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Abstract With drastic fossil fuel depletion and environmental deterioration concerns, a move towards a more sustainable bioenergy-based economy is essential. Lately, the application of microwave (MW) irradiation for waste processing has been attracting interest globally. MW-assisted heating possesses several advantages such as the provision of high microwave energy into dielectric materials with deeper penetration for internal heat generation, showing beneficial features in improving the heating rate and reducing the reaction time. Consequently, the most recent literature regarding the applications of MW-assisted heating for biomass pretreatment as well as biofuel and bioenergy production was reviewed and consolidated in this study. An impressive increase in the product yield and improvement of the product properties are reported, with the use of MW-assisted heating in several conversion routes to produce biofuels. Despite being a promising technology for biofuel production, some major fundamental data of MW-assisted heating have not been comprehensively identified. Therefore, the feasibility of this technology for large-scale implementation is still subpar. Understanding the interaction between the feedstock and the microwave electromagnetic field, and the optimization of several operational and mechanical parameters are the two main keystones that would propel the industrialization of MW heating in the near future. This provides key insights leading to increased feasibility and more advanced application of MW heating.

ON 16 NOVEMBER 2000, the final report of the World Commission on Dams (WCD) was launched in London, in the presence of South Africa’s former president Nelson Mandela. This represented a remarkable milestone in the history of dam policy and politics. During its two-year existence, WCD had conducted the most extensive review of research and evidence regarding the planning, impacts, and management of large dams. It had engaged with numerous stakeholders around the globe. It also made comprehensive recommendations about how to improve dam planning and management.

The transition to a low carbon future is starting to affect landscapes around the world. In order for this landscape transformation to be sustainable, renewable energy technologies should not cause critical trade-offs between the provision of energy and that of other ecosystem services such as food production. This literature review advances the body of knowledge on sustainable energy transition with special focus on ecosystem services-based approaches and methods. Two key issues emerge from this review: only one sixth of the published applications on the relation between renewable energy and landscape make use of the ecosystem service framework. Secondly, the applications that do address ecosystem services for landscape planning and design lack efficient methods and spatial reference systems that accommodate both cultural and regulating ecosystem services. Future research efforts should be directed to further advancing the spatial reference systems, the use of participatory mapping and landscape visualizations tools for cultural ecosystem services and the elaboration of landscape design principles.

Since 2007, a range of new modeling approaches and tools have been developed for sustainability impact assessment (SIA), but a lack of universal acceptance of SIA tools in applied policy making is observed. The current article gives an overview of experiences from several European and international projects, critically reviews the selected SIA tools and then discusses a number of reasons for the observed disconnect of the tools with the potential users. Largely based on the experiences of the presented SIA tools focusing land use policy advice, a decision tree is designed, which may facilitate an adequate, region and developmental phase specific selection of tool-box components for the development of SIA tools in future. Elements to ensure end-user participation are also integrated in the decision tree in order to increase the likelihood of the tool in applied land use policy advice. In addition, the Challenges in SIA tool development and use are further discussed.

The Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD) is one of the world’s most vulnerable deltas to climate change and sea level rise. Adequate understandings of future hydrological changes are crucial for effective water management and risk-proofing, however, this knowledge body is currently very limited. This study quantifies the responses of the VMD’s river flow regime to multiple stimuli, namely future upstream inflow variation, local climate change, and sea level rise. The one-dimensional hydrodynamic model MIKE 11 was used to simulate discharges and water levels across the delta. We developed four scenarios to represent changes in the upstream discharges, precipitation changes and sea level rise, covering the 2036–2065 period. We downscaled climate data and applied three bias-correction methods for five General Circulation Models (GCM), and two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs). The climate change projections show similar trends of increasing wet season precipitation and decreasing dry season precipitation. However, cross-scenario variations are sometimes large, depending on the individual GCMs, the RCPs and specific locations. The hydraulic simulation results indicate that, under discharge changes between −20% and +10%, combined with in-delta precipitation variations during the dry season, river discharges at the four representative stations could reduce substantially from −2.5% to −100.2%. During the wet season, the calculated river discharges show increase between 7.3% and 46.7% under four considered scenarios. Substantial changes in the VMD’s river flow regime could have potentially serious implications for water management, especially saltwater intrusion, and therefore calling for timely adaptation measures.

The paper presents a method of analysis and design of urban landscapes called PlaceMaker. The method is intended as a key resource for assessing the identity of places and measures for its enhancement, reconstruction and design. By using different tools for analysis and interpretation of places and questionnaires administered to their users, PlaceMaker finds the identity material that the city has available and how to de-compose and re-compose it for its sustainable project transformation. Pedestrian-intensive areas, in particular urban, cultural and historical poles of attraction, increasingly bear the imprint of globalization, conveying messages which have developed in an uncontrolled manner and are aimed at conveying their users' patterns of thought and action. The presence of a dense mixture of contrasting elements and perceptions can detract from the image of a city. As regards, the paper is completed with a synopsis of the experiment carried out in an historic axe in London - Oxford Street - where globalization is in danger of levelling out the beauty of the area in favour of widespread genericity

Great efforts have been paid to improve engine efficiency as well as to reduce the pollutant emissions. The direct injection allows to improve the engine efficiency; on the other hand, the GDI combustion produces larger particle emissions. The properties of fuels play an important role both on engine performance and pollutant emissions. In particular, great attention was paid to the octane number. Oxygenated compounds allow increasing gasoline's octane number and play an important role in PM emission reduction. In this study was analyzed the effect of fuels with different RON and with ethanol and ethers content. The analysis was performed on a small GDI engine. Two operating conditions, representative of the typical EUDC cycle, were investigated. Both the engine performance and the exhaust emissions were evaluated. The gaseous emissions and particle concentration were measured at the exhaust by means of conventional instruments. Particle size distribution function was measured in the range from 5.6 nm to 560 nm by means of an Engine Exhaust Particle Sizer (EEPS). The results point out that the better result in terms of performance and emission reduction was observed for the high RON fuel. The fuels with ethanol as additive show a large fuel consumption and a not valuable effect on exhaust emissions

AbstractProjections show that biomass will remain important for reaching future EU renewable energy targets. In addition to using domestic biomass, European bioenergy markets will also partly rely on imports of biomass, in particular in trade‐oriented EU member states like the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark. There has been a lot of debate on the sustainability of (imported) biomass and how policy should deal with this. In this research, therefore, we defined long‐term strategies for sustainable biomass imports in European bioenergy markets. We used the input of different stakeholders in our approach through focus‐group discussions and a global survey, focusing on the following aspects: key principles of sustainable biomass trade, risks and opportunities of biomass trade, both for import regions (EU countries) and for sourcing regions, and practical barriers for trade. Overall we conclude that policies should be stable and consistent within a long‐term vision. An overall sustainability assurance framework of biomass production and use is key, but should ultimately apply to all end uses of biomass. Furthermore, the mobilization of biomass should be supported, as well as commoditization, considering the large diversity of biomass. Side impacts of biomass use should be monitored. Reducing investors’ risk perception is crucial for future developments in the biobased economy, and a clear policy to phase out fossil fuels, e.g. through a carbon tax, needs to be implemented. The results of this research are of interest for policy makers when deciding on long‐term strategies concerning sustainable bioenergy markets. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd