Suchergebnisse

This paper looks at the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions trading schemes and examines the prospects of carbon trading. The first part of the paper gives an overview of several mandatory GHG trading schemes around the world. The second part focuses on the future trends in carbon trading. It argues that the emergence of new schemes, a gradual enlargement of the current ones, and willingness to link existing and planned schemes seem to point towards geographical, temporal and sectoral expansion of emissions trading. However, such expansion would need to overcome some considerable technical and non-technical obstacles. Linking of the current and emerging trading schemes requires not only considerable technical fixes and harmonisation of different trading systems, but also necessitates clear regulatory and policy signals, continuing political support and a more stable economic environment. Currently, the latter factors are missing. The global economic turmoil and its repercussions for the carbon market, a lack of the international deal on climate change defining the Post-Kyoto commitments, and unfavourable policy shifts in some countries, cast serious doubts on the expansion of emissions trading and indicate that carbon trading enters an uncertain period. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.

There has been resurgence in interest in new nuclear power stations over the last couple of years. The UK Government has taken steps to encourage the private sector to build new stations in the UK, a change in its previous neutral stance toward nuclear power. This paper examines the change in government policy asking what drivers have led to this decision and what barriers were preventing new nuclear power in the past and what barriers are still faced by both government and industry. Three main drivers are discussed: security of energy supply; diminishing energy generation capacity; and climate change. The paper also examines other key factors that play a part in facilitating a shift in government policy, namely economics, public perception and waste management policy. Barriers are identified through examination of public perception, and policy. The changes to the planning system are also discussed. The paper concludes by comparing drivers and barriers for other technologies and contrasting the UK experience with that of other countries. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This paper presents an interactive multimedia case study in waste water management developed at the University of Surrey, UK. The case study considers waste water treatment methods used in a typical sewage treatment works (STW). The works uses a biological treatment process which depends on the provision of dissolved oxygen to the incoming waste water stream. There are several alternative ways of providing oxygen and this case study explores the technical, environmental, economic and social aspects of the various alternatives. The aim of the case study is to suggest which criteria chemical engineers should consider in order to identify more sustainable process alternatives. The case study is developed as an IT‐based interactive learning package (CD‐ROM).

This paper explores the use of LCA as a tool for process environmental management, thereby moving the focus from product to process oriented analysis. The emphasis is on Improvement Assessment in which the 'hot spots' in the system are targeted for maximum environmental improvements. In this context, it is useful to use multiobjective optimisation which renders valuation unnecessary. The approach is illustrated by the case study of the system processing boron ores to make five different products. The results of Inventory Analysis and Impact Assessment are presented and discussed. In Improvement Assessment, a number of improvement options are identified and evaluated, using system optimisation. It is shown that the site environmental performance can be improved over current operation by an average of 20% over the whole life cycle. Thus the study demonstrates that the optimisation approach to environmental process management may assist in identifying optimal ways to operate a process or plant from 'cradle to grave'. This may help the process industries not only to comply with legislation but also provide a framework for taking a more proactive approach to environmental management leading to more sustainable industrial operations and practices.