In the context of green energy and decarbonization, carbon dioxide storage in underground facilities, such as salt caverns, is one promising technical solution that has aroused attention. However, the thermodynamic behavior of CO2 and the geomechanical response of salt cavities have not been studied comprehensively. In this study, we proposed a thermomechanical model that integrated a salt cavity and wellbore and implemented a series of simulations for carbon dioxide storage in a salt cavern. The model was verified by gas capacity calculations using field testing data. The thermodynamic behaviors of CO2 were determined and compared to methane. The results showed that the critical point coordinates of carbon dioxide were within the storage operation conditions, a phase transition could occur, and the thermodynamic properties around the critical point varied dramatically. For a short CO2 withdrawal operation, the salt cavity remained stable, while the near-wellbore area (NWA) was prone t... [more]

The decarbonization of the energy sector is among the leading global goals, and the electricity sector plays a crucial role in this low-carbon transition. However, South American countries have been underrepresented in this discussion. Understanding the particularities and the shifts in the electricity sector landscape of these countries over time and how natural resource availability, technology, and energy policies are decisive to a low-carbon transition summarizes the proposed matters in this research. This work aims to fill this gap by investigating past renewability trends in the electricity sector of five South American countries from 1990 to 2020 through five indicators. As a result, we observed a trend of low-carbon reverse transition in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, despite the efforts and the success of renewable energy auctions, making short-term energy policy measures necessary. In Venezuela, there is a decrease in consumption and an increase in electricity generation using... [more]

During the sedimentary period of the Ordovician Yingshan Formation, the carbonate platform of the Gucheng area in the Tarim basin was characterized by a distally steepened ramp. Relative sea-level changes exerted a strong influence on the shoal facie dolomite reservoirs of the 3rd Member of the Ordovician Yingshan Formation (the Ying 3 member), sedimented in the context of a shallow water environment on the carbonate ramp. However, previous studies that lacked high-frequency sea-level changes in the Gucheng area prevent further dolomite reservoir characterization. The current work carries out systematic sampling based on the continuous core from the upper and middle parts of the Ying 3 member in two newly drilled exploration wells (GC17 and GC601) and a series of geochemistry analyses, such as C-O isotope, Sr isotope, and rare earth elements (REE), which helps to investigate the features of the shoal facies dolomite reservoir development against high-frequency sea-level changes. With t... [more]

Nuclear power can replace fossil fuels and will have a decisive impact on the change in the approach to conventional energy. However, nuclear (or radioactive) wastes are produced by the operation of the nuclear reactors should be safely and properly disposed of. This paper assesses the uranium resources and the global state of nuclear power plants and determines the energy mixes in different countries using the most nuclear energy. Furthermore, this paper analysed the nuclear waste management and disposal and the depletion of abiotic resources, and the primary energy sources of a basic production process using electricity mix and nuclear electricity for a basic production (PET bottle manufacturing) process. The life cycle assessment was completed by applying the GaBi 8.0 (version 10.6) software and the CML method. In this study, we limit our discussion to high-level nuclear waste (HLW) and spent nuclear fuel (SNF) waste. We do not consider waste generated from uranium mining and millin... [more]

TG/FT-IR techniques, UV-spectroscopy, microwave extraction, XRD and SEM were used to study how densification of the three types of agricultural biomass wastes (wheat straw, soft wood, and sunflower husk) changes the composition and structure of their pyrolysis products. It was determined that densification changes the composition of volatile products of pyrolysis at the temperature of 420 °C: sunflower husk emits 4.9 times less saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons and 1.9 times less compounds with carbonyl group; soft wood emits 1.8 times more saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons and compounds with carbonyl groups and 1.3 times more alcohols and phenols; and wheat straw emits 2 times more compounds with carbonyl groups. These changes are probably caused by the differences in interaction of formed volatiles with the surface of chars. These differences can be caused by distinct places of cumulation of inorganic components in the densified samples. In the densified char, the inorganic... [more]

A method of positioning a location on a specific object using a wireless sensor has been developed for a long time. However, due to the error of wavelengths and various interference factors occurring in three-dimensional space, accurate positioning is difficult, and predicting future locations is even more difficult. It uses IoT-based node pattern recognition technology to overcome positioning errors or inaccurate predictions in wireless sensor networks. It developed a method to improve the current positioning accuracy in a sensor network environment and a method to learn a pattern of position data directly from a wavelength receiver. The developed method consists of two steps: The first step is a method of changing location data in 3D space to location data in 2D space in order to reduce the possibility of positioning errors in 3D space. The second step is to reduce the range of the moving direction angle in which the data changed in two dimensions can be changed in the future and to... [more]

Global energy consumption has reached unprecedented levels over the last century due to population growth and economic growth. There have been significant changes in the global energy economy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants. Due to this trend, many countries around the world are promoting electric technologies as fuel-saving alternatives. The Israeli energy industry integrates renewable sources into its supply system and streamlines consumption. Nevertheless, Israelis know too little about smart meters, energy storage systems, and other modern power grid technology, which enables a decentralized approach to energy management referred to as distributed energy systems (DES). Using distributed energy systems to generate energy on-site and manage loads can reduce costs, improve reliability, and secure revenue. An effective public education program can help prepare public opinion and reduce barriers to smart use and energy efficiency in the home. By educating schoolchi... [more]

Environmental organizations have alerted that rapid weather phenomena have intensified in recent years, such as floods, hurricanes, whirlwinds, droughts, fires and storms, caused by the deteriorating condition of the natural environment. Carbon emissions, which are the main cause of the deteriorating environment condition and dramatic climate change, are largely caused by the use of heavy fuel by shipping companies and generate large quantities of sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter. These compounds exert a strong negative impact on the environment and human health. Care for improving the marine environment and coastal areas has become the subject of interest of many international institutions, such as the International Maritime Organization, Organization of United Nations, European Sea Port Organization, European Commission and others, which introduce restrictive regulations and guidelines on the level of permissible harmful emissions into the environment as a result... [more]

The power sector plays a significant role in carbon neutrality strategies, and the grid system is a crucial part of the power sector. In particular, with less mitigation potential from technology efficiency, the credit from whole life cycles is critical. This paper describes the investigation of the environmental impacts of various scenarios from the perspective of life cycles. By using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method, various grid systems are examined as a case study, including a traditional, renewable energy, and power storage grid system, as well as a microgrid, in Guangdong. The results highlight the fact that with the systematic improvement of a grid, significant environmental benefits can be achieved. For a grid system, optimization through technology has significant carbon reduction effects even if the power grid structure is not changed. Using renewable energy instead of traditional fuel can reduce the emission of 0.05 kg of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas per 1 kWh of ele... [more]

The impeller under consideration is a rotor wheel of a centrifugal compressor, made of 17-4PH martensitic precipitated hardening stainless steel. Its total operating lifetime was estimated to 80,000 h, but it fractured beforehand, 4 days after the scheduled overhaul without any observed pre-symptoms. The important causes of the failure were its working conditions: a moist H2S environment, the applied shaft fitting stress, and the martensitic structure of its material. In the article the post-failure analysis of an impeller is described, explaining the root cause of the impeller failure by means of both experimental and Finite Element Methods (FEM). Sulfide Stress Cracking (SSC) was found to be the primary failure mechanism for the impeller under investigation. Details of the investigations and possible corrective measures to improve performance impellers used under harsh environment conditions are discussed.

Contemporary challenges for development should involve a sustainable approach. One of the important sectors where such challenges are observed is transport. In a wide range of studies addressing environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability, an approach that combines these dimensions as an integrated technique to assess sustainable development of passenger rail transport organizations is still lacking. The first aim of the presented research is to offer a relatively comprehensive collection of railway sustainability indicators as well as a novel causal loop. The second aim is to assess and improve sustainable management using a case study of a passenger rail transport company. To model the relationships inside and around the transport company, the system dynamics (SD) methodology was chosen, being the primary contribution of the study. Additionally, the Fuzzy-TOPSIS logic is required to find the most appropriate scenarios that may change future strategies by making t... [more]

The aim of this paper is to find the most important aspects of introducing zero-emission and low-carbon solutions in urban bus transport, as well as their availability. Beyond the economic aspects related to energy sources and consumption, the paper focuses on their impact on people and the environment. There is also an attempt to estimate the scale of the impact of changes in the structure of the energy sources of buses in urban transport compared with all the means of transport operating in a given area, as well as a justification for these changes. We also conducted a survey of bus passengers to check their awareness of the changes taking place and their attitude towards them.

The ultrasound method is a low-cost, environmentally safe technology that may be utilized in the petroleum industry to boost oil recovery from the underground reservoir via enhanced oil recovery or well stimulation campaigns. The method uses a downhole instrument to propagate waves into the formation, enhancing oil recovery and/or removing formation damage around the wellbore that has caused oil flow constraints. Ultrasonic technology has piqued the interest of the petroleum industry, and as a result, research efforts are ongoing to fill up the gaps in its application. This paper discusses the most recent research on the investigation of ultrasound’s applicability in underground petroleum reservoirs for improved oil recovery and formation damage remediation. New study areas and scopes were identified, and future investigations were proposed.

Most primary energy sources, such as the fossil fuels of oil, coal, and natural gas, produce waste heat. Recycling of this unused thermal energy is necessary in order to increase the efficiency of usage. Thermoelectric (TE) conversion technologies, by which waste heat is directly converted into electricity, have been extensively studied, and the development of these technologies has continued. TE power-generation has attracted significant attention for use in self-powered wireless sensors, which are important for our increasingly sophisticated information society. For the middle-temperature range (i.e., 600−900 K), with applications such as automobiles, intensive studies of high-performance TE materials have been conducted. In this study, we review our recent experimental and theoretical studies on alkaline-earth silicide Mg2Si TE materials, which consist of nontoxic abundant earth elements. We demonstrate improvements in TE performance brought about by lightly doping Mg2Si with isoele... [more]

The Tzu Chi University Environmental Education Program, based on a theory of change, consisted of four weeks of lessons involving environmental and sustainability topics, followed by hands-on sorting of recyclables and four weeks of weekly documenting of environmentally friendly behavior. The Program was analyzed using written thoughts from the Experimental Group, as well as 78 and 116 valid survey responses of the Control and Experimental Groups, respectively. The survey consisted of questions regarding demographics and five constructs: environmental awareness, attitudes, norms, efficacy and behavior. No significant average differences were found between the pre-tests of the Control and Experimental Groups, or between the pre- and post-test of the Control Group. The post-test of the Experimental Group displayed a significantly higher average value when compared to both the pre-test of the Experimental Group and the post-test of the Control Group, as the means of the self-reported envi... [more]

The article presents the impact of lignite mining on the environment associated with the introduction of hydro borehole mining (HBM) technology. The results are partially based on the HydroCoal Plus project results, where an environmental assessment of lignite HBM technology was performed. In order to reach the goals of the task, a life cycle assessment (LCA) study was used to assess selected environmental aspects of the HBM single-borehole lignite production process covering selected environmental impact categories such as energy consumption, fuel consumption, water consumption and carbon footprint. The LCA procedure was adapted in an innovative way, constituting another added value to the shown research. The second part of this paper describes opportunities identified by the authors to minimize the environmental impact of lignite production by implementing the HBM method compared to the conventional opencast method.

Traditionally, the complex coupled physical phenomena in nuclear reactors has resulted in them being treated separately or, at most, simplistically coupled in between within nuclear codes. Currently, coupling software environments are allowing different types of coupling, modularizing the nuclear codes or multi-physics. Several multiscale and multi-physics software developments for LWR are incorporating these to deliver improved or full coupled reactor physics at the fuel pin level. An alternative multiscale and multi-physics nuclear software development between NURESIM and CASL is being created for the UK. The coupling between DYN3D nodal code and CTF subchannel code can be used to deliver improved coupled reactor physics at the fuel pin level. In the current journal article, the second part of the DYN3D and CTF coupling was carried out to analyse a parallel two-way coupling between these codes and, hence, the outer iterations necessary for convergence to deliver verified improved cou... [more]

Building renovation was declared a key point for sustainable development, however, the renovation rate of residential buildings in the European Union is insufficient to meet the climate and energy targets set. This paper analyses the main circular economy models used in the construction sector, as well as the situation of the building renovation market, to set a framework for circular economy models in building renovation. Of all the existing strategies in this sector, design, material recovery, building renovation and end-of-life actions would be the best, respectively. It also includes a market analysis consisting of a literature review covering PEST perspectives (political, economic, social and technical) and a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), concluding with a market gap analysis. The results of these analyses allow the development of a series of suggestions and strategies to be followed in order to solve the main barriers that hinder the implementa... [more]

In recent years, experimental tests related to building components through laboratory facilities have relatively matured. The techniques are based on one-dimensional heat transfer by creating a permanent temperature difference over a specimen to control heat fluxes. The three main methods are the Guarded Hot Box (GHB) method, the Calibrated Hot Box (CHB) method, and the Heat-Flow Meter method (HFM). The HFM method is the most widely applied technique for measuring on-site U-values of building components and several scientific works stressed the need for high temperature differences between the environments, suggesting 10 °C or 15 °C. However, temperature stability and high temperature gradients are difficult to obtain, especially for Mediterranean climatic conditions. Starting from this, an experimental study was conducted through a GHB apparatus, setting temperature differences from 2 °C to 20 °C between the hot and cold chambers. Heat flow measurements were performed to compute the t... [more]

It is now highly likely that with the rise in fuel, gas and electricity prices, groundwater deposits will become the third primary source of renewable energy, alongside photovoltaic cells and wind turbines. These deposits are characterized by unlimited clean and environmentally friendly energy with constant parameters independent of the fluctuations of wind and solar energy. This paper presents innovative low-carbon solutions for converting groundwater energy into heating and cooling energy in FCH HVAC. A good example of a significant reduction in CO2 emissions achieved by this technology is a study describing the system implemented in the Integrative Sports and Recreation Center in Łomianki. New installations for the FCH technology in the abovementioned center will reduce the consumption of heating and cooling energy as well as CO2 emissions by at least 50%. The aim of this article was to present the energy from underground waters and how to use it in HVAC installations. The authors s... [more]

The paper is a continuation of the research works of the authors. The aim of it is identifying the electromagnetic environment in which the control equipment of the short-circuit test stand operates. Exceptional attention was devoted to the issues related to the operation of the time-phase controller system. Measurements and identification of the electromagnetic environment were carried out on a specific short-circuit test stand, where short-circuit currents are generated by the medium-voltage (MV) short-circuit transformers. Short circuit tests are always preceded by powering the MV side of the test transformer by unloading the low-voltage (LV) side. Thereafter, the controller must wait for the release of the operator to start the test. Sometimes an electromagnetically disturbed controller starts the test without release. Such situation is undesired and can be destructive for the tested objects. Identification of the transient fields during the powering of the test transformer is indi... [more]

Subsea connectors are of a critical part for the sealing of subsea production systems. The working environment makes cracks initiate easily on subsea connector sealing rings. In order to ensure the safety and reliability of the sealing rings, it is necessary to study the crack’s influence on them. In this study, the main parameters that may influence stress intensity factors at crack tip are discussed. The sealing requirements of the subsea connector metal sealing rings were conducted. A finite element model was established to obtain the maximum equivalent stress and maximum equivalent plastic strain of crack-free sealing ring. Meanwhile, the influence of crack depths, crack positions, and crack angles on the sealing performance in preload and operating states was simulated through changing XFEM crack’s parameters in ABAQUS software, as well as their influence on stress intensity factors at the crack tip. The research shows that although the cracks have little effect on the sealing per... [more]

In today’s socio-economic context where environmental protection and sustainable development are equally important, how renewable energy enterprises can achieve sustainable development has become a topic of academic interest in recent years. This paper investigates the link between sustainable growth (SG) of renewable energy firms, resource endowment (RE), and environmental regulatory (ERs) issues through a fixed-effects model and a GMM model. Through empirical analysis, it was found that economical environmental regulations have the greatest positive impact on sustainable growth, followed by legal environmental regulations and supervised environmental regulations. Resource endowment is positively related to sustainable growth for non-state-owned renewable energy enterprises, but the negative impact on sustainable growth reflects the effect the of “resource curse”. In addition, resource endowment has a negative moderating effect on environmental regulations and sustainable growth. Thus... [more]

Road freight transport involves many adversities, along with the growing effect of carbon dioxide transmitted by vehicles on the natural environment, greenhouse gas emissions, or extensive energy use. Within the smart mobility concept, the acknowledged management of enterprises’ relationships with customers within their service is profoundly determined by the deployment of compelling Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs) applications in forming united cooperation with the customers. The paper proposes selected ITS applications as an advancement of logistics customer service in road freight transport enterprises that is divided into a group of six applications which are critical within the area of vehicle support, improving the energy efficiency of transport and reducing the negative impact of transport on the natural environment, reducing transport time but increasing connectivity and comfort, as well as a group of ten different applications chosen as crucial for general management... [more]

This present research examined the association among carbon emissions, financial development, economic growth, natural resources, and energy usage in GCC nations within the environmental Kuznets curve framework by applying the datasets between 1995 and 2019. It used some empirical approaches, including second-generation unit roots and cointegration methods and method of moments quantile regression (MMQR). We detected a cointegrating interconnection between carbon emissions and financial development, energy usage, economic growth, natural resources, and squared of economic growth in the long term. Furthermore, the findings of the MMQR reveal that economic growth, financial development, energy usage, and natural resources degrade the environment, as well as proving the presence of the EKC hypothesis. Moreover, the results also demonstrated that financial development greatly moderates energy usage in order to attain environmental sustainability. Furthermore, the fixed-effect ordinary leas... [more]