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AbstractThis study analyses the relationship between foreign direct investment, economic growth, urbanization, energy use, and carbon emissions in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS countries) between 1990 and 2014. According to the empirical results, both environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) and pollution haven hypotheses (PHH) are confirmed. Urbanization contributes to reducing carbon emissions, while energy use is one of the main driving forces of ascending carbon emissions. The main advance of this paper lies in the moderating effect of foreign direct investment and energy usage on carbon emission in the case of the BRICS. The empirical results confirm a dampening impact of foreign direct investment on energy use, generating a correction in carbon emission. Thus, structural transformations are highlighted with a positive influence on energy efficiency and sustainable growth. It is expected that policymakers must promote renewable sources and boost clean foreign industries in selected host countries.

{"references": ["Ebrahim Hajidavalloo (2007), \"Application of evaporative cooling on the condenser of window-air-conditioner\", Appl. Therm. Eng., Volume 27, Issue 11-12, pp. 1937-1943, Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2006.12.014 .", "Chainarong Chaktranond and Peachrakha Doungsong (2010), \"An Experimental evaluation of energy saving in a split type air conditioner with evaporative cooling system\" Int. Transac. J.of Eng. Mgmt and Appl. Sci and Technol., Volume 1, Issue 1, pp. 9-18, Available at https://www.slideshare.net/drboon/01-01009018itjemast-chainarong .", "Vrachopoulos, M.G., Filios, A.E., Kotsiovelos, G.T. and Kravaritis, E.D (2005), \"Incorporated evaporative condenser\" Appl. Therm. Eng., Volume 27, Issue 5-6, pp. 823-828, Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2006.09.021.", "T. T. Chow, Zang Lin and X.Y. Yang (2002), \"Placement of condensing units of split-type air conditioners at low-rise residences\", Appl. Therm. Eng., Volume 22, Issue 13, pp. 1431-1444,Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/S1359-4311(02)00068-6", "Reshap Arora and Rajesh Sharma (2017), \"Experimental Investigation of Evaporative Condenser with Two Cooling Pads for Window Air-Conditioner\", An International Int. Journal J. of Eng. Sci., ISSN: 2320-0332, 2017; Volume 25, pp. 11-16, Available at http://ijoes.vidyapublications.com/paper/Vol25/02-Vol25.pdf", "M.M. Kulkarni, A.V. Khandagale, P.V. Singh, S.S. Choudhary, R.D. Sharma (2016), \"Experimental Investigations of Evaporative-Cooled Condenser Split Air Conditioner\", Int. J. of Eng. Sci. and Comput., ISSN: 2321 3361, Volume 6, Issue 5, pp. 5407-5411, DOI: 10.4010/2016.1324", "K. R. Aglawe, M. S. Matey and N. P. Gudadhe (2013), \"Experimental Analysis of Window Air Conditioner using Evaporative Cooling\", International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology, ISSN: 2278-0181, Volume 2, Issue 2, pp. 1-6, Available at https://www.ijert.org/research/experimental-analysis-of-window-air-conditioner-using-evaporative-cooling-IJERTV2IS2319.pdf"]} A unit for evaporative cooling in condenser of domestic air conditioner and its performance testing on effectiveness and reduction in power consumption. Evaporative cooling in condenser of Split A.C is achieved by spraying water on the fins of condensing unit at regular interval of time. Evaporative cooling will increase the rate of heat transfer and thus further sub cooled refrigerant will be obtained at the exit of condenser. Due to this sub cooling, refrigeration effect increases which results in increase in COP and reduces power consumption.

Differences in ash behavior during hydrothermal treatment were identified based on multivariate data analysis of literature information on 29 different feedstock. In addition, the solubility of individual elements was evaluated based on a smaller data set. As a result two different groups were distinguished based on char ash content and ash yield. Virgin terrestrial and aquatic biomass, such as different types of wood and algae, in addition to herbaceous and agricultural biomass, bark, brewer's spent grain, compost and faecal waste showed lower char ash content than municipal solid wastes, anaerobic digestion residues and municipal and industrial sludge. Lower char ash content also correlated with lower ash yield indicating differences in chemical composition and ash solubility. Further evaluation of available data showed that ash in industrial sludge mainly contained anthropogenic Al, Fe and P or Ca and Si with low solubility during hydrothermal treatment. Char from corn stover, miscanthus, switch grass, rice hulls, olive, artichoke and orange wastes and empty fruit bunch had generally higher contents of K, Mg, S and Si than industrial sludge although differences existed within the group. In the future information on ash behavior should be used for enhancing the fuel properties of char based on feedstock type and hydrothermal treatment conditions.

There is a large interest in biofuels in India as a substitute to petroleum-based fuels, with a purpose of enhancing energy security and promoting rural development. India has announced an ambitious target of substituting 20% of fossil fuel consumption by biodiesel and bioethanol by 2017. India has announced a national biofuel policy and launched a large program to promote biofuel production, particularly on wastelands: its implications need to be studied intensively considering the fact that India is a large developing country with high population density and large rural population depending upon land for their livelihood. Another factor is that Indian economy is experiencing high growth rate, which may lead to enhanced demand for food, livestock products, timber, paper, etc., with implications for land use. Studies have shown that area under agriculture and forest has nearly stabilized over the past 2-3 decades. This paper presents an assessment of the implications of projected large-scale biofuel production on land available for food production, water, biodiversity, rural development and GHG emissions. The assessment will be largely focused on first generation biofuel crops, since the Indian program is currently dominated by these crops. Technological and policy options required for promoting sustainable biofuel production will be discussed. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

Wheat straw was pretreated by wet explosion using three different oxidizing agents (H(2)O(2), O(2), and air). The effect of the pretreatment was evaluated based on glucose and xylose liberated during enzymatic hydrolysis. The results showed that pretreatment with the use of O(2) as oxidizing agent was the most efficient in enhancing overall convertibility of the raw material to sugars and minimizing generation of furfural as a by-product. For scale-up of the process, high dry matter (DM) concentrations of 15-20% will be necessary. However, high DM hydrolysis and fermentation are limited by high viscosity of the material, higher inhibition of the enzymes, and fermenting microorganism. The wet-explosion pretreatment method enabled relatively high yields from both enzymatic hydrolysis and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) to be obtained when performed on unwashed slurry with 14% DM and a low enzyme loading of 10 FPU/g cellulose in an industrial acceptable time frame of 96 h. Cellulose and hemicellulose conversion from enzymatic hydrolysis were 70 and 68%, respectively, and an overall ethanol yield from SSF was 68%.

In continuously stirred tank reactor experiments, with manure as substrate at thermophilic temperatures, the use of volatile fatty acids (VFA) as process indicators was investigated. Changes in VFA level were shown to be a good parameter for indicating process instability. The VFA were evaluated according to their relative changes caused by changes in hydraulic loading, organic loading or temperature. Butyrate and isobutyrate together were found to be particularly good indicators. Butyrate and isobutyrate concentrations increased significantly 1 or 2 days after the imposed perturbation, which makes these acids suitable for process monitoring and important for process control of the anaerobic biological system. In addition it was shown in a batch experiment that VFA at concentrations up to 50 mM did not reduce the overall methane production rate. This showed that VFA accumulation in anaerobic reactors was the result of process imbalance, not the cause of inhibition, thus justifying the use of VFA as process indicators.

The transformation of electricity network users from passive to active agents, as a result of decreasing costs of distributed energy resources, requires several adaptions, one of which is revising the distribution network charges. Often current network charge designs do not ensure network cost recovery and lack to incentivize efficient network investments and usage. New network charge methodologies are required to guide and incentivize customers in an efficient way while maximizing system economic efficiency. This paper proposes an efficient methodology that ensures network cost recovery while promoting efficient usage of the network as well as efficient network investments. The proposed network charge design consisting of two components: a peak coincidence network charge (PCNC) and fixed charge. The PCNC is a forward-looking charge as it considers the cost of future network reinforcements required and assigned to consumers during peak hours of the network utilization. Fixed charges allocate the residual of the network costs following Ramsey-pricing principles. This paper compares the outcome from economic optimum customers response to four different network charges: (i) volumetric charges (ii) fixed charges (iii) peak demand charge (iv) fixed charges + PCNC. Two case studies for two different load profiles are simulated using linear programming on Matlab to minimize their total costs within each charges design, considering the possibility of buying electricity from the grid and investing on onsite generation or curtail load. Finally, the paper highlights through the case studies how customer s response is highly influenced by different network charge designs, and compare the consequences of these responses in terms of network cost recovery and total system costs. The paper concludes with practical issues that need to be considered for the implementation of the proposed network charges design. info:eu-repo/semantics/draft

This study investigated methane yield via anaerobic digestion of multi-component substrates based on mixtures of biodegradable single-component substrates with cow dung as main component. Bench and full-scale digestion experiments were carried out for both single and multi-component substrates to identify the relationship between methane yield and substrate composition. Results from both bench- and full-scale experiments corresponded well and showed that using multi-component substrates increases the methane yield much more than what would be expected from digestion of single substrates. Process stability as indicated by gas production, pH and NH(4)(+) concentration variations were also improved by using multi-component substrates compared to digestion of single-component substrates. The results, thus, suggest that assessment of methane yield for multi-component substrates cannot reliably be based on methane yields for corresponding single-component substrates but should instead be measured directly.