Abstract Computational and statistical tools help manage the prevailing challenges of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by providing meticulous understanding of contemporary issues. However, complex challenges are difficult to handle with conventional techniques, resulting to the need for more advanced methods. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are often used as an advanced approach in modelling

Abstract This paper presents a detailed assessment on the yield and quality of bio-oil produced from the fast pyrolysis process of date seeds and date syrup industrial waste. Pyrolysis experiments were conducted at a temperature of 500 °C for 30 min using a laboratory-scale semi-batch reactor equipped with an inline condensing system to separate the oil fraction from the non-condensable pyrolysis gases

Abstract Industrial parks play a significant role in economic development while consuming a great deal of energy and emitting a lot of greenhouse gas (GHG). Meanwhile, under the pressure of limiting the global average temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius as proposed by the Paris agreement, industrial parks have compelling obligation to reduce GHG emissions, driving them on the path to low-carbon development

Abstract To facilitate a better understanding of China’s regional energy consumption, this study develops a coupled framework to analyze the socioeconomic and policy drivers of the evolution of Sichuan province’s energy consumption. The results show that during 2002–2016, GDP per capita was the most significant driver of energy consumption, accounting for 185.16% of the total change, followed by economic

Abstract This work investigates an exhaust heat-driven ejector refrigeration system with the thermo-economic considerations. The system is thermally modelled and is optimized considering the performance coefficient and the total annual cost as two objectives using heat transfer search algorithm. Generator temperature, evaporator temperature and condenser temperature are considered as design variables

Abstract Liquid desiccant air-conditioning is an energy-efficient alternative to conventional vapor compression systems due to its ability to handle sensible and latent heat loads independently. Membrane-based processes are prevalent in desalination research due to their superior abilities to separate fluids. The membrane-assisted separation process is also suitable for use in liquid desiccant air-conditioning

Abstract This paper aims to analyze the thermodynamic performance of a gas turbine–Stirling engine hybrid system with series and parallel configurations. The proposed hybrid systems include two separate cycles. In the first configuration, a gas turbine is combined with two Stirling engines in series formation, and in the second configuration, this combination is implemented in parallel formation. By

Abstract Microalgae are important biological resources which attract the researchers for the production of valuable products like bio-energy and value-added products. In this study, enhanced accumulation of carotenoids and lipids was obtained from Coelastrella sp. M60 which was grown at 40 °C, along with different stress conditions (nitrogen starvation, salinity and TiO2). The results clearly indicate

Abstract There is a general perception that limiting emissions of carbon dioxide will be sufficient to avoid catastrophic climate change. The reality could well be that the many of the world’s wealthy coastal cities which historically developed as ports will be inundated repeatedly to disappear eventually below the sea, with large swathes of the earth being flooded. Other major conurbations may cease

Abstract This study addresses to rank the environmental performance of manufacturing sectors using Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) method which is a widely used multi-criteria decision making method for environmental management. The study focuses on 24 manufacturing sectors and 5 criteria—water usage, environmental expenditure, environmental employment,

Abstract Fish protein hydrolysate, which is released to the environment as tuna processing waste during the hydrolysis reaction of Sarda Orientalis’ black muscle, could be used as a nutritional source of nitrogen for food products because of its valuable properties in antioxidant effects. This study used Protamex protease (endopeptidase) to hydrolyze the tuna’s black muscle (TBM) and to produce fish

Abstract The commercial sector in Europe consumes a lot of energy and has one of the highest rates of energy consumption in supermarkets. Thus, supermarkets are an important part for the purposes of meeting the targets for reducing greenhouse gases which Europe has set as 10% by 2020. This article discusses the potential of economic and energy consumption savings in addition to the reduction in greenhouse

Abstract Nowadays, increasing energy demand and environmental and air pollution issues have spread the use of alternative fuels such as biodiesel in diesel engines. While the advantages of biodiesel that are comparable to petroleum-based diesel fuels and low unburned HC, carbon monoxide and smoke (soot) emissions make the use of this fuel environmentally significant; high NOx emissions are still a

Abstract The global scientific community has intensified efforts to develop, test, and commercialize pharmaceutical products to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Trials for both antivirals and vaccines are in progress; candidates include existing repurposed drugs that were originally developed for other ailments. Once these are shown to be effective, their production will need to be ramped up rapidly

Abstract The aim of the present study was to establish a national database of waste characteristics for Egypt to support the assessment of various waste management strategies. The study explored the potential of applying waste-to-energy (WTE) systems to alleviate the negative environmental impacts of waste disposal while providing a renewable source of energy. An extensive field study was conducted

Abstract Low-grade waste heat is an underutilized resource in process industries, which may consider investing in urban symbiosis projects that provide heating and cooling to proximal urban areas through district energy networks. A long distance between industrial areas and residential users is a barrier to the feasibility of such projects, given the high capital intensity of infrastructure, and alternative

Abstract Worldwide primary energy needs are satisfied basically from non-renewable sources that are limited in supply and innately hazardous to the environment. Biomass-based power systems are very much potent to address the environmental issues fostering sustainable development, while being able to provide a secured and uninterrupted power supply at the same time. Biomass-based power generation systems

Abstract In recent years, the rapid development of the automotive industry has brought about several environmental and energy issues worldwide. Many countries have established fuel consumption regulations. Among them, fuel consumption regulations based on the curb weight or footprint have been put forward in China and the US. This paper mainly compares the effect of the application of footprint-based

Abstract Wastewater reuse in agriculture has been identified as an adaptive solution to climate change. This practice copes with two of the most limiting factors that are affecting sustainable development in rural areas: the lack of sanitation services and water shortages. This paper proposes a multi-criteria methodological approach to evaluate wastewater reuse potential for irrigation in rural areas

Abstract Small and medium enterprises cannot achieve environmental sustainability goals in isolation. They need to acquire capabilities to perform within networks of professional and social relations with other organizations. However, network relationships are often insufficient due to lack of sustainability in network capability. This multidimensional concept involves four components: coordination

Abstract A comprehensive 2-D transient heat and mass transfer analysis is carried out to identify the best reactor configuration in terms of better charge and discharge characteristics for a CO2-activated carbon (Maxsorb III)-based sorption systems. Reactors with different aspect ratios (AR) ranging from 0.35 to 7.8 are analysed for a wide range of convective heat transfer coefficient (h), constant

Abstract Manufacturing organizations are under continuous pressure to implement sustainability in their activities. There is a need to identify the environmental hotspots in the manufacturing processes of the products. In this research life cycle assessment technique has been used to achieve the objective of identifying the maximum impact-generating processes in the production of a pharmaceutical product

Abstract Wind turbine (WT) manufacturers are focusing on reducing the cost of energy produced by new models; however, the same consideration has not been given to their environmental consequences, nor the academic literature. For these reasons, the case study focuses on the environmental performance of the energy generated and distributed by the models launched from 2010 to 2018 by a world-leading

Abstract In this study, the layered double hydroxide of MgAl was synthesized and utilized as a catalyst for transesterification. The catalyst structure was modified by adding Ba and Li to improve biodiesel production yield and decrease the reaction temperature and time, methanol-to-oil ratio, and concentration catalyst. To this end, five hydrotalcite catalysts, including MgAl, MgAlBa, MgAl/Li20%, MgAl/Li40%

Abstract Plant-based coagulants/flocculants are foreseen to be a major progress in water treatment technology owing to their safety, biodegradability and availability, unlike synthetic chemical water refiners such as Al, Fe salts and organic polymers claimed to cause threats to our ecosystem either via their residues in the treated waters or due to their generated toxic sludge. Further, the increasing

Abstract This research explores peoples’ place attachment and context surrounding power production and energy futures. Facilitated, deliberative focus groups were conducted as comparative case studies in three fossil fuel-dependent cities in Saskatchewan Canada: Estevan (situated next to the provincial centers of coal, oil and gas production), Saskatoon (situated more northerly and furthest from coal

Abstract The requirements for enhanced technologies, such as pyrolysis and anaerobic digestion, are crucial to improve food waste and sewage sludge and address the difficulty in disposing of hardly biodegradable residues. The pyrolysis process was applied to two waste streams, namely hardly biodegradable residues and sewage sludge, at 500 °C with a heating rate of 25 °C min−1 to obtain hardly biodegradable

One of the ways that scientists and engineers have come up to harness solar power is by inventing photovoltaics. Perovskite, which is one of the most promising materials for solar cell fabrication, has gained much attention in recent years due to its exceptional increase in performance. However, the most challenging issue that has been prevalent is the stability of perovskite solar cells. Perovskite

Abstract In this paper, environmental policymaking based on sustainable development was evaluated in Tehran to increase the penetration of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. First, different aspects of sustainable development, including the environmental, economic, social, and technical aspects of Tehran’s vehicles from 2002 to 2018, were examined through the extended sustainable development model.

Abstract Electrically conductive concrete (ECON) heated pavement system (HPS) is a newly developed clean technology to reduce the use of polluting chemicals for removal of snow and ice. This technology requires further comprehensive studies for achieving an energy-efficient design. To construct an energy-efficient system, ECON HPS design includes determining the most appropriate configuration of electrodes

Abstract Several methods are applied for soot reduction in industrial flares. However, they usually involve other issues such as flame safety and other pollutant formations; therefore, they should be handled carefully. Splitting flare tip into multiple branches is an idea that is thought to reduce soot formation by increasing the contact surface and providing better mixing. In this study, changing

Phase change material (PCM)-based thermal energy storage (TES) systems are preferred due to high energy density; however, they possess an inherent problem of low dispatchability. This is due to the low thermal conductivity of the constituent PCMs. For ensuring high energy density and high rate of dispatchability of the TES systems, it is necessary to find methods to enhance the thermal conductivity

Abstract In the conventional leather production process, basic chromium sulphate (BCS) penetrates fully inside the collagen matrix during tanning and forms oligo-nuclear complexes that stabilize the skin structure during basification. Accelerated chromium sulphate complexation by basifying the BCS before full penetration leads to surface tanning and low leather qualities. Therefore, long processing

Abstract The objective of this paper is to determine the environmental impact of rail freight transport in Belgium using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The study includes the assessment of diesel trains, electric trains and rail freight transport considering the Belgian traction mix. Moreover, a comparison of the environmental impacts of electric trains using the electricity supply mix

Abstract The solar thermal-based hot water system has established itself as one of the prominent options to achieve sustainable energy systems. Optimization of the solar water-heating system focuses mainly on two major decision variables, the solar collector area and the storage tank volume, and leads to a significant reduction in the capital investment. In conventional design practice, a well-mixed

Abstract Immobilized microalga Chlorella sp. Wu-G23 (G23) was entrapped inside a polymer matrix or appended on the surface of a strong solid carrier. Alginates then formed a microalgae/polymeric matrix granule within the cross-linking solution. The textile wastewater bioremediation technology using immobilized G23 in textile wastewater effectively removed chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonium nitrogen

Abstract Carbon policies can be expected to increase the price of fossil fuel, either directly through a cap-and-trade system or carbon tax, or indirectly by regulations that place an implicit tax on fossil fuel. We construct a theoretical model to decompose the effect on employment in a specific industry caused by an increase in the price of fossil fuel. We find that the total effect is determined

Abstract In the context of life cycle assessment sustainability indicators, this article proposes a new indicator that is related to the embodied energy, in order to assess the lifespan of products based on their components. The indicator, called “potential embodied power” (PEP), considers that a non-replaceable component with a shorter lifespan will determine the lifetime of the product. The PEP indicator

Abstract This work for the first time evaluates the efficiency of biochar-supported nanoscale zerovalent iron (nZVI) particles combinedly as a function of biochar grain size and iron loading for the removal of anionic metal species, i.e., HCrO4− and CrO42−. Both the factors are crucial and have to be optimized in order to achieve the highest and fastest removal. Not only that, it is also crucial to

Abstract The relationship between air freight and environmental resource depletion is a widely explored area in different economic settings. There, however, is limited work available in the mediation of carbon pricing between air freight and environmental resource depletion, which is the focus of this study in the context of Saudi Arabia. This study aims to examine the role of carbon pricing in the

Abstract Transport is a significant sector that contributes to the increasing carbon dioxide emissions in China. Most related studies have utilized global models to investigate the factors influencing transport sector carbon dioxide emissions from the provincial level to the national level. However, this approach cannot depict the spatial nonstationary characteristics of the influencing factors. Taking

Abstract Coffee is one of the most significant beverages consumed worldwide, dating to times immemorial. It plays a pivotal role in several economies owing to its second position in the list of trading commodity, after petroleum. The growing demand for coffee has resulted in a great amount of coffee production and processing and subsequent release of large volumes of wastewater. This wastewater is

Abstract The cracking furnace is the core of an ethylene plant. An optimization method is built based on the integration of reaction network. Starting from atomic scope, an algebraic procedure is used to seek all possible reactions and establish the reaction network. Based on this, the reaction network is integrated and simplified to identify the variation rate of every component. The calculation procedure

Abstract Although the world energy mix is still strongly dependent on fossil fuels, biofuels have been gaining market share, especially in the transport sector. The main biofuel raw materials are those produced by agropastoral systems that use large expanses of land. The present work presents an innovative method of sustainability assessment of biodiesel, combining temporal and regional approaches

Abstract Photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) system produces both heat and electricity simultaneously with the advantages of better space utilization and higher conversion efficiency over individual solar thermal and solar photovoltaic (PV) system when operated separately. The PV/T system can control the operating temperature of PV by passing a heat transfer fluid through a heat exchanger attached to the rear

Abstract Scaffolds to facilitate three-dimensional bone ingrowth have been widely researched for bone regeneration. Fish scale can serve as a green filler for the reinforcement of chitosan scaffolds as it contains type I collagen and hydroxyapatite (HAp) which will promote osteoblastic functions. In the current study, chitosan scaffolds were incorporated with fish scale at a weight percent (wt%) range

This work presents an application of the modern portfolio theory (MPT). The United Nations 2030 Agenda of sustainable development goals establishes 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) and 169 targets each associated with indicators, integrating the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. This constitutes a complex system to be used by more than 150 countries having

Abstract Anaerobic digestion (AD) of food waste (FW) has become of great interest in recent years due to the high organic removal rates and positive net energy balance. However, two key issues should be highlighted. On the one hand, AD effluent still needs to be purified in order to meet ecologically acceptable requirements for direct disposal. On the other hand, AD plants have been mainly based on

Abstract Pesticides, personal care products, industrial chemicals often pollute surface- and groundwater sources. With trace concentrations and low molecular weights, these micropollutants (MPs) easily penetrate through treatment systems and impose a real health threat on drinking water consumers. The absence of a dedicated MP-retaining treatment technology at water treatment plants results in a constant

Abstract Most of the Indian rural area is electrified now, but the gap between supply and demand is much greater and increasing due to rapid industrial growth and increase in rural as well as urban living standards. That cause the extra burden on power grid. In order to reduce the burden on the national grid, India is moving fast towards distributed generation, and various studies show that renewable-based

Abstract World climate is an area of concern due to the use of fossil fuels that have been the most commonly preferred resource of energy since the industrial revolution and urbanization. The target to maintain the lowest level of carbon emissions and greenhouse gases has created an urge to look for renewable energy resources. Among the renewable energy resources available worldwide, solar energy is

Abstract The wastewaters produced from dyeing process in textile industries contain xenobiotic mixed reactive dyes that have negative impact on ecosystem when discharged as untreated/partially treated. The present study aims to degrade mixed dyes (reactive red 21 (RR21) and reactive orange 16 (RO16)) present in wastewater by Pseudomonas aeruginosa 23N1. The process optimization and the effect of experimental

Abstract Concrete is the basic building material in the world, and cement is the main material used in the production of concrete. However, there is an urgent need to reduce the consumption of cement, where cement production leads to 5–8% of global emissions of carbon dioxide. Geopolymer concrete is an innovative building material produced by alkaline activation of pozzolanic materials such as fly

Abstract In the present study, a three-layer artificial neural network (ANN) and nonlinear regression models were developed to predict the performance of biogas production from the anaerobic hybrid reactor (AHR). Firstly, the performance of an AHR which is filled with perlite (2.38–4.36 mm) at fill rates of 1/3, 1/4 and 1/5 for the treatment of synthetic wastewater was investigated at a loading rate

Abstract Gasification is one of the prominent and technically efficient technologies for converting solids like coal, biomass or solid waste into useful gas known as “syngas.” Several configurations are in use today among which entrained flow gasifiers have several advantages over other configurations. Presently research is more focused on micro-level modifications in the configurations which have

Abstract Biopolymers are sustainable materials derived from renewable sources that have relevant and industrially attractive properties such as biodegradability, biocompatibility and antimicrobial effect. Thus, these were the target of several experimental studies, widely published in the literature and used in our daily lives. This paper presents a preliminary investigation on the polyesterification

Abstract Sugarcane can play an important role in helping to solve many of the economic and environmental challenges as it has the potential of creating jobs, lowering carbon dioxide emissions, enhancing energy security, and reducing global dependence on fossil fuels. This paper presents a mathematical approach to optimize the Brazilian supply chain (SC) of sugar and bioethanol, using sugarcane as raw

Abstract The consumption of resources at a rate faster than they can be replenished is a pressing issue for present and future generations. Several methods account for assessing the depletion of resources, amongst which include the quantity of resource extracted, the rate of resource extraction, and the extra energy or cost for future resource extractions. This paper examines the dynamic impacts of

Abstract In this study, a numerical model is developed to study the behaviour of conventional heat sink and phase change material (PCM) heat sink for electronics cooling applications. Two different PCMs, RT35HC (ΔTm = 34–36 °C and ΔH = 240 kJ/kg) and RT44HC (ΔTm = 41–44 °C and ΔH = 250 kJ/kg), are selected for the analysis. A comparison has been made between conventional heat sink and PCM-based heat

Abstract A surge in the size of the automobile population has caused vehicular emissions to become a major source of urban atmospheric pollution. Elevating standards is an effective method of controlling vehicular emissions and improving air quality. Light-duty vehicles are the major contributors to HC and CO emissions as they constitute a large proportion of all vehicles. Consequently, controlling