Gas separation is a very important industrial process for manufacturing chemicals, fuels, plastics, and polymers but is also energy intensive through the traditional cryogenic distillations. Adsorptive gas separation by porous materials can potentially fulfill the energy-efficient separation economy. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a new generation of porous materials, have been demonstrated for their promise in addressing important gas separations. In this review, we outline the uniqueness and basic design principles of MOF chemistry for gas separation in terms of their specific pore chemistry and molecular recognition. The finely tuned micropores for the high sieving effects and immobilized functional sites on pore surfaces for specific recognition of gas molecules have enabled us to develop a variety of microporous MOFs for many gas separations with both high separation selectivity and productivity. We highlight the major progress and achievements in this very important topic, which will further facilitate the extensive research endeavors and promote their industrial implementation for gas separation.
We argue theoretically and document empirically that aging leads to greater (industrial) automation, because it creates a shortage of middle-aged workers specializing in manual production tasks. We show that demographic change is associated with greater adoption of robots and other automation technologies across countries and with more robotics-related activities across U.S. commuting zones. We also document more automation innovation in countries undergoing faster aging. Our directed technological change model predicts that the response of automation technologies to aging should be more pronounced in industries that rely more on middle-aged workers and those that present greater opportunities for automation and that productivity should improve and the labor share should decline relatively in industries that are more amenable to automation. The evidence supports all four of these predictions.
Although the productivity gains of urban agglomeration economies are generally found to be positive, there is a great deal of variability in the magnitude of reported estimates. This paper undertakes a quantitative review of the empirical literature on agglomeration through a meta-analysis of 729 elasticities taken from 34 different studies. The objective is to make sense of the range of values for agglomeration economies found in the literature by identifying some key characteristics that affect the magnitude of the results obtained. Our analysis confirms that study characteristics do matter. In particular, we find that country specific effects, the industrial coverage, the specification of agglomeration economies, and the presence of controls for both unobserved cross-sectional heterogeneity and differences in time-variant labor quality can give rise to large differences in the results reported in the literature. In contrast, correcting for reverse causality of agglomeration does not seem to produce noticeable changes in the size of urban agglomeration estimates. We also test for publication bias and find some evidence supporting the presence of positive reporting bias. The findings support the intuition that agglomeration estimates for any particular empirical context may have little relevance elsewhere.
Biochar is produced as a charred material with high surface area and abundant functional groups by pyrolysis, which refers to the process of thermochemical decomposition of organic material at elevated temperatures in the absence of oxygen. The carbon component in biochar is relatively stable, and, hence, biochar was originally proposed as a soil amendment to store carbon in the soil. Biochar has multifunctional values that include the use of it for the following purposes: soil amendment to improve soil health, nutrient and microbial carrier, immobilising agent for remediation of toxic metals and organic contaminants in soil and water, catalyst for industrial applications, porous material for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and odorous compounds, and feed supplement to improve animal health and nutrient intake efficiency and, thus, productivity. This article provides for the first time an overview of the multifunctional values and unintended consequences of biochar applications.
The chemical industry is a major source of economic productivity and employment globally and among the top 3 industrial sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, along with steel and cement. As global demand for chemical products continues to grow, there is an urgency to develop and deploy sustainable chemical production pathways and re-consider continued investment in current emission-intensive production technologies. This Perspective describes the challenges and opportunities to decarbonize the chemical industry via electrification powered by the low-emission electric power sector, both in the near-term and long-term, and discusses four technological pathways ranging from the more mature direct substitution of heat with electricity and use of hydrogen to technologically less mature, yet potentially more selective approaches based on electrochemistry and plasma. Finally, we highlight the key elements of integrating an electrified industrial process with the power sector to leverage process flexibility to reduce energy costs of chemical production and provide valuable power grid support services. Unlocking
Eric Bartelsman, Eric Bartelsman, John C. Haltiwanger
et al.
In this paper the authors provide an analysis of the process of creative destruction across 24 countries and 2-digit industries over the past decade. They rely on a newly assembled dataset that draws from different micro data sources (business registers, census, or representative enterprise surveys). The novelty of their approach is in the harmonization of firm-level data across countries, which enables international comparisons and the identification of country-specific factors as opposed to sector and time effects. All countries display a massive reallocation of resources, with the entry and exit of many firms in all markets, the failure of many newcomers and the expansion of successful ones. This process of creative destruction affects productivity directly by reallocating resources toward more productive uses, but also indirectly through the effects of increased market contestability. There are also large differences across groups of countries. While entry and exit rates are fairly similar across industrial countries, post-entry performance differs markedly between Europe and the United States, a potential indication of the importance of barriers to firm growth as opposed to barriers to entry. Transition economies show an even more impressive process of creative destruction and, those that have progressed the most toward a market economy show better outcomes from this process. Finally, Mexico shows large firm dynamics with many new firms entering the battle but also many failing rapidly, while Argentina resembles Continental Europe with smaller flows and less impressive post-entry growth of successful firms.
Mahesh Tiwari, Tejas Rathod, Sanjay Kumar Sahu
et al.
Abstract Monitoring toxic and trace elements in soil is vital for environmental protection, agricultural productivity, and regulatory compliance, yet tailored methodologies for comprehensive soil analysis are limited, particularly in ecologically sensitive regions like Uttarakhand’s Lesser Himalayas. This study aimed to optimize XRF-based methods for analyzing 22 elements in soil samples from 35 locations in Uttarakhand, categorized as trace (Ni, Pb, Cu, As, Sc, Co, Br, Cs, U), minor (Zn, Ba, Mn, Zr, Rb, Ce, Sr, Cr, V), and major (Al, Fe, K, Mg). XRF parameters, including operating voltage, tube current, counting time, and sample environment, were systematically adjusted using one primary filter (W) and four secondary targets (Si, Ti, Zr, Ge). Pollution indices such as the contamination factor, geoaccumulation index, and pollution load index revealed varying degrees of contamination linked to anthropogenic activities, including industrial emissions, agriculture, and traffic. Principal component analysis (PCA) attributed these elemental variations to both natural soil composition and human influences. The study not only provided optimized analytical methods for soil analysis but also highlighted significant pollution concerns, emphasizing the need for sustained monitoring and mitigation strategies to safeguard soil health in the region. Graphical Abstract
Purpose: The aim of this study is to propose the Fuzzy Entropy based Fuzzy MARCOS method to solve the Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problem, which involves analyzing the performance of Turkish ports according to quantitative evaluation criteria. Methodology: The uncertainty of quantitative criteria is based on the different values they take at different time periods. To overcome this problem, in this study, the importance levels of the criteria were determined by the Fuzzy Entropy method. Then, 11 port alternatives with a share of over 1% in transportation in Turkish ports were ranked according to their performance using the Fuzzy Measurement of Alternatives and Ranking to Compromise Solution (MARCOS) method.Findings: According to the analysis results, the most important evaluation criterion used in the performance evaluation of container ports, that is, the criterion with the highest weight, is the “port area” criterion. The port with the highest performance value among the ports is Kocaeli port. This method can provide a more accurate evaluation of the performance level of ports and its use in the planning and effective use of port investments.Originality: This research fills the gap in the literature in three ways: (1) Evaluatee the application of triangular fuzzy numbers to the panel data, which will provide effective inferences about the performanse level of the selected ports, (2) Evaluated a weighting approach using Entropy method that takes into account the distances of triangular fuzzy numbers consisting of real numbers instead of linguistic expressions, (3) An Entropy-based MARCOS method is proposed for solving the Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problem involving the performanse analysis of Turkish ports.
Multi-robot ensembles comprising several manipulators are commonly used in industrial settings to process non-deterministic flows of items loaded by an upstream source onto a shared transportation system. After the execution of a given task, the robots regularly deposit the items on a common output flow, which conveys the semi-finished material towards the downstream portion of the plant for further processing. The productivity and reliability of the entire process, which is affected by the plant layout, by the quality of the adopted scheduling and task assignment algorithms, and by the proper balancing of the input and output flows, may be degraded by random disturbances and transient conditions of the input flow. In this paper, a highly accurate event-based simulator of this kind of system is used in conjunction with a rollout algorithm to optimize the performance of the plant in all operating scenarios. The proposed method relies on a simulation of the plant that comprehensively considers the dynamic performance of the manipulators, their actual motion planning algorithms, the adopted scheduling and task assignment methods, and the regulation of the material flows. The simulation environment is built upon computationally efficient maps able to predict the execution time of the tasks assigned to the robots, considering all the determining factors, and on a representation of the manipulators themselves as finite state automata. The proposed formalization of the line balancing problem as a Markov Decision Process and the resulting rollout optimization method are shown to substantially improve the performance of the plant, even in challenging situations, and to be well suited to real-time implementation even on commodity hardware.
Kapustina Yuliya, Fedotova Gilyan, Novikov Mikhail
et al.
Organic 3.0 agro-technologies have been gaining popularity over the last decades in light of the search for solutions for sustainable environmental management and sustainable development of territories. The International Sustainable Development Goals recommend the transfer and search for new agro-technologies of gentle impact on the environment in order to maximize resource conservation and minimize anthropogenic impact on nature for future generations. The trend of transition of many countries to organic production requires additional investment and building new mechanisms of interaction in the sphere of agro-industrial complex. The paper studies the established market of organic products, assesses its structure and makes a forecast of its future expansion. Climate change and the reduction of areas suitable for the production of food raw materials impose an additional burden on agricultural production, which should use more effective methods and technologies to increase productivity in the current conditions. The conclusions are drawn about the key role of Russia in the development of the organic trend of agro-industrial complex as a country with vast agrarian territories and resources.