• Energy Research
• 7. Clean energy close
• 11. Sustainability close
• UA close
• Netherlands Research Portal close

The article deals with the study of a balanced agroecosystem on the production of crop products, livestock products and biofuel with respect to its energy autonomy with ensuring its environmental safety. The structure of straw use in agroecosystem and its influence on humus balance and level of electric and thermal energy supply is investigated. The balance of humus in crop rotation was chosen as the criterion of ecological safety. The criterion of energy autonomy is the level of providing the agroecosystem with electric energy and thermal energy through the use of biofuels of its own production. The coordination of environmental safety, energy autonomy and economic efficiency was taken as the basis for the functioning of the agroecosystem. In a balanced agroecosystem on the production of crop products, livestock products and biofuel up to 41% of straw should be used to maintain the balance of humus in the soil. Up to 22% of straw can be used to produce heat and electricity for own needs. Up to 37% of straw can be used to produce electricity for sale according to the green tariff.

The article examines the role and importance of bioenergetics as a priority area of the grain market activation, outlines its state and problems, identifies approaches of its development considering current challenges and demands. The need to develop bioenergetics is associated with the rapid growth of the production of grain and grain-legume crops, which generates additional challenges and problems. It is worth noting among these: intensification of competition in global markets; reduction of the world prices and, consequently, the decrease in export revenues; lack of capacity and warehouses for reliable storage and high-quality processing of grain and their obsolescence; low logistical capacity of domestic ports and railway transport; limited distribution channels; increasing unemployment in rural areas due to the application of modern innovative agricultural technologies with high productivity; low capacity of processing plants; deformation of traditional production chains. This research clarifies the role of bioenergetics as a priority area for activation of the grain market, outlines its state and problems, and identifies the approaches to its development considering current challenges and demands. The greatest threats to the implementation of plans concerning the development of biofuel technologies in Ukraine are the following: 1) steady tendency towards a decrease in energy prices on the world market is the risk of the unprofitability of biofuel technologies; 2) unstable tax legislation poses financial investment risks; 3) non-market prices for competing fuels for the population (in particular, electricity and gas) results in the lack of population’s incentive to turn to alternative energy sources; 4) lack of sufficient capacity to store the required volumes of guaranteed sources of raw materials; 5) shortcomings in effective mechanisms to stimulate renewable energy, etc. Elimination and overcoming of the above-mentioned barriers will intensify biomass involvement in country’s energy balance and contribute significantly to strengthening Ukraine’s energy independence. Thus, in the near future, it is necessary to solve all the problems that hinder bioenergy development, which intensifies the progress of the grain market and directly affects the energy independence of our country.

The main parameters of the microclimate of pig farms are regulated by the norms of technological design. Naturally, such micro-climate parameters at real energy prices require high costs, but these are the most favourable conditions for the life of suckling piglets. According to the presented analysis, the problem of research is the need to provide a micro-climate in the room for comfortable keeping of pigs, which is currently achieved through high energy. The purpose of the development is to increase the efficiency of the microclimate of pig farms by using a mechatronic control system, rational use of utilized air energy and soil thermal potential with reduced energy costs of the ventilation system. The problem is solved by creating such a mechatronic system to ensure the microclimate of pig farms, which can: switch the direction of airflow to ensure the operation of the system in winter and summer; to control the movement of air, which must be disposed of according to the parameters of its quality; to provide a local microclimate in each place where animals are kept; rational use of soil thermal energy as a source of alternative energy; to carry out automatic pumping of the water necessary for humidification of air, and its utilization. The article presents the results of research of parameters of the developed mechatronic system of providing microclimate of pig premises, which were carried out in three stages: research of heat exchanger of side-evaporating type; substantiation of the ventilation system of polluted air intake; substantiation of the ventilation system for injecting clean air taking into account it's geothermal heating/cooling. The advantage of the proposed mechatronic system of the microclimate of pig farms is that it allows increasing the efficiency of microclimate by rational use of energy of utilized air (due to the use of side-evaporator type heat exchanger based on Maisotsenko cycle) and soil heat potential (geothermal energy) at low operating costs of the ventilation system through the additional provision of mechatronic elements. The presented results of numerical simulation of the indirect evaporative heat exchanger allow us to state that the cooling effect obtained in indirect evaporative channels can be quite high in comparison with traditional air conditioning patterns. The presented heat exchanger based on the Maisotsenko cycle (M-cycle) of considered heat carrier flow scheme is characterized by its high cost-effectiveness, low specific cost, small operational costs and structural simplicity, which is confirmed in the works. The models obtained in the Star CCM +software package can be used for optimization analysis of air-cooling with variations in the Reynolds number, humidity, channel length and geometric dimensions of channels. Because of analytical investigations of the contaminated air intake ventilation system, the method was developed and on its basis – the algorithm was implemented for the determination of geometrical arrangement of holes in the air duct of the mechatronic system for pigsty microclimate maintenance.

rural livelihood, plantation forests, primary data, sustainable rural development, Vietnam

Increasing the share of renewable energy in the final energy consumption is a way to ensure independence from external supplies of fossil fuels, which is a fundamental political and economic challenge for many countries nowadays. One such country is Ukraine, which depended on Russian gas supplies and energy (electricity) from nuclear power plants. Russian gas is not delivered anymore to Ukraine, and Russians have recently taken over some of the nuclear power plants. The changes in the political situation force Ukraine to search for alternative energy sources. In countries with high agricultural production potential, one of the basic options seems to be popularization of modern methods of obtaining energy from biomass (bioenergy), which so far has played a minor role in the country’s energy mix (less than 2% in the case of Ukraine). The analysis carried out on the case of the Kyiv Region indicates that the annual economic potential of biomass in the region is equivalent to 1743 thousand toe (tonnes of oil), and its use allows them to save about 43% of fossil fuel annually.

The European Union has set targets for renewable energy utilization. Poland is a member of the EU, and its authorities support an increase in renewable energy use. The background of this study is based on the role of renewable energy sources in improving energy security and mitigation of climate change. Agricultural waste is of a significant role in bioenergy. However, there is a lack of integrated methodology for the measurement of its potential. The possibility of developing an integrated evaluation methodology for renewable energy potential and its spatial distribution was assumed as the hypothesis. The novelty of this study is the integration of two renewable energy sources: crop residues and animal husbandry waste (for biogas). To determine agricultural waste energy potential, we took into account straw requirements for stock-raising and soil conservation. The total energy potential of agricultural waste was estimated at 279.94 PJ. It can cover up to 15% of national power generation. The spatial distribution of the agricultural residue energy potential was examined. This information can be used to predict appropriate locations for biomass-based power generation facilities. The potential reduction in carbon dioxide emissions ranges from 25.7 to 33.5 Mt per year.

Energy strategies of most developed countries include the sustainable development of all types of renewable energy, including energy generation from biomass. Co-digestion of sewage sludge and plant biomass has a number of synergetic effects leading to increasing of the digestion rate and output of biogas. The range of potentially effective co-digestion of sewage sludge with plant raw materials is considered on the example of the full-scale estimation study for Lviv WWTP, Ukraine. Substitution of the 25% of dry organic matter of sewage sludge by the same amount of plant raw matter can increase total output of the methane at the biogas station about on 5.8%.