• Energy Research
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The European Geosciences Union (EGU) brings together geoscientists from all over the world covering all disciplines of the Earth, planetary and space sciences. This geoscientific interdisciplinarity is needed to tackle the challenges of the future. One major challenge for humankind is to provide adequate and reliable supplies of affordable energy and other resources in efficient and environmentally sustainable ways. This Energy Procedia issue provides an overview of the contributions of the Division on Energy, Resources & the Environment (ERE) at the EGU General Assembly 2017.

AbstractThe European Union aspires to reducing the import dependency of raw materials that are critical to its industries. In this respect, mineral resource information and data sharing by European Geological Surveys is crucial. In 2010, the European Commission identified 14 critical non-energy non-agricultural raw materials. This list was updated in 2014. This article presents the Critical Raw Material (CRM) Map of Europe produced by EuroGeoSurvey's Mineral Resources Expert Group. This map shows European mineral deposits from the EU FP7 ProMine project database, as containing critical commodities, according to the list of CRM published by the European Commission.

AbstractEnergy is the biggest crisis to humanity in the future. Nowadays, most of the energy used on earth comes from oil, gas and coal. According to the recent exploring and consuming rates, the energy will be exhausted in 50-100 years. Whether we can solve the crisis is closely related to the survival of humanity on the earth. The irradiation from the sun is the biggest energy source. Building PV power plant to utilize the energy from sun will be an only way to sustain the life cycle on the earth. However, the development of PV power plants require the huge supply of PV cell and the fabrication process may bring a quantity of pollution and waste, which is harmful to the environment. On the other hand, super large PV power plant will occupy huge land. If the land cannot be explored and used reasonably, this will not benefit the human life either. In this article, we address the discussions about the above problems and propose the initial suggestions about development trend of PV industry and the safety operation mode of super PV power plant.

AbstractUsing a low supply water temperature in heating conditions and a high water temperature during cooling can increase energy efficiency, use renewable energy sources, and provide a comfortable and healthy indoor climate. High temperature cooling and low temperature heating is achieved by reducing temperature difference in heat trans er and energy transportation process. The losses in temperature difference can be classified into three types: by heat/moisture exchange; by energy transportation through air/water circulation; by indoor terminal that releases heat/cooling to indoor condit oned space. The air handling process of HVAC system and indoor terminals are the key factor of reducing temperature differen e.Aiming at the losses in HVAC system, Annex 59, titled High Temperature Cooling & Low Temperature Heating in Buildings, is a new international cooperative work under the framework of International Energy Agency (IEA) Energy in Buildings and Communities (EBC). This paper introduc s the background, scope, objective, structure and deliverables of Annex 59. Annex 59 will try to present a new perspective and a new concept to analyze HVAC system in buildings. The goal of the Annex is to build up new concept of analyzing HVAC system from the perspective of reducing mixture loss and transfer loss and th n apply it in high temperature cooling and low temperature heating system.

Abstract The increasing attention toward climate changes and the recent strategic policies to stabilize and reduce CO2 emission is promoting research in the field of carbon capture, storage and more recently utilization technologies, whereby CO2 is captured from industrial flue gas, reused if possible or permanently stored in geological formations, such as depleted oil or gas fields and saline aquifers. In this scenario, Sotacarbo is leading the “Centre of Excellence on Clean Energy” research project, funded by the Regional Government of Sardinia, which aims to develop technologies for low emission power generation and for CO2 capture, utilization and storage. Among these technologies, CO2 utilization by hydrogenation and photoelectrochemical reduction are experimentally studied in the Sotacarbo laboratories. This work presents a general overview of the researches (carried out in close cooperation with the University of Cagliari) on CO2 utilization by conversion into liquid fuels, with a description of the research facilities and a hint on preliminary experimental results.

AbstractElectrochemical splitting of calcium carbonate (e.g., as contained in inexpensive and abund ant minerals such as limestone) is proposed as a novel method of forming hydroxide solutions that can absorb, neutralize, and store carbon dioxide from the air or from waste streams. CaCO3 is dissolved in the presence of the highly acidic anolyte of a saline water electrolysis cell, forming Ca(OH)2 and H2CO3 (or H2O and CO2). By maintaining a pH between 6 and 9 in the resulting solution, subsequent hydroxide reactions with CO2 primarily produce dissolved calcium bicarbonate, Ca(HCO3)2. Thus, for each mole of CaCO3 split, there can be a net capture of up to 1 mole of CO2. The resulting dissolved Ca(HCO3)2 can be diluted and stored in the ocean, or in reservoirs on land or underground. Net process cost is estimated to be <$100/tonne CO2 mitigated.Other potential co-benefits of the approach include: i) production of significantly carbon-negative H2 if renewable - or nuclear - derived electricity is used as the power source, ii) the option of locally producing electricity and freshwater via fuel cell oxidation of the H2, iii) direct neutralization of ongoing ocean acidification if the Ca(OH)2 generated is added to seawater, iv) preservation or enhancement of otherwise threatened marine shellfish and coral populations, via CO2 absorption and Ca(HCO3)2 formation in or addition to the marine environment, and v) safe ut ilization of the ocean’s vast carbon storage and energy production potentials for CO2 mitigation and “super green” hydrogen generation.

Abstract Ventilation systems are of vital importance for buildings, not only to provide acceptable thermal conditions and air quality for occupants, but also with regards to energy usage. Impinging jets can be encountered in many ventilation strategies which have major impacts on the acoustic environment and energy performance. The self-sustaining tones can be generated in such applications where a feedback loop is installed in the system. This phenomenon is explained by the corollary of Howe who shows that the origin of noise in such configurations can be attributed to fluid rotations. Howe highlights the role of phase conditions between the vorticity, the velocity of the flow and the acoustic velocity for the optimization of energy transfers between the turbulent kinetic energy and the sound field. In this work, we use 2D-PIV technique and a microphone respectively to measure the kinematic fields simultaneously with the acoustic generation for a rectangular jet impinging on a slotted plate. This study aims to investigate the transfers between the turbulent kinetic energy and the sound field for two Reynolds numbers presenting a high and a low noise levels. It is shown that phase conditions are necessary for the optimization of energy transfer which allows the installation of the self-sustained loop in the flow. It was found also that the change of the aerodynamic mode which is directly related to the self-sustained frequency amplifies the sound intensity and promotes the transfer of energy to the acoustic field.

Abstract Solid waste is generally disposed as landfills due to the simplest and cheapest disposal procedures, as compared to incineration and composting. High amount of organic material, particularly food waste (approximately 45%) can be found in the solid waste in this country. Being the most practical solution, landfilling however does not seem to be the most rational approach considering its byproducts, i.e. methane gas and fluidic leachate which could cause high contamination to the air and water. Lately, researchers have placed emphasis in food waste as its high organic content has a great potential of being turned into ethanol or a source of biofuel. Bioethanol is one of the most promising alternative energy sources to diminish the dependence on fossil fuel. It could be produced by the fermentation of sugar-rich crops and food wastes. This paper investigates the use of an electrostatic separator to segregate the food waste and non-food waste from the waste mixtures. Electrostatic separator is capable of separating particles based on the conductivities of the constituent components. It is widely used to sort out particles with high conductivities from those with relatively low conductivities, e.g. to recover conductors from non-conducting mixtures, serving as an environmentally friendly way for recycling without negative impact to the surrounding. In this study, influences of various volumetric ratios of non-food waste, i.e. plastic and glass, on recovery process of food waste would be studied. The findings contribute to reduction of landfill size with rare existence of organic matters in landfills. In addition to the environmental protection, the proposed food waste recovery process would enable the Waste-to-Energy (WtE) development and economical growth from biogas and potential biomass energy generation.