• Energy Research
• 11. Sustainability close
• GB close
• BE close
• SA close

Living organisms' energy conversion is considered as an essential and sustainable green energy source and future bio-hybrid technologies. Recently, plants were used after harvesting as biomass in bio-fermentation as an energy source. In bio-electrochemical systems, microorganisms work with plants to generate electricity, hydrogen, or methane. This work discusses the simultaneous pollutant removal and electricity generation in plant-based bio-electrochemical systems (P-BES). Factors affecting the P-BES performance and the removal efficiencies of the different organic and inorganic pollutants were illustrated. Furthermore, the plant-based bioelectrochemical systems' role in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs) was discussed. The SDGs contribution of plant-based bioelectrochemical systems were presented and discussed to evaluate such systems' ability to achieve the three pillars of sustainable development, i.e., economic, environmental, and social.

The potential of carbon dioxide emissions mitigation in the building sector can be achieved through energy policies, progressive goals, and support systems to attain sustainable constructions that guarantee the reduction of emissions. Net-Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) is a concept that allows moving forward to neutralize buildings’ carbon emissions. This has been demonstrated by more industrial countries which have set goals and challenges to progressively approach an energy neutrality balance for buildings. Therefore, the target of this research is to define a framework for a new standard to reach NZEB in Chile. Firstly, an exhaustive review of the energy policies, NZEB definitions, and components of an NZEB system took place. Secondly, focus group discussions with local and international professionals from the building sector were organized to define a vision, opportunities, and potential measures with a focus on policies, to implement and develop local technologies for NZEB buildings in Chile. The study identifies the need to advance public policies to achieve an integrated policy for the implementation of energy neutral concept buildings. Finally, the paper presents a NZEB standard framework, including key performance indicators and suggested performance metrics thresholds.

© 2019 This research aims to evaluate the engineering students' perception regarding sustainability. For this, a survey was developed based on sustainability parameters from a detailed analysis of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Brazilian Institute of Corporate Governance (BICG). The parameters were initially divided into seven groups: Financial and Productivity Aspects (FPA); Concern With Employees (CWE); Support for Local Communities (SLC); Ethical and Corporate Governance Issues (ECI); Environmental Aspects (ENA); Sustainable Aspects in the Operations Network (SON); Customers, Development of New Products and Services (CPS). The survey was conducted with engineering undergraduate students from two Brazilian universities. The data were analyzed through structural equation modeling technique, namely the PLS-SEM algorithm. The collected 162 answers enabled the validation of the model tested, and showed that the students, in general, do not consider SLC and CWE when they are analyzing sustainability. Additionally, the most important construct was the CPS. This is an exploratory study and we believe that these findings may contribute to expand the debate about the sustainability insertion in engineering courses, helping educators in their didactic activities. There were not found similar studies in the literature, which highlight the originality of the research. The statistical validation of the results and the contribution to expand the debate regarding sustainability in engineering education justify the value of this study.

It is vital to study spectator responses to environmental campaigns to advance environmental sustainability initiatives. Therefore, this investigation aimed to identify which factors influence spec...

Abstract Background Estimates indicate that household air pollution caused by solid fuel burning accounted for about 1.03 million premature mortalities in China in 2016. In the country’s rural areas, more than half the population still relies on biomass fuels and coals for cooking and heating. Understanding the health impact of indoor air pollution and socioeconomic indicators is essential for the country to improve its developmental targets. We aimed to describe demographic and socioeconomic characteristics associated with solid fuel users in a rural area in China. We also estimated the risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality in association with solid fuel use and described the relationship between solid fuel use, socioeconomic status and mortality. We also measured the risk of long-term use, and the effect of ameliorative action, on mortality caused by cardiovascular disease and other causes. Methods We used the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) site in Pengzhou, Sichuan, China. We followed a cohort of 55 687 people over 2004–13. We calculated the mean and standard deviation among subgroups classified by fuel use types: gas, coal, wood and electricity (central heating additionally for heating). We tested the mediation effect using the stepwise method and Sobel test. We used Cox proportional models to estimate the risk of incidences of cardiovascular disease and mortality with survival days as the time scale, adjusted for age, gender, socioeconomic status, physical measurements, lifestyle, stove ventilation and fuel type used for other purposes. The survival days were defined as the follow-up days from the baseline survey till the date of death or 31 December 2013 if right-censored. We also calculated the absolute mortality rate difference (ARD) between the exposure group and the reference group. Results The study population had an average age of 51.0, and 61.9% of the individuals were female; 64.8% participants (n = 35 543) cooked regularly and 25.4% participants (n = 13 921) needed winter heating. With clean fuel users as the reference group, participant households that used solid fuel for cooking or heating both had a higher risk of all-cause mortality: hazard ratio (HR) for: cooking, 1.11 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02, 1.26]; heating, 1.34 (95% CI 1.16, 1.54). Solid fuel used for winter heating was associated with a higher risk of mortality caused by cerebrovascular disease: HR 1.64 (95% CI 1.12, 2.40); stroke: HR 1.70 (95% CI 1.13, 2.56); and cardiovascular disease: HR 1.49 (95% CI 1.10, 2.02). Low income and poor education level had a significant correlation with solid fuel used for cooking: odds ratio (OR) for income: 2.27 (95% CI 2.14, 2.41); education: 2.34 (95% CI 2.18, 2.53); and for heating: income: 2.69 (95% CI 2.46, 2.97); education: 2.05 (95% CI 1.88, 2.26), which may be potential mediators bridging the effects of socioeconomic status factors on cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. Solid fuel used for cooking and heating accounted for 42.4% and 81.1% of the effect of poor education and 55.2% and 76.0% of the effect of low income on all-cause mortality, respectively. The risk of all-cause mortality could be ameliorated by stopping regularly cooking and heating using solid fuel or switching from solid fuel to clean fuels: HR for cooking: 0.90 (95% CI 0.84, 0.96); heating: 0.76 (95% CI 0.64, 0.92). Conclusions Our study reinforces the evidence of an association between solid fuel use and risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. We also assessed the effect of socioeconomic status as the potential mediator on mortality. As solid fuel use was a major contributor in the effect of socioeconomic status on cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality, policies to improve access to clean fuels could reduce morbidity and mortality related to poor education and low income.

This study examines the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis in the context of 12 members of the OPEC by utilizing data on both the aggregate gross value added and the services' sectoral value-added between 1992 and 2015. This empirical work contributes to the literature by applying the panel spatial techniques which resulted in the findings as follows. Firstly, the results verify the authenticity of the EKC hypothesis for the aggregate level of gross value added as perceived from its inverted-U shaped association with CO2 emissions. Secondly, the disaggregated analysis affirms the heterogeneity of the validity of the EKC hypothesis across the subsectors within the services sector; this justifies the importance of analyzing the EKC hypothesis from a comprehensive (disaggregated) perspective for unearthing key sector-specific policy implications. The results reveal that the EKC hypothesis holds only in the context of construction services only but not for the cases of restaurant services, tourism and transportation services. These key findings call for effective measures to be undertaken to address the adverse environmental impacts that can be attributed to thse three sub-sectors for which the EKC did not hold. In line with the overall findings from the empirical exercises, it is recommended that the concerned OPEC members reduce their monotonic dependency on the consumption of fossil fuels, oil in particular, and gradually incorporate renewable energy resources into the energy-mix particularly within their respective services sector.

Abstract This study focuses on improving the efficiency of the microwave (MW) pretreatment of waste activated sludge (WAS) through deflocculation mediated by sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP), a cationic binding agent. Deflocculated sludge was subjected to MW pretreatment to assess its impact on biomass disintegration. At the optimised energy for MW pretreatment (14,000 kJ/kg TS), the chemical oxygen demand (COD) solubilisation was 28% and 21% and the reduction in suspended solids (SS) was 38% and 26%, respectively, for deflocculated (treated with a cationic binding agent followed by microwaves) and flocculated (treated by microwaves alone) sludge samples. The formation of volatile fatty acids in the deflocculated sludge medium (840 mg/L) was comparatively higher than that in the flocculated sludge (420 mg/L) and the control (62 mg/L). This study indicates that deflocculated sludge is more amenable to hydrolysis. The results of a test of biochemical methane potential also confirmed the greater amenability of deflocculated sludge for anaerobic degradation.

Abstract The environmental attractions of air-cycle refrigeration are considerable. Following a thermodynamic design analysis, an air-cycle demonstrator plant was constructed within the restricted physical envelope of an existing Thermo King SL200 trailer refrigeration unit. This unique plant operated satisfactorily, delivering sustainable cooling for refrigerated trailers using a completely natural and safe working fluid. The full load capacity of the air-cycle unit at −20 °C was 7,8 kW, 8% greater than the equivalent vapour-cycle unit, but the fuel consumption of the air-cycle plant was excessively high. However, at part load operation the disparity in fuel consumption dropped from approximately 200% to around 80%. The components used in the air-cycle demonstrator were not optimised and considerable potential exists for efficiency improvements, possibly to the point where the air-cycle system could rival the efficiency of the standard vapour-cycle system at part-load operation, which represents the biggest proportion of operating time for most units.