Roadmap for Incorporating Energy Efficiency/Renewable Energy Policies and Programs into State and Tribal Implementation Plans, Appendix E: Baseline Emissions Projection Pathway

Appendix to accompany a report about incorporating energy policies and programs into implementation plans, describing the baseline emissions projection pathway

Historical emissions of carbonaceous aerosols from biomass and fossil fuel burning for the period 1870–2000

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/94787/1/gbc1172.pd

Electricity portfolio innovation for energy security: the case of carbon constrained China

China’s energy sector is under pressure to achieve secure and affordable supply and a clear decarbonisation path. We examine the longitudinal trajectory of the Chinese electricity supply security and model the near future supply security based on the 12th 5 year plan. Our deterministic approach combines Shannon-Wiener, Herfindahl-Hirschman and electricity import dependence indices for supply security appraisal. We find that electricity portfolio innovation allows China to provide secure energy supply despite increasing import dependence. It is argued that long-term aggressive deployment of renewable energy will unblock China’s coal-biased technological lock-in and increase supply security in all fronts. However, reduced supply diversity in China during the 1990s will not recover until after 2020s due to the long-term coal lock-in that can threaten to hold China’s back from realising its full potential

Modelling the impacts of agricultural management practices on river water quality in Eastern England

Agricultural diffuse water pollution remains a notable global pressure on water quality, posing risks to aquatic ecosystems, human health and water resources and as a result legislation has been introduced in many parts of the world to protect water bodies. Due to their efficiency and cost-effectiveness, water quality models have been increasingly applied to catchments as Decision Support Tools (DSTs) to identify mitigation options that can be introduced to reduce agricultural diffuse water pollution and improve water quality. In this study, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was applied to the River Wensum catchment in eastern England with the aim of quantifying the long-term impacts of potential changes to agricultural management practices on river water quality. Calibration and validation were successfully performed at a daily time-step against observations of discharge, nitrate and total phosphorus obtained from high-frequency water quality monitoring within the Blackwater sub-catchment, covering an area of 19.6 km2. A variety of mitigation options were identified and modelled, both singly and in combination, and their long-term effects on nitrate and total phosphorus losses were quantified together with the 95% uncertainty range of model predictions. Results showed that introducing a red clover cover crop to the crop rotation scheme applied within the catchment reduced nitrate losses by 19.6%. Buffer strips of 2 m and 6 m width represented the most effective options to reduce total phosphorus losses, achieving reductions of 12.2% and 16.9%, respectively. This is one of the first studies to quantify the impacts of agricultural mitigation options on long-term water quality for nitrate and total phosphorus at a daily resolution, in addition to providing an estimate of the uncertainties of those impacts. The results highlighted the need to consider multiple pollutants, the degree of uncertainty associated with model predictions and the risk of unintended pollutant impacts when evaluating the effectiveness of mitigation options, and showed that high-frequency water quality datasets can be applied to robustly calibrate water quality models, creating DSTs that are more effective and reliable

Effect of feed pressure and long-term separation performance of Pebax-ionic liquid membranes for the recovery of difluoromethane (R32) from refrigerant mixture R410A

The R410A refrigerant blend (GWP = 2088), a near azeotropic and equimass mixture of difluoromethane (R32, GWP = 675) and pentafluoroethane (R125, GWP = 3500), has been included in the HFC phase down road map established worldwide. In this context, the recovery of value-added R32 from R410A using membrane technology would be a breakthrough in the refrigeration and air conditioning sector, given that conventional distillation cannot be applied to this separation. For the first time, this work has taken advantage of the combination of ionic liquids and polymeric membranes for the separation of the constituents of the R410A mixture. Results show a remarkable improvement in terms of R32 permeability and R32/R125 selectivity in the composite membranes containing 40 wt % [C2mim][SCN] (αR32/R125 up to 14.5) and [C2mim][BF4] (αR32/R125 up to 11.0) with respect to the neat polymer membranes (αR32/R125 up to 6.9). Besides, the long-term stability was successfully tested for 25 days under high pressure conditions (7 and 12 bar), which makes these composite membranes excellent candidates for the development of membrane-based R32 separation and recovery processes.This research is supported by Project KET4F-Gas – SOE2/P1/P0823, which is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund within the framework of Interreg Sudoe Programme, and Project PID2019-105827RB-I00, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain). The authors acknowledge the collaboration of Dr. Rosario Benavente (Institute of Polymer Science and Technology-CSIC) to perform the DSC experiments. Dr. Fernando Pardo, acknowledges the post-doctoral fellowship (FJCI-2017-32884, ‘Juan de la Cierva Formación’) from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities

Slicing the Pie: How Big Could Carbon Dioxide Removal Be?

The current global dependence on using fossil fuels to meet energy needs continues to increase. If 2°C warming by 2050 is to be prevented, it will become important to adopt strategies that not only avoid CO2 emissions, but also allow for the direct removal of CO2 from the atmosphere, enabling the intervention of climate change. The primary direct removal methods discussed in this contribution include land management, mineral carbonation and bioenergy and direct air capture with carbon capture and reliable storage. These methods are discussed in detail and their potential for CO2 removal assessed. The global upper bound for annual CO2 removal was estimated to be 12, 10, 6, and 5 GtCO2/yr for BECCS, DACS, land management, and mineral carbonation, respectively – resulting in a cumulative value of about 33 GtCO2/yr. However, in the case of DACS, global data on the overlap of low-emission energy sources and reliable CO2 storage opportunities – set as a qualification for DAC viability – was unavailable and the potential upper bound estimate is thus considered conservative. While direct CO2 removal at the upper bounds identified in this review is insufficient to completely mitigate the projected 1,800 GtCO2 emissions projected by 2050, the cumulative impact of these methods could counteract up to ~60% of these emissions. The upper bounds on the costs associated with the direct CO2 removal methods varied from approximately $100/tCO2 (land management, BECCS, and mineral carbonation) to in excess of$1000/tCO2 (again, these are the upper bounds for costs). In this analysis these direct CO2 removal technologies are found to be technically viable and potentially important options in preventing 2°C warming by 2050. However, caution is warranted in moving forward with implementation of CO2 removal, especially in the case of attempting to rapidly decrease atmospheric concentrations; it is recommended that the risks of scaling up too quickly be weighed against the existing risks associated with global warming. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract