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The production of biofuels from renewable sources is a major challenge in research. Methanol, ethanol, dimethyl ether (DME), synthetic natural gas (SNG), and hydrogen can be produced from syngas which is the result of the gasification of biomasses. Syngas composition varies according to the gasification technology used (such as fixed bed reactors, fluidized bed reactors, entrained flow reactors), the feedstock characteristics, and the operating parameters. This paper presents a review of the predominant biomass gasification technologies and biofuels obtained from syngas by biomass gasification. © 2018 by the authors.

El presente modelo en políticas públicas y decisiones empresariales ha reportado graves costes sociales y medioambientales. Apuntando la necesidad de un nuevo paradigma, el artículo identifica las limitaciones del discurso de la sostenibilidad, para después argumentar el potencial de una nueva ontología que, apartándose tanto de las formulaciones de los teóricos neoliberales como marxistas de carácter materialista, identifica la naturaleza como sujeto de derecho. Se inicia el debate sobre una ideología posthumanista para una reformulación de las presentes prácticas económicas y territoriales. The present public policy and business decision model had serious social and environmental costs. Addressing the need for a new paradigm, the article identifies the limitations of the sustainable development discourse, to argue the potential of a new ontology that, away from both the theoretical formulations of liberal and Marxist materialism, identifies nature as subject of rights. It initiates a debate on a posthumanist ideology, which involves a reformulation of the present economic and territorial practices.

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd The objective of this study is to establish an initial framework to evaluate and improve the sustainability of technologies integrating thermal energy storage to come closer to a circular economy. This is applied to a case study for a building-like cubicle that includes different options of phase change materials. For the construction of a cubicle, materials can come from ores and virgin or recycled feedstock. In order to decrease the impact of materials and approach to a circular economy, the recycled content of materials at the start of life should be as high as possible. This recycled fraction in current supply depends on the available technologies for reintroducing the recycled materials in the production processes, together with virgin materials coming from primary sources. The results of the analysis show that the decrease of the environmental impact of recycling at the end of life is lower than 5%, while using recycled materials replacing virgin raw materials could reduce the overall impact by up to 30%. Most relevant materials are bricks, steel, and aluminum. Thus, reuse and recycling of materials and components must be integrated into the initial design in order to come closer to the concept of circular economy.

This work analyzes the environmental impacts of milk production in an intensive dairy farm situated in the Northern Italy region of the Po Valley. Three manure management scenarios are compared: in Scenario 1 the animal slurry is stored in an open tank and then used as fertilizer. In scenario 2 the manure is processed in an anaerobic digestion plant and the biogas produced is combusted in an internal combustion engine to produce heat (required by the digester) and electricity (exported). Scenario 3 is similar to scenario 2 but the digestate is stored in a gas-tight tank.In scenario 1 the GHG emissions are estimated to be equal to 1.21kgCO2eq.kg-1 Fat and Protein Corrected Milk (FPCM) without allocation of the environmental burden to the by-product meat. With mass allocation, the GHG emissions associated to the milk are reduced to 1.18kgCO2eq.kg-1 FPCM. Using an economic allocation approach the GHG emissions allocated to the milk are 1.13kgCO2eq.kg-1 FPCM. In scenarios 2 and 3, without allocation, the GHG emissions are reduced respectively to 0.92 (-23.7%) and 0.77 (-36.5%)kgCO2eq.kg-1 FPCM. If land use change due to soybean production is accounted for, an additional emission of 0.53kgCO2eq. should be added, raising the GHG emissions to 1.74, 1.45 and 1.30kgCO2eqkg-1 FPCM in scenarios 1, 2 and 3, respectively.Primary energy from non-renewable resources decreases by 36.2% and 40.6% in scenarios 2 and 3, respectively, with the valorization of the manure in the biogas plant.The other environmental impact mitigated is marine eutrophication that decreases by 8.1% in both scenarios 2 and 3, mostly because of the lower field emissions.There is, however, a trade-off between non-renewable energy and GHG savings and other environmental impacts: acidification (+6.1% and +5.5% in scenarios 2 and 3, respectively), particulate matter emissions (+1.4% and +0.7%) and photochemical ozone formation potential (+41.6% and +42.3%) increase with the adoption of a biogas plant. The cause of the increase is mostly emissions from the CHP engine. These impacts can be tackled by improving biogas combustion technologies to reduce methane and NOx emissions. Freshwater eutrophication slightly increases (+0.8% in both scenarios 2 and 3) because of the additional infrastructures needed.In conclusion, on-farm manure anaerobic digestion with the production of electricity is an effective technology to significantly reduce global environmental impacts of dairy farms (GHG emissions and non-renewable energy consumption), however local impacts may increase as a consequence (especially photochemical ozone formation). © 2014 Elsevier B.V.

Despite its sudden proliferation along the economic crisis period, no previous study has investigated the social effects of the community currency (CCs) experiences in Spain. Previous research on CCs experiences from different countries provided evidences about social capital improvement, introducing CCs as sustainability tools. This research uses the theoretical frameworks of social capital and complex adaptive systems to approach concepts like sustainability, networks, trust, norms, participation and cooperation. Statistical analysis of the data collected in June 2013 through online survey explores social capital and resilience indicators among the Spanish exchange community users, concluding that Spanish CCs systems improve community social capital through the proposed dimensions, although they are in an early stage and several weakness need to be corrected. The values, motivations, attitude and positive perception of their members suggest that CCs could be appropriate tools for sustainability due its potential to improve social capital and resilience. Detected weakness may affect the interests and commitment of their members. Therefore experience from senior currency systems may help them to face adversities and fully develop their potential for sustainability. Despite its sudden proliferation along the economic crisis period, no previous study has investigated the social effects of the community currency (CCs) experiences in Spain. Previous research on CCs experiences from different countries provided evidences about social capital improvement, introducing CCs as sustainability tools. This research uses the theoretical frameworks of social capital and complex adaptive systems to approach concepts like sustainability, networks, trust, norms, participation and cooperation. Statistical analysis of the data collected in June 2013 through online survey explores social capital and resilience indicators among the Spanish exchange community users, concluding that Spanish CCs systems improve community social capital through the proposed dimensions, although they are in an early stage and several weakness need to be corrected. The values, motivations, attitude and positive perception of their members suggest that CCs could be appropriate tools for sustainability due its potential to improve social capital and resilience. Detected weakness may affect the interests and commitment of their members. Therefore experience from senior currency systems may help them to face adversities and fully develop their potential for sustainability.

Sustainability addresses environmental and social issues affecting this and future generations. When family businesses perceive that the community is disrupted, recognize an environmental problem and respond by implementing new environmental policies or regulations, the family business’s socio-emotional values press to transition to a more sustainable production system, such as the ‘Circular Economy.’ Drawing on the Dubin (1978) methodology—a paradigm for building models through deduction—we design a sustainable model, which shows family businesses’ responses to changes in the environment. It explains the reasons why family firms transition to the Circular Economy, based on the theory of Socio-EmotionalWealth (SEW).We check the model through the case study of the food retail leader in the Spanish market—Mercadona—which applies policies about energy, resources and waste to become a Circular Economy business model. Because of the strong family character of Mercadona, this case can be useful for the decision-making of other family businesses. Research Group SEJ 232 Direction and Organization for Competitiveness. Jaen University. Research Group SEJ 478 Advanced Research in Business Addressing. Granada University.

Abstract: As resources of both water and traditional fuels are becoming increasingly limited, the need for desalination technologies that can operate using sustainable energy is growing. This chapter looks at the major ways in which solar energy, which is particularly promising in this respect, can be integrated with desalination technologies. The chapter first examines the tested desalination techniques of reverse osmosis and (reverse) electrodialysis, which can be powered using photovoltaic systems, and discusses their mechanisms as well as their advantages and disadvantages. The second main focus is on types of solar thermal collectors and their use with membrane distillation technology, which is a less well established but very promising desalination method.

Saharan anthropic deposits from archaeological sites, located along wadis or close to lakes, and sedimentary sequences from permanent and dried basins demonstrate that water has always been an attractive environmental feature, especially during periods of drought. This paper reports on two very different examples of Holocene sites where “humans and water” coexisted during dry periods, as observed by stratigraphic, archaeological and palynological evidence. Independent research was carried out on the Jefara Plain (Libya, 32°N) and the Gobero area (Niger, 17°N), at the extreme northern and southern limits of the Sahara, respectively. The histories of the Jefara and Gobero areas, as revealed by the archaeological and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, suggest that these areas were likely to have been visited and exploited for a long time, acting as anthropic refugia, and therefore they have been profoundly transformed. Human presence and actions have conditioned the local growing of plants and selected a more or less synanthropic flora. Today, modern conservation strategies should take into consideration that water reservoirs, which are crucial for the long-term conservation of biodiversity, have provided refugia in the past just as they presently do under global warming conditions. © 2015, Archaeological Centre Olomouc. All rights reserved.

This document, D7.6 Data Management Plan Update, is a deliverable of the A-LEAF Project, which is funded by the European Union’s H2020 Programme under Grant Agreement No.732840. The A-LEAF project participates in the H2020 Open Research Data Pilot. This updated version of the Data Management Plan provides an analysis of the main elements of the data management policy that will be used by the members of the Consortium with regard to the data generated through the life of the project.

Trabajo Fin de Grado leído en la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos en el curso académico 2023/2024. Directores/as: Vicente Garrido Rebolledo This work focuses on the evolution of environmental security in International Relations with climate change as the imperative of the 21st century. Climate change effects are shaping the scenarios of International Relations, providing that new approaches towards international security, including climate change in them, are necessary. Climate change is review in this work as a risk multiplier for the international community. The Nile Basin was used as the case study to review the implications of climate change events in transboundary water systems linking it with resource scarcity and conflict.