This thesis considers perspectives on municipal greenhouse gas emission reductions. It is timely study as it is one point of entry to analyzing emissions and contemplates the degree of local responsibility, as well as the barriers and possible solutions to creating action. By using a case study approach, Strathcona County was examined in its real-life context to determine the outlook at the local scale. Attention to varying government action plans, as well as scientific research was examined to verify relevance of municipal action. Using survey and interview methods, perspectives from key decision makers were compared and contrasted. The results indicated that there is a concentration at the municipal level on actions that will directly or indirectly benefit climate change. A multi-governance angle, as well as institutionalizing the concept into the organization and community will create progress. Solutions focusing on land use planning, transportation and community energy are emerging. This study demonstrates the value of municipal action as an essential element to achieving long term, cost effective and successful reductions, and recognizes that it is a supplement rather than an alternative to provincial and national plans.

Nova Scotia has over 100 commercial greenhouses covering an area of 186,245 square meters. Heating costs have become the largest energy expenditure in greenhouses mainly due to increasing fuel prices and the use of imported fuel oils. Increasing fuel prices combined with a growing desire to stabilize energy supply has led to a renewed interest in alternative fuel options for greenhouse heating. Agricultural or herbaceous biomass has the potential to become a sustainable and cost effective heating option for the greenhouse industry. Although high inorganic content create challenges during the combustion of herbaceous biomass, these crops create an opportunity if sufficient land mass is available for greenhouse growers to meet their own fuel needs. This research will review energy use and operational practices in the greenhouse industry to identify energy saving opportunities. This study will further investigate biomass feedstocks, processing and combustion technologies suitable for heating greenhouse industry in Nova Scotia.

Enhanced interest in biofuel production has renewed interest in bioenergy crop production within the United States. Agriculture’s role in biofuel production is critical because it has the potential to supply renewable energy while minimizing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, agronomic management practices influence direct and indirect GHG emissions, and both can have a significant impact on biofuel production efficiency. Our overall objective was to determine the carbon (C) footprint of bioenergy sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) production in central Texas. Specifically, we determined the impacts of crop rotation, nitrogen (N) fertilization, and residue return on direct and indirect GHG emissions, theoretical biofuel yield, C pools, and life cycle GHG emissions from bioenergy sorghum production in 2010 and 2011. An experiment established in 2008 near College Station, TX to quantify the impacts of crop management practices on bioenergy sorghum yield and soil properties was utilized, and included two crop rotations (sorghum-sorghum or corn-sorghum), two fertilization levels (0 or 280 kg N ha^(-1) annually), and two residue return rates (0 or 50% biomass residue returned) to assess management impacts on sorghum production, C cycling, and life cycle GHGs. Corn production was poor under moderate drought conditions, while bioenergy sorghum produced relatively large yields under both moderate and severe drought conditions. Nitrogen addition increased crop yields, and rotated sorghum had higher yield than monoculture sorghum. Fluxes of CO_(2) and N_(2)O were higher than those reported in literature and highest soil fluxes were frequently observed following precipitation events during the growing season. Residue return increased cumulative CO_(2) emissions and N fertilization increased N_(2)O emissions. Residue return also increased soil microbial biomass-C, an important indicator of soil quality. Continuous sorghum significantly increased soil organic C (SOC) concentrations near the soil surface and at two depths below 30 cm. Analysis of change in SOC across time to estimate net CO_(2) emissions to the atmosphere revealed bioenergy sorghum production accrued high amounts of SOC annually. Most treatments accrued more than 4 Mg C ha^(-1) yr^(-1) from 2008 to 2012, which indicated great potential for C sequestration and offsetting GHG emissions. Life cycle GHG emissions (as g CO_(2)-eq MJ^(-1)) were all negative due to high SOC increases each year and indicated all bioenergy sorghum production treatments sequestered atmospheric CO_(2) per unit of theoretical energy provided. Despite its relatively low production efficiency, rotated sorghum with N addition and residue return was selected as the ideal bioenergy sorghum production scenario due to a number of sustainability factors. Bioenergy sorghum may offer great benefit as a high-yielding biofuel feedstock with minimal impacts to net GHG emissions.

In response to growing environmental concerns, policy makers in Canada have been developing climate change mitigation strategies that will enable Canada to meet medium and long-term greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets. The water industry is energy- and carbon-intensive, thus the magnitude and long-term uncertainty of proposed carbon mitigation policies could have implications for water distribution system capital planning decisions that are made today. The intent of this thesis was to examine the implications of discount rate and carbon price uncertainty on cost, energy use and GHG emissions in the design/optimization of the Amherstview water distribution system in Loyalist Township, Ontario, Canada. A non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm is coupled with the hydraulic solver EPANET2 in a single-objective optimization approach to identify network expansion designs that minimize total cost as the sum of: i) capital cost of installing new and parallel pipes and of cleaning and lining existing pipes; ii) operation cost of electricity for pumping water; and iii) carbon cost levied on electricity used for pumping water. The Amherstview system was optimized for a range of discount rates and carbon prices reflective of possible climate change mitigation strategies in Canada over the next 50 years. The problem formulation framework was developed according to a “real-world” municipal approach to water distribution system design and expansion. Decision variables such as pipe sizes are restricted to “real-world” commercially-available pipe diameters and parameter values are chosen according to engineering judgment and best-estimates. Parameter uncertainty is characterized by sensitivity analysis rather than the more computationally-demanding and data-intensive Monte Carlo simulation method. The impact of pipe material selection on energy use and GHG emissions was investigated for polyvinyl chloride and cement-mortar lined ductile iron pipes. Results from this first-ever study indicate that the discount rate and carbon prices investigated had no significant influence on energy use and GHG emissions in the Amherstview system. Pipe material selection was also found to minimally affect the amount of GHG emitted in the Amherstview system. / Thesis (Master, Civil Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2010-08-26 15:01:27.174

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No description available.

This study uses life cycle analysis to examine the net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the activities of the peat industry in Canada for the period 1990 to 2000. GHG accounting is undertaken for (1) land use change, (2) peat extraction and processing, (3) the transport of peat to market by truck, train and ship, and (4) the in situ decomposition of extracted peat. The emission estimates were based on results from GHG accounting models using data derived from scientific literature, government and industry statistics, and the responses to a questionnaire sent to Canada's peat establishments. The questionnaire, designed to obtain information on peat extraction methods, land and fuel use, as well as the transportation of peat, had a response rate representing 69% of Canada's total peat production in the year 2000. Results indicate that 540 600 tonnes of greenhouse gases were emitted in 1990 and 893 300 tonnes were emitted in the year 2000 (emission figures are measured in CO2 equivalents using a 100-year time horizon). Peat decomposition was by far the largest source of GHG emissions, averaging 70.6% of total emissions during the eleven-year period from 1990 to 2000. Greenhouse gases from land use change averaged 14.7%. An average of 10.4% of total emissions resulted from the transport of peat to market, while GHGs from extraction and processing averaged 4.3%. Predictions of the annual GHG emissions from the peat industry, assuming a "business as usual" context, were produced for the years 2001 to 2012. These figures were compared with those resulting from various greenhouse gas reduction scenarios.

Global warming, associated with elevated levels of greenhouse gases is expected to alter hydrologic regimes, permafrost extent and vegetation composition in the Hudson Bay Lowlands (HBL). Greenhouse gas (respiration, CH4 and N2O; GHG) emissions and soil gas concentrations were determined over the growing seasons of 2005 and 2006 from numerous habitats within three dominate ecosystems within the HBL, a polygonized-peat plateau, northern fringe boreal forest and palsa fen, near Churchill, Manitoba. Nitrous oxide emissions and soil concentrations were near zero however, a trend for very slight production of N2O was observed at dry aerobic sample positions while very slight consumption occurred at very wet sample locations. “Hot-spots” of intense CH4 emissions and soil concentrations occurred in the sedge-dominated areas of high moisture and plant productivity, whereas areas of low moisture and plant productivity resulted in slight CH4 consumption. Of all the ecosystems studied, the palsa fen had the greatest CH4 production, with carbon losses from CH4 occurring at rates of approximately 50 g C m-2 during the growing season. A peat plateau ecosystem site was also used to compare GHG emissions using a similar vegetation type (Cladina stellaris) and under differing soil conditions. Based on the results, slight gradients in soil conditions such as moisture content, peat accumulation and active layer depths altered respiration emissions but did not significantly affect CH4 and N2O fluxes. The differences in GHG emissions were not as great as those between different plant community types, which suggest plant community types could be used to predict GHG emissions in similar environments.

Rainforests are of great importance to global carbon cycling, but the importance of deforestation and change in land use is poorly understood due to a lack of studies quantifying the difference in carbon fluxes between original rainforest and agricultural land. Furthermore, the aquatic outgassing of neotropical systems have been proven to have greater impact on global carbon cycling than previously anticipated (Richey et al 2002).In this study we investigated the aquatic concentration and daily diffusive gas flux of CO2 and CH4 from 4 pristine sites and 4 impacted sites, respectively, in 4 streams running along a gradient of anthropological impaction in the Atlantic Rainforest, Brazil. Statistically significant differences between pristine and impacted sites were found in all streams for both CO2 and CH4. On average, the impacted sites were found to be emitting almost three times as much C into the atmosphere as the pristine sites, mainly owing to CO2 emissions (14172±5226 mg C m-2 d-1). Exploring an area of the neotropical carbon cycle that is not yet fully understood, the study draws attention to the significant difference in aquatic outgassing from rivers observed at different impaction levels and highlights the need for further field studies.

Animal agriculture plays a vital role in the provision of food for the world population; however, in the wake of global warming and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the industry has been under scrutiny as one of the net emitters causing global warming. The same scrutiny applies to beef production in western Canada. The objective of this study is to evaluate the economic impact of GHG mitigation practices (GHGMP) for beef operations, and in the process identify economic and environmental sustainable scenarios. This study was an extension to a study by Beauchemin et al (2011) who studied the mitigation of GHG emissions from beef production in western Canada A beef simulation model was developed to measure the impacts of adopting GHGMPs on the profitability of a mixed farm in Vulcan County, Southern Alberta. Feed for the herd was produced on the farm, and calves were born and finished on the farm. Whole farm gross margin was used as a profitability measure of the farm over a period of 9 years, which is a full beef production cycle. Eleven GHGMPs were examined and compared to the baseline scenario. These scenarios were adopted from Beauchemin et al (2011), and included dietary modifications (change in use of forages, use of canola seed, and corn distillers grains, and improvement in quality of forage), and improvement in animal husbandry (increased weaning rates, and increased longevity of breeding stock). Simulation results showed a discounted whole farm gross margin of $11.38 per acre for the baseline scenario. Feed costs accounted for 47.1 percent of total costs of beef production. The change in whole farm gross margin per acre from implementation of different GHGMPs ranged from an increase of 4 percent to a decrease of 5 percent. Six scenarios were identified as ‘win-win’ scenarios as they improved both environment and economics of the farm. The profit of these scenarios ranged from $238.11 to $30.31 per tonne of GHG reductions expressed in carbon dioxide equivalent). The loss from the other scenarios capable of reducing GHG emissions range from $92.06 to $582.46 per tonne GHG reduced. Based on these results, it was concluded that western Canadian beef producers can adopt sustainable GHGMPs without substantial changing the structure of their operations. Scenarios that improved both the environment and the economics of the farm were: Scenario 7: use of corn distillers dried grain (CDDG) in finishing ration; Scenario 4: use of canola seed in finishing ration; Scenario 8: use of CDDG in breeding stock ration; Scenario 10: increased calve weaning rate (85% to 90%); Scenario 5: use of canola seed in breeding stock ration; and Scenario 9 : improved hay for breeding stock.