State of the Art in Separation Processes for Alternative Working Fluids in Clean and Efficient Power Generation

Gas turbines must now comply with much stricter emission control regulations. In fact, to combat the greenhouse effect, regulatory authorities have drastically reduced allowable emission levels. For example, in less than 12 years, the United States’ Clean Air Act issued the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), which tightened the NOx emission margin of natural gas combustion (from 75 ppm to 10 ppm). On the other hand, despite those efforts, the high demand for energy produced by fossil-fueled gas turbines in power plants has resulted in dramatic increases in anthropogenic CO2 and NOx emitted by gas combustors. Most systems responsible for these undesirable emissions are directly linked to power generation, with gas turbines playing a pivotal role. Yet, gas turbines are still widely used in power plants and will continue to meet the growing demand. Therefore, sequestration and separation techniques such as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and Air Separation Units (ASU) are essential to reduce CO2 and NOx emissions while allowing large amounts of power to be generated from these systems. This paper provides an in-depth examination of the current state of the art in alternative working fluids utilized in the power generation industry (i.e., gas turbines, combustion). In addition, this paper highlights the recent contribution of integrating separation techniques, such as air separation, steam methane reforming, and water-gas shifting, to the power generation industry to facilitate a continuous and adequate supply of alternative working fluids.

Reply to: Subramanian and Kumar, Increases in COVID-19 are unrelated to levels of vaccination across 68 countries and 2947 counties in the United States

In a recent contribution, Subramanian and Kumar (2021) state that increases in COVID-19 are unrelated to vaccination rates both across countries and across U.S. counties. I first discuss several empirical challenges related to the estimation of a meaningful relationship between these two variables which Subramanian and Kumar (2021) do not address. Using the same data sources, I then show that their findings disappear once the longitudinal character of the data is being utilized, underlining the arbitrary character of their result. Finally, I highlight that some of the county-level vaccination rates that Subramanian and Kumar (2021) cite as benchmarks for highly vaccinated locations are implausible and contradicted by additional data sources.

Talking about non-union collective agreements: A union perspective

In a recent contribution in this journal, Mark Bray, Shae McCrystal and Leslee Spiess posed the question, ‘Why doesn't anyone talk about non-union collective agreements?’ Surveying business, government and union perspectives, the authors identified the need for greater attention and research to understand their effect on contemporary Australian industrial relations. This article serves as a response to this concern. Two case studies illustrate how non-union agreements work in practice under the Fair Work Act 2009. We outline further examples of how unions have been talking about non-union agreements through a legal and policy strategy rather than public advocacy. Assessing employer motivations for pursuing non-union agreements, as well as bargaining outcomes for workers, we conclude that there is an urgent need for reform.

Multispecies hierarchies and capitalist value: Insights from salmon aquaculture

Research in animal geographies is increasingly paying attention to hierarchies and inequalities within and between nonhuman animals. The way that animals are valued differently and hierarchically within this growing body of scholarship has tended to focus on a range of biopolitical differences between and within species. Collard and Dempsey’s recent contribution, in contrast, points to the importance of hierarchy and difference in the valuation of nonhuman animals under capitalism. Their framework identifies five orientations of human and nonhuman bodies in relation to capitalist value, which in turn provides a heuristic to explore how capitalist accumulation produces and depends on differentially oriented natures. Our contribution to these debates – and to the Collard and Dempsey framework – draws on our ongoing research in Eastern Canada where salmon aquaculture is a growing yet highly contested industry. We focus on two instances of multispecies hierarchy and difference in and around the salmon cage that are central to this form of ocean-based production. In focusing on multispecies relations, we build on Collard and Dempsey's framework in two main ways. First, we show how valuation and devaluation reflect competing but relational capitalist interests, which rely on and produce different natures refracted through the logic of the nature/culture divide: Atlantic salmon are valued as game fish, and as the key species for Canada's aquaculture sector. Second, we show how capital's valuation of one species, in our case farmed salmon, implicates the valuation of others, namely sea lice and lumpfish. Our case studies extend Collard and Dempsey's framework by demonstrating how capitalist differentiation produces violence through and outside of commodification in terms of multispecies difference and hierarchy; the lives and futures of wild and farmed salmon, lumpfish and sea lice are entangled, and reflect relational and changing orientations to capitalist value over time.

Comment on Khairul Zaman et al. Eco-Friendly Coagulant versus Industrially Used Coagulants: Identification of Their Coagulation Performance, Mechanism and Optimization in Water Treatment Process. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 9164

In a recent contribution by Zaman and colleagues, a few issues were noted on the justification of their study, which performed a comparative assessment of chitosan as a proposed alternative to aluminum-based coagulants for drinking water treatment applications. We have provided further clarity around such issues, which apply to other studies on the same theme.

A Review on Audio Encryption Algorithms Using Chaos Maps-Based Techniques

Due to the quick improvement in digital communications and multimedia applications during recent periods up to the current time, data protection of digital data such as image, audio and video becomes a significant challenge. The security of audio data that transfer through different networks was rated as a preferred research field in the preceding years. This review covers the recent contribution for audio encryption and gives the most evaluations for audio encryption algorithm involving security analysis, computational complexity and quality analysis and their requirements. This paper fundamentally concentrates on displaying the different types of audio encryption and decryption techniques based on chaotic maps. Digital and analog audio algorithms were displayed, discussed and compared with the illustration of the important features and drawbacks. Various digital and audio proposed projects for audio encryption using chaotic maps have been covered, which they showed extreme sensitivity to initial conditions, unpredictability and conducting in a quasi-random manner. A comparison among the proposed algorithms in the key space, chaotic maps sensitivity and statistical analysis were provided.

Explaining coincidences

A traditional account of coincidences has it that two facts are coincidental whenever they are not related as cause and effect and do not have a common cause. A recent contribution by Lando (Noûs 51(1): 132–151, 2017) showed that this account is mistaken. In this paper, I argue against two alternative accounts of coincidences, one suggested by Lando, and another by Bhogal (Philos Phenomenol Res 100(3): 677–694, 2020), and defend a third one in their place. In short, I propose that how explanatory links relate to non-coincidental facts in explanation is what drives a wedge between coincidences and non-coincidences. This proposal is not susceptible to the worries I raise, and is more general, since it is not restricted to coincidences and non-coincidences involving physical facts.

Comment on ‘Carbon Intensity of corn ethanol in the United States: state of the science’

In their recent contribution, Scully et al (2021 Environ. Res. Lett. 16 043001) review and revise past life cycle assessments of corn-grain ethanol’s carbon (C) intensity to suggest that a current ‘central best estimate’ is considerably less than all prior estimates. Their conclusion emerges from selection and recombination of sector-specific greenhouse gas emission predictions from disparate studies in a way that disproportionately favors small values and optimistic assumptions without rigorous justification nor empirical support. Their revisions most profoundly reduce predicted land use change (LUC) emissions, for which they propose a central estimate that is roughly half the smallest comparable value they review (figure 1). This LUC estimate represents the midpoint of (a) values retained after filtering the predictions of past studies based on a set of unfounded criteria; and (b) a new estimate they generate for domestic (i.e. U.S.) LUC emissions. The filter the authors apply endorses a singular means of LUC assessment which they assert as the ‘best practice’ despite a recent unacknowledged review (Malins et al 2020 J. Clean. Prod. 258 120716) that shows this method almost certainly underestimates LUC. Moreover, their domestic C intensity estimate surprisingly suggests that cropland expansion newly sequesters soil C, counter to ecological theory and empirical evidence. These issues, among others, prove to grossly underestimate the C intensity of corn-grain ethanol and mischaracterize the state of our science at the risk of perversely affecting policy outcomes.

Duncan Dowson and elastohydrodynamic lubrication at Leeds University

This paper retraces the fascinating developments made by Professor Dowson at Leeds University in the field of elastohydrodynamic lubrication, starting from the early years of elastohydrodynamic lubrication solutions to his most recent contribution to biotribology and mixed lubrication.

What’s in a King? Unveiling the pragmatic micro-perceived value attributes of a fulfilling corporate governance code for responsible sustainable development

Purpose A recent contribution entitled Global Responsibility and the King Reports was made to the literature that represents a significant advancement in the understanding of how standards of good governance are practised. The corpus revealed key insights about macro-institutional governance regimes, yet, extraordinarily little about meso-organisational and even less so, micro-individual corporate governance practice. This study aims to shed light on the micro-individual level of corporate governance practice which has remained obscured by drawing pragmatic insights from the landmark South African King Code experience that may be applied to other governance jurisdictions for global organisational responsibility. Design/methodology/approach To unearth micro-individual corporate governance code practices, a phenomenological exploration of corporate governance practitioners’ (CGPs) perceptions was conducted. Qualitative semi-structured interviews with senior board members of securities-exchange listed companies were conducted with 10 directors of leading multinational South African corporations listed on Africa’s largest formal financial market; the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Recursive analysis of the qualitative data revealed key attributes that render a corporate governance code “fulfilling” as a consequence of being perceived as subjectively valuable by practitioners who are the ultimate end-users of the King Codes for advancing good corporate governance practice in each of their respective companies. Findings Two categories of fulfilling micro-perceived value attributes (MPVAs) of corporate governance codes emerged, namely, internal and external MPVAs. The three internal MPVAs are, namely, (I1) Meaningful innovation, (I2) Ethical pragmatism and (I3) Cultural transformation. The three external MPVAs are, namely, (E1) Governance legitimacy, (E2) Societal licencing and (E3) Risk mitigation. From these six attributes, two testable corporate governance code development propositions are advanced, namely, (P1) a corporate governance code with a higher constitution of MPVAs will fulfil CGPs more than one with less. (P2) A more fulfilling corporate governance code will enjoy higher adoption, application and/or compliance rates. Originality/value Illumining the subjective experiential perceptions that constitute the fulfilment of a corporate governance code deepens the pragmatic understanding of the “demand-side” or consumption of such codes in practice. Knowing these fulfilling MPVAs may also result in the development of codes that enjoy wider adoption and compliance rates thereby enhancing global corporate responsibility pragmatism through enhanced good governance. This study sheds light on the nexus where normative corporate governance principles and the enactment thereof meet at the coalface of organisational activity with an emphasis on those attributes that render them valuable to practitioners.