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Discusses the polluting effects of petroleum products. Introduces an activity for measuring the molecules of oleic acid that integrates mathematics and science. (YDS)

Discusses petroleum oil and its various uses from fuel to clothes, toys, and plastic. Includes a foldout with activities. (NB)

Describes an activity that shows how understanding a modern coral reef environment helps predict the location of old subsurface reefs that may contain oil. (PR)

Presents an exciting way to acquaint students with current methods to clean up oil spills. Students also have the freedom to create new clean-up methods as they think through the problem and experiment to find effective solutions. (PR)

Informs the reader of the pervasiveness of petrochemicals in everyday life. Discusses the petroleum-to-petrochemical transformation at the refinery and issues related to how petroleum products will be utilized for fuel or nonfuel needs such as lubricants, computers, and medicine in the future. (MDH)

Describes exercises to examine the global carbon cycle. Students are asked to predict consequences of increased carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere and to suggest ways to mitigate problems associated with these higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. A comparison modeling exercise examines some of the variables related to the success or failure of agricultural systems. (PR)

Examines the options for upgrading, replacing, and removal or closure of underground storage tanks (UST). Reveals the diverse regulatory control involving USTs, the Environmental Protection Agency's interest in pursuing violators, and stresses the need for administrators to be knowledgeable about state and local agency definitions of regulated tanks. (GR)

Bill McKibben, an environmental activist and writer, emphasizes the need for urgent action to address the climate crisis. He highlights the importance of political action in accelerating the transition to renewable energy and impeding the fossil fuel industry. McKibben calls for collective action and collaboration across generations to combat climate change. He also emphasizes the role of voting, holding elected officials accountable, media coverage, global partnerships, and financial investments in renewable energy. Despite the challenges, McKibben encourages individuals to join movements and work together to create change. [Extracted from the article]

As representative of the water-energy-food nexus, fossil fuel development and industrial agriculture are rural industries that continue to expand and increasingly occur in the same areas. Being a top agricultural export county and the fossil fuel capital of California while ranking among the worst in the US for industrial pollution, Kern County is a poster child of rural nexus development and, thus, an essential place for initiating sustainability transitions. Such transitions rely on policy support and the adoption of methods by individuals and communities who may disagree with such changes. While sense of place and impact perceptions are recognized as playing critical roles in sustainability management, they have yet to be utilized in nexus research. A survey (N = 256) of the perceived impacts of nexus industries with place meaning and place attachment as possible drivers for perceptions was conducted in nexus industry pollution exposure risk zones. Factor analysis and bivariate correlations showed that place meaning and place attachment are drivers for perceptions while also being drivers for concern for changes in nexus industries. While perceptions of impacts indicated contested place meanings, participants strongly perceive the economy and environment as being in decline. To build support for sustainability policy, directing funds from Kern Countys renewable energy industry to local sectors of society, implementation of regenerative agriculture, cooperative management, and nurturing place meaning as aligned with natures restorative quality are important paths forward. These nexus management foci could strengthen place attachment, build trust in government, and repair environmental alienation.

As the climate crisis deepens, cultural institutions are cutting ties with fossil fuel sponsors. But the relationship between artists and oil is more complex than it seems Since the first [...]

The growing depletion of fossil fuels has led to the use of distributed renewable energy sources. This shift has altered the grid structure from centralized to distributed, where energy flows from multiple sources through multiple paths, besides producing a more competitive and dynamic energy market, posing new problems to power system management. To tackle the issue of effectively utilizing renewable energy sources, the energy internet (EI) was developed, in which devices are connected by energy routers. Therefore, efficiently transmitting energy within the EI has become a prominent topic in research. Despite the existence of algorithms and reviews in the literature on energy routing, there is still a lack of a thorough and comprehensive comparison of these existing algorithms. This paper classifies current energy routers and discusses and categorizes energy routing algorithms based on their methods. Additionally, the paper conducts extensive simulations to compare several energy routing algorithms in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen, with its unique flammability characteristics, demands additional consideration due to its broader flammable range compared to fossil fuels. Its low density at atmospheric conditions results in significant buoyancy, mitigating risks in outdoor applications. In confined spaces, hydrogen releases can lead to flammable cloud formation. To study this problem, independent of its dimensions, a dimensional analysis is introduced based on Buckingham's Π -theorem. This work focuses on thirteen functional parameters, including mole fraction, time, release velocity, orifice diameter, reduced gravity, molecular mass diffusion, viscosity and geometric dimensions. Four dimensional scenarios are simulated and compared in this study, to assess the adequacy of the proposed non-dimensional approach. The setup involves a parallelepiped enclosure with a single release point. RANS simulations are conducted. The proposed non-dimensional formulation proves valuable for interpreting data and discussing practical applications. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of hydrogen filling regimes in confined spaces, offering insights for safety assessments and risk mitigation strategies. [Display omitted] • Functional parameters for hydrogen distribution are proposed. • Application of Buckingham's Π -theorem yields essential non-dimensional ratios. • RANS CFD-model used to simulate and discuss four similar scenarios. • Time series analysis of non-dimensional flammable volume reveals similarity. • Ratios and non-dimensional flammable volume enable dimension-independent safety analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of firing pulverized coal in thermal power plants, enormous amounts of fly ash (FA) are produced as industrial waste. The release into the atmosphere and storage of this industrial waste remains one of the major environmental problems that threaten human health by contributing to air, water, and soil pollution. The recovery and reuse of FA in the construction industry is the only economic solution to the existing problem. In this study, the potential radiological risk caused by the usage of FA in concrete and cement production as a main component and its storage in landfill sites was evaluated for people and works by estimating radiological parameters (activity concentration and alpha index, annual effective doses, and the corresponding excess lifetime cancer risks) based on activity concentrations of terrestrial radionuclides in FA. Also, the radiological risk to the workers working in the FA landfill site was evaluated using the Residual Radioactivity Onsite 7.2 code. The average activity concentrations of terrestrial radionuclides in FA samples from the Tunçbilek lignite coal-fired thermal power plant at Kütahya province of Turkey were measured as 417, 156 and 454 Bq kg−1 for 226Ra, 232Th and 40K, respectively. When using up to 35% by mass of FA in cement and concrete, the average values of the radiological parameters revealed that they were within the recommended safety limits. However, code estimations showed that a regular worker in FA storage would be exposed to a total effective dose rate greater than 3 mSv y−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The closure of the Paleo-Asian Ocean was a significant geological event in northern Pangea during the Carboniferous-Permian. It had a significant effect on climate, biota, and environmental conditions of the Late Paleozoic Ice Age, and resulted in the development of vast energy resources. This paper reports on the first discovery of marine red algal fossils in the Junggar Basin and its linkage to hydrocarbon generation. Red algae occur mainly in the Fengcheng Formation (ca. 300 Ma) and provide direct fossil evidence for closure of the Paleo-Asian Ocean. The red algal fossils contain well-preserved reproductive organs, such as cystocarps and carpospores. High concentrations of C27 steranes (C27 regular steranes/sum of C27–C29 regular steranes×100=14.30%–21.30%) and the marine biomarker 24-n-propylcholesterane (C30 diasterane [βα20S]/sum of C27–C30 diasteranes [βα20S]×100=1.15%–1.85%) were detected in the red-algae-bearing hydrocarbon source rocks. Thermal experiments that simulate hydrocarbon generation show that the oil generation potential of the red-algae-bearing source rocks is 363.71 mg g−1 total organic C. This result, combined with oil-source rock correlations, indicates these rocks contributed to the formation of oil and gas resources, particularly in the marginal areas of the depression. The lake basin inherited the water and biological conditions of the Paleo-Asian Ocean during a marine regression, which was an important factor in the development of these high-quality hydrocarbon source rocks in an alkaline saline lake. The results advance our understanding of the evolution of the Paleo-Asian Ocean, interactions between the ocean and a lake during the deposition of terrestrial hydrocarbon source rocks, and whether red algae can effectively generate hydrocarbons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The yield of green energy from solid-state anaerobic co-digestion (SSAD) has recently been enhanced by incorporating innovative pretreatment methods and nanoparticles. However, the environmental consequences of employing new processes have not been fully examined. In this study, the environmental impacts of three high-methane-yielding scenarios including SSAD of corn stover blended with dairy manure (DM) denoted as (SYM1), calcium hydroxide-pretreated corn stover (CpCS) blended with DM (SYM2), and the CpCS blended with DM and nanoparticles (SYM3) were assessed and compared the baselines of solid-state and semi-solid-state anaerobic digestion using a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach. The approach investigated the best management practices that would result in high methane yield and low environmental impact. Results of the life cycle assessment indicate the inclusion of calcium hydroxide and nanoparticle has minimal negative environmental impact. There was an environmental gain in GWP when corn stover was co-digestion with DM (SYM1) relative to DM mono-digestions (baselines) and the carbon footprint of SYM1 was less by more than 85% compared to SYM2 and SYM3. However, the large volume of untreated corn stover harnessed for SYM1 scenario resulted in over 75% fossil fuel depletion compared to the other scenarios. The surplus methane from the SYM3 (at least twofold of other scenarios and baselines) in conjunction with being the least with the environmental implication makes the scenario the most attractive option for on-farm practice capable of harnessing the growing organic waste volume. These outcomes can guide trade-off between pretreatment and nanoparticle application to reduce solid-state anaerobic digestion's negative environmental impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demand for renewable resources to replace fossil fuels has increased. Fruit and agricultural wastes can be fermented to yield biofuels and biochemicals. However, the high cost of the feedstock and limitations of the catalytic process hinder the application of such wastes. Therefore, we aimed to develop an efficient enzymatic saccharification process, without pretreatment, for fruit and agricultural wastes. The conversion rate of the mixed agricultural wastes (MAW) to fermentable sugars was approximately 91 % after 24 h. The ethanol yield increased by 4.5 % after limonene removal. The D-allulose yield in the hydrolysate was 4.6 mg/mL at 4 °C and 3.3 mg/mL at 50 °C, whereas the fructose yield in the sugar medium was 13.2 mg/mL at 4°C, demonstrating a high conversion yield of 73.2 %. Lactic acid was produced at a conversion rate of approximately 67.4 %. Therefore, this study presents a novel approach of the biosynthesis of functional sugars and chemicals from waste biomass, introducing a cost-effective enzymatic saccharification process that bypasses pretreatment, thereby enabling the production of biofuels, biochemicals, and functional sugars and opening up a promising economic opportunity in the field. [Display omitted] • Fruit and agricultural waste can be fermented to yield biofuels and biochemicals. • Fruit and vegetable wastes do not require pretreatment prior to saccharification. • Bioethanol yield was approximately 84.9 % after removing limonene. • The yield of D-allulose in the hydrolyzate was 4.6 mg/mL at 4°C and 3.3 mg at 50°C. • Lactic acid was produced from hydrolysate with high conversion rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the high demand for fossil fuels, exploring the frontier areas for hydrocarbon reserves has become imperative. The recent discoveries in Gojalia, Sonamura, Baramura, and Sundalbari fields emphasize the need to explore additional anticlinal structures in Tripura for hydrocarbon exploration. Tulamura anticline (the study area) produced gas from Upper Bhuban, establishing hydrocarbon prospectivity in the northern part, but the southern part remains largely unexplored. An electro-log interpretation revealed the presence of sand facies deposited in a fining upward sequence, suggesting channel deposition. An integrated geophysical approach using seismic inversion and machine learning techniques was performed to delineate and characterize the litho-facies dispersal patterns in the Tulamura field. Spectral decomposition (12, 20 and 28 Hz) of stacked seismic data were RGB (red-green-blue) blended, revealing the southward striking channel geometry of the Bhuban Formation at a depth of 2220 m. The 3D P-impedance and Vp/Vs ratio volumes were estimated using the model-based pre-stack seismic inversion. Inversion results help discriminate among sand, shale and siltstone litho-facies. Petrophysical property (effective porosity) was predicted by combining the post-stack seismic attributes and well-log data using neural network modelling. The identified sand facies within the channel geometry exhibit relatively moderate to low P-impedance (9800–10600 m/s * gm/cm3), low Vp/Vs ratio (1.68–1.76), and moderately high effective porosity (8–13%) from surroundings, indicating favourable conditions for hydrocarbon accumulations. Shale between channels and major faults can create favourable stratigraphic entrapment, while an upward fining sequence suggests an intact top seal. This study advocates an integrated approach involving geophysical inversion and machine learning to identify optimal conditions for hydrocarbon accumulation within sand facies, supported by structural and stratigraphic entrapment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to examine the impact of energy poverty on the aggregate and disaggregate material footprint components such as biomass, fossil fuel, metal ores and non-metallic minerals while considering the economic growth and tourism development during 2000–2014 for the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). By applying econometric tools, the study confirms a positive and significant impact of energy poverty on aggregate material footprint and its components. The same finding has been reached for tourism development. Moreover, this study finds a U-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) for all indicators used for material footprints. Based on the findings, this study proposes a set of policies for energy poverty alleviation to attain a sustainable environment and inclusive economic growth in the BRICS region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and natural resource depletion have reinvigorated the relevance of technical advancements in energy efficiency, which has been emphasized by the Paris Climate Accord that includes a framework for carbon neutrality. In that effort, the governments have been allocating a considerable amount of budget shares to research and development relating to energy efficiency and green energy. Thus, this study primarily examines the impact and effectiveness of research and development on energy efficiency and energy sources (renewables and fossil fuels) on CO2 emissions in the European region using a novel Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR). Our data cover annual observations of 9 EU countries, including Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden, based on the period 1990–2021. Our empirical findings confirm that the U-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve occurs across all quantiles at 1% significance levels. The findings reveal that energy consumption increases CO2 emissions across the lower to higher quantiles. We discover that (i) R&D on renewable energy cuts CO2 emissions just at the median and higher quantiles, (ii) R&D on Fossil Fuels decreases CO2 emissions just at the lower quantile, and (iii) R&D on Energy efficiency lowers CO2 emissions at both the median and higher quantiles. Therefore, empirical findings suggest that policymakers should maintain their incentives for energy efficiency R&D and renewable R&D to achieve sustainable development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political theory has long depended upon a clear boundary between life and non-life. Even work which emphasizes non-human beings (e.g., in animal rights, posthumanism or "new materialism") continues to reinforce the divide between the organic and the inorganic. This article undermines that division, highlighting marginal cases of life. The organicity of certain rocks and biochar, the growth of crystals, the machinic qualities of viruses: all point to an instability in the excluded middle between life and non-life. The article suggests alternative philosophical traditions to which political theory could turn—namely, panpsychism, hylozoism, and traditional animism—as conceptual and theoretical resources to examine these interstices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how firms address the stability-change paradox inherent in sustainability transitions through the maintenance and utilization of a portfolio of sustainability-oriented partnerships. Drawing on a retrospective case study of Dong/Ørsted, a Danish energy company, we demonstrate the varying manifestations of the stability-change paradox during different phases of the company's transition, influenced by both exogenous and endogenous factors. Furthermore, our findings reveal how Dong/Ørsted employed their partnership portfolio to implement diverse responses to manage the paradox. Based on these findings, we argue that partnership portfolios can serve as spatiotemporal pockets, enabling organizations to effectively address and leverage the temporal and spatial aspects inherent in sustainability paradoxes. In addition, we highlight how partnership portfolios facilitate sustainability transitions by creating and leveraging different forms of collaborative value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high demand for biofuels by surfacing economies with environmental issues has resulted in a more in‐depth search for new biofuel feedstocks. Non‐edible oils have become the centre of investigation as biofuel feedstocks since they do not compete with food sources. This review evaluates hydrocracking as a biofuel production method and further elucidates different feedstocks, the effects of hydrocracking catalysts, and operating parameters to obtain optimum yields and selectivity of desired products. The bifunctional catalyst mechanism is also explained. The hydrocracking technique is found to be more advantageous than other biofuel production techniques such as transesterification and pyrolysis due to its ability to produce valuable products of better quality and with higher yields. Coke formation is one of the challenges faced by hydrocracking despite that it can be reduced by high hydrogen pressure; this will increase the cost of the entire process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comprehensive measure of fuel performance, considering economic and environmental factors using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The study uses decentralized production approach, modeling two technology specifications, one with abatement and one without. The study focuses on the Indian public bus transport industry, treating carbon emissions as bad outputs with joint disposability alongside fossil fuels. Additionally, it examines fuel performance drivers through bootstrapped truncated regression. The findings reveal that maintenance practices and vehicle age negatively affect fuel performance, with the latter showing a non‐linear influence. As fuel prices rise, bus company managers increasingly adopt fuel‐saving practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing effects of climate change, the urgency to step away from fossil fuels is greater than ever before. Electric vehicles (EVs) are one way to diminish these effects, but their widespread adoption is often limited by the insufficient availability of charging stations. In this work, our goal is to expand the infrastructure of EV charging stations, in order to provide a better quality of service in terms of user satisfaction (and availability of charging stations). Specifically, our focus is directed towards urban areas. We first propose a model for the assignment of EV charging demand to stations, framing it as a maximum flow problem. This model is the basis for the evaluation of user satisfaction with a given charging infrastructure. Secondly, we incorporate the maximum flow model into a mixed‐integer linear program, where decisions on the opening of new stations and on the expansion of their capacity through additional outlets is accounted for. We showcase our methodology for the city of Montreal, demonstrating the scalability of our approach to handle real‐world scenarios. We conclude that considering both spacial and temporal variations in charging demand is meaningful when solving realistic instances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The burning and utilization of fossil fuels contribute to climate change and emit pollutants that raise the risk of asthma, heart diseases, respiratory diseases, and strokes in humans. There is an unprecedented rise in the use of petroleum fuel, consequently, increasing the concern over fossil fuel utilization. To overcome this burning problem, there is an urgent need to switch to biofuels, which are an attractive alternative to petroleum fuel. Biofuels are renewable, nontoxic, sulfur-free, cost-effective energy sources that can be derived from the fatty acids found in plant oils via transesterification, esterification, and catalytic cracking techniques. This review focuses on the feedstocks as well as their fatty acid composition used to produce the first two out of the four generations of biofuel and reports up-to-date information on the differing reaction conditions involved in these processes. Various types of feedstocks, reactors, catalysts, and production techniques are used to produce biofuels which are discussed in this article. An emphasis has been put on the fatty acids of edible and non-edible oils and their usage to produce biodiesel with a discussion of the in-depth knowledge of properties as well as the applications of biofuels in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study adopts a composite threshold model that differentiates between the upside and downside betas of the major US-based renewable and non-renewable exchange-traded funds (ETFs) during heightened uncertainty. It is found that downside betas for both renewable and non-renewable energy ETFs are significantly greater than upside betas. However, in a highly uncertain market, renewable energy ETFs tend to enjoy higher upside gains than the fossil-fuel ETFs. The results suggest that renewable energy ETFs have great potential to generate high returns, but the downside risk associated with renewables should be mitigated by government incentivizing the use of renewables in both domestic and foreign markets. Investing in renewable energy is not only good for the environment but also compared to other investment alternatives (including fossil fuels) it provides better risk-adjusted returns. During the last 5 years, some renewable energy ETFs have even outperformed several well-established sectoral ETFs. This paper finds that there is a more favourable business case for investing in renewables than common perception would suggest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the depletion of fossil fuels, extensive CO2 emissions, and growing demand for electrochemical energy, it is important to develop further utilization of renewable energy, as well as advanced energy storage techniques. To this end, the optically chargeable supercapacitor, which can convert the photon energy of solar light into electrochemical energy and store it for long‐term usage, attracts extensive investigations. Among these, heterojunction construction was revealed as an effective method to enhance capacity. Recent works have reported the implementations of precipitation in ceramics, where the introduced matrix‐precipitate two‐phase structure is inspiring for constructing heterojunction, whereas it was seldom reported. In this work, Li‐doped NaNbO3 electrode material was prepared by adopting a multi‐step solid reaction to precipitate LiNbO3 and construct LiNbO3/NaNbO3 heterojunctions. The electrochemical measurement demonstrates an enhanced optically chargeable capacity of roughly 85% increase at a scan rate of 1 mV/s and a four‐fold increase at a charging–discharging current density of 1 A/g, as well as outstanding stability by introducing precipitates and constructing heterojunctions. This finding proposes a novel methodology design of heterojunction construction via precipitation to enhance the optically chargeable capacity of supercapacitor electrode materials and, therefore, may open up a potentially new application field for precipitate‐tuned functionality in functional ceramics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to investigate techniques for lowering diesel engine emissions by using waste seed as an alternative energy source in place of conventional fossil fuels. This study thoroughly investigated the process of transesterifying waste seed oil obtained from Bauhinia purpurea linn for use as fuel in a common rail direct injection (CRDI) diesel engine. Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) nanoparticles serve as a combustion enhancer. The engine outcome metrics were analyzed using diesel, Bauhinia purpurea linn biodiesel (BPLB) and BPLB-BHT blends (BPLB + 10μm BHT 10 ppm and BPLB + 20μm BHT 10 ppm) without changing the operating circumstances. At full brake power, the BPLB + 10μm BHT 10 ppm mix outperformed the BPLB and BPLB + 20μm BHT 10 ppm blends, but fell short of diesel. The BPLB + 10μm BHT 10 ppm blend reduced smoke opacity by 39.14%, hydrocarbon (HC) emissions by 42.71%, carbon monoxide (CO) emissions by 59.03% and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions by 12.29% compared to neat diesel fuel at maximum brake power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address the shortage of fossil energy, the development of affordable and efficient non-precious metal catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) from electrocatalytic water splitting is still a crucial challenge. Herein, the bimetallic NiFe metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are synthesized by hydrothermal and electro-deposition. Benefiting from the synergistic effect of Fe and Ni, the catalyst demonstrates extraordinary activity, which exhibits favorable OER catalytic activity in 1 M KOH solution with an overpotential of 206 mV at 10 mA cm−2. Meanwhile, the obtained NiFe-NDC presents promising stability in the 20 h test at 50 mA cm−2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transportation sector is a significant contributor to CO2 emissions, necessitating the adoption of alternative drive technologies to achieve decarbonization. This study investigates public perceptions of fossil fuels, e-fuels, and electric drives, with the aim of identifying factors influencing risk perceptions, perceived efficacy in combating climate change, and readiness to use or purchase cars with these technologies. Therefore, a quantitative study using a questionnaire (N = 141) was conducted. The results indicate that e-fuels and electric drives are perceived more positively than fossil fuels. E-fuels were found to have the lowest risk perceptions. Differences in cognitive and affective risk perceptions, as well as in financial, environmental, and health-related risks, were observed across drive types. Car affinity was found to correlate positively with risk perceptions of e-fuels and fossil fuels, but negatively with electric drives. The risk perception of global warming showed an inverse relationship. Regarding the prediction of readiness, differences were found between e-fuels and electric drives in terms of the influencing factors on readiness. The study contributes to the understanding of public perceptions by providing a comparison between different drive technologies and offers valuable insights for developing targeted communication strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]