• Energy Research
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Abstract Background and Aim: Increasing energy consumption has created an energy crisis in the world. Fossil fuels are limited and depleting. Biogas is considered a fuel that has attracted the attention of researchers. To increase biogas production, different pretreatments have been utilized. The purpose of this study was to investigate the optimal mixing ratio of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and Sewage Sludge (SS), as well as the effects of various conditions of alkaline pretreatment on biodegradability of wastes and the amount of biomethane production. Materials and Methods: This study was done in a laboratory digester with 1 L volume at 37 °C with different concentrations of NaOH in a completely randomized design. Biogas volume, methane volume, and changes in pH were measured daily. Measurement parameters in the anaerobic digestion including total solids, volatile solids, and carbon and nitrogen content in the feedstock were determined according to the APHA standard methods. Results: The optimal mixing ratio of MSW to SS was 60:40 with the highest methane yield of 254.87 mL/g VS. Next, the effects of 2, 6, and 10% NaOH concentrations were evaluated on the amount of gas produced, indicating that 6% NaOH concentration significantly improved waste decomposition. Methane production, VS, and TS removal were compared to the control treatment, and there were increases of 30, 27.94, and 27.25%, respectively. Conclusion:The results showed that the mixing ratio of MSW to SS at 60:40 with 6% NaOH improves the decomposition of organic wastes and increases biomethane production. Keywords: Alkaline Pretreatment; Anaerobic Digestion; Biogas; Municipal Solid Waste; Sewage Sludge

The present article has it's roots in a survey research aiming at investigating the role and position of Iranian National Media(IRIB) in Sustainability Governance Model. In such a model different section of the society should have the necessary balance. The population of the research consists of managers and senior experts of organizations connected with sustainable development of the country. A sample of 573 subjects was selected through Stratified Sampling. Questionnaire instruments and Delphi Method was applied to test the conceptual model. The results show that the Government interferes in society more than any other section and the media section Private Sector and Public Sector are next respectively. Between them the Media interests more with the government and less with Public Sector. Finally the article proposes a sustainability governance model in which all the sectors are balanced and the national media has a key role in the interaction between the sectors. Some solutions are also proposed for the sake of sustainability governance with an emphasis on the role of National Media.

Background and Objective: In recent years, management and disposal of municipal solid waste has become a global problem and the most important environmental concern. Anaerobic digestion is a cost-effective solution for treatment of both solid waste and wastewater. The aim of this study was to investigate the positive or negative effects of calcium chloride content in anaerobic digestion process of municipal solid waste and leachate on biogas production. Materials and Methods: Experiments with 8 levels of calcium chloride on co-digestion of municipal solid waste and leachate were investigated in 500 ml digesters under mesophilic conditions in a completely randomized design with three replications. Reactors with a ratio of substrate to inoculum of 2 (on VS basis) were operated and the volume of the biogas was measured daily. Volatile and total solids, carbon/nitrogen of waste, COD, BOD and heavy metals were measured by following APHA. Results: The results of the experiment showed that the pH was decreased with increasing calcium chloride concentration. The highest amount of cumulative biogas production was obtained in CaCl2 of 2 g/L with the highest VS and TS reduction. Higher concentrations of CaCl2 (≥3 g/L) caused a reduction in the degradability of volatile and total solids and, as a result, a decreased performance of the digester. Conclusion: The results clearly confirmed that the addition of calcium chloride was an effective solution to improve biodegradability in co-digestion of the MSW and leachate and consequently to reduce the total and volatile solids and to increase the amount of‌ biogas.

Abstract Background & Objective: Agriculture is one of the most important activities, whereas observing ethical dimensions (human, environment, animals, society, economy and policy) are necessary. Therefore the purpose of this study was develop strategies to apply ethics in agricultural in Sonqor County. Materials &Methods: This study is a Qual-Quan research. The study population consisted of experts and farmers producing healthy products in the city of Sonqor (n = 32) who were selected purposefully. Results: Based on results, comprehensive government attention to Agricultural ethic and financial, technical, and legal support from the farm food to the table ( ) as a first strategy and evelopment of good agricultural production for all products, regional, national, international contracts and agreements in order to meet the needs of healthy consumer markets ( ) as a second important strategy was recognized which both of them are among the aggressive strategies. Also result showed that considering ethical actions towards development of sustainable agricultural, allocation of annual budgets, leading agricultural education to ethical agriculture (WO) are the most important conservative startegies. Conclusion: in the current situation in study the, aggressive strategies should be prioritized. This means that with considering the factors affecting the non-observance of ethics in agriculture, instutational development in this area, amend the rules, guidelines and most important social institutions and ethicl norms in the community of farmers need to be addressed in this county. In this regard the approach of farmers and related organizations should be changed toward appliying manifest of ethic in agriculture.

One of the main sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is the use of energy for groundwater pumping. Reducing energy consumption is very important to achieve the environmental sustainability and decrease the climate change impacts. In this paper, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from groundwater pumping in the Guilan’s aquifers was investigated. Firstly, groundwater depletion and the types of pumps for water pumping were examined in the current condition; then, the values of consumed energy, GHG emissions and climate change indicator of the current condition were estimated. The primary investigations showed that 55 percent of wells in the studied region had a diesel engine pump, while 51.3 percent of the required energy for groundwater pumping was supplied by electric pump. Calculated total GHG emissions and the value of climate change indicator in the current condition were equal to 8.98 and 7.59 Milion kg CO2 eq , respectively. In order to achieve environmental sustainability and energy security, scenarios of replacing electric pumps and applying solar energy were examined. The results of the scenarios showed that diesel fuel wells had no significant effect on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, but the use of solar energy reduced them. GHG emissions, in comparison with the base scenarios, were decreased by 44.4% in June, July and August, respectively, by applying the scenario of using the solar pump in agricultural section. Therefore, it is preferred to apply policies in future planning to use renewable energies such as solar energy instead of diesel and electricity energy.

Importance of renewable-energy resources because of scarcity, greenhouse-gas emissions, and their fundamental roles in production and sustainable development, has made governments to reduce energy consumption and improving energy efficiency. In this regard, targeting subsidies rule was running in Iran since 2010. Since energy additionaly to labor and capital is one of the important inputs in production, running this rule with increasing energy price, affects manufacturing industries due to the type of energy and industry. In this research, the impacts of price liberalization on electricity efficiency have evaluated. Partial adjustment model, generalized method of moment and energy intensity measure are applied to this purpose. Data are collected from Statistical Center of Iran during 1995-2013. The research innovations are: using a partial adjustment model in evaluating efficiency, assessment whole industrial groups, and the period of research. The results show that in 95 percent level of confidence, the Iranian manufacturing industries are significantly flexible for changing the use of electricity. But the electricity efficiency has gotten worse after running the rule. In general, apposite of expectations, targeting subsidies rule has failed to improve electricity efficiency at least in short run.

Abstract: Fuzzy DEA methods have been introduced to deal with the fuzziness of variables. Although, some of these variables are affected by uncertainty and also information granularity, the membership function of fuzzy set is certain and this contrasts with the fuzzy concept as a whole. Type-2 fuzzy sets are introduced because of this and their membership functions have the nature of fuzzy type-1. The calculations of type-2 fuzzy sets are very complicated. However, interval type-2 fuzzy sets which have the characteristics of type-2 fuzzy sets and do not add any complexity to the calculation process can be applied to deal with such a problem. That is why in this paper, it is explored that how an extension of interval type-2 fuzzy dynamic network DEA approach helps to measure airports’ sustainability. Sustainable airports play an irrefutable role in making transportation systems sustainable. Such an integrative approach in DEA models is unprecedented. So, this extension of DEA is valuable from both technical and conceptual aspects. Introduction: Airports are an essential component of aviation (Knudsen, 2004). The importance of airports becomes clearer when it comes to the fact that aviation traffic is more than before and, therefore, sustainability becomes difficult. While, various studies have suggested that the sustainability of airports is essential to improve the performance of these systems, improve the living conditions of the public and increase the airport's credit (Brian, 2005; ICAO, 2012; SAGA, 2015). Paying attention to the concept of sustainability in managing airports has various benefits, such as increased competitiveness by purifying activities, reducing operating costs, and reducing costs for life cycle of materials and equipment, better use of assets, utilization newer and better technologies, reducing asset development costs, getting more support from the community, improving working conditions and, as a result, improving employee productivity, reducing environmental risks, health, safety and promotion (SAGA, 2015; Bretzke, 2013; TRB, 2012; ACARE, 2011; Too, Earl, 2010). For the reasons mentioned, it can be said that it is necessary to pay attention to the sustainability of the passenger airports of the country. Certainly, before adopting any approach, the current situation must be assessed correctly. Various methods have been used to evaluate performance, but Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is one of the most widely used methods (Azizi et al., 2004). Data envelopment analysis is a functional and nonparametric method that allows consideration of various components as input and output or intermediate activities (Bray et al., 2015). However, no research has been found to determine the performance of airports in accordance with the principles of sustainability in Iran. Materials and Methods: Type-2 fuzzy Dynamic Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is used to assess the performance of Iran’s passenger airports based on sustainability development. By use of Dynamic Network Data Envelopment Analysis, one can see how the different parts of a decision unit can be linked. It also shows how the past performance of a decision-making unit can affect its current performance. In this type of data envelopment analysis, the function of the decision-making unit is transmitted through time-based intermediaries to the next period. Thus via using dynamic data envelopment analysis method, it is possible to consider the activities of different parts of a decision unit and also the efficiency with respect to time periods. However, the point is that in the real world, due to the increasing socioeconomic complexity and the inherent ambiguity of human thinking, there is no possibility of precise determination of many of the components. For this reason, type-2 fuzzy theory is employed that its membership function is the fuzzy of the first type. Since the complexity of calculations while using type-2 fuzzy set is high, interval type-2 fuzzy is applied. The 20 most popular passenger airports in Iran are selected to evaluate their performance in accordance with the principles of sustainability principles and via the help of the developed DEA model. Results and Discussion: Results of investigation show that Larestan Airport is the most efficient one among all and the last rank is allocated to the Isfahan airport considering fixed return to scale while in variable return to scale, Shiraz airport gets the last rank. The efficiency intervals of airports such as Larestan, Gorgan, Rasht and Yazd have little difference in two modes of return to scale. For this reason, we can say that there is no significant function inefficiency about these airports. But this difference is more evident in the efficiency of airports such as Mashhad. Airports, whose performance is generally low or are inefficient, are able to provide a groundbreaking improvement with appropriate benchmarking. Since airports operate in different conditions, difference in climatic conditions and the in workforce etc. should be considered while benchmarking. References ACARE (Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe) (2011). "Flight path 2050 Europe’s Vision for Aviation". Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. Azizi, H., Kordrostami, S., & Amirteimoori, A. (2015). "Slacks-based measures of efficiency in imprecise data envelopment analysis: An approach based on data envelopment analysis with double frontiers". Computers & Industrial Engineering, 79, 42-51. Azizi, H., Jafari Shaerlar, A., & Farzipoor Saen, R. (2014). "A new Approach for Considering a Dual-Role Factor in Supplier Selection Problem: DEA with efficient and inefficient frontiers". Journal of production and operation management. 6(2), 129-144. Bray, S., Caggiani, l., & Ottomanelli, M. (2015). "Measuring transport systems efficiency under uncertainty by fuzzy sets theory based Data Envelopment Analysis: theoretical and practical comparison with traditional DEA model". Transportation Research Procedia, 5, 186 – 200. Bretzke, W.R. (2013). "Service Quality Versus Sustainability: A New Conflict of Objectives". Information Technology in Environmental Engineering Part of the series Environmental Science and Engineering, Springer, 179-190. Brian, E. (2005). "The Modern Airport Terminal: New Approaches to Airport Architecture". 2nd Edition, Taylor & Francis. ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) (2012). "Sustainable Future for Aviation: ICAO Rio+20 Global Initiative". http://climate-l.iisd.org/news/icao-publishes-booklet-for-rio20-decision makers (accessed 14.09.2015). Knudsen, F.B. (2004). "Defining Sustainability in the Aviation Sector". Brussell: Eurocontrol Experimental Centre. SAGA (Sustainable Aviation Guidance Alliance) (2015). "Learn". http://www.airportsustainability.org/learn, (accessed 16.12.2015). Transport Research Board (TRB) (2011). "Critical Issues in Aviation and the Environment 2011". Washington, DC: TRB. Too, L., & Earl, L. (2010). "Public transport service quality and sustainable development: a community stakeholder perspective". Sustainable Development. 18(1), 51-61.

Introduction: The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that future emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) will continue to increase and cause climatic change (16). These conditions are also true for Iran. The three greenhouse gases associated with agriculture are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). The three GHGs associated with agriculture CO2, CH4, and N2O differ in their effectiveness in trapping heat and in their turnover rates in the atmosphere. This environmental change will have serious impacts on different growth and development processes of crops. Increasing temperature could affect physiological processes such as photosynthesis, respiration and partitioning of photoassimilates. Farmers are not able to change or manage the climatic conditions, but some factors such as soil, water, seed and agricultural practices can be managed to reduce the adverse impacts of climate change (32). Mitigation and adaptation are two known ways for reducing the negative impacts of climate change. Mitigation strategies are associated with decreasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through management practices such as reducing chemical fertilizer application, mechanization, increasing carbon storage in agroecosystems, planting biofuel crops and moving towards organic farming (42), etc. Material and Methods: This study was carried out at the experimental field of the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in 2011 and was repeated in 2012. The Research Station (36°16´N, 59°36´E) is located at about 985 m a.s.l. Average temperature and precipitation rate of the research station in two years are shown in Figure. 1. The three-factor experiment was set up in a strip-split-plot arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The experimental treatments were tillage systems (conventional and reduced tillage) and residual management (remaining and leaving of maize residual) assigned to main plots and different levels of N fertilizer (0, 150, 300 and 450 kg urea ha-1) was randomized as a subplot in tillage treatment. The seedbed preparation was made based on common practices at the location. Plot size under the trial was 4 m × 3 m so as to get 70 cm inter row spacing. Maize seeds (single-cross 704 cultivar) were hand sown in May for two years. The ideal density of the crops was considered as spacing 20 cm inter plant. As soon as the seeds were sown, irrigation continued every 10 days. No herbicides or chemical fertilizers were applied during the course of the trials and weeding was done manually when necessary. Measurement of CO2 emissions was performed by the closed chamber method. For this purpose, PVC plastic rings (20 cm in diameter and 30 cm height) were scattered on each of the plots. The chambers were placed in soil for two hours and the gathered air was collected by 10 ml vacuum syringe. Then, the samples were transferred to the laboratory and CO2 was measured using GC-mass. Results and Discussion: The results showed that CO2 emissions for conventional tillage was about 15 and 10% higher than the reduced tillage in 2011 and 2012, respectively. The CO2 emissions can be taken as indicators of soil tillage effects on the soil ecosystem, because CO2 emissions are closely connected to the microbial turnover and the physical accessibility of organic matter to microbes. These parameters were more available in the conventional tillage than the reduced tillage. CO2 emissions were strongly higher in the remaining residual condition rather than leaving condition in two years. CO2 emissions in the remaining residual condition was about 4.36 and 5.37 times higher than that of the leaving residual condition in 2011 and 2012, respectively. The microbial respiration and humidity of soil in the remaining residual condition is higher than that of the leaving residual condition. CO2 emission was elevated with increasing the rate of N fertilizer. The N fertilizer can increase the microbial activity of the soil. Cover cropping and N fertilization can increase CO2 emissions in full and reduced tilled soils by increasing the amount of crop residue returned to the soil. The results showed that CO2 emissions in 2011 were higher than 2012 in all treatments. The residual treatment had more effect on daily CO2 emission in comparison with tillage and N fertilizer treatments in both years. The trait was higher under conventional tillage, residue remaining and higher N fertilizer levels compared to reduced tillage, residue leaving and lower N fertilizer application. Linear regression for air temperature and mean CO2 emission illustrated that there was a positive correlation between air temperature and CO2 emission. Conclusion: In essence, the results showed that CO2 emissions for conventional tillage were higher than that of reduced tillage in two years. Remaining residual condition had strongly higher CO2 emission rather than leaving condition. CO2 emission was elevated with increasing the rate of N fertilizer.

IntroductionThe problem of energy efficiency is one of the key pillars of economics, especially agricultural sector. In term of energy efficiency, a similar estimation for human actions and their consequents can be applied to the landscape system, which first introduced by Hall et al. (1986), and now referred to Energy Return on Investment (EROI). Many energy analyzes have been done, take into account a social system boundary and an input and output approach. This approach will inevitably hide the system's internal performance inside a black box. Recently, Tello et al. (2016) have proposed a novel approach for analyzing energy at the agricultural landscape scale with the aim of evaluating energy sustainability under multiple EROIs that views the landscape as a set of energy cycles between nature and society.The proposes of this study have been to consideration the theory and methodology of multiple EROIs, to investigate the efficiency of energy flow in Qazvin agricultural landscape and, to examine the relationship between energy efficiency and landscape heterogeneity in order to describe the interaction of landscape structure and energy efficiency.Materials and MethodsThe database of this case study was prepared from 46 counties of Agricultural Organization of Iran and land use map. Agricultural database was created based on agriculture, livestock, and pasture subsystems. Agricultural yield for each crop, number of agricultural, and horticultural labors, number and type of agricultural machinery, amount of fertilizers, herbicides and fungicides, used fossil fuels, electricity, and agricultural waste belonged to the agricultural sub-sector. Census of livestock, livestock and poultry production, livestock and poultry feed, livestock and poultry production, workers and machinery, fossil fuel and electricity needed and livestock waste were collected for the livestock sector. Pasture production used for livestock grazing, amount of livestock manure going back to rangelands were belong to pasture sector.All energy flows were converted to gross caloric value following research by Guzmán et al. (2014). In this method, the calculation of multiple EROIs has replaced the conventional methods of energy efficiency calculation. Landscape heterogeneity calculated using landscape metrics. Correlation coefficient was performed using SPSS between EROIs and heterogeneity.Results and DiscussionThe highest value of FEROI was found in Bashariyate Sharghi with 0.25 and the lowest was in Kharghane Gharbi with 0.018. EFEROI, which is the most similar to the conventional method of energy efficiency, had the highest rate with 0.666 in Bashariate Gharbi and the lowest rate with 0.020 in Kharqan Gharbi. IFEROI was 0.95 in Narjah and the lowest was in Shahidabad with 0.168. Lower IFEROI indicates a higher return biomass in the production system, which seeks to maintain reproduction in the system by closing the biophysical cycles. The highest NPPEROI were reported by Bashariate Gharbi at 1.122 and lowest by Kharqan Gharbi at 0.173.In this study the relationship between the EROIs index and the heterogeneity of the landscape structure was shown. The results have showed the inverse correlation between heterogeneity and energy efficiency, indicating the heterogeneous impact of landscape structure on these indicators. It can be deduced that the heterogeneity created by human in Qazvin province has reduced energy efficiency. To explain this inverse correlation between energy efficiency and the heterogeneity of the landscape, it should be noted that one of the factors affecting efficiency is that may final production come from land uses that needed more input energy and produce less output. By examining the relationship between these indices with land use and land cover of each county, it was found that these indices had their lowest level in dry farming. It means that in Qazvin province, energy efficiency in dry farming is low, and relay on external inputs, which was mainly fossil fuel.ConclusionThis study has explained how the calculation of several energy efficiency coefficients provides more complete information than conventional methods for decision making. The results of this study can be applied in land use planning to integrate energy considerations in planning and comprehensive agricultural development plan.

Economic growth planning and policy making is one of the macrocosmic goals which it need to pay specific attention to energy and environmental sector and their relationship with production. Therefore, this study has conducted to investigate the relationship between economic growth, energy consumption and environmental pollution using a Spatial Panel Simultaneous-Equations model for 9 developing countries during 2000-2011. Empirical results of this method show that energy consumption, economic growth and environmental pollution in each country is affected by these factors in neighboring countries. The results of research confirm there exists bidirectional causality between energy consumption and environmental pollution, economic growth and environmental pollution. Thus, there is a bidirectional causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth. Regarding to result of this study suggests to achieve the sustainable economic growth should be used tax tools for controlling the emissions of CO2 and replacement of the renewable energies with fossil fuels.