Kilogram Of CO2 Research Articles

Carbon Reduction Impact from Synchronising PrescriptionS (CRISPS): A pilot study

Abstract Introduction Synchronising the dates of patients’ repeat prescriptions can reduce monthly community pharmacy visits or home deliveries, which may improve patients’ adherence to medicines.[1] It should also reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions associated with avoidable travel, but previous research does not appear to have determined the potential size of this reduction. This pilot study therefore attempted to do so using routinely collected data. Aim To estimate potential carbon savings from synchronising repeat medicines for a sample of patients from one community pharmacy. Methods All patients who had prescriptions dispensed four times per month or more from a single medium-sized (approximately 2,500 items dispensed per month) urban community pharmacy in England were identified from the pharmacy’s home delivery application. The threshold of four deliveries per month was selected to increase the likelihood of this frequency being due to asynchronised prescriptions. Data were collected (August 2023) for deliveries in June 2023 as there were no public holidays or events to affect prescription ordering. Data included patients’ postcode, delivery dates, and using the Patient Medication Record, the pharmacist collecting the data determined acute or one-off prescription items, that neither the patients nor the repeat medicines were new, and where deliveries were made to supply medicines owing. The pharmacy was selected because it efficiently managed stock to minimise items owing. The distance that would have been travelled was calculated as if the medicines had been collected from the pharmacy as a dedicated journey to and from the patient’s home address instead of being delivered. The saving in miles and CO2 emitted for different vehicle types was modelled by assuming that for each patient, all deliveries that were not for acute items or medicines owing could have been reduced to a single delivery if prescriptions had been synchronised. UK Government conversion factors were used to calculate CO2 emissions.[2] Results Data were collected for 59 patients, of whom 7 patients had 8 deliveries, 4 had 7 deliveries, 6 had 6 deliveries, 16 had 5 deliveries and 26 had 4 deliveries. The total number of deliveries to these patients was 269 but would have been 80 deliveries if the repeat prescriptions had been synchronised (70% reduction). The distance travelled would have been reduced from 842 miles to 241 miles (71% reduction). This would have resulted in a 71% reduction in CO2 emissions, although the reduction in volume in kilograms of CO2 emitted would have varied (by an estimated 137 Kg CO2 or 51%) depending on whether e.g., a small diesel car was used or a large petrol car (reduction of 133kg versus 270 kg CO2). An average diesel car was estimated to have reduced CO2 emissions by 163 kg. Conclusion The findings demonstrate that potential carbon savings from medicines synchronisation can be modelled from routinely collected data, but with limited accuracy, especially as patients receiving home deliveries may not be representative of all pharmacy users. Challenges remain in how to measure actual carbon savings of prescription synchronisation and overcoming barriers to widespread implementation of clinically appropriate synchronisation.

The use of algae as carbon dioxide absorber in heat production industry

There are approximately 15 million users of system heat in Poland, but unfortunately nearly 70% of the fuel used in heat production is fossil fuel. Therefore, the CO2 emission reduction in the heat production industry is becoming one of the key challenges. City Heat Distribution Enterprise Ltd. in Nowy Sącz (Miejskie Przedsiębiorstwo Energetyki Cieplnej sp. z o.o.) has been conducting a self-financed research and development project entitled The use of algae as carbon dioxide absorbers at MPEC Nowy Sącz. The project deals with postcombustion CO2 capture using Chlorella vulgaris algae. As a result of tests conducted in a 1000 l hermetic container under optimal temperature and light conditions, the recovery of biomass can be performed in weekly cycles, yielding approximately 25 kilograms of biomass per year. Assuming that half of the dry mass of the algae is carbon, it can be said that 240 grams of carbon is bound in one cycle, which, converted to CO2, gives 880 grams of this gas. Our results showed that around 45.8 kilograms of CO2 per year was absorbed. Additionally, it is possible to use waste materials and by-products of technological processes as a nutrient medium for algae

The Pro-Climate Policy Carbon Tax, Is It Also Pro-Poor Policy? (An analysis of the impact of the carbon tax policy on the provincial economy, unemployment rate, and poverty)

The Indonesian government introduced a carbon tax on April 1st, 2022. For the first stage, a carbon tax of IDR 30 per kilogram of CO2 will be applied to the coal-fired Steam Power Plant (PLTU) using a cap-and-tax mechanism. This study analyzes the impact of carbon tax policies according to different economic structures. Which region and sector are most affected? Furthermore, what is the effect of the carbon tax policy on economic growth, the unemployment rate, and poverty? There is a potential carbon tax revenue of IDR 5,846 billion. However, due to the cap-and-tax scheme, this study only allocates a potential tax revenue of IDR 1,000 billion. This potential tax revenue will be injected into further simulations. The first simulation shows that West Papua, East Kalimantan, and South Sumatra are the most severely affected provinces. It is rational since the coal mining and coal processing industries dominate their economy. Provinces with significant agriculture shares, such as the Special Region of Yogyakarta, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra, are the least affected by the policy. Simulation II is done by reallocating carbon tax revenues to the agricultural sector. The result shows that, although GDP increased by IDR 1,299.41 billion (0.0084%), it is not enough to shift the economy back to its previous state. On the other hand, although the economy continues to contract, the unemployment rate has decreased. The carbon tax has put 5,116 people out of work, mainly workers in the mining and coal processing sectors, and therefore, the unemployment rate increased by 0.0039%. However, the reallocation of tax revenues to the agricultural sector creates 23,483 new jobs, bringing unemployment down by 0.0183%. Finally, although economic growth is still slightly declining (-0.0112%), unemployment, poverty, and inequality are improving.

Evaluation of Rail Decarbonization Alternatives: Framework and Application

The Northwestern University Freight Rail Infrastructure & Energy Network Decarbonization (NUFRIEND) framework is a comprehensive industry-oriented tool for simulating the deployment of new energy technologies including biofuels, e-fuels, battery-electric, and hydrogen locomotives. By classifying fuel types into two categories based on deployment requirements, the associated optimal charging/fueling facility location and sizing problem are solved with a five-step framework. Life-cycle analysis (LCA) and techno-economic analysis (TEA) are used to estimate carbon reduction, capital investments, cost of carbon reduction, and operational impacts, enabling sensitivity analysis with operational and technological parameters. The framework is illustrated on lower-carbon drop-in fuels as well as battery-electric technology deployments for the US Eastern and Western Class I railroad networks. Drop-in fuel deployments are modeled as admixtures with diesel in existing locomotives, while battery-electric deployments are shown for varying technology penetration levels and locomotive ranges. When mixed in a 50% ratio with diesel, results show biodiesel’s capacity to reduce emissions at 36% with a cost of $ 0.13 per kilogram of CO2 reduced, while e-fuels offer a potential reduction of 50% of emissions at a cost of $ 0.22 per kilogram of CO2 reduced. Battery-electric results for 50% deployment over all ton-miles highlight the value of future innovations in battery energy densities as scenarios assuming 800-mi range locomotives show an estimated emissions reduction of 46% with a cost of $ 0.06 per kilogram of CO2 reduced, compared with 16% emissions reduction at a cost of $ 0.11 per kilogram of CO2 reduced for 400-mi range locomotives. The NUFRIEND framework provides a systematic method for comparing different alternative energy technologies and identifying potential challenges and benefits in their future deployments.

Reduction of patient travel and carbon emissions with virtual visits in general surgery

Background: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine emerged as an important tool. Few studies have examined the impact of virtual visits in General Surgery. The purpose of our study is to analyze the effect of outpatient virtual visits on surgery patient travel burden and its associated environmental impact at a quaternary academic institution. Methods: The electronic medical record was queried for all outpatient visits with 16 general surgery staff comprised of hepato-pancreato-biliary, acute care surgery, hernia and breast at our institution between 2017-2022. Virtual visits were defined as synchronous surgeon-to-patient interaction through video conferencing platform. Telephone encounters were excluded. Office and virtual visits for the 18 months prior to COVID-19 (July 2017- December 2019) were compared to the 18-month period during COVID-19 (January 2020-June 2022). To estimate travel burden and environmental impact, patients were assumed to travel via an average gasoline-powered passenger vehicle. Travel burden of patients was inferred from distance based on zip codes, and travel cost was estimated using distance traveled, parking costs, fuel economy, and average US retail gasoline prices by year. To estimate carbon emissions, the following assumptions were made: 1) average fuel economy is 24.2 miles per gasoline gallon (US Department of Energy); 2) average carbon emissions are 404 grams of CO2 per mile. Results: A total of 56,248 office and distance health visits were identified. In the pre-COVID period, of 26,515 visits, 26,208 (98.8%) were in-office and 307 (1.2%) were virtual visits. During COVID, of 29,733 visits, 26,477 (89.0%) were in-office and 3,256 (10.9%) were virtual visits. Estimated median and total travel burden and environmental impact of virtual visits are summarized in Table 1. Prior to COVID, office visits cost $631,660 in travel, consumed 194,332 gallons of gasoline, and produced 1,899,949 kilograms of CO2 with a median travel distance of 58 (IQR 18-188) miles. Patients undergoing virtual visits during the same period saved a total of $23,942, 8,345 gallons of gasoline, and 81,590 kilograms of CO2 with a median travel distance saved of 378 (IQR 157-785) miles. In the COVID period, office visits cost $592,786 in travel, consumed 174,290 gallons of gasoline, and produced 1,703,999 kilograms of CO2 for a median travel distance of 54 (IQR 18-164) miles. Patients undergoing virtual visits during the same period saved a total of $147,437, 49,233 gallons of gasoline, and 481,341 kilograms of CO2 for travel a median travel distance saved of 182 (IQR 52-404) miles. There is a difference of 40,888 gallons of gasoline and 399,751 kilogram of CO2 for the two periods. Conclusion: Saving nearly 40,000 gallons of gas and over 400,000 kilograms of CO2 emissions, telemedicine was successfully utilized to maintain clinical volume during COVID-19 while reducing patient travel burden, equivalent to carbon sequestered by 473 acres of US forest in one year. The impact of virtual visits extends beyond the cost of care not only in dollars, but on the environment. Further work is needed to measure quality of care and satisfaction of surgeons and patients to continue integration of virtual visits for select general surgery patients.

Optimizing a Biowaste Treatment Design for Energy and Environmental Efficiency of an Integrated Farming System in Tien Giang Province

Agricultural wastes can be converted into biofuels. To meet the requirements of biofuels, the conditions of their manufacturing process for these products must be considered. The purpose of this research is to optimize experimental designs for converting biomass into energy products like pyrolysis and pelleting process. The products were optimized in terms of their energy performance while lowering CO2 emissions. In Tien Giang province, we experimented with pyrolysis and pelleting biowastes derived from an integrated farming system in acid sulfate soil. The experimental factors influencing the energy content of products were determined using statistical analysis and optimization methods, and the potential CO2 emissions from the products were calculated. The optimization results revealed that the ideal pyrolysis parameters were 120 minutes of combustion time at 400oC and 30% moisture content of orchard pruning residues. The best pellets were obtained by combining biogas sludge and biochar from mango pruning residues. These products will store approximately 900 kilograms of CO2 emissions a year. The optimized processes would benefit the environment and bring profits to the system.

Thermochromic Materials as Passive Roof Technology: Their Impact on Building Energy Performance

Over the last few years, new materials have been developed which a priori, appear to improve passive energy efficiency in buildings. This article focuses on chromogenic devices that allow changing their optical properties in a reversible manner through some external stimulus. The covering of the envelopes may have different textures or colors, which determine the amount of solar radiation absorbed by the material compared to the incident radiation. In buildings with a high percentage of roof relative to façade, the surface finish plays an interesting role in the energy demand. In the present work, the influence of the application of thermochromic materials to the roofs of commercial buildings is analyzed. It has been demonstrated that the application of a thermochromic surface finish can produce savings of annual energy demand between 1% and 12% in kilowatt-hours and kilograms of CO2 and they become more significant for construction solutions with higher transmittances values. Then, the impact of applying a thermochromic finish per day is analyzed and which transition temperature range will be the most optimal to the highest energy performance is discussed. At the same time, an assessment is made of the optimal cost; although economic investment is not currently amortized, it is a good resource for reducing energy demand in buildings.

Scaling the Analytical Information Given by Several Types of Colorimetric and Spectroscopic Instruments Including Smartphones: Rules for Their Use and Establishing Figures of Merit of Solid Chemosensors.

The analytical information given by different types of instruments was scaled in order to establish suitably the figures of merit of a given methodology based on color measurements. Different lab and portable instruments, including smartphones with and without a miniaturized spectrophotometer accessory, have been tested. In order to obtain broad information and using objective criteria, these instruments have been compared from (1) the analytical point of view, considering mainly the detection limit (limits of detection [LODs]), selectivity, accuracy and intra- and interday precision, size, components, and costs; and (2) the environmental point of view, based on their footprint as kilograms of CO2. No significant differences in the precision were obtained with RSD (%) values lower than 10% for all of the instruments, but the achieved values of LOD, selectivity, accuracy, and cost were different. Footprints of CO2 were better for portable instrumentation, especially for smartphones. Three solid chemosensors made of different materials (PDMS, paper, or nylon) have been tested for the determination of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide at different concentration levels (ppb levels). As a result of this study, some rules for selecting the instrument for obtaining the required information have been established. Two apps have been developed for quantitation by smartphones, one for working with RGB values and the other for spectra obtained by the miniaturized spectrophotometer coupled to a smartphone.

Multiobjective economic and environmental optimization of global crude oil purchase and sale planning with noncooperative stakeholders

The petrochemical supply chain is a worldwide undertaking, where final products will often travel thousands of miles from oil well to gas station pump. Within the crude oil supply chain, various entities compete and attempt to maximize their profits by exploiting the demands and needs of the other companies within the supply chain. Each company or player in the crude oil industry has its own objective, and it will compete against other players trying to pursue their respective objectives. Due to the non-cooperative structure of the crude oil supply chain, the decisions that maximize profit often do not coincide with decisions that minimize environmental impact, as a reduction in environmental impact usually correlates with a reduction in profit. In this work, the crude oil supply chain from oil well to refinery is modelled as a mixed-integer bilevel linear program that accounts for conflicting objectives and interactions between different stakeholders. The composition, pricing, transportation distances, and environmental impacts of the different crude oils are taken into consideration in the model. In the bilevel problem, the crude oil producers aim to maximize their own profits from the sale of their crude oil, while the crude oil refiner has the dual objectives of both maximizing the profit made from the sale of distilled products to the market and minimizing the life cycle environmental impact of the refinery products, which is determined by the type of crude oil purchased by the refinery. The resulting model is then applied to two case studies, both based on a U.S. refinery purchasing oil from various crude oil-producing countries. Both case studies produce a set of pareto-optimal decisions for the refiner that display the inherent trade-offs between minimizing “cradle-to-gate” environmental impact and maximizing profit. At the trade-off point in the first case, a 4.4% decrease in profit leads to a 3.0% decrease in the kilograms of CO2 per megajoule of energy produced. Meanwhile, the trade-off point selected in the second case displays a 7.5% reduction in the total environmental impact while decreasing total profit by only 5.9%. Furthermore, the refiner’s profit at the trade-off point in the second case is $2.148 M, which is situated between the worst-case deterministic profit of $1.558 M and the best-case deterministic profit of $2.652 M.

Evaluating the energy consumption and air emissions of CO2-enhanced oil recovery in China: A partial life cycle assessment of extralow permeability reservoirs

Carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) can capture, transport and store CO2 emitted by high energy consumption enterprises. Therefore, the use of CO2-EOR enhances oil recovery and is also an effective means of reducing CO2 emissions. Currently, energy and environmental assessments of CO2-EOR have been rare in China. In this study, partial life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to evaluate the energy consumption and air emissions gate to grave in a CO2-EOR test station for extralow permeability reservoirs in northern China. The gate to gate of CO2-EOR defines 5 stages: transportation, liquefaction, injection, oil production and recycling. Through the analysis of these stages, the results show that producing one metric ton of crude oil gate to gate consumes 2472.56 kW hours of electricity and emits 2532.63 kilograms of CO2, 74.18 kg of SO2 and 37.38 kg of NOx. Water flooding that occurs under similar geological conditions is selected and compared with CO2-EOR for energy consumption and air emissions. In the case of producing one metric ton of crude oil, CO2-EOR gate to gate consumes more electricity than water flooding gate to gate and emits more CO2, SO2 and NOx. Compared with the amount of CO2 injection, the net CO2 emissions of CO2-EOR gate to gate to produce one metric ton of crude oil are -1675.15 kg, and the net CO2 emissions of water flooding gate to gate to produce one metric ton of crude oil are 775.83 kg. When considering energy consumption in the downstream segments of CO2-EOR, the net CO2 emissions of CO2-EOR gate to grave to produce one metric ton of crude oil are 0.53 metric tons. The results of this study provide valuable insights into the policy implications and sustainable development of CO2-EOR in China.

Modelling and simulation of steel reheating processes under oxy-fuel combustion conditions – Technical and environmental perspectives

This paper investigates the impact of flameless oxy-fuel combustion on the thermal performance of a pilot-scale steel reheating furnace. A comprehensive mathematical model, based on the zone method of radiation analysis, was developed, which takes into account the non-grey behaviour of the furnace atmosphere under oxy-fuel combustion conditions. The model was subsequently used to simulate the temperature profile of an instrumented slab used in the experiment. The results showed that the predicted slab temperature profile along the furnace is in good agreement with measurement. However the model over predicted the absolute slab temperatures due to the influence of formation of oxide scales on the slab surface, which was not taken into account in the current model. When compared to air-fuel combustion simulation, the results of oxy-fuel combustion also indicated a marked improvement in the furnace specific fuel consumption (approximately 16%). This was mainly due to the enhanced radiative properties of the furnace atmosphere and reduced exhaust energy losses as the result of less dilution effect from nitrogen. This resulted in reduction in the overall heating time by approximately 14 min. Furthermore, if the economics of carbon capture is taken into consideration, theoretically, the energy consumption per kilogram of CO2 captured can be reduced from 3.5 to 4.2 MJ kg−1 to 0.96 MJ kg−1. In conclusion, the current studies support the view that oxy-fuel combustion retrofitting to reheating furnaces is a promising option, both from a technical and from an environmental point of view.

Hybrid geothermal–PV–wind system for a village in Pakistan

Combining diverse sources of renewable power into a hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) has gained more attractions with the fast evolution of the renewable energy market. Renewable resources as alternative energy for electricity generation are the only way to cater to the present environmental and social challenges. An on-grid hybrid geothermal–PV–wind system at Tattapani, Azad Jammu Kashmir, Pakistan, is considered, as enough geothermal energy is available from hot springs to cater for the perennial base load requirement of the small community. The paper presents HRES design with minimal net present cost (NPC), so that the PV and wind energy plants are used to complement the geothermal plant during high demand and to feed the grid during low-energy requirements. This results in reduced cost of electricity (COE) and the decrease in fossil fuel-reliant energy from the national grid, thus bringing prosperity for the poor people of the village and contributing to the reduction in global warming. Sensitivity analysis to the constraints such as solar irradiation, wind speed and interest rate is presented as well. The study showed that for Tattapani, an on-grid hybrid geothermal, PV and wind system with the capacity of 250 kw, 250 kw and 100 kw, respectively, is a feasible design with the NPC of 234.11 million rupees at the interest rate of 5%. The system can fulfill the average load demand 7350 kWh/day, while the surplus energy is sold to the grid. COE of the proposed system is 7.50 Rs/kWh, and the system will also evade 1.8 million kilograms of CO2 along with other flue gas emissions to pollute the atmosphere. Sensitivity analysis shows that if wind speed varies from 4.5 to 6 m/s while GHI remains constant, the cost of wind energy decreases from 20.08 to 12.5 Rs/kWh. Similarly, if average GHI increases from 4.5 to 6 kWh/m2/day and wind speed remains constant, the cost of solar energy decreases from 8.04 to 6.06 Rs/kWh. If wind speed and GHI changes at the same time from 5 to 6 m/s and 4.5 kWh/m2/day to 6 kWh/m2/day, respectively, NPC decreases from Rs245 million to Rs228 million keeping interest rate constant at 5%. Another important result showed that when interest rate changes from zero to 20%, overall NPC decreased from Rs294 million to Rs159 million and COE increased from 6.50 to 11.69 Rs/kwh.

Thoughts on an Interfaith Gathering

Thoughts on an Interfaith Gathering Nan Kathy Lin Four colleagues and I, most of us from Georgetown's Ph.D. program in theology and religious studies, presented in a panel on Buddhist and Christian responses to the ongoing slow burn of the environmental crisis at the 2018 Parliament of the World's Religions in Toronto. My own presentation encouraged nonbinary thinking, which has a long history in Buddhist traditions, particularly with regard to moving beyond the rhetoric of heroism and villainy as deployed by environmental activists against corporations. The intent was not, however, an apologetics for corporations. The hope was, rather, for us to face up to the multifactorial complexity of what we talk about when we talk about an environmental crisis. If we want to talk about climate change, I suggested, what we also need to talk about are supply chains: the patterns of production and consumption involved in our living out the visions of our aspirational lives. There are many ironies and, dare I say, moral hypocrisies involved in our very presence at this Parliament of the World's Religions. The Georgetown delegation for this panel flew three hours per person round-trip from Washington, D.C. to Toronto, releasing over 1,000 kilograms of CO2 into the atmosphere at roughly 90 kilograms of CO2 emissions per flight-hour. How do we evaluate whether or not our presence at such a conference was "worth" the emissions—worth our marginal contribution to the currently existing pool of atmospheric carbon? Is the hope that the network effects of communication across 8,000 people at varying levels of fame and influence will be "worth" the 8,000 flights to and from Toronto (over 2 million kilograms of CO2 emissions, extrapolating from our four flights)? That words are more than mere words, and have something of a performative impact? I'm not sure. I don't know how to do the calculations; I'm not sure how to evaluate the value or the efficacy of a communication. Perhaps communication is valuable for its own sake; but there are marginal, incremental stakes involved, and for the more-than-human. In my optimistic moments, I think to myself that a gathering such as what happened in Toronto is meant to galvanize the faithful. That it is a resting place, where people who are vested in the day-to-day hard work of organizing, educating, and doing justice work can recharge their batteries, speak to and be inspired by others, and return to their work rejuvenated. Where moments of listening and sharing can indeed occur between representatives of a cornucopia of perspectives. These things are really there, I think; I must not deny them. [End Page 317] In my less sanguine moments, I wonder what cumulative change all this talk will actually generate. I wonder if we are the choir preaching to the choir: an echochamber of well-intentioned voices singing songs of comfort to ourselves as we walk the road of our collective damnation. I lament the difficulty of forming deep or even just nontrivial friendships across distances both geographic and perspectival. I'm asking too much, I know, of one humble conference. Structurally, a gathering of one week has its limits: on what can be said; on what can be heard; on the depths of relationships that can be formed, especially when participants fly back to locations that are thousands of miles removed. But my frustration lies exactly here: that this humble gathering included the best, brightest, most nobly intentioned among us. Therein lies the epic story, to be told and retold and passed across to the other side of the apocalypse: that in this best and brightest and most nobly intentioned of worlds there were indeed heroes; there was indeed folly; that here at this council of thousands valiant words were spoken while the sleeping still slumbered. Let the poets pass on this tale for the world to come. It was high tragedy, and the grandest of comedies, and something very mundane in between. [End Page 318] Copyright © 2019 University of Hawai'i Press

The carbon detectives

Even if countries agree to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, researchers face the monumental task of precisely monitoring the amounts of gases that are being emitted, and where. New tech will help, but the complications are many. To escape the worst ravages of climate change, humans have a steep path to climb. The Paris climate accord negotiated in 2015 aims to limit global warming to below 2 °C, and ideally no more than 1.5 °C, requiring rapid and deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Even assuming the big emitters make the necessary commitments, researchers and policymakers will need to monitor emissions closely to catch any stumble. If countries stray too far from their targets, there may not be time to make up ground before the Earth hits catastrophic climate tipping points. As shown in this artist’s conception, NASA’s GeoCarb mission, planned for a 2021 launch, will map concentrations of carbon gases from a high, geostationary orbit, allowing it to scan across an area the size of the continental United States every 2 hours or so. Image courtesy of NASA/Lockheed Martin/University of Oklahoma. At the moment, national emissions are calculated by accountants, based on the activity in different economic sectors. Coal-fired power stations emit close to 1 kilogram of CO2 per kilowatt hour of electricity generated, so multiply that emission factor by the total energy generation and you get overall emissions. Doing the same for manufacturers, farms, and other emission sources gives the national total. In developed nations, this bottom-up accounting process estimates CO2 totals with claimed uncertainties of about 5%, says Riley Duren at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA, who leads the Megacities Carbon Project. This doesn’t sound so bad. But the approach has several drawbacks. “Methodologies are tricky to agree on,” says Annalisa Savaresi, specialist …

Education in the Transit

The growing number of motor vehicles in urban areas has generated negative impacts on costs for users and bus operators due to congestion and the increase in travel time. Furthermore, transport sector is a significant user of energy, especially fuel, and a great responsible for greenhouse emissions. In order to mitigate these externalities, transport companies try to incorporate into their processes innovative tools and best practices in management, like the so-called economic-driving. The economic-driving seeks to reduce fuel consumption, greenhouse emissions and operational costs. This paper aims to present the results of an economic-driving program implemented in a public transport bus company in Brazil, in the period of 2010-2016. The methodologies used were exploratory, descriptive and case study. The results showed a reduction of fuel consumption by 786.336 liters. The analysis of the consumption of brake linings in eleven buses, running the same itineraries by the same drivers, decreased 47.46%. Based on the Embrapa’s methodology for the calculation of greenhouse emissions the company stopped emitting 86,757.36 kilo grams of CO₂ in the atmosphere. In conclusion, the case study confirmed the feasibility of applying economic-driving strategies and the economic and social advantages with the program for the company.

Reduccion de CO2 por el Uso de Lamparas de Bajo Consumo a Expensas de la Generacion de Residuos Peligrosos Domiciliarios

Because the national legislation prohibits the sale of incandescent lamps the argentine citizen can acquire compact fluorescent lamps in their replacement. This situation has led us to develop this work whose main objective is to establish a comparison between these two types of lamps from the energy point of view and its environmental consequences. To this end, we have developed a study based on the last national census in Argentina. While significant energy savings achieved, and as a result lower emissions of carbon dioxide, this leads to an environmental problem due to the mercury content of compact fluorescent lamps. They become in hazardous waste when exhausted their useful lives and are discarded in sites for municipal solid waste. High probability that the lamps are broken and release mercury that can contaminate 19,55 liters of drinking water for kilogram of CO2 saved. We conclude that the regulations required to purchase compact fluorescent lamps instead of traditional incandescent lamps must go accompanied with sustainable alternatives to dispose them appropriately since otherwise we will be replacing an environmental problem with another.

A new unified approach to evaluate economic acceptance towards main green technologies using the meta-analysis

The aim of this paper is to analyze the main determinants of the economic acceptability of four Green Technologies (GTs): alternative fuel vehicles, energy savings in residential buildings, smart meters and renewable electricity, using a meta-analysis on a sample of 35 selected papers, which provided 245 primary data. This approach allows detecting relationships across heterogeneous studies, avoiding the subjectivity of qualitative surveys. We implement a new two-step procedure. First, we compute a measure of the implicit price for a kilogram of CO2 avoided (PCO2), homogenizing the usable information for the GTs considered. Second, we conduct a meta-regression using the computed PCO2 values to estimate the socio-economic determinants' impact. In general, our results show a wide degree of acceptability for GTs which is stronger among European citizens. In particular, it emerges that, on average, the estimated PCO2 is positive for the GTs considered, and additional positive effects exist when respondents are confronted with an explicit reference to quantitative targets in terms of CO2 abatement, a clear proposal for payment timing, and a specific renewable electricity mix. These results indicate that information and transparency are crucial to spur GTs deployment. Therefore, to support GTs’ market penetration, public and private institutional stakeholders, have to provide “ad hoc” information to the end users, setting a clear and suitable system of prices to increase the economic value end users place on GTs.

The Oxy-CaL process: A novel CO2 capture system by integrating partial oxy-combustion with the Calcium-Looping process

This paper proposes a novel CO2 capture technology from the integration of partial oxy-combustion and the Calcium-Looping capture process based on the multicycle carbonation/calcination of limestone derived CaO. The concentration of CO2 in the carbonator reactor is increased by means of partial oxy-combustion, which enhances the multicycle CaO conversion according to thermogravimetric analysis results carried out in our work, thus improving the CO2 capture efficiency. On the other hand, energy consumption for partial oxy-combustion is substantially reduced as compared to total oxy-combustion. All in all, process simulations indicate that the integration of both processes has potential advantages mainly regarding power plant flexibility whereas the overall energy penalty is not increased. Thus, the resulting energy consumption per kilogram of CO2 avoided is kept smaller than 4MJ/kg CO2, which remains below the typical values reported for total oxy-combustion and amine based CO2 capture systems whereas CO2 capture efficiency is enhanced in comparison with the Calcium-Looping process.

Mobility and environmental impacts of car sharing in the Netherlands

This research aims to quantify the effects of car sharing on car ownership, car use and CO2 emissions. The results are based on a survey amongst 363 car sharing respondents in the Netherlands. We found over 30% less car ownership amongst car sharers and they drove 15% to 20% fewer car kilometres than prior to car sharing. The shared cars mostly replace a second or third car.Due to reduced car ownership and car use, car sharers emit between 240 and 390 fewer kilograms of CO2 per person, per year. This is between 13% and 18% of the CO2 emissions related to car ownership and car use.

Biomass production and carbon balance of a short rotation forestry of Populus deltoides (clone Lux) under two different cutting cycles

The emissions of green house gases contribute to global warming. Consequently, renewable energies such as solar, wind power, hydropower and bio energy appear as alternatives for reducing these emissions. One promising source of renewable energy is forest biomass, for it is considered to have neutral CO2 balance. The problem is to quantify the amount of CO2 that is emitted for a certain amount of energy generated, compared to the CO2 emitted to generate the same amount of energy from a non-renewable source. In this paper we calculate biomass production and carbon dioxide balance of an eight-year-old Populus deltoides short rotation forestry (SRF) under two cutting cycles (harvesting every two years, biennial and every three years, triennial). We also compare the amount of energy generated per kg of CO2 emitted in the use of fossil fuels versus the amount of energy generated per kilogram of CO2 emitted. On the one hand, total biomass yield was 12.6 ± 0.9 Mg ha-1 year-1 and 15.1 ± 1.5 Mg ha-1 year-1 for biennial and triennial cutting cycles respectively. On the other hand, total emissions of CO2 for growing a poplar SRF with a cycle of eight year and biennial cutting sequence reached a value of 738.8 kg ha-1 year-1; however, triennial short total emissions are equivalent to 695.5 kg ha-1 year-1. We concluded that the use of biomass makes a positive contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gases, in particular CO2, reducing emissions almost five times compared with fossil fuels.