People are the main reason for the deterioration of indoor air quality (IAQ) due to the continuous physiological metabolism processes in their bodies, including respiration. We present results from an investigation of the influence of indoor air temperature on the concentration of exhaled carbon dioxide (CO2). The investigation was preconditioned by previous findings on the effect of air temperature on human metabolism. However, our literature survey showed a lack of studies on the influence of the indoor air temperature on the exhaled CO2 (or metabolic CO2), which leads to the novelty of our results. Our experiments had two phases: measurement in a university classroom with an installed heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system during regular classes and measurement in a specially designed small climate chamber, where the time variations of the CO2 concentrations, together with some physiological parameters, were measured. Two indoor air temperatures were set: 23 °C and... [more]

Manufacturing offers substantial opportunities for economic growth after COVID-19, as long as it delivers competitively priced goods while simultaneously reducing pressure on the environment. In this study, we present the methodological feasibility of the joint application of life cycle assessment (LCA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) for assessing eco-efficiency at the sector level. We employ this methodology to assess the environmental profiles of manufacturing in Poland in relation to their gross value added, and subsequently calculate the improvement targets for the eco-inefficient manufacturing industries. The study reveals that only the chemical industry is relatively eco-efficient, whereas the remaining industries have considerable room for improvement due to their very low eco-efficiency, and thus should follow the best practices established by the chemical industry. Although there are always individual paths for manufacturing industries to achieve the decoupling of economi... [more]

In this paper, a lifetime estimation method for underground cable systems is proposed by combining a health index (HI) and conditional factor (CF). The underground cable system consists of underground cable, joint, termination, manhole, and duct bank. The HI is an indicator to indicate the actual condition of underground cable components and systems whereas the CF is used to indicate different operating stresses of the system under different operating conditions such as percentage loading, electrical stresses, laying structure, environment, etc. The actual technical data as well as historical operating and testing records are applied. The weighting and scoring method with the analytical hierarchy process are used to classify an importance of underground cable components, testing methods, and criteria used in the HI and CF calculation. The annual calculated HIs are plotted to investigate the lifetime trending curve by using a polynomial function. The degradation curve based on calculate... [more]

This article consists of the development of a set of methodological provisions concerning the identification of the features of the influence of the business environment on the effectiveness of the implementation of the company’s financial strategy and the development of a system for its adaptation to the conditions of a dynamic external environment. The purpose of this article is to build an economic and mathematical model to identify the main elements of the business environment that affect the company’s strategy, the formation of methods for evaluating the effectiveness of the implementation of a financial strategy taking into account such influence. The author’s contribution consists in the development of an effective financial algorithmic strategy of the energy holding, considering the influence of the environmental factors. Hypothesis: the use of mathematical models of the business environment will increase the efficiency of energy holding management in the field of finance and i... [more]

Renewable energy sources (RES) play a key role in achieving the European Union’s energy and climate objectives. As a member of the European Union, Croatia has committed to adopting European Directive 2009/28/EC, a directive on promoting the use of RES. Croatia shows good potential for the use of different types of RES. In the period 2009−2019, the share of renewable energy in energy consumption increased from 23.6 to 28.5 percent. The Croatian energy strategy aims to increase the national share of renewable energy to at least 32 percent by 2030. Acceptance and public support are essential for renewable energy to be introduced into energy policy and particularly to encourage renewable energy implementation in the residential sector. The purpose of the paper is to explore the public perception of renewable energy and citizens’ willingness to pay for the use of RES. Data were collected through a 2021 survey of citizens 18 years and older. The survey results show a low level of implementat... [more]

With increasingly prominent environmental problems, controlling automobile exhaust has become essential to the environment. The fuel consumption of transportation is the critical factor that determines exhaust gas. By analyzing the naturalistic driving data of heavy-duty diesel trucks (HDDTs), this paper explored the influence of engine technical state, road features, weather, and temperature conditions on fuel consumption during driving. The detailed process is as follows: Firstly, we collected 1153 naturalistic driving data from 34 HDDTs and made a specific analysis and summary description of the data; secondly, by establishing a binary Logistic regression model, we quantitatively explored the influence of significant factors on the fuel consumption; meanwhile, based on quantitative analysis of factor’s effectiveness, this research used several machine learning algorithms (back-propagation neural network, decision tree, and random forest) to build fuel consumption predictors, and com... [more]

The Euro 4 regulation, applicable since 2016 for L-category vehicles (i.e., two and three-wheelers, and mini cars) reduced the emission limits, but also introduced a new cycle, the WMTC (World Harmonized Motorcycle Test Cycle). The emission studies of Euro 4 motorcycles are limited, and most importantly there are no published studies comparing the results of different laboratories applying the new cycle. In this study we compared the particle and gaseous pollutants of one Euro 4 motorcycle measured in two laboratories in 2017 and 2020. The gaseous pollutant results had a variance (one standard deviation of the means) of 0.5% for CO2, 4−19% for CO, NOx, HC (hydrocarbons) and SPN (Solid Particle Number). The particulate matter mass results had higher variance of 50−60%. Additional tests with open configuration to mimic dilution at the tailpipe gave equivalent results to the closed configuration for the gaseous pollutants and SPN. The total particles (including volatiles) had significant... [more]

Face and neck cooling has been found effective in improving thermal comfort during exercise in the heat despite the fact that the surface area of human face and neck regions accounts for only 5.5% of the entire body. Presently very little documented research has been conducted to investigate cooling the face and neck only to improve indoor thermal comfort. In this study, two highly energy efficient wearable face and neck cooling fans were used to improve occupant thermal comfort in two warm indoor conditions (30 and 32 °C). Local skin temperatures and perceptual responses while using the two wearable cooling fans were examined and compared. Results showed that both cooling fans could significantly reduce local skin temperatures at the forehead, face and neck regions by up to 2.1 °C. Local thermal sensation votes at the face and neck were decreased by 0.82−1.21 scale unit at the two studied temperatures. Overall TSVs decreased by 1.03−1.14 and 1.34−1.66 scale units at 30 and 32 °C tempe... [more]

The circular economy represents a fundamental pillar for modern business models and sustainable development targets: the mandatory claim “reduce, reuse, recycle” is the answer to the global criticalities of natural resources depletion and waste increase [...]

Investors increasingly need to account for concerns about non-financial performance and to consider the environmental impact of fossil fuel investment. We analyze how financial investors appreciate induced seismicity in oil and gas fields in the US and the Netherlands. We employ an event study to investigate the stock market reaction of investors in two fossil fuel majors, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell. We establish that stock market participants’ response is positively but weakly related to induced seismicity with ExxonMobil. This suggests that markets might interpret this seismicity as a signal of future productivity. With Royal Dutch Shell, there is no significant association, suggesting that their investors do not specifically appreciate its externalities. We conclude that the externality of induced seismicity goes unpriced.

Strategic selection of glazing, its window-to-wall ratio, and wall thickness of building reduce the energy consumption in the built environment. This paper presents the experimental results of solar optical properties of five glasses: clear, tinted bronze, tinted green, bronze reflective, and polymer dispersed liquid crystal glasses. Laterite room models were modeled with four different thicknesses and four different glasses using Design Builder, and thermal simulation tests were carried out using Energy Plus. The energy savings and carbon emission mitigation prospective of a building’s glazing variety, window-to-wall ratio (WWR), and wall thickness were investigated. The results revealed that among the five window glasses studied, the polymer dispersed liquid crystal glazing window (PDLCGW) was found to be the most energy-efficient for low heat gain in laterite rooms. The laterite room with 0.23 m wall thickness and 40% PDLCGW WWR reduced 18.9% heat gain in comparison with the laterit... [more]

With the requirement of reduced carbon emissions and air pollution, it has become much more important to monitor the oil quality used in heavy-duty vehicles, which have more than 2/3 transportation emissions. Some gas stations may provide unqualified fuel, resulting in uncontrollable emissions, which is a big challenge for environmental protection. Based on this focus, a gas station recognition method is proposed in this paper. Combining the CART algorithm with the DBSCAN clustering algorithm, the locations of gas stations were detected and recognized. Then, the oil quality analysis of these gas stations could be effectively evaluated from oil stability and vehicle emissions. Massive real-world data operating in Tangshan, China, collected from the Heavy-duty Vehicle Remote Emission Service and Management Platform, were used to verify the accuracy and robustness of the proposed model. The results illustrated that the proposed model can not only accurately detect both the time and locati... [more]

One of the most important elements during photogrammetric studies is the appropriate lighting of the object or area under investigation. Nevertheless, the concept of “adequate lighting” is relative. Therefore, we have attempted, based on experimental proof of concept (technology readiness level—TRL3), to verify the impact of various types of lighting emitted by LED light sources for scene illumination and their direct influence on the quality of the photogrammetric study of a 3D urban mock-up. An important issue in this study was the measurement and evaluation of the artificial light sources used, based on illuminance (E), correlated colour temperature (CCT), colour rendering index (CRI) and Spectral power distribution (SPD) and the evaluation of the obtained point clouds (seven photogrammetric products of the same object, developed for seven different lighting conditions). The general values of the quality of the photogrammetric studies were compared. Additionally, we determined seven... [more]

Practitioners of economic geography recognize innovation as the key factor in sustainable economic development and urging a city to evolve. Urban development evolves from manufacturing-based development to knowledge-based development. Identifying the future benefits of urban development is a research issue. This work analyzes development performance based on quantitative indices of critical knowledge and innovation that enhance economic growth and influence society and competitiveness. The research further identifies the possibility of knowledge dissemination and innovation. This work investigates the key factors encouraging the development of a knowledge-based city for Helsinki, Melbourne, and Hsinchu in terms of economy, society, environment, and management, and observes that the progressive and positive circular stimulation for a city requires not only the cultivation of human capital, but also the construction of social environment and internal relations to form a high-density know... [more]

This work has developed and evaluated a microemulsion-based drilling fluid formulation with characteristics to be applied in oil wells. The microemulsion was formulated with a solution of water/glycerol, pine oil, and Tween 80, a nonionic and biodegradable surfactant. The physical and chemical properties of the drilling fluid obtained in this work were investigated through rheology and filtration analysis, solids content, aging, lubricity, toxicity, and thermal degradation. A non-toxic microemulsion-based drilling fluid oil-in-water (O/W) with high lubricity (0.07638) and thermal stability was obtained with suitable viscosity, gel strength and low fluid loss (4.0 mL), low solids content (6%), stability in a wide range of salinity conditions, and the possibility of high water content (above 85% in mass fraction). The fluid presented a pseudoplastic behavior, and statistically significant Herschel−Bulkley parameters were obtained.

The development of the economy is related not only to its benefits, but also its negative aspects. One of the negative impacts is the impact on the environment and society. Many types of industry and, in a narrower sense, of enterprises, adversely affect their surroundings. It is one of the many factors that has contributed to the growing popularity of the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR). It is important to balance business and industry with the environment and community impacts. This study presents selected aspects of corporate social responsibility, such as society, the environment, and corporate governance in relation to the industry responsible for energy production and distribution. This group includes the energy sector (mining oil, gas, consumer fuels, and energy equipment and services), the materials sector (metallurgy and mining), as well as distribution (gas, electricity supply, independent energy producers, and renewable energy). The aim of the article was to... [more]

Energy and the environment are interrelated, and they are critical factors that influence the development of societies [...]

Sustainability-Linked Bonds (SLBs) are a new type of general corporate purpose bond in which payments are tied to an issuer’s sustainability key performance indicators (KPIs) with respect to the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria. The structure is complementary to green bonds. The Tesco SLBs are linked to the firm’s ability to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 60%. The priority is to reduce its reliance on nonrenewable grid electricity, which contributed 65% of Tesco’s global carbon emissions footprint. Tesco accounts for 1% of electricity demand in the UK. Failure to meet the goals will result in a coupon step-up by 25 basis points on the last three coupons. The aim of our study is to investigate the presence of, how we call it ‘ESG spread’, marked by negative yield difference between SLB and regular bonds. It is something similar to ‘greenium’, that is, a premium paid by bondholders for green bonds when compared to nongreen bonds. We compare the bid and ask yields... [more]

In recent years, numerous studies have explored the opportunities and challenges for emerging decentralized energy systems and business models. However, few studies have focussed specifically on the economic and social value associated with three emerging models: peer-to-peer energy trading (P2P), community self-consumption (CSC) and transactive energy (TE). This article presents the findings of a systematic literature review to address this gap. The paper makes two main contributions to the literature. Firstly, it offers a synthesis of research on the social and economic value of P2P, CSC and TE systems, concluding that there is evidence for a variety of sources of social value (including energy independence, local benefits, social relationships, environmental responsibility and participation and purpose) and economic value (including via self-consumption of renewable electricity, reduced electricity import costs, and improved electricity export prices). Secondly, it identifies factor... [more]

An analysis of the influence of injection well location on CO2 storage efficiency was carried out for three well-known geological structures (traps) in deep aquifers of the Lower Jurassic Polish Lowlands. Geological models of the structures were used to simulate CO2 injection at fifty different injection well locations. A computer simulation showed that the dynamic CO2 storage capacity varies depending on the injection well location. It was found that the CO2 storage efficiency for structures with good reservoir properties increases with increasing distance of the injection well from the top of the structure and with increasing depth difference to the top of the structure. The opposite is true for a structure with poor reservoir properties. As the quality of the petrophysical reservoir parameters (porosity and permeability) improves, the location of the injection well becomes more important when assessing the CO2 storage efficiency. Maps of dynamic CO2 storage capacity and CO2 storage... [more]

The expansion of Internet of Things (IoT) services and the huge amount of data generated by different sensors signify the importance of cloud computing services such as Storage as a Service more than ever. IoT traffic imposes such extra constraints on the cloud storage service as sensor data preprocessing capability and load-balancing between data centers and servers in each data center. Furthermore, service allocation should be allegiant to the quality of service (QoS). In the current work, an algorithm is proposed that addresses the QoS in storage service allocation. The proposed hybrid multi-objective water cycle and grey wolf optimizer (MWG) considers different QoS objectives (e.g., energy, processing time, transmission time, and load balancing) in both the fog and cloud Layers, which were not addressed altogether. The MATLAB script is used to simulate and implement our algorithms, and services of different servers, e.g., Amazon, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc., are considered. The MWG... [more]

Polymer is an insulating substance that has become increasingly popular in recent years due to its benefits. Light density, superior dielectric and thermal properties, and water-resistant or hydrophobic properties are only a few of the benefits. The presence of impurities or pollutants on the insulator’s surface lowers its dielectric capacity, which can lead to current leakage. The influence of seawater and fly ash pollutants on the distribution of the electric field and the current density of the insulator was simulated in this study. The finite element method was used to execute the simulation (FEM). Polymer insulators are subjected to testing in order to gather current leakage statistics. The tested insulator is exposed to seawater pollution, which varies depending on the equivalent salt density deposit value (ESDD). The pollutant insulator for fly ash varies depending on the value of non-soluble deposit density (NSDD). The existence of a layer of pollutants increased the value of t... [more]

Nowadays, every large enterprise is concerned about reducing CO2 emissions. Along with legislation, management, packaging, and transportation decisions, optimising the operation of automated systems in the industry is important. Overheating processes or large cooling systems of one machine during product assembly may seem minor but at the industry level it is quite significant. Either an optimisation of cooling systems or an intelligent machine control which will prevent heat strokes and allow the transition to passive cooling of the whole system is an important issue for improving machine tools efficiency and contributing therefore to CO2 reduction in the industry sector. This research is a transitional phase from the creation of a control system to solve the problems of resonance in the control of systems with parallel piezo kinematics, which were designed to automate the iterative process of non-circular drilling with a precise shape and the subsequent research on the implementation... [more]

This scientific publication is dedicated to the development of scientific methodological and practical recommendations about the formation of ecologistics approaches towards usage of the energetical potential of wooden biomass as a promising trend of economic activity subject development. The hierarchy of ecological chain build-up is established, which will allow one to effectively organize the logistics of supply of biomass to the place of energy production. The methodological approaches to modeling of economic and ecological evaluation of wooden mass supply chain were improved. It is aimed to the calculation of expanses and harmful emissions that depend on specific logistics processes in implementation of perspective actions of collection and recycling of wooden biomass and substitution of non-renewable energy sources by it, which, on the one hand, analyzes the actual state of affairs of knowledge in the field of ecological processes evaluation, and on the other hand, however, identi... [more]

In the international movement to combat the threat of climate change, the timely implementation of residential energy-saving practises is becoming an urgent issue. Because the number of apartments is increasing, we analysed data from home energy management systems (HEMSs) and data from questionnaire surveys of 309 households in a condominium. We focused on the seasonal variation in air-conditioning (AC) use in living-dining rooms to determine the tendency of energy use for heating/cooling related to the characteristics of flats, the profiles of residents, and energy-saving behaviours. In winter, 80% of residents mainly used gas floor heating rather than AC and 24% did not use AC in winter. In households where someone stays home for long hours, they prefer gas floor heating rather than AC in winter. These households also tend to engage in energy-saving behaviours to adjust the indoor thermal environment. There are several types of energy-saving lifestyles; therefore, effective energy-sa... [more]