Energy use in the production of desirable output often results in the generation of undesirable emission with detrimental impact on the environment, and whose disposal is frequently monitored by ...public authorities. Previous studies, however, paid little attention to undesirable output and environmental regulation related to its disposal while estimating energy use efficiency. Analysis of energy efficiency ignoring undesirable output could result in biased estimates of efficiency. Thus the aim of this paper is to estimate energy use efficiency in the presence of energy related undesirable emission by taking Indian cement industry as a suitable context of my analysis. Depending on the presence and absence of undesirable output and environmental regulation, three measures of efficiency have been estimated at the state level from 2000–01 to 2004–05 by applying Data Envelopment Analysis. Energy efficiency is defined as the ability of the producer to reduce the energy input to the largest extent possible, conditional on the given level of output and non-energy inputs. Empirical results reveal that energy efficiency estimates are biased if only desirable output is considered. Results also demonstrate that environmental regulation has a reinforcing effect on energy use efficiency.
This work proposes an innovative method for adjusting the natural gas from the grid to the consumer pipeline requirements in a full-scale pressure reduction station. The use of two counterflow vortex ...tubes instead of the traditional boiler to preheat the gas before throttling is demonstrated as a powerful alternative. Thus, a reduction of fossil fuel consumption is reached, which amounts to 7.1% less COsub.2 emitted. To ensure the optimal configuration, the vortex tube was thoroughly characterized in laboratory facilities using nitrogen as the working fluid. Various operating conditions were tested to determine the most efficient setup. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were conducted with nitrogen to validate the behavior of the vortex tube. Subsequently, the working fluid was switched to methane to assess the performance differences between the two gases. Finally, the vortex tubes were deployed at a full-scale installation and tested under real consumption demand. The results obtained from this study offer promising insights into the practical implementation of the proposed method for adjusting the natural gas flow, highlighting its potential for reducing fossil fuel consumption and minimizing COsub.2 emissions. Further improvements and refinements can be made based on these findings.
The current study presents the mitigation of Nigerian economic performance and ecological footprint with other selected variables in ascertainment of the contribution of the country in global fight ...to reduce global warming amidst competitive economic operations. The motivation behind this is due to the fact that the country's economy is majorly relying on two major sectors which are considered as emission-induced sectors. These sectors (petroleum and agricultural sector) are characterized by the excessive utilization of non-renewable sources of energy in operations. The findings from this study, both from the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Granger Causality (GC) perspectives aligns with the first stage of the theory (scale effect). Hence, both the economic growth and ecological footprint are increasing in the same pace. Among the findings from the ARDL regression are: a positive relation among income (GDP per capita) and the selected independent variables (ecological footprint, agric, FDI, energy use). Also, a negative relationship is revealed amid income and population of the country The findings from the causality test are: A one-way (Uni-directional) transmission is passed from economic growth (GDP per capita) to ecological footprint, from energy use to ecological footprint, from population to ecological footprint, from economic growth to energy use and from population to economic growth. It is evident that almost all the variables are causing the ecological footprint which aligns with the findings on ARDL regression. This has paved way for a well-articulated policy framing from the authorities of Nigeria with focus on the operations of both petroleum and agriculture. From the findings of this study, a well-structured policy is expected to be framed to curtail the growth based emissions in the Nigeria.
The graphical abstract depicts mostly the causality that exist among the variables of the study. The transmission is depicted with the red arrows that are pointing from one variable to other. Hence, a one-way (Uni-directional) transmission is passed from economic growth (GDP) to ecological footprint, from energy use to ecological footprint, from population to ecological footprint, from economic growth to energy use and from population to economic growth. Display omitted
•A sustainable study of economic growth and development amidst ecological footprint: New insight from Nigerian Perspective.•Long and short-run pollutant emissions decomposition in Nigeria.•FDI, agriculture and energy consumption & Ecological footprint influence GDP•Causality passing from (agric, fdi, energy use and population) to ecological footprint•Nexus among the selected variables is established
Recent measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies by Planck provide a sensitive probe of dark matter annihilation during the cosmic dark ages, and specifically constrain the ...annihilation parameter functionof sub(eff) left angle bracketsigmaupsilonright angle bracket/m sub( chi ). Using new results (paper II) for the ionization produced by particles injected at arbitrary energies, we calculate and provide functionof sub(eff) values for photons and e super(+) e super(-) pairs injected at keV-TeV energies; the functionof super(eff) value for any dark matter model can be obtained straightforwardly by weighting these results by the spectrum of annihilation products. This result allows the sensitive and robust constraints on dark matter annihilation presented by the Planck collaboration to be applied to arbitrary dark matter models with s-wave annihilation. We demonstrate the validity of this approach using principal component analysis. As an example, we integrate over the spectrum of annihilation products for a range of Standard Model final states to determine the CMB bounds on these models as a function of dark matter mass, and demonstrate that the new limits generically exclude models proposed to explain the observed high-energy rise in the cosmic ray positron fraction. We make our results publicly available at http://nebel.rc.fas.harvard.edu/epsilon.
Display omitted
•Energy and life cycle assessment of walnut are computed by IMPACT 2002+.•MOICA is used to optimize output energy and total weighted damages.•Gasoline and On-Orchard emissions are the ...most effective factors in energy and LCA.•MOICA can save total energy and damages by about 19316 MJ ha−1 and 1.47 Pt.•Gasoline and ecosystem quality have most potential in saving by MOICA.
Although the agricultural sector is an important source of bioenergy production, this production can be considered sustainable when energy consumed and environmental emissions are optimal. As such, the assessment of energy flow, environmental emissions of walnut orchards in Alborz province of Iran and their simultaneous optimization by multi-objective imperialist competitive algorithm are the main goals of this investigation. Input-output energy analysis, IMPACT 2002+ method of life cycle assessment, and multi-objective imperialist competitive algorithm are used in the energy-environmental evaluation for optimization in this study. Results ascertain that energy uses of the entire output and input are computed to be 31,015 and 27200 MJ ha−1, respectively and that gasoline with 40% is the dominated consumer of energy. Moreover, energy use efficiency is 0.88, which indicates energy inefficiency in walnut production. Environmental results shows that On-Orchard emissions with a share more than 50% in ecosystem quality, human health, and climate changes and gasoline in resources category are the main hotspots. Multi-objective optimization illustrates that the reduction in total energy is 19316 MJ ha−1 (about 62%) and gasoline with 58% is the most energy saving input among all. On the other hand, the total weighted emission decreases by about 1.47Pt (about 40%). Generally, results reveal that timely maintenance can help orchardist attain close to optimal condition. Furthermore, the application of imperialist competitive algorithm not only can offer optimum pattern of walnut production, but also be extended to the world for different crops.
Economic growth can increase the economy's energy intensity, impeding security through unmanaged demand and affecting sustainability. This study employed energy use, population growth, and financial ...development from 1990 to 2016 as moderator variables to examine the impact of energy trilemma on the economic growth of the top ten countries in the World Energy Trilemma Index (WETI) 2020. We applied advanced econometric methodologies for empirical analysis, such as second-generation panel unit root tests, and cross-section dependence. Besides, we used the random-effect and fixed effect panel generalized method of moments (GMM) for short-run estimates and the random effect and fixed effect generalized least squares (GLS) regressions and robust fully modified least squares (FMOLS) regression for the long-run estimates. The results indicate that the impact of energy trilemma and population growth on economic growth are significant only in the long-run, while energy use and financial development influence economic growth in both the short-run and the long-run. Our findings suggest that policymakers implement lesser potential for Pareto perfections in the energy system by levying energy security, affordability, and sustainability taxes on energy products, and that they highlight energy efficiency and support robust policies to enhance financial development. Study limitations and directions for future research in the area are discussed.
•Examined links between energy trilemma and economic growth.•Constructed a PCA index of three dimensions of energy trilemma.•Energy trilemma and population growth affect economic growth only in the long-run.•Energy use and financial development influence economic growth in both the short-run and long-run.•The energy trilemma is positively associated with economic growth.
This paper discusses the design and development of the Open Source Energy Modeling System (OSeMOSYS). It describes the model’s formulation in terms of a ‘plain English’ description, algebraic ...formulation, implementation—in terms of its full source code, as well as a detailed description of the model inputs, parameters, and outputs. A key feature of the OSeMOSYS implementation is that it is contained in less than five pages of documented, easily accessible code. Other existing energy system models that do not have this emphasis on compactness and openness makes the barrier to entry by new users much higher, as well as making the addition of innovative new functionality very difficult. The paper begins by describing the rationale for the development of OSeMOSYS and its structure. The current preliminary implementation of the model is then demonstrated for a discrete example. Next, we explain how new development efforts will build on the existing OSeMOSYS codebase. The paper closes with thoughts regarding the organization of the OSeMOSYS community, associated capacity development efforts, and linkages to other open source efforts including adding functionality to the LEAP model.
We used ISO-compliant life cycle assessment (LCA) to compare the cumulative energy use, ecological footprint, greenhouse gas emissions and eutrophying emissions associated with models of three beef ...production strategies as currently practiced in the Upper Midwestern United States. Specifically we examined systems where calves were either: weaned directly to feedlots; weaned to out-of-state wheat pastures (backgrounded) then finished in feedlots; or finished wholly on managed pasture and hay. Impacts per live-weight kg of beef produced were highest for pasture-finished beef for all impact categories and lowest for feedlot-finished beef, assuming equilibrium conditions in soil organic carbon fluxes across systems. A sensitivity analysis indicated the possibility of substantial reductions in net greenhouse gas emissions for pasture systems under conditions of positive soil organic carbon sequestration potential. Forage utilization rates were also found to have a modest influence on impact levels in pasture-based beef production. Three measures of resource use efficiency were applied and indicated that beef production, whether feedlot or pasture-based, generates lower edible resource returns on material/energy investment relative to other food production strategies.
Building energy use prediction plays an important role in building energy management and conservation as it can help us to evaluate building energy efficiency, conduct building commissioning, and ...detect and diagnose building system faults. Building energy prediction can be broadly classified into engineering, Artificial Intelligence (AI) based, and hybrid approaches. While engineering and hybrid approaches use thermodynamic equations to estimate energy use, the AI-based approach uses historical data to predict future energy use under constraints. Owing to the ease of use and adaptability to seek optimal solutions in a rapid manner, the AI-based approach has gained popularity in recent years. For this reason and to discuss recent developments in the AI-based approaches for building energy use prediction, this paper conducts an in-depth review of single AI-based methods such as multiple linear regression, artificial neural networks, and support vector regression, and ensemble prediction method that, by combining multiple single AI-based prediction models improves the prediction accuracy manifold. This paper elaborates the principles, applications, advantages and limitations of these AI-based prediction methods and concludes with a discussion on the future directions of the research on AI-based methods for building energy use prediction.
PDF
