• Energy Research
• Closed Access close
• Restricted close
• Open Source close
• CN close
• IT close
• EU close

To assess the sustainability of waste management scenario with energy recovery, it is necessary to carry out an adequate analysis of all influential criteria. The main problem in the analysis is to determine the indicators that clearly and fully sublimate the most important influential factors. The model for the assessment of the sustainability of waste treatment scenarios based on multi-criteria analysis AHP (analytic hierarchy process) method is developed. The model predicts an increase in the number of indicators, if it found that a selected number of indicators are not sufficient to distinguish between scenarios and new criterion for the selection of indicators: the relevance of the indicator for certain waste treatment. The model is verified in the case study the city of Nis. Four scenarios were selected and examined: business as usual scenario (landfilling of waste) and the other are created as scenarios with energy recovery and recourses preserving: composting organic waste with recycling inorganic waste, incineration of waste and anaerobic digestion of waste. The assessment of the sustainability of waste treatment scenarios was made in several steps. It is found that the best sustainable scenario is composting of organic and recycling of inorganic waste.

Abstract Egg yolk-derived P and N dual doped nano carbon capsules (PNCCs) have been synthesized and used as lithium ion battery anodes. The application of egg yolk as the carbon source is a new and environmental-friendly approach for biomass recycling. The reversible capacity of half cells made of PNCCs is as high as ~770 mA h g−1 at a current density of 0.5 A g−1 with considerable rate capacity and cycling stability. PNCCs show a capsule-like structure, which provide extra edges and active sites for lithium intercalation. The heteroatom doping also introduce defects and disorder, which increases the electrochemical activity and creates more active sites for lithium insertion.

The possibility to increase human comfort and reduce the global footprint of buildings is a powerful driving force for introduction of new building technology. Here advanced coating technologies pl ...

The growing threats of global warming and climate change are two of the main concerns of world society. The culprits are greenhouse gas emissions, which mainly result from the combustion of fossil fuels (i.e. the consumption and production of energy from oil, coal and natural gas), a well-known issue at the centre of many climate change debates. The European Parliament has endorsed the EU target of zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 [1]. It is therefore essential to provide for sustainable energy development strategies such as biomass. The valorization of biomass makes it possible to alleviate environmental problems. we are able to obtain energy from what was, until recently, considered to be waste. this article assesses the contribution that chestnut skin biomass makes, in energy, environmental and economic terms, to the production process of the company Monsurgel Lda. The results show that the chestnut skin can contribute to an energy saving with a good investment payback time and also an environment contribution with the CO2 reduction. Proceedings of the 29th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 26-29 April 2021, Online, pp. 515-521

Abstract Power-to-gas (PtG), as a promising technology proposed to store surplus renewable energy (RE), can hardly be commercialized for its low profitability. In this paper, three approaches are proposed in this paper to enhance the profitability of the PtG. Firstly, a cooperative union containing PtG is proposed and its sustainability analysis is undertaken based on Shapley Value method. Secondly, the PtG reaction heat, as an essential by-product of PtG which is valuable and therefore requires further study, is fully exploited for district heating in the operation of regional integrated energy system, which is solved by an improved SOCP method. Thirdly, a symbiosis cooperation mode is designed for wind power and PtG to enhance the benefit of PtG through optimization-based trading strategy, which is a MINLP model and solved by Big-M method. The results show that the daily profit of PtG is significantly increased with the cooperative union as the symbiosis cooperation mode can produce a 15.1% profit lift, meanwhile, exploitation of reaction heat can produce an 8.6% profit lift. Finally, our study reveals the conflict of interest between wind power and the cogeneration. A sensitivity study on the proportion of reaction heat used for district heating is performed to verify the mutually beneficial relation between PtG and the cogeneration. The findings of this paper can guide the commercialization of PtG.

There is less research on the hydrological system and its destruction processes mechanism in the mining areas, especially combined application of isotope technology and chemical signals, which is a key scientific problem that need to be solved. This study takes Jinci spring area in Shanxi as a case study. It is based on the data of hydrology and mining condition from 1954 to 2015, combining monitoring experiments, O18, D, S34 and N15 tracing, chemical and model simulation. This study investigates the hydrological regularity and impacts of mining activities on water quantity and quality, and reveals the destruction process of hydrological system. The results show that: (1) Water chemical type shows an evolutionary trend of HCO3--Ca2+-Mg2+→SO42--HCO3--Ca2+-Mg2+→SO42--Ca2+-Mg2+, due to the influence of exploitation and fault zones. Isotope tracer shows that mine pit water is formed by a mixture of pore water, karst water and surface water. (2) Although precipitation and seepage have a certain impact on the reducing of groundwater quantity, over-exploitation of water resource is still the main reason for reducing of groundwater quantity. Under the conditions of keeping the exploitation intensity at the current level or reducing it by 10%, groundwater level shows a declining trend. Under the condition of reducing it by 30%, groundwater level starts to rise up. When reducing by 50%, groundwater level reaches its highest point. Coalmining changes the runoff, recharge and discharge paths. (3) From 1985 to 2015, Water quality in the mining area is worsening. Ca2+ increases by 35.30%, SO42- increases by 52.80%, and TDS (Total Dissolved Solid) increases by 67.50%. Nitrates come from the industrial and domestic wastewater, which is generated by mining. The percentage of groundwater coming from gypsum dissolusion is 67.51%, and the percentage from coal measure strata water is 34.49%. The water qualities of river branches are generally deteriorated.

Maximizing the use of valuable components in coal gasification slag is of great significance for resource recovery and the environment due to the huge annual emission of coal gasification slag. This study successfully produced Si-Fe-Al-Ca alloy with a composition of 63.83 wt% Si, 19.73 wt% Fe, 7.09 wt% Al, 6.32 wt% Ca, 1.70 wt% Ti, 0.03 wt% P, 0.66 wt% Mn, 0.05 wt% Cr, 0.53 wt% C, and 0.06 wt% others through electric arc furnace smelting from mixed coal gasification fine slag. The alloy composition is close to the standard 65% ferrosilicon, which can be used in the deoxidation of the molten steel industry. Moreover, the alloy yield was increased from 20.53% to 67.78% by using the residual carbon of the coal gasification slag as the reductant directly instead of adding petroleum coke. The transformation of coal gasification fine slag during the smelting process and the formation mechanism of the alloy were studied and the carbothermal reduction mechanism of Al2O3 and CaO can be explained by the reduction and decomposition theory of carbides. The complex liquid phase of the reactant system and product system in the smelting process made the carbothermal reaction of Al2O3 and CaO easier to occur, but it also brought the problem that the reactions were not fully completed.

Abstract The pyrolysis char derived from solid waste peat was used in the removal of biomass tar. A laboratory dual-stage reactor was designed to obtain a cost-effective and eco-friendly tar removal approach using peat pyrolysis char-based catalyst. Rich pore structure of pyrolysis char can enhance the adsorption and removal performance of tar, the KOH and CO2 activation method were used to increase the pore structure of pyrolysis char. Toluene was chosen as the model compound of biomass tar for basic research. The effects of pyrolysis char and transition metal Fe on toluene removal were studied. The investigated reforming parameters were reaction temperature (700–900 °C), residence time (0.3–0.8 s) and steam-to-carbon ratio (1.5:1–4:1). The results indicated that the peat pyrolysis char-based Fe catalysts showed excellent catalytic performance (toluene conversion >89%) and gas selectivity, especially the catalyst that activated by CO2 had the best selectivity for syngas (88.1 mol%), and the waste peat catalyst was compared with other waste pyrolysis char-based catalysts. Textural characterization showed that the excellent catalytic activity and stability of the catalysts are due to the presence of FeC and FeSiO3 structures. Such the peat pyrolysis char can as a carrier be used to remove tar and produce high content syngas in pyrolysis process.