Q Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics
Refine
Document Type
- Part of a Book (14)
- Master's Thesis (9)
- Bachelor Thesis (2)
- Book (2)
- Other (2)
Has Fulltext
- yes (29)
Keywords
- Biogas (5)
- Agricultural Farms (2)
- Assessment (2)
- Ecosystem services (2)
- Kläranlage (2)
- Lagerung (2)
- Load shifting (2)
- Self-sufficiency (2)
- Smart Meter (2)
- :metabolon (1)
Faculty
- Fakultät 12 / Institut für Technologie und Ressourcenmanagement in den Tropen und Subtropen (10)
- Angewandte Naturwissenschaften (F11) (5)
- Fakultät 09 / Cologne Institute for Renewable Energy (5)
- Fakultät 10 / :metabolon Institut (5)
- Fakultät 04 / Schmalenbach Institut für Wirtschaftswissenschaften (2)
- Fakultät 10 / Institut für Automation & Industrial IT (2)
- Fakultät 09 / Institut für Bau- und Landmaschinentechnik (1)
- Fakultät 09 / Institut für Rettungsingenieurwesen und Gefahrenabwehr (1)
Die Regelung heutiger, industriell genutzter Biomasse-Feuerungsanlagen erfolgt meistens über fest eingestellte Parameter. Bei Veränderungen des Brennstoffs dienen visuelle Beobachtungen der Mitarbeiter als Basis der Neueinstellung dieser Parameter. Das Ziel der Forschung besteht in der Optimierung solcher Regelungen durch den Einsatz von Kamerasystemen in Kombination mit einer automatisierten Regelung, die auf Basis von Flammenbild-Analysen funktioniert. Ein solches System wäre auch unabhängig von der Art des Brennstoffs.
Circular economy (CE) has received considerable interest in recent years as a strategy to resolve some of our modern urban resource challenges, and circular city models often incorporate systems of urban agriculture in their design. Much work has analyzed the benefits of urban agriculture for creating a resilient food system and as a strategy for supporting urban green space and social cohesion, however, the contributions from business models that operate within urban agriculture have not been thoroughly studied. Many urban agriculture businesses often claim high levels of resource recycling and material circularity, though whether a resource efficiency throughout the entire product lifetime (including energy and material footprint for the cultivation equipment) in comparison to current industrial strategies is truly feasible or even possible is still to be debated. This thesis builds upon work that incorporates social dimensions of CE definitions and begins to research whether the potential resource efficiency contradiction can be justified as to make urban agriculture a valid approach for circular city design. This study examined an urban mushroom farm that implements a circular business model. A qualitative summary of the business operations and resource flows were unpacked and sorted into 24 socio-economic contributions based on their interpreted relevance. The interpreted data shows that an urban agriculture business model can contribute to the building blocks of a CE through economic, ecological, social, and spatial contributions. While these contributions can contribute positively to the operationalization of CE, potential trade-offs regarding resource efficiency, use of urban space, and investment priorities need to be considered and addressed to avoid a possible watering down or greenwashing of the CE concept.
In Sierra Leone, at the moment 10 out of the total 14 districts are faced with the problem of large-scale land investments for industrial agriculture (oil palm, sugarcane…). The production is mainly for the local, regional and world market. There are quite many of these investments in the planning stage, while some are extending their operations by taking more land from communities or are already at the production stage. Studies and media reports have claimed a number of negative impacts felt in communities hosting these companies, ranging from loss of land, food insecurity, increase in poverty to loss of livelihoods, environmental degradation as well as social and cultural problems. The goal of this thesis is to examine the impacts of the operations of “Socfin Agriculture Company” on food security of local communities in Malen Chiefdom, Pujehun District of Sierra Leone.
Both quantitative and qualitative research methods are used for data collection, analyses, and interpretation of results. The research uses household income and expenditure to compare household food security before and after the start of the company’s operations. It examines consequences of community’s loss of land to support household food production versus casual wage earn from employment created by the company to meet household food security.
The results show a loss of household’s income sources and a significant decrease in households’ income. Households’ food crop production has reduced accompanied by a complete loss of cash crop farming. Households affected by the operations of the company have lost access to land and other natural resources that support food production. Furthermore, the company employs very few people in comparison to the total population of affected communities. Calculation of total wage earn from employment by the company cannot meet the staple food (rice) needs of the households. Also, households claimed a host of unfilled promises made by the company and national government at the onset of the operations of the company.
In conclusion, household food production is the most significant determinant for household food security, with regards to food availability, accessibility, utilization and stability of supply. Therefore, national government should carefully study and develop a framework that addresses food security of households impacted by the operations of the rapidly growing large-scale land investment companies and ensure a fair share of the local community in the economic development of the country and suggesting ways of improving access rights in the context of tenure.
In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde eine HPLC-Methode mit der dazugehörigen Probenvorbereitung entwickelt, welche es ermöglicht Essigsäure und Acrylsäure in komplexen Matrizes wie Deponiesickerwasser zu bestimmen. Hauptaugenmerk lag dabei auf der Matrixreduzierung, die bei 96 % lag. Die Wiederfindung der Analyten Essigsäure und Acrylsäure liegt bei der beschriebenen Methode bei ca. 100 %.
Intelligent use of energy is one of the keys to success for an energy revolution. To meet this challenge, smart meters are suitable tools because INTELLIGENT use of energy means not only to use efficiency technology, but also to determine load shifting potentials and use them accordingly. Especially farms with high power consumption are becoming increasingly concerned about reducing energy costs due to rising energy prices and need a systematic analysis of their operational energy flow. To find solutions for farms, the NaRoTec e.V., the TH Köln, and the Machinery Ring Höxter-Warburg have joined forces with partners and launched the project "Intelligent Energy in Agriculture", which is funded by the state of NRW. The aim of the project is to be able to give individual advice recommendations for energy optimization of agricultural holdings. This will be achieved inter alia through an operational energy audit and current measurements in different operating ranges. To achieve this, smart meters were installed in selected energy-intensive dairy and pig farms. As part of the project, the installed smart meter information about the consumption of various plants and their components were analyzed, regularities and adaptability in loading history identified, and the energy efficiency of the equipment and systems used verified (especially pumps, ventilators, feeding systems). Then recommendations were formulated to shift electricity-intensive processes to times with low electricity costs and high intrinsic power production. The resulting findings will be used as the basis for intelligent energy management in the further course of the project. Overall, efficiency streamlining measures in the field of ventilation and lighting systems, flexible dry feeding systems by decoupling power purchase and consumption, as well as energy savings and related CO2 savings were determined.
Der vorliegende Bericht ist ein ökonomischer Vergleich
verschiedener Varianten der Überschussschlamm
(ÜSS)-Verwertung der Sickerwasseranlage
auf der Deponie des Entsorgungszentrums Leppe
mit dem aktuellen Entsorgungsweg. Als Vergleichsparameter
werden die Jahresvollkosten herangezogen.
Der derzeitige Entsorgungsweg über die kommunale
Kläranlage wird hierbei als Basisvariante
betrachtet und mit alternativen Behandlungs- und
Verwertungsmöglichkeiten verglichen. Hierbei werden
verschiedene Varianten mit unterschiedlichen
Ausführungen der Komponenten Lagerung, Entwässerung,
Trocknung, Transport und Verbrennung
gegenübergestellt.
Online-measurement systems for agricultural and industrial AD plants – A review and practice test
(2014)
Online-measurement systems for AD plants in general are crucial to allow for detailed and comprehensive process monitoring and provide a basis for the development and practical application of process optimisation and control strategies.
Nevertheless, the online measurement of key process variables such as Volatile Fatty Acids (VFA) and Total Alkalinity (TA) has proven to be difficult due to extreme process conditions. High Total Solids (TS) concentrations and extraneous material often damage the sensors or have a strong negative impact on measurement quality and long-term behaviour.
Consequently, there is a need for new robust and accurate online-measurement systems.
The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of existing online-measurement systems, to present the current state of research and to show the results of practice tests at an agricultural and industrial AD plant. It becomes obvious that a broad variety of measurement solutions have been developed over the past few years, but that the main problem is the upscaling from lab-scale to practical application at full-scale AD plants. Results from the practice tests show that an online-measurement of pH, ORP, TS is possible.
Die Messung des Chemischen Sauerstoffbedarfs (CSB) im Zulauf von Kläranlagen ist von zentraler Bedeutung für die Optimierung und Regelung der Abbauprozesse der Nitrifikation und Denitrifikation. Allerdings ist die Messung des CSB bislang sehr zeitaufwändig und kostenintensiv, da 24-Stunden Mischproben im Labor nasschemisch analysiert werden müssen.
Online-Messtechnik in Form von spektroskopischen Messgeräten (10.000 ̶ 20.000 €) oder nass-chemischen Online-Analysatoren (> = 50.000 €) sind insbesondere für kleine und mittlere Kläranlagen aus Kostengründen keine Alternative.
Eine extrem kostengünstige Alternative ist der im Folgenden beschriebene Softsensor für CSB im Kläranlagenzulauf, der auf Basis von Standardmesstechnik im Zulauf von kleinen und mittleren kommunalen Kläranlagen sowie mit zusätzlicher Online-Messtechnik für Trübung sowie Ammonium- und Nitratstickstoff (NH4-N und NO3-N) die aktuelle CSB-Konzentration bestimmt. Zur Entwicklung des Softsensors werden Regressionsmethoden aus dem Bereich des Machine Learning eingesetzt. Die Ergebnisse einer Entwicklungs- und Testphase an der Kläranlage Rospe in Gummersbach zeigen, dass die Werte des Softsensors sehr gut mit den Originaldaten übereinstimmen. Die Korrelationswerte beim Vergleich mit CSB-Messungen liegen bei der Regression mit Support Vector Regression bei 0,98 mit einem RSME von 2,45 mg/l.
In this paper a closed-loop substrate feed control for agricultural biogas plants is proposed. In this case, multi-objective nonlinear model predictive control is used to control composition and amount of substrate feed to optimise the economic feasibility of a biogas plant whilst assuring process stability. The control algorithm relies on a detailed biogas plant simulation model using the Anaerobic
Digestion Model No. 1. The optimal control problem is solved using the state-of-the-art multi-objective optimization method SMS-EGO. Control performance is evaluated by means of a set point tracking problem in a noisy environment.
Results show, that the proposed control scheme is able to keep the produced electrical energy close to a set point with an RMSE of 0.9 %, thus maintaining optimal biogas plant operation.
Located in the Urubamba mountain range, the Chicón glacier is the third highest tropical glacier of this area and the source of water for the Chicón watershed. Moreover, from this watershed four communities obtain water for human consumption and agriculture, which is their main economic activity. In the last years glacier retreat is evident in the area and threatens the livelihoods of the people because it affects the availability of fresh water.
The general objective of this research is to analyse the perception of people living in this watershed to climate change, disaster risk, and ecosystem-based solutions. The specific objectives are to identify natural hazards and climate change effects in the community, to recognise potential ecosystem services suitable for Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) and Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction (Eco-DRR), and to assess to which climate change effects and disasters the communities are vulnerable based on their own perception. The methodological steps are based on literature review, expert interviews, questionnaires to the community, a workshop and field observations.
The results show that people perceive changes in the climate such as increase in temperature, less precipitation and shifts of the rainy and the dry season. The climate-related disasters that were identified are Glacier Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF), droughts, frosts and hailstorms. However, GLOFs are not frequent in the area and drought is the hazard that people consider will be more frequent. Additionally, pests were identified as biological hazards. Several ecosystems services can be obtained for EbA and Eco-DRR from forests, especially if native trees such as Qiwiña (Polylepis spp.), Chachacoma (Escallonia resinosa) and Aliso (Alnus jorullensis) are used in ecosystem management. Finally, the hypothesis was partially accepted since people in the study area are to some extent aware of climate change impacts, but only partially understand causes and effects. Further, they recognize most of the ecosystem services that forests provide. Therefore they are starting to implement ecosystem-based solutions in the watershed with the support of external institutions.