Search results for "fossil fuel"

The Physical Economy of France (1830–2015). The History of a Parasite?

2019

Abstract This article explores long-term trends and patterns of material use in France for a 185-year period. It is the first long-term study of material flows for France with national and yearly data for most of the period. Based on a material flow analysis (MFA) that is fully consistent with current standards of economy-wide MFAs and covers domestic extraction, imports, and exports of materials, we investigated the evolution of the French metabolism from industrialization to financialized capitalism. Over the whole period, there is a 9-fold increase in domestic material consumption, an expansion of material use per capita, and a spectacular addition of abiotic resources (fossil fuels and …

A Sustainable Energy Mix for the Aeolian Islands

2018

The paper examines the current status of the electrical energy production in the Aeolian Islands, an Italian archipelago, composed by small island North of Sicily. Instead the availability of renewable energy sources, like wind, solar, geothermal and sea wave, these islands produce electrical energy using almost entirely fossil fuels. Starting from this initial condition, the paper proposes an energetic mix based on the available resources and focusing the attention on sea wave. An innovative device is presented in order to exploit this energy source.

The emission saving related to the use of renewable energy sources: The case study of solar thermal collectors

2003

The employment of renewable energy sources can represent a useful way to reduce air emissions released by conventional ones. In this paper we describe the results of a Life Cycle Analysis performed upon one of the most world-wide diffused renewable technologies: the solar thermal collectors for warm sanitary water. Two domestic solar plants have been investigated: mono-familiar plant with a passive flat collector and a large solar plant with forced fluid circulation. The first step has been the evaluation of direct and indirect emissions related to the production and use of plants. The main emissions have been categorised in three of the most important indicators (Global Warming Potential, …

LCA of a solar heating and cooling system equipped with a small water–ammonia absorption chiller

2012

The development of renewable energy technologies is a critical tool for reducing climate change and the reliance on fossil fuels. However, renewable energy technologies cannot be considered totally clean because they require energy consumption and have environmental impacts that cannot be neglected during their life cycle. In this paper, the life cycle assessment methodology was applied to assess resource use and other environmental burdens related to the entire life-cycle steps of a solar cooling plant. The investigated system works with an absorption chiller assisted by a solar plant. Two back-up configurations (hot back-up and cold back-up) were examined in two localities: Palermo (south…

Financial measures for supporting wind power systems in Europe: A comparison between green tags and feed’in tariffs

2008

Distributed Generation demonstrates to be able to significantly influence the electric power system, bringing considerable benefits to the quality of service and improving the energetic efficiency of the distribution network. In particular, in the last few years, Distributed Generation from renewable energy sources is considerably increased thanks to the many support policies promoted worldwide with the aim of facing the environmental issue and the problem of the permanent rise of prices of the fossil energy. In this contest, after a brief review on the financing strategies carried out in Europe in the last decade for promoting the recourse to renewable energy, the paper presents a comparis…

Inappropriate evaluation of methodology and biases by P. Morfeld and T.C. Erren.

2020

THE POSSIBILITY OF DISPOSING OF SPENT COFFEE GROUND WITH ENERGY RECYCLING

2015

The current policy of waste management requires, above all, a gradual reduction of waste amount and, to a larger extent, forces us to seek new methods of waste disposal. Recycling the energy contained in biomass waste is a more and more universally applied method of thermal converting. Biomass combustion allows saving fossil fuels which fits into sustainable development. This paper checks the possibility of using spent coffee ground (SCG) in energy recycling using a combustion process. This particular biomass type up to now has not been widely examined, which inclines to consider its usage as a potential additive to alternative fuels. In the study, we examined the quality of fuel, which was…

Direct Electricity Production from Linseed Oil

2019

Today’s energy industry is currently facing an increasing demand for electricity. Besides to the use of coal, oil and gas, in recent years renewable energy sources have also are used. One of devices using renewable energy sources is fuel cell (FC). The most commonly used fuel for fuel cells is hydrogen. But, problems with storage of this fuel causes, that the finding new fuels for FCs are very desirable. One of these fuels can be linseed oil. Powering high efficiency power sources (like FCs) with renewable fuels (like linseed oil) will allow development of renewable energy sources and elimination or reduce of toxic substances emissions. The paper presents the research of linseed oil electro…

Indoor air pollution in extremely poor Colombian households

2013

Objetivo Caracterizar la exposición a la contaminación del aire interior por uso de combustibles sólidos en hogares en situación de pobreza extrema en Colombia. Métodos A partir de la información gubernamental oficial de hogares en situación de pobreza extrema (encuesta Red Unidos de septiembre 2012, n=1,3 millones de hogares y >5 millones de individuos) se estructuraron dos modelos de regresión logística: (i) Factores asociados al uso de combustibles sólidos para cocinar a nivel hogar, (ii) Asociación entre el uso de combustibles sólidos en el hogar y prevalencia de limitaciones de la salud a nivel individuo. Resultados Un total de 530 mil hogares en situación de pobreza extrema donde habi…

Emissions of Greenhouse Gases and Climate Politics in the Latvian Waste Sector

2015

According IPCC guidelines for determination of greenhouse gases in waste management (IPCC 2006) the quantity of greenhouse gases must be determined for the emissions of CO2, CH4, N2O for such treatment activities: disposal of solid waste, biological treatment of solid waste and incineration and open burning of waste. Presented report reviles the current situation of this field in Latvia and conclusions on its minimization actions. The data received from Latvian environmental data bases shows that the quantity of disposed unsorted municipal waste is rising and created sanitary landfill system with anaerobic digestion of bio mas (the content of it in the disposed waste reaches 40–50 %) is pro…