Ryuichi Fukuhara - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
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Papers by Ryuichi Fukuhara
Water, electricity, and ammonia (artificial fertilizer) are essential for human welfare. The self... more Water, electricity, and ammonia (artificial fertilizer) are essential for human welfare. The self-sufficient and sustainable productions of them from renewable resources are indispensable for social security and the future society. In this study, we proposed the Water-Electricity-Ammonia (WEA) scheme that produces electricity, freshwater, and ammonia and supplies them at a certain ratio. We investigated the life cycle CO2 (LCCO2) emission from the case of inland cities in arid/semi-arid regions that obtain the three products (electricity, water, and ammonia) generated by photovoltaic (PV) and seawater obtained through a pipeline connecting the ocean and the cities. This study unraveled the necessary condition to reduce LCCO2 emission: the allocation ratio of PV electricity for the three productions and the geographical conditions of inland cities. To reduce LCCO2 emission, allocating PV power to seawater desalination is suitable if the city is in a lowland area, and ammonia synthesis is preferable if the city is in a highland area. Note that the WEA scheme applied to most inland cities, even in extreme geographical conditions, reduces LCCO2 emissions compared to conventional production methods by optimizing the PV allocation of electricity, freshwater, and ammonia production.
Journal of the Japan Society of Erosion Control Engineering, 1992
The availability of adequate quantities of water, of sufficient quality, depends on healthy ecosy... more The availability of adequate quantities of water, of sufficient quality, depends on healthy ecosystems and canbe considered an ecosystem service. The maintenance of environmental flows enables this and other ecosystem services that are fundamental to sustainable economic growth and human well-being. Ecosystem services are being compromised worldwide, and energy production is one of the drivers of this process. Natural or green infrastructure can complement, augment or replace the services provided by traditional engineered infrastructure, creating additional benefits in terms of cost-effectiveness, risk management and sustainable development overall. The economic value of ecosystems for downstream water users is formally recognized and monetized in payments for environmental services schemes, in which downstream users provide farmers with payments or green water credits for good management practices that support and regulate ecosystem services, thereby conserving water and preservin...
The Aral Sea disappeared due to overuse of water to cultivate cotton, causing the largest-scale e... more The Aral Sea disappeared due to overuse of water to cultivate cotton, causing the largest-scale environmental catastrophe in the 20th century. Taking cotton as an example, this chapter aims at revisiting the interrelationship between human and nature, collapse of which is a great concern of our society. The modern economics have regarded nature just as an endowed “bundle of resources”, and this perspective may have contributed to the socio-economic prosperity in part at the unprecedented level in the human history while the accumulative negative impacts on the environment since the Industrial Revolution disrupt the Earth system in whole, leading to the new geological era, the Anthropocene in the Earth history. Then, cotton played a decisive role in the Industrial Revolution, and its industrialized production and associated market system drastically changed the relationship between human and nature, and thus denaturalized our economy. The changes of the Earth system, represented by c...
Water, electricity, and ammonia (artificial fertilizer) are essential for human welfare. The self... more Water, electricity, and ammonia (artificial fertilizer) are essential for human welfare. The self-sufficient and sustainable productions of them from renewable resources are indispensable for social security and the future society. In this study, we proposed the Water-Electricity-Ammonia (WEA) scheme that produces electricity, freshwater, and ammonia and supplies them at a certain ratio. We investigated the life cycle CO2 (LCCO2) emission from the case of inland cities in arid/semi-arid regions that obtain the three products (electricity, water, and ammonia) generated by photovoltaic (PV) and seawater obtained through a pipeline connecting the ocean and the cities. This study unraveled the necessary condition to reduce LCCO2 emission: the allocation ratio of PV electricity for the three productions and the geographical conditions of inland cities. To reduce LCCO2 emission, allocating PV power to seawater desalination is suitable if the city is in a lowland area, and ammonia synthesis is preferable if the city is in a highland area. Note that the WEA scheme applied to most inland cities, even in extreme geographical conditions, reduces LCCO2 emissions compared to conventional production methods by optimizing the PV allocation of electricity, freshwater, and ammonia production.
Journal of the Japan Society of Erosion Control Engineering, 1992
The availability of adequate quantities of water, of sufficient quality, depends on healthy ecosy... more The availability of adequate quantities of water, of sufficient quality, depends on healthy ecosystems and canbe considered an ecosystem service. The maintenance of environmental flows enables this and other ecosystem services that are fundamental to sustainable economic growth and human well-being. Ecosystem services are being compromised worldwide, and energy production is one of the drivers of this process. Natural or green infrastructure can complement, augment or replace the services provided by traditional engineered infrastructure, creating additional benefits in terms of cost-effectiveness, risk management and sustainable development overall. The economic value of ecosystems for downstream water users is formally recognized and monetized in payments for environmental services schemes, in which downstream users provide farmers with payments or green water credits for good management practices that support and regulate ecosystem services, thereby conserving water and preservin...
The Aral Sea disappeared due to overuse of water to cultivate cotton, causing the largest-scale e... more The Aral Sea disappeared due to overuse of water to cultivate cotton, causing the largest-scale environmental catastrophe in the 20th century. Taking cotton as an example, this chapter aims at revisiting the interrelationship between human and nature, collapse of which is a great concern of our society. The modern economics have regarded nature just as an endowed “bundle of resources”, and this perspective may have contributed to the socio-economic prosperity in part at the unprecedented level in the human history while the accumulative negative impacts on the environment since the Industrial Revolution disrupt the Earth system in whole, leading to the new geological era, the Anthropocene in the Earth history. Then, cotton played a decisive role in the Industrial Revolution, and its industrialized production and associated market system drastically changed the relationship between human and nature, and thus denaturalized our economy. The changes of the Earth system, represented by c...