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AbstractFuel properties of solid biofuels are essential aspects for the energy‐efficient and low‐emission operation of biomass heat and power plants. Hence, fuel quality parameters are often defined and used for pricing in supply contracts. To simplify and accelerate analytical approaches, rapid analysis devices are required to determine fuel properties such as water‐ and ash content, calorific value, and chemical composition on‐site. This article gives an overview about available technologies and, if applicable, their current state of use as rapid analysis devices for solid biofuels.

As a result of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), several countries committed to phasing down coal electricity as soon as possible, deactivating hundreds of power plants in the near future. CO$_2$-free electricity can be generated in these plants by retrofitting them for iron combustion. Iron oxides produced during the process can be collected and reduced back to metallic iron using H$_2$, in a circular process where it becomes an energy carrier. Using clean energy in the recycling process enables storage and distribution of excess generated in periods of abundance. This concept uses and scales up existing dry metal cycle technologies, which are the focus of extensive research worldwide. Retrofitting is evaluated here to determine feasibility of adding these material requirements to markets, in the context of current plans for decarbonization of steel industry, and policies on hydrogen and renewable electricity. Results indicate that not only for a single power plant, but also on larger scales, the retrofitting plan is viable, promoting and supporting advancements in sustainable electricity, steel industry and hydrogen production, converging necessary technological and construction efforts. The maturation and first commercial-scale application of iron combustion technology by 2030, together with developing necessary reduction infrastructure over the next decades, would pave the way for large-scale retrofitting and support the phasing out of coal in many regions. The proposed plan represents a feasible solution that takes advantage of existing assets, creates a long-lasting legacy for the industry and establishes circular energy economies that increase local energy security.

District heating is a network of pipes through which heat is delivered from a centralised source. It is expected to play an important role in the decarbonisation of the energy sector in the coming years. In district heating, heat is traditionally generated through fossil fuels, often with combined heat and power (CHP) units. However, increasingly, waste heat is being used as a low carbon alternative, either directly or, for low temperature sources, via a heat pump. The design of district heating often has competing objectives: the need for inexpensive energy and meeting low carbon targets. In addition, the planning of district heating schemes is subject to multiple sources of uncertainty such as variability in heat demand and energy prices. This paper proposes a decision support tool to analyse and compare system designs for district heating under uncertainty using stochastic ordering (dominance). Contrary to traditional uncertainty metrics that provide statistical summaries and impose total ordering, stochastic ordering is a partial ordering and operates with full probability distributions. In our analysis, we apply the orderings in the mean and dispersion to the waste heat recovery problem in Brunswick, Germany.

Access to reliable and affordable energy is vital for sustainable development. In the off-grid areas of developing countries, decentralized energy solutions have received increasing attention due to their contributions to reducing poverty. However, most of the rural population in many developing countries still has little or no access to modern energy technologies. This paper assesses the factors that determine the successes and failures of decentralized energy solutions based on local harmonized case studies from heterogeneous contexts from Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and South America. The case studies were analyzed through the coupled lenses of energy transition and the Water–Energy–Food Security (WEF) Nexus. The findings indicate that access to modern decentralized energy solutions has not resulted in complete energy transitions due to various tradeoffs with the other domains of the WEF Nexus. On the other hand, the case studies point at the potential for improvements in food security, incomes, health, the empowerment of women, and resource conservation when synergies between decentralized energy solutions and other components of the WEF Nexus are present.

In recent years, the environmental sustainability of agri-food systems has become a crucial issue. Agri-food firms are increasingly concerned with the implementation of viable environmentally friendly production processes. The environmental impacts of the table grape sector, as well as other fresh and not transformed food products, involve mainly the farming phase rather than the subsequent conditioning, transportation, packaging, and distribution phases. The purpose of this study was to assess the environmental impacts and the economic viability of three table grapes production models (i.e., early harvesting, normal harvesting, and delayed harvesting), based on the Italian tendone system, during the entire life cycle. The environmental impact analysis was performed using the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, while the economic analysis was performed using the life cycle costing (LCC) approach. The results show that the early and the delayed production models generated the highest environmental burdens, but also the highest economic returns, compared to the normal harvesting production model. The main determinants of the environmental impacts and economic returns are discussed and some practical recommendations are given to improve the sustainability of all the surveyed production models, so to converge public and private interests.

AbstractThis study analyses the impact of female directors and managers on sustainability performance in the banking industry. Drawing on prior studies, we attempt to frame gender diversity, its determinants, and its consequences with respect to financial, social, and environmental performance. Our sample includes 880 bank‐year observations from 48 countries over the period 2011–2019. We conduct OLS and probit regressions on the panel data sample. The results show that increasing the proportion of female directors also improves the financial and environmental performance; female managers are keener on the social dimension and in engaging with stakeholders, than female directors. This study extends the current literature in the context of the banking industry, suggesting that banks should focus their efforts on establishing the right combination of female directors and managers. Furthermore, practical implications that encourage gender diversity among policy makers and regulators arise from this research.

The built environment remains a strategic research and innovation domain in view of the goal of full decarbonization. The priority is the retrofitting of existing buildings as zero-emission to improve their energy efficiency with renewable energy technologies pulling the market with cost-effective strategies. From the first age of photovoltaics (PV) mainly integrated in solar roofs, we rapidly moved towards complete active building skins where all the architectural surfaces are photoactive (Building Integrated Photovoltaics - BIPV). This change of paradigm, where PV replaces a conventional building material, shifted the attention to relate construction choices with energy and cost effectiveness. However, systematic investigations which put into action a cross-disciplinary approach between construction, economic and energy related domains is still missing. This paper provides the detailed assessment of a real multifamily building, taking into account retrofit scenarios for making active the building skin, with the goal to identify the sensitive aspects of the energetic and economic effectiveness of BIPV design options. By assuming a real case study with monitored data, the analysis will consider a breakdown of the main individual parts composing the building envelope, by then combining alternative re-configurations in merged clusters with different energy and construction goals. Results will highlight the correlation between building skin construction strategies and the energy and cost parameters by identifying the cornerstones for enhancing efficiency. The outcomes, related to the total life cost, self-consumption/sufficiency, in combination with different building design options (façade, roof, balconies, surface orientations, etc.), provide a practical insight for researchers and professionals to identify renovation strategies by synergistically exploiting the solar active parts towards lower global costs and higher energy efficiency of the whole building system.