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Short-rotation coppice (SRC) Salix plantations have the potential to provide fast-growing biomass feedstock with significant soil and climate mitigation benefits. Salix varieties exhibit significant variation in their physiological traits, growth patterns and soil ecology—but the effects of these variations have rarely been studied from a systems perspective. This study analyses the influence of variety on soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics and climate impacts from Salix cultivation for heat production for a Swedish site with specific conditions. Soil carbon modelling was combined with a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach to quantify SOC sequestration and climate impacts over a 50-year period. The analysis used data from a Swedish field trial of six Salix varieties grown under fertilized and unfertilized treatments on Vertic Cambisols during 2001–2018. The Salix systems were compared with a reference case where heat is produced from natural gas and green fallow was the land use alternative. Climate impacts were determined using time-dependent LCA methodology—on a land-use (per hectare) and delivered energy unit (per MJheat) basis. All Salix varieties and treatments increased SOC, but the magnitude depended on the variety. Fertilization led to lower carbon sequestration than the equivalent unfertilized case. There was no clear relationship between biomass yield and SOC increase. In comparison with reference cases, all Salix varieties had significant potential for climate change mitigation. From a land-use perspective, high yield was the most important determining factor, followed by SOC sequestration, therefore high-yielding fertilized varieties such as ‘Tordis’, ‘Tora’ and ‘Björn’ performed best. On an energy-delivered basis, SOC sequestration potential was the determining factor for the climate change mitigation effect, with unfertilized ‘Jorr’ and ‘Loden’ outperforming the other varieties. These results show that Salix variety has a strong influence on SOC sequestration potential, biomass yield, growth pattern, response to fertilization and, ultimately, climate impact.

Rotating stall and surge are flow instabilities contributing to the acoustic noise generated in centrifugal compressors at low mass flow rates. Their acoustic generation mechanisms are exposed employing compressible Large Eddy Sim- ulations (LES). The LES data are used for calculating the dominant acoustic sources emerging at low mass flow rates. They give the inhomogeneous char- acter of the Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings (FW-H) wave equation. The blade loading term associated with the unsteady pressure loads developed on solid surfaces (dipole in character) is found to be the major contributor to the aerodynamically generated noise at low mass flow rates. The acoustic source due to the velocity variations and compressibility effects (quadrupole in character) as well as the acoustic source caused by the displacement of the fluid due to the accelerations of the solid surfaces (monopole in character) were found to be not as dominant. We show that the acoustic source associated with surge is generated by the pressure oscillation, which is governed by the tip leakage flow. The vortical structures of rotating stall are interacting with the impeller. These manipulate the flow incidence angles and cause thereby unsteady blade loading towards the discharge. A low-pressure sink between 4 and 6 o’clock causes a halving of the perturbation frequencies at low mass flow rates operat- ing conditions. From two point space-time cross correlation analysis based on circumferential velocity in the diffuser it was found that the rotating stall cell propagation speed increases locally in the low pressure zone under the volute tongue. It was also found that rotating stall can coexist with surge operat- ing condition, but the feature is then seen to operate over a broader frequency interval.

SummaryEnvironmentally extended multiregional input‐output (EE MRIO) tables have emerged as a key framework to provide a comprehensive description of the global economy and analyze its effects on the environment. Of the available EE MRIO databases, EXIOBASE stands out as a database compatible with the System of Environmental‐Economic Accounting (SEEA) with a high sectorial detail matched with multiple social and environmental satellite accounts. In this paper, we present the latest developments realized with EXIOBASE 3—a time series of EE MRIO tables ranging from 1995 to 2011 for 44 countries (28 EU member plus 16 major economies) and five rest of the world regions. EXIOBASE 3 builds upon the previous versions of EXIOBASE by using rectangular supply‐use tables (SUTs) in a 163 industry by 200 products classification as the main building blocks. In order to capture structural changes, economic developments, as reported by national statistical agencies, were imposed on the available, disaggregated SUTs from EXIOBASE 2. These initial estimates were further refined by incorporating detailed data on energy, agricultural production, resource extraction, and bilateral trade. EXIOBASE 3 inherits the high level of environmental stressor detail from its precursor, with further improvement in the level of detail for resource extraction. To account for the expansion of the European Union (EU), EXIOBASE 3 was developed with the full EU28 country set (including the new member state Croatia). EXIOBASE 3 provides a unique tool for analyzing the dynamics of environmental pressures of economic activities over time.

Due to the progresses in exhaust emission after-treatment systems and in the development of new combustion processes, the S.I. engine has been booming in the past few years. But the efficiency will have to be improved in the future. Because of its thermodynamic benefits, the S.I. direct injection engine of the second generation — so called air guided system — shows the highest potential for gasoline engines to reduce fuel consumption. However, there are restrictions when using conventional spark ignition system. They concern the optimum position of ignition initialization and spark-plug wear, the latter being caused by inhomogeneous mixture distribution. The laser-induced ignition enables a flexible choice of the ignition location and a wear resistant initialization of the combustion process. The most crucial component here is the optics (the combustion-chamber window), through which the laser beam passes into the combustion chamber. In this paper, laser-induced ignition is discussed and its potential compared to a conventional ignition system is presented. In addition, several optic configurations are presented as well as tests regarding the minimum required laser energy and the optic contamination and self-cleaning effect of the optics. At the Institute of Internal Combustion Engines at the Vienna University of Technology the optic contamination and self-cleaning effect, which is crucial for a long-term operation, was tested on a two-cylinder research engine.

AbstractChemical looping combustion is a highly efficient CO2 separation technology without direct contact between combustion air and fuel. A metal oxide is used as an oxygen carrier in dual fluidized beds to generate clean CO2. The use of biomass is the focus of current research because of the possibility of negative CO2 emissions and the utilization of biogenic carbon. The most commonly proposed OC are natural ores and residues, but complete combustion has not yet been achieved. In this work, the direct utilization of CLC exhaust gas for methane synthesis as an alternative route was investigated, where the gas components CO, CH4 and H2 are not disadvantageous but benefit the reactions in a methanation step. The whole process chain, the coupling of an 80 kWth pilot plant with gas cleaning and a 10 kW fluidized bed methanation unit were for this purpose established. As OC, ilmenite enhanced with limestone was used, combusting bark pellets in autothermal operation at over 1000 °C reaching high combustion efficiencies of up to 91.7%. The fuel reactor exhaust gas was mixed with hydrogen in the methanation reactor at 360 °C and converted with a methane yield of up to 97.3%. The study showed especially high carbon utilization efficiencies of 97% compared to competitor technologies. Based on the experimental results, a scale-up concept study showed the high potential of the combination of the technologies concerning the total efficiency and the adaptability to grid injection. Graphical Abstract

In the thermodynamic analysis of pyrometallurgical processes using coke as a reductant, the data for CO and CO[sub 2] from thermochemical tables, relative to graphite as the standard state for carbon, are used. Since coke is an amorphous form of carbon, its Gibbs energy is expected to be higher than that of graphite. However, there has been no direct measurement of the stability of coke relative to graphite reported in the literature. For an accurate description of the thermodynamics of reactions involving coke, it is necessary to obtain quantitative values for the Gibbs energy difference between coke and graphite as a function of temperature. This communication reports an experimental determination of the activity of carbon in coke relative to graphite using a solid-state galvanic cell incorporating single-crystal CaF[sub 2] as the solid electrolyte. The results obtained in this study indicate a significantly higher solubility of coke compared to graphite in iron. However, metals are known to catalyze graphitization and the surface of coke in contact with the metal is likely to have a graphitelike structure. Thus, the theoretical difference in solubility may not be measurable in practice.

Abstract The reaction between a nickel-based oxygen carrier and a liquid fuel has been demonstrated in a chemical-looping reactor with continuous particle circulating. An injection system was constructed, in which sulfur-free kerosene was evaporated, mixed with superheated steam and fed directly into the lab scale chemical-looping reactor. A nickel-based oxygen carrier composed of 40 wt% NiO and 60 wt% MgO–ZrO 2 was used for both chemical-looping combustion (CLC) and chemical-looping reforming (CLR) experiments, which were performed for about 34 h and 20 h, respectively. For the CLC experiments, 95–99% of the fuel carbon was converted to CO 2 and only a minute amount of hydrocarbons was detected in the off-gas. For the CLR experiments, synthesis gas was produced with concentrations of hydrocarbons as low as 0.01%. The particles were analyzed before and after the experiments using XRD, SEM, BET surface area and particle size distribution. It was shown that it is possible to use liquid fuel in a continuous chemical-looping process and also achieve nearly complete fuel conversion. With a nickel-based oxygen carrier virtually all hydrocarbon could be fully oxidized.