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5 projects proving carbon capture is a reality
The concept of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from power station, refinery and factory exhausts has long been hailed as crucial in mitigating the climate crisis and getting the UK and the rest of the world to net zero. After a number of false starts and policy hurdles, the technology is now growing with more momentum than ever. Carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) is finally coming of age.
Increasing innovation and investment in the space is enabling the development of CCUS schemes at scale. Today, there are over 19 large-scale CCUS facilities in operation worldwide, while a further 32 in development as confidence in government policies and investment frameworks improves.
Once CO2 is captured it can be stored underground in empty oil and gas reservoirs and naturally occurring saline aquifers, in a process known as sequestration. It has also long been used in enhanced oil recovery (EOR), a process where captured CO2 is injected into oil reservoirs to increase oil production.
Drax Power Station is already trialling Europe's first bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS) project. This combination of sustainable biomass with carbon capture technology could remove and capture more than 16 million tonnes of CO2 a year and put Drax Power Station at the centre of wider decarbonisation efforts across the region as part of Zero Carbon Humber.
Here are five other projects making carbon capture a reality today:
Snøhvit & Sleipner Vest
Who: Sleipner – Equinor Energy, Var Energi, LOTOS, KUFPEC; Snøhvit – Equinor Energy, Petoro, Total, Neptune Energy, Wintershall Dean
Where: Norway
Sleipner Vest offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant, Norway [Click to view/download]
Sleipner Vest was the world's first ever offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant, and has been active since 1996. The facility separates CO2 from natural gas extracted from the Sleipner field, as well as from at the Utgard field, about 20km away. This method of carbon capture means CO2 is removed before the natural gas is combusted, allowing it to be used as an energy source with lower carbon emissions.
Snøhvit, located offshore in Norway's northern Barents Sea, operates similarly but here natural gas is pumped to an onshore facility for carbon removal. The separated and compressed CO2 from both facilities is then stored, or sequestered, in empty reservoirs under the sea.
The two projects demonstrate the safety and reality of long-term CO2 sequestration – as of 2019, Sleipner has captured and stored over 23 million tonnes of CO2 while Snøhvit stores 700,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
Petra Nova
Who: NRG, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Inc. (MHIA) and JX Nippon, a joint venture with Hilcorp Energy
Where: Texas, USA
In 2016, the largest carbon capture facility in the world began operation at the Petra Nova coal-fired power plant.
Using a solvent developed by Mitsubishi and Kansai Electric Power, called KS-1, the CO2 is absorbed and compressed from the exhausts of the plant after the coal has been combusted. The captured CO2 is then transported and used for EOR 80 miles away on the West Ranch oil field.
Carbon capture facility at the Petra Nova coal-fired power plant, Texas, USA
As of January 2020, over 3.5 million tonnes of CO2 had been captured, reducing the plant's carbon emissions by 90%. Oil production, on the other hand, increased by 1,300% to 4,000 barrels a day. As well as preventing CO2 from being released into the atmosphere, CCUS has also aided the site's sustainability by eliminating the need for hydraulic drilling.
Gorgon LNG, Barrow Island, Australia [Click to view/download]
Gorgon LNG
Who: Operated by Chevron, in a joint venture with Shell, Exxon Mobil, Osaka Gas, Tokyo Gas, Jera
Where: Barrow Island, Australia
In 2019 CCS operations began at one of Australia's largest liquified natural gas production facilities, located off the Western coast. Here, CO2 is removed from natural gas before the gas is cooled to -162oC, turning it into a liquid.
The removed CO2 is then injected via wells into the Dupuy Formation, a saline aquifer 2km underneath Barrow Island.
Once fully operational (estimated to be in 2020), the project aims to reduce the facility's emissions by about 40% and plans to store between 3.4 and 4 million tonnes of CO2 each year.
Shell's Quest carbon capture facility, Alberta, Canada
Who: Operated by Shell, owned by Chevron and Canadian Natural Resources
Where: Alberta, Canada
The Scotford Upgrader facility in Canada's oil sands uses hydrogen to upgrade bitumen (a substance similar to asphalt) to make a synthetic crude oil.
In 2015, the Quest carbon capture facility was added to Scotford Upgrader to capture the CO2 created as a result of making the site's hydrogen. Once captured, the CO2 is pressurised and turned into a liquid, which is piped and stored 60km away in the Basal Cambrian Sandstone saline aquifer.
Over its four years of crude oil production, four million tonnes of CO2 have been captured. It is estimated that, over its 25-year life span, this CCS technology could capture and store over 27 million tonnes of CO2.
Chevron estimates that if the facility were to be built today, it would cost 20-30% less, a sign of the falling cost of the technology.
Boundary Dam
Who: SaskPower
Where: Saskatchewan, Canada
Boundary Dam, a coal-fired power station, became the world's first post-combustion CCS facility in 2014.
The technology uses Shell's Cansolv solvent to remove CO2 from the exhaust of one of the power station's 115 MW units. Part of the captured CO2 is used for EOR, while any unused CO2 is stored in the Deadwood Formation, a brine and sandstone reservoir, deep underground.
As of December 2019, more than three million tonnes of CO2 had been captured at Boundary Dam. The continuous improvement and optimisations made at the facility are proving CCS technology at scale and informing CCS projects around the world, including a possible retrofit project at SaskPower's 305 MW Shand Power Station.
Top image: Carbon capture facility at the Petra Nova coal-fired power plant, Texas, USA
Learn more about carbon capture, usage and storage in our series:
Planting, sinking, extracting – some of the ways to absorb carbon from the atmosphere
Why experts think bioenergy with carbon capture and storage will be an essential part of the energy system
The science of safely and permanently putting carbon in the ground
The numbers must add up to enable negative emissions in a zero carbon future, says Drax Group CEO Will Gardiner.
The power industry is leading the charge in carbon capture and storage but where else could the technology make a difference to global emissions?
From NASA to carbon capture, chemical reactions could have a big future in electricity
A roadmap for the world's first zero carbon industrial cluster: protecting and creating jobs, fighting climate change, competing on the world stage
Can we tackle two global challenges with one solution: turning captured carbon into fish food?
How algae, paper and cement could all have a role in a future of negative emissions
How the UK can achieve net zero
Transforming emissions from pollutants to products
Drax CEO addresses Powering Past Coal Alliance event in Madrid, unveiling our ambition to play a major role in fighting the climate crisis by becoming the world's first carbon negative company
Tags: BECCS (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage), decarbonisation, Negative emissions, technology, Zero Carbon Humber
What is net zero?
For age-old rivals Glasgow and Edinburgh, the race to the top has taken a sharp turn downwards. Instead, they're in a race to the bottom to earn the title of the first 'net zero' carbon city in the UK.
While they might be battling to be the first in the UK to reach net zero, they are far from the only cities with net zero in their sights. In the wake of the growing climate emergency, cities, companies and countries around the world have all announced their own ambitions for hitting 'net zero'.
It has become a global focus based on necessity – for the world to hit the Paris Agreement targets and limit global temperature rise to under two degrees Celsius, it's predicted the world must become net zero by 2070.
Yet despite its ubiquity, net zero is a term that's not always fully understood. So, what does net zero actually mean?
Glasgow, Scotland. Host of COP26.
What does net zero mean?
'Going net zero' most often refers specifically to reaching net zero carbon emissions. But this doesn't just mean cutting all emissions down to zero.
Instead, net zero describes a state where the greenhouse gas (GHG) emitted [*] and removed by a company, geographic area or facility is in balance.
In practice, this means that as well as making efforts to reduce its emissions, an entity must capture, absorb or offset an equal amount of carbon from the atmosphere to the amount it releases. The result is that the carbon it emits is the same as the amount it removes, so it does not increase carbon levels in the atmosphere. Its carbon contributions are effectively zero – or more specifically, net zero.
The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment likens the net zero target to running a bath – an ideal level of water can be achieved by either turning down the taps (the mechanism adding emissions) or draining some of the water from the bathtub (the thing removing of emissions from the atmosphere). If these two things are equally matched, the water level in the bath doesn't change.
To reach net zero and drive a sustained effort to combat climate change, a similar overall balance between emissions produced and emissions removed from the atmosphere must be achieved.
But while the analogy of a bath might make it sound simple, actually reaching net zero at the scale necessary will take significant work across industries, countries and governments.
How to achieve net zero
The UK's Committee on Climate Change (CCC) recommends that to reach net zero all industries must be widely decarbonised, heavy good vehicles must switch to low-carbon fuel sources, and a fifth of agricultural land must change to alternative uses that bolster emission reductions, such as biomass production.
However, given the nature of many of these industries (and others considered 'hard-to-treat', such as aviation and manufacturing), completely eliminating emissions is often difficult or even impossible. Instead, residual emissions must be counterbalanced by natural or engineered solutions.
Natural solutions can include afforestation (planting new forests) and reforestation (replanting trees in areas that were previous forestland), which use trees' natural ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere to offset emissions.
On the other hand, engineering solutions such as carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS) can capture and permanently store carbon from industry before it's released into the atmosphere. It is estimated this technology can capture in excess of 90% of the carbon released by fossil fuels during power generation or industrial processes such as cement production.
Click to view/download graphic. Source: Zero Carbon Humber.
Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) could actually take this a step further and lead to a net removal of carbon emissions from the atmosphere, often referred to as negative emissions. BECCS combines the use of biomass as a fuel source with CCUS. When that biomass comes from trees grown in responsibly managed working forests that absorb carbon, it becomes a low carbon fuel. When this process is combined with CCUS and the carbon emissions are captured at point of the biomass' use, the overall process removes more carbon than is released, creating 'negative emissions'.
According to the Global CCS Institute, BECCS is quickly emerging as the best solution to decarbonise emission-heavy industries. A joint report by The Royal Academy of Engineering and Royal Society estimates that BECCS could help the UK to capture 50 million tonnes of carbon per year by 2050 – eliminating almost half of the emissions projected to remain in the economy.
The UK's move to net zero
In June 2019, the UK became the first major global economy to pass a law to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. It is one of a small group of countries, including France and Sweden, that have enacted this ambition into law, forcing the government to take action towards meeting net zero.
Electrical radiator
Although this is an ambitious target, the UK is making steady progress towards it. In 2018 the UK's emissions were 44% below 1990 levels, while some of the most intensive industries are fast decarbonising – June 2019 saw the carbon content of electricity hit an all-time low, falling below 100 g/kWh for the first time. This is especially important as the shift to net zero will create a much greater demand for electricity as fossil fuel use in transport and home heating must be switched with power from the grid.
Hitting net zero will take more than just this consistent reduction in emissions, however. An increase in capture and removal technologies will also be required. On the whole, the CCC predict an estimated 75 to 175 million tonnes of carbon and equivalent emissions will need to be removed by CCUS solutions annually in 2050 to fully meet the UK's net zero target.
This will need substantial financial backing. The CCC forecasts that, at present, a net zero target can be reached at an annual resource cost of up to 1-2% of GDP between now and 2050. However, there is still much debate about the role the global carbon markets need to play to facilitate a more cost-effective and efficient way for countries to work together through market mechanisms.
Industries across the UK are starting to take affirmative action to work towards the net zero target. In the energy sector, projects such as Drax Power Station's carbon capture pilots are turning BECCS increasingly into a reality ready to be deployed at scale.
Along with these individual projects, reaching net zero also requires greater cooperation across the industrial sectors. The Zero Carbon Humber partnership between energy companies, industrial emitters and local organisations, for example, aims to deliver the UK's first zero carbon industrial cluster in the Humber region by the mid-2020s.
Nonetheless, efforts from all sectors must be made to ensure that the UK stays on course to meet all its immediate and long-term emissions targets. And regardless of whether or not Edinburgh or Glasgow realise their net zero goals first, the competition demonstrates how important the idea of net zero has become and society's drive for real change across the UK.
Drax has announced an ambition to become carbon negative by 2030 – removing more carbon from the atmosphere than produced in our operations, creating a negative carbon footprint. Track our progress at Towards Carbon Negative.
[*] In this article we've simplified our explanation of net zero. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most abundant greenhouse gas (GHG). It is also a long-lived GHG that creates warming that persists in the long term. Although the land and ocean absorb it, a significant proportion stays in the atmosphere for centuries or even millennia causing climate change. It is, therefore, the most important GHG to abate. Other long-lived GHGs include include nitrous oxide (N2O, lifetime of circa 120 years) and some F-Gasses (e.g. SF6 with a lifetime of circa 3,200 years). GHGs are often aggregated as carbon dioxide equivalent (abbreviated as CO2e or CO2eq) and it is this that net zero targets measure. In this article, 'carbon' is used for simplicity and as a proxy for 'carbon dioxide', 'CO2', 'GHGs' or 'CO2e'.
Tags: BECCS (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage), decarbonisation, electricity, electricity generation, energy policy, Negative emissions, technology, transport, Zero Carbon Humber
What is LNG and how is it cutting global shipping emissions?
Shipping is widely considered the most efficient form of cargo transport. As a result, it's the transportation of choice for around 90% of world trade. But even as the most efficient, it still accounts for roughly 3% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
This may not sound like much, but it amounts to 1 billion tonnes of CO2 and other greenhouse gases per year – more than the UK's total emissions output. In fact, if shipping were a country, it would be the sixth largest producer of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. And unless there are drastic changes, emissions related to shipping could increase from between 50% and 250% by 2050.
As well as emitting GHGs that directly contribute towards the climate emergency, big ships powered by fossil fuels such as bunker fuel (also known as heavy fuel oil) release other emissions. These include two that can have indirect impacts – sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). Both impact air quality and can have human health and environmental impacts.
As a result, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is introducing measures that will actively look to force shipping companies to reduce their emissions. In January 2020 it will bring in new rules that dictate all vessels will need to use fuels with a sulphur content of below 0.5%.
One approach ship owners are taking to meet these targets is to fit 'scrubbers'– devices which wash exhausts with seawater, turning the sulphur oxides emitted from burning fossil fuel oils into harmless calcium sulphate. But these will only tackle the sulphur problem, and still mean that ships emit CO2.
Another approach is switching to cleaner energy alternatives such as biofuels, batteries or even sails, but the most promising of these based on existing technology is liquefied natural gas, or LNG.
What is LNG?
In its liquid form, natural gas can be used as a fuel to power ships, replacing heavy fuel oil, which is more typically used, emissions-heavy and cheaper. But first it needs to be turned into a liquid.
To do this, raw natural gas is purified to separate out all impurities and liquids. This leaves a mixture of mostly methane and some ethane, which is passed through giant refrigerators that cool it to -162oC, in turn shrinking its volume by 600 times.
The end product is a colourless, transparent, non-toxic liquid that's much easier to store and transport, and can be used to power specially constructed LNG-ready ships, or by ships retrofitted to run on LNG. As well as being versatile, it has the potential to reduce sulphur oxides and nitrogen oxides by 90 to 95%, while emitting 10 to 20% less CO2 than heavier fuel alternatives.
The cost of operating a vessel on LNG is around half that of ultra-low sulphur marine diesel (an alternative fuel option for ships aiming to lower their sulphur output), and it's also future-proofed in a way that other low-sulphur options are not. As emissions standards become stricter in the coming years, vessels using natural gas would still fall below any threshold.
The industry is starting to take notice. Last year 78 vessels were fitted to run on LNG, the highest annual number to date.
One company that has already embraced the switch to LNG is Estonia's Graanul Invest. Europe's largest wood pellet producer and a supplier to Drax Power Station, Graanul is preparing to introduce custom-built vessels that run on LNG by 2020.
The new ships will have the capacity to transport around 9,000 tonnes of compressed wood pellets and Graanul estimates that switching to LNG has the potential to lower its CO2 emissions by 25%, to cut NOx emissions by 85%, and to almost completely eliminate SO2 and particulate matter pollution.
Is LNG shipping's only viable option?
LNG might be leading the charge towards cleaner shipping, but it's not the only solution on the table. Another potential is using advanced sail technology to harness wind, which helps power large cargo ships. More than just an innovative way to upscale a centuries-old method of navigating the seas, it is one that could potentially be retrofitted to cargo ships and significantly reduce emissions.
Drax is currently taking part in a study with the Smart Green Shipping Alliance, Danish dry bulk cargo transporter Ultrabulk and Humphreys Yacht Design, to assess the possibility of retrofitting innovative sail technology onto one of its ships for importing biomass.
What a Pamamax ship carrying wood pellets may look like when retrofitted with sails
Artist's impression of a possible design for a wood pellet carrying sailing ship
Manufacturers are also looking at battery power as a route to lowering emissions. Last year, boats using battery-fitted technology similar to that used by plug-in cars were developed for use in Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands, while Dutch company Port-Liner are currently building two giant all-electric barges – dubbed 'Tesla ships' – that will be powered by battery packs and can carry up to 280 containers.
Then there are projects exploring the use of ammonia (which can be produced from air and water using renewable electricity), and hydrogen fuel cell technology. In short, there are many options on the table, but few that can be implemented quickly, and at scale – two things which are needed by the industry. Judged by these criteria, LNG remains the frontrunner.
There are currently just 125 ships worldwide using LNG, but these numbers are expected to increase by between 400 and 600 by 2020. Given that the world fleet boasts more than 60,000 commercial ships, this remains a drop in the ocean, but with the right support it could be the start of a large scale move towards cleaner waterways.
Tags: decarbonisation, engineering, supply chain, sustainability, technology, transport
What is a fuel cell and how will they help power the future?
NASA Museum, Houston, Texas
How do you get a drink in space? That was one of the challenges for NASA in the 1960s and 70s when its Gemini and Apollo programmes were first preparing to take humans into space.
The answer, it turned out, surprisingly lay in the electricity source of the capsules' control modules. Primitive by today's standard, these panels were powered by what are known as fuel cells, which combined hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity. The by-product of this reaction is heat but also water – pure enough for astronauts to drink.
Fuel cells offered NASA a much better option than the clunky batteries and inefficient solar arrays of the 1960s, and today they still remain on the forefront of energy technology, presenting the opportunity to clean up roads, power buildings and even help to reduce and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from power stations.
Power through reaction
At its most basic, a fuel cell is a device that uses a fuel source to generate electricity through a series of chemical reactions.
All fuel cells consist of three segments, two catalytic electrodes – a negatively charged anode on one side and a positively charged cathode on the other, and an electrolyte separating them. In a simple fuel cell, hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, is pumped to one electrode and oxygen to the other. Two different reactions then occur at the interfaces between the segments which generates electricity and water.
What allows this reaction to generate electricity is the electrolyte, which selectively transports charged particles from one electrode to the other. These charged molecules link the two reactions at the cathode and anode together and allow the overall reaction to occur. When the chemicals fed into the cell react at the electrodes, it creates an electrical current that can be harnessed as a power source.
https://www.drax.com/us/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/05/Drax_Fuel_Cells_v6-2.mp4
Many different kinds of chemicals can be used in a fuel cell, such as natural gas or propane instead of hydrogen. A fuel cell is usually named based on the electrolyte used. Different electrolytes selectively transport different molecules across. The catalysts at either side are specialised to ensure that the correct reactions can occur at a fast enough rate.
For the Apollo missions, for example, NASA used alkaline fuel cells with potassium hydroxide electrolytes, but other types such as phosphoric acids, molten carbonates, or even solid ceramic electrolytes also exist.
The by-products to come out of a fuel cell all depend on what goes into it, however, their ability to generate electricity while creating few emissions, means they could have a key role to play in decarbonisation.
Fuel cells as a battery alternative
Fuel cells, like batteries, can store potential energy (in the form of chemicals), and then quickly produce an electrical current when needed. Their key difference, however, is that while batteries will eventually run out of power and need to be recharged, fuel cells will continue to function and produce electricity so long as there is fuel being fed in.
One of the most promising uses for fuel cells as an alternative to batteries is in electric vehicles.
Rachel Grima, a Research and Innovation Engineer at Drax, explains:
"Because it's so light, hydrogen has a lot of potential when it comes to larger vehicles, like trucks and boats. Whereas battery-powered trucks are more difficult to design because they're so heavy."
These vehicles can pull in oxygen from the surrounding air to react with the stored hydrogen, producing only heat and water vapour as waste products. Which – coupled with an expanding network of hydrogen fuelling stations around the UK, Europe and US – makes them a transport fuel with a potentially big future.
Fuel cells, in conjunction with electrolysers, can also operate as large-scale storage option. Electrolysers operate in reverse to fuel cells, using excess electricity from the grid to produce hydrogen from water and storing it until it's needed. When there is demand for electricity, the hydrogen is released and electricity generation begins in the fuel cell.
A project on the islands of Orkney is using the excess electricity generated by local, community-owned wind turbines to power a electrolyser and store hydrogen, that can be transported to fuel cells around the archipelago.
Fuel cells' ability to take chemicals and generate electricity is also leading to experiments at Drax for one of the most important areas in energy today: carbon capture.
Turning CO2 to power
Drax is already piloting bioenergy carbon capture and storage technologies, but fuel cells offer the unique ability to capture and use carbon while also adding another form of electricity generation to Drax Power Station.
"We're looking at using a molten carbonate fuel cell that operates on natural gas, oxygen and CO2," says Grima. "It's basic chemistry that we can exploit to do carbon capture."
The molten carbonate, a 600 degrees Celsius liquid made up of either lithium potassium or lithiumsodium carbonate sits in a ceramic matrix and functions as the electrolyte in the fuel cell. Natural gas and steam enter on one side and pass through a reformer that converts them into hydrogen and CO2.
On the other side, flue gas – the emissions (including biogenic CO2) which normally enter the atmosphere from Drax's biomass units – is captured and fed into the cell alongside air from the atmosphere. The CO2and oxygen (O2) pass over the electrode where they form carbonate (CO32-) which is transported across the electrolyte to then react with the hydrogen (H2), creating an electrical charge.
"It's like combining an open cycle gas turbine (OCGT) with carbon capture," says Grima. "It has the electrical efficiency of an OCGT. But the difference is it captures CO2 from our biomass units as well as its own CO2."
Along with capturing and using CO2, the fuel cell also reduces nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions from the flue gas, some of which are destroyed when the O2and CO2 react at the electrode.
From the side of the cell where flue gas enters a CO2-depleted gas is released. On the other side of the cell the by-products are water and CO2.
During a government-supported front end engineering and design (FEED) study starting this spring, this CO2 will also be captured, then fed through a pipeline running from Drax Power Station into the greenhouse of a nearby salad grower. Here it will act to accelerate the growth of tomatoes.
The partnership between Drax, FuelCell Energy, P3P Partners and the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy could provide an additional opportunity for the UK's biggest renewable power generator to deploy bioenergy carbon capture usage and storage (BECCUS) at scale in the mid 2020s.
From powering space ships in the 70s to offering greenhouse-gas free transport, fuel cells continue to advance. As low-carbon electricity sources become more important they're set to play a bigger role yet.
From capture methods to storage and use across three continents, these companies are showing promising results for CCUS
Tags: battery energy storage, BECCS (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage), decarbonisation, electricity, electricity generation, energy storage, engineering, hydrogen, technology, transport
The everyday and future ways you use forest products
Think of the products that come from forests and you might think of the centuries of shipbuilding, construction and cooking made possible by civilisations utilising this plentiful natural resource.
What you might not think of is the complex construction of chemicals and matter that make up the trees of a forest – nor of the countless ways these can be broken down and used. Yet this is the reality of forests. From essential oils to sturdy packaging to powerful adhesives, trees are used to create a range of products that make daily life possible.
And as awareness of the need to reduce plastic consumption grows, research into forest products and how they can replace the less-environmentally friendly objects is growing.
Here we look at five of the most common products used today, and maybe in the future, that owe something to forests.
Adhesives from tall oil
Anyone who has encountered tree sap can attest: trees are made up of some pretty sticky stuff. And it's because of this that they have long been a source for adhesives production – from glue to cement.
The substance that makes this possible is known as tall oil. Named after the Swedish word Tallolja, meaning pine oil, it is a by-product of pulping coniferous trees.
Tall oil has been produced commercially since the 1930s when the invention of the recovery boiler made it possible to extract it from the Kraft pulping process. However, the resins and waxes tall oil is made up of have a longer history. These are also known as 'Naval Products' due to their historic use in ship building and can be tapped directly from living trees.
Today, tall oil is also used in asphalt roofing, as well as medical and cosmetic applications. One of tall oil's most exciting uses is as BioVerno – a renewable alternative to diesel made in the world's first commercial-scale biorefinery in Finland.
Disinfectants and detergents from turpentine
Tapping trees has historically been a means of extracting multiple useful substances and one of the most versatile of these is turpentine. This yellowish liquid is produced from distilled tree resin and has a long history of uses.
Turpentine has been used since Roman times as torch or lamp fuel, but its antiseptic properties also means it was often used as medicine. While doctors today would advise against drinking turpentine (as was prescribed in the past), it is still used today in disinfectants, detergents and cleaning products, giving off a fresh, pine-like odour.
Fuels to replace fossils
Biomass pellets from working forests are just one of the ways trees are providing renewable energy. One other form is cellulosic ethanol, a new, second generation of liquid biofuel. Rather than competing with food supply (often a concern in the creation of biodiesels), cellulosic ethanol is made from non-food based materials such as forest and agricultural residues left behind after harvest – wheat straw, – and timber processing wastes including sawdust. It is now being produced at a commercial scale in Europe, the US and Brazil.
Woody biomass can also be converted into a petroleum substitute known as pyrolysis oil or bio-oil. Biomass is transformed into this dark brown liquid by heating it to 500oC in an oxygen-deprived environment and then allowing it to cool. Bio-oil has a much higher energy density than biomass in chip or pellet form and after upgrading can be used as jet fuel or as a petroleum alternative in chemical manufacturing.
Vanilla ice cream and carbon fibre from lignin
Lignin is what gives trees their tough, woody quality, and after cellulose is the world's second most abundant natural polymer. Polymers are very long molecules made up of many smaller molecules joined end-to-end most often associated with plastic, (which is a synthetic polymer).
Lignin is generally a waste product from the paper pulping process and is often burnt as fuel. However, it can also serve as a vanilla flavouring – a property that may make lignin an important resource in the face of an impending vanilla pod shortage.
Future-looking research, however, aims to unlock much more from the 50 million tonnes of lignin produced every year globally. One of the most promising of these is as an alternative source of a family of organic compound known as phenylpropanoids. These are normally extracted from petroleum and are hugely useful in producing plastics and carbon fibre, as well as drugs and paint.
Nanocellulose and the future of forest products
Cellulose is already one of the most important products to come from forests thanks to its role in paper production. However, this abundant substance – which is also the primary material in the cell walls of all green plants – holds even more potential.
By shrinking cellulose down to a nano level it can be configured to be very strong while remaining very light. This opens it up as a product with many possibilities, including using it as a source of bioplastics. Some bioplastics – polylactic acid, PHA, PBS and starch blends – are biodegradable alternatives to fossil fuel-based plastics and could potentially help solve some of the world's most-pressing waste issues.
Not all bio-based plastics are biodegradable, however. The property of biodegradation doesn't depend on the resource basis of a material – it is linked to its chemical structure. In other words, 100% bio-based plastics may be non-biodegradable, and 100% fossil-based plastics can biodegrade.
Bio-based plastics that are not biodegradable include polyethylene terephthalate, polyurethanes, polyamide, polyethylene. Polyethylenefuranoate or PEF is recyclable, can be manufactured without fossil fuels and while not biodegradable, has the potential to become a more sustainable alternative to the oil-based plastic used to make water bottles.
Cellulose's combination of strength and light weight has also attracted interest from the auto industry in the ability to help cars become much lighter and therefore more fuel efficient. Its flexible, strong, transparent nature can also make Nanocellulose – an important material in helping bring bendable screens, batteries, cosmetics, paper, pharmaceuticals, optical sensors and devices to market.
The idea of using trees as a source of goods and products in everyday life might sound archaic, but, in reality, we've only just tapped the surface of what the chemicals and materials they're made of can do. Markus Mannström from Finnish renewables company Stora Enso said recently that: "We believe that everything made from fossil-based materials today, can be made from a tree tomorrow." As research advances, trees and forests will only play a bigger role in a more sustainable future.
Tags: forestry and forest management and arboriculture, forests, technology
6 start-ups, ideas and power plants shaping biomass
Humans have used wood as a source of fuel for over a million years. Modern biomass power, however, is a far cry from human's early taming of fire and this is down to constant research and innovation. In fact, today it's one of the most extensively researched areas in energy and environmental studies.
With biomass accounting for 64% of total renewable energy production in the EU in 2015, the development isn't likely to stop. Ongoing advancements in the field are helping the technology become more sustainable and efficient in reducing emissions.
Here are seven of the projects, businesses, ideas and technologies pushing biomass further into the future:
Torrefaction – supercharging biomass pellets
When it comes to making biomass as efficient as possible it's all down to each individual pellet. Improving what's known as the 'calorific value' of each pellet increases the overall amount of energy released when they are used in a power station.
One emerging process aiming to improve this is torrefaction, which involves heating biomass to between 250 and 300 degrees Celsius in a low-oxygen environment. This drives out moisture and volatiles from woody feedstocks, straw and other biomass sources before it is turned into a black 'biocoal' pellet which has a very high calorific value.
This year, Estonian company Baltania is constructing the first industrial-scale torrefaction plant in the country with the target output of 160,000 tonnes of biocoal pellets per year. If it's successful, power stations worldwide may be able to get more power from each little pellet.
bio-bean – powered by caffeine
Biofuels don't just come from forest residues. Every day more than two billion cups of coffee are consumed globally as people get themselves caffeinated for the day ahead. In London alone, this need for daily stimulation results in more than 200,000 tonnes of coffee waste produced every year. More often than not this ends up in landfills.
bio-bean aims to change this by collecting used coffee grounds from cafes, offices and factories and recycling them into biofuels and biochemicals. The company now recycles as much as 50,000 tonnes of coffee grounds annually while one of its products, B20 biodiesel, has been used to power London buses. bio-bean also produces briquettes and pellets, which, like woody biomass, can serve as an alternative to coal.
Biomass gasification – increasing the value of biomass waste
Biogas is often seen as a promising biofuel with fewer emissions than burning fossil fuels or biomass pellets. It's an area undergoing significant research as it points to another means of creating higher-value products from biomass matter.
The Finnish town of Vaasa is home to the world's largest gasification plant. The facility is part of a coal plant where co-firing biogas with coal has allowed it to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by as much as 230,000 tonnes per year.
As well as reducing emissions, co-firing allows the power plant to use 25% to 40% less coal and when demand is low in the autumn and spring months, the plant runs entirely on biogas. More than that, the forestry residues which are used to produce the biogas are sourced locally from within 100 km of site.
(As part of our transition away from coal, co-firing biomass with that fossil fuel took place at Drax Power Station from 2003 until full unit conversions became a reality in 2013.)
Lynemouth Power Station – powering the move away from coal
After 44-years, the coal-fired Lynemouth Power Station in Northumberland is the latest UK power producer converting to biomass-fuel. Set for completion this year, the plant will supply 390 MW of low-carbon electricity to the National Grid, enough to power 700,000 homes.
Every new power station conversion poses different challenges as well as the opportunity to develop new solutions, but none are as crucial as the conversion of the materials handling equipment from coal to biomass pellets. While coal can sit in the rain for long periods of time and still be used, biomass must be kept dry with storage conditions constantly monitored and adjusted to prevent sudden combustion.
At Lynemouth the handling of 1.4 million tonnes of biomass annually has required the construction of three, 40-metre high concrete storage silos, as well as extensive conveyor systems to unload and transport biomass around the plant.
BioTrans – two birds with one stone
Energy and food are both undergoing serious changes to make them more sustainable. Danish startup BioTrans is tackling both challenges by using one of the food industry's key pain points – wastage – to create energy with its biogas systems.
The company installs systems that collect leftover food from restaurants and canteens and stores it in odour-proof tanks before collecting and turning it into biogas for heating and electricity production. More than just utilising this waste stream, the by-product of the gasification process can also be sold as a fertiliser.
Drax and C-Capture – cutting emissions from the source
Carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) is one of the most important fields in the energy sector today. The technology's ability to capture CO2 from the electricity generation process and turn it into a revenue source before it can enter the atmosphere means it's attracting significant investment and research.
Drax is partnering with C-Capture, a company spun out of the University of Leeds' chemistry department, to trial a new form of CCUS. The pilot scheme will launch in November and aims to capture a tonne of CO2 per day from one of Drax's biomass units.
C-Capture's technology could make the process of capturing and storing CO2 less costly and energy intensive. It does this using a specially developed solvent capable of isolating CO2 before being recycled through the system and capturing more.
If the pilot proves successful, the technology could be implemented at an industrial scale, seeing up to 40% of the CO2 in the flue gases from Drax's biomass units captured and stored. If the technology tested at Drax leads to the construction of a purpose-built carbon capture unit elsewhere, scientists and engineers at C-Capture believe the CO2 captured could exceed 90%.
Back in North Yorkshire, the eventual goal is negative carbon emissions from Drax Power Station – its biomass units already deliver carbon savings of more than 80% compared to when they used coal. And if a new revenue stream can be developed from the sale of the carbon captured then the power produced from biomass at the power station could become even more cost effective.
With thanks to Biomass UK and The European Biomass Association (AEBIOM).
Tags: biomass energy, technology, wood pellets
The wooden buildings of the future
When we think of modern cities and the buildings within them, we often think of the materials they're constructed from – we think of the concrete jungle.
Since the 19th century, steel, glass and concrete enabled the building of bigger and more elaborate buildings in rapidly-growing cities, and those materials quickly came to define the structures themselves. But today that could be changing.
New technologies and building techniques mean wood, a material humans have used in construction for millennia, is making a comeback and reducing the carbon footprint of our buildings too.
Return of the treehouse
Civilisation has been building structures from wood for longer than you may realise.
The 32-metre tall Pagoda of Horyu-Ji temple in Japan, was built using wood felled in 594 and still stands today. The Sakyumuni Pagoda of Fogong Temple in China is nearly twice as tall with a height of 67 metres. It was built in 1056.
Today, wood is once again finding favour.
The 30-metre tall Wood Innovation and Design Centre of the University of British Columbia (UNBC) in Canada was completed in October 2014 and is among the first of this new generation of wooden buildings. And they're only getting bigger.
This year, the completion of the 84-metre, 24-storey HoHo Tower in Vienna will make it the tallest wooden building in the world. But this will be far surpassed if plans for the Oakwood Tower in London are approved. Designed by a private architecture firm and researchers from the University of Cambridge, the proposed building will be 300-metres tall if construction goes ahead, making it London's second tallest structure after The Shard. And it would be made of wood.
Falling back in love with wood
Wood construction fell out of favour in the 19th century when materials like steel and concrete, became more readily available. But new developments in timber manufacturing are changing this.
Researchers in Graz, Austria, discovered that by gluing strips of wood with their grains at right angles to each other the relative weakness of each piece of wood is compensated. The result is a wood product known as cross-laminated timber (CLT), which is tougher than steel for its weight but is much lighter and can be machined into extremely precise shapes. Think of it as the plywood of the future, allowing construction workers to build bigger, quicker and lighter.
Glued laminated timber, commonly known as glulam, is another technology technique enabling greater use of wood in more complex construction. Manufactured by bonding high-strength timbers with waterproof adhesives, glulam can also be shaped into curves and arches, pushing wood's usage beyond straight planks and beam.
These dense timbers don't ignite easily either. They are designed to act more like logs than kindling, and feature an outer layer that is purposefully designed to char when exposed to flame, which in turn insulates the inner wood.
Susceptibility to mould, insect and water damage is indeed a concern of anyone building with wood, but as the centuries-old Pagodas in Japan and China demonstrate, care for wood properly and there's no real limit to how long you can make it last.
So, wood is sturdy. But so is steel – why change?
Construction with concrete and steel produces an enormous carbon footprint. Concrete production on its own accounts for 5% of all our carbon emissions. But building with wood can change that. UNBC's Innovation and Design centre saved 400 tonnes of carbon by using wood instead of concrete and steel.
On top of that, building with wood 'freezes' the carbon captured by the trees as they grow. When trees die naturally in the forest they decompose and release the carbon they have absorbed during growth back in the atmosphere. But wood felled and used to construct a building has captured that carbon for as long as it stands in place. A city of wooden buildings could be a considerable carbon sink.
This can have further ripple effects. The more timber is required for construction, the more it increases the market for wood and the responsibly-managed forests that material comes from. And the more forests that are planted, and managed with proper governance, the more carbon is absorbed from the atmosphere.
According to research from Yale university, a worldwide switch to timber construction would, on its own, cut the building industry's carbon emissions by 31%.
Granted, that will be a difficult task. But if even a fraction of that can be achieved, it could mean a future of timber buildings and greener cities.
Tags: decarbonisation, engineering, technology
What's next for bioenergy?
Discussions about our future are closely entwined with those of our power. Today, when we talk about electricity, we talk about climate change, about new fuels and about the sustainability of new technologies. They're all inexplicably linked, and all hold uncertainties for the future.
But in preparing for what's to come, it helps to have an idea of what may be waiting for us. Researchers at universities across the UK, including the University of Manchester and Imperial College London, have put their heads together to think about this question, and together with the Supergen Bioenergy programme they've created a unique graphic novel on bioenergy that outlines three potential future scenarios.
Based on their imagined views of the future there's plenty to be optimistic about, but it could just as easily go south.
Future one: Failure to act on climate change
In the first scenario, our energy use and reliance on non-renewable fuels like oil, coal and gas continues to grow until we miss our window of opportunity to invest in renewable technology and infrastructure while it's affordable.
Neither the beginning nor the end of the supply chain divert from their current trends – energy providers produce electricity and end users consume it as they always have. Governments continue to pursue growth at all costs and industrial users make no efforts to reverse their own rates of power consumption. In response, electricity generation with fossil fuels ramps up, which leads to several problems.
Attempts to secure a dwindling stock of non-renewable fuels lead to clashes over remaining sources as nations vie for energy security. As resources run out, attempts to put in place renewable alternatives are hampered by a lack of development and investment in the intervening years. The damages caused by climate change accelerate and at the same time, mobility for most people drops as fuel becomes more expensive.
Future two: Growing a stable, centralised bioenergy
A future of dwindling resources and increasing tension isn't the only way forward. Bioenergy is likely to play a prominent role in the energy mix of the future. In fact, nearly all scenarios where global temperature rise remains within the two degrees Celsius margin (recommended by the Paris Agreement) rely on widespread bioenergy use with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). But how far could the implementation of bioenergy go?
A second scenario sees governments around the world invest significantly in biomass energy systems which then become major, centralised features in global energy networks. This limits the effects of a warming climate, particularly as CCS technology matures and more carbon can be sequestered safely underground.
This has knock-on effects for the rest of the world. Large tracts of land are turned over to forestry to support the need for biomass, creating new jobs for those involved in managing the working forests. In industry, large-scale CCS systems are installed at sizeable factories and manufacturing plants to limit emissions even further.
Future 3: The right mix bioenergy
A third scenario takes a combined approach – one in which technology jumps ahead and consumption is controlled. Instead of relying on a few concentrated hubs of BECCS energy, renewables and bioenergy are woven more intimately around our everyday lives. This relies on the advance of a few key technologies.
Widespread adoption of advanced battery technology sees wind and solar implemented at scale, providing the main source of electricity for cities and other large communities. These communities are also responsible for generating biomass fuel from domestic waste products, which includes wood offcuts from timber that makes up a larger proportion of building materials as wooden buildings grow more common.
Whether future three – or any of the above scenarios – will unfold like this is uncertain. These are just three possible futures from an infinite range of scenarios, but they demonstrate just how wide the range of futures is. It's up to us all – not just governments but businesses, individuals and academics such as those behind this research project too – to to make the best choices to ensure the future we want.
Tags: climate change, energy policy, investors, technology
This is how you unload a wood chip truck
A truck arrives at an industrial facility deep in the expanding forestland of the south-eastern USA. It passes through a set of gates, over a massive scale, then onto a metal platform.
The driver steps out and pushes a button on a nearby console. Slowly, the platform beneath the truck tilts and rises. As it does, the truck's cargo empties into a large container behind it. Two minutes later it's empty.
This is how you unload a wood fuel truck at Drax Biomass' compressed wood pellet plants in Louisiana and Mississippi.
What is a tipper?
"Some people call them truck dumpers, but it depends on who you talk to," says Jim Stemple, Senior Director of Procurement at Drax Biomass. "We just call it the tipper." Regardless of what it's called, what the tipper does is easy to explain: it lifts trucks and uses the power of gravity to empty them quickly and efficiently.
The sight of a truck being lifted into the air might be a rare one across the Atlantic, however at industrial facilities in the United States it's more common. "Tippers are used to unload trucks carrying cargo such as corn, grain, and gravel," Stemple explains. "Basically anything that can be unloaded just by tipping."
Both of Drax Biomass' two operational pellet facilities (a third is currently idle while being upgraded) use tippers to unload the daily deliveries of bark – known in the forestry industry as hog fuel, which is used to heat the plants' wood chip dryers – sawdust and raw wood chips, which are used to make the compressed wood pellets.
The tipper uses hydraulic pistons to lift the truck platform at one end while the truck itself rests against a reinforced barrier at the other. To ensure safety, each vehicle must be reinforced at the very end (where the load is emptying from) so they can hold the weight of the truck above it as it tips.
Each tipper can lift up to 60 tonnes and can accommodate vehicles over 50 feet long. Once tipped far enough (each platform tips to a roughly 60-degree angle), the renewable fuel begins to unload and a diverter guides it to one of two places depending on what it will be used for.
"One way takes it to the chip and sawdust piles – which then goes through the pelleting process of the hammer mills, the dryer and the pellet mill," says Stemple. "The other way takes it to the fuel pile, which goes to the furnace."
The furnace heats the dryer which ensures wood chips have a moisture level between 11.5% and 12% before they go through the pelleting process.
"If everything goes right you can tip four to five trucks an hour," says Stemple. From full and tipping to empty and exiting takes only a few minutes before the trucks are on the road to pick up another load.
Efficiency benefits
Using the power of gravity to unload a truck might seem a rudimentary approach, but it's also an efficient one. Firstly, there's the speed it allows. Multiple trucks can arrive and unload every hour. And because cargo is delivered straight into the system, there's no time lost between unloading the wood from truck to container to system.
Secondly, for the truck owners, the benefits are they don't need to carry out costly hydraulic maintenance on their trucks. Instead, it's just the tipper – one piece of equipment – which is maintained to keep operations on track.
However, there is one thing drivers need to be wary of: what they leave in their driver cabins. Open coffee cups, food containers – anything not firmly secured – all quickly become potential hazards once the tipper comes into play.
"I guess leaving something like that in the cab only happens once," Stemple says. "The first time a trucker has to clean out a mess from his cab is probably the last time."
Tags: biomass energy, investors, technology, transport, wood pellets


After sanctions were lifted last year and Iran entered a new era of comparative openness, American tourists had slowly begun traveling to the country. But then, the travel ban happened. And while it goes without saying that those most immediately affected by the executive order were the seven countries outlined in it, obtaining a visa for Iran, as a result, got more difficult for Americans, too.
But travelers from other parts of the world are starting to explore the country, and when it comes to Tehran, most are going for the architecture. In the northern part of town, the Tabiat Bridge is emblematic of the capital's new lease on life: Built in 2014, the award-winning structure has become a popular hangout, with restaurants and cafes cropping up around it. Must-sees for architecture buffs are both contemporary and historic, like the shape-shifting Sharifi-ha House, the igloo-inspired Barin Ski Resort in the Alborz mountains, and the opulent, 19th-century Golestan Palace. If you're traveling with time (and cash) to spare, British-based company Golden Eagle Luxury Trains will take you from Moscow to Tehran by rail, giving you glimpses of the ancient cities of Persepolis and Shiraz along the way.
Home to nearly half of Uruguay's population, the oft-overshadowed, walkable seaside capital city is at once classic and eclectic, vibrant and sleepy.
It's a culturally rich city, where music, performance, and the arts are all thrive: Don't miss Teatro Solís, the city's oldest and most important theatre; for a taste of the gaucho life, head to Museo del Gaucho, where furnitures, statues, and paintings of ranch-hands help give a sense of inside a 19th-century mansion.
Home to nearly half of Uruguay's population, the oft-overshadowed, walkable seaside capital city is at once classic and eclectic, vibrant and sleepy. It's a culturally rich city, where music, performance, and the arts are all thrive: Don't miss Teatro Solís, the city's oldest and most important theatre; for a taste of the gaucho life, head to Museo del Gaucho, where furnitures, statues, and paintings of ranch-hands help give a sense of inside a 19th-century mansion. Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales, which opened in 1911, has the largest collection of works by Uruguayan artists.
Cool off on any number of the city's pristine beaches, and don't limit yourself to just one: A beachside avenue known as the Rambla (Promenade) connects them from east to west. Dinner at Jacinto, where chef Lucía Soria serves light, vegetable-centric dishes like leek and pumpkin tart, is a must.
The vast, empty steppes of Mongolia have long attracted the most intrepid travelers looking for a physical challenge, or those interested in learning about the nomadic people who have turned an unforgiving landscape into a constantly shifting home.
While new luxury camps are bringing a different kind of traveler, the common denominator remains a desire to immerse oneself in a new culture and otherworldly landscape.
Today, the country is so empty that it can still feel like you're all alone as you drive in a rally car across the Gobi Desert; follow an expedition into the Altai Mountains; or lake-hop your way across the least densely populated country in the world.
But, while the country's capital Ulaanbaatar was long closed off from the rest of the world under an insular Communist regime, it's now blooming into something altogether new and exciting.
A generation of young people speaking out have built a vibrant underground music scene from the ground up, showcasing everything from hip hop to indie rock to the never-before-heard results of blending traditional throat-singing with the latest in electronic pop.
Cities right in the middle of a creative revolution are few and far between these days, and the window to see it in action is a small one.
When it seems like most everyone you know has been to Iceland, the Faroe Islands are, in many ways, the next Nordic frontier. A clump of 18 rocky, volcanic islands between Iceland and Norway in the North Atlantic Ocean, the Faroes are technically part of Denmark, though self-governed. Much like its neighbors, the archipelago has scenery in spades, most of it largely formed by the fact that this mini-nation has some of the most fickle weather on the planet. (Think steep cliffs, waterfalls, jagged coastlines, grassy valleys, and dramatic fjords.) Also notable?
The archipelago's music scene, which, despite a total population of less than 50,000, has a symphony orchestra, and some five live music festivals spread throughout the seasons. Over the years, the capital Tórshavn has been a launching pad for everyone from Týr (Viking Metal) to Eivør (pop); TUTL, the largest record company in the Faroes, is owned collectively by musicians and composers.
Get to a festival if you can, but if you're unable to swing it, "settling" for hiking and lighthouses in the village of Nólsoy, boating on Sørvágsvatn, and exploring permanent exhibits of Faroese arts at Listasavn Føroya is not a terrible second-place finish.


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He also made two pillars for the front of the house, thirty-five cubits high, and the capital on the top of each was five cubits. He made chains in the inner sanctuary and placed them on the tops of the pillars; and he made one hundred pomegranates and placed them on the chains. He erected the pillars in front of the temple, one on the right and the other on the left, and named the one on the right Jachin and the one on the left Boaz. Share Your Faith Products
"Now her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her lust than she, and her harlotries were more than the harlotries of her sister. "She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and officials, the ones near, magnificently dressed, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. "I saw that she had defiled herself; they both took the same way.read more. Christian Gifts
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: "Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words." So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. Then the word of the Lord came to me: ... Christian Wall Art
Heavily influenced by sculpture, Gothic painters were also busy creating works of religious art, but not inside churches, where enormous stained glass windows now provided the colour and Biblical illustration that previously had been provided by murals: see, for instance, the translucent stained glass art inside Chartres Cathedral (c.1194-1250). Instead Gothic painters focused on illuminated manuscripts, such as the French Bibles Moralisees (c.1230-40), Le Somme le Roi (1290), the Manesse Codex (1310), Heures de Jeanne d'Evreux (1328), Psaltar of Bonne of Luxembourg (1349), the English Amesbury Psalter (1240), Queen Mary Psalter (1330) and the Arundel and Luttrell Psalters (1340). These are just a few of the many Books of Hours, Missals, Psalters, Apocalypses, Bibles and other illuminated gospel texts that emanated from monastic scriptoria of the period. See, in particular, works by Jean Pucelle (1290-1334). For more, see: History of Illustrated Manuscripts (600-1200). Christian Gifts
Protestant aesthetics achieved a highpoint during the Dutch Baroque era (c.1600-80). This period, known as the Golden Age of Dutch art, witnessed the ultimate development of the realist style adopted earlier by Flemish painters. Although portraits and landscapes were also popular, the period is best known as the high point of Dutch Realist genre painting, and what is known as still life painting (arranged tableaux). Leading genre painters of the Protestant Reformation came from a variety of schools. Adriaen van Ostade and the Catholic artist Jan Steen represented the Haarlem school; Jan Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch represented the Delft school; Hendrik Terbrugghen and Gerrit van Honthorst belonged to the Utrecht school; Gerrit Dou represented the Leiden school; Samuel van Hoogstraten and Nicolaes Maes were members of the Dordrecht school; and Carel Fabritius, Gerard Terborch, and Gabriel Metsu belonged to the Amsterdam school. Christian Gifts
Marriage Bible verses give you the opportunity to share your thoughts and emotions, even when other sentiments may fall short. There are times when only a carefully chosen piece of scripture will suffice, and now you don't have to peruse the Bible on your own to find the right words. You can use these Bible verses about marriage and love to express the joy, gratitude and happiness that you feel toward your significant other while paying tribute to your faith. Here are some of the most treasured Bible verses about love, marriage and relationships that you can incorporate into your wedding day. Share Your Faith Products
"You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Christian Canvas Art
The spiritual intensity achieved by Spanish painters was also seen in the works of Spanish sculptors, such as Alonso Berruguete (c.1486-1561) the greatest of all Renaissance sculptors in Spain, whose masterpieces include: the altarpiece for the monastery of La Mejorada Valladolid (1526), and the choir stalls in Toledo Cathedral (1539-43); Juan de Juni (1507-1577), noted for his emotive expressiveness, as in his two groups of the Entombment of Christ (1544 and 1571). Juan Martinez Montanes (the "God of Wood"), famous for his wooden crucifixes and religious figures, like The Merciful Christ (1603) and the Santiponce Altarpiece (1613); and Alonso Cano (the "Spanish Michelangelo"), whose masterwork is The Immaculate Conception (1655). Christian Wall Art

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


An arrhythmia is a change in the rhythm of your heartbeat. The heart can beat too fast (tachycardia) or too slow (bradycardia). An arrhythmia can also mean that your heart beats irregularly (skips a beat or has an extra beat).
At some time or another, most people have felt their heart race or skip a beat. These occasional changes can be brought on by strong emotions or exercise. They usually are not a cause for alarm. Arrhythmias that occur more often or cause symptoms may be more serious and need to be discussed with your doctor.
The heart has 4 chambers. The walls of the heart contract to push blood through the chambers. The contractions are controlled by an electrical signal that begins in the heart's natural "pacemaker" (the SA node). The rate of the contractions is influenced by nerve impulses and hormones in the blood. A problem here, or signals coming from elsewhere, can cause an arrhythmia.
Minor arrhythmias may be caused by excessive alcohol use, smoking, caffeine, stress or exercise. The most common cause of arrhythmias is heart disease, particularly coronary artery disease, abnormal heart valve function and heart failure. However, arrhythmias can occur for no known reason.
In most people, arrhythmias are minor and not dangerous. A small number of people, however, have arrhythmias that are dangerous and require treatment. Arrhythmias are also more serious if you have other heart problems. In general, arrhythmias that start in the lower chambers of the heart (the ventricles) are more serious than those that start in the upper chambers (the atria). Your doctor will talk with you about the type of arrhythmia you have and whether you need treatment.
One test that may required for diagnosis is an electrocardiogram, also called ECG or EKG. You may need to take a treadmill test while your heart is monitored, or monitor your heart while you do your daily activities. This can be done with a Holter monitor for 24 hours. Other equipment is available for use when monitoring for more 24 hours. Further testing may be necessary.
Atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmia. The risk of developing atrial fibrillation increases with age — AF affects four percent of individuals in their 80s. An individual may spontaneously alternate between AF and a normal rhythm (paroxysmal atrial fibrillation) or may continue with AF as the dominant cardiac rhythm without reversion to the normal rhythm (chronic atrial fibrillation). Atrial fibrillation is often asymptomatic, but may result in symptoms of palpitations, fainting, chest pain, or even heart failure. These symptoms are especially common when atrial fibrillation results in a heart rate which is either too fast or too slow.
Paroxysmal atrial tachycardia (PAT). The heart has episodes when it beats fast, but regularly. This type of arrhythmia may be unpleasant but is usually not dangerous. PAT is an example of an arrhythmia where the abnormality is in the electrical system of the heart, while the heart muscle and valves may be normal. PAT is susceptible to alcohol excess, stress, caffeine, an overactive thyroid or excessive thyroid hormone intake, and certain drugs.
Ectopic beats. The heart has an extra beat. Treatment usually is not needed unless you have several extra beats in a row and/or other problems with your heart (such as heart disease or congenital heart failure).
Ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation. The heart beats too fast and may not pump enough blood. These types of arrhythmias are very dangerous and need immediate treatment.
Treatment depends on the type of arrhythmia you have. Some mild arrhythmias require no treatment. Other arrhythmias can be treated with conventional drugs, a pacemaker, defibrillation, radiofrequency ablation or surgery.
Patients with arrhythmias are commonly treated first with anti-arrhythmic medications such as digoxin, beta-blockers and other types of drugs to regulate their heartbeat. When medications fail to control the condition or their side effects are not well tolerated, other surgical and non-surgical treatments are considered.
"Catheter cryoablation has been performed for several years in the United States and Europe but its benefits, compared to other types of treatments for high-risk arrhythmias, are not widely known by the general public and some healthcare professionals." This quote is from Dr. Kerwin. One of Kerwin's patients is 57-year-old Peter Nyquist of Weatherford, TX, who works for the Federal Aviation Administration as an air traffic control specialist. He had a type of arrhythmia called atrial fibrillation, an extremely rapid and uncoordinated heart rhythm that originated in all four of his pulmonary veins.
He first noticed more than a decade ago that he felt very tired and "washed out," but it took years before he knew why or what could be done. An Internet search led him to Kerwin, who performed a catheter cryoablation in 2006. "I have my life back … it's unbelievable," Nyquist said.
An inefficient pumping action by the heart can result in rapid fatigue.
An abnormal heart rhythm may occur in serious cases of Clostridium difficile infection.
related to impairment of the sodium-potassium-ATPase pump.
Ventricular premature beats have disappeared after supplementation with copper in a few cases. In one of these people, supplementing with zinc made the arrhythmia worse, confirming previous observations that excessive zinc intake may lead to copper deficiency and arrhythmia.
In atrial fibrillation, the risk of thickened blood and subsequent stroke is increased. This is the reason why an anticoagulant is so frequently used.
Residents of a nursing home took either a daily two-gram fish oil supplement or soy oil supplements for six months. Those who took the fish oil did not experience any decline in heart rate variability. In contrast, those who took the soy oil experienced only "marginal, nonsignificant" benefits.
European researchers have reported that olive leaf extract could increase blood flow in the coronary arteries and relieve arrhythmias. There is some testimonial evidence in support of this claim.
Dentists report that the removal of a dead wisdom tooth as well as infected bone in the area has on occasion caused an arrhythmia to disappear.
The claim is made by doctors administering EDTA chelation therapy that cardiac arrhythmias frequently disappear when a sufficient number of treatments have been given. This may be due to the magnesium content.
Atrial fibrillation can be caused by alcohol.
Preventicular contractions (PVCs) can be caused by caffeine.
For PVCs, unless there is structural heart damage, no action may be required. If symptoms are troubling, a mild anxiolytic drugs or beta-adrenergic blockers may be helpful. Long-term treatment of ventricular tachycardia may require the use of oral anti-arrhythmic medications (such as procainamide, amiodarone, or sotalol). Anti-arrhythmic medications, however, may have severe side effects, and their use is currently decreasing in favor of other treatments.
Cardioversion is a procedure used to treat abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias). The most commonly treated arrhythmia is atrial fibrillation. An electrical "shock" is delivered to the heart to restore its rhythm to a normal pattern. The electrical energy can be delivered externally, with electrodes placed on the chest or directly to the heart using paddles on the heart during an open chest surgery. Alternately, the energy can be delivered through the electrodes of a permanently implanted device called a cardioverter-defibrillator.
A four-year clinical evaluation of DMG (or TMG) by Mitchell Pries, MD of Palmdale, California has confirmed Soviet findings. In trials involving the administration of DMG at 125mg bid to over 400 cardiovascular patients, Dr. Pries reported major improvements in several areas including arrhythmias. This dose is low, and a more rapid response may be possible at higher doses.
Research has shown that orally administered CoQl0 can improve functioning of myocardial tissue, strengthening the heart's contractions and making it beat more strongly (positive inotropic effect) and more regularly (anti-arrhythmia effect). CoQ10 also acts as an antioxidant to control free radicals produced during cardiac interventions (including angioplasty, thrombolysis, and surgery).
Excessively rapid heart beat due to uncontrolled ectopic focus in the ventricle.


Thursday seemed lackadaisical after our busy Wednesday. By 4 pm Amelia and I needed some other people to interact with so we called Miekka up. She invited us over to come play and for dinner. Justin arrived home later on that evening.
Justin, Amelia, and I went to the Discovery Museum Friday morning with Miekka, Seth, Jacob, and Mary (Miekka's mom). I was delighted that Amelia enjoyed herself so thoroughly. She was quite busy flitting here and there trying to play with everything. It seemed she enjoyed the water, grocery shop, and farm areas the most. We took a lunch break at the Gateway food court then went back for more fun. Seth and Jacob were equally busy playing. Jacob was very engaged in sorting items by size and color. He is at the perfect age for categorizing! By 2pm Amelia was showing signs of wearing out so we went home for a nice family nap.
James and Miekka babysat Amelia for us so we could catch a movie. We watched the new Mummy movie. It was very cheesy and funny. For dinner we munched on movie popcorn, ice cream sandwiches, and root beer. We both felt a bit grossed out after the indulgence. I won't be eating popcorn anytime soon! Amelia was a very good girl for James and Miekka! We picked her up smiling and handing out "fives".
I can't wait to see pictures of Jessica & Rory's new baby girl! She had her Thursday afternoon, reportedly 8lbs 2oz, 19 inches long, named Sadie Lyn (?). Jessica was about 11 days overdue! Yuck!


text:
Cultural Erasure: Our New Normal?
Tahmina R. and Irisa R.
Recently, on Instagram, we came across an image of a jai namaz (prayer mat) with the Holy Ka'bah printed on it being sold as a 'frilled Greek carpet' by the fast fashion brand 'Shein'. This was just one of many examples we've bombarded our group chats with, of disturbing-to-the-point-of-funny, instances of cultural or religious appropriation. Some are plain absurd and others are downright offensive because they take cultural or religious symbols and carelessly market them as an 'aesthetic'.
The term 'cultural appropriation' has come to mean something that it was never intended to - white people have slotted themselves in as the centre of the discussion. It's become about what is and isn't permissible for white people to wear, rather than what it actually is - the erasure of minority cultures through the commercialisation of garments that are not up for sale. Cultural appropriation allows members of the mainstream to benefit from elements of minority culture without permission of use or acknowledging where an item of clothing comes from. Similarly, religious appropriation strips garments, symbols and objects of their religious meaning, leaving only the aesthetic value. For example, one of Gucci's recent fashion shows featured models in a dastar while others wore what looked unsettlingly close to a hijab.
Prayer Mat Sold As 'Frilled Greek Carpet'
Models Wearing a Dastar & Hijab @Gucci
Imitation is (definitely) not the highest form of flattery
There is a myth that the more globalised the world becomes, the traditions and customs of all people can be poured into an ever-churning pot, where no one really holds any particular 'ownership' of anything (the great 'melting pot' narrative of globalisation). But in stripping a garment of its specific context and the meaning that comes with that, then repackaging it in a way that appeals to a dominant group, it values its aesthetic quality over its actual purpose and meaning. It means that the average white consumer is given the power to determine what is preferable to their tastes and what can be discarded. This leads to ridiculous situations, where a kameez is being sold without the salwar, where a keffiyeh is being repurposed as a mini dress and where a cheongsam is cut into a two piece crop set.
Cultural appropriation isn't just moving a garment from one context to another, it is (if even unintentionally) erasing the agency of the communities that they belong to. By stripping the rich, non-European context of the garment, it becomes something that fulfils a fleeting trend and nothing more. The process of selling these garments for profit without recognising the artistry behind them, the legacy of the garments and the story of why they're worn is problematic. It means that we can't distinguish between a hanbok, a kimono and a cheongsam with each being generalised into an 'oriental print'.
When we bought a tunic from Palestine, we soon realised that we had no place wearing it, so we gifted it to a Palestinian friend, who explained to us the significance of the embroidery. So, this conversation isn't just a competition between white people and everyone else. That said, there is still so much space for us to meet on common ground where we both give or take in a mutual exchange. But as soon as it becomes one culture taking the aspects of another and assuming them as its own, it can be cultural appropriation regardless of whether the person is white or BIPOC. This can happen whenever there is a clear imbalance between the person appropriating and the person losing control of their culture. A common example is South Asian people speaking in blaccent.
Appropriation Becomes Harmful
It's easy for us to think that if our own communities honour and acknowledge the significance of the garments or the jewellery that we wear, then why does it matter? For example, our own parents will celebrate some instances of appropriation as people showing interest in our culture, genuinely believing that there is nothing to lose from their involvement. However, historically, cultural appropriation has been mobilised as a way to preserve certain aspects of a minority culture that fit the dominant group's interests while purposefully discarding others, leading to cultural erasure. Now that these practices can't be institutionalised, and this sort of racism can no longer be made policy, the same sentiments are emerging in equally problematic ways in fashion and pop culture spaces.
We all hold a form of cultural capital. The value of this capital is often determined from the Eurocentric viewpoint that we often (unintentionally) inhabit. So with this in mind, the sharing of cultural knowledge can move away from a mutual exchange into a way for the mainstream audience to take without acknowledgement. What's more is that when they are taken and commercialised, cultural and religious garments can often be sexualised in order to appeal to a very specific demographic. When the cheongsam is appropriated with high slits, it seeks to sexualise the bodies of women who wear it, when the actual clothes themselves are not at all for that purpose. One of the more dangerous examples of religious appropriation is the sexualisation of the hijab. As a garment its very purpose is to protect the wearer from being objectified and alarmingly, the appropriation of the hijab and niqab in both high fashion and pop culture has had the effect of causing the opposite.
French Montana Album Cover (2019)
Taking the value of an item of clothing, without paying homage to the place, its history and the people who wear it, allows us to take the aesthetic without honouring its story in the process. Everyone's responses to this can vary but we think that for us, the line between appreciation and appropriation is crossed when something is sold without benefitting the communities from which it was taken.
How the World Betrayed Afghanistan
What is Religious Trauma?
Yes, All Men


text:
Westbury's Picks
Westbury's Pick: The Diamond Sheffield
This month's inspirational Westbury's Pick is the stunning Diamond building in Sheffield.
The Diamond in Sheffield is an example of modern architecture implementing the use of glass to create a fascinating design. This stunning building is home to the University of Sheffield's engineering school and is the centre of an £81 million investment. The 19,500-square-metre site houses world class facilities for engineering students including specialist laboratories, lecture theatres, teaching spaces, workshops, a learning resource centre and study areas for up to 5,000 students. The Diamond is named after the distinctive anodised aluminium and glass facade which draws inspiration from the historic buildings surrounding the site, including the beautiful church opposite, yet is reminiscent of the precious stone when it is finely cut for jewellery.
The glasswork on the exterior of the building has been carefully designed to allow natural light into the laboratories and key study areas throughout the engineering facility. To balance the large panes of glass on the north and south sides, the windows on the east and west facing sides of the building are slightly smaller in attempt to stop the laboratories and study areas from overheating while in direct sunlight. Alongside this, the diamond lattice on the exterior of the building was designed to provide shade to the rooms that are in direct sunlight all day, to further control the temperature of the study areas. Rooflights also buy hydrocodone online with paypal allow natural light to flood into the study spaces, with circular desks surrounding glazed apertures ensuring this light is able to reach the lower floors of the building.
Despite its beautiful appearance, the Diamond has been at the centre of a lot of controversy since its completion in 2015. Many of the students at the University, and the wider population of Sheffield, have had mixed reviews on the building with it being known as 'the bling building'. The site was nominated for the 2016 Carbuncle Cup which is awarded to the UK's worst new building of that year being described to have "committed sins on both the outside and inside". The Diamond did not win the 'award' but the fact it was shortlisted provides a good indication of how the public feel about the design of the building.
Despite its controversy, the Diamond is an example of glass architecture that has been carefully designed with the interior of the building in mind as well as the exterior. Although it has received mixed reviews from the public, the glass work used in the architecture of The Diamond, which has been designed to provide the perfect level of natural light into the building, is why we have selected it as this month's Westbury's Pick.
Image sources: 1, 2, 3
Tags: Westbury's Picks glazing Famous buildings
OrangeryconservatoryWestbury's Picks
The orangeries and conservatories of Kew Gardens
The modern guide to housewarming parties
Roof LanternWestbury's PicksAdviceOrangery
Your Guide To The Orangery Roof


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Adobe InDesign Installer 2.0 Updater fixes the following: Enables you to install InDesign 2.0 onto Mac OS X, version 10.1.x systems without receiving the error "An Error Has Occurred Which Prevented the Installation from Completing." Enables you to install InDesign 2.0 onto Mac OS X, version 10.1.x systems without receiving the error "Error creating folder. 1008:9,-5000 access denied." followed by "You do not have enough access privileges for this installation."


text:
module Harp

  require "json"
  require "rgl/adjacency"
  require "rgl/topsort"

  # Resourcer keeps track of defined resources and provides lookup over them.
  class Resourcer

    @@logger = Logging.logger[self]

    def initialize(harp_id)
      @dep_graph = RGL::DirectedAdjacencyGraph[]
      @dependencies = Hash.new []
      @harp_id = harp_id
      @resources = nil
      @config = nil
    end

    # Accept the resources from a source and add to the dictionary of resources
    # available.
    def consume(template_or_uri)
      # TODO: handle URL
      @@logger.info "Consume template: #{template_or_uri.length.to_s}"
      digest(template_or_uri)
    end

    # Retrieve a resource definition from the set
    def get(resource_name)
      @@logger.debug "Looking for resource: #{resource_name}."
      @resources[resource_name]
    end

    # Retrieve a resource definition from the set
    def get_existing(resource_name)
      @@logger.debug "Looking for resource: #{resource_name}."
      @resources[resource_name]
    end

    # Retrieve a resource dependency list from the set
    def get_dep(resource_name)
      @@logger.debug "Looking for : #{resource_name}'s dependencies"
      @dependencies[resource_name]
    end

    private

    def digest(content)
      json = JSON.parse(content)
      @config = json.has_key?("Config") ? json["Config"] : nil
      @resources = json.has_key?("Resources") ? json["Resources"] : nil
      parse_into_graph
    end

    def parse_into_graph
      @resources.each do |name, content|
        match_deps(name, content, "ref")
      end
      unless @dep_graph.acyclic?
          raise "Found circular dependency"
      end
    end

    #Iterate over values to check for specified item
    def match_deps(name, content, item)
      content.each do |key, value|
        if value.is_a?(Hash)
            dep = value[item]
            unless dep.nil?
              content[key] = @resources.has_key?(dep) ? @resources[dep]["id"] : nil
              @dependencies[name] += [dep]
              @dep_graph.add_edge(dep, name)
            end
        end
    end

    end

  end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Her expression scared and unsure, she glanced around the classroom. I stood off to the side, watching her for a minute. We were told that Jenny has a severe phobia of people and we would need to make sure she was doing okay. During the week, I made it my special goal to pray for her and encourage her however I could. On break times I would go talk to Jenny and try to get her to open up - but to no avail.
One day I handed her a jump rope and encouraged her to use it – only to have her stand there expressionless for minutes and then put it away. But I kept at it. I gave her high fives, smiled big, said her name, made eye contact, encouraged her, patted her shoulder, and prayed.
As each day passed, I saw no outward signs that anything I was doing or saying was having an impact at all. She would not say more than one word to me at a time. I never saw her smile either.
Friday came and I patted her shoulder and told her goodbye. Later that afternoon, I opened up the mailbox to find a note from the person I didn't expect - Jenny!
Shocked, I asked one of my Taiwanese friends to translate it for me: "Teacher Joanna, thank you for teaching me English." I was thrilled. A girl with a severe phobia like Jenny's has a very hard time connecting with other people and would never write them a note. It was truly a miracle!
I marveled. I had thought nothing was happening. Most people would call Jenny a hopeless case. But God had put her on my heart and so I followed His leading. The fact that she wrote not only one note, but two is proof – God is pulling her out of her shell and helping her connect with others. How thrilled I am to see that He is working so beautifully in little Jenny's life!


مقدمه: سلول‌های بنیادی اسپرماتوگونی به‌عنوان سلول بنیادی اختصاصی بافت بیضه وظیفه تولید مداوم اسپرم را در جنس نر بر عهده دارند. حفظ خودنوزایی این سلول‌ها جهت تضمین اسپرم‌زایی مداوم ضروری بوده و کنام بیضه با فراهم‌آوردن شرایط مناسب این مهم را برعهده دارد. تا‌کنون در شرایط آزمایشگاهی مواد و عوامل رشد اختصاصی جهت جایگزینی این کنام معرفی شده‌اند که اغلب این مطالعات بر روی سلول‌های بنیادی اسپرماتوگونی پستانداران صورت گرفته است. لذا در این مطالعه اثر عصاره بیضه موش و خروس بالغ در مقایسه با عوامل رشد بر روی ویژگی کلنی‌زایی سلول‌های بنیادی اسپرماتوگونی خروس مورد بررسي قرار گرفت.
مواد و روش‌ها در این مطالعه اثر عصاره بیضه موش و خروس بالغ در مقایسه با سه عامل رشد GDNF، bFGF و LIF بر روی ویژگی کلنی‌زایی سلول‌های بنیادی اسپرماتوگونی خروس در طی چهار روز تیمار تحت بررسي قرار گرفت. پس از مشخص شدن غلظت بهینه عوامل مورد آزمایش، سلول‌ها به‌مدت دوهفته تحت تیمار قرار گرفتند و سپس بررسی بیان ژن OCT4 به‌عنوان یک ژن حائز اهمیت در سلول‌های بنیادی اسپرماتوگونی با روش Real-time RT-PCR انجام پذیرفت.
نتایج: نتایج بررسی کلنی‌زایی نشان داد که پس از گذشت چهار روز از تیمار با عصاره بیضه موش و خروس بالغ در مقایسه با گروه كنترل و همچنین عوامل رشد GDNF، bFGF و LIF در مقایسه با نمونه‌هاي كنترل تفاوت قابل ملاحظه‌ای را در تعداد کلنی‌های تشکیل شده نشان دادند. نتایج بررسی بیان ژني نيز نشان داد كه پس از گذشت دو هفته از تیمار، بيان ژن OCT4 به‌طور معني‌داري افزايش مي‌يابد.
نتیجه‌گیری: نتایج این مطالعه نشان داد عصاره بیضه می‌تواند به‌عنوان جایگزینی مناسب اما قابل ارتقا برای عوامل رشد گران قیمت مطرح گردد.
سلول بنیادی اسپرماتوگونی، خودنوزایی، عوامل رشد، عصاره بیضه.
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Izadyar F, Matthijs-Rijsenbilt JJ, den Ouden K, Creemers LB, Woelders H, de Rooij DG. Development of a cryopreservation protocol for type A spermatogonia. J Androl 2002;23(4):537-545.
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Liu L, He P, Cai K, Zhang Y, Li J, Cao F, et al. Lentivirus-mediated expression of MxA in chicken spermatogonial stem cells. Reprod Domest Anim 2010;45(5):e131-137.
Yu F, Ding LJ, Sun GB, Sun PX, He XH, Ni LG, et al. Transgenic sperm produced by electrotransfection and allogeneic transplantation of chicken fetal spermatogonial stem cells. Mol Reprod Dev 2010;77(4):340-347.
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Kim JN, Lee YM, Park TS, Jung JG, Cho BW, Lim JM, et al. Detection and characterization of primordial germ cells in pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) embryos. Theriogenology 2005;63(4):1038-1049.
Mokoto M, Ohashi T, Ken-ichi N, Shinji L. Analysis of chicken primordial germ cells. Cytotechnology 2008;57(2):199-205.
Yeh JR, Zhang X, Nagano MC. Establishment of a short-term in vitro assay for mouse spermatogonial stem cells. Biol Reprod 2007;77(5):897-904.
Hu J, Shima H, Nakagawa H. Glial cell line-derived neurotropic factor stimulates sertoli cell proliferation in the early postnatal period of rat testis development. Endocrinology 1999;140(8):3416-3421.
Pitman M, Emery B, Binder M, Wang S, Butzkueven H, Kilpatrick TJ. LIF receptor signaling modulates neural stem cell renewal. Mol Cell Neurosci 2004;27(3):255-266.
Xi J, Wang Y, Zhang P, He L, Nan X, Yue W, et al. Human fetal liver stromal cells that overexpress bFGF support growth and maintenance of human embryonic stem cells. PLoS One 2010;5(12):e14457.
Yin M, Li DX. Effects of SCF, LIF and bFGF on mouse spermatogonial stem cells proliferation in vitro. Sheng Wu Gong Cheng Xue Bao 2002;18(6):754-757.
Stukenborg JB, Wistuba J, Luetjens CM, Elhija MA, Huleihel M, Lunenfeld E, et al. Coculture of spermatogonia with somatic cells in a novel three-dimensional soft-agar-culture-system. J Androl 2008;29(3):312-329.
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Oatley MJ, Racicot KE, Oatley JM. Sertoli cells dictate spermatogonial stem cell niches in the mouse testis. Biol Reprod 2011;84(4):639-645.
Fouchecourt S, Godet M, Sabido O, Durand P. Glial cell-line-derived neurotropic factor and its receptors are expressed by germinal and somatic cells of the rat testis. J Endocrinol 2006;190(1):59-71.
Spinnler K, Kohn FM, Schwarzer U, Mayerhofer A. Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor is constitutively produced by human testicular peritubular cells and may contribute to the spermatogonial stem cell niche in man. Hum Reprod 2010;25(9):2181-2187.
Shi B, Deng L, Shi X, Dai S, Zhang H, Wang Y, et al. The enhancement of neural stem cell survival and growth by coculturing with expanded Sertoli cells in vitro. Biotechnol Prog 2012;28(1):196-205.
Dann CT, Alvarado AL, Molyneux LA, Denard BS, Garbers DL, Porteus MH. Spermatogonial stem cell self-renewal requires OCT4, a factor downregulated during retinoic acid-induced differentiation. Stem Cells 2008;26(11):2928-2937.


This t-shirt by FILA features an oversized fit, a rounded neckline and a brand logo on the chest. This product is big in size, we recommend you to choose a size smaller than your usual. This tee comes in red.