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Sustainable food supply has gained considerable consumer concern due to the high percentage of spoilage microorganisms. Food industries need to expand advanced technologies that can maintain the nutritive content of foods, enhance the bio-availability of bioactive compounds, provide environmental and economic sustainability, and fulfill consumers’ requirements of sensory characteristics. Heat treatment negatively affects food samples’ nutritional and sensory properties as bioactives are sensitive to high-temperature processing. The need arises for non-thermal processes to reduce food losses, and sustainable developments in preservation, nutritional security, and food safety are crucial parameters for the upcoming era. Non-thermal processes have been successfully approved because they increase food quality, reduce water utilization, decrease emissions, improve energy efficiency, assure clean labeling, and utilize by-products from waste food. These processes include pulsed electric field (PEF), sonication, high-pressure processing (HPP), cold plasma, and pulsed light. This review describes the use of HPP in various processes for sustainable food processing. The influence of this technique on microbial, physicochemical, and nutritional properties of foods for sustainable food supply is discussed. This approach also emphasizes the limitations of this emerging technique. HPP has been successfully analyzed to meet the global requirements. A limited global food source must have a balanced approach to the raw content, water, energy, and nutrient content. HPP showed positive results in reducing microbial spoilage and, at the same time, retains the nutritional value. HPP technology meets the essential requirements for sustainable and clean labeled food production. It requires limited resources to produce nutritionally suitable foods for consumers’ health.

AbstractCurrently, Sb2Se3 thin films receive considerable research interest as a solar cell absorber material. When completed into a device stack, the major bottleneck for further device improvement is the open‐circuit voltage, which is the focus of the work presented here. Polycrystalline thin‐film Sb2Se3 absorbers and solar cells are prepared in substrate configuration and the dominant recombination path is studied using photoluminescence spectroscopy and temperature‐dependent current–voltage characteristics. It is found that a post‐deposition annealing after the CdS buffer layer deposition can effectively remove interface recombination since the activation energy of the dominant recombination path becomes equal to the bandgap of the Sb2Se3 absorber. The increased activation energy is accompanied by an increased photoluminescence yield, that is, reduced non‐radiative recombination. Finished Sb2Se3 solar cell devices reach open‐circuit voltages as high as 485 mV. Contrarily, the short‐circuit current density of these devices is limiting the efficiency after the post‐deposition annealing. It is shown that atomic layer‐deposited intermediate buffer layers such as TiO2 or Sb2S3 can pave the way for overcoming this limitation.

<p>Commonly used host rock reservoirs for Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) are composed of granite, as they display highly conductive and sustainable fracture networks after stimulation. However, considering the large amount of metamorphic rocks in Europe’s underground, these rock types may also show a large potential to extract geothermal energy from the subsurface. Within the framework of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 initiative ‘MEET (Multi-Sites EGS Demonstration)’, we are conducting fracture permeability experiments at elevated confining pressures, p<sub>c</sub>, temperatures, T, and differential stresses, </p>

Abstract The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of particle size reduction and solubilization on biogas production from food waste (FW). To clarify the effects of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) in the digestion process, the relationship between particle size and VFA accumulation was investigated in detail. For this purpose, substrates of various particle sizes were prepared by bead milling to support hydrolysis. Batch anaerobic digestion experiments were carried out using these pretreated substrates at mesophilic temperature for a period of 16 days. The results of pretreatment showed that the mean particle size (MPS) of substrates ground with a bead mill decreased from 0.843 to 0.391 mm, and solubilization accounted for approximately 40% of the total chemical oxygen demand (total COD) for grinding pretreatment by bead milling. Anaerobic digestion batch experiments revealed that MPS reduced by bead milling at 1000 rpm improved methane yield by 28% compared with disposer treatment. Moreover, this may have increased microbial degradation during the VFA production process with increasing total number of revolutions (operation time × revolutions per minute). However, excessive reduction of the particle size of the substrate resulted in VFA accumulation, decreased methane production, and decreased solubilization in the anaerobic digestion process. These results suggest that optimized reduction of the particle size of the substrate in conjunction with optimized microbial growth could improve the methane yield in anaerobic digestion processes.

Wave power is a potential technology for generating sustainable renewable energy. Several types of wave energy converters (WECs) have been proposed for this purpose. WECs operate in a harsh maritime environment that sets strict limitations on how and when the device can be economically and safely reached for maintenance. Thus, to ensure profitable energy generation over the system life cycle, system reliability is a key aspect to be considered in WEC development. In this article, we describe a reliability analysis approach for WEC development, based on the use of reliability block diagram (RBD) modelling. We apply the approach in a case study involving a submerged oscillating wave surge converter device concept that utilizes hydraulics in its power take-off system. In addition to describing the modelling approach, we discuss the data sources that were used for gathering reliability data for the components used in a novel system concept with very limited historical or experimental data available. This includes considerations of the data quality from various sources. As a result, we present examples of applying the RBD modelling approach in the context of WEC development and discuss the applicability of the approach in supporting the development of new technologies.

{"references": ["National Renewable Energy Laboratory 1617 Cole Boulevard, Golden\nColorado 80401-3305t. 303-275-3000 www.nrel.gov., \"Technical\nReport NREL/TP-6A0-44073 Supply Curves for Rooftop Solar PVGenerated\nElectricity for the United States\" by Paul Denholm and\nRobert Margolis, November 2008, www.nrel.gov.", "\"Performance of Solar Power Plants in India\", submitted to Central\nElectricity Regu-latory Commission New Delhi by Dr. BD Sharma,\nFebruary 2011, www.cercind.gov.in.", "The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Canberra, Australia,\nwww.pveducation.org/pvcdrom - an online calculator for estimating\nsolar panel effi-ciency, Christiana Honsberg and Stuart Bowden."]} The rising price of fossil fuels, government incentives and growing public aware-ness for the need to implement sustainable energy supplies has resulted in a large in-crease in solar panel installations across the country. For many sites the most eco-nomical solar panel installation uses existing, southerly facing rooftops. Adding solar panels to an existing roof typically means increased loads that must be borne by the building-s structural elements. The structural design professional is responsible for ensuring a new solar panel installation is properly supported by an existing structure and configured to maximize energy generation.

The EU has set clear targets regarding energy conservation of buildings and heavily supports activities towards achieving these targets on a European scale. The Green Deal, renovation wave, Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) are some examples of EU's actions. For more than a decade, Energy Performance Certificates provide detailed data about the current energy needs of a building/building unit as well as information about the building construction and systems. A Building Renovation Passport (BRP) has, on a European level lately, been conceived as a tool that can stimulate cost-effective renovation in the form of a long-term basis, step-by-step deep renovation roadmap following defined quality criteria, and outline energy renovation measures that will improve the energy performance of the building. A Digital Building Logbook (DBL) is another tool that can serve as an archive where all building information can be stored and continuously updated. In this way, a full record of the building history will be electronically available with data regarding construction plans and permits, maintenance and system replacement activities, energy and heat consumption and production, etc. Building Renovation Passports and the Digital Building Logbook are tools that can help in achieving energy efficiency in existing buildings and contribute to reaching the EU renovation wave goals. The objective of this report is to investigate how the current EPC schemes best make the link towards the BRP and the DBL to further incentivise and stimulate cost-effective deep energy renovations of buildings across Europe. Three surveys were carried out to collect relevant information about the current status of the EPC data records and to identify stakeholders' potential needs, perceptions, thoughts and expectations, regarding a future connection between the EPC and the BRP or DBL. These surveys were prepared in two forms: using an excel file format circulated via email, and through an online questionnaire. Their completion was carried out by 16 countries. Regarding the EPCs, the state or regional energy agencies are the owner of the EPC data records and make full use of them. Their current main usage is for statistical reasons in the majority of the countries and their access is publicly available in half of the responding countries. Many common data is stored in the EPC database which can be linked with other tools (half of the EPC databases are already linked with another source). Regarding the BRP, a review of existing European schemes showed that successful BRPs have combined the renovation advice with financial support, legal requirements and/or communication campaigns. An important factor of the BRP is that it should be issued by a qualified expert and should provide customised measures for the specific building together with the investment costs per renovation measure(s). The DBL analysis showed that it should provide access to building information and contribute to better decision-making for future interventions as well as operation, use and maintenance records. The building owner/user is proposed to have full access to the logbook and provide/input about energy bills and building plans/construction materials info. An important aspect is that every time the building undergoes intervention works, the DBL should be updated accordingly. The most important barrier is the lack of motivation to update the DBL contents followed by the absence of synergies and consistency with other tools. Another interesting finding is that both BRP and DBL should be fed automatically by EPC data without any user interference. There is a clear possible interconnection between EPC data and BRP and DBL future contents. In addition, BRP can be an instrument to increase the renovation rates and DBLs are necessary for the management of buildings' information. The linkage of EPC data and BRP and DBL can be strengthened by introducing BRP and DBL as voluntary schemes under national incentives and should be fully implemented once they have demonstrated acceptance by the stakeholders.