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Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series – Energy Resources: Past, Present...
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Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series – Energy Resources: Past, Present and Future Role in a Circular Economy

A special issue of Resources (ISSN 2079-9276).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2024 | Viewed by 4339

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Elena Rada

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Theoretical and Applied Sciences—DiSTA, Insubria University of Varese, Via G.B. Vico, 46, 21100 Varese, Italy
Interests: resources; renewable energy; environmental sustainability; circular economy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Ponisseril Somasundaran

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Co-Guest Editor
NSF I/UCR Center for Particulate and Surfactant Systems, Earth & Environmental Engineering, Columbia University, 500 W 120th Street, New York, NY 10027, USA
Interests: surface and colloid chemistry; surfactants; polymers and proteins; green reagents; corrosion, slurry/paste processing (microelectronics-CMP) dispersions; biosolar energy; environmental engineering; dispersion/flocculation/deposition; molecular interactions at surfaces using advanced spectroscopy; biosurfaces and biosensors, and nanotechnology incl nanotoxicity

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Circular Economy is a model where products must be managed to extend their life cycle and where their materials must be kept in the system for as long as possible. That means achieving waste reduction too. In recent years, the interest in it has grown worldwide. However, we can observe spatial and temporal differences. Focusing on the sector of waste management, in countries that had low incomes in the past, today, the system is close to being optimized. The future of currently low-income countries might be that of enhanced waste management. Efforts should be made worldwide to have a future where the circularity of materials is dominant. Sometimes the transition is not visible. This can be the case in some low-income contexts where the material recovery of waste is performed by waste pickers, which contributes, even if informally, to one of the steps characterizing a circular economy: waste collection. In the frame of a world more and more interested in the circularity of materials, this raises a question: what is the role of energy resources? Focusing on waste management, we can see that both renewable and non-renewable energy resources characterize this sector: biogas from biodegradable waste and energy from high-temperature processes applied to unsorted Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) are, respectively, a demonstration of that (MSW is an energy resource that is only partially renewable). Of course, energy resources have a wider role in the circular economy, because it is not only a matter of energy from residues: the role is also related to the need to use clean energy sources to have clean products that are part of a circular economy system. For that reason, this Special Issue is open to all kinds of contributions related to energy resources.

Dr. Elena Rada
Prof. Dr. Ponisseril Somasundaran
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Resources is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • biomass to energy
  • climate change
  • circular economy
  • economic sustainability
  • environmental impact
  • environmental sustainability
  • geothermal energy
  • hydropower
  • innovation
  • hydrogen
  • environmental monitoring systems
  • management
  • photovoltaics
  • social impact
  • solar thermal
  • renewable energy
  • strategies
  • waste to energy
  • wind energy
  • educational issues

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

33 pages, 3284 KiB  
Article
Development of Wind Energy in EU Countries as an Alternative Resource to Fossil Fuels in the Years 2016–2022
by Radosław Wolniak and Bożena Skotnicka-Zasadzień
Resources 2023, 12(8), 96; https://doi.org/10.3390/resources12080096 - 17 Aug 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2625
Abstract
The aim of this article is to present solutions related to wind energy in EU countries as an alternative to fossil fuels. This article is based on secondary information and statistical data regarding the development of wind power engineering in EU countries for [...] Read more.
The aim of this article is to present solutions related to wind energy in EU countries as an alternative to fossil fuels. This article is based on secondary information and statistical data regarding the development of wind power engineering in EU countries for the years 2016–2022. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze of the relations between the development of wind energy in European Union countries and GPD (gross domestic product) per capita and selected factors. The following hypotheses were formulated: H1—There is a statistically significant correlation between GDP per capita and the use of wind energy in European Union countries. H2—There is a relationship between the length of the coastline and the use of wind energy in European Union countries. H3—There is a statistically significant correlation between the attitude to uncertainty of the inhabitants of a given country and the use of wind energy in said country. The presented research results support all these hypotheses. The results of the research regarding H2 are as follows: in the case of northern European countries (Ireland and Finland) and the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), the development of wind power engineering in the study period was faster than could be inferred from the length of the coastline in these countries. Regarding hypothesis H1, it was concluded on the basis of the analysis that the involvement of countries in the development of wind power engineering is correlated with their wealth. The novelty of this paper emerges from its innovative approach to analyzing wind power engineering, its incorporation of cultural factors, its quantitative assessment of correlations, and its actionable policy recommendations. These elements collectively contribute to a comprehensive and impactful study that advances our understanding of wind energy adoption in the European Union. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series – Energy Resources: Past, Present and Future Role in a Circular Economy)
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23 pages, 2797 KiB  
Article
Carbon-Energy Impact Analysis of Heavy Residue Gasification Plant Integration into Oil Refinery
by Slavomír Podolský, Miroslav Variny and Tomáš Kurák
Resources 2023, 12(6), 66; https://doi.org/10.3390/resources12060066 - 27 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1224
Abstract
A gasification plant may partially replace an industrial thermal plant and hydrogen production plant by polygenerating valuable products (hydrogen, power, steam) from low-value materials. Carbon energy analysis is one way of conceptually evaluating such processes. In this paper, the integration of a heavy [...] Read more.
A gasification plant may partially replace an industrial thermal plant and hydrogen production plant by polygenerating valuable products (hydrogen, power, steam) from low-value materials. Carbon energy analysis is one way of conceptually evaluating such processes. In this paper, the integration of a heavy residue (HR) gasification plant into a mid-size oil refinery (5 million t per year crude processing rate) is conceptually assessed via the comparison of electricity, natural gas and heavy residue consumption, and CO2 emissions. The main purpose of the integration is to reduce the consumption of natural gas currently used for hydrogen production at the expense of increased HR consumption and to achieve a reduction in CO2 emissions. Two case studies with different modes of operation were compared to base case showing that annual reduction of 2280 GWh in natural gas consumption with constant heat and hydrogen production is possible, accompanied with a slight increase in electricity purchase by 28 GWh per year. HR processing in the refinery increases by over 2800 GWh per year. The refinery’s CO2 emissions increase by more than 20% (up to 350 kt per year) as a result, while, after incorporating external emissions into the balance, a decrease of more than 460 kt CO2 per year can be achieved. This confirms that the integration of gasification plants within industrial enterprises and clusters has a positive environmental and energy impact and supports the idea of converting low-value material to more valuable products in polygeneration plants. The economics of HR gasifier integration in varying operations under real refinery conditions remain to be explored. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series – Energy Resources: Past, Present and Future Role in a Circular Economy)
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