Conclusions and future steps. Decisions by AEWA Parties, and the products of technical work undertaken at international level under the Agreement, have collectively (in different ways) identified an array of multilateral processes, beyond AEWA itself, that may be relevant in helping to tackle causes of unnecessary mortality of waterbirds in the Agreement area, including the four priority causes that are highlighted in the Strategic Plan. This variety of differently-identified and sometimes generically-expressed linkages has been extracted and brought together for the first time in this report, specifically with a view to signposting the avenues for potential influence that might seek to secure” scaled-up” gains for the Agreement’s objectives. The bulk of the material here has therefore arisen from AEWA’s own existing processes. A second main component however adds some selected items of equivalent potential relevance that have not yet featured in formal AEWA sources. This component must be regarded as merely an initial sample. A full trawl of possible opportunities across all relevant biodiversity-related Multilateral Environmental Agreements and regional initiatives is beyond the scope of this exercise, but is a concept that could very usefully be the focus of further in-depth work in future. The items listed in the “Possible opportunity for influence” columns of the tables presented above are similarly only illustrative of the potential scope that could exist. One important use of this document, as a next step, will be to devise more detailed propositions for each of these suggestions, and thus to develop them (or a selection of them) into a concrete activity agenda. As noted earlier, the landscape of potential opportunities will continue to evolve, as various relevant international processes develop new decisions or launch new initiatives. The inventory of possibilities begun with this report should be updated from time to time with input from Parties, the Standing Committee, the Technical Committee, the Secretariat and partner organisations, and the resulting information made available to the MOP. The range of instruments and processes considered in this report is itself only a starting point, and the scope will usefully be widened in future to consider others, including at the regional level and in fields beyond the biodiversity-related sector. Other issues for future attention, mentioned in earlier sections of this report, include methods for evaluating (in advance) the cost-effe...
Conclusions and future steps. To rationalize the abovementioned findings, we further look at the characteristics of imports from the two types of countries and the effects on R&D, employment and sales. We provide evidence that imports from high-income countries are relatively capital-intensive and technologically more sophisticated goods, at which German firms tend to be relatively good. Costly investment in productivity appears feasible reaction to such type of competition and we find no evidence for downscaling. Imports from middle- and low-wage countries are relatively labor-intensive and technologically less sophisticated goods, at which German firms tend to generally be at disadvantage. In this case, there are no incentives to invest in innovation and productivity and firms tend to decline in sales and employment. As R&D does not seem to be the major driving force behind productivity in this case, further productivity enhancing measure such as improvements in the allocation of resources and/or the use of IPRs constitute promising avenues for further research.
Conclusions and future steps. The models for the fluid transport within several representative cement and rock samples have been built. The intercalation of CO2/H2O mixtures within such nanopores has been investigated using GCMC simulations. Preliminary structural analysis of the nanoconfined fluids was also performed. Using ClayFF (Xxxxx et al., 2004; Xxxxxxxx et al., 2017,2018), we were able to establish that CO2 molecules preferentially position themselves away from the surface for C-S-H phases with high C/S ratios. The next research steps include further analysis of the intercalation of CO2/H2O within C-S-H and quartz pores at different temperature, pressure, and relative humidity conditions. In terms of the structure, the adsorption sites will be studied as well as the orientation of H2O and CO2 molecules near the pore surfaces. The transport of the CO2/H2O mixtures will be investigated by performing MD simulations, which will yield dynamical properties such as molecular diffusion (e.g., Ngouana-Xxxxx and Xxxxxxxxxx, 2014; Xxxxxxxxxx et al., 2018) and nanoscopic hydrodynamics (e.g., Xxxxx, 2011). Future work also includes atomistic modeling of other important rock samples, such as calcite (e.g., Xxxxx et al., 2018) and feldspar (e.g., Xxxxxxx et al., 2008, 2009) – the primary mineral component of basalt host rocks in geological carbon sequestration settings. The effect of cations on the CO2/H2O distribution and mobility in rock and cement nanopores should also be investigated in detail following similar studies of clay nanopores (e.g., Xxxxxxxxxx et al., 2018). In this regard, the relevant brine compositions representative of the field sites considered by the S4CE consortium need to be established. Importantly, many of the real mineral nanopores and fluid pathways are not necessarily planar, as the slit-like pores currently studied. Even the C-S-H surfaces become atomistically uneven once surface defects are introduced. In such circumstances, standard density profiles in the direction perpendicular to the pore surface, which are commonly used (e.g., Figures 3,6), are no longer suitable for extracting relevant information. To overcome this limitation, we are now developing new, more accurate tools to analyze the structure and properties of fluids nanoconfined within such irregular boundaries, using the Voronoi-Delaunay technique (Xxxxxxxx et al., 2018). To be able to model chemical reactivity of CO2 within cement and rock samples and the processes of carbonation, the ReaxFF force f...
Conclusions and future steps. A model molecule representative of mature type II kerogen was used for the construction of several bulk kerogen models comprising realistic porosity. Three force fields were employed and their effects were compared. Specifically, CVFF, the Dreiding force field with Gasteiger atomic charges, and GAFF with ab-initio derived point charges were utilized. Staged cooling of low density structures using NPT (1 atm) MD atomistic molecular simulations created dense structures at room temperature. For imposing and controlling porosity in a systematic manner, a varying number of LJ dummy particles of different sizes was used. The structures were characterized on the basis of their porosity, one of their most crucial characteristics for the study of diffusion of fluid relevant to shale gas industry. For this reason, a robust methodology based on Voronoi tessellation of the material was developed for amorphous materials and implemented in a generic code. GAFF is found to produce denser structures than Dreiding and CVFF. Increasing the system size decreases the density, with a limiting value obtained for medium sizes structures. Including dummy particle(s) results in less dense structure. The density in most cases decreases both as function of the number and size of the LJ particles. A specific force field selection has no significant effect to PSD and LPD. In all cases, the maximum pore sizes obtained are around 1nm (without the aid of LJ particles). The limiting pores obtained are around 2 Å well below the diameter of CH4 whose diffusion we intend to study. Temperature has also negligible effect on PSD and LPD of 15 II-D structures suggesting limited mobility of the bulky II-D molecules even at temperatures as high as 600 K. Including LJ dummy particles increases the porosity of the structures, and affects the pore sizes. Variation of size of LJ dummy particles is much more effective in inducing porosity. Variation of the size of LJ particle(s) results also in bigger pores with a limit around 23 Å for the biggest pore that can be achieved by this methodology as a consequence of the size of II-D molecule. Variation of size of the dummy particles can also lead to bigger limiting pores that fore certain big enough values can exceed the diameter of CH4 and reach values that approach 10 Å. Analysis of the pore surface reveals a preference of some specific atom types to concentrate at the surface of pores instead of the bulk. Furthermore, a measurable amount of the only fun...
Conclusions and future steps. In this Deliverable, we described the construction of the groundwater conceptual and numerical circulation models for the S4CE sites of St. Gallen, Cornwall, and CarbFix2. Although some simplifications have been made, the results are considered reliable for the follow up studies in Work Packages 4, 6, 7 and 8, as well as for the achievement of the objectives of the project. As already indicated, the conceptual models presented in this deliverable provide the background information on which the contaminant transport models will rely on for the risk assessment analysis. Results will allow to foresee and monitor possible contamination events, and to design appropriate strategies for monitoring and protecting the shallow aquifers in the studied field sites.
Conclusions and future steps. This Summer Challenge has been completed. 10 pre-university students completed all the activities, and submitted a project report. They are eligible for the London Opportunity Studentship, if they successfully apply to become UCL students starting in 2017-2018.
Conclusions and future steps. As the project approaches its end date, the EuroStemCell team will work with INTENS researchers to update the fact sheet to reflect latest developments and project results in a format that is accessible to people affected by SBS and to the general public. INTENS researchers will continue and extend the relationship with patient groups to ensure that continued and new trajectories of scientific development are acceptable to the patients who will be the end users of new therapies. As a rare disease and one that impinges significantly on family time and energy, future projects should continue to seek ways of reaching the geographically dispersed communities affected and modes of communication that would best suit the demands of interested families.
Conclusions and future steps. A workflow has been successfully developed for adsorption experiments on samples at geologic temperature and pressure conditions. The workflow includes (i) physisorption methods for the structural characterisation of microporous rock samples and (ii) supercritical gas adsorption experiments with CO2 and light hydrocarbons. Measurements on geologic samples have already begun by considering two clay minerals, namely Kaolinite and Montmorillonite. Progress towards future milestones associated with WP4 is therefore on track and no deviations are presently anticipated. Future steps will entail the selection of a suite of samples for adsorption experiments at sub-surface conditions with relevance to the field tests considered in S4CE. We anticipate that these samples will include carbonates with significant microporosity, organic-xxxx xxxxxx and cement-based materials.
Conclusions and future steps. European shale gas plays cover a broad range in geological environments from Carboniferous continental shelf, to intracontinental Carboniferous basins during the super continental Pangaea, and to Jurassic continental rift basins associated with the break-up of Pangaea. All of these basins are then further affected by Alpine tectonics, complicating the structural history. Within this geological setting, Europe has preserved potentially large recoverable shale gas plays with a varied geological history leading to a broad range in pressure, temperature and compositional characteristics, which are simplified and summarised in Table 1.
Conclusions and future steps. This deliverable described the development and application of a methodology for determining the minimum safe distances to personnel and equipment in the unlikely event of a blowout of shale gas xxxxx. This task involved the integration of a transient CFD outflow model, serving as the source term, with established empirically based correlations for predicting the subsequent jet fire incident heat flux, and in the event of a delayed ignition following the well blowout, the resulting explosion over-pressures for both unconfined and partially confined surroundings. The model’s testing is based on its application to hypothetical scenarios involving well blowout at the Rose Acre shale gas exploration site in the UK. Worst case scenario corresponding to a blowout during the drilling stage is assumed. The simulation results are presented in the form of 2D plots of thermal radiation contours as a function of distance and time and explosion over-pressure/distance profiles for an arbitrary 1 s delay in the detonation of the released gas. Parametric studies are conducted in order to demonstrate the impact of changes in the formation pressure and wind speed on the resulting jet fire incident heat flux and explosion over-pressure, the latter for different degrees of confinement. The minimum distances coinciding with various degrees of harm including 2nd degree xxxxx, explosion injuries or fatalities are determined by reference to the relevant published fire and explosion harm thresholds. The well blowout simulation study indicates that fire and explosion hazard consequences are minimal for personnel working in buildings located at distances of more than 60 m away from the wellheads. These findings are qualitatively consistent with layout of the Rose Acre Wood shale gas site where the buildings are sited over 60 m away from the wellhead. In conclusion, the modelling and the methodology presented in this report is shown to serve as a useful tool for quantitative risk assessment of shale gas facilities, to ensure safe design layout and thereby minimising the consequences of a well blowout.
