Three Essays in Energy and Environmental Economics Author: Mgr. Lukáš Rečka Supervisor: Mgr. Milan Ščasný, Ph.D. Academic Year: 2018/2019 Abstract This thesis consists of three articles that share the main theme - energy and environment. The dissertation aims mainly at the Czech energy system and analyses it development after the Velvet Revolution and its possible future development. The first article applies Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index decomposition to analyses the main driving forces of significant reduction in air quality pollutants during the transition of the Czech economy towards market economy in the 1990s. It continues then to investigate how the driving forces affected the emissions volumes during succeeding the post-transition period up to 2016. The second article reacts on the 2015 governmental decision to lift brown coal mining limits in the North Bohemia coal basin. The paper analyses the impacts of maintaining the ban on mining coal reserves and compares them with three alternative options that would each weaken the environmental protections of the ban. The impacts of each of these alternative governmental propostions are analysed on the Czech energy system, the fuel- and the technology-mix, the costs of generating energy, related emissions and external costs associated with the emissions....

Engineering directly impacts current and future regulatory policy decisions. The foundation of air pollution control and air pollution dispersion modeling lies in the math, chemistry, and physics of the environment. Therefore, regulatory decision making must rely upon sound science and engineering as the core of appropriate policy making (objective analysis in lieu of subjective opinion). This research evaluated particulate matter and ammonia concentration data as well as two modeling methods, a backward Lagrangian stochastic model and a Gaussian plume dispersion model. This analysis assessed the uncertainty surrounding each sampling procedure in order to gain a better understanding of the uncertainty in the final emission rate calculation (a basis for federal regulation), and it assessed the differences between emission rates generated using two different dispersion models. First, this research evaluated the uncertainty encompassing the gravimetric sampling of particulate matter and the passive ammonia sampling technique at an animal feeding operation. Future research will be to further determine the wind velocity profile as well as determining the vertical temperature gradient during the modeling time period. This information will help quantify the uncertainty of the meteorological model inputs into the dispersion model, which will aid in understanding the propagated uncertainty in the dispersion modeling outputs. Next, an evaluation of the emission rates generated by both the Industrial Source Complex (Gaussian) model and the WindTrax (backward-Lagrangian stochastic) model revealed that the calculated emission concentrations from each model using the average emission rate generated by the model are extremely close in value. However, the average emission rates calculated by the models vary by a factor of 10. This is extremely troubling. In conclusion, current and future sources are regulated based on emission rate data from previous time periods. Emission factors are published for regulation of various sources, and these emission factors are derived based upon back-calculated model emission rates and site management practices. Thus, this factor of 10 ratio in the emission rates could prove troubling in terms of regulation if the model that the emission rate is back-calculated from is not used as the model to predict a future downwind pollutant concentration.

Engineering directly impacts current and future regulatory policy decisions. The foundation of air pollution control and air pollution dispersion modeling lies in the math, chemistry, and physics of the environment. Therefore, regulatory decision making must rely upon sound science and engineering as the core of appropriate policy making (objective analysis in lieu of subjective opinion). This research evaluated particulate matter and ammonia concentration data as well as two modeling methods, a backward Lagrangian stochastic model and a Gaussian plume dispersion model. This analysis assessed the uncertainty surrounding each sampling procedure in order to gain a better understanding of the uncertainty in the final emission rate calculation (a basis for federal regulation), and it assessed the differences between emission rates generated using two different dispersion models. First, this research evaluated the uncertainty encompassing the gravimetric sampling of particulate matter and the passive ammonia sampling technique at an animal feeding operation. Future research will be to further determine the wind velocity profile as well as determining the vertical temperature gradient during the modeling time period. This information will help quantify the uncertainty of the meteorological model inputs into the dispersion model, which will aid in understanding the propagated uncertainty in the dispersion modeling outputs. Next, an evaluation of the emission rates generated by both the Industrial Source Complex (Gaussian) model and the WindTrax (backward-Lagrangian stochastic) model revealed that the calculated emission concentrations from each model using the average emission rate generated by the model are extremely close in value. However, the average emission rates calculated by the models vary by a factor of 10. This is extremely troubling. In conclusion, current and future sources are regulated based on emission rate data from previous time periods. Emission factors are published for regulation of various sources, and these emission factors are derived based upon back-calculated model emission rates and site management practices. Thus, this factor of 10 ratio in the emission rates could prove troubling in terms of regulation if the model that the emission rate is back-calculated from is not used as the model to predict a future downwind pollutant concentration.

Abstract The releases of chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs) are controlled by strict regulations setting high demands for the abatement systems. Low temperature catalytic oxidation is a viable technology to economically destroy these often refractory emissions. Catalysts applied in the oxidation of CVOCs should be highly active and selective but also maintain a high resistance towards deactivation. In this study, a total of 33 different γ-Al2O3 containing metallic monoliths were studied in dichloromethane (DCM) and 25 of them in perchloroethylene (PCE) oxidation. The active compounds used were Pt, Pd, Rh or V2O5 alone or as mixtures. The catalysts were divided into three different testing sets: industrial, CVOC and research catalysts. ICP-OES, physisorption, chemisorption, XRD, UV-vis DRS, isotopic oxygen exchange, IC, NH3-TPD, H2-TPR and FESEM-EDS were used to characterise the catalysts. Screening of the industrial catalysts revealed that the addition of V2O5 improved the performance of the catalyst. DCM abatement was easily affected by the addition of VOC or water, but the effect on the PCE oxidation was only minor. Based on these screening tests, a set of CVOC catalysts were developed and installed into an industrial incinerator. The comparison between the laboratory and industrial scale studies showed that DCM oxidation in an industrial incinerator could be predicted relatively well. Instead, PCE was always seen to be oxidised far better in an industrial unit indicating that the transient oxidation conditions are beneficial for the PCE oxidation. Before starting the experiments with research catalysts, the water feed was optimised to 1.5 wt.%. Besides enhancing the HCl yields, water improved the DCM and PCE conversions. In the absence of oxygen, i.e. during destructive adsorption, the presence of water was seen to have an even more pronounced effect on the HCl formation and on the catalysts’ stability. In the DCM oxidation, the addition of the active compound on the catalyst support improved the selectivity, while the enhancing effect on the DCM conversion was only small. The high acidity together with the increased reducibility was seen to lead to an active catalyst. Among the research catalysts Pt/Al2O3 was the most active in the DCM oxidation. With PCE the addition of the active compound proved to be very beneficial also for the PCE conversion. Now Pt and Pd supported on Al2O3-CeO2 were the most active. The enhanced reducibility was seen to be the key feature of the catalyst in PCE oxidation. / Tiivistelmä Klooratuille orgaanisille hiilivedyille (CVOC) on asetettu tiukat päästörajoitukset niiden haitallisten vaikutusten takia. Tästä johtuen myös puhdistusmenetelmien tulee olla tehokkaita. Katalyyttinen puhdistus on teknologia, jolla nämä usein vaikeasti käsiteltävät yhdisteet voidaan taloudellisesti tuhota. Käytettävien katalyyttien tulee olla aktiivisia ja selektiivisiä sekä hyvin kestäviä. Tässä työssä tutkittiin yhteensä 33 erilaista γ-Al2O3-pohjaista hapetuskatalyyttiä metyleenikloridin (DCM) käsittelyssä, niistä 25 testattiin myös perkloorietyleenin (PCE) hapetuksessa. Aktiivisina metalleina katalyyteissä käytettiin platinaa, palladiumia, rhodiumia ja vanadiinia yksin tai seoksina. Katalyytit jaettiin kolmeen ryhmään: teolliset-, CVOC- ja tutkimuskatalyytit. Aktiivisuuskokeiden lisäksi katalyyttejä karakterisoitiin ICP-OES-, fysiorptio-, kemisorptio-, XRD-, UV-vis DRS-, isotooppivaihto-, IC-, NH3-TPD-, H2-TPR- ja FESEM-EDS-pintatutkimusmenetelmillä. Koetulokset osoittivat, että vanadiini paransi teollisuuskatalyyttien aktiivisuutta ja selektiivisyyttä. VOC-yhdisteen tai veden lisäys paransi DCM:n hapettumista, mutta PCE:n hapettumiseen niillä ei ollut vaikutusta. Testien perusteella kehitettiin CVOC-katalyytit, jotka asennettiin teolliseen polttolaitokseen. Laboratoriossa ja teollisuudessa tehdyissä testeissä havaittiin, että DCM:n hapettuminen oli laboratoriokokeiden perusteella ennustettavissa. Sen sijaan PCE hapettui teollisuudessa aina paljon paremmin kuin laboratorio-olosuhteissa. Tämä osoittaa, että muuttuvat hapettumisolosuhteet vaikuttivat positiivisesti PCE:n hapettumiseen. Veden määrä syöttövirrassa optimoitiin 1,5 %:iin ennen tutkimuskatalyyttien testausta. Selektiivisyyden lisäksi vesi paransi DCM:n ja PCE:n konversiota. Hapettomissa olosuhteissa, ts. tuhoavien adsorptiokokeiden aikana, vesi paransi reaktion selektiivisyyttä HCl:ksi ja CO2:ksi vielä entisestään. Tämän lisäksi vesi lisäsi katalyytin stabiilisuutta. DCM:n hapetuksessa aktiivisen metallin lisäys paransi selektiivisyyttä, mutta sen sijaan vaikutus DCM:n konversioon oli hyvin pieni. Tulokset osoittivat, että aktiivisella DCM:n hapetuskatalyytillä tulee olla korkea happamuus ja hyvä pelkistyvyys. Pt/Al2O3 oli testatuista tutkimuskatalyyteistä aktiivisin. PCE:n hapetuksessa aktiivisen metallin lisäys paransi selektiivisyyden lisäksi huomattavasti myös konversiota. Katalyytin lisääntyneen pelkistymiskyvyn todettiin olevan keskeisin ominaisuus PCE:n hapettumisessa. Pt/Al2O3-CeO2 ja Pd/Al2O3-CeO2 olivat tutkimuskatalyyteistä aktiivisimpia.