Life-Cycle Assessment for Sustainable Inland Shipping on South Holland's Waterways

Inland shipping is an efficient way of freight transportation, especially in the Province of South Holland (the Netherlands), but this sector faces a significant challenge in further reducing climate change effects and local health and environmental impacts caused by the combustion of diesel fuel.<br/><br/>In this study, an analysis of the...

Zero-emission Fueling Infrastructure for IWT: Optimizing the Connection between Upstream Energy Supply and Downstream Energy Demand

A key challenge in the energy transition for Inland Water Transport is the functional design of bunker networks and first-order dimensioning of individual bunker stations. A fundamental ingredient for this is an improved understanding of how upstream energy supply (‘well-to-bunker-station’) and downstream demand (‘bunker-station-to-tank’) may...

FEM modelling to predict spatiotemporally resolved water uptake in organic coatings: Experimental validation by odd random phase electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements

In this work, a new finite element modelling (FEM) approach is followed to model spatiotemporally resolved water uptake in organic coatings. To this aim, we start from a physical model, where not only Fickian diffusion of water is taken into account but also the adsorption/desorption reaction of water on the polymer matrix. Starting from a...

Q-methodology and farmers' decision-making

Despite extensive research on farmers’ constraints and decisions, technology developers, policymakers and development organizations still encounter difficulties in relating policies to farmers’ strategies. Often, the concept of ‘smallholders’ is applied as explaining and predicting farmers’ decisions – suggesting that specific strategies of...

Mechanisms Controlling the Distribution of Net Water Transport in Estuarine Networks

Net water transport (NWT) in estuaries is important for, for example, salt intrusion and sediment dynamics. While NWT is only determined by river runoff in single channels, in estuarine networks, it results from a complex interplay between tides and residual flows. This study aims to disentangle the various contributions of these physical...

Towards low-cost PEM fuel cells: Interfacial effects and material dynamics of a non-PGM electrocatalyst

In this thesis several aspects of PEM fuel cells are discussed. From an atomic scale, e.g. crystal and electronic structure of a non-noble metal material, e.g. (H)zLiMn2O4 (protonated spinel lithium manganese oxide) for electrocatalysis and its dynamics, to meso-macro scale effects such as those concerning transport resistances at the membrane...

Exploring water and ion transport process at silicone/copper interfaces using in-situ electrochemical and Kelvin probe approaches

In general, packaging materials which encapsulate light emitting diodes (LEDs) and microelectronic devices offer barrier protection against several environmental hazards such as water and ionic contaminants. However, these encapsulants may provide pathways for water and ionic contaminants to reach the metal/polymer interfaces and provoke local...

Unraveling decision-making in irrigated farming in Malawi: Using Q methodology to develop typologies on water transport technology adoption

Despite the strong emphasis on irrigation development in Southern Africa, different initiatives from technology developers, policy developers and development organizations to encourage water transport technology adoption have often been disappointing. The lack of long-term success can partly be contributed to a mismatch between farmer realities...

Pre-feasibility study on an inland water container transport service at Lake Volta, Ghana

The inland waters of Ghana have a considerable potential for the operation of inland water transport (IWT) services. These services could be part of a multimodal transport corridor, to connect the northern regions and the northern landlocked countries with the industrial southern part of the country, which also includes the port of Tema, one of...

The economic risk for inland water transport due to uncertainty in morphodynamic behaviour

River systems are vastly changing environments, not only due to natural process, but also human intervention plays an important role. With the many different river functions at play, large amounts of maintenance budgets are associated with river management. For decision makers it is important to know expected costs or losses and the spread...

Understanding transport properties of geopolymer mortar using polarization and fluorescence microscopy

Danube River Development Strategy: Interim Report

The Danube is an essential Inland Water Transport (IWT) corridor, particularly for the hinterland connection for the Port of Constantza. This port became one of the largest and busiest ports on the Black Sea, due to its strategic location at the cross roads of Europe and Asia and due to its capacity to handle large volumes of different types of...

Analysis of the inland navitaion network in South and Central Kalimantan, Connection Kahayan - Sebangau

Within the project "Analysis of the inland navigation network in South and Central Kalimantan" a research study has been carried out with the purpose to find a solution for the problems which present themselves in the anjirs Serapat and Kelampan. These canals form the main connection between the rivers Barito, Kapuas and Kahayan on the route...