Contribution to the knowledge of the flora and fauna of the sea bed of Cala Rafeubetx (SW of Mallorca, Balearic Islands)

Abstract not availabl

Risk assessment of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) fractions

Leakages of oil products derived from petroleum can affect the environment, even causing risks to human. In order to study all the substances that usually are found in a petroleum leakage, it becomes interesting to apply the study to the Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) fractions which have similar physico-chemical properties. The purpose of this paper is to perform a suitable risk specific site analysis for TPH fractions distribution and concentration, applying the RBCA (Risk Based Corrective Action) framework. As a case of study, this work is applied to a high populated area of a Spanish medium size city (Santander, approximately 182000 inhabitants). This simulation provides useful information about the pathways with higher risks, enabling to focus the analysis onto the parameters that mainly affect the risk assessment. This approach will simplify future site specific risk assessment and the corresponding decision making.The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by the Spanish MARM under project 276/PC08/2-01.2 and MICINN under project CTM2006-0317

CO2 electroreduction: sustainability analysis of the renewable synthetic natural gas

Capture and utilization of industrial CO2 emissions into low-carbon fuels is a promising alternative to store renewable electricity into chemical vectors while decarbonizing the economy. This work evaluates the viability pathways of producing synthetic natural gas (SNG) by direct CO2 electroreduction (ER) in Power-To-Synthetic Natural Gas electrolyzers (PtSNG). We perform an ex-ante techno-economic (TEA) and life cycle analysis (LCA) for a 2030 framework in Europe. ER performance is varied in defined scenarios and assessed using a built-in process model of the PtSNG system, revealing uncharted limitations and benchmarks to achieve. Results show that substitution of fossil natural gas with renewable SNG could avoid more than 1 kg CO2e/kg SNG under moderate ER conditions when using low-carbon electricity (< 60 kg CO2e/MWh). SNG profitability for 2030 would rely on: i) higher CH4 current densities (800–1000 mA/cm2), ii) improvements in energy efficiency (higher than 60%), and iii) valorization of the anodic product or additional carbon incentives. Our study proves that if market and technology evolve appropriately in the coming years, the SNG by CO2 ER may be a mid-term climate change mitigation technology, among others.The authors thank the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the financial support through the project PID2020–114,787-RB-I00. Javier Fernández-González and Marta Rumayor would also like to thank the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for the concession of a FPU grant (FPU19/05483) and a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral contract (IJCI-2017-32621), respectively

Deep decarbonization of the cement sector: a prospective environmental assessment of CO2 recycling to methanol

Current decarbonization pressures are prompting efforts to reimagine the future of the hard-to-abate cement sector. To date, fuel switching has arisen as the most readily operational strategy, and its application in the cement sector is expected in the short to midterm. However, around two-thirds of the cement CO2 emissions come from the calcination of limestone. The implementation of CO2 capture utilization and/or storage will be crucial to support a reliable net-zero carbon future by 2050–2070. CCS is considered as the most carbon-neutral technology in the cement decarbonization roadmap, while CO2 recycling (CCU) has arisen as a suitable strategy for those locations where there is an industrial symbiosis between the cement market and CO2-based chemical markets (e.g., methanol, formic acid, etc.). Despite that the CCU strategy cannot be carbon-neutral by itself, it could be a powerful option in combination with CCS. To date, most CO2 recycling technologies are still emerging, and their development has to be boosted in the next decades. In this study, a prospective environmental analysis has been conducted through life cycle thinking to explore the benefits of cement long-term decarbonization by implementing a carbon recycling plant (CRP) based on the emerging electrochemical reduction (ER) of CO2 to produce methanol (MeOH). The study aims to demonstrate the synergic decarbonization and defossilization for both cement and MeOH markets, respectively. Cell energy efficiency and MeOH concentration have been identified as the key performance parameters that should be around 60% and 40% wt, respectively, to ensure a future sustainable implementation of ER to the MeOH technology. A CRP powered by low-carbon renewable electricity (<0.02 kg CO2eq/kW h) and with a low-fossil depletion (FD) impact (<0.01 kg oileq/kW h) could lead to an integrated cement and MeOH production with sharp reductions in the carbon footprint (∼75%) and FD (∼66%) of the integrated cement and MeOH production compared to the conventional fossil-based productions. The proposed CO2 recycling scheme can contribute to accelerating the innovation of carbon capture and recycling technologies and their deployment in these hard-to-abate sectors.Funding has been obtained though the project PID2020-112845RB-I0

Hydrocarbons analysis for risk assessment in polluted soils

Policies for contaminated site management in Europe are evolving from total concentration-based of pollutants policies to risk-assessment policies. Leakages of petroleum products are usually composed of many different substances, usually grouped into the parameter Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH). However, to carry out a suitable risk assessment TPH must be divided into different fractions, according to their physicochemical properties. The purpose of this work is to develop an analytical method for the characterization of TPH fractions taking soils from a high populated area of a Spanish medium size city. Results allow determining which product was released depending on each fraction percentage and it can be compared to the regulation to determine the actions that must be performed. If the action is the risk assessment, TPH fractions are suitable for this task, enabling a detailed study of TPH risks for human health and the environment.The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by the Spanish MARM under project 276/PC08/2-01.2 and MICINN under project CTM2006-0317

Comparison of supported ionic liquid membranes and polymeric ultrafiltration and nanofiltration membranes for separation of lignin and monosaccharides

Lignin is one of the three main components of lignocellulosic biomass and must be considered a raw material with attractive applications from an economic and ecological point of view. Therefore, biorefineries must have in mind the most adequate processing to obtain high-quality lignin and the separation tasks that play a key role to improve the purity of the lignin. Separation techniques based on membranes are a promising way to achieve these requirements. In this work, the separation performance of the SILM (Supported Ionic Liquid Membrane) formed with [BMIM][DBP] as IL (Ionic Liquid) and PTFE as membrane support was compared to a nanofiltration (NF) membrane (NP010 by Microdyn-Nadir) and two ultrafiltration (UF) membranes (UF5 and UF10 by Trisep). The SILM showed selective transport of Kraft lignin, lignosulphonate, xylose, and glucose in aqueous solutions. Although it was stable under different conditions and its performance was improved by the integration of agitation, it was not competitive when compared to NF and UF membranes, although the latter ones suffered fouling. The NF membrane was the best alternative for the separation of lignosulphonates from monosaccharides (separation factors around 75 while SILM attained only values lower than 3), while the UF5 membrane should be selected to separate Kraft lignin and monosaccharides (separation factors around 100 while SILM attained only values below 3).This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), Project number CTQ2014‐56820‐JIN and co‐funded by FEDER

Aortic injuries in crush trauma patients: different mechanism, different management

[Abstract] Background. The objective of this study is to report the clinical and radiological characteristics and early and long-term survival of a series of acute traumatic aortic injuries (ATAI) in crush trauma patients, and to compare such data with our last 30 years experience managing ATAI in deceleration non-crush trauma patients. Methods. From January 1980 to December 2010, 5 consecutive ATAI in crush trauma and 69 in non-crush trauma patients were admitted at our institution. ISS, RTS and TRISS scores were similar in both groups. Results. Overall in-hospital mortality was 24.3%. There was no in-hospital mortality in crush patients and 26.1% in non-crush patients (p = 0.32). All aortic-related complications occurred in non-crush patients. Median follow-up was 129 months (range 3–350 months). Non-crush group survival was 76.8% at 1 year, 73.6% at 5 years, and 71.2%% at 10 years. There was no mortality during follow-up in the crush group. Mean (SD) peak creatine phosphokinase was significantly higher in crush group than in non-crush group: 7598 (3690) IU/L vs. 3645 (2506) IU/L; p = 0.041. Incidence of acute renal injury was higher in crush trauma patients (100% vs. 36.2%; p = 0.018). Low-severity injuries were more common in crush trauma patients (100% in crush patients vs. 43.5% in non-crush patients, p = 0.04). Conclusions. Aortic injuries in crush thoracic trauma patients seem to present in a different clinical scenario from aortic injuries in high-speed thoracic trauma thus requiring distinct considerations. When planning the initial management of aortic injuries in crush trauma, the increased risk of rhabdomiolysis and subsequent acute renal failure, as well as a tendency to develop lower-risk aortic wall injuries, must be considered

Efficiency of water usage in plants

La disponibilidad de agua es el principal factor limitante de la producción agrícola y ganadera en ambientes de clima mediterráneo. Limitación que, ante las previsiones de Cambio Climático Global realizadas por organismo internacionales, serán mucho mayores en los próximos años. En este escenario, la eficiencia en el uso de los recursos hídricos debe ser un aspecto transversal de las políticas públicas que debe, por tanto, ser afrontado desde diversos puntos de vista. En este sentido, uno de los temas claves a considerar es la eficiencia con la que las plantas usan el agua. El objetivo de este trabajo es hacer una revisión de los diferentes aspectos relacionados con este tema, considerando las diferentes escalas a las que se estudia la eficiencia en el uso del agua por las plantas (EUA), desde la hoja hasta el cultivo o el ecosistema. Así, se abordan las dificultades técnicas que existen para medir, de una forma precisa, la EUA de un cultivo o de un ecosistema, la importancia del ambiente y de las prácticas agronómicas como determinantes de la EUA, la diversidad genética inter e intraespecífica, y las implicaciones prácticas de estos factores a la hora de incrementar la EUA.Water availability is the most important limiting factor in plant and animal production under Mediterranean conditions. In a Global Climate Change scenario, this limitation will be even greater in the following years, according to the International Institutions predictions. In this sense, the efficiency of water resources utilization should be a key point of public policies that must be discussed from different points of view. One of these is Plant Water Use Efficiency (WUE). The objective of this paper is to review the different aspects related to WUE, considering the approach levels, from leaf to crop or ecosystem. The technical difficulties to measure accurately WUE at crop or ecosystem level, the environment and agronomical practices importance in WUE determination, the inter and intraspecific plant genetic diversity, as well as the practical implications of each factor to increase WUE are discussed.Los trabajos realizados por el Grup de Biologia de les plantes en condicions mediterrànies sobre eficiencia en el uso del agua forman parte de los proyectos: PRIB-2004-10144, financiado por el Govern de les Illes Balears, e INCO-PERMED (PL 509140), financiado por la Unión Europea

Supported ionic liquid membranes for separation of lignin aqueous solutions

Lignin valorization is a key aspect to design sustainable management systems for lignocellulosic biomass. The successful implementation of bio-refineries requires high value added applications for the chemicals derived from lignin. Without effective separation processes, the achievement of this purpose is difficult. Supported ionic liquid membranes can play a relevant role in the separation and purification of lignocellulosic components. This work investigated different supported ionic liquid membranes for selective transport of two different types of technical lignins (Kraft lignin and lignosulphonate) and monosaccharides (xylose and glucose) in aqueous solution. Although five different membrane supports and nine ionic liquids were tested, only the system composed by [BMIM][DBP] as an ionic liquid and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) as a membrane support allowed the selective transport of the tested solutes. The results obtained with this selective membrane demonstrated that lignins were more slowly transferred from the feed compartment to the stripping compartment through the membrane than the monosaccharides. A model was proposed to calculate the effective mass transfer constants of the solutes through the membrane (values in the range 0.5–2.0 × 10−3m/h). Nevertheless, the stability of this identified selective membrane and its potential to be implemented in effective separation processes must be further analyzed.This research has been financially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) through CTQ2014-56820-JIN Project, co-financed by FEDER funds from European Union

Estudio del impacto humano en una Reserva Natural: las Marismas de Santoña (Cantabria, España)

ABSTRACT: The Santoña Marshes Nature Reserve is one of the most important ecosystems of the Spanish Cantabrian coast due to its ecological value as a wintering area for migratory birds. Since an increase in population and substantial changes in the use of land have been observed in this area during the last century, the aim of this work was to attempt to see if anthropogenic activities are recorded in the accumulating sediments. Two sediment cores (50 cm length) were collected for isotopic dating (210Pb and 137Cs) and geochemical study (heavy metals). The data indicate an increasing trend in sedimentation rates during the last century, probably related to the progressive loss of the estuarine domains and the changes in their original hydrodynamic conditions due to infilling and the construction of dykes. However, no significant anthropogenic inputs of heavy metals have been detected in recent times.RESUMEN: La Reserva Natural de las Marismas de Santoña, situada en la costa cantábrica, posee un gran valor ecológico como lugar de invernada de aves migratorias. Dado el importante aumento de la presencia humana en la zona durante el último siglo, este trabajo tiene como objetivo estudiar si estas actividades antrópicas han dejado su huella en los sedimentos acumulados. Para ello se ha abordado la datación isotópica (137Cs y 210Pb) y el estudio geoquímico (metales pesados) de dos sondeos de 50 cm de longitud. Los resultados obtenidos señalan la existencia de un importante incremento en las tasas de sedimentación durante el ultimo siglo, posiblemente relacionado con la pérdida progresiva de la superficie y de las dinámicas estuarinas como consecuencia de los rellenos y de la construcción de diques. Sin embargo, no se han detectado niveles significativos de contaminación en metales pesados en los sedimentos más recientes