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Abstract Since the Kyoto Protocol (1997), the European Union has fought against climate change adopting European, national and regional policies to decarbonise the economy. Moreover, the Paris Agreement (2015) calls 2050 solutions between −80% and −100% of greenhouse gas emissions compared with 1990. Regions have an important role in curbing CO2 emissions, and tailor-made strategies considering local energy demands, savings potentials and renewables must be elaborated factoring in the social and economic context. An “optimized smart energy system” approach is proposed, considering: (I) integration of electricity, thermal and transport sectors, (II) hourly variability of productions and demands, (III) coupling the EnergyPLAN software, to develop integrated and dynamic scenarios, with a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm, to identify solutions optimized both in terms of CO2 emissions and costs, including decision variables for all the three energy sectors simultaneously. The methodology is tested at the regional scale for the Province of Trento (Italy) analyzing a total of 30,000 scenarios. Compared to the Baseline 2016, it is identified: (I) the strategic role of sector coupling among large hydroelectric production and electrification of thermal and transport demands (heat pumps, electric mobility), (II) slight increases in total annual cost, +14% for a −90% of CO2 emissions in 2050.

Despite suffering significantly from the adverse impacts of climate change and human-induced hazards, many people at risk deliberately choose not to migrate from hazard-prone areas in coastal Bangladesh. As many of them encounter significant challenges in maintaining their livelihoods, ascertaining how and under what circumstances voluntary non-migration decisions occur is crucial. Only a handful of studies have investigated whether individuals and groups who decide to stay put in the face of climatic hazards consider their decision to be an adaptive action. In this regard, this study contributes to the existing literature by empirically investigating the voluntary non-migration decision as an adaptation strategy through an exploration of the factors affecting this decision. We employed a systematic random sampling technique and selected 627 respondents from two climatic hazard-prone coastal districts: Khulna and Satkhira. Using the Generalized Structural Equation Model (GSEM), we found that voluntary non-migrants (84% of total respondents) appeared to enjoy the significant advantage of access to their communities' basic need provision and social support. Furthermore, the social, psychological, and economic opportunities found at their existing location (e.g., better income prospects, affordable living costs, receipt of financial help during post-disaster periods, and skills allowing them to stay in that location), as well as their access to local natural resources, strengthened their social capital and thus influenced their desire to stay. Together, these factors enhanced people's adaptability to climatic shocks and motivated them to choose voluntary non-migration as an adaptation option.

In this research, efforts were put to demonstrate synergistic interactions between bioenergy generation and wastewater treatment. The extent of such synergistic effect was assessed against wastewater effluents released from the beverage industry through the operation of a membrane-less truncated conical (TC) microbial fuel cell (MFC). A graphite-based reactor was operated for five cycles in batch mode using beverage industry wastewater as an organic substrate. Maximum bioelectricity produced on the fifth operating cycle corresponded to a voltage of 338 mV and a power of 1.14 mW at 100 Ω. The MFC recorded a higher substrate degradation rate (0.84 kg of chemical oxygen demand [COD]/m3-day) accompanied by the development of an electroactive biofilm and polarization behavior (e.g., a reduction in internal resistance from 323 Ω to 197 Ω over five operation cycles). Cyclic voltammetry showed a maximum performance of the biofilm during the fifth cycle (through its enrichment) as interpreted by oxidation and reduction currents of 2.48 and -2.21 mA, respectively. The performance of the proposed MFC was superior to other designs reported previously in both effluent treatment and bioenergy generation. A maximum treatment efficiency of 84.4% (in 385 h) was seen at an organic load (COD) of 3500 mg/L with the specific power yield (0.504 W/Kg of substrate (COD) removal) and volumetric power yield (15.03 W/m3). Our experimental studies support that the proposed system could be upscaled to realize the commercial operation.

Due to its geographical condition and geophysical location Bangladesh is one of the world’s most vulnerable country, which will become more vulnerable to the impact of climate change. According to the Global Climate Risk Index 2020 and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2011, Bangladesh is the seventh most climate change-affected nation in the world. This chapter elaborates on the possible impacts of climate change in Bangladesh through various natural disasters, i.e., increasing temperature, sea level rise, salinity intrusion, cyclone, storm surges, drought, etc. and also discusses the comprehensive disaster management approach in Bangladesh. It is now a worry in the scientific community that climate change could dramatically change weather patterns like the disease spread of epidemics (such as COVID-19) from vulnerable regions to invulnerable regions. All sectors will be affected by the impact of climate change, not only Bangladesh but also other South Asian countries. In Bangladesh, both the government and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are trying to prevent and alter the impacts of climate change by enhancing several adaptation and mitigation approaches. But still, coastal districts and northern areas in Bangladesh are facing many climatic issues, such as flash floods, super cyclones, salinity intrusion, storm surges, drought and riverbank erosion etc. Moreover, the government is taking the immediate response of shifting people in a cyclone center at the moment of extreme natural events but most of the peoples of the coastal districts in Bangladesh are illiterate so that they very careless about the awareness. On the basis of current information, it is suggested that the government should make some policy in disaster management for a sustainable solution for coastal areas in Bangladesh.

Abstract Producing bioenergy from the anaerobic digestion (AD) of poultry droppings (PD), press mud (PM), sugarcane bagasse (SB) and sugar beet roots and tops (SRT) could be an effective source of fuel and energy for processing sugar from sugar beet and sugarcane and for reviving and making the sugar industries profitable in Bangladesh. The total solids (TS) content is crucial for an optimum performance of the AD process. In this study, batch assays were conducted to determine the optimal TS contents on the mesophilic AD of PD, PM, SB and SRT with TS contents of 5, 8, 11 and 15%, respectively. The highest biochemical methane potential (BMP) were found 254, 121, 205 and 23 NL kg−1VS for PD, PM, SB and SRT after digestion for 90 days at TS content of 11%, 15%, 11% and 8%, respectively. The results indicate that the initial TS influenced the AD performance significantly and modeling showed that the optimal initial TS content for AD of PD, PM and SB ranged between 12 and 13%.The only exception was SRT, where an initial TS content of 8% is recommended.

The drought prone North-West Bangladesh is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, particularly because of less water availability in the dry period and high water requirement for crop production. Improved understanding of recent changes in crop water demand in the dry season is important for the water resources management in the region. A study was carried out to determine the potential impacts of recent climate change during last three decades on trends of water requirements of Boro rice. The reference crop evapotranspiration (ETo), potential crop water requirement (∑ETC), effective rainfall during the crop growing period (ER), potential irrigation requirement for crop evapotranspiration (∑ETC − ER) and net irrigation requirement of Boro rice were estimated using observed daily climate data in the CropWat model for the period of 1980 to 2013 for four North-West districts. Significant decreasing trends of ETo were observed in most of the dry months due to increasing relative humidity and decreasing wind-speed and sun-shine hours. The results showed decreasing trends of potential crop water requirement, i.e. the total crop evapotranspiration (∑ETC), of Boro rice due to decreasing reference crop evapotranspiration and shorter crop growing periods. The variations in trends of potential irrigation requirement for crop evapotranspiration (∑ETC − ER) found among different districts, are mainly linked to variations in trends of changes in effective rainfall. The net irrigation requirement of Boro rice has decreased, by 11% during the last three decades at an average rate of −4.4 mm year−1, instead of decreasing effective rainfall, mainly because of high rate of decrease of crop evapotranspiration (−5.9 mm year−1). Results indicate that a warming climate does not always result in higher agricultural water use and that climate change can also result in reduced water demands because of changes in humidity, wind-speed and sun-shine hours.

Abstract Tar formation is one of the major problems during biomass gasification due to blocking and fouling processes in engines and turbines. Downstream gas cleanup process and conditioning are required to eliminate tar issues. For this reason, methods to reduce tar formation inside the gasifier are gaining more attention. In this work, a novel design for an inclined nozzle and a combustor was proposed and tested in a low-tar biomass (LTB) gasifier to evaluate the effect on tar reduction. The design process was based on a swirling flow created by an inclined nozzle that allows good mixing between pyrolysis gases and gasifying air. The swirl combustor created large internal annular and reverse flow zones with the help of swirl flow. Thus, the combustor had a positive effect on the combustion of the mixture of air and pyrolysis gases and induced thermal cracking in the partial oxidation zone. Recycling ratio (recycle gas/air, v/v) and combustion degree of volatiles were used to evaluate the performance of the inclined nozzle and combustor. The result showed that the tar yields in pyrolysis and partial oxidation zones were on average 1693 mg/Nm3 and 255 mg/Nm3, respectively which accounted for a reduction of 86.6% and 12.7% tar compounds in these zones, respectively. Besides, the producer gas leaving the gasifier had a tar content below 1%, and measured tar content was 7.4-27.14 mg/Nm3 for the tested biomass with moisture contents of 9–34%. Tar removal efficiency was found on average 84.9% after passing the pyrolysis gas through the partial oxidation zone, whereas tar in the producer gas was removed with an efficiency of 99.1% at the gas outlet zone. At an equivalence ratio of 0.35, the new design had the optimal performance with a recycling ratio of 0.35 and combustion degree of volatiles of 98.6%. The achieved producer gas could be directly fed to an internal combustion engine or a gas turbine at small to medium level power generation in remote rural off-grid areas.