Monitoring and economic factors affecting the economic viability of afforestation for carbon sequestration projects

The Kyoto Protocol is the first step towards achieving the objectives of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and aims among others to promote ‘the protection and enhancement of carbon sinks and reservoirs’. To encourage afforestation for carbon sequestration a project must be economically viable. This study uses a model to analyse the impact on project viability of a range of carbon monitoring options, international carbon credit value and discount rate, applied to a Pinus radiata afforestation project in New Zealand. Monitoring carbon in conjunction with conventional forest inventory shows the highest return. Long-term average carbon accounting has lower accounting costs, compared to annual and 5 yearly accounting, as monitoring is only required every 5–10 years until the long-term average is attained. In this study we conclude that monitoring soil carbon stocks is not economically feasible using any of the accounting methods, when carbon is valued at US$ 10/t. This conclusion may be relevant to forest carbon sequestration projects elsewhere in the world and suggests care is needed in selecting the appropriate carbon monitoring options to avoid the risk that costs could be higher than any monetary benefits from terrestrial carbon sequestration. This would remove any commercial incentive to afforest for carbon sequestration reasons and severely limit the use of forest sinks as part of any package of measures addressing the ultimate objective of the UNFCCC.     

Comparison of mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic digestions of thermal hydrolysis pretreated swine manure: Process performance, microbial communities and energy balance

Anaerobic digestion (AD) of swine manure (SM) commonly shows low biogas output and unsatisfactory economic performance. In this study, thermophilic AD (TAD, 50 ± 1 °C) was combined with thermal hydrolysis pretreatment (THP, 170 °C/10 bar), to investigate its potential for maximizing biogas yield, securing successful digestion and microbial diversity, as well as improving energy balance. Four lab-scale continuously stirred tank reactors were operated for 300 days and compared with each other, i.e., reactor 1 (raw SM fed in mesophilic AD: RSM-MAD), reactor 2 (THP-treated SM fed in MAD: TSM-MAD), reactor 3 (RSM-TAD), and reactor 4 (TSM-TAD). The results showed that THP was efficient to increase methane production of SM, TSM-TAD mode led to the highest methane yield (129.8 ± 40.5 mL-CH₄/g-VS/day) among the tests (p < 0.05). Although TAD was more likely to induce free ammonia (> 700 mg/L) or volatile fatty acids (> 6000 mg/L) accumulation compared with MAD in start-up phase, TSM-TAD treatment mode behaved a sustainable digestion process in a long-term operation. For TSM-TAD scenario, higher Shannon–Weaver (3.873) and lower Simpson index (0.061) indicated this mode ensured and enlarged the diversity of bacteria communities. Phylum Bathyarchaeota was dominant (59.3%−90.0%) in archaea community, followed by Euryarchaeota in the four reactors. RSM-MAD treatment mode achieved the highest energy output (4.65 GJ/day), TSM-TAD was less effective (−17.38 GJ/day) due to increased energy demands. Thus improving the energetic efficiency of THP units is recommended for the development of TSM-TAD treatment mode.     

Climate anomalies, Indonesian vegetation fires and terrestrial carbon emissions

There was a widespread misconception about the causes of vegetation and land fires in Indonesia. At a certain point, the public perceived that fires and the associated haze pollution were primarily caused by smallholders' agricultural activities. In fact, there was a variety of land-use activities including large-scale land clearing following deforestation for further land development. El Niño events and the associated dry weather were sometimes quoted by officials and the media as the cause of fires. The fire episodes from 1980 to 2000 were analysed in connection with climate anomalies and the implementation of land-use policies related to forest conversions. The analysis employs long-term climatic and sea surface temperature data to reconstruct climate distributions and anomalies including Southern Oscillation Index (SOI), Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and Outgoing Long-wave Radiation (OLR). In this study, the terrestrial carbon emissions from vegetation fires were estimated based on official statistical data on area burnt. The possible incentives for sustainable land management were discussed in the light of fire prevention. The underlying cause neglected in the discussion of Indonesian vegetation fires was forest and land development policy. Legitimated in the early 1980s, it drove massive forest conversions and the use of fires for land clearing. El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) provided dry weather suitable for biomass burning and widespread fire, but it was hardly the cause of fires. The estimate of area burnt in the big fires in 1997 was about 11.6 Mha, resulting in carbon release of 1.45 Gt, equivalent to 0.73 ppmv of CO₂, or almost half the annual global atmospheric CO₂ growth. Based on the current carbon market price such emissions by the 1997 fire episode were worth around US$ 3.6 billion.     

萃取分光光度法测定工业废气中的游离溴

用萃取分光光度法测定工业废气中的游离溴，并对样品的采集与保存，萃取条件的选择进行了研究。结果表明，当溴的含量在１８．０－４５０．０μｇ／ｍＬ范围同时，吸光度与浓度具有良好的线性关系，方法的采样效率大于９９％，精密度和准确度较好当采集气体为１００Ｌ时，最低检出肖度为０．１４ｍｇ／ｍ＾３。     

活性炭吸附低浓度SO_2烟气的研究

利用水洗再生活性炭吸附法，对模拟火力发电厂烟气及克劳斯炉尾气进行脱除ＳＯ２的试验研究，ＳＯ２脱除率大于９０％．     

昆明的水资源及其开发

昆明地区地面水紧缺，地下水资源虽然丰富，但部分富水地段过量开采，已形成严重后果。目前除从流域内水库开发外，规划从牛栏江、普渡河引水，满足近、中期需要。至２０１０年，昆明供水预计出现２８０×１０６ｍ３／ａ的缺口，必须制订相应政策，采取控制和治理滇池污染等措施，才能缓解矛盾，保证经济的可持续发展。     

宁夏人口、粮食与水土资源利用

人口、粮食与水土资源利用是宁夏回族自治区国民经济发展中的重要问题。文中分析了宁夏人口、粮食与水土资源利用现状,应用灰色系统理论及回归分析,建立人口、粮食预测模型,对2000年宁夏的人口、粮食进行了预测。分析2000年水土资源不同开发利用条件下粮食供需平衡情况后指出,充分合理利用黄河水资源,扩大灌溉面积,配合先进的农业技术,宁夏粮食不仅能自给,而且还能提供一定数量的商品粮。最后提出了解决粮食问题,防止生态环境恶化的主要途径。     

Shell渣油造气工艺的环境保护

介绍了Shell渣油造气工艺过程中的碳黑，石脑油污染，微口废水池导致硫化氮，一氧化碳，碳黑的污染及渣油泵检修带来的渣油污染，以及为保护环境消除污染而采取的技术改造措施。     

An evaluation of quality assurance to monitor acidprecipitation by using ion balancein Guizhou, China

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雾化合金液滴的凝固动力学分析与计算

雾化凝固过程对雾化制粉和喷射沉积材料的组织有重要影响。雾化凝固过程主要由液态冷却、再辉、偏析凝固、共晶凝固与固态凝固阶段组成。分析了雾化过程中的液滴的速度与粒度分布及凝固各阶段液滴凝固潜热的释放与环境导热之间的热平衡。