Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Ramona Ciobanu, Carmen Teodosiu, Cecilia M. V. B. Almeida, Feni Agostinho, Biagio Fernando Giannetti
Summary: Water and wastewater treatment plants are essential for providing drinking water and treating effluents, but studies on their investments and sustainability are limited. This study evaluates a wastewater treatment plant in Iasi, Romania using the emergy approach and considers the environmental costs of natural fluxes. The sustainability is assessed through the emergy yield ratio, environmental load rate, and emergy sustainability development index. The study finds that local renewable resources play a small role in wastewater treatment compared to purchased resources mainly supported by fossil fuels.
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Mahshad Modiri, Atiye Haj Hasan, Hamid Zafari Koloukhi, Fatemeh Rostami, Seyyed Mohammad Tafazzoli, Akram Avami
Summary: The aim of this study is to quantify the water-energy-emissions nexus in wastewater treatment plants and proposes an emergy performance index to evaluate environmental and economic aspects. The results show that co-generation of heat and power from renewables can effectively improve sustainability.
ENVIRONMENT DEVELOPMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Cui Wang, Changyi Liu, Xiaoxiao Si, Cuixia Zhang, Fan Liu, Li'e Yu, Guohua Chen
Summary: With the increase in industrialization and urbanization, water pollution has become more serious, making wastewater treatment a crucial step. By evaluating the sustainability of two different wastewater treatment systems, it was found that one system showed better sustainability compared to the other.
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Fei Xie, Junxue Zhang, Guodong Wu, Chunxia Zhang, Hechi Wang
Summary: From a global perspective, the ecological sustainability of building systems has been a popular research topic, especially in China where new construction comprises nearly half of the global amount. This study used the LCA-Emergy-ANN framework to assess an airport building system and found that building material emergy and operational stage emergy accounted for 92.4% of the entire emergy, making them the primary contributors. The emergy sustainability index (ESI) was found to be 0.669, indicating that it is unsustainable (The eligibility standard is 1). Sensitivity analysis and artificial neural network prediction were conducted for data accuracy, and an optimization strategy was proposed to enhance the system's sustainability.
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Laxmi A. Zadgaonkar, Vivek Darwai, Sachin A. Mandavgane
Summary: The study evaluates and compares the sustainability of transitioning from a linear agricultural system to a circular one, showing significant advantages in resource recycling and emission reduction of circular agriculture. By reducing purchased inputs, enhancing self-organizing capacity, and minimizing environmental impact, a circular agricultural system can achieve economic and social benefits more effectively.
CLEAN TECHNOLOGIES AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Hechi Wang, Haojun Huang, Junxue Zhang, Zhanfang Hu, Qi Zhou
Summary: Sustainable architecture is of significant research importance for addressing climate change. However, the lack of clear definition and diverse research methods pose challenges in this field. This study adopts an integrated approach to assess the sustainability performance of building systems and provides a fresh perspective for architects and building managers, contributing to sustainable practices in the built environment.
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Lan Liu, Runhui Cai, Junxue Zhang
Summary: Sustainability studies are crucial for the long-term development of ecological cities. This study employs the emergy-geographic information system (GIS) method to conduct a sustainability evaluation of Hangzhou city and demonstrates the synergistic effect between emergy and GIS methods. The research provides practical recommendations for city designers and professionals, emphasizing the importance of incorporating both emergy and GIS methods in urban planning.
Article
Water Resources
Junxue Zhang, Lin Ma
Summary: This study investigated two sewage sludge treatment systems, with the improved reuse system (Scenario B) showing better performance in enhancing sludge treatment capacity and utilization, but also having some negative impacts. The input resources were found to be the main influencing factor on the overall emergy value. The emergy sustainability indexes (ESI) indicated that Scenario B has a better comprehensive effect.
APPLIED WATER SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Yinan Xu, Ting Wang, Wenjing Liu, Ruofeng Zhang, Yimin Hu, Wangsheng Gao, Yuanquan Chen
Summary: The deterioration of the rural ecosystem, poverty of the population, and low well-being of farmers pose significant challenges to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in China. Assessing the current state of rural sustainable development and identifying limiting factors are crucial for promoting sustainability in rural areas. This study used emergy analysis to evaluate the sustainability of 321 villages in China and employed random forest analysis to determine the factors that limit sustainable development. The results indicate that the current level of sustainable development in Chinese rural areas is relatively low, with a gradual increase in sustainability from east to west. There is a trade-off relationship between social-economic development and the ecological environment, and both high- and low-sustainability villages face specific challenges and opportunities for improvement.
JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION
(2023)
Letter
Automation & Control Systems
Peihao Du, Weimin Zhong, Xin Peng, Linlin Li, Zhi Li
Summary: This letter addresses the issue of data-driven fault compensation tracking control for a coupled wastewater treatment process (WWTP) affected by sensor faults. Invariant set theory is utilized to eliminate the conditions of coupled non-affine dynamics and explicitly express the control inputs. An adaptive fault compensation mechanism is developed to adapt to the effects of sensor faults. Experimental studies on a standardized WWTP platform are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.
IEEE-CAA JOURNAL OF AUTOMATICA SINICA
(2023)
Article
Thermodynamics
Siyue Ren, Xiao Feng, Minbo Yang
Summary: Emergy theory is used to evaluate sustainability by tracking and converting resources in the product formation process. This study proposes a method for selecting representative transformity based on the classification of production pathways, and applies it to the electricity generation system in China.
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Mahdi Deymi-Dashtebayaz, Marziye Norani
Summary: The high energy consumption of data centers poses a major challenge for sustainable development, with attention focused on finding effective solutions to decrease energy consumption and increase energy efficiency. This paper evaluates CCHP systems in data centers based on absorption chiller and compression chiller scenarios, finding that the second scenario is more sustainable than the first based on emergy analysis and a sustainability index.
RENEWABLE & SUSTAINABLE ENERGY REVIEWS
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Wei Lin, Yu Hanyue, Li Bin
Summary: This paper proposes a method to predict the operation effect of the IC reactor using a BP neural network model, and the experimental results show that the method has a certain predictive ability for predicting the COD value.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Ye Wang, Hairuo Wang, Junxue Zhang, Meng Jia
Summary: This study quantitatively analyzes the sustainability of building systems from an ecological emergy and carbon emissions perspective, taking into account the impact of typical feedback structures. The findings show that the operational phase of the building and the production phase of building materials are the main contributors to sustainability, and the cross-feedback structure has a significant impact and yields the best corrective effect.
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Jun Cao, Yangfei Zhu, Junxue Zhang, Hechi Wang, Haohao Zhu
Summary: This paper examines the sustainable exploration of building systems by combining ecological concepts and low-carbon designs for a comprehensive sustainability assessment. It utilizes the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)-Emergy and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)-Carbon emission methods to discuss various topics, such as contributing factors, sustainability index verification, sensitivity analysis, and potential improvement measures. The findings reveal that the building operation stage plays a crucial role in both emergy and carbon emissions, indicating the need for renewable energy and carbon sink improvement to enhance ecological sustainability and achieve low-carbon designs.