Proposed as a response to the increasing global need for environmental protection, a green port balances economic vibrancy and environmental protection. However, because exhaust emissions (e.g., CO2 or sulfide) are difficult to monitor in and around ports, data on such emissions are often incomplete, which hinders research on this topic. To remedy this problem, this study aimed to formulate a method for collecting CO2 emissions data at their source; this method was applied to collect real-world operating data from a large container-handling company in Taiwan. Specifically, to account for undesirable outputs, we formulated a method that combines (1) data envelopment analysis based on a modified slack-based measure and (2) a multichoice goal programming approach. We found that rubber-tired gantry cranes are the greenest and should be used. Our findings aid port managers in selecting port equipment that best balances between environmental protection and profitability.

Energy demand and consumption in recent times have witnessed a rapid proliferation influenced by technological developments, increased population and economic growth. This has fuelled research trends in the domain of energy management employing tri-generation systems such as the combined cooling, heating and power (CCHP) systems. Furthermore, the incorporation of renewable energy, especially solar energy, to complement the thermal input by fossil fuels has facilitated the effectiveness and sustainability of CCHP systems. This study proposes a new approach to improve the overall efficiency of CCHP systems and compute the optimal design parameters in order to assist decision makers to identify the best geometrical configuration. A multi-objective optimization formulation of a solar-assisted CCHP system was adopted to maximize the net power, the exergy efficiency and minimize the CO2 emission using the greywolf optimization technique. In addition, the effects of the decision variables on the objective functions were analysed. The proposed optimization approach yielded 100 set of Pareto optimal solutions which would serve as options to the decision maker to make a selection in order to improve the performance of a solar-assisted CCHP system. This study demonstrates that the proposed approach is potentially suitable for the optimization of a solar-assisted CCHP system.

rdinary people and political leaders must know the sources of greenhouse gas emissions and their effect on global climate change before they have ability to make decisions to reduce emissions and increase sinks of these gases. These people must, however, understand where greenhouse gas emissions are formed and how reductions can be made: they must understand where carbon dioxide sinks are and how to preserve or increase these sinks. North Savo is the example used in this work to describe the present emissions and sinks. There are proposals on what should and could be done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by traffic, heating, forests and agriculture. There are possibilities of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases in traffic and heating in spite of the fact that the province has a low population density with long distances between homes and workplaces and schools, and a cold climate. We believe that research will also find solutions for reducing greenhouse gases and protecting waters, which are used for recreational purposes and for raw water of drinking water in many places. Luckily forests cover large areas of North Savo and their growth is an important carbon dioxide sink. In addition, forest soils serve as a valuable storage of carbon. Besides carbon dioxide emissions, emissions of nitrous oxide and methane must also be considered since they are more potent greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide and land use can thus influence these gas emissions.

This study aims to suggest a basis for the selection of technologies for developing high-performance buildings to reduce energy consumptions and greenhouse gas emissions. Energy-saving technologies comprising of 15 cases were categorized into passive, active, and renewable energy systems. EnergyPlus v8.8 was used to analyze the contribution of each technology in reducing the primary energy consumptions and CO₂ emissions in the Korean climate. The primary energy consumptions of the base model were 464.1 and 485.1 kWh/m²a in the Incheon and Jeju, respectively, and the CO₂ emissions were 83.4 and 87.4 kgCO₂/m²a, respectively. Each technology (cases 1–15) provided different energy-saving contributions in the Korean climate depending on their characteristics. The heating, cooling, and other energy-saving contributions of each technology indicate that their saving rates can be used when selecting suitable technologies during the cooling and heating seasons. Case 15 (active chilled beam with dedicated outdoor air system + ground source heat pump) showed the highest energy saving rate. In case 15, the Incheon and Jeju models were reduced by 189.4 (59.2%) and 206.2 kWh/m²a (57.4%) compared to the base case, respectively, and the CO₂ emissions were reduced by up to 32.7 (60.8%) and 35.6 kgCO₂/m²a (59.3%), respectively.

We report on the occurrence of natural Magnesium Alumina Silicate Hydrate (M-(A)-S-H) cement at Feragen and Leka in eastern and western Trøndelag Norway, respectively. Both occurrences are located in the sub-arctic climate zone and form in glacial till and moraine material deposited on ultramafic rock during the Weichselian glaciation. Weathering of serpentinized peridotite dissolve brucite and result in a relative high pH alkaline fluid that subsequently reacts with the felsic minerals of the till (quartz, plagioclase, K-feldspar) to form a cement consisting of an amorphous material or a mixture of nanocrystalline Mg-rich phyllosilicates, including illite. The presence of plagioclase in the till results in the enrichment of alumina in the cement, i.e., forms M-A-S-H instead of the M-S-H cement. Dissolution of quartz results in numerous etch-pits and negative quartz crystals filled with M-A-S-H cement. Where the quartz dissolution is faster that the cement precipitation, a honeycomb-like texture is formed. Compositionally the cemented till (tillite) contains more MgO and has a higher loss of ignition than the till, suggesting that the cement is formed by a MgO fluid that previously reacted with the peridotite. The M-(A)-S-H cemented till represent a new type of duricrust, coined magsilcrete. The study of natural Mg-cement provides information on peridotites as a Mg-source for Mg-cement and as a feedstock for CO2 sequestration.

As novel materials for carbon capture, phase change solvents can separate into two immiscible phases during the CO2 capturing procedure under a certain temperature. The solvent systems can significantly decrease the energy consumption since the solvents can be regenerated by only heating the rich-CO2 phase. In this work, amino acid ionic liquids (AAILs) were synthesized using quaternary ammonium salts and amino acids as raw materials, and the aqueous solutions were prepared as novel liquid-solid phase change solvents. The results showed that the solvents had excellent CO2 absorption capacity, and the AAILs functionalized by glycine and tryptophan exhibited significant phase change properties. The mechanism of phase-change of the solvent were mainly due to the lower solubility of the product after reaction between AAILs and CO2. The solvent with tryptophan as anion could be regenerated by only heating the CO2-riched solid phase, which might significantly decrease energy consumption of regeneration. And the absorbent could be reused with the regenerated absorption ratio up to 79%. The solvent system has great potential in industrial application due to the easy operation process and efficient recycling ability.

The current economic development paradigm, which is based on steadily rising resource consumption and pollution emissions, is no longer viable in a world with limited resources and ecological capacity. The "green economy" idea has presented this context with a chance to alter how society handles the interplay between the environmental and economic spheres. The related concept of "green nanotechnology" aims to use nano-innovations within the fields of materials science and engineering to generate products and processes that are economically and ecologically sustainable, enabling society to establish and preserve a green economy. Many different economic sectors are anticipated to be impacted by these applications, including those related to corrosion inhibitor nano fertilizers, nano remediation, biodegradation, heavy metal detection, biofuel, insecticides & pesticides, and catalytic CO2 reduction. These innovations might make it possible to use non-traditional water sources safely and to create construction materials that are enabled by nanotechnology, improving living and ecological conditions. Therefore, our aim is to highlight how nanotechnology is being used in the green economy and to present promises for nano applications in this domain. Additionally, we want to critically examine the practical difficulties these applications raise, especially in consideration of any possible implications for the health and safety of those employed within this innovative sector. In the end, it emphasizes how critical it is to attain a really sustainable advancement in nanotechnology.

One of the most important pieces of equipment used in labs in culturing populations of fruit flies (Drosophila sp.) is that of the “CO₂ gas plate”, which is used to anesthesize individuals during “fly-pushing”. This piece of equipment consists of a box with a porous top into which carbon-dioxide is pumped. Flies placed on its surface are left immobilized, permitting the sorting, categorizing and/or counting of flies during population culturing and experimental assays. Unfortunately, commercially available gas plates are typically expensive. Here, we describe a new design for a gas plate that can be easily produced using a 3D printer and a laser cutter, which we are making freely available to the fly community.

Shared public buildings have become centers of innovation, integrating advanced technologies to meet evolving societal needs. With a heightened emphasis on occupants’ health and well-being, these buildings serve as hubs for technological convergence, facilitating seamless connectivity and intelligent data analysis and management. Within this context, environmental monitoring emerges as a foundational element, pivotal to all aspects of building management. This article provides findings from the nationally funded RE-START project, which focuses on shared public buildings, with special regard to educational and medical facilities. The project explores enhanced indoor air quality monitoring, focusing in particular on CO2 concentration that is directly correlated with occupancy, as a fundamental element for developing health and safety protocols, energy efficiency strategies, integration of smart building technologies, and data-driven energy management. The intersection of environmental monitoring, energy efficiency, security, and IoT technologies in in indoor spaces are relevant. The outcomes of the study reveal the delicate nature of all the involved components, that need to be carefully developed in an integrated manner.

Human-caused anthropogenic greenhouse emissions impact climate globally. In this pilot study, we aim to reveal the impact of oil and gas emissions from local oil deposits in the regime of their natural degradation and development and eco-physiological changes of pine forests in Tatarstan Republic, Russia over the past century. We performed stable carbon isotope analysis in pine tree rings (13Cptrw) to reveal the impact of oil and gas emissions from the giant oil field reservoirs located in Leninogorsk region (UVRT) and the natural reserve site in Raifa. Our results show decreasing 13Cptrw at UVRT in 1943 when oil extraction was started, and in 1970, when it reached the maximum production. We found that 13Cptrw from UVRT indicates on developing unfavourable drier conditions and suppressed tree growth caused by both human-induced oil and deposit infrastructure and natural processes compared to undisturbed Raifa. The 13Cptrw from Raifa is more negative compared to UVRT, which can be explained by higher forest sensitivity to human-induced impact. From an ecophysiological point of view decreasing intercellular to ambient CO2 concentration at the leaf level and increasing intrinsic water use efficiency along with decreasing tree-ring width at UVRT (1970-2021) indicate on development of drought conditions.

This article presents and discusses analytical data on the scientific publication record from 1910 to 2020 on two topics: "climate" and "climate change/global warming/climate emergency". The goal is to visualize how the publication record on these two topics has evolved over time, from different classification perspectives (year, country, source and organization). Three hypotheses are tested using data collected from Web of Science and various graphical representations of the data. It is found that research output related to the Earth’s contemporary changing climate overtook that of general climate research in 2011, and the publication ratio has been expanding in the last decade. There are significant differences in the publication countries and sources between the two topics, and conversely less significant differences in terms of organizations publishing these works. Differentiation factors that affect the level of research output and engagement on the climate challenge include: island versus landlocked nations, specialized versus general scientific journals, academic versus institutional organizations. The future of the publication records is discussed, such as the emergence of new terms to refer to the climate challenge, such as “climate emergency”.

A testable hypothesis with quantitative predictions is put forward, proposing that strong acids produced on land are a major cause of increasing atmospheric pCO2. Our modelling analysis of reactions by dissolved inorganic carbon shows that increasing atmospheric CO2 could be caused thermodynamically by falling land surface pH values. This hypothesis challenges the imbalance assumed between the global uptake of CO2 by photosynthesis and emissions of CO2 from all sources, including the combustion of fossil fuels. Strong acids generated by oxygen from reduced nitrogen and sulphur emits CO2 almost stoichiometrically from dissolved bicarbonate in the pH range of most global soils from pH 6.5 to above 8. Each general decrease of aqueous pH value of 0.01 units from acidification of surface water potentially increases the pCO2 in the atmosphere by about 7 ppmv. Contrary to prevailing assumptions that CO2 emissions from combusting fossil fuels can remain in the atmosphere for more than a millennium, such emissions may be partly nullified by global greening from enhanced rates of photosynthesis as well as oceanic absorption. The surface pH value of the ocean has been shown to decrease as atmospheric pCO2 rises. Therefore, our qualitative estimates of increasing atmospheric CO2 driven by irreversible acidification on land are critical and need broad scale validation. To the extent that significant acidification of the land is occurring, through export of alkaline produce, the use of artificial nitrogen fertilisation and possible other causes, the prevailing methods of reducing CO2 emissions will fail. However, these acidifying processes on land have not been considered by previous biogeochemical reviews. Despite counter measures, including carbon capture and geological storage, the increasing Keeling curve for pCO2 may continue to rise because zero carbon policies do not address such a major cause. This hypothesis can be tested by in situ experiments in neutral soils and water, designed to compare CO2 emissions under the acidifying conditions described in this article with those when corrective counter measures are applied.

We investigated fault gases (helium, radon, CO₂) in two seismically active Cenozoic sedimentary environments: a) Meinweg (in 2015) at a tectonically quiet horst structure in the Lower Rhine Embayment and b) Bodanrück (in 2012; Lake of Constance) at the Molasse Basin and part of the Freiburg–Bonndorf–Bodensee Fault Zone (FBBFZ). Both study areas were selected because recent “GeoBio-Interactions” findings showed, that red wood ants (RWA) are biological indicators of otherwise undetected degassing systems. A total of 817 soil gas samples was analyzed. Currently, Meinweg can be considered “no ants land” due to the very low background-level geogas concentrations. Thus, anomalies (Rn-CO₂) weakly trending in NE-SW extension direction emerged. This could probably indicate the onset of (re)activation of the NE-SW trending (Variscan) structures or the development of new fractures as an aftershock process of the 1992 Roermond earthquake that occurred about 15 km to the west. Results at Bodanrück (3 RWA clusters and two RWA-free corridors) revealed degassing patterns in NW-SE and NNE-SSW directions in the clusters corresponding to re-activated and recent strike-slip fault systems. No gas anomalies were found in RWA-free corridors. The RWA nest distribution was shown to be a valuable tool for identifying areas of even actively degassing spotty anomalies caused by macro- and microscale brittle deformation masked by sediment cover.

High temperature (HT) geothermal wells can provide green power 24h a day 7 days a week. Harsh environmental and operational conditions, long-term durability requirements of such wells require special cementitious composites for well construction. This paper reports a comprehensive assessment of geothermal cement composites in cyclic pressure function laboratory tests, field exposures in an HT geothermal well (300-350oC) as well as a numerical model to complement the experimental results. Performances of calcium-aluminate-cement (CAC)-based composites and calcium free cement were compared against reference Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC)/silica blend. The stability and degradation of the tested materials was characterized by crystalline composition, thermo-gravimetric, and elemental analyses, morphological studies, water-fillable porosity, and mechanical properties measurements. All CAC-based formulations outperformed the reference blend both in the function and exposure tests. The reference OPC/silica lost its mechanical properties during the 9-month well exposure through extensive HT carbonation, while properties of the CAC-based blends improved over that period. The Modified Cam-Clay (MCC) plasticity parameters of several HT cement formulations were extracted from triaxial and Brazilian tests and verified against the experimental results of function cyclic tests. These parameters can be used in well integrity models to predict field-scale behavior of the cement sheath under geothermal well conditions.