Exposure to indoor air pollution from the combustion of solid fuels has been implicated, with varying degrees of evidence, as a causal agent of several diseases in developing countries. In a review of the epidemiological evidence for the health effects of indoor smoke from solid fuels, Bruce et al. concluded that, despite some methodological limitations, epidemiological studies provide compelling evidence of causality for acute respiratory infections (ARI) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This is reinforced by experimental data, studies of pathogenesis, and indirect evidence from environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and ambient air pollution studies. (more…)
Important research over the past few decades has illustrated that indoor air pollution and indoor smoke from solid fuel poses i ...
Exposure to air pollutants and air pollution problem are very high in indoor environments in developing countries. Smith has es ...
Smoke from biomass and coal combustion contains a large number of pollutants with known health hazards, including particulate matte ...
Indoor air quality (IAQ) research deals with the presence, levels, health effects, and control of physical, chemical, and biologica ...
In terms of aggregate health effects, household solid fuel use is currently the most important source of indoor air pollution i ...
Global energy consumption in the last half century has increased very rapidly and is expected to continue to grow over the next 50 years. However, we expect to see significant differences between the last 50 years and the next. The past increase was stimulated by relatively “cheap” fossil fuels and increased rates of industrialization in North America, Europe, and Japan; yet while energy consumption in these countries continues to increase, additional factors are making the picture for the next 50 years more complex. These additional complicating factors include the very rapid increase fuel economy in energy use in China and India (countries representing about a third of the world’s population); the expected depletion of oil resources in the not-too-distant future; and the effect of human activities on global climate change. (more…)
The relationship of gross national product per capita to energy consumption per capita for most countries of the world correlat ...
The long-term prospects for the U.K. economy are inevitably uncertain, and the most recent Department of Energy long-term proje ...
Transportation is another sector that has increased its relative share of primary energy use. This sector has serious concerns ...
The development of the ‘‘new’’ wind and solar technologies is of great importance for the future contribution of RESs to energy sup ...
To determine the effects of past climate trends on global energy consumption, the econometric equations providing the degree day el ...
Indoor air quality (IAQ) research deals with the presence, levels, health effects, and control of physical, chemical, and biological factors in indoor environments, including homes, workplaces, and vehicles. IAQ research in industrialized countries has examined hundreds of specific factors (e.g., temperature, various chemicals, and mold), sources of pollution environment (e.g., environmental tobacco smoke, occupational factors, consumer cleaning products, and moisture), and control technologies (e.g., ventilation). (more…)
Important research over the past few decades has illustrated that indoor air pollution and indoor smoke from solid fuel poses i ...
In terms of aggregate health effects, household solid fuel use is currently the most important source of indoor air pollution i ...
Exposure to air pollutants and air pollution problem are very high in indoor environments in developing countries. Smith has es ...
Reducing exposure to indoor air pollution from household energy use can be achieved through interventions in of the following a ...
Exposure to indoor air pollution from the combustion of solid fuels has been implicated, with varying degrees of evidence, as a ...
Scientists study Earth’s climate not just from observation but also from a theoretical perspective. Modern-day climate models successfully reproduce the key features of Earth’s climate, including the variations in wind patterns around the globe, the major ocean current systems such as the Gulf Stream, and the seasonal changes in temperature and rainfall associated with Earth’s annual revolution around the sun. The models also reproduce some of the more complex natural oscillations of the climate system. Just as the atmosphere displays random day-to-day variability that we term “weather,” the climate system produces its own random variations, on timescales of years. (more…)
Earth’s climate is a complex system of interacting natural components. These components include the atmosphere, the ocean, and the ...
Still hotly debated by some, human-induced global warming is now accepted in the scientific community. Earth’s average yearly tempe ...
Options for dealing with the threats of climate change include both adaptation to inevitable changes and mitigation, or lessening, ...
Although some scientists and critics still dispute that human caused greenhouse gases are causing climate change, the majority of s ...
Since preindustrial times, ambient concentrations of the greenhouse gases have exhibited substantial increases, inter alia CO2 ...
Do we have the resources? Rudolf Diesel developed the diesel engine which ran on biodiesel vegetable oil in the late 1800s. At the time, he speculated that his discovery seemed insignificant, but later could prove to be as important as mankind’s uncovering of future energy uses for petroleum and coal tar. Given the U.S.’ rapid expansion into biofuels, it would appear his vision was correct due to the drawbacks of biofuels. But widespread adoption of biomass-based fuels is not a foregone conclusion. Two questions haunt its progress. First, will it truly reduce U.S. reliance on fossil fuels? And second, is there enough farmland to accommodate widespread production, without jeopardizing food supplies? (more…)
Biofuels are made from living matter, plant or animal, and are strongly favored by agricultural interests because of the large ...
We had expressed our disagreement with Biofuels and tell them also that the European Union also wants to distance themselves from t ...
At present, in the United States and worldwide, motor vehicles are fueled almost exclusively by petroleum based gasoline (or re ...
One of the main benefits from future use of biofuels would be the reduction of greenhouse gases compared to the use of fossil f ...
Transportation is another sector that has increased its relative share of primary energy use. This sector has serious concerns ...
The quantification of the actual reduction in green house gases sourcess emissions resulting from the substitution of fossil fuels with energy from waste biomass requires a complete lifecycle assessment (LCA). A systematic framework for estimating the net Green House Gases emissions from bioenergy systems and comparing them against the fossil fuel reference system that it would replace has been developed. The major considerations of the life cycle assessment approach to quantifying the greenhouse impacts of bioenergy are as follows: (more…)
Bioenergy produced from biomass is sometimes called a carbon-neutral energy source, because the same quantity of carbon released wh ...
Climate change caused by the enhanced greenhouse effect is one of the most significant global environmental issues. Increased emiss ...
To date, most discussion and research relating to the various of biomass role in mitigating CO2 emissions has been focused around i ...
Estimation of the future technical potential of biomass as an energy source is dependent on assumptions with respect to land av ...
The accumulation of carbon within a forest growth cycle can be considered in four stages. The initial establishment stage involves ...
Energy efficiency is defined here to mean energy services provided per unit of energy input (for example, gallons of water heated to a specified temperature per British thermal units of natural gas input). Within this framework, energy efficiency is conceived primarily at the disaggregated, product level, rather than at a more aggregated sectoral level. (more…)
Cost–benefit analysis (CBA), also known as benefit–cost analysis, is rooted in applied welfare economics. It is a way of organizing ...
Statistics on national production levels and indicators of environmental pressure have been collected during the past few decad ...
Another possible non-market-failure explanation for the energy efficiency gap is associated with the fact that even if a given tech ...
Recently, attention to energy efficiency has been gaining momentum. The attention given by policy maker is mainly due to concer ...
Not surprisingly, most Energy Research and Development takes place in industrialized countries where both the public and private se ...
Recently, attention to energy efficiency has been gaining momentum. The attention given by policy maker is mainly due to concerns about climate change emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels. Particular attention has been paid on how the role of technological improvements in energy efficiency can help reduce carbon dioxide emissions. (more…)
Another possible non-market-failure explanation for the energy efficiency gap is associated with the fact that even if a given tech ...
Not surprisingly, most Energy Research and Development takes place in industrialized countries where both the public and private se ...
Beginning at the end of the technological change process, research has consistently shown that diffusion of new, economically ...
Energy efficiency is defined here to mean energy services provided per unit of energy input (for example, gallons of water hea ...
Energy performance ratings tell what the energy performance of a building is, but if the energy performance of a building is to be ...
The question has long been not whether or not to reduce air pollution, but by how much and by what means. Since the extent of the reduced discomfort and illness is not clear—and the measurement of peoples’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for reduced discomfort and illness is uncertain—it is not easy to know how much the pollution should be reduced. But it has always been clear that reducing automotive air pollution had to be part of the overall strategy. (more…)
Smoke from biomass and coal combustion contains a large number of pollutants with known health hazards, including particulate matte ...
The leading automotive brands are being focused to produce electric vehicles because they believe they represent a harmony to the e ...
These days we have two main concerns in the world of business and finance. First the greenhouse global warming and second the finan ...
Almost all fossil fuels use is by burning them to create energy. Burning process then produces waste products due to impurities in ...
The spark-ignition and compression-ignition engine and internal combustion engines technologies that are currently employed in ...
The hydrogen can come from various sources including fossil fuels, wind, solar, biomass, nuclear, solar thermo-chemical reactions, and solar photolysis. (more…)
Researchers at the Institute of Chemical Technology have developed a new catalyst that allows to obtain, from bioethanol, hydrogen ...
Hydrogen has many applications when it comes to fuel. It can be used both in internal combustion engines and hydrogen fuel cells. ...
The issues of hydrogen storage run through the hydrogen production, hydrogen transport, supply and demand for end use of hydrog ...
Most production systems try to become first full-scale production begins as small toys and devices of concept. The Horizon hydr ...
With ethanol’s future uncertain, many commentators see the transportation debate evolving into a war between two other technologies ...