Origin,discovery, exploration and development status and prospect of global natural hydrogen under the background of “carbon neutrality”

Global energy structure is experiencing the third transition from fossil energy to non-fossil energy, to solve future energy problems, cope with climate change, and achieve net-zero emissions targets by 2050. Hydrogen is considered to be the most potential clean energy in this century under the background of carbon neutrality. At present, the industrial methods for producing hydrogen are mainly by steam-hydrocarbon (such as coal and natural gas) reforming and by electrolysis of water, while the exploration and development of natural hydrogen had just started. According to this literature review: (1) Natural hydrogen can be divided into three categories, including free hydrogen, hydrogen in inclusions and dissolved hydrogen; (2) natural hydrogen could be mainly from abiotic origins such as by deep-seated hydrogen generation, water-rock reaction or water radiolysis; (3) natural hydrogen is widely distributed and presents great potential, and the potential natural hydrogen sources excluding deep source of hydrogen is about (254±91)×10⁹ m³/a according to a latest estimate; (4) at present, natural hydrogen has been mined in Mali, and the exploration and development of natural hydrogen has also been carried out in Australia, Brazil, the United States and some European countries, to find many favorable areas and test some technical methods for natural hydrogen exploration. Natural hydrogen is expected to be an important part of hydrogen energy production in the future energy pattern. Based on a thorough literature review, this study introduced the origin, classification, and global discovery of natural hydrogen, as well as summarized the current global status and discussed the possibility of natural hydrogen exploration and development, aiming to provide reference for the future natural hydrogen exploration and development.©2022 China Geology Editorial Office.     

基于多源多时相遥感数据的秋季菜田监测与分析——以北京市大兴区为例

根据北方蔬菜种植生育期特点,选择7~8月份的高分1号(GF1)融合影像、10月份的16 m宽覆盖的GF1影像以及8月份Rapid Eye融合影像,结合耕地本底数据开展提取秋季菜田信息的技术流程研究,并对2013年和2014年大兴区秋季菜田进行了动态监测,同时结合气象等数据分析其时空分布规律和变化原因。     

Concentrations of railway metal theft and the locations of scrap-metal dealers

Metal theft has become a substantial crime problem in many areas. In response, several countries have introduced legislation to regulate scrap-metal recycling yards. However, at present there is little evidence to support this use of the market reduction approach (MRA) in preventing metal theft. The present study sought to test the underlying assumption of the MRA that the presence of a market for stolen property (in this case provided by scrap yards) drives thefts in a local area. This study tested for a spatial association between the locations of scrap yards and those of metal thefts. The density of industry, local burglary rate and road-accessibility of an area were controlled for. Metal thefts from railway lines in England were shown to be significantly more common in areas with more scrap-metal yards, high road accessibility and high population density. The results support the use of the MRA in relation to metal theft.     

Testing smarter control and feedback with users: Time,temperature and space in household heating preferences and practices in a Living Laboratory

Transitioning to more efficient and less carbon-intensive heating is a monumental policy challenge in the United Kingdom. However, very few households in the UK—and perhaps even elsewhere—have actual experience with state-of-the-art smart heating systems that may utilize enhanced control or feedback. Drawing from a unique sample of actual adopters of smart heating, this study closely examines the heating preferences, practices, and profiles of homes when they are given smarter heating systems. The study utilizes qualitative household data from the Energy System Catapult’s Living Laboratory of 100 smart homes in Birmingham (West Midlands), Bridgend (Wales), Manchester (Greater Manchester), and Newcastle (Northumberland). We examine the heating preferences and profiles of participants, with findings inductively organized around the themes of temperature, including tradeoffs between comfort, cost, and value; time, including the utility of heat scheduling; and space, including zonal heating controls. We also discuss patterns of learning, the emergence of environmental values, and issues of discomfort. We conclude by commenting on important distinctions between radiant and ambient heat, as well as between scheduled and on-demand heat. The main findings are 1) tradeoffs between comfort, value and cost occur when it comes to smart heating; 2) people want different numbers of warm hours in their homes at very different times; 3) households chose to heat different numbers of rooms; and 4) there are other non-monetary and non-functional aspects of smart heating that households value.     

气候变化对天津市不同节能水平建筑制冷采暖能耗的影响

利用天津市地面气象观测站1961—2017年逐小时观测资料,通过TRNSYS软件,对不同节能水平办公建筑供热和制冷能耗,以及居住建筑供热能耗进行动态模拟,定量评估了气候变化对天津市不同节能水平建筑能耗的影响。结果表明：在供暖期和制冷期,温度均呈现显著上升的趋势,而太阳辐射则呈现下降的趋势,受其影响,1961—2017年办公和居住建筑供热能耗呈现显著下降的趋势,制冷能耗呈现微弱的上升趋势,但气候变化对供热能耗的影响要明显强于制冷能耗;随着建筑节能水平的提升,供热和制冷能耗均有一定程度的下降,其中供热能耗的降幅尤为明显,四步节能居住建筑相比于一步到三步节能居住建筑,供热能耗分别下降了53.56%、50.13%和21.25%。对新建建筑及既有建筑的节能改造,应充分考虑不同节能水平对建筑能耗的影响,结合实际需求酌情进行升级改造。除此之外,建筑节能水平的提升,会使其供热和制冷能耗变化量随温度的上升而减小,说明其对气候变化的敏感性在逐渐减弱。因此,提高建筑节能水平,可以更好的应对气候变化,保证其在未来的使用中耗能更低。     

Alternative climate policy pathways in the US

Although it is likely that the political–economic coalition required for implementing a federal cap-and-trade programme for GHGs in the US is now sufficiently strong, the structural impediments that have prevented its legislative passage remain impressively durable and can be expected to continue to lay waste to congressional proposals for the foreseeable future. Indeed, given the complex history of environmental policy gridlock in Washington since the early 1980s, any expectations that a cap-and-trade programme could have been realistically achieved through the traditional legislative passage in Congress are fundamentally misplaced. Building on previous research, it is argued that – as with most other forms of environmental policy in the US over the past three decades – a national carbon market is more plausible given alternative policy pathways, which if taken are capable of circumventing the Federal Congress altogether. In particular, the interaction between litigation against the federal government and the ‘rulemaking’ authority possessed by the Executive Branch provides the potential space for the current administration to unilaterally establish a model rule for a national carbon-trading programme.

Policy relevance

This article aims to contribute to American climate policy debates by re-thinking the policy mechanisms most capable of establishing a national carbon market in the US. By taking into account the array of structural factors that have prevented the legislative passage of such a programme in federal Congress, a range of alternative policy ‘pathways’ is considered that have historically allowed progressive environmental policies to endure in Washington (despite increased Congressional gridlock over the past few decades). Two specific alternative strategies and the relationship between them are assessed: the use of litigation to impose legal obligations on federal agencies to regulate effluents, and the use of executive authority to define the nature and scope of environmental regulation. The administration's current potential to unilaterally develop a model-rule for a cap-and-trade programme under the Clean Air Act is emphasized, and the political implications of such a strategy are considered.     

Domestic actions contributing to the mitigation of GHG emissions from power generation in Brazil

Abstract

Continued growth and the privatisation of Brazil's electricity system, which is largely based upon hydropower, is projected to lead to big expansion mainly of natural gas but also coal power stations with a resulting huge growth in greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions unless steps are taken to avoid this. The Brazilian National Program of Power Conservation and Efficient Use of Electrical Energy in terms of avoided GHG emissions (PROCEL), originally created in 1985, is a multi-stakeholder program coordinated by Eletrobrás aimed to reduce the waste of electrical power on both supply and demand side. Initially crippled by lack of funds, a new finance structure introduced in 1994 has greatly increased PROCEL's impact. Here we develop scenarios that suggest that continued expansion of PROCEL's programme, including resources that might be drawn through clean development mechanism (CDM) projects, to meet projected PROCEL targets over the next two decades could avoid approximately one-third of the GHG emissions from the Brazilian power sector. This contribution demonstrates the significant global environmental benefits of PROCEL in addition to national benefits of this innovative programme.     

Sectoral targets for developing countries: combining ‘common but differentiated re-sponsibilities’ with ‘meaningful participation’

Although a global cap-and-trade system is seen by many researchers as the most cost-efficient solution to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the governments of developing countries refuse to enter into such a system in the short term. Many scholars and stakeholders, including the European Commission, have thus proposed various types of commitments for developing countries that appear less stringent, such as sectoral approaches. A macroeconomic assessment of such a sectoral approach is provided for developing countries. Two policy scenarios in particular are assessed, in which developed countries continue with Kyoto-type absolute commitments, while developing countries adopt an emissions trading system limited to electricity generation and linked to developed countries' cap-and-trade systems. In the first scenario, CO₂ allowances are auctioned by the government, which distributes its revenues as a lump sum to households. In a second scenario, the auction revenues are used to reduce taxes on, or to give subsidies to, electricity generation. The quantitative analysis, conducted with a hybrid general equilibrium model, shows that such options provide almost as much emissions reduction as a global cap-and-trade system. Moreover, in the second sectoral scenario, GDP losses in developing countries are much lower than with a global cap-and-trade system, as is also the effect on the electricity price.     

Evaluation and forecasting of daily groundwater outflow in a small chalky watershed

The purpose of this research is to include expert knowledge as one part of the modelling system and therefore offer the chance to create a productive interaction system between expert, mathematical model (MMO8) and artificial neural networks (ANNs). In the present project, the first objective is to determine some parameters by the MMO8 model, introduced as ANN input parameters to forecast spring outflow. The second objective is first to investigate the effect of temporal information by taking current and past data sets and then to forecast spring outflow. The good results obtained reveal the merit of the ANNs–MMO8 combination, and specifically multilayer perceptron (MLP) models. This methodology, for a network with lower, lag and number hidden layer, consistently produced better performance. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Strong triple interactions in the general three-body problem

Strong three-body interactions play a decisive role in the course of the dynamical evolution of triple systems having positive as well as negative total energies. These interactions may produce qualitative changes in the relative motions of the components. In triple systems with positive or zero total energies the processes of formation, disruption or exchange of the components of binaries take place as the result of close approaches of the three single bodies or as the result of the passages of single bodies past wide or hard binaries. In the triple systems with negative energies, the strong triple interactions may result in an escape from the system as well as a formation of a hard final binary. This paper summarizes the general results of the studies of the strong three-body interactions in the triple systems with positive and negative energies. These studies were conducted at the Leningrad University Observatory by computer simulations during 1968–1989.