• Energy Research
• Restricted close
• Embargo close
• US close
• DE close
• EU close
• CH close
• BE close

The transition to a low carbon future is starting to affect landscapes around the world. In order for this landscape transformation to be sustainable, renewable energy technologies should not cause critical trade-offs between the provision of energy and that of other ecosystem services such as food production. This literature review advances the body of knowledge on sustainable energy transition with special focus on ecosystem services-based approaches and methods. Two key issues emerge from this review: only one sixth of the published applications on the relation between renewable energy and landscape make use of the ecosystem service framework. Secondly, the applications that do address ecosystem services for landscape planning and design lack efficient methods and spatial reference systems that accommodate both cultural and regulating ecosystem services. Future research efforts should be directed to further advancing the spatial reference systems, the use of participatory mapping and landscape visualizations tools for cultural ecosystem services and the elaboration of landscape design principles.

Since 2007, a range of new modeling approaches and tools have been developed for sustainability impact assessment (SIA), but a lack of universal acceptance of SIA tools in applied policy making is observed. The current article gives an overview of experiences from several European and international projects, critically reviews the selected SIA tools and then discusses a number of reasons for the observed disconnect of the tools with the potential users. Largely based on the experiences of the presented SIA tools focusing land use policy advice, a decision tree is designed, which may facilitate an adequate, region and developmental phase specific selection of tool-box components for the development of SIA tools in future. Elements to ensure end-user participation are also integrated in the decision tree in order to increase the likelihood of the tool in applied land use policy advice. In addition, the Challenges in SIA tool development and use are further discussed.

Abstract We provide a detailed description of a numerically stable and efficient coupling scheme for steady-state Monte Carlo neutronic calculations with thermal–hydraulic feedback. While we have previously derived and published the stochastic approximation based method for coupling the Monte Carlo criticality and thermal–hydraulic calculations, its possible implementation has not been described in a step-by-step manner. As the simple description of the coupling scheme was repeatedly requested from us, we have decided to make it available via this note.

In this study we examine the determination accuracy of both the mean radiant temperature (Tmrt) and the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) within the scope of numerical weather prediction (NWP), and global (GCM) and regional (RCM) climate model simulations. First, Tmrt is determined and the so-called UTCI-Fiala model is then used for the calculation of UTCI. Taking into account the uncertainties of NWP model (among others the HIgh Resolution Limited Area Model HIRLAM) output (temperature, downwelling short-wave and long-wave radiation) stated in the literature, we simulate and discuss the uncertainties of Tmrt and UTCI at three stations in different climatic regions of Europe. The results show that highest negative (positive) differences to reference cases (under assumed clear-sky conditions) of up to -21°C (9°C) for Tmrt and up to -6°C (3.5°C) for UTCI occur in summer (winter) due to cloudiness. In a second step, the uncertainties of RCM simulations are analyzed: three RCMs, namely ALADIN (Aire Limitée Adaptation dynamique Développement InterNational), RegCM (REGional Climate Model) and REMO (REgional MOdel) are nested into GCMs and used for the prediction of temperature and radiation fluxes in order to estimate Tmrt and UTCI. The inter-comparison of RCM output for the three selected locations shows that biases between 0.0 and ±17.7°C (between 0.0 and ±13.3°C) for Tmrt (UTCI), and RMSE between ±0.5 and ±17.8°C (between ±0.8 and ±13.4°C) for Tmrt (UTCI) may be expected. In general the study shows that uncertainties of UTCI, due to uncertainties arising from calculations of radiation fluxes (based on NWP models) required for the prediction of Tmrt, are well below ±2°C for clear-sky cases. However, significant higher uncertainties in UTCI of up to ±6°C are found, especially when prediction of cloudiness is wrong.

Xylan is an important part of plant biomass and represents a renewable raw material for biorefineries. Contrary to cellulose, the structure of hemicellulose is quite complex. Therefore, the biodegradation of xylan needs the cooperation of many enzymes. For industrial production of xylanase multienzyme complexes (cocktails) and selected monocomponent xylanases, different Trichoderma reesei mutants and recombinants are used. T. reesei QM 6a (wild-type parent of best existing mutants) was selected as a starting material in the 1960s when the modern in-depth analytical methods were not yet in use. Therefore, screening of fungi genetically close to T. reesei in biodegradation of xylan may have a scientific value. Fifteen different strains from Trichoderma section Longibrachiatum have been tested for extracellular xylan-degrading enzyme production on three carbon sources (wheat straw, corn fiber, and eucalyptus wood) in shake flask cultivation. The enzyme activities were evaluated by traditional colorimetric enzyme assays and by HPLC and matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Degradation of xylan was studied on four different xylan-rich model substrates. T. reesei CPK 155, Trichoderma parareesei TUB F-2535, and Trichoderma gracile TUB F-2543 isolates were equally good or better in degradation of the wheat arabinoxylan (WAX) and corn fiber alcohol insoluble solids as hydolysis substrates than the well-known T. reesei QM 6a and RUT C30 strains. Though Trichoderma saturnisporum ATCC 18903 gave relatively low volumetric enzyme activities by traditional colorimetric assays, it could release quite large amount of hydrolysis products (mono- and oligosaccharides) from WAX. Therefore, these fungi may be potential candidates for further experiments. Enzyme production on wheat straw and corn fiber carbon sources was more effective than on eucalyptus wood

Despite the well-established finding from questionnaire studies that positive expectancies are associated with drinking behavior, there is comparatively little known about the mechanisms through which they may affect drinking behavior. Incentive motivation models suggest that alcohol itself may alter the value of the expected outcomes of drinking. The current study was designed to examine the influence of low-dose alcohol on the activation of alcohol outcome expectancy value.Forty-eight hazardous drinkers (34 men) between the ages of 21 and 35 years were recruited from advertisements in local newspapers for a social drinking study. Participants, whose most frequently consumed beverage was beer, were administered a dose of either alcoholic (8.5%) beer, based on gender and weight to reach a blood alcohol concentration of 40 mg/dl, or an equivalent volume of placebo beer. Following an absorption phase, a computerized evaluative priming task was completed in which participants made a series of judgments about the value of positive and negative outcomes following either alcohol or neutral word primes.Those who consumed alcohol made faster evaluative responses to positive relative to negative outcomes, compared with individuals who consumed the placebo beverage.These findings suggest that moderate doses of alcohol may influence the incentive value of positive relative to negative outcome expectancies. It is suggested that these processes may play a role in patterns of hazardous alcohol use.

Climate-controlled changes in eustatic sea level (ESL) are linked to transfers of water between ocean and land, thus offering a rare insight into the past hydrological cycle. In this study, we examine the timing and phase of Milankovitch-scale ESL cycles in the peak Cretaceous greenhouse, the early Turonian (-93-94 million years, Myr, ago). A high-resolution astronomical framework established for the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin (central Europe) suggests a -400-kyr pace and a distinct asymmetry of interpreted ESL cycles. The rising limbs of ESL change constitute only 20-30 % of the cycle, and are encased entirely within the falling phase of the 405-kyr eccentricity. The intervening ESL falls (<= 6 m in magnitude) are more protracted, starting within 70 kyr prior to the eccentricity minima and culminating -60 kyr after the 405-kyr eccentricity maxima. Despite similarities to the sawtooth shape of -100-kyr glacioeustatic oscillations of the Late Pleistocene, the time scales and phasing are unparalleled in the Pleistocene icehouse. A similar, 405-kyr pace is found in ice-volume variations of the early Miocene, but the timing of glacioeustatic change relative to eccentricity forcing is incompatible with the phase of greenhouse sea-level oscillations. The phasing points to major differences in the geographic location and insolation sensitivity of the key hydrological reservoirs under icehouse and greenhouse regimes. The inferred structure of greenhouse eustasy points to low- or middle-latitude water storage, likely aquifers, that charge (expand) with rising seasonality variations and discharge (contract) with declining seasonality amplitudes on the 405-kyr scale. The net volume of water transferred on these time scales is within 2.2 x 106 km3, equivalent to <= 10 % of the present-day storage in the uppermost 2 km of continental crust. Potential additive interference with steric eustasy, proportionally relevant during greenhouse regimes, could reduce the volumes required for continental storage.

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.