THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING: LEVEL ( I ) EXAMINATION

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

Environmental Engineering CIVL 1005

December 12, 2007 TIME: 2:30- 4:30PM (2 hours)

Answer any (and NO more than) 25 out of the following 30 questions.

All questions carry equal marks; one mark will be deducted for each wrong answer.

Use ofElectronic Calculators:

Candidates may use any calculator which fulfils the following criteria:
(a) it should be self-contained, silent, battery-operated and pocket-sized;
(b) it should have numeral-display facilities only and should be used only for the purpose
of calculation;
(c) it should not have any printing device, alphanumeric keyboard, or graphic display; and
(d) it should not contain any recorded data or program.

It is the candidate's responsibility to ensure that the calculator operates satisfactorily and the
candidate must record the name and type of the calculator on the front page of the
examination scripts. Lists of permitted/prohibited calculators will not be made available to
candidates for reference, and the onus will be on the candidate to ensure that the calculator
used will not be in violation of the criteria listed above.

1. Hong Kong has three world class landfill sites for the disposal of municipal solid wastes.
Which of the following statement is incorrect: In order to protect the surrounding
environment, (a) some minerals are recovered on site, (b) biogas collected from some
landfill sites are sold to the local Towngas for profit, (c) alllandfill sites are lined with
plastic sheets at the bottom to protect groundwater from leachate contamination, (d)
municipal wastes disposed at landfill site are covered by soil daily.
2. The most commonly used systems for treatment of exhaust gases from motor vehicles are
thermal reactors, exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) systems, and three-way catalytic
converters. Which one of the following statements is incorrect for a three-way catalytic
converter: (a) it improves the reduction ofNOx to N 2 (b) it must be operated within a
very narrow range of air-to-fuel ratio, (c) it improves the oxidation of CO to C0 2 , or (d)
it is effective for both leaded and un-leaded fuels.
3. Which of the following sources of nutrients (primarily nitrogen and phosphorus) is NOT
a non-point source pollution? (a) atmospheric deposition, (b) agricultural fertilizer, (c)
industrial sewage, or (d) Soil erosion.
4. Solid and hazardous wastes may be disposed of by incineration. However, incineration
may lead to a number of environmental concerns. Which one of the following concerns is
in general unrelated to incineration of these wastes: (a) particulates, (b) dioxins, (c) heavy
metals in ashes, or (d) contamination of groundwater.
5. Traffic noise at a location due to a nearby highway has a present value of 65.5 dB(A). In
two years time, the traffic volume in the highway will increase by 35%. What will be the
traffic noise level at the location? (a) 88.4 dB, (b) 76.1 dB, (c) 68.1 dB, or (d) 66.8 dB.
6. NOx is a crucial air pollutant resulting mainly from the combustion of fossil fuel. Which
of the following statements about NOx is false? The formation ofNOx may be affected by
(a) the size of the combustion chamber, (b) the combustion temperature, (c) the air-fuel
ratio, or (d) the N content in fossil fuel.
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7. The most commonly used systems for treatment of exhaust gases from motor vehicles are
thermal reactors, exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) systems, and catalytic converters.
Which one of the following statements is incorrect for EGR systems: (a) it lowers the
combustion temperature, (b) it may affect the air-to-fuel ratio, (c) it may reduce the
production ofNOx, or (d) it recirculates portion of the exhausted gas back into the
incoming air/fuel mixture.
8. Coal-fired power plants emit great quantities of sulfur dioxides, nitrogen oxides and
particulates. The most effective means of removing sulfur dioxide from the flue gas is
using scrubbers. Which of the following chemicals is not used in desulfurization
scrubbers: (a) water, (b) calcium carbonate, (c) calcium oxide, or (d) chlorine.
9. A convective kerosene heater is tested in a well-mixed 27m3 chamber having an air
exchange rate of 0.39 air exchanges per hour. After one hour of operation, the NO
concentration reached 4. 7 ppm. Treating NO as a conservative pollutant, what is the NO
source strength of the heater (in mg/hr): (a) 210 mg-NO/hr, (b) 200 mg-NO/hr, (c) 190
mg-NO/hr or (d) 180 mg-NO/hr.
10. For the above question, estimate the NO concentration that would be expected in the
chamber one hour after turning off the heater: (a) 2.8 ppm, (b) 3.0 ppm, (c) 3.2 ppm, or
(d) 3.4 ppm.
11. In a hot, humid summer day what would be likely temperature, assuming the adiabatic
lapse rate, at the Peak when the air temperature at the Victoria Harbour is 35.0C? (a)
31.0C, (b) 31.5C, (c) 32.0C or (d) 32.5C.
12. Cigarette smoking does not emit (a) benzene, (b) PARs, (c) formaldehyde, or (d) ozone.
13. The most abundant gases/vapors in the atmosphere are nitrogen, oxygen and water.
Which one of the following gases is so minute that it is not even listed in the top ten: (a)
carbon monoxide, (b) neon, (c) methane, or (d) argon.
14. The Air Pollution Index, also known as Pollution Standards Index, is reported each day
by the media in Hong Kong. Which of the following parameters is irrelevant to the
calculation of Air Pollution Index: (a) carbon monoxide, (b) carbon dioxide, (c) ozone, or
(d) sulfur dioxide?
15. Radon is (a) pathogen, (b) air pollutant, (c) water pollutant, or (d) disease.
16. The effluent quality of a conventional secondary wastewater treatment plant has been
determined in the laboratory as follows: (a) COD = 10 mg/L, (b) BOD 5 = 20 mg/L, (c)
suspended solids = 30 mg/L, and (d) ammonia nitrogen = 2.5 mg/L. Which value is most
probably incorrect?
17. Activated sludge is a (a) physical treatment process, (b) biological treatment process, (c)
chemical treatment process, or (d) sludge disposal process.
18. The presence of multivalent cations, most notably calcium and magnesium ions, is
referred to as water hardness. Water softening process is mostly relying on adding
chemicals which may precipitate these two cations in the forms of: (a) CaC03 and
MgC03, (b) Ca(OH) 2 and Mg(OH)2, (c) CaC03 and Mg(OH)2, or (d) Ca(OH) 2 and
MgC03.
19. Effluent A has a BOD 5 of 5 mg/L a flowrate of 2 L/sec, whereas effluent B has a BOD 5
of 12 kg/day and a flowrate of 40,000 L/day. What is the BOD 5 of the mixture: (a) 30
mg/L, (b) 40 mg/L, (c) 50 mg/L, or (d) 60 mg/L.
20. Municipal wastewater along both sides of Victoria Harbour (accounting for about 60% of
total amount) in Hong Kong is collected through a deep underground network and
centrally treated at the Stonecutters Island wastewater treatment works. The process
employed in this treatment works mainly relies on the addition of (a) alum, (b) FeCh, (c)
lime, or (d) oxygen via aeration.
21. Which process listed below cannot be used to remove/kill pathogens from drinking
water: (a) coagulation/flocculation, (b) ozonation, (c) UV radiation, (d) reverse osmosis.
22. Although groundwater is in general very clean, it still requires certain treatment before its
distributing to households. Which of the following statement is false: Groundwater
requires (a) reverse osmosis to remove salts, (b) re-carbonation to remove minerals, (c)
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 sand filtration to suspended solids, and (d) aeration to remove odor and to precipitate
metallic ions.
23 For a wastewater having a BODs of 200 mg/L and an ultimate BOD of 300 mg/L, what is
1 1
its first order reaction rate constant (in base of natural log): (a) 0.14 dai , (b) 0.17 dai ,
1
(c) 0.22 dai 1, or (d) 0.25 dai
24. Sturmn and Morgan found in 1981 that algae has a common chemical composition as
C 106 H263 0 110N 16P. Based on this information, which of the following is false: A water is
considered P limited if it has a NIP ratio (by weight) of(a) 16, (b) 12, or (c) 10, or (d)
cannot tell due to insufficient information. (Atomic weights are: C 12, H 1, 0 16, N 14 and
p 31 ).
25. Based on the information in the last question, each gram (dry weight) of dead algal cells
would have a chemical oxygen demand of(a) 1.24 g, (b) 1.10 g, (c) 0.88 g, or (d) 0.65 g.
26. Calciun1 (Ca2 +), magnesium (Mg2+) and aluminum (Ae+) are among the most common
cations found in ground water. Which of the following waters has the highest degree of
hardness as expressed by CaC03 equivalent? Water (a) containing 100 mg/1 ofCa2+, or
(b) containing 50 mg/1 ofCa2+ and 50 mg/1 ofMg2+, or (c) containing 35 mg/1 ofCa2+, 35
mg/1 ofMg 2+ and 35 mg/1 of Al 3+, or (d) containing 50 mg/1 ofMg2+ and 50 mg/1 of Ae+.
(Atomic weights are: Ca 40; Mg 24.3; and AI 27.)
27. Which of the following statement is false according to present scientific knowledge: (a)
The planet Earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago, (b) microorganisms first
showed up about 3.5 billion years ago, (c) oxygen began to appear in atmosphere about
2.5 billion years ago by photosynthesis, or (d) nitrogen which is a chemically stable gas
has been in the atmosphere since the beginning of the earth formation.
28. A typical coal burned in power plant has an energy content of about 24 kJ/g and an
average carbon content of about 62%. The emission standards limit sulfur emission to
260g of S0 2 per million kJ of heat input to the plant (130g ofS per106kJ), and restrict
particulate emissions to 13 g/10 6kJ. Suppose the average plant bums fuel with 2% Sand
10~, ash. About 70% of the ash is released to the air and 30% settles as bottom ash.
Assuming an energy conversion efficiency of 33.3%, how efficient must the sulfur
emission control system be to meet the S emission limitations: (a) 90%, (b) 85%, (c)
80~> or (d) 75%?
29. For the above question, how efficient must the particulate control system be to meet the
particulate emission limit: (a) 99.5%, (b) 99%, (c) 95% or (d) 90%?
30. Much of our daily food intake consists of carbohydrates, of which starch is the most
abundant. Starch has the chemical formula of (C 6H 100 5 )n, where n is the number of
repeated units. Based on this chemical formula, what is the closest estimate of theoretical
oxygen demand for 100 grams of starch food waste, which is the daily discharge per
person to 250 L ofwastewater: (a) 460 mg/L, (b) 660 mg/L, (c) 860 mg/L, or (d) 1060
mg/L.

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