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Doing ‘business as usual’ comes with a cost
Salinization of agricultural lands is a major threat to agriculture. Many different factors affect and determine plant salt tolerance. Nonetheless, there is a consensus on the relevance of maintaining an optimal cytosolic potassium : sodium ion (K⁺ : Na⁺) ratio for salinity tolerance in plants. This ratio depends on the operation of plasma membrane and tonoplast transporters. In the present review we focus on some aspects related to the energetic cost of maintaining that K⁺ : Na⁺ ratio. One of the factors that affect the cost of the first step of K⁺ acquisition – root K⁺ uptake through High Affinity K⁺ transporter and Arabidopsis K⁺ transport system 1 transport systems – is the value of the plasma membrane potential of root cells, a parameter that may differ amongst plant species. In addition to its role in nutrition, cytosolic K⁺ also is important for signalling, and K⁺ efflux through gated outward-rectifying K⁺ and nonselective cation channels can be regarded as a switch to redirect energy towards defence reactions. In maintaining cytosolic K⁺, the great buffer capacity of the vacuole should be considered. The possible role of high-affinity K⁺ transporters (HKT)2s in mediating K⁺ uptake under saline conditions and the importance of cycling of K⁺ throughout the plant also are discussed.
Journal Article
Optimal Sizing and Techno-Economic Analysis of Grid-Independent Hybrid Energy System for Sustained Rural Electrification in Developing Countries: A Case Study in Bangladesh
The absence of electricity is among the gravest problems preventing a nation’s development. Hybrid renewable energy systems (HRES) play a vital role to reducing this issue. The major goal of this study is to use the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA)-II and hybrid optimization of multiple energy resources (HOMER) Pro Software to reduce the net present cost (NPC), cost of energy (COE), and CO2 emissions of proposed power system. Five cases have been considered to understand the optimal HRES system for Kutubdia Island in Bangladesh and analyzed the technical viability and economic potential of this system. To demonstrate the efficacy of the suggested strategy, the best case outcomes from the two approaches are compared. The study’s optimal solution is also subjected to a sensitivity analysis to take into account fluctuations in the annual wind speed, solar radiation, and fuel costs. According to the data, the optimized PV/Wind/Battery/DG system (USD 711,943) has a lower NPC than the other cases. The NPC obtained by the NSGA-II technique is 2.69% lower than that of the HOMER-based system.
Journal Article
Achieving gigawatt-scale green hydrogen production and seasonal storage at industrial locations across the U.S
Onsite production of gigawatt-scale wind- and solar-sourced hydrogen (H
2
) at industrial locations depends on the ability to store and deliver otherwise-curtailed H
2
during times of power shortages. Thousands of tonnes of H
2
will require storage in regions where subsurface storage is scarce, which may only be possible using liquid organic H
2
carriers. We evaluate aboveground system with a focus on providing technical insights into toluene/methylcyclohexane (TOL/MCH) storage systems in locations suitable for gigawatt-scale wind- and solar-powered electrolyzer systems in the United States. Here we show that the levelized cost of storage, at a national median of US dollar $1.84/kg-H
2
is spatially heterogeneous, causing minor impact on the cost of H
2
supply in the Midwest, and significant impact in Central California and the Southeast. While TOL/MCH may be the cheapest aboveground bulk storage solution evaluated, upfront capital costs, modest energy efficiency, reliance on critical materials and pre-sulfided catalysts, and greenhouse gas emissions from heating are opportunities for further development.
Dedicated wind-sourced hydrogen (H2) can decarbonize industries but requires thousands of tonnes of H2 storage. Storing H2 as methylcyclohexane can outcompete alternative aboveground solutions with modest effects on delivery costs.
Journal Article
Life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) of construction projects: sustainability perspective
Construction industry projects play a significant role in the sustainable economic growth of all other industries. To achieve a sustainable economy, the future associated costs act as a barrier that must be addressed in the initial stages of a construction project. To evaluate the future costs, Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) is found to be an effective technique that determines the present worth of future costs. This study focuses on reviewing the conducted research in the field of optimising cost during the project life cycle via LCCA to sustain economic sustainability and associating the environmental and social cost factors to enhance sustainability. A systematic literature review strategy is developed to extract relevant literature from Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, Emerald and American Society of Civil Engineering from the year 2009 to 2020. Adopting the PRISMA statement, a total of 83 articles are reviewed systematically in detail. Many construction sections are explored with the impact of LCCA on them. The LCCA impact the performance of construction projects during certain practices such as structural designing, energy cost optimisation, building envelope efficiency in energy demand and utilisation optimisation and earthquake engineering. Moreover, this study highlights the influence of LCCA in optimising the environmental impact of a new or existing construction project to avail economic sustainability along with the social and environmental. A conceptual framework has been proposed that shows the influence of LCCA on the construction industry, which directly impacts economic sustainability and indirectly environmental sustainability.
Journal Article
Innovation and Spillover Effects of Energy Demand Shocks in Belt and Road Economies
The induced innovation hypothesis, initially proposed by Sir John Hicks, posits that as the cost of energy rises compared to other input factors, firms are motivated to engage in innovative practices to counteract the increased expenses related to energy consumption. This innovation can manifest through the development and implementation of technologies, processes, or methodologies that enhance energy efficiency or diminish overall energy dependency. In this study, we empirically examine and validate this hypothesis. By theoretically modeling how innovation responds to elevated energy costs, we exploit China’s substantial surge in energy demand as an external shock to global demand, to empirically test the predictions associated with our theoretical framework. We test these predictions using firm level data in Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries. Our findings strongly support the induced innovation hypothesis, revealing that, on average, a 1 percent rise in the relative cost of energy corresponds to a 2.1 to 5.1 percent increase in the likelihood of innovation in energy-exporting countries and a 0.5 to 3.6 percent increase in non-energy-exporting countries. These results are robust to various methodological variations and data restriction exercises.
JEL Classification: D22, D24, O13, O14
Journal Article
Three laws of energy transitions and economic growth
This paper explores the interaction between the energy costs/GDP ratio, energy prices, energy efficiency, “quality of energy’’, and economic growth. The relationships between the first three were formulated by the author back in 2007 in the form of three laws of energy transitions. The paper provides additional empirical evidence and theoretical support to these laws and looks into their implications for economic growth and climate mitigation policies. It argues for launching effective energy costs accounting at the national level to support such policies. It also argues that escalation of energy prices driven only by the growing share of higher quality energy resources does not impede, but stimulates economic growth. The paper shows, that improving energy efficiency results in the removal of the ‘limits of growth’ – affordability, resource and environmental limitations; but as it faces the ‘limits of change’, the trade-off between maximizing economic growth and minimizing GHG emissions is inevitable.
Journal Article
The energy cost of split-belt walking for a variety of belt speed combinations
Walking on a split-belt treadmill is often compared to walking on tied belts at the average speed, but the relationship between the metabolic energy costs of split- and tied-belt walking remains largely unexplored. Recent simulation work has suggested that people could take advantage of a belt speed difference and lower their energy costs, but this effect has not yet been observed experimentally. To relate metabolic energy costs across a range of belt speed combinations, we had 10 participants each complete 14 tied-belt and 39 split-belt walking trials, with early split-belt trials incorporating additional time for training. The average speeds ranged from 0.6 to 1.8 m/s with belt speed differences up to 1.4 m/s. We used ANOVA to determine differences in energy cost due to average speed and belt speed difference. We fit a linear model to estimate the tied-belt speed with the same energy cost as a given pair of split belt speeds. The cost of split-belt walking was on average just 0.13 ± 0.32 W/kg more expensive than the cost of tied-belt walking at the average speed. Contrary to predictions from simple dynamical models, increased belt speed difference resulted in increased energy cost, and the energetically equivalent tied-belt speed could be estimated as veq=vavg+0.065⋅Δv. Clinicians designing rehabilitation protocols can balance the therapeutic benefits of higher belt speed difference with increased energetic demands. Open questions remain about why people cannot fully take advantage of mechanical work performed by a split-belt treadmill.
Journal Article
Cost Estimation of Polymeric Adsorbents
One of the most promising techniques of recent research is adsorption. This technique attracts great attention in environmental technology, especially in the decontamination of water and wastewaters. A “hidden” point of the above is the cost of adsorbents. As can be easily observed in the literature, there is not any mention about the synthesis cost of adsorbents. What are the basic criteria with which an industry can select an adsorbent? What is the synthesis (recipe) cost? What is the energy demand to synthesize an efficient material? All of these are questions which have not been answered, until now. The reason for this is that the estimation of adsorbents’ cost is relatively difficult, because too many cost factors are involved (labor cost, raw materials cost, energy cost, tax cost, etc.). In this work, the first estimation cost of adsorbents is presented, taking into consideration all of the major factors which influence the final value. To be more comparable, the adsorbents used are from a list of polymeric materials which are already synthesized and tested in our laboratory. All of them are polymeric materials with chitosan as a substrate, which is efficiently used for the removal of heavy metal ions.
Journal Article
Analysis on carbon emission reduction intensity of fuel cell vehicles from a life-cycle perspective
The hydrogen fuel cell vehicle is rapidly developing in China for carbon reduction and neutrality. This paper evaluated the life-cycle cost and carbon emission of hydrogen energy via lots of field surveys, including hydrogen production and packing in chlor-alkali plants, transport by tube trailers, storage and refueling in hydrogen refueling stations (HRSs), and application for use in two different cities. It also conducted a comparative study for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs). The result indicates that hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (FCV) has the best environmental performance but the highest energy cost. However, a sufficient hydrogen supply can significantly reduce the carbon intensity and FCV energy cost of the current system. The carbon emission for FCV application has the potential to decrease by 73.1% in City A and 43.8% in City B. It only takes 11.0%-20.1% of the BEV emission and 8.2%-9.8% of the ICEV emission. The cost of FCV driving can be reduced by 39.1% in City A. Further improvement can be obtained with an economical and \"greener\" hydrogen production pathway.
Journal Article