Impact of climate change on agriculture in Northern Norway and potential strategies for adaptation

This study evaluates the effects of climate change on agriculture in Northern Norway. It is based on downscaled climate projections for six different municipalities combined with interviews with farmers, advisors and administrative personnel in these municipalities. The projections document large climatic differences both between and within the different municipalities. The main predicted climatic changes include increasing temperatures and precipitation as well as increased frequency of certain types of extreme weather events. Despite challenges such as unstable winters, increased autumn precipitation and possibly more weeds and diseases, a prolongation of the current short growth season together with higher growth temperatures can give new opportunities for agriculture here. The impacts are expected to differ both within and between municipalities and will require tailored adaptive strategies. Most of these however should pose no difficulty implementing, having an agronomical basis that farmers are accustomed to cope with.     

Carbon capture and sequestration versus carbon capture utilisation and storage for enhanced oil recovery

There are 74 integrated carbon capture projects worldwide currently listed by the Global CCS Institute, including the few already running and those still at the identification, evaluation, definition or execution stage for operation by 2018. Significant funding programmes have recently been launched by the European Commission (NER300 in November 2011) and by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (CCS Commercialisation Programme in April 2012) for commercial demonstration projects leading to innovation across the CCS/CCUS technology chain to reduce energy system costs. In their calls for proposals, these programmes were open to both CCS and CCUS projects. However, there are significant technical and commercial differences between projects for enhanced oil recovery and those for permanent storage of carbon dioxide in saline aquifers or in depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs, the same way that there exist more complexities and limitations for offshore implementation. Such differences are accompanied by different levels of field verification of the various storage and utilisation concepts, with permanent sequestration having only a more recent history and smaller-scale implementation. In this scenario, the need for appropriate due diligence workflows and screening criteria to assess the technical viability and the deliverability of different CCS/CCUS projects remains crucial, vis-à-vis the high component costs, efficiency penalties, reservoir uncertainties and the many challenges related to full chain integration (from carbon dioxide capture to underground sequestration). Based on information in the public domain, this paper reviews the current status of offshore CCS/CCUS implementation worldwide and discusses screening criteria for use by governments, operators and investors alike.     

鄂尔多斯盆地侏罗纪煤的煤岩特征及成因分析

鄂尔多斯盆地侏罗系发育多层厚煤层,煤质优良,储量巨大,且构造简单,埋深较浅,具有很大的开采价值。该岩系独特的煤岩特征与其成煤沼泽环境有密切联系,即内陆湖泊发育有关的河流体系上部的一系列高位沼泽;泥炭埋藏后继续经历不同程度的氧化阶段,使得煤岩组分中惰性组分含量普遍偏高,而镜质组分普遍经受一定程度的丝炭化作用而成为半镜质体。研究表明盆地中侏罗系煤系中煤的宏观煤岩主要以半暗煤和暗淡煤为主,半亮煤和光亮煤占次要地位;在盆地边缘,特别是靠近盆地北部物源地区,半暗煤、暗淡煤含量比例较高,往南向盆地中心部位半亮煤和光亮煤逐渐增多,表明沉积环境和成煤沼泽环境对煤岩组分具有主要控制作用;含煤岩系中,特别是煤层下部砂岩越厚,颗粒越粗,显微煤岩组分中丝质体含量越高,而且其结构完整、清晰,半镜质体含量也越高,植物细胞结构越完整和规则。埋藏后顶底板岩性还会继续影响煤岩组分的演化过程。煤层顶底板砂体由于物性条件好,孔隙水仍可长时间处于氧化与循环流通状态,使得各煤岩组分能长时间处于氧化状态,有利于丝炭化作用进行;相反,在盆地中心,湖泊相发育,泥炭被埋藏之后迅速被泥岩覆盖,煤层很快处于还原缺氧环境,凝胶化作用得以充分进行,镜质组的含量就会增高。研究还发现,壳质组常常在煤层中的某一部位富集,虽然整个煤层中其平均含量不高,但是却对煤层的总体生烃能力会有很大贡献。以往的研究成果中,壳质组含量常常被低估,尤其是呈流动状态的沥青质体,因为它最容易流动到刚性比较强的丝质体内部或各种裂隙中而常常被忽略,在以后的研究中值得加以重视。