Analysis of the sustainability implications of the geothermal industry has tended to take a high-level or systemic overview of national performance rather than deeper, stakeholder-focused investigations. This study seeks to begin to fill this gap in the literature, investigating the following research question: how do projects in the Icelandic geothermal energy sector create co-benefits with stakeholders and reflect the integration of sustainable energy development (SED)? The focus of the analysis is identifying the stakeholders, what the sustainability benefits co-created with stakeholders are, and when in the projects’ life-cycle do these occur. Based on eleven semi-structured interviews with project managers in Iceland’s geothermal industry, the study identifies an array of stakeholders in the sector, including national and municipal governments, public sector institutions, businesses, the public, employees, and landowners. The sustainability co-benefits of Iceland’s geothermal powe... [more]

The current work investigates the feasibility of a novel Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) approach—also known as Underground Sun Conversion (USC) or geo-methanation. The overall objective of the current work is a comprehensive assessment on the technical, economic and legal aspects as well as greenhouse gas impacts to be concerned for establishing USC technology concept. This is achieved by applying multidisciplinary research approach combining process simulation, techno-economic and greenhouse gas assessment as well as legal analysis allows answering questions about technical, economic feasibility and greenhouse gas performance as well as on legal constraints related to large scale CCU using geo-methanation in depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs. CO2 from the industry and renewable H2 from the electrolyser are converted to geomethane in an underground gas storage and used in industry again to close the carbon cycle. Process simulation results showed the conversion rates vary due to op... [more]

Because a traditional optical fiber light guiding system includes a tracking device, it also inevitably has a complex structure, high construction and maintenance costs, short life span and low reliability. Although several types have been developed for decades, there are no successful products on the market. The biggest cause of the problem is that all traditional optical fiber light guiding systems must have a tracking device. This paper studies a solar fiber optic guide system without a tracking device, hoping to solve this problem. A fixed fiber light guide system using concave outlet concentrators as its receiving unit is proposed. The structure and working principle of the concave outlet concentrator, the receiving unit and the light guide system are introduced. With optical simulation software and the actual sunlight experimental method, this paper first discusses the conceptual design of the concentrator, then studies the transmission efficiency curve of the receiving unit with... [more]

The importance and urgency of improving energy and carbon emissions efficiency in mitigating climate change and achieving carbon neutrality have become an increasingly relentless focus in recent years. Assessing the performance of energy saving and carbon emissions reduction is a significant necessity to achieve sustainable economic development. Therefore, from the perspective of production economics, this paper presents a review of the definition, models, and input-output variables for measuring total-factor energy efficiency and total-factor carbon emissions efficiency. Relevant literature in this field, published between 2006 and 2021, has been systematically analyzed using CiteSpace software, which includes a quantitative and visual review of a large body of published literature. This review found that the current definitions of total-factor energy efficiency and total-factor carbon emissions efficiency are confusing and misleading. Furthermore, future research on energy saving and... [more]

Photocatalytic degradation is one of the environmentally friendly methods used in treating dye wastewater. In this study, a series of MXene/g-C3N4 heterostructure photocatalysts with different loading amounts of MXene (1, 4, 8, and 12 wt.%) were successfully synthesized via the wet impregnation method and their photocatalytic activity was evaluated via the degradation of methylene blue under visible-light irradiation. As such, the 1 wt.% MXene/g-C3N4 heterostructure photocatalyst achieved a high degradation of methylene blue compared to the pure g-C3N4 under visible-light illumination of 180 min. This significant improvement was attributed to the intimate interfacial contact, evidently from the FESEM analysis, which allows the smooth photocharge carriers to transport between g-C3N4 and MXene. Additionally, the larger BET surface area demonstrated by the 1 wt.% MXene/g-C3N4 heterostructure allowed this sample to have higher adsorption of dye molecules and provided a higher number of rea... [more]

Changing business models is a topical issue in a pandemic. Recent research has shown that the search for environmentally friendly and sustainable solutions in various sectors has become relevant. The article aims to promote cooperation and adaptation of good practices between countries. Comparing the country’s history and economic situation and economic development and traditions can be seen as a precondition for success. The article examines the introduction of sharing economy and the creation of environment-friendly trends establishing a circular economy by minimizing the population’s expenses, online business growth, and accessibility of Internet technologies. The article explores the difference between the linear economic model and the circular model by adopting sharing and the efficient joint use of materials to enhance and assess sustainable development. Based on a combination of theoretical and practical research, the article explores the dynamic system and development model of... [more]

In the context of the ongoing climate change and increasingly strict climate goals of the European Green Deal, industry faces a growing challenge to decrease its high demand for electrical energy and its greenhouse gas emissions. Demand-Side Integration measures have a great potential to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of the industrial sector. However, there is still no definition and consistent characterising terms for Industrial Demand-Side Integration. The lack of clarity in concepts and definitions may impose hurdles in the transfer of results and methodologies from research activities and thus, in the implementation of measures in the industry. Furthermore, the economic value of implementing these measures is often unclear but of high relevance to industrial consumers. This paper proposes a comprehensive Industrial Demand-Side Integration definition and a methodology to classify and characterise its measures. The methodology is aimed at helping industrial consumers decide whi... [more]

Olive oil mill wastewater (OMW) is a polluting stream derived from the production of olive oil and is a source of environmental pollution; this is relevant in many countries around the world, but particularly in all the Mediterranean region where major producers are located. In this effluent, several pollutants are present—namely, sugars, fatty acids, and polyphenols, among others. Nowadays, to reduce the pollutant load, several treatment techniques are applied, but these technologies have numerous cost and efficiency problems. For this reason, the steam reforming of the OMW (OMWSR) presents as a good alternative, because this process decreases the pollutant load of the OMW and simultaneously valorizes the waste with the production of green H2, which is consistent with the perspective of the circular economy. Currently, the OMWSR is an innovative treatment alternative in the scientific field and with high potential. In the last few years, some groups have studied the OMWSR and used inn... [more]

Incorporating Internet of Things (IoT) technology into the operation of buildings is expected to generate immense synergy, thereby saving energy and improving occupant comfort by overcoming the limitations of the existing system. Preventing operations in the absence of occupants can save energy, and the occupants’ preferred operating temperature should be used as the control set-point rather than the nominal temperature. In this study, IoT technology and image sensors are used to rapidly detect indoor environment changes, and a method is proposed to utilize air quality and thermal comfort as the control set-points. A real-time ventilation control algorithm is proposed based on the CO2 concentration calculated according to the number of occupants. To check the thermal comfort level, the real-time operating temperature estimated from the surface temperature data of the infrared array sensor is reflected in the comfort zone defined by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Ai... [more]

A huge amount of organic waste is generated annually around the globe. The main sources of solid and liquid organic waste are municipalities and canning and food industries. Most of it is disposed of in an environmentally unfriendly way since none of the modern recycling technologies can cope with such immense volumes of waste. Microbiological and biotechnological approaches are extremely promising for solving this environmental problem. Moreover, organic waste can serve as the substrate to obtain alternative energy, such as biohydrogen (H2) and biomethane (CH4). This work aimed to design and test new technology for the degradation of food waste, coupled with biohydrogen and biomethane production, as well as liquid organic leachate purification. The effective treatment of waste was achieved due to the application of the specific granular microbial preparation. Microbiological and physicochemical methods were used to measure the fermentation parameters. As a result, a four-module direct... [more]

To facilitate wind power integration for the electric power grid operated by the Inner Mongolia Electric Power Corporation—a major electric power grid in China—a high-resolution (of 2.7 km grid intervals) mesoscale ensemble prediction system was developed that forecasts winds for 130 wind farms in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The ensemble system contains 39 forecasting members that are divided into 3 groups; each group is composed of the NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) real-time four-dimensional data assimilation and forecasting model (RTFDDA) with 13 physical perturbation members, but driven by the forecasts of the GFS (Global Forecast System), GEM (Global Environmental Multiscale Model), and GEOS (Goddard Earth Observing System), respectively. The hub-height wind predictions of these three sub-ensemble groups at selected wind turbines across the region were verified against the hub-height wind measurements. The forecast performance and variations with lead ti... [more]

Based on the background of China’s “carbon neutral” policy and the booming digitalization, how does environmental regulation affect green economy performance? The existing literature has studied the impact of energy consumption on green economic performance. However, the literature has ignored the impact of carbon dioxide emissions on China’s green economy performance. In this regard, this research uses the non-radial distance function (NDDF) to calculate the green economic performance of China’s prefecture-level cities, and uses the dynamic panel threshold model and the systematic GMM method to study the nonlinear impacts and mechanisms of environmental regulation, digital development, technological innovation, and industrial structure upgrade on green economic performance. The panel data set contains 228 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2019. The following findings are established: first, after adding carbon dioxide emissions to China’s green economy performance, the environmental perform... [more]

Since the Paris Agreement in COP21, many countries around the world, including Ghana and Thailand, have established a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with first update recently in COP26. With Ghana’s ongoing effort at COP26 to change its baseline to 2019, this study established a detailed Ghana vehicle ownership model with necessary transport parameters to construct an energy demand model to provide insight for reducing GHG emission contributions from road transport through biofuel (both bioethanol and biodiesel) potential by recourse to a Low Emission Analysis Platform (LEAP), with two scenarios of development from Thailand’s best practice for policy recommendation, which are alternative (ALT), with up to E20/B20, and extreme (EXT), with up to E85/B50, for new vehicles. In each case, energy demand and GHG emissions were analyzed from detailed data on Ghana’s transport sector to show potential benefit from biofuel usages. From Ghana’s... [more]

Microalgae are promising sources of fuels and other chemicals. To operate microalgal cultivations efficiently, process control based on monitoring of process variables is needed. On-line sensing has important advantages over off-line and other analytical and sensing methods in minimizing the measurement delay. Consequently, on-line, in-situ sensors are preferred. In this respect, optical sensors occupy a central position since they are versatile and readily implemented in an on-line format. In biotechnological processes, measurements are performed in three phases (gaseous, liquid and solid (biomass)), and monitored process variables can be classified as physical, chemical and biological. On-line sensing technologies that rely on standard industrial sensors employed in chemical processes are already well-established for monitoring the physical and chemical environment of an algal cultivation. In contrast, on-line sensors for the process variables of the biological phase, whether biomass... [more]

Hydropower stations have supplied most of the green electricity in various parts of the world. Nonetheless, the economic profit of hydro-electricity lies beyond its social costs in many cases. Despite the short-term economic benefits of large dams, their sustainable pros and cons are doubted. This study aims to investigate the long-term profitability of large hydropower stations by considering the nexus between the environmental, economic, and social aspects. Much progress has been made in simplifying feasibility studies of hydropower stations by developing comprehensive software and models according to the United Nations Sustainable development goals. Developed by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the SimPacts has become one of the most frequently-used simple models to estimate the external costs of electricity generation since 2003. Hydropower’s Environmental Costs Analysis Model (HECAM) is a popular user-friendly version of the model that includes more details for benefits... [more]

Combined heat and power (CHP) generation plants are an assessed valuable solution to significantly reduce primary energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. Nevertheless, the primary energy saving (PES) and CO2 reduction potentials of this solution are strictly related to the accurate definition and management of thermal and electric loads. Data-driven analysis could represent a significant contribution for optimizing the CHP plant design and operation and then to fully deploy this potential. In this paper, the use of a bi-level optimization approach for the design of a CHP is applied to a real application (a large Italian hospital in Rome). Based on historical data of the hospital thermal and electric demand, clustering analysis is applied to identify a limited number of load patterns representative of the annual load. These selected patterns are then used as input data in the design procedure. A Mixed Integer Linear Programming coupled with a Genetic Algorithm is implemented to... [more]

The design of adaptive façades as complex systems that dynamically respond to weather conditions and occupants’ demands is rapidly increasing in modern constructions since they are highly energy efficient. Adaptive Dynamic Building Envelopes (ADBEs) exploit the benefits of technologies that manage the energy and mass transfer between building and outdoor environments actively and selectively. There is a wide range of technologies used in the design of ADBEs that differ from one another in terms of user controllability and the level of how active or passive their technologies are. This paper provides a systematic search in literature on the technologies devised in the ADBEs, specifying the most prevalent practices, and highlights the most cutting-edge research approximations. The analysis shows more than half of the studies use photovoltaics (PVs) in their design. Using mechanical ventilation and heat pumps were the next popular choices. Moreover, approximately half of the studies were... [more]

Community energy is seen as a helping hand for local, decentralized energy transition. Besides the main goal of supporting the community-friendly and socially acceptable development of renewable energies, the hope is also that a pro-environmental influence on sustainability behavior will be triggered when joining a community energy project. An analysis of a survey among 16 community energy projects in Germany, with 565 completed questionnaires, shows that a certain part of the members pays more attention to their energy behavior and develop a more positive attitude towards a decentralized energy transition and citizen participation after joining the community energy project. Therefore, we can empirically support that climate protection projects, such as community energy, influence pro-environmental attitudes and behavior, but this does not apply equally to all population groups. Members with higher income and stronger interest in returns are less likely to change their behavior. Based... [more]

Environmental meteorological parameters (temperature, humidity, air pressure, etc.) have an important impact on short gap streamer discharge. Based on the streamer theory and particle continuity equation of gas discharge, a short gap streamer discharge simulation model is established, and the influence of environmental parameters on the dynamic development process of streamer discharge is simulated and analyzed. The short gap air gap discharge characteristics were tested in a self-made gas discharge chamber. The results show that at low humidity (relative humidity 80%), with the increase of humidity, the electron density of the streamer channel decreases, the field strength of the streamer head decreases, the development speed of the streamer slows down, and the gap breakdown voltage increase. With a decrease of gas pressure, the electron density of the streamer channel decreases, the field strength of the streamer head decreases, the development speed of the streamer increases, and th... [more]

The concept of energy transition has been adopted by national governments, international and regional organizations. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered increasing attention to climate policy, energy transition, and economic resilience. This paper looks at energy transition in selected countries with the use of case studies—China, the European Union, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. The aim of the study is to analyze the main approaches to the energy transition in these countries and the barriers which may influence this process. The study applies foresight methods such as trend monitoring, case study, and STEPE methods for barrier analysis. The outcomes include identification of energy priorities in the national context, key directions for future transformation, and selected countries’ approaches to the energy transition after the COVID-19 pandemic. All considered countries are taking measures for the energy transition, but the motives, pace, and priorities differ. Thei... [more]

Green finance integrates the concept of environmental governance into the financial industry, which is conducive to sustainable development. Applying the mediating effect model, this paper investigates the effect of green finance on urban haze pollution and explores the mediating role of technological innovation of enterprises between them. Based on a sample of 639 enterprises in China over 2016−2019, a significantly negative effect of green finance on urban haze pollution is found. An increase of one standard deviation in green finance decreases PM2.5 concentration by 8.8 μg/m3, ceteris paribus. Further, green finance may improve environmental quality by promoting technological innovation. Considering the heterogeneity of enterprise ownership, this mediating effect exists in non-state-owned enterprises, while it cannot be observed in state-owned enterprises. This study proposes a new solution for pollution: using green financial tools to promote environmentally friendly technological... [more]

As vehicle driving evolves from human-controlled to autonomous, human−machine interaction ensures intuitive usage as well as the feedback from vehicle occupants to the machine for optimising controls. The feedback also improves understanding of the user satisfaction with the system behaviour, which is crucial for determining user trust and, hence, the acceptance of the new functionalities that aim to improve mobility solutions and increase road safety. Trust and acceptance are potentially the crucial parameters for determining the success of autonomous driving deployment in wider society. Hence, there is a need to define appropriate and measurable parameters to be able to quantify trust and acceptance in a physically safe environment using dependable methods. This study seeks to support technical developments and data gathering with psychology to determine the degree to which humans trust automated driving functionalities. The primary aim is to define if the usage of an advanced drivin... [more]

This paper presents the results of research on exhaust gases from landfill gas combustion. The measurements were carried out in a reclaimed landfill in Kiełcz (a passive degassing system based on gas flare). The research concerned the effects of selected exhaust gas purification technologies (platinum catalyzer on a ceramic carrier, molecular sieve, copper(II) oxide) for the quality of exhaust gases, and their particulate matter content. This paper aims to indicate which catalytic systems are most suitable for this gas type and their most efficient positioning in the flue gas duct. Due to increasingly stringent emission standards, the outcomes presented in this article could be helpful for landfill owners who wish to avoid paying fines for not complying with applicable limits. The measurements were carried out using a flue gas analyser, a particulate matter analyser fitted with a probe, and four thermocouples connected with the data recorder. The research outcomes determined the percen... [more]

This paper defines eCooking Delivery Models (eCDMs) as the activities, resources and actors needed to deliver modern electric cooking (eCooking) appliances to end-users in need of innovative clean cooking solutions in the Global South. We define the eCooking Market System (socio-economic and cultural context, the enabling environment, market chains, support services) which conceptualizes the real-world market factors and surrounding context related to enabling the uptake and sustained use of eCooking appliances by end-users. We also describe an approach to design eCDMs and identify the support services required to start and sustain the market delivery infrastructure. The eCDM concept and approach are demonstrated through designing eCDMs and support services for electric pressure cookers (EPCs) for two end-user segments in Tanzania: rural and peri-urban/urban customer segments. Research methods included: focus groups and workshops (12), household surveys (51), cooking demonstrations (11... [more]

Possibilities of more efficient use of regional lignocellulosic resources (wood, wheat straw, peat) of different origin for an environmentally friendly energy production using selectively MW pre-treated blends of commercial wood or wheat straw pellets with raw peat pellets are studied. A hypothesis is proposed and tested that selective MW pre-treatment of wood or wheat straw pellets at the frequency 2.45 GHz and blending of MW pre-treated pellets with raw peat pellets can be used to enhance and control the thermo-chemical conversion of biomass blends. To test this hypothesis, a combined experimental study and mathematical modelling of the processes were performed. The thermo-chemical conversion of selectively activated blends was experimentally studied using a batch-size pilot device, which consists of a biomass gasifier and a combustor. To evaluate the effect of selective MW pre-treatment of biomass pellets on the thermo-chemical conversion of pre-treated blends, measurements of the k... [more]