Articles publicats (Química, Física i Ciències Ambientals i del Sòl)
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- ItemOpen AccessThermal plasma-driven looping for metal scrap processing with hydrogen(2023-01-01) Sarafraz, M.M.; Christo, F.C.; Rolfe, B.; Shabani, B.; Tran, Nam Nghiep; Fulcheri, L.; Escribà i Gelonch, Marc; Hessel , VolkerIn the present research, a novel process was proposed and assessed using an equilibrium thermochemical modelling study to evaluate the performance of a combined disruptive technology of thermal plasma and thermochemical looping to utilise hydrogen for iron reduction processing. The study was aimed at conducting a high-level power performance assessment of the process by integrating a built-in power block with a focus on a novel equilibrium thermal plasma technology for reducing iron scrap particles. The effect of thermal plasma operating parameters such as temperature (1000 °C < T < 1800 °C) and hydrogen-to-iron ratio in the feed stream to the thermal plasma reactor (0 < H2/metal < 20) on the performance of the system was numerically investigated using Aspen coupled with Matlab. Also, the self-sustaining factor was evaluated coupled with a quantitative analysis of the sustainability and lifecycle of the process aiming at better understanding the impact of the proposed system on the environment. Results showed that the system is crucially sensitive to the ratio of H2/metal such that the overall power demand of the reactor can change in a way that the dominant regime of the plasma can change from endothermic (partial reduction of iron) to exothermic (complete reduction, combustion of iron) once the hydrogen to metal ratio exceeds ∼ 2.5. It was also identified that an increase in the temperature of the combustor decreased the power demand for the thermal plasma reactor. Similarly, with increasing the temperature, a ramp-up in the self-sustaining factor was observed reaching 0.8 showing that 80 % of the energy of the auxiliaries can be maintained using the built-in heat recovery and power block. The thermal efficiency of the system was also a strong function of the H2/metal ratio reaching ∼ 0.4 at the H2/metal ratio of ∼ 2.5 reflecting the fact that the proposed process efficiency is within the state-of-the-art power production systems. The sustainability assessments showed that the process offers a high circular economy capability of the process with above-the-average lifetime and Material Circularity Indicator values.
- ItemOpen AccessAssessing the energy trap of industrial agriculture in North America and Europe: 82 balances from 1830 to 2012(Springer-Verlag Italia s.r.l., 2023) Tello, Enric; Sacristán, Vera; Olarieta, José R.; Cattaneo, Claudio; Marull, Joan; Pons, Manel; Gingrich, Simone; Krausmann, Fridolin; Galán, ElenaEarly energy analyses of agriculture revealed that behind higher labor and land productivity of industrial farming, there was a decrease in energy returns on energy (EROI) invested, in comparison to more traditional organic agricultural systems. Studies on recent trends show that efficiency gains in production and use of inputs have again somewhat improved energy returns. However, most of these agricultural energy studies have focused only on external inputs at the crop level, concealing the important role of internal biomass flows that livestock and forestry recirculate within agroecosystems. Here, we synthesize the results of 82 farm systems in North America and Europe from 1830 to 2012 that for the first time show the changing energy profiles of agroecosystems, including livestock and forestry, with a multi-EROI approach that accounts for the energy returns on external inputs, on internal biomass reuses, and on all inputs invested. With this historical circular bioeconomic approach, we found a general trend towards much lower external returns, little or no increases in internal returns, and almost no improvement in total returns. This “energy trap” was driven by shifts towards a growing dependence of crop production on fossil-fueled external inputs, much more intensive livestock production based on feed grains, less forestry, and a structural disintegration of agroecosystem components by increasingly linear industrial farm managements. We conclude that overcoming the energy trap requires nature-based solutions to reduce current dependence on fossil-fueled external industrial inputs and increase the circularity and complexity of agroecosystems to provide healthier diets with less animal products.
- ItemOpen AccessSlow-roll inflation and growth of perturbations in Kaniadakis modification of Friedmann cosmology(Springer Nature, 2023-10-17) Lambiase, G.; Luciano, Giuseppe Gaetano; Sheykhi, A.Kaniadakis entropy is a one-parameter deformation of the classical Boltzmann–Gibbs–Shannon entropy, arising from a self-consistent relativistic statistical theory. Assuming a Kaniadakis-type generalization of the entropy associated with the apparent horizon of Friedmann–Robertson–Walker (FRW) Universe and using the gravity-thermodynamics conjecture, a new cosmological scenario is obtained based on the modified Friedmann equations. By employing such modified equations, we analyze the slowroll inflation, driven by a scalar field with power-law potential, at the early stages of the Universe. We explore the phenomenological consistency of this model by computation of the scalar spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio. Comparison with the latest BICEP and Planck data allows us to constrain Kaniadakis parameter to κ O(10−12 ÷ 10−11), which is discussed in relation to other observational bounds in the literature. We also disclose the effects of Kaniadakis correction term on the growth of perturbations at the early stages of the Universe by employing the spherically symmetric collapse formalism in the linear regime of density perturbations. We find out that the profile of density contrast is non-trivially affected in this scenario. Interestingly enough, we observe that increasing Kaniadakis parameter κ corresponds to a faster growth of perturbations in a Universe governed by the corrected Friedmann equations. Finally, we comment on the consistency of the primordial power spectrum for scalar perturbations with the best data-fit provided by Planck.
- ItemOpen AccessNeutrino decoherence and violation of the strong equivalence principle(Elsevier, 2023-10-18) Buoninfante, Luca; Luciano, Giuseppe Gaetano; Petruzziello, L.; Smaldone, LucaWe analyze the dynamics of neutrino Gaussian wave-packets, the damping of flavor oscillations and decoherence effects within the framework of extended theories of gravity. We show that, when the underlying description of the gravitational interaction admits a violation of the strong equivalence principle, the parameter quantifying such a violation modulates the wave-packet spreading, giving rise to potentially measurable effects in future neutrino experiments.
- ItemOpen AccessKaniadakis entropy-based characterization of IceCube PeV neutrino signals(Elsevier, 2023-10-05) Blasone, M.; Lambiase, G.; Luciano, Giuseppe GaetanoKaniadakis 𝜅-thermostatistics is by now recognized as an effective paradigm to describe relativistic complex systems obeying power-law tailed distributions, as opposed to the classical (exponential-type) decay. It is founded on a non-extensive one-parameter generalization of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy, which, in the cosmological framework, gives rise to modified Friedmann equations on the basis of the gravity-thermodynamic conjecture. Assuming the entropy associated with the apparent horizon of the Friedmann–Robertson–Walker (FRW) Universe follows Kaniadakis prescription, in this work we analyze the observed discrepancy between the present bound on the Dark Matter relic abundance and the IceCube high-energy (∼ 1 PeV) neutrinos. We show that this tension can be alleviated in the minimal model of Dark Matter decay with Kaniadakisgoverned Universe evolution, while still considering the 4-dimensional Yukawa coupling between Standard Model and Dark Matter particles. This argument phenomenologically supports the need for a Kaniadakislike generalization of the Boltzmann–Gibbs–Shannon entropy in the relativistic realm, opening new potential scenarios in high-energy astroparticle physics.