Sustainable urbanization: energy and environment in the Chongqing Municipality, China

Chongqing is the largest municipality under the Chinese Central Government (MCG) in terms of administrative area and population and is now the most important economic and cultural center of the upper Yangtze River and Three Gorges area. The Three Gorges Dam project, one of the largest world infrastructure projects, causes a great deal of immigration to Chongqing and results in the rapid urbanization of the city, and it has brought in a great deal of environmental impact, which is a global concerned issue. This paper introduces the city profile of Chongqing municipality and its urbanization impact on energy and environment. The demand and the trend of energy consumption in built environment (building and transport) have been analysed. The living environment of Chongqing residents and the local energy efficient policy have been introduced. Finally the authors discuss the key issues of the sustainable urban development of Chongqing.

Advances in inorganic nanoparticles trapping stiffness measurement:A promising tool for energy and environmental study

Optical tweezers system has emerged as an efficient tool to manipulate tiny particles in a non-invasive way.Trapping stiffness,as an essential parameter of an optical potential well,represents the trapping stability.Additionally,trapping inorganic nanoparticles such as metallic nanoparticles or other functionalized inorganic nanoparticles is important due to their properties of good stability,high conductivity,tolerable toxicity,etc.,which makes it an ideal detection strategy for bio-sensing,force calculation,and determination of particle and environmental properties.However,the trapping stiffness measurement(TSM)methods of inorganic nanoparticles have rarely been analyzed and summarized.Here,in this review,the principle and methods of TSM are analyzed.We also systematically summarize the progress in acquiring inorganic particles trapping stiffness and its promising applications.In addition,we provide prospects of the energy and environment applications of optical tweezering technique and TSM.Finally,the challenges and future directions of achieving the nanoparticles trapping stiffness are discussed.

An Analysis of Energy and Environment Efficiency of China＇s Iron and Steel Industry

Due to heavy energy consumption and low technical efficiency, China＇s iron and steel industry is trapped in the dilemma ＂large but not strong＂. This situation not only exerts enormous pressure on energy security but also on increased carbon emission and environmental pollution. The contribution of this study is to calculate the energy and environment efficiency of China＇s iron and steel industry and to analyze the factors affecting this efficiency. An index of energy and environment efficiency is introduced based on Directional Slacks-based Distance Measure Model. This index is adopted to measure the energy and environment efficiency of China＇s iron and steel industry using 2,382 firm observations during 2001 to 2005. In addition, Hierarchy Linear Model （HLM） is applied to analyze the factors which can influence the efficiency with both firm-level and province-level data. The conclusions are as follows： The energy and environment efficiency of China＇s iron and steel industry did not have a significant change during the research period. A firm＇s age, size, ownership, product category and the economy of its province have significant influence on its energy and environment efficiency.

OVERVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR CHINANUCLEAR POWER INDUSTRY AND COAL－FIRED POWER INDUSTRY

A quantitative environmental assessment method and the corresponding computer code are introduced in this paper. By the consideration of all fuel cycle steps,it gives that the public health risk of China nuclear power industry is 5.2 × 10-1 man /(GW.a), the occupational health risk is 2.5 man /(GW.a), and the total health risk is 3.0 man /(GW.a). After the health risk calculation for coal mining, transport, burning up and ash disposal, it gives that the public health risk of China coal-fired power industry is 3.6mall/(GW-a), the occupational health risk is 50man /(GW.a), and the total is 54man /(GW.d). Accordingly, the conclusion that China nuclear power industry is an industry with high safety and cleanness is derived at the end.

New energy policy and low-carbon society in Japan after the Great East Japan Earthquake

The Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011 devastated the eastern region of Japan.Due to the resulting nuclear accident,Japanese Cabinet decided to revise its energy policies.The Energy and Environment Council in National Policy Unit published options on the nation's scenarios for energy and economy in 2030.We estimated the economic impacts of the options to national economy and households in 2030.Finally,we clarified significant factors to establish a secure,affluent and low-carbon society based on the energy scenarios.

Linear diophantine uncertain linguistic-based prospect theory approach for performance evaluation of islanded microgrid-system scenarios

Renewable-energy-based hybrid microgrids can aid in achieving one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals,i.e.‘Affordable and clean energy’.However,experts may be faced with the challenge of selecting the best one for the electrification of an area.To avoid the challenge and realize the ultimate goal of the United Nations,the present study,therefore,proposes a novel pros-pect theory-based decision-making approach to help experts in opting for the best microgrid scenario.The proposed decision-making framework considers the risk appetite of the decision-maker,a quintessential aspect of the process.Linear diophantine uncertain lin-guistic sets are used to model the linguistic evaluations from the experts.The information from different experts is aggregated using a linear diophantine uncertain linguistic power Einstein-weighted geometric operator.Finally,the prospect-theory-based TOmada de Decisao Interativa Multicriterio approach is employed to evaluate the performance of the available microgrid scenarios and hence opt for the best microgrid scenario.The proposed framework has been used to evaluate the performance of seven possible microgrid scenarios and hence select the best one that can be implemented for rural electrification of a remote village in Assam,India.The microgrid scenario consisting of a photovoltaic-wind turbine-fuel cell-battery converter(MG_(3))has been revealed to be the best scen-ario among the seven considered microgrid scenarios.The validity of the obtained ranking results has been adjudged through a com-prehensive evaluation regarding the attenuation factor and the weights of the criteria.Moreover,previous case studies have also been solved using the proposed methodology and the results reveal a good correlation between the obtained ranking results.

To Promote Green Buildings in China: Lessons from the USA and EU

Buildings have contributed to the energy shortage, pollution and global climate change. To promote green buildings is the way access to the sustainable development. Currently, China has issued some regulations and systems to boost the green building. However, problems lie in China and the systems are not effective. USA and EU have rich experiences and fairly sophisticated legislation and policies to develop green building. China may get some lessens from these countries. This paper will make an overview of legal framework and main system of green building in China, then, analyses some important legal systems and typical case related green building in the USA and EU. Further, problems were pointed out in the China based on the comparative analysis of these countries. Lastly, according to the condition in China and lessons from USA and EU, this paper will put some suggests to promote green building, such as, take some measures to enhance the awareness of the stakeholders, create multi- incentive tools and so on.

Carbon capture and storage in the USA:the role of US innovation leadership in climate-technology commercialization

To limit global warming and mitigate climate change,the global economy needs to decarbonize and reduce emissions to net-zero by mid-century.The asymmetries of the global energy system necessitate the deployment of a suite of decarbonization technologies and an all-of-the-above approach to deliver the steep CO_(2)-emissions reductions necessary.Carbon capture and storage(CCS)technologies that capture CO_(2) from industrial and power-plant point sources as well as the ambient air and store them underground are largely seen as needed to address both the flow of emissions being released and the stock of CO_(2) already in the atmosphere.Despite the pressing need to commercialize the technologies,their large-scale deployment has been slow.Initial deployment,however,could lead to near-term cost reduction and technology proliferation,and lowering of the overall system cost of decarbonization.As of November 2019,more than half of global large-scale CCS facilities are in the USA,thanks to a history of sustained government support for the technologies.Recently,the USA has seen a raft of new developments on the policy and project side signaling a reinvigorated push to commercialize the technology.Analysing these recent developments using a policy-priorities framework for CCS commercialization developed by the Global CCS Institute,the paper assesses the USA’s position to lead large-scale deployment of CCS technologies to commercialization.It concludes that the USA is in a prime position due to the political economic characteristics of its energy economy,resource wealth and innovation-driven manufacturing sector.

Integrating the ISO 14034 standard as a platform for carbon capture and utilization technology performance evaluation

Independent testing and verification of emerging technologies are vital parts of the technology-commercialization process.With the rapid development of carbon capture and utilization(CCU)technologies,where existing standards and certifications do not exist,independent verification approaches and guidelines can provide a means to obtain credible information for an emerging market.The ISO 14034:2016-Environmental Management:Environmental Technology Verification(ETV)standard can serve as a foundational platform to ensure the consistency,quality and credibility of data on CCU technology performance,enabling direct comparisons between technologies and reducing risk to decision-makers regarding potential investment,future deployment and ultimate impacts of CCU innovations.Applying the fundamental principles of ISO 14034 to the evaluation of nine finalist CCU technologies competing in the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE ensured that data used to evaluate competitors was of high quality,consistent across technologies and met the information needs of the XPRIZE and competition judges responsible for selecting winners.The approaches outlined here,including verification parameters and verification tasks for both XPRIZE-specific technology evaluations and full CCU technology evaluation by an accredited entity in conformance with the ISO 14034 standard,provide insight into the potential benefits-methodological consistency,high-quality data,independent oversight,methodological flexibility and broad applicability-and limitations-technology readiness and applicability,verification and instrumentation costs and lack of specificity-of the approach in an application for the evaluation of emerging technologies.Further application of the ISO 14034 standard and principles,developed through a consensus approach that incorporates other developing guidelines,can drive consistency and credibility for technology-performance evaluations across the CCU sector,ultimately leading to reduced risk and improved market access for new innovations.

Hydrogen technologies and developments in Japan

The successful development of hydrogen-energy technologies has several advantages and benefits.Hydrogen-energy development could prevent global warming as well as ensure energy security for countries without adequate energy resources.The successful development of hydrogen would provide energy for transportation and electric power.It is a unique energy carrier,as it can be produced from various energy sources such as wind,fossil fuels and biomass and,when it is combusted,it emits no CO_(2)emissions.The other advantage is the wide distribution of resources globally that can be used to produce hydrogen.In Japan,the Ministry of Economy,Trade and Industry(METI)published a‘Strategic Roadmap for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells’in 2014,with a revised update published in March 2016.The goal of the roadmap is to achieve a hydrogen society.The roadmap aims to resolve technical problems and secure economic efficiency.The roadmap has been organized into the following three phases:Phase 1-Installation of fuel cells;Phase 2-Hydrogen power plant/mass supply chain;Phase 3-CO_(2)-free hydrogen.This paper reports on the current status of fuel cells and fuel-cell vehicles in Japan and gives a description and status of the R&D programmes along with the results of global energy model study towards 2050.

Optimal integration of battery energy-storage system with high penetration of renewable energy in radial distribution network

Considering the intermittent nature of renewable energy,a storage system to reserve power in off-peak hours and then to supply it during peak hours is necessary.However,if these storage devices in a network are not placed in an appropriate manner,the advantages can never be achieved.In this study,the allocation and sizing strategies of a battery energy-storage system(BESS)in an optimal way are proposed to improve the performance of the radial distribution networks.The test network adopted is a standard IEEE 33 bus network that is integrated with solar power.Simulations are carried out in DIgSILENT PowerFactory for the distribution network model and the process of optimization is done through MATLAB®.The optimization algorithm adopted is the genetic algorithm.The system is studied for 24 hours with a step size of 15 minutes,employing a time-sweep analysis of dynamic load.It is studied under three different scenarios and the results are compared.The results illustrate a considerable reduction in power losses in the case of the optimized BESS.The total losses before the optimization process are 16365.57 kW.The total losses after the employment of the proposed solution are 10246.5 kW,which means that the losses are reduced by≤62%.

Oxygen vacancies in metal oxides: recent progresstowards advanced catalyst design

Energy crisis and environmental problems urgently drive the proposal of new strategies to improve human wellbeing and assist sustainable development.To this end,scientists have explored many metal oxides-based photocatalysts with high stability,low cost,earth abundance,and potentially high catalytic activity relevant for key applications such as H2O splitting,CO2 reduction,N2 fixation,and advanced oxidation of pollutants.In these metal oxides,oxygen vacancies(OVs)are ubiquitous and intrinsic defects with pronounced impacts on the physicochemical properties of the catalysts,which may open new opportunities for obtaining efficient metal oxides.The thorough understanding of the structural and electronic nature of OVs is necessary to determine how they serve as catalytically active sites.In this review,we summarize the origin of OVs,the strategies to introduce OVs,as well as the fundamental structure-activity relationships to relate these crystal defects to catalyst properties including light absorption,charge separation,etc.We emphasize the mechanism of OVs formation and their effects on the intrinsic catalytic characteristics of the metal oxides.We also present some multicomponent catalytic platforms where OVs contribute to catalysis via synergy.Finally,opportunities and challenges on engineering defects in photocatalysts are summarized to highlight the future directions of this research field.

The micro-meso-macro architecture of a proposed collaborative emergent strategy for the hydrogen market

In 2018,an intergovernmental climate-change panel concluded that,to maintain a global temperature increases of<1.5℃,net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions would be required by 2050.Since then,>110 countries have pledged net-zero carbon ambitions by 2050 and hydrogen has been identified at national levels as key to achieving this.Governments have pledged>US$70 billion to further advance hydrogen infrastructure and technology,with an additional investigation on>200 proposed hydrogen-based projects expecting completion before 2030,totalling a value of US$300 billion.Reaching these aggressive targets will require a disciplined cohesion of collaborative strategies to develop an integrated macro infrastructure system.This article discusses the current infancy of the hydrogen market,introduces and defines a new‘collaborative emergent strategy’based on the emergent strategy concept by Mintzberg and Waters,and links its developmental viability through a staged micro-meso-macro architecture.Successful strategic business case studies and current market opportunities across multiple industries are reviewed as they all vie for a strategic early market position.

A review on non-isolated low-power DC-DC converter topologies with high output gain for solar photovoltaic system applications

The major challenges of the high-gain DC-DC boost converters are high-voltage stress on the switch,extreme duty ratio operation,diode reverse-recovery and converter efficiency problems.There are many topologies of high-gain converters that have been widely developed to overcome those problems,especially for solar photovoltaic(PV)power-system applications.In this paper,20 high-gain and low-power DC-DC converter topologies are selected from many topologies of available literature.Then,seven prospective topologies with conversion ratios of>15 are thoroughly reviewed and compared.The selected topologies are:(i)voltage-multiplier cell,(ii)voltage doubler,(iii)coupled inductor,(iv)converter with a coupled inductor and switch capacitor,(v)converter with a switched inductor and switched capacitor,(vi)cascading techniques and(vii)voltage-lift techniques.Each topology has its advantages and disadvantages.A comparison of the seven topologies is provided in terms of the number of components,hardware complexity,maximum converter efficiency and voltage stress on the switch.These are presented in detail.So,in the future,it will be easier for researchers and policymakers to choose the right converter topologies and build them into solar PV systems based on their needs.

A comparative life-cycle analysis of tall onshore steel wind-turbine towers

Earth has lately been suffering from unforeseen catastrophic phenomena related to the consequences of the greenhouse effect.It is therefore essential not only that sustainability criteria be incorporated into the everyday lifestyle,but also that energy-saving procedures be enhanced.According to the number of wind farms installed annually,wind energy is among the most promising sustainable-energy sources.Taking into account the last statement for energy-saving methods,it is essential to value the contribution of wind energy not only in eliminating CO_(2) emissions when producing electricity from wind,but also in assessing the total environmental impact associated with the entire lifetime of all the processes related with this energy-production chain.In order to quantify such environmental impacts,life-cycle analysis(LCA)is performed.As a matter of fact,there are a very limited number of studies devoted to LCA of onshore wind-energy-converter supporting towers-a fact that constitutes a first-class opportunity to perform high-end research.In the present work,the life-cycle performance of two types of tall onshore wind-turbine towers has been investigated:a lattice tower and a tubular one.For comparison reasons,both tower configurations have been designed to sustain the same loads,although they have been manufactured by different production methods,different amounts of material were used and different mounting procedures have been applied;all the aforementioned items diversify in their overall life-cycle performance as well as their performance in all LCA phases examined separately.The life-cycle performance of the two different wind-turbine-tower systems is calculated with the use of efficient open LCA software and valuable conclusions have been drawn when combining structural and LCA results in terms of comparing alternative configurations of the supporting systems for wind-energy converters.