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Heavy metal pollution, particularly lead contamination, poses significant environmental and public health risks in urban areas. This study investigates the spatial distribution of lead in snowmelt within Jelgava, Latvia, to identify pollution sources, assess potential environmental impacts, and provide insights into urban pollution management. From 2020 to 2024, snow samples were collected from diverse urban locations, including highways, railway-adjacent zones, industrial districts, and residential areas. Inducti...

The continuous accumulation of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere represents one of the greatest challenges to achieving a sustainable and circular carbon economy. Traditional capture technologies based on aqueous amines are effective but suffer from high energy penalties, corrosion, and environmental toxicity. In contrast, bio-based polymers offer renewable, low-impact alternatives for CO2 capture and subsequent transformation. Chitin and its deacetylated derivative chitosan emerge as particularly promising d...

A global challenge of our nowadays life is dealing with micro- and nano-plastic particles (MNPs), due to wide spreading all around us, persistence over the years, and toxic character, contributing to adverse effects on human health. As one of the biggest polluters worldwide, the textile industry including mechanical and chemical processes of fibers and garments generates various contaminants in the indoor air, including -white pollutants- with micro-nano plastic particles MNPs. This paper presents some methods for...

The environmental impact of the long-standing fossil fuel, namely coke as a reducing agent has been a challenge in the pyrometallurgical industry for decades. The threats that it poses have become increasingly unbearable. Few attempts on different biochar have been conducted and their impact on the quality of slag investigated. More improvements are still underway for industrial scale use. The current project evolves on the reducing capabilities that spent malt waste biochar in the reduction zone during carbotherm...

A pivotal role in pollution control and climate change mitigation within the transportation sector, particularly in internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, plays the catalytic converters. It functions by converting harmful emissions into less harmful substances before they are released into the atmosphere. This process reduces key pollutants that contribute to both air quality degradation and climate change. The catalytic converter thus serves as a critical technology in improving urban air quality and mitigati...

Zephyr AGH represents an attempt to address the need for low-emission transportation. In its initial iteration, it was a race vehicle powered by compressed air. Currently, the project is being developed with a focus on maximizing its utility, particularly in urban traffic conditions. Due to the low energy density of compressed air, it is not a sufficient standalone energy carrier for individual transportation. To maintain the low-emission profile of the vehicle, the design team decided to integrate electric motors...

This paper emphases the synergistic nature of greenhouses, underlining their role in feeding the population and optimizing energy, water, and gas fuel consumption. Several synergies associated with greenhouses are listed: that of recoverable energies, that of water, that of carbon offset, that of trophics, that of economics and that of politics. The most significant greenhouse configurations are reviewed: the passive greenhouse, oper-ating exclusively with renewable energies, the cogenerating greenhouses, producin...

Corrosion is one of the most important causes of failures of reinforced concrete building structures, reduces their service lifetime, reliability and increases the economic complexity of subsequent reconstructions and renovations of buildings. This paper is devoted to the investigation of aggressive environmental influences on building structures. The research is closely linked to long-term measured data of the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute (SHMI), which are used to calculate corrosion losses per year and t...

Integrating Internet of Things (IoT) in poultry farming transforms livestock manage-ment and promotes climate resilience, namely in sub-Saharan Africa, where the rising demand for animal protein is challenged by climate variability and limited resources. This review examines how IoT enhances climate resilience, operational efficiency, and sustainability in African poultry systems. A systematic scoping review following PRISMA guidelines was conducted using databases such as Scopus, IEEE Xplore, Sci-enceDirect, Spri...

The authors of this paper investigate the way rural areas can be sustainably maintained (designing and building -green buildings-, managing natural resources, practicing sustainable agriculture, practicing sustainable economy, practicing sustainable transportation, producing renewable energy, protecting the environment, reducing waste, being responsible) through environmental measures (conserving water, controlling pollution, designing and building -green buildings-, educating in the spirit of environmental protec...

The paper will provide an overview of platforms and their impact in the context of climate change on the seas and oceans. It discusses the types of platforms, and the technologies used to improve performance in the face of severe weather and sea level rise. The proposed work emphasizes the importance of integrating innovative solutions to improve the offshore industry. Analysis conducted so far highlight different types of platforms, classified according to their specific use and structural characteristics, highli...

Urbanization and increasing traffic intensity contribute significantly to heavy metal pollution in urban environments, posing potential risks to public health and ecosystems. This study investigates the spatiotemporal variations of zinc concentrations in snow water within Jelgava, Latvia, from 2020 to 2024. A total of 59 sampling sites in Jelgava and an additional site in Mezciems were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to determine zinc concentrations and identify potential pollu...

Previous research has shown that the properties of biomass pellets (composition, moisture, density) have a significant impact on particulate matter emissions. However, pellet length has been investigated to a lesser extent, mainly for wood pellets. This study offers a new perspective, as it focuses on non-wood biomass (red fescue pellets) and systematically evaluates particulate matter emissions in relation to pellet length. Pellets were sorted into three categories: 0.15-1.65 cm (I), 1.65-3.15 cm (II), and over 3...