M. Hiete

A composite indicator model to assess natural disaster risks in industry on a spatial level

In the event of natural disasters, industrial production sites can be affected by both direct physical damage and indirect damage. The indirect damage, which often exceeds the direct ones in value, mainly arises from business interruptions resulting from the impairment of information and material flows as well as from domino effects in interlaced supply chains. The importance of industry for society and the domino effects often result in severe economic, social, and environmental consequences of industrial disasters making industrial risk management an important task for risk managers at the administrative level (e.g. civil protection authorities). Since the possible industrial disaster damage depends not only on hazard and exposure but also on the vulnerability of a system, an effective and efficient industrial risk management requires information about the system’s regionalized vulnerability. This paper presents a new methodology for structural industrial vulnerability assessment based on production factors that enables to assess the regional industrial disaster vulnerability. In order to capture industry-specific vulnerability factors and to account for the processes underlying regional industrial vulnerability, a two-stage approach is developed. This approach combines a composite indicator model to assess sector-specific vulnerability indices (Vs) with a new regionalization method. The composite indicator model is based on methodologies from the field of multicriteria decision analysis (MultiAttribute Value Theory) and the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory Method is applied to correct the (Vs) for interdependencies among the indicators. Finally, the developed approach is applied to an exemplar case study and the industrial vulnerability of 44 administrative districts in the German federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg is assessed.

Calculation of global carbon dioxide emissions: Review of emission factors and a new approach taking fuel quality into consideration

Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions resulting from fossil fuel consumption play a major role in the current debate on climate change. Carbon dioxide emissions are calculated on the basis of a carbon dioxide emission factor (CEF) for each type of fuel. Published CEFs are reviewed in this paper. It was found that for nearly all CEFs, fuel quality is not adequately taken into account. This is especially true in the case of the CEFs for coal. Published CEFs are often based on generalized assumptions and inexact conversions. In particular, conversions from gross calorific value to net calorific value were examined. A new method for determining CEFs as a function of calorific value (for coal, peat, and natural gas) and specific gravity (for crude oil) is presented that permits CEFs to be calculated for specific fuel qualities. A review of proportions of fossil fuels that remain unoxidized owing to incomplete combustion or inclusion in petrochemical products, etc., (stored carbon) shows that these figures need to be updated and checked for their applicability on a global scale, since they are mostly based on U.S. data.

Waste management plants and technology for recycling construction and demolition (C&D) waste: state-of-the-art and future challenges

Waste arising from construction and demolition activities in civil and structural engineering, so-called C&D waste, represents a major share of total waste generation, showing its high importance from both a waste management and a resource efficiency perspective. Whereas re-use of construction products or elements is rarely practiced, there is an increasing effort to foster C&D waste management plants. The current and future framework for waste management plants is analysed with a focus on techno-economic and environmental life cycle, as well as resource policy aspects. Remaining and upcoming challenges with some C&D waste fractions, as well as future changes in quantity and quality of C&D waste supply and recycled aggregate materials demand, are discussed.

Facies and climate changes across the Permian–Triassic boundary in the North German Basin: insights from a high-resolution organic carbon isotope record

Abstract The transition from the uppermost Permian Zechstein Group to the lowermost Triassic Lower Buntsandstein Subgroup in the North German Basin is characterized by a shift from sabkha to playa and to fluviatile facies indicative of a shift to a more humid climate and associated with a major reorganization of the sedimentary system. These changes are recorded in a high-resolution carbon isotope profile of bulk organic matter spanning from the upper Zechstein Group of Changhsingian age to the Calvörde Formation of the Lower Buntsandstein Subgroup of Changhsingian–Indusian age. The organic carbon isotopes reflect a varying composition of the organic matter. Dependent on the facies type, which is mainly controlled by humidity, the proportions of cyanobacterial, phytoplankton and land-plant-derived organic matter with differing organic carbon isotope values change in the samples. A negative organic carbon isotope excursion shortly below the supposed Permian–Triassic Boundary (PTB) is interpreted as a horizon rich in isotopically light phytoplankton, representing a perennial playa lake stage. Although certain effects of global carbon cycle perturbations around the PTB on the analysed organic carbon isotope profile cannot be excluded, the facies and climatic changes associated with the PTB events are thought to be more important.

Continental Upper Carboniferous red beds in the Variscan intermontane Saale Basin, central Germany: orbital forcing detected by wavelet analysis

Abstract Stratigraphical correlation within continental red beds is hampered by uniformity of sediments and the lack of fossils, such that classical lithostratigraphical and biostratigraphical methods often fail. For a drilled section of Upper Carboniferous non-marine sediments of the Variscan intermontane Saale Basin, almost 800 m in thickness, an alternative approach is proposed. Wavelet-based time-series analysis is used to identify the internal organization of the cyclicity, and to distinguish cycles of different magnitude and origin as being autocyclically, tectonically or climatically controlled. Based on this distinction, basin-wide correlations of fluvial red beds are possible using a combination of high-resolution stratigraphy, biostratigraphy and classical lithostratigraphy. The analyses of well Querfurt 1/64 suggest the presence of short and long eccentricity cycles, and a duration of 5–7 Ma if the grey facies at the base of the section is to be correlated with the Grillenberg Subformation sediments. This subformation is of Stephanian A or Barruelian age, respectively, such that the well Querfurt 1/64 exposes a nearly complete section of the Mansfeld Subgroup (complete Stephanian stage).

Potential supply chain cost savings from innovative cold bitumen handling

To compensate for seasonal price variations of bitumen for road asphalt, in addition to the usual approaches of forward-contracts and hot bitumen storage, innovative techniques for cold bitumen storage have emerged. As a case study, hot bitumen storage and additional integration of cold bitumen storage in the bitumen supply chain of the second largest asphalt producer in Germany are economically assessed. Hot and cold bitumen storage combined allows overall costs to be reduced by almost 5%. Therefore, storage capacities should be increased. Cold bitumen handling may complement hot storage as it is to some extent already economically attractive, with further cost reductions expected in the future.