The field of solar photovoltaic (PV) plants has seen significant growth in recent years, with an increasing number of installations being developed worldwide. However, despite advancements in technology and design, the impact of shading on the performance of PV plants remains an area of concern. Accurate 3D models produced using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry can provide aid to evaluate shading from nearby surroundings and to determine the potential of a site for electricity production via solar PV plants. The main objective of this paper is to address the problem of shadows significantly reducing energy yield in solar PV plants by proposing a methodology that aims at assessing the shading effects on PV systems and determining the optimal configuration for a PV module array using an accurate digital environment 3D model built using UAV photogrammetry. A high-level-of-detail 3D model allows us to evaluate possible obstacles for PV module array construction and accurately r... [more]

The paper describes a new, proprietary method of HS extraction from digested sewage sludge. HS was extracted using the processes of dissolving organic substances and precipitating mineral micropollutants. The obtained substances were tested by determining their IR spectrum, elemental composition, and content of micropollutants and comparing them with HS obtained using the classical method. Using Phytotestkit, it was shown that HSs isolated from digested sewage sludge contain relatively large amounts of the nutrients necessary for plants (including N and P) and are a good component of a biostimulating substance. The obtained HS contains more ammonium and phosphorus ions. During extraction, inorganic impurities (including heavy metals) are reduced, and the humic product does not contain pathogens, parasites, and their spores. The method is simple, economically justified, and can be used on an industrial scale.

The aim of the presented research was the assessment of phosphorus speciation impact on the precipitation of phosphorus in reject water using Ca(OH)2. To achieve this, phosphorus speciation (organic and inorganic phosphorus in suspension and in dissolved form) in reject water that is produced during sludge dewatering, after methane digestion in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), was determined. This study covered the materials from four WWTPs with different compositions of feedstock for anaerobic digestion (AnD). In one, the AnD process of primary and secondary sludge was carried out without co-substrate, while in three others, co-substrate (waste from the agri-food industry and external waste-activated sludge and fats from industrial plants) was examined. The investigation was conducted in batch reactors using doses of Ca(OH)2 ranging from 2500 to 5500 mg Ca/dm3. The percentage of phosphorus forms determined in the raw reject water was similar, with the dominant form being soluble r... [more]

Students require a comfortable thermal environment for better academic learning and health in general. In Nepal, the majority of school buildings are constructed using local materials, but little consideration is provided to the thermal environment required for comfort. Therefore, this study demonstrates the advantages of using passive design measures through a simulation that can be used either in the early stages or as a retrofit to determine how the building performs in terms of comfort and the thermal environment. First, the thermal environment of school buildings and thermal comfort of students were evaluated through field surveys. Subsequently, a simulation was performed to investigate the operative temperatures in the classroom of a school building in Kathmandu. DesignBuilder software was used to create the base model and the simulated operative temperature was validated using the measured globe temperature. Subsequently, passive strategies, such as natural ventilation, insulati... [more]

Sustainable campus management includes energy-saving measures and waste reduction and has become important to many universities, being part of the institution’s societal responsibility. Smart energy systems (SESs), as part of campus energy management, can bring many benefits, including increased efficiency, reduced energy consumption, reduced emissions, increased reliability, and real-time control, and facilitate the integration of the renewable energy systems (RES). Despite the growing interest in energy efficiency and for the initiatives and projects to implement SESs, there are no universally accepted standards for assessing the performance of SESs, with most techniques being dedicated to subsystems. A KPI (key performance indicator) framework for evaluating the SESs’ performance from university campuses is proposed, starting from the current findings and priorities from the scientific literature, energy standards, legislation, and university rankings. The framework can support the... [more]

In China, one of the most pressing issues that have to be addressed is how to best manage the link between energy consumption and sustainable development. Given this context, the goal of the current article is to investigate the effect of renewable energy consumption on sustainable development. Using provincial panel data from 2005 to 2020 and the province and year fixed effects model for an empirical study, we discover that renewable energy consumption has a favorable impact on sustainable development. Similarly, the findings suggest the influence of non-renewable energy consumption on sustainable development is weaker than that of renewable energy consumption. Moreover, the heterogeneity of the influence of renewable energy consumption and nonrenewable energy consumption on sustainable development in eastern, central, and western China has been demonstrated as well. Notably, the two-stage least squares approach and generalized system method of moments are utilized to examine the robu... [more]

Electronic devices are commonly used for exploiting and extracting shale oil in deep downhole environments. However, high−temperature−and−pressure downhole environments jeopardize the safe operation of electronic components due to their severe thermal conditions. In the present study, an active thermal−insulation system is proposed, which consists of a spiral annular cooling plate (ACP), a thermal storage container with phase−change material (PCM) and an aerogel mat (AM). The effect of the ACP’s structure, layout and working−medium flowrate on the heat−protection performance were experimentally measured; temperature−control capability and system−operating time were used as the criteria. The results show that the AM layer is necessary and that the inner−ACP case displays better thermal−protection performance. Next, a dimensionless temperature−control factor (TCF) was proposed to evaluate the trade−off between temperature control and the system’s operating time. Note that the TCF of the... [more]

Climate change has made the decarbonization of the different domestic economies a widely accepted and urgent priority. Yet, this is a very challenging task in a largely uncharted territory. In this context, in this paper, we address the issue of energy taxation reform with an environmental focus in Portugal. We do so using a multi-sector and multi-household dynamic computable general equilibrium model of the Portuguese economy. We analyze the environmental, macroeconomic, and distributional effects of different policies replacing current energy taxation with carbon taxation and, then, extend the carbon taxation to the levels necessary to achieve the IPCC 2018 emissions reduction targets. Our analysis indicates a clear path in the quest for decarbonization. First, replace energy taxes with a carbon tax; second, adopt the levels of carbon taxation necessary to achieve the emissions goals; third, use extra tax revenues from the carbon tax to reverse any potential adverse macroeconomic and... [more]

Combined heat and power (CHP) plants have opportunities to work as distributed power generation for providing heat and power demand. Furthermore, CHP plants contribute effectively to overcoming the intermittence of renewable energy sources as well as load dynamics. CHP plants need optimal solution(s) for providing electrical and heat energy demand simultaneously within the smart network environment. CHP or cogeneration plant operations need appropriate techno-economic dispatching of combined heat and power with minimising produced energy cost. The interrelationship between heat and power development in a CHP unit, the valve point loading effect, and forbidden working regions of a thermal power plant make the CHP economic dispatch’s (CHPED) objective function discontinuous. It adds complexity in the CHPED optimisation process. The key objective of the CHPED is operating cost minimisation while meeting the desired power and heat demand. To optimise the dispatch operation, three different... [more]

Sustainable development has positioned itself as a fundamental element of a transversal nature, being linked to the energy transition. In this sense, it must be included as a mainstream objective of all actions and strategies developed at the social, academic, business, and political levels. However, to the best of our knowledge, no bibliometric work has been carried out to date to analyze the main contributions to the literature focused on the concepts of renewable energy and sustainable development. The main aim of this paper is to establish the key trends and academic contributions made in the field of renewable energies and sustainable development. For this purpose, a bibliometric and co-citation analysis has been carried out using the Bibliometrix® tool, an open-source R package. The results show that this is a field of study that has significantly increased its importance in recent years, which is illustrated using different indicators. We conclude that research trends seem to be... [more]

Fuel and oil spills during the exploration, refining, and distribution of oil and petrochemicals are primarily responsible for the accumulation of organic pollutants in the environment. The reduction in contamination caused by hydrocarbons, heavy metals, oily effluents, and particulate matter generated by industrial activities and the efficient recovery of oil at great depths in an environmentally friendly way pose a challenge, as recovery and cleaning processes require the direct application of surface-active agents, detergents, degreasers, or solvents, often generating other environmental problems due to the toxicity and accumulation of these substances. Thus, the application of natural surface-active agents is an attractive solution. Due to their amphipathic structures, microbial surfactants solubilize oil through the formation of small aggregates (micelles) that disperse in water, with numerous applications in the petroleum industry. Biosurfactants have proven their usefulness in s... [more]

Dust emissions must be managed and reduced as much as possible to safeguard the environment and human health. Plate-type electrostatic precipitators have been used to decrease pollution in a number of sectors, particularly for applications needing massive volumes of gas to be dedusted at high dust concentrations and temperatures. This paper examines large-capacity plate-type electrostatic precipitators with three sections used in a coal-fired thermal power plant. Using simulations and experiments, the collection efficiency (in different ways of supplying sections, without and with sections rapping), the influence of dust resistivity and a dust layer on the surfaces of collection electrodes, the electrical parameters (voltage, current density, and space charge density) for the sections of the electrostatic precipitators, and the electrical parameters of the power sources (voltage, current, power, and power factor) are studied. A higher dust resistivity will cause a change in the shape o... [more]

Smart grids have introduced several key concepts, including demand response, prosumers—active consumers capable of producing, consuming, and storing both electrical and thermal energies—retail market, and local energy markets. Preserving data privacy in this emerging environment has raised concerns and challenges. The use of novel methods such as online learning is recommended to address these challenges through prediction of the behavior of market stakeholders. In particular, the challenge of predicting prosumers’ behavior in an interaction with retailers requires creating a dynamic environment for retailers to set their optimal pricing. An innovative model of retailer−prosumer interactions in a day-ahead market is presented in this paper. By forecasting the behavior of prosumers by using an online learning method, the retailer implements an optimal pricing scheme to maximize profits. Prosumers, however, seek to reduce energy costs to the greatest extent possible. It is possible for p... [more]

By trapping CO2 and storing it in matured and depleted geological formations, atmospheric CO2 release can be reduced. Carbon capture and storage on a large scale can help to stabilize atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions. This can be achieved by using anthropogenic CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), which encourages advances in secure CO2 storage while enhancing the oil production process. This interaction is expected to hasten the development of CO2 storage technology and lower emissions from oil producing operations. Reducing CO2 mobility in the reservoir is crucial to achieving this goal as effectively as possible, and in situ foam generation offers a viable solution. It has been shown that implementing a blend of CO2 and foaming solution considerably reduces CO2 mobility and front propagation. Although there have been a few reviews of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), none of these have concentrated on the role of foam EOR in achieving carbon neutrality. Therefore,... [more]

The providers of transport services in ports must ensure there is adequate protection of the quays against the hulls of vessels. Highly elastic fenders mounted on the wharfs or on the hulls of vessels are used to absorb the energy of an impact. The structure of the fender, and the highly elastic material used to make it, are designed to ensure the highest possible absorption energy with minimized reaction force. In this work, the efficiency of energy absorption by cylindrical fenders into which additional structural elements were introduced in the form of holes of various diameters, was determined numerically using the finite element method. It was found that the features of such structural elements affect the efficiency of their energy absorption. In order to confirm the accuracy of the numerical calculations, they were verified based on experimental determination of the functional parameters of the cylindrical fenders. The reaction force and absorption energy values determined numeri... [more]

Modern communication networks and digital control techniques are used in a smart grid. The first step is to classify the features of several communication networks and conduct a comparative investigation of the communication networks applicable to the smart grid. The integration of distributed generation has significantly increased as the global energy demand rises, and sustainable energy for electric vehicles and renewable energies worldwide are being pursued. Additional explanations for this surge include environmental concerns, the reforming of the power sector, and the advancing of small-scale electricity generation technologies. Smart monitoring and control of interconnected systems are required to successfully integrate distributed generation into an existing conventional power system. Electric-vehicles-based smart grid technologies are capable of playing this part. Smart grids are crucial to avoid becoming locked in an obsolete energy infrastructure and to draw in new investment... [more]

Regulations, depletion of natural resources and changing customer demands are putting pressure on manufacturing companies to consider environmental issues in the development of new products. Companies are using PLM systems to manage the product lifecycle, but the current generation of these systems is not adequately adapted to product sustainability issues. The research results presented in this article are intended to support two target groups: academia and industry. The main scientific objective is to provide a systematic method for selecting and evaluating sustainability indicators related to the various phases of automotive lifecycle management. The main application goal is to support the industry in its pursuit of greener development by identifying which sustainability indicators are relevant to each phase of the product lifecycle. As a result, the key green indicators related to the automotive industry in line with the GreenPLM concept are identified together with their assignmen... [more]

Rice husk is the main by-product of the postharvest stage in rice production, which causes environmental impacts due to improper management as a solid waste. However, potential economic applications of rice husk combustion have been identified for energy generation and amorphous silica production in several industries. To minimize hazardous gaseous emissions and crystalline silica availability, rice husk combustion conditions should be properly controlled which also effect for efficient heat production. This study was conducted under different conditions of temperature, airflow, combustion time, and bulk density of rice husk in the combustion process using an experimental prototype hybrid rice husk burner with a fluidized bed. The availability of crystalline silica in rice husk charcoal and the CO and O2 compositions in the exhaust gas were analyzed using XRD analysis and gas analysis, respectively. Furthermore, elemental and thermogravimetric analyses were conducted to find the most e... [more]

The European Union (EU) countries have declared the ambitious goal of providing carbon-free economic development. Considering this, the EU countries are going to pursue relevant policies for a step-by-step refusal of mining and coal energy, consequently reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The analysis of the theoretical background showed that renewable energy is the core dimension of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In this case, the paper aims to justify the impact of core dimensions (knowledge spillover, innovation, and environmental regulation) that could boost renewable energy penetration into all sectors and levels. The following methods are applied to test the hypotheses: stationarity testing in panels; cross-section dependence testing; cointegration testing; and estimation in heterogeneous parameter models. The data are obtained from Eurostat, the OECD, and the World Data Bank. The object of research is the EU country in the period 2010−2020. The findings confirm the hypothesis... [more]

With the global energy crisis, increasing demand, and a national-level emphasis on electric vehicles (EVs), numerous innovations are being witnessed throughout the EV industry. EVs are equipped with sensors that maintain a sustainable environment for the betterment of society and enhance human sustainability. However, at the same time, as is the case for any new digital technology, they are susceptible to threats to security and privacy. Recent incidents demonstrate that these sensors have been misused for car and energy theft, financial fraud, data compromise, and have caused severe health and safety problems, amongst other things. To the best of our knowledge, this paper provides a first systematic analysis of EV sustainability, digital technologies that enhance sustainability, their potential cybersecurity threats, and corresponding defense. Firstly, three robust taxonomies have been presented to identify the dangers that can affect long-term sustainability domains, including (1) li... [more]

Intelligent inverters have the capability to interact with the grid and supply supplemental services. Solar inverters designed for the future will have the ability to self-govern, self-adapt, self-secure, and self-heal themselves. Based on the available capacity, the ancillary service rendered by a solar inverter is referred to as moonlighting. Inverters that communicate with the grid but are autonomous can switch between the grid forming mode and the grid following control mode as well. Self-adaptive grid-interactive inverters can keep their dynamics stable with the assistance of adaptive controllers. Inverters that interact with the grid are also capable of self-adaptation Grid-interactive inverters may be vulnerable to hacking in situations in which they are forced to rely on their own self-security to determine whether malicious setpoints have been entered. To restate, an inverter can be referred to as a “smart inverter” when it is self-tolerant, self-healing, and provides ancillar... [more]

Energy theft causes a lot of economic losses every year. In the practical environment of energy theft detection, it is required to solve imbalanced data problem where normal user data are significantly larger than energy theft data. In this paper, a variational autoencoder-generative adversarial network (VAE-GAN)-based energy theft-detection model is proposed to overcome the imbalanced data problem. In the proposed model, the VAE-GAN generates synthetic energy theft data with the features of real energy theft data for augmenting the energy theft dataset. The obtained balanced dataset is applied to train a detector which is designed as one-dimensional convolutional neural network. The proposed model is simulated on the practical dataset for comparing with various generative models to evaluate their performance. From simulation results, it is confirmed that the proposed model outperforms the other existing models. Additionally, it is shown that the proposed model is also very useful in t... [more]

Most climatic changes are not just the result of human activity, but also of business models that harm the environment. An attempt to attain an ecological balance is an answer to the challenge posed by this situation. The combustion of liquid fuels results in the atmospheric emissions of pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide and hydrocarbons. To reduce emissions of these pollutants and at the same time attain an ecological balance, specific modifiers are applied. This paper presents an analysis of the energy efficiency and ecological efficiency of fuel oil combustion in power plant boilers based on the results of tests carried out by the present authors, in which a Fe/Mg/Ce modifier was used. The tests were carried out for system capacities ranging from 1 to 5 MW. It was found that savings on fuel, which resulted from the implementation of a system for the control and supervision of power plant operation, were in the range of 4 to 6%, and those resulting from the us... [more]

Corporate social responsibility can assist in reducing the noise caused by pricing volatility and a lack of energy-efficient business solutions. The study’s objective is twofold: (i) to investigate the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in reducing volatility through the contribution of energy-efficient strategies; (ii) to identify research trends in the field that may indicate future research directions for the development of more dynamic strategies that will help in mitigating the impact of pricing volatility. A five-step bibliometric analysis was applied to address the research question. The findings were visualized by using bibliometric tools such as R Studio, Biblioshiny, and VOSViewer. Chinese academics have been revealed as pioneers in integrating CSR into corporate strategies to reduce volatility and support energy-efficient investments. Moreover, results indicate that financial institutions must embrace a new business model based on both CSR and environmental, socia... [more]

Cold stress in sheep is usually overlooked, even though the animals’ welfare and productivity are affected by low temperatures. The aim of this research was to find out if and to what extent the temperature inside a sheep barn could be maintained within the range of the thermoneutral zone during winter, primarily to increase feed conversion and to reduce GHG emissions. For this reason, an automation system was installed at a sheep barn in northern Greece, and heat losses from the building were calculated. The biogas potential of the sheep barn waste was examined in the laboratory via the BMP method. The results showed that the installation of an automation system together with a hypothetical biogas heating system could maintain the barn’s temperature in the range of a sheep’s thermoneutral zone during winter for the 94% of the scenarios examined if the total energy of the biogas was utilized, while heating energy that was instantly and continuously used succeeded in 48% of the investig... [more]