Soils substances

Pure natural waters are usually colourless, or azure-blue in thick layers. The blue colour intensity increases with decreasing amount of smaller suspended matter present in water. The presence of finely-divided substances causes a change from blue into green colour. Greenish colour of water is also caused by the presence of calcium salts and the near-green colour of some lakes is due to the shape of the bottom. Yellow to brown colours of surface waters are caused by humic (soil) substances and three-valent iron compounds. 

It helps transform material and soil substance into more soluble form for the plant food. 

Standards are essential to ensure the environmental safety of compost. Hydrocarbon plastics do not biodegrade rapidly in compost or in soil and it must be demonstrated that, like of nature s wastes, they do not accumulate in the soil. Standards for biodegradability and compostability of plastics must therefore address, not only the question of non-accumulation of any long-lasting plastics residues in the soil substances but also the safety of any non-degradable residues. These aspects will be discussed in the light of recent scientific studies. 

G. A. Aiken and co-workers. Humic Substances in Soil, Sediment and Water,]o m Wiley Sons, Inc., New York, 1985. 

Dispersion staining is useful for rapid deterrnination of refractive index and dispersion. It is appHed most often, however, for needle-in-a-haystack detection of any particular substance in a mixture such as chrysotile in insulation, cocaine in dust samples, quartz in mine samples, or any particular mineral, eg, tourmaline, in a forensic soil sample. 

Hydrodechlorination is a common reaction of chlorinated pesticides such as atrazine (eq. 15), alachlor, and metolachlor (2) (eq. 16). These reactions are catalyzed primarily by transition metals or by soil surfaces (clays or humic substances). 

M. F. De Boodt, Soil Colloids and Their dissociation indiggregates NATO ASI Sei. B 215, 1990, pp. 517—556, applications of polymeric substances as physical soil conditioners. 

The development of methods of analysis of tria2ines and thek hydroxy metabohtes in humic soil samples with combined chromatographic and ms techniques has been described (78). A two-way approach was used for separating interfering humic substances and for performing stmctural elucidation of the herbicide traces. Humic samples were extracted by supercritical fluid extraction and analy2ed by both hplc/particle beam ms and a new ms/ms method. The new ms /ms unit was of the tandem sector field-time-of-flight/ms type. 

Pollutant Distribution. Of particular importance for the aquatic ecosystem is the distribution of volatile substances, eg, gases and volatile organic compounds, between the atmosphere and water, and the sorption of compounds at soHd surfaces, eg, settling suspended matter, biological particles, sediments, and soils (41,42). 

The solubihty of hydrophobic substances in, or their absorbabiUty on suspended particles, on sediments, on biota, or on soil particles can be related to the solubihty of these substances in organic solvents. The solvent -octanol, CH2(CH2)yOH, is a kind of surrogate for many kinds of environmental and physiological organic substances and has become a reference phase for organic phase water partitioning of organic solutes. 

Adsorption of Metal Ions and Ligands. The sohd—solution interface is of greatest importance in regulating the concentration of aquatic solutes and pollutants. Suspended inorganic and organic particles and biomass, sediments, soils, and minerals, eg, in aquifers and infiltration systems, act as adsorbents. The reactions occurring at interfaces can be described with the help of surface-chemical theories (surface complex formation) (25). The adsorption of polar substances, eg, metal cations, M, anions. A, and weak acids, HA, on hydrous oxide, clay, or organically coated surfaces may be described in terms of surface-coordination reactions ... 

Adsorption and Desorption Adsorbents may be used to recover solutes from supercritical fluid extracts for example, activated carbon and polymeric sorbents may be used to recover caffeine from CO9. This approach may be used to improve the selectivity of a supercritical fluid extraction process. SCF extraction may be used to regenerate adsorbents such as activated carbon and to remove contaminants from soil. In many cases the chemisorption is sufficiently strong that regeneration with CO9 is limited, even if the pure solute is quite soluble in CO9. In some cases a cosolvent can be added to the SCF to displace the sorbate from the sorbent. Another approach is to use water at elevated or even supercritical temperatures to facilitate desorption. Many of the principles for desorption are also relevant to extraction of substances from other substrates such as natural products and polymers. 

One of the primary concerns of all power plants is to ensure high electricity production and reduce hazardous and waste substances. In that way green electricity could be produced. It is essential to monitor the presence and movement of impurities in various measuring sites in air, water and soil [1]. The presence of hazardous species in these eco-systems, even at low-mg/1 levels, has negative effects for nature and human beings [2, 3]. 

Between various wood species great differences can occur in pH as well as in the buffer capacity. Even within the same wood species, differences might occur due to seasonal variations, portion of the wood substance under investigation, pH of the soil, age of the tree, time span after cutting, drying and processing parameters. 

Adsorption — An important physico-chemical phenomenon used in treatment of hazardous wastes or in predicting the behavior of hazardous materials in natural systems is adsorption. Adsorption is the concentration or accumulation of substances at a surface or interface between media. Hazardous materials are often removed from water or air by adsorption onto activated carbon. Adsorption of organic hazardous materials onto soils or sediments is an important factor affecting their mobility in the environment. Adsorption may be predicted by use of a number of equations most commonly relating the concentration of a chemical at the surface or interface to the concentration in air or in solution, at equilibrium. These equations may be solved graphically using laboratory data to plot "isotherms." The most common application of adsorption is for the removal of organic compounds from water by activated carbon. 

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