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Results-based financing (RBF) programmes in the clean cooking sector have gained increasing donor interest over the last decade. Although the risks and advantages of RBF have been discussed quite extensively for other sectors, especially health services, there is limited research-documented experience of its application to clean cooking. Due to the sheer scale of the important transition from ‘dirty’ to clean cooking for the 4 billion people who lack access, especially in the Global South, efficient and performance-proven solutions are urgently required. This paper, undertaken as part of the work of the UKAid-funded Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) programme, aims to close an important research gap by reviewing evidence-based support mechanisms and documenting essential experiences from previous and ongoing RBF programmes in the clean cooking and other sectors. On this basis, the paper derives key strategic implications and learning lessons for the global scaling of RBF programmes and finds that qualitative key performance indicators such as consumer acceptance as well as longer-term monitoring are critical long-term success factors for RBF to ensure the continued uptake and use of clean cooking solutions (CCS), however securing the inclusion of these indicators within programmes remains challenging. Finally, by discussing the opportunities for the evolution of RBF into broader impact funding programmes and the integration of energy access and clean cooking strategies through multi-sector approaches, the paper illustrates potential steps to enhance the impact of RBF in this sector in the future.

This research investigates the relationships among renewable energy consumption, economic growth, and financial development in five sub-Saharan African nations utilizing panel data from 2000 to 2020. Econometric methods are used to ascertain the existence or absence of cross-sectional dependence and the short-run and long-run connections between the following factors: Pesaran cross-sectional dependence (CD) and cross-sectionally augmented IPS (CIPS) unit root tests, pooled mean group (PMG), and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) estimations. The presence of cross-sectional dependence is found and represented with the CIPS unit root test. No significant short-run relationship is found between the variables of the study, yet a significant long-run relationship is present among them. A positive relationship exists between CO2 emissions and financial development, while financial development and renewable energy consumption are found to have negative relationships with CO2 emissions. The study also supports the scale effect of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis. Additionally, no causality is found among the variables, and impulse response and variance decomposition estimation are carried out to recommend future effects. Policy implications of findings are discussed, with accompanying suggestions.

The sudden increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere due to the high dependency on fossil products has created the need for an urgent solution to mitigate this challenge. Global warming, which is a direct result of excessive CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, is one major issue that the world is trying to curb, especially in the 21st Century where most energy generation mediums operate using fossil products. This investigation considered a number of materials ideal for the capturing of CO2 in the post-combustion process. The application of aqueous ammonia, amine solutions, ionic liquids, and activated carbons is thoroughly discussed. Notable challenges are impeding their advancement, which are clearly expatiated in the report. Some merits and demerits of these technologies are also presented. Future research directions for each of these technologies are also analyzed and explained in detail. Furthermore, the impact of post-combustion CO2 capture on the circular economy is also presented.

Wind prediction has consistently been in the spotlight as a crucial element in achieving efficient wind power generation and reducing operational costs. In recent years, with the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, its application in the field of wind prediction has made significant strides. Focusing on the process of AI-based wind prediction modeling, this paper provides a comprehensive summary and discussion of key techniques and models in data preprocessing, feature extraction, relationship learning, and parameter optimization. Building upon this, three major challenges are identified in AI-based wind prediction: the uncertainty of wind data, the incompleteness of feature extraction, and the complexity of relationship learning. In response to these challenges, targeted suggestions are proposed for future research directions, aiming to promote the effective application of AI technology in the field of wind prediction and address the crucial issues therein.

The development of methane hydrate extraction technology remains constrained due to the limited physical understanding of hydrate dissociation dynamics. While recent breakthroughs in pore-scale visualization techniques offer intuitive insights into the dissociation process, obtaining a profound grasp of the underlying mechanisms necessitates more than mere experimental observations. In this research, we introduce a two-phase micro-continuum model that facilitates the numerical simulation of methane hydrate dissociation at both single- and multiscale levels. We employed this numerical model to simulate microfluidic experiments and determined the kinetic parameters of methane hydrate dissociation based on experimental data under various dissociation scenarios. The simulations, once calibrated, correspond closely to experimental results. By comprehensively comparing the simulated results with experimental data, the rate constant and the effective diffusion coefficient were reliably determined to be kd = 1.5 × 108 kmol2/(J·s·m2) and Dl = 0.8 × 10−7 m2/s, respectively. Notably, the multiscale model not only matches the precision of the single-scale model but also presents considerable promise for streamlining the simulation of hydrate dissociation across multiscale porous media. Moreover, we contrast hydrate dissociation under isothermal versus adiabatic conditions, wherein the dissociation rate is significantly reduced under adiabatic conditions due to the shifted thermodynamic condition. This comparison highlights the disparities between microfluidic experiments and real-world extraction environments.

The proposed anthraquinone-bromate cell combines the advantages of anthraquinone-bromine redox flow batteries and novel hybrid hydrogen-bromate flow batteries. The anthraquinone-2,7-disulfonic acid is of interest as a promising organic negolyte due its high solubility, rapid kinetics of electrode reactions and suitable redox potentials combined with a high chemical stability during redox reactions. Lithium or sodium bromates as posolytes provide an anomalously high discharge current density of order ~A cm−2 due to a novel autocatalytic mechanism. Combining these two systems, we developed a single cell of novel anthraquinone-bromate flow battery, which showed a power density of 1.08 W cm−2, energy density of 16.1 W h L−1 and energy efficiency of 72% after 10 charge–discharge cycles.

With diminishing fossil fuel resources and increasing environmental concerns, large-scale deployment of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) has accelerated the transition towards clean energy systems, leading to significant RES generation share in power systems worldwide. Among different RES, solar PV is receiving major focus as it is most abundant in nature compared to others, complimented by falling prices of PV technology. However, variable, intermittent and non-synchronous nature of PV power generation technology introduces several technical challenges, ranging from short-term issues, such as low inertia, frequency stability, voltage stability and small signal stability, to long-term issues, such as unit commitment and scheduling issues. Therefore, such technical issues often limit the amount of non-synchronous instantaneous power that can be securely accommodated by a grid. In this backdrop, this research work proposes a tool to estimate maximum PV penetration level that a given power system can securely accommodate for a given unit commitment interval. The proposed tool will consider voltage and frequency while estimating maximum PV power penetration of a system. The tool will be useful to a system operator in assessing grid stability and security under a given generation mix, network topology and PV penetration level. Besides estimating maximum PV penetration, the proposed tool provides useful inputs to the system operator which will allow the operator to take necessary actions to handle high PV penetration in a secure and stable manner.

Marine fuel oil stability has always been an issue for bunkering companies and ship owners all around the world and the problem has become even more apparent with the introduction of the Global Sulphur Gap by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 2020. In this article, the historical background and the technical reasons why marine fuel oils lose their stability, as well as methods for preventing such instability from occurring, are presented. While it is possible to make fuel compositions stable by adjusting their composition in such a way that the components of the fuel are compatible, considering that marine fuel oils are often comprised of the least value-added products, the method of adding special fuel oil stabilizers (also known as “asphaltene dispersants”) is usually preferred. An overview of such stabilizers is presented; their chemical composition, based on the information provided by the manufacturers and/or inventors is studied. In addition, the experimental research of the produced marine fuel oil and its components is carried out. The results of the model composition studies show that adding even as little as 10% of residual asphaltene-rich components can make a composition with a high stability reserve unstable. It was also shown that the content of the asphaltene-rich component in a stable fuel can be increased from 3% to 10% by introducing stabilizers in low amounts (up to 2000 ppm), thus lowering the amount of higher value-added, mostly naphthene-paraffinic-based components. Different methods of fuel stability evaluation were studied and tested, most of them being in correlation with one another. Several types of stability enhancers were tried out on unstable fuel, with stabilizers based on alkylphenol formaldehyde resin showing the best results.