How certain are we about the certainty-equivalent long term social discount rate?

Theoretical arguments for using a term structure of social discount rates (SDR) that declines with the time horizon have influenced government guidelines in the US and Europe. The certainty equivalent discount rate that often underpins this guidance embodies uncertainty in the primitives of the SDR, such as growth. For distant time horizons the probability distributions of these primitives are ambiguous and the certainty equivalent itself is uncertain. Yet, if a limited set of characteristics of the unknown probability distributions can be agreed upon, ‘sharp’ upper and lower bounds can be defined for the certainty-equivalent SDR. Unfortunately, even with considerable agreement on these features, these bounds are widely spread for horizons beyond 75 years. So while estimates of the present value of intergenerational impacts, including the social cost of carbon, can be bounded in the presence of this ambiguity, they typically remain so imprecise as to provide little practical guidance.     

Synthesis of branched,nano channeled,ultrafine and nano carbon tubes from PET wastes using the arc discharge method

Upcycling polymer wastes into useful, and valuable carbon based materials, is a challenging process. We report a novel catalyst-free and solvent-free technique for the formation of nano channeled ultrafine carbon tubes (NCUFCTs) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) wastes, using rotating cathode arc discharge technique. The soot obtain from the anode contains ultrafine and nano-sized solid carbon spheres (SCS) with a mean diameter of 221 nm and 100 nm, respectively, formed at the lower temperature region of the anode where the temperature is approximately 1700 °C. The carbon spheres are converted into long “Y” type branched and non-branched NCUFCTs and MWCNTs at higher temperature regions where the temperature is approximately 2600 °C, with mean diameters of 364 nm and 95 nm, respectively. Soot deposited on the cathode is composed of MWCNTs with a mean diameter of 20 nm and other nanoparticles. The tubular structures present in the anode are longer, bent and often coiled with lesser graphitization compared to the nanotubes in the soot on the cathode.     

低碳经济背景下我国产业结构升级对策研究

为了实现我国经济的平稳发展,改变以"高消耗、高增长、高污染"的传统经济增长方式,解决资源的过度消耗和温室气体的过量排放等问题,文章从我国产业及内部结构、产业的碳排放量和产业节能率三个方面进行了分析,提出了在低碳经济背景下实现我国产业结构升级的对策。     

Effects of sludge retention time, carbon and initial biomass concentrations on selection process: From activated sludge to polyhydroxyalkanoate accumulating cultures

Four sequence batch reactors (SBRs) fed by fermented sugar cane wastewater were continuously operated under the aerobic dynamic feeding (ADF) mode with different configurations of sludge retention time (SRT), carbon and initial biomass concentrations to enrich polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) accumulating mixed microbial cultures (MMCs) from municipal activated sludge. The stability of SBRs was investigated besides the enrichment performance. The microbial community structures of the enriched MMCs were analyzed using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP). The optimum operating conditions for the enrichment process were: SRT of 5 days, carbon concentration of 2.52 g COD/L and initial biomass concentration of 3.65 g/L. The best enrichment performance in terms of both operating stability and PHA storage ability of enriched cultures (with the maximum PHA content and PHA storage yield (Y_PHA/S) of 61.26% and 0.68 mg COD/mg COD, respectively) was achieved under this condition. Effects of the SRT, carbon concentration and initial biomass concentration on the PHA accumulating MMCs selection process were discussed respectively. A new model including the segmentation of the enrichment process and the effects of SRT on each phase was proposed.     

Pd-MnO2 nanoparticles/TiO2 nanotube arrays (NTAs) photo-electrodes photo-catalytic properties and their ability of degrading Rhodamine B under visible light

Pd-MnO_2/TiO_2 nanotube arrays(NTAs) photo-electrodes were successfully fabricated via anodization and electro deposition subsequently; the obtained Pd-MnO_2/TiO_2 NTAs photo electrodes were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy(SEM), X-ray diffraction(XRD) and characterized accordingly. Moreover, the light harvesting and absorption properties were investigated via ultraviolet–visible diffuse reflectance spectrum(DRS); photo degradation efficiency was investigated via analyzing the photo catalytic degradation of Rhodamine B under visible illumination(xenon light). The performed analyses illustrated that Pd-MnO_2 codoped particles were successfully deposited onto the surface of the TiO_2 nanotube arrays;DRS results showed significant improvement in visible light absorption which was between400 and 700 nm. Finally, the photo catalytic degradation efficiency results of the designated organic pollutant(Rhodamine B) illustrated a superior photocatalytic(PC) efficiency of approximately 95% compared to the bare TiO_2 NTAs, which only exhibited a photo catalytic degradation efficiency of approximately 61%, thus it indicated the significant enhancement of the light absorption properties of fabricated photo electrodes and their yield of UOH radicals.     

添加H2O2加速低合金钢海水腐蚀的主要影响因素研究

采用极化曲线、旋转圆盘电极试验和失重（质量损失）法研究了低合金钢在添加了H。o：的海水中腐蚀加速的主要影响因素。结果发现低合金钢在添加H2O2的海水中腐蚀加速主要受到了H2O2浓度、温度、搅拌速度和H2O2添加周期的影响。研究表明,搅拌速度不变、H2O2添加周期相同的条件下,在H2O2浓度为0．8mol／L的70℃海水中,低合金铜的腐蚀加速最显著;在试验的转速范围内,加速作用随搅拌速度增大变得更为显著;H2O2加入后350min内加速作用较明显。     

高浓度制药废水处理技术的研发及应用

制药废水组成复杂,污染物浓度高,污水CODcr浓度达10000mg/l,含有大量有毒、有害物质。本中采用催化氧化预处理+水解酸化+UASB+接触氧化+炭滤吸附的工艺流程,通过改善细部参数及改良配套设备设计,提高了各单元去除效率,降低了能耗及处理成本,出水CODcr浓度达到污水综合排放标准.     

水泥行业二氧化碳排放统计——以贵阳市为例

本文从水泥行业二氧化碳的排放统计出发,研究二氧化碳排放的重要影响因素、二氧化碳排放的指标体系,从而得出一套水泥行业二氧化碳排放统计的核算方法.以贵阳市为例,从三种不同活动水平的统计数据对水泥行业生产工艺过程中产生的CO2排放量进行估算比较,验证统计核算方法的有效性,为贵阳市乃至全国水泥行业CO2的减排提供一个可行的科学依据.     

电催化氧化法处理阳离子染料废水的试验研究

以结晶紫作为阳离子染料,采用电催化氧化法对阳离子染料溶液进行了电解脱色处理试验,研究了电流密度、电解质种类、电解质浓度、pH值等对该溶液脱色率的影响,测定了电解时溶液中生成的余氯浓度和溶液的紫外-可见吸收光谱曲线,并对不同电解时间的溶液的吸光度进行了归一化计算。结果表明:随着电解时间的延长,水溶液中活性氯浓度不断上升,经一定时间后达到最大值;在电催化和活性氯的协同作用下,阳离子染料结晶紫分子中的大π共轭体系被破坏、苯环结构基本瓦解,溶液快速脱色;在电流密度为5.1mA/cm2、NaCl浓度为4g/L、pH值为9.41的条件下,初始浓度为100mg/L的结晶紫溶液经过20min的电解,其脱色率可高达98.31%。     

Land use change and forestry climate project regional baselines: a review

Climate change programs have largely used the project-specific approach for estimating baseline emissions of climate mitigation projects. This approach is subjective, lacks transparency, can generate inconsistent baselines for similar projects, and is likely to have high transaction costs. The use of regional baselines, which partially addresses these issues, has been reported in the literature on forestry and agriculture projects, and in greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation program guidance for them (e.g., WRI/WBCSD GHG Project Protocol, USDOE’s 1605(b) registry, UNFCCC’s Clean Development Mechanism). This paper provides an assessment of project-specific and regional baselines approaches for key baseline tasks, using project and program examples. The regional experience to date is then synthesized into generic steps that are referred to as Stratified Regional Baselines (SRB). Regional approaches generally, and SRB in particular explicitly acknowledge the heterogeneity of carbon density, land use change, and other key baseline driver variables across a landscape. SRB focuses on providing guidance on how to stratify lands into parcels with relatively homogeneous characteristics to estimate conservative baselines within a GHG assessment boundary, by applying systematic methods to determine the boundary and time period for input data.