Comparison of Biogas Concentrations in Various Environmental Conditions and Determination of the Optimal Period of Its Production at Environment Temperature

Albania, as a part of Western Balkan, has a variety of climate systems. This type of climate has a closed connection with waste treatment process. The biogas volume produced by the experimental environmental was 0.6 m3. The maximum methane concentration in biogas was reached at 55.8%/volume. The enclosed area (in oval circle) is another indicator of this system. This area extends over the period from 14.08.2018 until 26.08.2018 (12 days). The biomethane maximum biogas concentration reached 53.5 %/vol. up to 55.8% vol. The concentration drop was 4.2 %/vol. The main factor was the temperature. In the period of maximum durability the temperatures were minimum 30°C and maximum 42°C. Another contributing factor was the inoculum. Since inoculum was made from the treatment of four types of waste of different nature, then the concentration of microorganisms was higher. The purpose of the comparison between the two experiments is the sustainability of biogas production as well as the biomethane concentration biogas concentration on waste treatment. Environmental temperature was studied in three different regions of Albania: Shkodra, Tirana and Vlora. The observations showed that the region of Vlora has the longest period of average daily temperature (June 14th to October 1st).

Evaluation of the Influence of In Situ Stress on the Stability of Mine Pit Walls: A Case Study of Songwe Mine

The investigation of the influence of in situ stress in Open Pit Mine (OPM) projects has not been accorded a deserved attention despite being a fundamental concern in the design of underground excavations. Hence, its long-term potential adverse impacts on pit slope performance are overly undermined. Nevertheless, in mines located in tectonically active settings with a potential high horizontal stress regime like the Songwe mine, the impact could be considerable. Thus, Using FLAC3D 5.0 software, based on Finite Difference Method (FDM) code, we assessed the role of stress regimes as a potential triggering factor for slope instability in Songwe mine. The results of the evaluated shearing contours and quantified strain rate and displacement values reveal that high horizontal stress can reduce the stability performance of the pit-wall in spite of the minimal change in Factor of Safety (FoS). Since mining projects have a long life span, it would be recommendable to consider “in situ stress-stability analyses” for OPM operations that would be planned to extend to greater depths and those located in tectonically active regions.

Cultural Inheritance and Innovation—Taking the Heilongjiang Garden Design of the Garden Expo as an Example

With the rapid development of social science and technology civilization, and the acceleration of urbanization, the requirements of urban landscape planning and design are also paying more and more attention to the design concept of “adopting measures to local conditions and putting people first”. Therefore, the inheritance and innovation of urban landscape planning and design based on the culture that can represent local characteristics is a respect for and inheritance of traditional regional culture, the integration of traditional culture and the culture of the new era, and the inevitable trend of modern landscape planning and development. This essay uses the Heilongjiang Garden Engineering Design Project of the Garden Expo as a case to carry out the regional landscape planning and design, inheriting the regional characteristics, and proposing the design concept of “nature and culture growing on black soil”, integrating the characteristics of white mountains and black water into the garden, and seeing the big from the small Interpret the characteristic landscape impression of Heilongjiang and provide a reference for the design of the exhibition garden project in the future.

Doppler and an End of Expansion

The concept today is that our universe is in a state of expansion as everything is moving away from us, and away from everywhere. This idea is specifically a conclusion to the finding of the frequency of the waves of light from the source being distorted, theoretically by the motion of the source relative to the observer. The frequency variation is called Doppler which was originally assigned to distorted sound from arriving trains. This is an analysis of Doppler theory that revels that a redshift of star light beams occur when the stars are “revolving” relative to an observer (such as us on earth). Everything in space does revolve around an observer. Think about this!

Measurement of Surface Area Concentration of Fine Particulate Matter in Indoor Environments

Indoor exposure to fine particles (0.01-2.5 µm) is measured in the present study using Surface Area Concentration (SAC) metric for two indoor environment categories based on the cooking fuel used—kerosene and Liquid Petroleum Gas LPG. Study of SAC is very important from the point of view of health aspects. From the collected data, Arithmetic Means, Geometric Means, peak concentration values were determined to compare between the two categories of Indoor environment. The results show the two environments to be significantly different. Also, the results indicate remarkable high indoor surface area concentrations during the cooking and other combustion processes.

Recommended Optimal Land Utilization and Farming Techniques (ROLUFS) in Pendurthi Mandal, A Geospatial Approach, Vishakhapatnam District, Andhra Pradesh, INDIA

Integrating land and water resources is a major key in sustainable development. Managing agricultural land is a concerning task keeping the ever increasing population in mind as agriculture utilizes largest amount of water in the world. A case study of Pendurthi mandal, Vishakhapatnam district, Andhra Pradesh, India has been taken up for resource appraisal. Basic integration of land and water resources (BILWRUS), generation of thematic maps using remote sensing in conjunction with Geographical Information System, and ground laboratory techniques has been the major task. The proposed landuse has been assigned to all the 23 villages of the study area, using recommended optimal land utilization and farming techniques (ROLUFS) as per the norms set by National water Development Program for Rainfed areas (NWDPRA).

Characterizing Opportunity Power in the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) in Years 2015-2017

Studying the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) day-ahead and real-time markets for the period January 2015 to December 2017, we characterize the growth of curtailment and negative-priced power from renewable generators. Results show that renewable curtailment is growing rapidly, tripling to over 400 GWh from 2015-2018. Negative-priced renewable power is larger and also growing rapidly, reaching 1.5 TWh in 2017 for 40% CAGR.Resource-hours for negative pricing grew nearly 3-fold from 80,006 to 217,728 hours, with the highest single generator reaching 955 hours in 2017 or 33% of the daylight solar hours. Spatially, the quantity of negative-priced power is concentrated at a few dozen renewable generators, reaching peaks of 170GWh at the largest generator. We also consider an averaged-price model (NetPrice) that smooths over fluctuations to estimate the usable quantities of low-priced power. Results for NetPrice show a much larger quantity of low-priced power available than with either negative-pricing or curtailment alone. Overall, these results suggest both that opportunity power is a substantial and growing resource and a number of opportunities to exploit it.

Mantle Xenoliths from Ibal-Oku (Oku massif, North-west Region, Cameroon): Imprints of Superimposed Carbonatitic and Silicic Metasomatisms

Mantle xenoliths have been discovered in Ibal-Oku basalts from Oku Massif, Cameroon Volcanic Line. These xenoliths analyzed in term of major elements by scanning electron microscope, atomic emission spectrometry, traces and rare earth elements by mass spectrometry are peridotites and pyroxenites. Peridotites comprise Fe-rich lherzolites, harzburgites and wehrlites. Pyroxenites comprise websterites, olivine-websterites, clinopyroxenites and olivine-clinopyroxenites. Mineralogically, olivine Fo% values and NiO content vary from 85 to 91 and 0.26 to 0.43 wt.%, respectively. Orthopyroxene is enstatite, Mg# values and Al content ranging from 0.83 to 0.92 and 0.12 to 0.27 atom per formula unit (apfu), respectively. Clinopyroxene is augite and diopside, Mg# values and Al content ranging from 0.83 to 0.93 and 0.23 to 0.37 apfu, respectively. Spinel is aluminous, Cr# and Mg# values ranging from 0.07 to 0.23 and 0.67 to 0.82, respectively. Micas are biotites (Fe#: 0.52-0.76). Feldspars, which are secondary are sanidine, andesine and labradorite. Geochemically, peridotite Mg# values vary from 82.7 to 89.9 and pyroxenites from 80.1 to 83.6. The major element variations and some compatible elements are described in terms of partial melting (14-15 vol.% in lherzolites and 17-18 vol.% in harzburgites), whereas the heterogeneities in trace elements are related to carbonatitic/silicic metasomatism.

Lion Mountain Landslide in Non-urbanized Terrain: Changing the Myth of Landslide Occurrence in Western Sierra Leone

Freetown has documented one of the most devastating landslides in the world in 2017. Many debates in the media, few scientific papers and technical documents, have argued with eloquence ascertaining human factors, particularly deforestation and urbanization, as the dominant causative factor. This notion seems to be widely accepted for all other slides by the communities, government agencies and departments. Therefore, this work attempts to expand on existing public knowledge by demonstrating the less influential or insignificant human factors which can have impacts on certain landslide occurrences in the Freetown Layered-Complex. The representative landslide considered for this study occurred beyond the vicinity of urbanized zone. Therefore, to establish a clear understanding of the actual causative factors, fieldwork and laboratory investigations were undertaken. During the field survey, we assessed the rock type, discontinuities, geomorphology and hydrological influence of the landslide. The specific rock series underlying the landslide was confirmed through thin section analysis at the National Minerals Agency (NMA). DCP tests and laboratory analyses enhanced the derivation of geotechnical properties of the residual soil/regolith.This work systematically presented how natural conditions, such as: geology (rock types and tectonic signatures), geomorphology, hydrology and the geotechnical properties of the slope soil, have interplayed in the occurrence of the landslide event. In addition, the slip surface of the landslide occurred at a depth below the reach of plant activities (2.6 m). This information may help modify public messages by institutions and can be a source of useful information for the country’s Landslide Disaster Management Department (LDMD).

From Renewable Energy to Renewable Fuel: A Sustainable Hydrogen Production

Hydrogen, a zero-emission fuel and the universal energy vector, can be easily produced from many different energy sources. It is a storable, transportable product that can be used on demand to overcome supply and demand imbalances. As of today, most of the hydrogen produced comes from natural gas; the production process itself is in fact not so pollution free. As the world is looking for a low carbon future, researchers have therefore been looking for more sustainable, environmentally friendly pathways of hydrogen production by using renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. Among the different methods, water electrolysis is a conventional and promising method of hydrogen production if renewable energy sources are to be employed in the process. Lots of progress has been made over the past few years in extending the use of hydrogen in different sectors. This perspective article briefly covers the recent developments in the hydrogen fuel-based projects and technologies and provides a description of the advantages of employing renewable energy sources for sustainable hydrogen production.