Global challenges, such as climate change, population growth and resource shortages, increasingly touch upon basic human needs: the availability of adequate food, safe and sufficient fresh water, and affordable and clean energy. In order to achieve a secure and sustainable provision of these resources and to avoid trade-offs, the food-energy-water- (FEW-) nexus has been introduced as a concept to account for interlinkages and synergies.
When applying the FEW-nexus perspective to resource management problems, two dimensions of challenges become apparent. First, biophysical interconnections and dynamic resource flows between these resources are often not fully understood. Second, in terms of governance, a wide range of different authorities are currently endowed with single sectoral mandates. Furthermore, often a large number of public, private as well as non-state actors and institutions are involved, so that the decision-making landscape in resource management is highly fragmented and complex. In order to balance trade-offs and maximize synergies, both problem dimensions must be addressed. Therefore, innovative technical solutions as well as significant transitions in governance structures and institutions will become necessary.
The UN declared that a green economy has to be implemented as an institutional framework for achieving sustainable development and defined by UNEP as “an economy that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities.” The green economy incorporates also the nexus system thinking model and can “address the water, energy and food security nexus, in-line with human rights-based approaches.” The green economy should now be interpreted as a process for enabling sustainable development and one institutional response to the socio-economic and ecological challenges of the current globalized world economy. The Food Energy Water (FEW)-Nexus approach is seen as the core of the green economy.
For this transformation process towards a green economy, appropriate indicators are needed at both the macroeconomic and sectoral level for informing and guiding the transition process. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted on 25 September 2015 by the General Assembly of the United Nations are a universal agenda of sustainable development and provide indicators for measuring the success of the green economy process. The SDG9 is the reference goal to achieve inclusive and sustainable industrial development and research is emerging to define composite indices useful to monitor to what extent countries can boost industrialization by promoting environmental and social objectives.
The need to increase the sustainability and energy efficiency of buildings has led to the development and implementation of innovative buildings design criteria and standards with special attention to the integration of renewable energies, use of innovative HVAC systems and implementation of new building envelope technologies.
The goal of this special session is to present new research results, case studies and practices aimed at reducing the energy demand of residential, commercial, public, and industrial buildings, by also decreasing the related environmental impact and improving the occupants’ comfort. Specifically, the special session is dedicated to the following topics:
Hydrogen economy is the synonymous for sustainable energy system in which pure hydrogen replaces fossil fuels – hydrocarbons. In order to be successful and sustainable hydrogen economy, hydrogen should be produced using renewable energy sources. In the near future primary energy of fossil fuels should be gradually replaced with different forms of renewable and clean energy sources where hydrogen has proven to be the most suitable energy carrier. Due to automobile industries have announced increased manufacture of hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles, it gives wind back for organizing this Special Session with higher goal of networking with scientists working in this field all over the world.
Highlight of the session is on overall recent progress of hydrogen technology including hydrogen production, storage, infrastructure, and its utilization followed by discussion on codes, public acceptance, national legislations, redgulations, and directives for its introduction on global level.
At previous SDEWES conferences, the session has received a considerable attention. Many of the presenters will be soon invited to publish extended manuscripts in dedicated Special Issues of journals with a high Impact Factor, among which Applied Energy (IF2017 = 7.900), Energy (IF2017 = 4.968), Energy Conversion and Management (IF2017 = 6.377), Journal of Cleaner Production (IF2017 = 5.651).
Contemporary global interconnected crises of economy, environment, society, and institutions are getting more complex than ever, which requires urgent but well thought out measures. This session will be devoted to brainstorming, research, modeling, analysis, measurement, and assessment of technologies, economic concepts, and other activities that contribute to the transition to a sustainable knowledge society and circular economy. Special emphasis will be given to advances in applications of the blockchain, quantum communications and other related technologies for sustainable development, and to the social impact of these activities. The session is organized in cooperation with the World Academy of Art & Science, Club of Rome - European Research Centre and National Associations.
For many years, organic biowaste has been considered solely as a waste with no added value, land application being the most frequent and logical disposal issue for soil fertilization. However, in urban areas, or in countries with limited spreading-area or with surplus of nutrients in the soil, other ways of biowaste treatment and disposal are required. In addition to this, stricter regulation limits for organic micropollutants have been proposed and come into force in most of the EU countries, limiting and even banning land application in some regions. In conclusion, environmental European policies are pushing towards the recovery of resources from biowaste which starts to be seen as a permanent, valuable and non-transferable stock of organic resource that can be locally exploited.
The main objective of the proposed session is to discuss the most sustainable strategies for sewage sludge management, including treatment and disposal, considering the present state-of-art in terms of legislation, characterization, ecotoxicology, waste management and actual routes used currently in particular European countries. Decision making tools, namely End-of waste criteria (EWC) and Life cycle assessment (LCA) will allow to underline the importance of environmental, economic and technical evaluation of different management systems as well as the definition of the best available technologies for safe disposal and the appreciation of the eventual sludge potential ecotoxicity in long-term perspective. Nowadays, most Members apply legislation on a national level, while no integrated system for biowaste management is being used. The proposed session will help to establish criteria for best suitable option selection according to the requirements of circular economy in “from waste to resources” sense. It could also support the currently occurring amendment of the European Fertilizer Ordinance that will include organic fertilizer such as sludge, struvite, biochar, and ash-based materials.
The global energy demand is anticipated to grow by approximately 30% by 2040, driven primarily by developing economies with surging populations and gross domestic product growths. In parallel, water demand is projected to increase by 55% globally between 2000 and 2050, essentially contributed by industry and notably manufacturing, and the power generation and domestic sectors. While supplies need to grow to respond to the demand, lower-carbon fuels and technologies require to be deployed to limit environmental emissions and their climatic impact.
Regions exposed to hot climates, including the Mediterranean, Middle East and Asian (sub)tropics, face specific, exacerbated challenges in meeting their domestic power, cooling, food and water demands. As a result of global warming compounding population and/or economic growth, such regions are anticipated to experience increased building and industrial process cooling loads, compounded by severe water stress and a deterioration of water quality. Depending upon the type and amount of energy and water resources available locally, as well as local climatic conditions, optimal power, cooling and water technology options and their integrations in such regions will require unique, tailored solutions.
In conventional systems, energy conversion is usually performed by devices that separately produce electricity, heat, cooling energy and/or other products. This consolidated approach, while having some benefits in terms of system simplicity and reliability, is unfortunately characterized by low energy conversion efficiencies. In the past decades, due to increasing concerns about depletion and high cost of fossil fuels and greenhouse gases emissions, new energy paradigms have been emerging, aimed at improving systems efficiency and sustainability, simultaneously reducing their environmental impacts. A most proming solution consists of designing more integrated energy systems combining different devices, maximizing the utilization of energy inputs (either from renewable or fossil sources) and limiting any possible energy waste. Polygeneration is the combined production of multiple types of energy (e.g. electricity, heat and cool) and material products (e.g., desalted water, hydrogen, glycerine, ammonia,etc.). Polygeneration systems can be based on either renewable (solar, wind, hydro, biomass and geothermal) and fossil fuels-based (reciprocating engines, combined cycles, etc.) technologies. However, in order to favour their viability and increase their penetration, such systems must be designed to properly match the demand profile of electricity, heat, cooling and products, thus minimizing the mismatch between production and load. In the civil sector this goal can be challenging when a single residential user (like a detached house) or a single building (with multiple apartments) must be supplied, while more favourable conditions can be achieved by installing a larger polygeneration system and supplying hot and/or cold water to a large number of costumers via small-to-medium scale district heating/cooling networks. In order to increase the flexibility of operation of polygeneration systems and achieve higher efficiency and economic profitability, thermal (sensible, latent and chemical) and electrical storage systems (battery, supercapacitors, super wheel, CAES, mini-hydro) can be integrated and appropriate control systems designed. Polygeneration is a key technology to promote Distributed Generation, which is attracting increasing attention due to its unquestionable benefits in terms of reduction of transportation losses and increased use of local resources.
In this framework, this Special Session aims at collecting recent studies and contributions focused on polygeneration systems, eventually integrated with small-to-medium scale district heating and cooling networks. Manuscripts focused on crucial aspects like systems modeling, control strategies and experimental analysis at whole-system, single-component levels and integration of polygeneration systems with energy networks are welcomed. Also, studies including thermoeconomic analyses and single- or multi-objective optimizations are well targeted for the Session.
Over the last century, the increase in global population and economic activities has been accompanied with an increase in the demand for resources including metallic minerals, non-metallic minerals, biomass, and fossil fuel, and consequently an increase in environmental, economic and social pressure. The issues of sustainability have been addressed recently in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) formulated by the United Nations. Several of the SDGs are either directly relate to resource sustainability or require adequate supply of resources to be achieved. While the energy-land-water nexus has received significant attention in other sessions of the conference, this session focus on the material-energy nexus.
For the energy system, metals are significant for technologies used in both the demand and supply side of energy, either as important parts of these technologies or to enhance their efficiencies. On the supply side, metals are required for all energy production and storage technologies, especially in the transition to a low carbon society to tackle climate change. On the demand side, several technologies proposed for possible energy reduction in different sectors require the use of specific metals. Restrictions in the supply of those materials may significantly influence technology choice and the realization of several scenarios which aim at limiting the increase in average global temperature to 2 °C or below compared with pre-industrial levels including those proposed by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and other national and international organizations.
In recent years, it is more and more evident that the civilization expansion, correlated with the global energy consumption, is affecting the climate change. Most of the energy is still being extracted by combusting the fossil fuels, releasing a vast amount of the environmentally dangerous greenhouse gases. The most prominent approach to mid-term emission reduction is the improvement of existing technologies. Such an approach does not require a significant investment in infrastructure and can enable the desired reduction of harmful gases. In the advancement of transport and energy production sectors, there are still technical challenges to be solved, and most are related to physical and chemical phenomena accruing in the combustion chambers. Therefore, the main objective of this special session is to bring together the scientists, researchers, and experts to exchange and share their experiences, new ideas, and research results about all aspects of combustion science, sustainable combustion technologies, and multiphase flow related topics: fundamental physical and chemical aspects of traditional and novel fuel sources; reaction kinetics, combustion emissions, pollutants, soot and particulates; IC engine combustion; gas turbine combustion; furnace combustion; dual fuel, ammonia, coal, biomass, biofuel and waste combustion; multiphase flows and sprays, fuel introduction methods, fuel dispersion, droplet interactions; particle technology, gasification and pyrolysis; new combustion technologies.
Built environment is a focal point of human socioeconomic activities and represents one of the biggest global economy sectors, which creates its inseparable connection to socioeconomic influence and general development of the society. Furthermore, the activities related to building life cycle raise severe concerns about the local and global environment situation all over the world, which calls for urgent actions to adopt and achieve the ecologically respectful design. Apart from the above stated, several other facts justifying the building functionality, structural stability, safety and predominately the indoor environment quality have a direct influence on well-being of its users, represent a strong argument supporting the need for innovative design solutions for sustainable built environment. Looking for holistic problem-solving in building construction requires integration of knowledge from various disciplines that need to undergo mutual integration and constant upgrading in order to be used in design process of contemporary sustainable built environments. In this context, the special session will focus on innovative design solutions for existing buildings and new construction considering the following themes: energy-efficient building design, LCA and LCC of buildings, adaptation of building design to climate change, indoor environment quality, integration of structural, functional and energy efficiency design requirements, contemporary building materials, design of smart building envelopes and structures.
The sea represents a huge resource for renewable energy (Blue Energy - BE). BE is the energy which can be harnessed from the ocean or the marine wind and it is comprised of five main types according to the origin of the extracted power, namely marine (offshore) wind, surface waves, tides/currents, and thermal and salinity gradients. Although the growth of offshore renewable energy technologies has so far been relatively slow compared to those onshore, it is anticipated that in the future BE will substantially contribute to the energy demands of coastal and insular areas, at the same time protecting and conserving the marine environment.
The Blue Growth Strategy proposed by the Commission in 2014 emphasized that harnessing the economic potential of BE in a sustainable manner represents a key policy area for the EU, which requires the involvement of the widest possible range of stakeholders in order to optimize capacity building and to achieve the necessary critical mass. The BE sector was, in fact, indicated as one of five developing areas in the ‘blue economy’ that could drive the creation high-quality jobs and pave the way for a new breed of science-trained professionals, enhancing eco-efficient value creation all along the value and supply chain. Moreover, exploiting this indigenous resource would help reduce the EU dependence on fossil fuels for electricity generation, and enhance energy security. In particular, islands and remote coastal regions can especially benefit from BE development, as it would provide a viable alternative to expensive and heavily polluting fossil fuelled plants, and contribute to their energy self-sufficiency.
As the consumption of the finite resources of fossil fuels continues, the world must meet the challenges associated with energy depletion. On the one hand, many countries advocate the development and utilization of renewable energy sources. On the other hand, the efficiency of the energy and propulsion systems should be improved to reduce the energy consumption. Among these processes, the operating temperature in these processes becomes higher and higher to meet the requirements of high efficiency. This special session will provide a forum to discuss about the recent developments for the high temperature and high flux heat transfer process and enhancement in various applications. The discussion topics are:
Concerns about adverse environmental and social consequences of fossil fuels usage and their finite nature have been voiced intermittently for decades. Development of new strategies for diversification and security of energy supply, mainly focused on using existing local sources, has underpinned the scientific agenda for more than 30 years.
The hydrogen economy has been one of the main strategies proposed for decarbonisation of the power sector since hydrogen is environmentally clean fuel, which yields only water and energy when oxidized. Despite the environmental advantages, hydrogen has poor volumetric energy density and a low flash point, presenting technical and economic issues associated with its storage and distribution at a large scale including hard to handle infrastructures that would be required to properly store and distribute the chemical in a safe way, excluding the expenses that will be needed to ensure its safe use.
Smart cities and smart islands have both overlapping and differentiating points. Both initiatives aim for establishing more climate resilient, environmentally sustainable, socially inclusive and economically affordable areas by utilizing IT intelligent solutions. Moreover, they can both vary greatly in their size. On the other hand, while cities are usually densely populated and more homogenous, islands are often less densely populated and located further away from other populated regions, increasing the complexity of infrastructure connections with the outside world.
This special session focuses more closely on energy systems modelling, integration of smart solutions into energy models and energy transition of islands and cities. Furthermore, the focus will be put on the role of ICT in development and operation of future energy systems based on integration of high share of variable renewable energy sources, as well as establishing the key performance indicators for smart islands and smart cities. Finally, evaluating socio-economic conditions for energy transition of cities and islands and opportunity costs of maintaining business-as-usual energy systems will be compared. Papers focusing on ecological and environmental issues in energy transition of islands and cities are also welcome.
In general agreement all predictions mention an increasing energy demand for the next decades. Many institutions consider carbon capture techniques to be relevant to achieve a reliable energy supply. Different technical approaches are available which can be used for carbon capture processes. Some of these techniques have already been realized in first industrial scale plants, others are still developed on the pilot scale. Carbon capture in industrial processes like calcination of minerals or iron ore reduction is an additional need as carbon dioxide emissions coming from material processing have a non-negligible share of greenhouse gas emissions.
This special section is open to actual research which is related to carbon capture technologies, i.e. oxyfuel combustion, pre- or post-combustion capture or looping processes. Experimental and numerical investigations on sequestration techniques, details thereof as well as carbon storage and utilization can be presented.
