Carbon capture, utilization and storage in the context of Turkish energy market

Combusting fossil fuel is the conventional approach to initiate a set of chemical reactions, which releases stored energy as heat, carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and other pollutants. Among all fossil fuels, coal, used in nearly 40% of the world’s power production, when combusted, releases several other harmful pollutants such as sulfur dioxide (SO2), mercury, particulate matter, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), lead and arsenic. In modern coal power plants, as required by regulations that are common in the OECD, these harmful chemicals and heavy metals must be removed from the flue gas using various pollution control technologies. However, these regulations do not govern the emissions of CO2 since CO2 does not contribute to local pollution and happens to be the inevitable and most stable oxidation product of any hydrocarbon. It is well known that the energy sector is contributing to a significant rise in the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHGs) that cause more heat to be absorbed by the Earth than is radiated back out into space. It is estimated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that the concentration of GHGs is going to reach dangerous levels if future GHG emissions from the energy sector are not significantly reduced. Several models, for example, the International Energy Agency’s Energy Technology Perspectives model, show that the energy sector cannot achieve a safe level of emissions unless coal use is almost entirely curtained or if CO2 is separated from the coal power plant instead of being emitted into the atmosphere and the CO2 stored in deep reservoirs or otherwise used. Since Turkey has huge domestic coal reserves, coal power is a source of electricity that can contribute to Turkey’s energy security. While Turkey’s emissions of CO2 are small compared to those of other developing countries such as China and India, the rest of Europe or the United States, international agreements like the Paris Accord aim to achieve a world-wide collective effort from all countries. Consequently, carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) could be important to Turkey given Turkey’s large coal reserves and desire to use domestic energy resources as a source of energy security and to reduce its energy import bill. CCUS is the set of methods and technologies that removes CO2 from the emissions and prevents them from leaking into the atmosphere. In this study, we focus on the application of aqueous Monoethanolamine (MEA) scrubbing method as a well-proven carbon capture (CC) technology on the Turkish coal-fired power plants. We investigate the economic and environmental impacts of MEA scrubbing technology in the context of the Turkish energy market. For the sake of completeness, we consider nine storage candidates, one domestic CO2-enhanced oil recovery in Batman, and an emissions trading market. A mixed-integer nonlinear programming model (MINLP) is developed based on regulations and techno-economic factors. Equilibrium solutions of the proposed model are obtained regarding independent and coordinated actions of power plants. Finally, managerial insights are proposed

Evolutionary insights into micrornas of kiwifruit actinidia Chinensis and its close relatives

The advent of next-generation sequencing technologies and newly developed bioinformatics tools have provided us complete sequence information of organisms. Plant microRNAs (miRNAs), small non-coding RNAs about 21-24 nucleotides, and their regulatory roles in biological processes have been uncovered since the identification of the first miRNA. MicroRNA biogenesis and modes of actions have also been elucidated in previous studies. In the presented study, we identified putative microRNAs from Actinidia chinensis, Arabidopsis thaliana, Solanum lycopersicum, Solanum tuberosum and Vitis vinifera to compare their miRNA repertoire. According to the results, the highest synteny was found between V.vinifera-A.chinensis and the least synteny was found between A.thalianaA.chinensis. The highest number of putative miRNAs were identified from A.thaliana whereas the least amount of putative miRNAs were identified from V.vinifera. This may be depended on the size of the genomes. We also analyzed the targets of putatively identified miRNAs for each organism. Expectedly, the target pathways of the predicted putative miRNAs were similar between the closest organisms. Expressed miRNA families and copy number of miRNA genes were compared between all organisms. In A.thaliana, the number of expressed putative miRNAs are more than the other organisms. For all the organisms, different miRNA families had the high copy number of genes. Therefore, highly represented miRNA families on each genome may have specific functional roles. The findings in this study will help the research community to identify the roles of miRNA players on critical biological pathways

Identification of microRNA elements from genomic data of European hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) and its close relatives

Plant microRNAs (miRNAs) are small and non-coding endogenous RNAs which have numerous regulatory roles in cells. These critical players regulate pathways either by inducing translational repression or messenger RNA (mRNA) decay. Newly developed bioinformatics tools and computational methods have been increased to identify miRNAs with their targets inside the genome. In this study, we predicted and identified 57 putative miRNAs through Corylus avellana (C. avellana) genomic data in silico. We also predicted some other putative miRNAs from Arabidopsis thaliana (A. thaliana), Ricinus communis (R. communis), Populus trichocarpa (P. trichocarpa) and Vitis vinifera (V. vinifera) to compare with the C. avellana organism since previous studies have indicated high similarities between these genomes and proteome atlases. The miRBase 21 was used as a reference dataset and the putative miRNAs were identified for the genome of each organism. We used homology conserved method to identify putative miRNAs. Based on our findings, C. avellana miRNA content was found to be highly similar to V. vinifera, R. communis and P. trichocarpa. Also, we found the targets of these hazelnut putative miRNAs and their possible functions inside the cell. One of our major discoveries is that miR171 families are highly represented (the copy number of miRNA) in the hazelnut genome to provide clues for microRNA domestication. The miR396, miR482, and miR2118 families were found as in silico expressed putative miRNAs by using computational methods. All these findings may help us better understanding the miRNA repertoire of the hazelnut organism and provide valuable insight about the regulatory roles of predicted putative miRNAs which are shared with other organisms (A. thaliana, R. communis, P. trichocarpa, V. vinifera) for further studies

In silico identification of MicroRNAs in 13 medicinal plants

OBJECTIVES: MicroRNAs are endogenous, non-coding small RNAs and they play important roles in plant regulatory pathways, development, stress tolerance and growth. With the advent of next-generation sequencing technologies, the microRNA identification studies by computational methods have been increased and have become effective. In this study, we predicted microRNA repertoires from 13 medicinal plants by using their transcriptome atlas. MATERIALS -METHODS: The transcriptome sequences of 13 medicinal plants were retrieved and the miRNA identification was conducted based on homology conservation method. Phylogenetic tree was constructed to show the level of similarity /dissimilarity between 13 medicinal plants (Atropa belladonna, Camptotheca acuminate, Cannabis sativa, Digitalis purpurea, Dioscorea villosa, Echinacea purpurea, Ginkgo biloba, Hoodia gordonii, Hypericum perforatum , Panax quinquefolius , Rauvolfia serpentina, Rosmarinus officinalis , Valeriana officinalis ) by Minitab statistical software. The transcriptome of Arabidopsis thaliana organism was used as a model organism. Target annotations of predicted putative microRNAs were performed by psRNA target and Blast2Go software. RESULTS: As a total number, 168 putative miRNAs were identified. The highest number of microRNAs were found in Camptotheca acuminate (28 miRNA families) transcriptome whereas Atropa belladonna had the lowest amount of putative miRNAs (three miRNA families) in its transcriptome. Digitalis purpurea and Rosmarinus officinalis showed the highest similarities. Targets of putative miRNAs in biological processes and molecular functions revealed us different profiles in different organisms. CONCLUSIONS: Since medicinal plants have some important therapeutic properties, these findings might help to elucidate metabolic and regulatory pathways in medicinal plants to use them efficiently in biotechnological and pharmacological applications

Identification of in silico mirnas in four plant species from fabaceae family

Plant microRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs, about 21-24 nucleotides, which have critical regulatory roles on growth, development, metabolic and defense processes. Their identification, together with their targets, have gained importance in exploring their parts on functional context, providing a better understanding of their regulatory roles in critical biological processes. With the advent of next-generation sequencing technologies and newly developed bioinformatics tools, the identification of microRNA studies by computational methods has been increasing. In the presented study, we identified some putative miRNAs for Cicer arietinum, Glycine max, Medicago truncatula and Phaseolus vulgaris genomes. We also provided the similarity between those organisms regarding common/different miRNAs availability throughout their genomes. According to the data, the highest similarity was found between Glycine max and Phaseolus vulgaris. We also investigated the potential targets of putatively identified miRNAs for each organism. We analyzed which miRNA families were expressed in silico. We also showed the representation (copy number of genes) profile of predicted putative miRNAs for each organism. Since most of the food products and animal feeds consist of Fabaceae family members as it is mentioned above, these findings might help to elucidate their metabolic and regulatory pathways to use them efficiently in biotechnological applications and breeding programs

Using natural gas as an environmentally sustainable power source with solid oxide fuel cells

Policies, research and pilot projects to commercialize carbon capture in the power sector have focused on coal plants. However, the expected world-wide consumption of natural gas in the power sector is not consistent with a sustainable environmental future without also employing carbon capture technologies to natural gas plants. One reason carbon capture from natural gas has not received much attention is, as will be discussed below, the very high cost of carbon capture from natural gas plants compared to the already considerable cost of carbon capture from coal plants. Capture of carbon with conventional natural gas turbines is not economically practical. Consequently, a different technology is needed to generate electricity from natural gas in the power sector. This technology should be competitive with natural gas turbines (disregarding its ability to employ carbon capture). This technology should permit the capture of carbon at low cost. Ideally, the cost should be significantly lower than the cost of carbon capture from coal plants (as measured by the cost per ton of captured CO2). Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are the leading technology to meet these requirements. Their emissions of CO2 without carbon capture are relatively low due to their high efficiency. Significantly, in the SOFC exhaust, CO2 is only comingled with water and unreacted CH4. This enables low-cost separation of CO2. In addition, the efficiency losses from the application of carbon capture are minimal compared to the significant efficiency losses when carbon capture is applied to coal power plants or natural gas turbines. The primary barrier to the uptake of SOFCs is the development of a grid-scale SOFC with a comparable cost and reliability compared to the natural gas turbine. With a cost-competitive grid scale SOFC technology, the additional cost of carbon capture would be minimal compared to the cost-prohibitive carbon capture technologies that are available for coal power plants and natural gas turbines. Consequently, commercialization of carbon capture in the power sector could be achieved with policies that impose a much lower burden on the economy and a much lower increase of the cost of electricity than is now the case. While the current research to achieve cost-competitive and reliable SOFCs for grid-scale application is encouraging, these efforts should be significantly increased in order to achieve more rapid technology development and the opportunity to achieve grid-scale commercial application, a necessary step that enables further cost reduction (technology learning, or, learning by doing)

Identification of microRNA elements from genomic data of European hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) and its close relatives

Plant microRNAs (miRNAs) are small and non-coding endogenous RNAs which have numerous regulatory roles in cells. These critical players regulate pathways either by inducing translational repression or messenger RNA (mRNA) decay. Newly developed bioinformatics tools and computational methods have been increased to identify miRNAs with their targets inside the genome. In this study, we predicted and identified 57 putative miRNAs through Corylus avellana (C. avellana) genomic data in silico. We also predicted some other putative miRNAs from Arabidopsis thaliana (A. thaliana), Ricinus communis (R. communis), Populus trichocarpa (P. trichocarpa) and Vitis vinifera (V. vinifera) to compare with the C. avellana organism since previous studies have indicated high similarities between these genomes and proteome atlases. The miRBase 21 was used as a reference dataset and the putative miRNAs were identified for the genome of each organism. We used homology conserved method to identify putative miRNAs. Based on our findings, C. avellana miRNA content was found to be highly similar to V. vinifera, R. communis and P. trichocarpa. Also, we found the targets of these hazelnut putative miRNAs and their possible functions inside the cell. One of our major discoveries is that miR171 families are highly represented (the copy number of miRNA) in the hazelnut genome to provide clues for microRNA domestication. The miR396, miR482, and miR2118 families were found as in silico expressed putative miRNAs by using computational methods. All these findings may help us better understanding the miRNA repertoire of the hazelnut organism and provide valuable insight about the regulatory roles of predicted putative miRNAs which are shared with other organisms (A. thaliana, R. communis, P. trichocarpa, V. vinifera) for further studies

OP-01 academic presenter: a new storytelling presentation software for academic purposes

Background: From the dawn of civilization, people have used folktales and stories to share information and knowledge. After the invention of printing in the 15th century, technology provided helpful yet complicated utilities to exchange ideas. In the present computerized world, the art of storytelling is becoming more influential through the unprecedented multimedia capabilities of computers. In this article, we introduce a state-of-the-art presentation software by which academicians can present nonlinear topics efficiently and sharpen their storytelling skills. In this study, we show how the proposed software can improve the scientific presentation style. Material-Methods: We surveyed and collected data to measure the attractiveness of proposed utility among other alternatives. Then, we compared the results by using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. We also analyzed the performance of traditional and proposed methods by Methods Time Measurement (MTM-1) method. Results and Conclusion: We presents a new presentation software that facilitates delivering non-linear topics, and it is freely available. Our new software, Academic Presenter, combines the potency of slide-based presentation and canvas-based presentation properties. As well as using the strengths of both approaches, we added other essential features to our software: Mind-map, handwriting and bookmarking. Results show that academicians from different areas prefer the proposed platform to others and they can augment the presentation skills by switching between two common presentation trends based on the level of details

Investigating global language networks using Google search queries

Over the centuries, languages have evolved and influenced each other. These changes might have been caused by long wars, economic superiority, religious imposition or scientific domination. These macro-level forces at micro-level deeply involve individuals who want to translate their messages into another language. Therefore, the frequency of translation requests from a language to another might be an acceptable measure to show the necessity of those languages to each other given speakers of those languages are unable to communicate due to linguistic barriers. In this paper, we first collect the average number of translation requests per month from the Google search engine for one hundred languages and then visualize them by using customized presentation software to identify features and patterns. Based on the extracted information, the rank and the position of each language in the global language network have been investigated with respect to four criteria: translation balance, centrality, the number of connections and native speaker population, and interconnections between language families. Our study sheds light on the individual’s consumption behavior of machine translation in different cultures. Our findings might be interesting especially for policymakers who design school curricula

TSP solver: an integrated framework for solving traveling salesman problems consistent with TSPLIB

The Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) is the subject of study in operational research for more than 30 years. The TSP is considered as NP-complete; consequently, many heuristic and metaheuristic algorithms have been developed to cope with the intractable nature of the problem. Although the problem is well-studied, lack of integrated software that harnesses the new computers' computational power and provides an easy comparison between heuristic algorithms is sensible. TSP solver is the state-of-the-art software that provides a common framework to compare the performance of different algorithms over TSPLIB library. Academicians can focus on developing new methodologies without concerning the availability and correctness of reported algorithms in the literature. Practitioners may also benefit from provided transparency by our software solution and build their own customized packages to flourish their businesses. The proposed software can be a foundation for the future implementations in which users design their algorithm and results would be uploaded automatically on a public server together with the source code