• Energy Research
• 2016-2025close
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Industry is a fundamental sector that allows mass production to support a large population. As population grows, many industries produce large amounts of industrial effluents with different pollutants, that must be removed at the industrial wastewater treatment plants, with the consequent production of large amounts of sludge. The present study was conducted to identify and evaluate different sludge treatment/valorisation methodologies, being given priority to the valorisation in detriment of the elimination operations, like incineration or landfill. Therefore, sludges from the wastewater treatment plant of a resin industry, after dehydration operation by a press, were submitted to several valorisation methodologies, such as: application in anaerobic digestion aiming the production of biogas and allowing energy recovery, use in the preparation of adsorbents for the treatment of industrial wastewater, use as cement replacement in mortar production, and application of heterogeneous catalysts to produce biodiesel. The results revealed that all methodologies can be applied as sludge recovery. However, it is possible to conclude that the most promising industrial sludge treatment/recovery hypothesis is anaerobic co-digestion followed by the production of heterogeneous catalysts for biodiesel production.

Water is necessary for the survival of all life forms on Earth. The consequences of climate change on water resources can be seen in two dimensions: water availability and water quality. Factors on which water quality depends include population growth, urbanization, and land use change. Climate change encourages changes in the hydrological cycle as water is included in all components of the climate system, including the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere. Therefore, the link between climate change and water resources is essential for survival. Since the beginning of the Earth, the climate has been constantly changing and this is a normal event, but this otherwise slow process is extremely accelerated. Knowledge of the different hydrological and biochemical processes occurring in different waters is crucial for understanding climate change and water quality. Voda je nužna za opstanak svih oblika života na Zemlji. Posljedice klimatskih promjena na vodne resurse mogu se vidjeti u dvije dimenzije: dostupnost vode i kvaliteta vode. Čimbenici o kojima ovisi kvaliteta vode uključuju rast stanovništva, urbanizacija i promjene u načinu korištenja zemljišta. Klimatske promjene potiču izmjene u hidrološkom ciklusu budući da je voda uključena u sve komponente klimatskog sustava, uključujući atmosferu, hidrosferu, litosferu i biosferu. Stoga je veza između klimatskih promjena i vodnih resursa bitna za opstanak. Od početka Zemlje, klima se stalno mijenjala i to je normalan događaj, ali je taj inače spori proces izuzetno ubrzan. Poznavanje različitih hidroloških i biokemijskih procesa koji se događaju u različitim vodama ključno je za razumijevanje klimatskih promjena i kvalitete vode.

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">The introduction of new light-duty vehicle emission limits to comply under real driving conditions (RDE) is pushing the diesel engine manufacturers to identify and improve the technologies and strategies for further emission reduction. The latest technology advancements on the after-treatment systems have permitted to achieve very low emission conformity factors over the RDE, and therefore, the biggest challenge of the diesel engine development is maintaining its competitiveness in the trade-off “CO₂-system cost” in comparison to other propulsion systems. In this regard, diesel engines can continue to play an important role, in the short-medium term, to enable cost-effective compliance of CO₂-fleet emission targets, either in conventional or hybrid propulsion systems configuration. This is especially true for large-size cars, SUVs and light commercial vehicles.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">In this framework, a comprehensive approach covering the whole powertrain is of primary importance in order to simultaneously meet the performance, efficiency, noise and emission targets, and therefore, further development of the combustion system design and injection system represent important levers for additional improvements. For this purpose, a dedicated 0.5 dm³ single-cylinder engine has been developed and equipped with, a state-of-the-art Euro 6 combustion system, and an advanced common rail fuel injection system (FIS) offering higher flexibility in terms of injection strategy and higher quantity accuracy. Three injector nozzles with different hydraulic flow rates (HF) have been selected and employed for the overall combustion process optimization.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">The optimization has been performed by means of an extensive DoE-based test campaign in which the engine and FIS operating parameters have been parametrized with the aim to carry out a proper combination in terms of HF and injection strategy. The results at partial load conditions evidence significant advantages in applying an advanced injection pattern, while the HF reduction can significantly improve the smoke emission and combustion noise without fuel consumption penalties. Therefore, a proper combination and optimization of the HF and injection strategy can provide low noise and engine-out smoke while maintaining the rated power performance targets.</div></div>

A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with focus on carbon footprint, followed by Life Cycle Costing (LCC) of municipal solid waste (MSW) management were conducted in a residential area of a medium-sized European city of 80,000 inhabitants. The initial results showed high environmental impacts and lack of economic sustainability, due to the high amounts of waste landfilled, the low extent of separate collection, low performance of mechanical-biological treatment as well as absence from alternatives to landfilling of non-recyclable materials. Taking this result as a baseline scenario, three improvement.s were tested with the aim of turning the carbon footprint of the local MSW management system into a neutral value: (i) increased separate collection of recyclables, (ii) enhanced biogas production and (iii) refuse-derived fuel (RDF) production. Successively adding the improvements, three alternative improved scenarios were defined, until reaching a negative carbon footprint, meaning that an optimised system would avoid GHG emissions. The proposed changes were sufficient to achieve carbon neutrality, as well as reduce overall environmental impacts, but were not enough for achieving economic sustainability due to the great influence of collection costs, especially for separate collection. It was concluded that by using an adequate combination of several treatment options and increasing the separate collection of recyclable materials it is possible to turn MSW management into a carbon neutral activity as well as improve its economic balance.

In Vietnam, the energy demand shows an ever-increasing trend. To limit the utilization of fossil fuels and the following consequences for the environment, renewable energy sources must be adopted. In this context, the paper assesses the utilization of offshore wind and sea wave, by considering a commercial wind turbine and a prototypical wave energy converter. Solar energy can be optionally also collected by this device. An algorithm is introduced to find the best composition of the three sources able to cover a desired share of energy demand. The approach is applied to Ca Mau, a province in the southern part of Vietnam. Finally, the results encourage the adoption of these energy sources that could be easily implemented up to a share of the local energy demand equal to 65%.

The real assets, procedures, systems,and subsystems of a city can be virtually represented throughan urban digital twin(DT),which integrates heterogeneous data to learn and evolve with the physical city,offering support to monitor the current status and predict possible future scenarios.A DT of a city can be organized into layers, which represent specific facets of the city and cooperate to address specifici ssues.In this work,we present an application scenario in which a geometric layer,representing the 3D morphology of the urbane nvironment, cooperates with an energy consumption layer,providing knowledge of the peculiarities of thebuilding urban area and in particular of the built fabric,to assess their impact in terms of energy efficiency.The analysis of the urban geometries provides quantitative measuresas useful input,for instance,to define heat leakage.