Energy Resources Research Articles

Mesocorticolimbic circuit mechanisms of social dominance behavior.

Social animals, including rodents, primates, and humans, partake in competition for finite resources, thereby establishing social hierarchies wherein an individual's social standing influences diverse behaviors. Understanding the neurobiological underpinnings of social dominance is imperative, given its ramifications for health, survival, and reproduction. Social dominance behavior comprises several facets, including social recognition, social decision-making, and actions, indicating the concerted involvement of multiple brain regions in orchestrating this behavior. While extensive research has been dedicated to elucidating the neurobiology of social interaction, recent studies have increasingly delved into adverse social behaviors such as social competition and hierarchy. This review focuses on the latest advancements in comprehending the mechanisms of the mesocorticolimbic circuit governing social dominance, with a specific focus on rodent studies, elucidating the intricate dynamics of social hierarchies and their implications for individual well-being and adaptation.

The Interconnectedness of Energy Consumption with Economic Growth: A Granger Causality Analysis

In considering today's energy challenges, the link between the usage of renewable and non-renewable energy sources and economic growth has gained substantial policy attention. This research examines the complex relationship between these three variables to understand how non-renewable energy consumption and renewable energy consumption interact and what that means for economic growth. This study uses the Granger causality approach to explore the relationships between non-renewable energy consumption, renewable energy consumption, and economic development. It draws on a comprehensive dataset from the Word Bank database, including 152 nations from 1990 to 2019. The analysis is further disaggregated by four subgroups of countries; least developed, developed, transitional economies and developing countries. The result of this study provides valuable empirical evidence of uni-directional causality running from renewable energy consumption to economic growth and non-renewable energy consumption to economic growth in transitional economies. Furthermore, policymakers should focus on both variables when making decisions because the results show that energy consumption and economic growth are interconnected. Implementing global energy efficiency standards, reducing fossil fuel usage, and adopting regulatory measures are all viable policies for limiting adverse effects on the environment while encouraging economic development.

National-level resilience: Innovative framework for Energy-Water-Food nexus evaluation

The escalating demand for energy, water, and food (EWF) resources, alongside external stressors such as climate change, is placing significant strain on national systems. Therefore, this paper introduces a novel framework for assessing the resilience of interconnected EWF systems at a national level. The framework utilizes a hybrid approach of network systems modeling and optimization models, integrating sectoral and dependency impacts to offer a comprehensive perspective on the interconnected resilience of EWF components. Applied to Qatar's EWF nexus, the framework revealed significant interdependencies, particularly between water and energy components, that led to cascading failures and challenged nexus resilience. Under single failure scenarios, unmet demands for energy and water ranged from 9 to 59 GWh and 97,000 to 359,000 m3, respectively, with resilience indices from 0.86 to 0.99. In double failure scenarios, significantly higher unmet demands caused the resilience index to drop to 0.43. Due to limited freshwater availability, the food sector is highly vulnerable to groundwater supply disruptions, resulting in an 85.6 % reduction in total crop production under extreme scenarios. Furthermore, the study highlighted resilience-enhancement strategies, such as utilizing treated wastewater for agricultural, industrial, and commercial activities and diversifying energy sources to reduce the risk of cascading failures, which increased the nexus's resilience by 17 %. The proposed framework serves as an essential tool for identifying critical components within the EWF nexus and planning strategies to enhance both operational and structural resilience.

Green Transition in the Energy Sector: Opportunities versus Threats

The circular economy or green economy has introduced green transformation for every sector and organization in the last decade. Energy is a factor of primary importance for economic growth and development. However, energy consumption and non-renewable energy sources have largely negative effects in the fight against climate change and global warming. In other words, the economic growth approach based on non-renewable energy sources does not bring a sustainable future. At this point, the green transformation in the energy sector has enabled both developed and developing countries to follow new and sustainable strategies. At the forefront of new and sustainable strategies are energy production based on clean and renewable energy sources and responsible energy consumption practices. This study is a mini review and it aims to explore future opportunities and threats by examining the advantages and disadvantages of new applications that emerged with the green transformation in the energy sector. It is thought to give a brief profile for green transition in the energy sector. The study focused on the side of energy sources and energy production in the context of energy sector.

A review of dynamic changes in complementarities and transition pathways toward distributed energy resource–based electrical system

A review of dynamic changes in complementarities and transition pathways toward distributed energy resource–based electrical system

A new method to extract coal-covered area in open-pit mine based on remote sensing

ABSTRACT Coal is a prominent energy resource in China. Therefore, it is crucial to accurately extract the coal-covered areas. Taking Xinjiang’s Zhundong mining region as the study area, Landsat 8 OLI data were employed to assess the spectral curves of four typical ground objects, including vegetation, bare land, water body and bare coal. The Normalized Difference Bare Coal Index (NDBCI) and the Normalized Difference Coal Index (NDCI) were developed to extract coal-covered area. Higher-resolution Sentinel-2B data for the same period were used for verification, with extraction accuracy evaluated by five metrics including Kappa coefficient, Overall accuracy, Checking accuracy, Checking completeness and F1-score. The results of extracting coal-covered areas showed that (1) the NDBCI showed ‘internal fragmentation’ and the NDCI demonstrated ‘pixel overflow’ during the extraction process. Therefore, we determined the optimal thresholds −0.03 for NDBCI and 0.04 for NDCI. (2) NDBCI distinguished pixels with lower grey-scale values, such as water body, road and gangue. However, some dump zones and shed patches were misclassified. (3) NDCI generated clear boundaries and more complete interiors, and the dump zone and shed could be distinguished. However, some water body parts were misclassified as coal-covered areas. (4) Combined application of NDBCI and NDCI generated a ‘complementary’ effect better than both individual modes. Kappa coefficient, Overall accuracy and F1-score reached 0.95, 98.76% and 0.75, respectively. This study successfully extracted coal-covered areas by developing a remote sensing index based on spectral traits and a priori knowledge of the study area. The proposed combined extraction mode achieved high accuracy for rapid and reliable identification of coal-covered areas.

Coordination in islanded microgrids: Integration of distributed generation, energy storage system, and load shedding using a new decentralized control architecture

For an islanded microgrid (MG) to work reliably, it is essential to manage the control of distributed energy resources, including generation and storage units, as well as loads, in a coordinated manner. In islanded microgrids, the safe energy storage limits must be accounted for coordination to avoid rapid damage or degradation to the storage units. In this paper, a novel control method is introduced to coordinate distributed generation (DG) and energy storage systems (ESS) in an islanded MG to enhance penetration and complete exploitation of DGs and ESSs and maintain balanced state of charge (SoC). A decentralized modified droop function (MDF) is suggested to share power and to control voltage and frequency without communication link. This controller uses virtual impedance to separate active and reactive power in the primary level control loop. Moreover, based on the ESS's charge state and its control as a frequency control support system, the proposed controller enables DGs to operate in both voltage and frequency control mode (VFCM) and active power control mode (APCM) to avoid overcharging. Likewise, to prevent from over discharging and maintain the frequency within permissible range, a new load shedding strategy is implemented to minimize the cycles of load connection and disconnection. The validation and effectiveness of the proposed control system are demonstrated by simulation results.

Analisis Studi Kelayakan Usaha Briket Limbah Tongkol Jagung

The use of energy resources that are not environmentally friendly is a problem in Indonesia today. Briquettes are also the primary material because they are abundant, and the primary material has yet to be optimally utilized, including corn cobs. The purpose of this study is to analyze the economic feasibility of corn cob waste briquettes in this study using data analysis of technological technical aspects, financial feasibility analysis such as Payback Period (PP), Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and Benefit and Cost Ratio (B/C). The results showed that it takes 19,800 kg of corn cobs to produce charcoal, as much as 3,168 kg and 158.4 kg with tapioca starch adhesive material, as much as 5% of the total weight of charcoal powder, requiring four pieces of equipment, namely pyrolyzer machines, Hammer mills, Planetary mixers, and Tray dryers. Furthermore, the feasibility analysis of this corn cob briquette business was declared feasible with the four categories: Payback Period (PP) for 3.1319 years, Net Present Value (NPV) of Rp 28,129,336,212; IRR of 17.77%, and Net B/C of 1.55. The corn cob briquette agro-industry will remain profitable even if the production capacity decreases by 28% from the original capacity. The agro-industry can also still operate despite an 8% decrease in the selling price of briquettes and will remain profitable if raw materials increase by 17%.

Azerbaıjan’s Relations wıth Central Asian Turkic States and Energy Diplomacy

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Turkic states in the Caucasus and Central Asia encountered significant political, economic, and social crises, which profoundly shaped their foreign policies. By 1993, Azerbaijan, having achieved political stability, began capitalizing on its energy resources to engage in global projects and incorporated Russia into its strategy. Through effective use of both hard and soft power in its energy diplomacy, Azerbaijan strengthened its ties with Western countries. This strategy not only cemented Azerbaijan's independence on a solid political and economic basis but also established its energy export model as a crucial component in the integration of Turkic states. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine War has revived opportunities for enhanced cooperation among these nations. This study investigates the evolution of Azerbaijan's energy diplomacy with Turkic states since independence and posits that the Russia-Ukraine conflict will further promote energy cooperation. Initially, the study outlines the framework of Azerbaijan's energy diplomacy. It then examines the legal foundations of its energy relations with Central Asian Turkic states. Finally, the study explores practical collaborations and potential opportunities in energy diplomacy both before and after the onset of the war.

Experimental Assessment of Energy Potentials from Tea Wastes as a Source of Energy: A Case of Itona Tea Factory in Tanzania

Tea processing is an energy-intensive process. However, high agricultural productivity and subsequently the growth of the green revolution have been made possible only by a large amount of energy inputs, especially those from fossil fuels, wood fuels, and electricity. With recent price rise and scarcity of these fuels there has been a trend towards use of alternative energy sources such as waste (agricultural waste) to energy that could solve both energy and environment issues. Moreover, these energy resources have not been able to provide an economically viable solution for agricultural applications so long as they seem to contain amount of energy which can be source of energy to be used in various factories in rural areas through gasification process. A gasifier is normally fuel specific system and it is tailored around a fuel rather than the other way round. Hence, this paper presents an experimental assessment of energy potentials from tea wastes available at Itonaa Tea Factory for tea drying processes as important data for agricultural wastes. The experimental measurement of energy potential from tea wastes was done using bomb calorimeter, muffle furnace and energy balances to determine calorific value moisture content and energy potentials of tea waste respectively. The findings indicate that the combined energy potential of factory and garden tea waste was found to be 2.78x10<sup>8</sup>kWh, and corresponding electrical energy was estimated to be 2.78x10<sup>7</sup>kWh which is enough for tea drying process in tea manufacturing plant. The total energy used in the production of tea was discovered to be equal 3.5 - 7.5 kWh/kg of made tea. Thus, total energy consumption (4.5 kWh/kg of made tea) for processing of 9.6 x 10<sup>6</sup> kg of tea from 4.5 x 10<sup>3</sup> hectares of tea plantation in Mufindi for the period of 2021-2022 was 4.32x10<sup>7</sup> kWh. Thus, with the proper utilization of energy conversion technology of tea waste, part of the energy requirement in processing of tea could be met reducing environmental challenges associated with both wood fuel burning and tea waste disposal.

Design and modifications of boiler mounting device in Asmara brewery factory

Energy and environment are closely related and important issues in the present all over world. Present industrial and others organization thought the unique of energy utilization and diverse source reviles such as coal, oil, gas, nuclear, hydropower, solar, wind and biofuel. The Non-renewable energy sources are being limited in this world and energy conservation is one of growing need nowadays. The major issues in the world’s energy consumption are getting used in boilers. Thus, this energy used has to be wisely consumed with great efficiency in industries. Boilers are considered as an important and an expensive property in many industries. In addition to initial cost, boilers have high operational and maintenance cost in order to secure production in safe and acceptable working conditions. In this study concerned with an energy saving, economic and environmental analysis of the fire tube boiler in ASMARA BREWERY. In this project, we concentrated on the improvement of boiler efficiency by recovering a portion of heat content of the flue gas. This is possible due to the most dominant device which is the economizer. The preexisting boiler was designed without an economizer. The present modification involved about the design of economizer in the boiler to reduce fuel consumption and thermal shock. Furthermore, in this type of boiler attain higher efficiency and little enhancement in the efficiency of the boiler will save an outsized amount of fuel and also help to reduce CO2 emission.

Challenges and Opportunities in Nigeria's Renewable Energy Policy and Legislation

Endowed with abundant renewable energy resources, Nigeria stands at a pivotal point in its energy development journey. This study explores the landscape of renewable energy policy and legislation in Nigeria, highlighting the challenges and opportunities that shape the sector. The research begins with an overview of Nigeria's current energy framework, emphasizing the critical role of renewable energy in achieving sustainable development. It examines existing policies and legislative frameworks, identifying the key government agencies responsible and outlining their respective functions. Despite the country's vast potential, numerous barriers impede the growth of renewable energy. These include legal and regulatory inconsistencies, institutional inefficiencies, financial constraints, and technical challenges. The study delves into these issues, providing a comprehensive analysis of how they hinder progress in renewable energy adoption. Conversely, the research identifies significant opportunities to enhance renewable energy policy and legislation including potential legislative reforms, institutional strengthening, financial incentives, and the promotion of technological innovation and infrastructure development. By leveraging these opportunities, Nigeria can create a more robust and conducive environment for renewable energy growth. The study concludes with strategic recommendations for policymakers and stakeholders to bridge the existing gaps and foster a sustainable energy future for Nigeria. It also outlines future research directions aimed at optimizing renewable energy policies and practices. Through this comprehensive analysis, the study aims to contribute to the ongoing discourse on renewable energy in Nigeria, providing insights to guide effective policy-making and legislative action.

Risk incident analyses in the transportation of anhydrous ammonia as an emerging clean energy resource.

Anhydrous ammonia has seen a rapid increase in demand due to recent developments in clean energy technologies. As it is a potential carrier of hydrogen, the transportation industry is currently facing significant logistic challenges as well as safety risks. Based on the causes and effects, this study categorizes incident patterns based on the historical incidents from 1971 to 2021 in the United States during transportation. Analysis of temporal patterns revealed that government regulations and improvement of safety infrastructures have made the biggest impact on lowering incident rates. Spatial analysis methods are also applied to understand the relationships between these incidents and spatial factors, such as land area, number of ammonia production facilities, total average production capacity, and total length of freight railway and highway in each US state. The spatial and temporal patterns and interpretations provide safety references to manage the growing hazardous transport in clean energy.

Superlight Ambient Temperature Reversible Hydrogen Storage Media Based on Alkali and Alkali Earth Metal-Functionalized 2D Square-Octagon BCN Monolayer.

Energy has always been the engine of human beings; however, because of the environmental pollution caused by traditional fossil fuels, the development of more sustainable energy resources is urgently needed. The hydrogen storage medium is essential for its realization. Here, we introduce a hydrogen storage material, a two-dimensional (2D) square-octagon BCN (SO-BCN) monolayer, composed of lightweight elements (B, C, and N) and strategically functionalized with alkali and alkali earth metal atoms (Li, Na, Mg, and K). Notably, Li@SO-BCN and Mg@SO-BCN exhibit exceptional reversible hydrogen storage capabilities, surpassing the DOE standard of 5.5 wt %, with gravimetric capacities of 7.129 wt % and an impressive value of 11.656 wt %, alongside low adsorption energies of -0.21 eV/H2 and -0.268 eV/H2 at room temperature, respectively. Our investigation, which combines analysis of the atomic structure, electronic structure, and hydrogen process, reveals distinct mechanisms at play: Li activates the substrate, creating additional adsorption sites on the SO-BCN monolayer. Compared with Li, the functionalization of Mg atoms not only activates SO-BCN via charge transfer but also allows Mg2+ to act as a potent attractor for H2 molecule adsorption. This work provides both promising candidates for future hydrogen storage media based on 2D monolayers and a design paradigm for next-generation hydrogen storage materials, emphasizing the synergy of electron-donating species, substrate activation, and hierarchical porous structures.

National And Public Interest Perspective on the Governance and Regulation of Carbon Capture and Storage Implementation in Indonesia

Recently Indonesian Government issued two important regulations regarding Carbon Capture Storage (CCS) namely, President Regulation No. 14/2024 and Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Regulations No. 2/2003. Both regulations have caused Indonesia's CCS Legal and Regulatory score by the Global CCS Institute to increase significantly. There are three criteria applied by the Global CCS Institute to define the score: regulation of trans boundaries movement of CCS, specific legal and regulatory framework, and facilitation of early project. Despite the increase in CCS score, some essential questions remain as crucial problems that are not solvable easily. Those questions regarding the national and common interest of Indonesian people by the issuance of both legal and regulations are still unclear, at least from the common people's perspective. The Presidential Regulation define dual schemes for CCS implementation: Contract Scheme and Permit Scheme. From the common people's perspective, both schemes need to be exercised further to respond to the public questions properly. Therefore, any reason behind the implementation of those two schemes as well as any potential benefit for Indonesia by implementing those two schemes in parallel are very important to be reviewed and analyzed. Reinforcement of Oil and Gas Production Sharing Contract Principles in the implementation of CCS in Indonesia are more favourable for the National and Public Interest Perspective.

Public control of coal resources of the United States’ Powder River Basin for a managed decarbonization transition

Public control of coal resources of the United States’ Powder River Basin for a managed decarbonization transition

Environmental life cycle assessment of corn production in tropical regions.

Corn growing is an important cultural and traditional system in the Iran that has considerable environmental impacts. This study was conducted to determine the environmental effects of corn production using life cycle assessment methodology. In the present study, the data have been collected from face-to-face interviews and completing a questionnaire among corn farmers in Ilam province of Iran, in 2021. The functional unit for analysis was defined as one ton of corn produced in the region. As a result, energy efficiency, energy productivity, net energy and specific energy were equal to 4.41, 0.20kgMJ-1, 675,379.84MJ ha-1 and 4.88MJkg-1 respectively. Direct, indirect, renewable and non-renewable energies was 61.59, 38.41, 16.03 and 83.97%, respectively. In this study, the amount of global warming potential per ton of product produced is estimated to be 4747,505kgCO2 equivalent. After normalization and weighting, the highest environmental pollutants are related to the marine aquatic ecotoxicity index with 225,273kg 1,4-dichlorobenzene equivalent and the lowest pollutants are related to the depletion of ozone layer 1,19 × 10-5kg CFC-11 equivalent. Result showed that chemical fertilizers and electricity led to the highest contaminating emissions.

Stochastic Convex Cone Programming for Joint Optimal BESS Operation and Q-Placement in Net-Zero Microgrids

Microgrids have emerged as a pivotal solution in the quest for efficient, resilient, and sustainable energy systems. Comprising diverse distributed energy resources, microgrids present a compelling opportunity to revolutionize how we generate, store, and distribute electricity, while simultaneously reducing carbon footprints. This paper proposes an optimal battery energy storage system (BESS) management scheme, along with capacitor placement for reactive power (Q)-compensation, and scheduling for the purpose of a renewable-based microgrid’s loss minimization. The proposed model evaluates the impact of BESS management on energy efficiency and analyzes how optimal scheduling of BESS influences system losses. Furthermore, it investigates the coordinated planning and operation of active assets within the microgrid, such as controllable capacitor banks, in enhancing overall efficiency. The model is formulated as a mixed-integer second-order cone programming (MISOCP) problem which is solved for both deterministic and stochastic generation and consumption data. The proposed model is tested on a 21-bus microgrid comprising photovoltaic and hydropower energy resources, and the efficacy of the model is approved by several case studies. The simulation results show that the proposed method can reduce microgrid energy losses by approximately 12 percent using the deterministic approach and around 14 percent with the stochastic approach.

Natural Fiber-Reinforced Composite Incorporated with Anhydride-Cured Epoxidized Linseed-Oil Resin and Atmospheric Pressure Plasma-Treated Flax Fibers

Fiber-reinforced composites (FRCs) represent a promising class of engineering materials due to their mechanical performance. However, the vast majority of FRCs are currently manufactured using carbon and glass fibers, which raises concerns because of the difficulties in recycling and the reliance on finite fossil resources. On the other hand, the use of natural fibers is still hampered due to the problems such as, e.g., differences in polarity between the reinforcement and the polymer matrix components, leading to a significant decrease in composite durability. In this work, we present a natural fiber-reinforced composite (NFRC), incorporating plasma pre-treated flax fibers as the reinforcing element, thermoplastic polylactic acid (PLA) as a matrix, and a key point of the current study—a thermoset coating based on epoxidized linseed oil for adhesion improvement. Using atmospheric plasma-jet treatment allows for increasing the fiber’s surface energy from 20 to 40 mN/m. Furthermore, a thermoset coating layer based on epoxidized linseed oil, in conjunction with dodecyl succinic anhydride (DDSA) as a curing agent and 2,4,6-tris(dimethyl amino methyl) phenol (DMP-30) as a catalyst, has been developed. This coated layer exhibits a decomposition temperature of 350 °C, and there is a substantial increase in the dispersive surface-energy part of the coated flax fibers from 8 to 30 mN/m. The obtained natural fiber-reinforced composite (NFRC) was prepared by belt-pressing with a PLA film, and its mechanical properties were evaluated by tensile testing. The results showed an elastic modulus up to 18.3 GPa, which is relevant in terms of mechanical properties and opens up a new pathway to use natural-based fiber-reinforced bio-based materials as a convenient approach to greener FRCs.

Joint bidding strategy of multi‐virtual power plant operators

AbstractThe distributed generation of new energy can effectively use the local endemic clean new energy and provide green power. However, due to the small scale and scattered layout of distributed generation resources, it is difficult to participate in the economic dispatch of power systems and even the competition of the power market. Virtual Power Plant (VPP) can act as a carrier of Distributed Energy Resource (DER) to manage its internal energy, to carry out combined bidding in the day‐ahead energy market and the regulation market. When virtual power plants coordinate multiple distributed energy resources to participate in electricity market transactions, the degree of disclosure of their internal privacy information will produce different trading strategies. A Stackelberg game model between multiple virtual power plant aggregators and virtual power plant operators is constructed, and the Kriging model is combined to protect the privacy information in the transactions of virtual power plant operators. Energy management for distributed generation is carried out, and the profit situation of virtual power plant operators under different strategies is analyzed.