Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute in collaboration with the Department of Environmental Sciences of the “Jožef Stefan” Institute have issued the patent entitled “Process for obtaining health- and environment acceptable construction materials from the soil containing water soluble compounds of heavy metals”. The invention refers to remediation of soil contaminated with arsenic, cadmium, lead and zinc by immobilization of the easily soluble, mobile fraction of toxic elements with iron nanoparticles. The process of transformation of the contaminated soil into a construction material is performed by combination of mechanical, chemical and geotechnical procedures. As remediation agents nanozerovalent iron (nZVI), or maghemite nanoparticles, calcareous fly ash from coal burning and bentonite clay or zeolite tuff are applied. In this manner, the remediated soil is transformed into a chemically inert, environmentally acceptable construction material.
F.17 Transfer of existing technologies, know-how, methods and procedures into practice
COBISS.SI-ID: 2163303The "22nd International Symposium on Environmental Biogeochemistry” was organized by Department of Environmental Sciences, JSI in collaboration with the Marine Biological Station of the National Institute of Biology in Piran, September 28 – October 2, 2015 (www.iseb22.ijs.si). The International Association of Environmental Biogeochemistry - ISEB organizes these symposiums every two years for more than thirty years. ISEB strived to bring together scientists from a range of disciplines relating to biogeochemistry in various fields including soil science, microbial ecology and marine, lacustrine and atmospheric research. More than 100 participants from 23 countries attended the symposium. The program also included two Special sessions GMOS and GEOTRACES (The marine and coastal environments) and GLOBAQUA (Surface and groundwater systems), while the SOIL session was devoted to the International Year of Soils (IYS). Strong international representation with six invited speakers and 52 oral and 54 poster presentations was delivered over the four days of symposium.
B.01 Organiser of a scientific meeting
COBISS.SI-ID: 28913191Activity concentrations of natural radionuclides 238U, 234U, 226Ra, 228Ra, 210Pb in 210Po in tap water from selected springs and private wells in the area of the former uranium mine at Žirovski Vrh were determined. Samples were collected at consumer's houses. The results show that the activity concentrations are in range (0,17 – 372) mBq/L and (0,22 – 362) mBq/L for 238U and 234U, respectively; (0,14 – 16,7) mBq/L and (0,9 – 11,7) mBq/L for 226Ra and 228Ra, respectively, (0,28 – 8,0) mBq/L for 210Po and (0,5 – 24,6) mBq/L for 210Pb. Based on the results obtained the committed effective dose for three different age groups of population were estimated. The committed effective doses ranging from 2,32 to 34,26 µSv/year for adults, from 3,53 to 32,01 µSv/year for children (7 – 12 year) and from 2,99 to 23,25 µSv/year for infants. It was found that values were well below the recommended value of 100 µSv/year as prescribed in EU Directive for drinking water and in the Guidelines for drinking water issued by WHO.
F.23 Development of new system-wide, normative and programme solutions, and methods
COBISS.SI-ID: 28527655Within the Handbook of Environmental Chemistry, The Springer issued the Sava River book, Edited by Radmila Milačič, Janez Ščančar from the Department of Environmental Sciences of the Jožef Stefan Institute and Momir Paunivić from Institute for Biological Research “Sinisa Stankovic”, Belgrade, Seriba. The Sava book provides a comprehensive overview of environmental aspects of the Sava River. Hydroelectric power plants, river traffic, intensive agricultural activities, heavy industry and floods have considerable influence on the environment and biota in the basin. Summarizing the results that were gathered in the course of EU, bilateral and national projects, the book highlights the most important stressors and helps readers to better understand the impact of anthropogenic activities on the function of river basins. In the seventeen Chapters topics include: transboundary water cooperation between the riparian countries; climate change projection, including its impact on flood hazards; evaluation of anthropogenic pollution sources; pollution of sediments, metal bioavailability and ecotoxicological and microbiological characterization of the river. The general state of biodiversity and pressures caused by invasive aquatic species are also discussed.
C.01 Editorial board of a foreign/international collection of papers/book
COBISS.SI-ID: 28102695Two invited lectures that were of the importance for further shaping the program the implementation of Minamata convention took place in 2015; the first at the international meeting and the second as a plenary lecture at domestic science conference: HORVAT, Milena, KOCMAN, David, KOTNIK, Jože. Overview of the mercury cycle in environmental compartments : perspective from air sea and land. V: 11th SETAC Europe Special Symposium, 20-21 October 2015, Brussels, Belgium. Global environmental change and mercury pollution: environmental governance research and management of converging issues. [S. l.: s. n.], 2015, str. 17-18. HORVAT, Milena. Analytical chemistry of mercury in light of the new global mercury treaty (Minamata Convention) : [plenarno predavanje]. V: Slovenski kemijski dnevi 2015, Ljubljana, 24. - 25. september 2015 = Slovenian Chemical Days 2015, Ljubljana, September 24 - 25, 2015. KAUČIČ, Venčeslav (ur.), et al. Zbornik referatov in povzetkov. Ljubljana: Slovensko kemijsko društvo, 2015,
B.04 Guest lecture
COBISS.SI-ID: 29147687