Renewable Butanol Production via Catalytic Routes

Fluctuating crude oil price and global environmental problems such as global warming and climate change lead to growing demand for the production of renewable chemicals as petrochemical substitutes. Butanol is a nonpolar alcohol that is used in a large variety of consumer products and as an important industrial intermediate. Thus, the production of butanol from renewable resources (e.g., biomass and organic waste) has gained a great deal of attention from researchers. Although typical renewable butanol is produced via a fermentative route (i.e., acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation of biomass-derived sugars), the fermentative butanol production has disadvantages such as a low yield of butanol and the formation of byproducts, such as acetone and ethanol. To avoid the drawbacks, the production of renewable butanol via non-fermentative catalytic routes has been recently proposed. This review is aimed at providing an overview on three different emerging and promising catalytic routes from biomass/organic waste-derived chemicals to butanol. The first route involves the conversion of ethanol into butanol over metal and oxide catalysts. Volatile fatty acid can be a raw chemical for the production of butanol using porous materials and metal catalysts. In addition, biomass-derived syngas can be transformed to butanol on non-noble metal catalysts promoted by alkali metals. The prospect of catalytic renewable butanol production is also discussed.

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Ecological Limits and the Meaning of Freedom: A Defense of Liberty as Non-Domination

De Ethica A Journal of Philosophical Theological and Applied Ethics ◽

10.3384/de-ethica.2001-8819.163333 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 3 (3) ◽

pp. 33-49 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Augustin Fragnière

Keyword(s):

Conceptual Analysis ◽

Environmental Policies ◽

Environmental Constraints ◽

Political Arena ◽

Individual Liberty ◽

Philosophical Debate ◽

Political Issues ◽

Global Environmental Problems ◽

Global Environmental ◽

Two Alternatives

It is now widely acknowledged that global environmental problems raise pressing social and political issues, but relatively little philosophical attention has been paid to their bearing on the concept of liberty. This must surprise us, because the question of whether environmental policies are at odds with individual liberty is bound to be controversial in the political arena. First, this article explains why a thorough philosophical debate about the relation between liberty and environmental constraints is needed. Second, based on Philip Pettit’s typology of liberty, it assesses how different conceptions of liberty fare in a context of stringent ecological limits. Indeed, a simple conceptual analysis shows that some conceptions of liberty are more compatible than others with such limits, and with the policies necessary to avoid overshooting them. The article concludes that Pettit’s conception of liberty as non-domination is more compatible with the existence of stringent ecological limits than the two alternatives considered.

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Individual Duties Regarding Global Environmental Problems The Example of Climate Change

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.2456822 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Lieske Voget-Kleschin ◽

Christian Baatz

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Environmental Problems ◽

Global Environmental Problems ◽

Global Environmental ◽

Individual Duties

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Styrene-divinylbenzene polymer oxidation catalyst

Collection of Czechoslovak Chemical Communications ◽

10.1135/cccc19812657 ◽

1981 ◽

Vol 46 (11) ◽

pp. 2657-2662

Author(s):

Zdeněk Prokop ◽

Karel Setínek

Keyword(s):

Functional Groups ◽

Noble Metal ◽

Additional Data ◽

Catalytic Properties ◽

Metal Catalysts ◽

Oxidation Catalyst ◽

Noble Metal Catalysts ◽

Polymer Catalyst ◽

Styrene Divinylbenzene ◽

Polymer Oxidation

Some additional data about properties and applicability of a styrene-divinylbenzene polymer catalyst containing acidic and redox functional groups are reported. It is shown that the catalysts of this type can be prepared reproducibly and exhibit catalytic properties comparable to the properties of noble metal catalysts.

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Theoretical Ecology

10.1093/oso/9780199209989.001.0001 ◽

2007 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Keyword(s):

Spatial Dynamics ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

The Novel ◽

Basic Principles ◽

Theoretical Ecology ◽

Global Environmental Problems ◽

Global Environmental ◽

Interacting Populations ◽

Novel Material ◽

Ecological Science

Robert May's seminal book has played a central role in the development of ecological science. Originally published in 1976, this influential text has overseen the transition of ecology from an observational and descriptive subject to one with a solid conceptual core. Indeed, it is a testament to its influence that a great deal of the novel material presented in the earlier editions has now been incorporated into standard undergraduate textbooks. It is now a quarter of a century since the publication of the second edition, and a thorough revision is timely. Theoretical Ecology provides a succinct, up-to-date overview of the field set in the context of applications, thereby bridging the traditional division of theory and practice. It describes the recent advances in our understanding of how interacting populations of plants and animals change over time and space, in response to natural or human-created disturbance. In an integrated way, initial chapters give an account of the basic principles governing the structure, function, and temporal and spatial dynamics of populations and communities of plants and animals. Later chapters outline applications of these ideas to practical issues including fisheries, infectious diseases, tomorrow's food supplies, climate change, and conservation biology. Throughout the book, emphasis is placed on questions which as yet remain unanswered. The editors have invited the top scientists in the field to collaborate with the next generation of theoretical ecologists. The result is an accessible, advanced textbook suitable for senior undergraduate and graduate level students as well as researchers in the fields of ecology, mathematical biology, environmental and resources management. It will also be of interest to the general reader seeking a better understanding of a range of global environmental problems.

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Is There a Future for Bourgeois Liberalism?

The Oxford Handbook of Max Weber ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190679545.013.31 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 109-129

Author(s):

Robert J. Antonio

Keyword(s):

Capital Accumulation ◽

Free Market ◽

Political Legitimacy ◽

Corporate Scandals ◽

Global Environmental Problems ◽

Global Environmental ◽

Free Market Capitalism ◽

Formal Rationality ◽

Bourgeois Culture ◽

Neoliberal Restructuring

Distinguished by extreme, systematized rationalism, Weber argued, bourgeois culture makes the social world in some ways more predictable and more comfortable but precludes a widely shared good life and social justice. He stressed emphatically that free-market capitalism, by maximizing formal rationality oriented to capital accounting and profitability, produces substantively “irrational” consequences that undermine the sociocultural and material fabric needed to sustain it. More than forty years of neoliberal restructuring, designed to accelerate capital accumulation at almost any cost, has generated massive corporate scandals, extreme economic inequalities, and global environmental problems that threaten its political legitimacy and social and ecological foundations. This chapter explores how Weber anticipated the types of substantive irrationalities suffered by today’s neoliberal regimes.

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Science Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century: Introduction

Journal of Contemporary History ◽

10.1177/00220094211006762 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 002200942110067

Author(s):

Soenke Kunkel

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Foreign Policy ◽

Foreign Relations ◽

Special Section ◽

Contemporary History ◽

Global Environmental Problems ◽

Global Environmental ◽

Science Diplomacy ◽

The Cold War

Setting the stage for the special forum, this introduction points to the centrality of science diplomacy activities within many current foreign policy concepts around the world. It also points to the lack of historical perspective within many current academic debates about science diplomacy. Suggesting the value of such a perspective, the introduction then draws attention to a number of fruitful contributions that histories of science diplomacy may make to contemporary history. These include: a better understanding of how entanglements between science, foreign policy, and international relations evolved over the twentieth century; a refined understanding of the workings of foreign relations and diplomacy that sheds light on the role of science as an arena of foreign relations; new insights into the Cold War; a globalizing of perspectives in the writing of contemporary history; a new international focus on widely under-researched actors like universities, science movements, science organizations, and science academies; a focus on new themes that range from global environmental problems to issues like cultural heritage. The remainder of the introduction then delineates some of the shared assumptions and findings of the essays and then briefly introduces each contribution to the special section.

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Impact of Environmental Moral Education on Pro-Environmental Behaviour: Do Psychological Empowerment and Islamic Religiosity Matter?

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18041604 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (4) ◽

pp. 1604

Author(s):

Abida Begum ◽

Liu Jingwei ◽

Maqsood Haider ◽

Muhammad Maroof Ajmal ◽

Salim Khan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Moral Education ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Psychological Empowerment ◽

Analytical Techniques ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Environmental Behaviour ◽

Mediating Role ◽

Global Environmental Problems ◽

Global Environmental ◽

The Relationship

In light of increasing concerns about global environmental problems, environmental moral education is assumed to have a significant influence on the pro-environmental behaviour of students. Within the past decade, several higher education institutes have acknowledged the importance of integrating sustainability into the educational curriculum to have a focused and explicit impact on society. The current study investigated the relationship between environmental moral education and pro-environmental behaviour while drawing upon insights from the conservation of resource theory. The relationship among the aforementioned variables was studied for the mediating role of psychological empowerment and the moderating effect of Islamic religiosity. Data were collected from 429 university students with a cross-sectional approach. The data were analysed using “structural equation modelling” and “PROCESS” analytical techniques. The results of the study followed the predicted conceptual model, that is, environmental moral education was positively related to pro-environmental behaviour. Furthermore, psychological empowerment partially mediated the aforementioned relationship, while Islamic religiosity moderated the relationships between environmental moral education and pro-environmental behaviour as well as between environmental moral education and psychological empowerment. These findings reinforce the importance of environmental moral education and Islamic religiosity in understanding the Muslim student’s ecological behaviours.

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Astronomy to understand a human environment

International Astronomical Union Colloquium ◽

10.1017/s0252921100115118 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 162 ◽

pp. 211-213

Author(s):

S. Isobe

Keyword(s):

School System ◽

Environmental Science ◽

The Other ◽

Human Environment ◽

Science Courses ◽

The Public ◽

Global Environmental Problems ◽

Global Environmental ◽

Set Up ◽

School Period

Astronomy is an important science in understanding a human environment. However, it is thought by most politicians, economists, and members of the public that astronomy is a pure science having no contribution to daily human activities except a few matters relating to time. The Japanese government is studying a reorganisation of our school system to have 5 school days per week, instead of 6 days per week, and this July its committee made a recommendation to reduce school hours for science and set up new courses for practical computers and environmental science. I currently made a proposal. It is very difficult for most of the school pupils, who will have non-scientific jobs, to understand science courses currently taught in school, because each science is taught independently from the other sciences. Therefore, their knowledge of sciences obtained during their school period does not greatly help their understanding of global environmental problems.

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