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The devastating impact of climate change has intensified discussions on balancing sustainable economic growth with environmental sustainability achievement. To contribute to the discourse, this study explores how environmental tax, foreign investment, natural resource (NRR), and technological innovation impact Sub-Saharan Africa's efforts towards a low-carbon future. Using data from 1995 to 2019 and advanced methodologies (Cross Sectional Augmented Autoregressive Distributed Lag, and Method of Moments Quantile Regression), the results showed that environmental taxes effectively minimize carbon emissions. FDI in the short run causes carbon emissions to rise slowly but causes a significant reduction in the long run. An increase in natural resources rent was found to cause damage to the environment significantly while technological innovation in the long run demonstrates a significant reduction in carbon emissions. The MMQR results confirm environmental tax significantly reduced CO 2 emissions in all the quantiles. FDI and Technology in the long run cause a reduction in CO 2 emissions while natural resource rent causes environmental destruction in all the quantiles. We recommend that policymakers introduce more carbon tax policies, establish sub-regional carbon offset markets, and prioritize the development of clean energy infrastructure., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work submitted for publication. Therefore, no conflict of interest in this manuscript., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Limestone calcined clay cement (LC3), enhanced through reactions with volcanic ash and the interaction between limestone and clay, significantly improves the performance of cementitious materials. It has the potential to cut CO 2 emissions by up to 30% and energy consumption in cement manufacture by 15% to 20%, providing a promising prospect for the large-scale production of low-carbon cement with a lower environmental effect. To effectively manufacture LC3 concrete, this study utilized limestone (15%), calcined clay (30%), and gypsum (5%) as supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), replacing 50% of ordinary Portland cement (OPC). However, in regions abundant in sulfate, sulfate attack can cause interior cracking of concrete, reducing the longevity of the building. To address this issue, microcapsules containing microcrystalline wax, ceresine wax, and nano-CaCO 3 encapsulated in epoxy resin were prepared and successfully incorporated into LC3 concrete. Sulfate resistance tests were conducted through sulfate dry-wet cycles, comparing samples with and without microcapsules. The findings revealed that the initial mechanical and permeability properties of LC3 concrete did not significantly differ from OPC concrete. LC3 concrete with added microcapsules (SP4) exhibited enhanced resistance to sulfate attack, reducing mass loss and compressive strength degradation. SEM images displayed a mesh-like structure of repair products in SP4. After 14 days of self-repair, SP4 exhibited a 44.2% harmful pore ratio, 98.1% compressive strength retention, 88.7% chloride ion diffusion coefficient retention, 91.12 mV maximum amplitude, and 9.14 mV maximum frequency amplitude. The experimental results indicate that the presence of microcapsules enhances the sulfate attack self-healing performance of LC3 concrete.

The management of large volumes of hazardous organic waste poses remarkable challenges due to costs and environmental pollution in industrial processes. Developing a universal strategy for recycling such waste is crucial for environmental protection. Herein, a reaction-based strategy has been proposed to recover and recycle the heavy phenolic slag wastes (HPSW) in a high-valued way. After analyzing the chemical structure of HPSW, the polycondensation method has been used to convert HPSW into an activated carbon adhesive (ACA) through reaction between phenolic hydroxyl groups and formaldehyde. The newly prepared activated carbon sample (AC-12, at optimal conditions) exhibited a high iodine value of 1320.80 mg·g -1 and a specific surface area of 1368.8 m 2 ·g -1 . It demonstrates high efficiency in adsorbing organic pollutants from both gaseous (p-xylene vapor) and liquid phases (methylene blue), with an equilibration time under 15 min, achieving the standard of high-end commercial ACs. This environmentally friendly and cost-effective method offers innovative approaches for the resourceful recycling and treatment of various types of organic waste, facilitating the efficient utilization and disposal of hazardous organic solid wastes in industries., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The growing urgency for low-carbon lifestyles necessitates developing effective strategies to promote sustainable consumer choices. This study investigates key dimensions of information quality that shape consumer behavior within digital marketing to achieve this goal. Employing a mixed-methods approach that integrates grounded theory and machine learning, this study identifies three core dimensions of low-carbon information quality: matching quality, presentation quality, and interpretability quality. These dimensions underscore the importance of aligning information with consumer needs, ensuring clear and accurate presentation, and fostering transparency for trustworthiness. A Random Forest algorithm-based evaluation model is constructed to assess low-carbon information quality, demonstrating its effectiveness in identifying high-quality, sustainable content. This research provides a practical tool for digital marketers to enhance their strategies, raise consumer awareness of sustainable options, and ultimately contribute to the growth of the low-carbon consumption market., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Industrial byproduct gypsum (BPG) is a secondary product that is mainly composed of calcium sulfate discharged during industrial production. BPG primarily consists of desulfurized gypsum, phosphogypsum, and titanium gypsum, which account for 88% of the total BPG in China. The large-scale utilization of these three types of solid waste is crucial for the safe disposal of BPG. BPG contains various impurities and harmful elements, limiting its applications. The continuous accumulation of BPG poses a serious threat to the safety of the environment. Based on a literature review (2021-2023), it was found that 52% of BPG is used in the preparation of cementitious materials, and the addition of BPG results in an average improvement of 7-30% in the mechanical properties of cementitious materials. Moreover, BPG has a positive impact on the immobilization of hazardous elements in raw materials. Therefore, the utilization of BPG in cementitious materials is beneficial for its large-scale disposal. This study primarily reviews the effects and mechanisms of BPG on the mechanical properties of cementitious materials and the solidification of hazardous elements. Most importantly, the review reveals that BPG positively influences the hydration activity of silica-alumina-based solid waste (such as steel slag and blast furnace slag) and alkaline solid waste (such as carbide slag and red mud). This improves the proportion of solid waste in cement and reduces production costs and carbon emissions. Finally, this article summarizes and proposes the application of BPG in cementitious materials. The application of BPG + silica-alumina solid waste + alkaline solid-waste-based cementitious materials is expected to realize a new type of green ecological chain for the joint utilization of multiple industrial solid wastes and to promote the low-carbon sustainable development of industrial clusters.

To address the problems of unstable efficiency, long treatment period, and high energy consumption during microplastics (MPs) removal by traditional coagulation-flotation technology, a gel coagulation-spontaneous flotation (GCSF) process is proposed that employs laminarin (LA) as the crosslinker and polyaluminum chloride (PAC)/polyaluminum ferric chloride (PAFC) as the coagulant to remove MPs. Herein, the effects of GCSF chemical conditions on microplastic-humic acid composite pollutants (MP-HAs) removal were investigated, and the removal mechanisms were analyzed through theoretical calculations and floc structure characterization. Results showed that an LA to PAC/PAFC ratio of 2.5:1 achieved the highest removal of HA (86 %) and MPs (93 %-99 %) in short coagulation (< 1 min) and spontaneous flotation (< 9 min) period. PAC-LA exhibited strong removal ability for MP-HAs while PAFC-LA induced fast flotation speed. The peak intensity and peak shift in Fourier-transformed infrared and X-ray photo-electron spectra indicated that the removal mechanisms of MPs include hydrogen bond adsorption and the sweeping effect, mainly relying on -OH/-C = O on the MPs surface and entrapment of gel flocs with a high degree of aggregation, respectively. The extended Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek calculation also revealed that interactions between PAC/PAFC-LA and MP-HAs were mainly polar interaction (hydrogen bonding) and intermolecular attraction interaction (Lifshitz-van der Waals force), and the sweep effect was reflected by intermolecular interaction. In addition, density function theory calculations indicated that -OH in LA mainly adsorbs DO through a double hydrogen bond configuration, and the crosslinking ligand FeO 6 /AlO 6 assists in DO absorption by -OH., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

With the continuous growth of low-carbon economy and people's increasing preference for low-carbon products, the building carbon emission reduction (CER) has been highly concerned by the government. Therefore, in this study, we establish a game model through differential game to analyze the impact of government policies on building's CER. We get: (1) Compared with the carbon tax policy, the government policy combining carbon tax and cost subsidy is more conducive to reducing carbon emissions; (2) For the three government policies, when the cost subsidy rate is lower than a fixed value, the government policy combining carbon tax and cost subsidy is the optimal strategy for building's CER. When the cost subsidy rate is greater than a fixed value, the cost subsidy policy is the best strategy for building's CER., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

With the rapid development of economic globalization and green manufacturing, traditional flexible job shop scheduling has evolved into the low-carbon heterogeneous distributed flexible job shop scheduling problem (LHDFJSP). Additionally, modern smart manufacturing processes encounter complex and diverse contingencies, necessitating the ability to address dynamic events in real-world production activities. To date, there are limited studies that comprehensively address the intricate factors associated with the LHDFJSP, including workshop heterogeneity, job insertions and transfers, and considerations of low-carbon objectives. This paper establishes a multi-objective mathematical model with the goal of minimizing the total weighted tardiness and total energy consumption. To effectively solve this problem, diverse composite scheduling rules are formulated, alongside the application of a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) framework, i.e., Rainbow deep-Q network (Rainbow DQN), to learn the optimal scheduling strategy at each decision point in a dynamic environment. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, this paper extends the standard dataset to adapt to the LHDFJSP. Evaluation results confirm the generalization and robustness of the presented Rainbow DQN-based method.

The start-up and stable operation of partial nitritation-anammox (PN/A) treatment of mature landfill leachate (MLL) still face challenges. This study developed an innovative staged pilot-scale PN/A system to enhance nitrogen removal from MLL. The staged process included a PN unit, an anammox upflow enhanced internal circulation biofilm (UEICB) reactor, and a post-biofilm unit. Rapid start-up of the continuous flow PN process (full-concentration MLL) was achieved within 35 days by controlling dissolved oxygen and leveraging free ammonia and free nitrous acid to selectively suppress nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB). The UEICB was equipped with an annular flow agitator combined with the enhanced internal circulation device of the guide tube, which achieved an efficient enrichment of Candidatus Kuenenia in the biofilm (relative abundance of 33.4 %). The nitrogen removal alliance formed by the salt-tolerant anammox bacterium (Candidatus Kuenenia) and denitrifying bacteria (unclassified SBR1031 and Denitratisoma) achieved efficient nitrogen removal of UEICB (total nitrogen removal percentage: 90.8 %) and at the same time effective treatment of the refractory organic matter (ROM). The dual membrane process of UEICB fixed biofilm combined with post-biofilm is effective in sludge retention, and can stably control the effluent suspended solids (SS) at a level of less than 5 mg/L. The post-biofilm unit ensured that effluent total nitrogen (TN) remained below the 40 mg/L discharge standard (98.5 % removal efficiency). Compared with conventional nitrification-denitrification systems, the staged PN/A process substantially reduced oxygen consumption, sludge production, CO 2 emissions and carbon consumption by 22.8 %, 67.1 %, 87.1 % and 87.1 %, respectively. The 195-day stable operation marks the effective implementation of the innovative pilot-scale PN/A process in treating actual MLL. This study provides insights into strategies for rapid start-up, robust NOB suppression, and anammox biomass retention to advance the application of PN/A in high-ammonia low-carbon wastewater., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Low-carbon buildings (LCBs) are still in the early stages of development in China. The promotion and implementation of associated policies are not yet fully matured. Meanwhile, their status as public goods exacerbates the uncertainty and complexity regarding anticipated gains and potential losses. Few studies have explored the impact of perception parameters on the decision-making processes of LCBs' stakeholders. Thus, combined with prospect theory, this paper establishes a tripartite game model composed of governments, developers, and consumers to explore their interactions and influences in different stages. Real-life scenarios are further utilized to validate the effectiveness of the model in predicting the behaviors under respective preferences. The results show that the increase in subsidy and penalty intensity instead diminishes the enthusiasm for LCBs. More specifically, the existing subsidy policies offer limited incentives to consumers. With the addition of the perception parameter, there exist differences in the sensitivity of consumers and developers towards risk levels and potential losses. The findings also highlight the importance of consumers in the LCBs market. Future policies should encourage developers and consumers to jointly promote the LCBs implementation., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

To tackle carbon emissions from cement production and address the decline in concrete's mechanical properties due to the substitution of cement with solid waste (glass powder) and natural mineral admixture (zeolite powder) materials, we employed glass powder and zeolite powder to create composite cementitious materials. These materials underwent alkali activation treatment with a 4% NaOH dosage, replacing 50% of cement to produce low-carbon concrete. Nanoindentation tests and mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) were employed to uncover the micro-mechanical properties and influencing mechanisms of alkali-activated low-carbon concrete. The results indicate a notable enhancement in the indentation modulus (19.9%) and hardness (25.9%) of alkali-activated low-carbon concrete compared to non-activated concrete. Simultaneously, the interfacial transition zone thickness decreased by 10 µm. The addition of NaOH led to a reduced volume fraction of pores (diameter >100 nm) and an increased fraction of pores (diameter < 100 nm), thereby reducing porosity by 2.6%, optimizing the pore structure of low-carbon concrete. The indentation modulus, hardness and volume fraction of the hydrated phase derived from Gaussian fitting analysis of the nanoindentation statistics showed that NaOH significantly improved the modulus and hardness of the hydration products of low-carbon concrete. This activation resulted in decreased LDC-S-H gel (low-density hydrated calcium silicate Ca 5 Si 6 O 16 (OH)·4H 2 O) and pore content, while the HD C-S-H gel (high-density hydrated calcium silicate Ca 5 Si 6 O 16 (OH)·4H 2 O) and CH (calcium hydroxide crystals Ca(OH) 2 ) content increased by 13.91% and 23.46%, respectively. Consequently, NaOH influenced the micro-mechanical properties of low-carbon concrete by generating more high-density hydration products, reducing pore content, enhancing the pore indentation modulus and hardness, and shortening the interfacial transition zone. This study offers novel insights into reducing carbon emissions and promoting the use of solid waste (glass powder) and natural mineral admixture (zeolite powder) materials in concrete, contributing to the advancement of sustainable construction practices.

Tourism expansion has led to increased municipal solid waste (MSW) generation, which can exacerbate environmental and societal problems if proper waste management systems are not implemented. The study develops a framework for implementing bio-based solutions (BbS) for MSW management in a cultural tourism destination, using the walking street in Nan, Thailand, as a case study. Four low-carbon waste management scenarios were assessed, including increasing recycling rates (RE), using food waste as animal feed (BbS1), using bagasse containers as a soil conditioner (BbS2), and substituting single-use plastics with bamboo products (BbS3). Results showed that the BbS1 scenario had the highest performance in greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation, reducing 66.3 t CO 2 e/year, followed by BbS2, RE, and BbS3 scenarios, which reduce GHG by about 12.3, 11, and 1 t CO 2 e/year, respectively. However, the BbS2 scenario has an additional benefit in returning around 84 kg N/year to the soil. Implementing the combination of RE, BbS1, BbS2, and BbS3 reduced waste to landfills by about 25.5 t MSW/year and reduced GHG emissions by 90.3 t CO 2 e/year. Enhancing residual waste management is recommended, which can lead to mitigation of about 164.3 t CO 2 e/year, or 83 % GHG emissions reduction compared to the base case., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Excessive nitrogen emissions are a major contributor to water pollution, posing a threat not only to the environment but also to human health. Therefore, achieving deep denitrification of wastewater is of significant importance. Traditional biological denitrification methods have some drawbacks, including long processing times, substantial land requirements, high energy consumption, and high investment and operational costs. In contrast, the novel bio-denitrification technology reduces the traditional processing time and lowers operational and maintenance costs while improving denitrification efficiency. This technology falls within the category of environmentally friendly, low-energy deep denitrification methods. This paper introduces several innovative bio-denitrification technologies and their combinations, conducts a comparative analysis of their denitrification efficiency across various wastewater types, and concludes by outlining the future prospects for the development of these novel bio-denitrification technologies., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Huang, Fu, Zhang, Wang, Zou and Lu.)

In recent years, the escalating prevalence of elevated consumption and carbon emissions within urban operations has reached a disconcerting extent. This surge in resource depletion and environmental pollution exerts an adverse influence on the well-being of individuals, while impeding societal progress and hindering the enhancement of overall quality of life. Within the domain of urban environmental design, the integration of visual displays emerges as a superior approach to facilitate the assimilation and analysis of green and low-carbon information. However, urban environmental data usually contains multiple dimensions, so it is a problem to realize the data representation of multiple dimensions while maintaining the correlation and interactivity between data. To surmount the challenge of visualizing such intricate information, this investigation initially employs a sophisticated memory-based clustering algorithm for information extraction, accompanied by a global similarity algorithm that meticulously computes attribute component quantities within specific dimensions of the vector. Furthermore, leveraging the inherent power of Vue's bidirectional data binding capabilities, the study adopts the esteemed MVVM (Model-View-View-Model) pattern, fostering seamless two-way interaction through the established logical relationship. As a result, the amalgamation of multidimensional visualization technology empowers comprehensive data mining through a captivating visual augmentation. Concurrently, the application of data visualization dimension control delivers tailored displays tailored to green and low-carbon scenarios within urban environmental design. Experimental results impeccably validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, substantiated by a mere 1.77% false alarm rate for data stream difference detection and a clustering difference of 1.34%. The aforementioned algorithm accentuates the efficacy of visual displays, thus engendering a profound synergy between the industrial and supply chains. Moreover, it facilitates the design, production, and utilization of environmentally friendly products and energy sources. This, in turn, serves as a catalyst, propelling the widescale adoption of green and low-carbon practices throughout the entire industrial chain, fueled by the seamless integration of multimedia data., Competing Interests: The author declares that they have no competing interests., (© 2023 Wang.)

Several biological enhancements were implemented in the aerobic tank to address the challenges of treating expressway service sewage (ESS) with low-carbon and high-ammonia nitrogen using A/O-MBR technology, aiming to improve TN removal efficiency and reduce excessive sludge production. A novel moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) inoculated with heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification (HN-AD) bacteria was developed for ESS, and the results showed that HN-AD bacteria significantly improved TN removal efficiency, with an increase of 65% compared to the traditional activated sludge system. High-throughput sequencing revealed that Bacteroidotas contributed significantly to MBBR denitrification, and the genes nirK and nosZ played a significant role in denitrification. The HN-AD biofilm-forming MBBR achieved the transition of ESS treatment from "normal-sludge" mode to the more environmentally-friendly "low-sludge" and "no-sludge" modes by reducing the sludge concentration., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

The objective of this research is to explore the potential of financial inclusion and low-carbon architectural design strategies as solutions to improve the thermal comfort and energy efficiency of new buildings in different architectural climate conditions. The manufacture sector, which accounts for about 40% of all yearly greenhouse gas releases, has been stimulating with trying to reduce the amount of energy it consumes and the detrimental effects it has on the climate, in accordance with the standards outlined in the 2016 Paris Agreement. In this study, panel data analysis is used to examine the connection between green property financing and carbon dioxide emissions from the building sector in one hundred and five developed and developing countries. Although this analysis finds a negative correlation among the development of environmentally friendly real estate financing and firms' worldwide carbon dioxide emissions, it finds that this correlation is most robust in developing nations. A number of these countries are experiencing an unregulated and rapid population explosion, which has boosted their demand for oil, making this discovery essential for them. The difficulty in securing green funding during this crisis is slowing and even reversing gains made in past years, making it all the more important to keep this momentum going during the COVID-19 outbreak. It's critical to keep the momentum going by doing something., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Traditional silicate cement materials produce a large amount of CO 2 during production, making it urgent to seek alternatives. Alkali-activated slag cement is a good substitute, as its production process has low carbon emissions and energy consumption, and it can comprehensively utilize various types of industrial waste residue while possessing superior physical and chemical properties. However, the shrinkage of alkali-activated concrete can be larger than that of traditional silicate concrete. To address this issue, the present study utilized slag powder as the raw material, sodium silicate (water glass) as the alkaline activator, and incorporated fly ash and fine sand to study the dry shrinkage and autogenous shrinkage values of alkali cementitious material under different content. Furthermore, combined with the change trend of pore structure, the impact of their content on the drying shrinkage and autogenous shrinkage of alkali-activated slag cement was discussed. Based on the author's previous research, it was found that by sacrificing a certain mechanical strength, adding fly ash and fine sand can effectively reduce the drying shrinkage and autogenous shrinkage values of alkali-activated slag cement. The higher the content, the greater the strength loss of the material and the lower the shrinkage value. When the fly ash content was 60%, the drying shrinkage and autogenous shrinkage of the alkali-activated slag cement mortar specimens decreased by about 30% and 24%, respectively. When the fine sand content was 40%, the drying shrinkage and autogenous shrinkage of the alkali-activated slag cement mortar specimens decreased by about 14% and 4%, respectively.

Strengthening environmental governance and green low-carbon policies is a key measure to improve agriculture green total factor productivity and develop sustainable agriculture. Against this background, this study explores the relationship between agriculture green total factor productivity (AGTFP), environmental governance, and green low carbon policies based on panel data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2005 to 2019, and the system generalized method of moments model is adopted. The empirical results are as follows: (1) Environmental governance will not only directly affect AGTFP, but also indirectly affect AGTFP by influencing green technology innovation. (2) Environmental governance can strengthen the promotion of green low-carbon policies to AGTFP. (3) There are regional differences in causality among AGTFP, environmental governance, and green low-carbon policies. These empirical results offer Chinese policymakers scientific and normative recommendations for improving AGTFP and developing sustainable green agriculture., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Excessive applications of agricultural chemical fertilizers contribute to environmental pollution and climate change. Although chemical fertilizers ensure high grain yields, it is crucial to regulate fertilization practices and avoid excessive application to achieve sustainable agricultural development. The overall goal of this study is to examine how market pressure and social network affect farmers' adoption of low-carbon fertilization practice. Data analyses were based on 1255 observations collected from a field survey in Anhui Province of China in 2021. The results showed that 32.1% of farmers had adopted low-carbon fertilization practices. The findings showed that market pressure, including consumption pressure and sales pressure, had positive impacts on the farmers' adoption of low-carbon fertilization practices. Findings also revealed that consumption pressure has a more significant influence on farmers' adoption of low-carbon fertilization practices than sales pressure. Social network has a significant positive influence on the farmers' adoption of low-carbon fertilization practices. Further analysis revealed that organizational network has a more significant influence on farmers' adoption of low-carbon fertilization practices than production networks. Therefore, the government should utilize market pressure and strengthen farmers' social network to improve the adoption rate of low-carbon fertilization practices. The results and policy implications of this study are significant for sustainable agricultural development under climate change in China and other countries., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The in situ Mg-sialon in low-carbon MgO-C refractories was studied with respect to its oxidation behavior and mechanism at 1500 °C. The results indicated that the oxidation index and rate constant of low-carbon MgO-C refractories with Mg-sialon were 26.2% and 0.51 × 10 -3 cm 2 /min at 1500 °C for 2 h, respectively. The formation of a dense MgO-Mg 2 SiO 4 -MgAl 2 O 4 protective layer contributed to considerable oxidation resistance, and the generation of this thicker layer was due to the combined volume effect of Mg 2 SiO 4 and MgAl 2 O 4 . The reduced porosity and more complex pore structure were also found in the refractories with Mg-sialon. Therefore, further oxidation was restricted as the oxygen diffusion path was effectively blocked. This work proves the potential application of Mg-sialon in improving the oxidation resistance of low-carbon MgO-C refractories.

The energy deficiency issues and intense environmental pollution have exacted the production of biofuels which are both renewable and sustainable and can be used to displace fossil fuels. The raw material for manufacturing second-generation biofuels is lignocellulosic biomass (LCB), which is widely available. LCB bioprocessing to produce high-value bio-based products has been the subject of attention. Biomass gasification is a powerful technology to achieve sustainable development goals, reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and reduce environmental concerns. This paper, will provide an overview of the LCB structures and the gasification process. Also, consistent with the concept of "circular bio-economy", this study focuses on the role of LCB gasification in the environmental impacts, and how gasification can be effective in the pathway of circular bio-economy. The current challenges to gasification and biorefinery and future perspectives are also presented., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

To achieve climate neutrality, future urban heating systems will need to use a variety of low-carbon heating technologies. The transition toward low-carbon heating technologies necessitates a complete restructuring of the heating system, with significant associated material requirements. However, little research has been done into the quantity and environmental impact of the required materials for this system change. We analyzed the material demand and the environmental impact of the transition toward low-carbon heating in the Netherlands across three scenarios based on the local availability and capacity for sources of low-carbon heat. A wide range of materials are included, covering aggregates, construction materials, metals, plastics, and critical materials. We find that while the Dutch policy goal of reducing GHG emissions by 90% before 2050 can be achieved if only direct emissions from the heating system are considered, this is no longer the case when the cradle-to-gate emissions from the additional materials, especially insulation materials, are taken into account. The implementation of these technologies will require 59-63 megatons of materials in the period of 2021-2050, leading to a maximum reduction of 62%.

Cities can set in motion sustainability transitions through experimentation and innovation. To invest in and mainstream solutions that contribute to urban transformation agendas, urban planners needs to understand which innovations have transformational potential as well as how these innovations can accelerate sustainability transitions. In order to explore this, existing frameworks of transformative capacity provide the guidance, but they are generic, abstract, and challenging to apply for urban planning. As part of our effort to develop a more operational version of the transformative capacity framework by Wolfram (2016), we conducted a systematic scoping review of the academic literature to determine the characteristics of people-based and nature-based low-carbon innovations that constitutes their transformative capacity. After reviewing 65 records, we identified dimensions indicating each of the transformative capacity components through analysis and synthesis. Besides contributing to the science-policy interface through a knowledge synthesis on low-carbon people-based and nature-based innovations, this paper examines bridging frameworks to inform urban planners in developing practical solutions and actionable elements for low-carbon urban futures., (© 2021. The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.)

The development of "wise medical" is crucial to global carbon reduction. The medical sector not only has the moral obligation to reduce carbon emissions, but also has the responsibility to provide high-quality services to patients. Existing research mostly focuses on the relationship between low-carbon and wise medical, while ignoring the transformation of wise medical and patients' opinions in the context of low-carbon transition. The paper crawls the text data of comments on the Zhihu platform (a Chinese platform similar to Quora), explores the focus of patients on wise medical through the co-occurrence analysis of high-frequency words, with a focus directly related to the role of wise medical treatment in carbon reduction, and designed a questionnaire accordingly. Using 837 valid questionnaires collected in Zhejiang Province, an XGBoost model was constructed to discuss the main factors affecting patient satisfaction, and the regional heterogeneity among the coastal area of eastern Zhejiang, the plain area of northern Zhejiang and the mountainous area of southwestern Zhejiang is discussed. The results show that patients' focus on wise medical lies mainly in the convenience brought by digitalization and the actual medical effect, and the main factors affecting satisfaction with medical treatment are the flow of people in hospitals, optimization of the medical treatment process, the application of digital platforms, the quality of telemedicine services and the appropriate quality of treatment. In terms of regional differences in Zhejiang Province, wise medical is more developed in the plain area of northern Zhejiang, with better simplified medical treatment processes and the construction of a digital platform, while the mountainous areas of southwestern Zhejiang have better quality in telemedicine services despite the geographical environment. Eastern Zhejiang is somewhere in between.

As China plays an important role in global climate change, investigating its low-carbon development (LCD) will shed light on the global low-carbon economy. This study aims to explore the drivers of LCD inequality and evolution based on an extended spatial decomposition model. We find that potential energy intensity is the most important factor responsible for both national LCD inequality and its evolution. Further analysis suggests that the central region made some progress in LCD due to the decline of potential energy intensity. Nonetheless, the west must pay attention to the high potential energy intensity and deteriorating industry structure for the persistent poor LCD. And the provincial results indicate that the poorer the economy, the worse the LCD. The LCD formation and evolution mechanism of the various provinces are highly heterogeneous. Overall, we underscore the comprehensive investigation of inequality issues of LCD and provide insights for other regions desiring to develop the low-carbon economy., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

With the concept of sustainability gaining popularity, low-carbon tourism has been widely considered. In this paper, a multicriteria group decision making (MCGDM) process based on an uncertain environment is proposed to study the evaluation problem of low-carbon scenic spots (LSSs). In order to minimize the influence of subjective and objective factors, the traditional Vlse Kriterjumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method is expanded, using the improved best and worst method (IBWM) and Bayes approximation method, based on Dempster-Shafer Theory (B-DST). First, in order to make the evaluation process more professional, a number of evaluation criteria are established as effective systems, followed by the use of triangular intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (TIFNs) to evaluate alternatives of LSSs. Next, according to the evaluation results, the weights of the criteria are determined by the IBWM method, and the weights of the expert panels (Eps) are determined by B-DST. Finally, a weighted averaging algorithm of TIFN is used to integrate the above results to expand the traditional VIKOR and obtain the optimal LSS. The applicability of this method is proven by example calculation. The main conclusions are as follows: tourist facilities and the eco-environment are the two most important factors influencing the choice of LSSs. Meanwhile, the roles of management and participant attitudes in LSS evaluations cannot be ignored., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Deep geothermal energy is widely recognised as a source of low carbon heat. However, to date there have been no specific assessment of the carbon intensity of low-enthalpy deep geothermal; previous studies focussed on geothermal power or higher enthalpy heat. As such, there is no established method for assessing the CO 2 emissions from implementing a deep geothermal heating scheme. Here we address these gaps. We perform a life cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions relating to a deep geothermal heat system to (i) calculate the carbon intensity of geothermal heat; (ii) identify key factors affecting these values; (iii) consider the carbon abated if geothermal heat substitutes conventional heating; and (iv) present information that future projects can apply to assess the carbon emissions reduction offered by geothermal heat development. Our work is informed by parameters from a feasibility study for a proposed geothermal heat system in Banchory, Scotland. The project planned a 2.5 MW th geothermal plant extracting heat from the Hill of Fare granite via two boreholes, one injection and one production. We find that the majority of the emissions are associated with site construction, and sensitive to site and materials specific factors, for example the depth of the drilled boreholes and type and quantities of steel and cement used to seal them, or soils disturbed for laying pipelines and constructing access roads. During operation the carbon intensity of the electricity grid used to power hydraulic pumps largely determines the carbon intensity of the produced heat. We calculate that the carbon intensity of the heat produced is 9.7-14.0 kg(CO 2e ) MWh th which is 4.9-7.3% of the emissions from heat from natural gas. These values are compatible with Scotland's plans for long term decarbonisation of heat in line with national emission reduction obligations and would likely be compatible with any country's decarbonisation goals., (Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Low-carbon logistics meets the requirements of a low-carbon economy and is the most effective operating model for logistic development to achieve sustainability by coping with severe energy consumption and global warming. Low-carbon logistics aims to reduce carbon intensity rather than simply reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. Human resources are an important part of the great competition in the logistics market and significantly affect the operations of enterprises. Performance evaluations of human resources are particularly important for low-carbon logistics enterprises with scarce talents. Such evaluations in these enterprises are of great significance for their strategic development. This study constructed a human resource performance evaluation system to assess non-managerial employees' low-carbon job capacity, job performance, and job attitude in the low-carbon logistics sector. The case study results revealed that the investigated company enjoyed initial success after having promoted low-carbon concepts and values to its non-managerial employees, and the success was demonstrated by excellent performance in its employees' job attitude and knowledge. This study adopts the AHP method to reasonably determine an indicator system of performance evaluation and its weight to avoid certain human-caused bias. This study not only fills the gap in the related literature, but can also be applied to industrial practice., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

This paper reviews the changing nature of research underpinning the revolution in the automotive sector. Legislation controlling vehicle emissions has brought urgency to research, so we are now noticing a more rapid development of new technologies than at any time in the past century. The light-weighting of structures, the refinement of advanced propulsion systems, the advent of new smart materials, and greater in-vehicle intelligence and connectivity with transport infrastructure all require a fundamental rethink of established technologies used for many decades-defining a range of new multi-disciplinary research challenges. While meeting escalating emission penalties, cars must also fulfil the human desire for speed, reliability, beauty, refinement and elegance, qualities that mark out the truly great automobile.