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AbstractSustainable biorefineries have a critical role to play in our common future. The need to provide more goods using renewable resources, combined with advances in science and technology, has provided a receptive environment for biorefinery systems development. Biorefineries offer the promise of using fewer non‐renewable resources, reducing CO2 emissions, creating new employment, and spurring innovation using clean and efficient technologies. Lessons are being learned from the establishment of first‐generation biofuel operations. The factors that are key to answering the question of biorefinery sustainability include: the type of feedstock, the conversion technologies and their respective conversion and energy efficiencies, the types of products (including coproducts) that are manufactured, and what products are substituted by the bioproducts. The BIOPOL review of eight existing biorefineries indicates that new efficient biorefineries can revitalize existing industries and promote regional development, especially in the R&D area. Establishment can be facilitated if existing facilities are used, if there is at least one product which is immediately marketable, and if supportive policies are in place. Economic, environmental, and social dimensions need to be evaluated in an integrated sustainability assessment. Sustainability principles, criteria, and indicators are emerging for bioenergy, biofuels, and bioproducts. Practical assessment methodologies, including data systems, are critical for both sustainable design and to assure consumers, investors, and governments that they are doing the ‘right thing’ by purchasing a certain bioproduct. If designed using lifecycle thinking, biorefineries can be profitable, socially responsible, and produce goods with less environmental impact than conventional products … and potentially even be restorative!. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Micropollutants in freshwater, e.g., pharmaceuticals such as contraceptives, are a source of increased concern for human health and wildlife. Even after excretion, some of these compounds are pharmaceutically active in aquatic environment and they are found to cause endocrine disruption in both human and wildlife populations. In this study we analyzed a membrane system, coated with enzymes, which removes endocrine disrupting chemicals or micropollutants from surface water used for drinking. In order to help a membrane manufacturer in product development, we conducted a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment. Water purification with two membrane systems, based on membrane coating covalent binding versus adsorption, were analyzed and compared with granulated activated carbon made from coal and wood. It was found that the membrane with covalent binding can have much lower environmental impacts than activated carbon made from coal. A sensitivity analysis showed that operational electricity use, the source of electricity and membrane coating frequency influence the results significantly. Scenario analysis indicates that a membrane system with covalent binding which uses operational electricity lower than 0.2 kWh per m3 of filtered water and with monthly enzyme coating frequency can perform better than conventional activated carbon systems irrespective of the electricity source. These findings can be used to guide the optimization of the membrane parameters. This study provided an understanding of the membrane modification for micropollutant removal and its impacts on environment. Finally, we describe how environmental sustainability can be integrated into business decisions, such as process and material selection and design optimization, with the help of life cycle assessment.

This study assesses the socio-economic impacts in terms of value added, imports and employment of sugarcane-derived bioethanol production in Northeast (NE) Brazil. An extended inter-regional Input–Output (IO) model has been developed and is used to analyse three scenarios, all projected for 2020: a business-as-usual scenario (BaU) which projects current practices, and two scenarios that consider more efficient agricultural practices and processing efficiency (scenario A) and in addition an expansion of the sector into new areas (scenario B). By 2020 in all scenarios, value added and imports increase compared to the current situation. The value added by the sugarcane–ethanol sector in the NE region is 2.8 billion US$ in the BaU scenario, almost 4 billion US$ in scenario A, and 9.4 billion US$ in scenario B. The imports in the region will grow with 4% (BaU scenario), 38% (scenario A) and 262% (scenario B). This study shows that the large reduction of employment (114,000 jobs) due to the replacement of manual harvesting by mechanical harvesting can be offset by additional production and indirect effects. The total employment in the region by 2020 grows with 10% in scenario A (around 12,500 jobs) and 126% in scenario B (around 160,000 jobs). The indirect effects of sugarcane production in the NE are large in the rest of Brazil due to the import of inputs from these regions. The use of an extended inter-regional IO model can quantify direct and indirect socio-economic effects at regional level and can provide insight in the linkages between regions. The application of the model to NE Brazil has demonstrated significant positive socio-economic impacts that can be achieved when developing and expanding the sugarcane–ethanol sector in the region under the conditions studied here, not only for the NE region itself but also for the economy of the rest of Brazil.

Abstract The study presents recent developments in the Turkish power market and introduces an Analytic Hierarchy Process model to evaluate and compare the relative overall attractiveness of power plant options for Turkey. The developed model incorporates technical characteristics, resource availability, socio-economic, environmental, cost, political, legal and organisational aspects, for evaluating and prioritising power plant types (biomass, coal, geothermal, hydro, natural gas, nuclear, petroleum, solar and wind). The study incorporates perspectives of different experts that represent various stakeholders of the Turkish power sector. The study reveals that supply reliability, investment costs and contribution to national economy are perceived as most important factors, whereas waste disposal and decommissioning costs are perceived as least important factors. Considering the overall weights, the most attractive power plant types for the Turkish power market are coal, hydro and natural gas power plants. The study indicates that Turkey should drastically decrease the installed capacity share of traditionally dominant power plants (to 58% from 89% in 2016) and fossil fuel power plants (to 40% from 56% in 2016), and increase the share of renewable power plants (to 52% from 44% in 2016), indigenous resource based power plants (to 67% from 56% in 2016) and nuclear power plants.

Purpose This paper aims to empirically examine the impact of economic development and energy consumption in Saudi Arabia (the leading OPEC giant and the Arab energy icon country) between 1971 and 2015, whilst incorporating globalization, financial development and capital accumulation. Design/methodology/approach This study uses econometric tools and the analytical framework based on the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. Findings The study found that, unlike economic development, globalization and financial development increased energy consumption. Also, capital accumulation created a boost in the country’s energy consumption. Results of variance decomposition indicate that the innovative shocks in globalization and financial development affected energy consumption at the rates of 15.28% and 28.98%, respectively, over 15 years’ period, while shocks in capital accumulation affected energy consumption at a rate of only about 1.24%. In addition, the results of impulse response function show that globalization and economic development were highly responsive to shocks in financial development, and capital accumulation greatly spurred financial development. Research limitations/implications The findings of this study have implication for promoting an efficient and sustainable energy systems that enhance sustainable development based on the accrued benefits of globalization, financial development and capital accumulation. Originality/value Given the increasing level of globalization, financial development and energy consumption, our study uses econometric tools and the analytical framework based on the ARDL model to revisit how energy consumption is influenced by economic development in Saudi Arabia by incorporating other determinants of energy consumption such as globalization, financial development and capital accumulation. The results were validated based on the innovative accounting.

The objective of this study is to assess the European (EU27+ and Ukraine) cost and supply potential for biomass resources. Three methodological steps can be distinguished (partly based on studies explained elsewhere in this volume) (i) an evaluation of the available ‘surplus’ land, (ii) a modeled productivity and (iii) an economic assessment for 13 typical bioenergy crops. Results indicate that the total available land for bioenergy crop production – following a ‘food first’ paradigm – could amount to 900 000 km2 by 2030. Three scenarios were constructed that take into account different development directions and rates of change, mainly for the agricultural productivity of food production. Feedstock supply of dedicated bioenergy crop estimates varies between 1.7 and 12.8 EJ y−1. In addition, agricultural residues and forestry residues can potentially add to this 3.1–3.9 EJ y−1 and 1.4–5.4 EJ y−1 respectively. First generation feedstock supply is available at production costs of 5–15 € GJ−1 compared to 1.5–4.5 € GJ−1 for second generation feedstocks. Costs for agricultural residues are 1–7 € GJ−1 and forestry residues 2–4 € GJ−1. Large variation exists in biomass production potential and costs between European regions, 280 (NUTS2) regions specified. Regions that stand out with respect to high potential and low costs are large parts of Poland, the Baltic States, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine. In Western Europe, France, Spain and Italy are moderately attractive following the low cost high potential criterion.

The Lower Silurian Longmaxi Formation is an organic-rich (black) mudrock that is widely considered to be a potential shale gas reservoir in the southern Sichuan Basin (the Yangtze plate) in Southwest China. A case study is presented to characterise the shale gas reservoir using a workflow to evaluate its characteristics. A typical characterisation of a gas shale reservoir was determined using basset sample analysis (geochemical, petrographical, mineralogical, and petrophysical) through a series of tests. The results show that the Lower Silurian Longmaxi Formation shale reservoir is characterised by organic geochemistry and mineralogical, petrophysical and gas adsorption. Analysis of the data demonstrates that the reservoir properties of the rock in this region are rich and that the bottom group of the Longmaxi Formation has the greatest potential for gas production due to higher thermal maturity, total organic carbon (TOC) enrichment, better porosity and improved fracture potential. These results will provide a basis for further evaluation of the hydrocarbon potential of the Longmaxi Formation shale in the Sichuan Basin and for identifying areas with exploration potential.

The adoption of energy efficiency measures can significantly reduce industrial energy use. This study estimates the future industrial energy consumption under two energy demand scenarios: (1) a reference scenario that follows business as usual trends and (2) a low energy demand scenario that takes into account the implementation of energy efficiency improvement measures. These scenarios cover energy demand in the period 2009-2050 for ten world regions. The reference scenario is based on the International Energy Agency World Energy Outlook (2011 edition) up to 2035 and is extrapolated by Gross Domestic Product projections for the period 2035-2050. According to the reference scenario, the industrial energy use will increase from 105 EJ in 2009 to 185 EJ in 2050 (excluding fuel use as a feedstock). It is estimated that, with the adoption of energy efficient technologies and increased recycling, the growth in industrial energy use in 2050 can be limited to 140 EJ, an annual energy use increase of 0.7 % compared with the 2009 case. The 2050 industrial energy use in the low energy demand scenario is estimated to be 24 % lower than the 2050 energy use in the reference scenario. The results of this study highlight the importance of industrial energy efficiency by providing insights of the energy savings potentials in different regions of the world.