The twenty-first century is facing several energy and environmental worldwide problems, such as climate change, the increasing energy demand, the depletion of fossil fuels, pollution and the urgent need to mitigate the production of greenhouse gas emission. All these issues significantly affect the economic, energy and social policies of Countries around the World. In particular, in recent decades, a significant global growth in energy demand has been recorded, mainly due to the increasing needs of developing Countries.
For these reasons, many researches aimed at maximizing the exploitation of renewable energy sources and/or providing significant savings implementing suitable energy efficiency actions.
The special session is part of an itinerant networking program within the EU COST Action PHOENIX CA19123 H2020, a European research framework among the topics of sustainable urban development and environment protection with a key focus on bio-electrochemical systems (BES).
BES are cost-effective biotechnologies that could be used as bio-remediator, biosensor and bioreactor. BESs are exploited in multiple fields, here we focus on Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) as bio-electrochemical converters for rendering organic waste, polluted soils, and water, into a useful resource that is transformed in energy and nutrients. Such technologies rely on the microbial metabolism for reduction of organic content as well as electricity generation as well as being used as electrolyzers. Such systems have the capability to work symbiotically with their surrounding environment, combining decontamination with electrical usage thus practically facilitating an eco-circular concept. Although MFCs – of all types of BES – is the only type that generates (as opposed to consume) electricity, this is currently less than what would be required by conventional power consumer electronics. Recent advances in the field of low power electronics enable the exploitation of these sustainable and environmentally friendly technologies, bringing the “power gap” for direct use and improving their capability to work as energy harvester, feeding network of sensors or acting as a sensor themselves.
Concentrated brines, generated by anthropic activities or available from natural resources, have attracted the interest of scientific and industrial communities as a novel, sustainable and still unexplored source of energy and raw materials. When such brines have anthropic origins, their re-use and valorisation is even more important as it helps minimising the potential environmental impacts arising from their disposal in receiving water bodies. Several different concepts have been proposed so far for the valorisation of brines for energy production via the so-called Salinity Gradient Power technologies, which allow for the production of electrical energy from the controlled mixing of saline streams at different concentration. On the other side, brines can be a valuable source for raw materials, many of which listed among the EU critical raw materials for their economic relevance or supply risk, such as Magnesium, Lithium and other Trace Elements. Different strategies have been proposed for the “mining” of minerals from brines, which depend on the type of brine, its composition and on the features required for the recovered material. All this is strongly connected with the new frontiers of separation technologies, process intensification, energy integration and circular economy approaches.
This special session will represent a platform to share new ideas, application examples and perspective analysis of the large potential of brines valorisation processes.
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, together with the use of integrated approaches for the sustainable design of buildings and communities toward the decarbonization of our economies.
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 and well-being. The special session is dedicated to the following topics:
Contemporary global interconnected crises of epidemics, economy, environment, society and institutions are getting more complex than ever, which requires urgent measures based on knowledge. This session is devoted to brainstorming for new educational, scientific and technological approaches including circular economy and supply chains, sustainable consumption and production as well as new approaches in education for sustainable development. The session should also reflect the legacy of Professor Ivo Šlaus on the occasion of his birthday with respect to all above-mentioned topics. Special emphasis will be given to advances in applications of physics, nanotechnologies and quantum technologies in sustainable development, and 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, and European Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production Society.
EU Green Deal promotes an increasing commitment for the transition from fossil-based energy systems to the renewable-based ones. The application in each context calls for tailored technologies, modelling techniques and planning strategies especially with the intent of involving built environment, power grid and transportation. Changes are also pushed into the market, requiring modified or even new actors and subsequent role. Hence, this Special Session will mainly focus on:
Sustainable process manufacturing (chemical, petrochemical, pulp&paper, food, beverage, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, etc.) is expected to use minimum resources while minimizing environmental impact and keeping costs to society at an acceptable level. In this context, the availability of energy-efficient and environmental-friendly process equipment, process control approaches and maintenance practices is of primary importance. Applications of methods and tools to support engineering decisions, such as mass-balance, thermodynamic and environmental-impact analyses, process integration techniques, advanced simulation methods and optimization techniques, is also a key issue to highlight the importance of choosing the best options. This Special Session is focused on research advances, case studies and practices to improve energy and resource efficiency of process industries, and to reduce their environmental impacts through applications of innovative process equipment, process control strategies and maintenance approaches. The themes of this special session include, but are not limited to: design and operation of process equipment to facilitate sustainable performance of process plants, process control approaches to enhance energy efficiency and reduce environmental impact, as well as maintenance solutions to safeguard safe and efficient operation of process systems.
Based on the considerable success at several previous SDEWES conferences and due to the high demand, it has been decided to organise this session again in 2021, this time for the 16th SDEWES conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The focus of the session is in line with the most recent research developments. The topics within the interests of this special session are the integration of energy, water and waste to secondary resources towards Smart Cities, Smart Industry and Smart Agriculture which can be a powerful tool to boost the sustainability in civic, industrial, agriculture and other activities. Due to the immense importance of knowledge dissemination and transfer, presentations are also invited into the field of knowledge management and especially knowledge transfer. The research scope to be considered include smart cities, industrial processes and sites supply chain networks, municipalities and cities, regions and economies.
The growing demand for energy and associated environmental issues are crucial global challenges that have been attracting increasing attention from a diverse range of academic, industrial, government and policy stakeholders. Clean energy technologies and systems can tackle these important challenges and support sustainable development and growth. This special session focuses on research advances, case studies and practices to improve clean energy supply and energy efficiency in a variety of applications, which covers methods, processes, components, and systems for the high-efficiency and low-emission collection, recovery, utilisation, conversion and storage of energy for heating, cooling and power provision, with emphasis on innovative technologies and renewables exploitation including solar, wind, geothermal and biomass, amongst other. The themes of this special session include, but are not limited to the following topics:
Prospects of using waste derived biofuels in the internal combustion engines are increasing day by day due to the limited fossil fuel reserves and their negative impacts on the environment and human health. Although, electric vehicles are future solutions for mobility; use of conventional engines will continue in heavy-duty vehicles, marine, power generation and in other application as electrification of these sectors are yet to be feasible. Biofuels are now important part of the energy mix. However, along with the challenges of producing high quality biofuels, finding sustainable waste resource is a challenge. The bio-mix concept helps to produce high quality biofuels from various resources and mix them together to meet the international standards (for example – biodiesel- biodiesel mixing). Another important aspects of the biomix fuels are novel combustion concepts for achieving high thermal efficiency and low exhaust emissions, examples are – variable compression ignition (VCR), homogeneous charged compression ignition (HCCI), reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) concepts. This special session will draw researchers working on the biofuels and their advanced combustion in the engines. The session will stimulate the discussion around these areas and will help progress R & D aspects in sustainable biofuels and combustion areas. The motivation for proposing this session has come partly from a UK-India collaboration project we are working on this research theme.
Plant-assisted bioremediation (PABR) technology is currently getting popular as an environmental-friendly and sustainable strategy in comparison with traditional thermal and physico-chemical approaches. It has been successfully applied to multi-contaminated soil and water ecosystems. This session will focus on PABR case studies at lab and field scales for recovering soil from various contaminants such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), heavy metals, oil-products, emerging contaminants (e.g. pharmaceuticals, microplastics) alone or in chemical mixtures. Different treatments such as the use of soil amendments (e.g. compost, biochar, etc.), biosurfactants, nanomaterials (e.g. Nano-TiO2, -Fe3O4, NZVI, etc.), will be assessed as useful strategies for enhancing the efficiency of PABR technology. Particular attention will be focused on the characterization of soil microbial communities in the rhizosphere and the chemical dialogue between plant root and microorganisms (e.g. root exudates), in order to evaluate the new achievements and further research needs in the study of plant-microorganism’s interactions, which play a key role in promoting PABR technology.
Moreover, the potential of converting PABR biomass for energy use will be also considered. Different conversion solutions can be applied on PABR biomass such as combustion, gasification, torrefaction and pyrolysis aiming at producing biofuel (liquids or gaseous) to be used in transport or in (co-)generation power plant. Specific actions should be considered for separating and possibly reusing the extracted contaminants, in an attempt to enforce complete circularity. Finally, the sustainable PABR technology capabilities in restoring contaminated areas and providing energy will be discussed in the light of the recent EU GREEN DEAL actions, which aim to transform EU into a fair and prosperous society, with a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy.
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.
