• Energy Research
• 2021-2025close
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Effectively reducing climate change requires marked, global behavior change. However, it is unclear which strategies are most likely to motivate people to change their climate beliefs and behaviors. Here, we tested 11 expert-crowdsourced interventions on four climate mitigation outcomes: beliefs, policy support, information sharing intention, and an effortful tree-planting behavioral task. Across 59,440 participants from 63 countries, the interventions’ effectiveness was small, largely limited to nonclimate skeptics, and differed across outcomes: Beliefs were strengthened mostly by decreasing psychological distance (by 2.3%), policy support by writing a letter to a future-generation member (2.6%), information sharing by negative emotion induction (12.1%), and no intervention increased the more effortful behavior—several interventions even reduced tree planting. Last, the effects of each intervention differed depending on people’s initial climate beliefs. These findings suggest that the impact of behavioral climate interventions varies across audiences and target behaviors.

This study offers a comprehensive examination, both theoretically and experimentally, of the potential of methanol (M) as a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) assessed in combination with kerosene (Ke—Jet-A aviation fuel + 5% Aeroshell oil). Different blends of methanol and kerosene (10%, 20%, and 30% vol. of (M) was added to Ke) were tested in an aviation micro turbo-engine under various operating regimes, such as idle, cruise, and maximum. Key engine parameters, including combustion temperature, fuel consumption, and thrust, were closely monitored during these trials. Essential performance indicators such as combustion efficiency, thermal efficiency, and specific consumption for all fuel blends under maximum operating conditions are also presented. Physical and chemical characteristics, such as viscosity, density, calorific value and flash point, were determined for each blend. Moreover, elemental analysis and FTIR spectroscopy were utilized to evaluate the chemical composition of the fuels. This study further investigated the air requirements for stoichiometric combustion and computed the resulting CO2 and H2O emissions. Experimental tests were conducted on the Jet Cat P80® micro turbo-engine, covering assessments of starting procedures, acceleration, deceleration, and pollutant emissions (CO and SO2) during various engine operating conditions. The results suggest that the examined fuel blends demonstrate stable engine performance at concentrations of 10% and 20% methanol. However, observations indicate that with an increase in methanol concentration, particularly at 30%, the stability of the engine at idle and, notably, at maximum speed decreases significantly. Specifically, at a 30% methanol concentration, the engine no longer operates stably, exhibiting significant rpm fluctuations, leading to the decision not to explore higher concentrations.

The object of the study is the water supply and sanitation system of an industrial enterprise. Currently, many enterprises do not use the treated industrial waste water in the water supply cycle. Therefore, the use of treated wastewater is of practical importance. The scheme of thermal treatment of waste water for obtaining pure condensate by evaporation is proposed. The main results of the study are the technical solution for the development of the enterprise's wastewater treatment complex. Pure condensate is obtained in an instant boiling evaporator. The research method is based on the calculation of energy costs in wastewater treatment for different types of waste water. The results of the study allow us to determine the optimal set of energy equipment for obtaining pure condensate and its further use. The specific practical significance lies in the development of a technical solution that helps the treatment of wastewater and the reduction of emissions into the water basin.

The Urban Heat Island (UHI), a consequence of urban development, leads to elevated temperatures within cities compared to their rural counterparts. This phenomenon results from factors such as urban designs, anthropogenic heat emissions, and materials that absorb and retain solar radiation in the built environment. Materials commonly used in cities, like concrete, asphalt, and stone, capture solar energy and subsequently emit it as heat into the surroundings. Consequently, this phenomenon amplifies summertime cooling energy demands in buildings. To mitigate the UHI impacts, various mitigation strategies have emerged that include but are not limited to using higher solar reflectivity materials, known as “cool materials”, and increasing vegetation and greenery in urban areas. Cool materials have high reflectivity and emissivity, effectively reflecting solar radiation while emitting absorbed heat through radiative cooling. Increasing the solar reflectivity of building envelope materials is a promising sustainable solution to lessen the UHI effects. This state-of-the-art review summarizes the UHI causes and effects, states the mitigation strategies, describes the cool building envelope materials, explains the solar reflectivity index measurements, indicates the building and micro-climate simulations, highlights the performance evaluation of using cool building envelope materials, points out the research gaps, and proposes future research opportunities.

The oil production and refining processes are directly dependent on historical and political processes. The world wars of the 20th century were catalysts for the transformation of oil as the main energy resource. The capacity of enterprises in the oil refining industry is important for the development of politics and economies of states because oil products are one of the most sought after goods. Addressing the problem of capacity development for oil resource processing at Russian refineries is a relevant topic to build an effective policy for the distribution of global oil resources. The purpose of this paper is to identify the distribution trends in oil resource refining capacities in Russia. The developed method allows us to determine the dynamics of refining capacities in all regions of the country, establish the contributions of refinery groups to regional and countrywide capacities, and identify trends in the capacity concentrations of refineries and regions. The timeline that was used for the research period is 2009–2019. The results of the study showed increases in processing capacity in all federal districts. By 2019, the Volga Federal District provided the largest annual contribution to the countrywide capacity. The Southern Federal District moved up from the fourth to second position. It was followed by the Siberian, Central, Northwestern, Far Eastern, and Ural Federal Districts. The trends in the distribution capacities across the country indicate the prospect for building additional refineries in the Asian part of Russia. Rosneft was the leader, while Gazprom retained the second position. Independent refiners took the third position in terms of total refinery capacity, with Lukoil in the fourth position. Furthermore, Surgut-NG, Tatneft, Mini refineries, and NOVATEK followed the top four positions. The changes in concentration ratios indicated the increased monopolization of the refinery market. A decisive contribution to this process was due to by Rosneft’s takeover of TNK-BP and Bashneft’s capacities. The changes in regional concentrations were influenced by the changes in processing capacities of the Volga Federal District.

Although nitrogen (N) is the most limiting nutrient for agricultural production, its overuse is associated with environmental pollution, increased concentration of greenhouse gases, and several human and animal health implications. These implications are greatly affected by biochemical transformations and losses of N such as volatilization, leaching, runoff, and denitrification. Half of the globally produced N fertilizers are used to grow three major cereals—rice, wheat, and maize—and their current level of N recovery is approximately 30–50%. The continuously increasing application of N fertilizers, despite lower recovery of cereals, can further intensify the environmental and health implications of leftover N. To address these implications, the improvement in N use efficiency (NUE) by adopting efficient agronomic practices and modern breeding and biotechnological tools for developing N efficient cultivars requires immediate attention. Conventional and marker-assisted selection methods can be used to map quantitative trait loci, and their introgression in elite germplasm leads to the creation of cultivars with better NUE. Moreover, gene-editing technology gives the opportunity to develop high-yielding cultivars with improved N utilization capacity. The most reliable and cheap methods include agronomic practices such as site-specific N management, enhanced use efficiency fertilizers, resource conservation practices, precision farming, and nano-fertilizers that can help farmers to reduce the environmental losses of N from the soil–plant system, thus improving NUE. Our review illuminates insights into recent advances in local and scientific soil and crop management technologies, along with conventional and modern breeding technologies on how to increase NUE that can help reduce linked N pollution and health implications.

Nowadays, most countries of the world are implementing the transition to the low-carbon economy which implies the need to carry out a full-scale eco-modernization of the energy sector. Green energy may be identified as one of the core concerns of energy sector modernization as it allows a considerable decrease in emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere. Therefore, nuclear and renewable energy may become key areas of global energy development in the near future, which is also in agreement with circular economy concepts. However, public opinion (and other controversial visions/aspects) is one of the barriers to their development. The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between attitudes towards nuclear and renewable energy in two countries: a EU country (Italy) and a non-EU country (Russia), considering the level of their development. The authors conducted a survey among residents regarding their attitude towards nuclear and renewable energy, as well as their attitude to the present energy policy. The cluster analysis technique was used to analyze the results. The obtained results confirmed the dependence between the level of development of nuclear and renewable energy and the public attitude towards it. The national energy policy also might influence public opinion on the development of nuclear or renewable energy. The authors identified public attitude as one of the key factors in the development of energy and the achievement of environmental and social sustainability.

This research deals with the process of reviving urban heritage, especially in old cities after the war, due to their symbolic and moral values in society. By studying the reality of the city and its destructed heritage features, there was a local need to study the integrated strategies of the urban heritage revival process to reach indicators that are drawn from international experiences and the curricula and studies of international organizations (ICOMOS, World Bank, UN-Habitat, IOM) that interested in cultural heritage and to use these indicators in evaluating local projects in the center of the old city of Mosul which was chosen as a case study for this research, due to its historical and civilizational importance, which has contributed greatly to the formation of the city of Mosul through the ages, and as this city has witnessed deliberate sabotage of its urban heritage due to the terrorist acts witnessed before its liberation.