• Energy Research
• Restricted close
• 7. Clean energy close
• 11. Sustainability close
• 1. No poverty close
• GB close
• SA close

With the concept of climate services rapidly climbing research and research-funding agendas worldwide, the time is ripe for a debate about the objectives, scope and content of such services.

This report aims to provide concept designs to integrate the SunDial/TES system with the MANDREKAS and ArcelorMittal end-users. These concept designs are important to understand how the ASTEP system will be integrated with the end-users including the tailored designs for the specific needs of each end-user. The end-user specific ASTEP system is introduced and existing heating/cooling systems are explained in schematic diagrams. A small number of integration options are presented in detailed schematics. Possible integration components such as steam generator for MANDREKAS and pipe heater for ArcelorMittal are investigated at the component level. In addition, key fluid properties at the critical locations such as inlet and outlet of the components are summarised.

AbstractChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 200 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract of an article which was published elsewhere, please select a “Full Text” option. The original article is trackable via the “References” option.

Hydrogen generation from water using solar energy has grown into a promising approach for sustainable energy production. Over the last years, graphitic carbon nitrides (g-C3N4, CN), polymers based on the heptazine-group, have been widely applied as photocatalysts for H2 evolution. The poor charge separation efficiency of CN is considered the major drawback. Here, we investigated the effect of coupling CN with different types of carbon nanotubes on the charge transfer properties and the photocatalytic H2 evolution. We used carbon nanotubes (CNTs) of different wall number (single (SWCNTs), double (DWCNTs) and multi-walled (MWCNTs) CNTs) for the development of full-organic CN based composite photocatalysts. Photoactivity was drastically affected by the content but more importantly by the nature of the CNTs. The SWCNTs functionalized CN composites were the most active presenting approximately 2-5 times higher H2 evolution than the corresponding DWCNTs and MWCNTs functionalized CN under both solar and pure visible light irradiation. Photoactivity was primarily controlled by the improved electronic properties linked with the abundance and stability of photogenerated charges as evidenced by electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. Transient absorption spectroscopy verified the transfer of reactive electrons from CN to CNTs. CNTs functioned as electron acceptors improving charge separation. The data suggest that charge transfer is inversely proportional to the wall number of the CNTs and that photoactivity is directly controlled by the size at the nanoscale of the CNTs used. In the CNTs/CN nanocomposites, photogenerated electrons are transferred more efficiently from CN when SWCNTs are used, providing more available electrons for H2 production.

The paper presents a method of analysis and design of urban landscapes called PlaceMaker. The method is intended as a key resource for assessing the identity of places and measures for its enhancement, reconstruction and design. By using different tools for analysis and interpretation of places and questionnaires administered to their users, PlaceMaker finds the identity material that the city has available and how to de-compose and re-compose it for its sustainable project transformation. Pedestrian-intensive areas, in particular urban, cultural and historical poles of attraction, increasingly bear the imprint of globalization, conveying messages which have developed in an uncontrolled manner and are aimed at conveying their users' patterns of thought and action. The presence of a dense mixture of contrasting elements and perceptions can detract from the image of a city. As regards, the paper is completed with a synopsis of the experiment carried out in an historic axe in London - Oxford Street - where globalization is in danger of levelling out the beauty of the area in favour of widespread genericity

Great efforts have been paid to improve engine efficiency as well as to reduce the pollutant emissions. The direct injection allows to improve the engine efficiency; on the other hand, the GDI combustion produces larger particle emissions. The properties of fuels play an important role both on engine performance and pollutant emissions. In particular, great attention was paid to the octane number. Oxygenated compounds allow increasing gasoline's octane number and play an important role in PM emission reduction. In this study was analyzed the effect of fuels with different RON and with ethanol and ethers content. The analysis was performed on a small GDI engine. Two operating conditions, representative of the typical EUDC cycle, were investigated. Both the engine performance and the exhaust emissions were evaluated. The gaseous emissions and particle concentration were measured at the exhaust by means of conventional instruments. Particle size distribution function was measured in the range from 5.6 nm to 560 nm by means of an Engine Exhaust Particle Sizer (EEPS). The results point out that the better result in terms of performance and emission reduction was observed for the high RON fuel. The fuels with ethanol as additive show a large fuel consumption and a not valuable effect on exhaust emissions

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).