Cost Of Carbon Research Articles

Master slave game-based optimization of an off-grid combined cooling and power system coupled with solar thermal and photovoltaics considering carbon cost allocation

Analogously to power trading models used by electricity companies, the implementation of an energy retailer can address the trading challenges experienced by end-users with decentralized energy consumption patterns. This research develops an off-grid solar-gas energy system to fulfill the cooling and power needs of buildings. Upon creating thermodynamic models, an innovative energy trading mechanism is introduced through an energy retailer, followed by the application of a master-slave optimization method aimed at maximizing participants' profits while incorporating carbon trading and demand response strategies. Through a case study and comparison of four different scenarios, the findings demonstrate that integrating solar thermal and electrical systems leads to the highest profitability, with the energy system's revenues remaining below 10%. The study determines the maximum selling prices for cooling and electricity as 0.231 $/kWh and 0.232 $/kWh, respectively, and highlights that varying carbon allocation rates have minimal effects on user profits. This work sheds light on the sustainable progression of distributed energy systems and presents motivating implications for a diverse audience interested in such advancements.

Hospital waste management before and during COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis of the environmental impact of CO2 emissions in four Italian facilities

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic caused a surge in hospital waste (HW), posing an urgent public and environmental health challenge. Although a safe HW disposal method, high temperature incineration of fossil-derived materials contributes to air pollution. We analysed the monthly and yearly HW production of four Italian hospitals between 2016 and 2021, including COVID-19-related waste, to quantify the volume of activity related to COVID-19 patients, and estimate the environmental impact of HW through carbon emissions and social cost of carbon (SCC). A Mann-Kendall trend test and an Interrupted Time Series Analysis to detect trends and level changes in HW production after the COVID-19 outbreak were performed. ISMETT had the highest HW production (average annual variation (AAV) 0.89 kg/bed/day) and a positive correlation between HW generated per patient-day and the proportion of COVID-19-related bed-days. IFO (AAV 0.23 kg/bed/day) and IEO (AAV 0.19 kg/bed/day) both showed an overall increasing trend in HW production; CRH behaved similarly, although reporting the lowest HW production. ISMETT and IFO had the highest SCCs; CRH's SCC slightly decreased in the pandemic biennium, IEO's SCC peaked in 2019 and declined in 2020–2021. Optimizing waste management is vital, as disposal emissions pose significant risks to environmental sustainability and human health.

Review of sustainable practices for the gynecology operating room.

Climate change has immediate impacts on women's health. Hospitals and operating rooms are large contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and waste. This article will review current green initiatives designed to minimize environmental impact in the operating room and highlight areas for future improvement. From a materials perspective, reusable goods result in less GHG emissions while being just as efficacious, well tolerated, and easy to use. Materials should be opened judiciously, only as necessary. Processing regulated medical waste produces greater GHG emissions, so waste should be properly sorted, and items which are not biohazard waste should be processed separately. Choosing appropriate anesthesia and utilizing an 'off' setting, in which operating rooms are shut down when not in use, can also drastically decrease the environmental impact of surgery. Further research is needed to determine effective implementation in hospitals. This article summarizes current attempts to make operating rooms more sustainable. Many practices result in a decreased carbon footprint and cost savings without adversely affecting patient outcomes. Gynecologic surgeons and the hospitals in which they practice need to focus on implementing these changes in a timely fashion.

Research on Green Supply Chain Decision-Making Considering Consumers' Low Carbon Awareness and Cost Sharing

With the global vigorous promotion of the development of green economy, advocating the practice of green concept, sustainable development has become a new problem that the world attaches great importance to. This paper considers the factors of consumers ' low-carbon awareness, discusses the pricing decisions in different situations, and looks for the optimal decisions of manufacturers and retailers. It is found that the enhancement of consumers ' low-carbon awareness is conducive to the increase of supply chain profit, and the retailer 's cost sharing ratio can improve the supply chain profit within a certain range.

Harnessing Curtailed Wind-Generated Electricity via Electrical Water Heating Aggregation to Alleviate Energy Poverty: A Use Case in Ireland

Ireland experiences high energy poverty rates alongside surplus wind energy resources. With 77% of Irish households equipped with electrical immersion heaters for domestic hot water (DHW) generation, this study proposes an Electrical Water Heating Aggregation (EWHA) scheme. The scheme allocates surplus wind-generated electricity to provide DHW to fuel-poor households, thereby alleviating energy poverty through harnessing curtailed wind energy. Through a developed wind-generated electricity allocation model and half-hourly data analysis for a weather year, this research assesses the feasibility and economic viability of the EWHA scheme, focusing on the householder as the primary benefactor from the scheme (as opposed to ancillary grid service provision). The results suggest an optimal aggregation size where maximum curtailment and carbon offset coincide with maximum benefits for participants. The findings indicate that fuel-poor households in Ireland could receive a full DHW tank every three weeks using surplus wind energy, harnessing 89% of overnight curtailed wind energy and offsetting 33 MkgCO2 annually. Moreover, the scheme could potentially save the Irish state approximately EUR 4 million by 2030, increasing to EUR 11 million by 2050, in carbon costs. Overall, this research demonstrates the potential of EWHA schemes to alleviate energy poverty, optimise wind energy utilisation, and contribute significantly to carbon emission reduction targets.

Preliminary investigation and life cycle assessment of artificial reefs with recycled brick-concrete aggregates

An economical and environment-friendly artificial reef concrete using fully recycled brick-concrete aggregate as raw material was proposed. This study investigates the mechanical properties, drying shrinkage, chloride ion penetration, and biological adaptability of the reef. A comparative analysis is conducted on the environmental impacts (EI), carbon emission impact and cost efficiency of artificial reefs, considering natural aggregate concrete and recycled brick-concrete aggregate concrete at the material level. The results indicate that the use of recycled brick-concrete aggregates can achieve service performance equivalent to that of natural aggregates. Field investigations involving samples immersed in seawater for six months reveal the positive trapping effects of recycled materials on aquatic organisms. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) results reveal that achieving a 100 % replacement rate of recycled brick concrete aggregate (RBCA) creates a positive feedback loop for carbon emissions when appropriately incorporating industrial waste materials like fly ash and silica fume. In comparison to ordinary concrete, the utilization of recycled materials can significantly reduce construction costs, up to 63.7 %, thereby presenting notable economic advantages.

Well-to-wheel carbon footprint and cost analysis of gasoline, diesel, hydrogen ICE, hybrid and fully electric city buses

Carbon emissions in mobility, as one of the primary causes of global warming, are regulated by various organizations with different legislations. Different energy sources and power-train solutions are used to comply with these constraints. Hydrogen-fueled, fully electric, and hybrid vehicles are at the forefront of these technologies. Within the scope of this study, gasoline-, diesel-, and hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engines, and fully electric and serial hybrid 18-m city bus vehicles were modeled. Comprehensive analyses of emissions and costs, considering both the entire energy production and consumption cycles for various vehicle types were conducted. Models that are primarily based on fuel consumption data show that while fully electric vehicles currently have the lowest emissions, hydrogen-fueled vehicles can play a more prominent role soon with the increasing production of green hydrogen. For the first step of hydrogen implementation in the industry, H2ICE is a promising for both reduced carbon emissions in mobility and cost-effectiveness. If the forecasted hydrogen production and distribution scenario is adopted by industrial and energy organizations, it is evident that by the year 2030, more environmentally friendly operation can be achieved particularly in the context of public transportation. Embracing this approach is likely to lead to positive environmental sustainability impacts in future transportation systems.

Are vehicle lifespan caps an effective and efficient method for reducing US light-duty vehicle fleet GHG emissions?

With light duty vehicles (LDVs) responsible for 17% of annual US greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, integrating emerging GHG-reducing technologies into the fleet is essential. However, the slow rate of vehicle turnover presents a significant barrier to the market penetration of new technologies, with adoption delayed by the low number of vehicles needing replacement each year. A strategy of accelerated vehicle turnover through a vehicle lifespan cap could potentially mitigate this limit. While older studies reach differing conclusions on their effectiveness, two newer studies that incorporate life cycle assessment find that accelerated turnover strategies can be effective if coupled with high levels of electric vehicle deployment. We seek to determine whether a vehicle lifespan cap strategy can be an effective and efficient (cost-effective) method for reducing US LDV fleet GHG emissions. We augment the capabilities of the Fleet Life Cycle Assessment and Material Flow Estimation (FLAME) fleet life cycle assessment model, integrating vehicle lifespan caps and comprehensive calculations of cost along with sensitivity analysis for electric vehicle survival curves and battery degradation. The augmented FLAME model is used to analyse the impact of vehicle lifespan caps of varying lengths on a suite of scenarios, including a business as usual (BAU) scenario and eight scenarios modelling different technology improvement assumptions. This work confirms that vehicle lifespan caps have limited effectiveness in reducing GHG emissions under a BAU scenario but show potential to meaningfully reduce GHG emissions in a scenario with accelerated deployment of electric vehicles. However, abatement costs are high, exceeding 2020 USD 1000/tCO2eq under baseline assumptions, but falling within the range of current estimates of the social cost of carbon under more optimistic assumptions. Overall, vehicle lifespan caps must be carefully considered as they accelerate both the benefits and costs of new vehicle technologies, and are best positioned as part of a larger integrated strategy for tackling transportation GHG emissions.

Accounting for Carbon Emissions Among Large U.S. Companies: Does Materiality Matter

This paper investigates carbon emissions materiality with regards to financial statements and investigates potential methods of accounting for carbon emission rights. We investigate whether some of the largest U.S. companies should be required to discuss and quantify greenhouse gas emissions, as defined by the GHG Protocol, in the required 10-K annual report. Our analysis uses a new metric, based on social carbon cost, that suggests social cost of carbon emissions could be material, and supports the need for transparent accounting of the financial impact of carbon emissions in the required 10-K annual report. We searched each company’s 10-K for information on climate change and emissions-related disclosures. We found that while most companies acknowledge climate change as a risk factor, their 10-K narratives do not discuss or explain the impact of emissions on financial performance. Our findings suggest that climate-related factors are not being appropriately captured in current 10-Ks despite increasing calls for greater transparency on climate-related exposure, raising concerns that investors are not receiving the appropriate information necessary to evaluate investments. Providing such information would allow investors to gain a better understanding of company risks, and enhance their ability to make better investment choices.

Distributed prosumer trading in the electricity and carbon markets considering user utility

With the promotion of distributed energy trading and the transformation of power system operation mode, prosumers in the carbon and electricity markets face new opportunities and challenges. This paper proposes a peer-to-peer transaction platform to promote renewable energy consumption and carbon emission reduction, including multiple types of loads, coal-fired units, and microgrid prosumers. The carbon-emitting members of power generation and demand sides in the electricity market are introduced into the carbon market, and their carbon cost model is established. To guide consumption behavior of demand side, the user utility model based on electricity consumption is built to reduce carbon emissions. With the goal of optimizing the generation cost, user utility, and network fees, the distributed optimal scheduling model is established to recover the network fees. Finally, the alternating direction method of multipliers is used to solve this problem and protect transaction privacy. The results indicate that introducing carbon trading at the power generation and demand sides can promote the shift of members' production behavior from high-carbon emission industries to low-carbon ones. Additionally, an appropriate network fee mechanism and unit fee can guide market members to adjust their trading behavior adaptively and help the power grid recover costs.

Carbon Pricing Policy to Support Net Zero Emission: A Comparative Study of Indonesia, Finland and Sweden

The Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) of Indonesia in the Paris Agreement targeted emission reductions of 29% on its own and 41% with international cooperation in 2030, followed by Net Zero Emissions (NZE) in 2060. To achieve NZE, Indonesia enacted a carbon tax policy on April 1, 2022. The 2022–2024 carbon tax is limited to Steam Power Plants and will be imposed on other sectors by 2030. This research examines the ratio legis of carbon cost policies in Indonesia and compares the core of carbon tax policies in Indonesia with Sweden and Finland. Indonesia is starting to implement a Carbon Pricing policy under the ‘Cap-and-Tax’ scheme. The Cap scheme will be a means to force changes in the business culture in Indonesia, so the companies will pay attention to and reduce the carbon emission produced to avoid paying penalties for carbon exceeding the limits. Meanwhile, the Carbon Tax will provide economic resources to Indonesia to develop environmentally friendly technologies, fund research on renewable energy, and provide incentives for environmentally friendly businesses during the transition process to a carbon culture in Indonesia. Referring to the results of the comparison of carbon pricing policies in Finland and Sweden, Indonesia can gradually increase the cost of carbon taxes starting from Rp30,000/US$2 per ton CO2 equivalent to US$10 per ton CO2 equivalent. Meanwhile, for the imposition of high carbon tax rates, such as in Finland (US$73.02 per ton CO2 equivalent) and Sweden (US$137 per ton CO2 equivalent), Indonesia must carry out tax reforms, so the applied carbon tax is able to reduce carbon emissions without causing adverse impacts for the Indonesian economy.

Distributed manufacturing for distributed generation: 3-D printed solar photovoltaic module mounting mechanisms for wood racking

Solar photovoltaic (PV) wood-based rack designs support distributed manufacturing, have lifetimes equivalent to PV warranties, have lower embodied energy and carbon emissions and cost less than conventional racking. Unfortunately, wood racking does not enable the standard front surface attachments. To overcome this challenge this study introduces novel 3D printed clamps for front-surface PV mounting on wood racking. Four topologies (square spacer, H-shaped spacer, U-shaped clamp and T-shaped clamp) of 3D printed parts are designed, modeled and analyzed using finite element analysis (FEA) for PETG, ASA and PC. The designs were fabricated, field tested and economically analyzed. The highest stress was observed in U-shaped spacer for spacer (4.53 MPa – PC material), bolt (32.01 MPa – PETG material) and frame (37.30 MPa) and for washer in the H-spacer (42.77 MPa). Mises stresses for all designs, however, are found within allowable limits qualifying the clamping technique to be adopted for future installations. Financial analysis of the clamps found up to 66 % savings for the solutions. The T-shaped clamp is the recommended mounting technique with the lowest stresses while square spacer provides the least cost. The practical implications of the results indicate that 3D printing could provide an economic means of mounting PV modules and reducing solar energy costs.

Integrated assessment of embodied carbon and financial costs in simply supported beams

Integrated assessment of embodied carbon and financial costs in simply supported beams

Smart Cap

Abstract Policymakers’imperfect knowledge about firms’ abatement costs leads to inefficient regulation, reducing the welfare gains from carbon markets around the world. We introduce a “smart” cap and trade system that eliminates these costs. This cap responds endogenously to technology or macroeconomic shocks, relying on the market price of certificates to aggregate information. It allows policy makers to modify existing institutions to achieve more efficient emissions reductions. The paper also shows that the slow diffusion of technology innovations typically makes the optimal carbon price a much steeper function of emissions than suggested by the Social Cost of Carbon.

Future perfect climates: A phenomenological rejoinder to the performativity of climate change mitigation pathways

From charting out climate change mitigation pathways to estimating price risks associated with the social cost of carbon, as environmentally concerned citizens of the twenty-first century, we live in a culture of foresight. Because of a growing integration of an ever-wider sample space of possible climate futures into the present, historical experience has become seemingly irrelevant for effectively predicting where our climate transitions are headed, in effect restricting our sense of futurity to its performativity in the present. What has been surprisingly absent as a theoretical and methodological approach among sociologists, however, are treatments of the performativity of the future as the expression of a historical praxis for prognosis, with its own mode of disclosure. By interrogating the temporal structure of anticipation that characterizes computer-based simulations of emissions scenarios, the paper illustrates how this praxis discloses the future in accordance with the grammatical tense of the future perfect. It then argues that this relationship between past and future is the cultural product of a historically particular set of prognostic techniques and technologies, namely, model-based scenario analysis. Against this background, the paper seeks to contribute to the rehabilitation of the relevance of historical experience by historicizing the social ontological status of the future that theories of performativity take as their starting point.

“The facts alone will not save us”

This workshop aims to explore speculative fiction as a form of educational enquiry and practice. In this pursuit it draws upon the provocative contention of Ruha Benjamin (2016) that “the facts, alone, will not save us.” Instead, she argues, “social change requires novel fictions that reimagine and rework all that is taken for granted about the current structure of society. Such narratives are not meant to convince others of what is, but to expand our own visions of what is possible” (Benjamin, 2016).The ethical implications of educational technologies (EdTech) from simple classroom tools to almighty platforms are raising increasing concerns. These are postdigital concerns insofar as they are inescapable yet also emergent and ongoing. They are amplified by the power and influence of AI (Bozkurt et al, 2023; Cox et al 2023) with its implications for fraud, scams, surveillance, privacy and more fundamentally encodings of privileged norms of race, gender, sexuality, religion and so on. In addition the material and carbon costs of digital learning may force us to reckon with EdTech as inherently ecologically destructive (Selwyn, 2021).Is this to say that all our futures are grim and that hope has been foreclosed? Or if not, how can we work together to plot our way out of these problems? Indeed, would trying to solve all of this too quickly be part of the problem and start another round of techno-solutionism? One approach that has seen increasing attention is the use of storytelling as a sense-making activity that may allow us to first “stay with the trouble” (Harraway, 2020) and describe it, before rushing to the fix. This recent speculative turn has seen educational researchers attempt to cast themselves as writers of fictions that can explore the multitude of interrelated socio-technical issues that are characteristic of complex contemporary networked learning environments (Houlden & Veletsianos, 2023; Hrastinski, 2023; Selwyn et al., 2020; Macgilchrist et al., 2020). It has seen teachers and educators developing or adopting speculative scenarios as tools for students to explore the types of socio-technical entanglements that our world now involves (Krutka et al., 2022).In this workshop participants will co-create speculative fictions that explore hopeful and dystopic possibilities of education. Participants will explore the development of educational fictions based on speculative futuring, of no-yet-ness (Ross, 2017), but also alternative histories that might allow us see the prospective tools of our work, including texts, as neither neutral nor ahistorical. The concept of anti-patterns and deliberately destructive design will be introduced to allow participants to pull on conceptual threads that help unravel education as a relentless and progressive assembly and instead see it as a story that may be unlearned and retold.In summary this workshop provides an invitation to participants to use their deep imaginative capabilities to dream new educational interfaces, via speculative fiction, that allow us to be more awake and alive to ourselves, our students and the communities we serve.

Herpes zoster in older adults: Impact on carbon footprint in the United States

ABSTRACT We provide estimates for (I) annual herpes zoster (HZ) cases, (II) carbon costs related to healthcare utilization, and (III) annual carbon emissions due to HZ among ≥50 years of age (YOA) United States (US) population. We estimated the annual number of HZ cases in the US based on available incidence data and demographic data of individuals ≥50 YOA. Both the healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) associated with HZ cases and the unit carbon dioxide equivalent (i.e. CO2e) costs associated with each type of HCRU in the US were estimated based on literature and studies available online. The carbon footprint associated with HZ annually among US adults ≥50 YOA was estimated by multiplying the unit carbon estimates by the HCRU. In the US population aged ≥50 YOA in 2020 (i.e. approximately 118 million), approximately 1.1 million cases of HZ occur annually assuming no vaccination. Based on 2 sources of HCRU the average kgCO2e per HZ patient ranged from 61.0 to 97.6 kgCO2e, with values by age group ranging from 40.9 kgCO2e in patients aged 50–59 to 195.9 kgCO2e in patients ≥80 YOA. The total annual HZ associated carbon ranged between 67,000 and 107,000 tons of CO2e in the US population aged ≥50 YOA. The impact of HZ on carbon footprint in the US results in considerable greenhouse gas (GHG)emissions. Assuming no vaccination, the burden of HZ is projected to rise over the coming years with the aging populations consequently worsening its impact on GHG emissions. (Figure 1)

Analysis of virtual power plants participating in the optimization operation of the electricity-carbon joint market based on the EEMD–IBA–Markov chain

To enhance the utilization of clean energy sources, such as wind power and photovoltaic within virtual power plants, and mitigate carbon emissions, this paper proposes a virtual power plant participation in the electricity carbon joint market optimization operation model based on ensemble empirical mode decomposition–improved bat algorithm (IBA)–Markov chain new energy output prediction. First, complementary set empirical mode decomposition is performed on historical data to construct a Markov chain based wind power and photovoltaic prediction model optimized by IBA. Second, this prediction model is used to predict the daily generation power of wind power and photovoltaic power. Finally, with the optimization goals of maximizing the benefits and minimizing the carbon costs of virtual power plants, a virtual power plant system participating in the electricity carbon joint market model based on wind power and photovoltaic output prediction results is constructed. At the same time, demand response factors are introduced and solved using the NSGA-II algorithm. Taking a certain park as an example for simulation analysis, the research results show that the combined effect of carbon market and demand response can achieve 99.82% of new energy consumption in virtual power plants without significantly reducing profits, basically achieving complete new energy consumption, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed model in this paper.

Experimental Study of Partial Replacement of Cement with GGBS and Silico Manganese with M30 Grade Concrete

Abstract: Cement in concrete is a several disadvantages when used without any replacement to it in concrete such as high carbon footprint high cost of construction, and low tensile strength. To address these materials such as GGBS, and silico manganese can be used, designing concrete mixtures with lower cement content can reduce the carbon print, cost, and potential cracking, resulting in more sustainable, cost effective and durable concrete structures. In our project we are going to use GGBS (Ground granulated blast furnace slag) and silico manganese as a replacement of materials to cement in varying percentage. GGBS and silico manganese cementitious properties and can particularly replace cement in concrete mixtures. It improves the durability, workability, and strength of concrete. GGBS has a lower carbon footprint than traditional cement, making it an environmentally friendly alternative. Silico manganese is the process involves high temperature to melt the raw materials and reduce them to their metallic forms. This project represents the results of an experimental investigations accomplish to understand the suitability of GGBS and Silico manganese on strength of referral concrete M30 Grade concrete was prepared by replacing PART OF 0%, 30%, 40%, 50% (by weight of cement) for GGBS and Silico manganese. Fresh concrete was properties viz. slump cone was carried out. Strength of concrete were determined by performing compressive strength test on (150mm×150mm×150mm) size cubes.

Optimal Scheduling of Electricity and Carbon in Multi-Park Integrated Energy Systems

In order to maximize the utilization efficiency of renewable energy resources and reduce carbon costs in multi-park integrated energy systems (MIESs), this paper proposes an electricity–carbon energy scheduling method for MIESs, where a electricity–carbon joint trading market is established to allow energy interactions between IESs so as to satisfy their energy deficiencies and surpluses. Simultaneously, through leveraging differences in carbon prices among regions, carbon quotas are shared between all IESs, thereby reducing the overall carbon trading costs within the region. The paper also suggests that to encourage carbon cooperation between IESs, incentive measures such as government subsidies could be provided to foster collaboration. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed electricity–carbon energy scheduling method for MIESs can effectively improve the utilization flexibility of various energy resources and obtain the higher economic benefits, compared with the traditional method where each IES operates independently.