Search

• Carbon emissions from refrigeration in UK food industry was 12.9 MtCO 2 e. • Carbon emissions from refrigeration in food industry was 3.2% UK total emissions. • 50% of UK food refrigeration emissions are from electrical power. • 37% of UK food refrigeration electrical emissions were from domestic refrigerators. • 56% of food refrigerant leakage emissions in UK were from the retail sector. The food and beverage industry is the largest manufacturing sector in the UK. Food cold chains are energy intensive and use high global warming refrigerants. The aim of this work was to benchmark the existing UK cold chain and provide robust evidence-based data on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2019. Only emissions from refrigeration within UK borders was considered. Both Scope 1 emissions from refrigerant leakage (fugitive) and diesel for the transport refrigeration units (TRUs) as well as Scope 2 emissions from electrical power usage were estimated. These were estimated to be 12.9 MtCO 2 e per annum which represents 3.5% of the total UK annual territorial GHG emissions. Eighty-three percent of the Scope 1 emissions were fugitive, and 56% of these were from retail refrigeration. Agriculture and fisheries were the sectors with the lowest fugitive emissions accounting for only 3.7% of the total. Scope 2 emissions accounted for 54% of the emissions and tended to increase towards the consumer end of the cold chain, with 1.5% in agriculture and fisheries and 38% in domestic refrigeration. The FAOSTAT value of GWP used for f-gas emissions is not representative of UK emissions. UK government statistics may be underestimating domestic refrigerator emissions as they are not using real life energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 7 February 1861, John Tyndall, professor of natural philosophy, delivered a historical lecture: he could prove that different gases absorb heat to a very different degree, which implies that the temperate conditions provided for by the Earth's atmosphere are dependent on its particular composition of gases. The theoretical foundation of climate science was laid. Ten years later, on the other side of the Channel, a young and ambitious author was working on a comprehensive literary analysis of the French era under the Second Empire. Émile Zola had probably not heard or read of Tyndall's discovery. However, the article makes the case for reading Zola's Rougon-Macquart as an extensive story of climate change. Zola's literary attempts to capture the defining characteristic of the Second Empire led him to the insight that its various milieus were all part of the same 'climate': that of an all-encompassing warming. Zola suggests that this climate is man-made: the economic success of the Second Empire is based on heating, in a literal and metaphorical sense, as well as on stoking the steam-engines and creating the hypertrophic atmosphere of the hothouse that enhances life and maximises turnover and profit. In contrast to Tyndall and his audience, Zola sensed the catastrophic consequences of this warming: the Second Empire was inevitably moving towards a final débâcle, i.e. it was doomed to perish in local and 'global' climate catastrophes. The article foregrounds the supplementary status of Tyndall's physical and Zola's literary knowledge. As Zola's striking intuition demonstrates, literature appears to have a privileged approach to the phenomenon of man-induced climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The performance of new three ternary azeotropic mixtures are compared with R134a. • The different fluids were studied in four vapor compression refrigeration cycles. • The mixture R134a+RE170+R600a has given the best performances. • The ejector refrigeration cycle with booster compressor has been the better one. • R134a + RE170 + R600a can be recommended as the replacing refrigerant of R134a. Searching new refrigerants with low global warming potential (GWP) is the major challenge for the refrigeration industry, the mixtures are considered as promising alternatives to replace the traditional refrigerants, especially those which azeotropic compositions have a good circulation performance and low environmental effects. In the present work a simulation program is developed, to evaluate and compare the performance of new three ternary azeotropic mixtures (R600a+R1234ze+R13I1; R134a +R1234yf +R600a; R134a+RE170+R600a) and the widely used refrigerant R134a, in four vapor compression refrigeration configurations (Basic cycle, Ejector refrigeration cycle, Ejector refrigeration cycle with booster compressor and Ejector refrigeration cycle with heat exchanger). The study showed that R134a +RE170+R600a exhibited the highest performance in terms of COP, environmental protection, and cooling capacity compared to R134a, for the given evaporating and condensing temperatures. Additionally, it was found that the system Ejector refrigeration cycle with booster compressor exhibited better performances in terms of COP and μ than the Ejector refrigeration cycle and the Ejector refrigeration cycle with heat exchanger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Existing regulations do not limit GWP of refrigerants used for ULT applications. • Very low operating temperatures limit the possible low GWP candidates. • Cascade and auto-cascade refrigeration systems seem promising with ejector. • Compared to other hydrocarbons, flammability of R170 and R1150 is not widely studied. • R1132a is a promising candidate but requires further study. Several environmental protection policies have been enforced restricting working fluids with high global warming potential (GWP) values used in many types of refrigeration and heat pump systems. However, ultralow-temperature (ULT) refrigeration has not been included, which commonly uses refrigerants with very high GWP values (such as R23 and R508B). Therefore, publicly available research programs seeking low GWP alternative refrigerants do not cover this application and the transition to more environmentally friendly fluids is slowed down. This work presents a comprehensive review that summarizes and discusses the available studies about ULT refrigeration systems. The current status of the technology, system architectures and refrigerants are analyzed. Moreover, the transition towards low GWP refrigerants is proposed, presenting the most promising low GWP alternatives. The most commonly used architectures for ULT refrigeration are the two-stage cascade and auto-cascade, in which the use of ejector has recently been considered in research papers. R170 and R1150 are the available natural refrigerants suitable for ULT, but they have not yet been included in many flammability and risk assessment studies. The A2 hydrofluoroolefin R1132a has been recently proposed as a blend component to avoid problems of stability. However, more information is still necessary to start with simulation and experimental studies. R41 could be an alternative due to its low GWP and suitable normal boiling point, but it has not been thoroughly investigated yet. Overall, there is a gap in the literature in terms of developing alternative refrigerants for ULT refrigeration. This study aims at shedding light on this gap to direct future research in this field towards reliable, environmentally friendly and marketable alternative refrigerants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the evaporating two-phase flow and the choked-flow condition, numerical analysis of flow through short-tube orifices is a complicated procedure. A comprehensive method for analyzing such flows is the two-fluid model, which does not assume equilibrium between phases. However, in all previous applications of this model, two-phase flow calculations at the entrance and vena contracta regions were eliminated. In this investigation, two additional steps were introduced to improve the accuracy of computations: (1) applying a comprehensive two-fluid model, including the effect of various two-phase flow patterns and the metastability of liquid phase; and (2) performing a two-phase analysis of the evaporating flow through the entrance and vena contracta, which involves simulation of this region as a contraction from the up-stream to the throat, and an expansion from the throat to downstream. Results showed more compatibility with experimental data in comparison with those of previous investigations for predicting the critical flow condition of common refrigerants HFC-134a, HCFC-22, and HFC-410a through short-tube orifices. In addition, the developed numerical scheme was utilized in order to develop selection charts for short-tube orifices based on the common refrigerant HFC-134a and the alternative newly released hydrofluoroolefin refrigerants HFO-1234yf and HFO-1234ze. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1905 and 1906, the Cree of the southwestern James Bay region signed Treaty No. 9 whereby they relinquished to the Canadian government their claim to the lands south of the Albany River (the northern boundary of the province of Ontario at the time). The official text of Treaty No. 9 made no mention of land submerged below water cover, and thus the Cree did not relinquish such regions at that time. By contrast, the Cree of the northwestern James Bay and southwestern Hudson Bay region who signed the 1929 - 30 Adhesions to Treaty No. 9 relinquished their claims to "land covered by water" for the area bounded on the south by the northerly limit of Treaty No. 9, as this clause was specifically included in the text of the adhesion. The issue of "land covered by water" is significant because the western James Bay region has been, and will continue to be, subject to sea level changes associated with ongoing adjustments due to the last ice age and modern global warming signals. In the absence of detailed maps, we used models of these processes, constrained by available geophysical and geodetic data sets, to retrodict shoreline changes and the rate of land emergence over the last two centuries within the boundaries specified by Treaty No. 9. We also project shoreline migration to the end of the 21st century within the same region. The rate of land emergence since 1905 in the area south of the Albany River is estimated as ~3.0 km2/yr. Over the next century, land will continue to emerge in this region at a mean rate of ~1.4 km2/yr. This emergent land should be a subject of consideration within any comprehensive land claim put forward by the Cree; in this regard, it will be interesting to see how the Canadian judicial system and the Comprehensive Claims Branch handle the novel issue of emergent land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Sinervo et al. (2010, Science, 328: 894-899) reported declines of lizard biodiversity due to local warming trends and altered thermal niches. Herein, we applied the Sinervo et al. (2010) physiological model to predict the local extinction risk of three species of lizard from Patagonia. Whereas the previous model used a single equation (for the extinctions of Blue Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus serrifer Cope, 1866) in the Yucatan Peninsula) relating environmental temperatures (Te) to hours of restriction (i.e., the period when lizards are forced into retreat sites because environmental temperatures are too high), we measured habitat-specific equations for the Te values of each species. We analyzed the vulnerability of Darwin's Ground Gecko (Homonota darwinii Boulenger, 1885), Bariloche Lizard (Liolaemus pictus (Duméril and Bibron, 1837)), and Mountain Slope Lizard (Liolaemus elongatus Koslowsky, 1896) to climate change considering thermal physiological constraints on activity during the reproductive period. While Sinervo et al. (2010) predicted that the Phyllodactylidae family will not suffer from impacts of climate change, our physiological model predicted that 20% of the H. darwinii populations could become extinct by 2080. The physiological model also predicted that 15% of L. pictus populations and 26.5% of L. elongatus populations could become extinct by 2080. The most vulnerable populations are those located near the northern and eastern boundaries of their distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anuran survival is strongly affected by exposure to high environmental temperatures. However, their upper thermal tolerances vary between species and within developmental stages. The aims of this research were to measure the median lethal temperature (LT50) of three anuran developmental stages (Gosner stages 10, 20, and 25) at a constant thermal regime, and of developing embryos (stage 10) until they became tadpoles (stage 25) exposed to daily peaks of temperatures between 1000 and 1600. Four Colombian species (Emerald-eyed Treefrog, Hypsiboas crepitans (Wied-Neuwied, 1824); Tungara Frog, Engystomops pustulosus (Cope, 1864); Rivero's Toad, Rhinella humboldti (Gallardo, 1965); Emerald Glassfrog, Espadarana prosoblepon (Boettger, 1892)) were used in these experiments. An ontogenetic increase was observed in the upper thermal tolerance from embryos to tadpoles for all species studied. In addition, developing embryos exposed to peak temperatures showed a LT50 fairly close to the mean of the maximum habitat temperatures, particularly in H. crepitans and E. pustulosus that lay egg masses exposed directly to the sun. Environmental temperatures in the microhabitat of species studied showed values remarkably higher than their experimental LT50. Therefore, we postulate that rapid increases in environmental temperatures, as result of global or local changes, might be a critical factor for anuran survival, mainly during the embryonic stages when they are more sensitive to temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shifting of body size distributions of animals has been a long-time focus in population ecology, but the underlying mechanism of density-dependent changes in body size and its implications for population dynamics of animals are largely unknown. In this 26-year study, we investigated intrinsic and extrinsic factors affecting body mass of the Chinese striped hamster ( Cricetulus barabensis Pallas, 1773) and the greater long-tailed hamster ( Tscherskia triton de Winton, 1899) in the Northern China Plain. We proposed three hypotheses to explain body mass shifts in the two hamster species: growth, survival, and reproduction hypotheses. Our results showed that mean and maximum body masses of both hamster species were positively correlated with population density, and that this density-dependent change in body mass is more likely to be caused by a change in mortality rates, not by a change in growth rates or reproduction rates. The sustained decline of body mass during the study period was probably caused by increased mortality owing to an increase in the area of agricultural irrigation. Our results suggest that, under the condition of lacking survival and growth data, the maximum body mass (which represents survival rate), minimum body mass (which represents growth rate), and mean body mass are very useful criteria in revealing intrinsic and extrinsic effects on population dynamics and the underlying mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over 14 million hectares of lodgepole pine-dominated forests in British Columbia (BC), Canada, have been severely impacted by the current mountain pine beetle epidemic. Simultaneously, a Dothistroma needle blight epidemic in northwest BC has been responsible for killing thousands of hectares of pine plantations and has even resulted in the death of mature trees, which is unprecedented. Both of these globally significant forest pest epidemics have been linked to climate change. The beetle epidemic has grossly exceeded the scale of all previously recorded outbreaks, in large part due to a lack of cold winters. In this sense, the link to global warming is relatively straightforward and foreseeable. Of all climate change projections, the prediction of an increase in winter temperatures has been associated with as high a degree of confidence as any. The Dothistroma needle blight epidemic and its link to climate change were not so predictable. Based on weather records over the past four decades, short-term increases in mean summer precipitation correlate closely with historical records of Dothistroma outbreaks in the northwest. The current most severe outbreak has occurred during a prolonged period of above-average summer precipitation. An increase in summer precipitation would more typically be thought of as beneficial for forests, but that increase in moisture has improved the conditions for a pathogen that has outweighed any benefits. Similar trends of increasing incidence and severity for other forest pathogens in BC appear in areas that have been receiving increased summer precipitation. Conversely, in the southern interior of the province decreased summer precipitation and increased drought conditions are resulting in stressed trees which can favour root diseases. Early indications are that climate change will have profound effects on forest health. Some effects will be more predictable than others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the effects of emissions trading on a particular country? The efficiency and distribution effects associated with the implementation of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) in Spain were modelled using a static general equilibrium model. Three scenarios were examined for cost-effectiveness and fairness: a real market as established by the National Allocation Plan (NAP); a wider (hypothetical) market applied to most sectors; and a (hypothetical) auctioned market. The actual and desirable regulatory impacts were also modelled. The results indicate that the narrow scope of the EU emissions trading market generates efficiency costs and relevant distributional effects, which may therefore be useful for the design and application of future Spanish policies and strategies to comply with short- and medium-term targets. Although the focus is on Spain, the understanding of different sectoral effects and the potential for complementary mechanisms provides a wider insight into the design of future mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As climate change will entail new conditions for the built environment, the thermal behaviour of air-conditioned office buildings may also change. Using building computer simulations, the impact of warmer weather is evaluated on the design and performance of air-conditioned office buildings in Australia, including the increased cooling loads and probable indoor temperature increases due to a possibly undersized air-conditioning system, as well as the possible change in energy use. It is found that existing office buildings would generally be able to adapt to the increasing warmth of year 2030 Low and High scenarios projections and the year 2070 Low scenario projection. However, for the 2070 High scenario, the study indicates that the existing office buildings in all capital cities of Australia would suffer from overheating problems. For existing buildings designed for current climate conditions, it is shown that there is a nearly linear correlation between the increase of average external air temperature and the increase of building cooling load. For the new buildings designed for warmer scenarios, a 28-59% increase of cooling capacity under the 2070 High scenario would be required. Alors que le changement climatique va entrainer de nouvelles conditions pour le milieu bati, le comportement thermique des immeubles de bureaux climatises pourrait egalement changer. En s'appuyant sur des simulations par ordinateur de batiments, on evalue l'impact du rechauffement sur la conception et les performances d'immeubles de bureaux climatises en Australie, la hausse des charges de refrigeration et l'augmentation probable de la temperature interieure dues a un systeme de climatisation sans doute sous dimensionnee ainsi que les changements possibles de l'utilisation de l'energie. On constate que les immeubles de bureaux existants peuvent, dans l'ensemble, s'adapter au rechauffement prevu par les scenarios Haut et Bas pour 2030 et le scenario Bas prevu pour 2070. Toutefois, pour le scenario Haut 2070, l'etude indique que les batiments de bureaux actuels dans toutes les grandes villes d'Australie souffriront de problemes d'exces de chaleur. Pour ce qui est des batiments existants concus pour les conditions climatiques actuelles, il apparait qu'il existe une correlation presque lineaire entre l'augmentation de la temperature moyenne de l'air exterieur et l'augmentation de la charge de refrigeration du batiment. Pour les nouveaux immeubles concus pour des scenarios plus chauds, il faudra prevoir une augmentation de 28-59% de la capacite de refrigeration pour le scenario Haut 2070. Mots cles: climatisation, simulation de batiment, changement climatique, charge de refrigeration, utilisation de l'energie, rechauffement planetaire, heures d'exces de chaleur, Australie [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on forest pathogens with higher damage potential due to climate change in Europe. Topics of drought, water, stress, temperature, global warming, pathogenic fungi, predispositon, epidemiology, and forest diseases were discussed. The study indicates that if infection success was reliant on temperature, higher mean temperatures might lead to more attacks of pathogens.

Abstract: This paper summarizes analyses of refrigerant options for chillers. It presents tabulated global warming potentials and other environmental data for candidate refrigerants. The paper discusses briefly the historic progression in refrigerant release reductions and presents analyses to compare the efficiencies of historic and current refrigerant options. The 28 refrigerants addressed include chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC), hydrofluorocarbon (HFC), hydrocarbon (HC), and inorganic (such as ammonia) fluids. The paper discusses the relative importance of the refrigerant-related and energy-related components of chiller emissions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Introduction: The significant impact of seasonality and climate change on stroke-related morbidity and mortality is well established, however, some findings on this issue are conflicting. The objective was to determine the impact of gender, age, season, year of admission, temperature, rainfall and El Nino phenomenon on ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes and fatal cases of stroke., Methods: The study was carried out at the teaching hospital of Kinshasa, DRC, between January 1998 and December 2004. Rainy and dry seasons, elevated temperatures, indices of rainfalls El Nino years 1998, 2002 and 2004, but La Nina years 1999-2000 and neutral/normal years 2001 and 2003 were defined., Results: Among 470 incident strokes, 34.5% of victims (n=162) died. Traditional seasons (small dry season, small rainy season, great dry season, great rainy season) and temperatures did not significantly (P>0.005) impact on stroke incidence. However, there was a positive association between the decrease in rainfall, El Nino, and incident ischemic strokes, but a significant positive association between the increase in rainfall, La Nina, and incident hemorrhagic strokes. Using logistic regression analysis, age ≥ 60 years (OR: 1.7, 95% CI: 1.2-2.5; P=0.018) and El Nino years (OR: 2, 95% CI: 1.2-3.3; P=0.009) were identified as the independent predictors of fatal strokes., Conclusion: Early warning systems should be developed to predict the impact of seasons and climate variability on stroke morbidity and mortality., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)