December 6, 2022

Calgon Carbon Reactivation Study Shows Removal and Destruction of PFAS

Peer-reviewed journal article details Calgon Carbon study findings

Pittsburgh, PA, Dec. 06, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — A new study by Calgon Carbon Corporation (“Calgon Carbon”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kuraray Co., Ltd. (TYO: 3405) (“Kuraray”), has provided a definitive response to a persistent question about the fate of PFAS during reactivation of activated carbon. Reactivation is a high temperature thermal process that is commonly used by municipalities and industrial users to recycle their used activated carbon and destroy contaminants it has removed.

“The single-biggest conclusion from the study is that PFAS compounds are effectively removed from spent carbon through the reactivation process, as well as showing greater than 99.99% destruction of PFAS through our furnace and abatement system,” explained Rebecca DiStefano, Senior Applications Engineer at Calgon Carbon.

Remediation-The Journal of Environmental Cleanup Costs, Technologies, & Techniques, featured the findings of Calgon Carbon’s study in a peer-reviewed article published in the autumn issue of the esteemed quarterly journal that focuses on the practical applications of remediation techniques and technologies.

“The data detailed in our article effectively demonstrated the removal of PFAS compounds from granular activated carbon (GAC) and greater than 99.99% destruction of PFAS compounds through the furnace and off-gas abatement system,” said DiStefano, the lead author of the Remediation article.

The study’s findings come at a time of growing concern and increased focus about the impact of PFAS, often referred to as “forever chemicals” because of their inability to break down over time in the environment.

“This is research that no one else in the industry has published.,” DiStefano said. “We don’t want to have these unknowns stay out there and linger in people’s minds. We wanted to answer these questions and move the industry forward and continue promoting GAC as the best available treatment (BAT) technology for removing PFAS.”

Calgon Carbon’s FILTRASORB® GAC, sourced from bituminous coal, has demonstrated superior PFAS-removal capabilities compared to other carbons for two decades.

GAC is the most widely used and well-established treatment technology for the removal of PFAS contaminants from drinking water and wastewater. Thermally treating GAC at the end of its useful service life – known as spent carbon – is called reactivation, a process that vaporizes and destroys adsorbed contaminants at extremely high temperatures and restores the GAC to a near-virgin state so it can be reused.

In the first stage of Calgon Carbon’s proprietary reactivation process, PFAS-laden GAC is heated in a furnace for several hours at temperatures of up to 1750 degrees Fahrenheit, imparting enough energy to break down PFAS’s carbon-fluoride bonds, the strongest in chemistry.

The off gas from the reactivation furnace then moves into an abatement system, which features a thermal oxidizer/afterburner designed to destroy any organics that were not destroyed in the furnace. From there, it proceeds through a scrubber to neutralize any acid gases, such as hydrogen fluoride, and remove them from the abatement air. Finally, it passes through a baghouse to eliminate particulate matter.

“It’s a combination of our reactivation furnaces and the abatement systems that achieves these very high levels of destruction,” said John Matthis, Global PFAS Team leader at Calgon Carbon. “With other technologies, you may be removing PFAS from the water, but the question is, what do you do with that media once it has PFAS on it? Activated carbon and reactivation are unique because not only are we removing the contaminants from your water, we also are effectively removing them from the carbon – and from the environment as well.”

For its study, Calgon Carbon enlisted the services of an independent, third-party vendor to test air samples for 36 PFAS compounds. Another third-party vendor analyzed well water and treated motive water samples for PFAS, as well as analyzing samples of spent carbon, reactivated carbon, abatement dust, and bicarbonate raw material for extraction and targeted PFAS.

Since creating the first activated carbon products from bituminous coal in the 1940s, Calgon Carbon has been a pioneer in developing high-performing granular activated carbon products for water purification.

Jenalle Brewer, Senior Vice President – Drinking Water, Innovative Carbon Tech & Global Business at Calgon Carbon said, “PFAS is portrayed in the media as a relatively recent problem. However, we’ve been offering treatment solutions for PFAS for more than 20 years. Our FILTRASORB activated carbon products help to ensure that ‘forever chemicals’ are forever no more. It’s a problem people thought they had to live with, but as our study has proven, they really don’t.”

To learn more about Calgon Carbon’s study and the FILTRASORB product, visit NoMorePFAS.com.

About Calgon Carbon
Calgon Carbon, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kuraray Co., Ltd. (TYO: 3405) (Kuraray), is a global leader in the manufacture and/or distribution of innovative coal-, wood- and coconut-based activated carbon products – in granular, powdered, pelletized and cloth form – to meet the most challenging purification demands of customers throughout the world. Calgon Carbon provides purification solutions for more than 700 distinct applications, including drinking water, wastewater, pollution abatement, and a variety of industrial and commercial manufacturing processes. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Calgon Carbon employs approximately 1640 people and operates 20 manufacturing, reactivation, innovation and equipment fabrication facilities in the U.S., Asia, and in Europe, where Calgon Carbon is known as Chemviron. Calgon Carbon was acquired by Kuraray in March of 2018. With complementary products and services, the combined organization will continue to focus on providing the highest quality and most innovative activated carbon and filtration media products, equipment, and services to meet

Video Content

Amanda Lofty
Calgon Carbon Corporation
724-541-2658
amanda.lofty@kuraray.com

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8709420

December 6, 2022

Bâtir une passerelle vers l’avenir : la « journée portes ouvertes sur le cloud » des entreprises de Chine et d’Afrique du Sud s’est déroulée avec succès

JOHANNESBURG et PÉKIN, 6 décembre 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Le 1er décembre, « passerelle vers l’avenir », une activité thématique de la « journée portes ouvertes sur le cloud » des entreprises de Chine et d’Afrique du Sud, organisée conjointement par NEC Longyuan Power, l’Association économique et commerciale de Chine du Sud et le Quotidien du Peuple en ligne d’Afrique du Sud, s’est tenue simultanément en Chine (Pékin, Gansu) et en Afrique du Sud (Johannesburg, Cap Nord) par vidéoconférence en direct. Cet événement commémorait le 25e anniversaire de l’établissement des relations diplomatiques entre la Chine et l’Afrique du Sud.

Cet événement a permis d’encourager les interactions interpersonnelles dans le cadre de l’initiative « une ceinture, une route », de souligner l’importance de la coopération en matière d’énergie propre dans la mise en œuvre de cette initiative et de mettre en évidence la réputation internationale positive des entreprises chinoises par le biais d’échanges culturels transfrontaliers.

Cedric Thomas Frolick, président des commissions, du contrôle et des TIC à l’Assemblée nationale du Parlement de la République d’Afrique du Sud, Liu Guoyue, président de National Energy Group, S.E. Siyabonga Cwele, ambassadeur d’Afrique du Sud en Chine, et Wang Wen’an, président de l’Association économique et commerciale de Chine du Sud, ont tenu des discours, et Chen Xiaodong, ambassadeur de Chine en Afrique du Sud, a diffusé un message vidéo.

Lazarus Mahlangu, directeur du suivi du programme IPP, ministre plénipotentiaire de l’ambassade de la République d’Afrique du Sud en Chine, Mogamat Mahdi Basadien, Yusuf Timol, ministre économique de l’ambassade d’Afrique du Sud en République populaire de Chine, Gary Smith, directeur général adjoint du bureau de propagande du SASAC, Conseil d’État, et M. Hou Wenan, inspecteur de première classe.

M. Hou Jie, directeur général adjoint et premier inspecteur du bureau de la publicité de la SASAC, M. Zhang Bin, directeur général adjoint du département Afrique du ministère des affaires étrangères, figuraient parmi les nombreux invités de marque conviés à assister à l’événement en ligne.

« La Chine découvre l’arc-en-ciel », « Bienvenue aux énergies nouvelles » et « Parlons de l’avenir à faible émission de carbone » étaient les trois segments qui constituaient le thème de l’événement « Un arc-en-ciel vers l’avenir ».

Le parc éolien de Yumen, dans la province du Gansu, dont le climat et le paysage ressemblent à ceux de l’Afrique du Sud, et le parc éolien de De Aar, en Afrique du Sud, premier projet éolien chinois à intégrer l’investissement, la construction et l’exploitation, ont été les étapes de ce voyage commun dans le cloud, de la Chine à l’Afrique du Sud.

Cette « journée portes ouvertes sur le cloud » est la troisième édition consécutive, depuis 2020, de la journée portes ouvertes organisée par NEC Longyuan Power pour le public dans le pays où se situe le projet.

Vidéo : https://www.facebook.com/LongyuanSA/videos/1217276935489954/

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1961297/De_Aar_Wind_Farm.jpg

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1961298/Yumen_Wind_Farm.jpg

December 6, 2022

H3C AD-WAN Solution Helps LiveCom’s Global SD-WAN Operation

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Dec. 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — According to Omdia’s report, the compound growth rate of the global SD-WAN market will reach 11.9% from 2021 to 2027, and the market size will exceed USD 10 billion by 2027, continuing to lead the enterprise network service market. In recent years, as the epidemic accelerated the digital transformation of the industry, more and more enterprises have chosen cloud, and the demand of enterprises for campus networks, data centers and wide area networks has increased rapidly. The SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) has attracted the attention of more enterprises and service providers because it helps enterprises to achieve quality cloud in a more flexible connection mode, while reducing the cost of WAN.

Although the SD-WAN has a broad market prospect, in fact, the existing SD-WAN solutions cannot fully meet the customer demands. Presently, in Chinese market, most manufacturers lack the capability to optimize end-to-end network resources, so it is difficult to provide a complete set of solutions. In the international market, the solutions of some manufacturers are realized through mergers and acquisitions, which causes problems such as high prices, difficult operation and maintenance, long development cycle, etc., which greatly affects the deployment progress of the SD-WAN.

Based on the insight into the industry pain points, H3C AD-WAN solution, with the concept of “application-driven network”, carries out innovative explorations around technical architecture, business experience, security protection and control, operation and maintenance management, business model and other fields, offers new features such as new service modes, WAN optimization, multi-cloud connection, end-to-end SRv6, SASE business automation, etc., and helps the customers build full-scenario, whole-domain and full-lifecycle intelligent WANs, which can better meet the requirements of the operators in the “post-epidemic” era for end-to-end control, operation, and maintenance for SD-WAN construction. This solution has now been applied to overseas market.

H3C and LiveCom Cooperate Closely to Explore New SD-WAN Modes

In March, 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the Action Plan for Coordinated Development of the “Double Gigabit” Network (2021-2023), proposing to adopt the SD-WAN technical solution to optimize network transmission quality. As encouraged by this policy, the three major domestic telecom carriers have invested in the research and development of SD-WAN intelligent dedicated lines, and the WAN architecture has also turned to SD-WAN in an all-round way.

LiveCom is an international carrier that has long been dedicated to cross-border communication information services. With the global business expansion of LiveCom, the number of POP nodes deployed overseas and the volume of business carried by the backbone networks increase. Therefore, the forwarding delay, site deployment, network resource optimization, business operation and maintenance management of its global network are facing greater challenges. In order to further enhance its competitiveness in the global market, LiveCom needs a powerful partner to help upgrade its SD-WAN services in an all-round way, and it is just the right time to cooperate with H3C.

After testing SD-WAN products of several manufacturers, LiveCom made a long-term cooperation decision with H3C in less than three months due to the strong advantages of H3C, such as advanced and steady products, professional technicians, and comprehensive service coverage.

In the cooperation mode in which H3C provides overall solutions and products, and LiveCom provides lines and technical support, both parties have finally provided customers with high-quality bandwidth operation services based on SD-WAN solutions. At the application level, in the headquarters and branch scenarios, H3C provides hardware products and SD-WAN controllers for deployment, which help LiveCom to establish multiple POP points around the world and deploy branch routers for enterprises. In addition, through the northbound API interface of the SD-WAN solution provided by H3C, LiveCom can customize the display interfaces according to the actual needs of customers, and comprehensively improve the customer experience in operation and maintenance.

During the cooperation, both sides have gradually formed a benign and interactive cooperation mode through joint efforts. In the early stage, with deep experience in hardware and solutions, H3C organized pre-sales and after-sales training for LiveCom’s technicians in operation, troubleshooting, and calling northbound interfaces of the routers, so as to help them enhance their experience in operating large and medium-sized SD-WAN networks. Besides, H3C provided mature cases for LiveCom, and engineers from both sides jointly deployed the SD-WAN platform. LiveCom was responsible for giving feedbacks of new customer demands to H3C, and both parties jointly analyzed customer demands to provide improved SD-WAN functions and services and solve the problems of the customers.

Five Advantages Help LiveCom in Global SD-WAN Operation

With the joint efforts of both parties, LiveCom has launched the global SD-WAN network access service, which is based on the global SD-WAN network infrastructure built at global POP nodes of LiveCom’s high-speed backbone network, helping enterprises to quickly build high-quality cross-border communication networks to reduce WAN expenses and improve business access experience.

Based on the AD-WAN solution, H3C has formed five advantages to help LiveCom provide global SD-WAN operation services:

I. Relying on advantageous global POP networking, access to the nearest points. LiveCom’s extensive deployment of global POP points can adapt to mainstream Internet access in various regions, and users of multinational enterprises can access the nearest points. Besides, the Overlay between POP points adopts Full-mesh connection, which does not need transit traffic and reduces forwarding delay.

II. Simple deployment, quick launch of business. H3C’s AD-WAN solution has a variety of automatic start-up capabilities, allowing customer sites to be operated without professional IT personnel; the equipment replacement is convenient and plug-and-play, and all business configurations can be automatically deployed with the controller after the new equipment is launched. It also supports the rapid deployment of vCPE on mainstream public clouds of the world. The site launch time is shortened from 3-5 days to 10 minutes, which greatly improves the efficiency of network administrators.

III. Intelligent path selection to improve resource utilization. Through “Internet+MPLS” hybrid link networking, it supports bandwidth bundling and multiple links carrying the same session; working with multi-link intelligent scheduling and QoS strategy, it can ensure SLA for critical application, improve link utilization, and reduce repeated purchases by customers.

IV. Centering on customer scenarios to realize centralized control and targeted optimization of applications. Based on the DPI configuration strategy, the centralized Internet access of designated applications and local Internet access of other applications can be realized, which can optimize enterprise applications in a targeted manner and enhance user experience; The one-click escape setting ensures uninterrupted cross-border access, and the DNS management realizes application access control, which ensures smooth and stable internet access without affecting business access.

V. Unified management to realize intelligent operation and maintenance. The AD-WAN solution provides the northbound interfaces, which help LiveCom realize customized Portals; the VPN isolation strategy is implemented for multiple tenants, with decentralized, multi-level management; Visual applications and automatic generation of a variety of reports ensure users to view the operating conditions at a glance, thus greatly improving the efficiency of operation and maintenance.

H3C Joins Hands with LiveCom to Achieve a Win-win Situation of SD-WAN Overseas

So far, H3C and LiveCom has jointly completed a number of SD-WAN projects, set up SD-WAN headquarters and branch network deployment in many countries around the world, and provided services to dozens of overseas Chinese-funded enterprises.

The cooperation between LiveCom and H3C demonstrates the strong strength of H3C’s AD-WAN solution. In addition, H3C’s SD-WAN projects have passed tests and been successfully implemented in many countries, and have been recognized by more and more overseas customers. As one of H3C’s overseas solutions, the AD-WAN solution has witnessed the process during which H3C and LiveCom jointly built a benchmark for overseas practice. It is the SD-WAN capability, which is leading in the industry, and rich practical experience that have laid the foundation for the in-depth cooperation between both parties.

Based in China, going global in the digital journey. In the future, H3C will continue to consolidate its own advantages, continuously export advanced SD-WAN technologies, and work with LiveCom to provide more professional and efficient SD-WAN services to global customers.

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1961446/image.jpg
Video – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1961555/video.mp4

December 6, 2022December 7, 2022

Journal on Education in Emergencies Volume 8, Number 3 (December 2022)

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This [coronavirus] one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. (Roy 2020)

This special issue of the Journal on Education in Emergencies (JEiE) is focused on education during pandemics. While the choice of topic for this issue was prompted by the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, history has been plagued by a long list of pandemics (see Table 1). Studies from around the world have shown the effects a health crisis can have on education. A recent example is the Ebola crisis in West Africa, which resulted in schools being closed for seven to nine months; the impact on school enrollment and dropout rates as the schools reopened was devasting. Recent evidence, including that provided in this special issue, suggests that COVID-19-related school closures have already left their mark.

Not only have they exacerbated preexisting inequalities—for example, students from the poorest and most marginalized communities have had the least access to remote learning technology—but the isolation caused by the closures has resulted in psychological trauma that will likely take years if not decades to overcome. The importance of these effects is reflected in the fact that at least four other journals have published special issues on education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies

December 6, 2022December 7, 2022

International Year of Millets: Unleashing the potential of millets for the well-being of people and the environment

Rome – As the global agrifood systems face challenges to feed an ever-growing global population, resilient cereals like millets provide an affordable and nutritious option, and efforts need to be scaled-up to promote their cultivation.

This was the message at the opening ceremony of the International Year of Millets 2023 (IYM) at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on Tuesday.

Millets encompass a diverse group of cereals including pearl, proso, foxtail, barnyard, little, kodo, browntop, finger and Guinea millets, as well as fonio, sorghum (or great millet) and teff. They are an important source of nourishment for millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. They are deeply rooted in Indigenous Peoples’ culture and traditions and help guarantee food security in areas where they are culturally relevant.

“Millets are incredible ancestral crops with high nutritional value. Millets can play an important role and contribute to our collective efforts to empower smallholder farmers, achieve sustainable development, eliminate hunger, adapt to climate change, promote biodiversity, and transform agrifood systems,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu told participants at the hybrid event.

Greater millet production can support the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and can provide decent jobs for women and youth. The revenue created can boost economic growth. With the possibility of a health cereal alternative with millets, the risks associated with production shocks can be mitigated.

The IYM 2023 and the push towards increasing millet production will contribute to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

“This International Year is a timely reminder of this important crop. And it provides a unique opportunity to raise awareness of, and to direct policy attention to the nutritional and health benefits of millet consumption, the suitability of millets for cultivation under adverse and changing climatic conditions and creating sustainable and innovative market opportunities for many countries around the work for millets to benefit farmers and consumers globally,” Director-General Qu told the audience.

Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Amina Mohammed delivered a video message during the opening ceremony. Indian Minister of State for Agriculture, Shobha Karandlaje, delivered a message from the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India presented the proposal for the International Year and is the chair of the Year’s Steering Committee.

Nigeria’s Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development Mohammed M. Abubakar, also delivered a keynote speech while Panama’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Janaina Tewaney Mencomo, spoke via video message.

IYM 2023 hopes to galvanise interest in millets among various stakeholders like farmers, the youth and civil society and push governments and policy makers to priorities the production and trade in these cereals.

Source: Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations

December 6, 2022December 7, 2022

DRC Peace Talks End Amid Hopes of Opening Dialogue with M23

A third round of peace talks for the Democratic Republic of Congo has ended in Nairobi with no reported progress toward settling conflicts in the country’s volatile eastern provinces. The talks are coming to an end as the Congolese government accuses the M23 rebel group of killing at least 270 civilians.

The talks ended after a week of discussions between the Congolese people and their government on how to bring peace and stability to the country. The only agreement was for continued dialogue between the government and local communities.

However, the chief mediator at the conference, former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta, serving as peace envoy from the East African Community regional bloc, said this was the beginning of peace in Congo.

He said both sides agreed a 20-year-old war cannot be solved in one day but said they must start a path that brings long-lasting peace. He said there was discussion about how there have been more peace conferences similar to this one with the government, and yet there has been no implementation of the peace agreement. He said this time around, they should not just talk, but also implement what is possible.

Among other things, participants discussed how local communities could benefit from mineral resources, which have been central to most of the armed conflict in eastern Congo.

The meeting in Nairobi will be followed by a more consultations between the Congolese government, led by President Felix Tshisekedi, and rebel groups across the country.

The main rebel group, M23, which has engaged with the Congolese forces in fierce fighting in the east of the country, was not present in the talks.

The fighting has been going on in recent days, despite both sides agreeing to a cease-fire more than a week ago.

The government of Congo said M23 fighters killed more than 270 people in the town of Kishishe.

The United Nations said it received reports of civilian casualties during fighting between M23 and other militias in Kishishe.

Lawrence Kanyuka, the spokesperson for the M23 group, denies the group is targeting civilians and calls for the international community to investigate the deaths.

“The DRC government, who speculated on the lives of people, one minute 150, 120 goes back to 100 dead, but on all those deaths, there is no one identified, there is no list, no names of the people, that’s why we say we need an investigation to happen,” Kanyuka said. “We want a thorough investigation, insist on an independent inquiry to take place.”

Kanyuka accused the government forces and other rebel groups of attacking their positions.

“All frontlines have been attacked most of the time because the DRC government has another agenda and doesn’t want any peace to happen in the DRC,” he said. “That’s why the coalition forces always attack the M23. If it’s not, it’s going to be somewhere. Basically, all the positions that’s held by M23 are always under attack by these coalitions.”

The East African regional bloc said it will check in on Congo’s dialogue early next year, with the next meeting taking place in the eastern Congolese cities of Bunia and Goma.

Source: Voice of America