The project's objective is to support JRC IPTS in revising the existing Ecolabel and GPP criteria of personal computers and notebook computers. The priority in this revision process is to first analyse which of the existing criteria and the supporting evidence are still valid and to identify the additional research that should be carried out. Potential additional criteria can be developed, if identified as necessary in the course of the study. The study starts with a definition of the scope; the necessarity for new or revised Ecolabel and GPP criteria is based on a market analysis and a technical analysis with research on the most significant environmental impacts during the whole life cycle of the products. This also includes the application of a consistent methodological approach regarding the hazardous substances criteria. Based on these findings, the improvement potential will be derived resulting in a proposal for a revised Ecolabel and GPP criteria set for desktop and notebook computers which will be discussed in a European stakeholder process.
The project's objective is to support JRC IPTS in revising the existing Ecolabel and GPP criteria of televisions. The priority in this revision process is to first analyse which of the existing criteria and the supporting evidence are still valid and to identify the additional research that should be carried out. Potential additional criteria can be developed, if identified as necessary in the course of the study. The study starts with a definition of the scope; the necessarity for new or revised Ecolabel and GPP criteria is based on a market analysis and a technical analysis with research on the most significant environmental impacts during the whole life cycle of the products. This also includes the application of a consistent methodological approach regarding the hazardous substances criteria. Based on these findings, the improvement potential will be derived resulting in a proposal for a revised Ecolabel and GPP criteria set for televisions which will be discussed in a European stakeholder process.
The COMTES project has as goal to develop and demonstrate three novel systems for compact seasonal storage of solar thermal energy. These systems will contribute to the EU 20-20-20 targets by covering a larger share of the domestic energy demand with solar thermal energy. Main objective of COMTES is to develop and demonstrate systems for seasonal storage that are significantly better than water based systems. The three technologies are covered in COMTES by three parallel development lines: solid sorption, liquid sorption and supercooling PCM. Strength of this approach is the collaboration of three development groups in activities that pertain to the analyses, methods and techniques that concern all technologies, without risking the exchange of confidential material. In this way, the development is much more effective than in three separate projects. The project starts with a definition of system boundary conditions and target applications. Next comes the investigation of the best available storage materials. Detailed numerical modelling of the physical processes, backed by experimental validations, will lead to optimum component design. Full-scale prototypes are simulated, constructed and tested in the laboratory in order to optimize process design. One year of fully monitored operation in demonstration buildings is followed by an integrated evaluation of the systems and their potential. When deemed successful, the involved industry partners will pick up the developed storage concepts and bring them further to a commercial level. The COMTES project is a cooperation of key scientific institutions active in the above mentioned heat storage technologies. For the first time, all relevant research disciplines are covered in an international effort. For each development line, a top-Ieading industry partner contributes its know-how and experience, providing the basis for further industrial development and exploitation of project results.
The aim of the current research is to identify regional sources and trans-boundary flow leading to the observed salinity of Lake Tiberias (LT) -also known as the Sea of Galilee or Lake Kinneret-, and its surroundings, which is considered the only natural surface fresh water reservoir of the area. The current study will include all sources of brines in the Tiberias Basin (TB) with specific emphasis of the relationship between the brines from the Ha'on and Tiberias Regions (HTR).The tasks will be achieved by a multidisciplinary approach involving: (i) numerical modelling of density-driven flow processes (i.e., coupled heat and dissolution of evaporites), (ii) hydrochemical studies, supplemented by investigations of subsurface structures.(i) Numerical modelling will be carried out by applying the commercial software FEFLOW® (WASY, GmbH) complemented with the open source code OpenGeoSys developed at the UFZ of Leipzig (Wang et al., 2009). The final goal is to build a 3D regional-scale model of density-driven flow that will result in: (1) revealing the different interactions between fresh groundwater and natural salinity sources (2) elucidate the driving mechanisms of natural brines and brackish water body's movements.(ii) Hydrochemical study will include major, minor and, if possible, rare earth elements (REE) as well as isotope studies. The samples will be analysed at the FU Berlin and UFZ Halle laboratories. Geochemical data interpretation and inverse modelling will be supported by PHREEQC. Hydrochemical field investigations will be carried out in Tiberias basin and its enclosing heights, i.e. the Golan, Eastern Galilee and northern Ajloun in order to search for indications of the presence of deep, relic saline groundwater infested by the inferred Ha'on mother-brine. The current approaches will be supplemented by seismic and statistical data analysis as well as GIS software applications for the definition of the subsurface structures. The key research challenges are: building a 3D structural model of selected regions of TB, adapting both structural and hydrochemical data to the numerical requirements of the model; calibrating the 3D regional-scale model with observational data. The results of this work are expected to establish suitable water-management strategies for the exploitation of freshwater from the lake and from the adjacent aquifers while reducing salinization processes induced by both local and regional brines.
ADAMANT is an ambitious professorship program aimed at understanding and modeling, at a coherent level of detail, coupled Alpine environmental processes in the mountain, piedmont and lowland. The hypothesis is that such an understanding will provides fundamental insights to the (non-traditional) use of water in the riparian ecosystem, and therefore explain why and how changes in river hydrology due to water impoundment will affect the riparian biodiversity across space and time scales. These points define the research objectives targeted by ADAMANT: 1. The assessment of the origin and the role of nonlinearities in the routing dynamics of glacierized basins, and related linkages to the probabilistic behaviour of equilibrium snowlines; 2. The experimental definition of (objective) benefit functions for the use of water by the riparian environment in relation to the statistical effects of both floods and moderate flows; 3. The (analytical and numerical) solution to the optimal water allocation problem between traditional and non-traditional water uses under changing scenarios such climatic, economic, operational. The project ADAMANT will accordingly be carried out in 3 interconnected research modules involving 2 Ph.D's and one Postdoc. The work foreseen in ADAMANT will account for field monitoring campaigns and experiments, linear and nonlinear data analysis, and modelling of the above said mountain, piedmont and lowland processes. In particular, the mathematical modelling approach will be of minimalist type whenever a fully physically based (distributed) approach is precluded or not convenient to reproduce statistically significant long-term scenarios. In this manner, overparametrization due to excessive model complexity will be avoided on the one hand, and the model will remain mathematically tractable for the possible search of elegant analytical solutions, on the other hand. ADAMANT research goals are particularly interesting in a time when energy production from hydropower is still among the most used techniques, especially in glacierized basins of alpine countries. From a practical viewpoint ADAMANT will help define new operational rules and guidelines for Environmental Flow Requirements. Overall, this project will provide an integrated and sustainable water management study in impounded alpine riparian ecosystems, and in harmony with present and future countrywide plans of river restoration and renaturalization strategies.
In this project energy scenarios up to the year 2030 representing economic trends and impacts of climate and energy policies are developed. These provide a basis for the reporting duties 'monitoring mechanism' of the Federal Environmental Agency regarding the UNFCCC. For this purpose the dynamic econometric Input-Output (DEIO) model of the WIFO is used. lt represents energy demands of 59 NACE 2-digit sectors, and the household sector in relations to energy prices, technical and socio-demographic variables such as stock of dwellings and energy efficiency explaining economic developments. The DEIQ model is linked to three partial bottom-up models of other research groups, which describe the heating system, electricity demand and power generation and the transport sector. Scenario results are presented according to the template of the aggregated energy balance of Statistics Austria with regard to 1. the reference, with-measures (WM) scenario, 2. a sensitivity analysis to the reference scenario, and 3. a climate and energy policy scenario (with additional-measures, WAM) with 4. a sensitivity analysis 10 the WAM scenario. The WM scenario is based on recent WIFO economic forecasts and focuses on the impacts of the economic crisis on energy demand. The WAM scenario is based on the Austrian Energy Strategy, reflecting the targets of the final energy consumption (1,100 PJ p.a.), the share of renewable energy according to the definition of the EU climate and energy package (34 percent) and the reduction of greenhouse gases by 16 percent within the EU 'effort sharing.
Objectives: The project aims on developing a dry CO2 capture system for atmospheric and pressurized fluidized bed boilers. The atmospheric option will be developed towards a pilot plant application. For the pressurized option the project seeks for a proof of principle to determine if the advantages of a pressurized capture system can balance the problems known from existing PFBC systems. The quantifiable objectives are: - Low CO2 capture costs (less than 20 Euro/t for atmospheric, less than 12 Euro/t for pressurized sy stems) - Acceptable efficiency penalty for CO2 capture (less than about equal to 6 percent nel). - greater than 90 percent carbon capture for new power plants and greater than 60 percent for retrofitted existing plants - A purge gas stream containing greater than 95 percent CO2 - A solid purge usable for cement production - Sim ultaneous sulphur and CO2 removal with sulphur recovery option Approach: Limestone is a CO2 carrier. The CO2 can be released easily in a conventional calcination process, well known in the cement and lime industry. By integrating a closed carbonation/calc ination loop in the flue gas of a conventional CFB-boiler, the CO2 in the flue gas can be removed. The heat required for calcination is released during carbonation and can be utilised efficiently (high temperature) in the steam cycle of the boiler. Concent rated CO2 can be generated when using oxygen blown calcination. Because the fuel required for supplying heat for calcination is only a fraction of the total fuel requirements, the required oxygen is only about 1/3 of the oxygen required for oxyfuel process es. The work programme: 1.Definition of the technical and economic boundary conditions 2.Selection and improvement of sorbent materials 3.Lab scale and semi-technical scale process development (experimental work) 4.Technical and economic evaluation 5.Des ign of a 1 MWth Pilot plant.
The project aims at clarifying the vulnerability of adult beech trees, growing under Central-European stand conditions, to the tropospheric, chronic ozone (O3) impact. O3 as being part of 'Global Change may constrain the carbon sink strength of trees under the expected atmospheric CO2 enrichment. A novel 'Free-Air Canopy O3 Exposure' system, creating an experimentally enhanced O3regime within the canopy (relative to 'control' trees in unchanged air), is employed for analyzing O3-induced responses that are relevant for the carbon balance and CO2 demand of the trees. For relating tree performance to effective O3 doses rather than O3 exposure, the O3 flux concept into leaves will be examined and validated against AOT40. Response patterns will be assessed, integrating the cell, organ and whole-tree level, while making use of molecular, biochemical and ecophysiological methodologies. In addition, branch cuvette fumigations and exposure of young beech plants inside the stand canopy will validate the ecological significance of former O3 studies in phytotrons, open-top chambers or on single branches in tree crowns. Evidence will be incorporated into mechanistic modeling for scaling to the stand level and quantifying O3 impact for 'Global Change' scenarios. This process-oriented risk assessment will guide environmental policy making. The objective is to assess the vulnerability of adult beech trees to the ground level, chronic O3 impact by employing a novel 'Free-Air Canopy O3 Exposure' system that experimentally enhances the O3 exposure within the forest canopy. Ozone is viewed as one component in 'Global Change' scenarios in that it may mitigate the supposed increases in productivity under elevated CO2 conditions by reducing the carbon sink strength of trees and forests. This issue is regarded relevant, as recent experiments suggest such an antagonistic interaction between ozone and CO2 in plant performance. Prognoses indicate further increase in chronic, ground level O3 exposure to occur during the 21st century across the northern hemisphere, and deficits in knowledge are still significant, in particular regarding the responsiveness of advanced tree age and current O3 threshold definitions like AOT40. (...) The major outcome of this study will be the elaboration of a database needed for the management of trees and stands under the chronic, enhanced ground level O3 regimes. This includes mechanistic knowledge regarding threshold definitions of O3 flux (uptake) rather than exposure. The most important relevance of the elaborated results will be for the UNECE Level II and III concepts about 'Critical Levels for Ozone and the UNECE ICP-Forests. In particular, impacts on practical development strategies will be (1) evaluation tools to assess modifications of the CO2 sink strength of forests due to additional impacts, in the present case ozone (cf. Kyoto protocols) and (2) quantification of factors modifying the O3 effect on adult beech forest trees, Etc.
The MSY concept was included as a principle in the 2009 Green Paper on the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in accordance with the global imperative to manage fish stocks according to the maximum sustainable yield (MSY). This implies a commitment to direct management of fish stocks towards achieving MSY by 2015. Attaining this goal is complicated by the lack of common agreement on the interpretation of 'sustainability' and 'yield' and by the effects that achieving MSY for one stock may have on other stocks and broader ecosystem, economic, or social aspects. MYFISH will provide definitions of MSY variants which maximize other measures of 'yield' than biomass and which account for the fact that single species rarely exist in isolation. Further, MYFISH will redefine the term 'sustainable' to signify that Good Environmental Status (MSFD) is achieved and economically and socially unacceptable situations are avoided, all with acceptable levels of risk. In short, MYFISH aims at integrating the MSY concept with the overarching principals of the CFP: the precautionary and the ecosystem approach. MYFISH will achieve this objective through addressing fisheries in all RAC areas and integrating stakeholders (the fishing industry, NGOs and managers) throughout the project. Existing ecosystem and fisheries models will be modified to perform maximization of stakeholder approved yield measures while ensuring acceptable impact levels on ecosystem, economic and social aspects. Implementation plans are proposed and social aspects addressed through active involvement of stakeholders. Finally, effects of changes in environment, economy and society on MSY variants are considered, aiming at procedures rendering the MSY approach robust to such changes. The expertise of 26 partners from relevant disciplines including fisheries, ecosystem, economic and social science are involved in all aspects of the project. Global experience is engaged from North America and the South Pacific.
Das Projekt ist getragen von der Vision der 'Integrierten Verbundproduktion auf Basis nachwachsender Rohstoffe' und der durchgängigen Entwicklung vom Labor- bis zum Produktionsmaßstab. Dieser Ansatz ist neuartig und wurde bisher noch nicht realisiert. Die durchgängige Entwicklung von Prozessen und Verfahren zur Nutzung nachwachsender Rohstoffe vom Labor- bis zum Produktionsmaßstab in einer Bioraffinerie ist ein entscheidender Faktor für die erfolgreiche Umsetzung des vorgeschlagenen Konzeptes. AP7.1: Erfassung der ökonomischen und ökologischen Kenngrößen der Rohstoffbereitstellung. AP7.2: Definition der Systemgrenzen der Teilprozesse sowie der vier Produktlinien. AP7.3: Erfassung der Stoff- und Energieströme mit einem Stoffflussanalysewerkzeug. AP7.4: Ökonomische, ökologische und soziale Bewertung der Teilprozesse. AP7.5: Produktbewertung. Für das Institut für Industriebetriebslehre und Industrielle Produktion (IIP) der Universität Karlsruhe (TH) stellen die Ergebnisse des Vorhabens einen wichtigen Schritt zur Entwicklung eines in sich geschlossenen Instrumentariums zur ökonomischen, ökologischen und sozialen Bewertung von Nutzungskonzepten von Biomasse sowohl aus Prozess- als auch aus Produktsicht dar. Die entwickelten und angepassten Methoden und Werkzeuge können auf weitere Produkte und Prozesse zur Nutzung von Biomasse übertragen werden. Darüber hinaus werden die methodischen Ergebnisse in wissenschaftlichen und industriellen Fachzeitschriften publiziert und finden Eingang in die Lehre des Institutes.
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