Search Results (25)

The massive production of municipal solid waste presents a significant global challenge for sustainable urban development and maintaining citizens’ quality of life, requiring effective management and disposal strategies. Waste-to-energy incineration technology has become increasingly important as a solution that simultaneously addresses the growing volumes of municipal solid waste and rising energy needs worldwide. This comprehensive review examines the research findings on the effectiveness of incineration as a waste-to-energy conversion method. The primary goal was to conduct a thorough systematic review assessing WtE incineration effectiveness across several key areas: energy recovery efficiency, waste volume reduction capabilities, environmental impact, and economic feasibility. A comprehensive literature search was conducted across ScienceDirect and additional pertinent databases, utilizing appropriate search terms in accordance with the PRISMA framework. A total of 431 studies were systematically identified, published between 2015 and 2025, and only 25 relevant studies were included in this review. Researchers collected data focusing on energy recovery percentages, volume reduction rates, emission reductions, and economic performance metrics. The findings revealed that every study included in the analysis showed positive results for WtE incineration across various performance measures. This research discovered the feasibility of generating electrical power from garbage through WtE incineration processes. The projected energy yields, ranging from gigawatt-hours to kilowatt-hours, were quantified for several nations, including Mexico (11,681.64 GWh), Cambodia (1625.81 GWh), Bangladesh (187.04 GWh), South Africa (6944 GWh), Iran (17,678 GWh), Nigeria (10,000 GWh), Indonesia (2487 MWh), Algeria (11.6 MWh), China (2316.52 MWh), Iraq (203.917 MWh), Uganda (774 kWh), and Pakistan (675 kWh). Energy recovery efficiency demonstrated a wide range from 30% to 92.75%, with waste volume reduction consistently reaching 90–95% levels, significantly prolonging landfill operational lifespans. From an environmental perspective, technology achieved greenhouse gas emission reductions ranging from 30% to 87%. This dual-purpose approach makes it an attractive, sustainable solution for both waste management and renewable energy production. By adopting this approach, cities can address waste and energy issues while boosting economic growth and job creation. However, it also involves substantial costs, technical difficulties, and environmental hazards that necessitate meticulous oversight. Full article

Recently, the demand for electricity in Iraq has increased; therefore, there is an increased demand for generating and transmitting electrical power. Furthermore, Iraq’s electricity grid is interconnected with neighboring countries to supply electricity and compensate for the shortage in energy production. This work investigates the reliability assessment of secondary power transmission systems in the Iraqi Electricity Power Distribution Network (IEPDN). A fault tree analysis (FTA) technique based on fault tracing paths was applied to assess the reliability of the secondary power system in Iraq, due to its ability to perform a computation for all failure probabilities of the network components. The reliability of the Northern Secondary Power System (NSPS) and the Southern Secondary Power System (SSPS) was calculated based on the fault probability index. Findings indicate the reliability of both the Northern and Southern secondary power systems. Therefore, the Southern and Northern power grids can be used to connect Iraq with neighboring countries to meet Iraq’s energy needs. Full article

This study conducts a detailed and systematic Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of demineralized (DEMI) water production at the Al-Hilla Second Gas Power Plant in Iraq, employing the Open LCA-ReCiPe 8 Midpoint (H) method to evaluate potential environmental impacts across 18 midpoint categories. The analysis focuses on the production of 1 cubic meter of high-purity water, offering a comprehensive evaluation of the environmental burdens associated with chemical usage, energy consumption, and resource depletion. The results indicate that terrestrial ecotoxicity is the most dominant impact category (20.383 kg 1,4-DCB-eq), largely driven by the extensive use of treatment chemicals such as coagulants, disinfectants, and antiscalants. Climate change follows as the second highest impact category (3.496 kg CO₂-eq), primarily due to significant electricity consumption during energy-intensive stages, particularly reverse osmosis (RO) and electro-deionization (EDI). These stages also contribute notably to fossil resource depletion (1.097 kg oil-eq) and particulate matter formation, reflecting the heavy reliance on fossil fuel-based energy in the region. Additional environmental concerns identified include human toxicity (both carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic), freshwater and marine ecotoxicity, and metal/mineral resource depletion, all of which underscore the need for improved chemical and material management throughout the treatment process. While impacts from categories such as ozone layer depletion, ionizing radiation, and eutrophication are relatively low, their cumulative effect over time remains a concern for long-term sustainability. The energy assessment reveals that the RO and EDI units alone account for over 70% of the total energy consumption, estimated at 3.143 kWh/m³. This research provides insights into minimizing environmental burdens in water treatment systems, especially in regions facing energy and water stress. Full article

The growing global demand for sustainable energy solutions has spurred interest in hybrid renewable energy systems, particularly those combining photovoltaic (PV) solar and wind power. This study records the technical and financial feasibility of establishing hybrid solar photovoltaic and wind power stations in Iraq, Al-Rutbah and Al-Nasiriya, with a total power of 60 MW for each, focusing on optimizing energy output and cost-efficiency. The analysis evaluates key technical factors, such as resource availability, system design, and integration challenges, alongside financial considerations, including capital costs, operational expenses, and return on investment (ROI). Using the RETScreen program, the research explores potential locations and configurations for maximizing energy production and minimizing costs, and the evaluation is performed through the calculation Internal Rate of Return (IRR) on equity (%), the Simple Payback (year), the Net Present Value (NPV), and the Annual Life Cycle Savings (ALCSs). The results show that both PV and wind technologies demonstrate significant energy export potential, with PV plants exporting slightly more electricity than their wind counterparts. Al Nasiriya Wind had the highest output, indicating favorable wind conditions or better system performance at that site. The results show that the analysis of the proposed hybrid system has a standardizing effect on emissions, reducing variability and environmental impact regardless of location. The results demonstrate that solar PV is significantly more financially favorable in terms of capital recovery time at both sites, and that financial incentives, especially grants, are essential to improve project attractiveness, particularly for wind power. The analysis underscores the superior financial viability of solar PV projects in both regions. It highlights the critical role of financial support, particularly capital grants, in turning renewable energy investments into economically attractive opportunities. Full article

Enhancing the energy management capabilities of modern smart buildings is essential for energy conservation, which is valuable for modern power networks maintaining a tight power balance under high renewable penetration. This study introduces a data-driven control strategy based on the model predictive control (MPC) for HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems considering the time-of-use (ToU) electricity rates in Iraq. A multi-layer neural network is first constructed using time-delayed embedding for the modeling of building thermal dynamics, where the rectified linear unit (ReLU) is used as the activation function for the hidden layers. Based on such piecewise affine approximation, an optimization model is developed within the receding horizon control framework, which incorporates the data-driven model and is transformed into a mixed-integer linear programming facilitating efficient problem solving. To validate the efficiency of the proposed approach, a simulation model of the building’s thermal network is constructed using Simscape considering several thermal effects among the building components. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach improves the economic performance of the building while maintaining thermal comfort levels within acceptable range. Full article

Decarbonisation in hot climates demands innovative cooling solutions that minimise environmental impact through renewable energy integration and advanced system optimisation. This study investigates the energetic and economic feasibility of a thermo-mechanical vapour compression (TMVC) cooling system that integrates a conventional vapour compression cycle with an ejector and a thermally driven second-stage compressor powered by solar-heated water from evacuated flat-plate collectors. The system is designed to reduce mechanical compressor work and enhance cooling performance in hot climates. A comprehensive 4E (energy, exergy, economic, and environmental) analysis is conducted for a multi-story residential building in Baghdad, Iraq, with a total floor area of approximately 8000 m² and a peak cooling demand of 521.75 kW. Numerical simulations were conducted to evaluate various configurations of solar collector areas, thermal storage tank volumes, and collector mass flow rate, aiming to identify the most energy-efficient combinations. These optimal configurations were then assessed from economic and environmental perspectives. Among them, the system featuring a 600 m² collector area and a 34 m³ storage tank was selected as the optimal case based on its superior electricity savings and energy performance. Specifically, this configuration achieved a 28.28% improvement in the coefficient of performance, a 22.05% reduction in energy consumption, and an average of 15.3 h of daily solar-assisted operation compared to a baseline vapour compression system. These findings highlight the potential of the TMVC system to significantly reduce energy usage and environmental impact, thereby supporting the deployment of sustainable cooling technologies in hot climate regions. Full article

Power transformers are one of the most important elements of electrical power systems. The fast diagnosis of transformer faults improves the efficiency of power systems. One of the most favored methodologies for transformer fault diagnostics is based on dissolved gas analysis (DGA) techniques, including the Duval triangle method (DTM), the Doernenburg ratio method (DRM), and the Rogers ratio method (RRM), which are suitable for on-line diagnosis of transformers. The imbalanced, insufficient, and overlapping state of gas-decomposed DGA datasets, however, remains a limitation to the deployment of a powerful and accurate diagnosis approach. This study presents a new approach for transformer fault diagnosis based on DGA, one which aims to improve the performance evaluation criteria to predict current faults and to lower the associated costs. We used six optimized machine learning methods (MLMs) for dataset transformation to organize the dataset. The MLMs used for transformer fault diagnosis were random forest (RF), backpropagation neural network (BPNN), K-nearest neighbors (KNN), support vector machine (SVM), decision tree (DT), and Naive Bayes (NB). The MLMs were implemented by using 628 dataset samples, which were obtained from laboratories, other studies, and electricity stations in Iraq. Accordingly, 502 dataset samples constituted the training set while the remaining 126 dataset samples served as the testing set. The results were examined according to six important measurements (accuracy ratio, precision, recall, specificity, F1 score, and Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC)). The best results were found for case A with RF (95.2%). In cases B and C, the best results were found for RF and DT (100% and 99.2%, respectively). With respect to the advanced machine learning method, the transformer fault diagnosis based on the MLMs was exceedingly more accurate in its predictions than the conventional and artificial intelligence-based methods. Full article

This work examines the potential of some of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (GCC) (Saudi Arabia (KSA), the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar (QA), Bahrain (BH), Oman (OM)), Yemen (YE), Iraq (IQ), and Jordan (JO) to use their abundant solar radiation to generate electricity through PV technology. The study is structured to help decision-makers access the necessary data related to the status of solar-energy infrastructure and power production in the study region. The study investigates current efforts to establish PV technology and the challenges hindering the development of this technology. These efforts and challenges are then benchmarked against their status in Australia, which has climate and landscape conditions similar to those of the countries in the study region. It was found that Australia is successfully adopting solar energy in households and industrial locations despite its historical reliance on fossil fuels for energy production. This offers a potential avenue for replicating the Australian model of PV development in the study region. This work also addresses the effect of natural and anthropogenic aerosols on the performance of the PV panels. Meanwhile, it also proposes a conceptual model to help local governments and decision-makers in adopting solar-energy projects in the study region. Additionally, a preliminary carbon-footprint analysis of avoided emissions from PV energy utilization compared to national grid intensity was performed for each country. Findings show that the countries in the study region have great potential for using solar energy to gradually replace fossil fuels and protect the environment. It is observed that more hours of daylight and clear-to-scattered cloud coverage help increase solar irradiance near the ground all year around. Dust and aerosol loadings, however, were found to greatly reduce solar irradiance over the GCC area, especially during large dust events. Despite the high potential for harvesting solar energy in the study region, only a handful of PV plants and infrastructural facilities have been established, mostly in the KSA, the UAE, and Jordan. It was found that there is a critical need to put in place regulations, policies, and near-future vision to support solar energy generation and reduce reliance on fossil fuels for electricity production. Full article

Photovoltaic (PV) system reliability and durability investigations are essential for industrial maturity and economic success. Recently, PV systems received much interest in Iraq due to many reasons—for instance, power shortage, global warming and pollution. Despite this interest, the precise economic implications of PV system reliability in harsh climates like Iraq remain uncertain. This work assesses the economic implications of PV system component reliability and soiling in Iraq using field experience and historical data. This study identifies the most common failure modes of PV systems installed in Iraq and similar climatic regions, and also ranks their severity. Simulations explore scenarios of PV module degradation rates, inverter lifetimes, soiling rates, and cleaning intervals, revealing that soiling has the most detrimental effect, with cleaning frequency leading to Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) losses of over 30%, depending on the location. Inverter lifetime contributes to LCOE losses between 4 and 6%, depending on the PV system’s location. This study also evaluates the impact of tilt angle as a mitigation strategy for reducing soiling loss and its economic implications, finding that installing PV modules at higher tilt angles could reduce the economic impact of soiling by approximately 4.4%. Additionally, the optimal cleaning strategy identified is fully automated dry cleaning with robots, outperforming other strategies economically. Overall, the findings highlight that the LCOE in Iraq is relatively high compared to the global weighted average for utility-scale PV systems, primarily due to high soiling and degradation rates. The LCOE varies within the country, influenced by different degradation rates. This study aims to assist PV stakeholders in Iraq and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in accurately estimating solar bankability; moreover, increasing reliability by minimizing the technical and financial risks by considering key parameters specific to these regions. Full article

Electric vehicle charging stations (EVCSs) and renewable energy sources (RESs) have been widely integrated into distribution systems. Electric vehicles (EVs) offer advantages for distribution systems, such as increasing reliability and efficiency, reducing pollutant emissions, and decreasing dependence on non-endogenous resources. In addition, vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology has made EVs a potential form of portable energy storage, alleviating the random fluctuation of renewable energy power. This paper simulates the optimal design of a photovoltaic/wind/battery hybrid energy system as a power system combined with an electric vehicle charging station (EVCS) using V2G technology in a grid-connected system. The rule-based energy management strategy (RB-EMS) is used to control and observe the proposed system power flow. A multi-objective improved arithmetic optimization algorithm (MOIAOA) concept is proposed to analyze the optimal sizing of the proposed system components by calculating the optimal values of the three conflicting objectives: grid contribution factor (GCF), levelled cost of electricity (LCOE), and energy sold to the grid (${\mathrm{E}}_{\mathrm{S}\mathrm{O}\mathrm{L}\mathrm{D}}$). This research uses a collection of meteorological data such as solar radiation, temperature, and wind speed captured every ten minutes for one year for a government building in Al-Najaf Governorate, Iraq. The results indicated that the optimal configuration of the proposed system using the MOIAOA method consists of eight photovoltaic modules, two wind turbines, and thirty-three storage batteries, while the fitness value is equal to 0.1522, the LCOE is equal to 2.66 × ${10}^{-2}$ USD/kWh, the GCF is equal to 7.34 × ${10}^{-5}$ kWh, and the ${\mathrm{E}}_{\mathrm{S}\mathrm{O}\mathrm{L}\mathrm{D}}$ is equal to 0.8409 kWh. The integration of RESs with an EV-based grid-connected system is considered the best choice for real applications, owing to their remarkable performance and techno-economic development. Full article

Due to the surge in oil prices, alternative energy sources, like solar power, are being explored to meet energy demands. Solar power is utilized in various industries, including agriculture. In Iraq and other developed countries, solar power is actively being developed due to the abundance of solar radiation. In agriculture, solar standalone pump systems with variable-speed drives are used. Electric motors operate at different speeds depending on the availability of sunlight. Inverters convert this solar energy from direct current to alternating current, enabling the powering of motors with a fixed voltage per frequency ratio and regulating motor current consumption. The variation in motor speed affects hydraulic pump efficiency and water productivity, making it crucial to optimize solar energy utilization in agriculture. The angle of inclination greatly affects the effectiveness of solar panels. The optimal tilt angle depends on location, latitude, season, and time of day. Adjusting this angle based on these factors maximizes power output. Innovative installation methods are being employed to enhance the benefits of solar power, reduce costs, and optimize sunlight capture. These methods drive sustainable development in various industries, including agriculture. Full article

For power plant networks in developing countries like Iraq, balancing electricity demand and generation continues to be a major challenge. Energy management (EM) in either demand-side (DS) or generation-side (GS) strategies, which is frequently utilized in Iraq due to a lack of adequate power generation, has a small impact on the power balancing mechanism. Most previous studies in similar countries discussed only the application of DS strategies. The purpose of this paper is to contrast and review various energy management methodologies being used in developing nations facing power outages, to be able to recommend suitable ones according to the country’s situation. To assess potential EM-based solutions to improve the total energy efficiency of the Iraqi electrical community, a thorough and methodical analysis was carried out. The main objective of this review paper is to discuss the causes of power outages and the energy management strategies addressed here as methods to mitigate or avoid power outages. Unlike existing reviews that concentrated on demand-side energy management, this study specifically focuses on power outage causes in developing countries like Iraq rather than all management strategies. It also introduces the consequences of power outages including analysis of distribution power losses, financial loss from power blackouts, and power blackouts in firms in a typical month. Therefore, it presents readers with state-of-the-art strategies and recommends a generation-based EM strategy to mitigate such issues. Full article

This study focused on exergo–conomic and parametric analysis for Taji station in Baghdad. This station was chosen to reduce the emission of waste gases that pollute the environment, as it is located in a residential area, and to increase the production of electric power, since for a long time, Iraq has been a country that has suffered from a shortage of electricity. The main objective of this work is to integrate the Taji gas turbine’s power plant, which is in Baghdad, with the Rankine cycle and organic Rankine cycle to verify waste heat recovery to produce extra electricity and reduce emissions into the environment. Thermodynamic and exergoeconomic assessment of the combined Brayton cycle–Rankine cycle/Organic Rankin cycle (GSO CC) system, considering the three objective functions of the First- and Second-Law efficiencies and the total cost rates of the system, were applied. According to the findings, 258.2 MW of power is produced from the GSO CC system, whereas 167.3 MW of power is created for the Brayton cycle (BC) under the optimum operating conditions. It was demonstrated that the overall energy and exergy efficiencies, respectively, are 44.37% and 42.84% for the GSO CC system, while they are 28.74% and 27.75%, respectively, for the Brayton cycle. The findings indicate that the combustion chamber has the highest exergy degradation rate. The exergo–economic factor for the entire cycle is 37%, demonstrating that the cost of exergy destruction exceeds the cost of capital investment. Moreover, the cost of the energy produced by the GSO CC system is USD 9.03/MWh, whereas it is USD 8.24/MWh for BC. The results also indicate that the network of the GSO CC system decreases as the pressure ratio increases. Nonetheless, the GSO CC system’s efficiencies and costs increase with a rise in the pressure ratio until they reach a maximum and then decrease with further pressure ratio increases. The increase in the gas turbine inlet temperature and isentropic efficiency of the air compressor and gas turbine enhances the thermodynamic performance of the system; however, a further increase in these parameters increases the overall cost rates. Full article

Airborne dust and dust storms are natural disasters that transport dust over long distances from the source basin, sometimes reaching hundreds of kilometers. Today, Iraq is a basin that produces dust storms that strike all neighboring countries such as Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. These storms affect the productivity and capacity of the photovoltaic modules and reduce the amount of electricity that is generated clearly. Airborne dust reduces the intensity of solar radiation by scattering and absorbing it. In addition, the dust accumulated on the photovoltaic modules causes a deterioration in their productivity. In this study, an extensive review of wind movement and its sources, especially those that hit the city of Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, was conducted. Practical experiments were also carried out during a storm to measure important variables that had not been measured practically before at this site. The experimental tests were carried out starting from 1 April 2022 and continued until 12 April. Within this period, a dust storm occurred that lasted for three consecutive days that was considered one of the most severe storms that the city of Baghdad had experienced in the last few years. Practical measurements showed a deterioration in the solar radiation intensity by up to 54.5% compared to previous days. The air temperature during the storm decreased by 21.09% compared to the days before the storm. From the measurements of ultrafine aerosol particles PM1 and PM2.5, there was a significant increase of 569.9% and 441% compared to the days before the storm, respectively. Additionally, the measurements showed an increase of 217.22% and 319.21% in PM10 and total suspended particles, respectively. Indoor performance experiments showed a deterioration of current, voltage, power and electrical efficiency by 32.28%, 14.45%, 38.52% and 65.58%, respectively, due to dust accumulated during the storm days compared to the previous days. In the outdoor experiments, the rates of deterioration of current, voltage, power and electrical efficiency were greater, reaching 60.24%, 30.7%, 62.3% and 82.93%, respectively, during the storm days compared to the days before it. During a storm, cleaning the panels is futile due to the high concentration of dust in the air, especially by water. However, the photovoltaic modules can be dry cleaned with bristle brushes after the storm has subsided. Full article

While traditional energy sources such as oil, coal, and natural gas drive economic growth, they also seriously affect people’s health and the environment. Renewable energies (RE) are presently seen as an efficient choice for attaining long-term sustainability in development. They provide an adequate response to climate change and supply sufficient electricity. The current situation in Iraq results from a decades-long scarcity of reliable electricity, which has impacted various industries, including agriculture. There are diverse prospects for using renewable energy sources to address the present power crisis. The economic and environmental impacts of renewable energy systems were investigated in this study by using the solar pumping irrigation system and nanoparticle fertilizers on agri-food production with the Farm Simulation FARMSIM model. The results show that using all REs with Carefree Water Conditioner for water treatment resulted in the highest net present value and profit compared to other scenarios. The findings, however, indicate that the All RE scenario (using a solar irrigation system with a nanoparticle fertilizer system, a low-cost technology) is the most feasible and has the highest benefit–cost ratio. Due to high initial investment costs, all traditional approaches (using traditional irrigation and fertilizer systems) had a lower benefit–cost ratio than the other scenarios. According to simulation results, all four scenarios are profitable and feasible for implementation. Full article