Search Results (1,604)

This study presents a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) of a conventional wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD) process and two carbonate-melt-based FGD configurations (CMFGD-H and CMFGD-T), based on a functional unit of 1 kg SO₂ removed. Process-level life cycle inventory (LCI) data were generated using process simulation to ensure consistency and comparability across all systems. The results indicate that both CMFGD configurations significantly reduce environmental impacts in terms of global warming potential (GWP), fine particulate matter formation (PM), and terrestrial acidification (TA) compared to the conventional FGD process. Specifically, GWP decreased from 177.75 kg CO₂ eq to 37.47 and 35.68 kg CO₂ eq for CMFGD-H and CMFGD-T, respectively. Similar reductions were observed for PM and TA, primarily due to the elimination of limestone consumption, the absence of gypsum waste generation, and reduced direct process emissions. Hotspot analysis revealed that direct CO₂ emissions dominate GWP across all configurations, whereas PM and TA are influenced by both direct emissions and upstream energy supply. In the CMFGD systems, environmental burdens shift from direct emissions toward upstream processes, particularly electricity and hydrogen production, highlighting the importance of energy system characteristics. However, a clear trade-off was identified in fossil resource scarcity (FRC), which increased significantly for CMFGD configurations (1.858–1.976 kg oil eq) compared to the conventional process (0.128 kg oil eq). This increase is primarily attributed to greater dependence on upstream energy supply chains, including fossil-based electricity, fuel, and hydrogen production. Sensitivity analysis further indicates that FRC is configuration-dependent, with hydrogen consumption dominating in CMFGD-H and CO utilization playing a more significant role in CMFGD-T. Nevertheless, even with reductions in these key parameters, FRC remains substantially higher than that of the conventional process, indicating that this impact is fundamentally governed by upstream energy dependency rather than individual process variables. The results demonstrate that CMFGD technologies offer substantial environmental benefits in terms of emission-related impacts but may increase resource depletion. These findings highlight that achieving sustainable CMFGD systems requires an integrated approach that combines process optimization with low-carbon and resource-efficient energy supply. Full article

This study examines the long- and short-run effects of sustainable development, economic growth, energy consumption, urbanization, investment and trade openness on Carbon Dioxide Emissions (CO₂) in the GCC countries utilizing the PMG-ARDL approach by including the data spanning from 2000 to 2022. In the short -run, the sustainable development index demonstrates a positive and substantial impact while it exhibits adverse long-run impact on CO₂ emission. The study also indicates a U-shaped correlation between economic growth and emissions, contrasting with the conventional Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) where economic growth at lower income levels often leads to a reduction in emissions; however, income increases beyond around USD 29,942 per capita correlate with higher emissions. Besides, energy use is identified as the primary factor influencing emissions, reflecting global patterns that indicate greater energy usage, particularly from fossil fuels directly boosts emissions. Moreover, the urbanization intensifies this problem, resulting in higher energy demand and greater emissions. Additionally, the study finds that gross capital formation and investments in infrastructure contribute to emissions in the short run, though these effects diminish over time. Our results are robust as it similar to the outcomes obtained from dynamic panel-data System GMM. The GCC policymakers must utilize the sustainable development framework to legally mandate national planning towards low-carbon paths while balancing for short-term transition costs with significant long-run emission reductions. This necessitates the implementation of market-oriented carbon pricing to address the post-threshold U-shaped emissions rebound, the systematic elimination of fossil fuel subsidies to promote renewable energy adoption, and the enforcement of sustainable development regulations to mitigate urbanization pressures. Full article

Accurate forecasting of hourly electricity consumption is critical for smart grid management, energy market operations, national policy planning, and—particularly for import-dependent economies such as Türkiye—energy security. This study presents, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the first systematic benchmark of four state-of-the-art time series architectures—TimesNet, PatchTST, iTransformer, and Temporal Fusion Transformer (TFT)—conducted specifically on a national-scale Turkish multivariate energy dataset from the Energy Exchange Istanbul (EPİAŞ), covering 72,322 hourly observations across 15 generation, consumption, and market-clearing price variables from January 2018 to April 2026. While benchmark studies of Transformer-based architectures exist on general time-series datasets, no prior work has applied this specific combination of architectures to the EPİAŞ dataset under unified experimental conditions with an explicit energy-security interpretation. All models were trained under standardized preprocessing (StandardScaler), a 24 h lookback window, and systematic hyperparameter optimization. Experimental results demonstrate that iTransformer achieves the best predictive performance (MAE = 521.34 MWh, RMSE = 748.12 MWh, R² = 0.9881, MAPE = 1.34%), followed by TFT (R² = 0.9863) and PatchTST (R² = 0.9844). TimesNet, while the most computationally efficient, achieves an R² of 0.9791. Beyond predictive benchmarking, this study situates the findings within Türkiye’s energy security agenda: the dataset captures fossil fuel dependency, the growing share of domestic renewables, and market-clearing price dynamics shaped by geopolitical shocks, including the Russo–Ukrainian war and evolving EU–Türkiye energy relations. Comprehensive analysis of model architectures, attention mechanisms, temporal feature importance, and computational efficiency is provided. These findings establish a rigorous baseline for deploying modern sequence models in large-scale, real-time national energy forecasting systems that serve both market-efficiency and strategic-energy-autonomy objectives. The results specifically highlight how high-fidelity forecasting can serve as a risk-mitigation tool against geopolitical supply disruptions by quantifying the impact of domestic renewable integration. Full article

This study investigates the relationship between energy consumption and ecological sustainability in South Africa over the period 1990–2023, with a particular focus on the roles of renewable energy consumption, non-renewable energy consumption, and economic growth. Ecological sustainability is proxied by the Load Capacity Factor (LCF), a comprehensive measure that captures the balance between biocapacity and environmental pressure. The study employs the Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) model to capture both short-run and long-run asymmetric effects, decomposing renewable energy consumption into positive and negative shocks to identify nonlinear dynamics. Descriptive statistics reveal moderate stability in the LCF, increasing adoption of renewable energy, sustained economic growth, and persistent dependence on fossil fuels. Unit root tests confirm mixed integration orders, justifying the use of the NARDL framework. Empirical results indicate that positive shocks in renewable energy consumption significantly enhance ecological sustainability, while negative shocks reduce the LCF, highlighting the asymmetric impact of renewable energy. Non-renewable energy consumption exhibits a statistically significant long-run association with ecological sustainability, reflecting South Africa’s continued structural dependence on fossil-fuel-based energy systems during the study period. Granger causality tests show that renewable energy and non-renewable energy consumption are key drivers of ecological sustainability, whereas economic growth and environmental conditions exhibit bidirectional feedback. The findings provide evidence for the strategic importance of promoting renewable energy adoption, reducing fossil fuel reliance, and integrating sustainability considerations into economic planning. Policy recommendations emphasize investment in renewable energy infrastructure, incentives for green energy adoption, and the integration of environmental objectives into economic development strategies to enhance South Africa’s ecological resilience. Full article

Agrivoltaics is a promising technique, especially in view of the rapid population growth associated with the expansion of cultivated areas to satisfy the food demands of the population, and the increase in solar power plants, which require considerable space to supply the population with energy. Thus, the transition from agricultural to agrivoltaics systems and the transition from PV power plants to agrivoltaics systems can enable more efficient use of land for energy and agricultural production. However, the configuration of agrivoltaics systems, namely panel elevation, spacing between panels and between rows of panels, and panel size, defines the amount of material used. As a result, configuration can have a major impact on the environment. The aim of this study is to highlight the environmental impact from converting 1 ha of land used entirely for agricultural production to 1 ha of an agrivoltaic system, and from converting 1 ha of land used entirely for solar photovoltaic energy production to 1 ha of an agrivoltaic system through a life cycle assessment. Three different configurations of agrivoltaics systems are considered to assess the environmental potential of agrivoltaics configurations. This analysis is performed with SimaPro 9.4 software, using the ReCiPe Midpoint (H) method and the Eco-invent database. The study determined impacts on global warming, stratospheric ozone depletion, ionizing radiation, ozone formation, mineral resource scarcity, fossil resource scarcity, water consumption, and land use through the determination of the Land Equivalent Ratio (LER). The results show that impacts are highest for PV power plants, followed by the agrivoltaic system with the largest PV panels for all indicators, except for stratospheric ozone depletion, where impacts are highest for agrivoltaics and agricultural use systems. The results of the land evaluation showed that the agrivoltaic system Case 3 gave the best performance, with a Land Equivalent Ratio of 148.7%. Full article

The building sector accounts for nearly 30% of global energy use and 28% of CO₂ emissions, with residential buildings in Canada contributing about 17% of national energy demand. In cold regions such as Labrador, approximately 82% of this consumption is associated with space heating and domestic hot water, making heating the dominant residential load, while fossil-fuel furnaces and electric baseboard heaters remain common. These conditions highlight the need for efficient and sustainable heating alternatives for cold-climate residential buildings. This study examines the design and performance of a hybrid solar photovoltaic (PV) and geothermal heat pump (GTHP) system for a typical detached home in L’Anse-au-Loup, Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada (51.52° N, 56.84° W), with the goal of improving energy efficiency and reducing dependence on the electrical grid. Heating and cooling loads were developed using the Hourly Analysis Program (HAP 6.1), while system operation and economic performance were assessed through the Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables (HOMER Pro 3.18.3). The proposed design combines a rooftop PV array, a ground-source heat pump, and second-life lithium-ion batteries repurposed from retired electric vehicles to lower costs and support short-term energy storage. The system is modelled under grid-connected conditions to reflect realistic operation for northern households. Results show that the hybrid system can meet annual electrical and thermal needs while reducing grid consumption by more than half. Annual carbon emissions decrease by roughly 4–5 tonnes, and repurposed batteries offer a cost-effective alternative to new storage. Overall, the study demonstrates that PV–GTHP systems can provide reliable, efficient, and practical energy solutions for cold-climate homes. Full article

The decarbonisation of the building sector represents a key challenge for the European energy transition, particularly in the heating segment, which is still largely dependent on fossil fuels. In this context, data centres (DCs) offer a promising opportunity as local sources of recoverable waste heat. This study investigates the use of data centre waste heat for building heating through a comparative annual energy analysis applied to two building typologies in a Mediterranean climate (Italy): a residential building and a school. Three scenarios are considered: non-integrated scenario S0 (data centre with its own cooling system and buildings with gas-fired boilers), non-integrated scenario S1 (data centre with its own cooling system and buildings with air-to-water heat pumps), and integrated scenario S2 (data centre cooling system coupled with the buildings through waste heat recovery and heat pump technology). A theoretical 300 kW data centre was considered as the waste heat source. The integrated scenario significantly improves system performance. In the residential case, the seasonal COP increases from 2.15 to 4.50, reducing electricity consumption from 289.5 MWh to 128.9 MWh. In the school case, the COP increases from 2.51 to 8.00, with electricity consumption decreasing from 161.3 MWh to 49.1 MWh. These improvements lead to reductions in non-renewable primary energy demand of up to 63% and 79% for the residential and school buildings, respectively, compared to the baseline scenario. The results demonstrate that data centres can act as decentralised thermal sources, supporting the transition towards low-carbon and Nearly Zero-Energy Buildings. Full article

The mitigation of anthropogenic climate change caused by fossil fuel combustion is a critical global challenge that necessitates a transition to renewable energy systems. Bioethanol represents a major renewable fuel, but first-generation production relies on edible feedstocks, which raises concerns regarding food security. Consequently, research is shifting toward second-generation bioethanol produced from abundant non-edible lignocellulosic biomass sources. This review comprehensively examines the potential of Candida krusei (synonyms: Pichia kudriavzevii, Issatchenkia orientalis) to serve as an alternative biocatalyst for second-generation bioethanol production. Compared with the first-generation bioethanol-producing yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, C. krusei exhibits superior physiological traits, such as thermo, acid, and inhibitor tolerances, enabling the utilization of several lignocellulosic feedstocks. This review summarizes the taxonomic and physiological characteristics of C. krusei, describes case studies on bioethanol production, and discusses strategies for reducing production costs. Furthermore, the technical and biosafety challenges associated with the industrial deployment of C. krusei are critically examined, including xylose metabolism limitations, scale-up constraints, and the management of its opportunistic pathogenic nature. A life cycle assessment perspective suggests that the unique physiological properties of C. krusei contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption throughout the entire production process, from pretreatment to downstream ethanol recovery. Full article

Climate change represents a major threat to environmental sustainability by accelerating ecological degradation and undermining long-term economic resilience, particularly in emerging economies. Motivated by the growing policy need to understand how energy structure and socioeconomic conditions shape environmental outcomes, this study examines the impact of energy consumption, structural change, human capital, financial development, and political risk on the ecological footprint of Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Türkiye (MINT economies). Guided by an extended Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework, the study examines whether environmental degradation follows a nonlinear trajectory in response to energy consumption, rising at the initial stages of energy expansion due to dominant scale effects, but declining beyond a critical threshold as efficiency gains, technological progress, and structural adjustments begin to offset environmental pressures. Energy consumption is disaggregated into oil-based energy, natural gas, and renewable energy to capture their distinct environmental effects. The empirical analysis employs the Panel-Corrected Standard Errors estimator as the baseline approach, complemented by Feasible Generalized Least Squares and Generalized Method of Moments estimators to ensure robustness and to address potential endogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. The results show that renewable energy and oil consumption exhibit inverted U-shaped relationships with environmental degradation, indicating nonlinear threshold effects consistent with EKC-type adjustments. In contrast, natural gas consumption demonstrates a predominantly linear and environmentally deteriorating effect, with no statistically significant turning point. Economic growth consistently intensifies environmental pressure, confirming the dominance of scale effects in rapidly industrializing economies. Structural change and human capital contribute to environmental improvement under certain specifications, while political risk exacerbates environmental degradation. Meanwhile, financial development shows an insignificant negative impact on environmental degradation. The results emphasize the importance of accelerating renewable energy expansion beyond critical penetration thresholds while progressively reducing fossil fuel dependence and strengthening institutional frameworks to ensure that economic growth translates into sustained environmental improvement. Full article

Energy plays an essential role in economic advancement for any nation. However, escalating worldwide energy demands coupled with environmental and climate change issues resulting from the excessive consumption of conventional energy sources highlight the importance of identifying sustainable energy resource alternatives. Jordan, with its very limited fossil-fuel resources, is actively expanding its energy mix by investing in renewable sources, particularly wind energy. Therefore, the current work provides an evaluation of the wind power potential of Gharandal town within Tafila governorate, in southern Jordan, using hourly wind data recorded at 90 m elevation within a one-year monitoring period. The investigation reveals that the Weibull distribution more accurately models the wind speed in Tafila compared to the Rayleigh distribution based on parameters estimated through the maximum likelihood approach. The investigation at 90 m also shows that the annual wind power is 296 W/m², indicating that Tafila has marginal suitability for wind potential (Class 2) under the Pacific Northwest Laboratory classification system and has fairly good and suitable conditions for installing a wind farm per the European Wind Energy Association classification system. Most of the time, the prevailing winds at Tafila originate from the west direction (i.e., 270°), accounting for 23% of all occurrences. Finaly, the Tafila region contains promising areas for wind energy generation, particularly with the implementation of modern wind turbine technologies. Full article

To address the dual dilemmas of energy shortage and environmental pollution caused by excessive consumption of fossil fuels, semiconductor photocatalysis has been regarded as a promising sustainable technical route. As a novel metal-free polymeric semiconductor, graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) has become a benchmark material in photocatalysis due to its suitable visible light response, excellent band structure, high stability, and low-cost raw materials. This review systematically elaborates the structural characteristics, photocatalytic mechanism and mainstream synthetic methods of g-C₃N₄, summarizes the performance optimization strategies, sorts out its application progress in environmental remediation and energy conversion, analyzes the core bottlenecks of current research and prospects the future directions, providing a systematic reference for the fundamental research and industrial application of g-C₃N₄-based photocatalysts. Full article

Life expectancy is a key indicator of public health and sustainable development in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, where rapid economic growth, urbanization, and fossil-fuel dependence create environmental and health challenges. This study examines the determinants of life expectancy in six Gulf Cooperation Council countries from 2000 to 2023, focusing on death rates, renewable energy consumption, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita growth, government health expenditure, and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. The empirical strategy combines cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity tests, second-generation panel unit root tests, panel cointegration analysis, and a dynamic System Generalized Method of Moments (System GMM) estimator, with Driscoll–Kraay fixed-effects estimates used for robustness. The results show that higher death rates significantly reduce life expectancy, whereas renewable energy consumption and government health expenditure improve longevity. GDP per capita growth has a modest positive effect, while CO₂ emissions negatively affect life expectancy, confirming the adverse public health consequences of environmental degradation. Robustness checks support the reliability of the main findings. Overall, the evidence highlights the need for integrated policies that combine clean energy transition, stronger environmental regulation, preventive healthcare investment, and sustainable urban development to improve long-term health outcomes in resource-dependent economies in the region. Full article

Decarbonization strategies, driven by rising global energy demand and climate change goals, focus on reducing carbon use in energy sources. This study aims to examine the thermodynamic performance of two different heating technologies—a natural gas boiler and an electric heat pump—that provide 100 kW of useful heat at a temperature of 60 °C under the same operating conditions. A combined evaluation of energy and exergy analyses shows that electric heat pumps are superior to natural gas boilers in both quantitative and qualitative terms. Energy consumption is reduced by approximately 74%, while exergy loss decreases by more than 80%. Comparative analysis revealed that the electric heat pump requires almost four times less exergy input than a boiler to produce the same amount of useful heat. The results indicate that the electric heat pump provides substantial benefits when assessed in terms of decarbonization. Under the same conditions, the heat pump emits 12.9 kg of CO₂ compared to 22.4 kg from the natural gas boiler, resulting in approximately a 42.7% reduction in emissions. These findings indicate that substituting fossil fuel thermal systems with efficient electric technologies is crucial for the thermodynamic decarbonization of heat processes. Full article

This paper presents the main results of a fleet-level assessment of H₂-powered aircraft defined within the H2Avia research project, focusing on their energy performance and climate impact. The assessment is based on a global, long-term fleet evolution framework using scenario-based inputs for an in-house model which applies linear optimization to minimize the energy component of direct operating costs and the climate impact of a global fleet. Different transition scenarios from fossil-based aviation toward an H₂-powered aviation system are evaluated. The main findings show that H₂-based scenarios result in up to 15% higher block energy consumption at the fleet level compared with an SAF-based baseline in 2050, while providing the highest potential for a climate impact reduction of up to 60% relative to the same baseline. However, this benefit depends strongly on the inclusion and modeling of non-CO₂ effects for hydrogen, as well as on the weighting between energy cost and climate impact-driven objectives. The findings demonstrate the added value of an integrated assessment framework for capturing long-term fleet evolution and enabling rapid evaluation of emerging aircraft technologies in support of climate-neutral aviation strategies. Full article

Decarbonizing industrial energy consumption is critical for global sustainability. This study evaluates renewable energy alternatives to replace fossil-fuel power generation at an oil and gas facility in Khurais, KSA. A comparative thermodynamic and economic assessment was performed between a photovoltaic (PV) array and a parabolic trough collector (PTC) integrated with a Brayton cycle (BC) and a bottoming organic Rankine cycle (RC). The PTC-BC-RC model includes multi-generation capabilities for electricity, process hot water, and hydrogen via a PEM electrolyzer. The baseline PTC-BC-RC system generates up to 118.1 MW with a maximum thermal efficiency of 36.57%. The PEM electrolyzer utilizes 2% of the generated power to produce hydrogen at 0.0152 kg/s. Economically, the recuperated CSP system offsets its higher initial capital costs through diverse revenue streams (power, heat, and hydrogen), achieving a payback period of 5.13 years, significantly outperforming the PV system’s 6.80 years. Both configurations mitigate annual emissions by 747,000 tons of CO₂, 103.4 tons of NO_x, and 3.72 tons of SO₂. Despite regional limitations such as dust and water scarcity, the multi-generation PTC-BC-RC system proves economically and thermodynamically superior to the standalone PV system, offering a highly effective decarbonization strategy for industrial facilities in arid, high-irradiance zones. Full article