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In 2015 the Pope Francis presented his Encyclical Letter „Laudato Si‟‟ to voice the most important thoughts of the Holy See on human in general and Roman Catholic in particular response to rapid and omnipresent detrimental changes that are happening to the Planet Earth because of irresponsible actions of the human race against environment in broad sense, inducing at the same time climate change. The same year the international community united in something that was not obvious to international experts and participants of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference in Paris - the COP21, till the very end of the process. The countries - Parties to the UNFCCC agreed on the text of the Paris Agreement - legally binding accord on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Both documents address all the humankind without proper regard given to the position of women, who differ in many ways in their role and attitude towards climate change. In our article the analysis is done on the gender relation to climate change - on the basis of literature review as well as the words of the Pope on the issue in the Encyclical. Analysis presents the most important topics to which we sought reference in the Encyclical of Pope Francis. Results confirm deep understanding of the inter-linked processes around the climate change and no much attention is given to women by the Head of the Roman Catholic Church.

Abstract Biomass integrated gasification cogeneration is nowadays considered as one of the most attractive technologies for CO 2 emission reduction and non-renewable fuel savings. The paper presents application of the Thermo-Ecological Cost (TEC), which expresses the cumulative consumption of non-renewable exergy, for examination of energy and environmental benefits of biomass energy conversion plant based on gasification technology and medium scale recuperative gas turbine. To express the total effect of considered energy conversion systems the TEC is supplemented with the data resulting from Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). Different available gasification technologies and configurations of a cogeneration plant are investigated. Atmospheric fluidized bed gasification (AFB), pressurized fluidized bed gasification (PFB) and allothermal gasification using pure steam as gasification agent (FICFB) are taken into account as well as simple and combined power cycles with the Mercury 50 Solar gas turbine. The results reveal that simple cycle with gas turbine and waste heat recovery water boiler offers better effects than combined cycle configuration. The best performance has been reported for pressurized gasification technology.

AbstractInvestigations are reported on high‐ and low‐temperature vulcanized silicone rubber composite insulators that were exposed to service for three, nine and eleven years under industrial or marine pollution conditions. Wetting angles and thermally stimulated depolarization (TSD) current spectra were measured. Microscopic observations of selected insulator surfaces were carried out as well. The prolonged services cause gradual and inhomogeneous losses of hydrophobicity on surfaces and inside of insulator housing materials. It is shown that there exists a correlation between the measured TSD current spectra and the wettability changes. In addition, the spectra also allow to predict an ability to support a process of hydrophobicity recovery at a housing surface. It seems that TSD measurements may be applied as a complementary test method during performance assessment of silicone rubber composite insulators.

This paper presents a method for determination of breakdown voltage characteristics (BDV) of a gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) disconnector. The method is applicable for modeling very fast transient overvoltages that are generated during the disconnector opening and closing operations. The method is based on full-scale measurements, as typically performed during the disconnector development and/or type tests. The method is first presented in a simplified, illustrative setting, and then applied for the full-scale measurement results obtained for an 1'100 kV disconnector design. The BDV determined is then applied for two 1'100 kV test setups as recently reported for the Wuhan (China) station. Selected test cases are simulated, analyzed, and validated with the use of the multispark modeling approach, with two BDV characteristics implemented: the nonlinear BDV obtained with the method presented here applied for the measurement results on the example 1'100 kV disconnector, and the linear BDV reported in the literature for the 1'100 kV disconnector used in the Wuhan GIS station.

Abstract The construction and performance of a new apparatus for coating and encapsulation of particle cores with diameters lower than 1 mm are discussed in detail. The process of electrostatic dry powder coating was carried out in a diluted, fast circulating spout-fluid bed. The spatial separation of the draft tube entrainment zone from the coating zone leads to the reduction of effects of particle-to-apparatus wall adhesion and pneumatic nozzles plugging. As a result, the fine product of high quality without aggregates, agglomerates and granules, in a short time (approx. 10 min) and at a low temperature (approx. 45 °C) was obtained. Coating powder was charged electrostatically and continuously fed to the apparatus column. In order to verify the performance of the device, a number of tests were carried out with the application of materials used for the production of enteric drugs in the pharmaceutical industry. The quality of obtained coats was investigated by microscopic methods and the kinetics of dissolution of color marker in aqueous solutions was determined. As a result of the research, we obtain microcapsules with a constant release rate of the marker substance in alkaline environment, over 25 times faster than in the acid medium, with only 0.31% release of marker in acid solution in 2 h, which is a sufficient level for gastric resistance.

Abstract Lithium-ion battery systems are becoming a major component in numerous applications. The thermal behaviour of cells should be monitored for many reasons. In this paper, the investigation of the energy balance for lithium-ion battery system is described. The electrothermal model allows to describe heat generation and heat dissipation processes in all components of a battery pack (BP). Moreover, this model can be easily adapted for bigger, modular battery systems, since the primitive in the proposed model is a single cell. A method to determine the energy balance through experimental investigations and to validate the model is also proposed. Four types of BPs with sixteen cylindrical 18650 lithium-ion cells were tested. The influence of both busbar material and the presence of heatsinks on the BP thermal conditions was investigated. The results show that the heat accumulated in cells can be decreased by 20% and the cell temperature lowered by 8 °C if additional elements are used in a BP.

© 2021 Elsevier LtdDespite extensive research to address the impact of environmental reforms under the Paris Climate Agreement, current literature has failed to provide sufficient insights into Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) countries. To this end, the current study attempts to address the impact of the economic complexity on environmental quality in the presence of renewable energy consumption, financial development, urbanization and energy innovation in RCEP countries from 1990 to 2019. Our empirical estimates confirm a significant association between environmental quality, economic complexity index, renewable energy consumption, financial development, urbanization and energy innovation in the short-run and long run. Based on extensive econometric analysis (CS-ARDL, AMG, PMG, FMOLS, and DOLS), we conclude that economic complexity, renewable energy, and energy innovation effectively mitigate environmental degradation. At the same time, financial development and urbanization have an adverse impact on the environment. These findings have extensive policy implications for policymakers and environmental stakeholders, who are aiming to achieve sustainable energy policy and economic growth to meet the environmental commitments under Paris Climate Agreement.