Energy Intensive Areas Research Articles

Application of laced built-up columns with cold-formed lipped angle sections in wind turbine towers

Increasing the height of wind turbine towers effectively enhances their power output. Consequently, there is a growing demand for constructing wind turbine towers with higher hubs, especially in heavily populated and energy-intensive areas. Traditional approaches involve enlarging angled steel, posing production challenges and economic feasibility concerns. This study proposes replacing traditional angled steel with cold-formed lipped angles for improved structural performance. In this paper, a finite element model of the built-up column with cold-formed lipped angles is developed through ANSYS software. Finite element calculations are applied to various cross-sectional dimensions of cold-formed lipped angle sections to analyze column curves. Incorporating calculation methods from international standards, the paper presents a fitting formula and calculation method for the load-carrying capacity of the built-up column with cold-formed steel lipped angle sections. Finally, utilizing a wind turbine tower with a 120 m hub height as a case study, the paper conducts structural modeling and design analyses for both the built-up column with cold-formed lipped angles and the one with conventional angled steel. The research indicates that after adopting the built-up column with cold-formed lipped angle sections, the stress ratio of the tower columns is significantly reduced, with an approximate 16 % decrease in the stress ratio of the most critical section. The adoption of cold-formed lipped angle section effectively enhances the overall load-carrying capacity of the wind tower, providing a greater safety margin for the design. The calculation method provides valuable insights for future engineering applications.

Target energy management for sustainable molding companies: Consumption, saving, and enviro-economic investigation

The industrial sector is the world's leading energy consumer and CO2 emitter and yet has not received sufficient focus to reduce its energy consumption and adverse environmental impact. So, this paper addresses this gap by presenting industrial-based research on energy audit and target energy management for a sustainable bulk molding company in Alexandria, Egypt. The management focuses on the hot press hydraulic building section which consumes more than 30 % of the company's total energy. The sources of energy losses within this section are identified and quantified. Energy-saving measures including thermal energy management are proposed, implemented and valorized based on energy savings, cost and environmental impact. The yearly savings on energy consumption, energy bills and CO2 emission reduction for the molding machines are estimated. The results show that the main sources of molds' energy losses are in the preheat stage and convection and radiation from the hot mold surfaces. The maximum energy saving due to modifying the preheat stage duration is about 51 %. The gained energy reduction due to changing the mold insulation boards is about 17.5 % and 55.3 % during the preheat and production stages, respectively. Moreover, using double layer insulation boards with the mold insulation cage reduces energy consumption by about 69.5 %. The payback period falls between 1.53 and 6.11 months where these techniques for one machine can save 1229.3 $/year and reduce 16,651.598 kg/year CO2 emission. The study contributes to a broader understanding of how proactive insulation and thermal management can lead to significant energy and cost savings over a long-term period in industrial operations. Besides its contribution to sustainability goals: SDG7, SDG11, and SDG13, the study's approach proves its efficacity and can serve as a precedent for other industrial sites trying to enhance energy efficiency in their most energy-intensive areas.

Проблема разработки регионами страны рациональных нормативно-правовых основ стратегического управления

The article is devoted to the study of the problem of developing rational legal frameworks for the strategic management of the country’s regions, no matter what natural, climatic and meteorological conditions they are in. The dissonance that has arisen between the theory and practice of strategic management in Russia is explained by many reasons, including the result of the transition to new economic relations. However, this does not make the problem any easier. According to the authors, the process of developing the regulatory framework for the strategic management of the country’s regions should be subordinated to the principles of autonomy in conducting the economic activities of each specific region, ensuring economic self-sufficiency, the development of the most energy-intensive areas in the economy of each individual region, state regulation of the economic activities of the country’s regions in the aspect coordination of economic relations between regions, etc.

A Case Study on Multi-Objective Optimization Design of College Teaching Building Atrium in Cold Regions Based on Passive Concept

The atrium space represents one of the most energy-intensive areas within buildings. This is especially evident in college teaching buildings, where the inclusion of atriums often leads to increased energy consumption, primarily due to enhancements in lighting and thermal comfort. To address this issue, this study investigates atriums in cold regions within college teaching buildings and establishes four distinct atrium models for such buildings through typological abstraction and evolution. This study utilizes the Grasshopper (Ladybug Tools; developed by Robert McNeel & Assoc, Inc. in the United States.) parametric performance simulation platform to simulate daylight comfort and energy consumption within the atriums. Range analysis is subsequently applied to assess the impact of variables on energy consumption, and variables with the least influence are eliminated. Subsequently, the Octopus plug-in is employed to conduct multi-objective optimization for the four atrium types, resulting in the attainment of a Pareto-optimized solution set. Following optimization, the energy efficiency rates for the four atrium types are determined as 10.3%, 17.6%, 37.2%, and 30.5%, respectively, while the daylight comfort rates experience enhancements of 4.4%, 10.4%, 44.7%, and 34%, respectively. This study provides designers with a reference for optimizing design parameters during the early stages.

Nexus between agro-ecological efficiency and carbon emission transfer: evidence from China.

The economy of China is growing rapidly. With this overwhelming growth, the country is experiencing a higher level of carbon emissions. Amid this backdrop, China is under immense pressure to reduce carbon emissions up to a sustainable level. This study adapted 31 provincial panel data from 2007 to 2017 using factor analysis system SBM-undesirable model to calculate the agro-ecological output of each province respectively and used a carbon transfer network impact analysis panel to calculate ecological performance impacts. Results show that (1) overall agro-ecological efficiency in China shows an upward trend but regional differences are evident. The efficiency in the eastern region is higher than that in the central and western regions but the extent of informatization in the central region is higher than that in the western region. (2) Informatization will significantly promote agro-ecological efficiency. (3) Changes in agricultural planting structure, agricultural value-added per capita, employment of human capital in the agricultural sector, and agricultural scale management are also important factors affecting agro-ecological growth. (4) China's amount of carbon transfer is growing year by year, and energy-intensive areas and heavy industry bases are undertaking carbon transfer from the eastern coastal regions; (5) Jiangsu, Henan, and Hebei (Hubei) have the highest centers between 2007 and 2012; (6) inter-provincial carbon transmission is concentrated mainly in the metal smelting and rolling processing industries as well as in the coal, heat, and supply industries.

Comparative Analysis of Energy Consumption, Indoor Thermal–Hygrometric Conditions, and Air Quality for HVAC, LDAC, and RDAC Systems Used in Operating Rooms

As controlling temperature and humidity is crucial for maintaining comfort and preventing microbial growth, operating rooms (ORs) are the most energy-intensive areas in hospitals. We aimed to evaluate the energy consumption of three dehumidification air conditioning systems used in ORs and their corresponding air quality for ORs at rest. This study selected three ORs using a conventional heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system; a liquid desiccant air conditioning (LDAC) system; and a rotary desiccant air conditioning (RDAC) system, respectively. The indoor thermal–hygrometric conditions, air quality, and energy consumption of the ORs were monitored in this study. The median levels of relative humidity (RH) were 66.7% in the OR using the conventional HVAC system, 60.8% in the OR using the LDAC system, and 60.5% in the OR using the RDAC system. The median daily total energy consumption of the RDAC system (10.1 kWh/m2) and LDAC system (11.8 kWh/m2) were 28.12% and 16.54% lower, respectively, than that of the conventional HVAC system (14.1 kWh/m2). The PM≥0.5 levels and airborne bacterial concentrations in the ORs met the ISO 14644-1 Class 7 standard and China’s GB50333-2013 standard, respectively. The RDAC system was clearly superior to the LDAC and conventional HVAC systems in terms of energy consumption.

Environmental Risk and Policy Choices in an Energy Intensive Region of China—An Empirical Study in Shanxi Province

Given that there has been ecological degradation for a long time in Shanxi Province, China. This research addresses this situation by analyzing the energy structure and environmental risk in the past and in the future. Consequently, this study uses two indicator systems, ecosystem interaction system and environmental risk representation, to illustrate the environmental risk in an energy intensive region of China. And we build a BP-SVM model applying a back-propagation (BP) neural network and support vector machine (SVM) arithmetic to predict the future ecology-economy-society system interactions in Shanxi Province. At last, we classify the risk rank by using environmental risk representation indicators. The main conclusions from this research are as follows: Firstly, two indicator systems have advantages in describing the ecological-economy-society interaction especially the human society's impact on the ecosystem over a single indicator system. Secondly, by the BP-SVM model, there is a relatively high ecological risk rank in next few years in Shanxi Province, although it fluctuates occasionally. Finally, this study not only offers recommendations for the government to develop policies to transform from a coal-energy based system to a clean, safe, and efficient modern energy system, but also points out the implications for government administrations in energy intensive areas of developing countries to guide the economic transformation.

Energy Performance and Energy Efficiency Retrofitting in Existing Hotel Buildings – A Review

Tourism is one of the main sources of income in some of the countries around the world. The hotel industry has thus become one of the main industries. Hotels are one of the most energy intensive building categories and the hospitality industry contributes to 2% of the world’s CO2 emissions. At present, new buildings can be made energy efficient even from the design stage but existing buildings consume more energy than the new ones. Building energy efficiency retrofitting techniques should be applied, based on economics, to existing buildings to reduce the high energy consumption. This paper presents a review on energy performance and energy intensive areas of some existing hotel buildings at different tourist destinations in the world. Energy retrofitting technologies should be mainly focused on these energy intensive areas. It also provides a review of common retrofitting technologies and past studies on hotel building retrofits. Finally, it discusses the barriers for retrofit projects and a market mechanism to carry out successful retrofit projects. After seeing more than 50% of energy saving in retrofitted hotels, this paper concludes that all possible retrofitting technologies should be implemented from now on and measure the energy performance both before and after retrofitting.

An MILP model for optimization of a small-scale LNG supply chain along a coastline

The world energy demand is continuously increasing and natural gas is one of the strongest candidates to cover the growth. However, natural gas is unavailable in many energy intensive areas and the best way to introduce natural gas to new, scattered, areas is by transporting it as liquefied natural gas (LNG). LNG can be shipped from a large LNG import terminal to consumers through a network of smaller satellite terminals with a combination of sea- and land-based transports. Building up a small-scale supply chain network is expensive and capital intensive. This paper presents a mathematical model to aid in the supply chain design decisions by minimizing the total costs associated with fuel procurement. The use of the model is illustrated by a case study, where the optimal supply chain of LNG for covering certain parts of the energy requirements of a country is designed under different cost structures for LNG and for its land-based transportation.

Trend and characteristics of atmospheric emissions of Hg, As, and Se from coal combustion in China, 1980–2007

Abstract. Emissions of hazardous trace elements in China are of great concern because of their negative impacts on local air quality as well as on regional environmental health and ecosystem risks. In this paper, the atmospheric emissions of mercury (Hg), arsenic (As), and selenium (Se) from coal combustion in China for the period 1980–2007 are estimated on the basis of coal consumption data and emission factors, which are specified by different categories of combustion facilities, coal types, and the equipped air pollution control devices configuration (Dust collectors, FGD, etc.). Specifically, multi-year emission inventories of Hg, As, and Se from 30 provinces and 4 economic sectors (thermal power, industry, residential use, and others) are evaluated and analyzed in detail. Furthermore, the gridded distribution of provincial-based Hg, As, and Se emissions in 2005 at a resolution of 1° × 1° is also plotted. It shows that the calculated national total atmospheric emissions of Hg, As, and Se from coal combustion have rapidly increased from 73.59 t, 635.57 t, and 639.69 t in 1980 to 305.95 t, 2205.50 t, and 2352.97 t in 2007, at an annually averaged growth rate of 5.4%, 4.7%, and 4.9%, respectively. The industrial sector is the largest source for Hg, As, and Se, accounting for about 50.8%, 61.2%, and 56.2% of the national totals, respectively. The share of power plants is 43.3% for mercury, 24.9% for arsenic, and 33.4% for selenium, respectively. Also, it shows remarkably different regional contribution characteristics of these 3 types of trace elements, the top 5 provinces with the heaviest mercury emissions in 2007 are Shandong (34.40 t), Henan (33.63 t), Shanxi (21.14 t), Guizhou (19.48 t), and Hebei (19.35 t); the top 5 provinces with the heaviest arsenic emissions in 2007 are Shandong (219.24 t), Hunan (213.20 t), Jilin (141.21 t), Hebei (138.54 t), and Inner Mongolia (127.49 t); while the top 5 provinces with the heaviest selenium emissions in 2007 are Shandong (289.11 t), Henan (241.45 t), Jiangsu (175.44 t), Anhui (168.89 t), and Hubei (163.96 t). Between 2000 and 2007, provinces always rank at the top five largest Hg, As, and Se emission sources are: Shandong, Hebei, Shanxi, Henan, and Jiangsu, most of which are located in the east and are traditional industry-based or economically energy intensive areas in China. Notably, Hg, As, and Se emissions from coal combustion in China begin to grow at a more moderate pace since 2005. Emissions from coal-fired power plants sector began to decrease though the coal use had been increasing steadily, which can be mainly attributed to the increasing use of wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) in power plants, thus the further research and control orientations of importance for these hazardous trace elements should be the industrial sector.

Energy saving in airports by trigeneration. Part I: Assessing economic and technical potential

Airports are very energy-intensive areas, because of the large buildings (both terminals and non-passengers areas) equipped with heating and air-conditioning systems, the high power demand for lighting and electric equipment and the energy requests from many facilities within the airport area. The contemporaneous and high demand for power and heat makes cogeneration to represent a viable solution for energy saving; in southern climate zones, however, combined heating, cooling and power (CHCP) systems can lead to even better results. This paper constitutes the first part of a work in two parts; starting from an analysis of typical energy demand profiles in airports, economical and technical criteria to assess the feasibility of trigeneration plants are proposed. Typical results for large airports are also presented. Part II of this work presents an in-depth analysis for the Malpensa 2000 airport, oriented to optimize the design and the operation of the CHCP system.

Energy analysis of manufacturing process of a motorcycle

Energy analysis of a production unit helps to quantify the energy consumed at different stages, thus providing estimates of energy and material wastage, if any. From the general principles of energy analysis involving mass conversion efficiencies and the energy inputs at various stages of the production process of a motorcycle producing industry, namely Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Limited (HMSI), a methodology has been evolved to conduct a detailed energy analysis leading to the energy content (primary energy consumption per unit weight of the product) of the motorcycle. To facilitate the energy analysis, the whole production process has been divided into three main sub-processes, namely, frame production, engine production, and the assembly and inspection stages. Confining to the energy and material input within the premises of the industry, the energy content of the vehicle has been found to be 12.24 MJ/kg of vehicle weight. Out of the three stages, the frame manufacturing stage is found to be most energy intensive. Within frame manufacturing, the paint shop itself accounted for 87% of energy consumption. The results of this analysis, besides their use for identification of energy intensive areas, can also be used for conducting life cycle analysis.