In order to realistically fulfil global and national climate protection targets, all potential measures have to be made use of to a maximum extent. Because it is readily available, biomass energy has been playing a key practical role for decades, supported by the traditional assumption of its carbon neutrality: under sustainable conditions, carbon dioxide emitted during combustion is held to be equal to its absorption during plant growth. In order to clarify conditions of carbon (C) neutrality, it is therefore necessary to model the annual natural C cycle on the entire planet and to include changes caused by a variety of growth strategies for biomass fuels. The “Combined Energy and Biosphere Model” CEBM calculates the cycle of plant growth, decay, biomass fuel production and its combustion on 2433 grid elements worldwide. CEBM results suggest that over many decades, the C pools of litter and especially soil organic carbon (i.e., humus layer) deplete considerably as a consequence of the... [more]

A large number of workers are entering the rapidly growing solar photovoltaic industry. The emerging occupational safety and health risks faced by the workers have rarely been measured and aptly addressed. Moreover, there is a lack of cross-cultural studies on solar photovoltaic workers engaged across different countries. This study was planned to measure the occupational safety and health risks, socio-demographic parameters, study the cross-cultural aspects and develop design concepts for risk mitigation. Field studies were conducted in solar installations in Saudi Arabia and India. Socio-demographic data and risk perception scores for eighteen different occupational safety and health risks were obtained from the workers (n = 135). In addition, discomfort glare was also measured. Design concepts were developed following the hierarchy of controls matrix and the bow-tie analysis method using the prevention through design approach. Heat stress, electrocution, solar radiation, and fire/el... [more]

Since the electronic power conditioner (EPC) is a crucial part applied of a Space Travelling-wave Tube Amplifier (STWTA), the reliability issue must be considered. Of all the failure modes of an EPC, the insulation failure of an EPC in thermal and moist environments is the most serious, and needs special attention. By investigating the influence of contamination, humidity, and temperature on surface insulation resistance (SIR) and surface discharge, we focused on the determination of the insulation failure boundary in an EPC. Considering real working conditions, we used the typical circuit applied in the EPC as the test object. The insulation deterioration phenomenon under different thermal and moisture stress was studied. The results show that: (1) SIR of the samples did not change with contamination levels when the relative humidity (RH) was below 70%. When RH was higher than 75%, the SIR began to vary with temperature and ionic contaminant concentration. (2) Even if the samples were... [more]

The paper is concerned with predicting energy consumption in the production and product usage stages and searching for possible changes in product design to reduce energy consumption. The prediction of energy consumption uses parametric models based on regression analysis and artificial neural networks. In turn, simulations related to the identification of improvement opportunities for reducing energy consumption are performed using a constraint programming technique. The results indicate that the use of artificial neural networks improves the quality of an estimation model. Moreover, constraint programming enables the identification of all possible solutions to a constraint satisfaction problem, if there are any. These solutions support R&D specialists in identifying possibilities for reducing energy consumption through changes in product specifications. The proposed approach is dedicated to products related to high-cost energy use, which can be manufactured, for example, by companies... [more]

One of the ways to minimize anthropogenic emissions from coal combustion is to replace conventional schemes used for the introduction of coal dust into the furnaces of power plants through the injection of water-containing fuels. In this research, the three most promising schemes for fuel combustion were implemented: (i) the simultaneous introduction of coal particles and water droplets into the combustion chamber; (ii) steam injection into the fuel particle combustion zone; and (iii) the introduction of coal−water slurries into the furnace. Three methods of supplying water to the combustion zone were evaluated using the multi-criteria decision-making technique. Experimental research was conducted to record a range of process characteristics: the time of the gas-phase and heterogeneous ignition, the time of complete combustion, minimum ignition temperatures, maximum combustion temperatures, the completeness of the fuel burnout and the concentrations of the main gaseous emissions. It ha... [more]

Clean electricity is generated by the anaerobic digestion of biomass waste. The environmental impacts of various biomass waste feedstocks vary, while co-digestion has been reported to improve anaerobic digestion performance. A consequential life-cycle assessment (LCA) and techno-economic analysis (TEA) are carried out for cow manure waste management for a cow farm. Three scenarios are considered in this study: (S1) mono-digestion of cow manure, (S2) co-digestion of cow manure and maize silage, and (S3) co-digestion of cow manure with cow feed waste, sewage sludge, and returned dairy products. The LCA aims to quantify the environmental impact of each MWh of electricity generated, assuming the plant is located in Malaysia, using OpenLCA software. The TEA economic parameters are quantified and compared between the three scenarios. Net present value (NPV), Internal Return Rate (IRR), and Return of Investment (ROI) are examined. Among the three scenarios, S2 with maize cultivation has a hig... [more]

Achieving sustainable development goals depends on governance effectiveness within the penetration of digital technologies in all spheres and levels. Furthermore, the energy sector is a crucial inhibitor of sustainable development that depends on the efficacy of digital public services. In this case, the paper aims at analyzing the impact of e-governance on achieving sustainable development goals, particularly on affordable and clean energy. The object of research is EU countries in the period 2013−2019. The data are compiled from the databases of Eurostat, the World Data Bank, and the Sustainable Development Report. The study applies the following methods: the taxonomy method to measure the e-governance index, the fixed effect, the random effect, and a pooled OLS regression model to check the impact of e-governance on affordable and clean energy. The results outlined the leaders (Estonia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Latvia, and Malta) and the outsiders (Romania, Croatia, Greece, Bulgari... [more]

In the literature on the subject, it is argued that tax policy is one of the tools stimulating the transition toward sustainable economies. Public authorities can use two functions for this purpose: fiscal and non-fiscal functions. High emission rates and the rising rapid atmospheric changes that come with them are serious threats to the climate and sustainable development. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is one of the goals towards which the world strives (including the EU), so as to keep a balance between people’s expectations, economic aspects, and the needs of the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to explain whether, along with other factors, environmental policy and its component “green taxes” can act as a factor in limiting greenhouse gas emissions. The purpose of this article is to seek an answer to the question of whether “green taxes” as an instrument of tax policy are a significant factor influencing climate change by contributing to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.... [more]

In the petroleum industry, naphtha cracking centers (NCC), which produce ethylene, propylene, propane, and mixed-C4, are known to consume a large amount of energy and release a significant amount of carbon dioxide (CO2). This necessitates economic and environmental assessments with the aim of achieving a reduction in energy use in order to ensure efficiency in terms of cost and environmental impact. Herein, a heat exchanger network (HEN) is considered with the aim of determining its optimal operating strategy. In addition, the trade-off between reduction in utility costs (i.e., profit) and the installation cost of the heat exchanger (i.e., loss) is evaluated in terms of economic efficiency. Finally, an environmental impact assessment is performed with respect to the source of fuel consumed for steam generation. The HEN’s energy consumption in the three configurations analyzed herein was found to be reduced by 3%, 6%, and 8%. When considering variations in the fuel used for steam genera... [more]

Sugarcane leaves and trash burning during harvesting, and vinasse management, are major challenges of the Thai sugarcane industry. Identification of the appropriate valorization pathways for both the biomass waste streams using the sugarcane biorefinery concept is necessary. This study aims to assess the environmental sustainability of five CE models, including (1) sugarcane trash for electricity, (2) sugarcane trash to biochar, (3) sugarcane trash as a soil conditioner, (4) vinasse as a bio-fertilizer, and (5) vinasse for power generation. Life cycle assessment has been conducted using the ReCiPE midpoint impact assessment method. The results revealed that all waste utilization scenarios can help reduce the environmental impacts compared to the base case. The utilization of sugarcane leaves and trash for electricity generation brings about the lowest environmental impacts due to the environmental credits from the substitution of Thai grid electricity. The utilization of sugarcane leav... [more]

The use of solar thermal systems (STSs) has recently reached a significant edge. The increasing research on developing an alternative power supply for limiting fossil fuel usage and climate change are the driving forces of STSs. The current work explores the recent progress in STSs’ applications, including PV/T or “photovoltaic/thermal” systems, zero-energy buildings, greenhouse solar thermal applications, solar thermal for pumping water, solar thermal refrigerators, solar chimneys, water desalination, and solar collectors, along with the benefits and challenges of these applications. Then, the potential contribution of STSs in achieving the various SDGs or “Sustainable development goals”, including barriers and research gaps, are elaborated. In brief, STSs significantly contribute to the seventeen SDGs’ achievement directly and indirectly. Recent developments in the engineering applications of STSs are strongly based on the materials of construction, as well as their design, process o... [more]

The growing level of modern environmental problems and the need to ensure energy security creates new challenges for the development of the energy sector. Nowadays, countries must balance their international competitiveness and progress in achievement the Sustainable Development Goals. This provides a necessity for the development of alternative energy technologies. Modern trends in the development of alternative energy indicate a gradual increase in the relevance of biofuel production. At the same time, the development of clean energy technologies needs significant investments, and their commercial implementation is a long process. Moreover, energy industry transformations require significant changes in the functioning of complementary spheres. That makes necessary the use of additional incentives for the development of the bioenergy sector. Thus, an assessment of the impact of environmental taxes on biofuel production and consumption becomes crucial. This research is aimed at the ide... [more]

Long-lived minor actinides (MAs) are one of the primary contributors to the long-term radiological hazards of nuclear waste, and the buildup of MAs is hampering the development of nuclear power. The transmutation of MAs in reactors is regarded as a potential way to replace direct disposal to reduce the impact of MA on the environment and improve the utilization of fuel. Due to its superior features, such as outstanding neutron economy, no fuel assembly fabrication, high neutron flux, and especially online refueling and reprocessing, the molten chloride salt fast reactor (MCFR) is regarded as one of the potential reactors for MA incineration. In this work, MA transmutation capability and 233U breeding performance for an optimized MCFR have been evaluated in different scenarios. The results show that the MA transmutation capability and 233U breeding performance with online transuranic elements (TRU) and 232Th feeding scenario are improved significantly compared with the case in online 23... [more]

The implementation of appropriate solutions for municipal waste management is still a significant challenge for the operators of technological facilities. Although there are many separate collection procedures and waste neutralisation systems available, it is still necessary to search for new economically and technologically justified solutions. The priority is environmental care and circular economy compliance. An important aspect is recycling and energy recovery from waste as an alternative fuel. Preparation of municipal waste for energy production requires many preliminary unit processes, and one of the most important factors is drying. It should be emphasised that environmental impact assessment is an indispensable aspect of waste management. The aim of long-term research was to determine the effect of bio-drying of municipal waste on the characteristics of technological and precipitation wastewater and its impact on the quality of the aquatic environment. An investigation was carr... [more]

Hydrogen has the potential to decarbonize a variety of energy-intensive sectors, including steel production. Using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, the state of the art is given for current hydrogen production with a focus on the hydrogen carbon footprint. Beside the state of the art, the outlook on different European scenarios up to the year 2040 is presented. A case study of the transformation of steel production from coal-based towards hydrogen- and electricity-based metallurgy is presented. Direct reduction plants with integrated electric arc furnaces enable steel production, which is almost exclusively based on hydrogen and electricity or rather on electricity alone, if hydrogen stems from electrolysis. Thus, an integrated steel site has a demand of 4.9 kWh of electric energy per kilogram of steel. The carbon footprint of steel considering a European sustainable development scenario concerning the electricity mix is 0.75 kg CO2eq/kg steel in 2040. From a novel perspect... [more]

Urban heat sources from urban infrastructure and buildings could meet ~10% of the European building heating demand. There is, however, limited information on how to use them. The EU project ReUseHeat has generated much of the existing knowledge on urban waste heat recovery implementation. Heat recovery from a data center, hospital and from water were demonstrated. Additionally, the project generated knowledge of stakeholders, risk profile, bankability and business models. The recovery of urban waste heat is characterized by high potential, high competitiveness compared to other heating alternatives, high avoidance of GHG emissions, payback within three years and low utilization. These characteristics reveal that barriers for increased utilization exist. The barriers are not technical. Instead, the absence of a waste heat EU level policy adds risk. Other showstoppers are low knowledge on the urban waste heat opportunity and new stakeholder relationships being needed for successful recov... [more]

Today, the energy sector is characterized by a high degree of unsustainability in terms of sources and supply systems, infrastructure, and policies, including climate policy. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the functions of planning and to implement new energy strategies, which should lead to the sector’s sustainability in the environmental, social, and economic dimensions. In this context, the aim of the article is to develop a model for the sustainability assessment process and to use it as a benchmarking framework for sustainability assessment indices used in energy problems. The study included 14 indices to assess various aspects of sustainable development. The indices were tested in terms of their sustainability dimensions, data sources, data normalization methods, index aggregation methods, and other elements of the sustainability assessment process. As a result of the research, it was found that none of the analyzed indices meet all the requirements for indices that are... [more]

Studying a renewable energy integrated power system’s features is essential, especially for deregulated systems. The unpredictability of renewable sources is the main barrier to integrating renewable energy-producing units with the current electrical grid. Due to its unpredictable nature, integrating wind power into an existing power system requires significant consideration. In a deregulated electricity market, this paper examines the implications of wind farm (WF) integration with CAES on electric losses, voltage profile, generation costs, and system economics. Comparative research was done to determine the impact of wind farm integration on regulated and deregulated environments. Four randomly chosen locations in India were chosen for this investigation, together with real-time information on each location’s real wind speed (RWS) and predicted wind speed (PWS). Surplus charge rates and deficit charge rates were created to assess the imbalance cost arising from the discrepancy betwee... [more]

The sludge in this study was obtained from refinery crude oil storage tanks. It contained a high proportion of hydrocarbon composition and harmful substances (such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and benzene). Through the microwave irradiation treatment process, the harmful substances were removed from the sludge which was then recycled and combined with agricultural waste mushroom substrates to produce refuse derived fuel (RDF). The results showed that the calorific value of RDF was 7279 cal/g when the blending ratio (wt/wt) of oil sludge and mushroom substrates was 5:5. On the other hand, when the portion of the mushroom substrates was increased, the sludge became easier to ignite with better combustion reaction. When the blending ratio (wt/wt) was changed from 8:2 to 5:5, the ignition index and comprehensive performance index were increased by 51.9 and 50.2%. Therefore, mixing the sludge with agricultural waste mushroom substrates is in line with the concept of waste recycling a... [more]

The remediation of open-cast post-mining soil remains a big challenge. Here, the post-mining soils are considered from the viewpoints of CO2 emission and carbon sequestration. We investigated the dynamic of C stock in two different post-mining areas, i.e., the limestone post-mining soil remediated with embankment (S1), and the lignite post-mining soil remediated with sewage sludge (S2). Post-mining soils under four different remediation stages were used. The study was conducted in the spring of 2021 and 2022. The aim of the study was to assess the C sequestration in sewage sludge amended and non-amended post-mining soils at differently advanced remediation techniques. We noticed an increase in or stabilization of SOC in the S1. The stabilization of SOC was observed for the soil with a higher remediation age (S1C, S1D). The remediation of the S2 resulted in the increase in SOC among the soil remediation age. For both soils, we noticed a negative CO2 emission from the soil under remediat... [more]

The amount and variety of waste increases every year. One of the places where biodegradable waste is generated is the agri-food industry, where it is possible to utilize it for the purpose of energy production. The aim of this research was to determine the possibility of using post-floatation dairy sludge as a raw material for co-pelletization with sawdust. The scope of this work included physical and chemical characterizations of the feedstock, the co-pelletization process, and the combustion of the produced pellets, combined with an exhaust analysis. The obtained values of the pellets’ density at each level of sludge addition allowed us to conclude that the obtained pellets had a good market quality and constituted a full-fledged, innovative solid fuel, in accordance with the guidelines of the latest, currently applicable ISO 17225 standard. Furthermore, adding ca. 20%wt of sludge to sawdust resulted in a 30% decrease in the pelletization power demand, and still, the combustion chara... [more]

Moving towards RER has become imperative to achieve sustainable development goals (SDG). Renewable energy resources (RER) are characterized by uncertainty whereas, most of them are unpredictable and variable according to climatic conditions. This paper focuses on RER-based electrical power plants as a base to achieve two different goals, SDG7 (obtaining reasonably priced clean energy) and SDG13 (reducing climate change). These goals in turn would support other environmental, social, and economic SDG. This study is constructed based on two pillars which are technological developments and life cycle assessment (LCA) for wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal power plants. To support the study and achieve the main point, many essential topics are presented in brief such as fossil fuels’ environmental impact, economic sustainability linkage to RER, the current contribution of RER in energy consumption worldwide and barriers and environmental effects of RER under consideration. As a result, s... [more]

Unloading arms (ULAs) among seaport infrastructures are susceptible to deterioration posed by the effects of harsh marine environmental conditions. During infrastructure’s service life, the deterioration of structural integrity may increase the risk of failure of infrastructure, and should be taken into account during structural reliability assessment. In this study, a simple non-destructive test (NDT) was employed to examine the structural deterioration of ULAs which were installed over 30 years ago. Then, these aging ULAs were modeled by the finite-element program, using non-destructive test data to update the thickness dimensions of structural members. Next, a reliability assessment was conducted based on the stress distribution of the main structural components under external loads, which are calculated by their relation to wind speed. Moreover, the time-dependent reliability index curve was also built by considering the deterioration function to predict the failure probability of... [more]

This article is a study of the research development of electrodynamic phenomena occurring in ultra-fast electrodynamic drives. These types of linear drives are among the fastest, not only because of the huge accelerations achieved, but, above all, because of the extremely short reaction time. For this reason, electrodynamic drives are used in hybrid short-circuit breakers. The phenomena occurring in this type of drive are actually magneto-thermo-elastic in nature, but the coupling of these phenomena should be considered weak if the criteria for repeatable operation in a hybrid circuit breaker system are met. The authors have been researching this type of drive for many years through not only experimental studies, but also primarily simulation studies developing models of such drives. The authors present the history of the development starting from the first works of Thomson, and Kesserling and ending with the most current models, including mainly their own. This article presents mainly... [more]

The physical and mechanical properties of rocks can be reduced significantly by an acidic environment, resulting in engineering weaknesses, such as building foundation instability, landslides, etc. In order to investigate the mechanical properties of rocks after hydrochemical erosion, a chemical damage constitutive model was established and used to analyze chemical damage variables and energy transformation. It is assumed that the strength of the rock elements obeyed Weibull distribution, considering the nonuniformity of rock. The chemical damage variable was proposed according to the load-bearing volume changes in the rock under water−rock chemical interactions. The chemical damage constitutive model was derived from coupling the mechanical damage under the external load and the chemical damage under hydrochemical erosion. In order to verify the accuracy of the model, semi-immersion experiments and uniaxial compression experiments of black sandy dolomite were carried out with differen... [more]