Photo voltaic solar energy is a clean source of energy with much lower carbon footprint than other sources. However, the vast land requirements of solar energy arrays may make installation impractical when available land is better suited for other purposes. The goal of this research was to investigate changes to...
Rapid hydropower development is occurring in China's Yunnan province in response to increasing clean energy demands, exposing potential vulnerabilities of the area's ecosystems, communities, and geopolitical systems. Here, we present original data on the cultures, economics, hydro-politics, and environments of the Nu River basin, based on household surveys, analysis of...
Accurate estimates of water losses by evaporation from shallow water tables are important for hydrological, agricultural, and climatic purposes. An experiment was conducted in a weighing lysimeter to characterize the diurnal dynamics of evaporation under natural conditions. Sampling revealed a completely dry surface sand layer after 5 days of evaporation....
Support for low-carbon energy and opposition to new large dams encourages global development of small hydropower facilities. This support is manifested in national and international energy and development policies designed to incentivize growth in the small hydropower sector while curtailing large dam construction. However, the preference of small to large...
Simulation of local atmospheric flows around complex topography is important for several applications in wind energy (short term wind forecasting and turbine siting and control), local weather predictions in mountainous regions and avalanche risk assessment. However atmospheric simulation around steep mountain topography remains challenging and there exist several way to...
A field campaign, the Slope Experiment near La Fouly (SELF-2010), was conducted to monitor the evening transition of slope flows on clear-sky days from July to September 2010 in a narrow valley of the Swiss Alps. A steep west-facing slope with inclinations ranging from 25° to 45° was instrumented from...
A new multi-telescope scanning Raman lidar designed to measure the water vapor mixing ratio for a complete diurnal cycle with high raw spatial (1.25 m) and temporal (1 s) resolutions is presented. The high resolution allows detailed measurements of the lower atmosphere and offers new opportunities for boundary layer research,...
Thermal diffusivity of snow is an important thermodynamic property associated with key hydrological phenomena such as snow melt and heat and water vapor exchange with the atmosphere. Direct determination of snow thermal diffusivity requires coupled point measurements of thermal conductivity and density, which are nonstationary due to snow metamorphism. Traditional...
Background: During cellulosic ethanol production, cellulose hydrolysis is achieved by synergistic action of cellulase
enzyme complex consisting of multiple enzymes with different mode of actions. Enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose is
one of the bottlenecks in the commercialization of the process due to low hydrolysis rates and high cost of
enzymes....
Bioethanol produced from the lignocellulosic feedstock is a potential alternative to fossil fuels in transportation sector and can help in reducing environmental burdens. Straw produced from perennial ryegrass (PR) and wheat is a non-food, cellulosic biomass resource available in abundance in the Pacific Northwest U.S. The aim of this study...