• Energy Research
• Open Source close
• Embargo close
• 13. Climate action close
• 11. Sustainability close
• NL close
• DE close
• CA close
• IT close

Engineered cementitious composites (ECCs) are special types of fibre-reinforced cementitious composites (FRCC) with higher strain capacity which can be achieved with low fibre volume as low as 2% and total elimination of coarse aggregates. Due to the outstanding performance of ECCs, they are suitable for various construction and repair applications. However, in order for ECCs to achieve their properties; a high amount of binder which is primarily composed of Portland cement (PC) is used alongside a special type of ultrafine silica sand (USS) which is different from the conventional natural fine aggregates. The production of PC is known to be detrimental to the environment due to its high carbon dioxide emissions coupled with the high consumption of natural resources. Thus, the high use of PC content in ECCs posed a sustainability threat. Similarly, the USS used in ECCs are not readily available everywhere and are expensive. The processing of the USS coupled with its transportation over long distances would also increase the cost and embodied carbon of ECCs. Hence, in order to promote more development and applications of ECCs for various applications; this dissertation aims to provide innovative ways to improve the sustainability of ECCs and their performances. This dissertation offers four solutions to improve the sustainability of ECCs which are (i) use of unconventional industrial by-products as partial replacement of PC (ii) total replacement of PC in ECCs with alternative sustainable binders (iii) replacement of USS in ECCs with recycled materials and (iv) the use of supplementary cementitious materials to replace a high volume of PC. The findings from this study revealed sustainable ECCs with acceptable mechanical and durability performance can be achieved with the use of alternative binders or replacement of the conventional USS used in ECC mixtures. The sustainability and cost assessment of the ECCs indicated that the incorporation of industrial by-products such as blast furnace slag (BFS) especially at higher content is beneficial to reducing the negative environmental impact and economic burden associated with ECCs compared to the conventional ECC. The sustainability index and cost index of the ECCs further showed that the use of BFS is more beneficial when the sustainability and cost of the ECCs are compared with the corresponding performance. Similarly, the use of recycled materials as an alternative to USS was found to result in a significant reduction in the embodied carbon and cost of ECCs. The use of recycled materials such as expanded glass (EG) as aggregates in ECCs was also found to improve the thermal insulation properties of ECCs making such ECC suitable for the production of building envelope elements.

AbstractTransition to a bio‐based economy will create new demand for biomass, e.g. the increasing use of bioenergy, but the impacts on existing markets are unclear. Furthermore, there is a growing public concern on the sustainability of biomass. This study proposes a methodological framework for mapping national biomass flows based on domestic production‐consumption and cross‐border trade, and respective share of sustainably‐certified biomass. A case study was performed on the Netherlands for 2010‐2011, focusing on three categories: (i) woody biomass, (ii) oils and fats, and (iii) carbohydrates. Between 2010‐2011 few major shifts were found, besides the increasing biofuel production. The share of sustainably‐certified feedstock is growing in many categories. Woody biomass used for energy amounted to 3.45 MT, including 1.3 MT imported wood pellets ( >85% certified). About 0.6 MT of oils and fats and 1.2 MT (estimation) of carbohydrates were used for biofuel production. It is assumed that only certified materials were used for biofuel production. For non‐energy purpose, more than 50% of woody biomass used was either certified or derived from recycled streams. Certified oils has entered the Dutch food sector since 2011, accounted for 7% of total vegetable oils consumption. It is expected that carbohydrates will also be certified in the near future. Methodological challenges encountered are: inconsistency in data definitions, lack of coherent cross‐sectorial reporting systems, low reliability of bilateral trade statistics, lack of transparency in biomass supply chains, and disparity in sustainability requirements. The methodology may be expanded for future projection in different scenarios. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Extreme summer droughts are expected to occur more often in the future in NW Europe due to climate change. These droughts might accelerate the rate of peat oxidation in drained peat areas, with impacts on soil subsidence, GHG emission and water quality. This study aimed at providing more insight in the oxidation of deep peat layers that had not previously been exposed to air, the so-called secondary decomposition. We incubated two types of peat (eutrophic and oligotrophic), sampled from permanently anoxic peat layers from nature reserves and agricultural peat meadows. Peat samples were incubated for thirteen weeks under anoxic conditions, but were exposed to air for one to eight weeks. The production of CO2 and CH4 was quantified as a proxy for decomposition; concentrations of soluble nutrients and phenolic compounds were also measured. The results showed that oxygenation led to a steep increase in the rate of decomposition, indicated by higher carbon loss rates during and after oxygenation compared to non-oxygenated samples. Carbon loss rates increased more for eutrophic peat (agricultural area: 352%, nature reserve: 182%) than for oligotrophic peat (83% and 159% respectively). Most peat samples investigated showed higher post-oxygenation CO2 and/or CH4 production compared to the anoxic pre-oxygenation period. This indicates that oxygenation stimulates decomposition, even after anoxic conditions have returned. Contrary to the enzymic latch theory, no effects of oxygenation on the concentrations of soluble or condensed phenolic compounds were detected. Soluble nutrient concentrations did not change due to oxygenation either. Noteworthy is the occurrence of pyrite mineralization and associated acidification in eutrophic peat. Thus, low summer water levels, for example due to climate change, should be avoided in order to limit exceptionally high decomposition rates and associated problems such as increasing subsidence rates, greenhouse gas emission, sulfate release and acidification.

In industrialized countries, large amounts of mineral wastes are produced. They are re-used in various ways, particularly in road and earth constructions, substituting primary resources such as gravel. However, they may also contain pollutants, such as heavy metals, which may be leached to the groundwater. The toxic impacts of these emissions are so far often neglected within Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) of products or waste treatment services and thus, potentially large environmental impacts are currently missed. This study aims at closing this gap by assessing the ecotoxic impacts of heavy metal leaching from industrial mineral wastes in road and earth constructions. The flows of metals such as Sb, As, Pb, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mo, Ni, V and Zn originating from three typical constructions to the environment are quantified, their fate in the environment is assessed and potential ecotoxic effects evaluated. For our reference country, Germany, the industrial wastes that are applied as Granular Secondary Construction Material (GSCM) carry more than 45,000 t of diverse heavy metals per year. Depending on the material quality and construction type applied, up to 150 t of heavy metals may leach to the environment within the first 100 years after construction. Heavy metal retardation in subsoil can potentially reduce the fate to groundwater by up to 100%. One major challenge of integrating leaching from constructions into macro-scale LCA frameworks is the high variability in micro-scale technical and geographical factors, such as material qualities, construction types and soil types. In our work, we consider a broad range of parameter values in the modeling of leaching and fate. This allows distinguishing between the impacts of various road constructions, as well as sites with different soil properties. The findings of this study promote the quantitative consideration of environmental impacts of long-term leaching in Life Cycle Assessment, complementing site-specific risk assessment, for the design of waste management strategies, particularly in the construction sector.

The aim of this study was to analyze whether, and if so, in what way risks would influence the design,costs and routing of CO2pipelines. This article assesses locational and societal risks of CO2pipelinetransport and analyses whether rerouting or implementing additional risk mitigation measures is themost cost-effective option. The models EFFECTS and RISKCURVES are used to estimate the dispersion andrisk, respectively. The pipeline routes are optimized by using the least cost path function in ArcGIS.This article evaluates three case studies in the Netherlands. The results show that pipelines transportingdense phase CO2(8–17 MPa) with a minimal amount of risk mitigation measures already meet the 10−6locational risk required in the Netherlands. 10−6locational risks of 135 m are calculated for intermediatepumping stations, handling 450 kg CO2/s (about 14 Mt CO2/year). In all the cases, pumping stations couldbe located along the pipeline route without any problem.For the cases studied transporting gaseous CO2(1.5–3 MPa) leads to larger 10−6locational risk distancesthan transporting dense phase CO2. This is caused by the large momentum behind a dense phase CO2release, leading to smaller but higher jet and to a higher mixing rate with the surrounding air than for agaseous CO2release.Based on our analysis, it can be concluded that dense phase CO2transport is safe if it is well organized.The risks are manageable and widely accepted under current legislation. In addition, risk mitigationmeasures, like marker tape and increased surveillance, are available which reduce the risk significantlyand increase the costs only slightly. Pipeline routing for gaseous CO2transport appears more challengingin densely populated areas, because larger safety zones are attached to it.

Abstract As main contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, power and transportation are crucial sectors for energy system decarbonization. Their interaction is expected to increase significantly: plug-in electric vehicles add a new electric load, increasing grid demand and potentially requiring substantial grid upgrade; hydrogen production for fuel cell electric vehicles or for clean fuels synthesis could exploit the projected massive power overgeneration by intermittent and seasonally-dependent renewable sources via Power-to-Hydrogen. This work investigates the infrastructural needs involved with a broad diffusion of clean mobility, adopting a sector integration perspective at the national scale. The analysis combines a multi-node energy system balance simulation and a techno-economic assessment of the infrastructure to deliver energy vectors for mobility. The article explores the long-term case of Italy, considering a massive increase of renewable power generation capacity and investigating different mobility scenarios, where low-emission vehicles account for 50% of the stock. First, the model solves the energy balances, integrating the consumption related to mobility energy vectors and taking into account power grid constraints. Then, an optimal infrastructure is identified, composed of both a hydrogen delivery network and a widespread installation of charging points. Results show that the infrastructural requirements bring about investment costs in the range of 43–63 G€. Lower specific costs are associated with the exclusive presence of FCEVs, whereas the full reliance on BEVs leads to the most significant costs. Scenarios that combine FCEVs and BEVs lie in between, suggesting that the overall power + mobility system benefits from the presence of both drivetrain options.

AbstractThis study compared the economic and environmental impacts of torrefaction on bioenergy supply chains against conventional pellets for scenarios where biomass is produced in Mozambique, and undergoes pre‐processing before shipment to Rotterdam for conversion to power and Fischer‐Tropsch (FT) fuels. We also compared the impacts of using different land quality (productive and marginal) for feedstock production, feedstocks (eucalyptus and switchgrass), final conversion technologies (XtY and CXtY) and markets (the Netherlands and Mozambique). At current conditions, the torrefied pellets (TOPs) are delivered in Rotterdam at higher cost (7.3–7.5 $/GJ) than pellets (5.1–5.3 $/GJ). In the long term, TOPs costs could decline (4.7–5.8 $/GJ) and converge with pellets. TOPs supply chains also incur 20% lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than pellets. Due to improved logistics and lower conversion investment, fuel production costs from TOPs are lower (12.8–16.9 $/GJFT) than from pellets (12.9–18.7 $/GJFT). Co‐firing scenarios (CXtY) result in lower cost fuel (but a higher environmental penalty) than 100% biomass fired scenarios (XtY). In most cases, switchgrass and the productive region of Nampula provide the lowest fuel production cost compared to eucalyptus and the marginally productive Gaza region. Both FT and ion in Mozambique are more costly than in Rotterdam. For the Netherlands, both FT and power production are competitive against average energy costs in Western Europe. The analysis shows that large‐scale bioenergy production can become competitive against fossil fuels. While the benefits of TOPs are apparent in logistics and conversion, the current higher torrefaction costs contribute to higher biofuel costs. Improvements in torrefaction technology can result in significant performance improvements over the future chain. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd