Topic Review
Cistus ladanifer as a Potential Feedstock for Biorefineries
Cistus ladanifer (rockrose) is a widespread shrub species in the Mediterranean region well known due to its production of labdanum gum, especially in the hot season. Its leaves and branches can be subjected to different extraction and distillation processes to produce various types of extracts. The natural extracts of C. ladanifer have several applications, especially in the perfumery and cosmetics sector. C. ladanifer extracts, in addition to presenting interesting odoriferous properties, are also known for their bioactive properties, such as antioxidant and antimicrobial. The use of this species in animal feed or phytostabilisation of mining areas has also been successfully applied. Furthermore, the lignin and polysaccharides that are the major fractions from Cistus residues can be relevant sources of high-value products in a biorefinery framework.
  • 593
  • 02 Feb 2023
Topic Review
100% Renewable Electricity in Indonesia
Researchers investigate an Indonesian energy decarbonization pathway using mostly solar photovoltaics. An hourly energy balance analysis using ten years of meteorological data was performed for a hypothetical solar-dominated Indonesian electricity system for the consumption of 3, 6 and 10 megawatt-hours (MWh) per capita per year (compared with current consumption of 1 MWh per capita per year). This research showed that Indonesia’s vast solar potential combined with its vast capacity for off-river pumped hydro energy storage could readily achieve 100% renewable electricity at low cost. The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for a balanced solar-dominated system in Indonesia was found to be in the range of 77–102 USD/MWh.
  • 320
  • 29 Jan 2024
Topic Review
100% Renewable Energy: Concepts and Progresses
Some advanced countries’ rapid population, economic growth, and energy consumption expansion contribute significantly to global CO2 emissions. And while developed countries have achieved 100% universal access to electricity, mainly from non-renewable sources, many developing countries still lack it. This presents challenges and opportunities for achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 7 and 13 of generating all energy from cleaner or low-carbon sources to reduce CO2 emissions in all countries and combating climate change consequences. Renewable energies have been widely acknowledged to greatly advance this endeavour, resulting in many studies and about 30 countries already with over 70% of their national electricity mix from RE. It has birthed a new paradigm and an emerging field of 100% RE for all purposes, receiving much attention from academia and in public discourse. 
  • 311
  • 20 Sep 2023
Topic Review
3D Printing in Critical Infrastructure System
Additive manufacturing methods are among the technologies that have extremely versatile and a broad potential for use in many fields. However, it should be considered that in relation to critical infrastructure, they can also be considered from the traditional point of view of production systems allowing for the manufacture of machine and equipment components. At the same time, they can be an element of the system, performing functions in crisis situations to sustain the operation of strategic technical equipment, such as the production of spare parts by 3D printing in the absence of access to original parts.
  • 487
  • 07 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Additive Engineering
Additive engineering  based on quantum dots containing different functional groups introduced in the precursor. This allows the functional group to chelate under coordinated Pb vacancy or iodine defect sites at the surface of the perovskite layer .
  • 396
  • 29 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Adsorption Factors in Enhanced Coal Bed Methane Recovery
Enhanced coal bed methane recovery using gas injection can provide increased methane extraction depending on the characteristics of the coal and the gas that is used. Accurate prediction of the extent of gas adsorption by coal are therefore important. Both experimental methods and modeling have been used to assess gas adsorption and its effects, including volumetric and gravimetric techniques, as well as the Ono–Kondo model and other numerical simulations. Thermodynamic parameters may be used to model adsorption on coal surfaces while adsorption isotherms can be used to predict adsorption on coal pores. In addition, density functional theory and grand canonical Monte Carlo methods may be employed. 
  • 398
  • 26 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Adsorptive Biogas Purification
Siloxanes are among the most technologically troublesome trace compounds present in biogas. As a result of their combustion, hard‐to‐remove sediments are formed, blocking biogas energy processing devices and reducing the efficiency of biogas plants. This entry can help to choose the optimal technology for the adsorptive removal of volatile methylsiloxanes (VMSs) from biogas and to identify adsorbents worth further development. Both the already implemented methods of adsorptive VMSs removal from landfill and sewage gases—e.g. using activated carbon and silica gel—and the ones being under development—e.g. using polymer resins—are presented, and their advantages and drawbacks are analyzed. The methods of obtaining adsorbents and the parameters of adsorption processes are discussed, and possible ways of regenerating spent adsorbents are evaluated. Especially promising adsorbents seem to be some zeolites—which can also be used for biogas desulfurization—and adsorbents based on polymer resins, as being particularly active towards VMSs and most amenable to multiple regeneration.
  • 851
  • 27 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Advanced Nuclear
Advanced nuclear is an emerging area of the energy industry focused on designing and commercializing next generation reactors for nuclear energy production. Encompassing more comprehensive and radical technological innovations and design advancements, these innovations aim to dramatically improve performance and eliminate known problems associated with the existing generation nuclear reactors (Gen I and Gen II) currently in use around the world. The earliest Gen I and Gen II nuclear reactors built utilized the light-water reactor design in one of three variants: the pressurized water reactor (PWR), the boiling water reactor (BWR), and the supercritical water reactor (SCWR). The use of the light-water design (i.e. using regular water, H2O and not heavy water, 2H2O) as both its coolant and neutron moderator but needing a plentiful supply) in all commercial reactors was a trade-off that enabled the industry to leverage the purchasing clout of Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, who was keen on procuring nuclear-powered submarines for the Navy, to grow quickly. The choice, however, imposed a riskier design that many argued was not optimized for terrestrial energy, bringing both competitive advantages as well as fateful disadvantages to the initial development and subsequent growth of the commercial nuclear power fleet. Despite operating to the military's exacting specifications and winning praise and massive contracts from government buyers, the industry quickly earned the distrust of the public. (See the Anti-nuclear movement.) Generation III reactors contain yet further incremental refinements to aspects of Generation II nuclear reactor designs but were not very popular. Improvements were developed for fuel technology, thermal efficiency, to safety systems to reduce maintenance and capital costs. The first Generation III reactor was Kashiwazaki 6 (an ABWR) in 1996 but the declining support for the underlying Generation II light-water design, caused relatively few third generation reactors to be built. Generation IV designs are the first generation where innovator in Advanced Nuclear technologies are exploring paradigm shifts in methodologies. Gen IV projects encompass not just innovative nuclear fission concepts, like the Molten salt reactor, Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactors, and High temperature gas cooled reactors, but also Fusion power and even Low Energy Nuclear Reactors (LENR), which generate heat through a series of controlled chemical reactions that then cause a nuclear bond to shift, which results in heat output. Gen IV is still in development as of 2017, and are not expected to start entering commercial operation until after 2020. Some of the different reactor design ideas being explored and developed for Advanced nuclear reactors, now thought of as Generation IV reactors (Gen IV) today were actually first conceived within the National Labs back in the 1960s. Several of these concepts, including Alvin M. Weinberg's Molten salt reactor (MSR) developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), even had the benefit of being prototyped and tested over a period of time. Weinberg's MSR became the first reactor to run on Uranium 233 in 1968 and logged more than 13,000 hours at "full power" before being shut down in 1969. Today, the concept of using a molten salt brew that acts both as the fuel and the "containment" of the reaction by using the ionic bonds of the salt to capture and contain the heat generated from the nuclear reaction, thereby dispensing with the need for expensive containment structures and eliminating much of risk and cost, remains of keen interest to those exploring Advanced nuclear technologies.
  • 284
  • 11 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Advanced Supercritical CO2 Thermodynamic Power Cycles
CO2 is a natural, non-toxic and non-flammable working fluid that possesses excellent thermophysical properties, including higher density, latent heat, specific heat, thermal conductivity and volumetric cooling capacity, along with lower viscosity.
  • 93
  • 04 Dec 2023
Topic Review
Advances on Smart Cities and Smart Buildings
Modern cities are facing the challenge of combining competitiveness on a global city scale and sustainable urban development to become smart cities. A smart city is a high-tech intensive and advanced city that connects people, information, and city elements using new technologies in order to create a sustainable, greener city; competitive and innovative commerce; and an increased quality of life. This Special Issue collects the recent advancements on smart cities and covers different topics and aspects.
  • 636
  • 25 Jan 2022
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