Trend Of Sustainable Development Research Articles

Assessing Sustainable Urban Development Trends in a Dynamic Tourist Coastal Area Using 3D Spatial Indicators

In coastal areas, the tourism sector contributes to the local economy, generating income, employment, investments and tax revenues but the rapid urban expansion creates great pressure on local resources and infrastructures, with negative repercussions on the residents’ quality of life, but also compromising the visitor’s experience. These areas face problems such as the formation of meteorological effects known as heat islands, due to the soil sealing, and increased energy demand in the peak season. To evaluate the impact of urban growth spatial pattern and change, three strategic sustainable challenges—urban form, urban energy, and urban outdoor comfort—were selected. The progress towards sustainability was measured and analyzed in a tourist city in the Algarve region, Portugal, for the period 2007–2018, using geographic information. A set of 2D and 3D indicators was derived for the building and block scales. Then, a change assessment based on cluster analysis was performed, and three different trends of sustainable development were identified and mapped. Results allow detecting the urban growth patterns that lead to more sustainable urban areas. The study revealed that a high sustainable development was observed in 12% of the changed blocks in the study area. All indicators suggest that the growth pattern of the coastal area is in line with the studied sustainability dimensions. However, most of the blocks that changed between 2007 and 2018 (82%) followed a low sustainable development. These blocks had the lowest variation in the built volume and density, and consequently the lowest variations in the roof areas with good solar exposition. The urban development also privileged more detached and less compact buildings. This analysis will support the integration of 2D and 3D information into the planning process, assisting smart cities to comply with the sustainable development goals.

Bioinspired Nanomodification Strategies: Moving from Chemical-Based Agrosystems to Sustainable Agriculture.

Agrochemicals have supported the development of the agricultural economy and national population over the past century. However, excessive applications of agrochemicals pose threats to the environment and human health. In the last decades, nanoparticles (NPs) have been a hot topic in many fields, especially in agriculture, because of their physicochemical properties. Nevertheless, the prevalent methods for fabricating NPs are uneconomical and involve toxic reagents, hindering their extensive applications in the agricultural sector. In contrast, inspired by biological exemplifications from microbes and plants, their extract and biomass can act as a reducing and capping agent to form NPs without any toxic reagents. NPs synthesized through these bioinspired routes are cost-effective, ecofriendly, and high performing. With the development of nanotechnology, biosynthetic NPs (bioNPs) have been proven to be a substitute strategy for agrochemicals and traditional NPs in heavy-metal remediation of soil, promotion of plant growth, and management of plant disease with less toxicity and higher performance. Therefore, bioinspired synthesis of NPs will be an inevitable trend for sustainable development in agricultural fields. This critical review will demonstrate the bioinspired synthesis of NPs and discuss the influence of bioNPs on agricultural soil, crop growth, and crop diseases compared to chemical NPs or agrochemicals.

Sustainable Development as a New Component of Corporate Social Responsibility

Purpose is to study the essential basis of the concept of sustainable development as a new component of corporate social responsibility.Methods: the research is based on a systematic approach to the understanding of corporate social responsibility. The analysis of the state and trends of sustainable development was carried out using the retrospective method, comparative and economic-statistical analysis, as well as the method of data visualization, which allowed us to form a holistic view of the essence and receptivity of Russian business to the ideas of sustainable development.Results: the article substantiates the importance of socially responsible business practices in terms of the concept of corporate social responsibility. Today, it is considered as an umbrella concept, the central place in which is given to sustainable development. A historical retrospective of the formation of the term "sustainable development" is carried out. The content of ESG factors used to assess the contribution of companies to achieving the triune outcome of sustainable development is revealed. The identified indicators of commitment of board members to sustainable development issues allowed us to state that most companies are taking measures to integrate sustainable development issues into the overall strategy of companies and issue non-financial statements. This has which generally positively affects the interest of the investment community in such companies. The special requirements for the content of non-financial reports are described, and the priority of the sustainable Development Goals for Russian companies is analyzed. The author draws a conclusion about the reasons for the weak involvement of Russian business in the selection and achievement of sustainable development goals and suggests solutions to promote the concept of sustainable development in the Russian business community.Conclusions and Relevance: the close attention paid to the sustainable development agenda by the world community and business proves the relevance of solving a whole range of environmental and social problems. The integration of sustainable development issues into the overall strategy of companies, covering an increasing number of companies, allows for strategic initiatives in the ideology of sustainable development with a tendency to expand the planning horizon. Taking into account the increased attention of the investment community to business projects based on the principles of sustainable development, the management of companies realized the need to issue non-financial statements with the inclusion of data that meet special requirements for the disclosure of ESG topics. In addition, the company's requirements for transparency of companies' activities and for their accountability on the results of their impact on the environmental and social situation are supplemented by new requirements in the field of disclosure of the quality of corporate governance. In these circumstances, the role of the top management of companies in promoting the ideology of sustainable development is undeniable. At the same time, the majority of Russian companies do not yet demonstrate a sufficient understanding of the connection of global environmental and social problems with their business, which is clearly reflected in the choice of sustainable development goals.

International non-financial reporting systems from the perspective of establishing the sustainable development concept

Under modern conditions of the growing trend of sustainable development the issue of disclosing relevant, high-quality and user-friendly reports of non-financial information about the economic, environmental and social aspects of business entities’ activities is of particular importance. The purpose of the article was to study international non-financial reporting systems from the perspective of establishing the sustainable development concept to substantiate the directions for improving the process of information disclosure about sustainable development by business entities. The comparative analysis, abstract-logical generalization, historical and chronological methods have been applied. The evolution of the sustainable development concept has been studied and the key characteristics of the stages of its formation at all levels of the management hierarchy have been identified. The peculiarities and areas of application of the most widespread modern international non-financial reporting systems among economic entities have been studied and their general characteristics and shortcomings have been summarized. The ways of improving the process of such information disclosure in accordance to the set requirements have been suggested in the following areas: the development of the state non-financial reporting standard on sustainable development, which is based on the concept of the triple bottom line and contains provisions for drawing up a report that must be standardised according to the Sustainable Development Goals; the introduction of a mandatory audit of such reporting and the business entity responsibility for its non-submission; the creation of conditions for the training of persons responsible for drawing up non-financial reporting on sustainable development and those performing its audit; the provision of development and free software distribution for compiling and submitting such reports. The practical significance of the obtained results is stipulated by the creation of prerequisites for increasing the awareness of business entities regarding activities in the direction of sustainable development and increasing the effectiveness of the state policy of sustainable development

Development of Methodology and Assessment of Ecological Safety of the EAEU and CIS Regions in the Context of Sustainable Development

The trends of sustainable development and green agenda transform the production processes, leading industries, and regional markets, and reveal objective contradictions in ensuring the ecological safety of certain territories. This study aims to develop a methodology and assess ecological safety at aggregated system levels, taking into account natural and socioeconomic factors as well as the factor of human capital development with specification of the place of ecological safety in the concept of sustainable development. The objects of empirical research are the EAEU and CIS countries for the period 2010–2019, as well as 85 Russian regions. The scientific research toolkit is based on the methods of structural-logical, economical-statistical, and comparative analyses, and expert judgments. The concepts of sustainable development and human capital and the theory of the national school of ecological safety are analyzed using the systematic approach. The mixed methodological approach showed the interconnection of four approaches of assessing ecological safety (technogenic, environmental, institutional, resource-based). The authors developed a method for assessing ecological safety taking into account the contribution of human capital. The assessment results are typologized and grouped according to the dynamic trend. For the majority of the considered countries, changes in the level of ecological safety correlate with changes in socioeconomic indicators. The same trend is observed when considering the Russian regional formations. The contribution of human capital was recorded to a lesser extent. For several regions, the increased number of objects polluting the environment is accompanied by a decreased volume of polluting emissions into the atmosphere.

The development of green building technology

Green building has become a trend of sustainable building development in the 21st century. An important indicator to measure the development of society is the buildings index. Global requirements for buildings are also gradually improving, and the construction industry accounts for one third of the total world consumption. It is necessary to re-examine the consumption mode and ecological significance of the construction industry in the process of construction and use and abandon the traditional construction technology mode with high pollution and energy consumption. It is necessary to develop green building technology. It refers to a building technology model that has no harm to the environment which can fully utilize the environment and resources and does not destroy the basic ecological balance. In the new century, Chinese buildings should no longer follow the old development pattern of high pollution and high energy consumption. It is the only way for Chinese buildings to develop by studying green building technology and building green buildings.

THE INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF PEOPLE LIVING IN THUA THIEN HUE COASTAL ZONE WITH SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The community of people living in the coastal zone of Thua Thien Hue with a system of intangible cultural forms, such as customs, beliefs, taboos, rituals, festivals, etc. has been formed and summarized by many generations of ancestors that have been handed down until now. These intangible cultural values ​​are increasingly being affirmed in the trend of sustainable development of coastal areas in Thua Thien Hue province in particular and coastal areas in general. Exploiting the values ​​of intangible cultural heritage of coastal residents in Thua Thien Hue in order to develop in a sustainable way is to realize the Party's strategic vision towards the sea.

Mapping sustainability initiatives in higher education institutions in Latin America

Many higher education institutions (HEIs) around the world are involved in a variety of sustainability initiatives. These are acknowledged to be important elements in fostering the cause of sustainability in HEIs, in further developing the organizations’ culture and in acting as enablers in the institutional embedding of sustainability. But despite the relevance of sustainability initiatives, there is a lack of systematic international efforts in how best to map them, especially in Latin America. On the basis of the need to address this gap, this paper reports on the results of an empirical study, aimed at analyzing the current status of sustainability initiatives among Latin American HEIs. Apart from a review of the latest literature, an international survey was performed to design a model using principal component analysis to identify the main descriptors of sustainability initiatives among Latin American HEIs and also the major drivers and challenges. The study sheds some light on the ways universities perceive and handle sustainability-related initiatives. The results show that sustainability is being incorporated in more than 80% of the sampled universities, and that a special emphasis is being given to campus operations. The value of the paper resides on the fact that it one of the few papers that have holistically investigated trends in sustainable development across universities in Latin America. The implications of the study are twofold. It maps for the first time how sustainable development initiatives are being practiced in 157 universities in 13 countries, being one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind, and it also outlines some of the main challenges that universities in the region face. The central message of this paper is that the different levels of emphasis given to SD in Latin American universities need to be better understood in order to catalyze continued and long-term actions.

Інституціональні засади побудови механізмів управління земельними ресурсами в системі менеджменту аграрних підприємств

The article considers the institutional foundations of creating land resources management mechanisms in the management system of agrarian enterprises. Modern conditions require the development of new conceptual approaches to the implementation of land resource management processes based on taking into account the conditions of transformation of land ownership relations, the requirements of ensuring sustainable development and modern trends of strengthening the role of management bodies. It was outlined that the current situation requires the active development of the land management system and management of agrarian enterprises, which are the main economically important subjects of land relations. It was emphasized that such a management system of agrarian enterprises should combine the functions of value monitoring of the land market, efficiency analysis land use and a set of measures for the rehabilitation of existing land resources as mechanism elements of sustainable land use. It is proposed that elements of the mechanism for ensuring sustainable land use, as the institutional toolkit of the land resources management mechanism in the management system of agrarian enterprises, should include not only the economic and ecological components, but also the land protection component occupying an intermediate position between them, which includes mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating land resources, as well as financial compensation mechanisms for damage to the environment. As part of measures to implement the principles of sustainable land use, the land resources management mechanism in the management system of agrarian enterprises, four groups of largely interrelated measures to improve the use of land resources can be distinguished: improving the state of land resources of agrarian enterprises (fighting against erosion, organic fertilizers, various type of reclamation, etc.); limiting the influence of non-agricultural industries, sharply reducing the removal of land from agricultural turnover, compensation of losses from non-agricultural users, reduction of pollution of land resources; rationalization of the use of the land fund from the view point of the final results of agricultural production; use of vacant land suitable for agricultural purposes. Keywords: land resources, land relations, management of agrarian enterprises, management of land resources, management mechanism.

Unify Religious and Ethnic Identity: Can it be New Approaches for Community Development in Contemporary Muslim China?

Nowadays, religion has continuously been a supposition that separated from the role of development. However, the harmonious co-existence between Islam and Confucianism has been a new trend for sustainable development. Through harmonious dialogue among ethnicity and cultural society, community development issues encouraged all stakeholders to build a balanced life. This study aims to deliberate interpretation of the historical experience of co-existence between Islam and Confucianism amidst common heritage as a new instrument of national development in China. This study uses a historical approach and qualitative methods, in which the article answered scepticism that religions only could produce hatred, conflict, apartheid, and inclusivism. The result shows that made Islam an indispensable part of Chinese civilization. There could contribute to the contemporary global dialogue that is resolving the conflict among religions and nationalists. Instead, there makes strengthen for sustainable community development affected economic stability. The paper concludes that escalating the harmonious co-existence and religious dialogue should be rising in the public sphere as a new trend for sustain and prosperous people with minority groups in contemporary China.

Constraining nitrification by intermittent aeration to achieve methane-driven ammonia recovery of the mainstream anaerobic effluent

Mainstream anaerobic treatment has the potential to capture organic energy, and represents a sustainable development trend, but with the problems of low biogas quality and dissolved methane emissions. In this study, methane-driven ammonia recovery of anaerobic effluent was proposed. A 380-day long-term experiment, which was divided into four phases according to different aeration modes, was conducted. The ammonia conversion and microbial characteristics shows that ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) were constrained during Phases 2 (DO: <0.2 mg L−1) and 4 (DO: 0.1–1.6 mg L−1), and were active during Phase 3 (DO: 2–4 mg L−1). During phase 4, when the intermittent aeration was used, the total nitrogen removal rate was higher than during Phases 2 and 3, and nearly 100% ammonia was removed. Methylomonas, a genus of methane oxidizing bacteria (MOB), was enriched during Phase 4. The serum bottle experiment confirmed that the ammonia removal occurred through the MOB assimilation. The protein content in the CH4-added group was 35.5%, which was higher than in the group without CH4 (23.3%). The powerful ammonia assimilation and protein synthesis capabilities of MOB give a meaning to the anaerobic effluent for ammonia recovery and protein production. Intermittent aeration could be used to constrain AOB and improve ammonia recovery efficiency.

Strategies for Sustainable Development of Socio-Economic Systems

The global trend of sustainable development of the state economies is associated with a systematic approach that provides for comprehensive and interconnected effective business development, environmental protection, and social decisions. The concept of “sustainable development” was first conceived in 1983 by the World Commission for South Africa, was further developed in 1983 by the UN World Commission. In 1987 this concept was reflected by UN World Commission in the report “Our Common Future” to the World Commission. Despite such a long period of existence of the concept of sustainable development, many issues related to the implementation of this concept remain unresolved. One of the most important issues in assessing the sustainable development of socio-economic systems is the choice of criteria. In general, sustainable development of the economy is primarily associated with a person. Thus, the study considers a methodological approach to calculating a consolidated composite index for assessing the sustainability of the development of a national socio-economic system. The purpose of the study was to investigate the main strategies of social and economic development, key challenges and directions of such development, both at the state and private business level. The strategy of an open economy with the active participation of the state is considered on the example of supporting five fundamental sectors of the economy: energy, transport, water supply, sanitation, and forestry. The influence of globalisation on the sustainable development of socio-economic systems through regionalisation is shown – the peculiar political and economic mechanisms of structural transformation aimed at increasing the efficiency of the economies of the countries participating in the integration association.

IMPLEMENTING “SUSTAINABILITY-BY-DESIGN” APPROACH IN ORGANIZATIONS BY USING AN EXTENDED RISK INDICATORS SYSTEM FOR MAKING STRATEGIC DECISIONS

The purpose of this article is to identify possible approaches to the development of the “sustainability-by-design” process, which consists in synchronizing the organization's strategy with the trends of sustainable development. For this purpose, a process of “sustainability-by-design” is proposed on the basis of the “safety-by-design” process applied in practice. As a key link in the process, it is proposed to use a system of sustainability indicators, supplemented by indicators of risk and resilience. To strengthen the adaptive capacity of companies in the field of sustainable development, the process of building “sustainability-by-design” is complemented by the inclusion of democratic procedures through structured stakeholder participation. As a result, the proposed process combines a rigid structure of values and goals with a “soft setup” in the form of democratic procedures. This will allow companies not only to reduce the uncertainties inherent to the pacing problem, but also to create an environment for the promotion of the most effective alternatives to the development of companies in the field of sustainability.

Identifying the Current Trend of Sustainable Development of Asia

By the end of the last millennium, “sustainable development” was the most widely discussed topic among scholars, policy makers and diplomats. Meanwhile, over the past decades, many Asian economies have achieved striking levels of economic growth for the betterment of the human life. However, it has also been accompanied by substantial environmental degradation. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of the current trends in sustainable development in Asia through indicating the current position of 44 Asian countries with respect to each sustainable dimension, by mapping the countries in order to show spatially where they stand in sustainable development and by statistically finding the existence of an association in each sustainability criterion. For this study secondary data were utilized and those were extracted from Sustainability Society Index (SSI). The sixth edition, SSI-2016 was used on this behalf. Data were descriptively analyzed using Minitab 17 and Excel while the required maps were generated using Arc Map 10.1 Geographic Information System (GIS) by ESRI. The association among the three dimensions, Human, Environmental and Economic well-being, was found out using Pearson Correlation. From the analysis we could find that there is no association between environmental well-being and human well-being Nevertheless, there is an association between the economic well-being and the human well-being and the same was resulted for the economic and environmental well-being.

Research Status and Future Trends of Natural Resources and Sustainable Development in China: Visual Analysis Based on CiteSpace

As an important foundation for promoting social progress and economic development, natural resources play an important role in the sustainable development of cities. However, the increasing demand of human beings for natural resources has led to various ecological environmental problems, such as excessive population density, serious environmental pollution, the continuous decline of total natural resources and per capita resources, all of which have hindered sustainable development. Therefore, the study of natural resources and sustainable development has become the focus of many current scholars. In this paper, CiteSpace is used as an analysis tool to analyze the literature on natural resources and sustainable development over the past 20 years. First of all, this paper deeply analyzes the research status of this field in terms of academic research trends, authors and research institutions, co-occurrence of keywords, etc., and on this basis, it then deeply analyzes its evolutionary path and research hot spots in the past 20 years through keyword emergence. Finally, according to the visualization of the analysis results, the future development trends of this research field are speculated: (1) Grasp the current research focus; (2) Improve the research accuracy; (3) Enrich the theoretical system of research; and (4) Establish an interdisciplinary research system.

Sustainable development of China's regions from the perspective of ecological welfare performance: analysis based on GM(1,1) and the malmquist index

Ecological welfare performance is a measure of the relationship between input ecological resources and output welfare, and it reflects the sustainable development status of a region. In this paper, the environmental resource consumption and human development index of four areas (covering thirty provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities) in China from 2019 to 2020 were predicted using the GM (1,1) model. The status and trend of sustainable development were evaluated using the Malmquist index and its decomposition index (catch-up effect and frontier e impact of movement). The corresponding regions' environmental resource consumption data and human development index from 2011–2018 were used for the analyses. The following results were obtained: (1) In terms of the catch-up effect. However, Beijing shows a greater technical efficiency than other regions with values less than 1, which is a drag on sustainable development. (2) Regarding the frontier movement effect, all regions' technical level has improved, and the frontier exhibits an upward trend. (3) According to the Malmquist total factor productivity index, the sustainability status has been continuously deteriorating in all regions, except for improvements in a few areas. (4) In terms of planning periods, the frontier movement effect positively contributed to sustainable development in all regions during the 12th and 13th Five-Year Plan periods; in other words, technological innovation promotes sustainable development. Except in Beijing, the catch-up effect had negative contributions. By combining the gray prediction model with the Malmquist index, the authors provide more in-depth insight into the sustainable development of four regions in China from ecological welfare performance.

Management of the innovative economy in the context of the sustainable development trend in the framework of the institutional matrix clusterization model in adaptive human resource management, digitalization of the agriculture and food sphere, adaptation

The article aims to study the management of the innovative economy in the context of sustainable development within an institutional and matrix clusterization model in the context of adaptive human resource management, the digitalization of the agricultural and food sphere and adaptation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods. The following special methods of scientific cognition were used in the research process: historical-logical method; method of systematization, classification and theoretical generalization; method of institutional analysis; method of system analysis; method of logical analysis and synthesis; method of graphic analysis. Results. The evolution of the effect of collaboration and achievement of synergy within clusters under different types of economic systems has been determined. It is shown that in a post-industrial economy there is a very strong effect of intra-cluster collaboration, which is due to the dominance of a super competitive environment and mutually beneficial cooperation between government, business and science. The formation of institutional and matrix clusterization in the system of the innovation economy is proposed. It is shown that the effectiveness of institutional and matrix clusterization is ensured by a high degree of its stakeholder communicativeness. Practical contribution. The directions and ways of development of clustering of innovative entrepreneurship, combining the characteristics of effective network cooperation with the participation of large leading enterprises in the form of cluster models "wheel and spokes", "satellite" cluster, provide an opportunity to plan at the macro, meso and micro levels innovation clusters taking into account the strategic priorities of economic development. Prospects for further research. Technological, human, material and information exchange with the changing external environment is constantly taking place in the innovation cluster. Such environment is characterized by a set of economic entities with which innovation, material and information interchange (innovation, products, personnel, services, finance, marketing communications, etc.) takes place constantly. The main feature of institutional and matrix clusterization is the emergence of synergistic effect and, as a consequence, the formation of mutually beneficial cooperation in the network system.

DARNAUS VYSTYMOSI SRIČIŲ DINAMIKOS VERTINIMAS LIETUVOJE

The article discusses economic growth influence to sustainable development. According to the collected theoretical material, it analyzes the impact of economic growth to social and environmental dimensions of sustainability. The analysis of statistical data using integrated index of sustainable development allowed evaluating the impact of economic growth to sustainable development in in Lithuania on 2000−2011. Studies carried out in foreign universities confirmed a hypothesis that further extensive studies are necessary in order to understand the essence and evaluation of the concept of sustainable development. The basic idea behind the scientific problem studied in the paper can be described as the following: what are the regularities of the concept of sustainable development and its evaluation, that allow assess the economic growth influence to dimensions of sustainability and to sustainable development of the country. The main problem of the paper is stated as follows: how to achieve economic growth considering economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainable development? Research object – the impact of economic growth to dimensions of sustainable development. Research aim is to analyze and assess dynamics of sustainable development dimensions in Lithuania. Research tasks: theoretically to analyze the influence of economic growth to social and environmental dimensions; after methodological calculations of indicators of sustainable development in Lithuania, to evaluate the tendencies of changes of sustainable development dimensions and to forecast perpectives. Research methods contributing to this paper are: systematic scientific literature analysis, statistical data and comparative analysis, regression analysis, use of SPSS 17 (Statistical Package for Social Science) and Package Microsoft Excel. Theoretical analysis done in the paper quit well show, that systems of assessment of influence of economic growth to sustainable development must take in account three closely related dimensions: economic, social and environmental. Integrated sustainable development index and trend were used and evaluated that the biggest increasing of index was noticed by given stable inflation rate. Analysis done in the paper quit well show, that for problems solving can be used fiscal instrument – taxes. Keywords: sustainable development; economic growth, environment, social deimension, index. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.15181/rfds.v12i1.685

Performance Evaluation of Modified Rubberized Concrete Exposed to Aggressive Environments.

Recycling of the waste rubber tire crumbs (WRTCs) for the concretes production generated renewed interest worldwide. The insertion of such waste as a substitute for the natural aggregates in the concretes is an emergent trend for sustainable development towards building materials. Meanwhile, the enhanced resistance of the concrete structures against aggressive environments is important for durability, cost-saving, and sustainability. In this view, this research evaluated the performance of several modified rubberized concretes by exposing them to aggressive environments i.e., acid, and sulphate attacks, elevated temperatures. These concrete (12 batches) were made by replacing the cement and natural aggregate with an appropriate amount of the granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) and WRTCs, respectively. The proposed mix designs’ performance was evaluated by several measures, including the residual compressive strength (CS), weight loss, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), microstructures, etc. Besides, by using the available experimental test database, an optimized artificial neural network (ANN) combined with the particle swarm optimization (PSO) was developed to estimate the residual CS of modified rubberized concrete after immersion one year in MgSO4 and H2SO4 solutions. The results indicated that modified rubberized concrete prepared by 5 to 20% WRTCs as a substitute to natural aggregate, provided lower CS and weight lose expose to sulphate and acid attacks compared to control specimen prepared by ordinary Portland cement (OPC). Although the CS were slightly declined at the elevated temperature, these proposed mix designs have a high potential for a wide variety of concrete industrial applications, especially in acid and sulphate risk.

Effect of the Addition of Biobased Polyols on the Thermal Stability and Flame Retardancy of Polyurethane and Poly(urea)urethane Elastomers

Due to the current trends in sustainable development and the reduction in the use of fossil fuels (Green Deal strategy and the circular economy), and thus, the increased interest of the polyurethane industry in polyols derived from renewable sources, it is important to study the impact of these polyols on the flammability of new bioelastomers. The goal of this study was to check the influence of biobased polyols, such as tall oil (TO)-based polyols, soybean oil (SO)-based polyol, and rapeseed oil (RO)-based polyol, on the reduction in the burning and fume emissions of polyurethane and poly(urea)urethane elastomers (EPURs and EPUURs). The thermal stability of these materials was tested using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). In turn, the flame retardancy and smoke emissions were checked using a cone calorimetry test. The released gases were identified using TGA coupled with Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy (TGA/FT-IR). Moreover, the morphological and structural characteristics of the char residues were characterized using FT-IR and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The obtained data were compared to the results received for elastomers produced with petroleum substrates. The addition of biobased polyols led to a reduction in the burning as a result of the formation of char, especially RO polyol. Moreover, the TO and RO polyols increased the thermal stability of the elastomers.