Coal in the 21st Century: a climate of change and uncertainty

Coal presents a particular set of challenges when balancing energy policy goals. Despite presenting viable solutions to the problems of energy security and global energy poverty, coal struggles, given its greenhouse-gas drawbacks, in a world of increasingly harmful climate change. Notwithstanding the harm caused to the environment, coal remains an expanding low-price route to meeting local energy needs. It is forecasted to remain a major global resource for the foreseeable future. In the short term it is predicted to have a 26% share of the global energy mix. Recent years have witnessed severe deviations from previously stable trends in coal markets and policy dynamics. According to the predictions by the International Energy Agency (IEA), a variety of factors ranging from the planned phase-out of coal in countries such as Denmark, France and the UK, to changes in policy in China and import-dependency in India, and demand drop in the US have together resulted in the largest decline in coal production in 2015 since 1971 (IEA, Coal Information, 2016). This paper seeks to outline basic coal facts, recent market trends and directions globally and provides an overview of issues shaping the future of coal in the twenty-first century. This paper seeks to outline basic coal facts, recent market trends and directions globally and provide an overview of issues shaping the future of coal in the 21st century

Health Status, Functional Limitations and Disability: Changes in Poland

The social changes in Poland over the last two decades have had an impact on many dimensions of life, including on important elements of human capital, such as health and functional and instrumental daily activities. This article contains an overview of the available data and indicators on health status, morbidity and disability. It presents the changes in the level of functional and legal disability and aims to show the reasons for these trends. Functional disability is highlighted as one of the major challenges for social and health policy in the next few decades in the context of dynamic aging

Ozonation of refractory chemicals in leachate with hydrogen peroxide

Nearly 97% of organic chemicals in Hong Kong leachate could be effectively removed by the UASB(upflow anaerobic sludge blanket) process followed by the fenton coagulation. The COD of leachate was lowered from an average of 12900 mg/L to 1440 mg/L after the UASB treatment, and was further lowered to 394 mg/L after the fenton coagulation. The remaining refractory residues could be further removed by ozonation with the addition of H2O2. The ozonation for the supernatant of the fenton coagulation was most effective at pH 7-8, with the addition of 300 mg/L of H2O2, and 30 min of reaction. The final effluent contained only 85 mg/L of COD and 10 mg/L of BOD5. On the other hand, direct ozonation of UASB effluent lowered the COD to 905 mg/L and BOD5 to 103 mg/L. Ozonation improved the biodegradability of the organic residues, and also converted part of organic-N in the leachate into NH3-N and NO-3-N.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Praktische Umsetzung der Bauartzulassung - Voraussetzungen fuer die Pruefung von Verfahrenstechnik und Eignung von Bodenbehandlungsanlagen Schlussbericht

Duration and scope of immission permitting are viewed by investors and politicians as an obstacle for investments. Acceleration and deregulation of permitting are essential to strengthen the economic power of Germany. Even a short term use of soil treatment facilities is often impossible due to the time consuming process of immission permitting. A preliminary study performed in 1993 proved the suitability of a design approval as a simplifying and accelerating tool. The presented research report shows the necessary prerequisites to put the theory into practice. As a basic tool an inspection program has been developed for soil treatment facilities. This inspection program is the framework for the evaluation of all types of processing facilities. It simplifies and accelerates the control on the basis of legal requirements. Three soil treatment facilities were taken as examples to examine the checking procedure. It could be proved that this kind of design approval is an appropriate tool to unify the permitting procedure in Germany. The pertinent agencies are relieved of the processing part of the inspection and they receive all relevant data necessary for inspection. The facility owner is gaining certainty regarding planning and investment which will positively effect the treatment industry. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: RN 8908(98-031) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekUmweltbundesamt, Berlin (Germany); Bundesministerium fuer Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit, Bonn (Germany)DEGerman