Fossil Fuel Energy Consumption Research Articles

X‐ray computed tomography to predict soil N2O production via bacterial denitrification and N2O emission in contrasting bioenergy cropping systems

AbstractWhile renewable biofuels can reduce negative effects of fossil fuel energy consumption, the magnitude of their benefits depends on the magnitude of N2O emissions. High variability of N2O emissions overpowers efforts to curb uncertainties in estimating N2O fluxes from biofuel systems. In this study, we explored (a) N2O production via bacterial denitrification and (b) N2O emissions from soils under several contrasting bioenergy cropping systems, with specific focus on explaining N2O variations by accounting for soil pore characteristics. Intact soil samples were collected after 9 years of implementing five biofuel systems: continuous corn with and without winter cover crop, monoculture switchgrass, poplars, and early‐successional vegetation. After incubation, N2O emissions were measured and bacterial denitrification was determined based on the site‐preference method. Soil pore characteristics were quantified using X‐ray computed microtomography. Three bioenergy systems with low plant diversity, that is, corn and switchgrass systems, had low porosities, low organic carbon contents, and large volumes of poorly aerated soil. In these systems, greater volumes of poorly aerated soil were associated with greater bacterial denitrification, which in turn was associated with greater N2O emissions (R2 = 0.52, p < 0.05). However, the two systems with high plant diversity, that is, poplars and early‐successional vegetation, over the 9 years of implementation had developed higher porosities and organic carbon contents. In these systems, volumes of poorly aerated soil were positively associated with N2O emissions without a concomitant increase in bacterial denitrification. Our results suggest that changes in soil pore architecture generated by long‐term implementation of contrasting bioenergy systems may affect the pathways of N2O production, thus, change associations between N2O emissions and other soil properties. Plant diversity appears as one of the factors determining which microscale soil characteristics will influence the amounts of N2O emitted into the atmosphere and, thus, which can be used as effective empirical predictors.

Assessment of a combined cooling, heating and power system by synthetic use of biogas and solar energy

Anaerobic digesters should always be kept warm for a stable biogas yield. The conventional method for digester temperature maintenance results in a considerable waste of energy and pollution of the environment by directly firing biogas. Biogas-driven trigeneration systems can improve biogas utilization efficiency; however, the waste heat from the power engines is limited by the digester’s thermal insulation, and additional fossil fuels are consumed to supplement the thermal power. To ease fossil fuel energy consumption and enhance the efficiency of biogas utilization, this paper presents a combined cooling heating and power (CCHP) system with synthetic use of biogas and solar energy. Solar energy is first transformed into syngas chemical energy through a chemical reaction called biogas steam reforming, and then the chemical energy is used for trigeneration in a conventional CCHP subsystem. Experimental research was conducted on the key process of biogas steam reforming to validate its feasibility. Hourly dynamic simulations of the proposed system were conducted by the mathematical models established using Lhasa, Tibet weather data. A biogas-fired CCHP system and a solar Dish/Stirling power system were adopted as reference systems, and a comparative analysis showed that the synthetic use of biogas and solar energy in the proposed system improves the annual electricity production by 8.70%, improves the refrigeration by 2.57%, and reduces the natural gas consumption by 8.66%. In addition, the direct CO2 footprint in the proposed system is 8.20% lower than that in the reference systems. Finally, an economic study was conducted to validate the technical feasibility of the new system. The study offers a new method of using biogas and solar energy for an improved integrated performance.

Cradle-to-grave life-cycle assessment within the built environment: Comparison between the refurbishment and the complete reconstruction of an office building in Belgium

In the current context of the necessary sustainability transition of the built environment, it is widely recognized that buildings are a major contributor to the energy consumption of fossil fuels and the emission of CO2. Most of the debates, policies and research are however dedicated to the sole construction of new very efficient (up to zero-energy) building, neglecting the potential of actions on the existing building stock. In this context, we argue that LCA tools are of a huge interest to objectivise the need to refurbish old buildings, in order to increase their energy efficiency and extend their life span, and to compare this strategy to the demolition/reconstruction of buildings. To achieve this aim, this paper aims at updating an existing tool that enables to carry out the life cycle assessment of buildings, by taking into account demolition and construction phases. Then, the tool is applied to one case study of the low-energy refurbishment of a public office building in Brussels, to compare the impacts of the complete demolition followed by a complete reconstruction (rebuild project) to the retrofitting of the existing building (retrofit project). Our main findings confirm the huge impact of the use phase, highlight the impact (energy and CO2 emissions) of the construction and demolition phases and show that the in-depth renovation of this building leads to lower environmental indicators compared to its full reconstruction. The tool and results provided in this paper support the development of policies in favour of the retrofitting of the existing building stock and highlight the importance of including the whole life cycle of the building in the analysis.

Avaliação do desempenho de vedações verticais utilizando o Processo de Análise Hierárquica na tomada de decisão

A avaliação de desempenho de sistemas construtivos tem sido um tema amplamente discutido no setor da construção civil brasileira. Este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar o desempenho acústico, térmico e ambiental de diferentes sistemas construtivos comumente utilizados em vedações verticais de edificações habitacionais. Foram avaliados os seguintes sistemas: alvenaria de vedação de blocos cerâmicos, alvenaria de tijolos cerâmicos, alvenaria estrutural de blocos de concreto, parede de concreto moldado no local e steel framing. Para o desempenho acústico foram estimados valores do índice de redução sonora ponderado (Rw), enquanto que para o desempenho térmico foram calculados a resistência térmica (Rt) e a capacidade térmica (Ct) dos sistemas construtivos escolhidos. Para a avaliação do desempenho ambiental foram quantificados um indicador de consumo de energia de combustíveis fósseis (IE) e um indicador de emissões de carbono (IC), com base na metodologia de Avaliação do Ciclo de Vida (ACV). Como forma de facilitar a tomada de decisão do projetista foi empregado o Processo de Análise Hierárquica (AHP) para agregar os diferentes critérios avaliados a um indicador de desempenho global (IDG), considerando diferentes cenários. Os resultados mostraram que quando o IDG é calculado o sistema de alvenaria blocos de concreto se apresentou o mais vantajoso para a maioria dos cenários avaliados. Foi possível verificar o potencial do uso do método de AHP para orientar e sistematizar escolhas de diferentes sistemas construtivos para vedações verticais.

A novel decomposition analysis of green patent applications for the evaluation of R&D efforts to reduce CO2 emissions from fossil fuel energy consumption

Abstract Many green technologies have been invented to prevent CO2 emission. But the alarming increased in CO2 emissions in the last half-century can also induce the advancement of green technology. In order to evaluate the effect of changes in CO2 emissions on green R&D investment and the generation of related patents, a new logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) decomposition method is proposed. The method identifies the effect of CO2 changes on patent applications via R&D investment using the following six factors: production, energy intensity, fuel mix, CO2 emission coefficient, R&D reaction, and R&D efficiency. Using the data from 2004 to 2012, we apply the proposed method to the four countries (France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom) in order to compare the main factors driving green patent applications in each country. The findings provide insight for effective generation of green technology patents.

Impact of fossil fuels energy consumption, energy policies, and urban sprawl on carbon emissions in East Asia and the Pacific: A panel investigation

This paper employs the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis in studying the impact of energy consumption, economic growth, and urbanization on carbon emissions in developing economies. Data from twelve developing East Asian and Pacific countries for the period 1990 to 2014 has been used for analysis. The empirical results, estimated through application of the System Generalized Method of Moment (GMM), show that energy consumption, economic growth, and urbanization all significantly increase carbon emissions, thereby adding to serious environmental challenges in the region. Moreover, public policies designed to shift economies from non-renewable to renewable energy resources have been taken into account, and their impact was found to have been insignificant in the sampled countries. However, the results depict an inverted U-shaped relationship between per capita economic growth and carbon emissions, confirming the existence of an EKC in the region. The empirical findings suggest that energy conservation and policies fostering use of renewables helped to improve economic growth, control carbon emissions, and support the rising energy demand resulting from increased urban sprawl. In order to improve the influence of public policies in controlling carbon emissions, our analysis finds a need for stronger initiative to be taken in regional dialogues and policy frameworks, and for greater collaboration among diverse stakeholders often characterized by differing values, interests, and objectives.

Panel estimation for renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, economic growth, CO2 emissions, the composite trade intensity, and financial openness of the commonwealth of independent states.

This article investigates the long-run and causal linkages between economic growth, CO2 emissions, renewable and non-renewable (fossil fuels) energy consumption, the Composite Trade Intensity (CTI) as a proxy for trade openness, and the Chinn-Ito index as a proxy for financial openness for a panel of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan over the period of 1992-2015. It is the first time that CTI and the Chinn-Ito indexes are used in an economic-pollution model. Employing three panel unit root tests, panel cointegration estimation methods (DOLS and FMOLS), and two panel causality tests, the main empirical results provided evidence for the bidirectional long-run relationship between all the variables in all 12 sampled countries except for economic growth-renewable energy use linkage. The findings of causality tests indicated that there is a unidirectional short-run panel causality running from economic growth, financial openness, and trade openness to CO2 emissions and from fossil fuel energy consumption to renewable energy use.

Peak Load Regulation and Cost Optimization for Microgrids by Installing a Heat Storage Tank and a Portable Energy System

With the rapid growth of electricity demands, many traditional distributed networks cannot cover their peak demands, especially in the evening. Additionally, with the interconnection of distributed electrical and thermal grids, system operational flexibility and energy efficiency can be affected as well. Therefore, by adding a portable energy system and a heat storage tank to the traditional distributed system, this paper proposes a newly defined distributed network to deal with the aforementioned problems. Simulation results show that by adding a portable energy system, fossil fuel energy consumption and daily operation cost can be reduced by 8% and 28.29%, respectively. Moreover, system peak load regulating capacity can be significantly improved. However, by introducing the portable energy system to the grid, system uncertainty can be increased to some extent. Therefore, chance constrained programming is proposed to control the system while considering system uncertainty. By applying Particle Swarm Optimization—Monte Carlo to solve the chance constrained programming, results show that power system economy and uncertainty can be compromised by selecting appropriate confidence levels α and β. It is also reported that by installing an extra heat storage tank, combined heat and power energy efficiency can be significantly improved and the installation capacity of the battery can be reduced.

Impacts of GDP, Fossil Fuel Energy Consumption, Energy Consumption Intensity, and Economic Structure on SO2 Emissions: A Multi-Variate Panel Data Model Analysis on Selected Chinese Provinces

Atmospheric pollution gradually become a focus of concern all over the world owing to its detrimental influence on human health as well as long range impact on global ecosystem. This paper investigated the relationship among SO2 emissions, GDP, fossil fuel energy consumption, energy consumption intensity, and economic structure of five provinces in China with the highest SO2 emissions spanning from 2002–2015 based on panel data model. Through comparatively analyzing the coefficients in the established panel data model for Hebei, Henan, Inner Mongolia, Shandong, and Shanxi, we can obtain that: (1) fossil fuel energy consumption made the most devotion to SO2 discharge compared with GDP, energy consumption intensity, and economic structure. And the more the fossil fuel energy consumption, the more the devotion made by it to SO2 discharge. (2) GDP devoted less to SO2 emissions than fossil fuel energy consumption, and the larger the scale of the economy, the greater the contribution made by it to SO2 emissions. (3) The higher the proportion of the secondary industry added value accounted in GDP, the more the devotion made by the economic structure and energy consumption intensity to SO2 emissions. Through analyzing the Granger causality examination results, it can be concluded that: (1) there existed a bi-directional causal relationship between fossil fuel energy consumption and SO2 emissions among five selected provinces. (2) There existed uni-directional causal nexus running from GDP to SO2 emissions, from energy consumption intensity to SO2 emissions, and from economic structure to SO2 emissions among five chosen provinces. Based on the empirical analysis, several policy implications were proposed to provide references for policy makers, which were (1) Giving full play to the guiding role of price signals, and improving the price policy for desulfurization. (2) Formulating a new comprehensive evaluation system to measure the regional development level considering economic development and environmental impacts. (3) Exploring renewable and sustainable energy sources to substitute for fossil fuel energy according to regional resources endowment. (4) Developing high value added and low pollution emissions industries and reducing the proportion of secondary industry.

Dirty Neighbors: Pollution in an Interlinked World

We apply a network approach to analyze individual and aggregate consumption that generates predominately local pollution (e.g., noise, water and air quality, waste disposal sites). This allows us to relate the individual pollution levels to network centralities and to design policy measures aimed at reducing the aggregate contamination. We then apply our theoretical framework to analyze the European data on fossil fuel energy consumption and discuss possible transfer schemes that, according to our model, would result in lower aggregate levels of pollution in the EU.

The impact of hydro-biofuel-wind energy consumption on environmental cost of doing business in a panel of BRICS countries: evidence from three-stage least squares estimator.

The renewable energy sources are considered the vital factor to promote global green business. The environmental cost of doing business is the pre-requisite to analyze sustainable policies that facilitate the eco-minded entrepreneurs to produce healthier goods. This study examines the impact of renewable energy sources (i.e., hydro energy, biofuel energy, and wind energy) on the environmental cost of doing business in a panel of BRICS (Brazil, Russian Federation, India, China, and South Africa) countries, for the period of 1995-2015. The study employed principal component analysis to construct an "integrated environmental index" by using three alternative and plausible factors including carbon dioxide emissions, fossil fuel energy consumption, and chemicals used in the manufacturing process. The environmental index is used as an interactive term with the three cost of doing business indicators including business disclosure index, the cost of business start-up procedures, and logistics performance index to form environmental cost of doing business (ECDB) indicators. The results of three-stage least squares (3SLS) estimator show that foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows supported the green business while trade openness deteriorates the environment, which partially validates the "pollution haven hypotheses (PHH)" in a panel of countries. There is no evidence for environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis; however, there is a monotonic decreasing relationship between per capita income and ECDB indicators. The hydro energy supports the sustainable business environment, while biofuel consumption deteriorates the environmental impact on the cost of business start-up procedures. Finally, wind energy subsequently affected the ECDB indicators in a panel of BRICS countries. The overall results conclude that growth factors and energy sources both have a considerable impact on the cost of doing business; therefore, there is a momentous need to formulate sustainable policy vista to magnetize green business across countries.

Biobutanol production using pea pod waste as substrate: Impact of drying on saccharification and fermentation

Increasing worldwide energy consumption and limited availability of fossil fuels propelled the researchers to develop advanced fuels (biobutanol) for its commercial development. In the present work, pea pod waste from vegetable sector was investigated for biobutanol production using C. acetobutylicum B 527 through series of steps viz. compositional analysis, drying study, saccharification, detoxification, and fermentation. Proximate analysis suggested that pea pod waste is rich in holocellulose content with 32.08% of cellulose and 21.12% of hemicellulose on dry basis and hence has a huge potential to be used as carbon source during biobutanol production. In order to enhance storability and subsequent saccharification, drying kinetics of pea pod waste was carried out in varied temperature range (60–120 °C) and the experimental data was simulated by using moisture diffusion control model. Saccharification of pea pod waste samples resulted into total sugar release of 30–48 g/L. Subsequently, 95% phenolics and 30% acetic acid were removed using activated charcoal detoxification. The acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation of detoxified pea pod waste slurries resulted in 4.25–5.94 g/L total solvents with about 50% sugar utilization. Overall, the utilization of pea pod waste will serve as basis for valorization of vegetable waste biomass for ABE production.

Does renewable energy ensure environmental quality in favour of economic growth? Empirical evidence from China’s renewable development

An economy in transition that is growing fast coupled with rising population requires more energy. Economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions in China have been increasing together over the past several years. Exploring the dynamic relationship among these variables has a lot of policy implications related to environment–growth–energy linkage. This paper explores the interrelationship among CO2 emissions, economic growth, disaggregated energy (fossil fuel and renewable) consumption and population. The broad objective of the paper is to examine the potential role of renewable energy consumption to ensure environmental quality in favour of growth. Data spanned from 1971 to 2013 sourced from World Bank data base. The results from auto regression distributed lag suggests that fossil fuel energy consumption increases CO2 emissions, both in the short and the long run, but renewable energy consumption reduces CO2 emissions in the long run. Although economic growth and population increase CO2 emissions in the short run, their impacts on CO2 emissions in the long run diminish, validating the environmental carbon Kuznets curve hypothesis in China. Short run vector error correction mechanism Granger causality results reveal unidirectional causality from both fossil fuel and renewable energy consumption to CO2 emissions revealing growth hypothesis. Bidirectional causality exists between both energies and economic growth confirming the role of energy on economic expansion vis-a-vis the role of income on energy consumption. The findings have important policy implications for harmonizing economic growth vis-a-vis environmental quality and thus climate change mitigation with a higher proportion of energy from renewables.

Invisible transportation infrastructure technology to mitigate energy and environment

BackgroundTraditional transportation infrastructure built by heat trapping products and the transportation vehiles run by fossil fuel, both causing deadly climate change. Thus, a new technology of invisible Flying Transportation system has been proposed to mitigate energy and environmental crisis caused by traditional infrastructure system.MethodsUnderground Maglev system has been modeled to be constructed for all transportation systems to run the vehicle smoothly just over two feet over the earth surface by propulsive and impulsive force at flying stage. A wind energy modeling has also been added to meet the vehicle’s energy demand when it runs on a non-maglev area. Naturally, all maglev infrastructures network to be covered by evergreen herb except pedestrian walkways to absorb CO2, ambient heat, and moisture (vapor) from the surrounding environment to make it cool.ResultsThe research revealed that the vehicle will not require any energy since it will run by superconducting electromagnetic force while it runs on a maglev infrastructure area and directed by wind energy while it runs on non-maglev area.ConclusionsThe proposed maglev transportation infrastructure technology will indeed be an innovative discovery in modern engineering science which will reduce fossil fuel energy consumption and climate change dramatically.

Increases in Fuel Efficiency or Ethanol: Which Has More Efficiently Reduced Fossil Fuel Consumption?

One of the goals of the U.S. ethanol mandate is to reduce fossil fuel use in the transportation sector. But some critics of the mandate argue that a more efficient way of reducing fuel consumption would be to focus on improvements in fuel efficiency of motor vehicles. We consider the time span between 2005 and 2015 and ask how much the mandated increases in ethanol use reduced fossil fuel consumption relative to increases in light-duty vehicle fuel efficiency, and how cost-effective each trend was for consumers. We show that, over this time period, changes in vehicle fuel efficiency reduced fossil fuel energy consumption by 0.90%, while increases in ethanol consumption decreased it by 1.21%. Accordingly, fuel savings caused by increases in fuel efficiency saved drivers $40.9B, while the ethanol mandate penalized drivers with $91.5B in additional fuelling costs.

Measuring the impact of alternative and nuclear energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions and oil rents on specific growth factors in the panel of Latin American countries

This study examines the impact of alternative and nuclear energy consumption (NE), fossil fuel energy consumption (FFUEL), carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) and oil rent (OILRENT) on economic growth (GDPPC) and foreign direct investment (FDI) in the panel of nine Latin American countries, for the period of 1975–2013. The result of pooled seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) indicates the importance of NE, FFUEL and CO2 emissions that positively contributed to increasing GDP per capita, while oil rents fail to promote economic growth in the region. Similar results have been obtained with the FDI in which the role of energy sources amplified the foreign investment on the cost of CO2 emissions in the region. With respect to individual countries, CO2 emissions exert the positive association with the GDP per capita of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru, while, NE significantly increases GDP per capita of Colombia, Peru and Venezuela. Fossil fuel energy consumption increases along with the increase in GDP per capita in Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Venezuela, however, it decreases the economic growth of Argentina and Peru respectively. Oil rents have a negative relationship with GDP per capita of Argentina, while it possesses significant and positive impact in Ecuador and Venezuela. Finally, the panel causality tests confirmed the following four causality hypothesis in between the different variables i.e., feedback hypothesis, energy conservation hypothesis, growth hypothesis and neutrality hypothesis, both in the short and long-run.

A new LDMI decomposition approach to explain emission development in the EU: individual and set contribution.

This study breaks down carbon emissions into six effects within the current 28 European Union (EU) countries group, thereafter, they are divided into two different groups (the first 15 countries (EU-15) and the last 13 entering the EU (EU13)). Country-specific highlights are also examined. It analyses the evolution of the effects using a data span that runs from 1990 to 2014, to determine which of them had more impact on the intensity of emissions, while also breaking down the complete period into two distinct periods (before the Kyoto protocol (1990-2004) and after Kyoto (2005-2014)). In order to add more knowledge to the current literature, both the additive and multiplicative decomposition techniques were used to examine carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and the selected six components: carbon intensity, fossil fuel consumption, energy intensity, oil imports intensity, oil dependence, and population effect. Results point to different adapting velocities for Kyoto targets and necessary compromises. The different velocities were translated into different positive and negative impacts in the change of behavior of CO2 emissions throughout Europe. A stress in the fluctuations in CO2 variations before and after Kyoto and between the two different groups of EU countries could be noticed. Moreover, energy intensity and per capita dependence of oil products were identified as the major responsible components for the total and negative changes of emissions in recent years. A decrease in total changes of emissions is observed due to the fossil fuel energy consumption effect and total petroleum products effects. It is possible to infer from here that increased renewable capacity is contributing in a positive way to eco-efficiency, and should therefore be accounted for in national policymakers' decisions in the strongest way possible. Results also seem to indicate that per capita dependence of oil products has decreased, despite oil imports intensity constancy and increased renewable capacity, however, with clear heterogeneous effects, worthy of consideration when defining policies.

Investigating the pollution haven hypothesis in Ghana: An empirical investigation

The aim of this research is to investigate the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) in Ghana utilizing CO2 emission as an indicator of air pollution for the period of 1980–2012. Moreover, we utilized gross domestic product (GDP), GDP square, energy consumption, renewable energy consumption, fossil fuel energy consumption, foreign direct investment, institutional quality, urbanization and trade openness as its main determinants. To achieve the goals of this research, different time series models were established utilizing the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method. In addition to the fact that structural breaks are introduced into the estimation process, we contribute to the existing literature by focussing on a country that typifies the current scenario of increasing emission and foreign direct investment in the developing countries. The outcome of this research revealed cointegration which indicates the existence of long run relationship between the variables. Moreover, GDP, foreign direct investment, urban population, financial development and international trade have positive impact on CO2 emission, while institutional quality decreases emissions in Ghana. This indicates that PHH does exist in Ghana. A number of policy recommendations were provided for Ghana according to the results obtained.

A new evidence on the CIS's environmental pollution-macroeoconmic variables relationship

This research explores the long-run and causal link between renewable and non-renewable (fossil fuels) energy consumption in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) with CO2 emissions and Real GDP per capita, by using three control variables, namely industrialization, the composite trade intensity and financial openness. Using panel data pattern from 1992 to 2016 and employing the Pesaran’s CD test, the CADF panel unit root test, the FMOLS panel cointegration estimation method and panel causality test, the main empirical results provide evidence supporting that in the long-run, there is a uni-directional relationship running from economic growth to renewable energy consumption. Furthermore, in the short-run, there is a uni-directional short-run panel causality running from industrialization- renewable energy use, economic growth, industrialization, financial openness and trade openness to CO2 emissions, and from fossil fuel energy consumption to renewable energy use, while there is a bi-directional trade openness- financial openness, economic growth- renewable energy use, economic growth-non-renewable energy consumption, in-dustrialization- non-renewable energy use, economic growth-industrialization, and CO2 emissions- fossil fuel energy consumption causality relationship.

Growth, Fossil Fuel Energy Consumption and Carbon Emissions in Nigeria

Growth, Fossil Fuel Energy Consumption and Carbon Emissions in Nigeria