The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides access to information on a variety of topics related to the environment and strives to inform citizens of health risks. The EPA also has an extensive library network that consists of 26 libraries throughout the United States, which provide access to a plethora of information to EPA employees, scientists, and researchers. The EPA implemented a reorganization project to digitize their materials so they would be more accessible to a wider range of users, but this plan was drastically accelerated when the EPA was threatened with a budget cut. It chose to close and reduce the hours and services of some of their libraries. As a result, the agency was accused of denying users the “right to know” by making information unavailable, not providing an adequate strategic plan, and discarding vital materials. This case study explores the background of the digitization project, the practices implemented, and the critiques of the project.

/pdf/the-environmental-protection-agency-3gx4opzrjm.pdf

The Environmental Protection Agency

Currently, fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas represent the prime energy sources in the world. However, it is anticipated that these sources of energy will deplete within the next 40–50 years. Moreover, the expected environmental damages such as the global warming, acid rain and urban smog due to the production of emissions from these sources have tempted the world to try to reduce carbon emissions by 80% and shift towards utilizing a variety of renewable energy resources (RES) which are less environmentally harmful such as solar, wind, biomass etc. in a sustainable way. Biomass is one of the earliest sources of energy with very specific properties. In this review, several aspects which are associated with burning biomass in boilers have been investigated such as composition of biomass, estimating the higher heating value of biomass, comparison between biomass and other fuels, combustion of biomass, co-firing of biomass and coal, impacts of biomass, economic and social analysis of biomass, transportation of biomass, densification of biomass, problems of biomass and future of biomass. It has been found that utilizing biomass in boilers offers many economical, social and environmental benefits such as financial net saving, conservation of fossil fuel resources, job opportunities creation and CO 2 and NO x emissions reduction. However, care should be taken to other environmental impacts of biomass such as land and water resources, soil erosion, loss of biodiversity and deforestation. Fouling, marketing, low heating value, storage and collections and handling are all associated problems when burning biomass in boilers. The future of biomass in boilers depends upon the development of the markets for fossil fuels and on policy decisions regarding the biomass market.

A review on biomass as a fuel for boilers

Transport impacts on atmosphere and climate: Shipping

Competitive liquid biofuels from biomass

https://isiarticles.com/bundles/Article/pre/pdf/29414.pdf

Biofuels from algae for sustainable development

Air pollution is still a major public health issue, which makes monitoring air quality a necessity. Mobile, low-cost air quality measurement devices can potentially deliver more coherent data for a region or municipality than stationary measurement stations are capable of due to their improved spatial coverage. In this study, air quality measurements obtained during field tests of our low-cost air quality sensor node (sensor-box) are presented and compared to measurements from the regional air quality monitoring network. The sensor-box can acquire geo-tagged measurements of several important pollutants, as well as other environmental quantities such as light and sound. The field test consists of sensor-boxes mounted on utility vehicles operated by municipalities located in Central Switzerland. Validation is performed against a measurement station that is part of the air quality monitoring network of Central Switzerland. Often not discussed in similar studies, this study tests and discusses several data filtering methods for the removal of outliers and unfeasible values prior to further analysis. The results show a coherent measurement pattern during the field tests and good agreement to the reference station during the side-by-side validation test.

/pdf/low-cost-sensor-node-for-air-quality-monitoring-field-tests-1dif4e0e.pdf

Low-Cost Sensor Node for Air Quality Monitoring: Field Tests and Validation of Particulate Matter Measurements

This work evaluates the total fuel life-cycle energy use and emissions associated with marine transportation using a newly developed model, called the Total Energy & Emissions Analysis for Marine Systems (TEAMS) model. TEAMS captures “well-to-hull” emissions—that is, emissions along the entire fuel pathway, including extraction, processing, distribution, and use in vessels. TEAMS is able to conduct this analysis for six fuel pathways: (1) petroleum to residual oil; (2) petroleum to conventional diesel; (3) petroleum to low-sulfur diesel; (4) natural gas to compressed natural gas; (5) natural gas to Fischer-Tropsch diesel; and, (6) soybeans to biodiesel. Results include total fuel life-cycle energy use and emissions of the following pollutants: greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane), volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, and sulfur oxides. This paper demonstrates TEAMS and provides example modeling results for three case studies using alternative fuels: a passenger ferry, a tanker vessel, and a container ship. A more complete version of this paper is expected to be published in the January 2007 issue of the Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association.

A Total Fuel Life-Cycle Analysis of Energy Use and Emissions from Marine Vessels

With more than 375 000 members, IEEE is the world's leading professional association. There may be no other organization as well positioned to take a leading role in pursuing environmental sustainability. IEEE is in a position to rally global support of sustainability initiatives, and has successfully done so on a number of occasions, but there remains a great deal of work yet to be completed.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/44/5246990/05247004.pdf

Greening IEEE

................................................................................................................................................. II FIGURES ....................................................................................................................................................VII TABLES.....................................................................................................................................................VIII NOTATION...................................................................................................................................................IX

https://scholarworks.rit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4972&context=theses

Vehicle & infrastructure relationships in hydrogen transportation networks: Development of the H2VISION modeling tool

Heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) present a growing energy and environmental concern worldwide. These vehicles rely almost entirely on diesel fuel for propulsion and create problems associated with local pollution, climate change, and energy security. Given these problems and the expected global expansion of HDVs in transportation sectors, industry and governments are pursuing biofuels and natural gas as potential alternative fuels for HDVs. Using recent lifecycle datasets, this paper evaluates the energy and emissions impacts of these fuels in the HDV sector by conducting a total fuel-cycle (TFC) analysis for Class 8 HDVs for six fuel pathways: (1) petroleum to ultra low sulfur diesel; (2) petroleum and soyoil to biodiesel (methyl soy ester); (3) petroleum, ethanol, and oxygenate to e-diesel; (4) petroleum and natural gas to Fischer–Tropsch diesel; (5) natural gas to compressed natural gas; and (6) natural gas to liquefied natural gas. TFC emissions are evaluated for three greenhouse gases (GHGs) (carb...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.3155/1047-3289.61.3.285

Total Fuel-Cycle Analysis of Heavy-Duty Vehicles Using Biofuels and Natural Gas-Based Alternative Fuels

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