• Energy Research
• 8. Economic growth close
• Energy Procedia close

Abstract Based on the comparative analysis of the existing econometric characteristics, it has been shown that the exponential trend is the best trend describing the energy intensity of an economy in permanent and variable prices. The presence of the exponential trend in the energy intensity reduction indicates that the rates of enhancing the efficiency of energy consumption reduce uniformly in time. It is proposed in this work to consider beta convergence for countries not at equal intervals of time but from the moment of the start of reduction for each specific region. In this work, a close relationship is demonstrated for countries between the rate of energy intensity reduction and the initial value of the energy intensity considered. Based on the revealed regularities, forecast of the change in the energy intensity of the economy was made for a long-term perspective till 2040.

AbstractAker Clean Carbon (ACC) is developing and testing improved CO2 capture processes, including a regeneration unit based on thermal reclamation techniques. Design and operation of amine reclamation units was early identified by ACC as a challenge due to general limited experience with this type of equipment for this service. ACC has therefore teamed up with research institutes and suppliers with extensive knowledge of similar technologies and has since 2009 prepared for and performed technology development related to amine reclamation using a stage-wise approach. This approach is outlined in the paper for one of ACC proprietary amine mixtures, CC6. Experience, know-how and concrete results from such a development course are fed back to ACC's in-house dimension tools for sizing and design of reclaimers for full-scale capture plants.

AbstractBased on the survey of 29 enterprises in Shandong province, the paper has found that the energy wastages quantities of these enterprises are large but pollution blow-off goes down obviously. These enterprises have more receptive to the preferential measures but more cautious to market mechanism and environmental tax. The key to energy conservation would be technological innovation and new sources of energy development. International experience has been introduced to give references to Chinese tax policy adjustment. On the base of policy goals, principles and detailed policy, the multi-level tax system should be set up.

AbstractThis study aims to identify the principal components in ten prevailing factors, which would account for the influence of major economic variables on electricity consumption. Principal component analysis on these variables suggests two principal components, which respectively have Eigen-values of 8.28 and 1.04 and a cumulative variance of 82.77% and 93.19%. The regression results between electricity consumption and two principal components indicate close match between the calculated and the actual electricity consumption. The first principal component positively impact on electricity consumption, while the second one has negative influence. According to the coefficient of each variable in the combination, we found that gross domestic product, income, industrial output value, commodity exports, added services industry value, household numbers, percentage of rural population and price index impact positively on electricity consumption, while increase in commodity imports and efficiency of electricity reduces electricity consumption. These imply the possibility to control the fast growth of electricity consumption by imposing policies to revise the concerned factors.

Abstract In order to achieve EU defined aims in itsbioeconomy strategy, a constructive approach and aimful action in every institution is needed. By following this research paper's authors’ offered method, the development of bioeconomy is promoted and its aims in one certain structure is reached. The method consists of 4 levels: information to society; research, selection of indicators, analysis of results; modelling of processes; creation of innovative products. Combining all these levels with the EU bioeconomy's strategies main implementation levels, a matrix is created. With help of its implementation in bioeconomy's development related institution, it is possible to achieve bioeconomy's basic principle achievement in life, implemented activities interaction and sustainability, and EU bioeconomy's aims achievements at the national and international level. The Institute of Energy Systems and Environment (IESE) at the Riga Technical University (RTU) was taken as an example for the verification of this method in the achievement of the aims of the bioeconomy strategies.

AbstractEnergy is basis for national economic development and power products, and its imports and exports play a primary role for economic cooperation between countries. The energy international trade network is formed through the energy imports and exports among countries. From the characteristics of the network we can know the changes in energy trade patterns. According to the international energy trade data which include crude oil, coal and natural gas data published by The United Nations Statistics Division from 1996 to 2012, with the state as the node and the energy flows of trade for the side, this article constructed directed energy international trade complex network with out-weighted edges. This article calculated such complex network properties as node degree, network structure entropy, average clustering coefficient, and average nearest neighbor degree of the energy international trade complex network. Based on these characteristics, this article analyzed the degree distribution, heterogeneity, clustering, and vertex intensity correlation of the energy international trade complex network. We find that countries increased tightness and strengthened interdependence when they carry out the international energy trade. Transportation costs and customs tax, etc. will not have much impact on the import and export of fossil fuels. It will be more frequently trading with each other among countries’ partner who have smaller population or lower economic strength. Small countries tend to make energy trade relations with regional hubs in local area. Global trading countries have a lot of partners around the world. If energy war, crisis or other issues occur in these countries, it is likely to spread to other countries, so that the global fossil energy trade will be affected.

AbstractFor decades oxycombustion has contributed to improving efficiency, flexibility, emissions and the cost of many industrial processes such as for metals and glass production. More recently, oxycombustion has emerged as a competitive option for CO2 capture on many industrial processes.Air Liquide has been a key contributor to this evolution by developing specific technologies essential to the technical feasibility, flexibility and economic competitiveness of the oxycombustion route. This primarily concerns the ASU (Air Separation Unit) and the CPU (Cryogenic Purification Unit) which represent the largest share of investment (CAPEX) and operating (OPEX) costs of CO2 capture. Their technical development has been consistently driven by two key objectives: to reduce the cost of capture and to ensure solution reliability. Over the last ten years, in collaboration with boiler companies this work has led to significant improvements, making it potentially the most attractive carbon capture option.Beyond CO2 capture on power production, “CryocapTM” CPU technology has been adapted to other industrial processes such as hydrogen and iron & steel production.This paper describes the recent technical achievements and advantages of oxycombustion and the adaptation of the technology to other industries. The status and results of the key projects which underpin Air Liquide's CO2 capture technology development work will be also discussed.

AbstractThe possibility of obtaining economic benefits out of two-step printing processes is still a matter of debate for the industry. This is due to both the evolution of the single printing process and to the superimposition of many technological and economic variables. In the present work we analyze production cost and cell performance benefits achieved in a mc-Si solar cells production environment. Three different screen technologies are compared; we find that for all of them the finger aspect ratio is improved with respect to the single print baseline. An efficiency gain of approximately 0.1 absolute is also found. The overall performance of the double printing technology in terms of €/Wp is evaluated taking into account the efficiency gain, the screen lifetime and cost, the Ag consumption and the additional costs due to labor and equipment depreciation. The three screen technologies offer savings ranging from 0.4% to 1.4% of the total production costs.