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Oskarshamn is one of the municipalities being discussed as a possible site for disposal of nuclear waste from the Swedish nuclear power plants, and there has been inquiries made for a pilot study in the area. In view of this the local council of Oskarshamn appointed a ´Youth team´, consisting of ten young politicians from all political parties represented in the local council. The aim of the team was to inform and create debate among adolescents about how to store the radioactive waste from nuclear power plants. The purpose of this survey, addressed to young people in Oskarshamn, was to shed light on their opinion towards a pilot study and possible disposal of nuclear waste in Oskarshamn. The respondents had to answer questions about their opinion on the use of nuclear power in Sweden, if they believed nuclear power to be abolished by year 2010, and about their general interest in issues concerning energy and nuclear power. Other questions concerned risks associated with nuclear power, the influence different groups have/ought to have when it comes to disposal of nuclear waste, and if the respondent would accept a decision to dispose nuclear waste in Oskarshamn. A number of questions dealt with the suggested pilot study; if the respondent was for or against a pilot study; who should decide about the pilot study; if there had been enough information about the study; and if the respondent had attended any meeting, signed any petition, contacted any politician, contacted or participated in mass media, or tried to influence anyone´s opinion on any issue concerning the pilot study. The respondents also had to state the issues they considered to be important to study in a pilot study. Furthermore the respondents had to give their opinion about a number of risks discussed in connection with disposal of nuclear waste in Oskarshamn. Other questions concerned the influence on job opportunities and tourism. Demographic items include age, gender, marital status, children, education, occupation, and trade union membership. Oskarshamn is one of the municipalities being discussed as a possible site for disposal of nuclear waste from the Swedish nuclear power plants, and there has been inquiries made for a pilot study in the area. In view of this the local council of Oskarshamn appointed a 'Youth team', consisting of ten young politicians from all political parties represented in the local council. The aim of the team was to inform and create debate among adolescents about how to store the radioactive waste from nuclear power plants. The purpose of this survey, addressed to young people in Oskarshamn, was to shed light on their opinion towards a pilot study and possible disposal of nuclear waste in Oskarshamn. The respondents had to answer questions about their opinion on the use of nuclear power in Sweden, if they believed nuclear power to be abolished by year 2010, and about their general interest in issues concerning energy and nuclear power. Other questions concerned risks associated with nuclear power, the influence different groups have/ought to have when it comes to disposal of nuclear waste, and if the respondent would accept a decision to dispose nuclear waste in Oskarshamn. A number of questions dealt with the suggested pilot study; if the respondent was for or against a pilot study; who should decide about the pilot study; if there had been enough information about the study; and if the respondent had attended any meeting, signed any petition, contacted any politician, contacted or participated in mass media, or tried to influence anyone's opinion on any issue concerning the pilot study. The respondents also had to state the issues they considered to be important to study in a pilot study. Furthermore the respondents had to give their opinion about a number of risks discussed in connection with disposal of nuclear waste in Oskarshamn. Other questions concerned the influence on job opportunities and tourism. Demographic items include age, gender, marital status, children, education, occupation, and trade union membership.

I studiet av kärnkraftsfrågan i valet 1976 ingår två undersökningar, dels en intervjuundersökning av väljarna - Väljarna och kärnkraften - dels föreliggande undersökning som är en innehållsanalys av energidebatten i massmedia. Datainsamlingen innefattar en systematisk genomgång av 20 dagstidningar under fem veckor hösten 1976. Totalt registrerades 2807 ledare, nyhetsartiklar, insändare, annonser, krönikor m.m. som innehöll stoff kring kärnkraften eller energiproblemen i allmänhet. Enkätens kvalitet har prövats - bortfallens jämnhet mot tillgängliga registerdata och föregående enkäters karakteristika, svarens inbördes logik och fullständighet. Statistisk vägning har utförts för mindre över- och underrepresentation av befolkningsgrupper i ett 48-cellersmönster. This study was conducted in connection with the 1976 election study in order to study how the question of nuclear power has been handled by the press. Twenty daily newspapers were analysed during five weeks in the autumn 1976. The papers analysed were chosen after their political preferences in order to represent the different views of the major political parties. The study includes 2807 editorials, articles, advertisements and other materials containing views on the use of nuclear power.

Abstract With drastic fossil fuel depletion and environmental deterioration concerns, a move towards a more sustainable bioenergy-based economy is essential. Lately, the application of microwave (MW) irradiation for waste processing has been attracting interest globally. MW-assisted heating possesses several advantages such as the provision of high microwave energy into dielectric materials with deeper penetration for internal heat generation, showing beneficial features in improving the heating rate and reducing the reaction time. Consequently, the most recent literature regarding the applications of MW-assisted heating for biomass pretreatment as well as biofuel and bioenergy production was reviewed and consolidated in this study. An impressive increase in the product yield and improvement of the product properties are reported, with the use of MW-assisted heating in several conversion routes to produce biofuels. Despite being a promising technology for biofuel production, some major fundamental data of MW-assisted heating have not been comprehensively identified. Therefore, the feasibility of this technology for large-scale implementation is still subpar. Understanding the interaction between the feedstock and the microwave electromagnetic field, and the optimization of several operational and mechanical parameters are the two main keystones that would propel the industrialization of MW heating in the near future. This provides key insights leading to increased feasibility and more advanced application of MW heating.

Diesel engine exhausts from a common rail 3.0 L F1C diesel engine were analyzed at two different load conditions of the WLTC testing cycle downstream of both the diesel particulate filter (DPF) and selective catalytic reactor (SCR) to verify their effect on the characteristics of carbon particulate matter. An array of chemical, physical and spectroscopic techniques (gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS), mobility analyzer, UV-Visible absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy) was applied for characterizing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), heavy aromatic compounds and soot, constituting the particulate matter (PM) sampled from the exhaust. The engine was operated in half load (HL) (188 Nm, representing the more common condition for engine in urban traffic) and full load (FL) (452 Nm, representing the best performance of the engine operation) conditions, at the same engine speed (2000 rpm). Soot formation was enhanced in HL condition, with respect to FL, but, just because of the much lower soot amount, the after-treatment systems in this last condition resulted to be less efficient in the soot abatement. Indeed, the abatement through DPF was about 40% lower in the FL condition with respect to HL condition, and any significant further concentration decrease was found after SCR, in both conditions. By contrast, PAH concentration after DPF abatement was found to be higher in the HL with respect to FL condition. A further PAH concentration decrease of about 30% was found after the SCR in the HL condition whereas in FL the reduction was only about 5-6%. Also the heavy aromatic compounds having molecular weight above the GC-MS detection limit (300 u), were mitigated by SCR. Therefore, SCR did not cause a further soot reduction, whereas it was effective in largely reducing PAH and heavy aromatics emissions, especially in the lower temperature condition featuring the half-load condition, when combustion efficiency is worse. Moreover, SCR system reduced the emission of small particles probably due to an enhanced agglomeration of particles, with beneficial effect on the harmfulness to human health.

The search for affordable high performance electrode materials in photoelectrochemical hydrogen production by solar water splitting is an ongoing quest. Hematite is a photoanode material with an electronic band gap suitable for efficient absorption of visible light in a photoelectrochemical cell (PEC). Although its poor electronic structure makes hematite a controversial candidate for PEC, it remains promising because it is an earth abundant, chemically stable and low cost material – necessary prerequisites for PEC to become a competitive cost-efficient solar fuel economy. In addition to reviewing some recent PEC research on hematite and its relevant physical and chemical characteristics, we show how hematite obtained by a low cost synthesis can be refined by hydrothermal treatment and further functionalized by coating with phycocyanin, a light harvesting protein known for photosynthesis in blue-green algae.

Searching suitable panchromatic QD sensitizers for expanding the light-harvesting range, accelerating charge separation, and retarding charge recombination is an effective way to improve power conversion efficiency (PCE) of quantum-dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSCs). One possible way to obtain a wide absorption range is to use the exciplex state of a type-II core/shell-structured QDs. In addition, this system could also provide a fast charge separation and low charge-recombination rate. Herein, we report on using a CdTe/CdSe type-II core/shell QD sensitizer with an absorption range extending into the infrared region because of its exciplex state, which is covalently linked to TiO2 mesoporous electrodes by dropping a bifunctional linker molecule mercaptopropionic acid (MPA)-capped QD aqueous solution onto the film electrode. High loading and a uniform distribution of QD sensitizer throughout the film electrode thickness have been confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) elemental mapping. The accelerated electron injection and retarded charge-recombination pathway in the built CdTe/CdSe QD cells in comparison with reference CdSe QD-based cells have been confirmed by impedance spectroscopy, fluorescence decay, and intensity-modulated photocurrent/photovoltage spectroscopy (IMPS/IMVS) analysis. With the combination of the high QD loading and intrinsically superior optoelectronic properties of type-II core/shell QD (wide absorption range, fast charge separation, and slow charge recombination), the resulting CdTe/CdSe QD-based regenerative sandwich solar cells exhibit a record PCE of 6.76% (J(sc) = 19.59 mA cm(-2), V(oc) = 0.606 V, and FF = 0.569) with a mask around the active film under a full 1 sun illumination (simulated AM 1.5), which is the highest reported to date for liquid-junction QDSCs.

A water-soluble organic redox couple (TT−/DTT) and new organic dyes (D45 and D51) have been developed for aqueous dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). An optimal efficiency of 3.5% was obtained using the D51 dye and an optimized electrolyte composition. The highest IPCE value obtained was 68% at 460 nm.

The study tested the use of a trommel screen originally designed for compost materials to reject oversize particles from hog fuel, processed from several sources and by two different comminution devices. The experiment consisted in screening material previously comminuted by a convertible crusher, designed to use both hammers and knives. Three different feedstock types were used, and namely: discarded pallets, logs and branches from park maintenance. Each feedstock type came in two different qualities, depending on the tool used for comminution, i.e. hammers or knives. Trommel screen productivity varied between 4.2 t h-1, and 5.2 t h-1 of oven dry material. Screening hog fuel derived from pallets was 30% and 40% less productive than screening fuel derived from logs and branches, respectively. Screening cost varied from 16.2 EUR t-1 dry material in the case of branches, to 19.9 EUR t-1 oven dry material for pallets. Screening allowed an increase of fuel quality only when applied to pallet-derived hog fuel.

A full understanding of the elementary processes taking place in dye-sensitised solar cells requires an accurate description of the electronic structure of the dyes, the semiconductor surface, the electrolyte and their interactions. This review describes how electronic structure calculations have contributed to the field since its first steps and what methodologies have been adopted to study the charge transfer processes at the interface. Not all properties are equally predictable with electronic structure methods, and this work highlights the main success areas (e.g. the rationalization of the optical properties of the dyes), the recent developments (e.g. the improved description of the dye–semiconductor interaction) and the key challenges for the future (e.g. the calculation of charge recombination rate).

Plants and cyanobacteria use the chlorophylls embedded in their photosystems to absorb photons and perform charge separation, the first step of converting solar energy to chemical energy. While oxygenic photosynthesis is primarily based on chlorophyll a photochemistry, which is powered by red light, a few cyanobacterial species can harness less energetic photons when growing in far-red light. Acclimatization to far-red light involves the incorporation of a small number of molecules of red-shifted chlorophyll f in the photosystems, whereas the most abundant pigment remains chlorophyll a. Due to its different energetics, chlorophyll f is expected to alter the excited-state dynamics of the photosynthetic units and, ultimately, their performances. Here we combined time-resolved fluorescence measurements on intact cells and isolated complexes to show that chlorophyll f insertion slows down the overall energy trapping in both photosystems. While this marginally affects the efficiency of photosystem I, it substantially decreases that of photosystem II. Nevertheless, we show that despite the lower energy output, the insertion of red-shifted chlorophylls in the photosystems remains advantageous in environments that are enriched in far-red light and therefore represents a viable strategy for extending the photosynthetically active spectrum in other organisms, including plants. However, careful design of the new photosynthetic units will be required to preserve their efficiency.