Search results for "emissions"
showing 10 items of 294 documents
Consequential life cycle assessment of the Italian power system
2022
Energy production and consumption contribute to 76% of the European greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2018, and 90% of global GHG emissions with land use, land use change and forestation (LULUCF) in the same year. By applying energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) technologies, the GHG emission intensity of the energy sector reduced by 1.3% in 2018 compared to the previous year. The current climate change policy aims at decarbonization, sustainable environment, economic prosperity and social equity. It requires the deep decarbonisation of the economies, meaning that the energy and power systems as well as other emission intensive sectors need to transform into zero-emission ones. …
The emissions reduction potential of substituting short-haul flights with non-high-speed rail (NHSR) : The case of Finland
2021
Replacing short-haul flights with high-speed rail (HSR) has been widely discussed as one solution to mitigate the climate change impacts of aviation. However, although HSR can provide travel times similar to those provided by short-haul flights, and at lower emission levels, it also requires considerable investments in time and infrastructure to build. Instead, this study considers the feasibility of replacing short-haul flights with existing non-high-speed rail (NHSR). Our study is based in Finland, a country that has an extensive route network of short-haul flights but does not possess any HSR. We compared all 16 city pairs for which short-haul flights are offered with existing NHSR based…
Chemical and isotopic characterization of rainwater in volcanic, urban and industrial areas of Sicily (Italy)
2021
The chemical composition of rainwater depends on (i) the dissolution of gases and particulate matter emitted by different sources, (ii) the chemical and physical reactions occurring during local and regional scale transport, and (iii) removal processes. The source of major and trace elements dissolved in rainwater can be both natural (e.g. sea salts, volcanic emissions, geogenic dust, biogenic material) and anthropogenic (e.g. industrial plants, vehicular traffic, domestic heating, vessel traffic). A group of trace elements has been recently brought to attention, especially for their possible environmental impacts, the Technology-critical elements (TCEs): Ga, Ge, In, Te, Nb, Ta, Tl, the Pla…
Husk Energy Supply Systems for Sunflower Oil Mills
2020
Together with solar, wind, and hydro renewable energy sources (RES), biomass constitutes an integral part of the high-renewables electricity systems. Considerable feedstocks for electricity generation are process-based residues. Ukraine is the world leader in sunflower seed production, therefore, husk (a by-product of oil production) is a promising biofuel for combustion- based power plants. The plants consume primarily electricity and fossil fuels (natural gas or fuel oil) for steam production. Their usage affects the edible oil production cost and impacts on climate change. The above facts force us to look for alternatives. By-product (husk) utilization can reduce exhaustible energy consu…
Action-oriented knowledge for sustainable management of organic soils in Finnish agriculture
2023
Agriculture is a contributing force to climate change due to unsustainable changes in land use with the usage of peatlands for food production in Finland. The use of organic soils in food production is a complex and politically driven issue, thus multistakeholder and participatory approaches to policy development, implementation and evaluation are essential. This study is integrating qualitative and quantitative methods in an iterative process to produce action-oriented knowledge for supporting actions to sustainably manage peatlands and reduce the enormous greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural peatlands. This study has engaged inter-disciplinary researchers and transdisciplinary actor…
Inhibition of denitrification and N2O emission by urine-derived benzoic and hippuric acid
2006
Abstract Hippuric acid (HA) in cattle urine acts as a natural inhibitor of soil N2O emissions. As HA concentration varies with diet, we determined critical HA levels. We also tested the hypothesis that the inhibition occurs because the HA breakdown product benzoic acid (BA) inhibits denitrification rates. During a 64-day incubation, we quantified emissions from artificial urine varying in HA, BA and glycine (Gly) concentrations, added to a sandy pasture soil. Increasing HA concentration from 0.4 to 5.6 mmol kg−1 soil significantly decreased the average N2O flux by 54%. At 3.9 mmol kg−1 soil, denitrification levels were 50% reduced for BA as compared to Gly. We conclude that HA inhibits both…
Greenhouse gases from membrane bioreactor treating hydrocarbon and saline wastewater
2015
The effect of wastewater salinity and presence of petroleum hydrocarbon on N2O emission was investigated in a membrane bioreactor, in which the anoxic and aerobic zones were put in series according to a pre-denitrification scheme. The pilot plant, was continuously fed by a mixture of real and synthetic wastewater. It was operated with a first phase of acclimation of the biomass to a given salinity by gradually increasing the salt concentration from 10 gNaCl/L to 20 gNaCl/L, and to a second phase of petroleum hydrocarbon dosing at 2 g/L (as gasoline). The first phase revealed a clear relationship between nitrous oxide emissions and salinity due to the increased NO2-N production caused by the…
Towards controlling PCDD/F production in a multi-fuel fired BFB boiler using two sulfur addition strategies
2014
Abstract PCDD/F abatement strategies – sulfur pellet addition and peat co-combustion – were tested for a BFB boiler facility utilizing SRF-bark-sludge as fuel. In this paper chemical and physical analyses of electrostatic precipitator (ESP) fly ashes were used to explain the differences in the performance of these strategies. These analyses revealed a difference between the coarse and fine fly ashes collected in the ESP. Chemical analysis of the fine fly ashes revealed high concentration of easily volatilized elements while the SEM micrographs showed that fine ash are composed of clusters of spherical particles, thereby leading to a conclusion that fine ashes were originally in a gas phase …
Economical evaluation of ecological benefits of the demand side management
2014
Environmental pollution and over-exploitation of non-renewable sources to find energy are current topics for the modern world that is now at having to deal with several issues such as the greenhouse effect, acid rain and climate change. In this study, the economical estimate of the savings in carbon dioxide obtained with a careful management of electrical loads is presented. Four particular scenarios are designed as case studies: Italy, France, United Kingdom and Germany. A comparison is presented with a similar study, made in 2007, when green energies were not yet very developed.
Global, National, or Market? Emerging REDD+ Governance Practices in Mozambique and Tanzania
2016
This article examines emerging governance practices in the REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) initiative. We examine three different general governance practices (neoliberal, post-national, and government-led practices) that have been applied in the interaction between international organizations and two REDD target countries: Mozambique and Tanzania. In these countries, we find that emerging REDD+ governance practices are a mixture of international organizations’ procedural practices and the target country’s established governance practices, whereas neoliberal practices are weakly expressed. These findings call into question the simplified assumption of re…