scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Environmental and Energy Systems

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 5892
Author(s):  
Luca Ciacci ◽  
Fabrizio Passarini
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Energy Generation ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Green Technologies ◽  
And Storage

The transition towards renewable energy sources and “green” technologies for energy generation and storage is expected to mitigate the climate emergency in the coming years [...]

scholarly journals Environmental Impact of Energy Systems Integrated with Electrochemical Accumulators and Powered by Renewable Energy Sources in a Life-Cycle Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 2770
Author(s):  
Anna Stoppato ◽  
Alberto Benato ◽  
Francesco De Vanna
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
Storage Systems ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Renewable Sources ◽  
Life Cycle Perspective

The aim of this study is to assess the environmental impact of storage systems integrated with energy plants powered by renewable sources. Stationary storage systems proved to be a valid solution for regulating networks, supporting frequency, and managing peaks in electricity supply and demand. Recently, their coupling with renewable energy sources has been considered a strategic means of exploiting their high potential since it permits them to overcome their intrinsic uncertainty. Therefore, the storage systems integration with distributed generation can improve the performance of the networks and decrease the costs associated with energy production. However, a question remains regarding the overall environmental sustainability of the final energy production. Focusing on electrochemical accumulators, the problems mainly concern the use of heavy metals and/or impacting chemical components of storage at the center of environmental hazard debates. In this paper, an environmental assessment from a life-cycle perspective of the hybrid energy systems powered by fossil and renewable sources located on two non-interconnected minor islands is presented. Existing configurations are compared with new ones obtained with the addition of batteries for the exploitation of renewable energy. The results show that, for batteries, the assembly phase, including raw material extraction, transport, and assembly, accounts for about 40% of the total, while the remaining part is related to end-of-life processes. The reuse and recycling of the materials have a positive effect on overall impacts. The results also show that the overall impact is strongly related to the actual energy mix of the place where batteries are installed, even if it is usually lower than that of the solution without the batteries. The importance of a proper definition of the functional unit in the analysis is also emphasized in this work.

scholarly journals Classification and Analysis of Optimization Techniques for Integrated Energy Systems Utilizing Renewable Energy Sources: A Review for CHP and CCHP Systems

Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ali Bagherian ◽  
Kamyar Mehranzamir ◽  
Amin Beiranvand Pour ◽  
Shahabaldin Rezania ◽  
Elham Taghavi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Evolutionary Computing ◽  
Energy Generation ◽  
Optimization Methods ◽  
Optimization Techniques ◽  
Mixed Integer ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Integrated Energy Systems

Energy generation and its utilization is bound to increase in the following years resulting in accelerating depletion of fossil fuels, and consequently, undeniable damages to our environment. Over the past decade, despite significant efforts in renewable energy realization and developments for electricity generation, carbon dioxide emissions have been increasing rapidly. This is due to the fact that there is a need to go beyond the power sector and target energy generation in an integrated manner. In this regard, energy systems integration is a concept that looks into how different energy systems, or forms, can connect together in order to provide value for consumers and producers. Cogeneration and trigeneration are the two most well established technologies that are capable of producing two or three different forms of energy simultaneously within a single system. Integrated energy systems make for a very strong proposition since it results in energy saving, fuel diversification, and supply of cleaner energy. Optimization of such systems can be carried out using several techniques with regards to different objective functions. In this study, a variety of optimization methods that provides the possibility of performance improvements, with or without presence of constraints, are demonstrated, pinpointing the characteristics of each method along with detailed statistical reports. In this context, optimization techniques are classified into two primary groups including unconstrained optimization and constrained optimization techniques. Further, the potential applications of evolutionary computing in optimization of Integrated Energy Systems (IESs), particularly Combined Heat and Power (CHP) and Combined Cooling, Heating, and Power (CCHP), utilizing renewable energy sources are grasped and reviewed thoroughly. It was illustrated that the employment of classical optimization methods is fading out, replacing with evolutionary computing techniques. Amongst modern heuristic algorithms, each method has contributed more to a certain application; while the Genetic Algorithm (GA) was favored for thermoeconomic optimization, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) was mostly applied for economic improvements. Given the mathematical nature and constraint satisfaction property of Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP), this method is gaining prominence for scheduling applications in energy systems.

scholarly journals EUROPEAN AND UKRAINIAN IMPLEMENTATION EXPERIENCE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES

2019 ◽  
pp. 108-113
Author(s):  
A. Yevdokymova ◽  
S. Kolosok ◽  
N. Petrenko
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Energy Supply ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Energy Generation ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Energy Networks ◽  
Energy Technologies ◽  
Market Requirements ◽  
Smart Technologies

The paper considers the use of renewable energy sources, the economic efficiency of their full-scale implementation, the policies of European countries on the development of energy systems and domestic energy networks. Existing energy networks in most cases do not meet modern market requirements. First, it concerns energy supply based on the renewable energy sources as most of the electricity is supplied to the electric networks in a decentralized way and only then to the consumers. Therefore, the key tool for successful energy redistribution should be the expansion of powerful regional transmission networks and local distribution networks. At the same time, consumption and conventional energy generation should become more flexible to meet market requirements. The use of “smart technologies”, especially digitalization with the help of smart energy meters, should be the driving tool to create new economic opportunities and simplify the coordination of energy generation and consumption. The use of “smart technologies” for renewable energy should be the basis for the energy systems development in Ukraine. International practices indicate the effectiveness of these technologies. The main advantage of their implementation is the security of energy supply to consumers, which significantly reduces carbon dioxide emissions as well as technological energy losses in the electric grid. One more advantage is the optimization of existing energy systems and their intelligent automation that allows the efficient use of renewable energy sources, reduction of the transmission losses through networks, the increase of the stability level of electricity supplies, the reduction of the negative impact of energy systems on the environment and meeting consumers’ needs for reliable energy supply. Keywords: energy technologies, power grids, energy technologies, smart technologies, smart grids.

scholarly journals Assessing Uncertainties of Life-Cycle CO2 Emissions Using Hydrogen Energy for Power Generation

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (21) ◽  
pp. 6943
Author(s):  
Akito Ozawa ◽  
Yuki Kudoh
Keyword(s):  
Power Generation ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Co2 Emissions ◽  
Co2 Emission ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Hydrogen Energy ◽  
Low Carbon

Hydrogen and its energy carriers, such as liquid hydrogen (LH2), methylcyclohexane (MCH), and ammonia (NH3), are essential components of low-carbon energy systems. To utilize hydrogen energy, the complete environmental merits of its supply chain should be evaluated. To understand the expected environmental benefit under the uncertainty of hydrogen technology development, we conducted life-cycle inventory analysis and calculated CO2 emissions and their uncertainties attributed to the entire supply chain of hydrogen and NH3 power generation (co-firing and mono-firing) in Japan. Hydrogen was assumed to be produced from overseas renewable energy sources with LH2/MCH as the carrier, and NH3 from natural gas or renewable energy sources. The Japanese life-cycle inventory database was used to calculate emissions. Monte Carlo simulations were performed to evaluate emission uncertainty and mitigation factors using hydrogen energy. For LH2, CO2 emission uncertainty during hydrogen liquefaction can be reduced by using low-carbon fuel. For MCH, CO2 emissions were not significantly affected by power consumption of overseas processes; however, it can be reduced by implementing low-carbon fuel and waste-heat utilization during MCH dehydrogenation. Low-carbon NH3 production processes significantly affected power generation, whereas carbon capture and storage during NH3 production showed the greatest reduction in CO2 emission. In conclusion, reducing CO2 emissions during the production of hydrogen and NH3 is key to realize low-carbon hydrogen energy systems.

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