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Abstract Nuclear energy generates 30% of the electricity in the EU. Still, different countries of EU27 have very different attitudes towards the future use of nuclear energy for electricity generation or other uses. However, independently of the political decision of continuation or phase out of the nuclear energy, all countries using nuclear energy to generate electricity are facing the question of the final management of its spent nuclear fuel and other high level radioactive wastes. Partition and Transmutation are emerging technologies that when integrated in advanced fuel cycles can strongly influence on the final wastes from the nuclear industry and its management. A review of the progress on the understanding of their real potentialities and main conclusions from a large number of international studies are presented in this paper. In particular, the conclusions from the main NEA working groups and the EURATOM RED-IMPACT project are jointly discussed. In this paper the emphasis is put on the effects of Partitioning and Transmutation on the inventory reduction, the heat source reduction and its implications to the repository capacity and on the performance assessment of the final repository.

The oxidation of water is essential to the sustainable production of fuels using sunlight or electricity, but designing active, stable and earth-abundant catalysts for the reaction is challenging. Now, a complex containing five iron atoms is shown to efficiently oxidize water by mimicking key features of the oxygen-evolving complex in green plants.

Abstract The pyrolysis and combustion behaviour of a set of 11 Canadian coals with different ranks (lignite to low volatile bituminous) and maceral compositions has been investigated by TGA techniques. Temperature programmed heating of the coals was carried out both under nitrogen and under air, and the weight loss rates occurring in the two experimental conditions were compared in the whole temperature range studied (100–1000°C). Results showed that the pyrolysis curves of the coals do not match at all with any specific feature of the corresponding combustion profiles, and that the temperatures of initiation of both processes are very different in the low-rank end (higher initiation temperatures for pyrolysis), to become similar only for coal ranks of ∼0.8% vitrinite reflectance and above. This contradicts existing theories which state that coal combustion under TGA conditions is a three-stage process, namely volatiles release, vitrinite combustion and inertinite combustion. The processes leading to the weight loss rates occurring in the early stages of combustion were also investigated, with special emphasis in the temperature interval where no substantial weight losses had occurred yet in either a combustion or a pyrolysis experiment. This was done by heating the coals to 300°C in the TGA under air, and then switching the gas flow to nitrogen and allowing the sample to further devolatilise until 1000°C. Also, partly burnt and/or pyrolysed samples were obtained from the TGA and characterised by optical microscopy techniques. It was observed that the volatile yields of all the coals were substantially reduced as a consequence of their initial heating under air. Besides, evidences of melting and thermal annealing in the inner core of burning coal particles were noticed to occur at lower temperatures than in pyrolysing particles. This was attributed to a sealing effect of the oxidation rim formed in the early stages of combustion, which might give rise to a higher pressure build-up in the inner part of burning particles, thus enhancing the likelihood for condensation reactions to take place in the newly formed metaplast. As combustion profiles are commonly used to infer about combustion behaviour of coals, much care should be exercised in interpreting them, since even in a pure vitrain, two rather than one single material will be involved in the measured weight losses, and, more, these materials will often display fairly different reactivities.

Installations that burn fossil fuels to generate power may represent a health problem due to the toxic substances which they release into the environment.To investigate whether there might be excess mortality due to tumors of lung, larynx and bladder in the population residing near Spanish combustion installations included in the European Pollutant Emission Register.Ecologic study designed to model sex-specific standardized mortality ratios for the above three tumors in Spanish towns, over the period 1994-2003. Population exposure to pollution was estimated on the basis of distance from town of residence to pollution source. Using mixed Poisson regression models, we analyzed: risk of dying from cancer in a 5-kilometer zone around installations that commenced operations before 1990; effect of type of fuel used; and risk gradient within a 50-kilometer radius of such installations.Excess mortality (relative risk, 95% confidence interval) was detected in the vicinity of pre-1990 installations for lung cancer (1.066, 1.041-1.091 in the overall population; 1.084, 1.057-1.111 in men), and laryngeal cancer among men (1.067, 0.992-1.148). Lung cancer displayed excess mortality for all types of fuel used, whereas in laryngeal and bladder cancer, the excess was associated with coal-fired industries. There was a risk gradient effect in the proximity of a number of installations.Our results could support the hypothesis of an association between risk of lung, laryngeal and bladder cancer mortality and proximity to Spanish combustion installations.

Abstract A new open-loop solar tracking system for a small-scale linear Fresnel reflector with three movements has been designed, fabricated, and simulated. The control system of the solar tracker is governed by a Raspberry Pi together with other auxiliary devices which include a Global Positioning System. The electronic control system consists of a master controller (Raspberry pi 3), 4 slave microcontrollers (Arduino), Global Positioning System module, thermocouples, laser sensors, transversal positioning sensors, and longitudinal positioning sensors. It also allows the communication between these microcontrollers based on long range wireless solutions (XBee). All the electronic circuits have been designed and constructed. The solar tracking system uses offline data. The software has been designed and developed to track the sun path using astronomical equations. In this way, the solar tracking system is able to position itself automatically using the solar position algorithm and the Global Positioning System with an accuracy of ±0.006°. The solar tracking system can be deployed automatically at any location on the Earth. The total cost of the implemented solar tracking system has been calculated. The system performance, in terms of the tracking error, annual energy, energy-to-area ratio and levelized cost of energy has been evaluated. Tracking errors smaller than 0.06 (°) are acceptable (they cause power losses smaller than 1%), whereas errors larger than 0.36 (°) start being noticeable (power losses greater than 3%). The proposed new tracking system gives 16.64% more energy, a 78.46% higher energy-to-area ratio, and a 4.62% less levelized cost of energy that the classic tracking system with one movement used in large-scale linear Fresnel reflectors.

Previous studies have demonstrated that there is a bidirectional modulation of ethanol-induced locomotion produced by drugs that regulate brain catalase activity. In the present study we have assessed the effect in rats of intraperitoneal, intraventricular or intracraneal administration of the catalase inhibitor sodium azide in the locomotor changes observed after ethanol (1 g/kg) administration. Our results show that sodium azide prevents the effects of ethanol in rats locomotion not only when sodium azide was systemically administered but also when it was intraventricularly injected, then confirming that the interaction between catalase and ethanol takes place in Central Nervous System (CNS). Even more interestingly, the same results were observed when sodium azide administration was restricted to the hypothalamic Arcuate nucleus (ARC), a brain region which has one of the highest levels of expression of catalase. Therefore, the results of the present study not only confirm a role for brain catalase in the mediation of ethanol-induced locomotor changes in rodents but also point to the ARC as a major neuroanatomical location for this interaction. These results are in agreement with our reports showing that ethanol-induced locomotor changes are clearly dependent of the ARC integrity and, especially of the POMc-synthesising neurons of this nucleus. According to these data we propose a model in which ethanol oxidation via catalase could produce acetaldehyde into the ARC and to promote a release of beta-endorphins that would activate opioid receptors to produce locomotion and other ethanol-induced neurobehavioural changes.

The preparation of crosslinked aggregates of pancreatic porcine lipase (PPL‐CLEA) was systematically studied, evaluating the influence of three precipitants and two crosslinking agents, as well as the use of soy protein as an alternative feeder protein on the catalytic properties and stability of the immobilized PPL. Standard CLEAs showed a global yield (CLEA’ observed activity/offered total activity) of less than 4%, whereas with the addition of soy protein (PPL:soy protein mass ratio of 1:3) the global yield was approximately fivefold higher. The CLEA of PPL prepared with soy protein as feeder (PPL:soy protein mass ratio of 1:3) and glutaraldehyde as crosslinking reagent (10 μmol of aldehyde groups/mg of total protein) was more active mainly because of the reduced enzyme leaching in the washing step. This CLEA, named PPL‐SOY‐CLEA, had an immobilization yield around 60% and an expressed activity around 40%. In the ethanolysis of soybean oil, the PPL‐SOY‐CLEA yielded maximum fatty acid ethyl ester (FAEE) concentration around 12‐fold higher than that achieved using soluble PPL (34 h reaction at 30°C, 300 rpm stirring, soybean oil/ethanol molar ratio of 1:5) with an enzyme load around 2‐fold lower (very likely due to free enzyme inactivation). The operational stability of the PPL‐SOY‐CLEA in the ethanolysis of soybean oil in a vortex flow type reactor showed that FAEE yield was higher than 50% during ten reaction cycles of 24 h. This reactor configuration may be an attractive alternative to the conventional stirred reactors for biotransformations in industrial plants using carrier‐free biocatalysts. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 34:910–920, 2018

Abstract This research note proposes an index of sustainability to be attached to any natural system evaluated according to several indicators of sustainability. The proposed index (IS) is very operational and most of the indices proposed in the literature can be considered to be particular cases of IS. Moreover, the IS propounded can be used to reach balances or compromises between an engineering solution of “maximum aggregate sustainability” and an ecological solution of “most balanced sustainability” of the system.

The European Union Seventh Framework Programme research project AeroTRAIN aimed at delivering limit criteria for crosswinds to the ‘Rolling stock – locomotives and passenger rolling stock’ Technical Specification for Interoperability (CR LOC&PAS TSI) and for class 2 trains of the high-speed rolling stock TSI (HS RST TSI). A first objective was the assessment of characteristic wind curve (CWC) for identified class 2 and conventional vehicles with low, but sufficient, crosswind stability (as proven by their safe operational records) on the EN 14067-6: 2010 single track with ballast and rails (STBR) standard configuration. In the same manner, and as a second objective, Reference CWC and limit criteria for class 1 trains of HS RST TSI were planned to be determined. For all these trains, the aerodynamic coefficients were obtained in a unique wind tunnel campaign using the STBR ground configuration. Their crosswind sensitivity was assessed against a calculated CWC obtained from vehicle dynamics simulations. The resulting database will allow the derivation of the relevant limit criteria still needed for vehicle authorization regarding crosswind stability.