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Survey of Timisoara City residents conducted by the West University of Timisoara for the SMARTEES project between March and August 2020 (n=439). The survey was aimed at (1) understanding individual behaviours related to the environment and energy in general, and (2) assessing how people make decisions about energy efficiency measures in particular (i.e., perceptions about existing regional or national programmes aiming to improve the energy efficiency of homes through upgrades to the building fabric with a neighbourhood-scale heat network retrofit). It includes data about citizens' attitudes, behaviours and social networks. Files include the dataset in two formats: .csv and .sav. The questionnaire, a data dictionary and background and sampling details are also included.

This dataset was prepared by TNO as a contribution to the H2020 project CHE and the H2020 project VERIFY. The basis is a high-resolution (~1x1 km) emission inventory providing CO2 and CO (from fossil fuels and biofuels separately) over western Europe (2ºW - 19ºE, 47ºN - 56ºN). The reported emissions by European countries to UNFCCC (CO2) and to EMEP/CEIP (CO) have been used and where needed gap-filled or replaced with emission data from the GAINS model. These country-level emissions are disaggregated in space using a consistent spatial distribution methodology, whereas large point sources are listed with their exact locations. This approach is similar to the one described by Kuenen et al., (ACP, 2014). Emissions are reported per GNFR sector, with an extra split for road transport. The emission grids that are part of this dataset are a variation on the base grid, representing the uncertainty in the emission data. Each grid is equally plausible. The grids have been created using a Monte Carlo approach. The uncertainties in the underlying data used to create the base grid (emissions: activity data and emission factors, spatial proxies) have been collected (either from country reports or based on expert judgement). Through the Monte Carlo simulation these uncertainties, taking into account error correlations between some sub-sectors, are combined to create ten new emission grids. The spread in emissions between these emission maps gives an indication of the uncertainty in the emissions. The grid files (in .csv and .nc format) contain annual total emissions per grid cell for the year 2015. A separate file has been prepared for each ensemble member in the Monte Carlo simulation (indicated with M). The unit in the files is kg/yr. A detailed description of the Monte Carlo simulation is presented in: Super, I., Dellaert, S. N. C., Visschedijk, A. J. H., and Denier van der Gon, H. A. C.: Uncertainty analysis of a European high-resolution emission inventory of CO2 and CO to support inverse modelling and network design, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2019-696, in review, 2019. N.B. It is important to note that 10 maps are not sufficient to describe the sometimes complex uncertainty structures, for example in the case of lognormal uncertainty distributions. The interpretation of the uncertainty based on these 10 maps should therefore be done with care. NB. Despite efforts to prevent negative emissions to occur in the grid maps, some negative values are still present. In local studies this might cause some issues, and we recommend to set negative emissions to zero in those cases.

Data reported by companies on the production, import, export, destruction and feedstock use of fluorinated greenhouse gases in the European Union during the years 2007-2019. The primary data is synthesised and aggregated at EU level and used to assess the progress on HFC phase-down made under both EU legislation and the UN framework as part of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. The data also details the amount of F-gases supplied to various industrial applications.

This study focuses on formulating the most sustainable concrete by incorporating recycled concrete aggregates and other products retrieved from construction and demolition (C&D) activities. Both recycled coarse aggregates (RCA) and recycled fine aggregates (RFA) are firstly used to fully replace the natural coarse and fine aggregates in the concrete mix design. Later, the cement rich ultrafine particles, recycled glass powder and mineral fibres recovered from construction and demolition wastes (CDW) are further incorporated at a smaller rate either as cement substituent or as supplementary additives. Remarkable properties are noticed when the RCA (4–12 mm) and RFA (0.25–4 mm) are fully used to replace the natural aggregates in a new concrete mix. The addition of recycled cement rich ultrafines (RCU), Recycled glass ultrafines (RGU) and recycled mineral fibres (RMF) into recycled concrete improves the modulus of elasticity. The final concrete, which comprises more than 75% (wt.) of recycled components/materials, is believed to be the most sustainable and green concrete mix. Mechanical properties and durability of this concrete have been studied and found to be within acceptable limits, indicating the potential of recycled aggregates and other CDW components in shaping sustainable and circular construction practices. The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support from EU Horizon 2020 Project VEEP ‘‘Cost-Effective Recycling of C&DW in High Added Value Energy Efficient Prefabricated Concrete Compo-nents for Massive Retrofitting of our Built Environment” (No.723582).

Abstract District heating (DH) enables the utilisation and distribution of heating from sources unfeasible for stand-alone applications and combined with cogeneration of heat and power (CHP), has been the cornerstone of Denmark’s realisation of a steady national primary energy supply over the last four decades. However, progressively more energy-efficient houses and a steadily improving heat pump (HP) performance for individual dwellings is straining the competitive advantage of the CHP–DH combination as DH grid losses are growing in relative terms due to decreasing heating demands of buildings and relatively high DH supply temperatures. A main driver for the DH water temperature is the requirements for domestic hot water (DHW) production. This article investigates two alternatives for DHW supply: (a) DH based on central HPs combined with a heat exchanger, and (b) a combination of DH based on central HPs and a small booster HP using DH water as low-temperature source for DHW production. The analyses are conducted using the energyPRO simulation model and are conducted with hourly varying factors; heating demands, DH grid losses, HP coefficient of performance (COP) and spot market prices in order to be able to analyse the relative performance of the two options and their performance over the year. Results are also compared to individual boilers and individual HPs. The results indicate that applying booster HPs enables the DH system to operate at substantially lower temperature levels, improving the COP of central DH HPs while simultaneously lowering DH grid losses significantly. Thus, DH performance is increased significantly. Additionally, performance for the DH HP with booster combination is considerably better than individual boiler or HP solutions.

Abstract. Reliable quantification of the sources and sinks of greenhouse gases, together with trends and uncertainties, is essential to monitoring the progress in mitigating anthropogenic emissions under the Paris Agreement. This study provides a consolidated synthesis of CH4 and N2O emissions with consistently derived state-of-the-art bottom-up (BU) and top-down (TD) data sources for the European Union and UK (EU27+UK). We integrate recent emission inventory data, ecosystem process-based model results, and inverse modelling estimates over the period 1990–2018. BU and TD products are compared with European National GHG Inventories (NGHGI) reported to the UN climate convention secretariat UNFCCC in 2019. For uncertainties, we used for NGHGI the standard deviation obtained by varying parameters of inventory calculations, reported by the Member States following the IPCC guidelines recommendations. For atmospheric inversion models (TD) or other inventory datasets (BU), we defined uncertainties from the spread between different model estimates or model specific uncertainties when reported. In comparing NGHGI with other approaches, a key source of bias is the activities included, e.g. anthropogenic versus anthropogenic plus natural fluxes. In inversions, the separation between anthropogenic and natural emissions is sensitive to the geospatial prior distribution of emissions. Over the 2011–2015 period, which is the common denominator of data availability between all sources, the anthropogenic BU approaches are directly comparable, reporting mean emissions of 20.8 Tg CH4 yr−1 (EDGAR v5.0) and 19.0 Tg CH4 yr−1 (GAINS), consistent with the NGHGI estimates of 18.9 ± 1.7 Tg CH4 yr−1. TD total inversions estimates give higher emission estimates, as they also include natural emissions. Over the same period regional TD inversions with higher resolution atmospheric transport models give a mean emission of 28.8 Tg CH4 yr−1. Coarser resolution global TD inversions are consistent with regional TD inversions, for global inversions with GOSAT satellite data (23.3 Tg CH4yr−1) and surface network (24.4 Tg CH4 yr−1). The magnitude of natural peatland emissions from the JSBACH-HIMMELI model, natural rivers and lakes emissions and geological sources together account for the gap between NGHGI and inversions and account for 5.2 Tg CH4 yr−1. For N2O emissions, over the 2011–2015 period, both BU approaches (EDGAR v5.0 and GAINS) give a mean value of anthropogenic emissions of 0.8 and 0.9 Tg N2O yr−1 respectively, agreeing with the NGHGI data (0.9 ± 0.6 Tg N2O yr−1). Over the same period, the average of the three total TD global and regional inversions was 1.3 ± 0.4 and 1.3 ± 0.1 Tg N2O yr−1 respectively, compared to 0.9 Tg N2O yr−1 from the BU data. The TU and BU comparison method defined in this study can be operationalized for future yearly updates for the calculation of CH4 and N2O budgets both at EU+UK scale and at national scale. The referenced datasets related to figures are visualized at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4288969 (Petrescu et al., 2020).

This paper presents a new method, based on the Smart Energy Systems concept. The aim is to increase the share of renewable energy penetration on islands. The method is applied to the island of Gran Canaria (Spain), considering the entire energy system of the island. Several smart renewable energy strategies are proposed following a cross-sectoral approach between the electricity, heating/cooling, desalination, transport and gas sectors. The different smart renewable energy strategies were applied in a series of steps, while looking for a transition from the current energy system to a nearly 100% renewable energy system. Based on the results, the study concludes that the suggested method is applicable for increasing renewable integration on islands and can potentially be used in helping energy planners to take decisions about priorities in development of the sector to improve such integration. The results indicate that, for the case of Gran Canaria, a 75.9% renewable energy system could be attained with technologies that can be implemented at present. Furthermore, it is shown that a nearly 100% renewable energy system in Gran Canaria is technically feasible and could be achieved if certain technologies acquire greater maturity. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd 443 421 2,048 5,537 Q1 Q1 SCIE

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.