• Energy Research
• natural sciences close
• 13. Climate action close
• Southeast University close

AbstractUsing a low supply water temperature in heating conditions and a high water temperature during cooling can increase energy efficiency, use renewable energy sources, and provide a comfortable and healthy indoor climate. High temperature cooling and low temperature heating is achieved by reducing temperature difference in heat trans er and energy transportation process. The losses in temperature difference can be classified into three types: by heat/moisture exchange; by energy transportation through air/water circulation; by indoor terminal that releases heat/cooling to indoor condit oned space. The air handling process of HVAC system and indoor terminals are the key factor of reducing temperature differen e.Aiming at the losses in HVAC system, Annex 59, titled High Temperature Cooling & Low Temperature Heating in Buildings, is a new international cooperative work under the framework of International Energy Agency (IEA) Energy in Buildings and Communities (EBC). This paper introduc s the background, scope, objective, structure and deliverables of Annex 59. Annex 59 will try to present a new perspective and a new concept to analyze HVAC system in buildings. The goal of the Annex is to build up new concept of analyzing HVAC system from the perspective of reducing mixture loss and transfer loss and th n apply it in high temperature cooling and low temperature heating system.

Thermo-chemical conversion of carbonaceous wastes such as tyres, plastics, biomass and crude glycerol is a promising technology compared to traditional waste treatment options (e.g. incineration and landfill).

This communication is motivated by recent publications discussing the affordability of appropriate decentralized solutions for safe drinking water provision in low-income communities. There is a huge contrast between the costs of presented technologies, which vary by a factor of up to 12. For example, for the production of 2000 L/d of treated drinking water, the costs vary between about 1500 and 12,000 Euro. A closer look at the technologies reveals that expensive technologies use imported manufactured components or devices that cannot yet be locally produced. In the battle to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal for safe drinking water (SDG 6.1), such technologies should be, at best, considered as bridging solutions. For a sustainable self-reliance in safe drinking water supply, do-it-yourself (DIY) systems should be popularized. These DIY technologies include biochar and metallic iron (Fe0) based systems. These relevant technologies should then be further improved through internal processes.

Global climate change is a major threat to biodiversity, which may increase the extinction risk of rare species, particularly those like Ostrya rehderiana Chun (Betulaceae) with very few remaining extant wild individuals. We aimed to estimate the potential distribution of O. rehderiana under climate change and to analyze possible relevant climatic factors. Maximum entropy (Maxent) was employed to model the potential distribution of O. rehderiana under present and future climate scenarios. Suitable habitat areas in different periods and the main contributing climate factors were identified using species distribution models. The minimum temperature in winter and precipitation seasonality were the principal climatic factors influencing the establishment of O. rehderiana. The proportion of high potential distribution area in China was 3.91% and would further shrink significantly under changing climate, especially reduce by 97% under high radiative forcing. The extinction risk of O. rehderiana would still be extraordinarily high under future climate scenarios. The Tianmu and Luoxiao Mountains would be the only potential refugia for O. rehderiana in the future. Special conservation efforts are urgently required to rescue extremely endangered species as O. rehderiana. We propose priorities for the conservation region and suggestions for conservation management strategies.

The growing abundance of wind and solar power has driven interest in utilizing this renewable energy to make chemicals. One of the most efficient and sophisticated frameworks to solar-to-chemical conversion is bioelectrochemical systems that electrochemically couple inorganic catalysts and microorganisms. In particular, microbial electrosynthesis systems and biohybrid systems have used CO2 and electricity or light, respectively, to synthesize organic acids at energy efficiencies that exceed natural photosynthesis. In parallel, new methods have been recently developed to improve the poor mechanistic understanding of these and other bioelectrochemical systems. Deeper knowledge of these underlying molecular processes and creation of new architectures for bioelectrochemical systems are needed to make these promising technologies scale to a commercially relevant level.

Characterized by increasing surface air temperature, global warming has altered the hydrological cycle at global and regional scales. In order to adapt water resources management under the context of global warming, attribution analysis on regional differentiation of water resources in the Yangtze River basin (YRB) was conducted in this study. Meteoro-hydrological variations across the basin were examined for the period 1960–2013, and then a statistic-based method was applied in quantifying the contributions of climate variability and human activities on annual runoff variations in different tributary sub-basins in the YRB. Our observation indicates that both the annual increasing rate and the inter-annual fluctuations of temperature in China and in the YRB were higher than that of the global average since the turn of the century. Climate change analysis indicates that the YRB experienced a hot-wet period during 1994–2002 and a hot-dry period during 2003–2013, since the step change of temperature in 1993. Contributions of climate change and human activities on runoff variations varied spatially in the basin. With reference to the baseline period of 1960–1993, the contribution of climate change played a dominant role in most regions of the basin, especially in those upstream sub-basins. The effect of human activities in the basin was quite complicated, not only its regional differentiation, but also its contribution were opposite during the hot-wet period and the hot-dry period in some sub-basins. The result of this study is helpful in understanding the impacts of climate change and human activities on water resources variation in both temporal and spatial scales.

The Yellow River, one of the very few in the Earth, originated from many dispersive palaeolakes. Taking this unique advantage, we examined the roles of palaeolake isolation vs. geological processes vs. climate in determining current fish biogeographic pattern. We reviewed available data on fish species and their geographical distribution in the river, as well as palaeolake development, geological and climatic parameters. The 138 fish species recorded in the river could be divided into 8 biogeographic regions, corresponding to the distribution of palaeolakes and respective endemic species. Through variation partitioning analysis, palaeolake isolation was the most influential factor explaining 43.6% of the total variance on the current fish distribution. The Quaternary Ice Age produced a transitional distribution for fishes from the glacier to warm water, especially for the subfamily Schizothoracinae, which showed various degrees of specialisation along altitudes. We suggested that fish biogeography in the Yellow river was basically shaped by palaeolake isolation, and further carved under serials of geologic events and contemporary climate change.

The changes in niche roles and functions caused by competition for survival resources have implications in various domains, with natural science and social science standing out. Currently, expanding the ecological niche concept and its practical interpretation in the fields of social ecology, geography and sustainable science is becoming a crucial challenge. This paper is based on niche theory to observe niche evolution and resulting socio-ecological effects of 1186 towns in 19 prefecture cities in Yangtze River delta. The results indicate that: Towns around the Taihu Lake displayed obvious spatial agglomeration, which was leading the development of the entire region. The town niche shows obvious characteristics of north-south differences and hierarchy distribution. The niche coordination degree of Jiangsu Province was higher than that of Zhejiang Province. The higher the subsystem coordination degree, the better the town development. Towns with poor ecological conditions are often subject to competition, while towns with better ecological conditions often benefit from cooperative development. The niche separation and collaboration could enhance niche competition of towns and cities in the region. The proposed framework can facilitate interdisciplinary exchanges among geography, sociology, landscape ecology and regional planning and provide insights for understanding regional co-opetition relationship and regional sustainable development.