Kraft pulp mills are increasingly viewed as strategic platforms for decarbonization because they combine biogenic carbon flows, chemical recovery infrastructure, and opportunities for heat and material integration within a circular bioeconomy. However, prior reviews have focused mainly on gasification and have given less attention to integrated carbon capture, high value product routes, commercial failure lessons, and pathway specific economic thresholds. We critically reviewed sources published from 2018 to 2025 using the ROSES framework and a standardized reference case of a 1000 ADt/day bleached kraft mill. The synthesis compared black liquor gasification, lignin and hemicellulose valorization, heat integration, and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage using exergy, greenhouse gas, techno economic, and technology readiness evidence. Results show that black liquor gasification-based systems can increase exergy efficiency from about 40% for conventional recovery boilers to about 44% in integrated configurations, while system expansion studies report net greenhouse gas intensities of about 0.3 to 0.6 t CO2 below zero per tonne pulp for selected fuel and chemical pathways. Carbon capture can deepen decarbonization, but the outcome is route specific: post combustion MEA systems typically achieve about 0.3 to 0.9 t CO2 below zero per tonne pulp, whereas pre combustion capture integrated with black liquor gasification and water gas shift can reach about 0.8 to 1.5 t CO2 below zero per tonne pulp where transport and storage infrastructure exist. Economic performance remains highly sensitive to product price, capital cost, utilization rate, and carbon price.
Green diesel, a renewable fuel from organic waste and plant materials, offers an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional fossil fuels by significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting sustainability. Consequently, the current investigation emphasizes the new studies on production of green diesel from fat, oil, and grease (FOG), colloquially known as sewer grease, through the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) reaction utilizing a bimetallic modified iron foam catalyst identified as NixCey/Fe-Foam. This catalyst was synthesized using a series of cerium loadings with a fixed amount of nickel (Ni0.34Ce0.30/Fe-Foam, Ni0.34Ce0.36/ Fe-Foam, Ni0.34Ce0.42/Fe-Foam) via an electrodeposition method followed by H2 annealing. Comprehensive characterization of the catalysts was conducted, revealing that most exhibited a surface area ranging from 0.35 to 45.13 m2/g, with an acid site density of 12 to 246 & micro;mol/g. Notably, the presence of cerium species enhances the number of acid sites, facilitating the elimination of oxygen functionalities. Furthermore, the catalyst exhibited a distinct rosette-like morphology. In the context of the catalytic HDO screening conducted at 400 degrees C for 6 h, the Ni0.34Ce0.42/Fe-Foam (H2) catalyst, enriched with cerium vacancy species, outperformed the other catalysts, achieving a HDO-derived liquid products yield of 87% and selectivity of 74% towards C15 + C17 and C16 + C18. This superior performance can be attributed to weak to medium acidity sites within the catalyst, which enhance its catalytic efficacy in the HDO process rather than being related to surface area characteristics.
Climate change adaptation's place in the contemporary climate change discourse continues to evolve, as does its identity as a form of inquiry, mode of critique, form of policy and type of practice. In this article we argue that there is an evolution in scholarship occurring in terms of a transition from a scientific/technical mode of inquiry to one more engaged with the social sciences. We argue that politics determine society's adaptation responses and that politics constitute an adaptive response in its own right. With support of the reviewed literature, we conclude that it is fruitful, and even necessary, to understand climate change adaptation as politics in order to facilitate stronger scholarship but also to foster more inclusive practices. We argue that politics is, in itself, climate change adaptation and that this understanding of climate change adaptation has implications for both scholarship and practice.
This article reviews empirical research on the impact of verbal rewards on workplace performance and proposes a research agenda for future studies. A theoretical model is developed and examined through a systematic literature review encompassing 22 empirical studies on the relationships between verbal rewards, motivation, direction, and performance in organizational settings. The findings from the review are consistent with the theoretical model in several respects: verbal rewards have a positive effect on performance in most of the studies; the attributes of verbal rewards influence their associations with performance; direction mediates the relationship between verbal rewards and performance; and work complexity moderates the relationship between controlling verbal rewards and autonomous motivation. However, the findings are inconsistent with the model’s assumption that the relationship between verbal rewards and controlled motivation weakens in high-complexity work contexts, and overall, the theoretical model requires further testing in additional empirical studies. The article concludes with theoretical implications, implications for management control systems, practical implications, and a research agenda for future studies.
This study investigates the impact of multilayer structures and drying strategies on the barrier properties of high-speed starch/bentonite-coated paperboard. The study examines the impact of drying at a high machine speed of 400 m min-1, addressing a key knowledge gap. The hypotheses were that thin multilayer coatings reduce oxygen permeability more effectively than thick single or double coatings and that gentle infrared (IR) drying would be required to achieve this effect. The experiments comprised up to six consecutive coating applications, each providing a dry coat weight between 0.5 and 1.5 g m-2. The IR dryer power ranged from 207 kW to 829 kW, and different IR frame positions were tested. The results indicated that thin multilayer coatings resulted in fewer pinholes, lower oxygen transmission rates, and improved grease resistance compared with one or two thick layers. However, the effectiveness of the multilayer-coated paperboard was influenced by the employed drying strategy. Specifically, gentle IR drying reduced pinholes, lowered oxygen transmission rates and enhanced grease resistance.
