Natech scenarios caused by natural hazards, considering the depletion of safety barrier performance. A multi-level approach is used to assess the performance modification of safety systems, and an innovative procedure is proposed for the quantitative assessment of these scenarios, accounting for depleted barrier performance. A case study demonstrates a significant increase in risk compared to baseline performance, highlighting the importance of a comprehensive assessment for Natech events.
RELIABILITY ENGINEERING & SYSTEM SAFETY
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Alessandro Dal Pozzo, Sarah Capecci, Valerio Cozzani
Summary: Acid gas removal is a major cost driver in waste-to-energy (WtE) plants and complying with lower emission limit values is crucial. The options of intensification, retrofitting, or revamping must be evaluated to find the most cost-effective solution. The study found that retrofitting with furnace sorbent injection is competitive, while revamping to wet scrubbing is only cost-effective when flue gas temperature constraints are absent.
Article
Engineering, Industrial
Md. Tanjin Amin, Giordano Emrys Scarponi, Valerio Cozzani, Faisal Khan
Summary: This article examines the effectiveness and accuracy of threshold-based and probit-based methods in assessing domino effects. The results indicate that threshold-based methods are not suitable for quantitative assessment, and there are limitations in probit-based methods for time-dependent domino effect assessment. By utilizing site-specific structural response data and data analytics, a new improved time to failure prediction model is proposed, which demonstrates better performance compared to existing models.
RELIABILITY ENGINEERING & SYSTEM SAFETY
(2024)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Xingxing Hu, Lingjie Liu, Yanmeng Bi, Lu Li, Chunsheng Qiu, Jingjie Yu, Shaopo Wang
Summary: In this study, the impact of exogenous folate on the start-up process of single-stage partial nitritation-anammox (SPNA) was evaluated using two lab-scale reactors. The results showed that folate addition can enhance nitrogen removal rate, extracellular polymeric substances production, hydrazine oxidase and dehydrogenase activity, as well as the relative abundance of Candidatus Brocadia.
PROCESS SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
(2024)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Shaocang He, Tingting Shen, Jing Sun, Haoqi Pan, Chenxu Sun, Tianpeng Li, Runyao Li, Enshan Zhang
Summary: A novel process of acid leaching neutralization was developed for the preparation of inorganic polymeric composite ferric aluminum silicate coagulant (CFAS) using solid waste coal gasification coarse slag (CGCS). The optimized preparation process was determined through single-factor experiment and the performance of CFAS was evaluated for domestic sewage treatment. The results showed that CFAS exhibited excellent coagulation ability and achieved significant removal efficiency for turbidity, ammonia nitrogen, and chemical oxygen demand.
PROCESS SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
(2024)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Kinga Szatmari, Sandor Nemeth, Alex Kummer
Summary: In this article, a resilience-based reinforcement learning approach is proposed to address the potential thermal runaway issue in batch reactors. By calculating the resilience metric for reactors and utilizing Deep Q-learning to decide when to intervene in the system, resilient-based mitigation systems can be effectively developed.
PROCESS SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
(2024)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Bingyou Jiang, Qi Yao, Mingqing Su, Jingjing Li, Kunlun Lu, Dawei Ding, Han Hong
Summary: This study investigates the inhibitory characteristics and mechanisms of ABC powder on coal powder explosion. The addition of ABC powder significantly decreases the maximum explosion pressure and can completely suppress coal dust explosions. The study also reveals the thermal decomposition characteristics and reaction kinetics of the mixed system.
PROCESS SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
(2024)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Kubilay Bayramoglu, Mustafa Nuran
Summary: This study examines the feasibility of using pyrolytic oil from waste tires as fuel in diesel engines, and evaluates its energy, exergy, and sustainability. The results indicate that pyrolytic oil has potential as a renewable fuel source with relatively high thermal efficiency.
PROCESS SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
(2024)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Xinru Duan, Yejia Lv, Jiaxing Hong, Jianzhong Wu, Jia Zhang, Yang Yue, Guangren Qian
Summary: This study successfully prepared a tube reactor with optimized catalyst formula, which showed good performance in removing dioxins and other pollutants in the experiments.
PROCESS SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
(2024)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Jiaoyang Du, Xueming Dang, Xiaorong Gan, Xin Cui, Huimin Zhao
Summary: In this study, a photocatalyst-enzyme hybrid system was constructed, which solved the issue of enzyme inactivation caused by high concentration of H2O2 through photocatalytic in-situ H2O2 production, and improved the stability and catalytic efficiency of the enzyme. The effectiveness of the system in treating phenolic EDCs was confirmed through experiments.
PROCESS SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
(2024)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Fu-Rong Xiu, Longsheng Zhan, Yingying Qi, Xinyue Lei, Jiali Wang, Haipeng Zhou, Wenting Shao
Summary: This study developed a synergetic and high-efficiency treatment of waste tantalum capacitors (WTCs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) using subcritical water process. The treatment significantly reduced the temperature and reaction time for metal tantalum recovery from WTCs, and improved the dechlorination efficiency of PVC. The optimized conditions resulted in 100% resin conversion efficiency of WTCs and 97.39% dechlorination efficiency of PVC. The interaction between decomposition products of WTCs and PVC produced a high level of benzoic acid.
PROCESS SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
(2024)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Bingda Li, Jiaming Song, Yuting Li, Chaoying Meng, Shuxian Wang, Linghao Zong, Honggang Ye, Yishuai Jing, Feng Teng, Peng Hu, Haibo Fan, Guangde Chen, Xin Zhao
Summary: CdPS3 nanosheets, especially those exfoliated by sodium cholate, have shown highly efficient photocatalytic degradation performance. The strong dark adsorption and dye-sensitized photocatalytic properties of CdPS3 nanosheets contribute to high degradation efficiencies of various pollutants.
PROCESS SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
(2024)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Dongxu Ouyang, Yimei Pang, Bo Liu, Zhirong Wang
Summary: This study investigates the thermal runaway features of lithium-ion cells under tunnel conditions, considering different states of charge and tunnel ceilings. The results show that the tunnel visibility is affected by the smoke generated during thermal runaway, and the shape of the tunnel ceiling influences the temperature rise differently.
PROCESS SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
(2024)
