The European Union takes significant steps to support the development of the electric sector of the automotive market. This is confirmed by the signed declaration in Glasgow, which leads to a ban on the sale of cars with combustion engines from 2035. This document changes the car industry and makes it dependent on electricity production. The problem identified in this article is the actual impact of implemented solutions concerning the type of engine in cars offered for sale in Czechia, Germany, and Poland. Therefore, the aim of this scientific paper is car engines’ multilevel comparative analysis. The aim of the article is accompanied by a research question: are electric vehicles less harmful to the natural environment? The paper compares cars of the same producer, class, and type with petrol, diesel, hybrid (petrol-electric), and electric engines in terms of the environmental impact. The research method is a comparative SUV analysis supported by the comparison of selected countries’... [more]

Aiming at the breeding environment where the construction of marine pastures requires low wind and waves, a floating breakwater (FB) with a Savonius type (referred to as S type) runner with wave absorption and energy reduction function is studied for wave absorption and energy reduction in aquaculture sea areas. The wave-absorbing and energy-reducing performance of the floating breakwater is studied by the method of combining numerical simulation and experiment. Using Star-CCM+ numerical simulation software, based on linear wave theory and energy conservation law, using overlapping grid technology, calling DFBI model, second-order time discretization, a three-dimensional flow field model of the floating breakwater was established and numerically simulated. At the same time, a floating breakwater physical test system was developed for experimental verification, the transmission wave and the conversion power consumption of the S-shaped runner under different wave heights and different pe... [more]

This paper considers the issue of linear-quadratic regulator (LQR) design for nonlinear systems with the use of smooth state and input transformations. The proposed design methodology is considered in the stabilisation task of the Pendubot, which is based on the concept of feedback equivalent control systems. It turns out that it is possible to find a controller that ensures comparable dynamics of the closed-loop system in the vicinity of the set point regardless of the state-space representation adopted. In addition, the synthesis of suboptimal controllers according to the LQR strategy ensuring equal dynamics at the equilibrium point is presented. The properties of the studied controllers were investigated in a simulation environment and using experimental tests. The detailed forms of transformations and linear approximations given can be regarded as ready-made procedures that can be applied to stabilise similar mechanical systems in robotics.

In this study, a modified non-stationary geometry-based scattering model for tunnel vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) multiple-input multiple-output Ricean fading channels is presented. The proposed channel introduces non-line-of-sight three-dimensional multi-bounced scattering propagation paths under an assumption of equivalent scattering points to depict the tunnel environments, in which the scatterers are randomly distributed on the semi-cylindrical tunnel wall (i.e., cable racks, jetfans, road signs, lighting facilities). Furthermore, the time-varying channel statistics (i.e., the space and frequency correlation functions) resulting from the relative movement between the mobile transmitter and mobile receiver are analyzed. Finally, numerical results show that the space correlations of the proposed model significantly decrease when the multi-bounced scattering rays are taken into account; moreover, when the velocity and the antenna angle γR increase, the correlations decrease therewith, whic... [more]

More than 78 million tons of photovoltaic modules (PVMs) will reach their end of life (EOL) by 2050. If they are not responsibly managed, they can (a) pollute our terrestrial ecosystem, (b) indirectly encourage continuous mining and extraction of Earth’s finite resources, and (c) diminish the net environmental benefit of harvesting solar energy. Conversely, successfully recovering them could reduce resource extraction and waste and generate sufficient economic return and value to finance the production of another 2 billion PVMs by 2050. Therefore, EOL PVMs must participate in the circular economy, and business and political leaders are actively devising strategies to enable their participation. This article aims to facilitate and expedite their efforts by comprehensively reviewing and presenting the latest progress and developments in EOL PVM recovery methods and processes. It also identifies and thoroughly discusses several interrelated observations that impede or accelerate their eff... [more]

By 2025, biogas is estimated to become a larger part of Indonesia’s energy mix. Biogas is a renewable energy source that also has economic and environmental advantages. Domestic biogas generation has been embraced in Indonesia as a response to the country’s energy security concerns in rural areas. Since the 1970s, 48,038 biogas plants have been built in the region. To fully develop this technology, Indonesia must discontinue relying on fossil fuels and substitute current fossil-fuel-based energy. This article provides an overview of renewable technology in Indonesia, as well as addressing domestic energy demands and referring to existing literature on the socio-technical and socio-economic barriers to biogas adoption in Indonesia. Based on a rigorous review of 71 publications published in Web of Science (WoS) between 2010 and 2021, this study explores existing barriers for biogas adoption by summarizing the current literature from technical, economic, social and environmental perspecti... [more]

The article presents a cluster analysis of the EU-27 countries. The clusters were built to identify groups of countries similar to each other in relation to the set of Eurostat indicators from the Climate Change Drivers and Environment and Energy sections. During the research, tools of spatial information systems were used, such as cluster analysis, diagram maps, rasterization and the TSA method. ARIMA prediction models were also used. The research aims to verify our hypotheses. Particular attention was paid to Poland; therefore, it was verified whether the composition of the country’s energy mix translated into excessive emissions of pollutants in relation to other EU countries. Furthermore, the level of integration of energy markets in the European Union and its changes over time were examined. The authors also proposed a methodology to create detailed energy and climate strategies for designated clusters. The results of the presented research are particularly important in light of r... [more]

Hegang coalfield is one of the areas with abundant coal resources in Heilongjiang Province. Characteristics of minerals and geochemistry of No. 26 coal (lower Cretaceous coals) from Junde mine, Hegang coalfield, Heilongjiang province, China, were reported. The results showed that No. 26 coal of Junde mine is slightly enriched in Cs, Pb, and Zr compared with world coals. The minerals in No. 26 coal of Junde mine primarily include clay minerals and quartz, followed by calcite, siderite, pyrite, monazite, and zircon. The diagrams of Al2O3−TiO2, Zr/Sc−Th/Sc, Al2O3/TiO2−Sr/Y, and Al2O3/TiO2−La/Yb indicate that the enriched elements in No. 26 coal were mainly sourced from the Late Paleozoic meta-igneous rocks in Jiamusi block. The volcanic ash contribution to No. 26 coal seems very low. Sulfate sulfur indicating oxidation/evaporation gradually decreases during No. 26 coal formation.

In recent years, the demand for medium and large secondary batteries in EV (electric vehicle) and ESS (energy storage systems) applications has been rapidly increasing worldwide, and accordingly, the market size is increasing exponentially. However, the recent fire accidents related to secondary batteries for EVs and ESS are having a negative impact on the battery market. Therefore, this paper implements an accident simulation device to perform an external short-circuit test, one of the typical safety tests for NMC-series prismatic and pouch-type batteries that are widely used among battery cells used in medium and large secondary batteries. The implemented accident simulation device for the external short-circuit test is composed of short-circuit resistance, measuring device, control device, etc., and is configured to analyze external short-circuit characteristics according to various test conditions. Based on this, an external short-circuit test according to the type, short-circuit r... [more]

The operation of natural gas grids requires electric-powered devices as data acquisition and control systems, surveillance and communication appliances, etc., often located in remote, unpopulated off-the-grid areas, where there is no personnel for surveillance, and maintenance costs are prohibitive. The literature on the power generating systems for these devices is limited to specific applications without a comparison between competing technologies, making their choice a difficult task for natural gas operators. This work presents a comprehensive up-to-date survey of market available technologies for remote power generation in the range of 20−1000 W for gas grid applications: thermoelectric generators, solid acid, direct methanol and solid oxide fuel cells, Stirling engines and microturbines. The work aims at sorting the technologies by techno-energetic, economic and environmental performance while providing specific technological characteristics and limitations. The results indicate... [more]

One of the main problems of well operation is the risk of uncontrolled leakage of hydrocarbons into the environment. This problem is especially relevant for the long-term operation of wells. The idea for this study was inspired by a real industrial problem that the authors of the article were involved in solving. At several operating gas wells, an abnormal slope of the production tree occurred, which raised the question of the safety of their further operation. An analysis of known studies and current regulatory documents did not allow us to assess the safety of using a gas well based on the measured kinematic parameters of production tree deviations. A mathematical model for the deformation of a package of casing strings when the surface layer of the rock is displaced is developed in the article. A boundary value problem is formulated for differential equations of pipe bending on an elastic foundation. Based on the results of solving this problem, an unambiguous relationship was estab... [more]

Methanol is considered to be a viable option for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in shipping, the second-highest emitter after road freight. However, the use of fossil methanol is insufficient to meet climate change targets, while renewable methanol is yet unavailable on a commercial scale. This paper presents a novel biorefinery concept based on biomass solvolysis to produce crude lignin oil (CLO) from forest residues, a drop-in biofuel for methanol-propelled ships, and evaluates its environmental and economic profiles. In the base scenario, CLO can achieve emission saving of 84% GHG compared to fossil alternatives, and a minimum selling price (MSP) of $821 per ton of methanol equivalent (ME), i.e., within the range of the current bio-methanol production costs. The emission of GHGs of co-produced ethanol can be reduced by 67% compared to fossil analogues. The increase of renewable electricity share to 75% is capable of shrinking emissions by 1/5 vs. the base case, while fossil... [more]

Exploring the evolution characteristics of gas seepage between boreholes during the drainage process is critical for the borehole’s layout and high-efficiency gas drainage. Based on the dual-porous medium assumption and considering the effect of stress redistribution on coal seam gas seepage characteristics, a coal seam gas seepage model with a three-dimensional roadway and borehole crossing structure has been established and numerically calculated, concluding that the coal seam is between the drainage boreholes. The temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of gas pressure and permeability help elucidate the gas seepage law of the nearly flat coal seam associated with the deep soft rock roadway and borehole intersection model. The results indicate that: (1) The roadway excavation results in localized stress in some areas of the surrounding rock, reducing the strength of the coal body, increasing the expansion stress, and increasing the adsorption of gas by the coal body. (2) Alon... [more]

Municipal solid waste (MSW) has caused the increasing concern for environmental issues in recent years, and the wide engagement from all stakeholders of society has been involved in promoting integrated MSW management. Therefore, this study aims to identify the problems of dis-synergy among multi-stakeholders engaged in the integrated MSW management evolution, then contribute strategies to coordinated development of integrated MSW management system by bettering the engagement and interaction of different stakeholders combined with the region characteristics. From the perspective of the stakeholder theory and synergy theory, we constructed an integrated MSW management system with four stakeholder subsystems: governments, enterprises, residents, and NGO subsystems. We used integrated MSW management in Harbin as a case study and used the synergy degree model to estimate the system synergy degree from 2010 to 2019. Then, the synergetic development trend of integrated MSW management was stu... [more]

Water inrush disaster is one of the major disasters affecting the production safety of coal mines following roof caving, fire, gas outburst, and dust explosion disasters. It is urgent to reveal the water inrush mechanism and take effective measures to prevent the disasters. More than 80% of water inrush accidents occur around geological structural zones such as faults and karst collapse columns (KCCs). The water inrush events from KCCs caused huge economic losses and heavy casualties, and the water inrush process often shows certain hysteresis characteristics. Taking the water inrush disaster from a KCC during roadway excavation in PanEr Coal Mine of Huainan Mining Area as the case study, the delayed inrush mechanism of KCC was analyzed from the aspects of floor failure, KCC activation, seepage transition, and water inrush development characteristics. The results show that the rock mechanical properties and the excavation depth are the main factors affecting the floor failure character... [more]

In recent years, anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs) technology, a combination of a biological reactor and a selective membrane process, has received increasing attention from both industrialists and researchers. Undoubtedly, this is due to the fact that AnMBRs demonstrate several unique advantages. Firstly, this paper addresses fundamentals of the AnMBRs technology and subsequently provides an overview of the current state-of-the art in the municipal and domestic wastewaters treatment by AnMBRs. Since the operating conditions play a key role in further AnMBRs development, the impact of temperature and hydraulic retention time (HRT) on the AnMBRs performance in terms of organic matters removal is presented in detail. Although membrane technologies for wastewaters treatment are known as costly in operation, it was clearly demonstrated that the energy demand of AnMBRs may be lower than that of typical wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Moreover, it was indicated that AnMBRs have th... [more]

Depleting fossil fuel resources and anthropogenic climate changes are the reasons for the intensive development of new, sustainable technologies based on renewable energy sources. One of the most promising strategies is the utilization of hydrogen as an energy vector. However, the limiting issue for large-scale commercialization of hydrogen technologies is a safe, efficient, and economical method of gas storage. In industrial practice, hydrogen compression and liquefaction are currently applied; however, due to the required high pressure (30−70 MPa) and low temperature (−253 °C), both these methods are intensively energy consuming. Chemical hydrogen storage is a promising alternative as it offers safe storage of hydrogen-rich compounds under ambient conditions. Although many compounds serving as hydrogen carriers are considered, some of them do not have realistic perspectives for large-scale commercialization. In this review, the three most technologically advanced hydrogen carriers—di... [more]

In this study, the operating conditions of the tri-generation model in actual field situations for terminal complex buildings were investigated. The operational characteristics of the installed tri-generation system (TGS), and performance in terms of relative primary energy savings (RPES), were evaluated to confirm its market competitiveness against separate heat and power (SHP). As a result of the analysis, the technological superiority of the TGS model compared to the SHP method was much lower than theoretical expectation, which was 17.9% in the best case and close to 0 in the worst case. The importance of the TGS’s operational strategy to achieve annual operational economics was emphasized based on the analysis of the TGS’s actual daily operational data. The sustainability of the TGS model in the era of climate change was also evaluated through RPES sensitivity analysis according to the level of renewable power generation in the power sector, which is rapidly increasing in response... [more]

Digitalization offers new, unprecedented possibilities to increase the energy efficiency and improve the indoor conditions in buildings in a cost-efficient way. Smart buildings are seen by many stakeholders as the way forward. Smart buildings feature advanced monitoring and control systems that allow a better control of the buildings’ indoor spaces, but it is becoming evident that the massive amount of data produced in smart buildings is rarely used. This work presents a long-term evaluation of a smart building testbed for one year; the building features state-of-the-art monitoring capability and local energy generation (PV). The analysis shows room for improving energy efficiency and indoor comfort due to non-optimal control settings; for instance, average indoor temperatures in all winter months were above 24 °C. The analysis of electricity and domestic hot water use has shown a relevant spread in average use, with single users consuming approximately four times more than the average... [more]

was a remarkable, and remarkably influential, model, book and concept published 50 years ago this year. Its importance is that it used, for essentially the first time, a quantitative systems approach and a computer model to question the dominant paradigm for most of society: growth. Initially, many events, and especially the oil crisis of the 1970s, seemed to support the idea that the limits were close. Many economists argued quite the opposite, and the later relaxation of the oil crisis (and decline in gasoline prices) seemed to support the economists’ position. Many argued that the model had failed, but a careful examination of model behavior vs. global and many national data sets assessed by a number of researchers suggests that the model’s predictions (even if they had not been meant for such a specific task) were still remarkably accurate to date. While the massive changes predicted by the model have not yet come to pass globally, they are clearly occurring for many individual nat... [more]

Colleges and universities are a typical service water consumers in China, i.e., with a dense population, single structure, and regular water use. This means it is crucial to strengthen the management of their water use behavior. In this paper, first of all, the main water devices and water use behavior of students were elucidated by investigating and analyzing the structure and scenarios of water use in colleges and universities. Then, a model of water use behavior of college students with sociodemographic and environmental characteristics was constructed based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB). By investigating and analyzing the water use behavior, the theoretical judgment of the improved TPB model that “behavior is the result of interaction between individual and environmental characteristics” was proved, which provides a reference for studying the water demand requirements of college students and supports scientific water-use management in colleges, our results also help the e... [more]

Fossil fuel price increases, their uneven distribution, environmental issues from their incineration, and lack of guarantees of their energy security are the main drivers for the development of green energy. Agricultural waste is an abundant resource for energy bioprocessing, which improves the functioning of the circular economy. In this study, the following were used as the main indicators: the share of renewable energy and the benefit from it, the coefficient of cyclical use of biomass, and the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. The ways in which sunflower waste is applied for energy purposes are emphasized. The highest comprehensive ecological and economic effects are shown to be achieved in the production of biogas from sunflower residues with the incineration of this biogas in cogeneration plants. The residues from the biogas plant that are left after fermentation should be used as a biofertilizer. Such a cyclic system allows not only the full processing of all biomass waste... [more]

After the severe industrial pollution from World War II, the Setouchi Sea areas and its islands (the Triennale hosting areas) experienced severe economic and population shrinkage. The target of SDG 8.9 is to promote “direct tourism GDP” and “tourism-related jobs” by devising and implementing policies (e.g., some Triennale and Biennale) for sustainable tourism. Triennale-driven tourism is an essential component of sustainable tourism and city revitalization, lasting almost 20 years in Japan. The current paper attempts an empirical analysis into the positive impacts of exhibition-driven sustainable tourism for SDG 8.9 in these rural islands (from pollution to green and low-carbon islands revitalization). The panel data of “pollution load of living environment items” by cities in Japan and “tourists, income, and population” from 14 areas in Kagawa were monitored using multiple methods, such as descriptive and inferential statistics (the one-way ANOVA test and Simple Linear Regression (SLR... [more]

In this study, we employ the novel method of quantile mediation analysis to explore dynamic relationships among hydropower energy consumption, economic growth, and carbon dioxide emissions in Taiwan during the period between 1990 and 2020. The empirical results show that hydropower energy consumption only has a direct effect on reducing carbon dioxide emissions at a 0.2 distribution of carbon dioxide emissions. Moreover, results indicate that economic growth does not have a mediating effect between hydropower energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions at any distribution of carbon dioxide emissions. Lastly, evidence produced by this study supports the existence of an environmental Kuznets curve in the context of Taiwan.

For nearly three decades, zero-valent iron (ZVI) has been used in wastewater treatment and groundwater and soil remediation. ZVI can degrade contaminants by reactions of adsorption, redox, and co-precipitation. It can also react with oxidants like hydrogen peroxide, persulfate, and ozone to produce highly reactive radicals that can rapidly remove and even mineralize organic contaminants. However, the application of ZVI is also limited by factors such as the narrow pH range and surface passivation. The addition of chelating agents such as nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA), ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), or citrate to the ZVI-based processes has been identified to greatly increase the iron stability and improve the efficiency of contaminant degradation. From the perspective of commonly used organic and inorganic chelating agents in ZVI applications, the review addresses the current status of ligand-enhanced ZVI degradation of organic contaminants, illustrates the possible reaction mec... [more]