Liquid bio-fuels in Hungary: effects and contradictions

The increase of living standard requires ever more energy, despite energy saving measures. Domestic growth was 100 PJ between 2000 and 2006, and 77% of the total utilization was imported (Hungarian Central Statistical Office, 2008). Sustainability was endangered not only in our energy and commerce policy. Our domestic natural conditions are suitable for plant production; however, the stagnation of the domestic population and decreasing livestock numbers restrict inland marketing. Therefore, significant surpluses from year to year had to be stored and sold abroad, and the fact that the interventional purchase of corn and the expected stringent new EU regulation of the sugar beet sector, make the strategic significance of these branches uncertain. The difficult marketing opportunities make the better utilization of our opportunities in producing liquid bio-fuels possible from marketing aspects, while environmental issues and realizing the EU directions enforce to do so in a longer term. Over the short term, agricultural and competitive aspects will determine its spread, which cause different effects in Europe in comparison with the developing countries. According to Nábrádi-Ficzeréné Nagymihály, 2008, one of the breaking points of Hungarian agriculture lies in the utilization of alternative energy sources. During the past period, many contradictory opinions came forward relating to economies, agricultural effects, food risks as well as the energetic and environmental efficiency of bio-fuels. One thing is certain: these fuels are already used today and their significance has been increasing. Although due to technological development, spread of new products and processes (cellulose-based bioethanol, bioethanol, biogas, hydrogen, biomethane) will obviously have to be expected in the future, at present biodiesel and bioethanol are determent among bio-fuels, thus I deal with these as well as their energetic and agricultural effects in my study.Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Security and Poverty, International Development,

Liquid biofuels in Hungary: effects and contradictions

The increase of living standard requires ever more energy, despite energy saving measures. Domestic growth was 100 PJ between 2000 and 2006, and 77% of the total utilization was imported (Hungarian Central Statistical Office, 2008). Sustainability was endangered not only in our energy and commerce policy. Our domestic natural conditions are suitable for plant production; however, the stagnation of the domestic population and decreasing livestock numbers restrict inland marketing. Therefore, significant surpluses from year to year had to be stored and sold abroad, and the fact that the interventional purchase of corn and the expected stringent new EU regulation of the sugar beet sector, make the strategic significance of these branches uncertain. The difficult marketing opportunities make the better utilization of our opportunities in producing liquid bio-fuels possible from marketing aspects, while environmental issues and realizing the EU directions enforce to do so in a longer term. Over the short term, agricultural and competitive aspects will determine its spread, which cause different effects in Europe in comparison with the developing countries. According to Nábrádi-Ficzeréné Nagymihály, 2008, one of the breaking points of Hungarian agriculture lies in the utilization of alternative energy sources. During the past period, many contradictory opinions came forward relating to economies, agricultural effects, food risks as well as the energetic and environmental efficiency of bio-fuels. One thing is certain: these fuels are already used today and their significance has been increasing. Although due to technological development, spread of new products and processes (cellulose-based bioethanol, bioethanol, biogas, hydrogen, biomethane) will obviously have to be expected in the future, at present biodiesel and bioethanol are determent among bio-fuels, thus I deal with these as well as their energetic and agricultural effects in my study

Visions about a Renewable Future

Motto: “It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.†(Chinese wisdom)          The publication of the new issue of our journal coincides with Easter, the biggest Christian celebration, which is about our trust in the future and the self-sacrificing work performed to achieve this future, as well as renewal. The future of Earth is shaped by the current youth, while that of energetics is shaped by renewables. For this reason, one of the main objectives of our journal is to help young researchers with high-ranking publication opportunities and high-standard knowledge about the future’s energy. Therefore, it is a great feeling to dip into the fourth issue and to thank those who contributed either as editors, authors, reviewers or readers. I would like to strongly encourage anyone who is thinking about joining us in the future.           Despite the energy saving measures currently in force, the increase of living standards calls for increasing amount of energy which appears mainly in developing countries. However, the energy consumption of the world increased only by 0.5% in 2014 (to 575 EJ) in comparison with the previous year which was significantly exceeded by the increase of GDP (2.9% per year); therefore, specific energy consumption became much more efficient. At the same time, the difference of the spatial structure of production and use, the environmental protection issues caused by fossil energy resources and the fact that their extraction cannot be increased even in the mid-term pose serious problems. For this reason, sustainable development can only take place with the increased use of renewable energy which calls for the use of different procedures, technologies, and plant size in each country. In 2015, around 329 billion USD was invested into energy projects, but, according to IMF World Economic Outlook Update 2016 [1], in order to make the energy sector environmental friendly, at least 16,500 billion USD would need to be invested globally of the 68,000 billion USD which the countries of the world planned to invest into the energy industry until 2040 anyway [1]. Policymakers decide about sums, strategic and geopolitical interests which are almost impossible to comprehend. However, we, researchers, voters, and energy consumers are also able to make positive influences which we would like to do also with our journal by publishing new findings, objective data and conclusions.It is obvious that there will probably never be any energy resource that is cheap, energy-friendly, does not endanger the interests of any economic sector, has infinite feedstock basis and end product market, while creating lots of new employment possibilities at the same time. For this reason, it is difficult to estimate which renewable energetic procedure will become widespread, as well as to what extent and how quickly.       The main feedstock of heat production – which is the cheapest and most widely used type of energy – will probably remain biomass in the future. Based on the currently prevailing forestry products – in order to guarantee the saving of arable land –, the significance of special energy plantations and by-products is expected to increase. The latter can mostly be used for local purposes which will result in the possibility of reducing energetic and transport losses.       In the mid-term, China is expected to use solar and water energy, Western Europe will use wind energy and the United States will use solar energy for electricity production purposes. The utilisation of waste heat produced by power plants can play an important role in the development of local communities (job creation, local taxes) in addition to energy efficiency by means of attracting heat energy-demanding industries.       In the fuel market, the spreading of next generation biofuels is expected to replace the economically and energetically most problematic first generation biodiesel within some years, as well as maize-based and eventually (in the long run) even sugar cane-based bioethanol production. As a consequence, the price of timber industry products and crop production by-products will increase, as well as the price of feed as a result of disappearing first generation fuel by-products and there will be a notable increase of proportion of energy plantations in the field crop rotation. The advantage of the latter phenomenon could be the involvement of less favourable arable land into production, while a potential disadvantage is intensifying deforestation.       In my opinion, the only potential successful procedures are the ones which are able to solve waste- and carbon dioxide disposal at the same time in addition to energy production, the ones which can be operated in a closed systems (with no waste generation) and are able to produce various types of end products. Of these, the most promising alternatives may be the animal feed- or biodiesel-focused utilisation of algae species, produced with simplified (cheaper) PBR technologies, using flue gases and waste heat produced in wastewater-based biogas plants (or fossil power plants) - from the aspects of environmental protection, economics and novelty content. Furthermore, at the consumer level, I think that local public transport (buses) could be the first step of a wider range of using biofuels, since it would provide a possibility to use a significant amount of biofuel for masses of lower income people especially in city traffic, where pollutant emission appears in a concentrated amount and refuelling can be smoothly performed even if no countrywide fuel station system is established.       While oil contributed to the enrichment of Arab countries half a century ago, I think that the need for higher biomass productivity and sustainability in the future will primarily result in the flourishing of capital export to tropical countries.       As a matter of course, these are only general remarks and problems and looking for a solution always takes a specific set of circumstances. This is why we established our journal. Feel free to send us your manuscripts, opinions and suggestions and, if you think our published papers deserve it, please recommend them to your acquaintances and cite us! Citation:  Bai, A. (2016). "Visions about a Renewable Future." Trends in Renewable Energy, 2(2), 51-53. DOI: 10.17737/tre.2016.2.2.002

The effects of global real economic crisis on the markets for fossil and renewable fuels

The 2008/2009 world economic crisis had significant impact on the oil and fuel markets. The crisis developed from the meltdown of American and European mortgage and financial markets and rapidly involved the global real economy. As each country reacted differently to the crisis, the changes in the fuel market also showed significant geographic variation. In our present research, the actions of the US, German and Hungarian fuel markets were analysed for the answer to the reasons for the differences in crisis reactions. We examined the tendency of fuel consumption, the changes of price elasticity for gasoline and diesel and the possible effects of the crisis on the regulatory system

The Possible Role of Large-Scale Sewage Plants in Local Transport

Large-scale sewage plants in large cities are suitable for the production of large quantities of biogas, using economically viable biogas upgrading technologies and generally available public transport fleets of a sufficient number of local buses, as well as municipal vehicles. The conditions for the sale of locally produced CNGs do not depend on gas suppliers, they can be very well integrated with local waste management, and the local emission reductions occur in the inner city, where air pollution is the most serious problem. At the same time, the cogeneration solution currently of decisive importance for wastewater plants is more economically and environmentally advantageous in the production of biomethane. The consumption of heat and electricity by these plants is significant and must be supplied through the purchase of biomethane. However, for the local authority, when converting diesel buses, compressed biomethane (CBM) offers much greater savings, so at the municipal level, the process is economically profitable. The short-term spread of CBM (due to the small number of filling stations) is bound to local systems. If more and more cities operated a similar system (allowing refuelling within a few dozen kilometres), it would be expected that passenger cars would also be more widespread

Tests of Differential Diesel Fuels in Engine Testing Room

The portion of oil could be estimated 33 % of global primary energy consumption in 2012 (BP, 2012) and its average price – beside the products produced from it as well - significantly increased, unlike the demand for transport which has been reduced. This tendency is expected to remain unchanged in the long run, therefore, there is a great importance for the variety of diesel fuel distributors, in comparison of the ratio value for each of them, and replacing them with biodiesel can be used in the comparison. We executed 3 dynamometer measurements performed to determine three different dealers purchased diesel oil, some economical examinations of the diesel oil retail price, and the use of biodiesel all based on the expected economic studies in the literature studies of extra fuel consumption values. The results of these tests indicate that the differences of consumption between diesel oils can be up to 5 %, the conclusion is that distinctions of diesel oil consumptions are almost the same when we tested the differences between diesel oil and biodiesel. This means we can reach the same result with a high quality biodiesel as with poor quality diesel oil. This also means that– below 20% of mixing ratio we can easily choose by prices alone. Between these prices and products ( D1, D2, D3), we can save 4.8% diesel oil by using D2, 6.2% diesel oil by using D3 compared to D1. There could be a little revolution variance (D2: 2.9-6%, D3: 4.9- 7.1%), but this variance is under 1% so it is negligible.</jats:p

The Major Driving Forces of the EU and US Ethanol Markets with Special Attention Paid to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Ethanol is a widely produced fuel, as well as a fuel additive. Its price is closely related to the price of gasoline, its major substitute. This paper focuses on the impacts of the related variables on regional ethanol prices. Additionally, the length of the price dataset made it possible to isolate the impacts of COVID-19 on the ethanol prices. Using multiple regression and Confirmatory Factor Analyses, we found no significant correlation between the European and US ethanol prices because the major influencing factors were regionally different. In the case of the European ethanol markets, the positive factors were wheat, maize, and potassium chloride prices, while the European sugar and diammonium phosphate prices were negative. In the US markets, gasoline, sugar, and most of the artificial fertilizer prices were positive, while wheat prices were negative. Based on factor analysis, artificial fertilizers and maize factors proved to be important to the European markets, while US ethanol prices were driven by the crude oil-gasoline and raw materials factors. The COVID variable showed no significant connection with the EU prices, but negatively affected the US ethanol prices. This is explained by the different market characteristics, as the US is not only the major consumer, but also the major producer of the different oil products. Therefore, COVID-19 had a double effect on their oil and ethanol markets

A poli(ADP-ribóz) polimeráz-2 szerepének vizsgálata a SIRT1 aktivációjában, az energiaháztartásban és a sejtek NAD+ koncentrációjának modulálásában = Investigation of the role of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-2 in SIRT1 activation, energy expenditure and the modulation of cellular NAD+ concentrations

A projekt során a poli(ADP-ribóz polimeráz (PARP) enzimek metabolikus szerepét vizsgálatuk. A PARP-1-/- egerekben a harántcsíkolt izomban és a barna zsírszövetben emelkedett biológiai oxidációt tapasztaltunk. A megemelkedett biológiai oxidáció oka a SIRT1 aktivitás megnövekedése volt. Eredményeinkből úgy tűnik, hogy elsődlegesen a fenti fenotípus megjelenéséért a PARP-1 és a SIRT1 NAD+ iránti versengése felelős: a PARP-1 enzim törlése esetén több NAD+ molekula marad a SIRT1 számára. Kimutattuk, hogy PARP inhibitorok is hasonló fenotípust alakítanak ki. PARP-2-/- egerekben a harántcsíkolt izomban és a májban emelkedett biológiai oxidációt írtunk le, amely szintén a megemelkedett mitokondriális aktivitással volt kapcsolatban, amit a megnövekvő SIRT1 expresszió váltott ki. A PARP-2-/- egerekben pancreas beta sejt diszfukciót találtunk, ami rontja az egerek metabolikus rátermettségét. Eredményeink egy új, farmakológiailag befolyásolható útvonalat írtak le, amelyen keresztül befolyásolható a szervezet energiaegyensúlya. | On course of the project we investigated the role of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases in metabolic regulation. In the striated muscle and brown adipose tissue of the PARP-1-/- mice we have observed increased mitochondrial activity. The increased mitochondrial activity was linked to increased SIRT1 activity. Our results suggest that primarily the competition for the limiting NAD+ pool drive SIRT1 activation: upon the deletion of PARP-1 NAD+ levels increase providing more substrate for SIRT1. We provided evidence that PARP inhibitors are equally capable of inducing mitochondrial biogenesis. In the striated muscle and liver of PARP-2-/- mice we have observed increased mitochondrial activity that is equally linked to enhanced SIRT1 activation, however it was driven by increased SIRT1 expression. Besides the metabolically favorable enhanced energy expenditure we have observed pancreatic beta cell dysfunction that hinders metabolic fitness of these mice. Our data describe a novel pathway for the intervention on whole body energy balance, moreover this pathway can be influenced by pharmacological inhibitors

Megújuló energiaforrások, különös tekintettel a bioüzemanyag-gyártásra: nemzetközi kitekintés

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