UK energy policy ambition and UK energy modelling—fit for purpose?

Aiming to lead amongst other G20 countries, the UK government has classified the twin energy policy priorities of decarbonisation and security of supply as a “centennial challenge”. This viewpoint discusses the UK's capacity for energy modelling and scenario building as a critical underpinning of iterative decision making to meet these policy ambitions. From a nadir, over the last decade UK modelling expertise has been steadily built up. However extreme challenges remain in the level and consistency of funding of core model teams — critical to ensure a full scope of energy model types and hence insights, and in developing new state-of-the-art models to address evolving uncertainties. Meeting this challenge will facilitate a broad scope of types and geographical scale of UK's analytical tools to responsively deliver the evidence base for a range of public and private sector decision makers, and ensure that the UK contributes to global efforts to advance the field of energy-economic modelling.     

Application of a multi-criteria analysis for the selection of the most suitable energy source and water desalination system in Mauritania

Water deficits and their associated shortages are serious problems in many areas of the world. The paper presents a multi-criteria analysis for selection of the most suitable system in Mauritania. Six scenarios, different energy sources, technologies of water desalination processes and water use and five criteria are analyzed. The multi-criteria analysis shows that the optimal solution is different for each scenario; in some cases the photovoltaic-reverse osmosis option is preferable; in others, the best option is reverse-osmosis powered by wind energy or concentrating solar parabolic.     

Monitoring and Mitigation of Methane Emissions from Pressure Relief Valves of a Biogas Plant

The two-year monitoring (732 days) of operational methane emissions from pressure relief valves of the gasholders from an agriculture biogas plant is presented. The monitoring aimed at the identification of major factors influencing the emissions and the effect of mitigation measures deduced from the results. The determined emission factors from the valves of both gastight covered digesters are 1.8 and 0.6 % CH₄ loss for the first and second year of investigation, respectively. The emission rates strongly depend on seasonal factors like (fast) changes in ambient air temperature as well as the capacity utilization of the combined heat and power and the operation of the gasholders. The implemented mitigation measures significantly reduced the measured methane emissions in the second year of the investigation.     

基于改进自注意力机制的金字塔场景解析网络

金字塔场景解析网络存在图像细节信息随着网络深度加深而丢失的问题，导致小目标与物体边缘语义分割效果不佳、像素类别预测不够准确。提出一种基于改进自注意力机制的金字塔场景解析网络方法，将自注意力机制的通道注意力模块与空间注意力模块分别加入到金字塔场景解析网络的主干网络和加强特征提取网络中，使网络中的两个子网络能够分别从通道和空间两个方面提取图像中更重要的特征细节信息。针对现有的图像降维算法无法更好地提高自注意力机制计算效率的问题，在分析“词汇”顺序对自注意力机制计算结果影响的基础上，利用希尔伯特曲线遍历设计新的图像降维算法，并将该算法加入到空间自注意力模块中，以提高其计算能力。仿真实验结果表明，该方法在PASCAL VOC 2012和息肉分割数据集上的精度均有提高，小目标与物体边缘分割更加精细，其中在VOC 2012训练集中平均交并比与平均像素精度分别达到75.48%、85.07%，较基准算法分别提升了0.68、1.35个百分点。     

Supercritical fluid extraction as a potential mitigation strategy for the reduction of acrylamide level in coffee

The removal of acrylamide from coffee through supercritical CO₂ extraction has been investigated for the first time. Two steps were performed: a pre-roasting treatment and a supercritical extraction process. The main aim of this first work was to investigate the feasibility of the process more than the impact of the treatment on the organoleptic properties of coffee. The efficiency of acrylamide removal was checked by measuring its content in the coffee beans before and after the supercritical treatment. The role of temperature, pressure, extraction time and the addition of a modifier (ethanol) was examined.