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Emerging Renewable and Sustainable Energy Technologies

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (14 December 2022) | Viewed by 9517

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Gholamhassan Najafi

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Guest Editor

Biosystems Engineering Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University (T.M.U.), Tehran, Iran
Interests: thermofluids; renewable energy; nano and biofuels

Dr. Shiva Gorjian

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Guest Editor

Biosystems Engineering Department, Tarbiat Modares University (TMU), Tehran 1411713116, Iran
Interests: renewable energy technologies; solar thermal; photovoltaics; sustainable agrifood systems; energy storage
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Burning fossil fuels releases a tremendous amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and causes destructive environmental impacts, including air pollution, acid rain, and climate change, resulting in severe damage to human life and the ecosystem. In a recently published report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2021, the urgent global act was vividly demonstrated, stating that there is no escape from the climate crisis. It is almost certain that under the very low GHG emissions scenario defined by the IPCC, an increase of at least 2 °C by 2100 is avoidable. Renewable energy sources (RESs) have the potential to play an important role in the world’s future energy security. Rapid urbanization around the world, especially in developing countries, has resulted in a dramatic increase in the need for energy and water resources. This global trend necessitates a sustainable transition toward alternative energy sources that can deliver robust economic, environmental, and social benefits.

Energy conversion technologies play a crucial role in achieving this goal. Several renewable energy technologies are in practice in the 21st century, but many of these technologies are still under development. Therefore, this Special Issue aims to create a platform to discover the most recent advances in renewable energy technologies (RETs) covering globally conducted research and developments on renewable energy conversion technologies, their production methods, storage techniques, and management strategies. In this regard, authors worldwide are invited to contribute their full-length, peer-review ready papers on the emerging technologies for the production, storage, conversion, and management of renewable energy sources such as:

Solar energy systems (thermal and photovoltaic);
Wind energy;
Hydropower;
Geothermal energy;
Bioenergy and hydrogen production;
Tidal and wave energy;

Prof. Dr. Gholamhassan Najafi
Dr. Shiva Gorjian
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

renewable energy technologies
sustainable energy production
energy storage

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 2500 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Flexible Photovoltaic System on Non-Conventional Surfaces: A Techno-Economic Analysis

by Mostafa Esmaeili Shayan, Gholamhassan Najafi, Barat Ghobadian, Shiva Gorjian, Mohamed Mazlan, Mehdi Samami and Alireza Shabanzadeh

Sustainability 2022, 14(6), 3566; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14063566 - 18 Mar 2022

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2669

Abstract

Renewable energy policies emphasize both the utilization of renewable energy sources and the improvement of energy efficiency. Over the past decade, built-in photovoltaic (BIPV) technologies have mostly focused on using photovoltaic ideas and have been shown to aid buildings that partially meet their load as sustainable solar energy generating technologies. It is challenging to install conventional photovoltaic systems on curved facades. In this research, elastic solar panels assisted by flexible photovoltaic systems (FPVs) were developed, fabricated, and analyzed on a 1 m² scale. A flexible structure on a flat, hemispherical, and cylindrical substrate was studied in real terms. Using the LabVIEW application, warm and dry climate data has been recognized and transmitted online. The results showed that when installed on the silo and biogas interfaces, the fill factor was 88% and 84%, respectively. Annual energy production on the flat surface was 810 kWh, on the cylindrical surface was 960 kWh, and on the hemisphere surface was 1000 kWh, respectively. The economic results indicate that the net present value (NPV) at a flat surface is USD 697.52, with an internal rate of return (IRR) of 34.81% and a capital return term of 8.58 years. Cylindrical surfaces and hemispheres each see an increase of USD 955.18. The investment yield returned 39.29% and 40.47% for cylindrical and hemispheres structures. A 20% increase in fixed investment in the flat system increased IRR by 21.3%, while this increase was 25.59% in the cylindrical system and 24.58% in the hemisphere. Research innovation is filling the gap on the use of flexible solar panels on curved and unconventional surfaces. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Renewable and Sustainable Energy Technologies)

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14 pages, 4693 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analytical Study of the Impact of Solidity, Chord Length, Number of Blades, Aspect Ratio and Airfoil Type on H-Rotor Darrieus Wind Turbine Performance at Low Reynolds Number

by Pedram Ghiasi, Gholamhassan Najafi, Barat Ghobadian, Ali Jafari and Mohamed Mazlan

Sustainability 2022, 14(5), 2623; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14052623 - 24 Feb 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2911

Abstract

The use of wind energy can be traced back thousands of years to many ancient times. Among the tools used for converting wind energy was the vertical-axis wind turbine (vawt). Investigating the performance of this type of turbine is an interesting topic for researchers. The appropriate correlation between the Double Multiple Stream Tube (DMST) model and the experimental results has led researchers to pay distinct attention to this model for vawt simulation. In this study, using the aforementioned model, the appropriate range of important wind turbine design parameters was determined. First, the model outcome was validated based on experimental results and then, the performances of 144 different turbine types were simulated with respect to chord length, number of blades, H/D ratio and airfoil type. Chord length was evaluated at three levels, 0.1, 0.15 and 0.2 m, number of blades 2, 3 and 4, Height to Diameters (H/D) ratio of 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2, and four types of airfoils, NACA0012, NACA0018, NACA4412 and NACA4418. Simulation was performed at a low Reynolds number (Re ≤ 10⁵) and at four TSRs, 1, 2, 3 and 4. The results show that wind turbines perform best at low TSRs when they have longer chords, more blades, and a higher H/D ratio, but this trend reverses at high TSRs. Among the four types of airfoils evaluated, the NACA4412 airfoils showed a better performance at TSRs 1 to 3. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Renewable and Sustainable Energy Technologies)

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Review

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18 pages, 42628 KiB

Open AccessReview

A Review of the Existing Potentials in Biodiesel Production in Iran

by Behdad Shadidi, Gholamhassan Najafi and Mohammad Ali Zolfigol

Sustainability 2022, 14(6), 3284; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14063284 - 11 Mar 2022

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3157

Abstract

Petroleum fuel plays an important role in industry, transportation, agriculture and other related industries in Iran. Iran has about 9.5% of the world’s total oil reserves in 2020 and is ranked 4th in the world. The presence of sufficient conventional fossil fuels for internal combustion engines has caused environmental problems. If these Iranian fossil fuels were to run out right now, there is no suitable alternative that is just as effective. The need to research alternative fuels in Iran is therefore unavoidable. In this study, the potential and available resources of raw materials, including rapeseed oil, palm oil, fish oil, waste oil, algae, animal fat, olive oil and jatropha oil for biodiesel production in different regions of Iran, have been reviewed. Given the potentials and resources described in this study, it is hoped that the findings of this study will play an important role in biodiesel production in Iran in the future and stimulate more researchers to create biodiesel from existing sources. It is also expected that this study will increase the attention of the governmental and non-governmental organizations in Iran to the existing resources for biodiesel production and development of these resources and get rid of the existing problems of fossil fuels by investing in this field. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Renewable and Sustainable Energy Technologies)

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