Pecologix Political Ecology Blotter

Global aluminum demand is anticipated to triple by 2050, by which time global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are advised to be cut 50–85% to avoid catastrophic climate impacts. To explore mitigation strategies systematically, a dynamic material flow model was developed to simulate the stocks and flows of the U.S. aluminum cycle and analyze the corresponding [...]

Improved energy efficiency is among the key measures for CO2 emission abatement in the industry. Energy benchmark curves provide data measured at individual plants and they offer a basis to estimate the sectoral energy efficiency improvement potentials (IP) compared to a best practice technology (BPT) currently in operation worldwide. In this paper, we estimate the [...]

► Globally, 26% of liquid steel and 41% of liquid aluminium becomes process scrap, never becoming a product. ► These yield losses have more effect on ‘embodied’ emissions in products than all processes after casting. ► There are significant opportunities to reduce these yield losses, depending on co-operation along the supply chain. doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2011.05.021

The team show that iron ores (Fe2O3 and Fe3O4) can be dissolved in molten lithium carbonate at temperatures of around 800°C – a process that was previously thought impossible. Adding an electrical current to the molten mix separates the iron ore into its component parts, iron and oxygen, which can be collected by two electrodes [...]

Commercial fisheries are heavily dependent upon the combustion of fossil fuels and as such contribute to increased atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and the concomitant impact on the world’s climate. The fuel use and greenhouse gas intensity of a fishery is a function of several variables. One that has not been previously investigated is the [...]