• Energy Research
• natural sciences close
• 7. Clean energy close
• GB close
• IT close
• PL close
• AT close

This article examines land-use, market and welfare implications of lignocellulosic bioethanol production in Hawaii to satisfy 10% and 20% of the State's gasoline demand in line with the State's ethanol blending mandate and Alternative Fuels Standard (AFS). A static computable general equilibrium (CGE) model is used to evaluate four alternative support mechanisms for bioethanol. Namely: (i) a federal blending tax credit, (ii) a long-term purchase contract, (iii) a state production subsidy financed by a lump-sum tax and (iv) a state production subsidy financed by an ad valorem gasoline tax. We find that because Hawaii-produced bioethanol is relatively costly, all scenarios are welfare reducing for Hawaii residents: estimated between -0.14% and -0.32%. Unsurprisingly, Hawaii.s economy and its residents fair best under the federal blending tax credit scenario, with a positive impact to gross state product of $49 million. Otherwise, impacts to gross state product are negative (up to -$63 million). We additionally find that Hawaii-based bioethanol is not likely to offer substantial greenhouse gas emissions savings in comparison to imported biofuel, and as such the policy cost per tonne of emissions displaced ranges between $130 to $2,100/tonne of CO2e. The policies serve to increase the value of agricultural lands, where we estimate that the value of pasture land could increase as much as 150% in the 20% AFS scenario.

Progressive urban density affects city centers especially and results in growing congestion, lack of parking spaces, and increasing environmental costs of transportation, causing increased air pollutant emissions and noise. These phenomena reduce the attractiveness of the city and result in a degradation of the quality of life for its residents. In light of these phenomena, there is a clear need for intelligent management of urban space using new technologies that would be complementary to existing intelligent transportation systems. Expanding information resources obtained from mobile cameras will have a positive impact on increasing the efficiency of transportation management and use of limited space in city centers. It will also have an impact on reducing external transport costs and increasing the quality of logistics services provided in the city. The main aim of the paper is to develop a concept of a transport management system in cities using mobile vision systems mounted on unmanned aerial vehicles. The model will concern the cases of lane occupation by freight vehicles and the analysis of parking spaces in the city in order to improve their management. The results of the developed model will contribute to the automation of the parking space management process and increase the efficiency of the use of city parking space resources.

The use of hydrogen gas as a means of decoupling supply from demand is crucial for the transition to carbon-neutral energy sources and a greener, more distributed energy landscape. This work shows how simple commercially available titanium nitride coatings can be used to extend the lifetime of 316 grade stainless-steel electrodes for use as the cathode in an alkaline electrolysis cell. The material was subjected to accelerated ageing, with the specific aim of assessing the coating’s suitability for use with intermittent renewable energy sources. Over 2000 cycles lasting 5.5 days, an electrolytic cell featuring the coating outperformed a control cell by 250 mV, and a reduction of overpotential at the cathode of 400 mV was observed. This work also confirms that the coating is solely suitable for cathodic use and presents an analysis of the surface changes that occur if it is used anodically.

SESAMe v3.0, a spatially explicit multimedia fate model with 50 × 50 km(2) resolution, has been developed for China to predict environmental concentrations of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) using an atmospheric emission inventory for 2007. Model predictions are compared with environmental monitoring data obtained from an extensive review of the literature. The model performs well in predicting multimedia concentrations and distributions. Predicted concentrations are compared with guideline values; highest values with some exceedances occur mainly in the North China Plain, Mid Inner Mongolia, and parts of three northeast provinces, Xi'an, Shanghai, and south of Jiangsu province, East Sichuan Basin, middle of Guizhou and Guangzhou. Two potential future scenarios have been assessed using SESAMe v3.0 for 2030 as BaP emission is reduced by (1) technological improvement for coal consumption in energy production and industry sectors in Scenario 1 (Sc1) and (2) technological improvement and control of indoor biomass burning for cooking and indoor space heating and prohibition of open burning of biomass in 2030 in Scenario 2 (Sc2). Sc2 is more efficient in reducing the areas with exceedance of guideline values. Use of SESAMe v3.0 provides insights on future research needs and can inform decision making on options for source reduction.

Photosynthetic chromatophore vesicles found in some purple bacteria constitute one of the simplest light-harvesting systems in nature. The overall architecture of chromatophore vesicles and the structural integration of vesicle function remain poorly understood despite structural information being available on individual constituent proteins. An all-atom structural model for an entire chromatophore vesicle is presented, which improves upon earlier models by taking into account the stoichiometry of core and antenna complexes determined by the absorption spectrum of intact vesicles in Rhodobacter sphaeroides, as well as the well-established curvature-inducing properties of the dimeric core complex. The absorption spectrum of low-light-adapted vesicles is shown to correspond to a light-harvesting-complex 2 to reaction center ratio of 3:1. A structural model for a vesicle consistent with this stoichiometry is developed and used in the computation of excitonic properties. Considered also is the packing density of antenna and core complexes that is high enough for efficient energy transfer and low enough for quinone diffusion from reaction centers to cytochrome bc(1) complexes.

ispartof: ACS SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY & ENGINEERING vol:9 issue:29 pages:9604-9624 status: published

Energy efficiency is an increasingly important dimension of household appliances, which is why they are labeled to indicate their energy consumption. In 2020, the European Union countries changed the labeling system from the previous system: ranging from A+++ to D, to the new system: ranging from A to G, assuming it would be more transparent for the consumer. The aim of the study was to find out the extent to which consumers are aware of the new labeling system, and the impact that the new labels have (compared to the previous ones) on the perception of household appliances and consumer decision-making. For this purpose, the survey was conducted on a nationwide representative Polish sample (n = 1054). The research was partly experimental, where the same appliances were presented with new and previous energy labels. The results showed that currently most people do not identify the new energy classes. Furthermore, products with the new labels are perceived as being less energy efficient in comparison with products with the previous labels, which shows that there is some confusion among consumers in terms of the new energy efficiency labeling system.