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Bioenergy is considered an important component within the European Union (EU) energy transition to meet mid‐century climate targets. Model assessments that have highlighted the role of bioenergy in decarbonising EU energy systems fail to account for the fact that mitigation strategies and bioenergy supply take place within a global decarbonisation effort. Thus, they do not account for inter‐regional competition for the resource base that Europe may face. This study shows how bioenergy can contribute to EU climate targets, highlighting its possible role within the energy system and developments required to facilitate its scale‐up. We use the global integrated assessment model IMAGE 3.2 to project bioenergy demand, sectoral deployment, feedstock, and inter‐regional import for Europe to 2050. Employing a global model allows for projections of EU decarbonisation strategies consistent with global climate targets and captures the effects of biomass production and consumption in other world regions. Bioenergy is projected to account for up to 27% of total primary energy demand, increasing from the current 5EJ to 18EJ/yr. To match this demand, the model projects imports of biomass to increase from 4% of its current supply to 60%. Bioenergy could provide up to 1GtCO2 or 40% of the overall mitigation needed by the EU in 2050. This is based on large‐scale use for power production, with the transport, industry and buildings sectors getting smaller shares. By 2050 it is projected that 55% of total EU bioenergy use is coupled with Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). Bioenergy supply comes primarily for agricultural and forestry residues, as these sources have low upstream greenhouse gas emissions. However, as demand increases, energy crops are increasingly used, especially in the provision of advanced liquid fuels. The results show that one route for achieving an EU energy transition is based on rapid deployment of BECCS and the mobilisation of sustainable imports of second‐generation feedstocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The export of wood pellets from the southeastern United States (USA) has grown significantly in recent years, following rising demand from Europe. Increased wood pellet demand could lead to spatially variable changes in timberland management and area in the USA. This study presents an assessment of the impacts of increasing wood pellet demand (an additional 11.6 Mt by 2030) on land-use dynamics, taking into account developments in other wood product markets as well as expected changes in other land uses. An economic model for the forest sector of the southeastern USA (SRTS) was linked to a land-use change model (PLUC) to identify potential locations of land-use change following scenarios of demand for pellets and other wood products. Projections show that in the absence of additional demand for wood pellets, natural timberland area is projected to decline by 450-15 000 km2 by 2030, mainly through urbanization and pine plantation establishment. Under the high wood pellet demand scenario, more (2000-7500 km2) natural timberland area is retained and more (8000-20 000 km2) pine plantation is established. Shifts from natural timberland to pine plantation occur predominantly in the Atlantic coastal region. Future work will assess the impact of projected transitions in natural timberland and pine plantations on biodiversity and carbon storage. This modeling framework can be applied for multiple scenarios and land-use projections to identify locations of timberland area changes for the whole southeastern USA, thereby informing the debate about potential impacts of wood pellet demand on land-use dynamics and environmental services. © 2017 The Authors. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining published by Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intercellular lipid bilayers of the stratum corneum provide the permeability barrier of the skin. To perform an electron microscopical examination of the ultrastructure of these bilayers, ruthenium tetroxide fixation is required. In this study an optimal fixation protocol was developed and selected upon comparing seven different fixation procedures, using glutaraldehyde (GA) and the postfixatives ruthenium red, osmium tetroxide (OsO4) and ruthenium tetroxide (RuO4) in combination with potassium ferrocyanide (K4Fe(CN)6) and potassium ferricyanide (K3Fe(CN)6). Instead of fixing skin with either OsO4 or RuO4, these two fixatives were combined in one protocol. In addition, the use of RuRed was introduced and the influence of both K4Fe(CN)6 and K3Fe(CN)6 in combination with RuO4 were examined. Furthermore, we compared two dehydration solvents, methanol and acetone. The most satisfying results were obtained when the skin was prefixed in GA and postfixed in OsO4 and RuO4 with K3Fe(CN)6, i.e. with Fe in its highest oxidation state (Fe3+). No differences were observed between dehydration in methanol and acetone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]