Journal of Petroleum & Environmental Biotechnology

Rapid Assessment of Moisture Content and Treatment of Solid Waste

Wenyi Li^* Department of Environmental Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
^*Correspondence: Wenyi Li, Department of Environmental Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, Email:

Received: 01-Nov-2022, Manuscript No. JPEB-22-19133; Editor assigned: 04-Nov-2022, Pre QC No. JPEB-22-19133 (PQ); Reviewed: 21-Nov-2022, QC No. JPEB-22-19133; Revised: 30-Nov-2022, Manuscript No. JPEB-22-19133 (R); Published: 07-Dec-2022, DOI: 10.35248/ 2157-7463.22.13.495

Description

Hazards to human health and environmental contamination can result from poor Solid Waste Management (SWM). Solid waste either contains or generates a number of pollutants that pose a threat to human health. Human exposure is influenced by a number of variables, and it is important to consider the relationships between potential sources of exposure to various solid waste treatment and disposal practices, potential environmental transport pathways through which the human receptor may absorb contaminants, and potential negative health effects. Direct skin contact with waste, consumption of toxins through contaminated air, inhalation of contaminants through contaminated water, soil, or plants, and build-up of contaminants in the food chain are some of the typical exposure routes.

Waste-borne diseases could potentially be transmitted by vectors like insects. Leachate from landfills and dumpsites can also enter groundwater, causing increased dangers for human health, if the site's location is inadequate and the waterproof layer is not properly planned. Practices like burning waste in the open might produce by-products like dioxins. Dioxin exposure over an extended period of time may have hazardous or cancer-causing consequences. Due to the fact that dioxins disintegrate very slowly and can bio accumulate throughout the food chain, in this situation, the main method by which the human population is exposed to them is through consumption of contaminated foods of animal origin.

Moving from low to high income levels typically improves the Solid Waste Management (SWM) in this situation. It should come as no astonish that research on solid waste and health dangers has primarily been done in industrialized nations, with an emphasis on landfills and incinerators. However, open waste burning and dumpsites are riskier activities that are more prevalent in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs).

The limited researches that have been conducted on solid waste and health concerns in rural LMICs have mostly been crosssectional analyses of relationships between exposure to SWM sites and self-reported health outcomes. There are few studies quantifying the health risks associated with SWM in rural LMICs, and little is known about the relative contributions of various Solid Waste Management (SWM) activities and exposure pathways to health concerns. Although direct testing and quantification of each exposure pathway and risk would be difficult and expensive, other fields have developed semiquantitative intermediary ways to evaluate this using a qualitative and quantitative approach.

For instance, the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted semi-quantitative health risk assessments in the drinking water and wastewater sectors in the Water Safety Plans (WSP) and Sanitation Safety Planning (SSP), and a similar technique could be helpful for SWM. An in-depth investigation of the health risks can be useful when there are detailed exposure data available. To assess the decline of contaminants in groundwater, it is possible, for instance, to compute the daily assumption by ingestion of contaminants using specific exposure factors, recommendations or diffusion-dispersion models as a reference.

However, due to the dearth of data that defines rural areas, such approaches are frequently difficult to implement, and it is not feasible to use such a quantitative evaluation for all identified potential exposure pathways. A more comprehensive semiquantitative method therefore offers a lot of possibilities.

Moisture content is a crucial indicator that has an impact on both the secondary pollution that results from the treatment of solid waste. For instance, during waste storage, waste transport, biological treatment, and landfill disposal, the moisture content affects the production of leachate, a form of high-strength wastewater with high quantities of dissolved or suspended chemicals and contaminants. Additionally, the biological and thermal treatment processes are greatly impacted by the moisture level of solid waste. Water has the ability to optimise reactor temperature in addition to dissolving organic matter and taking part in microbial metabolism. For incineration, the moisture content has a considerable impact on the supplied waste's Lower Heating Value (LHV).

Solid waste is typically not rigorously categorized, and its constituent parts are complicated and variable. Large changes in the moisture content and LHV of the waste that is being burned as a result of this could have an impact on both the steady operation of the incinerator and the emission of pollutants.

In order to eliminate water from the samples for the traditional assessment of moisture content, oven or vacuum drying is typically used. Due to the volatile and thermo sensitive substances present, it takes time and could alter the waste's properties. Due to this, a number of indirect measurement techniques based on cutting-edge equipment have been created, including X-ray scattering, microwave scattering, novel sensors, infrared spectroscopy, near-infrared spectroscopy, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, and visible and near-infrared spectroscopy. These techniques can be used to quickly and accurately monitor the moisture content of soil, forest surfaces, filter cakes, wood, agricultural products, etc.