Environmental standards, commercial impact

Figure 2 summarizes the basic difference between the 1975 national stationary source demand for low sulfur coal and oil, based on State Implementation Plan (SIP) estimates of that necessary to achieve primary ambient air quality standards and the projected 1975 supply of these fuels (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11). The net result is a forecast coal/oil supply deficit on the basis of sulfur content and including foreign imports, of approximately 8 XlO Btu. This is equivalent to a combined annual shortage of about 230 million tons of coal and 300 million barrels of primarily residual oil. Table II shows the regional distribution of these shortages. In the judgment of the author, uncertainties in factors such as sulfur content analyses, production potentials, and the commercial impact of environmental standards by 1975 limit the accuracy of these supply deficit forecasts to about 20%. 

Life cycle assessment of SOFC technology is still uncommon due to the relatively early stage in technical development. However, several studies have been performed since the end of the 1990s. Since there is a lack of standard commercial equipment that could serve as a basis and reference point for analysis, LCA studies mostly refer to hypothetical concepts and/or extrapolate from laboratory and early market prototypes to commercial units. While the first studies had only little access to operation data at aU (for the fuel cell system itself but also for production processes), the main effort was set in the assessment of inventory data using assumptions, simplifications, and correlations [79, 80]. The main outcomes of these studies were the identification of weak points and the setting of benchmarks for further development. With more information about fuel cells available today and a simultaneous advancement in LCA methodology, the studies became more reliable and detailed, regarding system description [81] as well as the assessment of environmental impacts coimected with inputs and outputs [82]. Especially the extensive data of these two studies found their way to commercial databases for LCA [83] and thereby became available to LCA practitioners. In 2005, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU)... 

Higher olefins are versatile chemical intermediates for a number of important industrial and consumer products, providing a better standard of living with low environmental impact (qv) in many commercial uses. These uses can be characterized by carbon number and by chemical stmcture. 

Biocomposites have been an area of growing interest and a subject of active research for quite some time. This is due to both environmental concerns as well as anticipated future scarcity of oil and oil-derived products. A class of composites in which resins of natural origin have already had a commercial/industrial impact is in the field of rigid wood panels, such as particleboards. Natural-origin resins have already been used commercially for the last 30 years for these wood panels, and their use is still growing, although still relatively slowly [1]. In such an application, the binder is never more than 10% by weight of the whole composite panel. This is sufficient to conform to the performance and costs required by the wood panels industry and their respective product standards. 

Updated and revised ihroughom, this standard reference describes recent advances in the design of tower packings and the commercial application of packed columns such as absorption, stripping, distillation, and extraction. It reflects current changes to improve energy efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of processing operations. 

Such an assessment is important as it will provide an initial snapshot of the risks of undertaking general business in the identified environment. This can be further developed to examine specific risks associated with political stability and any potential change the laws and regulations associated with commercial activities in the project location, and any special technical standards and environmental issues which may adversely impact on the project to be undertaken. In addition, at this early stage, a further investigation will also need to be undertaken to examine the national employment legislation particularly those associated with the use of local and overseas employees. This may constrain the involvement of... 

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