The ENVIROCARE CD-ROM—cleaner production training for vocational students

Environmental awareness raising, education and training, on a wide scale, are required to ensure societal adoption of sustainable development. ENVIROCARE, an interactive multimedia educational CD-ROM, has been developed by a transnational partnership to provide such environmental education for vocational students. The programme, available in English, Dutch, German and Portuguese, is designed to provide training for students to show the impact that industry can have on the environment and how they can reduce such impacts when they enter the workforce, by implementing the concepts and approaches of Cleaner Production. The paper describes the development of ENVIROCARE, its contents and structure, the lessons learned in its creation and future challenges.     

“Educating the educators” as a strategy for enhancing education on cleaner production

During the last ten years, much progress has been made in initiating Cleaner Production and related Preventive Environmental Management (PEM) training activities within many countries. Much of this work was facilitated through special National Cleaner Production Centers, established through national support or through the facilitation of organizations such as UNEP, UNIDO, The World Bank, and other regional development organizations. Most earlier PEM training was predominantly short-term and was not embedded within a deeper academic framework. Although much has been accomplished as a result of such training, deeper and broader educational programs are needed.The Faculty at IIIEE at Lund University in Sweden decided to develop an innovative “Educate-the-Educators” (ETE) Program on Cleaner Production and on related PEM approaches. This paper summarises the goals, objectives and results of the first ETE program at IIIEE. The three-week educational program was attended by 32 educators from 22 different countries. This included participants from China, India, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, New Zealand, South Africa, Zambia, Ethiopia, Bahrain, Turkey, Jordan, The Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad–Tobago, Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia. According to the participants, the intensive educational program was very useful in preparing them to integrate Cleaner Production components into the course(s) and curricula in their home institutions. The participants are now actively engaged in initiating follow-up activities within their academic institutions.     

Biomass chemical looping gasification for syngas production using modified hematite as oxygen carriers

Syngas is a clean energy carrier and a major industrial feedstock. In this paper, syngas was produced via biomass chemical looping gasification(CLG) process. Hematite, the most common Fe-based oxygen carrier(OC), was modified with different metal oxides(CeO₂, CaO and MgO) by the impregnation method. The hematite modified by CeO₂, CaO and MgO was namely as CeO₂-hematite(CeO₂-H), CaO-hematite(CaO-H) and MgO-hematite(MgO-H), respectively. The introduction...     

Cu–Mn–Ce ternary mixed-oxide catalysts for catalytic combustion of toluene

Cu–Mn, Cu–Mn–Ce, and Cu–Ce mixed-oxide catalysts were prepared by a citric acid sol–gel method and then characterized by XRD, BET, H₂-TPR and XPS analyses. Their catalytic properties were investigated in the toluene combustion reaction. Results showed that the Cu–Mn–Ce ternary mixed-oxide catalyst with 1:2:4 mole ratios had the highest catalytic activity, and 99% toluene conversion was achieved at temperatures below 220°C. In the Cu–Mn–Ce catalyst, a portion of Cu and Mn species entered into the CeO₂ fluorite lattice, which led to the formation of a ceria-based solid solution. Excess Cu and Mn oxides existed on the surface of the ceria-based solid solution. The coexistence of Cu–Mn mixed oxides and the ceria-based solid solution resulted in a better synergetic interaction than the Cu–Mn and Cu–Ce catalysts, which promoted catalyst reducibility, increased oxygen mobility, and enhanced the formation of abundant active oxygen species.     

Preparation and properties of chitosan–metal complex: Some factors influencing the adsorption capacity for dyes in aqueous solution

Chitosan–metal complexes have been widely studied in wastewater treatment, but there are still various factors in complex preparation which are collectively responsible for improving the adsorption capacity need to be further studied. Thus, this study investigates the factors affecting the adsorption ability of chitosan–metal complex adsorbents, including various kinds of metal centers, different metal salts and crosslinking degree. The results show that the chitosan–Fe( Ⅲ) complex prepared by sulfate salts exhibited the best adsorption efficiency(100%) for various dyes in very short time duration(10 min), and its maximum adsorption capacity achieved 349.22 mg/g. The anion of the metal salt which was used in preparation played an important role to enhance the adsorption ability of chitosan–metal complex. SO_4~(2-) ions not only had the effect of crosslinking through electrostatic interaction with amine group of chitosan polymer, but also could facilitate the chelation of metal ions with chitosan polymer during the synthesis process.Additionally, the p H sensitivity and the sensitivity of ionic environment for chitosan–metal complex were analyzed. We hope that these factors affecting the adsorption of the chitosan–metal complex can help not only in optimizing its use but also in designing new chitosan–metal based complexes.     

Mesoporous carbon adsorbents from melamine–formaldehyde resin using nanocasting technique for CO2 adsorption

Mesoporous carbon adsorbents, having high nitrogen content, were synthesized via nanocasting technique with melamine–formaldehyde resin as precursor and mesoporous silica as template. A series of adsorbents were prepared by varying the carbonization temperature from 400 to 700°C. Adsorbents were characterized thoroughly by nitrogen sorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), elemental (CHN) analysis, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Boehm titration. Carbonization temperature controlled the properties of the synthesized adsorbents ranging from surface area to their nitrogen content, which play major role in their application as adsorbents for CO₂ capture. The nanostructure of these materials was confirmed by XRD and TEM. Their nitrogen content decreased with an increase in carbonization temperature while other properties like surface area, pore volume, thermal stability and surface basicity increased with the carbonization temperature. These materials were evaluated for CO₂ adsorption by fixed-bed column adsorption experiments. Adsorbent synthesized at 700°C was found to have the highest surface area and surface basicity along with maximum CO₂ adsorption capacity among the synthesized adsorbents. Breakthrough time and CO₂ equilibrium adsorption capacity were investigated from the breakthrough curves and were found to decrease with increase in adsorption temperature. Adsorption process for carbon adsorbent–CO₂ system was found to be reversible with stable adsorption capacity over four consecutive adsorption–desorption cycles. From three isotherm models used to analyze the equilibrium data, Temkin isotherm model presented a nearly perfect fit implying the heterogeneous adsorbent surface.     

Sustainable production and consumption systems—cooperation for change: assessing and simulating the willingness of the firm to adopt/develop cleaner technologies. The case of the In-Bond industry in northern Mexico

Over the last decade, literature on the “greening” of industry and environmental policy has provided numerous important insights into the determinants of the firm’s innovative behaviour in cleaner technologies. However, this literature still lacks empirically tested theoretical models. This paper contributes to fill this gap proposing a definitional system that enables the testing of hypotheses of dependence between willingness to innovate in cleaner technologies and its determinants, and to explore the conditions under which the firms’ innovative behaviour could be fostered. Regression and simulation outcomes indicate, against the general wisdom, that stringent environmental regulation without consideration to the dynamics of technical change, and environmental and economic risk perceptions in the part of firms would play against the promotion of innovation in cleaner production.     

Developing long-term strategies to reduce energy use and CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> emissions—analysis of three mitigation scenarios for iron and steel production in China

We perform a scenario analysis of three strategies for long-term energy savings and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission reductions in iron and steel production in China, using a linear optimization modeling framework industry sector energy efficiency modeling (ISEEM). The modeling includes annual projections for one base scenario representing business-as-usual (BAU) and three additional scenarios representing different strategies to reduce annual energy use and CO₂ emissions from 2010 to 2050. Specifically, the three scenarios for cost-optimization modeling include changing the production share (PS), predefining emission reduction (ER) target, and stipulating carbon emission pricing (CP), respectively. While the three strategies are projected to result in similar annual energy savings by approximately 15 % compared to that of the BAU scenario in year 2050, the carbon emission pricing strategy brings about the highest annual energy savings in the medium term (e.g., 2025). In addition, adopting carbon emission pricing strategy will result in the highest emission reduction from BAU with much higher costs, i.e., by 20 % in 2025 and 41 % in 2050, while adopting either PS or ER strategies will result in a moderate level of emission reduction from BAU, i.e., by approximately 4 % in 2025 and 14 % in 2050. The analysis of China’s national strategies to reduce energy use and emissions provides important implications for global mitigation strategies.