Resources

Many companies in the mining industry include decarbonization of production among their key strategic goals as part of their internal sustainability strategy. This need is driven by a number of factors: stricter regulation in the area of carbon footprint (introduction of carbon taxes, emissions quotas, reporting requirements); sustained growth in demand for electricity and rising market prices; economic feasibility—the need to optimize operating costs and improve energy efficiency. This study provides a comprehensive technical and economic justification for implementing a hybrid power supply system—combining a solar power plant (SPP) and a gas engine power plant (GPP)—at Solidcore Resources’ Varvarinsky hub in Kazakhstan. The methodology includes modeling the energy balance of the real asset (156.9 GWh of annual energy consumption), calculating the output of a 22.6 MW SPP based on local GHI/PR/η parameters, forming and determining the adaptability coefficient Kₐ (proportion of PV in total monthly electricity generation), conducting an economic assessment (NPV, payback period, sensitivity), and inventorying CO₂ emissions under Scope 1–2. The SPP provides approximately 41.3 GWh of electricity generation per year, with an average annual K_a = 0.263; the 40 MW installed capacity of the gas piston power plant covers the residual demand, forming a stable daily and seasonal balance. The project demonstrates a positive NPV (After Tax) = USD 23.65 million with an estimated payback period of 10 years, while the cost of energy in extraction and processing is reduced by almost three times, and the total reduction in CO₂ emissions will be 51%. Thus, hybridization of energy supply systems is a practical compromise between reliability and decarbonization. Determining the adaptability coefficient K_a allows the flexibility of the system to be taken into account, shows how effectively the new energy system uses renewable energy sources, and can be used to optimize the operation of the energy system to achieve the company’s internal sustainable development goals.

Ecolabelling has emerged as a key instrument to communicate environmental performance to consumers, particularly in the agri-food sector where resource use and ecological pressures are highly interlinked. Conventional Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)-based ecolabels often suffer from methodological discretion, lack of territorial specificity, and limited consumer trust. This study investigates how the Water–Energy–Food–Ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus could be integrated into LCA-based ecolabelling, with a specific focus on pasta production as a representative case in the food industry. Indicators were collected from recent literature on LCA and Nexus applications, selected for simplicity and clear attribution to one WEFE dimension, and then evaluated by experts from COST Action CA20138 (NexusNet) through a two round Delphi protocol. The process yielded 23 indicators distributed across the four dimensions, which were subsequently compared with six Environmental Product Declarations to assess data availability and compatibility. The results suggest that many indicators can be computed with standard LCA inventories, while the Nexus perspective adds value by capturing multidimensional impacts and regional resource pressures. Further refinement and empirical testing are expected to enhance the framework’s applicability, but the findings already indicate that incorporating WEFE-based indicators into pasta ecolabelling could represent a promising pathway to improve analytical depth and consumer relevance, aligning circular economy principles with corporate assessment practices.

The lack of interest in the reuse of phosphorus in agriculture is mainly due to the high abundance of pathogens, organic pollutants, microplastics, and possibly toxic metals. Therefore, different forms of treatment are necessary to take advantage of phosphorus recovery potential, one of which is the use of ash from incinerated/calcined biological sludge. A high rate of conversion of the non-apatite inorganic phosphorus fraction into apatite phosphorus was obtained in this study because of the use of commercially pure CaO additive in the dry sludge calcination tests, which is more bioavailable to plants. The obtained phosphorus pentoxide content ranged from 12 to 17%, surpassing several phosphorus-based raw materials and fertilizers. In addition, the ashes have been shown to contain toxic metals far below those recommended by Brazilian and international environmental legislation, so they can be applied directly to the soil for crop fertilization, or be used in P extraction and separation technologies for fertilizer production.