Potential energy production from organic waste and its environmental and economic impacts at a tertiary institution in Palestine

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is one of the most well-known biomass resources that can be utilized to produce renewable energy. Numerous countries are plagued by the proliferation of waste, particularly organic waste that can be utilized for energy recovery. Palestine suffers from inefficient solid waste management, and only recently have a few projects focused on bioenergy production been implemented. Throughout the years, the city of Tulkarm experiences power outages which cause a challenge to the Palestine Technical University-Kadoorie campus in Tulkarm. Thus, the possibility of energy recovery from the organic portion in Palestine Technical University-Kadoorie was evaluated. The analysis of an economic impact included discussions of a number of economic aspects, including Levelized cost of energy, internal rate of return, present worth, annual worth, and payback period. On the other hand, a carbon dioxide savings analysis and gas emission were evaluated. The outcomes of the energy optimization demonstrated that the suggested system could supply the institution with an average of roughly 7 MWh of electrical energy. According to the economic study, this project offers 0.25 million dollars in present value, 0.144 million dollars in annual value, a 13 percent internal rate of return, a payback period of 6 years, and a levelized cost of energy of 0.11 dollars for each kWh generated. Additionally, the environmental assessment revealed that this system might reduce CO₂ emissions by around 8,343,778 tons. For effective waste management, energy recovery, and emission reduction, it is advised to implement anaerobic digestion technology.     

Toward sustainable use of natural resources: Nexus between resource rents,affluence, energy intensity and carbon emissions in developing and transition economies

Sustainable use of natural resources would entail ensuring that derived economic benefits today do not undermine the welfare of generations to come. On this basis, this study examines the nexus between natural resource rents and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions disaggregated into production and consumption-based (i.e., trade-adjusted) CO₂ emissions for a selected panel of 45 developing and transition economies over the period 1995–2017. The empirical model also incorporates the impacts of population, affluence, and energy intensity. The results show that affluence increases production-based CO₂ emissions by 1.407%, with the EKC's predicted inverted U-shaped curve only explaining consumption-based CO₂ emissions. Economic reliance on natural resource rents and energy intensification contribute 0.022% and 0.766%, respectively, to CO₂ emissions embedded in territorial production inventories and 0.035% and 0.583%, respectively, to CO₂ emissions embedded in consumption inventories. The bootstrap non-causality test shows that historical data on each variable has significant predictive power for future CO₂ emissions from both sources. The historical information about natural resource rents has significant predictive power over the future levels of affluence and energy intensity. Clearly, the results show that the environmental impact of natural resource rents is stronger when CO₂ emissions are adjusted for trade and varies among the countries, with Bangladesh, Guinea, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe among the most affected countries. Overall, this study provides motivation for policies to keep the use of natural resources within sustainable limits.     

Physico-chemical characterization of Residual Household Waste for energy recovery in insular territories: Case study of Reunion Island

Waste-to-energy is a promising approach to face the current challenge of waste overproduction in Reunion Island, a French territory. In this particular context of an isolated and tropical territory, it is essential to study the properties of potential feedstocks to choose the most appropriate conversion process. This article reports on the composition of Residual Household Waste from Reunion Island and its physico-chemical parameters. Twelve representative samples of Residual Household Waste were subjected to thermal and elemental analysis. The results showed that their composition had a significant influence on the physico-chemical properties, including calorific value. Residual Household Waste from the selective sorting (rich in wood, plastic, and sanitary textiles) as well as dry mixed RHW are the most interesting for energy recovery. Due to their high volatile matter and high carbon content, and their low moisture content, these types of waste have a high calorific value exceeding 18 MJ/kg. Furthermore, the RHW sample comply with the environmental and health criteria applied by French regulations concerning halogen and heavy metal. Thus, it seems that Residual Household Waste can be an alternative to conventional fuels used in incineration or pyro-gasification processes. However, the study also points the need for a pre-treatment process for these wastes. Indeed, it is necessary to sort them correctly in order to avoid the risks of pollution and important maintenance. And more importantly, drying beforehand is unavoidable to improve combustibility and obtain optimal energy conversion.     

Cumulative carbon emissions and economic policy: In search of general principles

We exploit recent advances in climate science to develop a physically consistent, yet surprisingly simple, model of climate policy. It seems that key economic models have greatly overestimated the delay between carbon emissions and warming, and ignored the saturation of carbon sinks that takes place when the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide rises. This has important implications for climate policy. If carbon emissions are abated, damages are avoided almost immediately. Therefore it is optimal to reduce emissions significantly in the near term and bring about a slow transition to optimal peak warming, even if optimal steady-state/peak warming is high. The optimal carbon price should start relatively high and grow relatively fast.     

Forecasting China’s primary energy demand based on an improved AI model

An improved energy demand forecasting model is built based on the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach and an adaptive genetic algorithm (AGA) to obtain credible energy demand forecasting results. The ARDL bounds analysis is first employed to select the appropriate input variables of the energy demand model. After the existence of a cointegration relationship in the model is confirmed, the AGA is then employed to optimize the coefficients of both linear and quadratic forms with gross domestic product, economic structure, urbanization, and technological progress as the input variables. On the basis of historical annual data from 1985 to 2015, the simulation results indicate that the proposed model has greater accuracy and reliability than conventional optimization methods. The predicted results of the proposed model also demonstrate that China will demand approximately 4.9, 5.6, and 6.1 billion standard tons of coal equivalent in 2020, 2025, and 2030, respectively.     

Local governance of energy transition: sustainability,transactions and social ties. A case study in Northeast France

This paper tackles the process of energy transition from a transactional perspective. It addresses the governance of energy transition by studying its local actualizations, moving beyond purely technical and normative readings. The paper shows that through the local socio-technological energy systems, sustainability governance filters down to the level of individual, everyday behavior, thus questioning the link between public and private spaces, especially regarding the issue of housing. Going beyond the results commonly yielded by transition studies, which favor large-scale analysis, it details how the discourse of citizen involvement, which often boils down to a mere call to control one’s individual energy consumption, conceals environmental inequalities, confirming the socioeconomic divide materialized in deprived areas such as public housing estates or remote rural areas. From a methodological standpoint, the analysis is based on four case studies in Northeast France, in more or less privileged areas, and in both urban and rural environments: the renovation of a heating network in the public housing estate of Cité de l’Ill, north of Strasbourg; the solar energy systems designed for property owners in Plobsheim, a residential suburb of Strasbourg; the energy-efficient equipment set up in a public housing estate in the city of Saint-Dié, in the Vosges; and citizen participation in a cooperative program to finance wind turbines in the small Alsacian city of Saâles, in a mountain rural area. The paper draws on the results of these sociological investigations, carried out using field observations, questionnaires and interviews.     

Long-run dynamics of renewable energy consumption on carbon emissions and economic growth in the European union

This paper examines long-run and short-run dynamics of renewable energy consumption on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and economic growth in the European Union. This study employs cointegration tests, Granger causality tests and vector error correction estimates to examine the direction of Granger causality, the long-run dynamics of economic growth and energy variables on carbon emissions. This study analyses time series data from the World Development Indicators over the period from1961 to 2012. The results of this study support a link between renewable energy consumption, economic growth, industrialization, exports and CO₂ emissions in the long-run and short-run. The results support that the sign of the long-run dynamics from the endogenous variables to the CO₂ emissions variable is negative and significant, which implies that the energy and environmental policies of the European Union aimed at curbing CO₂ emissions must have been effective in the long-term. Furthermore, renewable energy consumption and exports have significant negative impact on CO₂ emissions in the short-run. However, industrialization and economic growth have positive impact on CO₂ emissions in the short-run. The results suggest that both economic growth and industrialization must have been achieved at the cost of harming the environment. The finding suggests that the increasing consumption of renewable energy tends to play an important role in curbing carbon emissions in the region.     

Can climate mitigation help the poor? Measuring impacts of the CDM in rural China

This study examines whether investment in climate change mitigation contributes to poverty alleviation. We investigate the impacts of the renewable energy-based clean development mechanism (RE-CDM) projects on rural communities in China. The impacts of RE-CDM projects are estimated by combining propensity score matching with the difference-in-differences approach. We found that the biomass-based CDM projects significantly contribute to income improvement and employment generation in rural communities in China. Our estimation results also reveal that wind energy-based CDM projects have the potential to increase income and the share of labor force in the primary industry in rural areas. These results suggest different channels through which renewable energy sources affect income.     

The effects of the Fukushima disaster on nuclear energy debates and policies: a two-step comparative examination

Under what conditions do critical events trigger large-scale public discussion and mobilisation, and can these lead to policy change? In a comparative study of nuclear energy policy after the Japanese Fukushima disaster in March 2011, a theory-development approach is adopted, mobilising data collected from national news agencies’ newswires, public surveys, legislation and parliamentary databases, and newspaper editorials in 12 established democracies between March 2011 and March 2013. The analysis suggests two main hypotheses that can guide future research: critical events are more likely to trigger policy change when intense (contentious) mobilisation from policy challengers aligns with the views of the general public, and is backed by major political allies; and critical events are more likely to trigger intense (contentious) mobilisation when policy challengers articulate their opposition around pre-existing policy debates on the issue and resort to pre-existing organisational and mobilisation resources.     

基于TLSER和QSPR关系预测PAHs和PCBs的LDPE膜-空气分配系数

有机污染物在被动采样材料与环境介质之间的平衡分配系数(K_P),是测定环境中有机污染物浓度的重要参数,但K_P值大部分都需要经过繁琐的实验测定获取,无法逐个测定数量繁多的污染物,因此需开发一种预测K_P值的方法。为此,搜集整理了一些多环芳香烃(PAHs)和多氯联苯(PCBs)的低密度聚乙烯(LDPE)-空气分配系数(K_PA)的实测值,基于理论线性溶解能(TLSER)和定量结构性质关系(QSPR),利用逐步多元线性回归(MLR)分别构建了预测K_PA值的模型。模型的决定系数R2adj分别为0.927和0.956,交叉验证系数Q2LOO分别为0.915和0.946,外部系数Q2ext分别为0.913和0.960。结果表明,2种模型具有良好的拟合优度、稳健性和预测能力,并解释了模型的机理。所构建的2种模型均可用来预测应用域内有机污染物的LDPE膜-空气分配系数。