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NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.

2025

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Abstract

Ethiopia faces growing environmental and energy problems because of its expanding cities, increasing dependence on biomass fuels. This study evaluated briquettes made from sawdust, coffee husk, fruit waste, flower waste and vegetable residues through different particle sizes (0.3–1 mm, 2–4  mm, 5–7 mm) and compaction pressures (5  MPa, 10 MPa) using pulped paper as a binder. The evaluation of fuel properties included density measurements, moisture content, ash content, fixed carbon, volatile matter and calorific value assessments. The combination of small sawdust particles under 10  MPa pressure produced briquettes with the highest calorific value of 20.96 MJ/kg and strong mechanical strength. The combination of small coffee husk particles under 5 MPa pressure produced briquettes with 78.05 % volatile matter and 17.62 MJ/kg calorific value. The addition of binder materials improved combustion properties and decreased the amount of volume expansion. The waste volume reduction through briquetting reached 54.8 % which demonstrates its effectiveness as a waste reduction technique. However, this study did not include combustion emissions analysis, life cycle assessment (LCA), techno-economic evaluation (TEA), or pilot-scale field validation. Hence, the reported substitution and deforestation mitigation figures were theoretical and based solely on laboratory-scale calorific equivalence. As such, broader claims regarding environmental and energy system impacts should be considered preliminary and require further verification through real-world deployment and systems-level analysis.

Abstract

Over the last 30 years temperatures in Europe have increased more than in any other continent. The effects of climate change are especially pronounced at high latitudes where longer growing seasons and increasing mean temperatures open new possibilities for crop production. At the same time, problems related to agricultural pest insects are likely to increase. Due to warmer temperatures, insect pests from more southern latitudes can shift their ranges towards north. Likewise, already existing pests can have better winter survival or even more generations per growing season. However, climate change related changes can also cause negative effects on agricultural pests. According to the climate change scenarios, the temperature increase in the Arctic area will be highest during the winter season. In coastal regions of Arctic area, the mean winter temperature can in the future stay close 0 °C which increases risk for freezing-thawing cycles. It is known that changes in winter climate (e.g. freezing-thawing cycles, increased rainfall) might impair the overwintering success of some pest insects resulting even in population decreases. Thus, the effects of climate change on insect pests are not necessarily straightforward and there are several gaps in our knowledge on how individual species will respond to changing climate, and the complex ecological mechanisms underlying these responses.