The popularity of climate neutral new energy vehicles for reduced emissions and improved air quality has been raising great attention for many years. World-wide, a strong commitment continues to drive the demand for zero-emission through alternative energy sources and propulsion systems. Despite the fact that 71.27% of hydrogen is produced from natural gas, green hydrogen is a promising clean way to contribute to and maintain a climate neutral ecosystem. Thereby, reaching CO2 targets for 2030 and beyond requires cross-sectoral changes. However, the strong motivation of governments for climate neutrality is challenging many sectors. One of them is the transport sector, as it is challenged to find viable all-in solutions that satisfy social, economic, and sustainable requirements. Currently, the use of new energy vehicles operating on green sustainable hydrogen technologies, such as batteries or fuel cells, has been the focus for reducing the mobility induced emissions. In Europe, 50% of... [more]

Driver behaviour and distraction have been identified as the main causes of rear end collisions. However a promptly issued warning can reduce the severity of crashes, if not prevent them completely. This paper proposes a Forward Collision Warning System (FCW) based on information coming from a low cost forward monocular camera for low end electric vehicles. The system resorts to a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and does not require the reconstruction of a complete 3D model of the surrounding environment. Moreover a closed-loop simulation platform is proposed, which enables the fast development and testing of the FCW and other Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). The system is then deployed on embedded hardware and experimentally validated on a test track.

The purpose of this article is to analyze and compare the benefits of and barriers to the implementation of Environmental Management Systems (EMS)—International Standard ISO 14001 and Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS)—by organizations. This paper attempts to answer the following research questions: 1. Does the implementation of either ISO 14001 or EMAS bring the same benefits and barriers to organizations? 2. Does the system functioning duration in the company influence internal and external benefits resulting from EMS implementation? 3. Are economic aspects of EMS adoption as important for entrepreneurs as the ecological aspects? This topic is important due to the large disproportions appearing in recent years between the number of companies registered in ISO 14001 and in EMAS, and due to relatively frequent cases of non-renewal of EMAS certifications in recent years. It is crucial because each EMS certified institution has implemented procedures which contribute to better protec... [more]

The concept of the circular economy (CE) is receiving encouraging attention among scholars and practitioners, as a convenient solution to move away from the linear economy concept without neglecting the goals of sustainable development. The main goals of the CE are the closing of resource loops and the keeping of resources in the system for as long as possible at the highest utility level. However, as a result of the lack of internationally accepted definitions of the CE and several unsolved barriers, an excessive and inconsistent number of different CE applications exist. Most fields are mainly focusing on making a linear system circular instead of applying the CE principles in a holistic way. This paper presents a strategy to close the mentioned inconsistency gap, by contrasting currently discussed CE barriers and goals and thereof deriving two areas with a need for action (1. identifying the needed collection, sorting, and recovery infrastructure, and 2. developing circular product... [more]

New opportunities are opening for electric cooking (eCooking) as a cost-effective, practical and desirable solution to the twin global challenges of clean cooking and electrification. Globally, momentum is building behind the transformative potential of eCooking to achieve a range of environmental and social impacts. However, cooking is a complex, culturally embedded practice, that results in an array of behavioural change challenges that must be understood and overcome for these new opportunities to translate into impact at scale. The Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) programme was designed to explore this space and pilot innovative new eCooking services with the potential to rapidly scale. This paper reflects upon the programme’s key learnings to date on the behavioural change dimension of eCooking. It consolidates what we now know on the subject and highlights the gaps that remain, where further investigation is needed. The evidence shows that the uptake of eCooking can be hinde... [more]

There are international activities and on-going initiatives, particularly at the European level, to define what Positive Energy Districts should be, as the driving concept for the urban transition to a sustainable future. The first objective of the paper is to contribute to the on-going and lively debate about the definition of the notion of Sustainable Plus Energy Neighbourhood (SPEN), which highlights the multiple dimensions when talking about sustainability in districts moving beyond the traditional and strict building energy assessment. Based on a holistic methodology which ensures the consideration of the multidimensional nature and goals of SPEN, the paper outlines an evaluation framework. The evaluation framework defines the key performance indicators distributed in five categories that consider energy and power performance, GHG emissions, indoor environmental quality, smartness, flexibility, life cycle costs and social sustainability. This framework is designed to be implemente... [more]

The goal of reducing the climate impact of shipping requires many different activities. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the International Maritime Organization prepared some proposals to meet and fulfill the requirements. It sets out the provisions of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships 73/78 Annex 6—Prevention of the Air Pollution from Ships (1997) with the amendments and the future objectives set. The main objective is to achieve climate neutrality from shipping by 2050. One method is the decarbonization of marine fuels. The types of fuels that are transient fuels, with the final target fuel being hydrogen, are shown. Carbon dioxide emissions depend on the chemical composition of the fuel, its Lower Heating Value and the engine efficiency. The aim of the manuscript is to demonstrate that the use of fuels with lower carbon content is a transitional process enabling the hydrogen era to take place. An analysis of this problem is presented as a rev... [more]

Circular economy (CE) is an economic model, in which raw materials remain in circulation as long as possible and the generation of waste is minimized. In the fertilizer sector, waste rich in nutrients should be directed to agriculture purposes. This paper presents an analysis of recommended directions for the use of nutrient-rich waste in fertilizer sector and an evaluation of possible interest in this kind of fertilizer by a selected group of end-users (nurseries). The scope of research includes the state-of-the-art analysis on circular aspects and recommended directions in the CE implementation in the fertilizer sector (with focus on sewage-based waste), and survey analysis on the potential interest of nurseries in the use of waste-based fertilizers in Poland. There are more and more recommendations for the use of waste for agriculture purposes at European and national levels. The waste-based products have to meet certain requirements in order to put such products on the marker. Nurs... [more]

The deployment of advanced nuclear technologies is anticipated to be part of the actions required to mitigate global climate change. The successful deployment of these new technologies, like all new infrastructure projects, will be more successful if the projects have strong public support. Successful deployment of energy infrastructure correlates with thoughtful approaches to equitable energy transitions. This work recalls the history of recent energy infrastructure deployments, shows where the inclusion of social scientists has improved the possibility of success and proposes specific steps to make future deployments of advanced nuclear technologies successful.

This paper investigates the potential of a new integrated solar concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) system that uses a solo point focus Fresnel lens for multiple multi-junction solar cells (MJSCs). The proposed system comprises of an FL concentrator as the primary optical element, a multi-leg homogeniser as the secondary optical element (SOE), a plano-concave lens, and four MJSCs. A three-dimensional model of this system was developed using the ray tracing method to predict the influence of aperture width, height, and position with respect to MJSCs of different reflective and refractive SOE on the overall optical efficiency of the system and the irradiance uniformity achieved on the MJSCs’ surfaces. The results show that the refractive homogeniser using N-BK7 glass can achieve higher optical efficiency (79%) compared to the reflective homogeniser (57.5%). In addition, the peak to average ratio of illumination at MJSCs for the reflective homogeniser ranges from 1.07 to 1.14, while for the r... [more]

The development of the COVID-19 pandemic and the related lockdown had a major impact on vehicle traffic in cities. Based on available data from the selected city of Rzeszow, Poland, it was decided to assess changes in vehicle traffic and the impact of these changes on roadside environmental pollution. As part of the research, data from the first half of 2020 regarding vehicle traffic on selected streets of the city and on the city’s inlet routes were analyzed. For the selected road sections, changes in hourly traffic volume in 2020, compared with 2019, were also determined. With data on traffic volume, an attempt was made to estimate the impact of changes in traffic volume on air pollution in the city. Research on air pollution from motor vehicles was focused on a selected section of a city road that was equipped with an automatic air pollution measurement station located very close to the road. Additionally, at the road intersection and in the vicinity of the measuring station, a sens... [more]

In recent years, cities are expected to develop in line with the smart city (S.C.) idea. Cities, perceived as attractive places for people to live, must now meet many conditions. A city’s duty is, among others, to meet the needs and expectations of both, its residents and newcomers, offering a wide range of opportunities for entrepreneurs, caring for the natural environment, constantly taking on new challenges, and meeting them for its further development. Thus, the management of a city involves undertaking activities in line with the smart city idea. However, to implement them, they use widely available means, defined as intelligent solutions, e.g., modern ICT technologies. In line with the smart city idea, a city is a center inhabited by people who create a civic and participatory society, having the ability to use the latest ICT solutions and having access to a range of services and solutions offered by the city. Since the smart city idea is considered at many levels, it is still un... [more]

The digestate is a prospective biofertilizer and potential source of income for many biogas plants worldwide. However, its actual impact on the soil properties and biomass yield is still unexploited. The different digestates from eight agricultural biogas plants were researched in terms of their chemical composition and the fertilizing potential. The results obtained from digestate chemical analysis indicate that the digestate biomass had large amount of nitrogen (up to 73 g kg−1 fresh mass) and potassium (up to 25 g kg−1 fresh mass). The value of the digestate was estimated in the range of 2.88−7.89 EUR Mg−1 for liquid digestate and 7.62−13.61 EUR Mg−1 for solid digestate based on the commercial fertilizer market price of nitrogen, potassium phosphorus, organic carbon, Cu, Zn, Fe and Mg. The digestate produced at the 1 MW biogas plant is worth EUR 941−2095 per day in addition to energy sales income. The application of digestate on low-fertility land in areas close to the biogas plant... [more]

The present research assesses the influence of globalization and technological innovation on CO2 emissions in South Korea as well as taking into account the role of renewable energy consumption and energy consumption utilizing datasets between 1980 and 2018. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing method is utilized to assess long-run cointegration. The outcome of the ARDL bounds test confirmed cointegration among the series. Furthermore, the ARDL reveals that economic growth, energy consumption and globalization trigger environmental degradation while technological innovation improves the quality of the environment. In addition, the study employed the frequency domain causality test to capture causal linkage among the series. The major advantage of this approach is that causal linkage between series can be captured at the short, medium and long term, respectively. The outcomes of the causality test revealed that globalization, technological innovation, economic growth... [more]

Wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) wastewater treatment is a key problem in coal-fired plants. Traditional chemical precipitation methods cannot reach zero-liquid discharge (ZLD). In this paper, a new technology using the low-rank heat from flue gas to concentrate the wastewater for ZLD is proposed. A scrubber was built to verify the concentrating process, and the characteristics of the concentrated water were analyzed. The concentrated water was neutralized by adding Ca(OH)2 to raise the pH value. The wastewater can be concentrated 10~25 times to reduce the flow rate. The characteristics of the concentrated wastewater were studied by dosing lime. Then, liquid and solids were separated by filter pressing, the liquid was mainly composed of CaCl2, which accounts for 73.6%. The sludge is composed of CaSO4 and Mg(OH)2, depending on the lime consumption of the dosing process. Finally, the filter liquor after the filter press was mixed with ash to reach zero liquid discharge, and the sludge... [more]

This paper presents the synchronisation of economic cycles of GDP and crude oil and oil products cargo volumes in major Polish seaports. On the one hand, this issue fits into the concept of sustainable development including decoupling; on the other hand, the synchronisation may be an early warning tool. Crude oil and oil products cargo volumes are a specific barometer that predicts the next economic cycle, especially as they are primary sources of energy production. The research study applies a number of TRAMO/SEATS methods, the Hodrick−Prescott filter, spectral analysis, correlation and cross-correlation function. Noteworthy is the modern approach of using synchronisation of economic cycles as a tool, which was described in the paper. According to the study results, the cyclical components of the cargo traffic and GDP were affected by the leakage of other short-term cycles. However, based on the cross-correlation, it was proved that changes in crude oil and oil products cargo volumes... [more]

There are different studies that point out that the price of electricity is a fundamental factor that will influence the mining decision, due to the cost it represents. There is also an ongoing debate about the pollution generated by cryptocurrency mining, and whether or not the use of renewable energies will solve the problem of its sustainability. In our study, starting from the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), we have considered several determinants of cryptocurrency mining: energy price, how that energy is generated, temperature, legal constraints, human capital, and R&D&I. From this, via linear regression, we recalculated this EPI by including the above factors that affect cryptocurrency mining in a sustainable way. The study determines, once the EPI has been readjusted, that the most sustainable countries to perform cryptocurrency mining are Denmark and Germany. In fact, of the top ten countries eight of them are European (Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Aus... [more]

In recent years Asian Nations showed concern over the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of their civil infrastructure. This study presents a contextual investigation of a residential apartment complex in the territory of the southern part of India. The LCA is performed through Building Information Modelling (BIM) software embedded with Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) of materials utilized in construction, transportation of materials and operational energy use throughout the building lifecycle. The results of the study illustrate that cement is the material that most contributes to carbon emissions among the other materials looked at in this study. The operational stage contributed the highest amount of carbon emissions. This study emphasizes variation in the LCA results based on the selection of a combination of definite software-database combinations and manual-database computations used. For this, three LCA databases were adopted (GaBi database and ecoinvent databases through One... [more]

The United Nations Sustainable Goal 7, access to affordable and clean energy, is unlikely to be achieved, with an estimated 600 million people still without access to electricity by 2030. One potential route to support this goal is through the use of mini-grids to provide electricity in densely populated rural areas for which grid connection is not possible. This paper presents the results of a life cycle assessment of a mini-grid, designed for construction in Malawi. It analyses the cradle to end of use for this mini-grid configuration, for a grid sized for lighting, refrigeration and phone charging, and for a grid sized for electric cooking (e-cooking). The results suggest that for lighting configuration, the main contributors to environmental impact are the poles, the overhead cabling, and the PV panels. The use of a chromium-based preservative is the main issue for the poles, and a switch to concrete poles can deliver significant benefits. When the grid is sized for e-cooking, the... [more]

Swimming pools are used around the world for recreational, rehabilitation and physical activity. From an energy and environmental standpoint, grey water as a waste thermal potential of swimming pools is a valuable heat source produced continuously in extensive, measurable and large quantities. The main objective of this article is to analyse the feasibility of proposed grey water heat recovery (GWHR) system from the showers and backwater from swimming pool filters for an indoor pool located in recreation centre in Poland. Analysis, calculations and results were obtained and discussions of water and energy consumption were carried out for the mentioned indoor swimming pool on the basis of real measurements case study for water flow rate, water temperature in swimming pools and showers. The results ensure a significant potential of energy savings by using the proposed GWHR system, which allows to reduce the energy demand by 34% up to 67% for pool water preheating and domestic hot water (... [more]

Understanding the influence of method choices on results in life-cycle assessments is essential to draw informed conclusions. As the climate impact of bioenergy remains a debated topic, the focus of this study is how the chosen temporal framing influences a comparison of the climate impact of utilizing residual biomass for biofuel production to that of leaving the biomass to decay. In order to compare the biofuel scenario to its corresponding reference scenario where biomass is left to decay, a variety of analytical approaches were used: using time-aggregated and time-dependent life-cycle inventories and climate-impact assessment methods, assuming biogenic carbon to be climate neutral or not, using metrics for cumulative or instantaneous climate impact, and with different time horizons. Two cases of residual biofuel feedstocks were assessed: logging residues from Norway spruce forest, and straw from wheat cultivation. Consideration of the studied method choices appears to be especially... [more]

Reducing energy waste is one of the primary concerns facing Remote Industrial Plants (RIP) and, in particular, the accommodations and operational plants located in remote areas. With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to attack the health of workforce, managing the balance between energy efficiency and Occupation Health and Safety (OHS) in the workplace becomes another great challenge for the RIP. Maintaining this balance is difficult mainly because a full awareness of the OHS will generally consume more energy while reducing the energy cost may lead to a less effective OHS, and the existing literature has not seen a system that is designed for the RIPs to conserve energy usage and improve workforce OHS simultaneously. To bridge this gap, in this paper, we propose an AI Empowered Cyber Physical Ecosystem (AECPE) solution for the RIPs, which integrates Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), artificial intelligence, and mobile networks. The preliminary results of lab experiments and field tests pro... [more]

Air pollution caused by vehicle emissions has raised serious public health concerns. Vehicle emissions generally depend on many factors, such as the nature of the vehicle, driving style, traffic conditions, emission control technologies, and operational conditions. Concerns about the certification cycles used by various regulatory authorities are growing due to the difference in emission during certification procedure and Real Driving Emissions (RDE). Under laboratory conditions, certification tests are performed in a ‘chassis dynamometer’ for light-duty vehicles (LDVs) and an ‘engine dynamometer’ for heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs). As a result, the test drive cycles used to measure the automotive emissions do not correctly reflect the vehicle’s real-world driving pattern. Consequently, the RDE regulation is being phased in to reduce the disparity between type approval and vehicle’s real-world emissions. According to this review, different variables such as traffic signals, driving dynamic... [more]

In Europe, buildings are responsible for more than one third of the total final energy demands and greenhouse gas emissions. In the last twenty years, the European Union has published a succession of energy performance of building directives to define and ensure the fulfilment of a series of objectives regarding greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, energy efficiency and energy generation from renewable sources in buildings. For its part, Spain is adapting its legal framework, transposing these directives with the aim of achieving greater energy efficiency and sustainability for buildings. Under this context, an energy, economic and environmental assessment is performed to analyze the impact of these regulatory changes on a single-family home including a photovoltaic installation for self-consumption with surpluses and/or a solar thermal installation for domestic hot water supply, located in each one of the eight thousand one hundred thirty-one municipalities that make up Spain... [more]

Geo-resources are widely exploited in our society, with huge benefits for both economy and communities. Nevertheless, with benefits come risks and impacts. Understanding how such risks and impacts are intrinsically borne in a given project is of critical importance for both industry and society. In particular, it is crucial to distinguish between the specific impacts related to exploiting a given energy resource and those shared with the exploitation of other energy resources. A variety of different approaches can be used to identify and assess such risks and impacts. In particular, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and risk assessments (RAs) are the most commonly adopted. Although both are widely used to support decision making in environmental management, they are rarely used in combination perhaps because they have been developed by largely different groups of specialists. By analyzing the structure and the ratio of the two tools, we have developed an approach for combining and harmonizin... [more]