Energy Industry Research Articles

Optimizing Motorcycle Manufacturing Sustainability through the Integration of Waste Heat Recovery and Metal Scrap Recycling: A Process Engineering Approach

The automotive industry manufacturing has experienced rapid growth 2–3 times by 2050, with motorcycles constituting around 30% of vehicles worldwide, but this increase in production has significantly heightened the demand for raw materials and energy. A major challenge arises in managing material waste and waste heat generated during the manufacturing process. This research aims to develop a framework that optimizes the synergy between material waste recycling and waste heat recovery to enhance the sustainability of the motorcycle industry, reduce waste, and lower energy consumption. The design leverages waste heat from the melting process to preheat raw materials, raising temperatures from around 50 °C to 350 °C before melting, thereby reducing additional energy needs, lowering emissions, and decreasing operational costs. Utilizing waste heat for preheating not only mitigates environmental impact and thermal load but also significantly improves energy efficiency, ultimately resulting in cost savings and optimized resource use. Utilizing waste heat directly for preheating raw materials has effectively lowered energy consumption by as much as 30%. This approach not only improves operational efficiency but also decreases production costs and minimizes environmental impact, offering a more sustainable solution for the manufacturing sector.

The Effects of Industrial Value Addition and Energy Consumption on Environmental Deterioration: New Evidence from Islamic Countries

The current research is aimed at finding out the effects of energy consumption and industrial value addition on environmental deterioration. Panel data for the years 2000-2017 was employed to explore the long- and short-term association of variables for the selected Islamic countries. Panel Unit Root Test was used to check the stationarity of the data. Moreover, Fisher panel Co-integration tests, PMG, Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Square method (DOLS) were also applied to find out relationship between the variables. The study suggested that economic growth, industrial value addition and energy consumption positively affect the CO2 emission. Moreover, high-energy consumption to meet the demands of energy in transportation and production sectors leads to increased environmental pollution. The coefficient of industrial value addition shows significant effect on environmental deterioration in long term. Our study suggests the use of cleaner technology in production system and replacing renewable energy by non-renewable energy sources.

Enhancing microhardness and surface integrity of Ti–6Al–4V alloy using WC–Cu composite electrode aided electrical discharge coating

Titanium alloy can be found in numerous applications, such as chemical, aerospace, and energy industries, among other sectors, due to its excellent performance. Nevertheless, the possible uses of a variety of titanium-based alloys have been greatly restricted by their low hardness and inadequate resistance to wear. Therefore, in this research work, WC–Cu composite electrode assisted electrical discharge coating (EDC) is used for improving microhardness (MH) and surface integrity of Ti–6Al–4V alloy. By utilizing powder composite electrode, the conductivity of the electrode can be increased, which provides controlled electric spark, resulting in uniform deposition. In order to increase the rate of deposition, the terminal of the EDM has been changed as WC–Cu composite electrode as anode and workpiece as cathode. Response surface methodology is used for studying the variables including compacting pressure (MPa), discharge current (I), pulse on time (T on). In addition, microstructure, elemental analysis and coating interface of deposited Ti–6Al–4V alloy are investigated through scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The surface roughness of 8.86 µm was achieved at 400 MPa, 6 A, and 40 µs. The maximum MH of 988 HV was obtained at 400 MPa, 10 A, and 80 µs. The MH of the deposited layer is around 2–3 times harder than base material. Moreover, a greater adhesion strength coated layer was ∼118 N, which permits the alloy to have improved wear resistance. It was concluded that using a high-pressure electrode with lower settings resulted in an improved surface finish, while higher settings led to increased MH.

Manufacture and Applications of GaN-based Piezotronic and Piezo-phototronic Devices

Abstract Driven by the urgent demands for information technology, energy, and intelligent industry， third-generation semiconductor GaN has emerged as a pivotal component in electronic and optoelectronic devices. Piezoelectric polarization is the most essential feature of GaN materials. GaN materials based on piezotronics/phototronics combine mechanical signals with electrical signals/optical signals to achieve multi-field coupling of device performance. Piezotronics regulates the carrier transport process in micro-nano devices, which has been proven to significantly improve the performance of devices (such as HEMTs and MicroLEDs) and brings many novel applications. This review examines GaN material properties and the theoretical foundations of piezotronics and phototronics. It also explores GaN device fabrication and integration processes to achieve state-of-the-art device performance. This review also analyzes the impact of introducing three-dimensional stress and regulatory forces on devices' electrical and optical output performance. Additionally, it discusses new applications of GaN devices in neural sensing, optoelectronic output, and energy harvesting. Finally, the potential of piezotronic-controlled GaN devices offers insights for future research and the development of multi-functional, diversified electronic devices.

Can Technological Advancement Empower the Future of Renewable Energy? A Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag Approach

Energy is pivotal in achieving sustainable development’s economic, social, and environmental objectives. However, to attain this crucial goal, it is essential to focus on the type of energy we generate and the methods by which we use them. The availability, accessibility, and use of green technologies have improved significantly since the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). This paper applies the pooled mean group Autoregressive Distributed Lag (PMG ARDL) model from 2000 to 2021 to 11 countries that, according to the Climate Council, are most affected by environmental degradation issues and are taking new initiatives to reduce their emissions. The results indicate a significant relationship between renewable energy consumption and technological advancements in the short and long term. However, there needs to be more of the literature about the negative impact of research and development on renewable energy consumption. The findings of this paper can assist policymakers in determining effective strategies in the renewable energy sector, as any technological advancement is an innovative way to transform the renewable energy industry completely. By optimizing energy production and reducing costs, technological advancement can help a country achieve its renewable energy goals.

Pore-Scale Simulation of Deep Shale Gas Flow Considering the Dual-Site Langmuir Adsorption Model Based on the Pore Network Model.

As a key resource in the oil and gas sector, shale gas development profoundly influences the advancement of the global energy industry. Deep shale gas reservoirs, typically found at depths exceeding 3500 m, represent a significant portion of total shale gas reserves. Currently, pore network models primarily simulate middle and shallow shale gas, insufficiently addressing the unique challenges posed by high-temperature and high-pressure conditions in deep shale gas formations. There is an urgent need to explore the microscale flow dynamics of deep shale gas. In this work, we use the pore network model to simulate the flow dynamics of deep shale gas, particularly under nanoconfinement conditions. The simulation integrates adsorption, slip flow, Knudsen diffusion, and bulk flow phenomena. Utilizing the dual-site Langmuir adsorption model tailored for high-temperature and high-pressure conditions enhances the accuracy of gas conductivity calculations for the adsorbed phase, thereby reflecting the specific characteristics of deep shale gas reservoirs. Moreover, this research investigates the flow characteristics of deep shale gas under varying sensitivity parameters, such as water saturation, temperature, and pressure. It explores methane flow dynamics, focusing on effective diffusion coefficients and permeability. The modified approach to calculating adsorption phase conductivity using the dual-site Langmuir adsorption model accurately captures the adsorption behaviors and characteristics of deep shale gas reservoirs.

The New Energy State: Offshore Governance Regimes for Renewables as Natural Resources

Maturing renewable energy technologies are birthing new industry configurations, with offshore wind—with the EU holding 80 percent of global capacity—and “energy islands,” as notable examples. However, a clear conceptualization of the role of the state and governance framework is lacking, alongside growing pressure for the state to define the path forward. This paper analyzes recent developments in emerging EU offshore renewable energy regimes, drawing three implications that show the need for new governance frameworks. First, there is a reconfiguration of energy industry structures around changing economics and policies, in a repeat of historical experience. Second, energy islands increasingly represent features of a natural resource in fixed supply, with the economic nature of offshore energy gradually transiting from the sub-domain of renewable energy economics towards natural resource economics. Third, to realize their economic value, governance frameworks are needed to enable these resources to harmonize with other resources in fixed supply, such as the land on which they are sited, which is constitutionally under the stewardship of the state. We set out criteria for governance of these emerging offshore renewables, to underpin the changing industry landscape and new role of the state within it. JEL Classification: L22, L24, L51, Q20, Q24, Q28, Q32, Q38, Q48

Neural-Parareal: Self-improving acceleration of fusion MHD simulations using time-parallelisation and neural operators

The fusion research facility ITER is currently being assembled to demonstrate that fusion can be used for industrial energy production, while several other programmes across the world are also moving forward, such as EU-DEMO, CFETR, SPARC and STEP. The high engineering complexity of a tokamak makes it an extremely challenging device to optimise, and test-based optimisation would be too slow and too costly. Instead, digital design and optimisation must be favoured, which requires strongly-coupled suites of multi-physics, multi-scale High-Performance Computing calculations. Safety regulation, uncertainty quantification, and optimisation of fusion digital twins is undoubtedly an Exascale grand challenge. In this context, having surrogate models to provide quick estimates with uncertainty quantification is essential to explore and optimise new design options. But there lies the dilemma: accurate surrogate training first requires simulation data. Extensive work has explored solver-in-the-loop solutions to maximise the training of such surrogates. Likewise, innovative methods have been proposed to accelerate conventional HPC solvers using surrogates. Here, a novel approach is designed to do both. By bootstrapping neural operators and HPC methods together, a self-improving framework is achieved. As more simulations are being run within the framework, the surrogate improves, while the HPC simulations get accelerated. This idea is demonstrated on fusion-relevant MHD simulations, where Fourier Neural Operator based surrogates are used to create neural coarse-solver for the Parareal (time-parallelisation) method. Parareal is particularly relevant for large HPC simulations where conventional spatial parallelisation has saturated, and the temporal dimension is thus parallelised as well. This Neural-Parareal framework is a step towards exploiting the convergence of HPC and AI, where scientists and engineers can benefit from automated, self-improving, ever faster simulations. All data/codes developed here are made available to the community.

Thriving through innovation: Boosting green tech performance in China's new energy sector

In response to the challenges of sustainable development, green technological innovation (GTI) is considered as a key driver of high-quality growth. However, current research often lacks a comprehensive assessment of GTI's multidimensional performance and rarely explores improvement pathways from a structural perspective. This study evaluates the GTI performance of China's new energy sector using data from 62 listed companies between 2015 and 2021, employing a Back Propagation (BP) neural network model optimized by a genetic algorithm. Additionally, it explores performance enhancement paths through fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). The findings indicate that: Industrial structure and human resource levels significantly boost GTI performance in the new energy sector; Optimizing and upgrading industrial structures plays a crucial role in GTI improvement; High Research and development (R&D) investment and human capital strengthen market competitiveness, leading to higher GTI levels; The development of GTI in the new energy sector exhibited a general upward trend, with notable differences across sub-industries and regions from 2015 to 2021. Based on these results, this study recommends differentiated industry support, targeted regional policies, and enhanced talent cultivation to improve GTI performance in China's emerging energy industry.

Interactive Cycles between Energy Education and Energy Preferences: A Literature Review on Empirical Evidence

The ultimate goal of energy education is to cultivate citizens with energy literacy, which in turn influences the energy preferences of the general public. Various aspects, such as teaching, practice, publicity, and participation, all profoundly impact the formation of energy literacy. This study reviews the role of energy education in educational policy-making, the operation of educational systems, the design of innovative energy industry environments, and public participation. Through a systematic review, this study integrates empirical research across various contexts and environments. The relevant topics of empirical research include ‘energy education’, ‘energy literacy’, ‘energy preferences’, ‘energy education policy’, ‘operation of energy education systems’, ‘creation of a renewable energy industry environment’, and ‘public participation’. These studies indicate that energy education can enhance participants’ awareness of energy through knowledge transfer, enabling them to adopt more effective energy solutions and cultivate citizens with energy literacy. Energy education not only shapes the public’s energy literacy but also further influences energy preferences, which in turn can have profound effects on social interactions, market outcomes, and political and social systems. Finally, from the perspectives of ‘educational shaping’ and ‘cultural shaping’, the research explores the impact of energy education on the energy environment and people’s values. The findings reveal that society gradually forms a consensus on energy through long-term interactions, establishing a unique energy culture that subsequently influences the direction and implementation of national energy policies. There exist interactive cycles between energy education and energy policy: energy education influences public energy preferences, while energy culture, in turn, affects policy formulation.

Correction: Gupta et al. The Role of Transactive Energy in the Future Energy Industry: A Critical Review. Energies 2022, 15, 8047

In the original publication [...]

Integration of renewable energy and socioeconomic development for environmental sustainability in Africa: An empirical analysis

As Africa grapples with the challenges of energy access, economic growth, urbanization and industrialization, as well as the environmental degradation, the adoption of renewable energy technologies emerges as a promising solution. Therefore, this article examines the effects of socioeconomic growth and renewable energy integration on environmental sustainability in 32 African countries using the auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) model, nonlinear ARDL (NARDL) model, and Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality. The findings demonstrate that urbanization, industrialization, and economic growth all contribute to environmental deterioration. The ARDL model estimation shows that for every 1% increase in economic growth, industrialization, and urbanization, there will be a 1% rise in CO2, respectively. Similarly, the results indicate that an additional 1% in economic growth and industrialization is expected to result in a 0.14% and 0.02% increase in ecological footprint, respectively. The NARDL model shows that industrialization significantly contribute into the CO2 increase, while renewable energy consumption decreases ecological footprint. Moreover, the causality test revealed the bidirectional causality between industrialization and CO2, and urbanization and ecological footprint. Renewable energy consumption in both models showed the potential to enhance environmental quality, underscoring the significance of integrating renewable energy with socioeconomic development to support sustainable development.

Pharmaceutical Wastewater and Sludge Valorization: A Review on Innovative Strategies for Energy Recovery and Waste Treatment

Currently, a large amount of pharmaceutical waste (PW) and its derivatives are being produced and, in some cases, inadequate management or treatment practices are applied. In this regard, this research explores the adoption of several alternatives to deal with these problems, including biocarbon within the framework of the circular economy. Photocatalytic nanomaterials have been also extensively discussed as a feasible way to remove pharmaceutical compounds in wastewater. Although there are existing reports in this area, this document provides a detailed study of the synthesis process, experimental conditions, the integration of photocatalysts, and their impact on enhancing photocatalytic efficiency. Additionally, the low cost and ease of fabrication of lab-scale microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are thoroughly examined. This innovative technology not only facilitates the degradation of hazardous compounds in wastewater but also harnesses their energy to generate electricity simultaneously. The aforementioned approaches are covered and discussed in detail by documenting interesting recently published research and case studies worldwide. Furthermore, this research is of significant importance because it addresses the valorization of PW by generating valuable by-products, such as H2 and O2, which can occur simultaneously during the photodegradation process, contributing to more sustainable industrial practices and clean energy technologies.

Empirical Research on the Impact of Technological Innovation on New Energy Vehicle Sales

In the context of global carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, researching the driving forces and influencing factors behind the growth in sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs) is particularly urgent and crucial. Although the academic community has extensively explored various factors affecting NEV sales, technological innovation, as the core engine driving industry progress, is yet to receive sufficient and in-depth exploration regarding its potential profound impact on sales. Therefore, this study thoroughly analyzes the mechanism by which technological innovation influences sales, supplementing the existing literature, exploring sustainable industry development, and guiding the optimization of business strategies and precise government policies. This research employs the quality of NEV technology patents as a proxy variable for technological innovation, and conducts an empirical analysis using China’s NEV sales data from 2015 to 2022. The results of the study show the following: (1) the quality of technological innovation significantly contributes to the growth of new energy vehicle sales. This conclusion still holds when the administrative protection of intellectual property rights and the government’s public innovation environment indicators are used as instrumental variables of technological innovation quality. (2) Technological innovations in different links of the new energy vehicle industry chain have a positive impact on sales, especially those in the midstream battery, motor, and downstream charging services. This shows that in the critical period of new energy vehicle development, not only is the breakthrough of key technologies crucial, but also, non-critical technologies can promote sales growth by improving user experience and product performance. (3) Compared with plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), the overall technological innovation of new energy vehicles (NEVs) has a more significant effect on the sales of battery electric vehicles (BEVs). (4) In addition, the study finds that there is no significant difference between high-quality and low-quality technological innovations on the promotion of new energy vehicle sales, which indicates that the market values the overall effect of technological innovations more than the mere level of quality. The study of the impact of technological innovation on sales in different branches of the new energy industry chain can help to clarify the direction of technological innovation, optimize resource allocation, promote the synergistic development of the industry chain, enhance market competitiveness, and provide a scientific basis for policy formulation.

Techno-Economic Analysis of a Carbon Molecular Sieve-Based Xylene Isomer Purification Process.

The separation and purification of xylene isomers is critical to the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). These separations are complex to operate and demand tremendous amounts of energy and thus are an opportunity for reducing industrial energy consumption. Membranes provide a low-energy footprint technology with simpler operation, and recently, membrane materials have been developed that are capable of separating xylene isomers. While these materials have demonstrated the ability to separate xylenes, they have yet to be commercially deployed. This work conducts a techno-economic analysis (TEA) to provide insight on the commercial attractiveness of a p-xylene selective carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membrane from both a cost and energy standpoint. This TEA was conducted through the pairing of a Maxwell-Stefan transport framework for rigid microporous materials with process modeling. Single-stage organic solvent reverse osmosis (OSRO) and pervaporation processes were used to evaluate the effects of recovery, selectivity, and diffusivity on the energy intensity and cost of the xylene separation. The final analysis used two systems, a single pervaporation stage followed by two OSRO stages, which was compared against a three-stage OSRO cascade. These were benchmarked against the commercial Parex process. We estimate that the membrane processes have the potential to enable impressive cost savings compared to the Parex process. While both systems outperformed the Parex process in terms of cost, the pervaporation/OSRO hybrid process was able to achieve the lowest cost of all due to its reduced membrane surface area compared to standalone OSRO. These findings demonstrate the potential of membrane systems in the field of difficult small molecule solvent separations.

Talent Management with Blockchain Approach

Talent development is essential task to ensure all staffs reach minimum competency levels as expected by the organization. The complexity of talent development increases along with the wider range of organization level. The article takes a case study of PN, an Indonesian state- owned energy company that operates in nationwide. Indonesia has thousand islands, and many remote areas surrounds with mountains; have created difficult efforts to develop talent in those remote areas. Currently, PN has more than 40 thousand staffs nationwide, and director of company has emphasized the use of latest IT technology to support talent development process. The article proposes the use of blockchain technology to support MOOC delivery to support talent development process and talent placement in new position. Blockchain technology has two advantages such as: secure access (unalterable data) and distributable to registered member. The use of blockchain to support corporate program to prepare readiness of all talents ready to cope with global and national uncertainty in energy industry. The outcome of article is expected to be used in other state- owned companies to prepare talent readiness.

Catalysts for Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHCs): Efficient Storage and Transport for Renewable Energy.

Restructuring the current energy industry towards sustainability requires transitioning from carbon based to renewable energy sources, reducing CO2 emissions. Hydrogen, is considered a significant clean energy carrier. However, it faces challenges in transportation and storage due to its high reactivity, flammability, and low density under ambient conditions. Liquid organic hydrogen carriers offer a solution for storing hydrogen because they allow for the economical and practical storage of organic compounds in regular vessels through hydrogenation and dehydrogenation. This review evaluates several hydrogen technologies aimed at addressing the challenges associated with hydrogen transportation and its economic viablity. The discussion delves into exploring the catalysts and their activity in the context of catalysts' development. This review highlights the pivotal role of various catalyst materials in enhancing the hydrogenation and dehydrogenation activities of multiple LOHC systems, including benzene/cyclohexane, toluene/methylcyclohexane (MCH), N-ethylcarbazole (NEC)/dodecahydro-N-ethylcarbazole (H12-NEC), and dibenzyltoluene (DBT)/perhydrodibenzyltoluene (H18-DBT). By exploring the catalytic properties of noble metals, transition metals, and multimetallic catalysts, the review provides valuable insights into their design and optimization. Also, the discussion revolved around the implementation of a hydrogen economy on a global scale, with a particular focus on the plans pertaining to Saudi Arabia and the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries. The review lays out the challenges this technology will face, including the need to increase its H2 capacity, reduce energy consumption by providing solutions, and guarantee the thermal stability of the materials.

Urine is better for rare earth elements bimonitoring in long-term exposed population: An exposure-response relationship study

With the soaring use of rare earth elements (REEs) worldwidely in high-technology and clean energy industries, there were growing concerns for adverse health effect from the REEs exposure. However, there is a lack of biomonitoring research concerning both urine and blood in population with definite exposure. We performed a biomonitoring study that involved 103 REEs exposed males and 110 males as non-REEs exposed controls. We measured the levels of REEs in environment and urine and blood samples from participants, and explored the exposure-response relationship between REEs in environment and body fluids. The effects of exposure duration and smoking status on the internal exposure level of REEs were also investigated. The results showed environmental REEs level of exposure group was significantly higher than that of control group (range of geometric mean of exposure vs. control: 1.08-4.07 × 104 ng/m3 vs. <LOD-2.16 × 102 ng/m3). Six elements with detection rates higher than 60% in blood or urine samples were lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), samarium (Sm), gadolinium (Gd). We found the REEs concentrations both in urine and blood of exposure population were significantly higher than controls, median range of the above 6 elements of urine and blood was 0.02–1.06 μmol/mol vs. <LOD-0.01 μmol/mol creatinine and 0.01–0.79 μg/L vs. <LOD-0.38 μg/L. The correlations between both blood and urine level of REEs and environment level showed significant. The correlation coefficients with urine levels are higher than with blood. Biomonitoring results showed good exposure-response relationship in urine REEs, while no positive response in blood samples. Smoking status, drinking status and years of exposure showed little effect on the level of REEs. Our results suggested that both blood and urine can be used to monitor REEs exposure, while urinary REEs is promising for risk assessment in population.

Biosurfactants: Chemical Properties, Ecofriendly Environmental Applications, and Uses in the Industrial Energy Sector

The exploitation of nature and the increase in manufacturing production are the cause of major environmental concerns, and considerable efforts are needed to resolve such issues. Oil and petroleum derivatives constitute the primary energy sources used in industries. However, the transportation and use of these products have huge environmental impacts. A significant issue with oil-related pollution is that hydrocarbons are highly toxic and have low biodegradability, posing a risk to ecosystems and biodiversity. Thus, there has been growing interest in the use of renewable compounds from natural sources. Biosurfactants are amphipathic microbial biomolecules emerging as sustainable alternatives with beneficial characteristics, including biodegradability and low toxicity. Biosurfactants and biosurfactant-producing microorganisms serve as an ecologically correct bioremediation strategy for ecosystems polluted by hydrocarbons. Moreover, synthetic surfactants can constitute additional recalcitrant contaminants introduced into the environment, leading to undesirable outcomes. The replacement of synthetic surfactants with biosurfactants can help solve such problems. Thus, there has been growing interest in the use of biosurfactants in a broad gamut of industrial sectors. The purpose of this review was to furnish a comprehensive view of biosurfactants, classifications, properties, and applications in the environmental and energy fields. In particular, practical applications of biosurfactants in environmental remediation are discussed, with special focus on bioremediation, removal of heavy metals, phytoremediation, microbial enhanced oil recovery, metal corrosion inhibition, and improvements in agriculture. The review also describes innovating decontamination methods, including nanobioremediation, use of genetically modified microorganisms, enzymatic bioremediation, modeling and prototyping, biotechnology, and process engineering. Research patents and market prospects are also discussed to illustrate trends in environmental and industrial applications of biosurfactants.

Magnetic Induction Heating-Driven Rapid Cold Start of Ammonia Decomposition for Hydrogen Production.

The advantages of ammonia as a hydrogen carrier have led to proposals for on-site hydrogen production through its decomposition. Rapid cold start of ammonia decomposition is crucial for applications such as ammonia-powered vehicles, but conventional heating methods are challenged by the high decomposition temperature of ammonia. In this study, we successfully achieved the rapid cold start of ammonia decomposition using Co nanoparticle catalysts driven by magnetic induction heating, demonstrating excellent catalytic performance and stability. The magnetic induction heating-driven ammonia decomposition system was integrated with a hydrogen fuel cell, proving its ability to achieve the cold start of ammonia decomposition within 10 s, as demonstrated by comparative experiments using 75% H2-25% N2 from a gas cylinder as the control. This study provides a deeper understanding of hysteresis heating catalysis, promoting the practical use of ammonia as a hydrogen carrier for rapid hydrogen production in the energy industry.