Emerging solar desalination by interfacial evaporation shows great potential in response to global water scarcity because of its high solar‐to‐vapor efficiency, low environmental impact, and off‐grid ...capability. However, solute accumulation at the heating interface has severely impacted the performance and long‐term stability of current solar evaporation systems. Here, a self‐regenerating solar evaporator featuring excellent antifouling properties using a rationally designed artificial channel‐array in a natural wood substrate is reported. Upon solar evaporation, salt concentration gradients are formed between the millimeter‐sized drilled channels (with a low salt concentration) and the microsized natural wood channels (with a high salt concentration) due to their different hydraulic conductivities. The concentration gradients allow spontaneous interchannel salt exchange through the 1–2 µm pits, leading to the dilution of salt in the microsized wood channels. The drilled channels with high hydraulic conductivities thus function as salt‐rejection pathways, which can rapidly exchange the salt with the bulk solution, enabling the real‐time self‐regeneration of the evaporator. Compared to other salt‐rejection designs, the solar evaporator exhibits the highest efficiency (≈75%) in a highly concentrated salt solution (20 wt% NaCl) under 1 sun irradiation, as well as long‐term stability (over 100 h of continuous operation).
A wood‐based evaporator with a rationally designed artificial channel‐array is reported for long‐term solar desalination. The unique channel‐array design endows the evaporator with a real‐time self‐regenerating property, which allows a stable and highly efficient steam generation (≈75% efficiency) of the evaporator in a wide range of salt concentrations, from pure water to 20 wt% NaCl solution.
Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy The Ramsar Convention and Ecosystem-Based Approaches to the Wise Use and Sustainable Development of Wetlands
A main global challenge is finding an alternative material for cement, which is a major source of pollution to the environment because it emits greenhouse gases. Investigators play a significant role ...in global waste disposal by developing appropriate methods for its effective utilization. Geopolymers are one of the best options for reusing all industrial wastes containing aluminosilicate and the best alternative materials for concrete applications. Waste wood ash (WWA) is used with other waste materials in geopolymer production and is found in pulp and paper, wood-burning industrial facilities, and wood-fired plants. On the other hand, the WWA manufacturing industry necessitates the acquisition of large tracts of land in rural areas, while some industries use incinerators to burn wood waste, which contributes to air pollution, a significant environmental problem. This review paper offers a comprehensive review of the current utilization of WWA with the partial replacement with other mineral materials, such as fly ash, as a base for geopolymer concrete and mortar production. A review of the usage of waste wood ash in the construction sector is offered, and development tendencies are assessed about mechanical, durability, and microstructural characteristics. The impacts of waste wood ash as a pozzolanic base for eco-concreting usages are summarized. According to the findings, incorporating WWA into concrete is useful to sustainable progress and waste reduction as the WWA mostly behaves as a filler in filling action and moderate amounts of WWA offer a fairly higher compressive strength to concrete. A detail study on the source of WWA on concrete mineralogy and properties must be performed to fill the potential research gap.
Aquatic ecosystems have long been used as receiving environments of wastewater discharges. Effluent discharge in a receiving water body via single jet or multiport diffuser, reflects a number of ...complex phenomena, affecting the ecosystem services. Discharge systems need to be designed to minimize environmental impacts. Therefore, a good knowledge of the interaction between effluents, discharge systems and receiving environments is required to promote best environmental management practice.
This paper reports innovative 3D flow velocity measurements of a jet discharged into an obstructed crossflow, simulating natural vegetated channel flows for which correct environmental management still lacks in literature. In recent years, numerous experimental and numerical studies have been conducted on vegetated channels, on the one hand, and on turbulent jets discharged into unvegetated crossflows, on the other hand. Despite these studies, however, there is a lack of information regarding jets discharged into vegetated crossflow. The present study aims at obtaining a more thorough understanding of the interaction between a turbulent jet and an obstructed crossflow. In order to achieve such an objective, a series of laboratory experiments was carried out in the Department of Civil, Environmental, Building Engineering and Chemistry of the Technical University of Bari – Italy. The physical model consists of a vertical jet discharged into a crossflow, obstructed by an array of vertical, rigid, circular and threaded steel cylinders. Analysis of the measured flow velocities shows that the array of emergent rigid vegetation significantly affects the jet and the ambient flow structures. It reduces the mean channel velocity, allowing the jet to penetrate higher into the crossflow. It significantly increases the transversal flow motion, promoting a major lateral spreading of the jet within the crossflow. Due to the vegetation array effects, the jet undergoes notable variations in its vortical structure. The variation of the flow patterns affects the mixing process and consequently the dilution of pollutants discharged in receiving water bodies.
•We physically model the interaction of a turbulent jet and a vegetated crossflow.•We put in evidence the effects of aquatic rigid vegetation on the jet flow structure.•Vegetation strongly affects the jet behaviours within an ambient flow.•The jet penetration height and spreading increase in obstructed crossflow.•The vegetation strongly affects the mixing between the jet and ambient flows.
Industrial transfer within the region is important for attaining sustainable development for worldwide urban agglomerations. In 2015, the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region began to implement ...industrial transfer to achieve coordinated regional development. To make up for the gap in the economic-environmental impact assessment of industrial transfer within region, and to provide scientific guidance for the industrial transfer of the BTH region, this study uses an improved Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model to assess the economic–environmental impact of industrial transfer within the BTH region at both the provincial and regional levels. Our research finds that the CGE model is suitable for assessing the impact of industry transfer. For the industrial provider, Beijing, the impact on economy (environment) is positive (negative). For the industrial receivers (Tianjin and Hebei), the impact is the opposite. For the whole BTH region, the transfer of manufacturing (services) has positive (negative) impacts on the economy and negative (positive) impacts on the environment. To balance economic and environmental benefits, we suggest that the industrial transfer in the BTH region be carried out in two stages. In the early stage, the transferred industries should be primarily manufacturers. In the later stage, the volume of the transferred service industry should be gradually increased. In general, the focus should be on assessing the impact of industrial transfer within a region.
•CGE model was improved and used to assess the impact of industrial transfer.•Service industry transfer is adverse (good) to BTH region's economy (environment).•Manufacturing transfer is good (adverse) to BTH region's economy (environment).•For industry giver and receiver, the impact of industrial transfer is opposed.•Industrial transfer of BTH should be promoted in two stages.
Impact scoring schemes are useful for identifying to what extent alien species cause damage. Quantifying the similarity and differences between impact scoring schemes can help determine how to ...optimally use these tools for policy decisions. Using feral mammals (including rats and mice) as a case study, environmental and socio-economic impacts were assessed using three schemes, namely the Generic Impact Scoring System (GISS), Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (EICAT) and Socio-Economic Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (SEICAT). The results show that socio-economic impacts scores differ between the respective schemes (GISS and SEICAT) possibly because they assess different aspects of social life and economy. This suggests that both scoring schemes should ideally be applied in concert to get a complete picture of socio-economic impacts. In contrast, environmental impact scores are correlated between GISS and EICAT assessments and this similarity is consistent over most mechanisms except for predation and ecosystems, suggesting that one scoring scheme is sufficient to capture all the environmental impacts. Furthermore, we present evidence for the island susceptibility hypothesis as impacts of feral mammals were found to be higher on islands compared to mainlands.
The irreversible momentum of clean energy Obama, Barack
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
01/2017, Letnik:
355, Številka:
6321
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Private-sector efforts help drive decoupling of emissions and economic growth
The release of carbon dioxide (CO
2
) and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) due to human activity is increasing global ...average surface air temperatures, disrupting weather patterns, and acidifying the ocean (
1
). Left unchecked, the continued growth of GHG emissions could cause global average temperatures to increase by another 4°C or more by 2100 and by 1.5 to 2 times as much in many midcontinent and far northern locations (
1
). Although our understanding of the impacts of climate change is increasingly and disturbingly clear, there is still debate about the proper course for U.S. policy—a debate that is very much on display during the current presidential transition. But putting near-term politics aside, the mounting economic and scientific evidence leave me confident that trends toward a clean-energy economy that have emerged during my presidency will continue and that the economic opportunity for our country to harness that trend will only grow. This Policy Forum will focus on the four reasons I believe the trend toward clean energy is irreversible.
With the massive consumption of fossil fuels and its detrimental impact on the environment, methods of generating clean power are urgent. Hydrogen is an ideal carrier for renewable energy; however, ...hydrogen generation is inefficient because of the lack of robust catalysts that are substantially cheaper than platinum. Therefore, robust and durable earth-abundant and cost-effective catalysts are desirable for hydrogen generation from water splitting via hydrogen evolution reaction. Here we report an active and durable earth-abundant transition metal dichalcogenide-based hybrid catalyst that exhibits high hydrogen evolution activity approaching the state-of-the-art platinum catalysts, and superior to those of most transition metal dichalcogenides (molybdenum sulfide, cobalt diselenide and so on). Our material is fabricated by growing ternary molybdenum sulfoselenide particles on self-standing porous nickel diselenide foam. This advance provides a different pathway to design cheap, efficient and sizable hydrogen-evolving electrode by simultaneously tuning the number of catalytic edge sites, porosity, heteroatom doping and electrical conductivity.
Electric vehicles (EVs) have become increasingly popular due to zero carbon emission, reduction of fossil fuel reserve, comfortable and light transport. However, EVs employing lithium-ion battery are ...facing difficulties in terms of predicting accurate health and remaining useful life states due to various internal and external factors. Currently, very few papers are addressed to summarize the state of health (SOH) and remaining useful life (RUL) estimation approaches. In this regard, the goal of this paper is to comprehensively review the different estimation models to predict SOH, and RUL in a comparative manner. The results identify the classifications, characteristics and evaluation processes with advantages and disadvantages for EV applications. The review also investigates the issues and challenges with possible solutions. Furthermore, the review provides some selective proposals for the further technological development of SOH, and RUL estimation for lithium-ion batteries. All the highlights insight this review will hopefully lead to the increasing efforts towards the development of the advanced SOH and RUL methods for future EV uses.
•A comprehensive review of the methods to estimate SOH and RUL.•A detailed investigation of the key issues and challenges of SOH and RUL.•The highlight of effective solutions to address the challenges.•Selective suggestions for the further development of SOH and RUL.
In the context of project-level EIA, key areas for improving EIA process, viz., scoping, evaluation of significance, review of EIA reports, and monitoring and follow-up are examined. Based on ...evaluation of > 90 EIA reports prepared by consultants for manufacturing, power and infrastructural sector projects, additional areas like role of EIA team leader and some finer aspects of EIA which are often overlooked by practitioners and competent authority are brought out. SWOT analysis of the EIA process is carried out. Opportunities for improving the process include proactive approach by EIA consultants, public involvement in scoping, establishing realistic baseline conditions, quantification of environmental impacts, peer-review of EIA reports, and post-project monitoring and follow-up by third party.
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