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This paper reports the performance of an adsorption cooling system employing activated carbon powder (Maxsorb III)/R32 adsorption pair. The system has been modeled and simulated numerically and the effect of changing the operating conditions has been studied. The system has been simulated to driven by a low-grade heat source temperature below 90ºC and effectively employs solar heat and/or waste sources to drive the system.

The effect of biomass energy consumption on the economy, environment, and human development is still a debatable issue, and researchers have not yet been reached any consensus about this issue. Several studies have examined the impact of biomass energy usage concerning economic, environmental, and human wellbeing perspectives and found mixed results. As a large number of people in South Asia are relying on these biomass energy usages, it is obvious to investigate whether the use of biomass energy is contributing positively to human development or not. Thus, this paper enhances the existing literature by exploring the influence of biomass energy usage on human development in South Asian nations in 1990-2016. Panel cointegration approaches, along with a Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality test, have been performed to assess the long-run causality between biomass energy use and human development. Our findings suggest that biomass energy usage has an adverse effect on human development in South Asian countries and a bidirectional causal relationship between these two variables. Policymakers might suggest reducing the use of traditional biomass, such as firewood and cow dung cake, to achieve SDG-7 and improve the quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monomeric ionic liquids (ILs), ionic liquid polymers (ILPs) and IL-based composites have emerged as potential materials for CO2 capture owing to their exceptional intrinsic physical solubility of CO2. This study reports the development of novel IL polymer materials incorporating CO2-philic tunable nanopores and their subsequent utilization for CO2 capture. In this approach, primarily, micelles were formed in monomeric IL 1-vinyl-3-ethylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide using a CO2-philic surfactant (N-ethyl perfluorooctyl sulfonamide) through self-assembly, from which polymeric materials were fabricated via free radical polymerization. The CO2 adsorption studies demonstrated 3-fold enhancements for the surfactant micelle incorporated IL polymers (SMI-ILPs) compared to their bare IL polymers. The SMI-ILPs were regenerated by simply heating at 70 °C and reused for 15 cycles with a retention of over 96% of CO2 uptake capacity. The simple recovery and notable enhancements in CO2 sorption of novel SMI-ILPs were traced to the adsorption of CO2 at the (i) highly porous IL-based polymeric networks, and (ii) nanometer sized apolar pores made by CO2-philic surfactant tails. This work will open up new possibilities for the development of IL based smart materials for CO2 capture and separation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effective use of marine biomass has recently been identified as a feasible method of renewable energy production. Therefore, to facilitate the effective use of algae biomass, it is essential to develop techniques for the mass production of algal cultures. It is also important to develop artificial culture techniques that are not affected by natural phenomena such as weather. This study utilized a newly developed culture technology that uses seawater with high concentrations of dissolved CO2(CO2seawater). The experiments in this study were conducted to test the effects of CO2seawater on algal growth. In addition to experimental conditions that were previously investigated in industrial algae farming scenarios, it is also necessary to consider the effects of new parameters associated with increased CO2concentrations. The following four conditions were experimentally investigated: (1) the tolerance of algae to changes in pH, (2) the effect of CO2seawater on long-term culture growth, (3) the effect of continuous culture experiments, and (4) the effect of water flow rate on cultured algae. The results in terms of having excelled especially indicate that a 1-month long-term algae culture period in seawater with CO2concentration of 1.0% led to growth that was approximately 4.5 times faster than growth in seawater without the CO2additive. Furthermore, the results also provided useful information regarding the proper flow rate needed to enhance algal growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]