In this paper, we report a wind energy harvesting system for Internet of Things (IoT)-based environment monitoring (e.g., temperature and humidity, etc.) for potential agricultural applications. A wind-driven electromagnetic energy harvester using rotational magnet pole-pairs (rotor) with a back-iron shield was designed, analyzed, fabricated, and characterized. Our analysis (via finite element method magnetic simulations) shows that a back-iron shield enhances the magnetic flux density on the front side of a rotor where the series connected coils interact and convert the captured mechanical energy (wind energy) into electrical energy by means of electromagnetic induction. A prototype energy harvester was fabricated and tested under various wind speeds. A custom power management circuit was also designed, manufactured, and successfully implemented in real-time environmental monitoring. The experimental results show that the harvester can generate a maximum average power of 1.02 mW and m... [more]

Carbon dioxide (CO2) has reached a higher level of emissions in the last decades, and as it is widely known, CO2 is responsible for numerous environmental problems, such as climate change. Thus, there is a great need for the application of CO2 capture and storage, as well as of CO2 utilization technologies (CCUS). This review article focuses on summarizing the current CCUS state-of-the-art methods used in Europe. Special emphasis has been given to mineralization methods/technologies, especially in basalts and sandstones, which are considered to be suitable for CO2 mineralization. Furthermore, a questionnaire survey was also carried out in order to investigate how informed about CO2 issues European citizens are, as well as whether their background is relative to their positive or negative opinion about the establishment of CCUS technologies in their countries. In addition, social acceptance by the community requires contact with citizens and stakeholders, as well as ensuring mutual trus... [more]

The valorization of microalgal biomass produced during wastewater treatment has the potential to mitigate treatment costs. As contaminated biomass (e.g., with pharmaceuticals, toxic metals, etc.) is often generated, biogas production is considered an effective valorization option. The biomass was obtained from a pilot facility of photobioreactors for tertiary wastewater treatment. The pilots were run for one year with naturally formed microalgal consortia. The biogas was generated in 70 mL crimp-top vials at 35 °C, quantified with a manometer and the methane yield measured by gas chromatography. A maximum biogas production of 311 mL/g volatile solids (VS) with a methane yield of 252 mL/g VS was obtained with the spring samples. These rather low values were not improved using previous thermo-acidic hydrolysis, suggesting that the low intrinsic biodegradable organic matter content of the consortia might be the cause for low yield. Considering the total volume of wastewater treated by thi... [more]

Several regulations and standards have been developed to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings, but these have failed to provide a clear pathway to a net zero future. Hence, we recently introduced the Active Building Code (ABCode). This provides guidance on reducing the environmental impact of the next generation of buildings, termed Active Buildings (ABs), through their synergy with the grid. This paper aims to illuminate the regulatory landscape, justify our initial proposal for the ABCode, and reveal opportunities and challenges to the popularisation of ABs. Twelve online focus group discussions were conducted, with thirty stakeholders in total, all selected on the basis of their expertise. A grounded theory approach identified five core themes in such discussions. These strongly overlap with what is incorporated in the ABCode, suggesting the code successfully captures issues important to experts. Stakeholders defined ABs as responsive buildings and proposed both energy and carbo... [more]

The geological estimated hydrocarbon reserves of the Mesozoic granite buried-hill reservoir in the PL oilfield exceed 200 million tons. During the exploration stage, it was commonly considered that the PL buried-hill reservoir should demonstrate a “layered” edge water reservoir mode, because of weathering and tectonics. However, during a later stage, the formation of water was found at structurally high locations, which does not fit the intuition. Therefore, a suitable model is still lacking. Based on the comprehensive information of thin-section, core plug, well logging, and seismic data, etc., the buried-hill of the PL oilfield was re-divided into three northeast−southwest-trending zones. In this model, the reservoir is layered, with each layer having the characteristics of bottom water and two kinds of horizontal and vertical seepage. This new model fits the field-drilling test very well. These insights can effectively guide the exploration and development practice for this kind of... [more]

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of pollution control on industrial production efficiency in 31 provinces and cities in the Yellow River and Non-Yellow River basins in China from 2013 to 2017, using the methods of the directional distance function (hereinafter referred to as DDF) and the technology gap ratio (hereinafter referred to as TGR) in parallel, while taking the industrial production sector (labor force, total capital formation, energy consumption and industrial water consumption) and the pollution control sector (wastewater treatment funds and waste gas treatment funds) as input variables. Undesirable outputs (total wastewater discharge, lead, SO2 and smoke and dust in wastewater) and an ideal output variable (industrial output value) are taken as output variables. It is found that the total efficiency of DDF in the Non-Yellow River Basin is 0.9793, which is slightly better than 0.9688 in the Yellow River Basin. Among the 17 provinces and cities with a total... [more]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Superfund—the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) database—has collected and built an open-source database based on nearly 2000 US soil remediation cases since 1980, providing detailed information and references for researchers worldwide to carry out remediation work. However, the cases were relatively independent to each other, so the whole database lacks systematicness and instructiveness to some extent. In this study, the basic features of all 144 soil remediation projects in four major oil-producing states (California, Texas, Oklahoma and Alaska) were extracted from the CERCLA database and the correlations among the pollutant species, pollutant site characteristics and selection of remediation methods were analyzed using traditional and machine learning techniques. The Decision Tree Classifier was selected as the machine learning model. The results showed that the growth of new contaminated... [more]

The article focuses on the transport preferences of the inhabitants of a medium-sized city in the context of changing urban mobility and sustainable development. It fills the gap in the literature researching the changing communication behavior of the inhabitants of a given city. The main purpose of this article is to identify and analyze the preferred means of movement for inhabitants of a medium-sized city in Central and Eastern Europe. The research area was the city of Szczecin, Poland. The research was carried out using the following research methods: literature review, analysis of legal acts and documents, case study. The research material was collected using an anonymous questionnaire based on a proprietary survey made available to the inhabitants of the largest city of north-western Poland, Szczecin, in the GOOGLE browser in the period 17 May 2019−1 April 2021. The multiple-response contingency tables, chi-square test of independence and non-parametric U Mann−Whitney and Kruskal... [more]

In these days of heightened environmental consciousness, many countries are shifting their focus towards renewable energy sources for both large-scale uses (such as power plants that generate electricity) and smaller-scale applications (e.g., building heating and cooling). In this light, it is not surprising that there is a growing interest in technologies that are reliant on non-conventional sources of power, such as geothermal energy. This study is making an effort to provide a comprehensive understanding of the possible advantages and multiple uses of geothermal energy systems, in the context of their technical and environmental evaluation through Life Cycle Assessment. A brief description of the analyzing methods and the tools used to study a particular system or application is presented. The geothermal technologies and the applications of specific systems are discussed in detail, providing their environmental advantages and their technical barriers as well. District and domestic h... [more]

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of sewage sludge is considered in the article as an analogue of the natural processes of oil formation (catagenesis). A comparison of the physicochemical composition of primary and secondary sludge with type II kerogen (natural precursor of oil) showed their similarity. Both types of sludge have a slightly higher level of oxygen and nitrogen. The study tested the hypothesis that the elements included in the inorganic part of the oil source rocks can have a catalytic effect on the oil formation processes. For the conducted studies of sludge HTL, the catalysts containing cations and substances found in oil source rocks were chosen: as homogeneous catalysts (KOH, NaOH, NH4Fe(SO4)2, CoCl6, NiSO4, CuSO4, ZnSO4, MoO3) and as heterogeneous catalysts (MgO, Zeolite, Al2O3). The effectiveness of catalysts containing metal ions, zeolite and aluminum oxide has been proven. The highest biocrude yield was achieved in a process with NiSO4 as the catalyst in a dose 2 g... [more]

Municipal sewage sludge is the residual material produced as a waste of municipal wastewater purification. It is a sophisticated multi-component material, hard to handle. For many years, it has been landfilled, incinerated, and widely used in agriculture practice. When unproperly discharged, it is very polluting and unhealthy. The rapidly increasing global amount of municipal sewage sludge produced annually depends on urbanization, degree of development, and lifestyle. Some diffused traditional practices were banned or became economically unfeasible or unacceptable by the communities. In contrast, it has been established that MSS contains valuable resources, which can be utilized as energy and fertilizer. The objective of the review was to prove that resource recovery is beneficially affordable using modern approaches and proper technologies and to estimate the required resources and time. The open sources of information were deeply mined, critically examined, and selected to derive th... [more]

Artificial intelligence (AI) constitutes a kind of modelling method widely used in various fields of science including energy and environmental engineering [...]

Life cycle analysis allows for the assessment of the qualitative and quantitative relationship between selected areas of human activity and the consequences for the environment. One of the important areas is the production of electricity and heat, for which the main raw material in Poland is hard coal. An alternative may be to use biogas as a fuel for energy purposes. This article presents the assessment of environmental hazards caused by the production of energy from biogas. The analysis took into account the change of the substrate from maize silage, commonly used in Polish biogas plants, to waste from the domestic agri-food industry. The evaluation covered the acquisition of substrates, their transport to a biogas plant, generation of electricity from biogas, and management of the generated by-products. The analysis was done in terms of both the impact and sensitivity categories. It was found that the emission of pollutants related to the acquisition of the substrate plays a key rol... [more]

Chloride diffusion through concrete is influenced by harsh environmental conditions such as high ambient temperature and relative humidity. This paper examined the influence of temperature gradient on chloride diffusion in concrete under high ambient temperature conditions. Chloride diffusion tests using cylindrical concrete samples were performed in constant temperature and temperature gradient conditions. In a temperature gradient condition, a much higher chloride concentration was measured than at constant temperatures, which could not be explained only by the mass diffusion driven by the concentration gradient. A new analytical model of chloride diffusion with the mass diffusion term including the temperature effect and the thermo-diffusion term including the temperature gradient effect was applied to the results, which showed that the thermo-diffusion contribution was significant. Using the analytical model with the mass diffusion (DCl) and thermo-diffusion (DT) coefficients, the... [more]

The textile industry is one of the largest environmental polluters in the world. Although waste management via anaerobic digestion (AD) is a sustainable strategy to transform waste into clean energy and water recovery, the efficiency of the AD process is reduced by the presence of recalcitrant materials, chemicals, and toxic contents. This study aims to investigate the performance of several chemical, physical, and biological pretreatments applied to improve the biodegradability of textile waste. We performed a meta-analysis with 117 data extracted from 13 published articles that evaluated the efficiency of pretreatments applied to textile waste prior to AD to increase biogas production measured as methane (CH4) yield. Even though the majority of the studies have focused on the effect of chemical and physical pretreatments, our results showed that the application of biological pretreatments are more efficient and eco-friendlier. Biological pretreatments can increase CH4 yield by up to... [more]

This paper presents pulse multiplication technology based on an optimal Pulse Doubling Technique (PDT) to upgrade a 28-Pulse Rectifier (28-PR) to a 56-PR. The optimal PDT comprises a Tapped Interphase Reactor (TIPR) with a low kVA-rating and two diodes. The number of pulses can be increased from 28 to 56 using the PDT so that the input current harmonics are reasonably mitigated. Additionally, the 14-phase Polygon-Connected Autotransformer (PCA) is designed in such a way that it can be used for retrofit applications. A detailed simulation analysis in the MATLAB/Simulink environment is carried out, and the results show that the improved quality indices of the final AC input and DC output power are equivalent to the IEEE 519-2014 standard and meet sensitive industrial application requirements with an input current Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) lower than 3%. Moreover, the power factor also maintained unity for a wide operating range. The optimal PDT scheme is affordable and easy to impl... [more]

Liquid fuel can be an alternative to solid fuel in non-gasified locations. The mazout for municipal-energy boiler plants is much cheaper than fuel oil. However, this relates to the problem of wastewater disposal from such a boiler plant. A proprietary system for the disposal of bottom water and other sewage-containing mazout has been developed. The solution depends on the proper preparation and burning of a water−mazout emulsion (WME). The emulsion is prepared in a specially designed and developed dosing ejector. By burning the emulsion using the developed system, an efficiency increase of 2−3% was achieved for boilers operating on the mazout fuel. Such a result was achieved due to a reduction in the excess air factor. Moreover, emissions of nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide were reduced by 30−35% and 70−80%, respectively. In addition due to cleaning the heat-exchange surfaces obtained when working on the WME, the amount of time for productive and more efficient use of the equipment... [more]

Unsustainable rice straw management causes environmental impacts; hence, utilisation of rice straw for bioenergy is a promising strategy for sustainable rice straw management. Although rice straw has a high potential for bioenergy generation, the whole production cycle and application may cause environmental damage that is not fully understood. Hence, environmental performance studies are required to determine the most effective rice straw utilisation options. A comprehensive approach, such as life-cycle assessment (LCA), can give comprehensive information on the possible environmental effects of rice straw utilisation for bioenergy. Therefore, this study briefly overviews the LCA of rice straw utilisation for bioenergy production. It is found that utilisation of rice straw for bioenergy could reduce global warming potential compared to energy production from fossil fuels. However, it is suggested that other impact categories in LCA be evaluated in the bioenergy production from rice st... [more]

The cultivation of energy crops on degraded soils contributes to reduce the risks associated with land use change, and the biomass may represent an additional revenue as a feedstock for bioenergy. Switchgrass and giant reed were tested under 300 and 600 mg Cr kg−1, 110 and 220 mg Ni kg−1, and 4 and 8 mg Cd kg−1 contaminated soils, in a two year pot experiment. Switchgrass yields (average aerial 330 g.m−2 and below ground 430 g.m−2), after the second year harvest, were not affected by Cd contamination and 110 mg Ni kg−1, but 220 mg Ni kg−1 significantly affected the yields (55−60% reduction). A total plant loss was observed in Cr-contaminated pots. Giant reed aboveground yields (control: 410 g.m−2), in the second year harvest, were significantly affected by all metals and levels of contamination (30−70% reduction), except in 110 mg Ni kg−1 pots. The belowground biomass yields (average 1600 g.m−2) were not affected by the tested metals. Contamination did not affect the high heating value... [more]

To improve the predicting accuracy of wind power, this paper proposes a forecasting model of wind power based on the IPSO−LSTM model and classified fusion, which not only overcomes the shortcoming of the artificially determined parameters of LSTM, but also solves the problem that the fused accuracy may be reduced by the environment when adopting a single fusion model. Firstly, some wind speed sub-series were obtained by decomposing the original wind speed according to the wavelet packet decomposition (WPD), and the data sets formed by combining these sub-series with meteorological elements. Subsequently, the wind power components formed by wind speed decomposition are predicted through the long short-term memory neural network (LSTM), which is optimized by the improved particle swarm optimization (IPSO). Consequently, the predicting value of the final wind power was acquired by adopting the method of classified fusion to calculate the wind power components. Several case studies were ca... [more]

Greenhouse gas emissions anywhere across the value chain cause the global temperature to rise. A responsible net-zero strategy is reducing and removing direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions. The current net-zero actions aim to offset rather than reduce or remove life cycle greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Unless the demands/consumptions are reduced, net-zero actions will merely be a burden-shifting practice. Scope 3 emissions are considered in the life cycle assessment (LCA) of goods and services and account for direct and indirect emissions with imported goods and services. Scope 3 emission tariff seems an effective way to shift consumption patterns to carbon-neutral options. This article explores tools and systems for ‘just transition’ using three buckets of scientific questions: (1) Technical: which GHG to remove, when, where, and by what mechanism; (2) Social-Policy: how to share GHG obligations between stakeholders to deliver the UN SDGs; (3) Data: how to create robust, trus... [more]

Renewable energy resource utilisation is becoming more prevalent in society and can be a sustainable method to meet rising energy demand and consumption. The International Renewable Energy Agency reports that presently, approximately 33% of total electricity output around the world is from renewable energy sources. However, in Nigeria, the World Bank reported this figure as 18.2% in 2015. It is important to understand how Nigeria can raise this average as the world moves towards less use of fossil fuels. Therefore, the aim of this work was to provide a review of the established literature, which can then be used to support the development of renewable energy systems in Nigeria. The methodology employed for the study of the literature involved a systematic review method, including identification, screening, eligibility and inclusion criterium steps. Understanding the national energy landscape is essential to support potential projects, and consequently, energy supply, demand and consump... [more]

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implementation represents an important contribution to circular economy (CE). In recent months, these goals have been modified given the significant changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Research shows increasing interests in revealing the efficiency of design in order to pursue new business models as sources of innovation that can contribute to SDGs. Nevertheless, the realization of SDGs is not easy on the level of enterprises and regions. Here, our research goal was to describe the role of design in business model re-design for SDGs implementation. It was presumed that during the pandemic, entrepreneurs significantly modified business models, emphasizing aspects of sustainable development. In order to verify this assumption, desk research was combined with qualitative research. Data were gathered from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and experts. The research raises the point of the underestimated role of design as a determinant o... [more]

Energy transformation in the European Union countries is progressing. Its scope is defined by formal and legal regulations and its effectiveness by the position of decision-makers, legitimised by public support for a particular type of challenge. Both issues are the focus of this article. The promotion of environmental protection measures is currently strongly promoted globally. Hence the widespread acceptance in principle of the changes associated with the implementing of the Green New Deal in the energy sector is not surprising. However, to what extent is knowledge of the solutions constituting the mainstream transition (renewable energy sources) ingrained among communities? Does the level of public awareness influence individual consumer choices, modelling the market? The threads outlined above inspired deliberations focused on analysing the assumptions behind energy transition in the EU, with particular reference to the countries directly bordering the line of the ongoing conflict... [more]

This study aims to examine the environmental dynamics in the Union for Mediterranean (UFM) countries by considering education, urbanization, green innovation, and other key factors for the period 2001−2016. The data are divided based on the income level of UFM countries and analyzed with panel quantile regression, panel unit root tests, panel co-integration test, ordinary least squares method, and fixed effects model to evaluate the nexus between variables. A generalized method of moments (GMM) is employed to deal with the endogeneity issue in the panel data. The results of the study confirm that the urban population has an inverted U-shaped association with environmental degradation in the lower-middle and high-middle income countries. It further comes out that increased education levels decrease environmental degradation in the high-income countries. Hence, green innovation reduces environmental degradation in the upper-middle-income and high-middle-income countries. The study valida... [more]