Does the use of Solar Home Systems (SHS) contribute to climate protection?

The paper addresses planners and decision-makers in the field of international development cooperation and also institutions concerned with the impacts of project- and technology promotion. The primary aim of the dissemination of Solar Home Systems (SHS) in off grid areas in developing countries is to improve the living conditions of the population in a cost–effective manner. A large-scale dissemination is essential both for significant contributions to development and for climate effectiveness. However, the contribution of SHS to climate protection is disputed. This analysis presents the most important parameters affecting the contribution of SHS to climate protection and quantifies the influence of those parameters. The case considered presupposes the commercial dissemination of SHS. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are affected by the marketing decisions of the supplier of SHS. With regard to the impact on GHG emissions, a comparison is made between traditional lighting with petroleum lamps and the use of dry cell batteries to operate small devices (baseline case) on the one hand and SHSs on the other. The comparison shows GHG savings of around 9 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent GHG emissions within a 20-year period of use of one single 50 Wp SHS compared with the baseline case. The result is robust with respect to variations in GHG-affecting variables. Petroleum consumption and dry cell batteries dominate GHG emissions balances to such an extent that scarcely any importance can be attached to GHG emissions from the transportation and manufacture of SHS. Therefore, it is permissible to use simplified GHG inventories which ignore the GHG emissions arising from the transportation and manufacture of SHS. Therefore the conclusion is, if SHS are commercially disseminated and used cost efficiently to substitute kerosene and dry cell batteries they reduce GHG emissions effectively. In that case SHS can make a significant contribution to climate protection by the dissemination of large numbers.     

Agro-ecosystem modeling can aid in the optimization of biomass feedstock supply

Recent European Directives promoted the development of biofuels, requesting mandatory limits to their emissions ot greenhouse gases (GHG). Second-generation biofuels based on lignocellulosic biomass are prime candidates but their GHG emissions are variable and uncertain. Agro-ecosystem modeling can capture them and the performance of biofuel feedstocks.This study aimed at optimizing feedstock supply for a bioethanol unit in France, from agricultural residues, annual and perennial crops. Their productivity and environmental impacts were modelled on a regional scale using geo-referenced data on soil properties, crop management, land-use and future weather data. Several supply scenarios were tested. Cereal straw was the most efficient feedstock but had a low availability, and only miscanthus could meet the bioethanol plant's demand. Sorghum combined poor yields and high GHG emissions compared by miscanthus and triticale. A mix of three biomass sources used less than 3% of the regional agricultural land while abating GHG emissions by 60%.     

风力发电清洁发展机制项目案例分析

将广东省风力发电技术应用作为清洁发展机制(CDM)项目案例,说明如何以广东省电源结构为基准线,应用增量成本分析方法计算风力发电这种CDM项目的单位碳减排成本,并对其进行敏感性分析。结果表明,风力发电这种CDM项目的单位碳减排成本为65美元/t,且当装机容量为50 MW时,在3×7 a(年)计入期内能使CO2减排量达到1.1069Mt。     

Life cycle assessment of domestic fuel cell micro combined heat and power generation: Exploring influential factors

Residential Fuel Cell micro combined heat and power (FC-μCHP) systems can help decarburizing the energy system. In the European ene.field project, the environmental performance of FC-μCHP under different conditions was therefore evaluated by means of a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Important influential factors were explored, i.e. heating demands, full load hours (FLHs) and electricity replacement mixes (ERMs). The systems were compared with a stand-alone Gas Condensing Boiler (GCB) and a heat pump (HP, only in single family homes, SFHs). For the initially assumed FLHs and the current ENTSO-E ERM, relevant environmental impacts including climate change are generally smaller for the FC-μCHPs than for the HP and the stand-alone GCB. In the setting “existing SFHs in central climate” with the highest deployment potential, GHG emission savings are higher the more carbon-intensive the ERM is and/or higher the net electricity export into the grid is. The results are discussed and put into perspective. Further research demands as well as product development opportunities are outlined. The importance of a green hydrogen economy is emphasized.     

Process simulation and integration of IGCC systems for H2/syngas/electricity generation with control on CO2 emissions

IGCC is a pre-combustion technology that can be effectively used to produce both hydrogen and electricity while reducing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Two process models are developed in Aspen Plus^® software and are compared techno-economically. The conventional design of IGCC process is taken as case 1, whereas, case 2 represents the conceptual design of sequential integration of reforming model with the gasification unit to enhance the syngas yield. The case 2 utilizes the steam generated in the gasification process to sustain the methane reforming process which consequently enhances both the H₂ production capacity and cold gas efficiency. It has been analyzed from results that case 2 can enhance the process performance by 4.77% and economics in terms of cost of electricity by 5.9% compared to the conventional process. However, the utilization of natural gas in the case 2 is considered as a standalone fuel so the process performance of NGCC power plants has been also incorporated to ensure the realistic analysis. The results also showed that case 2 design offers 3.9% higher process performance than the cumulative (IGCC + NGCC) processes, respectively. Moreover, the CO₂ specific emissions and LCOE for the case 2 is also lower than the case.     

Analysis of scenarios for the reduction of energy consumption and GHG emissions in transport in the Basque Country

Fossil energy depletion and fight against climate change force humanity to decarbonize the economy. By year 2050 CO₂ emissions will have to reduce globally at least 85%, and probably over 95% in developed countries.The modeling of the transportation of people and commodities in the Basque Autonomous Community (Spain) in year 2008 has allowed us to draw some conclusions about the challenges ahead. The exploration of several scenarios modeled in order to reduce energy consumption in transport shows that mobility in a decarbonized world will have to be more efficient, electrified when moving people and freight on land, based on renewable generation, and organized in such a way that guarantees very high occupancies of vehicles. All these elements will be indispensable, and even not sufficient if they are still not complemented with a reduction of mobility in absolute terms, so that economic transportation intensity—the ratio between transportation and whole economic activity—recovers to levels seen in the world four decades ago, prior to the development of present hypermobility.     

The greenhouse gas abatement potential of enterprise cloud computing

In this paper we present a dynamic, country level methodology and model to determine the energy related Green House Gas (GHG) emissions abatement potential of enterprise cloud computing. The developed model focused upon demonstrating the impact of a move to cloud computing from traditional on-site computing, by creating country specific estimates of energy and GHG reductions. The methodology presented includes variables for market penetration, organisation size, and organisational adoption of on-site and cloud computing. Using the current enterprise cloud service applications of email, customer relationship management (CRM), and groupware against selected global countries, results indicated that 4.5 million tonnes of CO₂e could be reduced with an 80% market penetration for cloud computing. The majority of reductions were calculated to be from small and medium size organisations. A sensitivity analysis of the market penetration and current organisational adoption of cloud computing highlights the possible large variability in overall energy and GHG reductions. An analysis of the model and data used within this study illustrates a requirement for industry and academia to work closely in order to reach the large energy reductions possible with enterprise cloud computing.     

Comparing alternative cellulosic biomass biorefining systems: Centralized versus distributed processing systems

This study explores how two different cellulosic ethanol production system configurations (distributed versus centralized processing) affect some aspects of the economic and environmental performance of cellulosic ethanol, measured as minimum ethanol selling price (MESP) and various environmental impact categories. The eco-efficiency indicator, which simultaneously accounts for economic and environmental features, is also calculated. The centralized configuration offers better economic performance for small-scale biorefineries, while the distributed configuration is economically superior for large-scale biorefineries. The MESP of the centralized configuration declines with increased biorefinery size up to a point and then rises due to the cost of trucking biomass to the biorefinery. In contrast, the MESP in the distributed configuration continuously declines with increasing biorefinery size due to the lower costs of railroad transportation and the greater economies of scale achieved at much larger biorefinery sizes, including biorefineries that reach the size of an average oil refinery—about 30,000 tons per day of feedstock. The centralized system yields lower environmental impacts for most impact categories than does the distributed system regardless of the biorefinery size. Eco-efficiency analysis shows that the centralized configuration is more sustainable for small-scale biorefineries, while the distributed configuration with railroad transport is more sustainable for large-scale biorefineries. Compared with gasoline from petroleum, cellulosic ethanol fuel offers sustainability advantages for the following environmental impact categories: fossil energy consumption, global warming, human health impacts by particulate matter, ozone layer depletion, ecotoxicity, human health cancer, and human health non-cancer, depending somewhat on the biorefinery sizes and the system configurations.     

OEM汽车涂装车间技术的环境生命周期评价（一）

生命周期评价（LCA）是一种评价产品系统的环境影响和环境权衡的标准化方法。伊士曼化工公司完成了一项＂从涂料到成品车涂装＂的LCA研究,在该研究中,比较了5种有代表性的OEM汽车涂装车间工艺配置的温室气体（GHG）影响和挥发性有机化合物（VOC）排放性能。涂装车间数据由IHS提供。这些工艺配置包括：1）三涂两烘（3C2B）水性（WB）底色漆和1K罩光清漆;2）3C2B WB底色漆和2K罩光清漆;3）3C2B低固含溶剂型底色漆和1K罩光清漆;4）三涂一烘（3C1B）高固含溶剂型底色漆和1K罩光清漆;5）3C1B WB底色漆和1K罩光清漆。本研究的目标是通过比较通用工艺技术类别来帮助理解差异和制定决策。本研究的结论是,3C1B高固含溶剂型工艺可以实现最低的GHG释放量,同时达到欧洲现行的VOC排放限值35 g/m2。但是,如果世界上某些地区的OEM选择不采用VOC减排技术,那么为了达到排放限值35g/m2,需要采用WB技术。这项LCA研究表明,高固含溶剂型技术是对环境影响最小,有利于可持续性发展的技术,建议政策制定者和利益相关者予以考虑。