The newly intensified controversy around the flaws of the contemporary energy systems and the need to make an "energy transition" forced humanity to look for new "decarbonized" energy carriers that could work well in synergy with renewable energy sources, which led to the resumption of discussion of "hydrogen energy" and "hydrogen economy". The idea of the development of hydrogen based energy system has gained widespread international acclaim and support from the leading global governments and organizations. Naturally, such a major push for the creation of brand new hydrogen economy and hydrogen energy systems sets the task for specialists in the field of energy modeling to develop appropriate tools that will allow predictive calculations of the prospects for integrating hydrogen into the global energy balance. The authors ' analysis showed that forecasting the emerging market of hydrogen as an energy carrier and its place in the global energy balance is impossible using current methods of econometric analysis and requires a multi-iterative multifactor approach using specialized models currently being developed at ERI RAS.
The article provides an overview of the key expected changes in the technological landscape of the global energy sector. On the part of the end-use energy consumption sectors, the requirements for energy systems and the organization of their operation are changing significantly. Consumers are demanding ever more versatile, environmentally friendly, cost-effective and reliable energy supplies, and energy-intensive equipment with off-grid options is increasingly in demand. Technical progress, in turn, provides access to new solutions, while changing the parameters of inter-fuel competition. Government policy also contributes, and its tools allow both to softly influence the attractiveness of the choice and to simply limit the possibilities of using certain equipment. Electrification is becoming a key trend in the supply of energy to industry, commercial and residential sectors. The transportation sector is moving from an era of oil dominance to an era of inter-fuel competition, with electric solutions also becoming a key substitute for petroleum products. In the electricity generation sector itself, preference is increasingly being given to carbon-free and renewable energy sources. In some regions of the world, renewable energy sources are already becoming competitive in terms of the cost of electricity production (before feeding into the grid) with fossil generation. It is important that with an increase in the share of renewable energy sources in the electricity balance, the share of costs for backup, storage, and network infrastructure increases, which makes it necessary to assess costs in a complex manner when making decisions. The growing share of renewable energy sources in energy systems necessarily requires the development of storage technologies; however, the current level of scientific and technological progress in this area makes such solutions extremely expensive, which leaves long-term niches for thermal generation, but significantly changes its operating modes. Technologies are also changing significantly in the field of exploration, production and transportation of fossil fuels. This makes it possible not to fear resource shortages in the coming decades, despite rising production levels and the depletion of the easiest-to-exploit reserves. But the operating environment for conventional energy will change.
Here we report about study the novel class of nanocomposite for optical control devices. It was observed that nanocomposite based on cadmium sulfide quantum dots in silica matrix can change its optical properties under irradiation of UV-light. These changes are expressed as increasing of optical absorbance coefficient and not only decreasing of luminescence intensity but in some cases red-shifting of maximum. Dependence of quantum dot optical properties upon the kind of matrix and polarization degree of modifying radiation was obtained.
The luminescent sensory systems based on manganese-doped zinc sulfide quantum dots were developed for aqueous environment monitoring. The structural, optical and sensory characteristics of quantum dots were investigated. The mechanism of ZnS:Mn 2+ interaction with methane in the aqueous media, as well as factors that have a primary influence on the formation of the sensory response in the reaction with methane, were determined.
During the period up to 2040, renewable energy sources (RES) will have the highest growth rates of all forms of energy. Based on the calculations on the world energy model incorporated in the SCANER modelling and information complex (working on the basis of optimization, econometric analysis, and balance approach), key trends in the world consumption of renewable energy sources; the share of OECD and non-OECD countries in the use of the renewable energy sources; consumption of renewable energy sources by type; end use and the impact on the electricity sector during the period up to 2040 were observed. The main finding of the paper is that RES are becoming more competitive and therefore will be used on an increasingly wide scale not only in the OECD countries, but also in the whole world. At the same time, due to the fact that RES start their take-off from a modest basis, they will only have a limited influence on the shares of hydrocarbons in the energy mix.
Silica biominerals are deposited as amorphous solid structures in plant cells and tissues, providing rigidity to different plant parts and assisting in defence. The shape and size of phytoliths are well established and serve as a useful tool in taxonomic analyses. For the first time we extracted and studied silica biominerals of five marine macroalgae, which we observed by light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). More than nine different morphotypes of phytoliths ranging from ≥ 10 to ≥ 350 μm in size were found. Some of them were phytoliths made of silica while others showed characteristics of different minerals of calcium. In our study, the “honeycomb” formations were only recorded in Laurencia tropica Yamada and pyramid tabular ones were found only in Tichocarpus crinitus (S.G. Gmelin) Ruprecht. The XRD analysis showed that they consisted of virgilite and gypsum substance, respectively. Silica phytoliths are intrinsic parts of the algae and their morphological characterization can provide the basis for palaeo-reconstruction and taxonomic investigation of brown and red algae in palaeontological studies of fossils where all organic matter has decayed.
