Abstract

Motivation: Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are known to be unable to completely remove antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) and antimicrobial-resistant bacteria (ARBs). This causes the contamination of freshwater environments with ARGs and ARBs. Most surveillance efforts to monitor antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in wastewater treatment plants currently occurs at the scale of single treatment plants. However, global surveillance of AMR in different WWTPs is crucial to develop a better understanding of the global WWTP resistome. Culture-independent metagenomics approaches are increasingly being used to monitor AMR in the environment, especially in wastewater. This study leverages publicly available metagenomes of WWTP influent and effluent to compare the impact of WWTPs on microbial diversity of resistant pathogens and distributions of ARGs and ARBs globally.

Results: A similar distribution and frequency of resistant pathogens and ARGs in global influent and effluent was found. ARGs conferring resistance to clinically crucial drug classes were also found in high frequencies in global WWTP influent and effluent. 

1. Introduction

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major environmental and public health concern [1]. AMR occurs when microorganisms change in ways which cause them to withstand antimicrobial drugs, rendering them ineffective, due to environmental pressure. It has been estimated that by 2050, AMR could cause more than 10 million deaths per year [1, 2], causing more loss of life than cancer, diabetes, and diarrheal disease [1]. Furthermore, AMR is an environmental threat as it has been shown to reduce the diversity and abundance of microbial communities in soil that contribute to ecosystem balance [3] and increase morbidity and mortality rates in animals [4]. 

AMR is mediated by factors such as the overuse of antimicrobials, mutations, mobile genetic elements, and horizontal gene transfer [5 – 7], which are spread through the environment in wastewater, soil, manure applications, and direct exchange between humans and animals [8]. Aquatic environments have been identified as crucial transmission routes for AMR [9]. Globally, antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARBs) and antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) enter waterways through effluents from hospitals, agriculture, aquaculture, and pharmaceutical activity [10 – 15]. Antibiotics residues (AR), ARBs, and ARGs are now starting to be recognized as a new category of water contaminants due to their adverse effects on aquatic ecosystems, the environment, and human health [12, 26].

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are known to be unable to completely remove antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) [12-14] and can contaminate freshwater environments [10, 12]. Currently, the surveillance of AMR in the environment continues to lag behind other efforts to curtail AMR [16]. Though studies have been conducted to monitor AMR dissemination by particular WWTPs [17-20], the current research does not focus on global monitoring of AMR in WWTPs [21]. Global monitoring of AMR dissemination by WWTPs is crucial to understanding AMR in the environment and tackling it using an integrated  ‘One Health’ approach which balances and optimizes the health of the environment, animals and humans [21]. 

Metagenomics is the study of genomic data derived from environmental and clinical samples by sequence analysis or functional gene screening [22, 23]. Metagenomics is culture-independent [24] and hence can be used to compare the distributions of antimicrobial resistance genes and pathogenic microbial species in vast wastewater influent and wastewater effluent samples. Chan Zuckerberg ID (CZ ID) is a cloud-based genomic analysis platform that enables the detection of microbes in metagenomic data and identification of ARGs [25].

This study aims to investigate dissemination of AMR in WWTPs globally by comparing the frequencies and distributions of ARGs and pathogenic microbial species in freely-available metagenomes sourced online through the metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) and AMR pipelines of CZ ID [25].

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Sourcing metagenomic data from WWTP influent and effluent samples

The European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) [27] and NCBI’s Sequence Read Archive [28] were both used to source WWTP influent and effluent metagenomes from Italy, South Korea, and Denmark. Table 1 below summarizes the country of origin, sample type and SRA run numbers of the samples. The metagenomes were downloaded as fastq files.

2.2. Running influent and effluent metagenomes through the CZ ID mNGS and AMR pipelines

Once fastq files for WWTP influent and effluent metagenomes were obtained, they were uploaded to the mNGS Illumina and AMR pipelines of CZ ID. The mNGS Illumina pipeline (Figure 1) is designed to identify microbes within genomic sequences from mixed microbial communities using BLASTN and BLASTX which are algorithms to compare DNA sequences to reference databases [29]. The AMR pipeline (Figure 2) reports bacterial AMR sequences in the Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database (CARD) from genomes and metagenomes using the Resistance Gene Identifier (RGI) [30]. The CARD is a database of molecular determinants of AMR that leverages an ontology graph structure (the Antibiotic Resistance Ontology – ARO) with ARG sequences and mutation data [30]. RGI is an algorithm developed by the CARD team for computational AMR genotype and phenotype prediction using the CARD database [30]. A detailed pipeline visualization of CZ ID can be found in Figure 3.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Distributions of pathogenic microbes in global WWTP influent and effluent samples are similar with a slight increase in pathogenic microbes in effluent

A heatmap of known pathogen species from global WWTP influent and effluent metagenomes was generated using the mNGS output of CZ ID (Figure 5). A threshold of NT rPM >= 15 was set to ensure reported species were found with significant relative abundances. NT rPM refers to the number of metagenomic reads aligning to a taxon in the NCBI nucleotide (NT) database per million reads sequenced and is used to compare relative abundance of species across samples. NT rPM can be calculated using the formula shown below, where ERCC refers to the External RNA Controls Consortium spike-in controls which are synthetic RNA molecules used to assess the performance of RNA sequencing experiments [31]. 

Paired samples t-tests were then performed using the SciPy Python library [32] on the NT rPM of all pathogen species detected for WWTP influent and effluent samples of each country to determine the significance of difference in microbial composition between influent and effluent samples (Table 2). Code to perform the t-tests can be found in Figure 4.

A significant difference between WWTP influent and effluent samples was not found for the treatment plants from Italy and South Korea with both samples having a t-test value lesser than 2 (1.97 for Italy and 0.35 for South Korea). This shows that WWTPs were unable to help remove pathogenic microbes from influent. This is supported by Waśko et al, who showed that WWTPs could not remove β-lactam resistance genes from influent and in some cases even increased β-lactam ARGs in effluent [33]. The significant negative t-test result for WWTP influent and effluent from Denmark with a magnitude greater than 2 (-2.26) also supports the findings of Waśko et al, showing an increase in pathogenic species in the effluent sample compared to the influent. 

3.2. Frequencies of AMR gene families in global WWTP influent and effluent samples are similar and there are unique gene families in effluent samples

 AMR gene families of global influent and effluent samples were combined and their frequencies were plotted on a stacked bar graph (Figure 6).

Figure 6 shows similar frequencies of AMR gene families present in global influent and effluent samples. Multiple β-lactams such as GOB, IND, BJP, and EC beta-lactamases can only be found in effluent samples, further supporting results by Waśko et al. However, aph(3”) genes were only detected in influent samples and sulfonamide resistance genes had similar frequencies in both influent and effluent samples, which contradicts the findings of Raza et al who found significantly more sul1 and APH(3ʹʹ)-lb genes in effluent samples from Seoul, South Korea [34]. South Korean samples collected in this study are from the city of Gwangju, and the difference in geographical location and cities can be attributed to the difference in ARG frequencies as highlighted by J. Bengtsson-Palme et al in their 2023 review of monitoring AMR in the environment where they mention monitoring AMR in waterways such as sewage arguably reflects the local AMR situation [35].

3.3. Many ARGs confer resistance to ‘access’ and ‘watch’ antibiotics in global WWTP influent and effluent

The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies antibiotics as ‘access’, ‘watch’, and ‘reserve’ as part of the AWaRe classification [36]. ‘Access’ group antibiotics work against a large range of common pathogens and have low resistance potentials, while ‘watch’ antibiotics have higher resistance potentials than ‘access’ antibiotics. ‘Reserve’ antibiotics are reserved to treat multi-drug-resistant pathogens [37].

Drug classes to which ARGs in global WWTP influent and effluent samples confer resistance to were combined and their frequencies were plotted in a stacked bar graph (Figure 7). The drug classes were then categorized based on the AWaRe classification (Table 3), and a pie-chart of the distribution of the AWaRe classification was created (Figure 8). Drug classes not present in the AWaRe classification were classified as ‘NA’.

Equal numbers of drug classes were categorized as ‘access’, ‘watch’, and ‘reserve’ (5 each). ‘Access’ and ‘watch’ antibiotics are critical for the functioning of public health systems. With ARGs conferring resistance to ‘access’ and ‘watch’ antibiotics being present just as much as ARGs conferring resistance to ‘reserve’ antibiotics, the risk of resistance against ‘access’ and ‘watch’ antibiotics increases. The wide-spread presence of ARGs conferring resistance to crucial antimicrobials in WWTP influent and effluent highlights the need for increased antimicrobial stewardship, surveillance, and methods to remove ARGs and resistant pathogenic microbes from WWTP influent.

3.4. Tackling AMR in WWTPs 

Multiple methods have been proposed to remove resistant microbes and ARGs from WWTP influent. For example, Pant et al. described adsorption techniques whereby ARGs bind to the surfaces of nanoparticles in their review of removal of antimicrobial resistance from secondary treated wastewater [38]. Grimes et al also highlighted using algae-mediated bioremediation to remove plasmids (pEX18Tc) carrying a tetracycline resistant gene [39]. These novel techniques combined with increased surveillance efforts for AMR in the environment can help tackle AMR in WWTPs.

Conclusion

Distributions and frequencies of resistant pathogenic microbes and ARGs from global wastewater treatment plant influent and effluent samples were compared using a culture-independent metagenomics approach. It was found that there were similar distributions and frequencies of resistant pathogens and ARGs in global influent and effluent. ARGs conferring resistance to clinically crucial drug classes were also found in high frequencies in global influent and effluent samples.

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About the author

Vedanth Ramji

Vedanth is a high school senior at APL Global School in Chennai, India and a long-term student researcher at the Big Data Biology Lab. He is interested in environmental metagenomics, especially understanding antimicrobial resistance in our surroundings.

The post Comparison of Antimicrobial Resistance in Global Wastewater Treatment Plant Influent and Effluent Through Culture-Independent Metagenomic Analysis appeared first on Exploratio Journal.

Abstract

Perfluoroalkyl and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as “forever chemicals,” are widely put into application in agricultural and industrial fields. However, PFAS compounds have adverse health effects on the environment and the human body due to their permanent characteristics. In the past two decades, many countries have been raising concerns regarding to the impact of PFAS and gradually phasing out the use of PFAS but have found the remediation process particularly costly and difficult to operate. This report reviews the current removal of PFAS through continuous flow sorption systems and provides a review of the recent scientific literature on the aqueous-phase adsorption of PFAS in batch and fixed bed systems using green sorbent materials such as agricultural wastes and polysaccharide-based materials.

Keywords: PFAS, adsorption, water treatment, continuous flow system

Introduction

Perfluoroalkyl and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS, are a group of synthetic chemicals characterized by aliphatic carbon backbones that are partially bonded with fluorine (poly-fluoroalkyl) or fully fluorinated (per-fluoroalkyl). Since fluorine is the most electronegative element among the halogens, the bond between carbon and fluorine in the PFAS compound results in strong hydrophobicity, and chemical and thermal stability, making them extremely resilient to oxidation and degradation from heat, oil, and water. Due to these reasons, PFAS is also known as the ‘forever chemical’ and remains in the environment for significantly long periods of time. Such properties have provided an extensive application in industry and consumer products worldwide since the 1940s, mainly for protective coatings, waterproof fabrics, and firefighting foam; and can be found in a majority of daily products such as paints, shampoo, non-stick cookware, fast food packaging, stain resistance products, and pesticides. Throughout thousands of artificially created PFAS, perfluoro-octanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluoro-octane sulfonic acid (PFOS) are the most commonly studied. (Glüge, 2020)

Over the past two decades, most manufacturers in Canada and the United States have gradually phased out their use of PFAS, due to their permanent characteristics, they are still having adverse health effects on the environment and human bodies. (Singh, 2023) Institutions such United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have proposed an action plan outlining the specific steps that the agency and stakeholders need to take to protect public health. (2023) In the action plan, drinking water is marked as a priority issue, with a focus on promoting the Maximum Pollutant Level (MCL) process for perfluoro-octanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluoro- octane sulfonic acid (PFOS). The institution is also collecting and evaluating information to determine whether regulation is suitable and viable for a wider range of PFAS categories. The main ways of people’s exposure to PFAS include drinking contaminated water from public and private water systems, consuming fish or food with a high level of PFAS, using food packaged in material made with PFAS, employment in a workplace that involves PFAS use, and household consumer products such as ski wax, nonstick cookware, and water repellant fabric clothing. As PFAS accumulates over time in the environment and bodies of humans and animals, PFAS’s toxicity is investigated by many animal studies, suggesting prominent environmental impact and adverse health issues, including major developmental impact on fetus during pregnancy, causing infant low birth weight, puberty changes, bone variations; testicles and kidneys cancer; and thyroid effects related to developmental outcomes. According to a European biomonitoring study, French and Sweden’s teenagers had the highest level of PFAS, with 11.26 and 12.31 micrograms per liter. (2022)

“The fact that these levels of PFAS can be found in our growing population is infuriating. Misleading industrial actors and lagging legislation have allowed these chemicals to poison too many generations already. It’s time to put an end to this madness once and for all,” suggested Dr. Jonatan Kleimark, ChemSec’s Senior Chemicals and Business Advisor. There are various existing and potential remediation solutions, along with national efforts to reduce PFAS risks to the public and move to less bio-accumulative materials.

Although many countries are phasing out the use of it, PFAS-contaminated surface water and groundwater have been increasingly detected among the ecological systems. The unique chemical properties of PFAS make it very effective in applications, but it is also particularly difficult to remediate. Therefore, this report will summarize and evaluate different remediation solutions, followed by a reasoned recommendation. There are currently various technologies available for removing PFAS from aqueous media, mainly led by two processes: degradation and separation. Degradation refers to the biotic or abiotic depolymerization of polymers into monomers (complete depolymerization) or oligomers and other chemicals (partial depolymerization), typically requiring a catalyst. Some of the degradation methods, including sonolysis, plasma treatment, electrochemical oxidation, and reduction, have been proven to be effective at the laboratory scale. However, the lengthy treatment time and costly energy requirements have made many regions unaffordable to execute on a large ecological scale. Separation, on the other hand, consists of membrane filtration and sorption which comprise adsorption and absorption. The size exclusion membrane filtration method is limited by the molecular size of PFAS compounds, as separation only occurs when the PFAS molecules are larger than the pores of the semi-permeable membrane. However, the separation process also presents challenges in removing target chemicals such as PFAS and other compounds that can be preserved in aqueous solutions. (Militao, 2021) Adsorption is an effective treatment technique due to its simple operation, high efficiency, and ability to remove toxic contaminants with exceedingly low concentrations. This method refers to the adhesion of molecules transferred from a fluid bulk (adsorbate) to a solid surface (adsorbent). (Lei, 2023)

Therefore, this report aims to provide an overview of studies on the removal of PFAS in continuous flow systems, compare renewable adsorbents in batch studies, and identify potential candidates for future continuous flow sorption research. Nevertheless, the removal of PFAS has been underestimated since there are many other studies on PFAS besides the ones shown in the figure that are not covered in this research, including key terms such as sorption and cleaning.

Results and discussions

General information and definitions

Currently, most published academic research is focused and limited to PFAS removal through batch processing systems that are conducted using single solute adsorption in pure water, which is not representative of real-world wastewater effluents. However, the results are usually overestimated due to unrealistic conditions. In most batch systems, the adsorbent experiment was conducted at a high PFAS concentration which promotes mass transfer for faster sorption kinetics but is not considered representative of the concentration level in nature. The regeneration and reuse or recycling of spent adsorbents remains a great challenge. Therefore, studies conducted through continuous flow processes are essential for predicting the effectiveness and practicality of adsorbents in real-world applications.

Empty bed contact time (EBCT) is considered to be a fundamental parameter in evaluating an fixed bed adsorption system, as studies have shown that it affects the removal of PFAS to varying degrees. It is a measure of time when the water to be treated flows into contact with the treatment medium in the container. (Pedia, 2017) And the level of breakthrough refers to the amount of pollutants filtered out from the contaminated water compared to the pollutant in pre- treatment water.

Review of previous studies

As shown in Figure 1, the number of peer-reviewed articles on PFAS removal has been continuously increasing over the past two decades, with an approximate increase of 94% between 2003 and 2022. Among all types of treatments, PFAS adsorption accounts for more than one-third of the total literature, indicating its effectiveness and recognition of the method in scientific research. More specifically, over 70% of them are investigation of carbon-based adsorbents, while in recent years, renewable materials that have just been put into research occupy for a minority among them, accounting for only 8% of the total. Among many sorptive treatments, granular activated carbon (GAC) and advanced ion exchange (AIX) are considered currently the most feasible solutions to carry out at a large scale. (Dixit, 2021)

According to the investigation that Murray, Marshall, Liu, and Vatankhah conducted, the two most studied adsorption treatments, granular activated carbon (GAC) and ion exchange resin (IX), were tested and directly compared in a continuous flow system set up by a segmented column system. (Murray, 2021) The experiment tested columns with different empty bed contact times and evaluated the optimal EBCT for GAC and IX treatment by obtaining potential mass transfer zones (MTZ) of PFAS. EBCT and MTZ have a high impact on the system’s operation costs and adsorption capacity; The cost of long EBCT is often excessively high, while the adsorbent utilization rate of short EBCT is insignificant. Therefore, by generating data on treatability through continuous flow columns, the adsorption capacity of GAC and IX for long- chain and short-chain PFAS could be calculated, to improve the system longevity, achieving an adsorption effect while minimizing operating costs.

The bench scale column system (Fig. 2) is comprised of six columns, divided into three segments with distinct sampling ports. During the operation, a constant flow rate through each column is generated by a constant head reservoir, which is sequentially connected to each column controlled by a drying medium. To test the impact of EBCT, the time was controlled at 3 minutes per GAC column and 1 minute per IX column.

Note. Schematic of the lab scale column system. From
Murray, C. C., Marshall, R. E., Liu, C. J., Vatankhah, H., & Bellona, C. L. (2021). PFAS treatment with granular activated carbon and ion exchange resin: Comparing chain length, empty bed contact time, and cost. Journal of Water Process Engineering, 44, 102342. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwpe.2021.102342

The results of this study indicate that:

• In removing long-chain PFAAs, the effectiveness of GAC and IX depends on chain length and their functional group. According to its adsorption capacity and a further level of breakthrough, IX completely outperformed GAC treatment, most significantly in the removal of PFHxS and PFOS compounds. The minimum contact time required for effective long chain PFAS adsorption for GAC is 3 times that of IX.
• The adsorption capacity of GAC and IX is significantly lower for short-chain PFAAs, therefore, maintaining a low-level breakthrough of short-chain may be challenging. While the overall treatment performance of IX is inconspicuous, GAC treatment presented a prominent declining capacity in short-chain PFCAs.
• Compared with the long-chain PFAA of GAC and IX, MTZ has demonstrated that the treatment of short-chain PFAA requires longer EBCT. Therefore, it is necessary to handle short-chain PFAA with longer adsorption time and higher operating costs.
• IX adsorption treatment is more cost-effective than GAC while meeting both goals of removal of long and short-chain PFASs.

In summary, although granular activated carbon and ion exchange resin are considered the most viable treatment technologies for PFAS removal in current research when applied in full-scale continuous flow systems, they still have significant drawbacks: their high cost and its poor regeneration capability restrict their use at larger scale. Continuous efforts have been made to find more efficient and environmentally friendly sorbents; recently, the development of low-cost adsorbent alternatives derived from natural materials, industrial wastes, and agricultural byproducts has become crucial.

Literature comparison

Green adsorbents refer to those alternative materials to remove PFAS that are easy to produce, affordable, and environmentally friendly. At present, there is no clear direction or publications in the scientific field for “more environmentally friendly adsorbents”; therefore, this report aims to provide an overview of potential substitutes for traditional activated carbon and identify several possible candidates for future continuous flow studies that would be applied to a full-scale water treatment system. The existing greener adsorbents for PFAS remediation could be categorized into three types: activated carbon and biochar from agro-organic wastes, polysaccharide-based material, and animated and household or industrial wastes-based adsorbents. (Militao, 2021) Most of the raw materials are physically or chemically modified to maximize their adsorption capacity and selectivity. Agricultural wastes, such as agro-organic wastes, are widely used in the production of activated carbon; thus, these materials could also be used as reagents for adsorbing organic pollutants in water removal systems. Two of the mainly used adsorbents are grape leaf litter and bamboo AC. Polysaccharide-based material includes cross-linked chitosan beads and cellulose-based adsorbents such as PEI-f-cellulose. Due to its unique physical and chemical properties, such as the diversity of reaction groups, low cost, and availability, it has shown potential applications in water treatment. These natural polysaccharides come from renewable and biodegradable resources, such as chitin, cellulose, and starch. Although adsorbents based on animated household and industrial wastes are not extracted from natural materials, they are still advantageous when applied to the environment.

According to Table 1 shown in the Appendix, the adsorption kinetics and capacity for each green adsorbent are tested and compared. Among the different green adsorbents reviewed in this article, bamboo AC, graded microporous biochar (HMB), and cross-linked chitosan beads showed the highest adsorption capacity for PFAS, especially for long-chain PFAS, which have the potential to be applied in the commercial scale. More surprisingly, some of these green adsorbents even have a higher adsorption capacity for PFAS than many commercial GAC products that had been applied on a large scale. However, adsorbents such as cross-linked chitosan beads have presented a long equilibrium time, which would be a potential challenge in large-scale applications. Nevertheless, some of the statistics are underestimated and cannot be directly compared due to the difference in solution pH and the initial PFAS concentration. The research also indicates that electrostatic attractions and hydrophobic interactions have become critical mechanisms for PFAS removal.

Conclusion

Among the adsorbents investigated in the continuous flow system, ion exchange resin adsorption has exhibited potential over adsorption by the granular activated carbon both for the removal of long and short-chain PFASs. On the other hand, with the development of new renewable carbonaceous sorbents, new opportunities have also emerged in green adsorbents such as bamboo AC, graded microporous biochar (HMB), and cross-linked chitosan beads. Therefore, more research is needed to examine the potential of these renewable adsorbents in continuous flow processes, associating with more research investigating the regeneration of waste adsorbents that desorb PFAS from the sorbent surface and reuse it. At present, in order to mitigate the environmental impact of the regeneration process, thermal, microwave, and microbial methods have been considered in large-scale applications. (Gagliano, 2020)

References

Deng, S., Nie, Y., Du, Z., Huang, Q., Meng, P., Wang, B., Huang, J., & Yu, G. (2015). Enhanced adsorption of perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoate by bamboo-derived granular activated carbon. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 282, 150-157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2014.03.045

Deng, S., Niu, L., Bei, Y., Wang, B., Huang, J., & Yu, G. (2013). Adsorption of perfluorinated compounds on aminated rice husk prepared by atom transfer radical polymerization. Chemosphere, 91(2), 124-130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2012.11.015

Deng, S., Zheng, Y., Xu, F., Wang, B., Huang, J., & Yu, G. (2012). Highly efficient sorption of perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoate on a quaternized cotton prepared by atom transfer radical polymerization. Chemical Engineering Journal, 193-194, 154-160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2012.04.005

Dixit, F., Dutta, R., Barbeau, B., Berube, P., & Mohseni, M. (2021). PFAS removal by ion exchange resins: A review. Chemosphere, 272, 129777. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.129777

European teenagers are high – on PFAS. (2022, June 30). Retrieved September 19, 2023, from https://chemsec.org/european-teenagers-are-high-on-pfas/

Gagliano, E., Sgroi, M., Falciglia, P. P., Vagliasindi, F. G., & Roccaro, P. (2020). Removal of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from water by adsorption: Role of PFAS chain length, effect of organic matter and challenges in adsorbent regeneration. Water Research, 171, 115381. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2019.115381

Glüge, J., Scheringer, M., Cousins, I. T., DeWitt, J. C., Goldenman, G., Herzke, D., Lohmann, R., Ng, C. A., Trier, X., & Wang, Z. (2020). An overview of the uses of per- and-polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, 22(12), 2345-2373. https://doi.org/10.1039/d0em00291g

Key EPA Actions to Address PFAS. (2023, April 21). Retrieved September 19, 2023, from https://www.epa.gov/pfas/key-epa-actions-address-pfas

Lei, X., Lian, Q., Zhang, X., Karsili, T. K., Holmes, W., Chen, Y., Zappi, M. E., & Gang, D. D. (2023). A review of PFAS adsorption from aqueous solutions: Current approaches, engineering applications, challenges, and opportunities. Environmental Pollution, 321, 121138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121138

Militao, I. M., Roddick, F. A., Bergamasco, R., & Fan, L. (2021). Removing PFAS from aquatic systems using natural and renewable material-based adsorbents: A review. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, 9(4), 105271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jece.2021.105271

Murray, C. C., Marshall, R. E., Liu, C. J., Vatankhah, H., & Bellona, C. L. (2021). PFAS treatment with granular activated carbon and ion exchange resin: Comparing chain length, empty bed contact time, and cost. Journal of Water Process Engineering, 44, 102342. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwpe.2021.102342

Pedia, M. (2017, September 20). Product Activated Carbon. Retrieved September 19, 2023, from https://www.urbansaqua.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Mike-o- Pedia_Carbon_EBCT.pdf

Singh, I. (2023). Industry knew about risks of PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ for decades before push to restrict them, study says Social Sharing. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/pfas-3m-dupont-study-1.6862883

Zhang, Q., Deng, S., Yu, G., & Huang, J. (2011). Removal of perfluorooctane sulfonate from aqueous solution by crosslinked chitosan beads: Sorption kinetics and uptake mechanism. Bioresource Technology, 102(3), 2265-2271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2010.10.040

Zhou, Y., Xu, M., Huang, D., Xu, L., Yu, M., Zhu, Y., & Niu, J. (2021). Modulating hierarchically microporous biochar via molten alkali treatment for efficient adsorption removal of perfluorinated carboxylic acids from wastewater. Science of the Total Environment, 757, 143719. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143719

About the author

Hao Shen

Hao is a senior high school student from Shanghai YK Pao school. She is also a passionate and dedicated young environmental activist who is interested in environmental engineering.

The post Removal of PFAS from aqueous media using green adsorbent: a review of batch and fixed bed processes appeared first on Exploratio Journal.

Introduction

Our Investigation

We, humans, have innovated massively since the last century. This ‘innovation’ can be seen all around us in everyday machines like computers, mobile phones, and even vehicles. However, we had to make many sacrifices without even knowing it to reach where we are currently. Our massive urge to develop at such a rapid rate blinded us. We were not able to notice how much we have taken away from our planet, from ourselves. The more we develop at this abnormal rate, the more resources and land we take away from ourselves and other living things like wildlife. 

India, a country that innovated immensely since its independence in 1947, faces this issue today. To accommodate the needs of the increased population of more than a billion people, areas that once had tree cover and many forest areas have suffered massive deforestation. Sure, comparing today’s India to its former self, the country has seen tremendous improvements economically. However, due to such rapid development, it has lost the ‘balance’ it once had between development and sustainability. 

In this project, we will be investigating the deforestation that took place in the city Sonitpur, Assam in India, over the years 1988 to 2018. We will use Wolfram Mathematica to process and analyze satellite images of the district mentioned above that we obtained via the internet through our research. After the image is analyzed and processed, we will be using the data we obtained from Mathematica and compare it to the latest satellite image of the district to display how much of the greenery has faded away in 33 years.

Understanding the Satellite Images

Our Visual Analysis.

We will first analyze the images and gain different important information about the image using the naked eye. This will ensure that we do not have any vital information that can drastically negatively affect our project or help us make our work easier. We also used Google Earth for the image analysis.

As expected, we found out a massive piece of data that not only could impact our project negatively but now can also make our job easier. In the satellite image (Sonitpur, Assam.) shown above, we consider the darker green portion (Top) to be forest lands and the lighter green portion (Bottom) as urban areas. Although it may not seem justifiable, there is evidence that proves this thesis.

In order to prove this, I used Google Earth, a computer program that renders a 3-Dimensional representation of plant Earth-based primarily on satellite imagery. To the right is the satellite image of Sonitpur district from Google Earth (Latest). The lighter areas in the satellite image will not seem like urban areas at first glance, but when it is zoomed in, you will see civilization.

As also visible, most of the blue dots (street view) are present in the light green portion of the satellite image, strengthening our thesis. To even justify this, we clicked on multiple blue dots to check if there was civilization. Below are some of the screenshots of the blue dots, along with the place’s name and its street view.

As you can see, one example where we see this thesis playing a considerable role is a place in Sonitpur called ‘Bihuguri’. At first, if you see the satellite image (Above, Image to the left), you cannot identify whether this place is urban or not. However, if you zoom in, it is populated! You might say that this only takes place in this specific region in Sonitpur, but there are many places where this same phenomenon occurs, like in Rangapara.

Coding to Analyze the Satellite Image

Method 1: Digital Segmentation

Now that we have given a closer look at the satellite image to notice any flaws, it is time to use Wolfram Mathematica because of its programmatic and interactive modern industrial-strength image processing capabilities to find out the approximate percentage of how much of the forest in this specific region has faded away. 

Firstly, we imported the GIF from the website to Mathematica and downloaded it. Downloading the GIF was a vital task because it would save us a significant amount of time. After all, now, we will not need to import the gif multiple times throughout the notebooks while working on the code. It also helps avoid mistakes.

Then, we worked on removing the timeline present on the bottom of all the gif frames. We used the ‘Image Take’ function to execute this, which removed the bottom of the image. This was an essential step because if we worked on the first frame of the GIF along with the timeline shown below, it would have bought a massive amount of error and uncertainty in the result we will get at the end because of the presence of unnecessary pixels in the bottom of the image.

Now that all the unnecessary information in the gif was removed, we started to analyze the first frame of the gif. We used functions like edge detection, binarize, erosion, and sharpening to find approximately what amount of the first frame of the GIF was forest area. Since we were not confident which function would work the best to find this result, we used various combinations of functions and compared their results to be as accurate as possible. The first function we used to analyze the first frame of the GIF was called ‘binarize’. Since the forest area in the first frame is the ‘Dark Green’ area (the Upper Half of the image.), we thought that binarize function would cover all the forest area with black pixels, which would separate the forest from the urban land. 

After running the ‘Binarize’ function, we noticed one challenge that we had to overcome. It was the unnecessary small black areas showing up at the bottom of the satellite image. According to our previous research, there is no forest area in those specific regions. They are just urbanized places covered with trees, but Mathematica could not interpret that due to its non-living characteristics. In order to remove this, we used the ‘Erosion’ function. This helped us to remove as many excessive black pixels as possible to get the most accurate results, as shown below. 

We then went on to find out the percentage of black pixels (Forest Area) in the above-analyzed satellite image using Wolfram Mathematica’s powerful image processing capabilities. We used all this code (screenshot pasted below) to determine the percentage of black pixels in the analyzed satellite image. 

Through the code mentioned above, we determined that we have lost approximately 32% of the forest area through this method. 

Note: The above method of determining the percentage is computational with little to no manual work.

Method 2: Manual Segmentation

After we had successfully determined the percentage of forest area we lost in Sonitpur over 30 years computationally, we went on to find the exact percentage manually. We are finding the same value again but with a different method to compare both values to check whether they are similar to each other. This will determine the precision of each of the methods to ensure the reliability of our findings.

We will still be using Wolfram Mathematica to analyze the image but, now, instead of using functions like ‘Binarize’ to separate the forest lands from the urban areas, we will be ‘drawing’ the border manually (by hand) over the satellite image to figure out the percentage of forest land lost over the years. 

In order to draw the borders, I had to research to find out where the forest separates from the urban area in Sonitpur. In order to determine this, I made use of the website ‘Google Earth’ to find out the political borders. The satellite images below display the border that I will review while drawing a line over the latest satellite image of Sonitpur from the GIF. 

After finding a reference to look at while manually segmenting the satellite image from Google Earth, I drew the border over the satellite image using my Apple Pencil on my iPad. The Apple Pencil allowed me to draw the border more accurately compared to a trackpad or a mouse. Since I needed to use Mathematica for processing the image, I used the color’ Dark Red’ to make it easier for the software to recognize the ‘line’ since it would stand out, thus, making our task more manageable.

After manually segmenting the lands in the satellite image, we inserted it on Wolfram Mathematica to begin analyzing the image. Our main idea through this method was to separate all the pixels above the red line (Manually drawn border) from the whole satellite image and count their number. After determining the number of pixels above the red line, we can subtract it from the total number of pixels and then divide the difference by the total number of pixels in the satellite image to find the percentage of forest land lost in the area. However, there were some complications that we had to overcome during this process. As we analyzed the image, we found out that the red line that I drew consisted of many combinations of colors (pixels) similar to the image displayed on the right. This will seriously hamper our results and make it difficult for the software to identify the redline since it was not of one consistent color. 

To overcome this, we tried using different functions to make the red line as consistent as possible and move on with our project. We used functions like ‘Dilation‘ and ‘Erosion‘ to keep the pixels of the red line consistent. This will keep the result as accurate as possible and make it easier for Mathematica to separate the forest area from the whole satellite image. The image below displays how much we could make the red line consistent. Even though the consistency is imperfect, it will allow us to move forward with our investigation and find an accurate result with minute errors. 

Then we used this binarized somewhat consistent red line (image pasted above), used the ‘Mask’ function, placed it over the satellite image, and removed all the urban areas present below the red line border (Bottom half of the image). Due to the inconsistencies in the red line border that I drew manually, some unwanted lines affect our pixel count (Image below). We tried to remove as many unwanted pixels as possible using different Mathematica functions, and the most we could do was remove the major (Thick) lines from the image. Some of the minor lines were still present in the image, as seen below, in the image, but we decided to move on with our investigation because they will not affect our results by a lot.

Conclusively, we found out the number of pixels present in the forest area (The image above), which is 319454 pixels and also found out the number of pixels in the whole satellite image, which is 665040 pixels. 

We then proceeded to find out the percentage of forest lost by subtracting the total number of pixels by the number of forest pixels and then dividing their difference by the total number of pixels. The result we obtained was 0.519647. This shows that approximately 52% of the forest land has faded away over the years according to this method.

Conclusion

Our Interpretation of the results obtained:

To sum up, both the methods used in this investigation were expected to have similar results, but, as visible above, there is a substantial difference between them (20% difference). Nevertheless, according to our rigorous analysis, Dr. Kyle Keane and I consider the second method more accurate in this case. The second method has the borders drawn manually according to the political borders shown on Google Earth. The first method solely relies on Mathematica cause the software itself is used to determine the border between the forest and the urban areas without any credible external reference like in method 2. Even though method 2 is not perfect due to the imperfections in the pixel count, it can still be a reliable method because of the graph presented to the right. The plot is valid and shows that there is less forest on the left (earlier time) than on the right (most recent time). The main narrative is that we developed an algorithm to automatically calculate the amount of forest in an image, then we used manual segmentation to evaluate how good our algorithm was. The final conclusion is read from the plot that the forest has retreated from around 80% of that image to around 50%.

Our Message

Considering the results of method 2, we have lost approximately 52% of forest land from 1988 to 2018. This is a massive amount of deforestation that took place in just 33 years. This is not only a significant issue that only pertains to India, but unfortunately, it is a global issue. Suppose humans continue to deforest at such staggering rates. In that case, we might lose all green lands on earth in another 30 years, which will be a colossal issue for all human beings because of problems like global warming and massive deaths of wild animals due to the scarcity of food. Now is when all humans should take action against this and stand together to prevent this from happening. We still have some time left to regenerate ourselves and revive everything we have lost due to our previous doings, even if it was for the best intentions. We humans have to understand that there is no Planet-B which means, we have no Plan-B. In order for our future, we need to start implementing the sustainability factor in our daily lives to keep up economically and not harm the environment as much compared to the past.

Bibliography

Keane, Kyle, director. Intro to Mathematica. YouTube, Kyle Keane, 6 Feb. 2018, https://youtu.be/LzKcFYlw_5A. Accessed 26 Sept. 2021.

Bhagat, Raj. “Satellite Imagery Shows India’s Changing Environment.” Geospatial World, Raj Bhagat, 23 July 2019, https://www.geospatialworld.net/blogs/indias-environmental-challenges-in-10-images/ss.

Google Earth, Google, https://earth.google.com/.

Neiburg, Oliver. “Satellite Mapping’s Future: Can Space Tech Halt Deforestation?” Foodnavigator.com, Oliver Neiburg, 2020, https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2020/03/10/Satellite-mapping-s-future-Can-space-tech-halt-deforestation.

Davis, Morgan Erickson. “NASA Releases Images of Dramatic Deforestation in Cambodia.” Mongabay Environmental News, Morgan Davis, 2 Mar. 2017, https://news.mongabay.com/2017/01/nasa-releases-images-of-dramatic-cambodia-deforestation/.

“Forest Satellite Images for Sustainable Land Use from Planet.” Planet, 2021, https://www.planet.com/markets/forestry/.

Sriram, Raghav. “Mapping Urban Boundaries onto Satellite Images of Cities.” [WSC21] Mapping Urban Boundaries onto Satellite Images of Cities – Online Technical Discussion Groups-Wolfram Community, Raghav Sriram, 2021, https://community.wolfram.com/groups/-/m/t/2317532.

About the author

Amaad Zaidi

Amaad is currently an 11th grader at the Aga Khan Academy, an International Baccalaureate school based in Hyderabad, India. He is deeply passionate about Science, mainly Applied and Live Sciences and Technology. Amaad has always wanted to discover the different wonders of Science and make Earth a better place through the innovative technology of the 21st Century. He also loves music and plays the acoustic guitar and drums.

The post Deforestation: A Detailed Investigation. appeared first on Exploratio Journal.

Introduction

“If agriculture is to continue to feed the world, it needs to become more like manufacturing”, says Geoffrey Carrand fortunately, that is already beginning to happen.¹Advances in technology are key to the future of agriculture as farmers strive to feed the world with limited natural resources.² In Tamil Nadu state, located in South India, Agriculture is the greatest overriding sector of the state’s economy and nearly 70% of states population is based on agriculture. The agriculture in Tamil Nadu has executed a good performance over the years with the help of efficient farmers who are both receptive and responsive to the technological development announced in the agricultural sector of the state.³ Innovations for small agricultural operations can significantly increase profit margins by minimizing the need for manual labour with automation, expediting machinery commands with remote and real-time monitoring, and allowing farmers to utilize resources more efficiently with preventative maintenance and environmental prediction. Mass embracement of these technology advancements in agriculture will allow small land holding farmers to achieve higher potential for profit, and higher yields on the upfront investments.⁴I live in Tamil Nadu and our family own an agricultural field and that interests me to investigate this study, for which I researched and collected primary and secondary data regarding the topic.  The technologies that are currently reshaping the agriculture of Tamil Nadu state are detailed below.

PRECISION FARMING

Precision Farming helps farmers to generate data with the help of sensors and analyse that information to take intelligent and quick decisions.⁵ It is the application of modern information technologies to provide, process and analyse multisource data of high spatial and temporal resolution for decision making and operations in the management of crop production⁶  and helps in changing the socio-economic status of farmers.⁷ 

CASE STUDY   

Mr.Rajamani, a farmer in Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu, follows the precision farming in his field, where he broadcasted the coriander seeds in between the turmeric crop, small onion and chilly as intercrops, red gram as border crop and irrigated the field through drip system. He harvested the coriander in 30 – 35 days, onion in 70 days, chillies on 90th day, red gram on 250th day and turmeric fingers on 275 days after sowing. He acquired yield of 7 tonnes of turmeric fingers and 13 tonnes of onion, 2 tonnes of green and dry chilies and 50 kg red gram in one hectare of land. He sold turmeric fingers at the rate of Rs. 135 / kg, onion at Rs. 20/ kg, chillies at Rs. 12/ kg, red gram at Rs. 100/ kg, tender coriander leaves Rs.4/kg and coriander seed at Rs. 15/ kg. He invested Rs. 3,35,400 for cultivation practices and attained a high profit of Rs. 9,66,000 per hectare and this was possible since he shifted from conventional farming to precision farming.⁸

ORGANIC FARMING

This process involves the use of biological materials, avoiding synthetic substances to maintain soil fertility and ecological balance thereby minimizing pollution and wastage. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of inputs with adverse effects and care for the larger environment and conservation of natural habitats and wildlife.⁹

CASE STUDY

Organic farming is the in-thing now in Thanjavur district, the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu, where one hundred farmers are successful in practising organic farming, for crops like- banana, maize and paddy. Mr.Kulandaisamy, a progressive farmer has raised Rasthali and Robust variety of bananas adopting organic farming methods. With respect to Rasthali, a bunch has five to six hands (hands means “seeppu” in Tamil language), instead of three to four hands, which are normally seen in ordinary cultivation and a single bunch weighs 20 kgs and fetches Rs.200. And the Robust variety of banana has 12 to 15 hands in a bunch and the bunch weighs 30 to 35 kgs, which are popularly sold in Tiruchirappalli city (my native), market. Fertiliser used by the farmer was composed using organic matters, neem, and pancha kavya prepared using cow’s urine and cow dung. The farmer has cultivated maize, paddy and Vanila (a profit-oriented venture), using organic farming.¹⁰

DRONES 

 Drones help farmers optimize the use of inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, water, and pesticides more efficiently. This allows timely protection of crops from pests, saves time for crop scouting, reduces overall cost in farm production, and secures high yield, increasing the farm profitability. ¹¹Initially used for chemical spraying, today drones are a great tool used to assess different aspects of plant health, weeds, and assets.

CASE STUDY

Tamil Nadu Agricultural University has developed drones, that could carry 15kg agricultural input, that helps to spray pesticides, insecticides and herbicides to protect crops, with a capability of covering one hectare in five minutes and a maximum of three hectares in 15 minutes in a single flight. It could cover large areas in a short time, so that pests could be destroyed across massive tracts of land before they could spread. However, drifting due to varying wind speed is a risk. During windy days it may not be a good choice, says the officials. ¹² And in future, usage of a drone would eliminate dependence on the already scarce farm labour. 

IOT BASED SMART FARMING

In IoT-based smart farming, a system is built for monitoring the crop field with the help of sensors and automating the irrigation system. The farmers can monitor the field conditions from anywhere.In terms of environmental issues, IoT-based smart farming can provide great benefits including more efficient water usage, or optimization of inputs and treatments. ¹³

CASE STUDY

A team of college students from Salem city, Tamil Nadu, have come into the spotlight recently for their Internet-of-Things (IoT) based software solution that seeks to give a push to smart farming, and this crop guidance software is a set of three applications that enable remote monitoring of pest control, automated watering and growth. The objective is to bring in smart farming solutions that allow farmers to produce maximum yields with minimum resources such as water, fertiliser and seeds, and reduce wastage or losses. One of the applications of their IoT-based comprehensive solution is the Plant Growth Monitoring System, which uses colour sensors to check the growth of the plants and sprays fertiliser as and when needed. Another application with an additional WiFi module identifies pest attacks and sprays pesticide precisely on the affected parts of the agricultural land. Another application, the Automatic Plant Watering System, uses a moisture sensor and utilises water resource judiciously as it triggers watering based on the moisture level of the soil. The systems work automatically- for example- in the watering system when the sufficient water level is reached, it will switch off on its own. This makes it easier for farmers and makes the process seamless. As the applications are IoT-based, they also have a feature that provides weather conditions for proper crop growth to the farmers. ¹⁴

MOBILE APPS 

There are mobile applications that provide latest agricultural information about trends, equipment, technologies and methods being used, help identify pests and diseases, provide real-time data about weather, early warnings about storms, local markets offering best prices, seeds, fertilizers etc. In addition, farmers can also interact and get guidance from agriculture experts across the country via the apps. These apps help in providing market information, facilitating market links, providing access to extension services, farm related information etc.¹⁵

CASE STUDY

About 4,91,811 users of Uzhavan App, launched by Tamil Nadu Agricultural Ministry, educate farmers about soil quality, seeds and fertilizers. FarmMOJO app provides real time solutions for aquaculture, including shrimp and fish farming and this app records data like pH balance, ammonia and nitrate levels and water quality. Tumaini app allows farmers, cultivating banana, to scan plants and detects symptoms on any part of the crop with an accuracy rate of 98%.¹⁶

HYDROPONICS

Hydroponics is a way to skip the soil and grow crops directly in nutrient-rich water, that gives higher yield with fewer resources. ¹⁷

CASE STUDY

According to Mr.Srinivasan, a resident of Chennai city, perform commercial hydroponics by growing crops like spinach, kale, and lettuce. With nearly 250 plants across 50 square feet, Rahul Dhoka runs Acqua Farms in Chennai city. The rate of crop growth is around 30 to 40 per cent faster and have a 30 to 40 per cent higher yield, than soil-based agriculture, with a less cost of production ie-lettuce costs Rs 15 to 17 per kg, and basil costs Rs 20 to 25 per kg. ¹⁸

SOIL MOISTURE INDICATOR

Soil moisture indicator has sensors to detect the soil moisture content for proper development of plants and notify the user when the soil gets too dry or too wet.¹⁹ This device works based on the principle that electrical conductivity of the soil is directly proportional to soil moisture or soil electrical resistance is indirectly proportional to soil moisture content.^20.  It is suitable for different types of soils and can be used in nurseries, farms, potted plants, etc.²¹

CASE STUDY

The Soil Moisture Indicator, a handy and user-friendly electronic moisture–indicating device, was first launched at Sugarcane Breeding Institute at Coimbatore city, Tamil Nadu, which is used for the efficient irrigation management practices such as irrigation-scheduling, particularly in sugarcane fields, that helps the farmers in deciding when to irrigate their fields and as a result there would be considerable saving of irrigation water. The sensor rods of the device need to be inserted into the soil to a required depth to assess the soil moisture, which is indicated by glowing LEDs and the device is suitable for use in agricultural farms as well as in potted plants.²²

RFID TECHNOLOGY

Radio Frequency Identification Technology offers monitoring systems, which protects the crops from pests and wireless sensors can be used to monitor cattle. It uses dedicated software and hardware to monitor livestock management.²³  It supports Animal population trackingand Animal data base monitoring.²⁴

CASE STUDY

“Mr. Vijaykumar, Perambalur district, Tamil Nadu, relies on computerisation to monitor the dairy along with the 60 staff who stay on the farm. Each animal has a blue-collar tag with a unique microchip number. “Of the 368 cows here, 160 are used for milking and the microchip helps us not just to track each cow’s health and daily milk output, but also to decide if it can be selected for breeding in future.²⁵

CONCLUSION:

The agriculture technologies have changed almost all the domains of farming from sowing to harvesting. These technologies are continued to evolve and invent new innovations that act as catalyst to ameliorate farmers’ life by increasing incoming and providing the access to research stations and agro-scientists.  The use of technology can make farmers feel more empowered and enable them to adopt required measures in needful time. It has potential capabilities to transform agriculture into a better prospect to get aware of climatic change and appropriate use of limited natural resources in agricultural land.²⁶ However technologies like hydroponics; drone farming; use of mobile applications and IOT based devices had get tremendous success in Tamil Nadu. Many government organizations and private bodies are working on to give a clear view about new technologies to the farmers of Tamil Nadu, like robotic farming, chromosomal technique and application of remote sensing etc… which are practiced globally.

REFERENCES

1. https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2016-06-09/factory-fresh
2. https://www.raconteur.net/sustainability/top-5-tech-innovations-in-agriculture/
3. https://www.agrifarming.in/agriculture-farming-in-tamil-nadu-cultivation-practices
4. https://www.aeris.com/news/post/five-iot-applications-that-are-reshaping-agriculture-technology/
5. https://www.biz4intellia.com/blog/5-applications-of-iot-in-agriculture/
6. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/precision-agriculture
7. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/agriculture/why-farmers-today-need-to-take-up-precision-farming-64659
8. https://icar.org.in/node/8077
9. https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/organic-farming-benefits.php
10. https://agritech.tnau.ac.in/org_farm/orgfarm_success%20stories.html
11. https://blog.agrivi.com/post/powerful-role-of-drones-in-agriculture_april2018
12. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/coimbatore/reaping-rich-dividends-with-drones/articleshow/71382745.cms
13. https://www.iotforall.com/iot-applications-in-agriculture
14. https://www.edexlive.com/campus/2020/sep/29/tn-students-develop-smart-farming-solutions-for-automatedpest-control-and-plant-watering-14868.html
15. https://www.manage.gov.in/publications/edigest/dec2017.pdf
16. https://m.timesofindia.com/city/chennai/click-cure-tech-helps-farmers-reap-a-bounty/amp_articleshow/71284085.cms
17. https://www.verticalroots.com/the-what-and-why-of-hydroponic-farming/
18. https://www.dtnext.in/News/City/2019/12/10052809/1202790/Hydroponic-farming-helps-Chennaiites-grow-greens-at-.vpf
19. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-15-5113-0_55
20. https://sugarcane.icar.gov.in/index.php/en/home/1157-soil-moisture-indicator
21. http://www.techsourcesolutions.in/manufacturing/soil-moisture-indicator/
22. http://sugarcane100.blogspot.com/2016/01/soil-moisture-indicator-launched.html?m=1
23. https://agritechsupport.com/agriculture-technology/radio-frequency-identification-technology-in-agriculture/
24. https://academic.oup.com/jas/article-abstract/97/Supplement_2/1/5541113
25. https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/agriculture/data-analytics-helps-an-integrated-farm-in-arumbavur-village-perambalur-district-to-produce-additive-free-cows-milk/article26888613.ece
26. https://www.ijcmas.com/10-2-2021/Pradeep%20Kumar%20Singh,%20et%20al.pdf

About the author

Harnishya Palanichamy

Harnishya is currently in Grade 10 at the Hebron School, Ootacamund, Tamil Nadu, India. She’s passionate about the field of computer science, particularly the coding languages, Java and JavaScript. She enjoys coding and researching about AI. She started her coding journey by coding games in JavaScript, and she also has experience with robotics; being in the school robotics club. In the future, she wants to develop her coding knowledge by creating more complex apps.

The post Technologies Reshaping Agriculture in Tamil Nadu, India appeared first on Exploratio Journal.

Abstract

The Covid-19 Pandemic has led to a decrease in carbon emissions, especially by the transportation industry. In order to sustain these reduced emissions, an increased usage of public transport is necessary. By reducing the amount of passenger vehicle emissions, there can be a steady decline in air pollution levels. However, criteria pollutants emitted by the tailpipe of many modes of public transport negatively impacts many public transport users’ health. Since a majority of public transport users are low income workers, such an issue leads to a disproportionate impact of respiratory illnesses. In order to avoid such emissions, most modes of transportation should be electrified. Moreover, electrification of vehicles eliminates any tailpipe emissions, but GHG emissions are not completely avoided. Charging electrified vehicles leads to more emissions of GHG. Therefore, decoupling from the central grid and using renewable sources of energy for electricity and fuel can lead to eliminating a significant portion of the GHG emissions from the transportation industry. 

Introduction

The unexpected pandemic due to the Sars-Cov-2 virus, popularly known as the ‘COVID-19 pandemic,’ has had a major impact on both the environment and society. At an economic level, it has led to an unprecedented economic crash, mass unemployment and the collapse of entire industries. At an environmental level, however, it has led to many positive changes in the aftereffects of climate change, and global warming. As found by the climate group Carbon Brief, because the COVID-19 pandemic effectively seized hold of China’s economy and heavy industries and caused complete shutdowns, Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from the country plummeted by a record-breaking 25 percent. 

The pandemic has led to a drastic decline in many industries which would have led to the decrease in GHG emissions, however, the most notable GHG emitter and one of the areas most hit by the pandemic and the enforcement of lockdown legislation was the usage of transportation. The transportation sector generates the largest share of GHG emissions, emitting about  28.2 percent of all GHG in the atmosphere, as of 2018. In another analysis by Carbon Brief in early April, it was estimated that globally, in 2020, emissions could fall by 5.5 percent, beating the 3 percent decrease that followed the 2008 financial crash, when economies also slowed and people traveled less. The GHG emissions will inevitably increase as the economy revives itself and lockdowns are lifted, however, there may be specific precautions which could be taken to sustain these low GHG emissions. One such method could be through controlling and electrifying the transportation sector. 

As COVID cases reach their peak and cities start to open up, cars and motor vehicles are bound to enter the streets again, however, if GHG emissions coming from these vehicles can be controlled, this positive change in carbon emissions can be sustained. Another method through which a more sustainable level of GHG can be sustained is by promoting the use of public transport. This, however, may be challenging due to social distancing and the fear of shared space. Below, I will discuss the public transportation industry, the method of tackling the public’s mindset in certain places to introduce an increase in usage of public transport, the link between transportation and GHG emissions in relation to the pandemic and decoupling carbon in transportation. 

The Effect of COVID-19 on Transportation and its Repercussions on the Industry

Around the world, the transportation industry has been devastated by the introduction of lockdowns and social distancing laws related to the Coronavirus. Within the transportation industry, the COVID-19 pandemic has arguably hit the public transportation industry the hardest. According to most estimates, ridership levels are at least 70% below pre-crisis levels, with some areas losing even more, especially on longer-distance and commute-oriented services, as demonstrated by San Francisco’s BART system losing 93% of its riders. Transit agencies are struggling to maintain service levels, with many of them making cuts or planning to make cuts in the next few months, which will further have an impact on ridership. Moreover, due to the mandatory social distancing and city-wide lockdowns, the public transport industry has not been able to operate for months now. However, with businesses now opening again, it is significant for the public transportation industry to open up again, albeit, it will be challenging to do it safely. For many low income employees, public transport is the only way for workers to commute to their workplaces, however, falling sick with the virus is not an option. The question then remains whether the public transport systems will be able to return to full capacity or will suffer major consequences. This is an important consideration because the public transport industry is vital in reducing the quantity of GHG emissions globally, and should it suffer, it could impact the sustainability in the industry moving forward. 

Moreover, as people are incentivised to move away from public transport, due to legislation for social distancing and increasing fears of hygiene in a shared environment, they may move towards personalised motorised vehicles, such as cars and motorcycles. This may be devastating to the GHG levels as supporting public transportation can reduce harmful CO₂ emissions by 37 million metric tons annually. Moreover, the increased consumption of ars could, in turn, increase congestion in the streets, thereby, increasing the average time spent on the roads, and therefore, increasing the average GHG emissions per car. This raises the question of how the car, and motor vehicles, industry could be shaped to offer a more sustainable and cheaper option which could both be economically feasible, yet able to help the decrease GHG emissions.

Along with the public transportation sector, another aspect of the transportation industry that has been drastically impacted is the aviation industry. Airline capacity in Europe reduced by almost 88 percent in 2020 as compared to 2019, a direct response to the travel restrictions placed by countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first half of 2020, Chinese passenger travel declined by approximately 87 million passengers, and by the end of May most airlines were bankrupt. However, as this is dreadful news on the economic front, environmentally, the airline industry is a large emitter of  GHG, emitting worldwide about 915 million tonnes of CO₂ in 2019.

The Transportation Industry and Trends in Criteria Pollutants 

The transportation industry has been a key contributor to pollution, but specifically in the section of air pollution. There are multiple sources which contribute to the emissions of harmful gasses, but the transportation industry is one which causes a significant amount of daily emissions. Within the broad subject of air pollutants, there are six criteria pollutants, which include carbon monoxide (CO), ground-level ozone, lead, nitrogen dioxide (NO_x), particulate matter, and sulfur dioxide (SO₂). A typical passenger vehicle emits about 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, but this number can vary based on a vehicle’s fuel, fuel economy, and the number of miles driven per year. Most car exhausts are known to emit sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and oxides of nitrogen. Moreover, the transportation sector alone is responsible for over 55% of NO_x total emissions inventory in the U.S.  These gases are harmful as pollutants. Carbon monoxide is a harmful gas, as breathing in low levels of the gas can cause fatigue and increase chest pain in people with chronic heart disease, while breathing in higher levels can cause flu-like symptoms such as headache and dizziness. Sulfur dioxide can, too, be extremely harmful to human health when it is breathed in, causing irritation in the nose, throat, and airways leading to coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath. Moreover, sulfur dioxide inhalation can directly contribute to the development and progression of ischemic stroke in the brain, although there is no definite relationship has been established between the gas and symptom. 

Furthermore, increased concentrations of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, in the earth’s atmosphere have already substantially warmed the planet, causing more severe and prolonged heat waves, temperature variability, increased length and severity of the pollen season, air pollution, forest fires, droughts, and heavy precipitation events and floods, all of which put respiratory health at risk. Diesel exhaust particles (DEPs), composed of 80% ultrafine particles, and associated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons impact on airborne allergens, increasing exposure effects, concentration and allergenic biological activity. Several studies have demonstrated effects of ozone over respiratory symptoms, including shortness of breath, wheezing and coughing, lower respiratory tract infections, acute and transient decreases in lung function, increased airway responsiveness, airway injury and inflammation, and systemic oxidative stress.

As seen in figure 1, there is a direct correlation between the gigagrams, direct CO₂, equivalent from energy and use. As there has been an increase in the usage of  cars and other forms of vehicles, there has been a steady increase in CO₂ emissions consequently. Over 30 gigagrams of the 55 gigagrams emitted in 1990 were due to passenger cars. This shows how the increase in public transport can affect emission levels as a bus of 65 passengers, is equal to 50 cars. Figure 1 also demonstrates that emissions have increased but marginals emissions have had steady improvement

However, the issue does not come from metrics. Rather, it is a result of a larger amount of  and a larger amount of miles. These increases are functions of increased number of vehicles and miles. A statistic reports that passenger vehicles sales in India were at a record high in 2017-18 touching almost 3.3 million units, growing at 7.89 per cent driven by demand from smaller towns coupled with increasing popularity of utility vehicles. Public transport, therefore, decreases the amount of metric emissions per person. One local bus would emit about 82 grams of CO2 per kilometer whereas an average car running on petroleum would emit 180 grams.  

The Forms of Public Transport and Their Impact

Within the public transportation sector, there are many different forms of public transport ranging from motorised vehicles such as buses and pooled vans to vehicles such as trains and aeroplanes, which operate on high efficiency engines. When compared to aviated vehicles, motorised vehicles emit a comparatively lower amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Motorised forms of public transport also contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, as it can encourage a reduction in the usage of individual vehicles. Moreover, if a commuter shifts from a personalised vehicle such as a car to public transport, they can deliver a 65% reduction in emissions during peak times and a 95% reduction in emissions during off peak times. This shift can also be demonstrated through the comparison that one typical passenger car, carrying one person, gets 25 passenger miles per gallon, while a conventional bus, at its capacity of 70 (seated and standing), gets 163 passenger miles per gallon. Therefore, public transit substantially reduces fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions, further making it a wise public investment in a new, carbon-constrained economy. Moreover, the fuel savings yield commensurate cuts in CO₂ emissions. Furthermore, a passenger car carrying one person emits 89 pounds of CO₂ per 100 passenger miles, while a full bus emits only 14 pounds per person. 

Railway systems are also an efficient way of introducing public transport to reduce emissions. Some may argue that rail systems are a more sustainable option, as, generally, these systems have lower levels of emissions per passenger kilometer than other means of transport. Calculations for high speed rail using the average European electricity mix, a load factor of 75%, and the consumption of an Alstom train show emissions of around 17 gCO₂/PKM, much lesser than compared to 30 gCO₂/PKM for a bus. Rail systems are also often large consumers of electricity themself. At present, the railways consume 18.5 billion units of electricity every year. The emissions avoided by passengers using rail systems are higher than the emissions caused by rail systems themself, therefore resulting in a positive outcome. Moreover, for railways, transport turnover mix accelerated the decoupling process and the increasingly active role of the transport turnover mix effect raised the likelihood of decoupling. Rail systems are not only integrated throughout cities like New York and Mumbai, which enables people to avoid using single passenger vehicles on a daily basis, but also are an efficient way of long distance traveling which may be tedious in a bus. Therefore, rail systems allow the various different sorts of travel, which can replace the use of a short-term bus or a long-term aeroplane. Rails also allow for intra city travel which proves to be more efficient than buses as they often get stuck in traffic and at stop signs whereas subway systems are built underground, allowing them to avoid all congestion. Trains scale better than buses. Each traincar can hold more people than a bus, and trains can be run at long lengths and at higher frequencies than buses. The number of buses required to fully replace the capacity of a full subway line at rush hour frequencies exceeds one per minute. It’s ungridded cities where the ability of trains to cut under the street network becomes critical to providing service to major destinations, which may not be anywhere near the wide streets.  Creating an underground railway system requires a certain amount of infrastructure and funds which may not be available in rural areas. Moreover, it is challenging to build such a facility without the presence of underground tunnels already. However, Mumbai is a populated city which is dependent on its light rail system as well. Consequently, its metro system is completely operational and overground. The rail system was built as late as 2006, and was introduced in full scale to the city in 2013.

Vehicles such as aeroplanes also use jet fuel, which is a refined version of petroleum classified as kerosene, which emits more carbon dioxide than regular fuels. However, it is important to note that the GHG emissions rely heavily on the fuel use and emissions are dependent on the fuel, aircraft, and engine type, and other factors such as the engine load and flying altitude, which vary from aircraft to aircraft. 

The Realities of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Due to the current state of the pandemic, an increase in the use of public transport cannot be implemented in most places. With regards to the direction in which the pandemic is going, COVID-19 cannot completely disappear until a vaccine is found. Many scientists predict that the pandemic will last until February 2021. Others think it may even extend till longer. It is clear now that summer does not uniformly stop the virus, but warm weather might make it easier to contain in temperate regions. In areas that will get colder in the second half of 2020, experts think there is likely to be an increase in transmission. With many countries having a decline in COVID-19 cases like New Zealand and others, like India, which have not possibly hit their peak yet, the pandemic is not playing out in the same way from place to place. If the virus induces short-term immunity — similar to two other human coronaviruses, OC43 and HKU1, for which immunity lasts about 40 weeks — then people can become reinfected and there could be annual outbreaks. New York, a city which is popularly known for its widespread use of public transport and walking population, has recently reported the fact that many New Yorkers have bought their first car, due to coronavirus.  Although most major cities in the UK have opened up, a poll that surveyed a mix of 482 business leaders and employees, conducted by Breathe, Posture People and HR Centra, reported nearly nine in ten employees (about 88 per cent) said they would not be comfortable commuting to work on public transport at all during the rest of 2020. 

Low income workers are heavily dependent on public transport to commute to work and now that businesses have started to open up again, a failure to arrive at work could directly lead to employment termination. Almost all businesses have suffered due to the coronavirus, and the crash of the economy has laid off millions of workers. In March 2020, total nonfarm payroll employment fell by 701,000, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.4 percent, as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Job security is at an all time low and the issue with using public transport may affect it further. With these restrictions on public transportation, low income workers can only commute to work through motorised vehicles such as cars. However, as mentioned before, the steady decline in the economy has affected the financial status of many low income workers. Consequently, they cannot afford to purchase a personal vehicle even if they had the savings for it prior to the pandemic. A third of New Orleans residents who commute via public transportation live in poverty, compared to only 9 percent of those who drive cars. In the United States, commuters driving alone to work report median earnings $4,314 higher than those taking public transportation. This also leads to another issue, air pollution has twice the impact on lung function for members of lower-income households, research has suggested, and it increases their risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by three times. The mainstream cigarette smoke contains approximately 500 μg of NO generated per cigarette. Second hand smoking is known to have adverse effects on people who live with or spend time around smokers. The average CO2 emission for the buses is 822 g / km. This shows how much harm can be implemented upon low income workers by just being around public transport which does not have safe sources of sustainable energy. As seen though figure 2, middle income and low income workers are at a higher risk for the majority of respiratory illnesses and other diseases in comparison to the high income population.  This is inherently flawed as this portion of the population has less access to health care and treatments.

The disproportionate impacts of ground source emissions is a growing issue which worsens with the increase of greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation industry. Especially in the current state of  a global medical emergency due to COVID-19, the effects of such respiratory illnesses are more relevant than ever as the Sars-Cov-2 virus attacks the walls and linings of the air sacs in the lungs. People with respiratory illnesses are at high risk of mortality from the Sars-Cov-2 virus. 

Electrification of vehicles 

Conventional vehicles with an internal combustion engine produce direct emissions through the tailpipe, as well as through evaporation from the vehicle’s fuel system and during the fueling process. Conversely, EVs produce zero direct emissions. Electrified cars eliminate tailpipe emissions completely, however are still not completely emission-free.  Overall, despite the mode differences, a weak decoupling state appeared between 1990–1995 and 2000–2010, offering empirical evidence for the decoupling of transport carbon emission from transport output. The decoupling index indicated the transport energy efficiency factor stimulated the decoupling in the observed period. Transportation has not successfully moved to decoupling miles from petroleum. Due to the electrification of transportation, the electric power industry has reduced carbon dioxide emissions 27 percent below 2005 levels as of 2018, nearly the lowest level in three decades, while the transportation sector is now the leading source of emissions. More than one-third of the United State’s electricity comes from carbon-free sources (nuclear energy and hydropower and other renewables).  In the Base GHG scenario, the study estimates that, by 2050, the electricity sector could reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 1030 million metric tons relative to 2015 levels, a 45% reduction. Electric buses are essential to minimising all emissions coming from transport. As well as, it will improve the public transport industry and make it even more sustainable. Electric buses sales have increased over the years, however, roughly 98 per cent of the electric buses in the world are deployed in Chinese cities. Introducing electric buses to countries like the United States can lead to a more efficient transportation sector and decrease the pollution. India (70,000 buses sold in 2017) is a market with big potential, when even a small part of the orders will be electric. By 2025, the research company Interact Analysis forecasts that India will account for more than 10% of the total annual demand for electric buses globally, which is more than Europe and North America combined. One of the most popular types of electric buses nowadays are batteryelectric buses. Battery electric buses have the electricity stored on board the vehicle in a battery. As of 2018 such buses can have a range of over 280 km with just one charge, however extreme temperatures and hills may reduce range. Electric buses require charging systems in multiple locations for regular charging. However, such infrastructure does not exist in developing countries like India. Ironically, these countries are the ones with larger populations which are heavily dependent on public transport such as buses. Battery-electric vehicles’ biggest problem has always been range. At the dawn of the automobile age, electric cars competed with gasoline and steam-engined vehicles: In 1900, 38 percent of U.S. cars were battery-powered, and only 22 percent boasted internal combustion engines.

Renewable energy and its limitations 

If we look at centralised and non-renewable systems, namely, large-scale plants using fossil fuels as oil and coke, they are environmentally unsustainable because they are based on exhausting resources, so forth fastening resources depletion. Furthermore, these exhausting resources result in high greenhouse gases emission (CO2 emissions), through several processes along their life cycle, which determine global warming. Without a doubt, these operations require very costly and large-scale centralised structures, which limit the conceivable outcomes of direct and democratized access to energy production and utilization. Throughout time, people have had low control over their own fate which prompted a widened gap (as far as disparity) among rich and poor, which has been pursued in time perpetuating a centralised energy production. Renewable energy is without doubt a better option for energy consumption as it avoids greenhouse gas emissions unlike the use of petroleum fuels. However, renewable energy comes with its own challenges. One of the biggest concerns in the field of renewable energy is power generation depending on natural resources that are uncontrollable by humans.The uncertainty in energy production in renewable energy technologies is making integration more complex. High power quality is expected to guarantee security and high productivity of the system. The nature of the force gracefully permits the framework to function ably with high unwavering quality and lower costs. On the other hand, poor power quality can have major damaging consequences for the power grid and industrial processes. Furthermore, Most sustainable power source plants that share their vitality with the network require large zones of space. By and large, sustainable power sources are directed by areas which can be off-putting to clients. Of course, some sustainable power sources are just not accessible in various locations Additionally, the distance between the renewable energy source and the grid is a major aspect in term of cost and efficiency.

Looking at trends between India and the United states by the table below (Figure 3), the energy consumption of the two  countries can be compared.

As it can be seen, the energy consumption in the United States is comparatively higher than India on a daily basis. This is due to the fact that the United states is a developed country and has a larger population using transportation as compared to India. The implementation of renewable energy in areas such as India will be substantially different in comparison to an area such as the United states due to their varying levels of energy consumption. However, even though the United States has a larger amount of electric consumption, it would possibly be easier to introduce renewable energy to transportation there as the country is more developed and more likely to be able to fund such a project whereas India is a developing country with possibly not enough resources to sustain a renewable power line.

Decoupling from the central grid

The grid relied primarily on large fossil-fuel facilities to generate electricity, and an inefficient collection of cables, poles, and wires that transports this electricity over large distances. To avoid the emissions of dangerous greenhouse gases, renewable energy must become the primary source of energy for all industries, including electric transportation.  The energy grid structure that most commonly still exists in urban areas, even the areas transitioning to renewable energy, relies on large centralized power generation facilities that transmit and distribute generated energy across long transmission lines. The integrated green urban grid has four key segments: energy efficiency, demand response, distributed generation, and distributed energy storage. By adequately incorporating these four segments, the new urban green grid can decrease the amount of air pollution, including GHG emissions, while keeping up unwavering quality of the electrical framework. The kinds of renewable energy that could be utilized as distributed generation assets are advanced technologies which can be downsized and sited close to stack necessities, for example, wind, sun powered, and geothermal. A large portion of the circulated generation is solar as it can be readily sited on roofs and other available urban areas. Distributed fuel cells are likewise picking up prominence, however because the vast majority of them depend on petroleum derivatives, their advantages identified with environmental change and contamination are more restricted than different assets, for example, wind and sun oriented. Distributed energy storage resources are an essential component of a green urban grid. Consequently, the new green urban grid will rely on distributed renewable generation resources such as solar photovoltaic systems on residences. Wind and solar renewable resources are considered variable or intermittent because the sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow.

The ultimate goal  or the transportation industry would be to become less tied to the central grid and achieve renewable charging for electric vehicles. The only viable method of decoupling transportation from fossil fuels would be through the urban green grid as it eliminates the need for depending on the centralised grid as well as allows the consumption of renewable sources of energy, therefore providing vehicles with an alternative for fossil fuels. If electric cars and buses were able to decouple from fossil fuels, there would be an extreme reduction in GHG emissions from the transportation industry and, coming out of the pandemic, the inevitable rise of air pollution can be avoided. 

Further analysis and research recommendations

Personally, I began writing this paper with the perspective that encouraging public transport will be the solution to sustaining low carbon emissions post the COVID-19 pandemic. However, through research I soon discovered the true complexities of the issue with transportation and GHG emissions. Although public transport is the first step towards a more sustainable society and currently is the easiest as it is already a functional system, the real issue can only be resolved once all modes of transport can be successfully electrified and decoupled from fossil fuels.  Public transport decreases per-person carbon emissions. However, the primary users of public transport are low income workers and due to the pollutants which buses and rail systems emit, they are impacted on a disproportionate scale by respiratory illnesses. Public transport reduces the number of vehicles on the road, and therefore, reduces the amount of emissions, however public transport vehicles themselves do produce harmful pollutants. To achieve a ‘0 emission’ vehicle, decoupling from the central grid and moving towards the idea of an ‘urban green grid’ is necessary. Moreover, public transport is currently not a viable solution as the recent pandemic has urged for social distancing and most people may not find utilising buses and subways as ‘safe’. Although there are many disadvantages to using passenger vehicles, if electric cars and motorcycles can operate by the use of renewable energy, cities can come out of this pandemic with a colossal decrease in GHG emissions from the transportation industry and a safe environment where people can continue practising social distancing until necessary. 

Further research recommendations would include going more in depth on the different constraints of renewable energy and the actual process of implementation of it in transportation. Moreover, linking such research with the decoupling of transportation from the central grid will provide appropriate answers to the challenges of such a project and how to go about imposing it on our society. Another field of research would surround the COVID-19 pandemic itself. Although there has been a visible decrease in the amount of GHG emissions, there have also been many factors contributing to environmental issues such as the newfound abundance of medical waste (surgical masks, gloves, etc). From an environmental perspective, do the pros of this pandemic outweigh the cons? Now with businesses and the economy reopening, is the situation becoming worse than before due to the fact that more people are inclined to using personal vehicles rather than a form of public transportation? This pandemic could have possibly crushed the entire public transport industry, as the aviation industry has arguably been hit the hardest. 

There are many possible discussions regarding public transport as well. Public transport has been around for a long time, and although there has been an increase in the usage of public transport over the years, many countries have failed in implementing this system into their cities. What may be the cause of this? What are the restrictions with public transport? How long would it take to completely reinvent public transport and make it completely electrified and renewable? With a concentration on electrification, further research on the electrification of transportation can be done. This may include researching the quantitative values, physical process or environmental impacts. 

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic unintentionally caused a significant decline in carbon emissions from the transportation industry. However, sustaining this change has proved to be very challenging. Utilising modes of public transportation can contribute significantly to reducing emissions, however, it cannot completely eliminate this issue as most modes of public transport do emit criteria pollutants which leads to low income workers being affected by respiratory illness in a disproportionate manner. Moreover, public transportation is not a viable option due to the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic which restricts any sort of public contact. Moreover, this issue can be solved from the root of the problem — the tailpipe emissions of GHG from vehicles. In order to tackle such an issue, all modes of transport ought to be electrified. As well as, energy sources must be renewable. All these ideas are highly interdependent. The idea of having electrified public transport essentially tackles the issues with having too many single passenger vehicles, as well as having criteria pollutants emitted through the tail pipes of vehicles. Although electrification of vehicles is beneficial itself, decoupling from the central grid is necessary for electrified vehicles to be ‘all clean’. By promoting the urban green grid, electrified vehicles can be successfully introduced without adding to emissions from non renewable charging methods. 

Ideally, the priority of policy makers should be to find a safe way to promote public transport post the pandemic. If many passenger vehicle users can be persuaded to use public transport, there will be a significant decline in air pollution and congestion on roads. Although decoupling from the central grid will inherently minimise all emissions, it is still a long process which cannot be done in the midst of a medical emergency. Therefore, increased usage of public transport is the best way to tackle this issue. Since most people have lost savings during this economic crisis, many low income workers may not be able to afford new cars, and with job security at an all time low, public transportation is their only option. If the government can successfully optimise the experience of using public transport by taking safety precautions at every step, there will be a potential transition for many car users and will successfully lead to a more public transport dependent economy. Thus, potentially sustaining this decrease in GHG emissions post the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Works cited

Mentor: Mr. Kurt Teichert, Brown University

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About the author

Manya Mehta

The post The Effect of COVID-19 on Transportation and its Repercussions on the Industry appeared first on Exploratio Journal.

Background

Since the invention of the television in the 1950’s, food delivery has become a blooming market. The advent of online delivery in 2004 has seen apps like UberEats and Grubhub gain popularity. However, as such service grows viral, its environmental impact becomes considerable. Meituan, one of the leading food delivery platforms in China, delivered 6.4 billion food orders in 2018  and contributed approximately 1.6 billion tons of packaging waste. In the EU, researchers in the University of Manchester estimate that over two billion disposable takeaway containers are used every year. A “green” approach to food delivery is crucial for the development of this convenient service while preserving the environment. 

In fact, there has been notable effort made to make the food supply chain more sustainable. The term “food miles” was invented in 1990 as a unit to measure how much pollution is caused by transporting foods from its origin to the customers. The creation of this term encouraged customers to get food from local sources. Moreover, food delivery apps have suggested different ways to limit the amount of waste and pollution of food delivery. Yet, there is more to be done. 

What have we done to reduce the environmental impact of food delivery?

As food delivery became a huge business, people have made multiple attempts to reduce its environmental impact. Different communities also came up with different ideas that suit their own environment. China, for instance, due to its high population density, enables shorter delivery distances from customer to customer. As a result, electrical bikes have become the top choice for food delivery, which is more sustainable and expedient than cars in the busiest parts of cities.

Drone delivery is also an emerging possibility. This option for sure fixed the environmental impact of food delivery, but its large-scale implementation demands additional technological development.

Recyclable tablewares also became popular for deliveries, as they create less environmentally-harmful waste. 

Food delivery apps have also strived to improve sustainability of food delivery. In recent years, food delivery apps have created various policies and options that aim to reduce the environmental impact of food delivery. Uber Eats, for example, waives delivery fees for customers who order from a range of restaurants that require shorter delivery routes. This allows one driver to pick up multiple deliveries and reduce time on the road. Doordash, another delivery app, also has a policy that restaurants default to not including tableware with your order, which saves the waste from single-use tablewares. These are all viable options. This research will base on these existing improvements and design a specially customized system for students that these apps could take advantage of in order to reduce environmental impact.

The food supply chain is a complex process. It operates in a dynamic, time-sensitive and complicated environment, where efficiency and quality are vital. There are several key factors which play influential roles in the development of the food supply chain.

Quality

Since food is the object in question, quality deserves to be on the top of the list. Quality is essential to customer satisfaction and effective management of the food supply chain. It is worth allocating resources to this end. No matter how much we change the supply chain for the better, the quality of food should remain a high standard for consumer safety. Fewer food miles will result in a decrease in the energy required of storage and transportation.

Technology

Technology is vital to creating a more sustainable food supply chain. Examples include accurate weighing, refrigeration, controlled atmospheric bacterial growth inhibition, pasteurisation, micro-element pollutant detection, bar coding, electronic recognition of packaging, the use of stabilisers, artificial insemination, embryo transplantation, precision seeding, environmentally and welfare friendly animal housing, and organic crop and animal production systems. “Greener” technology could be the key to improve our current supply chain.

Information Technology

Information technology focuses on software connections, interweaving the entire supply chain. From food traceability to online food delivering apps, information technology is indispensable. More sustainable information technology may improve the supply chain. In this research, food delivery apps is at the center of information technology analyses.

Logistics

Logistics entail the movements and storage of the food products in question. It uses technology and information technology as vehicles to complete the supply chain. As mentioned previously, as technology and information technology develop,  the logistics of food could improve concurrently to better sustainability.

Traceability

Traceability denotes the ability to track the product along the supply chain, a crucial variable in food quality. Food delivery apps’ attention towards this should not be neglected when we are aiming for a more sustainable food supply chain. 

Consumer

Consumer need and satisfaction are crucial for any supply chain. In other words, consumers drive the supply chain. As a result, it is important to understand the consumer’s needs and make sure that greener systems do not come at the expense of consumer satisfaction. In this research, this will be completed by surveying current students in boarding high schools.

These interconnected factors form the entire food supply chain. As mentioned above, along this trail from farms to stores to customers, storage and transportation leave a considerable amount of carbon footprint and waste and room for improvement.

This research focuses on the end delivery or transportation part of the food supply chain: from restaurants or stores to customers in a campus setting. In this process, there are two major factors that contribute to the environmental impact of food delivery: traffic emissions during transportation and the packaging waste. While the emission caused by traffic during delivery is negligible compared to regular traffic, the amount of waste produced by providing delivery services is not. Americans throw out about 120 billion disposable cups every year from takeouts and deliveries. In other words, each person in this country throws out 363 paper, plastic, and Styrofoam cups every year. We haven’t quantified how much of US plastic waste is a result of takeout but we do know that packaging for food, beverages, cosmetics, and medications contributes to 30% of municipal solid waste in the United States. As such, a sustainable food supply chain must address this shortcoming.

Research Question

What kind of system could reduce the packaging waste produced by food delivery service in the campus setting? 

Hypothesis

When discussing sustainable waste management, recycling is always a keyword. However, the key difficulty here is that plastics or paper packages cannot be recycled. As a result, reusable packaging becomes ideal. 1950’s milk delivery systems involved a milkman putting bottles of milk in a milk box and collecting empty bottles from these boxes. These used bottles would then be delivered to a warehouse where they’re cleaned and replenished for the next order. A similar approach for food delivery might work with proper management. 

There are a couple of differences between online food delivery and milk delivery that will affect this system. First, all milk for milk delivery comes from one or a few warehouses. However, online food delivery services deliver food from thousands of restaurants. Second, the warehouses and the milk delivery service are from the business, which is much easier  to manage and control. However, restaurants are individual businesses, which are hard to collectivize. A solution is not impossible, however.

A new business could be created that focuses on the distribution and collection of reusable food packaging and tablewares. This business could be a company that cooperates with the food delivery apps and the restaurants, sending out sets of table wares and packages to restaurants that collaborate with food delivery apps. When orders come in, the restaurants will put the food in these reusable containers and deliver it to the customers. When customers finish eating, they can put the used reusable containers in a box prepared by the company that cleans and redistributes them for the next use.

However, there are thousands of households and apartments that use online food delivery service–how can one execute such a project? The first audiences of this service can be the dorms on campuses. There are limited dorms in a school and it is easy to locate them. However, we must consider how a company can convince restaurants to use their containers. What price is acceptable? How will the restaurants know if this order is from a dorm? Can this business launch and survive? These are all questions that require further research.

A similar existing service is called Loop, an online shopping service that provides reusable packaging. It delivers items in a specially designed reusable package called the “Loop Tote” collected for reuse. This data could be super helpful for the development of my proposal.

Research Methodology

The current global situation renders sources limited, but here are the sources that I plan to use:

1. Google/Google Scholar

General information collection. This is where I could get a head start on my research but it will not be my focus.

2. School Library / Various Databases.

This is where I will spend most of my time. Databases like Gale and ScienceDirect gives lots of valuable papers in my field of research.

3. Online Survey

This will be one of my hardest steps in my research. Developing surveys and analyzing survey data require more research. However, I do believe that surveying students in boarding schools who are the customers of my proposal will yield a much better sense of their need and how to make this proposal work.

Survey Result & Conclusion:

To test the feasibility of the hypothesis, a survey was conducted to collect feedback of the target market. Until the 13th of August 2020, 272 responses were collected. In the responses, approximately 88.24% of participants said they definitely or probably wouldn’t mind carrying their food containers to a recycle box in front of their dorm after finishing the food they ordered. 

After knowing that the most target customers are willing to act on the incentive, cost/profit becomes the next factor. Since the results are from all over the world and different places have different currencies and prizes for food, it is hard to ask a survey question that’s suitable for all participants. As a result, two different questions were asked based on the participants’ answers to the previous questions. If the participant chose that they study in China, they received the question “How much more money are you willing to spend for reusable food containers?” in RMB (The Chinese currency). Otherwise, if the participant chose their location of study as the US, UK, Canada or Australia, they received the same question in USD with the same numbers. (A Chinese student will choose from a range between 0-10 RMB while others will choose from a range between 0-10 USD. 1 USD approximately equals to 7 RMB.) The cost of online food ordering in these latter countries is much higher than the cost of online food ordering in China. Therefore, it is not reasonable to let the participants who live in China spend the same amount of extra money on reusable containers as participants who live in the other countries. Thus, two sets of data are collected. 

The two graphs show a similar distribution of answers. 69.29% of Chinese participants are willing to pay 1-5 rmb more for reusable food containers with 37.86% willing to pay 1-3 rmb more and 31.47% willing to pay 3-5 rmb more. This data shows that the cost of reusable containers for each order needs to be approximately 3 rmb or less in China.  80.95% of participants who live in the US, UK, Australia and Canada are willing to pay 0-5 usd more (0 is not included) for reusable food containers with 29.37% willing to pay 0-1 usd more (0 is not included), 34.92% willing to pay 1-3 usd more and 19.84% willing to pay for 3-5 usd more. This shows that the cost of the containers for each order should be in the range of 1-3 dollars for each order. This cost not only includes the cost of the containers but also includes the cost for recycling, cleaning and redistribution.

In conclusion, the target markets are willing to act on this incentive if it won’t dramatically increase their cost on online food ordering. More economic calculations need to be done in order to let this service enter the industry and make profit. 

Work Cited

Mentor: Kurt Teichert, Senior Lecturer of Environment & Society at Brown

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“Criteria Pollutants.” Idaho Department of Environmental Quality,  www.deq.idaho.gov/air-quality/air-pollutants/criteria-pollutants/. Accessed 6 Apr. 2020.

“Food miles movement fueled by local food.” Environmental Nutrition, vol. 34, no. 6, June 2011, p. 3. Gale In Context: Science, https://link-gale-com.proxy5.noblenet.org/apps/doc/A258362637/GPS?u=mlin_n_phillips&sid=GPS&xid=dbf5e539. Accessed 11 May 2020.

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Dokoupil, Tony. “The Carbon Cost From Farm To Fork.” Newsweek, vol. 151, no. 11, 17 Mar. 2008, p. 12. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https://link-gale-com.proxy5.noblenet.org/apps/doc/A176486114/GPS?u=mlin_n_phillips&sid=GPS&xid=327dd499. Accessed 15 May 2020.

Harvey, Lan. “Food Delivery: The Epic History of Humanity’s Greatest Convenience.” The Vintage News, 8 Jan. 2019,  www.thevintagenews.com/2019/01/08/food-delivery/ . Accessed 9 June 2020. 

“The History & Evolution of Food Delivery.” Factor, blog.factor75.com/the-history-evolution-of-food-delivery/. Accessed 15 June 2020. 

Zylberberg, Nadine. “Food Delivery Apps are Changing the Way We Eat.” Medium, 30 Dec. 2019, https://medium.com/2030magazine/food-delivery-apps-are-changing-the-way-we-eat-45993e153083. Accessed 15 June 2020. 

Bochtis, Dionysis, et al. Supply Chain Management for Sustainable Food Networks, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.proxy5.noblenet.org/lib/andover/detail.action?docID=4456127.

McLeod, Fraser, et al. “Developing innovative and more sustainable approaches to  reverse logistics for the collection, recycling and disposal of waste products from urban centres.” PDF file, 2008.

Roopana. “4 Major Advantages Of Food Delivery Service.” Trioangle Technology, 4 Aug. 2019, https://trioangle.com/blog/4-major-advantages-of-food-delivery-service/. Accessed 17 June 2020. 

Chua, Jasmin Malik. “Food delivery and takeout are on the rise. So are the mountains of trash they create.” Vox, 4 Dec. 2019. Vox, www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/12/4/20974876/takeout-delivery-waste-grubhub-recycling. Accessed 19 June 2020.

Caruso, Melissa. “Our Take on Loop, A New Reusable Packaging Delivery Service.” Public Goods, 1 May 2019, https://blog.publicgoods.com/our-take-on-loop-a-new-reusable-packaging-delivery-service/. Accessed 19 June 2020.

“How it works?” Loop, loopstore.com/how-it-works. Accessed 19 June 2020. 

About the author

Yuqing (Troy) Mao

Troy is a rising senior at Phillips Academy Andover.

The post Green Food Delivery for Campus appeared first on Exploratio Journal.