WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment最新文献

{"title":"UNDERSTANDING DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS OF ENERGY GOVERNANCE CONSTRAINTS IN NIGERIA: A TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE PERSPECTIVE","authors":"Aslam Kaitah, Francis B. Frimpong","doi":"10.2495/esus230031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2495/esus230031","url":null,"abstract":"Sub-Saharan nations face a plethora of constraints in advancement of their economic development, a phenomenon particularly vivid in the extractive sector. A large chunk of the limitations – inherited and retained in the post-colonial era – adversely affect an effective and efficient governance of energy and natural resources. Drawing on the case study of Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producing nation, this paper looks as to how energy governance is constrained by the historical legacy of colonialism and post-colonialism. The paper argues that the colonial legacy has had a profound impact on the effectiveness of energy governance and its institutions in the post-colonial era, in particular those confined to oil and gas. Drawing on transnational justice and energy governance theories, the paper seeks to reconcile the demands of today – including the need for improved efficiency and skilled management as well as investment liberalization and resilience of the energy system – with the colonial and post-colonial legacies that are deeply rooted in the energy sector and beyond. Using a systematic literature review method, the paper outlines its content analysis and research findings in a form of a set of recommendations addressed at the country’s policymakers and decision makers calling for a greater accountability and consistency in Nigeria’s energy policy.","PeriodicalId":35178,"journal":{"name":"WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment","volume":"49 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138602214","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"BIM-BASED MULTI-OBJECTIVE OPTIMISATION FOR SUSTAINABLE BUILDING DESIGN","authors":"Nassim Mehrvarz, Xuesong Shen, K. Barati","doi":"10.2495/esus230321","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2495/esus230321","url":null,"abstract":"The ever-increasing attention towards environmental sustainability in the building industry drives the development and adoption of energy-efficient buildings. Passive design strategies have been widely investigated, such as the building’s orientation and the material selection of both the transparent and opaque envelope components. This method involves a vast domain of design variables, which makes the design process complicated and error prone. Furthermore, enhancing the energy performance of a building might impose economic burdens, necessitating a trade-off between energy-efficient practices and cost. This paper proposes a novel methodology to integrate building information modelling (BIM) with energy simulation and optimisation engines to provide designers with a building’s energy plan at the early design stage. The model developed in this paper can reduce the complexity of the optimisation process and design errors by creating an automated workflow and lowering manual inputs. A multi-objective optimisation was carried out using the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II to achieve a balance between two conflicting objectives, namely minimising energy consumption and the life cycle cost of the building. Design variables considered include building orientation, various materials for external walls, roof, floor, window-to-wall ratio, and shading types. The effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed model were validated using a case study building located in Sydney, Australia. Following the evaluation of numerous design possibilities, the energy plan was demonstrated by utilising results derived from Pareto front solutions. The findings of this study serve to aid decision-makers in identifying optimal design solutions based on their respective priorities, thereby facilitating the delivery of a sustainable building design.","PeriodicalId":35178,"journal":{"name":"WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment","volume":"34 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138602554","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"QUANTITATIVE CHARACTERIZATION OF ADVECTIVE LOSSES IN A FALLING PARTICLE RECEIVER","authors":"Guillermo Anaya, Clifford K. Ho, Jesus Ortega, P. Vorobieff","doi":"10.2495/esus230061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2495/esus230061","url":null,"abstract":"Concentrating solar power receivers use a thermal medium for energy storage. For falling particle receivers, ceramic particles are used both as the thermal storage and transfer medium. Inside the receiver described here, a gravity-driven particle curtain is irradiated through an open cavity with about 1 MW/m 2 of concentrated sunlight provided by a heliostat field. While this design offers important advantages, including high storage temperatures, there are some challenges associated with the design, such as advective particle loss from the receiver aperture. During operation plumes of particles being expelled out of the receiver cavity can be observed, resulting in heat/mass losses and an overall decrease in efficiency. We developed a non-intrusive measurement system to estimate these advective losses from the cavity of the receiver. It is based on an application of Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) techniques to sets of thermograms obtained from a high-speed infrared camera. Both laboratory scale and field scale tests were conducted to validate the measurement process, after which we used field data to estimate efficiency losses, which proved to be modest.","PeriodicalId":35178,"journal":{"name":"WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment","volume":"34 21","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138602609","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"SUSTAINABLE HYDROGEN PRODUCTION, STORAGE AND TRANSPORT PATHWAYS","authors":"Kamiel S. Gabriel","doi":"10.2495/esus230071","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2495/esus230071","url":null,"abstract":"Hydrogen production, storage, transportation, and energy conversion constitute the foundation of a hydrogen energy system. Hydrogen is a gas that generally does not exist naturally in a pure usable form. The primary markets for this green hydrogen include the growing fuel cell transportation market with trains, trams, buses, and automobiles, as well as ammonia and the production of synthetic fuels from CO 2 . Another application that is gaining momentum in the power industry is power-to-grid (P2G), where hydrogen is injected into the natural gas distribution network as a supplementary component to offset emissions and improve the heat of combustion. Today, hydrogen is mainly manufactured using a steam methane reforming (SMR) process with natural gas as the feedstock. Currently, global hydrogen production is estimated at approximately 119 Mt H 2 /year, of which approximately 4% is produced via electrolysis, and the balance from fossil sources. There is a push for ‘blue hydrogen’, where the CO 2 produced in this process is sequestered in geological deposits; a process known as CCU (carbon capture and storage). Many countries are adopting this method of producing hydrogen at large scale including Australia, Canada, USA, Saudi Arabia, among others. The cost of production varies depending on whether or not the production is centralized or decentralized. This paper summarizes the most common methods of producing, storing and transporting hydrogen, and introduces the heat-to-hydrogen thermochemical production method.","PeriodicalId":35178,"journal":{"name":"WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment","volume":"1 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138603337","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"DO GREEN BONDS PERFORM BETTER THAN CONVENTIONAL BONDS?","authors":"Niyazi Berk, Selin Sarılı, D. C. Yildirtan","doi":"10.2495/esus230111","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2495/esus230111","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines the performance of green bonds, utilizing the Standard and Poor’s (S&P) Green Bond Index, Bloomberg Green Bond Index, S&P US Aggregate Bond Index, and Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index as benchmarks. Monthly data spanning from July 2014 to February 2023 is analyzed. Key performance ratios including the Sharpe Ratio, Treynor Ratio, and Jensen Performance Ratio are computed for portfolio comparison. Our findings indicate that the S&P Green Bond Index outperformed compared to the Bloomberg Green Bond Index. Furthermore, we calculate and regress the S&P and Bloomberg Barclay’s greenium series against the consumer price index, Federal Reserve interest rates, and S&P 500 market returns. The study’s findings indicate that higher Federal Reserve interest rates and increased market returns cause a decrease in the yield gap between conventional and green bonds. Moreover, a rise in the Consumer Price Index is caused by a widening of the yield disparity between these two types of bonds. The results highlight an average investor loss of 2% when investing in green bonds, in contrast to conventional bonds.","PeriodicalId":35178,"journal":{"name":"WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment","volume":"61 23","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138605091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"TOWARDS ACHIEVING SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH CONSTRUCTION WASTE MANAGEMENT BY INTEGRATION OF DESIGN AND BUILDING INFORMATION MANAGEMENT","authors":"Eslam M. Hassan, Mohamed A. Ibrahim, Zeyad M. Tarek","doi":"10.2495/esus230331","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2495/esus230331","url":null,"abstract":"With the rapid growth in construction activities as a result of growing population and urbanization, increase of construction material prices, lack of material resources, limited funds and environmental issues, construction waste is becoming a serious problem in Egypt and all over the world and still there is a lack of attention to such subject. The research contains a survey highlighting that at the construction stage, 68.81% of work is completed without shop drawings approval, 84.62% of specification changes, 86.54% of problems occur in construction and many other factors, so instead of handling construction waste at construction stage, as most current research has done, construction waste management must be planned at the architectural design stage, looking forward to the future of buildings as sustainable elements and how it will cost us environmentally until the construction is completed. Traditional methodology of architectural building design has been illustrated through a case study of residential building as a result a high amount of wastage, CO 2 emissions, environmental and cost impacts that have occurred. After that, an integration methodology combining architectural design for construction waste management and building information management have been implemented using building information modelling through a case study after redesigning and optimization. As a result of new architectural design methodology implementation there is minimization in CO 2 equivalent produced by 10.43% in glazing panels and 17.42% in porcelain tiles, compared to traditional methodology. The integration between building information management and design for construction waste management at design stage through sustainability approach could prevent and or minimize the environmental impacts in Egypt and many other places. It is hoped that it may provide the Egyptian government, local experts, decision makers and contractors a method to enhance, save country resources and minimize the environmental impacts of construction industry.","PeriodicalId":35178,"journal":{"name":"WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment","volume":"6 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138603597","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"PROVIDING ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT SERVICES TO NEW MEXICO’S BUSINESSES TO COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE","authors":"Patricia A. Sullivan, Jalal Rastergary, Paul Amend","doi":"10.2495/esus230181","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2495/esus230181","url":null,"abstract":"Most solutions for dealing with environmental issues and climate change are focused on a few major causes of the problem and often do not have a holistic approach. The Office of Outreach and Recruitment in the College of Engineering at New Mexico State University has been studying and providing a holistic approach to this problem by providing onsite energy and environmental assessments to businesses since 1999 under a federally funded pollution prevention grant program. The program, funded through a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, focuses on providing technical assistance, training, and educational outreach on a variety of pollution prevention (P2) and economy, environment and energy (E3) strategies to businesses, industries, and communities across the state of New Mexico and the west Texas region. The overarching goal of the program is to mitigate climate change by improving resource efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; reduce the generation of toxic and hazardous materials; conserve water and energy resources by reducing their use in manufacturing processes; and reduce organic waste disposal through organic composting projects with food manufacturing businesses. Recipients of such services have included a variety of businesses in the healthcare, agriculture, hospitality, food and beverage production and processing, and manufacturing sectors. In this paper, the P2 and E3 assessment process is described. The amount of reduction in energy, water, and waste and cost savings from one business will be presented as a case study. The methodology for the case study assessment will be presented along with industry and site-specific recommendations for realizing source reductions and cost savings.","PeriodicalId":35178,"journal":{"name":"WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment","volume":"78 15","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138604643","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"APPLYING THE LEVEL(S) INDICATOR LANGUAGE TO RESILIENT HOUSING","authors":"C. Díaz-López, Dariel López-López, A. Serrano-Jiménez, Á. Barrios-Padura, Julia HIRUELO PÉREZ, Carlos ROSA-JIMÉNEZ","doi":"10.2495/esus230261","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2495/esus230261","url":null,"abstract":"The construction sector represents an opportunity to promote urban culture change in favour of housing stock regeneration, encouraging urban interventions that extend the life of buildings in a sustainable and resilient way from the project’s design phase. Level(s) is the European Union’s new language for sustainability, circular economy, and resilience indicators. Specifically, Indicator 2.3 proposes a process that assists the design and renovation of housing in a state of obsolescence to explore its maximum resilience to climatic, functional, and socio-economic effects. The indicator is made up of objectives that allow the needs of any occupant to be met throughout the useful life while also proposing a study of the payback time of the investment. The objectives of this indicator focus on the most efficient use of space, greater longevity and operational performance of the building and the longer-term vision of the valuable life by allowing the change of use of the building. Thus, this research aims to identify a resilient housing retrofit methodology based on Level(s). The following specific objectives have been identified: (i) resilience assessment of the current state of the pilot cases using Level(s) to meet this objective; (ii) design of new resilient housing configurations and analysis of project opportunities and constraints using Level(s); and (iii) assessment of cost amortisation. The results of this research allow for the identification of a comprehensive, functional, flexible, accessible, resilient, and dynamic space refurbishment model that allows for the maximum number of configurations for the maximum number of tenants over time, considering cost reduction, time and payback.","PeriodicalId":35178,"journal":{"name":"WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment","volume":"82 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138604713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"USING CIRCULAR ECONOMY BUSINESS MODELS AND LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT TO IMPROVE THE SUSTAINABILITY OF ELEVATORS","authors":"M. Tomatis, Christian Kukura, S. Djurović, J. Apsley, D. Griffin, Jordan Griffin, Rob Corner, Laurence Stamford","doi":"10.2495/sc220431","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2495/sc220431","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35178,"journal":{"name":"WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45918473","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"LOCAL CREATIVES SUSTAINING SMALL COMMUNITIES","authors":"Andra Camelia Clițan, Andreea Sandu","doi":"10.2495/sc220161","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2495/sc220161","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35178,"journal":{"name":"WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47090881","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}