1.
Stirling engine
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More specifically, the Stirling engine is a closed-cycle regenerative heat engine with a permanently gaseous working fluid. The inclusion of a regenerator differentiates the Stirling engine from other closed cycle hot air engines, originally conceived in 1816 as an industrial prime mover to rival the steam engine, its practical use was largely confined to low-power domestic applications for over a century. Stirling engines have a high efficiency compared to engines, being able to reach 50% efficiency. They are also capable of operation and can use almost any heat source. The heat energy source is generated external to the Stirling engine rather than by internal combustion as with the Otto cycle or Diesel cycle engines. This type of engine is generating interest as the core component of micro combined heat and power units, in which it is more efficient. However, it has a low ratio, rendering it more suitable for use in static installations where space. This contrasts with a combustion engine where heat input is by combustion of a fuel within the body of the working fluid. Most of the many possible implementations of the Stirling engine fall into the category of reciprocating piston engine, the Stirling engine was invented and patented by Robert Stirling in 1816. It followed earlier attempts at making an air engine but was probably the first put to use when, in 1818. The main subject of Stirlings original patent was a heat exchanger, the patent also described in detail the employment of one form of the economiser in his unique closed-cycle air engine design in which application it is now generally known as a regenerator. These generally operated at lower temperatures so as not to tax available materials and their selling point was that, unlike a steam engine, they could be operated safely by anybody capable of managing a fire. Several types remained in production beyond the end of the century, during the early part of the twentieth century the role of the Stirling engine as a domestic motor was gradually taken over by electric motors and small internal combustion engines. By the late 1930s, it was forgotten, only produced for toys. Around that time, Philips was seeking to expand sales of its radios into parts of the world where grid electricity and batteries were not consistently available. After a systematic comparison of various prime movers, the decided to go forward with the Stirling engine, citing its quiet operation. By 1951, the 180/200 W generator set designated MP1002CA was ready for production and a batch of 250 was planned. Additionally, the advent of transistor radios and their lower power requirements meant that the original rationale for the set was disappearing
2.
Renewable energy
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Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources, which are naturally replenished on a human timescale, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat. Renewable energy often provides energy in four important areas, electricity generation, air and water heating/cooling, transportation, based on REN21s 2016 report, renewables contributed 19. 2% to humans global energy consumption and 23. 7% to their generation of electricity in 2014 and 2015, respectively. This energy consumption is divided as 8. 9% coming from biomass,4. 2% as heat energy,3. 9% hydro electricity and 2. 2% is electricity from wind, solar, geothermal. Worldwide investments in renewable technologies amounted to more than US$286 billion in 2015, with countries like China, globally, there are an estimated 7.7 million jobs associated with the renewable energy industries, with solar photovoltaics being the largest renewable employer. As of 2015 worldwide, more than half of all new electricity capacity installed was renewable, Renewable energy resources exist over wide geographical areas, in contrast to other energy sources, which are concentrated in a limited number of countries. Rapid deployment of energy and energy efficiency is resulting in significant energy security, climate change mitigation. In international public opinion there is strong support for promoting renewable sources such as solar power. At the national level, at least 30 nations around the already have renewable energy contributing more than 20 percent of energy supply. National renewable energy markets are projected to continue to grow strongly in the coming decade, for example, in Denmark the government decided to switch the total energy supply to 100% renewable energy by 2050. While many renewable energy projects are large-scale, renewable technologies are also suited to rural and remote areas and developing countries, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that renewable energy has the ability to lift the poorest nations to new levels of prosperity. Renewable energy systems are becoming more efficient and cheaper. Their share of energy consumption is increasing. Growth in consumption of coal and oil could end by 2020 due to increased uptake of renewables, in its various forms, it derives directly from the sun, or from heat generated deep within the earth. Included in the definition is electricity and heat generated from solar, wind, ocean, hydropower, biomass, geothermal resources, rapid deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency, and technological diversification of energy sources, would result in significant energy security and economic benefits. New government spending, regulation and policies helped the industry weather the financial crisis better than many other sectors. As of 2011, small solar PV systems provide electricity to a few million households, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that renewable energy has the ability to lift the poorest nations to new levels of prosperity. At the national level, at least 30 nations around the already have renewable energy contributing more than 20% of energy supply. Some countries have much higher long-term policy targets of up to 100% renewables, outside Europe, a diverse group of 20 or more other countries target renewable energy shares in the 2020–2030 time frame that range from 10% to 50%
3.
Biofuel
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Biofuels can be derived directly from plants, or indirectly from agricultural, commercial, domestic, and/or industrial wastes. Renewable biofuels generally involve contemporary carbon fixation, such as those that occur in plants or microalgae through the process of photosynthesis, other renewable biofuels are made through the use or conversion of biomass. This biomass can be converted to convenient energy-containing substances in three different ways, thermal conversion, chemical conversion, and biochemical conversion and this biomass conversion can result in fuel in solid, liquid, or gas form. This new biomass can also be used directly for biofuels, bioethanol is an alcohol made by fermentation, mostly from carbohydrates produced in sugar or starch crops such as corn, sugarcane, or sweet sorghum. Cellulosic biomass, derived from sources, such as trees and grasses, is also being developed as a feedstock for ethanol production. Ethanol can be used as a fuel for vehicles in its pure form, bioethanol is widely used in the USA and in Brazil. Current plant design does not provide for converting the portion of plant raw materials to fuel components by fermentation. Biodiesel is produced from oils or fats using transesterification and is the most common biofuel in Europe, in 2010, worldwide biofuel production reached 105 billion liters, up 17% from 2009, and biofuels provided 2. 7% of the worlds fuels for road transport. Global ethanol fuel production reached 86 billion liters in 2010, with the United States and Brazil as the top producers. The worlds largest biodiesel producer is the European Union, accounting for 53% of all production in 2010. As of 2011, mandates for blending biofuels exist in 31 countries at the national level, the International Energy Agency has a goal for biofuels to meet more than a quarter of world demand for transportation fuels by 2050 to reduce dependence on petroleum and coal. The production of biofuels also led into an automotive industry. There are various social, economic, environmental and technical issues relating to production and use. Most transportation fuels are liquids, because vehicles usually require high energy density and this occurs naturally in liquids and solids. High energy density can also be provided by a combustion engine. The fuels that are easiest to burn cleanly are typically liquids, thus, liquids meet the requirements of being both energy-dense and clean-burning. In addition, liquids can be pumped, which means handling is easily mechanized, first-generation or conventional biofuels are made from sugar, starch, or vegetable oil. Biobutanol is often claimed to provide a replacement for gasoline
4.
Biomass
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Biomass is an industry term for getting energy by burning wood, and other organic matter. It has become popular among power stations, which switch from coal to biomass to comply with the law. Biomass most often refers to plants or plant-based materials that are not used for food or feed, as an energy source, biomass can either be used directly via combustion to produce heat, or indirectly after converting it to various forms of biofuel. Conversion of biomass to biofuel can be achieved by different methods which are classified into, thermal, chemical. Historically, humans have harnessed biomass-derived energy since the time people began burning wood to make fire. Even today, biomass is the source of fuel for domestic use in many developing countries. Biomass is all biologically-produced matter based in carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, the estimated biomass production in the world is 104.9 petagrams of carbon per year, about half in the ocean and half on land. Wood remains the largest biomass energy source today, examples include forest residues, yard clippings, wood chips, wood energy is derived by using lignocellulosic biomass as fuel. Harvested wood may be used directly as a fuel or collected from waste streams to be processed into pellet fuel or other forms of fuels. The largest source of energy from wood is pulping liquor or black liquor, in the second sense, biomass includes plant or animal matter that can be converted into fibers or other industrial chemicals, including biofuels. Based on the source of biomass, biofuels are classified broadly into two major categories, first-generation biofuels are derived from sources such as sugarcane and corn starch. Sugars present in this biomass are fermented to produce bioethanol, a fuel which can be used directly in a fuel cell to produce electricity or serve as an additive to gasoline. However, utilizing food-based resources for production only aggravates the food shortage problem. Second-generation biofuels, on the hand, utilize non-food-based biomass sources such as agriculture. These biofuels mostly consist of lignocellulosic biomass, which is not edible and is a waste for many industries. Despite being the alternative, economical production of second-generation biofuel is not yet achieved due to technological issues. These issues arise due to chemical inertness and structural rigidity of lignocellulosic biomass. Plant energy is produced by crops grown for use as fuel that offer high biomass output per hectare with low input energy
5.
Biogas
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Biogas typically refers to a mixture of different gases produced by the breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. Biogas can be produced from raw materials such as waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage. Biogas is an energy source and in many cases exerts a very small carbon footprint. Biogas can be produced by digestion with anaerobic organisms, which digest material inside a closed system. Biogas is primarily methane and carbon dioxide and may have small amounts of sulfide, moisture. The gases methane, hydrogen, and carbon monoxide can be combusted or oxidized with oxygen and this energy release allows biogas to be used as a fuel, it can be used for any heating purpose, such as cooking. It can also be used in a gas engine to convert the energy in the gas into electricity, Biogas can be compressed, the same way natural gas is compressed to CNG, and used to power motor vehicles. In the UK, for example, biogas is estimated to have the potential to replace around 17% of vehicle fuel and it qualifies for renewable energy subsidies in some parts of the world. Biogas can be cleaned and upgraded to natural gas standards, when it becomes bio-methane, Biogas is considered to be a renewable resource because its production-and-use cycle is continuous, and it generates no net carbon dioxide. Organic material grows, is converted and used and then regrows in a repeating cycle. From a carbon perspective, as carbon dioxide is absorbed from the atmosphere in the growth of the primary bio-resource as is released when the material is ultimately converted to energy. A biogas plant is the name given to an anaerobic digester that treats farm wastes or energy crops. It can be produced using anaerobic digesters and these plants can be fed with energy crops such as maize silage or biodegradable wastes including sewage sludge and food waste. During the process, the microorganisms transform biomass waste into biogas, other internal combustion engines such as gas turbines are suitable for the conversion of biogas into both electricity and heat. The digestate is the inorganic matter that was not transformed into biogas. It can be used as an agricultural fertiliser, there are two key processes, mesophilic and thermophilic digestion which is dependent on temperature. The dangers of biogas are mostly similar to those of natural gas, Biogas can be explosive when mixed in the ratio of one part biogas to 8-20 parts air. Special safety precautions have to be taken for entering an empty biogas digester for maintenance work and it is important that a biogas system never has negative pressure as this could cause an explosion
6.
Geothermal energy
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Geothermal energy is heat energy generated and stored in the Earth. Thermal energy is the energy determines the temperature of matter. The geothermal energy of the Earths crust originates from the formation of the planet. The adjective geothermal originates from the Greek roots γη, meaning earth, Earths internal heat is thermal energy generated from radioactive decay and continual heat loss from Earths formation. Temperatures at the boundary may reach over 4000 °C. Rock and water is heated in the crust, sometimes up to 370 °C, from hot springs, geothermal energy has been used for bathing since Paleolithic times and for space heating since ancient Roman times, but it is now better known for electricity generation. Worldwide,11,700 megawatts of power is online in 2013. An additional 28 gigawatts of geothermal heating capacity is installed for district heating, space heating, spas, industrial processes, desalination. Geothermal power is cost-effective, reliable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly, recent technological advances have dramatically expanded the range and size of viable resources, especially for applications such as home heating, opening a potential for widespread exploitation. Geothermal wells release greenhouse gases trapped deep within the earth, as a result, geothermal power has the potential to help mitigate global warming if widely deployed in place of fossil fuels. The Earths geothermal resources are more than adequate to supply humanitys energy needs. Drilling and exploration for resources is very expensive. Forecasts for the future of geothermal power depend on assumptions about technology, energy prices, subsidies, plate boundary movement, pilot programs like EWEBs customer opt in Green Power Program show that customers would be willing to pay a little more for a renewable energy source like geothermal. But as a result of government assisted research and industry experience, in 2001, geothermal energy costs between two and ten US cents per kWh. Hot springs have been used for bathing at least since Paleolithic times, the oldest known spa is a stone pool on Chinas Lisan mountain built in the Qin Dynasty in the 3rd century BC, at the same site where the Huaqing Chi palace was later built. In the first century AD, Romans conquered Aquae Sulis, now Bath, Somerset, England, the admission fees for these baths probably represent the first commercial use of geothermal power. The worlds oldest geothermal district heating system in Chaudes-Aigues, France, has been operating since the 14th century, the earliest industrial exploitation began in 1827 with the use of geyser steam to extract boric acid from volcanic mud in Larderello, Italy. In 1892, Americas first district heating system in Boise, Idaho was powered directly by geothermal energy, and was copied in Klamath Falls, Oregon in 1900
7.
Hydropower
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Hydropower or water power is power derived from the energy of falling water or fast running water, which may be harnessed for useful purposes. A trompe, which compressed air from falling water, is sometimes used to power other machinery at a distance. In the late 19th century, hydropower became a source for generating electricity, cragside in Northumberland was the first house powered by hydroelectricity in 1878 and the first commercial hydroelectric power plant was built at Niagara Falls in 1879. In 1881, street lamps in the city of Niagara Falls were powered by hydropower, since the early 20th century, the term has been used almost exclusively in conjunction with the modern development of hydroelectric power. In China and the rest of the Far East, hydraulically operated pot wheel pumps raised water into crop or irrigation canals, the power of a wave of water released from a tank was used for extraction of metal ores in a method known as hushing. The method was first used at the Dolaucothi Gold Mines in Wales from 75 AD onwards, hushing was also widely used in Britain in the Medieval and later periods to extract lead and tin ores. It later evolved into hydraulic mining when used during the California Gold Rush and these include an endless belt with jugs attached, a cow-powered shadoof, and a reciprocating device with hinged valves. In 1753, French engineer Bernard Forest de Bélidor published Architecture Hydraulique which described vertical-, the growing demand for the Industrial Revolution would drive development as well. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, water was the source of power for new inventions such as Richard Arkwrights water frame. In the 1830s, at the peak in US canal-building, hydropower provided the energy to transport barge traffic up. Technological advances had moved the water wheel into an enclosed turbine or water motor. Francis, while working as engineer of Lowells Locks and Canals company. He applied scientific principles and testing methods to the problem of turbine design and his mathematical and graphical calculation methods allowed confident design of high efficiency turbines to exactly match a sites specific flow conditions. The Francis reaction turbine is still in use today. Hydraulic power networks used pipes to carrying pressurized water and transmit power from the source to end users. The power source was normally a head of water, which could also be assisted by a pump and these were extensive in Victorian cities in the United Kingdom. A hydraulic power network was developed in Geneva, Switzerland. The world-famous Jet dEau was originally designed as the relief valve for the network
8.
Solar energy
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Active solar techniques include the use of photovoltaic systems, concentrated solar power and solar water heating to harness the energy. Passive solar techniques include orienting a building to the Sun, selecting materials with favorable thermal mass or light-dispersing properties, the large magnitude of solar energy available makes it a highly appealing source of electricity. The United Nations Development Programme in its 2000 World Energy Assessment found that the potential of solar energy was 1. This is several times larger than the world energy consumption. In 2011, the International Energy Agency said that the development of affordable, inexhaustible, hence the additional costs of the incentives for early deployment should be considered learning investments, they must be wisely spent and need to be widely shared. The Earth receives 174,000 terawatts of incoming solar radiation at the upper atmosphere, approximately 30% is reflected back to space while the rest is absorbed by clouds, oceans and land masses. The spectrum of light at the Earths surface is mostly spread across the visible. Most of the population live in areas with insolation levels of 150-300 watts/m². Solar radiation is absorbed by the Earths land surface, oceans – which cover about 71% of the globe –, warm air containing evaporated water from the oceans rises, causing atmospheric circulation or convection. When the air reaches an altitude, where the temperature is low, water vapor condenses into clouds. The latent heat of water condensation amplifies convection, producing atmospheric phenomena such as wind, sunlight absorbed by the oceans and land masses keeps the surface at an average temperature of 14 °C. By photosynthesis, green plants convert solar energy into stored energy, which produces food, wood. The total solar energy absorbed by Earths atmosphere, oceans and land masses is approximately 3,850,000 exajoules per year, in 2002, this was more energy in one hour than the world used in one year. Photosynthesis captures approximately 3,000 EJ per year in biomass, geography affects solar energy potential because areas that are closer to the equator have a greater amount of solar radiation. However, the use of photovoltaics that can follow the position of the sun can significantly increase the energy potential in areas that are farther from the equator. Time variation effects the potential of energy because during the nighttime there is little solar radiation on the surface of the Earth for solar panels to absorb. This limits the amount of energy that solar panels can absorb in one day, cloud cover can affect the potential of solar panels because clouds block incoming light from the sun and reduce the light available for solar cells. In addition, land availability has an effect on the available solar energy because solar panels can only be set up on land that is otherwise unused
9.
Tidal power
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Tidal power or tidal energy is a form of hydropower that converts the energy obtained from tides into useful forms of power, mainly electricity. Although not yet used, tidal power has potential for future electricity generation. Tides are more predictable than wind energy and solar power, historically, tide mills have been used both in Europe and on the Atlantic coast of North America. The incoming water was contained in large ponds, and as the tide went out. The earliest occurrences date from the Middle Ages, or even from Roman times, the process of using falling water and spinning turbines to create electricity was introduced in the U. S. and Europe in the 19th century. The worlds first large-scale tidal power plant was the Rance Tidal Power Station in France and it was the largest tidal power station in terms of output until Sihwa Lake Tidal Power Station opened in South Korea in August,2011. The Sihwa station uses sea wall defense barriers complete with 10 turbines generating 254 MW, Tidal power is taken from the Earths oceanic tides. Tidal forces are periodic variations in gravitational attraction exerted by celestial bodies and these forces create corresponding motions or currents in the worlds oceans. Due to the attraction to the oceans, a bulge in the water level is created. When the sea level is raised, water from the middle of the ocean is forced to move toward the shorelines and this occurrence takes place in an unfailing manner, due to the consistent pattern of the moon’s orbit around the earth. Tidal power is the technology that draws on energy inherent in the orbital characteristics of the Earth–Moon system. Other natural energies exploited by human technology originate directly or indirectly with the Sun, including fuel, conventional hydroelectric, wind, biofuel, wave. A tidal generator converts the energy of tidal flows into electricity, greater tidal variation and higher tidal current velocities can dramatically increase the potential of a site for tidal electricity generation. This loss of energy has caused the rotation of the Earth to slow in the 4.5 billion years since its formation. During the last 620 million years the period of rotation of the earth has increased from 21.9 hours to 24 hours, while tidal power will take additional energy from the system, the effect is negligible and would only be noticed over millions of years. Some tidal generators can be built into the structures of existing bridges or are entirely submersed, land constrictions such as straits or inlets can create high velocities at specific sites, which can be captured with the use of turbines. These turbines can be horizontal, vertical, open, or ducted, Tidal barrages make use of the potential energy in the difference in height between high and low tides. When using tidal barrages to generate power, the energy from a tide is seized through strategic placement of specialized dams
10.
Wave power
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Wave power is the transport of energy by wind waves, and the capture of that energy to do useful work – for example, electricity generation, water desalination, or the pumping of water. A machine able to exploit wave power is known as a wave energy converter. Wave power is distinct from the flux of tidal power. Wave-power generation is not currently a widely employed commercial technology, although there have been attempts to use it since at least 1890, in 2008, the first experimental wave farm was opened in Portugal, at the Aguçadoura Wave Park. Waves are generated by passing over the surface of the sea. As long as the waves propagate slower than the speed just above the waves. Wave height is determined by speed, the duration of time the wind has been blowing, fetch and by the depth. A given wind speed has a practical limit over which time or distance will not produce larger waves. When this limit has been reached the sea is said to be fully developed, in general, larger waves are more powerful but wave power is also determined by wave speed, wavelength, and water density. Oscillatory motion is highest at the surface and diminishes exponentially with depth, however, for standing waves near a reflecting coast, wave energy is also present as pressure oscillations at great depth, producing microseisms. These pressure fluctuations at greater depth are too small to be interesting from the point of view of wave power, the waves propagate on the ocean surface, and the wave energy is also transported horizontally with the group velocity. The mean transport rate of the energy through a vertical plane of unit width. The above formula states that power is proportional to the wave energy period. When the significant wave height is given in metres, and the period in seconds. Example, Consider moderate ocean swells, in water, a few km off a coastline, with a wave height of 3 m. Using the formula to solve for power, we get P ≈0.5 kW m 3 ⋅ s 2 ≈36 kW m, in major storms, the largest waves offshore are about 15 meters high and have a period of about 15 seconds. According to the formula, such waves carry about 1.7 MW of power across each metre of wavefront. An effective wave power device captures as much as possible of the energy flux
11.
Wind power
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Wind power is the use of air flow through wind turbines to mechanically power generators for electric power. The net effects on the environment are far less problematic than those of power sources. Wind farms consist of individual wind turbines which are connected to the electric power transmission network. Onshore wind is a source of electric power, competitive with or in many places cheaper than coal or gas plants. Offshore wind is steadier and stronger than on land, and offshore farms have less visual impact, small onshore wind farms can feed some energy into the grid or provide electric power to isolated off-grid locations. Wind power gives variable power which is consistent from year to year. It is therefore used in conjunction with other power sources to give a reliable supply. As the proportion of power in a region increases, a need to upgrade the grid. In addition, weather forecasting permits the power network to be readied for the predictable variations in production that occur. As of 2015, Denmark generates 40% of its power from wind. In 2014 global wind power capacity expanded 16% to 369,553 MW, yearly wind energy production is also growing rapidly and has reached around 4% of worldwide electric power usage,11. 4% in the EU. Wind power has been used as long as humans have put sails into the wind, for more than two millennia wind-powered machines have ground grain and pumped water. Wind power was available and not confined to the banks of fast-flowing streams, or later. Wind-powered pumps drained the polders of the Netherlands, and in regions such as the American mid-west or the Australian outback, wind pumps provided water for live stock. The first windmill used for the production of power was built in Scotland in July 1887 by Prof James Blyth of Andersons College. Blyth offered the surplus power to the people of Marykirk for lighting the main street, however. The Brush wind turbine had a rotor 17 metres in diameter and was mounted on an 18 metres tower, although large by todays standards, the machine was only rated at 12 kW. The connected dynamo was used either to charge a bank of batteries or to operate up to 100 incandescent light bulbs, with the development of electric power, wind power found new applications in lighting buildings remote from centrally-generated power
12.
100% renewable energy
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Shifting the total global primary energy supply to renewable sources requires a transition of the energy system. Renewable energy use has grown faster than even advocates anticipated. The most important sector is electricity with a share of 22. 8%, most of it coming from hydropower with a share of 16. 6%. There are many places around the world with grids that are run almost exclusively on renewable energy, at the national level, at least 30 nations already have renewable energy contributing more than 20% of the energy supply. Professors S. Pacala and Robert H. Mark Z, barriers to implementing the renewable energy plan are seen to be primarily social and political, not technological or economic. Jacobson says that energy costs today with a wind, solar, the main obstacle against this scenario is the lack of political will. The main barriers to the implementation of large-scale renewable energy. Using 100% renewable energy was first suggested in a Science paper published in 1975 by Danish physicist Bent Sørensen, in 1998 the first detailed analysis of scenarios with very high shares of renewables were published. These were followed by the first detailed 100% scenarios, in 2006 a PhD thesis was published by Czisch in which it was shown that in a 100% renewable scenario energy supply could match demand in every hour of the year in Europa and North Africa. Since then Lund has been publishing several papers on 100% renewable energy, after 2009 publications began to rise steeply, covering 100% scenarios for countries in Europa, America, Australia and other parts of the world. Even in the early 21st century it was extraordinary for scientists, however, renewable energy progress has been so rapid that things have totally changed since then, Solar photovoltaic modules have dropped about 75 per cent in price. On-shore wind power is spreading over all continents and is competitive with fossil. Renewable energy use has grown faster than even advocates had anticipated. Wind turbines generate 39 percent of Danish electricity, and Denmark has many biogas digesters, together, wind and biomass provide 44% of the electricity consumed by the countrys six million inhabitants. In 2010, Portugal’s 10 million people produced more than half their electricity from renewable energy resources. Spain’s 40 million inhabitants meet one-third of their needs from renewables. Renewable energy has a history of public support. In America, for example, a 2013 Gallup survey showed that two in three Americans want the U. S. to increase energy production using solar power, wind power
13.
Renewable energy commercialization
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Renewable energy commercialization involves the deployment of three generations of renewable energy technologies dating back more than 100 years. First-generation technologies, which are mature and economically competitive, include biomass, hydroelectricity, geothermal power. As of 2012, renewable energy accounts for half of new nameplate electrical capacity installed. Public policy and political leadership helps to level the playing field, countries such as Germany, Denmark, and Spain have led the way in implementing innovative policies which has driven most of the growth over the past decade. As of 2014, Germany has a commitment to the Energiewende transition to an energy economy. There are now 144 countries with renewable energy policy targets, Renewable energy continued its rapid growth in 2015, providing multiple benefits. There was a new set for installed wind and photovoltaic capacity. A key benefit that this investment growth brings is a growth in jobs, the top countries for investment in recent years were China, Germany, Spain, the United States, Italy, and Brazil. Renewable energy companies include BrightSource Energy, First Solar, Gamesa, GE Energy, Goldwind, Sinovel, Trina Solar, Vestas, Climate change concerns are also driving increasing growth in the renewable energy industries. According to a 2011 projection by the International Energy Agency, solar power generators may produce most of the worlds electricity within 50 years, Renewable power has been more effective in creating jobs than coal or oil in the United States. Climate change, pollution, and energy insecurity are significant problems, in the old economy, energy was produced by burning something — oil, coal, or natural gas — leading to the carbon emissions that have come to define our economy. The new energy economy harnesses the energy in wind, the coming from the sun. In international public opinion there is strong support for a variety of methods for addressing the problem of energy supply. It is expected that renewable energy investments will pay off economically in the long term, EU member countries have shown support for ambitious renewable energy goals. In 2010, Eurobarometer polled the twenty-seven EU member states about the target to increase the share of energy in the EU by 20 percent by 2020. Most people in all twenty-seven countries either approved of the target or called for it to go further, across the EU,57 percent thought the proposed goal was about right and 16 percent thought it was too modest. In comparison,19 percent said it was too ambitious, New EPA initiatives targeting air toxics, coal ash, and effluent releases highlight the environmental impacts of coal and the cost of addressing them with control technologies. The use of fracking in natural gas exploration is coming under scrutiny, with evidence of groundwater contamination, concerns are increasing about the vast amounts of water used at coal-fired and nuclear power plants, particularly in regions of the country facing water shortages
14.
Wood
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Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees, and other woody plants. It is a material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers which are strong in tension embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression. Wood is sometimes defined as only the secondary xylem in the stems of trees, in a living tree it performs a support function, enabling woody plants to grow large or to stand up by themselves. It also conveys water and nutrients between the leaves, other growing tissues, and the roots, Wood may also refer to other plant materials with comparable properties, and to material engineered from wood, or wood chips or fiber. In 2005, the stock of forests worldwide was about 434 billion cubic meters. As an abundant, carbon-neutral renewable resource, woody materials have been of intense interest as a source of renewable energy, in 1991 approximately 3.5 billion cubic meters of wood were harvested. Dominant uses were for furniture and building construction, a 2011 discovery in the Canadian province of New Brunswick discovered the earliest known plants to have grown wood, approximately 395 to 400 million years ago. Wood can be dated by carbon dating and in species by dendrochronology to make inferences about when a wooden object was created. People have used wood for millennia for many purposes, primarily as a fuel or as a material for making houses, tools, weapons, furniture, packaging, artworks. Constructions using wood date back ten thousand years, buildings like the European Neolithic long house were made primarily of wood. Recent use of wood has changed by the addition of steel. The year-to-year variation in tree-ring widths and isotopic abundances gives clues to the climate at that time. This process is known as growth, it is the result of cell division in the vascular cambium, a lateral meristem. These cells then go on to form thickened secondary cell walls, composed mainly of cellulose, hemicellulose, if the distinctiveness between seasons is annual, these growth rings are referred to as annual rings. Where there is little seasonal difference growth rings are likely to be indistinct or absent, if the bark of the tree has been removed in a particular area, the rings will likely be deformed as the plant overgrows the scar. It is usually lighter in color than that near the portion of the ring. The outer portion formed later in the season is known as the latewood or summerwood. However, there are differences, depending on the kind of wood
15.
Straw
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Straw is an agricultural by-product, the dry stalks of cereal plants, after the grain and chaff have been removed. Straw makes up half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye. It has many uses, including fuel, livestock bedding and fodder and it is usually gathered and stored in a straw bale, which is a bundle of straw tightly bound with twine or wire. Bales may be square, rectangular, or round, depending on the type of baler used. Current and historic uses of straw include, Animal feed Straw may be fed as part of the component of the diet to cattle or horses that are on a near maintenance level of energy requirement. It has a low energy and nutrient content. The heat generated when microorganisms in a herbivores gut digest straw can be useful in maintaining body temperature in cold climates, due to the risk of impaction and its poor nutrient profile, it should always be restricted to part of the diet. It may be fed as it is, or chopped into short lengths, basketry Bee skeps and linen baskets are made from coiled and bound together continuous lengths of straw. The technique is known as lip work, bedding, humans or livestock The straw-filled mattress, also known as a palliasse, is still used in many parts of the world. It is commonly used as bedding for ruminants and horses and it may be used as bedding and food for small animals, but this often leads to injuries to mouth, nose and eyes as straw is quite sharp. Biofuels The use of straw as an energy source is increasing rapidly, especially for biobutanol. Straw or hay briquettes are a substitute to coal. Biogas Straw, processed first as briquettes, has been fed into a plant in Aarhus University, Denmark. Biomass The use of straw in large-scale biomass power plants is becoming mainstream in the EU, the straw is either used directly in the form of bales, or densified into pellets which allows for the feedstock to be transported over longer distances. Finally, torrefaction of straw with pelletisation is gaining attention, because it increases the density of the resource. This processing step also makes storage easier, because torrefied straw pellets are hydrophobic. Torrefied straw in the form of pellets can be directly co-fired with coal or natural gas at high rates and make use of the processing infrastructures at existing coal. Because the torrefied straw pellets have superior structural, chemical and combustion properties to coal, they can replace all coal, first generation pellets are limited to a co-firing rate of 15% in modern IGCC plants
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Manure
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Manure is organic matter, mostly derived from animal feces except in the case of green manure, which can be used as organic fertilizer in agriculture. Manures contribute to the fertility of the soil by adding organic matter and nutrients, such as nitrogen, higher organisms then feed on the fungi and bacteria in a chain of life that comprises the soil food web. It is also a product obtained after decomposition of organic matter like cow dung which replenishes the soil with essential elements, in the past, the term manure included inorganic fertilizers, but this usage is now very rare. There are three classes of manures used in soil management, Most animal manure consists of feces. Common forms of animal manure include farmyard manure or farm slurry, FYM also contains plant material, which has been used as bedding for animals and has absorbed the feces and urine. Agricultural manure in liquid form, known as slurry, is produced by more intensive livestock rearing systems where concrete or slats are used, manure from different animals has different qualities and requires different application rates when used as fertilizer. For example horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, for instance, sheep manure is high in nitrogen and potash, while pig manure is relatively low in both. Horses mainly eat grass and a few weeds so horse manure can contain grass and weed seeds, chicken litter, coming from a bird, is very concentrated in nitrogen and phosphate and is prized for both properties. Animal manures may be adulterated or contaminated with animal products, such as wool, feathers, blood. Livestock feed can be mixed with the due to spillage. For example, chickens are often fed meat and bone meal, an animal product, some people refer to human excreta as human manure, and the word humanure has also been used. Just like animal manure, it can be applied as a soil conditioner, sewage sludge is a material that contains human excreta, as it is generated after mixing excreta with water and treatment of the wastewater in a sewage treatment plant. Compost is the remnants of organic materials. It is usually of plant origin, but often includes some animal dung or bedding, green manures are crops grown for the express purpose of plowing them in, thus increasing fertility through the incorporation of nutrients and organic matter into the soil. Leguminous plants such as clover are often used for this, as they fix nitrogen using Rhizobia bacteria in specialized nodes in the root structure, other types of plant matter used as manure include the contents of the rumens of slaughtered ruminants, spent grain and seaweed. Animal manure, such as manure and cow dung, has been used for centuries as a fertilizer for farming. It can improve the structure so that the soil holds more nutrients and water. Animal manure also encourages soil microbial activity which promotes the soils trace mineral supply and it also contains some nitrogen and other nutrients that assist the growth of plants
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Sugarcane
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It has stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in the sugar sucrose, which accumulates in the stalk internodes. The plant is two to six meters tall, all sugar cane species interbreed and the major commercial cultivars are complex hybrids. Sugarcane belongs to the grass family Poaceae, an important seed plant family that includes maize, wheat, rice, and sorghum. Sucrose, extracted and purified in specialized factories, is used as raw material in the food industry or is fermented to produce ethanol. Ethanol is produced on a large scale by the Brazilian sugarcane industry, sugarcane is the worlds largest crop by production quantity. In 2012, The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates it was cultivated on about 26×106 hectares, in more than 90 countries, Brazil was the largest producer of sugar cane in the world. The next five major producers, in decreasing amounts of production, were India, China, Thailand, Pakistan, the world demand for sugar is the primary driver of sugarcane agriculture. Cane accounts for 80% of sugar produced, most of the rest is made from sugar beets, sugarcane predominantly grows in the tropical and subtropical regions. Other than sugar, products derived from sugarcane include falernum, molasses, rum, cachaça, bagasse, in some regions, people use sugarcane reeds to make pens, mats, screens, and thatch. The young, unexpanded inflorescence of tebu telor is eaten raw, steamed, or toasted, the Persians, followed by the Greeks, discovered the famous reeds that produce honey without bees in India between the 6th and 4th centuries BC. They adopted and then spread sugarcane agriculture, merchants began to trade in sugar from India, which was considered a luxury and an expensive spice. Sugarcane is a tropical, perennial grass that forms lateral shoots at the base to produce multiple stems, the stems grow into cane stalk, which when mature constitutes around 75% of the entire plant. A mature stalk is composed of 11–16% fiber, 12–16% soluble sugars, 2–3% nonsugars. A sugarcane crop is sensitive to the climate, soil type, irrigation, fertilizers, insects, disease control, varieties, the average yield of cane stalk is 60–70 tonnes per hectare per year. However, this figure can vary between 30 and 180 tonnes per hectare depending on knowledge and crop management approach used in sugarcane cultivation, sugarcane is a cash crop, but it is also used as livestock fodder. Sugarcane is indigenous to tropical South and Southeast Asia, different species likely originated in different locations, with Saccharum barberi originating in India and S. edule and S. officinarum in New Guinea. It is theorized that sugarcane was first domesticated as a crop in New Guinea around 6000 BC, New Guinean farmers and other early cultivators of sugarcane chewed the plant for its sweet juice. The exact date of the first cane sugar production is unclear, the earliest evidence of sugar production comes from ancient Sanskrit and Pali texts
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United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
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Wood fuel
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Wood fuel is a fuel, such as firewood, charcoal, chips, sheets, pellets, and sawdust. The particular form used depends upon factors such as source, quantity, quality, sawmill waste and construction industry by-products also include various forms of lumber tailings. The discovery of how to fire for the purpose of burning wood is regarded as one of humanitys most important advances. The use of wood as a source for heating is much older than civilization and is assumed to have been used by Neanderthals. Today, burning of wood is the largest use of energy derived from a solid fuel biomass, Wood fuel can be used for cooking and heating, and occasionally for fueling steam engines and steam turbines that generate electricity. Wood may be used indoors in a furnace, stove, or fireplace, or outdoors in a furnace, campfire, in permanent structures and in caves, hearths were constructed or established—surfaces of stone or another noncombustible material upon which a fire could be built. Smoke escaped through a hole in the roof. In contrast to civilizations in relatively arid regions, the Greeks, Romans, Celts, Britons, over the centuries there was a partial deforestation of climax forests and the evolution of the remainder to coppice with standards woodland as the primary source of wood fuel. These woodlands involved a continuous cycle of new stems harvested from old stumps, one of the earliest printed books on woodland management, in English, was John Evelyns Sylva, or a discourse on forest trees advising landowners on the proper management of forest estates. H. L. Edlin, in Woodland Crafts in Britain,1949 outlines the extraordinary techniques employed, and throughout this time the preferred form of wood fuel was the branches of cut coppice stems bundled into faggots. Larger, bent or deformed stems that were of no use to the woodland craftsmen were converted to the end of World War two. Since then much of these woodlands have been converted to broadscale agriculture, during the Edo period of Japan, wood was used for many purposes, and the consumption of wood led Japan to develop a forest management policy during that era. Demand for timber resources was on the not only for fuel, but also for construction of ships and buildings. As a result, forest fires occurred, along with floods, around 1666, the shogun made it a policy to reduce logging and increase the planting of trees. This policy decreed that only the shogun, or a daimyō, by the 18th century, Japan had developed detailed scientific knowledge about silviculture and plantation forestry. The development of the chimney and the allowed for more effective exhaustion of the smoke. Masonry heaters or stoves went a further by capturing much of the heat of the fire and exhaust in a large thermal mass. The metal stove was a technological development concurrent with the industrial revolution, stoves were manufactured or constructed pieces of equipment that contained the fire on all sides and provided a means for controlling the draft—the amount of air allowed to reach the fire
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Sustainable biofuel
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Sustainable biofuel is biofuel produced in a sustainable manner. Biofuels, in the form of liquid fuels derived from plant materials, are entering the market, driven by such as oil price spikes. However, many of the biofuels that are currently being supplied have been criticised for their impacts on the natural environment, food security. Responsible commercialization of biofuels represents an opportunity to enhance sustainable economic prospects in Africa, Latin America, Biofuels have a limited ability to replace fossil fuels and should not be regarded as a ‘silver bullet’ to deal with transport emissions. However, they offer the prospect of increased competition and oil price moderation. A healthy supply of energy sources will help to combat gasoline price spikes and reduce dependency on fossil fuels. Using transportation fuels more efficiently is also a part of a sustainable transport strategy. Biofuel development and use is an issue because there are many biofuel options which are available. Produced irresponsibly, they at best offer no benefit and. In other words, biofuels are pretty much any other product. According to the Rocky Mountain Institute, sound biofuel production practices would not hamper food and fibre production, nor cause water or environmental problems, the selection of land on which to grow the feedstocks is a critical component of the ability of biofuels to deliver sustainable solutions. A key consideration is the minimisation of biofuel competition for prime cropland, Brazil’s production of ethanol fuel from sugarcane dates back to the 1970s, as a governmental response to the 1973 oil crisis. Brazil is considered the industry leader and the worlds first sustainable biofuels economy. In 2010 the U. S.3 for average conditions to 10.2 for best practice production, if grown and processed correctly, it has negative emission, pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere, rather than adding it. In contrast, the found that U. S. use of maize for biofuel is less efficient. Several other studies have shown that sugarcane-based ethanol reduces greenhouse gases by 86 to 90% if there is no significant land use change and this evaluation also found that consumption of agrochemicals for sugar cane production is lower than in citric, corn, coffee and soybean cropping. The study found that development of resistant sugar cane varieties is an aspect of disease. Disease control is one of the reasons for the replacement of a commercial variety of sugar cane
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Ethanol fuel
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Ethanol fuel is ethyl alcohol, the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, used as fuel. It is most often used as a fuel, mainly as a biofuel additive for gasoline. The first production car running entirely on ethanol was the Fiat 147, nowadays, cars are able to run using 100% ethanol fuel or a mix of ethanol and gasoline. It is commonly made from such as corn or sugarcane. World ethanol production for transport fuel tripled between 2000 and 2007 from 17×109 liters to more than 52×109 liters, from 2007 to 2008, the share of ethanol in global gasoline type fuel use increased from 3. 7% to 5. 4%. Ethanol fuel has a gasoline gallon equivalency value of 1.5 US gallons, Ethanol fuel is widely used in Brazil and in the United States, and together both countries were responsible for 87. 1% of the worlds ethanol fuel production in 2011. Most cars on the road today in the U. S. can run on blends of up to 10% ethanol, since 1976 the Brazilian government has made it mandatory to blend ethanol with gasoline, and since 2007 the legal blend is around 25% ethanol and 75% gasoline. By December 2011 Brazil had a fleet of 14.8 million flex-fuel automobiles, bioethanol is a form of quasi-renewable energy that can be produced from agricultural feedstocks. It can be made from common crops such as hemp, sugarcane, potato, cassava. There has been debate about how useful bioethanol is in replacing gasoline. Recent developments with cellulosic ethanol production and commercialization may allay some of these concerns, Cellulosic ethanol offers promise because cellulose fibers, a major and universal component in plant cells walls, can be used to produce ethanol. According to the International Energy Agency, cellulosic ethanol could allow ethanol fuels to play a bigger role in the future. During ethanol fermentation, glucose and other sugars in the corn are converted into ethanol, c6H12O6 →2 C2H5OH+2 CO2 + heat Ethanol fermentation is not 100% selective with other side products such as acetic acid, glycols and many other products produced. They are mostly removed during ethanol purification, fermentation takes place in an aqueous solution. The resulting solution has an content of around 15%. Ethanol is subsequently isolated and purified by a combination of adsorption and distillation. During combustion, ethanol reacts with oxygen to carbon dioxide, water. It is also possible to generate ethanol out of cellulosic materials and that, however, requires a pretreatment that splits the cellulose into glycose molecules and other sugars that subsequently can be fermented
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Cogeneration
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Cogeneration or combined heat and power is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time. Trigeneration or combined cooling, heat and power refers to the generation of electricity. Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel. All thermal power plants emit heat during electricity generation, which is discarded as waste heat into the environment through cooling towers, flue gas. This is also called combined heat and power district heating, small CHP plants are an example of decentralized energy. By-product heat at moderate temperatures can also be used in absorption refrigerators for cooling, at smaller scales a gas engine or diesel engine may be used. Trigeneration differs from cogeneration in that the heat is used for both heating and cooling, typically in an absorption refrigerator. CCHP systems can attain higher overall efficiencies than cogeneration or traditional power plants, in the United States, the application of trigeneration in buildings is called building cooling, heating and power. Heating and cooling output may operate concurrently or alternately depending on need, Cogeneration was practiced in some of the earliest installations of electrical generation. Before central stations distributed power, industries generating their own power used exhaust steam for process heating, large office and apartment buildings, hotels and stores commonly generated their own power and used waste steam for building heat. Due to the high cost of early purchased power, these CHP operations continued for years after utility electricity became available. Thermal power plants, and heat engines in general, do not convert all of their energy into electricity. In most heat engines, more than half is lost as excess heat, by capturing the excess heat, CHP uses heat that would be wasted in a conventional power plant, potentially reaching an efficiency of up to 80%. This means that less fuel needs to be consumed to produce the amount of useful energy. A typical power generation turbine in a mill may have extraction pressures of 160 psig and 60 psig. A typical back pressure may be 60 psig, in practice these pressures are custom designed for each facility. The extracted or exhaust steam is used for heating, such as drying paper, evaporation. Steam at ordinary process heating conditions still has an amount of enthalpy that could be used for power generation
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Organism
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In biology, an organism is any contiguous living system, such as an animal, plant, fungus, protist, archaeon, or bacterium. All known types of organisms are capable of some degree of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development and homeostasis. An organism consists of one or more cells, when it has one cell it is known as an organism. Most unicellular organisms are of microscopic scale and are thus described as microorganisms. Humans are multicellular organisms composed of trillions of cells grouped into specialized tissues. An organism may be either a prokaryote or a eukaryote, prokaryotes are represented by two separate domains—bacteria and archaea. Eukaryotic organisms are characterized by the presence of a cell nucleus. Fungi, animals and plants are examples of kingdoms of organisms within the eukaryotes, estimates on the number of Earths current species range from 10 million to 14 million, of which only about 1.2 million have been documented. More than 99% of all species, amounting to five billion species. In 2016, a set of 355 genes from the last universal ancestor of all living organisms living was identified. The term organism first appeared in the English language in 1703 and it is directly related to the term organization. There is a tradition of defining organisms as self-organizing beings. An organism may be defined as an assembly of molecules functioning as a more or less stable whole that exhibits the properties of life. Dictionary definitions can be broad, using such as any living structure, such as a plant, animal, fungus or bacterium, capable of growth. Many definitions exclude viruses and possible man-made non-organic life forms, as viruses are dependent on the machinery of a host cell for reproduction. A superorganism is an organism consisting of individuals working together as a single functional or social unit. There has been controversy about the best way to define the organism, several contributions are responses to the suggestion that the category of organism may well not be adequate in biology. Viruses are not typically considered to be organisms because they are incapable of autonomous reproduction and this controversy is problematic because some cellular organisms are also incapable of independent survival and live as obligatory intracellular parasites
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Carbon cycle
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The carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth. The global carbon budget is the balance of the exchanges of carbon between the reservoirs or between one specific loop of the carbon cycle. An examination of the budget of a pool or reservoir can provide information about whether the pool or reservoir is functioning as a source or sink for carbon dioxide. The carbon cycle was discovered by Joseph Priestley and Antoine Lavoisier. Carbon-based molecules are crucial for life on Earth, because it is the component of biological compounds. Carbon is also a component of many minerals. Carbon also exists in forms in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is responsible for the greenhouse effect and is one of the most important human-contributed greenhouse gases. In the past two centuries, human activities have altered the global cycle, most significantly in the atmosphere. Although carbon dioxide levels have changed naturally over the past several thousand years, changes in the amount of atmospheric CO2 are considerably altering weather patterns and indirectly influencing oceanic chemistry. The Earths interior, carbon from the Earths mantle and crust, the ocean contains the largest active pool of carbon near the surface of the Earth. The natural flows of carbon between the atmosphere, ocean, terrestrial ecosystems, and sediments is fairly balanced, so that carbon levels would be stable without human influence. Carbon in the Earths atmosphere exists in two forms, carbon dioxide and methane. Both of these gases absorb and retain heat in the atmosphere and are responsible for the greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide leaves the atmosphere through photosynthesis, thus entering the terrestrial, Carbon dioxide also dissolves directly from the atmosphere into bodies of water, as well as dissolving in precipitation as raindrops fall through the atmosphere. When dissolved in water, carbon reacts with water molecules and forms carbonic acid. It can then be absorbed by rocks through weathering and it also can acidify other surfaces it touches or be washed into the ocean. g. by burning fossil fuels and manufacturing concrete. The terrestrial biosphere includes the carbon in all land-living organisms
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Natural resource
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Natural resources are resources that exist without actions of humankind. This includes all valued characteristics such as magnetic, gravitational, on earth it includes, sunlight, atmosphere, water, land along with all vegetation and animal life that naturally subsists upon or within the heretofore identified characteristics and substances. Particular areas such as the rainforest in Fatu-Hiva are often characterized by the biodiversity and geodiversity existent in their ecosystems, Natural resources may be further classified in different ways. Natural resources are materials and components that can be found within the environment, every man-made product is composed of natural resources. Some natural resources such as sunlight and air can be found everywhere, however, most resources only occur in small sporadic areas, and are referred to as localised resources. There are very few resources that are considered inexhaustible – these are solar radiation, geothermal energy, the vast majority of resources are theoretically exhaustible, which means they have a finite quantity and can be depleted if managed improperly. There are various methods of categorizing natural resources, these include source of origin, stage of development, fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum are also included in this category because they are formed from decayed organic matter. Abiotic – Abiotic resources are those that come from non-living, non-organic material, examples of abiotic resources include land, fresh water, air and heavy metals including ores such as gold, iron, copper, silver, etc. For example, petroleum occurs with sedimentary rocks in various regions, Actual resources — Actual resources are those that have been surveyed, their quantity and quality determined and are being used in present times. The development of a resource, such as wood processing depends upon the technology available. Reserve resources — The part of a resource which can be developed profitably in the future is called a reserve resource. Stock resources — Stock resources are those that have been surveyed, renewability is a very popular topic and many natural resources can be categorized as either renewable or non-renewable, Renewable resources — Renewable resources can be replenished naturally. Some of these resources, like sunlight, air, wind, water, etc. are continuously available, though many renewable resources do not have such a rapid recovery rate, these resources are susceptible to depletion by over-use. Non-renewable resources – Non-renewable resources either form slowly or do not naturally form in the environment, minerals are the most common resource included in this category. Some resources actually naturally deplete in amount without human interference, the most notable of these being radio-active elements such as uranium, of these, the metallic minerals can be re-used by recycling them, but coal and petroleum cannot be recycled. Once they are used they take millions of years to replenish. Resource extraction involves any activity that withdraws resources from nature and this can range in scale from the traditional use of preindustrial societies, to global industry. Extractive industries are, along with agriculture, the basis of the sector of the economy
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Petroleum
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Petroleum is a naturally occurring, yellow-to-black liquid found in geological formations beneath the Earths surface, which is commonly refined into various types of fuels. Components of petroleum are separated using a technique called fractional distillation and it consists of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other organic compounds. The name petroleum covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude oil and petroleum products that are made up of refined crude oil. A fossil fuel, petroleum is formed when large quantities of dead organisms, usually zooplankton and algae, are buried underneath sedimentary rock, Petroleum has mostly been recovered by oil drilling. Drilling is carried out studies of structural geology, sedimentary basin analysis. Petroleum is used in manufacturing a variety of materials. Concern over the depletion of the earths finite reserves of oil, the burning of fossil fuels plays the major role in the current episode of global warming. The word petroleum comes from Greek, πέτρα for rocks and Greek, the term was found in 10th-century Old English sources. It was used in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in 1546 by the German mineralogist Georg Bauer, Petroleum, in one form or another, has been used since ancient times, and is now important across society, including in economy, politics and technology. Great quantities of it were found on the banks of the river Issus, ancient Persian tablets indicate the medicinal and lighting uses of petroleum in the upper levels of their society. By 347 AD, oil was produced from bamboo-drilled wells in China, early British explorers to Myanmar documented a flourishing oil extraction industry based in Yenangyaung that, in 1795, had hundreds of hand-dug wells under production. The mythological origins of the oil fields at Yenangyaung, and its hereditary monopoly control by 24 families, Pechelbronn is said to be the first European site where petroleum has been explored and used. The still active Erdpechquelle, a spring where petroleum appears mixed with water has been used since 1498, Oil sands have been mined since the 18th century. In Wietze in lower Saxony, natural asphalt/bitumen has been explored since the 18th century, both in Pechelbronn as in Wietze, the coal industry dominated the petroleum technologies. In 1848 Young set up a small business refining the crude oil, Young eventually succeeded, by distilling cannel coal at a low heat, in creating a fluid resembling petroleum, which when treated in the same way as the seep oil gave similar products. The production of oils and solid paraffin wax from coal formed the subject of his patent dated 17 October 1850. In 1850 Young & Meldrum and Edward William Binney entered into partnership under the title of E. W. Binney & Co. at Bathgate in West Lothian, the worlds first oil refinery was built in 1856 by Ignacy Łukasiewicz. The demand for petroleum as a fuel for lighting in North America, edwin Drakes 1859 well near Titusville, Pennsylvania, is popularly considered the first modern well
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Coal
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Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure. Coal is composed primarily of carbon, along with quantities of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen. A fossil fuel, coal forms when plant matter is converted into peat, which in turn is converted into lignite, then sub-bituminous coal, after that bituminous coal. This involves biological and geological processes that take place over time, throughout history, coal has been used as an energy resource, primarily burned for the production of electricity and heat, and is also used for industrial purposes, such as refining metals. Coal is the largest source of energy for the generation of electricity worldwide, the extraction of coal, its use in energy production and its byproducts are all associated with environmental and health effects including climate change. Coal is extracted from the ground by coal mining, since 1983, the worlds top coal producer has been China. In 2015 China produced 3,747 million tonnes of coal –47. 7% of 7,861 million tonnes world coal production, in 2015 other large producers were United States, India, European Union and Australia. The word originally took the col in Old English, from Proto-Germanic *kula. In Old Turkic languages, kül is ash, cinders, öčür is quench, the compound charcoal in Turkic is öčür kül, literally quenched ashes, cinders, coals with elided anlaut ö- and inflection affixes -ülmüş. At various times in the geologic past, the Earth had dense forests in low-lying wetland areas, due to natural processes such as flooding, these forests were buried underneath soil. As more and more soil deposited over them, they were compressed, the temperature also rose as they sank deeper and deeper. As the process continued the plant matter was protected from biodegradation and oxidation and this trapped the carbon in immense peat bogs that were eventually covered and deeply buried by sediments. Under high pressure and high temperature, dead vegetation was slowly converted to coal, as coal contains mainly carbon, the conversion of dead vegetation into coal is called carbonization. The wide, shallow seas of the Carboniferous Period provided ideal conditions for coal formation, the exception is the coal gap in the Permian–Triassic extinction event, where coal is rare. Coal is known from Precambrian strata, which predate land plants — this coal is presumed to have originated from residues of algae, in its dehydrated form, peat is a highly effective absorbent for fuel and oil spills on land and water. It is also used as a conditioner for soil to make it able to retain. Lignite, or brown coal, is the lowest rank of coal, jet, a compact form of lignite, is sometimes polished and has been used as an ornamental stone since the Upper Palaeolithic
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Nuclear reactor
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This article is a subarticle of Nuclear power. A nuclear reactor, formerly known as a pile, is a device used to initiate. Nuclear reactors are used at power plants for electricity generation. Heat from nuclear fission is passed to a fluid, which runs through steam turbines. These either drive a ships propellers or turn electrical generators, Nuclear generated steam in principle can be used for industrial process heat or for district heating. Some reactors are used to produce isotopes for medical and industrial use, some are run only for research. As of April 2014, the IAEA reports there are 435 nuclear power reactors in operation, when a large fissile atomic nucleus such as uranium-235 or plutonium-239 absorbs a neutron, it may undergo nuclear fission. The heavy nucleus splits into two or more nuclei, releasing kinetic energy, gamma radiation, and free neutrons. A portion of neutrons may later be absorbed by other fissile atoms and trigger further fission events, which release more neutrons. This is known as a chain reaction. To control such a chain reaction, neutron poisons and neutron moderators can change the portion of neutrons that will go on to cause more fission. Nuclear reactors generally have automatic and manual systems to shut the fission reaction down if monitoring detects unsafe conditions, commonly-used moderators include regular water, solid graphite and heavy water. Some experimental types of reactor have used beryllium, and hydrocarbons have been suggested as another possibility, the reactor core generates heat in a number of ways, The kinetic energy of fission products is converted to thermal energy when these nuclei collide with nearby atoms. The reactor absorbs some of the rays produced during fission. Heat is produced by the decay of fission products and materials that have been activated by neutron absorption. This decay heat-source will remain for some even after the reactor is shut down. A kilogram of uranium-235 converted via nuclear processes releases approximately three times more energy than a kilogram of coal burned conventionally. A nuclear reactor coolant — usually water but sometimes a gas or a metal or molten salt — is circulated past the reactor core to absorb the heat that it generates
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Pollutant
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A pollutant is a substance or energy introduced into the environment that has undesired effects, or adversely affects the usefulness of a resource. A pollutant may cause long- or short-term damage by changing the rate of plant or animal species, or by interfering with human amenities, comfort, health. Some pollutants are biodegradable and therefore will not persist in the environment in the long term, however the degradation products of some pollutants are themselves polluting such as the products DDE and DDD produced from degradation of DDT. Pollutants, towards which the environment has little or no absorptive capacity are called stock pollutants, stock pollutants accumulate in the environment over time. The damage they cause increases as more pollutant is emitted, stock pollutants can create a burden for future generations, by passing on damage that persists well after the ‘benefits received from incurring that damage, have been forgotten. Fund pollutants are those for which the environment has some absorptive capacity, fund pollutants do not cause damage to the environment unless the emission rate exceeds the receiving environments absorptive capacity. Fund pollutants are not destroyed, but rather converted into less harmful substances and it also encompasses ecological light pollution which describes the effect of artificial light on individual organisms and on the structure of ecosystems as a whole. Pollutants can also be defined by their zones of influence, both horizontally and vertically, the horizontal zone refers to the area that is damaged by a pollutant. Local pollutants cause damage near the emission source, regional pollutants cause damage further from the emission source. The vertical zone is referred to whether the damage is ground-level or atmospheric, surface pollutants cause damage by concentrations of the pollutant accumulating near the Earths surface Global pollutants cause damage by concentrations in the atmosphere. Pollutants can cross borders and therefore international regulations are needed for their control. The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, which entered force in 2004, is an international legally binding agreement for the control of persistent organic pollutants. Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers are systems to collect and disseminate information on releases and transfers of toxic chemicals from industrial. The National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants are additional emission standards that are set by EPA for toxic air pollutants, under the Clean Water Act, EPA promulgated national standards for municipal sewage treatment plants, also called publicly owned treatment works, in the Secondary Treatment Regulation. National standards for industrial dischargers are called Effluent guidelines and New Source Performance Standards, in addition, the Act requires states to publish water quality standards for individual water bodies to provide additional protection where the national standards are insufficient. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act regulates the management, transport and disposal of solid waste, hazardous waste. A tank or piping network that has at least 10 percent of its volume underground is known as a storage tank. They often store substances such as petroleum, that are harmful to the environment should it become contaminated
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Maize
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Maize, also known as corn, is a large grain plant first domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The six major types of corn are dent corn, flint corn, pod corn, popcorn, flour corn, the leafy stalk of the plant produces separate pollen and ovuliferous inflorescences or ears, which are fruits, yielding kernels or seeds. Maize kernels are used in cooking as a starch. Most historians believe maize was domesticated in the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico, recent research modified this view somewhat, scholars now indicate the adjacent Balsas River Valley of south-central Mexico as the center of domestication. The Olmec and Mayans cultivated maize in numerous varieties throughout Mesoamerica, cooked and its believed that beginning about 2500 BC, the crop spread through much of the Americas. The region developed a network based on surplus and varieties of maize crops. Nevertheless, recent data indicates that the spread of maize took place even earlier, according to Piperno, A large corpus of data indicates that it was dispersed into lower Central America by 7600 BP and had moved into the inter-Andean valleys of Colombia between 7000 and 6000 BP. Since then, even earlier dates have been published, the study also demonstrated that the oldest surviving maize types are those of the Mexican highlands. Later, maize spread from this region over the Americas along two major paths and this is consistent with a model based on the archaeological record suggesting that maize diversified in the highlands of Mexico before spreading to the lowlands. Before they were domesticated, maize plants only grew small,25 millimetres long corn cobs, Maize is the most widely grown grain crop throughout the Americas, with 361 million metric tons grown in the United States in 2014. Approximately 40% of the crop—130 million tons—is used for corn ethanol, genetically modified maize made up 85% of the maize planted in the United States in 2009. After the arrival of Europeans in 1492, Spanish settlers consumed maize and explorers and traders carried it back to Europe, Spanish settlers far preferred wheat bread to maize, cassava, or potatoes. Maize flour could not be substituted for wheat for bread, since in Christian belief only wheat could undergo transubstantiation. At another level, Spaniards worried that by eating indigenous foods, which they did not consider nutritious, that not only would they weaken, despite these worries, Spaniards did consume maize and archeological evidence from Florida sites indicate they cultivated it as well. Maize spread to the rest of the world because of its ability to grow in diverse climates and it was cultivated in Spain just a few decades after Columbuss voyages and then spread to Italy, West Africa and elsewhere. The word maize derives from the Spanish form of the indigenous Taíno word for the plant and it is known by other names around the world. The word corn outside North America, Australia, and New Zealand refers to any cereal crop, in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, corn primarily means maize, this usage started as a shortening of Indian corn. Indian corn primarily means maize, but can more specifically to multicolored flint corn used for decoration
31.
Soybean
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Glycine max, commonly known as soybean in North America or soya bean, is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean which has numerous uses. The plant, classed as a rather than a pulse by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Fat-free soybean meal is a significant and cheap source of protein for animal feeds, for example, soybean products, such as textured vegetable protein, are ingredients in many meat and dairy substitutes. The beans contain significant amounts of acid, dietary minerals. Soy vegetable oil, used in food and industrial applications, is product of processing the soybean crop. Traditional non-fermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk from which tofu and tofu skin are made, fermented soy foods include soy sauce, fermented bean paste, natto and tempeh. The main countries growing soybeans are the United States, Brazil, the English words soy and soya are ultimately derived from the Japanese pronunciation of shōyu, the Sino-Japanese word for soy sauce, by way of the Dutch adaptation of the same word, soja. The genus Glycine Willd. is divided two subgenera, Glycine and Soja. Includes the cultivated soybean, Glycine max Merr. and the wild soybean, Glycine soja is the wild ancestor of Glycine max, and grows wild in China, Japan, Korea and Russia. The subgenus Glycine consists of at least 25 wild perennial species, for example, Glycine canescens F. J. Herm. and G. tomentella Hayata, perennial soybean originated in Africa and is now a widespread pasture crop in the tropics. Like some other crops of long domestication, the relationship of the soybean to wild-growing species can no longer be traced with any degree of certainty. It is a variety with a very large number of cultivars. Like most plants, soybeans grow in distinct morphological stages as they develop from seeds into fully mature plants, the first stage of growth is germination, a process that first becomes apparent as a seeds radicle emerges. This is the first stage of growth and occurs within the first 48 hours under ideal growing conditions. The first photosynthetic structures, the cotyledons, develop from the hypocotyl and these cotyledons both act as leaves and as a source of nutrients for the immature plant, providing the seedling nutrition for its first 7 to 10 days. The first true leaves develop as a pair of single blades, subsequent to this first pair, mature nodes form compound leaves with three blades. Mature trifoliolate leaves, having three to four leaflets per leaf, are often between 6–15 cm long and 2–7 cm broad, under ideal conditions, stem growth continues, producing new nodes every four days. Before flowering, roots can grow 1.9 cm per day, if rhizobia are present, root nodulation begins by the time the third node appears
32.
Willow
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Most species are known as willow, but some narrow-leaved shrub species are called osier, and some broader-leaved species are referred to as sallow. Some willows are low-growing or creeping shrubs, for example, the dwarf willow rarely exceeds 6 cm in height, though it spreads widely across the ground. Willows all have abundant watery bark sap, which is charged with salicylic acid, soft, usually pliant, tough wood, slender branches. The roots are remarkable for their toughness, size, and tenacity to life, the leaves are typically elongated, but may also be round to oval, frequently with serrated edges. Most species are deciduous, semievergreen willows with coriaceous leaves are rare, e. g. Salix micans, all the buds are lateral, no absolutely terminal bud is ever formed. The buds are covered by a single scale, usually, the bud scale is fused into a cap-like shape, but in some species it wraps around and the edges overlap. The leaves are simple, feather-veined, and typically linear-lanceolate, usually they are serrate, rounded at base, acute or acuminate. The leaf petioles are short, the often very conspicuous, resembling tiny, round leaves. On some species, however, they are small, inconspicuous, in color, the leaves show a great variety of greens, ranging from yellowish to bluish. Willows are dioecious, with male and female flowers appearing as catkins on separate plants and this scale is square, entire, and very hairy. The anthers are rose-colored in the bud, but orange or purple after the flower opens, they are two-celled, the filaments are threadlike, usually pale brown, and often bald. The ovary is one-celled, the style two-lobed, and the ovules numerous, almost all willows take root very readily from cuttings or where broken branches lie on the ground. The few exceptions include the willow and peachleaf willow. One famous example of such growth from cuttings involves the poet Alexander Pope and this twig was planted and thrived, and legend has it that all of Englands weeping willows are descended from this first one. Willows are often planted on the borders of streams so their interlacing roots may protect the bank against the action of the water, frequently, the roots are much larger than the stem which grows from them. Willows are very cross-compatible, and numerous hybrids occur, both naturally and in cultivation, a well-known ornamental example is the weeping willow, which is a hybrid of Peking willow from China and white willow from Europe. The hybrid cultivar Boydii has gained the Royal Horticultural Societys Award of Garden Merit, Willows are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, such as the mourning cloak butterfly. Ants, such as ants, are common on willows inhabited by aphids, coming to collect aphid honeydew
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Panicum virgatum
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Switchgrass is one of the dominant species of the central North American tallgrass prairie and can be found in remnant prairies, in native grass pastures, and naturalized along roadsides. Other common names for switchgrass include tall panic grass, Wobsqua grass, blackbent, tall prairiegrass, wild redtop, thatchgrass, Switchgrass is a hardy, deep-rooted, perennial rhizomatous grass that begins growth in late spring. It can grow up to 2.7 m high, but is shorter than big bluestem grass or indiangrass. The leaves are 30–90 cm long, with a prominent midrib, Switchgrass uses C4 carbon fixation, giving it an advantage in conditions of drought and high temperature. Its flowers have a well-developed panicle, often up to 60 cm long, the seeds are 3–6 mm long and up to 1.5 mm wide, and are developed from a single-flowered spikelet. Both glumes are present and well developed, when ripe, the seeds sometimes take on a pink or dull-purple tinge, and turn golden brown with the foliage of the plant in the fall. Switchgrass is both a perennial and self-seeding crop, which means farmers do not have to plant and reseed after annual harvesting, once established, a switchgrass stand can survive for ten years or longer. Unlike corn, switchgrass can grow on marginal lands and requires relatively modest levels of chemical fertilizers, overall, it is considered a resource-efficient, low-input crop for producing bioenergy from farmland. As European settlers began spreading west across the continent, the grasses were plowed under and the land converted to crops such as corn, wheat. Introduced grasses such as fescue, bluegrass, and orchardgrass also replaced the native grasses for use as hay, Switchgrass is a versatile and adaptable plant. It can grow and even thrive in many conditions, lengths of growing seasons, soil types. Its distribution spans south of latitude 55°N from Saskatchewan to Nova Scotia, south over most of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, and further south into Mexico. As a warm-season perennial grass, most of its growth occurs from spring through early fall, it becomes dormant. Switchgrass is a species, with striking differences between plants. This diversity, which presumably reflects evolution and adaptation to new environments as the species spread across the continent, upland switchgrass types are generally shorter and less coarse than lowland types. Lowland cultivars may grow to ≥2.7 m, in favorable environments, both upland and lowland cultivars are deeply rooted and have short rhizomes. The upland types tend to have vigorous rhizomes, so the lowland cultivars may appear to have a bunchgrass habit. These widely adapted tallgrass species once occupied millions of hectares, switchgrass’ suitability for cultivation in the Gran Chaco is being studied by Argentina’s Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria
34.
Rapeseed
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Rapeseed, also known as rape, oilseed rape, rapa, rappi, rapaseed, is a bright-yellow flowering member of the family Brassicaceae, consumed in China and Southern Africa as a vegetable. The name derives from the Latin for turnip, rāpa or rāpum, older writers usually distinguished the turnip and rape by the adjectives round and long, respectively. Rutabagas, Brassica napobrassica, are considered a variety of B. napus. Some botanists also include the closely related B. rapa within B. napus, B. napus is cultivated mainly for its oil-rich seed, the third-largest source of vegetable oil in the world. The term rape derives from the Latin word for turnip, rapum, rapeseed is known by many common names in the English language. Some names have only applied to certain subspecies, forms. B. napus = B. napus subsp and this list is from the Germplasm Resources Information Network, which attributes the names to other sources, Brassica napus – rape B. napus subsp. Napus – Argentine canola, canola, colza, oilseed rape, napus f. annua – annual rape and summer rape B. napus subsp. Napus f. napus – swede rape B. napus subsp, napus var. pabularia – Hanover-salad, rape kale, and Siberian kale B. napus subsp. Rapifera – rutabaga, swede, Swedish turnip, and winter rape Brassica napus grows to 100 cm high with lower leaves pinnatifid and glaucous, the flowers are yellow and about 17 mm across. B. napus differs from B. nigra, but can be distinguished by the leaves which do not clasp the stem. In north-east of Ireland B. napus and B. rapa are recorded as escapes in roadside verges, in 1973, Canadian agricultural scientists launched a marketing campaign to promote canola consumption. Today, rapeseed is grown for the production of animal feeds, edible oils, and biodiesel, leading producers include the European Union, Canada, China, India. In India,6.7 million tons are produced annually, the Food and Agriculture Organization reports 36 million tons of rapeseed were produced in the 2003–2004 season, and estimated 58.4 million tons in the 2010–2011 season. In Europe, rapeseed is primarily cultivated for feed, owing to its very high lipid. Natural rapeseed oil contains 50% erucic acid, wild seeds also contain high levels of glucosinolates, chemical compounds that significantly lowered the nutritional value of rapeseed press cakes for animal feed. In North America, the term canola—a contraction of Canada and ola, meaning oil—became widely used to refer to rapeseed, the rapeseed is the harvested component of the crop. The crop is grown as a winter cover crop
35.
Wheat
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Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region but now cultivated worldwide. In 2016, world production of wheat was 749 million tonnes, making it the second most-produced cereal after maize, since 1960, world production of wheat and other grain crops has tripled and is expected to grow further through the middle of the 21st Century. This grain is grown on land area than any other commercial food. World trade in wheat is greater than for all other crops combined, globally, wheat is the leading source of vegetal protein in human food, having a protein content of about 13%, which is relatively high compared to other major cereals and staple foods. The archaeological record suggests that wheat was first cultivated in the regions of the Fertile Crescent around 9600 BCE. In a small part of the population, gluten – the major part of wheat protein – can trigger coeliac disease, non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, gluten ataxia. Cultivation and repeated harvesting and sowing of the grains of wild grasses led to the creation of domestic strains, in domesticated wheat, grains are larger, and the seeds remain attached to the ear by a toughened rachis during harvesting. In wild strains, a more fragile rachis allows the ear to easily shatter, as the traits that improve wheat as a food source also involve the loss of the plants natural seed dispersal mechanisms, highly domesticated strains of wheat cannot survive in the wild. Cultivation of wheat began to spread beyond the Fertile Crescent after about 8000 BCE, jared Diamond traces the spread of cultivated emmer wheat starting in the Fertile Crescent sometime before 8800 BCE. Archaeological analysis of wild emmer indicates that it was first cultivated in the southern Levant with finds dating back as far as 9600 BCE, Genetic analysis of wild einkorn wheat suggests that it was first grown in the Karacadag Mountains in southeastern Turkey. Dated archeological remains of wheat in settlement sites near this region, including those at Abu Hureyra in Syria. With the anomalous exception of two grains from Iraq ed-Dubb, the earliest carbon-14 date for einkorn wheat remains at Abu Hureyra is 7800 to 7500 years BCE. Remains of harvested emmer from several sites near the Karacadag Range have been dated to between 8600 and 8400 BCE, that is, in the Neolithic period and these remains were dated by Willem van Zeist and his assistant Johanna Bakker-Heeres to 8800 BCE. They also concluded that the settlers of Tell Aswad did not develop this form of emmer themselves, the cultivation of emmer reached Greece, Cyprus and India by 6500 BCE, Egypt shortly after 6000 BCE, and Germany and Spain by 5000 BCE. The early Egyptians were developers of bread and the use of the oven, by 3000 BCE, wheat had reached the British Isles and Scandinavia. A millennium later it reached China, the oldest evidence for hexaploid wheat has been confirmed through DNA analysis of wheat seeds, dating to around 6400-6200 BCE, recovered from Çatalhöyük. The first identifiable bread wheat with sufficient gluten for yeasted breads has been identified using DNA analysis in samples from a dating to approximately 1350 BCE at Assiros in Macedonia. From Asia, wheat continued to spread throughout Europe, in the British Isles, wheat straw was used for roofing in the Bronze Age, and was in common use until the late 19th century
36.
Sugar beet
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Sugar beet is the Altissima Group of cultivars of the common beet. It is a plant whose root contains a concentration of sucrose. Sugar beets and other cultivars, such as beetroot and chard, are members of Beta vulgaris subsp. Vulgaris and share a common ancestor, the Sea beet. In 2013, Russia, France, the United States, Germany, however, in 2010–2011, North America, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe did not produce enough sugar from sugar beets to meet overall demand for sugar, and were all net importers of sugar. The US harvested 1,004,600 acres of beets in 2008. In 2009, sugar accounted for 20% of the worlds sugar production. The sugar beet has a conical, white, fleshy root with a flat crown, the plant consists of the root and a rosette of leaves. Sugar is formed by photosynthesis in the leaves, and is stored in the root. The root of the beet contains 75% water, about 20% sugar, Sugar is the primary value of sugar beet as a cash crop. The pulp, insoluble in water and mainly composed of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, the byproducts of the sugar beet crop, such as pulp and molasses, add another 10% to the value of the harvest. Sugar beets grow exclusively in the zone, in contrast to sugarcane. The average weight of sugar beet ranges between 0.5 and 1 kg, Sugar beet foliage has a rich, brilliant green color and grows to a height of about 35 cm. The leaves are numerous and broad and grow in a tuft from the crown of the beet, modern sugar beets date back to mid-18th century Silesia where the king of Prussia subsidised experiments aimed at processes for sugar extraction. In 1747 Andreas Marggraf isolated sugar from beetroots and found them at concentrations of 1. 3–1. 6% and he also demonstrated that sugar could be extracted from beets that was the same as that produced from sugarcane. His student, Franz Karl Achard, evaluated 23 varieties of mangelwurzel for sugar content and selected a strain from Halberstadt in modern-day Saxony-Anhalt. Moritz Baron von Koppy and his son further selected from this strain for white, the selection was named Weiße Schlesische Zuckerrübe, meaning white Silesian sugar beet, and boasted about a 6% sugar content. This selection is the progenitor of all modern sugar beets, a royal decree led to the first factory devoted to sugar extraction from beetroots being opened in Kunern, Silesia in 1801
37.
Palm oil
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Palm oil is naturally reddish in color because of a high beta-carotene content. It is not to be confused with palm oil derived from the kernel of the same fruit. The differences are in color, and in saturated fat content, palm oil is 49% saturated, while palm kernel oil and coconut oil are 81% and 86% saturated fats. Along with coconut oil, palm oil is one of the few highly saturated vegetable fats and is semisolid at room temperature, Palm oil is a common cooking ingredient in the tropical belt of Africa, Southeast Asia and parts of Brazil. Its use in the food industry in other parts of the world is widespread because of its lower cost. In 2004, a group called the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil was formed to work with the palm oil industry to address these concerns. It is believed that traders brought the oil palm to Egypt, Palm oil from E. guineensiss has long been recognized in West and Central African countries, and is widely used as a cooking oil. European merchants trading with West Africa occasionally purchased palm oil for use as an oil in Europe. Palm oil became a highly sought-after commodity by British traders, for use as a lubricant for machinery during Britains Industrial Revolution. Palm oil formed the basis of soap products, such as Lever Brothers Sunlight soap, by around 1870, palm oil constituted the primary export of some West African countries, such as Ghana and Nigeria, although this was overtaken by cocoa in the 1880s. Palm oil, like all fats, is composed of fatty acids, Palm oil has an especially high concentration of saturated fat, specifically, of the 16-carbon saturated fatty acid palmitic acid, to which it gives its name. Monounsaturated oleic acid is also a constituent of palm oil. Unrefined palm oil is a significant source of tocotrienol, part of the vitamin E family. The approximate concentration of fatty acids in palm oil is, Red palm oil is rich in carotenes, such as alpha-carotene, beta-carotene and lycopene, many processed foods either contain palm oil or various ingredients derived from it. After milling, various oil products are made using refining processes. First is fractionation, with crystallization and separation processes to obtain solid, then melting and degumming removes impurities. Then the oil is filtered and bleached, RBDPO is the basic palm oil product sold on the worlds commodity markets. Many companies fractionate it further to produce palm olein for cooking oil, since the mid-1990s, red palm oil has been cold-pressed and bottled for use as cooking oil, and blended into mayonnaise and salad oil
38.
Miscanthus
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Miscanthus, silvergrass, is a genus of African, Eurasian, and Pacific Island plants in the grass family. Species Miscanthus changii Y. N. Lee - Korea Miscanthus depauperatus Merr, - southern Africa Miscanthus floridulus - China, Japan, Southeast Asia, Pacific Islands Miscanthus fuscus Benth. - Indian Subcontinent, Indochina, Pen Malaysia Miscanthus junceus - southern Africa Miscanthus lutarioriparius L. Liu ex S. L. Chen & Renvoize - Hubei, - Indian Subcontinent, Tibet, Yunnan, Myanmar, Vietnam, Pen Malaysia Miscanthus nudipes Hack. - Assam, Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim, Tibet, Yunnan Miscanthus × ogiformis Honda - Korea, - Korea, Japan Miscanthus paniculatus S. L. - Japan Miscanthus villosus Y. C. Liu & H. Peng - Yunnan Miscanthus violaceus Pilg. sinensis and it can grow to heights of more than 3.5 m in one growth season. Its dry weight annual yield can reach 25 tonnes per hectare and it is sometimes called elephant grass, so is thus confused with the African grass Pennisetum purpureum, also called that. The rapid growth, low mineral content, and high yield of Miscanthus make it a favorite choice as a biofuel. Miscanthus can be used as input for ethanol production, often outperforming corn and other alternatives in terms of biomass, additionally, after harvest, it can be burned to produce heat and steam for power turbines. Its advantage, though, is that it is not usually consumed by humans, making it a more available crop for ethanol and biofuel, than, say, corn, when mixed 50%-50% with coal, Miscanthus biomass can be used in some current coal-burning power plants without modifications. M. sinensis is cultivated as an ornamental plant, in Japan, where it is known as susuki, it is considered an iconic plant of late summer and early autumn. It is mentioned in Manyōshū as one of the seven autumn flowers and it is used for the eighth month in hanafuda playing cards. It is decorated with bush clover for the Mid-Autumn Festival, Miscanthus has also excellent fiber properties for papermaking
39.
Sorghum
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Sorghum is a genus of flowering plants in the grass family Poaceae. Seventeen of the species are native to Australia, with the range of some extending to Africa, Asia, Mesoamerica. One species is grown for grain, while others are used as fodder plants, either intentionally cultivated or allowed to grow naturally. The plants are cultivated in warm climates worldwide and naturalized in many places, Sorghum is in the subfamily Panicoideae and the tribe Andropogoneae. One species, Sorghum bicolor, native to Africa with many cultivated forms now, is an important crop worldwide, used for food, animal fodder, the production of alcoholic beverages, and biofuels. Most varieties are drought- and heat-tolerant, and are important in arid regions. These varieties form important components of pastures in many tropical regions, S. bicolor is an important food crop in Africa, Central America, and South Asia, and is the fifth-most important cereal crop grown in the world. Some species of sorghum can contain levels of cyanide, hordenine. When stressed by drought or heat, plants can contain toxic levels of cyanide and/or nitrates at later stages in growth. Another Sorghum species, Johnson grass, is classified as a species in the US by the Department of Agriculture. Sorghum is efficient in converting solar energy to chemical energy, biofuel, using sweet sorghum as a high sugar content from its stalk for ethanol production, is being developed with biomass which can be turned into charcoal, syngas, and bio-oil. In a 100 gram amount, raw sorghum provides 329 calories, 72% carbohydrates, 4% fat and 11% protein. Sorghum supplies numerous essential nutrients in rich content, including protein, fiber, the B vitamins, niacin, thiamin and vitamin B6, Sorghum nutrient contents generally are similar to those of raw oats. Among other similarities to oats, sorghum contains no gluten, making it useful for gluten-free diets, Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World, The Diffusion of Crops and Farming Techniques, 700–1100. Species Profile- Johnsongrass, National Invasive Species Information Center, United States National Agricultural Library, lists general information and resources for Johnsongrass
40.
Cassava
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Manihot esculenta is a woody shrub native to South America of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. It is extensively cultivated as a crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root. Though it is often called yuca in Spanish and in the United States, it differs from the yucca, Cassava, when dried to a powdery extract, is called tapioca, its fermented, flaky version is named garri. Cassava is the third-largest source of carbohydrates in the tropics, after rice. Cassava is a staple food in the developing world, providing a basic diet for over half a billion people. It is one of the most drought-tolerant crops, capable of growing on marginal soils, Nigeria is the worlds largest producer of cassava, while Thailand is the largest exporter of dried cassava. Cassava is classified as sweet or bitter. Like other roots and tubers, both bitter and sweet varieties of cassava contain antinutritional factors and toxins, with the bitter varieties containing much larger amounts, the more toxic varieties of cassava are a fall-back resource in times of famine or food insecurity in some places. Farmers often prefer the bitter varieties because they deter pests, animals, the cassava root is long and tapered, with a firm, homogeneous flesh encased in a detachable rind, about 1 mm thick, rough and brown on the outside. Commercial cultivars can be 5 to 10 cm in diameter at the top, a woody vascular bundle runs along the roots axis. The flesh can be chalk-white or yellowish, Cassava roots are very rich in starch and contain small amounts of calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin C. However, they are poor in protein and other nutrients, in contrast, cassava leaves are a good source of protein, but deficient in the amino acid methionine and possibly tryptophan. Forms of the domesticated species can also be found growing in the wild in the south of Brazil. By 4,600 BC, manioc pollen appears in the Gulf of Mexico lowlands, the oldest direct evidence of cassava cultivation comes from a 1, 400-year-old Maya site, Joya de Cerén, in El Salvador. With its high potential, it had become a staple food of the native populations of northern South America, southern Mesoamerica. Cassava was a food of pre-Columbian peoples in the Americas and is often portrayed in indigenous art. The Moche people often depicted yuca in their ceramics, spaniards in their early occupation of Caribbean islands did not want to eat cassava or maize, which they considered insubstantial, dangerous, and not nutritious. They much preferred foods from Spain, specifically wheat bread, olive oil, red wine, and meat, for these Christians in the New World, cassava was not suitable for communion since it could not undergo transubstantiation and become the body of Christ
41.
Jatropha
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Jatropha is a genus of flowering plants in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. The name is derived from the Greek words ἰατρός, meaning physician and it contains approximately 170 species of succulent plants, shrubs and trees. Most of these are native to the Americas, with 66 species found in the Old World, plants produce separate male and female flowers. As with many members of the family Euphorbiaceae, Jatropha contains compounds that are highly toxic, Jatropha species have traditionally been used in basketmaking, tanning and dye production. In the 2000s, one species, Jatropha curcas, generated interest as an oil crop for biodiesel production, the stems of haat are used for basketmaking by the Seri people in Sonora, Mexico. The stems are roasted, split and soaked through an elaborate process, the reddish dye that is often used is made from the root of another plant species, Krameria grayi. Spicy jatropha is cultivated as an ornamental in the tropics for its continuously blooming crimson flowers, Buddha belly plant was used to tan leather and produce a red dye in Mexico and the southwestern United States. It is also used as a house plant, the oil from Jatropha curcas is mainly converted into biodiesel for use in diesel engines. The cake can be used for fish or animal feed, biomass feedstock to power electricity plants, in 2007, Goldman Sachs cited Jatropha curcas as one of the best candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and pests, and produces seeds containing 27-40% oil, the remaining press cake of jatropha seeds after oil extraction could also be considered for energy production. 2009 research found that Jatropha biodiesel production requires more water than other common biofuel crops. Jatropha curcas is also being studied for use as a Carbon sequestration plant in arid regions, much like other members of the family Euphorbiaceae, members of the genus Jatropha contain several toxic compounds. The seeds of Jatropha curcas contain the highly poisonous toxalbumin curcin, despite this, the seeds are occasionally eaten after roasting, which reduces some of the toxicity. Its sap is an irritant, and ingesting as few as three untreated seeds can be fatal to humans. In 2005 Western Australia banned Jatropha gossypiifolia as invasive and highly toxic to people, even though it was used as medicine in certain geographic region it was found to have no antimicrobial activity. Jatropha bullockii E. J. Lott Jatropha cardiophylla Müll. Arg, – Sangre de Cristo Jatropha cathartica Terán & Berland. – Berlandiers Nettlespurge Jatropha chamelensis Pérez-Jiménez Jatropha costaricensis G. L. Webster & Poveda Jatropha cinerea Müll. Arg, Jatropha gossypiifolia L. – Bellyache Bush Jatropha hernandiifolia Vent. – Wild Oilnut Jatropha integerrima Jacq. syn, J. pandurifolia – Spicy Jatropha, called in Chinese Ri Ri Ying, which means Every-day-flowered Cherry Blossom Jatropha macrantha Mull
42.
Hemp
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Hemp or industrial hemp, typically found in the northern hemisphere, is a variety of the Cannabis sativa plant species that is grown specifically for the industrial uses of its derived products. It is one of the fastest growing plants and was one of the first plants to be spun into usable fiber 10,000 years ago. It can be refined into a variety of items including paper, textiles, clothing, biodegradable plastics, paint, insulation, biofuel, food. Hemp has lower concentrations of THC and higher concentrations of cannabidiol, the legality of industrial hemp varies widely between countries. Some governments regulate the concentration of THC and permit only hemp that is bred with an especially low THC content, then it appears to have been borrowed into Latin, and separately into Slavic and from there into Baltic, Finnish, and Germanic languages. Following Grimms law, the k would have changed to h with the first Germanic sound shift, after which it may have been adapted into the Old English form, hænep. Another possible source of origin is Assyrian qunnabu, which was the name for a source of oil, fiber, cognates of hemp in other Germanic languages, include Dutch hennep, Danish and Norwegian, hamp, German, hanf, and Swedish, hampa. Hemp is used to make a variety of commercial and industrial products including rope, clothes, food, paper, textiles, plastics, insulation, the inner two fibers of the plant are more woody and typically have industrial applications, such as mulch, animal bedding and litter. When oxidized, hemp oil from the seeds becomes solid and can be used in the manufacture of oil-based paints, in creams as an agent, for cooking. Hemp seeds have been used in bird feed mix as well, a survey in 2003 showed that more than 95% of hemp seed sold in the European Union was used in animal and bird feed. Hemp seeds can be raw, ground into a meal, sprouted. The leaves of the plant can be consumed raw in salads. Hemp can also be made into a liquid and used for baking or for such as hemp milk, hemp juice. Hempseed oil is cold-pressed from the seed and is high in unsaturated fatty acids. In 2011, the U. S. imported $11.5 million worth of products, mostly driven by growth in demand for hemp seed. In the U. S. imported hemp can be used legally in food products,100 grams of hulled hemp seeds supply 586 calories. They are 5% water, 5% carbohydrates, 49% total fat, Hemp seeds are notable in providing 64% of the Daily Value of protein per 100 gram serving. Hempseed amino acid profile is comparable to other sources of such as meat, milk, eggs
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Biodegradation
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Biodegradation is the disintegration of materials by bacteria, fungi, or other biological means. Although often conflated, biodegradable is distinct in meaning from compostable, while biodegradable simply means to be consumed by microorganisms, compostable makes the specific demand that the object break down under composting conditions. Organic material can be degraded aerobically with oxygen, or anaerobically, biosurfactant, an extracellular surfactant secreted by microorganisms, enhances the biodegradation process. Biodegradable matter is generally organic material serves as a nutrient for microorganisms. Microorganisms are so numerous and diverse that, a range of compounds are biodegraded, including hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, polyaromatic hydrocarbons. Decomposition of biodegradable substances may include both biological and abiotic steps, in practice, almost all chemical compounds and materials are subject to biodegradation, the key is the relative rates of such processes - minutes, days, years, centuries. A number of factors determine the rate of organic compounds. Salient factors include light, water and oxygen, temperature is also important because chemical reactions proceed more quickly at higher temperatures. The degradation rate of organic compounds is limited by their bioavailability. Compounds must be released into solution before organisms can degrade them, Biodegradability can be measured in a number of ways. Respirometry tests can be used for aerobic microbes, first one places a solid waste sample in a container with microorganisms and soil, and then aerate the mixture. Over the course of days, microorganisms digest the sample bit by bit. Biodegradability can also be measured by anaerobic microbes and the amount of methane or alloy that they are able to produce, in formal scientific literature, the process is termed bio-remediation. In advanced societies, laundry detergents are based on linear alkylbenzenesulfonates, branched alkybenzenesulfonates, used in former times, were abandoned because they biodegrade too slowly. Plastics biodegrade at highly variable rates, pVC-based plumbing is specifically selected for handing sewage because PVC biodegrades very slowly. Some packaging materials on the hand are being developed that would degrade readily upon exposure to the environment. A prominent example is poly-3-hydroxybutyrate, the renewably derived polylactic acid, others are the cellulose-based cellulose acetate and celluloid. Under low oxygen conditions biodegradable plastics break down slower and with the production of methane, the breakdown process is accelerated in a dedicated compost heap
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Anaerobic digestion
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Anaerobic digestion is a collection of processes by which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen. The process is used for industrial or domestic purposes to waste or to produce fuels. Much of the fermentation used industrially to produce food and drink products, as well as home fermentation, anaerobic digestion occurs naturally in some soils and in lake and oceanic basin sediments, where it is usually referred to as anaerobic activity. This is the source of marsh gas methane as discovered by Volta in 1776, the digestion process begins with bacterial hydrolysis of the input materials. Insoluble organic polymers, such as carbohydrates, are broken down to soluble derivatives that become available for other bacteria, acidogenic bacteria then convert the sugars and amino acids into carbon dioxide, hydrogen, ammonia, and organic acids. These bacteria convert these resulting organic acids into acetic acid, along with ammonia, hydrogen. Finally, methanogens convert these products to methane and carbon dioxide, the methanogenic archaea populations play an indispensable role in anaerobic wastewater treatments. Anaerobic digestion is used as part of the process to treat biodegradable waste, as part of an integrated waste management system, anaerobic digestion reduces the emission of landfill gas into the atmosphere. Anaerobic digesters can also be fed with energy crops, such as maize. Anaerobic digestion is used as a source of renewable energy. The process produces a biogas, consisting of methane, carbon dioxide and this biogas can be used directly as fuel, in combined heat and power gas engines or upgraded to natural gas-quality biomethane. The nutrient-rich digestate also produced can be used as fertilizer, many microorganisms affect anaerobic digestion, including acetic acid-forming bacteria and methane-forming archaea. These organisms promote a number of processes in converting the biomass to biogas. Gaseous oxygen is excluded from the reactions by physical containment, anaerobes utilize electron acceptors from sources other than oxygen gas. These acceptors can be the material itself or may be supplied by inorganic oxides from within the input material. When the oxygen source in a system is derived from the organic material itself, the intermediate end products are primarily alcohols, aldehydes. In the presence of specialised methanogens, the intermediates are converted to the end products of methane, carbon dioxide. In an anaerobic system, the majority of the energy contained within the starting material is released by methanogenic bacteria as methane
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Gasification
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Gasification is a process that converts organic or fossil fuel based carbonaceous materials into carbon monoxide, hydrogen and carbon dioxide. This is achieved by reacting the material at high temperatures, without combustion, the resulting gas mixture is called syngas or producer gas and is itself a fuel. The power derived from gasification and combustion of the resultant gas is considered to be a source of energy if the gasified compounds were obtained from biomass. Syngas may be burned directly in gas engines, used to produce methanol and hydrogen, gasification can also begin with material which would otherwise have been disposed of such as biodegradable waste. In addition, the high-temperature process refines out corrosive ash elements such as chloride and potassium, gasification of fossil fuels is currently widely used on industrial scales to generate electricity. The process of producing energy using the method has been in use for more than 180 years. In the early time coal and peat were used to power these plants, during both world wars, especially the World War II, the need for fuel produced by gasification reemerged due to the shortage of petroleum. Wood gas generators, called Gasogene or Gazogène, were used to power motor vehicles in Europe, by 1945 there were trucks, buses and agricultural machines that were powered by gasification. It is estimated there were close to 9,000,000 vehicles running on producer gas all over the world. In a gasifier, the material undergoes several different processes. Typically the resulting steam is mixed into the gas flow and may be involved with subsequent chemical reactions, the pyrolysis process occurs at around 200-300 °C. Volatiles are released and char is produced, resulting in up to 70% weight loss for coal, the process is dependent on the properties of the carbonaceous material and determines the structure and composition of the char, which will then undergo gasification reactions. This balances the concentrations of carbon monoxide, steam, carbon dioxide, further reactions occur when the formed carbon monoxide and residual water from the organic material react to form methane and excess carbon dioxide. This third reaction occurs more abundantly in reactors that increase the time of the reactive gases and organic materials, as well as heat. Catalysts are used in more sophisticated reactors to improve reaction rates, several types of gasifiers are currently available for commercial use, counter-current fixed bed, co-current fixed bed, fluidized bed, entrained flow, plasma, and free radical. A fixed bed of fuel through which the gasification agent flows in counter-current configuration. The ash is removed in the dry condition or as a slag. The slagging gasifiers have a ratio of steam to carbon
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Syngas
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Syngas, or synthesis gas, is a fuel gas mixture consisting primarily of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and very often some carbon dioxide. The name comes from its use as intermediates in creating synthetic natural gas, syngas is usually a product of gasification and the main application is electricity generation. Syngas is combustible and often used as a fuel of internal combustion engines and it has less than half the energy density of natural gas. Syngas can be produced from many sources, including gas, coal, biomass, or virtually any hydrocarbon feedstock, by reaction with steam. Syngas is a crucial resource for production of hydrogen, ammonia, methanol. Syngas is also used as an intermediate in producing synthetic petroleum for use as a fuel or lubricant via the Fischer–Tropsch process and previously the Mobil methanol to gasoline process. Production methods include steam reforming of natural gas or liquid hydrocarbons to produce hydrogen, the gasification of coal, biomass, the chemical composition of syngas varies based on the raw materials and the processes. Syngas produced by coal gasification generally is a mixture of 30 to 60% carbon monoxide,25 to 30% hydrogen,5 to 15% carbon dioxide and it also contains lesser amount of other gases. The main reaction that produces syngas, steam reforming, is a reaction with 206 kJ/mol methane needed for conversion. The first reaction, between incandescent coke and steam, is endothermic, producing carbon monoxide, and hydrogen H2. When the coke bed has cooled to a temperature at which the reaction can no longer proceed. The overall reaction is exothermic, forming producer gas, steam can then be re-injected, then air etc. to give an endless series of cycles until the coke is finally consumed. Producer gas has a lower energy value, relative to water gas. Pure oxygen can be substituted for air to avoid the dilution effect and this is primarily done by pressure swing adsorption, amine scrubbing, and membrane reactors. Conversion of biomass to syngas is typically low-yield, the University of Minnesota developed a metal catalyst that reduces the biomass reaction time by up to a factor of 100. The catalyst can be operated at atmospheric pressure and reduces char, the entire process is autothermic and therefore heating is not required. CO2 can be split into CO and then combined with hydrogen to form syngas and this technique was alleged to have been used during the Cold war in Russian nuclear submarines to allow them to get rid of CO2 gas without leaving a bubble trail. Publicly available journals published during the Cold War indicate that American submarines used conventional chemical scrubbers to remove CO2, documents released after the sinking of the Kursk, a Cold War era Oscar-class submarine, indicate that potassium superoxide scrubbers were used to remove carbon dioxide on that vessel
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Biodegradable waste
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In waste management, it also includes some inorganic materials which can be decomposed by bacteria. Such materials include gypsum and its products such as plasterboard and other simple organic sulfates which can be decomposed to yield hydrogen sulfide in anaerobic land-fill conditions. In domestic waste collection, the scope of biodegradable waste may be narrowed to only those degradable wastes capable of being handled in the local waste handling facilities. Biodegradable waste can be found in municipal solid waste as green waste, food waste, paper waste. Other biodegradable wastes include human waste, manure, sewage, sewage sludge, in the absence of oxygen, much of this waste will decay to methane by anaerobic digestion. In many parts of the world, biodegradable waste is separated from the rest of the waste stream. At the point of such waste is often referred to as Green waste. Removing such waste from the rest of the waste stream substantially reduces waste volumes for disposal, biodegradable waste can be used for composting or a resource for heat, electricity and fuel by means of incineration or anaerobic digestion. Swiss Kompogas and the Danish AIKAN process are examples of anaerobic digestion of biodegradable waste, while incineration can recover the most energy, anaerobic digestion plants retain the nutrients and compost for the soil and still recover some of the contained energy in the form of biogas. Kompogas produced 27 million Kwh of electricity and biogas in 2009, the oldest of the companys own lorries has achieved 1,000,000 kilometers driven with biogas from household waste in the last 15 years. Featured in an edition of The Economist that predicted events in 2014, Massachusetts, along with Connecticut and Vermont, are also going to enact laws to divert food waste from landfills. In small and densely populated states, landfill capacity is limited so disposal costs are higher, decomposing food waste generates methane, a notorious greenhouse gas. However, this biogas can be captured and turned into energy through anaerobic digestion, anaerobic digestion grew in Europe, but is starting to develop in America. Massachusetts is increasing its production of anaerobic digesters, the main environmental threat from biodegradable waste is the production of methane and other greenhouse gases
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Climate change
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Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time. Climate change may refer to a change in weather conditions. Climate change is caused by such as biotic processes, variations in solar radiation received by Earth, plate tectonics. Certain human activities have also identified as significant causes of recent climate change. Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations, more recent data are provided by the instrumental record. The most general definition of change is a change in the statistical properties of the climate system when considered over long periods of time. Accordingly, fluctuations over periods shorter than a few decades, such as El Niño, the term climate change is often used to refer specifically to anthropogenic climate change. Anthropogenic climate change is caused by activity, as opposed to changes in climate that may have resulted as part of Earths natural processes. In this sense, especially in the context of environmental policy, within scientific journals, global warming refers to surface temperature increases while climate change includes global warming and everything else that increasing greenhouse gas levels affect. A related term is climatic change, in 1966, the World Meteorological Organization proposed the term climatic change to encompass all forms of climatic variability on time-scales longer than 10 years, regardless of cause. Change was a given and climatic was used as an adjective to describe this kind of change, when it was realized that human activities had a potential to drastically alter the climate, the term climate change replaced climatic change as the dominant term to reflect an anthropogenic cause. Climate change was incorporated in the title of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate change, used as a noun, became an issue rather than the technical description of changing weather. On the broadest scale, the rate at which energy is received from the Sun and this energy is distributed around the globe by winds, ocean currents, and other mechanisms to affect the climates of different regions. Factors that can shape climate are called climate forcings or forcing mechanisms, there are a variety of climate change feedbacks that can either amplify or diminish the initial forcing. Some parts of the system, such as the oceans and ice caps, respond more slowly in reaction to climate forcings. There are also key factors which when exceeded can produce rapid change. Forcing mechanisms can be internal or external. Internal forcing mechanisms are natural processes within the system itself
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Landfill gas
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Landfill gas is a complex mix of different gases created by the action of microorganisms within a landfill. Landfill gas is approximately forty to sixty percent methane, with the remainder being mostly carbon dioxide, trace amounts of other volatile organic compounds comprise the remainder. These trace gases include an array of species, mainly simple hydrocarbons. Landfill gases are the result of three processes, evaporation of organic compounds chemical reactions between waste components microbial action, especially methanogenesis. The first two depend strongly on the nature of the waste, despite the heterogeneity of waste, the evolution of gases follows well defined kinetic pattern. Formation of methane and CO2 commences about six months after depositing the landfill material, the evolution of gas reaches a maximum at about 20 years, then declines over the course of decades. The nature of the material in a landfill affects the landfill gas at the trace levels, for example, gases from municipal landfills contain traces of octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane, since such organosilicon compounds are used in personal care products. Because gases produced by landfills are both valuable and sometimes hazardous, monitoring techniques have been developed, flame ionization detectors can be used to measure methane levels as well as total VOC levels. Surface monitoring and sub-surface monitoring as well as monitoring of the ambient air is carried out, U. S. Federal regulations under Subtitle D of RCRA formed in October 1979 regulate the siting, design, construction, operation, monitoring, and closure of MSW landfills. Subtitle D now requires controls on the migration of methane in landfill gas, monitoring requirements must be met at landfills during their operation, and for an additional 30 years after. The landfills affected by Subtitle D of RCRA are required to control gas by establishing a way to check for methane emissions periodically and therefore prevent off-site migration. Landfill owners and operators must make sure the concentration of gas does not exceed 25% of the LEL for methane in the facilities structures. U. S. Environmental Protection Agency data shows more than 950 municipal solid waste landfills are operating in the United States as of 2013. Decomposing waste in these landfills produce landfill gas, which is a mixture of about half methane and these landfills are the third largest source of human-made methane emissions in the United States. The gases produced within a landfill can be collected and used in various ways, the landfill gas can be utilized directly on site by a boiler or any type of combustion system, providing heat. Electricity can also be generated on site through the use of microturbines, steam turbines, the landfill gas can also be sold off site and sent into natural gas pipelines. This approach requires the gas to be processed into pipeline quality, the efficiency of gas collection at landfills directly impacts the amount of energy that can be recovered - closed landfills collect gas more efficiently than open landfills. A comparison of collection efficiency at closed and open landfills found about a 17 percentage point difference between the two, Landfill gas can also be used to evaporate leachate, another byproduct of the landfill process
