NaWuReT-Workshop: Forschung in der Reaktionstechnik für und mit der Gesellschaft

In this article, the results of the NaWuReT (Early Career Reaction Engineers) workshop on the topic “Are we doing relevant science?” are presented. The topics “(In)surmountable hurdles for Citizen Scientists in reaction engineering?” and “Circular Economy in reaction engineering with/for society?” were discussed. Therefrom, a variety of ideas and suggestions were extracted.     

Recent insights in synthesis and energy storage applications of porous carbon derived from biomass waste: A review

In the last few decades, global warming, environmental pollution, and an energy shortage of fossil fuel may cause a severe economic crisis and health threats. Storage, conversion, and application of regenerable and dispersive energy would be a promising solution to release this crisis. The development of porous carbon materials from regenerated biomass are competent methods to store energy with high performance and limited environmental damages. In this regard, bio-carbon with abundant surface functional groups and an easily tunable three-dimensional porous structure may be a potential candidate as a sustainable and green carbon material. Up to now, although some literature has screened the biomass source, reaction temperature, and activator dosage during thermochemical synthesis, a comprehensive evaluation and a detailed discussion of the relationship between raw materials, preparation methods, and the structural and chemical properties of carbon materials are still lacking. Hence, in this review, we first assess the recent advancements in carbonization and activation process of biomass with different compositions and the activity performance in various energy storage applications including supercapacitors, lithium-ion batteries, and hydrogen storage, highlighting the mechanisms and open questions in current energy society. After that, the connections between preparation methods and porous carbon properties including specific surface area, pore volume, and surface chemistry are reviewed in detail. Importantly, we discuss the relationship between the pore structure of prepared porous carbon with surface functional groups, and the energy storage performance in various energy storage fields for different biomass sources and thermal conversion methods. Finally, the conclusion and prospective are concluded to give an outlook for the development of biomass carbon materials, and energy storage applications technologies. This review demonstrates significant potentials for energy applications of biomass materials, and it is expected to inspire new discoveries to promote practical applications of biomass materials in more energy storage and conversion fields.     

Green Bear - A LoRaWAN-based Human-in-the-Loop case-study for sustainable cities

Citizens are a crucial factor in the sustainability of the cities because they are one of the pillars for balancing their environment. Smart city projects can offer citizens an opportunity to understand how they contribute to their city’s sustainability. Furthermore, an interactive smart city system can create synergies that benefit both the citizens and the city itself. This paper presents the Green Bear smart city platform, an IoT Human-in-the-Loop system that uses LoRaWAN nodes to gather information on city green spaces, bike lanes, and recycling depots. A user-centered mobile application that allows for active user participation, feedback, and incentivization is used to close the loop with humans. This system allows citizens to evaluate their participation in aspects that improve the city’s sustainability through a gamification scheme, obtaining points for different activities in the city’s public spaces and personal activities to improve their quality of life. This solution is being implemented in the city of Coimbra, Portugal. After an overview of the system, the paper describes each main system module. The Green Bear prototype was subject to functional and technological assessment, and the results are presented and discussed.     

Understanding consumer resistance to the consumption of organic food. A study of ethical consumption,purchasing, and choice behaviour

Although the demand for organic food is growing globally, the mainstream consumption of organic food is far less. The present study attempts to understand the underlying reasons for consumer resistance toward consuming organic food using the theoretical framework of innovation resistance theory (IRT). The study further examines the association between different consumer barriers and purchase decisions (purchase intentions, ethical consumption intentions, and choice behaviour) at different levels of buying involvement and environmental concerns. The collected data, consisting of 452 consumers, were analyzed by structural equation modeling approach. The results showed that value barrier shared a negative association with purchase intentions and ethical consumption intentions. Ethical consumption and purchase intention were found to have a direct influence on choice behaviour. Additionally, the relationship between ethical consumption intention and choice behaviour is mediated by purchase intention. However, no significant differences have emerged based on the level of buying involvement and environment concerns. The findings of the study provide insight into public policymakers, marketers, suppliers, and consumer associations by enhancing their current understanding of buying behaviour of the growing organic food community.     

循证之证与康复之途*—— CCRC社区中的康复花园循证设计探索

疫情下医养机构封闭化管理已经步入 常态化，老年居民的心理健康受到了抑郁、焦虑 等问题的挑战。康复花园作为养老社区中重要 的心理生理康复空间，需以循证设计为原则， 为新形势下的养老社区提供切实可行的康复空 间。本文以西南地区某持续照护型（CCRC）养 老社区项目实践为载体，梳理阐述循证设计在 康复花园中完整的运用实践路径，总结我国循 证设计流程模型，为风景园林的循证实践提供 全链条式的解析和验证。本文尝试提出基于系 统医学评估指标的证据收集创新体系，为康复 花园循证设计提供运用实例，对康复花园的康 复绩效提出基于证据的定量评估模式。     

Ceramics composites from iron ore tailings and blast furnace slag

The search for materials and methods capable of reducing human impacts on the environment is of utmost importance nowadays. This study's primary purpose was to analyze the technical feasibility of ceramic composites production utilizing Fundão Dam's Iron Ore Tailings (IOT), Blast Furnace Slag (BFS) from charcoal, and Foundry Sand (FS) as partial substitutes for the traditional raw materials – sand and clay – for application in building industry materials. The composites were molded in rectangular specimens and fired at temperatures of 900, 950, 1000, 1050, and 1200 °C. The developed materials were analyzed and characterized by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), Thermogravimetry (TGA), and Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA). The obtained materials had flexural strength modulus of up to 12.19 MPa, water absorption ranging from 2 to 22%, linear shrinkage ranging from 0.02 to 6.50%, and apparent density ranging from 2.03 to 1.63 g/cm³. The study of the internal structure formation process revealed the formation of amorphous structures in the composites. The results demonstrated that these waste materials may be jointly used in construction materials, contributing to the reduction of natural resource extraction, besides enabling their correct disposal, minimizing environmental impacts, and improving the life quality of the surrounding communities.     

可持续煤矿矿井水处理与资源化技术综述

煤矿开采过程中会产生大量的废弃矿井水,不仅造成水资源的大量浪费,而且还威胁着矿区生态环境。本文综述了我国常见矿井水的常规处理方法,以及将矿井水视为水资源的可持续矿井水水处理与资源化技术,首次提出以“时间维度和空间维度”对矿井水进行全时空处理,并着重阐述了矿井水分级处理、分质利用技术,反渗透浓水处理与资源化技术,煤泥处理与资源化技术,以及重金属回收与利用技术等,对煤矿区矿井水处理与资源化利用具有指导意义。     

Dietary differences among commercially important fishes in Lake Tanganyika assessed using stable isotope analysis

The pelagic fishery of Lake Tanganyika, which is largely made up of the three species Lates stappersii, Limnothrissa miodon, and Stolothrissa tanganicae, has been in decline, and there is no clear understanding of the primary underlying causes. It has been suggested that climate change has altered the primary productivity of the system, but detailed knowledge of the system's food web is required to elucidate the effect on higher trophic levels. The aim of this study is to determine the diet of the three commercially important fish species. Muscle tissue samples for stable isotope analysis were taken from February through April 2017, supplemented with stomach samples from L. stappersii for use in stomach content analysis. The stomach analysis showed an ontogenetic change in the diet composition of L. stappersii, shifting from copepods to fish larvae, supplemented with shrimp, to whole fish prey as the fish grew larger. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values from fish muscle were consistent with this observation, and also seemed to indicate that fish of similar sizes had similar diets, irrespective of species. This suggests that the diet of the pelagic fish species might be better explained by size, rather than species. The isotope data revealed a short range of δ¹⁵N values from primary consumers to fish, which may help explain the high fisheries productivity of Lake Tanganyika, and the strong impact of primary productivity changes on fisheries yield.     

Non-isocyanate polyurethane (NIPU) from tris-2-hydroxy ethyl isocyanurate modified fatty acid for coating applications

Conventional polyurethanes, in spite of their excellent properties and wide applications possess safety and handling issues related to isocyanate compounds while synthesis. The cyclic carbonate-amine reaction resulting into hydroxyurethane is said to be an isocyanate free polyurethane system and novel route of synthesis as well as good alternative to conventional polyurethanes. In the present work, non-isocyanate polyurethane was synthesized by modification of dehydrated castor oil fatty acid (DCOFA) with tris-2-hydroxy-ethyl isocyanurate (THEIC). The synthesis involved three steps viz esterification of DCOFA with THEIC, epoxidation of the ester formed (TEFA) and subsequent cyclocarbonation of THEIC–ester of fatty acid (CTEFA). The products obtained were confirmed by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) as well as ¹H and ¹³C Nuclear Magnetic Spectroscopy (NMR). The CTEFA was cured with various amines such as dimethyl diphenyl sulphone (DDS), Isophorone Diamine (IPDA) and hexamethylene diamine (HMDA) to obtain NIPU coatings. The cured coatings were studied for chemical, mechanical, thermal and electrochemical properties. Also, the effect of amine curing agents on the performance of NIPU coatings was investigated. Experimental results showed that incorporation of THEIC into the system significantly improved coating properties.     

An integrated approach for sustainable supply chain planning

This paper proposes an integrated approach for transposing sustainable development principles to supply chain planning models. Inspired by research on performance measurement, we designed a method that links sustainability performance to supply chain decisions, and allows setting coherent performance measures. By transposing this method to a multi-objective mathematical programming, the supply chain planning is optimized while the economic, environmental and social performances are all coherently integrated into the model. To illustrate our approach, we applied it to a Canadian lumber industry case. We solved the mathematical model by using the weighted goal programming technique, which results in a set of “compromise” solutions allowing the decision maker to choose the alternative that reflects the balance he/she wishes to make regarding the three dimensions of sustainability.