Coal Carbon Research Articles

A study on the impact of fiscal decentralization on carbon emissions with U-shape and regulatory effect

The Chinese government set a goal in 2009 to cut carbon emissions by 40–45 percent of 2005 GDP per unit by 2020. The role of fiscal decentralization reform in strengthening environmental governance has gained importance. This paper explored the impact of fiscal decentralization reform from 2010 to 2019 on carbon dioxide emissions in China. We utilized the first-order differential dynamic panel econometrics model to examine the correlation between fiscal decentralization and carbon dioxide emission under fiscal imbalance and transfer indirect effects. The findings revealed that 1) fiscal imbalance reduced CO2 emissions due to the decentralization of revenue, and expenditure asymmetry undermined CO2 emissions control. 2) The central government’s transfer payments offset the negative consequences of a fiscal imbalance. The fiscal decentralization of the government caused a difference between regional income and expenditures in the budget. However, it could affect local government expenditure on carbon emission control through central transfer payments, which could restrain carbon emissions and control environmental pollution. 3) The impact of fiscal decentralization on carbon dioxide emissions was influenced by the industrial structure with the U-Shape effect. This was because the adjustment of the industrial structure was cross-term. In the early stage of the industrial structure adjustment, there was a significant decline in coal consumption demand and carbon emissions reduced. However, as the proportion of the secondary industry increased, there was a significant positive correlation between the secondary sector and carbon dioxide emissions in China. Our findings have important policy implications. First, while the promotion of Chinese officials is based on local GDP performance, locals may introduce green GDP as the criterion for rating governments’ performance. Second, local governments should improve environmental governance by increasing technical, environmental protection, and innovation investment. All in all, the findings provide a theoretical basis for relevant research and policy suggestions for China.

Energy use and environmental degradation in Europe: evidence from panel nonlinear ARDL

This study examines the nonlinear effect of energy use including coal, gas, oil, and electricity on CO2 emissions in European Union (EU) countries. Annual panel data of twenty-one European Union countries i.e. Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Netherland, Norway, Spain, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Ukraine from 1990 to 2018 is used, while panel nonlinear ARDL methodology is applied for examining the long and short run association. Findings showed that an increase in the coal, electricity, and oil usage increase carbon dioxide emissions, while a reduction in coal, electricity, gas, and oil usage reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the long run. Results of panel nonlinear ARDL (NARDL) model prove the existence of asymmetric impact of energy usage including coal, electricity, and oil on CO2 emissions in European countries. Bidirectional causality exits among positive partial sum of gas usage and CO2 emissions, as well as among partial positive component of oil usage and CO2 emissions in the short run. Pollution needs to be controlled by using new and efficient technologies by making research and development centers more efficient and productive, while the usage of renewable energy resources should be promoted by replacing the traditional energy resources to reduce emissions. ENERGY STAR strategy can be used to improve the energy performance of commercial buildings and industrial plants as well as government has to formulate policies of production which are environment friendly.

Effect of Water Vapor on Pore Structure, Surface Functional Groups, and Combustion Performance of Pyrolytic Semicoke.

The coal tends to be affected by the water vapor from quenching coke process in the pyrolysis process during the coal carbonization process and in turn causes the variation of physicochemical properties of semicoke. The preparation of semicoke based on different pyrolysis temperatures and water vapor content was carried out in order to investigate the influence of water vaper on physicochemical properties of the pyrolytic semicoke, combined with specific surface area analysis and thermal analysis to study the pore structure and combustion properties of semicoke. The morphology of the semicoke and the alteration rule of carbon-containing functional groups were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The result indicates that adding an appropriate amount of water vapor (40%) instead of excess (60%) in the pyrolysis process (800 °C) is beneficial to the increase of the proportion of fixed carbon and the removal of volatile and ash. The specific surface area and the combustion performance of the semicoke is significantly improved when the appropriate amount of water vapor was added. The water vapor content has a slight effect on surface functional groups when the temperature ranges from 500 to 700 °C, whereas the higher water vapor content inhibits the improvement of physicochemical properties of the semicoke when the pyrolysis temperature is higher (800 °C). Therefore, the entry of excess water vapor (60%) into the high-temperature pyrolysis section should be avoided in the process of quenching coke or it would have an adverse impact on the performance of semicoke.

Thermogravimetric analysis of the combustion of Tuva coals before and after their carbonization

The process of combusting Tuva coals before and after their carbonization was studied using the methods of thermogravimetric analysis and electron microscopy. Coal samples were subjected to thermomechanical and elemental analysis, which revealed a higher content of volatile substances in Kaa-Khem coal (47.5 %) compared to Chadan coal (10 %). Following carbonization, a decrease in volatile substances to 11.5 % and 9.3 %, respectively, was observed. The conducted thermogravimetric analysis showed the ignition temperature of the coke residue of the Kaa-Khem and Chadan coal samples to increase by 76 °C and 90 °C, respectively, after carbonization. The burnup temperature of the coke residue after carbonizing (723 °C) Kaa-Khem coal samples remained effectively the same, while the Chadan coal showed an increase from 704 °C to 727 °C. The carbonization of coals was established to decrease the maximum reaction rate from 19 % per min to 10% per min for Kaa-Khem coal and from 26 % per min to 11 % per min for Chadan coal. The process of combusting the coke residue after coal carbonization was found to shift into the region of higher temperatures: from 448–723°C to 524–724°C for Kaa-Khem coal and from 436–704 °C to 526–727 °C for Chadan coal. A morphological analysis of the surface of coal particles after carbonization showed the appearance of larger-size pores and cracks on the surface of carbonates compared to coal before carbonization. The conclusion is made that the content of volatile substances, rather than the developed pore structure, comprises the main factor in improving the combustion characteristics of Tuva coals under the conditions of non-isothermal heating before and after their carbonization.

Division of carbon sink functional areas and path to carbon neutrality in coal mines

Remote sensing image data of typical mining areas in the Loess Plateau from 1986 to 2018 were used to analyze the evolution of land use, explore the division of carbon sink functional areas, and propose carbon neutrality paths to provide a reference for the coal industry carbon peak, carbon-neutral action plan. Results show that (1) land use has changed significantly in the Pingshuo mining area over the past 30 years. Damaged land in industrial, opencast, stripping, and dumping areas comprises 4482.5 ha of cultivated land, 1648.13 ha of grassland, and 963.49 ha of forestland. (2) The carbon sink functional areas of the Pingshuo mining land is divided into invariant, enhancement, low carbon optimization, and carbon emission control areas. The proportion of carbon sinks in the invariant area is decreasing, whereas the proportion in enhancement, low carbon optimization, and carbon emission control areas is gradually increasing. (3) The carbon neutrality of the mining area must be reduced from the entire process of stripping–mining–transport–disposal–reclamation, and carbon emissions and carbon sink accounting must start from the life cycle of coal resources. Therefore, carbon neutrality in mining areas must follow the 5R principles of reduction, reuse, recycling, redevelopment, and restoration, and attention must be paid to the potential of carbon sinks in ecological protection and restoration projects in the future.

Hybrid modeling-based digital twin for performance optimization with flexible operation in the direct air-cooling power unit

The thermal power sector, one of the major CO2 emissions sources, is urged quicker steps to come up with an action that enables coal savings and carbon emissions reduction in China. Flexible operation is a growing trend among thermal power plants owing to the ever-increasing installation of renewable energy power resources. However, flexible operation comes with performance degradation, energy consumption growing and CO2 emissions increment. This study proposes a digital twin system for a direct air-cooling unit to determine the optimal back-pressure and corresponding fan frequency modulation under various operating conditions to minimize the coal consumption and maximize the unit profit. Thus, a hybrid model of the digital twin system integrating an extreme gradient boosting algorithm tuned by a particle swarm optimization algorithm and a domain knowledge-based analytical formulation for the optimal back-pressure is proposed. The proposed digital twin system is applied to a 600 MW on-duty direct air-cooling power unit. In the industrial case study, the proposed system saved 535.526 tons of standard coal and decreased CO2 emissions by 1335.068 tons within two weeks, which is remarkable.

Evaluating the factors of coal consumption inefficiency in energy intensive industries of China: An epsilon-based measure model

Considering China's low energy efficiency as a dominant barrier in achieving sustainable development goals and environmental pollution control, the presented study is intended to evaluate the influencing factors of coal consumption inefficiency in the energy intensive industries of China. In addition, a decentralized policy at a disaggregate industrial level is required to achieve sustainable coal consumption and emission reduction. However, the existing literature lacks the paucity of inclusive and comprehensive research on the factors affecting coal inefficiency in energy intensive industries of China. Thus to bridge this gap, in the first stage, the epsilon-based measure (EBM) model was used to estimate the coal consumption efficiency and energy conservation potentials, and a second stage regression analysis was also applied to evaluate the factors of coal consumption inefficiency by adopting the Tobit censored and truncated regression models. The empirical findings of the study indices that the energy structure, the industrial structure, and the scale of enterprises are the driving elements of coal consumption inefficiency. Simultaneously, the technological progress and the degree of openness have led to a decrease in coal use inefficiency. The present research suggests diverse policy recommendations to improve coal consumption efficiency and carbon emission reductions at the aggregate and disaggregate industrial level.

Characterization of coke plant effluent by lysimeter test to evaluate safe disposal to land

The importance of coal carbonization industries is evolving with great interest from the national point of view. In coke ovens, naturally found coal is converted to coke suitable for metallurgical industries. Enormous quantities of liquid effluents produced contain suspended solids high in COD, BOD, phenols, ammonia, and other toxic substances disposed into the water bodies without proper treatment contamination of the aquatic ecosystem. A large coke plant of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) at Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) has been surveyed for this purpose, and the impact of its effluent on surface water quality is discussed in this paper. The study found that concentrations of BOD, COD, total suspended, and dissolved solids have exceeded the tolerance limit as per I.S.: 2490 effluent water standard (inland surface water). Column lysimeters were prepared by collecting soil from the National Institute of Technology (NIT) campus, Jhirpani riverside, Mandira Dam side, putting it layer-wise into a column, and compacting it carefully to put on the original in-situ conditions. Raw effluents, diluted effluents, and water (as a blank) were applied to the three lysimeters twice a week with a 5cm inundating. The impact of raw and diluted effluent on groundwater quality and soil is also studied and discussed in this paper. The study found that the RSP soil sample and NIT campus soil sample were found more efficient for the disposal of effluents, and it is estimated that 2.73 hectares of land can be irrigated with effluents of the coke plant without deteriorating groundwater and soil quality.

Drying kinetics of olive pomace-derived charcoal briquettes with energy consumption

The drying experiments were performed at different temperatures of the drying air (40, 50, and 60°C) and air velocity of 2.5 and 3.5 m/s. Six thin-layer drying models were evaluated and fitted to the experimental moisture data. The fit quality of the models was evaluated using the determination coefficient, chi-square, and root mean square error. Among the selected models, the Midilli et al. model was found to be the best model for describing the drying behaviour of olive pomace. Charcoal is used as a domestic fuel for cooking and heating in many developing countries. It is an important green source for making barbecue, which is obtained from agricultural waste. Due to less CO2 emission, it reduces health risk and deforestation. The coal briquette carbonisation production process consists of a carbonisation stage and a forming stage. During the forming stage, the raw material is mixed with a suitable binder. The final stage of the charcoal process after formation is drying. In this study, the drying parameters of charcoal briquettes made from the olive pomace-making process were evaluated. Three different temperatures and velocities were selected for the drying applications. The low temperature drying process was performed at 60, 50, and 40°C with air velocities of 3 and 2.5. The results were in the range of 3 to 8 hours of drying time. The drying data were applied to six different mathematical models, namely 1Diffusion Approach, 2Henderson and Pabis, 3Two term exponential, 4Midilli et al., 5Page, and 6Wang and Singh Equation Models. The performances of these models were compared according to the coefficient of determination (R2), standard error of estimate (SEE),

A novel coordinated optimization strategy for high utilization of renewable energy sources and reduction of coal costs and emissions in hybrid hydro-thermal-wind power systems

In multi-source-based energy systems, the ultimate target of optimal operation of the generation units is to create an efficient power system with cleaner production. In this paper, a novel coordinated operation strategy optimizing the commitment of hydro, thermal and wind generation units is proposed. The strategy consists of two hierarchical optimization goals. In the primary goal, utilization of wind and hydro energy units is optimized, and the objective functions involve maximizing hydro energy utilization and minimizing wind curtailment. In the secondary goal, coal costs and carbon emissions are minimized after meeting the utilization goal. The overall execution of the strategy is governed by three power production decisions including peak-load shaving, valley-load filling and generation. The first two decisions suppress the fluctuation in wind power while the generation decision makes full use of the hydro units to replace the working thermal units. The presented operation strategy is applied to an improved IEEE 118-node power system. The optimization ensures the highest utilization of wind energy while coping with the day-ahead wind power forecasting error. Moreover, a particle swarm optimization method is applied to optimize the coal costs and carbon emissions. The presented results demonstrate the capability of the proposed strategy to configure the operation of the multi-source-based energy system with high efficiency and low emissions. Finally, several recommendations to amend the existing management of multi-source-based energy systems are presented.

Experimental study on preparation of oxygen reduction catalyst from coal gasification residual carbon

Coal gasification fine slag (GFS) produced from industrial entrained-flow gasification plants typically contains a large amount of residual carbon. Using the GFS coal flotation residue as a carbon source for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst is therefore an effective recycling method that will further promote utilization of the solid waste generated during coal gasification. In this study, ORR catalysts were prepared by the acid treatment, activation, and heteroatom doping of residual GFS carbon. The specific surface area (SSA) of the nitrogen-doped porous carbon catalyst, calculated using the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method, was 1657 m2/g. In addition, N and/or Fe are in the composition of ORR-active sites which are uniformly distributed on the catalyst surface. Although the catalyst exhibited a rich porous structure and a high degree of graphitization, several graphite lattice defects were also present. In the ORR test, the Fe-N-C catalyst reached a limiting diffusion current density of 4.86 mA/cm2 and a half-wave potential of 0.76 V in a 0.1 M KOH electrolyte, in addition to giving a high electron transfer number of 3.77 and following a predominant four-electron pathway. In the zinc-air battery test, the power density of the Fe-N-C catalyst reached 124.2 mW/cm2, and the battery maintained a charging voltage of 1.99 V after 250 charge/discharge cycles. This ORR catalytic performance obtained for the Fe-N-C catalyst indicates the feasibility of preparing an ORR catalyst from GFS carbon residue, and paves the way for further research in this area.

Enhancing Biomethane Production From Lignite by an Anaerobic Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Degrading Fungal Flora Enriched From Produced Water.

The coal-degrading ability of microorganisms is essential for the formation of biogenic coalbed methane. The ability to degrade the aromatic compound of coal is more important because it is perceived as the main refractory component for bioconversion. In this paper, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) degrading fungal community (PF) was enriched from produced water using phenanthrene as sole carbon source. The goal was to improve both the microbial structure of the methanogenic microflora and its coal-degrading ability. Two strategies were pursued. The first used coal pretreatment with PF (PP), followed by methane production by methanogenic microflora; the second used methane production directly from coal by mixed culture of PF and methanogenic microflora (PM). The results showed that methane productions of PP and PM increased by 29.40 and 39.52%, respectively. After 7 days of cultivation, the fungal community has been altered in PP and PM, especially for Penicillium the proportions of which were 67.37 and 89.81% higher than that in methanogenic microflora, respectively. Furthermore, volatile fatty acid accumulations increased by 64.21 and 58.15%, respectively. The 13C-NMR results showed that PF addition promoted the transformation of aromatic carbons in coal to carboxyl and carbonyl carbons, which contributed greatly to the production of methane together with oxygen-containing functional groups. These results suggest that methane production can be increased by indigenous PAH-degrading fungi by improving the fermentation of aromatics in coal and the generation of volatile fatty acids. This provided a feasible method for enhancing biomethane generation in the coal seam.

Synthesis of coal tar pitch-derived heteroatom-doped porous carbon materials for aqueous zinc-ion hybrid supercapacitors

Zinc-ion hybrid supercapacitors (ZHSs), which combine the superiority of batteries and supercapacitors, will become a new development direction in the field of energy storage. The development of ZHSs with high capacity and high stability can be further promoted by heteroatom doping or structural modification of cathode materials. Herein, N,O,P co-doped porous carbon materials were synthesized by a facile method using coal tar pitch as precursor, aluminum phosphate as template, and sodium hydroxide as activator. Due to the high specific surface area and abundant micropores, the heteroatom-doped porous carbon materials were employed as cathode for aqueous ZHSs to study the electrochemical performance. Benefitted from the rich micropores and heteroatom doping, the porous carbon electrodes exhibit an outstanding electrochemical performance and deliver a large specific capacitance of 113.3 mA h g−1 at 0.1 A g−1. In addition, the porous carbon electrode shows a high energy density of 64.9 Wh kg−1 and a high power density of 1.23 kW kg−1, which outperforms most aqueous ZHS energy storage systems previously reported. Interestingly, after 5000 cycles at 1 A g−1, the specific capacity is about 36% higher than the original capacity and the coulomb efficiency still remains nearly 100%. The article may provide a new insight into exploring cathode materials for high-performance aqueous rechargeable zinc-ion energy storage devices.

Characteristics of Co–Ca catalyzed coal hydrogasification in a mixture of H2 and CO2 atmosphere

Coal catalytic hydrogasification (CCHG) is a promising approach for producing substituted natural gas by using pure hydrogen as a gasifying agent. If pure hydrogen could be replaced by cheaper crude gas from the coal gasifier, the economy of CCHG would be significantly improved. However, the composition of crude gas is complicated because in addition to H2, CO, CO2 and H2O are contained in it. To preliminarily investigate the influence of CO2 in the feed gas on CCHG, a mixture of H2 and CO2 with a CO2 concentration of 10% (denoted as H2 + CO2) was used for Co–Ca catalyzed coal hydrogasification at 850 °C and 3 MPa in a fluidized bed reactor. The results showed that the concurrence of coal hydrogasification with CO2 methanation produced CH4 efficiently. The CH4 yield (based on the carbon in coal) increased from 77.4% for pure H2 to 188% for H2 + CO2 within 120 min. More than 90% CO2 in situ conversion and 72.3% coal conversion were achieved. The catalytic effect of the Co–Ca loaded coal considerably improved the CH4 selectivity of CO2 methanation from 43.5% to 82.7%. The forms of Co and Ca in H2 + CO2 were consistent with those in pure hydrogen. The slow coal hydrogasification rate in H2 + CO2 was mainly attributed to the two-fold effects of CO2 methanation: the decrease in the partial hydrogen pressure and the competitive adsorption behavior of H2 and CO (a by-product of CO2 methanation) molecules on the cobalt active surface. This work provides a unique approach for simultaneously realizing the conversion of coal and the utilization of CO2.

Asymmetric co-integration relationship among coal production, real estate development, and CO2 emissions in China

ABSTRACT The real estate industry is associated with coal production and CO2 emissions. The nonlinear ARDL (AutoRegressive Distributed Lag) co-integration method was used to analyze the effects of long-term and short-term real estate development and CO2 emissions on coal production. The results showed that: (1) The positive and negative impacts of CO2 emissions on coal production were similar in the long. Moreover, CO2 emissions negatively affected coal production; (2) In the long run, the positive impact of real estate development on coal production is greater than the negative impact, though it is not significant. In the short term, the negative shock of real estate effectively reduced coal production; (3) The impact of coal production on CO2 emissions is symmetric in both the long and short term. Therefore, in the future, real estate should develop moderately. In addition, lessening coal production demand is crucial to ensure coal production reduction and carbon neutrality.

Experimental simulate on hydrogen production of different coals in underground coal gasification

Research on hydrogen production from coal gasification is mainly focused on the formation of CO and H2 from coal and water vapor in high-temperature environments. However, in the process of underground coal gasification, the water gas shift reaction of low-temperature steam will absorb a lot of heat, which makes it difficult to maintain the combustion of coal seams in the process of underground coal gasification. In order to obtain high-quality hydrogen, a pure oxygen-steam gasification process is used to improve the gasification efficiency. And as the gasification surface continues to recede, the drying, pyrolysis, gasification and combustion reactions of underground coal seams gradually occur. Direct coal gasification can't truly reflect the process of underground coal gasification. In order to simulate the hydrogen production laws of different coal types in the underground gasification process realistically, a two-step gasification process (pyrolysis of coal followed by gasification of the char) was proposed to process coal to produce hydrogen-rich gas. First, the effects of temperature and coal rank on product distribution were studied in the pyrolysis process. Then, the coal char at the final pyrolysis temperature of 900 °C was gasified with pure oxygen-steam. The results showed that, the hydrogen production of the three coal chars increased with the increase of temperature during the pyrolysis process, the hydrogen release from Inner Mongolia lignite and Xinjiang long flame coal have the same trend, and the bimodality is obvious. The hydrogen release in the first stage mainly comes from the dehydrogenation of the fat side chain, and the hydrogen release in the second stage mainly comes from the polycondensation reaction in the later stage of pyrolysis, and the pyrolysis process of coal contributes 15.81%–43.33% of hydrogen, as the coal rank increases, the hydrogen production rate gradually decreases. In the gasification process, the release of hydrogen mainly comes from the water gas shift reaction, the hydrogen output is mainly affected by the quality and carbon content of coal char. With the increase of coal rank, the hydrogen output gradually increases, mainly due to the increasing of coal coke yield and carbon content, The gasification process of coal char contributes 56.67–84.19% of hydrogen, in contrast, coal char gasification provides more hydrogen. The total effective gas output of the three coal chars is 0.53–0.81 m3/kg, the hydrogen output is 0.3–0.43 m3/kg, and the percentage of hydrogen is 53.08–56.60%. This study shows that two-step gasification under the condition of pure oxygen-steam gasification agent is an efficient energy process for hydrogen production from underground coal gasification.

Improved method of fire hazard assessment taking into account the effect of the primary temperature of a coal seam on the desorption ratio of gas indicators

The methods of fire risk assessment in its early phase employed so far used to take into account only the temperature of the heating of coal. The research works reported so far in this field have been conducted at ambient temperatures, without considering the rock mass primary temperature occurring in a particular coal seam and neglecting the depth of coal seams. The method for the determination of the composition of gases emitted from coal samples, employed in the study presented here, takes into account the effect of rock mass pressure, and therefore the depth of the coal seam, as well as the temperature typical for the rock mass in a particular coal mine. In the paper the results of the experimental research on the effects of the primary temperature of a coal seam on the content of gases emitted from coal, performed with the use of a specially designed experimental stand are presented. The method may be useful in developing fire hazard predictions for longwalls with residual coal in goafs. The relations between the self-ignition characteristics as well as selected physical properties of coal samples and carbon monoxide emission were also given. The research results proved that the accurate fire hazard assessment requires considering other than just self-heating of coal causes of carbon monoxide emission, including the rock mass primary temperature, which is expected to improve the existing methods of fire risk assessment in coal mines and post-mining areas.

Evolution of coal molecular structure during constant current electro-oxidation of coal–water slurry in alkaline media

Compared to the oxygen evolution reaction, coal–water slurry electrolysis as an anodic reaction can significantly reduce the cell voltage of the cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction or cathodic carbon dioxide reduction reaction. However, because the polarization curves of cathode and anode are different and vary with time, it is difficult to control the cell voltage and operation time so that the cathode and anode operate effectively under their respective optimum conditions at the same time. We investigated the evolution of coal during constant current electrolysis, where the reactions at the cathode and anode were simultaneously controlled by the circuit current. Constant current electrolysis was performed on coal–water slurries (CWS). The alkali-soluble matter separated from the CWS was subjected to constant current electrolysis and constant potential electrolysis. The results showed that constant current electrolysis was dominated by the oxidation of alkali-soluble matter, followed by the combination of alkali-soluble matter and residual coal, and finally the residual coal. The molar fraction of the aromatic bridgehead carbon in the residual coal increased from 0.132 to 0.214, which is close to that of the bicyclic structure of naphthalene (0.2). The aromatics in the alkali-soluble matter underwent a ring-opening reaction, the degree of condensation decreased from 0.08 to 0.03, and the aliphatic chain length increased from 1.77 to 2.38. The results provide a reference for simultaneously controlling the cathodic and anodic reactions using circuit current and time.

Combing Effects of Economic Development and Globalization Towards Energy Efficiency and Environmental Degradation: Fresh Analysis From Energy Efficient Resources

How much environmental pollution can be reduced by the efficient use of financial, natural, and energy resources in the current globalization. Thus, this study provides empirical evidence in support of the theoretical argument by investigating the impact of financial development, environmental assets, globalization, coal, natural gas, and sustainable carbon emissions in 32 developed countries from 1990 to 2018. Ecological degradation (estimated by carbon dioxide emissions) experienced a structural shift that was considerably more pronounced in 2000–2011 than in 1991–1998. A broad variety of econometric methodologies (such as the Chow test, Cross-country regression, and the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM)) were applied. As a consequence, environmental deterioration is strongly linked to economic development and urbanization, according to the findings. These nations’ ecological footprints are favorably influenced by financial development, environmental assets, and non-renewable energy, whereas globalization and sustainable sources have a negative impact. Environmental degradation may be slowed by combining globalization’s impact on financial growth with the conservation of natural resources such as renewable energy sources. In order to improve their economic and ecological resource frameworks, these nations will need to increase their use of solar and other renewable energy.

Fabrication of ultralight reticulated carbon foams for thermal insulation from raffinate pitch of low-temperature coal tar

A raffinate pitch of low-temperature coal tar and abundantly bamboo leaves are usually a waste material. This research proposes a new method for manufacturing an ultralight reticulated carbon foam for thermal insulation using a raffinate pitch and abundantly available bamboo leaves. The foam was successfully fabricated by a simple procedure consisting of co-pyrolysis of a raffinate pitch and abundantly available bamboo leaves. The effect of this procedure on the structure and performance of the carbon foams was investigated. The chemical composition of the raffinate pitch can be tailored by changing the concentration of bamboo leaves. The carbon foam containing 10 wt.% of bamboo leaves possessed the lowest density and thermal conductivity. The ultralight reticulated raffinate-pitched carbon foams also exhibited good oxidation resistance at 1000 ℃ in air. The foams had ultralow density, excellent thermal insulation, oxidation resistance, and compress strength compared with other coal tar pitch-based carbon foams. Therefore, these foams can potentially be used as lightweight thermal insulation materials.