Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
-
Durbuy Anticline, Belgium
-
Human response to the YoungerDryas along the southern NorthSea basin, Northwest Europe
-
Les géosites karstiques, fondements du Geopark Famenne-Ardenne
-
A new insight of the MIS 3 Dansgaard-Oeschger climate oscillations in western Europe from the study of a Belgium isotopically equilibrated speleothem.
-
Metallic Resources 1 : Geodynamic Framework and Remarkable Examples in Europe
-
Metallic Resources 2 : Geodynamic Framework and Remarkable Examples in the World
-
The Critical Raw Materials Atlas of Belgium
-
Multi-stage evolution of the monzonitic Larvik Plutonic Complex (Oslo Rift, Norway) and its implications for the formation of the Kodal Fe-Ti-P (− REE) deposit
-
Investigating critical metals Ge and Ga in complex sulphide mineral assemblages using LIBS mapping.
-
Processes controlling rare earth element distribution in sedimentary apatite: Insights from spectroscopy, in situ geochemistry and O and Sr isotope composition
-
The Case of an Oriented Specimen from the Belgian Antarctic Meteorite Collection
-
Tintigny: A Polymict Eucrite from Belgium
-
The dilemma of valuing geodiversity: geoconservation versus geotourism
-
The environmental impacts of the lignin-first biorefineries: A consequential life cycle assessment approach
- The emerging reductive catalytic fractionation biorefinery which is currently under development aims to convert woody biomass efficiently into high-value products. Despite its potential, the environmental consequences of its implementation are not well known. Therefore, a forward-looking consequential life cycle assessment examines greenhouse gas emissions associated with its products (pulp, phenolic monomers, and oligomers) compared to alternative market options. Findings indicate that current greenhouse gas emissions exceed those of the existing alternatives, with by-products and the gaseous waste stream as major contributors. Process adaption to (i) produce higher-valued products (bleached pulps, phenols, and propylene) and (ii) incinerate gaseous waste stream for energy are proposed, potentially reducing emissions by up to 50 %, outperforming alternative options. Compared to land-based transportation, waterways can increase feedstock availability by up to 1000 km without an increase in emissions. In conclusion, the consequential approach provides valuable insights for enhancing and optimizing the environmental performance of the process.
-
Spatio-temporal feedstock availability and techno-economic constraints in the design and optimization of supply chains: The case of domestic woody biomass for biorefining
- A future bio-based economy envisions the transformation of the petrochemical industry into using biomass such as wood (waste) as a major resource. The early-stage evaluation of a biorefinery project requires the optimization of the lay-out of the supply chain considering the spatio-temporal variability of the availability of feedstock and the techno-economical characteristics of the biorefinery process. Therefore, the presented methodology was developed combining three models: (1) a forest management and planning tool providing a detailed prediction on the wood resource availability as well as the harvested feedstock quantity and cost with respect to location and time, (2) a techno-economic assessment model of the biorefinery process (e.g., species-specific conditions, capacity, CAPEX, OPEX), and (3) a strategic supply chain optimization model combining the insights of (1) and (2) into a spatio-temporal explicit supply chain analysis. The developed methodology has been evaluated through a case-study on the emerging reductive catalytic fractionation (RCF) biorefining in the Flanders region (EU) and shows that the most economically interesting configuration is one large biorefinery with a yearly wood chip intake of 150 kton. The biorefinery location reflects the available feedstock distribution in Flanders and is suggested to be situated best in the most forested region. The proposed methodology proved to be dynamic and robust: (1) input data and technical calculations can easily be adapted or updated; (2) the methodology can be applied to a broad range of applications beyond the scope of the biorefinery, to different feedstock choices; (3) the impact of the biorefinery location on e.g. energy balance, CO2 emissions, and financial balance can be assessed.
-
Integrated assessment of deep geothermal heating investments in Northern Belgium through techno-economic, life cycle, global sensitivity and real options analysis
- The decarbonization of the heating sector is crucial for the green transition of the energy mix. This study investigates threefold the economic and environmental performance of deep geothermal heating investments in Northern Belgium First, techno-economic and life cycle assessment (LCA) are performed, followed by a global sensitivity analysis focusing on the geological uncertainty. Lastly, real options analysis (ROA) is employed to investigate the economic and environmental value of the investors’ flexibility. A novel ROA method is proposed that considers the LCA results to calculate development decisions that minimize the expected environmental impact of the investment. The results show that the economic and environmental performance of the investment vary with the energy prices and the electricity mix. The performance of the investment is driven by the plant’s pumping requirements, which are induced by the relatively low rock permeability at the targeted location. Also, the results’ variability mainly originates by uncertainty regarding the permeability value. Nevertheless, the investors’ flexibility adds large economic and environmental value to the investment. However, the development strategies that optimize the economic or the environmental performance of the plant present some trade-offs. This study demonstrates that the economic and environmental performance of deep geothermal heating investments in Northern Belgium can be improved by focusing on the factors that simultaneously drive the costs, environmental impacts, and their variability. It also shows that utilizing the investors’ flexibility to optimize the investment’s economic and environmental performance can add significant value to the investment.
-
The Urban Geo-climate Footprint approach: Enhancing urban resilience through improved geological conceptualisation
- Urban resilience is critical to allow cities to withstand the challenges of the 21st Century. One factor that is often overlooked in such assessments is the role of the subsurface. A novel methodology called the Urban Geo-climate Footprint (UGF) has been developed to classify cities quickly and comprehensively from geological and climatic perspectives. The method operates on the fundamental assumption that cities with similar geologicalgeographical settings will face similar challenges, due to both common geological issues and associated climate impacts. The UGF approach has been applied to 41 European cities in collaboration with 17 Geological Surveys of Europe, the results of the UGF analysis are presented along with a regional classification of the geological resilience indicators. The UGF tool provides a semi-quantitative representation of the pressures driven by geological and climatic complexity for the cities presented, providing for a first time such classification of the urban environment. The advantage of this methodology lies in increasing awareness among non-experts and decision-makers of the interplay between geological settings, climate change pressures, and anthropogenic activities. Furthermore, it facilitates the exchange best practices among city planners to increase resilience, supporting knowledge based decision making to promote actions and policies, that enhance geoscience-informed climate justice.
-
Palaeogenomics of Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic European hunter-gatherers
- Modern humans have populated Europe for more than 45,000 years1,2. Our knowledge of the genetic relatedness and structure of ancient hunter-gatherers is however limited, owing to the scarceness and poor molecular preservation of human remains from that period3. Here we analyse 356 ancient hunter-gatherer genomes, including new genomic data for 116 individuals from 14 countries in western and central Eurasia, spanning between 35,000 and 5,000 years ago. We identify a genetic ancestry profile in individuals associated with Upper Palaeolithic Gravettian assemblages from western Europe that is distinct from contemporaneous groups related to this archaeological culture in central and southern Europe4, but resembles that of preceding individuals associated with the Aurignacian culture. This ancestry profile survived during the Last Glacial Maximum (25,000 to 19,000 years ago) in human populations from southwestern Europe associated with the Solutrean culture, and with the following Magdalenian culture that re-expanded northeastward after the Last Glacial Maximum. Conversely, we reveal a genetic turnover in southern Europe suggesting a local replacement of human groups around the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, accompanied by a north-to-south dispersal of populations associated with the Epigravettian culture. From at least 14,000 years ago, an ancestry related to this culture spread from the south across the rest of Europe, largely replacing the Magdalenian-associated gene pool. After a period of limited admixture that spanned the beginning of the Mesolithic, we find genetic interactions between western and eastern European hunter-gatherers, who were also characterized by marked differences in phenotypically relevant variants.
-
RESPONSE project: Reactive transport of point source contamination in soils and groundwater
- The RESPONSE project aims at improving the use of coupled reactive transport models to simulate the fate of inorganic and organic contaminants within environments, characterised by a fluctuating shallow groundwater table – inducing strong hydraulic, physico-chemical and redox gradients. Three case studies were selected based on the presence of inorganic and/or organic contamination. Two sites are cemeteries where groundwater pollution by herbicides (2,6-dichlorobenzamide (BAM) – a persistent metabolite of herbicide dichlobenil) was detected. Top soil and groundwater samples were collected and the BAM degradation and mineralization potential of soil microbiota is tested in the laboratory. It is hypothesized that BAM degradation is strongly affected by DOC quality (measured through specific UV absorbance) and quantity. RESPONSE will investigate whether predictions of dichlobenil and BAM migration in soils and groundwater can be improved by taking into account DOC quality/quantity.The third site is a former municipal landfill, where redox zonation and contamination by As is observed. This site is primarily used to study the level of hydrogeological and geochemical detail needed to predict the migration of pollutants in a satisfactory way. This hypothesis is tested by comparing predictions using site specific measured parameters (soil and subsoil hydraulic parameters, in-situ groundwater flow characterization, etc.) with predictions using parameters inferred from existing hydrological/ geochemical data available in data bases. Moreover, an integrated tool is developed to simulate water flow and reactive solute transport in the subsurface focusing on the water table interface. This is achieved by loosely coupling the existing HYDRUS, MODFLOW, MT3D-USGS and PHREEQC codes at the lowest level and adding functionalities for the transfer of solute concentrations. The HYDRUS package for MODFLOW (Seo et al., 2007) has been updated and PHREEQC functionalities are coupled to both the unsaturated zone (based on HPx software; Jacques et al., 2018) and the saturated zone.
-
A new odontocete (toothed cetacean) from the Early Miocene of Peru expands the morphological disparity of extinct heterodont dolphins
