<p>Estmating the risk to pulic health from heavy metals can help solve the basic questions about the potential dangers of exposure to them. This is the first study&nbsp; aimed to assess the health risk for the residents of the municipality of Zenica, on the land closest to the steel industry by examining the heavy metals Zn, Ni, Pb, Cd, Cr and Cu in the soil and plant cultivars corn and chard that could be used for the potential remediation of such soil. With the calculated data for HQ and HI, the non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk for adults and children were estimated, based on heavy metals in the selected topsoil and plants, which are usually grown in the area of interest, through different ways of their intake. The results showed that there is an unacceptable risk for children and adults due to long-term consumption of investigated plant cultivars from soil contaminated with heavy metals. Constant monitoring and measures to reducing the heavy metal pollution, primarily Cd, Pb and Cr, are necessary in the lands of ​​the municipality of Zenica. Special caution is required for residents who intend to grow plant cultivars near steel industry</p>

<p>The aim of this work was to examine the possibility of stabilizing red mud with a natural mineral, namely pyrophyllite shale, to the extent that it is not harmful to the environment, as well as the use of such a stabilized composite for the production of building materials such as bricks, in order to ultimately achieve a complete circular economy, where on the one hand there would be the utilization of waste material, the preservation of the environment and natural resources, and on the other hand, the production of products of the same quality.</p> <p>Based on the set goal, the results for the composition of red mud and pyrophyllite shale as well as the stabilized composite before and after thermal treatment at 900 &deg;C are presented in the work, and they show that there is a decrease in the proportion of all oxides present in the mixture except silicon, because it is over 63% in pyrophyllite shale. Based on the stabilized composite, building block samples were formed. After the firing process, the samples cracked, and as such they could not be analyzed further. Based on this, it could be concluded that only stabilized composite cannot be used to make bricks.</p>

<p>This study presents the results of applied phytoextraction as a soil phytoremediation method, based on the analysis of selected heavy metal content in soil and plant material. The selected locations where phytoextraction was applied as a phytoremediation method (Gradi&scaron;će, Podbrežje, and Tetovo) are situated in the city of Zenica, in proximity to the ArcelorMittal d.o.o. Zenica plant, identified as a potential major source of soil contamination in the surrounding area. The plant species used as potential phytoremediators were maize, Swiss chard, and alfalfa. The study analyzed the heavy metal content (Zn, Ni, Pb, Cd, Cr, and Cu) in soil samples after plant material extraction, as well as in the root samples of the plant material. Additionally, the study presents the pH values of the soil before sowing (initial state) and after plant extraction. The primary objective of this research was to determine whether soil complexation with an aqueous EDTA solution contributed to the increased uptake of selected heavy metals from soil into the selected plants under real environmental conditions. To assess this, one portion of the land plots was treated with a 0.1 M EDTA solution (from sowing until the late growth stage), while the other portion was left untreated. The results presented in this study indicate that soil complexation with the EDTA solution did not significantly enhance the phytoremediation potential of plants in the majority of analyzed samples. One of the key reasons for the reduced mobility of heavy metals from soil into plant material may be the alkaline nature of the soil at all three study locations, with a pH &gt; 8. The mobility of heavy metals is significantly higher in acidic soils compared to alkaline soils.</p>

Livestock production is a potential environmental pollutan because of the high concentartions of animals on the small area. Production of biogas with anaerobic degradation from organic waste is one of the pledge alternative energetic solutions, especially from organic manure made from animal farming and other residuals of agricultural production.The aim of this paper was to determine posibillity of using manure different origin from extensive animal breeding for production of biogas in labaratory conditions. The results obtained will be based on posibillity of use waste streams from extensive animal husbandry as basic substrate for anaerobic digestion.In this regard, cosubstrates were formed as mixture 1 chicken excrement; mixture 2 sheep manure; mixture 3 cow manure; all three basic substrates were in mixture with the sludge from the wastewater treatment plant. The results showed production of 71,5 ml CH4/gVS for mixture 1, 68,65 ml CH4/gVS for mixture 2 and 48,68 ml CH4/gVS for mixture 3. KEYWORDS:extensive breeding, manure, anaerobic digestion, biogas, biomethane potentional

Water hardness and deposition of incrustation is a problem in households and industry. In this regard, several technologies have been developed with the purpose of water softening and preventing the deposition of incrustation. The ion exchange method is the most commonly used method and is considered a conventional method. However, due to the shortcomings of this method, there is a need to develop adequate alternative methods. The potential of the method using biosorbents such as moss Leucobryum glaucum and Spaghnum peat moss for the purpose of removing water hardness has recently become the subject of intensive research with growing interest. In this study, the method using Leucobryum glaucum as a biosorbent was tested and a comparison was made with the conventional method and previously conducted studies that used other biosorbents.

Pelotherapy is the application of thermal muds (peloids) for therapeutic purposes. Artificial peloids were prepared usingpyrophilite shale maturated in three different types of thermal water in terms of their pH values. The samples after 30and 60 days of maturation were examined by X-ray diffraction. No significant variations in the mineralogical compositionand diffractograms of pyrophillite peloids were detected after maturation. Only the influence of the maturation processof pyrophillite on the pH value of mineral water with high and low pH value is noticed.

Sludge generated in wastewater treatment processes must be treated in an adequate manner, and therefore disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner. The biggest obstacle to the efficient use of sludge is the high water content, therefore the development of methods to accelerate the sludge dewatering process is particularly important. For the purposes of the research, the waste sludge created in the process of purifying ammoniaphenol wastewater in the GIKIL factory was used. Sludge conditioning was performed by adding a commercial flocculant (0.1 % solution) in combination with pyrophyllite, kaolin clay and shredded cardboard. According to earlier research, the volume of waste sludge with the addition of a suitable flocculant could be reduced by more than 5 times compared to the initial amount, leaving behind a large amount of separated water that can be returned to the process. The results show that the addition of commercial flocculant in the amount of 0.8 % gives the best results (reduction of sludge volume by 78.8 %). A lower percentage was found in samples with a mixture of flocculants with pyrophyllite (78 %) and kaolin (77.6 %), while the combination of flocculants with waste cardboard was ineffective (64.4 %). Addition of flocculant to waste sludge resulted in a decrease in specific filtration resistance (1.15x107 s2/g). A decrease in specific resistance was also observed in flocculant/kaolin clay (0.8x107 s2/g) and flocculant/cardboard (1.09x107 s2/g) samples. Sludge conditioning also resulted in a reduction of suspended solids in the neonate compared to settled raw sludge without additives.

Biodiversity of diatoms and applicability of diatom indices in biomonitoring based on littoral epiphytic samples of Lake Modrac were investigated. Diatoms were taken mostly from Phragmites australis stems in 2017, during which physical and chemical parameters of the water were measured. A total of 85 diatom taxa were identified. Gomphonema (13 spp.), Navicula (11 spp.), and Nitzschia (8 spp.) were the most abundant genera. Obtained values of trophic indices (TID, TvD, and TDIL) pointed to meso- to eutrophic status for most localities, while values of the IBD, EPI, ?D, and IPS indices indicated good ecological status, except for localities at the mouth of 2 main tributaries which had moderate or poor ecological status. Based on the hierarchical group average clustering and nonmetric multidimensional scaling, 4 groups were identified, mainly related to the sampling period, with higher spatial variation in species composition during summer. Since environmental legislation in Bosnia and Herzegovina still does not provide detailed instructions on using diatoms in biological assessment, results of this study can be useful for the development of biomonitoring tools for lakes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

: The low degradability of waste materials containing lignocellulosic material is one of the factors that hinder the production of biogas. The increased need for advanced techniques in the anaerobic digestion process has led to the use of different pretreatment raw materials prior to the anaerobic digestion process in order to increase the yield of biogas. In order to maximize the yield of biogas from cattle manure in a mixture with waste sludge, the anaerobic digestion process was performed at mesophilic conditions for 54 days. As pretreatment, the thermal treatment of cattle manure at temperatures of 55 and 70 °C was applied. The highest biogas production was obtained in the sample of cattle manure, previously treated at 70 °C (M70), while the lowest was recorded in the control sample M. The specific biogas production in relation to the input quantity of volatile organic matter had the highest value in sample M70 and the lowest in the control sample. Overall results have shown that the thermal treatment of cattle manure before the anaerobic digestion process can increase both yield