• Energy Research
• GB close
• IN close
• English close
• Transport Research close

Project: GCOS Earth Heat Inventory - A study under the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) concerted international effort to update the Earth heat inventory (EHI), and presents an updated international assessment of ocean warming estimates, and new and updated estimates of heat gain in the atmosphere, cryosphere and land over the period from 1960 to present. Summary: The file “GCOS_EHI_1960-2020_Earth_Heat_Inventory_Ocean_Heat_Content_data.nc” contains a consistent long-term Earth system heat inventory over the period 1960-2020. Human-induced atmospheric composition changes cause a radiative imbalance at the top-of-atmosphere which is driving global warming. Understanding the heat gain of the Earth system from this accumulated heat – and particularly how much and where the heat is distributed in the Earth system - is fundamental to understanding how this affects warming oceans, atmosphere and land, rising temperatures and sea level, and loss of grounded and floating ice, which are fundamental concerns for society. This dataset is based on a study under the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) concerted international effort to update the Earth heat inventory published in von Schuckmann et al. (2020), and presents an updated international assessment of ocean warming estimates, and new and updated estimates of heat gain in the atmosphere, cryosphere and land over the period 1960-2020. The dataset also contains estimates for global ocean heat content over 1960-2020 for different depth layers, i.e., 0-300m, 0-700m, 700-2000m, 0-2000m, 2000-bottom, which are described in von Schuckmann et al. (2022). This version includes an update of heat storage of global ocean heat content, where one additional product (Li et al., 2022) had been included to the initial estimate. The Earth heat inventory had been updated accordingly, considering also the update for continental heat content (Cuesta-Valero et al., 2023).

Dynamics of societal material stocks such as buildings and infrastructures and their spatial patterns drive surging resource use and emissions. Building up and maintaining stocks requires large amounts of resources; currently stock-building materials amount to almost 60% of all materials used by humanity. Buildings, infrastructures and machinery shape social practices of production and consumption, thereby creating path dependencies for future resource use. They constitute the physical basis of the spatial organization of most socio-economic activities, for example as mobility networks, urbanization and settlement patterns and various other infrastructures. This dataset features a detailed map of material stocks for the whole of Germany on a 10m grid based on high resolution Earth Observation data (Sentinel-1 + Sentinel-2), crowd-sourced geodata (OSM) and material intensity factors. Temporal extent The map is representative for ca. 2018. Data format Per federal state, the data come in tiles of 30x30km (see shapefile). The projection is EPSG:3035. The images are compressed GeoTiff files (*.tif). There is a mosaic in GDAL Virtual format (*.vrt), which can readily be opened in most Geographic Information Systems. The dataset features area and mass for different street types area and mass for different rail types area and mass for other infrastructure area, volume and mass for different building types Masses are reported as total values, and per material category. Units area in m² height in m volume in m³ mass in t for infrastructure and buildings Further information For further information, please see the publication or contact Helmut Haberl (helmut.haberl@boku.ac.at). A web-visualization of this dataset is available here. Visit our website to learn more about our project MAT_STOCKS - Understanding the Role of Material Stock Patterns for the Transformation to a Sustainable Society. Publication Haberl, H., Wiedenhofer, D., Schug, F., Frantz, D., Virág, D., Plutzar, C., Gruhler, K., Lederer, J., Schiller, G. , Fishman, T., Lanau, M., Gattringer, A., Kemper, T., Liu, G., Tanikawa, H., van der Linden, S., Hostert, P. (accepted): High-resolution maps of material stocks in buildings and infrastructures in Austria and Germany. Environmental Science & Technology Funding This research was primarly funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (MAT_STOCKS, grant agreement No 741950). ML and GL acknowledge funding by the Independent Research Fund Denmark (CityWeight, 6111-00555B), ML thanks the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC; project Multi-Scale, Circular Economic Potential of Non-Residential Building Scale, EP/S029273/1), JL acknowledges funding by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF), project ESR17-067, TF acknowledges the Israel Science Foundation grant no. 2706/19.

The Danish energy system is undergoing a transition from a system based on storable fossil fuels to a system based on fluctuating renewable energy sources. At the same time, more of and more of the energy system is becoming electrified; transportation, heating and fuel usage in industry and elsewhere. This article investigates the development of the Danish energy system in a medium year 2030 situation as well as in a long-term year 2050 situation. The analyses are based on scenario development by the Danish Climate Commission. In the short term, it is investigated what the effects will be of having flexible or inflexible electric vehicles and individual heat pumps, and in the long term it is investigated what the effects of changes in the load profiles due to changing weights of demand sectors are. The analyses are based on energy systems simulations using EnergyPLAN and demand forecasting using the Helena model. The results show that even with a limited short-term electric car fleet, these will have a significant effect on the energy system; the energy system’s ability to integrated wind power and the demand for condensing power generation capacity in the system. Charging patterns and flexibility have significant effects on this. Likewise, individual heat pumps may affect the system operation if they are equipped with heat storages. The analyses also show that the long-term changes in electricity demand curve profiles have little impact on the energy system performance. The flexibility given by heat pumps and electric vehicles in the long-term future overshadows any effects of changes in hourly demand curve profiles. International Journal of Sustainable Energy Planning and Management, Vol 7 (2015)

PhD ; Corrosion at the head-neck junction of total hip replacements is a poorly understood phenomenon with an incidence of 1 - 2 %. Concerns around taper junction corrosion have focused on design factors including changes in taper surface topography and geometry as well as operating conditions such as high bearing surface friction and fluid ingress-egress at the taper junction. Hence, this thesis considered 3 aspects of the head taper junction namely: (1) frictional torque at the bearing surface and below the taper junction for varying head sizes and bearing material combinations, (2) Cobalt and Chromium ion release from CoCr/Ti taper junctions, (3) FE analysis of tapers utilising variables including taper length, material, angle, and clearance under loading conditions representative of walking, hip simulator profiles and stair climb. Bearing friction and the torque about the taper axis beneath the taper junction were positively correlated with the head size (R2 = 0.57 bearing friction, R2 = 0.88 torque) and average surface roughness (Ra) (R2 = 0.66 bearing friction, R2=0.79 torque) of the femoral head. Torque generated on large MoP bearings (0.93 ± 0.2 Nm) was found to be comparable to MoM (0.81 Nm). The median cumulative Cr release rate was at least 2 times greater than that of Co (0.0220 ppb/cycle Cr relative to 0.0109 ppb/cycle Co) due to the acidic environment utilised in the accelerated tests. No statistically significant difference in ion release was found, between the trunnions of different surface finishes. Finite element analyses showed that the largest gaps generated at the mouth of the taper, were associated with smaller taper contact areas. Clearances within ±0.1° enabled the tapers to engage over comparable lengths and therefore did not show differences in taper opening, showing this was influenced by the taper engagement length rather than location (proximal or distal) of contact. Stair climb loading generated the largest taper gaps (80 m) and surface stresses on the head taper (1200 MPa); these ...

The UK government has set the ambitious targets of 20 and 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and 2050 respectively. The transport sector accounts for 21% of total CO2 emissions in the UK and can, therefore, be important for achieving the emissions reduction targets. Within the transport sector, electric vehicles (EV) are considered as one of the important mitigation options. However the effect of EVs on emissions and the electricity sector is subject to debate. We use scenario analysis to investigate the emission reduction potential of EVs and their interaction with electricity sector. We show that managing the charging patterns could reduce adverse effects of EVs on the electricity sector while the number of EVs remains the factor affecting the mitigation potential. Our findings indicate that in the UK, by 2030, EVs could result in up to 32% emissions reduction compared to advanced internal combustion engines. We also found that the need for new electricity generation and distribution capacity to meet the conventional electricity demand and demand from EVs could be reduced by up to 12% from 70.6 to 61.8 GW if the EV’s electricity demand is managed.

The present article describes a possible pedagogical approach for delivering a module in inter-surface radiation exchange that will encompass the following applications and will also lend to other potential applications which may be identified by the reader: (i) building heating and cooling load, and (ii) energy balance of solar thermal air-and water collectors. The basic cases for inter-surface radiation exchange that are presented here are: (a) surfaces that may share a common edge, i.e. surfaces or extension of surfaces that are at an angle to each other, and (b) parallel surfaces. This article will not only present solutions to the above-mentioned problems but will also be accompanied by MS-Excel/VBA codes for readers' use.

This blog piece presents a summary of the key outcomes of the COP26 meeting held in Glasgow in 2021. The blog discusses the implications for energy networks in relation to some of the outcomes of this important international conference on climate change.

The uptake of anthropogenic emission of carbon dioxide is resulting in a lowering of the carbonate saturation state and a drop in ocean pH. Understanding how marine calcifying organisms such as coralline algae may acclimatize to ocean acidification is important to understand their survival over the coming century. We present the first long-term perturbation experiment on the cold-water coralline algae, which are important marine calcifiers in the benthic ecosystems particularly at the higher latitudes. Lithothamnion glaciale, after three months incubation, continued to calcify even in undersaturated conditions with a significant trend towards lower growth rates with increasing pCO2. However, the major changes in the ultra-structure occur by 589 µatm (i.e. in saturated waters). Finite element models of the algae grown at these heightened levels show an increase in the total strain energy of nearly an order of magnitude and an uneven distribution of the stress inside the skeleton when subjected to similar loads as algae grown at ambient levels. This weakening of the structure is likely to reduce the ability of the alga to resist boring by predators and wave energy with severe consequences to the benthic community structure in the immediate future (50 years).

Fuelled by energy security problems and urban air pollution challenges, several countries worldwide have set the objective to gradually eliminate petrol and diesel cars. The increasing support from government and demands for environmental friendly means of transportation are accelerating the use of battery electric vehicles. However, it is indispensable to have accurate and complete information about their behaviour in different traffic situations and road conditions. For the experimental analysis carried out in this study, three different electric vehicles from the Edinburgh College leasing program were equipped and tracked to obtain over 50 GPS and energy consumption data for short distance journeys in the Edinburgh area and long-range tests between Edinburgh and Bristol (UK). The results showed that the vehicles’ energy intensities were significantly affected by the driving cycle pattern, with a noticeable diminution due to low temperatures. It was found that the real available range of the electric vehicle in some situations could be 17% lower than the predicted mileage shown in the dashboard of the vehicle. The difference from the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) values was even higher. The study has also provided a discussion on the effect of the electricity mix on carbon emission reduction.