Review on The Effect of Alcohol Usage as A Fuel Additive in Internal Combustion Engine

The transportation sector holds a big share of the emission to the atmosphere. The emission of Green House Gas (GHG) leads to the thinning of the ozone layer. This situation leads to global warming. An international summit in Kyoto 1997 decided to stabilize the Green House Gas (GHG) emission. Therefore, many types of research have been conducted to reduce emissions. Improving engine performance is another method to reduce the amount of gasoline usage. One of the methods is to reduce emissions is by using alternative fuels. hydrogen, alcohol, and biofuel are among the examples. Among the alternatives, alcohol is a very popular alternative used in an internal combustion engine. This paper aims at reviewing the effect of alcohol on the performance and emission of the use of alcohol inside the spark-ignition engine. This review has confirmed that alcohol serves as good alternative fuel, especially if it is mixed at a good ratio with gasoline. With a good blend of alcohol-gasoline, emission can be reduced significantly

Farm-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions’ Decision Support Systems

In this paper, 15 farm-scale Green House Gas-based (GHG-based) decision support (DS) tools were evaluated based on a number of criteria (descriptive evaluation), as well as the parameters requested as inputs and the outputs, all of which are considered important for the estimation procedure and the decision support approach. The tools were grouped as emission calculators and tools providing indicators in terms of more than one pillar of sustainability. The results suggest an absence of automatic consultation in decision support in most of the tools. Furthermore, dairy and beef cattle production systems are the most represented in the tools examined. This research confirms a number of important functionalities of modern GHG-based DS tools.

Smart soils to observe hidden rhizosphere processes

Agriculture must reduce green-house gas emission and pollution, produce safer and healthier food, closer to home, reducing waste whilst delivering more diverse diets to a growing world population. Soils could enable this transformation, but unfortunately, they have a hugely complex and opaque structure and studies of its myriad of mechanisms are difficult. Here, the fabrication of smart soils for the screening of below-ground bio-processes is demonstrated. Particles were generated from fluoropolymer waste with functionalisation converting them into sensors able to report on key chemical dynamics. Tailored functionalization was obtained by radical terpolymerisation to improve growth conditions and sensing capabilities. The study demonstrates the potential for the development of accelerated genetic or agrochemical screens and could pave the way for controlled indoor soil bio-production systems.

Sustainable medicines use in clinical practice - a clinical pharmacological view on ecopharmacostewardship

Climate change continues to pose a dangerous threat to human health. However, not only is health impacted by this crisis, healthcare itself adds to the problem, through significant contributions to green house gas emissions. In the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) is responsible for an estimated 4% of the overall national carbon footprint. Medicines account for a quarter of this and whilst they are vital in in health now, through sustainable use they can also positively influence the environmental health of the future. In this review, we explore how clinical pharmacologists and other health care professionals can practice sustainable medicines use or eco-pharmaco-stewardship. We will discuss current and near future environmental practices within the NHS, which we suspect will resonate with other health systems. We will suggest approaches for championing eco-pharmaco-stewardship in drug manufacturing, clinical practices and patient use, to achieve a more a sustainable healthcare system.

The impact of green building ideology on ecosystem and society health

The First Green Building Movement that marked the beginning of an ideological revolution of the era occurred in the Late 19th Century. Climate Change and Global Warming have always been a major concern for humanity and justify the need for the development of innovative and greener technologies to help conserve natural resources for the future. This paper presents a review on the Historical Progress of Green Buildings so far and their impact on the occupant's health and productivity. The term which emerged in the context of green buildings as a result of these movements is High-Performance Green Buildings. The construction industry is considered to be the largest consumer of power and contributes about 1/4 of Global Green House Gas emissions. The Green Building Movement was an initiative to emphasize the need for a sustainable Built Environment. This paper presents the findings of a survey conducted on the occupants of GreenTech Malaysia, a certified Green Building, and the results which are somewhat counter intuitive in nature are analyzed.

Seakeeping Analysis of a Hydrofoil Supported Watercraft (Hysuwac): A Case Study

Considering recent global temperature increase and observed climate change, efforts have been made towards energy efficiency and reduction of green-house gas emission. A foil system is proposed in this study and retrofitted to an existing catamaran to reduce the energy use and to improve the vessel’s seakeeping characteristics. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of the application of the foil system on the seakeeping performance of the vessel. CFD simulations based on a panel method were carried out to obtain the seakeeping characteristics of the catamaran with and without foil system. Simulation results show that the foil system reduced the vessel motions in a seaway: the heave-, pitch- and roll significant amplitudes were reduced 4.41, 9.97 and 3.30 percent, respectively, due to the application of the foil system. In addition, the vertical accelerations at the fore perpendicular (FP) and at deck were reduced 3.66 and 9.70 percent, respectively. A check against the NORDFORSK criteria for fast small crafts shows that the vessel can operate safely up to sea state 2.

Assessment of Renewable Alternatives to Coal, Based on Their High Heating Value and Global Warming Potential

About 40% of the Global Electricity produced is fuelled by coal. Although Coal has various advantages like good High Heating Value, easy availability etc., it also has various disadvantages. Green House Gas Released from Coal Thermal Power Plants is the single major contributor to Global warming. Coal is also nonrenewable. Hence it is important to analyze the viability of potential alternatives and reduce the usage of coal. In this assessment, various potential replacements of coal have been analyzed based on their High heating value (HHV) and their Global Warming Potential. The Global warming Potential (GWP) of the assessed fuels have been calculated by the Respiratory Quotient (RQ) Factor method. Hence a direct comparison between Coal and other replacements based on their HHV and GWP has been performed.