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Avoiding irreversible climate change as effectively as possible is one of the most pressing challenges of society. Carbon pricing that is uniformly valid on a global and cross-sectoral basis represents a cost-efficient policy tool to meet this challenge. Carbon pricing allows external costs to be allocated or internalized on a polluter-pays principle. It is shown that a global emissions cap-and-trade system is the most suitable market-based instrument for reducing global emissions levels, in line with the temperature goal set by the Paris Agreement. A proposal for its design is presented in this paper. This instrument encourages worldwide measures, with the lowest marginal abatement cost, according to a pre-defined reduction path. Thereby, it ensures compliance with a specified remaining carbon budget to meet a certain temperature limit in a cost-efficient manner. Possible reduction paths are presented in this paper. Weaknesses in the design of existing emissions trading systems (ETS), such as the EU ETS, are identified and avoided in the proposed instrument. The framework solves several problems of today’s climate change policies, like the free rider problem, carbon leakage, rebound effects or the green paradox. The introduction of a global uniform carbon pricing instrument and its concrete design should be the subject of policy, especially at the United Nations climate change conferences, as soon as possible in order to allow for rapid implementation. If a global ETS with a uniform carbon price could be introduced, additional governmental regulations with regard to carbon emissions would become obsolete.

Microbial electrochemical technologies (METs) constitute the core of a number of emerging technologies with a high potential for treating urban wastewater due to a fascinating reaction mechanism—the electron transfer between bacteria and electrodes to transform metabolism into electrical current. In the current work, we focus on the model electroactive microorganism Geobacter sulfurreducens to explore both the design of new start-up procedures and electrochemical operations. Our chemostat-grown plug and play cells, were able to reduce the start-up period by 20-fold while enhancing chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal by more than 6-fold during this period. Moreover, a filter-press based bioreactor was successfully tested for both acetate-supplemented synthetic wastewater and real urban wastewater. This proof-of-concept pre-pilot treatment included a microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) followed in time by a microbial fuel cell (MFC) to finally generate electrical current of ca. 20 A·m−2 with a power of 10 W·m−2 while removing 42 g COD day−1·m−2. The effective removal of acetate suggests a potential use of this modular technology for treating acetogenic wastewater where Geobacter sulfurreducens outcompetes other organisms.

The biogas production technology has improved over the last years for the aim of reducing the costs of the process, increasing the biogas yields, and minimizing the greenhouse gas emissions. To obtain a stable and efficient biogas production, there are several design considerations and operational parameters to be taken into account. Besides, adapting the process to unanticipated conditions can be achieved by adequate monitoring of various operational parameters. This paper reviews the research that has been conducted over the last years. This review paper summarizes the developments in biogas design and operation, while highlighting the main factors that affect the efficiency of the anaerobic digestion process. The study’s outcomes revealed that the optimum operational values of the main parameters may vary from one biogas plant to another. Additionally, the negative conditions that should be avoided while operating a biogas plant were identified.

Background. Laws that enable a circular economy (CE) are being enacted globally, but reliable standardized and digitized CE data about products is scarce, and many CE platforms have differing exclusive formats. In response to these challenges, the Ministry of The Economy of Luxembourg launched the Circularity Dataset Standardization Initiative to develop a globalized open-source industry standard to allow the exchange of standardized data throughout the supply cycle, based on these objectives: (a) Provide basic product circularity data about products. (b) Improve circularity data sharing efficiency. (c) Encourage improved product circularity performance. A policy objective was to have the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) voted to create a working group. Methods. A state-of-play analysis was performed concurrently with consultations with industry, auditors, data experts, and data aggregation platforms. Results. Problem statements were generated. Based on those, a solution called Product Circularity Data Sheet (PCDS) was formulated. A proof of concept (POC) template and guidance were developed and piloted with manufacturers and platforms, thus fulfilling objective (a). For objective (b), IT ecosystem requirements were developed, and aspects are being piloted in third party aggregation platforms. Objective (c) awaits implementation of the IT ecosystem. The policy objective related to the ISO was met. Conclusions and future research. In order to fully test the PCDS, it is necessary to: conduct more pilots, define governance, and establish auditing and authentication procedures.

The household sector in Poland consumes more than 25% of final energy. At the same time, residents reported dissatisfaction with the thermal conditions during the summer months. This paper details the search for passive and energy-efficient solutions to improve thermal comfort in Polish dwellings. A five-story, multi-family building was selected for this research. Analyses were conducted in apartments located on the top two floors using EnergyPlus (for thermal calculations) and CONTAM (for air exchange calculations) simulation programs for current and future climatic conditions. The stochastic behavior of people when opening windows and automatically controlled systems supplying external air to the building was considered. Airing the apartments by opening windows increased the heating demand but reduced the number of thermal discomfort hours by over 90%. The degree of airing by opening windows depends on residents opening their windows; therefore, a mechanical supply of external air controlled by both internal and external temperatures was proposed and tested.

The change from a centralized to a decentralized energy supply creates new challenges in the planning of such energy supply concepts. Specialized planning tools that can cope with the complex requirements and multi-layered boundary conditions of local energy use are therefore needed. Existing methods need to be further developed and optimized to suit the complex stakeholder structures encountered in innovative district projects, as well as for research purposes. This paper presents selected aspects and challenges in the development of an application-oriented planning tool. Using a North German district as a case study, the usability of a Building Information Model as an aggregated data platform is tested in the context of a residential energy district planning process. In addition, the modeling of heating grids using a combination of Geographic Information System and open source thermodynamic tools is presented. Economic valuation methods are examined to determine the extent to which the value of flexibility and access to local flexibility markets can be taken into account. Finally, an approach for evaluating the ecological aspects of the district energy supply is presented, based on the dynamic assessment of imported and exported energy quantities.

Finding a way for mitigating climate change is one of the main challenges of our generation. Sorption-enhanced gasification (SEG) is a process by which syngas as an important intermediate for the synthesis of e.g., dimethyl ether (DME), bio-synthetic natural gas (SNG) and Fischer–Tropsch (FT) products or hydrogen can be produced by using biomass as feedstock. It can, therefore, contribute to a replacement for fossil fuels to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. SEG is an indirect gasification process that is operated in a dual-fluidized bed (DFB) reactor. By the use of a CO2-active sorbent as bed material, CO2 that is produced during gasification is directly captured. The resulting enhancement of the water–gas shift reaction enables the production of a syngas with high hydrogen content and adjustable H2/CO/CO2-ratio. Tests were conducted in a 200 kW DFB pilot-scale facility under industrially relevant conditions to analyze the influence of gasification temperature, steam to carbon (S/C) ratio and weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) on the syngas production, using wood pellets as feedstock and limestone as bed material. Results revealed a strong dependency of the syngas composition on the gasification temperature in terms of permanent gases, light hydrocarbons and tars. Also, S/C ratio and WHSV are parameters that can contribute to adjusting the syngas properties in such a way that it is optimized for a specific downstream synthesis process.