Modern food production depends on limited natural resources for providing energy and fertilisers. We assess the fossil fuel dependency for the Danish food production system by means of Food Energy Returned on fossil Energy Invested (Food-EROI) and by the use of energy intensive nutrients from imported livestock feed and commercial fertilisers. The analysis shows that the system requires 221 PJ ...

We characterize the dynamics of energy markets in which energy is derived from polluting (fossil) and clean (solar) resources. The analysis is based on geometric optimal control considerations. An important feature of solar energy technologies is that their cost of supply is predominantly due to upfront investment in capital infrastructure (rather than to actual supply rate) and this feature ha...

Plant biomass is known to increase in response to elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration (pCO2); however, no experiments have quantified the trajectory of crop fertilization across the full range of pCO2 levels estimated for the next 300 years. Here we quantify the aboveand below-ground biomass response of Raphanus sativus (common radish) across eight pCO2 levels ranging from 348 to 1791 ppmv. ...

In the recent years, bio-based and biodegradable products have raised great interest since sustainable development policies tend to expand with the decreasing reserve of fossil fuel and the growing concern for the environment. These polymers bring a significant contribution to the sustainable development in view of the wider range of disposal options with minor environmental impact. As a result...

Climate is changing and available evidence indicates that human activities are playing a significant role in bringing about this change. Recent increases in global averaged temperature over the last decade already appear to be outside the normal variability of temperature changes for at least the last thousand years. A number of different analyses strongly suggest that this temperature increase...

Since 1990 extensive funds have been spent on research in climate change. Although Earth Sciences, including climatology and hydrology, have benefited significantly, progress has proved incommensurate with the effort and funds, perhaps because these disciplines were perceived as “tools” subservient to the needs of the cli5 mate change enterprise rather than autonomous sciences. At the same time...

Biomass is a possible renewable alternative to fossil carbon sources. Today, many bio-resources can be converted to direct substitutes or suitable alternatives to fossil-based fuels and chemicals. However, catalyst deactivation under the harsh, often liquid-phase reaction conditions required for biomass treatment is a major obstacle to developing processes that can compete with the petrochemica...

Conventional disposable cups, made of fossil-based plastic or paper with inner lining of fossil-based plastic, are typically associated with an unnecessary use of scarce resources and a superfluous production of waste. An alternative has become available in disposable cups from bio-based and biodegradable materials, so-called biocups, made from bioplastic or paper with inner lining of bioplasti...