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The food and drink industry is the largest and most dynamic manufacturing sector of the European Union. With its 286,000 companies (mostly SMEs) and turnover share of 15%, it provides jobs for over 4 million people. There is an acute need to replace energy-intensive processes in this sector by new efficient ones. The major energy consumption originates from heating, cooling and drying processes, refrigeration, electrical drive systems, among others. Refrigeration of food products can account more than 50% of the energy consumption. This chapter identifies energy-saving opportunities (technological, organisational or behavioural) and describes tailored energy-saving measures. Best practices and measures for energy efficiency improvement are disclosure, which can be applied to infrastructures, cooling chambers, vapour compression refrigeration systems, compressed air systems, steam generator/hot water systems, among others. Additionally, the use of renewable energies and procedures for analysis of the electricity consumption and power management are discussed. These best practices and energy conservation measures may substantially improve the energy efficiency and competitiveness of agrifood companies and will ultimately benefit the consumers and society by reducing food price, food waste and carbon emissions. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

There is plenty of research on the energy-growth nexus for individual countries and panels of countries, but none at a global level. For this reason, this paper aims to provide important information for energy policymakers. The global energy consumption and economic growth nexus was analyzed by using an annual time series from 1965 to 2013. An auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach was followed in the presence of permanent shocks (structural breaks). The ARDL bounds test, as well as both short- and long-run elasticities, was performed. Performing the Johansen co-integration and the Toda and Yamamoto causality testing procedure gives robustness to the results. The results suggest that there is bi-directional causality between energy consumption and growth, both in the short- and long-run. High and positive long-run elasticities were found. Accordingly, conservation policies on energy could reduce economic growth on a worldwide scale. In addition, policies could begin to have a cyclical effect, given that there is bidirectional causality between energy consumption and economic growth. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Sausage is an ancient food type that is nowadays considered as a delicatessen. Sausages are categorized within the deli sector as meat sub products. It is a food product preferred by consumers due to its nutritional value and organoleptic characteristics (wide range of flavors and textures). The heating and cooling processes during sausages production are indispensable technologies to ensure both the specific organoleptic characteristics and properties conservation through time. Energy is a major cost in the operation of these facilities. This paper starts with a review of the research related to energy consumption, energy efficiency measures and energy indicators in the food industry. Additionally it describes the major cost-effective electricity savings (improved door protection, defrost optimization, control settings and repairs) that can be applied to this industry. Later a case study that characterizes the production process and the energy consumption of sausages processing industry in Portugal (20 industries) is presented. The results from this case study show that energy consumption of this type of industries is mainly of electricity (82%). The annual average specific energy consumption (SEC) of electricity is 660 kWhe per tonne of raw material. Correlations were developed that show the relationships between tons of raw material and electricity consumption, volume of cold stores and compressors nominal power. A strong relationship between SEC and the usage of cold rooms was determined. Several electricity savings, estimated in 24%, can be achieved by implementing simple practice measures in the refrigeration systems. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Climate variations in recent decades have led to an increase in ocean temperatures and an escalation in the number, intensity, and duration of marine heatwaves. Species such as Pomatoschistus microps, which inhabit shallow marine environments, are particularly exposed to these environmental extremes. This makes them ideal model species for assessing the impacts of ocean warming in these areas. Thermal tolerance, metabolic rate, and cellular stress response of this species were assessed after exposure to both present-day and projected future summer scenarios, along with their respective heatwaves. The thermal maximum did not appear to vary among the different scenarios tested, suggesting a limited acclimation capacity. Additionally, their metabolic rate remained stable, and there were no significant alterations in the levels of cellular stress response biomarkers. This lack of change suggests that their homeostatic state was not disrupted. Temperature data collected at the sampling site indicates that this species maintains a substantial thermal safety margin, which equips it to withstand thermal challenges not only in the present but also in anticipated future summer and heatwave conditions. This work was supported by project ExtremeOceans (PTDC/BIA-BMA/1494/2020) and project AQUATROPHYS (2021.09718.CBM), funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). This work is also financed by national funds i) UIDP/04378/2020 and UIDB/04378/2020 (UCIBIO), ii) LA/P/0140/2020 (i4HB), iii) UIDP/50017/2020+UIDB/50017/2020+LA/P/0094/2020 (CESAM), iv) UIDB/04326/2020, UIDP/04326/2020 and LA/P/0101/2020 (CCMAR), v) UIDB/04292/2020 MARE. FCT is also acknowledged for the grants 2022.10575.BD awarded to M.M., 2021.04675.BD awarded to J.F.F., CEECIND/01526/2018 awarded to C.M. and CEECIND/01250/2018 awarded do D.M.

Food processing and conservation represent decisive factors for the sustainability of the planet given the significant growth of the world population in the last decades. Therefore, the cooling process during the manufacture and/or storage of food products has been subject of study and improvement in order to ensure the food supply with good quality and safety. A predictive tool for assessment of the energy performance in agrifood industries that use cold storage is developed in order to contribute to the improvement of the energy efficiency of this industry. The predictive tool is based on a set of characteristic correlated parameters: amount of raw material annually processed, annual energy consumption and volume of cold rooms. Case studies of application of the predictive tool consider industries in the meat sector, specifically slaughterhouses. The results obtained help on the decision-making of practice measures for improvement of the energy efficiency in this industry ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The purpose of this paper is to, in a holistic way, identify and explore the critical success factors (CSFs) that are considered in the context of the growing discussions, movements, proposed models, and case studies about the integration of management systems (MSs). This work is an investigation focused on the integration of MSs into an integrated management system (IMS) and the proposed approach takes into account the literature review as well as the experience gained by the authors on researches about Portuguese enterprises. This qualitative and empirical research, investigated the integration of MSs from existing scientific publications for the period 1999 to 2014, on-going case studies and one inquiry conducted by the authors. This research contributes to a better understanding of the CSFs regarding the integration of MSs and thus provides an insight on the preventive management. This research shows an evident lack of information regarding case studies on CSFs for integrated management systems (IMSs) and has identified a set of relevant CSFs, for MSs integration and associated guidelines that organizations should take as a priority, in order to be able to manage, on a preventive way, the implementation of IMSs, and consequently to become more competitive with added value for the stakeholders. ; INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS: CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

Haussmann buildings architecture spread throughout the city of Paris. Nevertheless, those buildings are nowadays submitted to heavy operations of use change, conservation and rehabilitation, justified by several reasons, among others are building aging and the increasing demand for hotel rooms in Paris. In this paper, a structural and material characterization of a Haussmann building complex located at La Madeleine in Paris is presented. This characterization is the result of several technical visits realized during construction works stage relative to use change, rehabilitation and strengthening which take place between 2015 and 2017. The present study allows identifying the existing structural system, the materials and the geometry of the principal structural elements in a structural engineering view. The knowledge from this study could be very useful for the development of sustainable rehabilitation and strengthening methodologies, helping at the same time to preserve this important legacy or similar ones existing in other countries. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion