Search results for "Resource"
showing 10 items of 4058 documents
Energy-related GHG emissions balances: IPCC versus LCA
2017
Addressing climate change is one of the greatest environmental challenges. Due to the impact of cities to energy consumption, the involvement of the local authorities in environmental policies is rapidly increasing. The Covenant of Mayors (CoM), launched by the European Commission, is an urban initiative aimed at reducing CO2 emissions. The signatories have to compile the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) balance of their territory and, to do so, they can use the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) or the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Moreover, the signatories have to define strategies to reduce the GHG emissions. In this context, authors estimate the GHG balance of an Italian muni…
Assessing the effectiveness of green roofs in enhancing the energy and indoor comfort resilience of urban buildings to climate change: Methodology pr…
2021
Abstract The effects of climate change on the built environment represents an important research challenge. Today, green roofs (GRs) represent a viable solution for enhancing energy and urban resilience in the face of climate change, as they can have a positive impact on the building's indoor thermal comfort and energy demand, as well as inducing various environmental benefits (easing urban heat island effects, improving the management of runoff water, reducing air pollution, etc.). Thus, it is important to be able to assess their effectiveness, both today and under future climate conditions, in order to evaluate whether they can also provide a valid long-term solution. In this paper, a sim…
A multifunctional plant for a sustainable reuse of marble waste toward circular economy
2021
The marble processing cycle involves the production of large quantities of wastes whose disposal represents an economic and environmental concern for marble companies due to the difficulty of identifying suitable landfills and the high transfer costs. In this context, the design of a sustainable industrial plant that allows the reuse of the calcium carbonate (CaCO3) contained in the marble waste is extremely challenging. With this recognition, the main industrial applications of CaCO3 are firstly analyzed in the present work to identify the physical–chemical properties required to CaCO3 in these contexts. Later, different plant solutions are suggested to recover CaCO3 from marble sludge in…
Sewage sludge acidogenic fermentation for organic resource recovery towards carbon neutrality: an experimental survey testing the headspace influence
2022
Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) produced by acidogenic digestion of sewage sludge are very interesting bio-products which can contribute to carbon neutrality of wastewater treatment plants. Studies on the production of VFAs from sewage sludge from fermenters with membrane are limited. In view of above, VFAs from a fermenter pilot plant equipped with a membrane bioreactor and fed with real sewage sludge has been monitored. The effect of headspace volume (HdV) on VFA production was studied for the first time to elucidate the optimal operation conditions. Specifically, three fermenter HdV values (namely, 20, 40 and 60% of the total volume) have been investigated. Results revealed that the HdV of 2…
Islands of biogeodiversity in arid lands on a polygons map study: Detecting scale invariance patterns from natural resources maps.
2016
Many maps (geology, hydrology, soil, vegetation, etc.) are created to inventory natural resources. Each of these resources is mapped using a unique set of criteria, including scales and taxonomies. Past research indicates that comparing results of related maps (e.g., soil and geology maps) may aid in identifying mapping deficiencies. Therefore, this study was undertaken in Almeria Province, Spain to (i) compare the underlying map structures of soil and vegetation maps and (ii) investigate if a vegetation map can provide useful soil information that was not shown on a soil map. Soil and vegetation maps were imported into ArcGIS 10.1 for spatial analysis, and results then exported to Microsof…
Impacts of Green Electricity Markets in the United Kingdom, Germany and Finland
2014
In liberalized electricity markets, a wide variety of competing green electricity products are available to customers in addition to competition on tariff price. These voluntary products are marketed as environmentally friendly and claimed to support renewable energy production, new capacity building and offer other environmental benefits. We review products in the UK, Germany and Finland and find that they encompass different mechanisms such as renewable sourcing, green funds or carbon offsetting. The interface between voluntary markets and renewable energy policies is especially studied. We assess if voluntary products offer additional benefits and identify possible problems like double c…
Evaluation of Biogas Production and Usage Potential
2016
Abstract The aim of the research is the development of theoretical and methodical bases for determining the feasibility of plant raw materials growing for its further bioconversion into energy resources and technological materials to maximize profit from business activities. Monograph, statistics, modelling and abstract logical methods have been used during the research. Directions of biogas usage have been examined. Biogas yields from different crops have been analyzed. It has been determined that high methane yields can be provided from root crops, grain crops, and several green forage plants. So, forage beet and maize can provide more than 5,500 m3 of biogas per hectare. Attention is pai…
The way forward : Can connectivity be useful to design better measuring and modelling schemes for water and sediment dynamics?
2018
For many years, scientists have tried to understand, describe and quantify water and sediment fluxes, with associated substances like pollutants, at multiple scales. In the past two decades, a new concept called connectivity has been used by Earth Scientists as a means to describe and quantify the influences on the fluxes of water and sediment on different scales: aggregate, pedon, location on the slope, slope, watershed, and basin. A better understanding of connectivity can enhance our comprehension of landscape processes and provide a basis for the development of better measurement and modelling approaches, further leading to a better potential for implementing this concept as a managemen…
Integration of biorefinery clusters towards zero emissions
2008
Depletion of world recourses, increasing pollution, and climate change make us shift from linear economy to system economy an economy of technologies integrated to reach a non-polluting zero emissions production system. Transition to renewable resources requires replacement the present crude oil refinery by biomass refinery. Along with conventional biomass refinery technologies bioengineering and nano-technologies become significant players of systems in the design of clusters of integrated biorefinery technologies. The authors consider a number of case-studies of biomass conversion into value-added chemicals and sources of energy, the steam explosion autohydrolysis (SEA) in particular. Mod…
Current state of water management in Japan
2014
Financial sustainability of water utilities is essential to guarantee the provision of high quality services. The aims of this paper are to review the current state of water management in Japan and to identify the main difficulties which confront Japanese water utilities. As the facilities built when the country expanded water utilities rapidly are drawing near the renewal period concurrently, water operators must quickly accelerate facility renewal work. The statistical data from the Japan Water Works Association illustrate that one of the most significant challenges facing Japanese water utilities is to finance investments to renew facilities and to prepare them for earthquakes. Difficult…