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In this research, we applied the DEA method (data envelopment analysis) for a cross-country analysis of the comparative efficiency of government support for coal production in eight countries: the leading producers of coal and lignite, three OECD countries with developed economies (the USA, Germany, and Australia), four BRICS countries with developing economies and emerging markets (China, India, Russia, and South Africa), and Indonesia – the largest producer of coal and lignite in Southeast Asia from 2013 to 2018. An extended version of the DEA method allowed us to evaluate not only technicalities, but also price efficiency of budget support for natural gas production in the considered countries. The data for the empirical model characterizing the volume of financial support to oil producers through budgetary transfers and tax expenditures was taken from the OECD statistical base. The obtained results indicate low efficiency of state support for coal and lignite production in Russia, the industry that is responsible for the largest generation and emission of greenhouse gases. In accordance with international obligations, Russia should solve this problem. To achieve this goal, the government should legislatively limit the funding of coal projects and exclude coal projects from the sphere of credit and export agencies, development banks, and state banks.

Before the current economic crisis hit the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region in 2008, energy security was a major source of concern in Central and Eastern Europe and in many of the economies in the former Soviet Union. Energy importers were experiencing shortages leading to periodic brownouts and blackouts. An energy crisis seemed imminent. This report analyzes the outlook for energy demand and supply in the region. It estimates the investment requirements and highlights the potential environmental concerns associated with meeting future energy needs, including those related to climate change. The report also proposes the actions necessary to create an attractive environment for investment in cleaner energy. Greater regional cooperation for smart energy and climate action is an important part of the World Bank's engagement in Europe and Central Asia.

Humic acids (HA) are organic molecules that play essential roles in improving soil properties, plant growth, and agronomic parameters. The sources of HA include coal, lignite, soils, and organic materials. Humic acid-based products have been used in crop production in recent years to ensure the sustainability of agriculture production. Reviewed literature shows that HA can positively affect soil physical, chemical, and biological characteristics, including texture, structure, water holding capacity, cation exchange capacity, pH, soil carbon, enzymes, nitrogen cycling, and nutrient availability. This review highlights the relevance of HA on crop growth, plant hormone production, nutrient uptake and assimilation, yield, and protein synthesis. The effect of HA on soil properties and crops is influenced by the HA type, HA application rate, HA application mode, soil type, solubility, molecular size, and functional group. This review also identifies some knowledge gaps in HA studies. HA and its application rate have not been tested in field experiments under different crops in rotation, nitrogen fertilizer forms, sites and climatic conditions. Furthermore, HA chemical and molecular structures, their water and alkaline soluble fractions have not been tested under field experiments to evaluate their effects on crop yield, quality, and soil health. The relationship between soil-plant nutrient availability and plant nutrient uptake following HA application should also be further studied.

Despite decarbonisation, coal (including lignite) still plays an important role in Europe in stabilising energy systems and guaranteeing energy security of many countries. The present article outlines the importance of lignite in Poland, the volume of extraction over several decades and its share in the production of electricity against the background of a changing energy structure. Due to the growing importance of renewable energy sources, lignite mining is declining year after year. However, during unfavourable periods for renewable energy sources, especially in winter, energy is produced primarily in conventional power plants. In 2023, over 21 per cent of Polish energy was generated from lignite. Therefore, first, lignite mining and electricity production are here characterised. Then, the short-term liquidation of existing mining and energy complexes is indicated, as a result of the exhaustion of lignite resources. Within two decades, 8.2 GW of lignite-based power will be lost from the Polish energy system. The geological resources of lignite deposits in Poland are described, paying particular attention to deposits whose extraction is possible and rational in the future. Finally, arguments are presented for maintaining lignite mining in Poland, as supported by the constantly growing demand for energy and the ability to flexible adjustment of electricity generation to variable production from renewable energy sources. Moreover, the possibility of minimising the environmental impact of both lignite mining and electricity generation from it need to be considered. Geopolitical events during the last decade, in particular the Russian aggression against Ukraine, have shown that domestic energy resources play an important role in ensuring the country’s energy security. Hence, the current study is an attempt to provide answers to the question whether it is not too early to say goodbye to Polish lignite.

As more economies are transitioning away from fossil fuels for their electricity production and towards greener alternatives, many socioeconomic implications of this shift remain actively debated. The present paper attempts to assess the economic impact of investments in renewable energy sources (RESs) for Greece and whether the broader effects of this transition can offset the negative impact that will occur due to the targeted phase-out of lignite plants by 2028, which constitute the predominant power source for Greece. Our methodological approach builds on input–output analysis and the creation of composite RES industries for the estimation of the net effects of a series of monetary shocks that correspond to Greece’s phase-out investment plan, utilizing the most recent national input–output tables and satellite structural business statistics. We focus on the structural effects of these shocks on a series of socioeconomic indicators, including GDP, employment, wages, government income (through taxes), and capital formation. The results indicate that even though lignite power production still provides a significant contribution to the Greek economy, investing in renewables presents a significant opportunity for value added and job creation.

For many decades, the Region of Western Macedonia has been Greece’s energy hub, contributing significantly to electricity supply and national growth with the exploitation of lignite deposits for power generation. Lignite, though, has been banned from EU energy source policies towards achieving CO2 emissions reduction, with profound implications on the economy of the region. Despite the importance of this energy transition, a combinatorial analysis for the area in the coal phase-out regime is missing. Therefore, a combined analysis is performed here, and more specifically, a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis in all the affected sectors, in combination with the examination of the degree of satisfaction with the EU’s energy priorities. The results of the study show that the Region of Western Macedonia has profound strengths and offers many new opportunities during its transition to a new production model. On the other hand, it has high unemployment rates and low rates of competitiveness and innovation. The main threat is the Region’s desertification due to the inability to find sufficient jobs. Considering the Energy Union’s priorities, the Region of Western Macedonia satisfactorily follows the priorities of Europe in its transition to the new production model, with plenty of room for improvement. The analysis performed allows for a just transition strategic planning to minimize social, economic and energy challenges while maximizing sustainable power generation and has implications for all relevant stakeholders, contributing to the implementation of Energy Union governance and climate actions.

Realizing the goal of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 2 °C by the end of this century will most likely require deployment of carbon-negative technologies. It is particularly important that China, as the world’s top carbon emitter, avoids being locked into carbon-intensive, coal-fired power-generation technologies and undertakes a smooth transition from high- to negative-carbon electricity production. We focus here on deploying a combination of coal and biomass energy to produce electricity in China using an integrated gasification cycle system combined with carbon capture and storage (CBECCS). Such a system will also reduce air pollutant emissions, thus contributing to China’s near-term goal of improving air quality.We evaluate the bus-bar electricity-generation prices for CBECCS with mixing ratios of crop residues varying from 0 to 100%, as well as associated costs for carbon mitigation and cobenefits for air quality. We find that CBECCS systems employing a crop residue ratio of 35% could produce electricity with net-zero life-cycle emissions of greenhouse gases, with a levelized cost of electricity of no more than 9.2 US cents per kilowatt hour. A carbon price of approximately $52.0 per ton would make CBECCS cost-competitive with pulverized coal power plants. Therefore, our results provide critical insights for designing a CBECCS strategy in China to harness nearterm air-quality cobenefits while laying the foundation for achieving negative carbon emissions in the long run.

The increasing use of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar energy, presents challenges to the stability and efficiency of other energy sources due to their intermittent and unpredictable surpluses. The unintended consequence of stabilizing the power supply system is an increase in emissions and external costs from the suboptimal use of coal power plants. The rising number of RES curtailments needs to be addressed by either the adjusting energy supply from fossil fuel or the flexible energy consumption. In Poland’s energy mix, coal-fired power plants are a critical component in ensuring energy security for the foreseeable future. Using domestic lignite to generate a total power of 8.5 GW can stabilize the national power supply, as it is currently done in Germany, where 15 GW of lignite-fueled power units provide the power supply base for the country. The leading Belchatów power plant comprises 10 retrofitted units and one new unit, with a total rating of 5.5 GW. Access to the new coal deposit, Zloczew, is necessary to ensure its longer operation. The other domestic lignite power plants are located in Central Poland at Patnów (0.47 GW from the new unit and 0.6 GW from its three retrofitted counterparts) and located in the Lusatian lignite basin at Turów (operating a brand new unit rated at 0.5 GW and retrofitted units with a total rating of 1.5 GW). The use of this fuel is currently being penalized as a result of increasing carbon costs. However, the continuous surface mining technology that is used in lignite mines is fully electrified, and large amounts of electric energy are required to remove and dump overburden and mining coal and its conveying to power units (the transport of coal from the new lignite mine Zloczew to the Belchatów power plant would be a long-distance operation). A possible solution to this problem is to focus on the lignite fuel supply operations of these power plants, with extensive simulations of the entire supply chain. A modern lignite mine is operated by one control room, and it can balance the dynamic consumption of surplus renewable energy sources (RESs) and reduce the need for reduction. When a lignite supply chain is operated this way, a high-capacity power bank can be created with energy storage in the form of an open brown coal seam. This would enable an almost emission-free supply of cheap and domestic fossil fuel, making it insensitive to changes in the world prices of energy resources for power units operating at the base of the system. Furthermore, extending the life of relatively new and efficient lignite-fired units in Poland would facilitate the decommissioning of older and exhausted hard coal-fired units.

Mg/Al layered double hydroxides (LDH) with mesoporous and microstructures based on soft colloidal template were prepared by co-precipitation method, employing salicylic acid and the anionic surfactant cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide as soft templates. N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms, SEM and XRD, were employed to describe the morphology and structure of the samples, respectively. The results showed that structured MgAl-LDH with mesoporous and microstructures dispersed uniformly with increasing the average pore diameter and specific surface area of the samples. The absorption activity of obtained structured MgAl-LDH to sulfonated lignite containing in wastewater of oil field has been investigated. The prepared structured MgAl-LDH could adsorb SL and attain equilibrium in 60 min with better removal efficiency than MgAl-LDH. Due to its relatively special layered pore size distribution and large surface area, the adsorption capacity can reach 510.2 mg/g when the initial concentration is 600 mg/L and adsorbent dosage is 0.3 g/L at 308 K and pH 7.0. The adsorption process of sulfonated lignite is exothermic in nature and follows to the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model.

Brick plays an important role in the construction industry due their excellent properties like compressive strength and durability. From the earliest times they were considered an important factor in the purpose of the building. Considering the different types of bricks, fly bricks are the best in recent times because they are resource intensive and cost effective. This article provides an up-to-date review of current studies of bricks, categorizing these publications according to the materials used and the methods used for the production of invention bricks. In addition, this article makes an important note about coal ash, which may be the focus of future brick products as an alternative to fly-gray bricks with some amount of steel slug, and the main challenge is to go one step further in the properties of the bricks by implementing the respective requirements.