Life cycle assessment of heat production from underground coal gasification

Purpose

In Poland, coal is the main fuel used for heat production. Innovative clean coal technologies, which include underground coal gasification (UCG), are widely developed. This paper presents the analysis results of life cycle assessment (LCA) and material flow analysis (MFA) of using synthesis gas from UCG for heat production. The paper presents the results of a comparative analysis of MFA and LCA for four variants of heat production, which differed in the choice of gasifying agent and heat production installations.

Methods

Environmental analysis was made based on LCA with ReCiPe Midpoint and ReCiPe Endpoint H/A method, which allowed to analyse of different categories of the environmental impact. LCA was performed based on the ISO 14040 standard using SimaPro 8.0 software with Ecoinvent 3.1 database (Ecoinvent 2014). Umberto NXT Universal software was used to develop MFA for heat production. LCA analyses included hard coal from a Polish mine and synthesis gas obtained in the experimental installations in the Central Mining Institute in Poland.

Results and discussion

MFA performed for technology of utilizing gases from UCG have made it possible to visualize materials and energy flow between different unit processes in the whole technological chain. Moreover, the analyses enabled identification of unit processes with the largest consumption of raw materials, energy and the biggest emissions into the environment. It has been shown that the lowest environmental burden is attributed to the technology, which uses high-pressure chamber with gas turbine in which the synthesis gas from UCG is burned and oxygen was a gasifying agent. Analysis of LCA results showed that the major environmental burden includes greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and the fossil fuels depletion. GHG emission results primarily from the direct emission of CO₂ from gas combustion for heat production and electricity consumption used in gasifying agents preparation phase.

Conclusions

In order to increase the environmental efficiency of heat production technology using UCG, the most important activity to be considered is limitation of dust-gas emissions, including primarily CO₂ removal process and efficiency increase of the installation, which is reflected in the reduction of coal consumption. It is important to highlight that this is the first attempt of MFA and LCA of heat production from UCG gas. Since no LCA has ever been conducted on the heat production from underground coal gasification, this study is the first work about LCA of the heat production from UCG technology. This is the first approach which contains a whole chain of unconventional heat production including preparation stages of gasifying agents, underground coal gasification, gas purification and heat production.

     

Stress in an underground empire

The naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber) and the Damaraland mole-rat (Fukomys damarensis) live in large colonies in underground tunnel systems in sub-Saharan Africa. Most members of the colonies are suppressed from reproduction and they are unlikely to reproduce during their lifetime. Only one female and a small number of males reproduce. This extreme cooperative social system has fascinated researchers since the naked mole-rat was first described as eusocial. Despite much research into the mechanisms of social suppression, the exact mechanisms are still unclear. Much evidence points towards high glucocorticoid concentrations caused by agonistic behaviour by the breeding female suppressing reproduction of non-breeders, but laboratory studies have not found any differences in glucocorticoids between breeders and non-breeders. There is, however, considerable evidence from field studies and other social mole-rats that social stress may indeed be an important factor of social suppression in social mole-rats and that those mechanisms are affected by the stability of the colony and environmental conditions. This review aims to provide a summary of the current knowledge of the relationship between environmental conditions, colony stability, glucocorticoids and reproductive suppression in social mole-rat species and suggests some avenues for future research.     

Tales from the underground: molecular

Colonization of the rhizosphere by micro‐organisms results in modifications in plant growth and development. This review examines the mechanisms involved in growth promotion by plant growth‐promoting rhizobacteria which are divided into indirect and direct effects. Direct effects include enhanced provision of nutrients and the production of phytohormones. Indirect effects involve aspects of biological control: the production of antibiotics and iron‐chelating siderophores and the induction of plant resistance mechanisms. The study of the molecular basis of growth promotion demonstrated the important role of bacterial traits (motility, adhesion and growth rate) for colonization. New research areas emerge from the discovery that molecular signalling occurs through plant perception of eubacterial flagellins. Recent perspectives in the molecular genetics of cross‐talking mechanisms governing plant–rhizobacteria interactions are also discussed.     

植物地下生物量研究进展

在生物量的研究过程中,地下部分生物量十分重要却又多被忽视本文首先比较了当前地下生物量研究中较为常用的4种研究方法:挖土块法、钻土芯法、内生长土芯法和微根区管法.然后总结了地下生物量在空间和时间上变化规律的研究成果.最后又讨论了环境因素诸如水分、温度和开垦、放牧对地下生物量的影响以及地下生物量的周转.     

Emanation of water from underground plant parts

Summary A device was designed which used gypsum and electrical conductivity as a means of detecting and quantitizing the amount of water emanating from underground plant parts under natural conditions. Use of this device with the Common French Bean demonstrated that considerable amounts of moisture emanated from the underground part of the stem. The amount of water emanated was found to be influenced by environmental conditions, differences in soil type and degree of soil compaction. When plants were grown in an environment of approximately 100 per cent relative air humidity and at a temperature of 28 to 30°C, 115 to 125 µl of water emanated from an 11 mm length of stem in a 24-hour period, in contrast to 70 to 80 µl of water emanating from plants grown at 50 to 60 per cent relative air humidity and at a temperature of 18 to 20°C. Water emanation was more rapid in a compacted soil than loose soil and also appeared to be dependent on the amount of sand in a soil. Whereas 115 to 125 µl of water emanated in a silt loam soil, only 35 to 45 µl emanated in a loamy sand soil and less than 10 µl in washed sea sand during a 24-hour period. The sensitivity of the conductivity unit to changes in moisture and the utility of its design enables its employment under varied environmental conditions and offers a technique for plant pathologists to study the effect of both the below- and aboveground environments on moisture emanation from underground plant parts and the resultant effect on the associated microflora.Senior author was visiting Research Fellow and NATO Science Fellow, sponsored by the Netherlands Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research (ZWO), Sept. 16, 1964 to Sept. 15, 1965. Present address: Phytopathologisch Laboratorium W.C.S. Baarn, The Netherlands.     

Plant signaling: notes from the underground

New studies combining genetic and grafting approaches in Arabidopsis provide evidence that a carotenoid derivative is a novel plant signaling molecule through which roots can influence shoot branching and leaf development.     

Beneficial microbes going underground of root immunity

Plant roots interact with an enormous diversity of commensal, mutualistic, and pathogenic microbes, which poses a big challenge to roots to distinguish beneficial microbes from harmful ones. Plants can effectively ward off pathogens following immune recognition of conserved microbe‐associated molecular patterns (MAMPs). However, such immune elicitors are essentially not different from those of neutral and beneficial microbes that are abundantly present in the root microbiome. Recent studies indicate that the plant immune system plays an active role in influencing rhizosphere microbiome composition. Moreover, it has become increasingly clear that root‐invading beneficial microbes, including rhizobia and arbuscular mycorrhiza, evade or suppress host immunity to establish a mutualistic relationship with their host. Evidence is accumulating that many free‐living rhizosphere microbiota members can suppress root immune responses, highlighting root immune suppression as an important function of the root microbiome. Thus, the gate keeping functions of the plant immune system are not restricted to warding off root‐invading pathogens but also extend to rhizosphere microbiota, likely to promote colonization by beneficial microbes and prevent growth‐defense tradeoffs triggered by the MAMP‐rich rhizosphere environment.     

Defining Life or Bringing Biology to Life

In the present, post-genomic times, systemic or holistic approaches to living phenomena are compulsory to overcome the limits of traditional strategies, such as the methodological reductionism of molecular biology. In this paper, we propose that theoretical and philosophical efforts to define life also contribute to those integrative approaches, providing a global theoretical framework that may help to deal with or interpret the huge amount of data being collected by current high-throughput technologies, in this so-called ‘omics’ revolution. We claim that two fundamental notions can capture the core of the living, (basic) autonomy and open-ended evolution, and that only the complementary combination of these two theoretical constructs offers an adequate solution to the problem of defining the nature of life in specific enough—but also encompassing enough—terms. This tentative solution should also illuminate, in its most elementary version, the leading steps towards living beings on Earth.     

From Life Cycle Assessment to Life Cycle Management

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a widely accepted methodology to support decision‐making processes in which one compares alternatives, and that helps prevent shifting of environmental burdens along the value chain or among impact categories. According to regulation in the European Union (EU), the movement of waste needs to be reduced and, if unavoidable, the environmental gain from a specific waste treatment option requiring transport must be larger than the losses arising from transport. The EU explicitly recommends the use of LCA or life cycle thinking for the formulation of new waste management plans. In the last two revisions of the Industrial Waste Management Programme of Catalonia (PROGRIC), the use of a life cycle thinking approach to waste policy was mandated. In this article we explain the process developed to arrive at practical life cycle management (LCM) from what started as an LCA project. LCM principles we have labeled the “3/3” principle or the “good enough is best” principle were found to be essential to obtain simplified models that are easy to understand for legislators and industries, useful in waste management regulation, and, ultimately, feasible. In this article, we present the four models of options for the management of waste solvent to be addressed under Catalan industrial waste management regulation. All involved actors concluded that the models are sufficiently robust, are easy to apply, and accomplish the aim of limiting the transport of waste outside Catalonia, according to the principles of proximity and sufficiency.     

生命条形码与生命之树

生命条形码和生命之树的研究与应用在近十年内备受关注,成为生命科学研究领域的两个热点。本文综述了生命条形码和生命之树的概念来源、研究现状、面临问题与解决方案,并对其发展前景进行了展望。生命之树概念的形成有着悠久的历史渊源,DNA条形码的提出和实施则只有十年的历史,两者均得益于测序技术和生物信息技术的蓬勃发展;但两者的目的不同,生命条形码技术旨在实现对物种的快速鉴定,而生命之树研究的主要目的则是重建生命世界的起源和进化历史以及各生物类群之间的亲缘关系,因此应根据两者不同的目标任务而采取相应的发展思路和顶层设计。本文针对目前生命条形码和生命之树研究领域遇到的瓶颈和问题进行了阐述,并提出了相应的解决方案。最后,作者建议我国学者抓住机遇．与多个领域的学者和工程技术人员广泛合作,推动DNA条形码鉴定技术和生命之树理论研究的快速发展。     

Aerial and underground biomasses of three Sphagnum-dwelling liverworts

Abstract

The few studies that have investigated levels of genetic variation in liverworts have found very little polymorphism. Our electrophoretic data show, however, that the leafy liverwort Porella platyphylla maintains high levels of genetic variation in at least some natural populations from the southeastern United States. Within a single population from southwestern North Carolina, we detected 26 distinct multilocus genotypes and more than 80% of the enzyme loci we surveyed were polymorphic. It seems likely that earlier studies of mostly thalloid species from glaciated regions of Europe have presented a biased picture of levels of variation in liverwort populations.     

Nematode resistance in plants: the battle underground

Parasitic nematodes infect thousands of plant species, but some plants harbor specific resistance genes that defend against these pests. Several nematode resistance genes have been cloned in plants, and most resemble other plant resistance genes. Nematode resistance is generally characterized by host plant cell death near or at the feeding site of the endoparasitic worm. The timing and localization of the resistance response varies with the particular resistance gene and nematode interaction. Although there is genetic evidence that single genes in the nematode can determine whether a plant mounts a resistance response, cognate nematode effectors corresponding to a plant resistance gene have not been identified. However, recent progress in genetics and genomics of both plants and nematodes, and developments in RNA silencing strategies are improving our understanding of the molecular players in this complex interaction. In this article, we review the nature and mechanisms of plant-nematode interactions with respect to resistance in plants.     

How plants communicate using the underground information superhighway

The rhizosphere is a densely populated area in which plant roots must compete with invading root systems of neighboring plants for space, water, and mineral nutrients, and with other soil-borne organisms, including bacteria and fungi. Root-root and root-microbe communications are continuous occurrences in this biologically active soil zone. How do roots manage to simultaneously communicate with neighboring plants, and with symbiotic and pathogenic organisms within this crowded rhizosphere? Increasing evidence suggests that root exudates might initiate and manipulate biological and physical interactions between roots and soil organisms, and thus play an active role in root-root and root-microbe communication.     

环境DNA技术在地下生态学中的应用

地下生态过程是生态系统结构、功能和过程研究中最不确定的因素。由于技术和方法的限制,作为"黑箱"的地下生态系统已经成为限制生态学发展的瓶颈,也是未来生态学发展的主要方向。环境DNA技术,是指从土壤等环境样品中直接提取DNA片段,然后通过DNA测序技术来定性或定量化目标生物,以确定目标生物在生态系统中的分布及功能特征。环境DNA技术已成功用于地下生态过程的研究。目前,环境DNA技术在土壤微生物多样性及其功能方面的研究相对成熟,克服了土壤微生物研究中不能培养的问题,可以有效地分析土壤微生物的群落组成、多样性及空间分布,尤其是宏基因组学技术的发展,使得微生物生态功能方面的研究成为可能;而且,环境DNA技术已经在土壤动物生态学的研究中得到了初步应用,可快速分析土壤动物的多样性及其分布特征,更有效地鉴定出未知的或稀少的物种,鉴定土壤动物类群的幅度较宽;部分研究者通过提取分析土壤中DNA片段信息对生态系统植物多样性及植物分类进行了研究,其结果比传统的植物分类及物种多样性测定更精确,改变了以往对植物群落物种多样性模式的理解。同时,环境DNA技术克服传统根系研究方法中需要洗根、分根、只能测定单物种根系的局限,降低根系研究中细根区分的误差,并探索性地用于细根生物量的研究。主要综述了基于环境DNA技术的分子生物学方法在土壤微生物多样性及功能、土壤动物多样性、地下植物多样性及根系生态等地下生态过程研究中的应用进展。环境DNA技术对于以土壤微生物、土壤动物及地下植物根系为主体的地下生态学过程的研究具有革命性意义,并展现出良好的应用前景。可以预期,分子生物学技术与传统的生态学研究相结合将成为未来地下生态学研究的一个发展趋势。