• Energy Research
• 2021-2025close
• natural sciences close
• Transport Research close

Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) have immense potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on fossil fuels, and for smart grid applications. Although a great deal of research is focused on technological limitations that affect PEV battery performance targets, a major and arguably equal concern is the constraint imposed by the finite availability of elements or resources used in the manufacture of PEV batteries. Availability of resources, such as lithium, for batteries is critical to the future of PEVs and is, therefore, a topic that needs attention. This study addresses the issues related to lithium availability and sustainability, particularly supply and demand related to PEVs and the impact on future PEV growth. In this paper, a detailed review of the research on lithium availability for PEV batteries is presented, key challenges are pinpointed and future impacts on PEV technology are outlined.

Current trends in the global climate facilitate the displacement of numerous marine species from their native distribution ranges to higher latitudes when facing warming conditions. In this work, we analyzed occurrences of a circumtropical reef fish, the spotfin burrfish, Chilomycterus reticulatus (Linnaeus, 1958), in the Madeira Archipelago (NE Atlantic) between 1898 and 2021. In addition to available data sources, we performed an online survey to assess the distribution and presence of this species in the Madeira Archipelago, along with other relevant information, such as size class and year of the first sighting. In total, 28 valid participants responded to the online survey, georeferencing 119 C. reticulatus sightings and confirming its presence in all archipelago islands. The invasiveness of the species was screened using the Aquatic Species Invasiveness Screening Kit. Five assessments rated the fish as being of medium risk of establishing a local population and becoming invasive. Current temperature trends might have facilitated multiple sightings of this thermophilic species in the Madeira Archipelago. The present study indicates an increase in C. reticulatus sightings in the region. This underlines the need for updated comprehensive information on species diversity and distribution to support informed management and decisions. The spread of yet another thermophilic species in Madeiran waters provides further evidence of an ongoing tropicalization, emphasizing the need for monitoring programs and the potential of citizen science in complementing such programs.

How can urban policies and planning approaches help in achieving a safer mobility and carbon reduction in the transport sector? The attention of planners and policy makers towards the promotion of sustainability and reduction of environmental impacts has grown in recent years. This paper investigates the role that Urban Planning plays in the long term towards a safer and climate friendlier mobility, highlighting the need for integrated approaches gathering spatial planning and mobility management. After a review of several urban policies and planning strategies, initiatives, and approaches, mainly based on the urban scale, the paper presents an urban regeneration case study leading to an increase of pedestrian accessibility at the neighborhood level. This can be seen as a support tool to foster sustainable, safe, and climate friendly mobility in cities. The results of the performed analysis show a dependency of accessibility from two different factors: the distribution of services and the capillarity of the soft mobility network, which can contribute to creating a more walkable space.

The increasing use of power electronic inverters in electrical drives is leading to the unexpected inception of partial discharges (PD) within the insulation system of electric machine stator windings. Unfortunately, the short rise and fall times of such voltages, below 100 nanoseconds in most cases, create high-magnitude conducted and radiated interferences that affect the measurements. Detecting partial discharges in these systems with inductive or electromagnetic sensors turns to be an important challenge, especially when interference and partial discharges share the same bandwidth. In this work, the authors propose a technique to detect the occurrence of PD in such systems, even when they are masked by disturbances. The proposed technique combines an analog high-pass filter stage and a digital band-pass to select a proper spectral interval. The resulting signal is converted to the base-band, where two metrics based on the peak-to-average power ratio are proposed. Experimental results obtained with the signals acquired with two antennas show that both proposed metrics exhibit a significant increase, about ten times greater, when the applied voltage exceeds the PD inception voltage. These contributions define new markers for the detection of PD events created by pulsed voltages with overlapped overshoots with promising results.

With the increasing demand of driving range of new energy vehicle (NEV), design optimization for energy efficiency of traction motors became more important. However, traction motor design is complex since multiple objectives should be satisfied, such as the required torque-speed operating range and package and thermal constraints. This dramatically increases the computation time of the design optimization process, while the additional energy efficiency objective of the whole driving cycle. This paper proposes an equivalent driving cycle points extraction method, based on energy consumption equivalence to facilitate the design optimization of traction motors. This paper presents necessary rules of multiobjective optimization methods, and then gives an optimization process and proves the effectiveness.

The basis for developing logistics solutions in cities is to know the requirements and expectations of current and potential transport users and for decision makers to strive to meet them. In building an urban logistics strategy, it is therefore necessary to take into account different stakeholder groups. Building stakeholder relations should be aimed at involving them in the development of a sustainable transport policy for the city. It should be noted, however, that the importance of stakeholders in transport policy is diverse. This assumption was made in the paper, which aimed to identify the role of the various groups of urban logistics stakeholders in the sustainable movement of people. This challenge is subordinated to the methodology proposed in the paper, which combines the analysis of urban logistics stakeholders and the assignment of roles to them in the pursuit of sustainable flows of people in the city with the identification of tasks in which stakeholders characterized by a particular role should be involved. Achieving the stated goal required collaboration with experts. Research on the roles of stakeholders, as well as the tasks in which they should be involved, was conducted in Polish cities. Infrastructure managers, small mobility organisers, public safety organisations and public transport organisations turned out to be the development leaders who, as a result, were recommended to be included in most tasks by local government units of Polish cities. What deserves special attention in the results obtained, on the other hand, is the role of the unpredictable main player, which is other cities.

Modern ports tend to focus on freight transport and cruise traffic. The fishing sector is often the forgotten sector in terms of sustainability and port planning, despite the fact that fishing is a sector of great importance and interest; though it is currently obsolete in many respects. Literature on sustainability and green ports in the context of fishing ports is practically non-existent; however, it is necessary in order to implement a sustainable fishing infrastructure. For this reason, the aim of this study is, within the green ports framework as outlined by the European Commission and using an innovative end-to-end tool methodology, to determine the reality of the conditions of the port environment in fishing ports. Furthermore, this study establishes a possible green ports scenario for Spanish fishing ports and carries out an analysis of a specific case study within the Spanish port system: the Port of Vigo. It is concluded that the key fishing features of the Port of Vigo should, in order to expand its sustainability strategies, are: growth expectations, closely related to the evolution of the goods unloaded in the Port of Vigo and the possible growth that this may have in the future; legislation and current trends in terms of sustainability; and diversification, the Port of Vigo has realistic options to diversify the business beyond the traditional fishing activities.

Uncertainty surrounding the potential environmental impacts of marine energy (ME) has resulted in extensive and expensive environmental monitoring requirements for ME deployments. Recently, there have been more ME deployments and associated environmental data collection efforts, but no standardized methodologies for data collection. This hinders the use of previously collected data to inform new ME project permitting efforts. Triton Field Trials (TFiT), created at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory by the United States (U.S.) Department of Energy, explores ways to promote more consistent environmental data collection and enable data transferability across ME device types and locations. Documents from 118 previous ME projects or ME-related research studies in the U.S. and internationally were reviewed to identify the highest priority stressor–receptor relationships to be investigated and the technologies and methodologies used to address them. Thirteen potential field sites were assessed to determine suitable locations for testing the performance of relevant monitoring technologies. This introductory paper provides an overview of how priority research areas and associated promising technologies were identified as well as how testing locations were identified for TFiT activities. Through these scoping efforts, TFiT focused on four activity areas: collision risk, underwater noise, electromagnetic fields, and changes in habitat. Technologies and methodologies were tested at field sites in Alaska, Washington, California, and New Hampshire. Detailed information on the effectiveness of the identified methodologies and specific recommendations for each of the four focus areas are included in the companion papers in this Special Issue.