The main aim of the Valomat project was the development of new materials for quarry back-filling and underground constructions, based on the reuse of bottom ashes from MSWI. Bottom ashes were collected in six incineration plants of Europe. Some of them were selected for the development of new materials.
One task of this project comprised the study of the long-term behavior of new materials, under simulated conditions of environmental exposure. Three different scenarios were studied. For each scenario, a pilot plant was constructed and the new materials were studied under laboratory conditions or natural weather. The long-term behavior of these materials was assessed through the characterization of chemical and ecotoxicological properties of the leachates.
The chemical contamination and the ecotoxicological levels of the leachates were relatively low, although different levels had been determined for the three different scenarios. The immersion in dechlorinated tap water (scenario S1) had shown the highest emission levels of chlorides, sulphates, DOC, and Al, especially for the materials B2/1 and B2/2. The lowest ecotoxicological and chemical levels were determined in the scenario in which the materials were buried in a sieved soil.

The Water Company of the North Alentejo (Águas do Norte Alentejano) (Portugal) has decided to implement a treatment plant to treat an urban wastewater with a significant influence of tannery effluents. The design of the wastewater treatment plant was attributed to a consortium coordinated by Sisaqua Company. Since the levels of the biodegradability and toxicity of the wastewater to be treated were unknown, Sisaqua Company asked the New University of Lisboa to develop and execute a monitoring plan to define the chemical composition and the levels of the biodegradability and toxicity of the wastewater.
A composite sampling procedure of the wastewater was performed during a daily working cycle of the tanneries. The composite sample was characterized for 19 chemical parameters. Five of these parameters were total Cr, Cr (VI), Zn, Cu and Al, which were determined in the dissolved and suspended fractions. The composite sample was also submitted to a biological test to assess its biodegradability degree. This assay was performed according to the methodology indicated in the test 301E of OECD [1], taking into account the amendment of 1992. A respirometric assay was carried out, to assess the toxic effect of the composite sample on the biological populations involved in the biological stabilization of organic compounds. This assay followed the “Sapromat” methodology developed by Brabander and Vandeputte [2]. Finally, the composite sample was submitted to a coagulation-flocculation process according to the methodologies proposed by Eckenfelder [3, 4] and Pereira [5]. The supernatants were characterized for the same chemical and biological parameters as it was described for the composite sample.
It was possible to conclude that the high levels of Cr present in the composite wastewater were mainly in the trivalent oxidation state. Since this oxidation state is less toxic for biological populations than the Cr (VI) and this metal was mainly in the suspended fraction, it was possible to obtain a biodegradability of the organic compounds quite similar to those observed for domestic wastewaters. The toxicity determined by the “Sapromat” method was slightly higher than those determined for domestic wastewaters. Nevertheless, this toxicity did not affect significantly the wastewater biodegradability. The Cr (III) was easily removed by a chemical coagulation-flocculation process.

In this paper, the author proves that the set of all integrable functions whose sequences of negative (resp. nonnegative) Fourier coefficients belong to \(\ell^1\cap\ell^\Phi_{\varphi,w}\) (resp. to \(\ell^1\cap\ell^\Psi_{\psi,\varrho}\)), where \(\ell^\Phi_{\varphi,w}\) and \(\ell^\Psi_{\psi,\varrho}\) are two-weighted Orlicz sequence spaces, forms an algebra under pointwise multiplication whenever the weight sequences
\[
\varphi=\{\varphi_n\},\quad
\psi=\{\psi_n\},\quad
w=\{w_n\},\quad
\varrho=\{\varrho_n\}
\]
increase and satisfy the \(\Delta_2\)-condition.