scholarly journals Refrigerated Transport: State of the Art, Technical Issues, Innovations and Challenges for Sustainability

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (21) ◽  
pp. 7237
Author(s):  
Angelo Maiorino ◽  
Fabio Petruzziello ◽  
Ciro Aprea

The cold chain is responsible for perishable products preservation and transportation, maintaining a proper temperature to slow biological decay processes. Often the efficiency of the cold chain is less than ideal, significantly increasing food waste and energy consumption. Refrigerated transport is a critical phase of the cold chain because of its negative impact on energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. It is estimated that around 15% of global fossil fuel energy is used in the refrigerated transport sector, so there has been a growing interest in the last decades in the optimization of these systems in order to reduce their environmental impact. Vapor compression refrigeration units, usually powered by means of a diesel engine, are the most commonly used systems in road refrigerated transport. This paper provides a review of (a) currently used systems and alternative technologies that could reduce the environmental impacts of road refrigerated transport and (b) optimization models and methods used to minimize fuel/energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, focusing both on reducing the thermal loads and solving the refrigerated vehicle routing problem.

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 3025 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ján Ližbetin ◽  
Martina Hlatká ◽  
Ladislav Bartuška

The paper deals with the issue of greenhouse gas emissions that are produced by the road freight transport sector. These emissions affect the structure of the ozone layer and contribute to the greenhouse effect that causes global warming-issues that are closely associated with changing weather patterns and extreme weather events. Attention is drawn to the contradictions linked to FAME (Fatty Acid Methyl Esters) biofuels, namely the fact that although their use generates almost zero greenhouse gas emissions, their production requires high levels of energy consumption. The first part of the paper deals with the theoretical basis of the negative impacts of transport on the environment and the subsequent measurement of the extent of the harmful emissions generated by the road freight transport sector. In the methodical part of the paper, the calculation procedures and declared energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions generated by transport services are analyzed according to the EN 16258 standard. The experimental part of the paper focuses on the application of the methodology to a specific shipment on a specified transport route, where the total energy consumption and production of greenhouse gas emissions is determined. These calculations are based on comprehensive studies carried out for a particular transport company that assigned the authors the task of determining to what extent the declared energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions change when the type of fuel used is changed.


Author(s):  
Milica Jović ◽  
Mirjana Laković ◽  
Marjan Jovčevski

Daily emissions of greenhouse gasses have a negative impact on the quality of the atmosphere. In almost every sector there is a certain emission of these gasses. This means that every sector, whether it is the energy, industry, transport sector or the household has a part in the degradation of the environment. In this connection, many models have been developed, whose task is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and carbon dioxide as well to improve the environmental quality. This paper will discuss the carbon footprint model. A carbon footprint is the set of greenhouse gas emissions caused by something. It can be calculated for a product, service, person or even a country, and is used to understand the impact of human activity on the earth’s climate. Also, an analysis of carbon footprint using different types of fuel for heating households will be presented.


Author(s):  
Tejvir Singh ◽  
Muataz Ali Atieh ◽  
Tareq Al-Ansari ◽  
Abdul Wahab Mohammad ◽  
Gordon McKay

Desalination accounts for 1% of the total global water consumption and is an energy-intensive process, with the majority of operational expenses attributed to energy consumption. Moreover, at present, a significant portion of the power comes from traditional fossil fuel-fired power plants and the greenhouse gas emissions associated with power production along with concentrated brine discharge from the process, pose a severe threat to the environment. Due to the dramatic impact of climate change, there is a major opportunity to develop sustainable desalination processes to combat the issues of brine discharge, greenhouse gas emissions along with a reduction in energy consumption per unit of freshwater produced. Nanotechnology can play a vital role to achieve specific energy consumption reduction as nanofluids application increases the overall heat transfer coefficient enabling the production of more water for the same size desalination plant. Furthermore, concentrated brine discharge has a negative impact on the marine ecosystems, and hence, this problem must also be solved to support the objective of sustainable desalination. Several studies have been carried out in the past several years in the field of nanotechnology applications for desalination, brine treatment and the role of renewable energy in desalination. This paper aims to review the major advances in this field of nanotechnology for desalination. Furthermore, a hypothesis for developing an integrated solar thermal and nanofluid sustainable desalination system, based on the cyclic economy model is proposed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Asim Hasan ◽  
Rahil Akhtar Usmani

Rising greenhouse gas emissions is an important issue of the current time. India’s massive greenhouse gas emissions is ranked third globally. The escalating energy demand in the country has opened the gateway for further increase in emissions. Recent studies suggest strong nexus between energy consumption, economic growth, and carbon emissions. This study has the objective to empirically test the aforementioned interdependencies. The co-integration test and multivariate vector error correction model (VECM) are used for the analysis and the Granger Causality test is used to establish the direction of causality. The time-series data for the period of 1971–2011 is used for the analysis. The results of the study confirm strong co-integration between variables. The causality results show that economic growth exerts a causal influence on carbon emissions, energy consumption exerts a causal influence on economic growth, and carbon emissions exert a causal influence on economic growth. Based on the results, the study suggests a policy that focuses on energy conservation and gradual replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy sources, which would be beneficial for the environment and the society.


Robotics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Florian Stuhlenmiller ◽  
Steffi Weyand ◽  
Jens Jungblut ◽  
Liselotte Schebek ◽  
Debora Clever ◽  
...  

Modern industry benefits from the automation capabilities and flexibility of robots. Consequently, the performance depends on the individual task, robot and trajectory, while application periods of several years lead to a significant impact of the use phase on the resource efficiency. In this work, simulation models predicting a robot’s energy consumption are extended by an estimation of the reliability, enabling the consideration of maintenance to enhance the assessment of the application’s life cycle costs. Furthermore, a life cycle assessment yields the greenhouse gas emissions for the individual application. Potential benefits of the combination of motion simulation and cost analysis are highlighted by the application to an exemplary system. For the selected application, the consumed energy has a distinct impact on greenhouse gas emissions, while acquisition costs govern life cycle costs. Low cycle times result in reduced costs per workpiece, however, for short cycle times and higher payloads, the probability of required spare parts distinctly increases for two critical robotic joints. Hence, the analysis of energy consumption and reliability, in combination with maintenance, life cycle costing and life cycle assessment, can provide additional information to improve the resource efficiency.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 7-13
Author(s):  
Radik Safin ◽  
Ayrat Valiev ◽  
Valeriya Kolesar

Global climatic changes have a negative impact on the development of all sectors of the economy, including agriculture. However, the very production of agricultural products is one of the most important sources of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere. Taking into account the need to reduce the “carbon footprint” in food production, a special place is occupied by the analysis of the volume of greenhouse gas emissions and the development of measures for their sequestration in agriculture. One of the main directions for reducing emissions and immobilizing greenhouse gases is the development of special techniques for their sequestration in the soil, including those used in agriculture. Adaptation of existing farming systems for this task will significantly reduce the “carbon footprint” from agricultural production, including animal husbandry. The development of carbon farming allows not only to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also to significantly increase the level of soil fertility, primarily by increasing the content of organic matter in them. As a result, it becomes possible, along with the production of crop production, to produce “carbon units” that are sold on local and international markets. The paper analyzes possible greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and the potential for their sequestration in agricultural soils. The role of various elements of the farming system in solving the problem of reducing the “carbon footprint” is considered and ways of developing carbon farming in the Republic of Tatarstan are proposed


2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-40
Author(s):  
S. Štefunková

Characteristics of asphalt mixes with FT additiveThis article is focused on low-temperature asphalt mixture technologies using FT additive and RAP. The modern production and use of asphalt mixture technologies with reduced temperatures has many advantages. These advantages mainly help to save energy and the environment. Lower temperatures enable a reduction in energy consumption, a more acceptable working environment for workers, a reduction in negative environmental effects, such as greenhouse gas emissions, and an improvement in the workability of mixtures and a prolongation of their duration. This technology is currently becoming popular in many countries.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 5664
Author(s):  
Wenjing Wei ◽  
Peter B. Samuelsson ◽  
Anders Tilliander ◽  
Rutger Gyllenram ◽  
Pär G. Jönsson

The primary energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from nickel smelting products have been assessed through case studies using a process model based on mass and energy balance. The required primary energy for producing nickel metal, nickel oxide, ferronickel, and nickel pig iron is 174 GJ/t alloy (174 GJ/t contained Ni), 369 GJ/t alloy (485 GJ/t contained Ni), 110 GJ/t alloy (309 GJ/t contained Ni), and 60 GJ/t alloy (598 GJ/t contained Ni), respectively. Furthermore, the associated GHG emissions are 14 tCO2-eq/t alloy (14 tCO2-eq/t contained Ni), 30 t CO2-eq/t alloy (40 t CO2-eq/t contained Ni), 6 t CO2-eq/t alloy (18 t CO2-eq/t contained Ni), and 7 t CO2-eq/t alloy (69 t CO2-eq/t contained Ni). A possible carbon emission reduction can be observed by comparing ore type, ore grade, and electricity source, as well as allocation strategy. The suggested process model overcomes the limitation of a conventional life cycle assessment study which considers the process as a ‘black box’ and allows for an identification of further possibilities to implement sustainable nickel production.


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