This study uses the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) method to prioritize contracting methods to determine the most suitable contract option for water and wastewater projects (WWP). Content analysis, a two-round Delphi survey technique, and a series of validation and reliability tests helped establish the 18 key criteria for FAHP analysis. Consequently, data collected from experts through a pairwise comparison questionnaire form the basis for the inputs for the FAHP analysis. Consequently, the final weightings were derived for each of the key criteria and available contracting methods. The results indicate that the bilateral, cooperative, and trilateral contracting methods are the most suitable for WWP in Iran, with the highest weighting. The study provides useful guidance for the top management of project firms in selecting the optimal contracting method for their projects and offers significant contributions from theoretical and practical perspectives.

In the age of the impending climate crisis, and further forecast ecological catastrophes, humankind has begun to think with growing interest about replacing existing energy sources with renewable ones. An increasing number of people have begun to discuss the need to implement registries that collect information about the energy potential of specific parts of the environment we live in. Additionally, the simultaneous registration of installations used for obtaining energy from alternative sources is desirable. In addition to quantitative attributes, such databases should also contain comprehensive spatial information. Since, in the era of globalization, the creation of such databases ought to be standardized, the purpose of this study is to indicate the directions in which the cadastre of renewable energy sources should be developed by: (i) reviewing the solutions of renewable energy sources that have been described in the scientific literature; (ii) analyzing the content of selected ge... [more]

To date, hydropower dams raise numerous interpretations about their impact on the Lancang-Mekong River. While most research studies analyze the negative aspects of hydropower development on people’s livelihoods and local environments, the hydropower sector was historically one of the most iconic economic segments facilitating transboundary water cooperation for decades. By using the constructive discourse analysis and critical political ecology approach, the presented text (1) outlines the current environmental narratives over the Lancang-Mekong hydropower development and (2) explores the politicization of the Chinese mainstream dams. The data were collected upon the multi-level content analysis of relevant sources and double-checked with the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation and Conflict Database (LMCCD) monitoring over 4000 water-related events among six riparian countries between 1990 and 2021. Our data show that (i) there is a stark contrast in positive and negative narratives over the ra... [more]

China agricultural development has been facing the problem of resource constraints because its resources per capita such as land and energy are relatively lower than the global average. By applying the provincial agricultural panel data from 2000 to 2015 and fixed effect model based on the translog production function, this paper estimates both output elasticities and substitution elasticities of agricultural inputs, which may provide insights into sustainable agricultural development. The results show that, except for capital, the output elasticities of other production factors are all positive. Energy has always played an important role in agricultural production, whose elasticity in agriculture increased from 0.0203 in 2000 to 0.1694 in 2015. We also find a severe scarcity of land, and the high intensity of energy in the field of agriculture. Moreover, there exists a substitute relationship between all factors, which means that in the short term, one production factor can be employe... [more]

Understanding the phase behaviour of (CO2 + water + permanent gas) systems is critical for implementing carbon capture and storage (CCS) processes, a key technology in reducing CO2 emissions. In this paper, phase behaviour data for (H2O + N2) and (CO2 + H2O + N2) systems are reported at temperatures from 323 to 473 K and pressures up to 20 MPa. In the ternary system, the mole ratio between CO2 and N2 was 1. Experiments were conducted in a newly designed analytical apparatus that includes two syringe pumps for fluid injection, a high-pressure equilibrium vessel, heater aluminium jacket, Rolsi sampling valves and an online gas chromatograph (GC) for composition determination. A high-sensitivity pulsed discharge detector installed in the GC was used to measure the low levels of dissolved nitrogen in the aqueous phase and low water levels in the vapour phase. The experimental data were compared with the calculation based on the γ-φ and SAFT-γ Mie approaches. In the SAFT-γ Mie model, the li... [more]

Groundwater storage is an important water management solution that is overlooked by several countries worldwide. This paper evaluates the potential for storing water in the Bananal sedimentary basin and proposes the construction of canals to reduce sediment obstructions in the river flow and harmful flood events. This would allow for better control of the water level. The water stored in the sedimentary basin can be used as a climate change adaptation measure to ensure that the level of the flood plain is maintained high during a drought or low during an intense flood event. Additionally, the flood plain will function as a water reservoir, regulate the river flow downstream from the flood plain, and enhance hydropower generation. A significantly smaller reservoir area is expected to store water, as the water will be stored as groundwater in the sedimentary basin. Results show that the Bananal basin has the potential to store up to 49 km3 of water, which can add up to 11.7 TWh of energy... [more]

Flue gas produced by biomass fuel combustion contains various chlorine-containing substances and is an important factor causing biomass boiler corrosion. The corrosion processes of chlorine, hydrogen chloride and water on iron covered with an intact/damaged oxide film were investigated under the high temperature of 1300 K through reactive molecular dynamics simulation. The results show that the diffusion processes of oxygen and chlorine are similar and can be divided into three stages: rapid diffusion, continuous diffusion, and no oxide film (stable). Oxygen diffusion in Fe2O3 into a pure iron layer is the main cause of gas corrosion in iron/iron oxide systems. A complete oxide film can hinder iron corrosion by chlorine and hydrogen chloride. Damage in an oxide film significantly affects oxygen and chlorine diffusion and iron corrosion. However, such influence is gradually reduced. The integrity of a protective film is the key to alleviating corrosion. Water facilitates the dissociatio... [more]

Algeria is a wealthy country with natural resources, namely, nuclear, renewable, and non-renewable sources. The non-renewable energy sources are considered the lion’s share for energy production (98%). Algeria’s efforts to ensure and strengthen its energy security will take an important step in the coming decades by commissioning new energy infrastructure based on intensive use of water, coal, nuclear, non-renewable, and renewable sources. The implementation of new power infrastructure is expected to be operational from 2030. The renewable power realization in Algeria is relatively less compared to other African countries, i.e., Morocco, Egypt, South Africa, etc. The total renewable power installed capacity in Algeria reached 686 MW in 2020, as part of its national energy portfolio, although the Algerian government has spent tremendous efforts on introducing new sustainable technologies to enable the transition towards a cleaner and sustainable energy system. Indeed, the country announ... [more]

The increasing demand for food, the lack of natural resources and arable land, and the recent restrictions on energy consumption require an immediate solution in terms of agricultural activities. This paper’s objective was to review hydroponics (a new soilless cultivation technology) and compare it with conventional agriculture (soil cultivation) regarding its environmental impact and water and energy consumption. The soil loss, the crop/soil contamination, and the greenhouse gas emissions were the criteria for the environmental comparison of conventional agriculture and hydroponics. As for resource consumption, the water consumption rates (L/kg), energy consumption rates (kWh), and energy required (kW) were the criteria for comparing conventional agriculture with hydroponics. Tomato and cannabis cultivation were used as case studies in this review. The review results showed that the advantages of hydroponics over conventional cultivation include zero-soil cultivation, land-use efficie... [more]

This article is an attempt to explore the heat transfer features of the steady three-dimensional rotating flow of magneto-hydrodynamic hybrid nanofluids under the effect of nonlinear radiation over the bi-directional stretching surface. For this purpose, two different nano-particles, namely silver (Ag) and molybdenum di-sulfide (MoS2), were selected. Three different conventional base fluids were utilized to form desired hybrid nanofluids such as water (H2O), engine oil (EO), and ethylene glycol (EG). We obtained steady three-dimensional highly nonlinear partial differential equations. These highly nonlinear partial differential equations cannot be solved analytically, so these equations were handled in MATLAB with the BVP-4C technique with convergence tolerance at 10−6. The graph depicts the effect of the magnetization effect, thermal radiation, and stretching ratio on rotating hybrid nanofluids. Additionally, the impact of thermal radiation on the heat coefficient of three different h... [more]

The characteristics of the collisions of droplets with the surfaces of particles and substrates of promising oil−water slurry components (oil, water and coal) were experimentally studied. Particles of coals of different ranks with significantly varying surface wettability were used. The following regimes of droplet−particle collisions were identified: agglomeration, stretching separation and stretching separation with child droplets. The main characteristics of resulting child droplets were calculated. Droplet−particle interaction regime maps in the B = f(We) coordinates were constructed. Equations to describe the boundaries of transitions between the droplet−particle interaction regimes (B = nWe) were obtained. The calculated approximation coefficients make it possible to predict threshold shifts in transition boundaries between the collision regimes for different fuel mixture components. Differences in the characteristics of secondary atomization of droplets interacting with particle... [more]

Adsorption heat storage is the most feasible technology for heating decarbonization, which can store large quantities of waste and renewable heat for an exceptionally long time. However, utilizing adsorption heat storage in geographical locations with sub-zero ambient conditions is challenging. Therefore, this paper experimentally investigates the use of ethanol as a working fluid paired with silica gel for adsorption heat storage and utilizes sub-zero ambient as the heat source. The heat storage characteristics, heat charging/discharging cyclic performance, and energy conversion performance via exergy analysis were determined under realistic operating conditions and benchmarked against the widely investigated silica gel/water. Ethanol adsorbate was successfully utilized as a working fluid to employ the evaporators operating under sub-zero ambient conditions. Silica gel/ethanol showed the most significant net cyclic uptake, twice that of silica gel/water. However, the physical characte... [more]

The unique and outstanding physical and chemical properties of aluminosilicate minerals, including zeolites, make them extremely useful in remediation processes. That is due to their demonstrated high efficiency, inexpensiveness, and environmental friendliness in processes aimed on the elimination of heavy metals from water. The paper reports the results of the examination of selectivity of the tested clay minerals and zeolites toward different heavy metals in light of the postulated sorption mechanisms. It was stated that while the most efficient at concurrent removal of lead and copper from aqueous solutions were synthetic zeolites 3A and 10A, smectite was the best in dealing with prolonged pollution with Pb2+ and Cu2+. Determined as one of the parameters in DKR isotherm energy of the process for each combination of sorbate and sorbent, it showed that the dominant mechanism of adsorption on the tested mineral sorbents was physisorption. The exception was kaolinite, for which that ene... [more]

Increasing demands on mobility and transport, but limited space above ground, lead to new traffic routes being built, even more underground in the form of tunnels. In addition to improving the traffic situation, tunnels offer the possibility of contributing to climate-friendly heating by indirectly serving as geothermal power plants. In this study, the geothermal potential of the future longest railway tunnel in the world, the Brenner Base Tunnel, was evaluated. At the Brenner Base Tunnel, warm water naturally flows from the apex of the tunnel towards the city of Innsbruck, Austria. In order to estimate its geothermal potential, hydrological data of discharge rates and temperatures were investigated and analyzed. The investigations indicated the highest geothermal potential in the summertime, while the lowest occurs during winter. It could be shown that these variations were a result of cooling during discharge through areas of low overburden (mid mountain range), where the tunnel atmo... [more]

This research investigated the ability of two materials, which are waste generated during water treatment and wastewater treatment, to remove phosphates from water. The selected materials were quartz sand used in drinking water treatment plants (OQS) and incinerated (600 °C) sewage sludge (ISS). The materials were chosen for their composition: both contain aluminium, iron, and calcium. The experiments were carried out in the laboratory (in batch and in columns stand). Modelling of the sorption processes was performed on the basis of results from experiments in batches. The maximum adsorption capacity of the OQS was 1.14 mg/g obtained using the linearized Langmuir model and the maximum adsorption capacity of the ISS was 0.86 mg/g for the linearized Langmuir model (in batch). A pseudo-first-order model obtained using a nonlinear fit can accurately explain phosphate adsorption kinetics using both adsorbents: OQS and ISS. During the column filtration experiment, a higher sorption capacity... [more]

This paper is aimed at the investigation of the acoustic and spectral characteristics of underwater electric sparks generated between two plate electrodes, using synchronized gas bubble injection. There are two purposes served by discharge initiation in the bubble. Firstly, it creates a favorable condition for electrical breakdown. Secondly, the gas bubble provides an opportunity for the direct spectroscopy of plasma light emission, avoiding water absorption. The effect of water absorption on captured spectra was studied. It was observed that the emission intensity of the Ha line and a shockwave amplitude generated by discharge strongly depend on the size of the gas bubble in the moment of the discharge initiation. It was found that the plasma in the underwater spark channel does not correspond to a source of black-body radiation. This study can be also very useful for understanding the difference between discharges produced directly in a liquid and discharges produced in gas/vapor bub... [more]

Flash calculations, including phase split and phase classification for both n-octane/water blends and paraffinic aromatic synthetic naphtha (PASN)/water blends present significant computational challenges. Calculations to establish the two-phase and three-phase regions, as well as the transitions between regions, were addressed by a phase classification method proposed in a recent contribution involving machine learning (ML). This work focusses on the phase-split calculations, considering (a) the lack of numerical convergence of the traditional calculations and their related numerical issues for water/n-octane and PASN/water systems based on the Rachford−Rice derived surfaces and (b) the successful implementation of an ML approach based on a K-nearest-neighbor (KNN) algorithm, which uses the abundant experimental data obtained in a CREC-VL cell.

Less precipitation, high temperature, and minimal natural vegetation are characteristic of regions having an arid climate. The harsh environment massively destructs the soil structure of that area by burning soil organic carbon, leading to deteriorated soil nutritional quality, creating a significant threat to agricultural production and food security. Direct application of organic wastes not only substitutes lost organic carbon but also restores soil structure and fertility. This study was conducted to assess the impact of organic amendments, i.e., farm manure (FM), poultry manure (PM), molasses (MO), and Exo-Poly Saccharides (EPS) producing rhizobacterial strains i.e., M2, M19, M22 amalgams as treatments. To assess the impact of treatments on soil carbon and structure restoration to hold more water and nutrients, a 42-day incubation experiment using a completely randomized design (CRD) under the two-factor factorial arrangement was conducted. Macro aggregation (0.25 to >1 mm), carbon... [more]

Sustainable Development Goals establish the main challenges humankind is called to tackle to assure equal comfort of living worldwide. Among these, the access to affordable renewable energy and clean water are overriding, especially in the context of developing economies. Reversible Solid Oxide Cells (rSOC) are a pivotal technology for their sector-coupling potential. This paper aims at studying the implementation of such a technology in new concept PV-hybrid energy storage mini-grids with close access to seawater. In such assets, rSOCs have a double useful effect: charge/discharge of the bulk energy storage combined with seawater desalination. Based on the outcomes of an experimental proof-of-concept on a single cell operated with salty water, the operation of the novel mini-grid is simulated throughout a solar year. Simulation results identify the fittest mini-grid configuration in order to achieve energy and environmental optimization, hence scoring a renewable penetration of more t... [more]

Based on the molecular dynamics method, the calculations for diffusion coefficients were carried out in binary aqueous solutions of three alcohols: ethanol, isopropanol, and tert-butanol. The intermolecular potential TIP4P/2005 was used for water; and five force fields were analyzed for the alcohols. The force fields providing the best accuracy of calculation were identified based on a comparison of the calculated self-diffusion coefficients of pure alcohols with the experimental data for internal (Einstein) diffusion coefficients of alcohols in solutions. The temperature and concentration dependences of the interdiffusion coefficients were determined using Darken’s Equation. Transport (Fickian) diffusion coefficients were calculated using a thermodynamic factor determined by the non-random two-liquid (NRTL) and Willson models. It was demonstrated that for adequate reproduction of the experimental data when calculating the transport diffusion coefficients, the thermodynamic factor has... [more]

The separation of aqueous acetonitrile solution by pressure swing distillation (PSD) was simulated and optimized through Aspen Plus software. The distillation sequence of the low pressure column (LPC) and high pressure column (HPC) was determined with a phase diagram. The pressures of the two columns were set to 1 and 4 atm, respectively. Total annual cost (TAC) was considered as the objective function, and design variables, such as the tray number, the reflux ratio, and the feeding position, were optimized. The optimum process parameters were obtained. For the reduction of energy consumption, the PSD with full-heat integration was designed. The TAC of this method is lower by 32.39% of that of the PSD without heat integration. Therefore, it is more economical to separate acetonitrile and water mixture by PSD with full-heat integration, which provides technical support for the separation design of such azeotropes.

The correlation between water and energy is currently the focus of several investigations. In particular, desalination is a technological process characterized by high energy consumption; nevertheless, desalination represents the only practicable solution in several areas, where the availability of fresh water is limited but brackish water or seawater are present. These natural resources (energy and water) are essential for each other; energy system conversion needs water, and electrical energy is necessary for water treatment or transport. Several interesting aspects include the study of saline desalination as an answer to freshwater needs and the application of renewable energy (RE) devices to satisfy electrical energy requirement for the desalination process. A merge between renewable energy and desalination is beneficial in that it is a sustainable and challenging option for the future. This work investigates the possibility of using renewable energy sources to supply the desalinat... [more]

This work presents a mathematical model for the simultaneous optimisation of water and energy usage in hydraulic fracturing using a continuous time scheduling formulation. The recycling/reuse of fracturing water is achieved through the purification of flowback wastewater using thermally driven membrane distillation (MD). A detailed design model for this technology is incorporated within the water network superstructure in order to allow for the simultaneous optimisation of water, operation, capital cost, and energy used. The study also examines the feasibility of utilising the co-produced gas that is traditionally flared as a potential source of energy for MD. The application of the model results in a 22.42% reduction in freshwater consumption and 23.24% savings in the total cost of freshwater. The membrane thermal energy consumption is in the order of 244 × 10³ kJ/m³ of water, which is found to be less than the range of thermal consumption values reported for membrane distillation in... [more]

Ferroferric oxide nanoparticle (denoted as Nano-Fe₃O₄) has low toxicity and is biocompatible, with a small particle size and a relatively high surface area. It has a wide range of applications in many fields such as biology, chemistry, environmental science and medicine. Because of its superparamagnetic properties, easy modification and function, it has become an important material for addressing a number of specific tasks. For example, it includes targeted drug delivery nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging in biomedical applications and in environmental remediation of pollutants. Few articles describe the preparation and modification of Nano-Fe₃O₄ in detail. We present an evaluation of preparation methodologies, as the quality of material produced plays an important role in its successful application. For example, with modification of Nano-Fe₃O₄, the surface activation energy is reduced and good dispersion is obtained.

A model predictive control (MPC) framework, exploiting both feedforward and feedback control loops, is employed to minimize large disturbances that occur in military water networks. Military installations’ need for resilient and efficient water supplies is often challenged by large disturbances like fires, terrorist activity, troop training rotations, and large scale leaks. This work applies the effectiveness of MPC to provide predictive capability and compensate for vast geographical differences and varying phenomena time scales using computational software and actual system dimensions and parameters. The results show that large disturbances are rapidly minimized while maintaining chlorine concentration within legal limits at the point of demand and overall water usage is minimized. The control framework also ensures pumping is minimized during peak electricity hours, so costs are kept lower than simple proportional control. Thecontrol structure implemented in this work is able to sup... [more]