Verf en biodiesel uit algen

Met algen kun je niet alleen biodiesel en groene coatings produceren, maar ook iets doen aan het mestoverschot en de uitstoot van kooldioxide. In Delfzijl zijn kweekvijvers geopend om de technologie hiervoor te ontwikkele

Kinderziektes in de algenvijver voorbij

‘Ze groeien nu geweldig’, zegt Hans Mooibroek van Food and Biobased Research over ‘zijn’ algen. Het zonnige voorjaar van 2011 heeft geholpen en de kinderziektes zijn onder controle in de kweekbassins in Delfzijl. De algen kunnen nu grondstoffen gaan maken voor coatings van AkzoNobel

Paardenbloem voor Europees rubber

De productie van rubber staat onder druk, terwijl de vraag naar natuurlijk rubber blijft groeien. Om het aanbod van de grondstof op peil te houden en minder afhankelijk te worden van import, zoekt Europa naar alternatieve bronnen dichter bij huis via het project EU-PEARL

Biorefinery, the bridge between agriculture and chemistry

The depletion in fossil feedstocks, increasing oil prices and the ecological problems associated with CO2 emissions are forcing the development of alternative resources for energy (heat and electricity), transport fuels and chemicals: the replacement of fossil resources with CO2 neutral biomass. When used in combination with environmentally sound production and processing techniques, the use of biomass can be seen as a sustainable alternative to conventional feedstocks. The production of chemicals utilises more effectively the intrinsic biomass (chemical) structure than the production of fuels or electricity from biomass does. The production of chemicals from biomass also saves more fossil energy than producing just energy. For example, some amino acids obtained from grass are very suitable starting materials for highly functionalized chemicals that are traditionally prepared from petrochemistry. Economical production routes of chemicals from biomass require large scale substitution of (bulk) chemicals which connects to current approaches and facilities (process integration) of the petrochemical industries to convert crude oil into chemical building blocks. Genetic modification of plants will increase the potential of biomass in the chemical industry because it allows an increase in the concentrations of the required (bio-)chemical pre-cursors e.g. amino acids, present. It will also be discussed how small scale (pre)processing of the biomass can be advantageous over large scale processing. This is because of lower transportation costs but also the opportunity to use process-integrations that can not be used on large scale. These integrations yield high efficiencies of energy utilization but require improvement on social or organisational level

Progress of the National Air Quality Cooperation Programme (NSL)

Om de luchtkwaliteit in Nederland te verbeteren is het Nationaal Samenwerkingsprogramma Luchtkwaliteit (NSL) opgezet. In dit programma werken de Rijksoverheid en decentrale overheden samen om te zorgen dat Nederland overal tijdig aan de grenswaarden voor fijnstof (2011) en stikstofdioxide (2015) zal voldoen. Om de voortgang te volgen is bij het NSL een monitoringsprogramma opgezet. Centraal onderdeel daarvan is een rekeninstrument waarvoor de overheden de brongegevens aanleveren. De daaruitvolgende rekenresultaten zijn vervolgens door het Bureau Monitoring (samenwerkingsverband RIVM en InfoMil) samengevoegd in voorliggende voortgangsrapportage. De prognoses voor 2011 en 2015 laten zien dat voor een groot deel van Nederland de resultaten onder de Europese grenswaarden voor PM10 (fijnstof) en NO2 liggen. Op een aantal plekken zijn er wel nieuwe of grotere overschrijdingen van de PM10- en NO2-grenswaarden zichtbaar. Bij de fijnstof (PM10) overschrijdingen gaat het hoofdzakelijk om locaties bij veehouderijen en een aantal industriele gebieden. Vooral nabij veehouderijen is op een aantal plekken nog sprake van grote overschrijdingen die lastig voor medio 2011 op te lossen zijn. De huidige prognose voor de concentraties stikstofdioxide in 2015 laat een minder gunstige ontwikkeling zien ten opzichte van wat is berekend in de vaststelling van het NSL. Dit komt voor een belangrijk deel door tegenvallende verkeersemissies wat heeft geleid tot een aantal nieuwe overschrijdingen. De nu in de prognoses berekende concentraties liggen op veel locaties net onder de grenswaarde. Met veel concentraties net onder de grenswaarde neemt het aantal overschrijdingen snel toe bij een tegenvaller in een van de gemaakte aannamen. In combinatie met een grote en deels onbekende onzekerheid in de rekenresultaten vormt dit een risico voor het behalen van de doelstelling van het NSL.The NSL has been put in place to improve air quality in the Netherlands and to ensure that the Netherlands meets the date of compliance with the EU limit values for particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide. Local, regional and national authorities work together within the framework of this programme to ensure that these goals are met. A monitoring programme, centred around a specially designed assessment tool, has been set up to monitor the progress. This tool uses data that the participating authorities are required to provide as part of the annual monitoring cycle. The results of the tool have been bundled by the Bureau Monitoring into this progress report. The prognosis for 2011 and 2015, based on the results obtained using the assessment tool, are that the concentrations of PM10 and NO2 fall below the EU limit values in most parts of the Netherlands. However, exceedances of the limit values do occur at specific locations. For PM10, these exceedances mostly occur close to a number of industrial sites and stock farms. Particularly high exceedances in the vicinity of these stock farms will make it difficult to meet the limit values by mid 2011 at these locations. The prognostications for NO2 show a less favourable decline in NO2 concentrations than was modelled at the establishment of the NSL. This is mostly due to the decline in traffic emissions falling short of expectations, resulting in new exceedances. At many locations, the calculated concentrations in the prognostications fall just under the limit value and, consequently, there will be a large increase in the number of exceedances when one or more of the premises become less favourable. This possibility, together with the large and partially unknown uncertainty in the calculation results, add up to a risk for not meeting the limit values by the date of compliance.VRO

Health-related quality of life in facial palsy:translation and validation of the Dutch version Facial Disability Index

Contains fulltext : 229876.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)PURPOSE: Patient-reported outcome measures are essential in the evaluation of facial palsy. Aim of this study was to translate and validate the Facial Disability Index (FDI) for use in the Netherlands. METHODS: The FDI was translated into Dutch according to a forward-backward method. Construct validity was assessed by formulating 22 hypotheses regarding associations of FDI scores with the Facial Clinimetric Evaluation scale, the Synkinesis Assessment Questionnaire, the Short Form-12 and the Sunnybrook Facial Grading System. Validity was considered adequate if at least 75% (i.e. 17 out of 22) of the hypotheses were confirmed. Additionally, confirmatory factor analysis was performed. Cronbach's α was calculated as a measure of internal consistency. Participants were asked to fill out the FDI a second time after 2 weeks to analyse test-retest reliability. Lastly, smallest detectable change was calculated. RESULTS: In total, 19 hypotheses (86.4%) were confirmed. Confirmatory factor analysis showed acceptable fit for the two factor structure of the original FDI (root mean square error of approximation = 0.064, standardized root mean square residual = 0.081, comparative fit index = 0.925, Chi-square = 50.22 with 34 degrees of freedom). Internal consistency for the FDI physical function scale was good (α > 0.720). Internal consistency for the FDI social/well-being scale was slightly less (α > 0.574). Test-retest reliability for both scales was good (intraclass correlation coefficients > 0.786). Smallest detectable change at the level of the individual was 17.6 points for the physical function and 17.7 points for the social/well-being function, and at group level 1.9 points for both scales. CONCLUSION: The Dutch version FDI shows good psychometric properties. The relatively large values for individual smallest detectable change may limit clinical use. The translation and widespread use of the FDI in multiple languages can help to compare treatment results internationally

A new methodology to assess the performance and uncertainty of source apportionment models II: The results of two European intercomparison exercises

The performance and the uncertainty of receptor models (RMs) were assessed in intercomparison exercises employing real-world and synthetic input datasets. To that end, the results obtained by different practitioners using ten different RMs were compared with a reference. In order to explain the differences in the performances and uncertainties of the different approaches, the apportioned mass, the number of sources, the chemical profiles, the contribution-to-species and the time trends of the sources were all evaluated using the methodology described in Belis et al. (2015). In this study, 87% of the 344 source contribution estimates (SCEs) reported by participants in 47 different source apportionment model results met the 50% standard uncertainty quality objective established for the performance test. In addition, 68% of the SCE uncertainties reported in the results were coherent with the analytical uncertainties in the input data. The most used models, EPA-PMF v.3, PMF2 and EPA-CMB 8.2, presented quite satisfactory performances in the estimation of SCEs while unconstrained models, that do not account for the uncertainty in the input data (e.g. APCS and FA-MLRA), showed below average performance. Sources with well-defined chemical profiles and seasonal time trends, that make appreciable contributions (>10%), were those better quantified by the models while those with contributions to the PM mass close to 1% represented a challenge. The results of the assessment indicate that RMs are capable of estimating the contribution of the major pollution source categories over a given time window with a level of accuracy that is in line with the needs of air quality management