The main objective of this study is to assess energy-use reduction strategies in extraction and upgrading of oil sands for greenhouse gas mitigation in Canada's oil sands sector. A bottom-up ...integrated resource-planning model for oil sands extraction and upgrading processes was developed. The model is a novel application of an energy accounting-based framework and accurately simulates energy demand and supply in the oil sands from 2007 to 2050. Thirty energy-use reduction scenarios were evaluated covering in situ extraction, surface mining, and bitumen upgrading processes. The energy savings, greenhouse gas emission mitigation, and costs associated with each scenario were determined with the model. Implementing in situ energy-use reduction measures resulted in the highest single measure greenhouse gas mitigation potential of 86 million tonnes CO2e at a marginal greenhouse gas abatement cost of -$91/tonne of CO2e by 2050. For the scenarios in surface mining and bitumen upgrading, the highest single measure greenhouse gas mitigation potentials are 17 and 16 million tonnes CO2e by 2050 at marginal greenhouse gas abatement costs of -$65/tonne of CO2e and -$21/tonne of CO2e, respectively. All strategies result in a negative $/tonne of CO2e cost, indicating a net benefit for investing in the strategies. If the strategies are implemented together, there is an ultimate potential to reduce sector-wide cumulative energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the oil sands by 8% and 7%, respectively, by 2050. Decision-makers at company or government levels can use these results to support both environmental and cost-saving initiatives.
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•A bottom-up energy supply-demand model for the oil sands sector was developed.•Sector-wide energy consumption could be reduced up to 8%.•An annual average of 7.6 million tonnes of GHG emissions could be mitigated.•65% of evaluated GHG mitigation potential is from in situ extraction.•All GHG emission mitigation strategies have negative marginal abatement costs.
Steam fracturing as done during cyclic steam stimulation is an effective thermal process for initiating recovery from viscous oil reservoirs such as oil sands reservoirs found in Alberta, Canada and ...Liaohe, China. A key component of these processes is the ability to inject high temperature steam into the formation to fracture it which in turn raises its permeability and mobilizes the oil by lowering its viscosity. The dynamics of steam fracturing are not fully resolved especially how steam fingers into the reservoir and how its state changes as heat losses occur from the injected steam. The results of this study reveal that steam condensate, pressurized by the steam vapour upstream, fractures the formation. The results also show that dilation of the reservoir during steam injection relieves the pressure which in turn lowers the steam injection pressure below that of the case where no dilation occurs.
•Steam fracturing in cyclic steam stimulation dilates the oil sand formation.•Fracturing improves oil mobility by raising permeability and reducing oil viscosity.•Steam condensate fractures formation pressurized by steam vapour upstream.•Dilation associated with steam fracturing improves oil production.
We examine US and Canadian local labor markets from 1990 to 2011 using comparable household and business data. Wage levels and inequality rise with city population in both countries, albeit less in ...Canada. Neither country saw wage levels converge despite contrasting migration patterns from/to high-wage areas. Local labor demand shifts raise nominal wages similarly, although in Canada they attract immigrant and highly skilled workers more while raising housing costs less. Chinese import competition had a weaker negative impact on manufacturing employment in Canada. These results are consistent with Canada’s more redistributive transfer system and larger, more educated immigrant workforce.
The new Global International Air Transportation development as Logistic High Way via North Polar and Russia from Canada to Chaina are focusing to the new Airship and Large Hall Aircraft (LHA) Ecology ...Electrical Concept of the Transpolar Hybrid Power Fleet by ICAO& IATA Regulation and Sscurity along the Flight Routes with minimum Toxic & Noise to Climate and Passengers Safety. The paper analyzes the promising of Development Technologies of the Modern Hybrid Aero Systems as use the Solar Disc Shaped Airship (DSA) of Thermoplan LTA type by MAI Design and Production with EC Swiss. France and Germany cooperation. The estimation of the profitability of the Disk Shaped for the more Optimal Aerodynamic and Weight Efficiency in comparison with other view Forms for High Altitude Stratospheric & Orbital Complex as Astronomical Observatories and the implementation of International Aerospace Launches & Landings.
Over the past four decades, amplified warming in the Arctic has led to numerous consequences. Of particular relevance, negative anomalies of snow and sea ice cover, glacier retreat, and the extended ...melt of Greenland combined with increasing temperature at double the rate of the rest of the planet have been observed in the Arctic. Several studies have suggested that another response to the current arctic warming could be an increase in rain-on-snow (ROS) events followed by subsequent freezing and the creation of ice layers. We use recently developed detection algorithms of ROS and ice events using passive microwave retrieval approaches to examine the spatial and temporal trends in rain-on-snow and ice layer creation for 18 islands across the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA) over the last two decades. Results show that both icing and ROS event occurrence tripled between the periods of 1979–1995 and 1996–2011, with very active years in winters 1993–1994, 1998–1999 and 2002–2003. The areas with the most combined occurrences are the Boothia Peninsula and Axel Heiberg, Cornwallis, Banks and Victoria Islands. We then compare the rain-on-snow and icing events to Peary caribou estimates to test whether the algorithms can detect weather events associated with population declines. There has been an important reduction in population numbers of Peary caribou, the northernmost caribou population in Canada, over the last three generations. The major hypothesis for the decline is that severe weather events lead to more difficult winter grazing conditions. The comparison with the Peary caribou population estimates suggest that caribou numbers decrease with increased occurrence of ROS and icing events, where 3–4 ROS events and 1–2 icing events in one winter season are sufficient to have a negative impact on Peary caribou.
•Passive microwaves can be used to monitor ROS and ice layers in snow.•An increase in ROS occurrence has been observed since 1979 in the Arctic.•An increase in ice layer occurrence has been observed since 1979 in the Arctic.•Peary population numbers are impacted by ROS and ice layers.
A comprehensive review was performed on the environmental fate, environmental occurrence, toxicity, physical-chemical properties, abiotic and biotic removal and degradation of phthalate esters (PAEs) ...to compute the overall phthalate exposure and their impact on human beings. The removal and degradation of these wide spread pollutants by abiotic processes such as hydrolysis and photodecomposition are very slow and insignificant. On the other hand, the breakdown of PAEs by microorganisms is considered to be one of the major routes of environmental degradation for these widespread pollutants. Numerous microbial strains have been reported to degrade these compounds under aerobic, anaerobic and facultative conditions. Concurrently, the environmental fate, transport and transformation/degradation of these compounds under natural conditions are highly dependent on their physical and chemical properties. In order to understand the relationship between the concentrations of PAEs of different environmental compartments and human exposure prospects, a novel average phthalate pollution index (PPI) and cumulative phthalate exposure index (PEI) were proposed using the multivariate analysis approach. These indices were computed on the basis of relative importance, environmental occurrence, toxicity, physical-chemical properties, abiotic and biotic removal and degradation of dimethyl phthalate (DMP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP) and diethyl-hexyl phthalate (DEHP). At present, the average PPI and cumulative PEI of 29 countries were evaluated using the concentrations of PAEs reported in the literature. These indices signify the overall phthalate pollution, human exposure and their interrelation. According to the index, Slovakia, Canada, Taiwan, Sweden and South Africa are among the top five countries in terms of cumulative phthalate exposure as per the existing data. The exposure percentage of total PAEs significantly varies between 23 and 44% since many environmental compartments are not directly exposed to human beings and they are degraded under natural conditions.
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•A combined biofilm-biochar approach for contaminant removal was evaluated.•Biotic-biochar was more effective at removing naphthenic acids vs. sterile biochar.•Evidence for enhanced ...organics removal by biotic-biochar in the presence of metals.•Greater metal sorption evident with biofilm-attached biochar.•This combined approach was more effective at removal than either independently.
This study evaluated the efficacy of using a combined biofilm-biochar approach to remove organic (naphthenic acids (NAs)) and inorganic (metals) contaminants from process water (OSPW) generated by Canada’s oil sands mining operations. A microbial community sourced from an OSPW sample was cultured as biofilms on several carbonaceous materials. Two biochar samples, from softwood bark (SB) and Aspen wood (N3), facilitated the most microbial growth (measured by protein assays) and were used for NA removal studies performed with and without biofilms, and in the presence and absence of contaminating metals. Similar NA removal was seen in 6-day sterile N3 and SB assays (>30%), while biodegradation by SB-associated biofilms increased NA removal to 87% in the presence of metals. Metal sorption was also observed, with up to four times more immobilization of Fe, Al, and As on biofilm-associated biochar. These results suggest this combined approach may be a promising treatment for OSPW.
Beginning with the origins of mnemonic strategies in epic tales, Helfer examines how the art of memory speaks to debates about poetry and its place in culture from Plato to Spenser's present day.
Disparities in air pollution exposure are a form of distributional environmental injustice that has been documented in many jurisdictions around the world. In Canada, although there is a growing ...literature characterizing exposure inequalities, an important gap is research that captures the cumulative impact of the multiple air pollutants to which communities are exposed. Here, we present a screening-level analysis of inequalities in single pollutant and cumulative air pollution burdens in three major cities in Canada: Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. We construct three cumulative hazard indices (CHIs), using previously published national datasets for PM2.5, NO2, SO2, and O3 concentrations for illustrative year 2012. We describe the ways in which patterns of inequality differ between pollutants, between ways of calculating cumulative burden, and between cities. Different methods of constructing CHIs can yield different understandings of the spatial distribution of pollution, and in turn, inequality. We find the largest spatial variations for a CHI based on whether each pollutant exceeds an external benchmark (here, air quality guidelines), which translates into the largest calculated disparities in cumulative air pollution burdens for marginalized groups. We observe distinct patterns of inequality between the cities, in terms of which marginalized groups consistently experience higher cumulative air pollution burdens (Vancouver: Indigenous residents, Montreal: immigrant residents, Toronto: low-income residents). Results also highlight the importance of using a suite of socio-demographic indicators as patterns can differ between individual racialized/ethnic groups, and between different measures of socio-economic status. This work illustrates how a range of cumulative hazard screening indicators could be used in a policy context in Canada and elsewhere, while highlighting some of the methodological complexities in how environmental and social risks are characterized and combined. Given these complexities, we suggest that community input should inform the design of environmental justice indicators, as an important component of procedural justice.
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