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The drought prone North-West Bangladesh is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, particularly because of less water availability in the dry period and high water requirement for crop production. Improved understanding of recent changes in crop water demand in the dry season is important for the water resources management in the region. A study was carried out to determine the potential impacts of recent climate change during last three decades on trends of water requirements of Boro rice. The reference crop evapotranspiration (ETo), potential crop water requirement (∑ETC), effective rainfall during the crop growing period (ER), potential irrigation requirement for crop evapotranspiration (∑ETC − ER) and net irrigation requirement of Boro rice were estimated using observed daily climate data in the CropWat model for the period of 1980 to 2013 for four North-West districts. Significant decreasing trends of ETo were observed in most of the dry months due to increasing relative humidity and decreasing wind-speed and sun-shine hours. The results showed decreasing trends of potential crop water requirement, i.e. the total crop evapotranspiration (∑ETC), of Boro rice due to decreasing reference crop evapotranspiration and shorter crop growing periods. The variations in trends of potential irrigation requirement for crop evapotranspiration (∑ETC − ER) found among different districts, are mainly linked to variations in trends of changes in effective rainfall. The net irrigation requirement of Boro rice has decreased, by 11% during the last three decades at an average rate of −4.4 mm year−1, instead of decreasing effective rainfall, mainly because of high rate of decrease of crop evapotranspiration (−5.9 mm year−1). Results indicate that a warming climate does not always result in higher agricultural water use and that climate change can also result in reduced water demands because of changes in humidity, wind-speed and sun-shine hours.

MILD combustion is a very attractive technology in energy production from diluted gas deriving from bio or thermochemical degradation of biomass for its intrinsic features. An effective use of such a technology for diluted fuel needs a thorough analysis of ignition and oxidation behavior to highlight the potential effects of the different fuel components on the basis of temperature and diluent/oxygen/fuel mixture composition. In this work ignition and oxidation of a model gas surrogating the gaseous fraction of biomass pyrolysis products containing C1-C2 species, CO and CO2 were experimentally and numerically studied in a wide range of temperature and overall composition in presence of large amount of CO2 or H2O. Experimental results showed that such species significantly alter the evolution of the ignition process in dependence on temperature range and mixture composition. Several kinetic models were tested to simulate experimental results. Significant discrepancies occur especially in case of steam dilution. Numerical analyses suggest that such diluents mainly act as third body species at low temperatures, conditioning both radicals production pathways and the relative weight of C1 oxidation/recombination routes, while strongly interact with the H2/O2 high temperature branching mechanisms at high temperatures. Further analyses are mandatory to improve the model ability to reduce the discrepancy between numerical and experimental data obtained in non standard conditions.

Clean combustion technologies, based on reactant dilution, have shown very peculiar and innovative characteristics. Reduction of light and noise emission and uniformity of temperature and composition distribution inside the combustion chamber, related to an extension of the reaction zone, make these processes very promising in several technological fields. Analysis of combustion in very diluted conditions is needed for a general understanding of these processes, which remain unknown from many aspects. The study is also useful for the identification of practical constraints which define the most suitable reactor configurations and working parameters for process reliability. The present work deals with a theoretical analysis of methane oxidation in diluted conditions using one of the detailed kinetic schemes available in the literature. A well-stirred reactor (WSR) configuration has been considered as a first attempt of process schematization. This choice is consistent with the experimental characterization of the flameless combustion processes. The influence of residence time, C/O ratio, and inlet temperature on the steady state was studied for an oxygen molar fraction (0.05), chosen as representative of flameless combustion processes. It has been pointed out that only rich conditions (C/O ? 0.25) are possible for WSR creation, because they allow partial methane conversion. Three kinetic regimes, related to different temperature ranges, have been identified on the basis of product distribution analysis. Both the oxidation and pyrolitic regimes, occurring respectively in low- and high-temperature ranges, are the most interesting working conditions for diluted combustion. The former, leading to CO and H2O as main reaction products, is suitable for reburning technology. The latter, which corresponds to large production of CO and H2, has been shown to be a reasonable explanation of flameless combustion. Advantages and potentials of this innovative process are analyzed, taking into account the kinetic pathway followed in the different working conditions.

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.

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.

This paper compares the quantity and quality of solid waste obtained from traditional ponds and recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) for striped catfish and evaluates methane and compost production from these wastes. Striped catfish sludge was collected from four commercial ponds along the Mekong river and from three indoor RAS. The amount of sludge dry matter produced per kilogram of fish in ponds was 6 times higher than that in RAS. However, the concentration of nutrients in solid waste from RAS was much higher, with better compost quality and higher methane yield than that of sludge from ponds. Out of the collected 381 L biogas, the methane yield of striped catfish's solid waste in RAS systems was 201 L per kg chemical oxygen demand (COD). In ponds, the collected 267 L biogas yielded 125 L CH4 per kg COD. The higher methane production from RAS sludge concurred with higher digestibility of COD: 58% for RAS versus 38% for ponds. The quality and quantity of methane from striped catfish sludge were lower than that for other animal manures, and the resulting electricity yield was low. Considering the higher nutrient concentration in RAS-sludge, we recommend the combination RAS and composting in reusing sludge, which is presently the best option for a more sustainable and cleaner striped catfish production system.

Abstract In recent years, the overall energy consumption is increasing significantly and the energy consumption in the building sector represents over 30% of the global ones in developed countries. Thermal energy storage (TES) using phase change materials (PCM), which are materials able to store high amounts of energy as latent heat, is suggested as a possible solution to decrease the energy consumption. The authors of this paper developed materials able to encapsulate/stabilize PCM in addition to isolate an industrial residue from the steel recycling process: electrical arc furnace dust (EAFD). This waste is a hazardous dust, and when it is combined with a polymeric matrix produce dense sheet materials suitable for multilayered constructive systems. In this paper the physical, mechanical, thermal and acoustical characterization of two new materials with EAFD and PCM in a polymeric matrix for constructive system is presented. The results are compared with those obtained for one commercial dense sheet material available in the market, Texsound commercialized by TEXSA (Spain). The new dense sheet materials developed in this paper have similar acoustic properties compared to the results obtained for the commercial material and are competitive with it, even better because the new material incorporates PCM which increases the thermal inertia of final constructive system.