High Penalty Research Articles

CO2 capture by Li2CaSiO4 and enhancement with alkali carbonates.

Alkali and alkali earth oxides show good CO2 capture performance for carbonation, while their regeneration occurs at high temperatures, leading to a high energy penalty. When alkali oxides and alkali earth oxides combine with SiO2 to form oxysalts, the regeneration temperatures can be reduced, and the CO2 adsorption capacity is maintained. In this study, the reaction between CO2 and Li2CaSiO4, composed of stoichiometric CaO, Li2O, and SiO2, was evaluated thermodynamically by DFT. The synthesized Li2CaSiO4 with and without alkali carbonates was used as CO2 sorbents, and their CO2 adsorption performances were examined using thermal analyses. The phase and morphology of Li2CaSiO4 before and after CO2 adsorption were characterized by XRD and SEM. According to the thermodynamic evaluation and the XRD results, Li2CaSiO4 could adsorb CO2 and form CaCO3 and Li2SiO3. The thermal analyses showed that the regeneration of Li2CaSiO4 started from 575 °C, at which it was difficult to realize the CO2 diffusion through the solid CaCO3 product layer. The mixed alkali carbonates can improve the kinetics and facilitate the CO2 adsorption of Li2CaSiO4. Alkali carbonates were effective in reducing the activation energy of the reaction and CO2 diffusion at low temperatures and improving the cyclic stability because of the dispersing carbonation products.

Amplification of Molecular Asymmetry during the Hierarchical Self-Assembly of Foldable Azobenzene Dyads into Nanotoroids and Nanotubes.

The amplification of molecular asymmetry through self-assembly is a phenomenon that not only comprehends the origin of homochirality in nature but also produces chiroptically active functional materials from molecules with minimal enantiomeric purity. Understanding how molecular asymmetry can be transferred and amplified into higher-order structures in a hierarchical self-assembly system is important but still unexplored. Herein, we present an intriguing example of the amplification of molecular asymmetry in hierarchically self-assembled nanotubes that feature discrete and isolatable toroidal intermediates. The hierarchical self-assembly is initiated via asymmetric intramolecular folding of scissor-shaped azobenzene dyads furnished with chiral side chains. When scalemic mixtures of the enantiomers are dissolved in a non-polar solvent and cooled to 20 °C, single-handed nanotoroids are formed, as confirmed using atomic force microscopy and circular dichroism analyses. A strong majority-rules effect at the nanotoroid level is observed and can be explained by a low mismatch penalty and a high helix-reversal penalty. The single-handed nanotoroids stack upon cooling to 0 °C to exclusively afford their respective single-handed nanotubes. Thus, the same degree of amplification of molecular asymmetry is realized at the nanotube level. The internal packing efficiency of molecules within nanotubes prepared from the pure enantiomers or their scalemic mixtures is likely different, as suggested by the absence of higher-order structure (supercoil) formation in the latter. X-ray diffraction analysis of the anisotropically oriented nanotube films revealed looser molecular packing within the scalemic nanotubes, which clearly reflects the lower enantiomeric purity of their internal chiral side chains.

Energy-effective and low-cost carbon capture from point-sources enabled by water-lean solvents

Aqueous amines, as the most mature carbon capture technology, are subject to high energy and cost penalties due to the large water content in their formulations. Emerging technologies are in demand to enable a transition to a low-carbon global economy. However, rigorous process modeling and techno-economic analyses are limited for emerging carbon capture technologies. Here, four CO2-Binding Organic Liquids (CO2BOLs), all water-lean solvents were presented as promising options towards energy-effective and low-cost carbon capture from point sources. Rigorous solvent property and process models were developed in Aspen Plus for a coal-fired power plant with CO2BOL-based carbon capture unit. Techno-economic analyses were conducted in 2018 US pricing basis. The results suggest that water-lean formulations can minimize water condensation and vaporization, leading to a 36% energy saving compared with aqueous amines. Indeed, these CO2BOLs can capture up to 97–99% CO2 from coal fired plant. The estimated carbon capture cost is about $40/tonne CO2 at 90–97% carbon capture rate, about 12–23% less expensive than the conventional aqueous amine technology. The comparison between these CO2BOLs showed that in addition to vapor liquid equilibrium and kinetics (key properties for aqueous solvents), viscosity, volatility, and hydrophobicity, also have strong impacts on the performance of water-lean solvents. The methods presented in this work can be used to evaluate other emerging carbon capture technologies, while the results linking costs and performance of carbon capture solvents with their properties. Further, this work identifies research directions and targets for further reductions in total costs of capture from either cost or energy perspectives for these leading water-lean solvents.

Comparative environmental life cycle assessment and operating cost analysis of long-range hydrogen and biofuel fueled transport aircraft

The aviation industry is currently experiencing a social shift in the attitude towards flying due to the increasing awareness of the impact on climate change. This has led governments and industries to set emissions targets, although their achievement for long-range flights is subject to an ongoing debate. Among promising candidates are hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuels such as biofuel. To provide a meaningful ecological and economic assessment, an environmental life cycle assessment method supplemented by a direct operating cost analysis has been developed and is described in this paper. A wide-body transport aircraft (A330 class) serves as a reference design for developing conceptual aircraft designs with a planned entry-into-service in 2040 powered by liquid hydrogen or drop-in biofuels (based on algae, produced with oil-rich biomass (BtL) or hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) processes). Due to the large demand for assumptions, the ecological and economic assessment results have to be interpreted as benchmarks. The results for long-range aircraft show that based on the current fuel and energy production methods both hydrogen and biofuel as aviation fuel are more harmful (have a higher environmental impact) than conventional aircraft. For hydrogen aircraft, an increase in energy consumption of 2.87% leads to an increased environmental impact of 14.8%. Due to the high energy demand for biofuel production, its environmental impact increases by 548% (BtL) and 238% (HVO). Nevertheless, for a future scenario based on electrolysis as a hydrogen production process and on renewable energy to generate electricity, both hydrogen and biofuel-powered aircraft are less harmful when compared to the reference aircraft. The environmental impact reduces by 59.5% (hydrogen), 35.8% (BtL), and 112% (HVO). However, the introduction of the new propellants involves a high direct operating cost penalty of 10.8% for hydrogen and 108% for both biofuels.

POMAŽU LI JEDINO VIŠE KAZNE U POSTIZANJU SUKLADNOSTI NA ODABRANIM NOVIM TRŽIŠTIMA?

Living by the rules is a struggle that emerging markets are facing. High corruption that affects those emerging markets means low levels of compliant behaviour seen through not ‘following the rules set by various laws and regulations. This paper aims to find whether imposing high penalties for committed offenses such as public corruption could be considered a plausible option for increasing levels of compliant behaviour or whether introducing other actions would help emerging markets reach that goal. The two hypotheses will be tested by the quantitative approach considering the sample of 27 countries classified as emerging markets (among them also the following European countries: Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, and Poland) by applying a non-parametric statistical test to find whether a correlation between high penalties for public corruption and compliant behaviour exists and on the other hand, if a correlation between other actions and compliant behaviour exists. Results of the research point to the fact that, although increasing penalties is not perceived as a plausible option, raising awareness and incentivizing anti-corruption activities through other actions such as improved education and increased wages of public officials presents an excellent potential for beginning the battle with corruption in emerging markets and opening their doors to successful economic development.

The costs of CC(U)S adaptation: The case of Russian power industry

In the context of the Climate Agenda, CC(U)S technologies are promising decarbonization options, but they are not widespread. The costs of CC(U)S are still high, and economic assessment of such initiatives for different sites and regions are of particular interest. This paper is aim to analyze the main approaches to costing CC(U)S, as well as the economic assessment of the CO2 capture option implementation on coal-fired power plant in the Murmansk region (Russia). The paper presents a brief analysis of CC(U)S costing approaches and focuses on economic assessment of CO2 capture at Apatitskaya coal-fired power plant, determining such indicators as Levelized cost of electricity and Cost of CO2 captured. The calculations have shown that the cost of CO2 captured at power plant in the Murmansk region is relatively high (263 USD per tonne). The main reasons are high capital costs, lack of tax incentives and project support. Also, the reasons are lack of economies of scale and high energy penalty. Monetization of CO2, state support of CC(U)S, scaling technologies with accompanying cost reductions can be the basis for improving the economics of such projects.

Modeling soft unloading constraints in the multi-drop container loading problem

The multi-drop container loading problem (MDCLP) requires loading a truck so that boxes can be unloaded at each drop-off point without rearranging other boxes to deliver later. However, modeling such unloading constraints as hard constraints, as done in the literature, limits the flexibility to optimize the packing and utilize the vehicle capacity. We instead propose a more general approach that considers soft unloading constraints. Specifically, we penalize unnecessary relocations of boxes using penalty functions that depend on the volume and weight of the boxes to move as well as the type of move. Our goal is to maximize the value of the loaded cargo including penalties due to violations of the unloading constraints. We provide a mixed-integer linear programming formulation for the MDCLP with soft unloading constraints, which can solve to optimality small-scale instances but is intractable for larger ones. We thus propose a heuristic framework based on a randomized extreme-point constructive phase and a subsequent improvement phase. The latter phase iteratively destroys regions in the packing space where high penalties originate, and reconstructs them. Extensive numerical experiments involving different instances and penalties highlight the advantages of our method compared to a commercial optimization solver and a heuristic from the literature developed for a related problem. They also show that our approach significantly outperforms: (i) the hard unloading constraints approach, and (ii) a sequential heuristic that neglects unloading constraints first and evaluates the penalties afterwards. Our findings underscore the relevance of accounting for soft unloading constraints in the MDCLP.

Potential energy savings benefits and limitations of radiative cooling coatings for U.S. residential buildings

Radiative coatings are a promising strategy to implement passive cooling that provides an eco-friendly pathway to achieve energy efficiency in buildings. This study investigates the benefits and limitations of implementing radiative coatings on the building envelope, particularly the roof, of residential buildings in the United States. The analysis compares the performance of an ideal radiative coating with broadband surface properties to a realistic radiative coating with diffuse and semitransparent properties. To enhance the net energy efficiency of buildings, we carried out a comprehensive parametric analysis comprising key radiation surface properties to maximize cooling energy savings while minimizing heating energy penalties. A countrywide assessment for 68 locations across the United States showed that net energy savings are a strong function of the climatic and atmospheric conditions. Broadly, southern locations showed high overall energy savings whereas northern locations exhibited high overall energy penalties. Locations in International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) climate zones 1A, 2A, and 2B showed a net annual energy savings above 5%, whereas locations in IECC climate zones 5B, 6B, and 7 showed a net annual energy penalty greater than 3%. The hot and dry climate of Phoenix, Arizona, showed the highest overall energy savings of 426 kWh (6.2%). Additionally, the mathematical correlation reveals that the net energy savings of a location is positive only when its average cooling degree days is greater than 5.5 or its average heating degree days is less than 10.

Probabilistic Wildfire risk assessment methodology and evaluation of a supply chain network

Increasing wildfire risks have significantly disrupted supply chain systems in the United States, which accounts for a large portion of wildfire-induced economic losses and affects the regional and national economies. While it is important to understand wildfire effects on supply chains in meeting customer needs and achieving regional economic stability, such effects have not yet been extensively studied. This paper proposes a probabilistic framework for quantitatively assessing wildfire risk to a supply chain network. It provides rigorous probabilistic descriptions of wildfire ignition likelihood and growth, the interaction between supply chain components and wildfire, consequent component damage, and network-level performance reduction. A hypothetical forest-residuals-to-sustainable-aviation-fuel supply chain network is utilized as an illustrative example to demonstrate the capability and applicability of the proposed framework. The simulation results indicate that wildfire-induced damages to feedstock nodes are insignificant (i.e., 0.1% reduction in total feedstock availability per year), whereas total supply chain cost still increases considerably due to high unmet demand penalty and detours. Moreover, the findings further demonstrate the weakness of network configuration under wildfire risk: a failure of the processing facility located in the Inland Northwest of the United States results in significant increases in total transportation costs and time, which suggests that the construction of additional processors in this region could reduce wildfire risk significantly. Thus, the proposed framework can be used as a planning tool to evaluate network performance subject to a set of what-if scenarios and assess the effect of pre- and post-wildfire risk mitigation measures.

Toward abiotic sugar synthesis from CO2 electrolysis

Toward abiotic sugar synthesis from CO2 electrolysis

Non-invasive stimulation with temporal interference: optimization of the electric field deep in the brain with the use of a genetic algorithm

Objective. Since the introduction of transcranial temporal interference stimulation, there has been an ever-growing interest in this novel method, as it theoretically allows non-invasive stimulation of deep brain target regions. To date, attempts have been made to optimize the electrode montages and injected current to achieve personalized area targeting using two electrode pairs. Most of these methods use exhaustive search to find the best match, but faster and, at the same time, reliable solutions are required. In this study, the electrode combinations as well as the injected current for a two-electrode pair stimulation were optimized using a genetic algorithm, considering the right hippocampus as the region of interest (ROI). Approach. Simulations were performed on head models from the Population Head Model repository. First, each model was fitted with an electrode array based on the 10–10 international EEG electrode placement system. Following electrode placement, the models were meshed and solved for all single-pair electrode combinations, using an electrode on the left mastoid as a reference (ground). At the optimization stage, different electrode pairs and injection currents were tested using a genetic algorithm to obtain the optimal combination for each model, by setting three different maximum electric field thresholds (0.2, 0.5, and 0.8 V m−1) in the ROI. The combinations below the set threshold were given a high penalty. Main results. Greater focality was achieved with our optimization, specifically in the ROI, with a significant decrease in the surrounding electric field intensity. In the non-optimized case, the mean brain volumes stimulated above 0.2 V m−1 were 99.9% in the ROI, and 76.4% in the rest of the gray matter. In contrast, the stimulated mean volumes were 91.4% and 29.6%, respectively, for the best optimization case with a threshold of 0.8 V m−1. Additionally, the maximum electric field intensity inside the ROI was consistently higher than that outside of the ROI for all optimized cases. Objective. Given that the accomplishment of a globally optimal solution requires a brute-force approach, the use of a genetic algorithm can significantly decrease the optimization time, while achieving personalized deep brain stimulation. The results of this work can be used to facilitate further studies that are more clinically oriented; thus, enabling faster and at the same time accurate treatment planning for the stimulation sessions.

Evaluation of road safety policies and their enforcement in Mexico City, 2015–2019: an interrupted time-series study

BackgroundMexico City approved new road safety policies in 2015, which included lower speed limits and higher fines for traffic offences. In 2019, economic fines were replaced by a point penalty...

Anion-pillared porous materials with suitable pore size for the efficient discrimination of cyclohexene from cyclohexane

The separation of medium and high carbon number linear and cyclic olefins and alkanes is a great challenge in the petrochemical industry, due to the closer molecular structure and physical properties with increased carbon chains. The adsorptive separation offers an alternative to conventional energy-intensive distillations, but its separation efficiency is limited by the low adsorption capacity and high energy penalty for regeneration. Herein, we employed anion-pillared porous materials (SIFSIX-1-Cu, SIFSIX-2-Cu-I, and ZU-61) that addressed the separation challenge of cyclohexene and cyclohexane. ZU-61 with suitable pore size and high-density anions exhibits excellent cyclohexene uptake capacity (6.11 mmol·g−1), 3 times the common zeolite 13X (2.11 mmol·g−1) as well as the high separation selectivity. Combined with single-crystal diffraction experiment and simulation studies, the results demonstrate the dominant role of anions in discriminating different kinds of H atoms (CH and CH), which enables the efficient discrimination towards cyclohexene from cyclohexane. Moreover, benefiting from the moderate strength enabled by the anions, the cyclohexene saturated ZU-61 could be easily regenerated under 80 °C, the value is lower than that of zeolite 13X (200 °C). This work demonstrates the superiority of anions in recognizing the olefins and paraffins with medium and high carbon number and offers guidance to the related challenging separations.

Motivational crowding effects of monetary and nonmonetary incentives: Evidence from a common pool resources experiment in China

This study examines the motivational crowding effects of a traditional monetary incentive – fines – and a relatively new nonmonetary incentive – a public revelation mechanism – on the conservation of common pool resources. Previous literature largely examines the crowding effects of instruments that include both moral suasion and monetary incentives. This paper examines the crowding effects of these incentives beyond moral suasion. We achieve these purposes by implementing a lab experiment in China. We find that, contrary to much of the previous literature, monetary incentives in the form of high penalties crowd in intrinsic motivation. This effect is primarily observed in individuals with the lowest initial extraction levels. Finally, we find that the public revelation mechanism crowds out intrinsic motivation; this crowd-out effect falls primarily on a specific sub-population, conditional cooperators. The debriefings suggest one possible reason for the crowd-out effects: While the public revelation mechanism pressures subjects to not over-harvest, it also reveals others’ extractions, which happens to be higher than expected. This crowds out the conservation effort of conditional cooperators. This informational function of the public revelation mechanism is generally overlooked in previous literature.

Low-carbon transition pathways in the context of carbon-neutral: A quadrilateral evolutionary game analysis

In the context of carbon-neutral, countries are urging a social-wide transition to decarbonization. However, the efficiency of this transition has not been as expected due to the game of benefits among relevant players. Here, we develop a quadrilateral evolutionary game model that highlights the complex interactions at a multi-player level, including producers, regulators, third-party certifiers, and consumers, in order to analyze evolutionary pathways and stable strategies. Our results suggest that: (1) there are significant correlations among the quadrilateral game players, and the benign interactions among them will effectively drive the social-wide low-carbon transition; (2) if consumers have higher low-carbon preferences, producers will be attracted to actively choose the low-carbon transition strategy, which may form a stable portfolio strategy; (3) proper interventions, such as reducing transition costs, increasing reputation loss, and raising consumers’ whistle-blowing abilities, can help promote the systematic evolution to the low-carbon state; and (4) rent-seeking behavior between producers and third-party certifiers should be strongly monitored by regulators, and higher penalties can prevent their duty dereliction. These findings provide significant implications for policy-makers to make better-informed decisions about the social-wide low-carbon transition in the context of carbon-neutral.

Financing Energy Transition in Poland: Possible Contribution of EU Funds

There is a general agreement that the energy transition is necessary on a global scale to avert the threat of a climate catastrophe and that it is very costly. In the EU, this transition is supported by funds under the Multilateral Financial Framework and the New Generation EU Facility. The purpose of the paper is to identify EU financial instruments available for Poland to support the energy transformation, to estimate their scale and assess chances to use these funds. The research methods applied are a critical review of Polish and EU documents and methods of statistical analysis. Against the background of European Green Deal strategy, the author identifies EU funds available for Poland for low emission transition and estimates their size. The paper also addresses the EU institutions’ allegations of violating the EU law by Poland. Main conclusions are as follows. The huge EU support for energy transition is at risk, due to Poland’s refusal to comply with the EU law, as assessed by Commission and the Court of Justice of the EU. This situation creates a double cost for Poland: of non-used EU money and of high penalties for the rejection of the CJEU orders. Costs of the energy transformation are inevitable and must be incurred in Poland not only due to the adaptation to the requirements of the EGD, but also due to the fact that a large part of the Polish energy sector is old and will require replacement in any case. Moreover, Polish products may be denied access to EU market due to non- compliance with EU environmental standards. The EU funds should be a good opportunity to move away from coal and develop new eco-friendly industries. Without energy transformation in Poland, the EU results of climate protection policy will be limited, as the country is one of the biggest GHG emitters. Keywords: EU climate policy, energy transition, EU funds for Poland, greenhouse gas emissions, National Recovery Plan

Integrated system of exhaust air heat pump and advanced air distribution for energy-efficient provision of outdoor air.

A large outdoor air supply is required to control the airborne infection risk of respiratory diseases (e.g., COVID 19) but causes a high energy penalty. This study proposes a novel integrated system of the exhaust air heat pump and advanced air distribution to energy-efficiently provide outdoor air. The system energy performances are evaluated by the experimentally validated thermodynamic model of heat pump and heat removal efficiency model of advanced air distribution. Results show the exhaust air heat pump with advanced air distribution can save energy because of three mechanisms. First, the exhaust air heat pump reuses the exhaust air to reduce the condensation temperature, thereby improving the coefficient of performance. Second, advanced air distribution reduces ventilation load. Third, advanced air distribution reduces the condensation temperature and enhances the evaporation temperature, thereby improving the coefficient of performance. The exhaust air heat pump saves energy by 18%, advanced air distribution saves energy by 36%, and the integrated system of the exhaust air heat pump and advanced air distribution can save energy by 45%. As a specific application, compared with the conventional system (i.e., the outdoor air heat pump with mixing ventilation), the exhaust air heat pump with stratum ventilation saves energy by 21% − 35% under various outdoor air ratios and outdoor air temperatures. The proposed integrated system of the exhaust air heat pump and advanced air distribution contributes to the development of low-carbon and healthy buildings.

Disaggregation for Energy Efficient Fog in Future 6G Networks

We study the benefits of adopting server disaggregation in the fog computing tier by evaluating energy efficient placement of interactive apps in a future (6G) fog network. Using a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model, we compare the adoption of traditional server (TS) and disaggregated server (DS) architectures in a fog network that comprises selected fog sites. We also propose a heuristic for energy efficient and delay aware placement of interactive fog apps in a fog network which effectively mimics the MILP model formulated in this paper. Compared to a non-federated fog computing layer, federation of selected fog computing sites over the metro-access network enables significant reductions of the total fog computing power consumption (TFPC). Relative to the use of TSs in the fog network, the adoption of DSs improves the energy efficiency of the fog network and enables up to 18% reduction in TFPC. To minimize response time, more instances of interactive fog apps are provisioned in a fog network that is implemented over a network topology with high delay penalty. Our result also shows that the proximity of metro-central offices and radio cell sites to geo-distributed users makes them important fog sites for provisioning delay-sensitive fog applications.

Accrual-Monitoring Practices for Various Disease Trials among AACI Member Cancer Centers.

Progress in the management of rare diseases, including rare cancers, is dependent upon clinical trials; however, as many as 32% of rare-disease trials go uncompleted or unpublished due to insufficient accrual. Monitoring practices may differ between institutions. We sought to survey the regulatory standards for various trial types among major U.S. cancer centers. A 10-question survey was designed using Qualtrics assessment software. The survey was sent via email to an internal server of member institutions of the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI). Of 103 AACI centers, 31% completed the survey (n = 32). Respondents differed in their definitions of a rare disease, minimum expectations for rare tumor studies, and frequency of accrual monitoring by their institutional Protocol Review and Monitoring Committee. Seventy-three percent of respondents did not close trials based on low accrual. Strategies to optimize accrual included investigator incentives for high accrual and penalties for low accrual in 37% and 13% of respondents, respectively.

Thiol-Yne click chemistry of acetylene-enabled macrocyclization

Macrocycles have fascinated scientists for over half a century due to their aesthetically appealing structures and broad utilities in chemical, material, and biological research. However, the efficient preparation of macrocycles remains an ongoing research challenge in organic synthesis because of the high entropic penalty involved in the ring-closing process. Herein we report a photocatalyzed thiol-yne click reaction to forge diverse sulfur-containing macrocycles (up to 35-membered ring) and linear C2-linked 1,2-(S-S/S-P/S-N) functionalized molecules, starting from the simplest alkyne, acetylene. Preliminary mechanistic experiments support a visible light-mediated radical-polar crossover dihydrothiolation process. This operationally straightforward reaction is also amenable to the synthesis of organometallic complexes, bis-sulfoxide ligand and a pleuromutilin antibiotic drug Tiamulin, which provides a practical route to synthesize highly valued compounds from the feedstock acetylene gas.