Assessment of socio-economic functions of tropical lowland transformation systems in Indonesia - sampling framework and methodological approach

EFForTS is a collaborative research center (CRC) which focuses on Ecological and socioeconomic Functions of Tropical Lowland Rainforest Transformation Systems in Sumatra,Indonesia. The paper presents the common sampling frame of the socio economic sub-projects.The investigations and data collections intertwine and complement one another. Thus themethodological approach reflects the idea of an interdisciplinary and integrative research approach. Lead by hypotheses we structured our sampling procedure hierarchically. Starting at the household level in the core villages of the research regions we investigate additional local villages. Further we extend the data collections on the regional level with household, village and trader surveys. The national and international levels we reach by stakeholder interviews with governmental and non-governmental experts. The applied methods are composed of qualitative and quantitative empirical studies

Optimization of the structural characteristics of CaO and its effective stabilization yield high-capacity CO2 sorbents

Calcium looping, a CO2 capture technique, may offer a mid-term if not near-term solution to mitigate climate change, triggered by the yet increasing anthropogenic CO2 emissions. A key requirement for the economic operation of calcium looping is the availability of highly effective CaO-based CO2 sorbents. Here we report a facile synthesis route that yields hollow, MgO-stabilized, CaO microspheres featuring highly porous multishelled morphologies. As a thermal stabilizer, MgO minimized the sintering-induced decay of the sorbents’ CO2 capacity and ensured a stable CO2 uptake over multiple operation cycles. Detailed electron microscopy-based analyses confirm a compositional homogeneity which is identified, together with the characteristics of its porous structure, as an essential feature to yield a high-performance sorbent. After 30 cycles of repeated CO2 capture and sorbent regeneration, the best performing material requires as little as 11 wt.% MgO for structural stabilization and exceeds the CO2 uptake of the limestone-derived reference material by ~500%.ISSN:2041-172