Building Sustainable Partnerships to Promote Women's Political Representation in Southeast Asian Region

In a democratic country, gender equality is an element that needs to be guaranteed by the government, particularly in political positions such as in government offices, political parties, and other decision-making institutions. Unfortunately, such condition faces a significant obstacle that comes in the form of patriarchy system in the society, especially in the parliament as an institution representing the society. Currently, there is already an internationally recognized minimum target of 30% women as political representatives in the legislature bodies, as part of the initiative to promote women representation in the parliament. It is expected that with this target, women would have a starting point to claim their rights and to have a significant influence in the decision-making process

A review of the role of bioenergy modelling in renewable energy research & policy development

Transition towards renewable low carbon energy is a fundamental element of climate change mitigation, energy from biomass technologies are targeted within many country's decarbonisation strategies. Decision makers globally face many challenges developing strategies to drive this transition; models are increasingly used to road-test policy interventions before their implemented. A Bioenergy Literature Database was developed of 124,285 papers published 2000–2018. These document an exponential rise in research focusing on biomass and bioenergy. On average 35.4% of papers apply modelling analyses, 99.5% of these use bespoke models rather than high profile Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) or Energy System Models – although it is these high profile models that are widely used in policy development. A review of the role of bioenergy within energy models is undertaken with a key objective of critiquing their performances in analysing bioenergy research questions. IAMs are found to be widely applied to investigate the impact of bioenergy within wider energy and environmental systems, e.g. for reducing emissions. Energy System Models focus on bioenergy processes, technologies and feedstocks, although don't capture wider environmental, economic and social themes. Specialist Bioenergy Models offer methods for bespoke analyses of all bioenergy issues, their narrow system boundaries generate targeted outputs but wider effects such as land-use change may not be captured. Caution is required when interpreting modelling outputs, particularly when used to inform policy. It's not feasible to develop all-encompassing bioenergy models covering all nuances between systems, but there is strong argument for using multiple models in parallel to build robust overall conclusions

The potential of coffee stems gasification to provide bioenergy for coffee farms:a case study in the Colombian coffee sector

The coffee industry constitutes an important part of the global economy. Developing countries produce over 90% of world coffee production, generating incomes for around 25 million smallholder farmers. The scale of this industry poses a challenge with the generation of residues along with the coffee cultivation and processing chain. Coffee stems, obtained after pruning of coffee trees, are one of those abundant and untapped resources in the coffee supply chain. Their high lignocellulosic content, the low calorific value ranging between 17.5 and 18 MJ kg−1 and the low ash content make them a suitable solid fuel for thermochemical conversion, such as gasification. This research evaluates the feasibility of using these residues in small-scale downdraft gasifiers coupled to internal combustion engines for power and low-grade heat generation, using process modelling and the Colombian coffee sector as a case study. The producer gas properties (5.6 MJ Nm−3) and the gasifier’s performance characteristics suggest that this gas could be utilized for power generation. A cogeneration system efficiency of 45.6% could be attainable when the system’s low-grade heat is recovered for external applications, like in the coffee drying stage. An analysis of the energy demand and coffee stems availability within the Colombian coffee sector shows that the biomass production level in medium- to large-scale coffee farms is well matched to their energy demands, offering particularly attractive opportunities to deploy this bioenergy system. This work assesses the feasibility of providing coffee stem–sourced low-carbon energy for global coffee production at relevant operating scales in rural areas

Generating low-carbon heat from biomass:Life cycle assessment of bioenergy scenarios

Bioenergy systems will play a key role in many countries achieving their climate change, emission reduction and renewable energy contribution targets. It is important that implemented bioenergy pathways maximise GHG reductions, particularly since demand and competition for biomass resource is likely to increase in future. This research analyses the actual GHG performance of utilising different biomass resources to generate heat. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is undertaken to evaluate 2092 variants of bioheat options focused on utilising: UK agricultural and food wastes through anaerobic digestion pathways; UK straw agricultural residues and UK grown energy crops through combustion pathways. The results show a very broad range of GHG performances. Many pathways demonstrate GHG savings compared to conventional generation, although some have potential to actually increase GHG emissions, rather than reduce them. Variations in GHG performance do not correlate with feedstocks or technologies, but are most sensitive to the inclusion of specific processing steps and the displacement of certain counterfactuals. This suggests that policies should be developed that target resources with high GHG intensity counterfactuals, and where possible avoid energy intensive processing steps such as pelletisation

Bioenergy development in the UK & Nordic countries: A comparison of effectiveness of support policies for sustainable development of the bioenergy sector

This paper uses both quantitative and qualitative analyses to evaluate the effectiveness of government policy and support mechanisms in the UK, Sweden, Denmark and Finland in promoting bioenergy – a key technology fundamental to each country's decarbonisation strategies. It is crucial that countries develop effective policies and support mechanisms to grow sustainable bioenergy sectors. This paper analyses the success of bioenergy policies within each country and evaluates the importance of wider independent variables that collectively characterise the background to energy sector, economic and environmental dynamics. Statistical correlation and regression analyses are applied to identify if the policy landscape has had an identifiable impact on actual bioenergy development. Furthermore, the outputs from a stakeholder workshop and expert interviews are analysed to identify drivers and barriers to bioenergy. The result is a comprehensive analysis of the successes and challenges in bioenergy development, and possible lessons that can be drawn for future promotion of the sector. The research finds that the UK and Nordic countries have had different yet equally successful approaches to promoting bio-power and bio-heat respectively. However, the influence of wider factors within different countries is found to have a potentially greater collective impact on bioenergy than any single policy mechanism. Thus there is credence in learning lessons from what does and does not work in different countries, but countries also need to develop their own brands of policy interventions that suit their country's unique challenges

The potential of coffee stems gasification to provide bioenergy for coffee farms: a case study in the Colombian coffee sector

From Springer Nature via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2019-04-24, rev-recd 2019-07-01, registration 2019-07-15, accepted 2019-07-15, pub-electronic 2019-08-03, online 2019-08-03, pub-print 2020-12Publication status: PublishedFunder: Fondo de CTeI del Sistema General de Regalías del Departamento del Atlántico; Grant(s): Doctoral scholarship call 673 of 2014 “Formación de Capital Humano de Alto Nivel para el Departamento del Atlántico”Abstract: The coffee industry constitutes an important part of the global economy. Developing countries produce over 90% of world coffee production, generating incomes for around 25 million smallholder farmers. The scale of this industry poses a challenge with the generation of residues along with the coffee cultivation and processing chain. Coffee stems, obtained after pruning of coffee trees, are one of those abundant and untapped resources in the coffee supply chain. Their high lignocellulosic content, the low calorific value ranging between 17.5 and 18 MJ kg−1 and the low ash content make them a suitable solid fuel for thermochemical conversion, such as gasification. This research evaluates the feasibility of using these residues in small-scale downdraft gasifiers coupled to internal combustion engines for power and low-grade heat generation, using process modelling and the Colombian coffee sector as a case study. The producer gas properties (5.6 MJ Nm−3) and the gasifier’s performance characteristics suggest that this gas could be utilized for power generation. A cogeneration system efficiency of 45.6% could be attainable when the system’s low-grade heat is recovered for external applications, like in the coffee drying stage. An analysis of the energy demand and coffee stems availability within the Colombian coffee sector shows that the biomass production level in medium- to large-scale coffee farms is well matched to their energy demands, offering particularly attractive opportunities to deploy this bioenergy system. This work assesses the feasibility of providing coffee stem–sourced low-carbon energy for global coffee production at relevant operating scales in rural areas

The Nature of Starbursts : II. The Duration of Starbursts in Dwarf Galaxies

The starburst phenomenon can shape the evolution of the host galaxy and the surrounding intergalactic medium. The extent of the evolutionary impact is partly determined by the duration of the starburst, which has a direct correlation with both the amount of stellar feedback and the development of galactic winds, particularly for smaller mass dwarf systems. We measure the duration of starbursts in twenty nearby, ongoing, and "fossil" starbursts in dwarf galaxies based on the recent star formation histories derived from resolved stellar population data obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. Contrary to the shorter times of 3-10 Myr often cited, the starburst durations we measure range from 450 - 650 Myr in fifteen of the dwarf galaxies and up to 1.3 Gyr in four galaxies; these longer durations are comparable to or longer than the dynamical timescales for each system. The same feedback from massive stars that may quench the flickering SF does not disrupt the overall burst event in our sample of galaxies. While five galaxies present fossil bursts, fifteen galaxies show ongoing bursts and thus the final durations may be longer than we report here for these systems. One galaxy shows a burst that has been ongoing for only 20 Myr; we are likely seeing the beginning of a burst event in this system. Using the duration of the starbursts, we calculate that the bursts deposited 10^(53.9)-10^(57.2) ergs of energy into the interstellar medium through stellar winds and supernovae and produced 3%-26% of the host galaxy's mass.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figure

Grand Design and Flocculent Spirals in the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G)

Spiral arm properties of 46 galaxies in the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G) were measured at 3.6mu, where extinction is small and the old stars dominate. The sample includes flocculent, multiple arm, and grand design types with a wide range of Hubble and bar types. We find that most optically flocculent galaxies are also flocculent in the mid-IR because of star formation uncorrelated with stellar density waves, whereas multiple arm and grand design galaxies have underlying stellar waves. Arm-interarm contrasts increase from flocculent to multiple arm to grand design galaxies and with later Hubble types. Structure can be traced further out in the disk than in previous surveys. Some spirals peak at mid-radius while others continuously rise or fall, depending on Hubble and bar type. We find evidence for regular and symmetric modulations of the arm strength in NGC 4321. Bars tend to be long, high amplitude, and flat-profiled in early type spirals, with arm contrasts that decrease with radius beyond the end of the bar, and they tend to be short, low amplitude, and exponential-profiled in late Hubble types, with arm contrasts that are constant or increase with radius. Longer bars tend to have larger amplitudes and stronger arms.Comment: 31 pages, 14 figures, ApJ in pres