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Climate change is expected to increase temperature and decrease summer precipitation in Central Europe. Little is known about how warming and drought will affect phenological patterns of oaks, which are considered to possess excellent adaptability to these climatic changes. Here, we investigated bud burst and intra-annual shoot growth of Quercus robur, Q. petraea and Q. pubescens grown on two different forest soils and exposed to air warming and drought. Phenological development was assessed over the course of three growing seasons. Warming advanced bud burst by 1–3 days °C−1 and led to an earlier start of intra-annual shoot growth. Despite this phenological shift, total time span of annual growth and shoot biomass were not affected. Drought changed the frequency and intensity of intra-annual shoot growth and advanced bud burst in the subsequent spring of a severe summer drought by 1–2 days. After re-wetting, shoot growth recovered within a few days, demonstrating the superior drought tolerance of this tree genus. Our findings show that phenological patterns of oaks are modified by warming and drought but also suggest that ontogenetic factors and/or limitations of water and nutrients counteract warming effects on the biomass and the entire span of annual shoot growth. PLoS ONE, 9 (2) ISSN:1932-6203

Natural ecosystems are threatened by climate change, fragmentation, and non-native species. Dispersal-limitation potentially compounds impacts of these factors on plant diversity, especially in isolated vegetation patches. Changes in climate can impact the phenology of native species in distinct ways from non-natives, potentially resulting in cascading impacts on native communities. Few empirical studies have examined the combined effects of climate change and dispersal limitation on community diversity or phenology. Using a five-year dispersal-restriction experiment in an invaded semi-arid annual plant system in Western Australia, we investigated the interactive effects of dispersal-restriction and inter-annual rainfall variation on community composition, species dominance and seed production timing. We found inter-annual rainfall variation to be the principal driver of community dynamics. Drought years had long-term, stable effects on community composition, with evidence of shifts from native toward non-native dominance. Surprisingly, community composition remained largely unchanged under dispersal restriction. A subtle dispersal rescue effect was evident for a dominant native annual forb and a dominant annual non-native grass but only in average rainfall years. The timing of seed production was primarily driven by annual rainfall with native and non-native grasses having opposite responses. There was no evidence that inter-annual variation in seeding timing affected community diversity over time. Our study demonstrates that dispersal is not a major factor in driving community diversity in this invaded, semi-arid system. Results do suggest, however, that increases in drought frequency likely benefit non-native species over natives in the long term. Climate Change Ecology, 2 ISSN:2666-9005

Separation processes based on adsorption show potential in the field of carbon dioxide capture and utilization or storage. Model- based process design is a powerful tool to fully exploit this potential. In order to get an accurate description of the behavior of the processes in a fixed bed, a reliable description of the equilibrium adsorption is necessary. In this work the potential of two types of zeolites, 13X and ZSM-5, is investigated in regards to their use in a temperature swing adsorption process for a post- combustion capture application. To this end, the single component adsorption equilibrium of CO2, N2, and H2O vapor is presented along with appropriate isotherms describing the data. This allows for a comparison of the two sorbents with respect to their cyclic CO2 adsorption capacity and selectivity for CO2. Additionally, the competition for adsorption sites between CO2 and N2 is investigated by applying the ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST) to predict the binary adsorption equilibrium on both sorbents. These predictions indicate a very high selectivity of 13X for CO2, making this a very promising sorbent for temperature swing adsorption in a post-combustion capture environment, with the caveat that it also strongly adsorbs water vapor. This strong affinity for water vapor may imply that a flue gas stream would have to be dried before it enters the adsorption unit. 12th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies, GHGT-12 Energy Procedia, 63 ISSN:1876-6102

At present, the synthesis of ammonia through the Haber-Bosch (HB) process accounts for 1.2% of the global carbon emissions, representing roughly one-fourth of the global fossil consumption from the chemical industry, which creates a pressing need for alternative low-carbon synthesis routes. Analyzing seven essential planetary boundaries (PBs) for the safe operation of our planet, we find that the standard HB process is unsustainable as it vastly transgresses the climate change PB. In order to identify more responsible strategies from this integrated perspective, we assess the absolute sustainability level of 34 alternative routes where hydrogen (H-2) is supplied by steam methane reforming with carbon capture and storage, biomass gasification, or water electrolysis powered by various energy sources. We found that some of these scenarios could substantially reduce the global impact of fossil HB, yet alleviating the impact on climate change could critically exacerbate the impacts on other Earth-system processes. Furthermore, we identify that reducing the cost of electrolytic H-2 is the main avenue toward the economic appeal of the most sustainable routes. Our work highlights the need to embrace global impacts beyond climate change in the assessment of decarbonization routes of fossil chemicals. This approach enabled us to identify more suitable alternatives and associated challenges toward environmental and economically attractive ammonia synthesis. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 9 (29) ISSN:2168-0485

Optimization models can support decision-makers in the synthesis and operation of multi-sector energy systems. To identify the optimal design and operation of a low-carbon system, we need to consider high temporal and spatial variability in the electricity supply, sector coupling, and environmental impacts over the whole life cycle. Incorporating such aspects in optimization models is demanding. To avoid redundant research efforts and enhance transparency, the developed models and used data sets should be shared openly. In this work, we present the SecMOD framework for multi-sector energy system optimization incorporating life-cycle assessment (LCA). The framework allows optimizing multiple sectors jointly, ranging from industrial production and their linked energy supply systems to sector-coupled national energy systems. The framework incorporates LCA to account for environmental impacts. We hence provide the first open-source framework to consistently include a holistic life-cycle perspective in multi-sector optimization by a full integration of LCA. We apply the framework to a case-study of the German sector-coupled energy system. Starting with few base technologies, we demonstrate the modular capabilities of SecMOD by the stepwise addition of technologies, sectors and existing infrastructure. Our modular open-source framework SecMOD aims to accelerate research for sustainable energy systems by combining multi-sector energy system optimization and life-cycle assessment.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) may play a significant role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Noble gases are potential tracers to monitor subsurface CO2 storage sites and verify their containment. Naturally occurring noble gases have been used successfully to refute alleged CO2 leakage in the past. We present results from several sampling campaigns at two Norwegian CO2 capture facilities, the demonstration plant Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM) and the natural gas processing plant with CO2 capture and storage on Melkøya. The gas streams in the capture plants were monitored with a combination of on-site mass spectrometry and subsequently analysed discrete samples. This allows us to define the factors controlling noble gas concentrations in captured CO2, to monitor temporal variation of noble gas concentrations and finally evaluate the potential to use noble gases as inherent environmental tracers for labelling CO2 in storage reservoirs. At both sites, CO2 is captured using amine gas treatment. Noble gas concentrations in the gas streams were observed to decrease by several orders of magnitude during the processing. Isotopic ratios are air-like for CO2 captured after natural gas combustion at TCM and natural gas-like for CO2 captured from natural gas processing on Melkøya. Further, we detected a solubility trend caused by the amine solvent at TCM with higher solubility for heavier noble gases. We find that the relative concentrations of noble gases in the captured CO2 are defined by the gas from which the CO2 is captured and the design of the amine gas treatment process. Both factors were observed to cause temporal variation in the captured CO2. Using mixing and noble gas partitioning calculations we show that the significant depletion in noble gas concentrations, together with degassing of noble gas enriched formation water, means that the injected CO2 will inherit the noble gas signature of the storage formation, even following the injection of significant CO2 volumes. Any CO2 leaked from the storage formation is thus likely to have a crustal noble gas signature, characteristic of the storage site, which can be targeted for monitoring. © 2020 The Author(s) International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 106 ISSN:1750-5836 ISSN:1878-0148