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The R4E partners work together to develop a new type of energy strategy through visions and roadmaps for the 8 partners cities, in co-creation with local stakeholders. The project supports the development of visioning and roadmapping capacities within the municipalities to spur future development and implementation of innovative energy solutions. This report (D5.1) contains the results of the desk study activities regarding state-of-the-art solutions and future options in the area of sustainable energy for urban spaces from January 2016 to April 2017. Report regarding state-of-the-art solutions and future options in the area of sustainable energy for urban spaces This report is part of WP5 Roadmapping Smart Urban Spaces of the R4E project.

Current logistics and transportation (L&T) systems include heterogeneous fleets consisting of common internal combustion engine vehicles as well as other types of vehicles using “green” technologies, e.g., plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and electric vehicles (EVs). However, the incorporation of EVs in L&T activities also raise some additional challenges from the strategic, planning, and operational perspectives. For instance, smart cities are required to provide recharge stations for electric-based vehicles, meaning that investment decisions need to be made about the number, location, and capacity of these stations. Similarly, the limited driving-range capabilities of EVs, which are restricted by the amount of electricity stored in their batteries, impose non-trivial additional constraints when designing efficient distribution routes. Accordingly, this paper identifies and reviews several open research challenges related to the introduction of EVs in L&T activities, including: (a) environmental-related issues; and (b) strategic, planning and operational issues associated with “standard” EVs and with hydrogen-based EVs. The paper also analyzes how the introduction of EVs in L&T systems generates new variants of the well-known Vehicle Routing Problem, one of the most studied optimization problems in the L&T field, and proposes the use of metaheuristics and simheuristics as the most efficient way to deal with these complex optimization problems.

Urban Freight Distribution (UFD) represents a very important activity in terms of cities economy, but can also be a problem for the daily life of citizens, due to traffic, noise and environmental contamination. Therefore UFD activities must be managed cautiously, to avoid or minimise external negative effects. In this context, this research aims to evaluate existing UFD measures, ranking the m from the best to the worst one, according to experts’ opinions. The proposed evaluation process is flexible in order to allow evaluating future UFD measures that may arise.

This work presents a range optimization of a SynRM (synchronous reluctance motor) and a PMaSynRM (permanent-magnet-assisted synchronous reluctance motor) according to a standard driving cycle, and the solutions obtained are compared. The proposed approach avoids the use of finite element analysis (FEA) during the optimization process, thus greatly reducing the time required to obtain the optimal solution. The paper validates the optimal motors obtained in different domains, since the methodology takes into account a multi-physics design. Using two coupled reluctance and thermal networks, all possible working points in the torque-speed plane are obtained taking into account thermal effects, magnetic saturation, iron losses as well as voltage and current constraints imposed by the inverter. The proposed approach allows a fast comparison of the solutions attained. The design and optimization methodology presented in this work can be applied to any driving cycle. Peer Reviewed

Several factors including fossil fuels scarcity, prices volatility, greenhouse gas emissions or current pollution levels in metropolitan areas are forcing the development of greener transportation systems based on more efficient electric and hybrid vehicles. Most of the current hybrid electric vehicles use electric motors containing powerful rare-earth permanent magnets. However, both private companies and estates are aware of possible future shortages, price uncertainty and geographical concentration of some critical rare-earth elements needed to manufacture such magnets. Therefore, there is a growing interest in developing electric motors for vehicular propulsion systems without rare-earth permanent magnets. In this paper this problematic is addressed and the state-of-the-art of the electric motor technologies for vehicular propulsion systems is reviewed, where the features required, design considerations and restrictions are addressed. Peer Reviewed

AbstractInputs of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) to marine waters continue to increase yet mechanisms of AgNPs toxicity to marine phytoplankton are still not well resolved. This study reports a series of toxicity experiments on a representative coastal marine diatom speciesChaetoceros curvisetususing the reference AgNP, NM-300K. Exposure to AgNPs resulted in photosynthetic impairment and loss of diatom biomass in proportion to the supplied AgNP dose. The underlying mechanism of toxicity was explored via comparing biological responses in parallel experiments. Diatom responses to AgNP, free Ag(I) species, and dialysis bag-retained AgNP treatments showed marked similarity, pointing towards a dominant role of Ag(I) species uptake, rather than NPs themselves, in inducing the toxic response. In marked contrast to previous studies, addition of the organic complexing agent cysteine (Cys) alongside Ag only marginally moderated toxicity, implying AgCys−complexes were bioavailable to this diatom species. A preliminary field experiment with a natural phytoplankton community in the southeast Atlantic Ocean showed no significant toxic response at a NM-300 K concentration that resulted in ~40% biomass loss in the culture studies, suggesting a modulating effect of natural seawaters on Ag toxicity.