Shale Gas Implications for C2-C3 Olefin Production: Incumbent and Future Technology

Author(s):  
Eric E. Stangland

Substantial natural gas liquids recovery from tight shale formations has produced a significant boon for the US chemical industry. As fracking technology improves, shale liquids may represent the same for other geographies. As with any major industry disruption, the advent of shale resources permits both the chemical industry and the community an excellent opportunity to have open, foundational discussions on how both public and private institutions should research, develop, and utilize these resources most sustainably. This review summarizes current chemical industry processes that use ethane and propane from shale gas liquids to produce the two primary chemical olefins of the industry: ethylene and propylene. It also discusses simplified techno-economics related to olefins production from an industry perspective, attempting to provide a mutually beneficial context in which to discuss the next generation of sustainable olefin process development.

2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura B. DeLind

AbstractUrbandale Farm (Lansing, MI) has much in common with other urban agricultural projects throughout the US and especially those in the rust-belt cities of the Midwest. It raises food for an economically challenged neighborhood. It offers opportunities for local participation, education and job creation, and it is supported by diverse public and private institutions. By all official accounts, Urbandale Farm is good at what it does. Its acreage, production, income and entrepreneurial activities are all increasing, and it has become a poster child for urban agriculture throughout the city. However, despite its good work (or possibly because of it), Urbandale Farm, and urban agriculture more generally, may unwittingly be helping to rationalize the displacement and continued social and political inequity of urban neighbors rather than reinforcing greater place-making, neighborhood empowerment and sustainability. Using Urbandale Farm as a case in point, this paper critically explores how urban agriculture is being used by some scholars, activists, governmental offices and agencies to transform fragile neighborhoods. It questions some of the movement's underlying assumptions as well as some of its actual benefits and beneficiaries. The paper also offers suggestions—for the purpose of initiating a more nuanced conversation—on how urban agriculture can be reconfigured philosophically and practically to shed its neoliberal tendencies and contribute to a more structurally based social and political transformation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 165-167
Author(s):  
Pierre-Alain Schieb ◽  
Mohamed Chelly

Geographies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-62
Author(s):  
Ujjwal Das ◽  
Barkha Chaplot ◽  
Hazi Mohammad Azamathulla

Skilled birth attendance and institutional delivery have been advocated for reducing maternal, neonatal mortality and infant mortality (NMR and IMR). This paper examines the role of place of delivery with respect to neo-natal and infant mortality in India using four rounds of the Indian National Family Health Survey conducted in 2015–2016. The place of birth has been categorized as “at home” or “public and private institution.” The role of place of delivery on neo-natal and infant mortality was examined by using multivariate hazard regression models adjusted for clus-tering and relevant maternal, socio-economic, pregnancy and new-born characteristics. There were 141,028 deliveries recorded in public institutions and 54,338 in private institutions. The esti-mated neonatal mortality rate in public and private institutions during this period was 27 and 26 per 1000 live births respectively. The study shows that when the mother delivers child at home, the chances of neonatal mortality risks are higher than the mortality among children born at the health facility centers. Regression analysis also indicates that a professionally qualified provider′s antenatal treatment and assistance greatly decreases the risks of neonatal mortality. The results of the study illustrate the importance of the provision of institutional facilities and proper pregnancy in the prevention of neonatal and infant deaths. To improve the quality of care during and imme-diately after delivery in health facilities, particularly in public hospitals and in rural areas, accel-erated strengthening is required.


Author(s):  
Sasha Harris-Lovett ◽  
Kara L. Nelson ◽  
Paloma Beamer ◽  
Heather N. Bischel ◽  
Aaron Bivins ◽  
...  

Wastewater surveillance for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is an emerging approach to help identify the risk of a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak. This tool can contribute to public health surveillance at both community (wastewater treatment system) and institutional (e.g., colleges, prisons, and nursing homes) scales. This paper explores the successes, challenges, and lessons learned from initial wastewater surveillance efforts at colleges and university systems to inform future research, development and implementation. We present the experiences of 25 college and university systems in the United States that monitored campus wastewater for SARS-CoV-2 during the fall 2020 academic period. We describe the broad range of approaches, findings, resources, and impacts from these initial efforts. These institutions range in size, social and political geographies, and include both public and private institutions. Our analysis suggests that wastewater monitoring at colleges requires consideration of local information needs, sewage infrastructure, resources for sampling and analysis, college and community dynamics, approaches to interpretation and communication of results, and follow-up actions. Most colleges reported that a learning process of experimentation, evaluation, and adaptation was key to progress. This process requires ongoing collaboration among diverse stakeholders including decision-makers, researchers, faculty, facilities staff, students, and community members.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 5427
Author(s):  
Boning Zhang ◽  
Baochao Shan ◽  
Yulong Zhao ◽  
Liehui Zhang

An accurate understanding of formation and gas properties is crucial to the efficient development of shale gas resources. As one kind of unconventional energy, shale gas shows significant differences from conventional energy ones in terms of gas accumulation processes, pore structure characteristics, gas storage forms, physical parameters, and reservoir production modes. Traditional experimental techniques could not satisfy the need to capture the microscopic characteristics of pores and throats in shale plays. In this review, the uniqueness of shale gas reservoirs is elaborated from the perspective of: (1) geological and pore structural characteristics, (2) adsorption/desorption laws, and (3) differences in properties between the adsorbed gas and free gas. As to the first aspect, the mineral composition and organic geochemical characteristics of shale samples from the Longmaxi Formation, Sichuan Basin, China were measured and analyzed based on the experimental results. Principles of different methods to test pore size distribution in shale formations are introduced, after which the results of pore size distribution of samples from the Longmaxi shale are given. Based on the geological understanding of shale formations, three different types of shale gas and respective modeling methods are reviewed. Afterwards, the conventional adsorption models, Gibbs excess adsorption behaviors, and supercritical adsorption characteristics, as well as their applicability to engineering problems, are introduced. Finally, six methods of calculating virtual saturated vapor pressure, seven methods of giving adsorbed gas density, and 12 methods of calculating gas viscosity in different pressure and temperature conditions are collected and compared, with the recommended methods given after a comparison.


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 14-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Biermann ◽  
Philipp Pattberg ◽  
Harro van Asselt ◽  
Fariborz Zelli

Most research on global governance has focused either on theoretical accounts of the overall phenomenon or on empirical studies of distinct institutions that serve to solve particular governance challenges. In this article we analyze instead “governance architectures,” defined as the overarching system of public and private institutions, principles, norms, regulations, decision-making procedures and organizations that are valid or active in a given issue area of world politics. We focus on one aspect that is turning into a major source of concern for scholars and policy-makers alike: the “fragmentation” of governance architectures in important policy domains. The article offers a typology of different degrees of fragmentation, which we describe as synergistic, cooperative, and conflictive fragmentation. We then systematically assess alternative hypotheses over the relative advantages and disadvantages of different degrees of fragmentation. We argue that moderate degrees of fragmentation may entail both significant costs and benefits, while higher degrees of fragmentation are likely to decrease the overall performance of a governance architecture. The article concludes with policy options on how high degrees of fragmentation could be reduced. Fragmentation is prevalent in particular in the current governance of climate change, which we have hence chosen as illustration for our discussion.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
JOERGEN OERSTROEM MOELLER

Over the last 25 years, Asia’s economic rise has been extraordinary. Its share of global gross domestic product (GDP) has risen from 5.8% to 22.9%. 1 The first phase of high economic growth — up to 1995 — saw Asia enter the global supply chain primarily with labor-intensive/low-cost manufacturing. Domestic consumption was a fairly low share of GDP; Asia was manufacturing mainly for consumption in the US and Europe. As such, it was primarily a rule-taker. In the second phase — from 1995 to 2020 — it gradually turned into an economic force joining the US and Europe in shaping the global economy, exercising significant influence upon the value chain, the cycles of the global economy, transport and logistics, the global capital markets and consumption patterns (consumer preferences and tastes). While not yet among the leading rule-makers, it had become difficult for policymakers (public and private) to make decisions without Asia’s consent. To form an opinion of today’s emerging third phase — post 2020 — the intriguing question is whether the Asian countries have adopted what may be termed Anglo-American economic thinking (basically, the primacy of the market). Or whether behind the curtain, the Asian economy works in its own way diverging from the American and British economic schools. Since demographics and sheer economic scale mean that Asia will dominate the global economy in the years to come, the nature of the Asian economy will be of crucial importance for the future global economy. The conclusion of this paper is that “Asia” in many respects differs — and fundamentally so — from market economy principles. How this prospect should be interpreted is also evolving, as circumstances change. Certainly, the repercussions of COVID-19 have not been the same in the US, Europe, East Asia and South Asia — and this may suggest that socio-political structures have a stronger impact on economic outcomes than economic theory teaches, thus calling into question the global validity of market economy principles.


Author(s):  
Luigi Capogrossi Colognesi

This chapter gives a rapid overview of the history of Roman public and private institutions, from their early beginning in the semi-legendary age of the kings to the later developments of the Imperial age. A turning point has been the passage from the kingdom to the republic and the new foundation of citizenship on family wealth, instead of the exclusiveness of clan and lineages. But still more important has been the approval of the written legislation of the XII Tables giving to all citizens a sufficient knowledge of the Roman legal body of consuetudinary laws. From that moment, Roman citizenship was identified with personal freedom and the rule of law. Following political and military success, between the end of IV and the first half of III century bce Rome was capable of imposing herself as the central power in Italy and the western Mediterranean. From that moment Roman hegemony was exercised on a growing number of cities and local populations, organized in the form of Roman of Latin colonies or as Roman municipia. Only in the last century bce were these different statutes unified with the grant of Roman citizenship to all Italians. In this same period the Roman civil law, which was applied to private litigants by the Roman praetors, had become a very complex and sophisticated system of rules. With the empire the system did not change abruptly, although the Princeps did concentrate in his hands the last power of the judiciary and became the unique source of new legislation. In that way, for the first time, the Roman legal system was founded on rational and coherent schemes, becoming a model, which Antiquity transmitted to the late medieval Europe.


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