• Energy Research

Sugarcane dominates global sugar and bioethanol production, involving extensive cultivation and supply chain activities. The sugarcane development encounters challenges, such as climate change, diseases, pests, and water scarcity, affecting growth and yields. Sugarcane management often involves the use of pesticides, which risk soil and water contamination. It also leads to biodiversity loss, high water use, greenhouse gas emissions, and energy consumption. This study conducted a life cycle assessment to compare the environmental impacts of cropdusters and drones in ripener application for sugarcane farming. The life cycle assessment enables informed decisions on sustainable practices by providing a holistic view of environmental impacts, facilitating comparisons, and identifies hotspots. The analysis examined the impacts of machinery, ripener compounds, and spraying operations. It explored using sugarcane waste (bagasse) as bioenergy for drone batteries or cropdusters. Results show that drones minimize environmental impacts by 11,557 kgCO2eq, 128,079 MJ, and 103 m3 for 40 ha farm compared to using cropdusters. Also, bagasse from a 40-ha farm can generate 1.93E+09 Wh of bioenergy, enough to charge drone batteries for spraying over approximately 4.9 million ha or to fuel cropdusters for 0.04 million ha of sugarcane. Conclusively, emerging technologies help to reduce environmental impacts and align with sustainable development goals, SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and SDG 15 (Life on Land). These goals promote renewable energy, enhance agricultural efficiency, and ensure sustainable resource management, fostering a global transition to sustainable practices.

Biosurfactants have garnered increased attention lately due to their superiority of their properties over fossil-derived counterparts. While the cost of production remains a significant hurdle to surpass synthetic surfactants, biosurfactants have been anticipated to gain a larger market share in the coming decades. Among these, glycolipids, a type of low-molecular-weight biosurfactant, stand out for their efficacy in reducing surface and interfacial tension, which made them highly sought-after for various surfactant-related applications. Glycolipids are composed of hydrophilic carbohydrate moieties linked to hydrophobic fatty acid chains through ester bonds that mainly include rhamnolipids, trehalose lipids, sophorolipids, and mannosylerythritol lipids. This review highlights the current landscape of glycolipids and covers specific glycolipid productivity and the diverse range of products found in the global market. Applications such as bioremediation, food processing, petroleum refining, biomedical uses, and increasing agriculture output have been discussed. Additionally, the latest advancements in production cost reduction for glycolipid and the challenges of utilizing second-generation feedstocks for sustainable production are also thoroughly examined. Overall, this review proposes a balance between environmental advantages, economic viability, and societal benefits through the optimized integration of secondary feedstocks in biosurfactant production.

This article presents performance data concerning a 1MW crystalline photovoltaic (PV) plant installed in the semi-arid climate of India. Data includes the daily average samples from January 2012 to February 2016, related to solar irradiance on the plane of the array, electrical energy injected into the grid, reference yield, final yield, and the performance ratio. Furthermore, the decomposition time series for the performance ratio by applying the classical seasonal decomposition (CSD), Holt-Winters seasonal model (HW), and Seasonal and Trend decomposition using Loess (STL) is also provided for quantifying of the degradation rate of the PV system. The data are provided in the supplementary file included in this article. The dataset is related to the paper entitled “Performance and degradation assessment of large-scale grid-connected solar photovoltaic power plant in tropical semi-arid environment of India.”

Depreciating costs of solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity, increasing government support and initiatives, and rising prices of grid electricity have spurred the production of electricity through solar PV systems. The Chandigarh government in India has installed a 200 kWp on-grid PV system on the roofs of pre-fabricated portable cabins (PPC) to fulfil their local energy demand at the Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) complex. In this paper, the operational performance of this system in warm and temperate climates is characterized based on on-field recorded data. Results for annual reference yield are 5.21 kWh/kWp/day, the array yield is 4.15 kWh/kWp/day, and the system-wide final yield is noted as 3.70 kWh/kWp/day. The annual array efficiency, the inverter efficiency, and the system efficiency were recorded at 12.24%, 89.27%, and 10.93%, respectively. The performance ratio is 71.30%, and the capacity utilization factor is 15.21%. We also noted the capture losses for the plant to be at 20.12%, out of which thermal capture losses was 6.97%. Based on this empirical assessment, the annual electricity produced by the system was 2,66,460.0 kWh. Based on the electricity production from this plant, we estimate that PPC building based PV systems may have the potential to mitigate the CO2 emissions for the base year by 421.1 tCO2eq. in comparison with present-day conventional thermal power plants in India.

"Smart Food Waste Recycling Bin" (S-FRB) systems have recently been developed to facilitate the transformation of food waste into an end-product suitable for use as an energy resource following circular economy principles. This decentralized waste decomposition system utilizes fermentative microorganisms for the treatment of organic food waste and has emerged as a possible solution for coping with both landfill capacity and greenhouse gas emissions issues. This paper utilizes Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to determine the environmental impacts associated with this S-FRB technology and identify environmental hotspots to reduce these impacts. In this paper, we have conducted an on-site pilot-scale study for 2 months at a canteen located at the City University of Hong Kong, which resulted in a 90% reduction in the mass of food waste treated in the S-FRB system. Based on this pilot-scale study hypothetical scenarios were developed to determine potential environmental impacts potential scaled-up deployments of the S-FRB instrument based on varied assumptions. Examination of the LCAs of these different scenarios demonstrated the potential for further reduction in CO2 equivalent emissions during food waste treatment. Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) and Energy Return on Investment (EROI) were also investigated to understand the energy balance energy of the S-FRB technology. Finally, using current waste treatment methods in Hong Kong as a benchmark, the environmental impacts of the S-FRB are compared with the conventional food waste treatment approaches such as landfilling and organic waste treatment facilities (OWTF).

Abstract Under pressures to reach net zero emissions by 2050, there is an ongoing transition of energy decarbonization, decentralization and digitalization. Physical and information flows in energy systems are increasingly complex and distributed, leaving centralized structures inefficient. Blockchain technology is suggested as part of the next step in this transition. Blockchain has potential to facilitate distributed, peer-to-peer trading with reduced transaction costs, increased security via cryptography, and prosumer choice. However, there are as of yet multiple challenges to the expansion of blockchain in the energy sector. This paper argues that analysis of these challenges requires a multi-angled approach incorporating technological, economic, social, environmental, and institutional dimensions. First, each dimension is explored, substantiated based on a blockchain-based energy system case in Japan. Concrete challenges of scaling this case toward 2050 and potential opportunities in overcoming these challenges are discussed, leveraging extensive literature review. Finally, an overview of strategic indications is suggested. The findings of this paper present initial indications on challenges and opportunities to overcome them based on a multi-dimensional overview. It is suggested that the factors identified across the dimensions are interrelated. This would in turn call for coherent innovation management and multi-stakeholder innovation ecosystems. Living Labs and regulatory sandboxes are prospective foundations to support such ecosystems, and enable informed decision-making among both private and public sector actors. At large, it is suggested that a holistic and pragmatic approach can benefit the application and scalability of blockchain in the energy transition.