This work presents a review that aims to characterize the policy evaluation practices regarding the public policies on energy, with a focus on the metrics: concerns, objectives, and indicators. As key novelty, emphasis was put into finding attributes and metrics that can be used to assess effectiveness, not only efficacy or efficiency. The concerns and objectives were organized into four categories: Institutional, Environmental, Economic, and Social. For every category, detailed and condensed concerns were identified. It was attempted to find indicators for every condensed concern, which resulted in 15 core indicators.

The receding globalization has reshaped the logistics industry, while the additional pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic has posed new difficulties and challenges as has the pressure towards sustainable development. Achieving the synergistic development of economic, social, and environmental benefits in the logistics industry is essential to achieving its high-quality development. Therefore, we propose a data-driven calculation, evaluation, and enhancement method for the synergistic development of the composite system of economic, social, and environmental benefits (ESE-B) of the logistics industry. Based on relevant data, the logistics industry ESE-B composite system sequential parametric index system is then constructed. The Z-score is applied to standardize the original index data without dimension, and a collaborative degree model of logistics industry ESE-B composite system is constructed to estimate the coordinated development among the subsystems of the logistics industry’s ESE-B... [more]

The surface integrity of machined components is considered to be an important part of the quality matrix for high-performance applications in the aviation industry. Therefore, close attention is given to the components made up of hard-to-cut materials such as Ti6Al4V, which face processability challenges. In this regard, among the non-conventional machining processes, electric discharge machining is widely preferred for cutting Ti6Al4V. In this study, the potentiality of cryogenic-treated tool electrodes (graphite and aluminum) with unmodified (kerosene) and modified (kerosene with Span 20, Span 60, and Span 80) dielectrics are comprehensively investigated. A three-phased experimentation framework is deployed based on the following process parameters, i.e., surfactant type, surfactant concentration, electrode material, and pulse ON:OFF time. Thorough statistical analyses are performed based on the full factorial design of experiments, and the results are characterized by process physic... [more]

The electro-mobility of vehicles could solve the negative effects of road transport, by decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. However, some electric vehicles also have a negative impact on the environment related to the nature of electricity used. This paper aims to evaluate the electricity sources for electric vehicles using a Life Cycle Thinking approach. Life cycle assessment, using several midpoints and endpoint methods, highlighted that the most damaging sources were lignite and diesel, while hydropower, wind, and biomass were the most sustainable ones. Cumulative energy demand showed that biomass used the least energy (0.034 MJ eq.), but originates from 100% non-renewable sources. Lignite, which also comes from 100% non-renewable sources, used the most energy (17.791 MJ eq.). The lowest carbon footprints were for wind, biomass, and photovoltaic (1.0 kg CO2 eq.). Considering life cycle costing, photovoltaic electricity generation was the most expensive (0.2107 USD/kWh) while natura... [more]

The reuse and recycling of products, leading to the utilization of wastes as key resources in a closed loop, is a great opportunity for the market in terms of added value and reduced environmental impact. In this context, producing carbonaceous anode materials starting from raw materials derived from food waste appears to be a possible approach to enhance the overall sustainability of the energy storage value chain, including Li-ion (LIBs) and Na-ion batteries (NIBs). In this framework, we show the behavior of anodes for LIBs and NIBs prepared with coffee ground-derived hard carbon as active material, combined with green binders such as Na-carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), alginate (Alg), or polyacrylic acid (PAA). In order to evaluate the effect of the various binders on the charge/discharge performance, structural and electrochemical investigations are carried out. The electrochemical characterization reveals that the alginate-based anode, used for NIBs, delivers much enhanced charge/di... [more]

Sustainability assessments of cooling/lubrication-assisted advanced machining processes has been demanded by environment control agencies because it is an effective management tool for improving process sustainability. To achieve an effective and efficient sustainability evolution of machining processes, there is a need to develop a new method that can incorporate qualitative indicators to create a quantifiable value. In the present research work, a novel quantifiable sustainability value assessment method was proposed to provide performance quantification of the existing sustainability assessment methods. The proposed method consists of three steps: establishing sustainable guidelines and identifying new indicators, data acquisition, and developing an algorithm, which creates the Overall Performance Assessment Indicator (OPAI) from the sustainability assessment method. In the proposed algorithm, initially, both quantitative and qualitative sustainability indicators are normalized. Aft... [more]

Nowadays, sustainability is one of the strategic goals of smart cities. They are the essential solution to creating the sustainable future. On the other hand, the smart city is intended to deal with the problems of energy management. This paper examines the influence of the smart sustainable cities concept on energy management from the labor market perspective. The paper fulfills the research gap about energy manager profession transformation considering smart sustainable city concept. The aim of the paper is to create an up-to-date holistic energy manager skill model with a focus on emerging technologies. The skill model reflects the synergy of two methodological approaches: the theoretical and practical approaches. Descriptive statistics are used to present the labor market research results. It is concluded that the core elements of the smart sustainable city concept have an impact on energy management are sustainability and big data. The labor market research also draws differences... [more]

Sustainable business models have become a phenomenon of global interest. Since the beginning of the 21st century, companies have sought to shift from traditional business models towards sustainable ones in order to leverage their sustainable performance and increase their competitive advantage. The aim of this paper is to provide an extensive overview of the academic research on sustainable business models with the focus on inquiry of main trends related to business and economics studies and identification of future research directions. This paper reviews existing literature on sustainable business models in order to map this research stream and identify the most substantial contributors to the advances of research in this field. It contributes to the existing body of knowledge on sustainable business models by: (1) describing the most influential and high-impact researchers/authors, journals, and papers; (2) highlighting main and most important research trends related to sustainable b... [more]

This paper describes Smiling Earth, a mobile app to increase citizens’ awareness about their own carbon footprint, by integrating energy and transport-related data. The main aim of our work is to explore the ways in which Information and Communication Technologies could help raise awareness and educate and motivate citizens about their actions and their consequences on the environment. Smiling Earth provides feedback to users by visualising data about their daily activities with the aim to motivate citizens to change their behaviour to reduce their CO2 emissions by adopting a healthier lifestyle. The value of the Smiling Earth for individuals, cities and communities is discussed. The feedback from an expert evaluation and how Smiling Earth could contribute to Positive Energy Districts are also discussed.

Sustainability is among the most important directions in global development. The challenge today is to reconcile the fastest possible economic growth and the pursuit of prosperity with concern for the environment. One of the important problems of modern economies and societies is to reduce overall consumption and implement new patterns of sustainable consumption and production. The main aim of this article was to analyze consumer preferences in terms of purchasing personalized production offered by implementing the concept of Industry 4.0 and ensuring sustainable consumption and production (SCP). Based on the analysis of the literature and the results of our own research, an attempt was made to estimate the impact of personalized production offered by the Industry 4.0 concept on SCP and thus the sustainable development of the economy. This article presents the results of a survey conducted on a selected group of consumers, focusing on learning about expectations, consumer preferences f... [more]

Despite the fact that some renewable energy (RE) technologies are already techno-economically viable, the high spatial dilution nature of their sources, together with aspects beyond the techno-economic ones (such as environmental, social, cultural, and other aspects), can become strong constraints and barriers when it comes to their integration into electric systems. Therefore, with the objective of determining whether studies on spatial energy planning (SEP) are addressing these issues, a systematic review has been carried out to address whether SEP studies are considering aspects beyond the techno-economic ones when integrating RE technologies and, if they are being considered, how they are addressed in their analyses and what criteria, factors, and indicators of the aspects that are employed. Apart from the revelation that the concept of SEP has been included within high-quality scientific literature for less than ten years, SEP seems to be an unexploited tool with the potential to... [more]

The green building rating system within the sustainability framework of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Pearl Rating System (PRS), similar to most international rating systems such as LEED, considers several strategies, regulations, and policies to improve the energy and water performance in buildings. However, the applicability of considering water as part of energy or the fact that the utilization of energy mandates the usage of water seems unexplored and is not yet included in any of the existing building rating systems. A unified approach of water and energy resources is thus vital for future considerations in energy policy, planning, and the inclusion of the same in the sustainability rating systems. This paper investigated, as a case study, the prospects of water−energy nexus in the prevailing UAE green building rating system—PRS—to uncover whether any water conservation strategy has an adverse effect on energy and vice versa. The review revealed that the major shortcomings o... [more]

High dependency on fossil fuels, low energy efficiency, poor diversification of energy sources, and a low rate of access to electricity are challenges that need to be solved in many developing countries to make their energy systems more sustainable. Cogeneration has been identified as a key strategy for increasing energy generation capacity, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and improving energy efficiency in industry, one of the most energy-demanding sectors worldwide. However, more studies are necessary to define approaches for implementing cogeneration, particularly in countries with tropical climates (such as Ecuador). In Ecuador, the National Plan of Energy Efficiency includes cogeneration as one of the four routes for making energy use more sustainable in the industrial sector. The objective of this paper is two-fold: (1) to identify the potential of cogeneration in the Ecuadorian industry, and (2) to show the positive impacts of cogeneration on power generation capacity,... [more]

Food Waste (FW) because of its composition is considered as an ideal feedstock for the production of biofuels and in particular bioethanol. The production of bioethanol from lignocellulosic materials has been studied over a long time. The process consists of the stages of pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, fermentation and product recovery. However, the legal framework regarding biofuels has established specific environmental criteria for their production which are regularly updated. The most common tool for the assessment of the environmental performance of a process or product is the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). In the present review, the results of LCA studies on the production of bioethanol from food waste are presented. Significant differences are observed among the studies in terms of the methodological choices made. Despite the high heterogeneity observed which does not allow a direct comparison among them, there is strong evidence that the production of bioethanol from food wast... [more]

Through the implementation of low carbon-based energy systems and participatory modes of governance, there are countless collective initiatives progressing towards a sustainable and resilient energy model. Local alternatives necessarily have to be able to scale in order to address global challenges. From the renewed paradigm of the commons, this empirical research provides a precise picture of the present scalability of these (self) transformative initiatives in Spain. Based on the identification and qualitative analysis of 18 of them via semi-structured in-depth interviews, the article explores their upper and lower limits; the importance of power distribution and citizen participation; the relational dimension of the scale; the upscaling forms and the role of public institutions. On the basis of the results obtained, the article finally presents recommendations aimed at strengthening this scalability of the energy commons.

The economic development of the EU’s countries depends on stable and permanent access to various energy sources. The integration of European energy markets is a long-term process. Each member country has a different energy balance, energy resources and electricity generation technologies. Therefore, comparing Member States with one another is a complex task. The article deals with organizing the set of objects in multidimensional spaces of variables from the point of view of a certain characteristics that cannot be measured in a simple way, i.e., the relative level of the development of energy markets. The following diagnostic variables were adopted for the analysis: consumption of electric energy generated from renewables per capita (TWH/person), hard coal consumption (million tons/person), greenhouse gas emissions per capita, available for final consumption gigawatt-hour per person, final energy consumption thousand tons of oil equivalent (TOE) per person, petroleum available for fin... [more]

In the construction industry, it is the material production phase and the use phase of buildings’ life cycles that represent the greatest environmental burden. The presented research focused on wood constructions during their use phase. The primary objective of the research was to determine the amount of CO2 produced during the operation of specific wood constructions in connection with the energy demand for their heating. A correlation analysis of selected parameters revealed a statistically significant correlation between heating medium type and energy demand for heating (p = −0.5773) and between heating medium type and amount of CO2 produced (p = 0.4796). A more detailed analysis showed that, in terms of the average energy demand for heating, the column constructions were the most efficient among the compared construction systems, regardless of the energy standard. Similar findings were obtained for annual CO2 production in connection with the average energy demand for heating. The... [more]

In this study, an analysis is carried out to determine the optimal application of multiple renewable energy resources, namely wind and solar, to provide electricity requirements for green smart cities and environments. This was done to determine the potential of renewable energy to provide clean, economically viable energy for the case study of Zagazig, located at 30°34′ N 31°30′ E in the North East of Egypt. The relevant data surrounding the production of energy were collected, including the meteorological data from NASA, and specifications regarding renewable resources including solar panels, wind turbines, and storage batteries. Then a hybrid model was constructed consisting of Photovoltaics (PV) panels, wind turbines, a converter, and storage batteries. Once the model was constructed, meteorological data were added alongside average daily demand and cost of electricity per kWh. The optimal solution for Zagazig consisted of 181,000 kW of solar panels feeding directly into the grid.... [more]

Hybrid vehicles currently represent a compromise between the maturity of conventional vehicles and the low consumption and attention to environmental issues of electric vehicles. This article analyzes the feasibility of a hybrid series vehicle where the heat engine is replaced by a micro gas turbine. In the continuous generation of electric current, it has numerous advantages compared to an internal combustion engine and the purpose of the article is to verify whether these advantages also apply to traction in a hybrid vehicle. The model will be a city car as problems in urban environments of pollution and optimization of consumption are more revealing. After defining performance requirements, the main components are sized and then selected from the catalog, paying attention in the search for a compromise between performance, space constraints, and costs. The Advisor software will then be used to simulate the configuration in both urban and suburban cycles, paying attention to performa... [more]

This research qualitatively reviews literature regarding energy system modeling in Japan specific to the future hydrogen economy, leveraging quantitative model outcomes to establish the potential future deployment of hydrogen in Japan. The analysis focuses on the four key sectors of storage, supplementing the gas grid, power generation, and transportation, detailing the potential range of hydrogen technologies which are expected to penetrate Japanese energy markets up to 2050 and beyond. Alongside key model outcomes, the appropriate policy settings, governance and market mechanisms are described which underpin the potential hydrogen economy future for Japan. We find that transportation, gas grid supplementation, and storage end-uses may emerge in significant quantities due to policies which encourage ambitious implementation targets, investment in technologies and research and development, and the emergence of a future carbon pricing regime. On the other hand, for Japan which will init... [more]

The bioethanol industry continues improving sustainability, specifically focused on plant energy and GHG emission management. Dried distiller grains with solubles (DDGS) is a byproduct of ethanol fermentation and is used for animal feed. DDGS is a relatively low-value bulk product that decays, causes odor, and is challenging to manage. The aim of this research was to find an alternative, value-added-type concept for DDGS utilization. Specifically, we aimed to explore the techno-economic feasibility of torrefaction, i.e., a thermochemical treatment of DDGS requiring low energy input, less sophisticated equipment, and resulting in fuel-quality biochar. Therefore, we developed a research model that addresses both bioethanol production sustainability and profitability due to synergy with the torrefaction of DDGS and using produced biochar as marketable fuel for the plant. Our experiments showed that DDGS-based biochar (CSF—carbonized solid fuel) lower calorific value may reach up to 27 MJ∙... [more]

Recently, electric vehicles (EVs) have become an increasingly important topic in the field of sustainable transportation research, alongside distributed generation, reactive power compensation, charging optimization, and control. The process of loading on existing power system infrastructures with increasing demand requires appropriate impact indices to be analyzed. This paper studies the impact of integrating electric vehicle charging stations (EVCSs) into a residential distribution network. An actual case study is modeled to acquire nodal voltages and feeder currents. The model obtains the optimal integration of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels with charging stations while considering reactive power compensation. The impact of EV integration for the case study results in two peaks, which show a 6.4% and 17% increase. Varying the inverter to the PV ratio from 1.1 to 2 decreases system losses by 34% to 41%. The type of charging is dependent on the maximum penetration of EVCSs that the ne... [more]

The construction industry is responsible for a high percentage of the energy consumed on the planet and the emission of greenhouse gases, therefore it is considered necessary to rethink many of the processes that this industry carries out in order to reduce its environmental impact. For this, one of the paths could take into account the Life Cycle Assessment of the used materials, for which it is necessary to evaluate this aspect through indicators that allow the qualification and quantification of the weight of these environmental impacts. In this context, this article presents a methodological proposal for the quantitative evaluation of the embodied primary energy and CO2 production at each stage of the life cycle of prefabricated structural systems, taking as case studies eight prototypes from the “Solar Decathlon” competition in its editions of Europe (2014), United States (2015) and Latin America (2015), through a Simplified Life Cycle Analysis, using the Eco Audit tool from CES E... [more]

Wheat straw without pre-treatment is only converted to methane to a low degree during anaerobic digestion for fuel production due to its low hydrolysis. Current pre-treatment technologies are challenged by high expenses to energy or chemical agents. We examined the low-tech co-ensiling pre-treatment as an alternative pre-treatment of wheat straw, and compared the results with hydrothermal, chemical and mechanical pre-treatment methods. The effects of co-ensiling duration and the mixing ratio between straw and sugar beet root on the methane yields, surface morphology and chemical composition were examined. It was found that co-ensiling could improve production of methane by 34.7%, while a combined hydrothermal and chemical pre-treatment could increase the production of methane by 25.4%. The study demonstrated that the effect of co-ensiling could overlap with hydrothermal and chemical pre-treatment by having similar effects to increase lignocellulosic hydrolysis and improve methane produ... [more]

This paper focuses on the interdependent relationship of power generation, transportation and CO2 emissions to evaluate the impact of electric vehicle deployment on power generation and CO2 emissions. The value of this evaluation is in the employment of a large-scale, bottom-up, national energy modeling system that encompasses the complex relationships of producing, transforming, transmitting and supplying energy to meet the useful demand characteristics with great technological detail. One of such models employed in this analysis is the BUEMS model. The BUEMS model provides evidence of win-win policy options that lead to profitable decarbonization using Turkey’s data in BUEMS. Specifically, the result shows that a ban on diesel fueled vehicles reduces lifetime emissions as well as lifetime costs. Furthermore, model results highlight the cost-effective emission reduction potential of e-buses in urban transportation. More insights from the results indicate that the marginal cost of emis... [more]