• Energy Research
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<h3>Project Overview</h3> <p>Jurisdictional boundaries of governmental agencies often do not align with the geographic or social boundaries of the policy issues they are tasked with addressing. This spatial mismatch is especially common in relation to natural resources and the environment. Where it occurs, achievement of policy goals may require coordination across jurisdictions, which can lead to mutual benefits. Yet, governmental agencies may view coordination as costly or as leading to a loss of autonomy. This project examined coordination decisions made by local level governmental agencies in California, as they formed Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) and subsequently coordinated development of their first groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs) under California's Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). The project addresses the question of how agencies make decisions and manage interactions when under a coordination mandate that allots agencies the discretion to decide how to coordinate. More specifically, it investigates:<ol><li>What factors influence decisions regarding the geographic extent of and parties involved in development of new formal agencies for groundwater management,</li><li>How do concerns about the potential risks of coordination affect the choice of coordination mechanisms,</li><li>How does the structure of agency interactions affect their achievement of the objectives of the coordination mandate, and</li><li>How do agencies make sense of a coordination mandate and how does that sense-making process influence the decisions agencies make when deciding how to respond to the mandate?</li></ol></p> <h3>Data Collection Overview</h3> <p>Data were collected between January 2018 and May 2020. The methods for data collection varied by data type.<ul><li>Secondary data on the physical, social, and institutional characteristics of groundwater basins were collected from California Department of Water Resources datasets, the American Community Survey, and the National Land Use Database.</li><li>Data on GSA formation and copies of GSPs and Coordination Agreements were obtained from the California’s SGMA Portal Website (https://sgma.water.ca.gov/portal/)</li><li>Meeting minutes and other documentation were obtained from the respective websites of local-level agencies that formed GSAs.</li><li>Interviews were conducted with representatives from 67 groundwater sustainability agencies. Interviewees spanned 17 of the 19 basins and 38 of the 44 groundwater sustainability plans produced. Interviewees were identified based on formal GSA contact information and selected based on formal notices to produce a GSP. Recruitment sought to interview representatives from least one GSA from each GSP group.</li><li>Participant observation was undertaken of more than 58 public meetings (in person, virtually, or reviewing recordings).</li></ul></p> <h3>Shared Data Organization</h3> <p>The shared data is organized into three folders. A GIS folder contains 16 relevant data files. An interview transcripts folder contains 52 de-identified transcripts from the interviews that were recorded and transcribed. Some interviewees did not agree to recording and transcription of the interviews, thus data from those interviews are not available. A tabular data folder contains 3 spreadsheet workbooks. These include a spreadsheet documenting coordination concerns at the basin-level; a spreadsheet documenting organizational forms and institutions adopted at the basin-level; and a spreadsheet documenting coordination outcomes at the basin-level. Each spreadsheet includes a copy of the codebook used in analyzing the data. This data project also includes 6 documentation files: a GIS metadata workbook, an interview catalog, an interview consent form, a redaction protocol, this data narrative, and an administrative README file.</p> <h3>Data Overview</h3> <p>The research involved a mixed-methods approach that combines information on agencies; the physical, social, and institutional characteristics of groundwater basins and the agencies located within them; formal filings; agreements; and plans developed by agencies; meeting minutes; interview data; and data from participant observation.</p>

The world, society and education are constantly evolving, and to respond to these changes, the main governmental institutions have been proposing different global strategies to focus efforts in the same direction. Currently, the United Nations and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) have presented a series of indicators that could help to minimise the environmental, economic and social instability we are experiencing. In this sense, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has been described as a fundamental factor. Specifically, in previous work, we argued that physical education (PE) could be a good tool to contribute to SDGs. Based on this, no research analysing the voices of Physical Education Teachers (PET) on how this contribution could be made has been identified in previous literature. Therefore, the objectives of this research are: (1) to analyse the voices and opinions of active PETs in terms of the knowledge they have about Sustainable Development (SD); (2) to determine their opinions about the contribution that PE could make to SDGs; and finally, (3) to identify the challenges and limitations of pedagogical action of SD in PE. For this purpose, a qualitative analysis through a semi-structured interview with 41 active PETs was carried out. The main findings will be presented and discussed around four themes: (a) agreement on the concept of sustainability; (b) PE can contribute to the achievement of SDGs; (c) ambiguity in applying SDGs to PE lessons; and (d) teachers’ constraints on how to implement SDGs in PE. It seems to indicate that PETs do not have a multidimensional vision of sustainable development. While they recognise the potential of PE to contribute to SDGs through awareness raising and student learning, they point to its pedagogical and formative constraints as the main barriers to being able to contribute. They pointed to a lack of knowledge on how to do so, guidelines on how to integrate ESD, lack of involvement, shortage of time or resources in school physical education.

It is now environmentally desirable and legally mandatory to add renewable fuels such as ethanol or ethyl tert-butyl ether to gasoline. However, biofuels affect, among other properties, the distillation curve of gasoline, which is subject to strict regulations. This work presents a simple mathematical model capable of accurately predicting the influence that the addition of these oxygenates has on the distillation curve. In order to address this issue, it is essential to find a simple mathematical correlation between the boiling temperatures of the hydrocarbons present in gasoline and the properties (boiling temperature and volume or molar concentration of ethanol) of the corresponding azeotropic mixtures formed with ethanol. Power functions have been assumed to model the temperature composition diagrams of the vapour-liquid equilibrium. Experimental data previously published by these and other authors have been used to fit and validate the model. The results provided by the mathematical model can be of great interest to understand the process of fuel evaporation in spark-ignition engines or the adjustment of distillation cuts in refineries, in order to comply with the regulations, in terms of the distillation curve, after adding ethanol or ethyl tert-butyl ether.

The olive oil mill wastewater (OMW) is a by-product (with a high organic load) derived from the production of the olive oil. The OMW steam reforming (OMWSR) process was studied herein, aiming to decrease the environmental damage of such effluents; simultaneously, the waste is economically and energetically valorized with the H-2 production. Several Ni-containing catalysts were prepared and tested to compare their performances for the OMWSR using a synthetic OMW effluent; still, stability tests were also carried out. The materials were extensively characterized: thermogravimetric analysis, temperature programmed oxidation/reduction, temperature-programmed desorption of CO2/NH3, chemisorption of H-2, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry and physical adsorption-desorption of N-2 at-196 & DEG;C. Amongst the materials tested, the Ni-Ru/SiO2 sample stood out, exhibiting high catalytic performance: at 400 & DEG;C, the H-2 yield (> 8 mol(H2)& BULL;mol(OMW)(-1)) and conversion of total organic carbon (asymptotic to 75%) were high during all the 24 h of the long-term test, with only a small deactivation being noticed.

Abstract The Mediterranean region is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change. The majority of climate models forecast a rise in temperatures and less rainfall, which have been observed in recent decades. These changes will affect several vegetation properties, especially phenological dynamics and traits, by increasing drought intensity and recurrence. In this climate change context, the present study aims to assess the evolution of vegetation state and its relation with the climate dynamics in the Mediterranean forest region of northeast Tunisia using Land Surface Phenology (LSP) metrics and the vegetation index (NDVI) analysis from 2000 to 2017. To conduct this work, we used precipitation and temperature data from the two closest weather stations and 16-day NDVI composite images from the MODIS satellite source, with 250-m spatial resolution. Three phenological metrics— start of season (SOS), end of season (EOS), and length of season (LOS) — were obtained and compared for different vegetation types. The LSP variation in response to climatic metrics was also analyzed. The results showed that the LSP in our study area changed significantly during the 2000–2017 period, which includes an average 7.8 days delay in the SOS, an average advance in the EOS by 5 days, and LOS shortened by an average 12.8 days. Autumn (Pr_9) and spring (Pr_3 and P3_4) precipitations, as well as maximum temperature (Tx9+10), represent the best climate parameters to explain the changes in LSP. Both the NDVI and SPEI showed a significant high correlation (p

In the recent years, some experimental forms of housing (cohousing and social housing) have developed in Italy, which also take on the features of real energy communities. These initiatives have been planned and implemented thanks to the active participation and investments of the people involved in the project. Their primary aim is to implement new form of shared housing, but by adopting renewable generation systems and sharing both energy production and consumption, they are contributing to foster the energy transition process. In this research, we studied the management of the energy resource and the social interactions among the cohousers. Moreover, we analysed the social impacts on the surrounding territory in order to know as they can widespread the clean energy technologies and social innovation processes. To do this, we compared two experiences of collaborative housing: the first one, active since some years in Northern Italy, is a bottom-up initiative set up by the voluntary action of some families and individuals. Its goal is to share common spaces and activities, but also to produce and use renewable energy with a view to economic and environmental sustainability. The second one is a social cohousing, established in Messina (Southern Italy) and implemented by the Fondazione di Comunità di Messina. The project involves people who live in socio-economic difficulties. Through the ESCO Solidarity & Energy, the Fondazione has designed and applied energy systems to allow the tenants to become prosumers and prosumagers.

In recent years, the biomass as a renewable feedstock has been gaining utmost importance in order to meet the global need for fuels and chemicals from sustainability perspectives [1,2]. Principal components of biomass are cellulosic and triglycerides derivatives. The triglyceride part is principally used to obtain biodiesel and liquid alkanes, as alternative fuels [3]. Biomass derived from the lignocellulose part is rich in carbohydrates and furan derivatives, and the presence of oxygen in their structure makes them suitable for further utilization to obtain added-value products. As concern the sustainability of the chemical processes, efforts are being made to turn them into "green" processes, working on the procedures (favorable reagent ratio, catalyst amount and green solvents) and exploiting heterogeneous catalysis. The use of solid catalyst is indeed very favorable from a sustainable point of view, due to its simple separation, regeneration and recycling of the material [4,5]. This implies a high efficiency of the catalysts accompanied by a decrease in the processing cost. This presentation will focus on different types of functionalized silica or titania based materials applied to the biomass exploitation, both to the synthesis of biodiesel and its additives and for the obtainment of added-value products such as GVL, diols or HMF. Biomass can use also for the production of new materials applied in the abatement of aqueous pollutants

Artículos en revistas Este estudio analiza cómo las estrategias de responsabilidad social corporativa ambiental (ECSR) contribuyen a mejorar la innovación entre las pequeñas y medianas empresas (PYMES) mediante el desarrollo de recursos tecnológicos. Probamos nuestras hipótesis durante un período de ocho años utilizando un panel de 2.405 pymes industriales en España. Encontramos empíricamente que ECSR impulsa la construcción de los recursos tecnológicos de las empresas, lo que resulta en una mejora de su esfuerzo tecnológico o I + D y resultados en términos de innovación de productos y procesos. ECSR intensifica la innovación para empresas innovadoras y cataliza el inicio de la innovación para empresas que antes no innovaban, y los efectos resultantes se mantienen en el tiempo. Contribuimos a la literatura analizando los efectos de ECSR en la promoción de la innovación de las empresas más allá de la conocida influencia en la innovación verde. Además, examinamos el área de investigación descuidada de las estrategias ambientales de las PYME. Nuestros hallazgos fortalecen el valor innovador instrumental de ECSR, específicamente para las PYMES. This study analyzes how environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR) strategies contribute to enhancing innovativeness among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by developing technological resources. We test our hypotheses over an eight-year period using a panel of 2,405 industrial SMEs in Spain. We empirically find that ECSR drives the building of firms’ technological resources, which results in an enhancement of their technological effort or R&D and outcomes in terms of product and process innovation. ECSR intensifies innovation for innovative firms and catalyzes the inception of innovation for previously non-innovating firms, and the resultant effects are sustained over time. We contribute to the literature by analyzing the effects of ECSR in promoting the innovation of firms beyond the well-known influence on green innovation. Further, we examine the neglected research area of the environmental strategies of SMEs. Our findings strengthen the instrumental innovative value of ECSR, specifically for SMEs. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Abstract In the current transition to a smarter and more efficient transportation system, battery electric vehicle mileage and the time required for charging are still two main constraints that need to be overcome to enable a larger penetration of electric vehicles. Moreover, the few charging stations available are a consequence of the “supply and demand” problem. Consequently, wireless dynamic recharging can be a complementary solution to address the problems of light-duty electric mobility and an added-value towards autonomous vehicles. Consequently, this paper presents an innovative approach based on real world mobility patterns collected for a sample in the city of Lisbon, Portugal, to assess users’ electric vehicle feasibility by assessing different recharging scenarios, comparing stationary and dynamic recharging scenarios. The results indicate that at least 15 % more drivers would be eligible to own an electric vehicle if wireless charging was available. Moreover, wireless charging reduces the range of battery used, with stationary charging requiring circa 3.2 times more battery range. The developed approach confirms that wireless dynamic recharging can significantly change the framework of current electric mobility limitations, reducing range anxiety issues, contributing to redesign electric vehicle battery capacity and overcome barriers in stationary charging deployment and availability.