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This experimental study explores the possibility of using an existing Trombe wall as a space for year-round cultivation to increase building resource efficiency. To do so with the least cost to the building, a small 0.75 m2/5.45 m3 Trombe wall cavity space was retrofitted with shelves placed behind the glazing, additional ventilation, and a watering network to be able to grow 400 hydroponic Kratky basil plants in individual glass jars. Historical thermal observations made at the site over a year-long timespan were contrasted with the experimental readings. When fully equipped, the Trombe wall’s thermal mass increased by 51%, which had a balancing effect on the system, lowering the average daily thermal oscillations from 35.41 °C to 17.88 °C. The living plants and water have also had significant cooling (26.99 °C to 22.91 °C) and humidifying (39.88 to 47.74%) effects. The system’s energy efficiency, however, decreased from 26 to 18% (absorption) and from 85 to 46 (dissipation), lowering its energy contribution to the building by about 30%. The average plant’s lifespan within the Trombe wall was 46 days, with 15% of the specimens surpassing the 100-day mark. Over the course of a year, 20.55 kg of edible greens were grown in the Trombe wall. The experiment has shown that it is possible to grow the plants inside the Trombe wall cavity during the warmer half of the year, revealing many possible ways to improve the space’s comfort, yields, and energy efficiency.

Comfort temperature and sleep quality involving 20 participants were determined in two cases: Case A (arbitrary, controlled air-conditioner setting) and Case B (adjustment of 3 °C higher than the setting of Case A with cool bed linen). Data of indoor thermal comfort and electricity consumption were collected every night throughout the measurement period. Questionnaires on thermal comfort and sleep quality were distributed twice a night for a duration of three nights for each case; the first night was for respondents’ adaptation and the following two nights were for measurement. The sleep quality of the respondents was objectively measured using a commercially available activity tracker. Results found that most respondents were thermally comfortable in both cases, with 39% lower energy consumption reported for Case B compared to Case A. The thermal conditions of Case B were found to be more tolerable than those of Case A. Most respondents reported to have a calm and satisfied sleep for both cases. Comfort temperature and Sleep Efficiency Index (SEI) were found to be maintained in both cases.

Aquaponics systems and technologies are growing primary industries in many countries, with high environmental and socio-economic advantages. Aquaponics is a closed-loop system that produces aquatic animals and plants in a new way using recirculated water and nutrients. With a growing world population expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, food production sustainability is a primary issue in today’s world agenda, and aquaponics and aquaculture systems can be potential contributors to the challenge. Observing the climate changes and global warming’s impact on the ecosystem, decreasing aqua animal stocks, and responding to increasing demand are turning points in the sustainability era. In the past 15 years, fish production has doubled, thus denoting that aquaponics transforms into commercial scales with a revolutionized production, high efficiency, and fewer resources’ utilization, thus requiring proper operation and management standards and practices. Therefore, this study aims to shape a new framework for sustainable aquaponics modeling and utilization as the all-in-one solution platform covering technical, managerial, socio-economic, institutional, and environmental measures within the suitability requirements. The proposed model in this study offers a systematic approach to the design and implementation of sustainability-efficient aquaponics and aquaculture systems. Through an exhaustive coverage of the topic, this research effort can be counted as a practical reference for researchers, scholars, experts, practitioners, and students in the context of aquaponics and aquaculture studies.

The use of distributed energy systems (DES) can utilize local resources to achieve flexible and efficient energy production and supply. However, this aspect of pollutant emission reduction has not been sufficiently investigated in current related studies. On this basis, this study establishes a DES system that integrates a ground-source heat pump, a gas turbine, a photovoltaic device and an energy storage device. An Improved Zebra Optimization Algorithm (IZOA) is proposed for optimizing the capacity of DES devices and the energy supply ratio of the ground-source heat pump. Using the economic cost saving rate (ECSR), pollutant emission reduction rate (PERR) and energy saving rate (ESR) as the optimization objectives, the study builds a DES configuration optimization model. By analyzing the arithmetic example of a large hotel building, the study verifies the effectiveness of the IZOA algorithm in solving the DES configuration optimization problem. This study provides useful research ideas in promoting the development of distributed energy systems, environmental protection and energy conservation.

As environmental and energy issues continue to emerge as global concerns, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification is becoming highly valued. However, since additional costs for LEED certification cannot be estimated before proceeding with certification projects, financial losses are often incurred. Additional construction costs are the most significant issue faced by enterprises aiming for LEED certification. Rough estimates of the range of additional construction costs are available, but it is difficult to identify factors that increase or decrease the price of a building. Thus, there is a need for a program that provides average data for LEED certification costs and suggests the easiest way to attain credits for a building. Considering that LEED certification is a rating system, this study develops an optimization algorithm that aims to derive the minimum score for a desired LEED level at minimal cost. Credits are studied and classified by their difficulty and the required cost, allowing for an algorithm that can suggest a customized approach to acquire the minimal required score. The practical, data-driven program developed herein helps shorten the consulting process and increases the accessibility of LEED certification.

In this paper, the grid-connected photovoltaic system in Tochigi prefecture, Japan, is presented, and its technical and economic performance after eight years is evaluated. The system has a peak power of 40.1 kWp and has been in operation since 2012. The entire electricity generated by the system was fed into the state grid. The system is suitably monitored for one year (2019) and analyzed using the parameters developed and defined in the standard IEC 61724-1 by the International Electrotechnical Commission. The system’s different parameters included array yield, final yield, capacity utilization factor, and performance ratio of the system. An analytical model with solar irradiation obtained from Power Data Access Viewer was developed to investigate and evaluate the efficiency of the system monthly and annual energy generation by comparing the simulated and measured energy acquired from the inverter. A positive linear relationship is observed between solar irradiation data obtained from Power Data Access Viewer and the grid-connected photovoltaic system energy injected into the utility grid. While an annual total of 48,521 kWh of energy was expected to be generated, 38,071 kWh was generated and injected into the utility in 2019. This study also introduces and explains the mechanism of the Feed-In-Tariff system in Japan. The performance of the grid-connected photovoltaic system under this study was compared with that of other systems installed across the globe.

Industrial waste disposal in a cement kiln is an operation that includes waste disposal as well as the conversion of waste into renewable energy, which is a cement industry in many countries. This research studied business factors related to the intention to use co-processing industrial waste disposal service in cement kilns by surveying the data with questionnaires from 1251 customers nationwide. The objectives of this research were to study the relationship of business factors by using structural equation modeling to analyze factors influencing the selection of industrial waste disposal service in cement kilns. The study results found that customer attitude towards the following factors, including perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, disposal price, service provider location, promotion, people, and a service provider’s infrastructure, influenced intention to use the service. The variables that customers gave importance to were the industrial waste disposal with zero wastes to landfill and the use of industrial waste relevant to the circular economy by using the industrial waste, which has a quality of renewable fuel in cement kiln as the renewable fuel of the cement furnace. According to the research results, service providers in cement kilns can potentially plan service strategies to achieve sustainability for further business operations in a highly competitive market.

Optimizing the design of water distribution systems often faces difficulties due to continuous variations in water demands, pressure requirements, and disinfectant concentrations. The complexity of this optimization even increases when trying to optimize both the hydraulic and the water quality design models. Most of the previous works in the literature did not investigate the linkage between both models, either by combining them into one general model or by selecting any representative solution to proceed from one model to another. This work introduces an integrated two-step framework to optimize both designs while investigating the reasonable network configuration selection from the hydraulic design view before proceeding to the water quality design. The framework is mainly based on a modified version of the multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm. The algorithm’s first step is optimizing the hydraulic design of the network by minimizing the system’s capital cost while maximizing the system’s reliability. The second step targets optimizing the water quality design by minimizing both the total consumed chlorine mass and the accumulated differences between actual and maximum chlorine concentrations for all the network junctions. The framework is applied to Safi Network in Yemen. Three scenarios of the water quality design are proposed based on the selected decision variables. The results show a superior performance of the first scenario, based on optimized 24-h multipliers of a chlorine pattern for a flow-paced booster station, compared to the other scenarios in terms of the diversity of final solutions.