ABSTRACT
Before the Covid-19 pandemic UK passed net-zero emission law legislation to become the first major economy in the world to end its contribution to global warming by 2050. Following the UK's legislation to reach net-zero emissions, a long-term strategy for transition to a net-zero target was published in 2021. The strategy is a technology-led and with a top-down approach. The intention is to reach the target over the next three decades. The document targets seven sectors to reduce emissions and include a wide range of policies and innovations for decarbonization. This paper aims to accomplish a much needed review of the strategy in heat and buildings part and cover the key related areas in future buildings standard, heat pumps and use of hydrogen as elaborated in the strategy. For that purpose, this research reviews key themes in the policy, challenges, recent advancement and future possibilities. It provides an insight on the overall development toward sustainability and decarbonization of built environment in the UK by 2050. A foresight model, Future Wheels is also used to visualize the findings from the review and provide a clear picture of the potential impact of the policy. © 2023
ABSTRACT
It is necessary to accurately calculate ship carbon emissions for shipping suitability. The state-of-the-art approaches could arguably not be able to estimate ship carbon emissions accurately due to the uncertainties of Ship Technical Specification Database (STSD) and the geographical and temporal breakpoints in Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, hence requiring a new methodology to be developed to address such defects and further improve the accuracy of emission estimation. Firstly, a novel STSD iterative repair model is proposed based on the random forest algorithm by the incorporation of13 ship technical parameters. The repair model is scalable and can substantially improve the quality of STSD. Secondly, a new ship AIS trajectory segmentation algorithm based on ST-DBSCAN is developed, which effectively eliminates the impact of geographical and temporal AIS breakpoints on emission estimation. It can accurately identify the ships' berthing and anchoring trajectories and reasonably segment the trajectories. Finally, based on this proposed framework, the ship carbon dioxide emissions within the scope of domestic emission control areas (DECA) along the coast of China are estimated. The experiment results indicate that the proposed STSD repair model is highly credible due to the significant connections between ship technical parameters. In addition, the emission analysis shows that, within the scope of China's DECA, the berthing period of ships is longer owing to the joint effects of coastal operation features and the strict quarantine measures under the COVID-19 pandemic, which highlights the emissions produced by ship auxiliary engines and boilers. The carbon intensity of most coastal provinces in China is relatively high, reflecting the urgent demand for the transformation and updates of the economic development models. Based on the theoretical models and results, this study recommends a five-stage decarbonization scheme for China's DECA to advance its decarbonization process. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd
ABSTRACT
Boron-hydrogen (B-H) materials are used as hydrogen and heat sources, due to their reducing potential. It has been shown again with the COVID-19 pandemic that greenhouse gas activities are anthropogenic in origin. In particular, the conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) into valuable chemicals has an important place in the fight against the climate crisis. The conversion of anthropogenic CO2 into valuable chemicals has important implications for a habitable world. In many studies in the literature, boron hydrides have been used to produce, hydrogen and convert carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals. Formic acid and methanol obtained by hydrogenation can be seen as the clean energy movement of the future with its value in hydrogen storage. The type of valuable chemicals that will be formed by the hydrogenation of CO2 is directly related to the method to be followed. The type of catalyst used, or how much hydrogen molecule interacts with CO2, determines the valuable chemical that will form. Disturbances in the thermodynamics of the hydrogenation of CO2 have been tried to be eliminated by various types of catalysts and necessary condition optimizations. Many catalysts and methods developed for the hydrogenation of CO2 were examined. This study discusses the use of B-H materials via catalytic conversion of CO2 into valuable chemicals in terms of critical factors such as reaction conditions, selection of catalyst, and solvent. © 2022 Proceedings of WHEC 2022 - 23rd World Hydrogen Energy Conference: Bridging Continents by H2. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Proposals on the inclusion of hydrogen as an energy vector into the large-scale energy socio-technical system has gained considerable momentum along with the effects of the climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examines the conflict between various dimensions of decarbonization with hydrogen agenda within the conceptual framework of international environmental law and policies. Firstly, we carry out a general due diligence of the technical, economic, and legal aspects of the hydrogen economy particularly in Europe. Subsequently, via textual analyses of European Union's strategic documents, the incompatibility of the hydrogen risk chain with the hydrogen value chain is revealed. Finally, as one remedy to this incompatibility;the precautionary principle, its relation to science, technology and society studies, and its possible policy applications in the context of hydrogen technologies are discussed. © 2022 Proceedings of WHEC 2022 - 23rd World Hydrogen Energy Conference: Bridging Continents by H2. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and amidst COVID-19 recovery efforts, the energy crisis has put enormous pressure to policymakers to balance climate action, sustainable development, and management of the impacts of fuel supply disruptions and price shocks. Policy and market responses, such as liquefied natural gas infrastructure investments and use of every available fossil-fuel lever to make up for Russian gas supply cuts, are feared to trigger new lock-ins, jeopardising decarbonisation. This is also the case in Italy, which is highly dependent on Russia-imported gas. Energy models typically used to support such decisions take time to produce meaningful scenarios and, in times of crisis, are largely driven by highly uncertain parameters. This study uses fuzzy cognitive maps to engage with experts in a workshop and elicit their knowledge and perceptions with the aid of a questionnaire, towards simulating the impact of selected strategies and important uncertainties on the three pillars of Italy's progress to electricity-sector sustainability: decarbonisation, affordability, and reliability. In a framework of deliberation and simulation, experts displayed strong preference for renewable energy, compared to new gas infrastructure. Renewables were notably deemed to have positive impacts across all three sustaina-biltiy dimensions and were found more robust against uncertainties, such as regulatory and political instability, which was highlighted as the biggest risk. Critically, despite their expectedly positive impact, demand-side transformations including demand reductions and broader behavioural shifts-a core component of the EU's current approach-may prove inadequate, should large system pressures from negative socio-and techno-economic developments persist.