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‘DRIVE4EU - Dandelion Rubber and Inulin Valorization and Exploitation for Europe’, a demonstration project, aims at the development of a value chain for natural rubber and inulin from Rubber dandelions. The objective of the project is to set up a new European chain for the production and processing of natural rubber. This will enable the EU to become less dependent on the import of natural rubber and at the same time to respond to the threat of a global rubber shortage. The viability of using Rubber dandelions for rubber and inulin production depends on the sustainability of this new value chain. The results of a general economic assessment shows that the total costs over the whole value chain are dominated by the costs for cultivation and harvesting and the cost for biorefining. The combination of natural rubber and inulin makes Rubber dandelion very interesting as a production platform. Proceedings of the 25th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 12-15 June 2017, Stockholm, Sweden, pp. 1292-1293

Abstract The question whether coexistence of marine renewable energy (MRE) projects and marine protected areas (MPAs) is a common spatial policy in Europe and how a number of factors can affect it, has been addressed by empirical research undertaken in eleven European marine areas. Policy drivers and objectives that are assumed to affect coexistence, such as the fulfillment of conservation objectives and the prioritization of other competing marine uses, were scored by experts and predictions were crosschecked with state practice. While in most areas MRE-MPA coexistence is not prohibited by law, practice indicates resistance towards it. Furthermore expert judgment demonstrated that a number of additional factors, such as the lack of suitable space for MRE projects and the uncertainty about the extent of damage by MRE to the MPA, might influence the intentions of the two major parties involved (i.e. the MRE developer and the MPA authority) to pursue or avoid coexistence. Based on these findings, the interactions of these two players are further interpreted, their policy implications are discussed, while the need towards efficient, fair and acceptable MRE-MPA coexistence is highlighted.

The energy efficiency of buildings is nowadays one of the main concerns of the construction market. But, Indoor Environmental Quality of Buildings (IEQ) should not be disregarded. To achieve an adequate quality of buildings it is necessary to consider a set of aspects that are interconnected and influence each other, not always in a favourable way. The selection of the most suitable construction solution and materials for the building elements must consider its contribution for the IEQ (thermal and acoustic comfort, daylight conditions and the indoor air quality) inside the buildings, its energy efficiency and its environmental impact (considering the embodied energy, for example), but also the weight of the solution and its effect on the structural project of the building. The solutions adopted in buildings, usually, only optimize no more than one of the necessary comfort requirements. In many cases, the best solutions to accomplish different comfort requirements are not compatible, especially in what concerns natural ventilation and lighting strategies and the acoustic and thermal performance. So, it is necessary to have an integrated approach to ensure the best overall behaviour taking into account all of the, sometimes incompatible, comfort and energy efficiency requirements. In this work the use of a multi-criteria analysis, to balance all these aspects on the design phase, in order to assist the designer in the selection of construction solutions and materials will be presented. The selection of the most adequate construction solutions will increase the buildings IEQ, energy performance and also its environmental impact.

Abstract Concrete is identified in the literature as a suitable material for thermal energy storage applications, with even innovative application potentials such as storage media in concentrating solar power plants. To ensure a suitable heat transfer among concrete components, the binder material of concrete (cement paste) require further research and understanding to this aim. In particular, the thermal stability of cement paste under temperature cycled conditions arises as a research gap. In this study, ordinary Portland and calcium aluminate cement types were selected using a low water-cement ratio. Thermo-mechanical properties were studied before and after 1, 10, and 25 or 50 thermal cycles at 200 °C, 400 °C, 600 °C, and 800 °C. Although ordinary Portland cement paste showed micro-cracking propagation after 25 thermal cycles from ambient temperature to 200 °C and 400 °C, both cement pastes preserved their integrity, being compressive strength higher in ordinary Portland cement. On the contrary, after 25 or 50 thermal cycles at 600 °C and 800 °C, only calcium aluminate cement preserved its integrity, while ordinary Portland cement revealed a fragmentation status. Despite the compressive strength decrease in calcium aluminate paste at 600 °C and 800 °C, as a result of porosity increase, the properties were maintained after 10 thermal cycles. However, thermal conductivity in calcium aluminate paste was reduced nearly 50% after the first cycle at temperatures higher than 200 °C.

This research work aims to study if it is possible to design a sustainable building residential building that has a life-cycle cost lower than a conventional one. For this purpose, a multifamily cooperative housing building block, that is the Portuguese pilot-project of the EU Project “SHE: Sustainable Housing in Europe”, has been chosen. This work will compare the sustainability of the case study with the conventional design approach in Portugal, i.e. when the conventional technologies and building materials are used. For this outcome, the SBToolPT-H (Portuguese building sustainability assessment and rating methodology) will be used. This paper will highlight the usefulness of a building sustainability assessment tool in supporting and recognising the sustainable building design. It will also show that even with little investment in the capital costs it is possible to achieve high performance residential buildings.

The use of biodiesel as alternative to fossil fuel for light duty CI engines to reduce greenhouse gas emissions was widely investigated. However, poor stability of biodiesel - diesel mixture limits the use of biodiesel to low volume concentrations. This paper presents the results concerning the use of a novel fuel additive package containing antioxidant (AS), pour-point depressant (D) and biocide (Bi) with the aim to increase the quality and amount of biodiesel in the diesel-biodiesel blends. Some of the goals are linked to the degradative effects due to free radicals oxidation, contamination by water and microorganisms. The interaction between two different additive packages and two biodiesel (soybean and rapeseed) - diesel blends at 20% in volume was investigated. Optical studies have been performed to characterize the spatial and temporal spray evolution both in a high pressure quiescent vessel and in an optically-accessible single-cylinder 2-stroke CI engine. Soot and NOx emissions were measured at the exhaust. Physicochemical tests showed that the stability of dieselbiodiesel blends was strongly influenced by the use of the two packages of additives. The mixture containing the biocide "P" (B20SMEASDP) was approximately 87.33% more stable than the same sample containing the biocide "C" (B20SMEASDC). Furthermore, no significant changes were observed in term of engine efficiency, fuel injection rate and spray penetration. Hence, it was demonstrated that use of additive package increased the durability of the blends without exhaust emission and performance penalties.

Abstract This paper aims to compare the energy efficiency and CO 2 emissions of four different range extender engine solutions deployed in the same baseline series hybrid vehicle, under a combination of driving scenarios aiming to be representative of typical driving instead of standard cycles. Baseline vehicle is roughly based on Chevy VOLT/Opel Ampera. The baseline internal combustion engine is replaced by an over-expanded cycle engine, Wankel engine and microturbine, with respective generator and exhaust after treatment. Weight savings are compensated by introducing additional battery modules, maintaining the original baseline vehicle curb weight. Vehicle Specific Power (VSP) is used for driving cycle analysis and as explanatory variable for energy consumption and CO 2 emissions variations. Upstream fuel energy and CO 2 emissions of gasoline/diesel and electricity are regarded. Average VSP correlates with variation of the percentage of engine off, potential regenerative braking energy and eco/boost operation. Positive wheel energy correlates with energy consumption and electric autonomy adequately. The vehicle with the lightest engine (Wankel) and largest battery shows to be the most efficient in urban driving (when the engine does not have to work), while the vehicle with the highest efficient engine (over-expanded) and with dual eco/boost setting is the most efficient during the charge sustaining operation and in annual combined use.

The aim of this work was to seek an environmentally friendly process for recycling metals from biomass-sludges generated in the treatment of industrial wastewaters. This work proposes a hybrid process for selective recovery of copper, nickel and zinc from contaminated biomass of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, used in the bioremediation of electroplating effluents. The developed separation scheme comprised five consecutive steps: (1) incineration of the contaminated biomass; (2) microwave acid (HCl) digestion of the ashes; (3) recovery of copper from the acid solution by electrolysis at controlled potential; (4) recycle of nickel, as nickel hydroxide, by alcalinization of the previous solution at pH 14; (5) recovery of zinc, as zinc hydroxide, by adjusting the pH of the previous solution at 10. This integrated approach allowed recovering each metal with high yielder (>99% for all metals) and purity (99.9%, 92% and 99.4% for copper, nickel and zinc, respectively). The purity of the metals recovered allows selling them in the market or being recycled in the electroplating process without waste generation.