1,721,055 research outputs found
Life cycle assessment of ocean liming for carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere
No full textThe world's oceans are an important part of the global carbon cycle, having already absorbed one-quarter of the anthropogenic carbon emissions, however, at the expense of surface ocean acidity, which has increased around 30% since the Industrial Revolution, affecting marine ecosystems. Ocean liming, whereby particulate calcium oxide or, more likely, hydroxide is spread to surface ocean waters can address, at least partly, both the need for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and ocean acidification. While the idea was proposed almost three decades ago, previous studies have focused on techno-economic feasibility but not on environmental sustainability. Life cycle assessment revealed that limestone calcination is the main environmental hotspot followed by the capture and storage of the calcination CO2 emissions. Mining, comminution, and hydration had a small impact, while results were sensitive to the kiln technology, fuel type, electricity mix, and transportation. Differences between the carbon and environmental footprint highlight that multi-issue life cycle impact assessment methods may be more appropriate when assessing CDR rather than only using carbon balances. Clean and energy efficient kilns (e.g., solar calciners) and the use of renewable energy optimize the system's environmental performance (total carbon and environmental footprint −1031 kgCO2eq and −15.1 Pt per ton of lime spread in the ocean, respectively). The valorisation of the CO2 emissions from limestone calcination, e.g., for fuels, chemicals, or plastics production, could potentially further improve ocean liming's environmental profile, through avoided emissions, however net removal would depend on the longevity of the use. Results imply that CO2 removal at the Gt yr.−1 scale can be achieved, however more research is required on the biological and ecological implications of this CDR approach.</p
Potential of Maritime Transport for Ocean Liming and Atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> Removal
No full textProposals to increase ocean alkalinity may make an important contribution to meeting climate change net emission targets, while also helping to ameliorate the effects of ocean acidification. However, the practical feasibility of spreading large amounts of alkaline materials in the seawater is poorly understood. In this study, the potential of discharging calcium hydroxide (slaked lime, SL) using existing maritime transport is evaluated, at the global scale and for the Mediterranean Sea. The potential discharge of SL from existing vessels depends on many factors, mainly their number and load capacity, the distance traveled along the route, the frequency of reloading, and the discharge rate. The latter may be constrained by the localized pH increase in the wake of the ship, which could be detrimental for marine ecosystems. Based on maritime traffic data from the International Maritime Organization for bulk carriers and container ships, and assuming low discharge rates and 15% of the deadweight capacity dedicated for SL transport, the maximum SL potential discharge from all active vessels worldwide is estimated to be between 1.7 and 4.0 Gt/year. For the Mediterranean Sea, based on detailed maritime traffic data, a potential discharge of about 186 Mt/year is estimated. The discharge using a fleet of 1,000 new dedicated ships has also been discussed, with a potential distribution of 1.3 Gt/year. Using average literature values of CO2 removal per unit of SL added to the sea, the global potential of CO2 removal from SL discharge by existing or new ships is estimated at several Gt/year, depending on the discharge rate. Since the potential impacts of SL discharge on the marine environment in the ships' wake limits the rate at which SL can be applied, an overview of methodologies for the assessment of SL concentration in the wake of the ships is presented. A first assessment performed with a three-dimensional non-reactive and a one-dimensional reactive fluid dynamic model simulating the shrinking of particle radii, shows that low discharge rates of a SL slurry lead to pH variations of about 1 unit for a duration of just a few minutes.</p
Mineral carbonation in soils : engineering the soil carbon sink
Full text linkRapid anthropogenic climate change is one of the greatest challenges that human civilisation will face in the 21st century. A 25-180 % increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide content since the early 1800’s and a predicted increase of 2-3% each year will lead to a 2-6°C rise in tropospheric temperatures. The consequences of increased atmospheric temperatures are profound and would put unsustainable strain on human infrastructure, which was conservatively estimated in the Stern Review (2006) to cost approximately 20% of GDP. Given the political, technical, economic and social barriers preventing the transition to a low carbon economy, there is an unequivocal need to research ‘geoengineering’ technologies that can bridge the gap between carbon emission reduction targets and actual emissions. Soil mineral carbonation is one such technology. The atmosphere is one of the smallest carbon pools at the Earth’s Surface (depending on how each pool is demarcated). Soils turn over the quantity of carbon in the atmosphere in under a decade and collectively form one of the largest carbon pools (3-4 times the quantity of carbon in the atmosphere). Land use change since the agricultural revolution has released 256 GtC (40 % of anthropogenic emissions). Research investigating the potential for carbon accumulation in soils is primarily focused on restoring organic carbon concentration to pre-agricultural values through modification of farming practices. The research presented in this thesis is the first that explores the potential of increasing the inorganic carbon pool as an emissions mitigation technology. Inorganic carbon accumulation is promoted by introducing divalent cation rich (predominantly calcium and magnesium) silicate and hydroxide minerals into the soil, which weather and supersaturate the soil solution with respect to carbonate minerals (predominantly calcite, aragonite, magnesite and dolomite). The carbon in the resultant precipitate is derived from the atmosphere. This is analogous to mineral carbonation technologies which induce carbonate precipitation from silicate weathering in industrial scale reactors at elevated temperatures and pressures. However, carbonation in soil exploits natural weathering processes to the same effect with minimal energy and infrastructure input. The research presented in this thesis broadly investigates soil mineral carbonation by contributing work towards the fundamental issues associated with application of soil mineral carbonation technology. Research activity described herein covers a range of laboratory batch weathering experiments, field work, geochemical modelling, plant growth trials, soil microcosm experiments and literature reviews. While eclectic, all work packages contribute to the same goal of describing the efficacy, effectiveness and potential impacts of soil mineral carbonation. The efficacy of mineral carbonation technology is primarily limited by the availability of appropriate silicate bearing material. A literature search suggests that approximately 15-16 Gt a- 1 of silicate rich ‘waste’ materials are produced as a consequence of human activity. This has a carbon capture potential between 190 and 332 MtC a-1, which is equivalent to other emissions mitigation strategies. Quarrying silicate specifically for carbonation is a suggested strategy that may be able to store on the order of 102 GtC a-1 (based on two sites in the US). Therefore, mineral carbonation may form part of global mitigation strategies collectively equivalent to 14 GtC a-1 to stabilise the CO2 concentration of the atmosphere at 500 parts per million by volume. Considering that the potential capacity of soil mineral carbonation is sufficient to act as a substantial emissions mitigation strategy it was appropriate to investigate issues associated with the application of such a technology. In the first instance, sites known to contain silicates were investigated. These include soils developed on natural silicates (on the Whin Sill in Northumberland), construction and demolition waste (at a brownfield site and waste transfer stations) and slag (at a former steelworks). Interpretation of fieldwork results suggests that inorganic carbon accumulation is rapid (up to 38 gC kg-1(soil) a-1), and is orders of magnitude xxv greater than organic carbon accumulation in natural soils. The average concentration of inorganic carbon (20-30 Kg m-3) is equivalent to organic carbon in natural soils. The unusually light carbon and oxygen isotope ratios of the carbonate (-3.1 ‰ and -27.5 ‰ for δ13C and -3.9 ‰ and -20.9 ‰ for δ18O) were used to determine that up to 55% of the carbon was derived from the atmosphere. The rate of carbon capture, which is the same as the precipitation rate of carbonate, is a function of solution chemistry. The more supersaturated a solution is with respect to a carbonate mineral, the more rapid the precipitation rate. Saturation of a solution is a function of divalent cation and carbonate anion concentration. Therefore, the supply of each of these components was investigated in laboratory experiments. Batch weathering experiments were used to investigate the supply of calcium from artificial silicates (hydrated cement gel). Up to 70-80 % of the calcium contained in the mineral was removed, which is consistent with efficiencies reported for conventional mineral carbonation. The log rate of weathering was between -10.66 and -6.86 mol Ca cm-2 sec-1, which is several orders of magnitude greater than that usually reported for natural silicates. Microcosm experiments were conducted to investigate the rate of supply of carbonate from the organic carbon mineralisation in high pH solutions. The research clearly demonstrates that high pH solutions inhibit the breakdown of organic carbon as a function of nutrient supply. Where organic carbon was successfully mineralised the log rates (-3.4 mmol g-1(field moist soil) sec-1) were equivalent to that found in previous studies. While the influx of dissolved carbonate mineral components into the soil solution is the primary controlling step in the rate of carbon accumulation, there is a complex relationship between soil physical properties and geochemistry. This was highlighted in a numerical model that was constructed for this thesis, which suggests that soil pore volume and particle size distribution are important variables. An additional numerical model was constructed to investigate the transportation of silicate material to the application site. This model suggests that an economics of soil mineral carbonation is a function of transport costs, the value of the silicate material and the price of carbon. Field observations, growth trials, microcosm experiments and previous research suggest a complex interaction between biology, weathering and carbonate precipitation. Additional work is required to investigate carbonate precipitation mediated by plant and microorganism activity and the degree to which soil mixed with silicates impact on ecosystem functioning. This research has demonstrated that mineral carbonation in soils could form a substantial emissions mitigation strategy, but additional work is required in a number of areas to which this thesis provides a suitable foundation.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Global carbon dioxide removal potential of waste materials from metal and diamond mining
Full text linkThere is growing urgency for CO2 removal strategies to slow the increase of, and potentially lower, atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Enhanced weathering, whereby the natural reactions between CO2 and silicate minerals that produce dissolved bicarbonate ions are accelerated, has the potential to remove substantial CO2 on decadal to centennial timescales. The global mining industry produces huge volumes of fine wastes that could be utilised as feedstock for enhanced weathering. We have compiled a global database of the enhanced weathering potential of mined metal and diamond commodity tailings from silicate-hosted deposits. Our data indicate that all deposit types, notably mafic and ultramafic rock-hosted operations and high tonnage Cu-hosting deposits, have the potential to capture ~1.1–4.5 Gt CO2 annually, between 31 and 125% of the industry's primary emissions. However, current knowledge suggests that dissolution rates of many minerals are relatively slow, such that only a fraction (~3–21%) of this potential may be realised on timescales of <50 years. Field trials in mine settings are urgently needed and, if this prediction is confirmed, then methodologies for accelerating weathering reactions will need to be developed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
The negative emission potential of alkaline materials
Full text link7 billion tonnes of alkaline materials are produced globally each year as a product or by-product of industrial activity. The aqueous dissolution of these materials creates high pH solutions that dissolves CO2 to store carbon in the form of solid carbonate minerals or dissolved bicarbonate ions. Here we show that these materials have a carbon dioxide storage potential of 2.9-8.5 billion tonnes per year by 2100, and may contribute a substantial proportion of the negative emissions required to limit global temperature change to <2 °C.</p
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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