Modern energies services for cooking: from improved cook-stoves to domestic and community biogas based systems

Energy is crucial for a better quality of life and for sustainable human development. This has been demonstrated in previous chapters. It has been widely recognized that food and water security, productivity, health, education, climate change, and communication services are greatly affected by the quality and the quantity of energy services. The lack of or insufficient access to clean, affordable, reliable energy carriers is a major obstacle to reduce poverty and to improve the conditions and standard of living for the majority of the world’s population, thus hindering economic and social development [1–4]. Increasing access to sustainable and modern energy services will enable income generation; it will also reduce the time and drudgery of collecting fuel wood; support cleaner and more efficient cooking and heating options; and finally, it could also provide indoor lighting security at night, thus enabling children to study in the evenings [3, 5–12]. Yet many in the world, especially in the developing countries, still have insufficient access to sustainable energy services. This chapter presents Improved Cook-Stoves (ICS) and domestic biogas plants as technological options to improve access to sustainable energy services at both the household and community levels. The relevance of the technology, its performances, impacts and dissemination are discussed

Cationic palladacycles as catalyst precursors for phenyl acetylene polymerization

Novel cationic palladacycles based on benzylidene-2,6- diisopropylphenylimines were prepared via C-H activation using Pd(CH 3CN)2Cl2 as metal precursor. The complexes were fully characterized by IR and NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and elemental analysis. The cationic palladacycles were found to be active catalysts for the polymerization of phenylacetylene producing largely trans-cisoidal PPA. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Articl

Cationic palladacycles as catalyst precursors for phenyl acetylene polymerization

Novel cationic palladacycles based on benzylidene-2,6-diisopropylphenylimines were prepared via C-H activation using Pd(CH(3)CN)(2)Cl(2) as metal precursor. The complexes were fully characterized by IR and NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and elemental analysis. The cationic palladacycles were found to be active catalysts for the polymerization of phenylacetylene producing largely trans-cisoidal PPA

Reactivity of Bis(pyridyl)- N

A series of novel neutral and cationic methylpalladium complexes bearing N-alkyl-2,2'-dipyridylaldiminato ligands were prepared and characterized. In the presence of ethylene, the cationic complexes were active as dimerization catalysts, producing a mixture of 1- and 2-butenes. A Pd-ethyl pi-ethylene species was identified as the catalyst resting state by low-temperature spectroscopic and DFT studies, which provided insights into the effect of both steric and electronic factors on the observed reactivity