Renewable Energy Global Innovations features: Highly Efficient Photoelectrocatalytic Reduction of Hexavalent Chromium based on the Cascade Energy Transfer towards Using no Semiconducting Photocatalysts

Significance Statement

The modern society especially the developing and undeveloped countries is suffering from the increasingly severe environmental pollution mostly caused by hazardous matters, such as toxic heavy metal ion Cr(VI). The most desirable way to remove Cr(VI) is suggested lie on the use of solar irradiation which is cheap and endless. The photocatalytic removal of Cr(VI) based on semiconductor oxide photocatalyst has been provided, however, due to the low efficiency, high cost, and difficulty of recycling photocatalyst powder from the aqueous solution, this method cannot be popularized at the economical level. Hence, it is of urgent priority to design novel methods to utilize the solar light and then lead to the efficient removal of toxic metal ions. Here, we construct an energy relay structure based on citric acid, Ti anode, and Cr(VI), whereby the Cr(VI) are efficiently reduced to Cr(III) under the UV irradiation. As shown in the image, upon the photoexcitation of the citric acid, the electron transfer from citric acid to Ti anode occurs efficiently, mostly because the positively biased Ti is able to facilitate the separation of electrons from holes left in citric acid. Then, the photogenerated electrons in Ti anode spontaneously flow to Cr(VI), which is a energetically favorable process, leading to the efficient reduction of Cr(VI) under the condition that no semiconductor oxide photocatalyst is present in the whole reaction. The method we provide is simple, easy-to-set up, and highly efficient, offering a big step towards the purification of waste water at the commercial level.

About The Author

Jing Shang is an associate professor at the department of environmental science and engineering at Peking University since the year of 2004. She received her Ph.D in environmental science from Jilin University, Changchun city in China, in 2001. From 2001 to 2003, she conducted postdoc research in the department of chemistry at Tsinghua University. She develops novel photoelectrochemical technologies to efficiently remove organic and inorganic pollutants, and is now working on the atmospheric chemistry as well.

Journal Reference

Electrochimica Acta, Volume 188, 2016, Pages 752–756.

Xiang Feng, Jing Shang, Tong Zhu

State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, PR China

Abstract

Highly efficient photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) reduction of Cr(VI) has been realized in the absence of semiconducting photocatalysts. In the novel-configuration cell using Ti anode, Pt cathode, Cr(VI), and citric acid, the rate constant of the photoelectrocatalytic reduction of Cr(VI) at a bias of 1.5 V was almost 3 times than that in the conventional-configuration cell using ITO/TiO₂ anode, Ti cathode, Cr(VI), and citric acid. It was mostly because the citric acid, Ti anode, and Cr(VI) formed an energy-relay cascade structure, in which the photogenerated electrons in the citric acid were transferred to the positively biased Ti and then from anode to Cr(VI), leading to the very efficient Cr(VI) reduction. We develop a simple photoelectrocatalytic method to reduce Cr(VI) over the Ti anode sensitized by photoexcited organic dye in no need of metal oxide photocatalysts, which can be considered as an important advance towards the cost-effective, environmentally friendly treatment of waste water.

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Renewable Energy Global Innovations features: Hydrogen storage properties and mechanisms of magnesium based alloys with mesoporous surface

Significance Statement

The United Nations Conference on Climate Change held in Paris charts the course for green, circular and low-carbon development featuring both economic growth and an effective response to climate change. One of the effective and sustainable methods is increasing the share of the renewable energy in the energy consumption structure.

Nowadays, hydrogen energy has been viewed as a kind of ideal renewable energy due to its non-pollution, abundant source and cyclic utilization. In order to achieve the practical applications of hydrogen energy, an efficient, safe and economic hydrogen storage technology is a key issue.

Mg-based metal hydride is one of the most promising candidates for hydrogen storage because of its low cost, high hydrogen storage capacity, good safety and environmental benignity. Unfortunately, high reaction temperature during hydrogen absorption/desorption processes imposes restrictions on the applications of Mg-based metal hydride. Lowering the reaction temperature has become crucial for Mg-based metal hydride hydrogen storage material.

Our research is aimed to reduce the hydrogen absorption/desorption temperature, thus improving the low-temperature hydrogen storage properties of Mg-based metal hydride, which is the hot topic in the field of hydrogen storage technology. A new kind of mesoporous material with the highly developed surface, called as HDS Mg-Ni hydride, is designed based on conventional Mg-based hydride. The new method of mechanically alloying and subsequent alkali washing was applied to prepare the HDS Mg-Ni hydride.

On the basis of our observations, the specific surface areas of this kind of Mg-based mesoporous material are 5~10 times as large as those of conventional Mg-based hydride. The larger specific surface area with abundant mesopores provides more and easier paths for the diffusion of hydrogen into the unreacted layer, thus facilitating the hydrogen absorption/desorption processes of Mg-based hydride. As a result, the HDS Mg-Ni hydride has favorable hydrogen storage properties at low temperatures. The hydrogen absorption/desorption temperature is remarkably reduced to near room temperature. According to a study on the hydrogen storage mechanisms, it was also found that the hydrogen storage capacity could be further increased by mixing other hydrogen storage materials into the HDS Mg-Ni; for example, activated carbon. The synergistic effects between the HDS Mg-Ni and activated carbon could lead to an increase of about 30% in the hydrogen storage capacity of the composite system. The improvements in the reaction temperature and hydrogen storage capacity make Mg-based metal hydride more attracting in the practical applications of hydrogen storage technology. Besides, it is significant and helpful in the design and development of new advanced Mg-based composite systems for hydrogen storage.

About The Author

Zhen Wu, Assistant professor, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University. He received his Ph.D. degree in Power Engineering and Engineering Thermophysics from Xi’an Jiaotong University. From Sep 2013 to Sep 2014, he obtained the National Government Study Abroad Scholarship to make research in Kyoto University as a visiting scholar. Now he is undertaking the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51506174), the General and Special Programs of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2015M570830) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. xjj2016047) as the project leader. In 2015, his paper published in Applied Energy was awarded as the ‘Best Paper Award of Excellence‘ jointly by Elsevier Publishing Co. Ltd. and the prestigious international journal of Applied Energy. His research interests include: 1) Design and development of advanced hydrogen storage materials. 2) Optimal design of hydrogen storage reactors. 3) System integration of on-board hydrogen source unit and energy management of integrated on-board hydrogen source system.

About The Author

Zaoxiao Zhang, Professor, Dean of Department of Chemical Process Equipment, Xi’an Jiaotong University. He received his Ph.D. degree in Power Engineering and Engineering Thermophysics from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 1998. During the period of 2001 – 2004, he successively worked in Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the University of Queensland, Australia, as a visiting scholar. So far, he has undertaken more than 30 projects from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Ministry of Education and the industries. His research work has been awarded by Chinese Ministry of Education, Beijing City Government and China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group), respectively. He has been involved with the research of energy system optimization. Since he has lots of cooperation experiences with the industries, he combines industrial demand and lab studies to build an interdisciplinary research program with emphasis on energy system and fossil fuel resources. An important research field in the last ten years is the energy and environmental technologies for the increase of the energy efficiency and reducing CO₂ emissions in the industrial processes. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, 10 patents, 5 academic monographs and delivered more than 50 presentations in academia and industry up till now.

About The Author

Fusheng Yang is an associate professor in the School of Chemical Engineering and Technology at Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China. He got his Ph.D. degree at the same university in 2010 and once worked as postdoctoral researcher at Tokyo University of Science, Noda, Japan. His present research interests include: 1) Development of novel metal hydride reactor prototype for heat & mass transfer enhancement. 2) Consistent measurement and modeling of P-C-T properties and intrinsic hydriding/dehydriding kinetics of metal hydride materials. 3) Industrial applications of energy saving techniques, such as steam ejector based heat pump. He has published about 20 peer-reviewed journal papers, 1 book chapter, and delivered ~10 presentations in academia and industry.

About The Author

Penghui Feng is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the major of Power Engineering and Engineering Thermophysics in School of Chemical Engineering and Technology at Xi’an Jiaotong University. He focuses on the research of high temperature thermal storage technology based on metal hydrides. 

About The Author

Yuqi Wang received his Ph.D. degree from Xi’an Jiaotong University specializing in power engineering and engineering thermophysics. Now he is currently a professor in School of Chemical Engineering at Northwest University. From Mar 2009-Sep 2009, he worked in Low Carbon Green Technology Laboratory, University of Nevada(Reno) as a visiting scholar. Dr. Wang proposed several new type of metal hydride reactors and conducted a few simulation study on metal hydride heat pumps and thermal compressors. Now he is undertaking 6 projects including Natural Science Foundation of China and other projects from Ministry of Science and Technology, Shaanxi government. He has published more than 60 academic papers, authorized 10 national invention patents, and he was awarded 22 teaching and scientific research prizes, like “the China Young Backbone Teacher Scholarship” and “the second prize of Science and Technology at Shaanxi Institutions of Higher Learning (15C21)”. He was awarded in 2008. His research focuses on: 1) H₂ storage kinetics and investigation of metal hydride reactor. 2) Chemical energy engineering and hydrogen Energy. 3) Supercritical fluid technology. 4) Reforming and transfer reaction of CH₄ and utilization of clean energy.

Journal Reference

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Volume 41, Issue 4,  2016, Pages 2771-2780.

Z. Wu¹, Z.X. Zhang^1,2, F.S. Yang¹, P.H. Feng¹, Y.Q. Wang³ 

Show Affiliations

1. School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, People’s Republic of China
2. State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, People’s Republic of China
3. School of Chemical Engineering, Northwest University, Xi’an 710069, People’s Republic of China

Abstract

A new kind of magnesium based hydrogen storage alloy with highly developed surface (HDS) was prepared using the technique of mechanical alloying followed by alkali washing in this paper. The phase composition, morphology, hydrogen storage properties and mechanisms of the alloy thus prepared, named HDS Mg-Ni, were further investigated by multiple methods including X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, Sieverts volumetric method and differential scanning calorimeter. The specific surface area, average pore size and pore volume of the alloy are 50.95 m² g⁻¹, 36.2 nm and 0.34 cc g⁻¹, respectively. Also, it was discovered that the HDS Mg-Ni powder takes in about 0.65 wt.% of hydrogen even at a low temperature of 323 K, at which the conventional Mg and Mg₂Ni materials could not react with H₂. It suggests that the highly developed surface remarkably improves the hydrogen storage properties at low temperatures. Besides, the synergistic effects between the HDS Mg-Ni powder and activated carbon(AC) on the improvement of low-temperature behaviors were discussed. The results showed that the addition of AC further improves the hydrogen capacity and absorption kinetics due to the increased specific surface area, providing easier and more paths for the diffusion of hydrogen into the alloy powder.

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Renewable Energy Global Innovations features: Electrochemically-controlled grafting of hydrophilic brushes from conducting polymer substrates

Significance Statement

Graft copolymers with a conducting polymer backbone are a promising class of material for the design of functional surfaces. Such materials are particularly well-suited to organic electronics applications such as polymer solar cells. This class of graft copolymer takes advantage of the electroactivity and optical properties of the conducting polymer backbone, with grafted sidechains selected to impart desired chemical, mechanical, and/or physical properties.[1–6]

Electrochemically-mediated ATRP (eATRP) has emerged in recent years as an alternative controlled radical polymerisation technique that utilises low concentrations of copper-based ATRP catalysts, and that can be conducted in the presence of atmospheric oxygen.[17–20]   We have adapted this versatile new technique to perform surface-initiated electrografting directly from a conducting polymer-functionalised substrate that acts as both a macroinitiator for polymer brush grafting, and as the working electrode to control catalyst oxidation state, and thereby catalyst activity. This new method of surface-initiated grafting from conducting polymer, once optimised, could provide a versatile tool for the synthesis of thin film polymer electronics with a high level of control over architecture and chemistry.

References:

[1] C.-H. Lin, W.-J. Chou, J.-T. Lee, Macromol. Rapid Commun. 2012, 33, 107–113.[2] M. F. Abasıyanık, M. Şenel, J. Electroanal. Chem. 2010, 639, 21–26.[3] Y. Yagci, L. Toppare, Polym. Int. 2003, 52, 1573–1578.[4] C. D. Grande, M. C. Tria, G. Jiang, R. Ponnapati, Y. Park, F. Zuluaga, R. Advincula, React. Funct. Polym. 2011, 71, 938–942.[5] L. T. Strover, J. Malmström, O. Laita, J. Reynisson, N. Aydemir, M. K. Nieuwoudt, D. E. Williams, P. R. Dunbar, M. A. Brimble, J. Travas-Sejdic, Polymer. 2013, 54, 1305–1317.[6] Y. Pei, J. Travas-Sejdic, D. E. Williams, Langmuir 2012, 28, 8072–8083.[7] N. Bortolamei, A.A. Isse, A.J.D. Magenau, A. Gennaro, K. Matyjaszewski, Angew. Chemie. 2011, 123, 11593–11596.[8] A. Magenau, N. Strandwitz, A. Gennaro, K. Matyjaszewski, Science 2011, 332, 81–84.[9] S. Park, H. Cho, K. Wegner, Macromolecules 2013, 46, 5856–5860.[10] A.J.D. Magenau, N. Bortolamei, E. Frick, S. Park, A. Gennaro, K. Matyjaszewski, Macromolecules, 2013, 46, 4346–4353. 

About The Author

Lisa T. Strover joined the Alexandre Yersin Department of Solar Energy and Environmental Physics (YDSEEP) at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, in June 2016. She completed her BSc(Hons) (2010) and Ph.D. (2016) in Chemistry within the Polymer Electronics Research Centre at the University of Auckland, with her research focusing on electroactive graft copolymer brushes for functional surfaces and electrochemically mediated ATRP from conducting polymer substrates.

About The Author

Jenny Malmström joined the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Auckland as a Lecturer in 2016. She received her MSc degree in Bioengineering at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden (2004) and a Ph.D. in Nanoscience at the University of Aarhus, Denmark (2010). From Denmark she moved to Auckland, where she joined the School of Chemical Sciences (UoA) as a post doctoral research fellow. Her research focuses on creating functional biointerfaces to understand and control biological systems.

About The Author

Jadranka Travas-Sejdic is a Professor at the School of Chemical Sciences, Director of the Polymer Electronics Research Centre at the University of Auckland, and a principal investigator at the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. Her research interests are in the fields of advanced polymeric materials for biosensing and bioelectronics, electrically and environmentally responsive polymers and surfaces, actuators, materials for tissue engineering and nanostructured conducting polymers. She has (co)authored over 200 publications, including eight book chapters. 

Journal Reference

Electrochimica Acta, Volume 188,  2016, Pages 57–70.

Lisa T. Strover^1,2, Jenny Malmström^1,2, Louise A. Stubbing¹, Margaret A. Brimble^1,2, Jadranka Travas-Sejdic^1,2 

Show Affiliations

1. Polymer Electronics Research Centre, School of Chemical Sciences, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
2. MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Wellington, New Zealand  

Abstract

Electrochemically-mediated ATRP (eATRP) has emerged in recent years as an alternative controlled radical polymerisation technique that utilises low concentrations of copper-based ATRP catalysts, and that can be conducted in the presence of atmospheric oxygen. In this work, we adapt eATRP to perform surface-initiated electrografting directly from a conducting polymer (CP) macroinitiator that also acts as the working electrode to control catalyst oxidation state, and thereby catalyst activity. Aqueous electrografting of hydrophilic poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) polymer brushes from the conducting polymer macroinitiator, in the presence of an ATRP catalyst (CuBr₂/TPMA), was confirmed by ATR-FTIR, water contact angle measurements, and XPS. Optimised grafting conditions were determined whereby polymerisation kinetics approached first order characteristics, as expected for grafting via an eATRP mechanism. However, even under these optimised conditions, we determined that competing electrografting mechanisms were likely occurring, with experiments supporting the occurrence of polymerisation in solution, followed by ‘grafting to’ reactions, as previously described for electrografting via surface electro-initiated emulsion polymerisation (SEEP). Additionally, spectroelectrochemical studies suggest that the mechanism of initiation differs from previously reported eATRP systems in that the conducting polymer itself acts as a co-reductant for the catalyst. As expected, the prevalence of uncontrolled grafting, due to competing grafting mechanisms, as well as effects such as chain termination and degrafting, was highly dependent on polymerisation conditions, most notably on the applied potential.

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Renewable Energy Global Innovations features: Enhancement of heat dissipation of LED module with cupric-oxide composite coating on aluminum-alloy heat sink

Significance Statement

Heat dissipation using thermal radiation is a novelty and clean method to energy conversion technology in electronics and mechanics. Most of the heat dissipation methods have been developed based on the principle of conduction and convection, whereas radiative heat transfer has not been considered because the emissivity of metallic aluminum surface is relatively low, approximately 0.1 ~ 0.2.  In the context of LEDs, various approaches, such as solder, thermal interface materials and metal-core printed circuit boards (MCPCBs), have been used to solve the heat dissipation problems.

 Our research group have been studied about more effective method for heat dissipation of LEDs, then the surface of aluminum alloy substrate was modified to increase the emissivity. The cupric oxide (CuO) has the higher emissivity in the whole materials around 0.96, a various distribution of particle size was implemented to evaluate the heat dissipation performance. Thermal resistance, emissivity, and continuous operation were carried out to investigate the possibility that a suitable coating layer of low thermal resistance can enhance the radiative heat dissipation and hence the overall heat dissipation performance.

 Lower LED operating temperatures and thermal resistances indicate superior heat dissipation performance. The significantly improved heat dissipation performance of the LED system was achieved by applying a composite coating with high radiative emissivity on an aluminum-alloy heat sink. The composite coating was composed of CuO nano-powders and silicon-based resin, having the thermal emissivity of ∼0.9 which is nine times greater than that of bare aluminum. The densely-coated composite layer with the enhanced the thermal emissivity of the surface improved the radiative heat dissipation significantly, enabling to reduce the thermal resistance of the heat sink and hence the total thermal resistance of the LED module up to ∼15%. Coating thickness affected the heat dissipation performance of the heat sink. In this study, the coating thickness of ∼200 μm showed the best performance. The composite coating, having the emissivity close to a black body, not only reduced the operating temperature of the LED chip but also allowed the stable heat dissipation with no significant degradation of the performance even under the elongated operation time. In conclusion, the use of a CuO-composite coating on a heat sink provides an effective means of enhancing radiative heat dissipation and increasing the LED life-time. 

About The Author

Donghyun Kim received his bachelor (2011), master, and doctoral (2016) degree in Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Nano-electrochemistry Lab) at Pusan National University, South Korea. His research field is “Electrochemistry”, “Wet Surface Treatment”, and “Heat dissipation via Thermal Radiation”. He published lots of paper about electrochemical surface and thermal radiation performance in SCI(E) journal.

About The Author

Wonsub Chung is currently a Professor in Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Pusan National University. He received his Ph. D. (1989) at Kyushu University, major is a chemical metallurgy. He teaches now “Corrosion and Anti-corrosion”, “Chemical Metallurgy”, and “Making Steel and Iron” and is a leader in Nano-electrochemistry Lab. In addition, his research is focused on thermal radiation performance, eco-friendly environmentally process, and wet surface treatment.  

Journal Reference

Energy Conversion and Management, Volume 106, December 2015, Pages 958–963.

Donghyun Kim¹, Junghoon Lee², Junho Kim³, Chang-Hwan Choi², Wonsub Chung¹

Show Affiliations

1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan 46241, South Korea
2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA
3. Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH), Busan 46742, South Korea

Abstract

A composite coating composed of cupric oxide (CuO) and silicon-based resin was applied to an aluminum-alloy heat sink for a light emitting diode (LED) module. The purpose of the composite coating is to improve the heat dissipation performance of heat sink by enhancing thermal radiation emission. The heat dissipation performance was investigated in terms of LED junction temperature and thermal resistance using a thermal transient method. The CuO and silicon-based resin composite coating showed higher emissivity, and the lower junction temperature and thermal resistance of the heat sink was achieved. In addition, a continuous operation test of the LED chip with the heat sink revealed that the surface treated with the CuO composite coating stably dissipated heat without degradation. In conclusion, the composite coating proposed here showed a significant improvement of the heat dissipation performance of the aluminum-alloy heat sink due to the enhanced thermal radiation property.

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Renewable Energy Global Innovations features: Environmental impact assessment of the Egyptian cement industry based on a life-cycle assessment approach: a comparative study between Egyptian and Swiss plants

Significance Statement

There are two basic and distinct strategies for calculating environmental impacts, the midpoint and endpoint methods in which they have been used in the here-presented study. These strategies are characterized by a paradox of greater relevancy (endpoints) versus greater reliability (midpoints). The lifetime of a construction material has a significant impact on its final score and a small additional investment can potentially increase the lifetime, furthermore it is of the utmost importance to find optimal environmental solutions over the entire lifecycle of a product. Meanwhile, limitations include the higher case of accesses to environmental databases and the lack of reliable data on the size of the material flows. Research into long term effects implies uncertainties in terms of the accuracy of results. It would be interesting for the scientific community to have access to a free environmental database so that this database could be used to establish and compare life cycle assessment methodologies.

For the aforementioned, this study continued the chain of alternatives to reduce extra environmental burdens and to fill the gap which occurred when the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) decided to change the fuel used in Egyptian cement plants (ECP). Furthermore, this study takes the advantages of the international cement industry in how to eliminate environmental burdens. Based on these literature studies and many others, the proposed substitution of using coal instead of the conventional fuel type as an energy source has been investigated. Three different cement production systems have been introduced, two from Egypt and one from Switzerland^[1] and were considered for the analysis and comparison. The first was the ECP using electricity, natural gas, diesel and mazzut (a heavy, low quality fuel oil, used in generating plants and similar applications). While the ‎second was an Egyptian hypothetical plant (EHP) operating by using electricity and coal. The third one was a Swiss cement plant^[2] (SCP), which is operated using mixed fuels. The main reason behind the comparison between the two Egyptian plants (ECP and EHP) is the fuel feed; ‎electricity, natural gas and coal. The most prevailing form of cement is Portland cement, about 93-97% of which consists of a material called clinker.

Despite a handful of publications have studied many cases about the cement industry in the world using the LCA perspective, there are no such studies relating to the Egyptian cement industry. This problem is attributed to the failure to adopt the EEAA for the LCA as an environmental impact tool, as well as the shortage of the dataset and monitoring tools in the Egyptian firms. Therefore, this study came to shed light on this to fill this gap. To conclude the results obtained during this study, the following information should be pointed out:

The respiratory inorganics, aquatic acidification, global warming‎ (climate change) and non-renewable energy in ECI plants have higher impacts than the ordinary processes by percentages of 35, 60, 35 and 35%, respectively. This is due to the SO2 emissions from the plant chimneys

1. during the combustion stage of coal in accordance with the provisions of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
2. Based on the difference in the chemical compositions of the fuels used in the oven process, for the SCP, global warming (climate change) and respiratory inorganics (midpoint method) recorded 5% higher adverse impacts than the EHP.
3. Considering the endpoint method, the damage to human health of the Egyptian coal based plants (EHP) have been recorded as having higher adverse impacts compared with the other two plants, Egyptian (ECP) and Swiss (SCP).
4. The expected damage from the SCP (which uses mixed fuels (is 162 (46%) Eco-points lower than the Egyptian coal based plant, which is a reasonable proportion if it is applied in Egypt.
5. A coal based plant has higher adverse environmental impacts compared to others.
6. The mitigation of the environmental impact of coal burning using scrubbers must have an important role in the future of ECPs.

Therefore, the consideration of international technologies is highly recommended to mitigate the adverse impacts on the environment in the case of using coal as an alternative feed energy.

 

 

Figure Legend 1: Locations of cement factories in Egypt.

Figure Legend 2: International kiln types in the cement industry.

Figure Legend 3: Mass balance of one Kilogram cement

Figure Legend 4: Mid-point method results of the total environmental impacts for the three cases studies comparison.

 

Figure Legend 5: End-point method results of the three cement plants (The damage assessment approach).

About The Author

Ahmed AbdelMonteleb M. Ali, M.Sc. B.Sc. He was born in Assiut, Egypt. He was awarded the bachelor Degree in “Architectural Engineering – Environmental control engineering” with average grade “Excellence with honors” from Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt. Ahmed has been awarded the degree of Master of Science in Architectural Engineering (Indoor thermal performance) from Assiut University, Egypt. Ahmed AbdelMonteleb is an Egyptian architect studying for the last 8 years in the field of environmental engineering and the last 3 years in LCA approach applications. He is a Ph.D. student at Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology (E-JUST), Alexandria, Egypt. Nowadays, Ahmed is a visiting researcher at Life Cycle Assessment laboratory, Tokyo City University, Yokohama, Japan from November 2015 till June 2016.

He joined E-JUST in September, 2013 and his research focuses on the Life Cycle Assessment implementation on the Egyptian construction materials (ECMs), as a new environmental tool in Egypt. Establishing the life cycle inventory database of the ECMs and producing the Egyptian sustainable materials are the key targets of his research. All his studies have been carrying out using the attribution and simplified life cycle assessment approach. Currently, he is very keen on the sustainable and green construction materials. A particular focus of his research is on the Cement and brick materials. He has published 20 papers in reputed journals and international conferences. 

About The Author

Abdelazim Negm was born in Sharkia, Egypt and has been graduated from Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt and was awarded the B.Sc. Degree in “Civil Engineering – Irrigation and Environmental Engineering”. Negm has been awarded the degree of Master of Science (M.Sc.) in civil Engineering (Irrigation and Hydraulics) from Ain Shams University, Egypt and the PhD degree in Hydraulics on 1992 from Zagazig University.

Currently, he is a professor of Hydraulics in Egypt-Japan University for Science and Technology (E-JUST) since Oct. 1st, 2012 and chairman of the Environmental Engineering Dept. at E-JUST since Feb. 17th, 2013 till 16^th March 2016. From 2008 to 2011, he occupied the position of vice dean for Academic and Student Affairs. He published about 300 papers in national and international Journals and conferences. He is listed in (a) Marquis Who is Who?, (b) IBC’s 2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century , and (c) ABI directory for his achievement in the field of Hydraulics and Water Resources. He participated in more than 60 conferences. He has awarded the prizes of best papers three times. His research areas include hydraulic, hydrology and water resources. Currently, he is very interested in the sustainability and green environment and conducted researches and supervising PhD thesis in these fields. 

About The Author

Mahmoud Bady has completed his Ph.D. at the age of 35 years from the University of Tokyo, Japan. He is an Assistant Professor for air quality and renewable energy at Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology (E-JUST). He has published more than 20 papers in reputed journals. 

About The Author

Mona Gamal Eldin, Professor, Ph.D., M.Sc., She was born in 1959 and she had her basic education at Public Health Sciences, Environmental chemistry and biology.

She has more than 25 years of experience in teaching and research and she held several positions during her professional life; Acting Vice President for Educational and Academic Affairs (EJUST), Dean of School of Energy Resources, Environment and Chemical and Petrochemical Engineering (EJUST), Head of Central Department for west delta region (Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs), Coordinator of Consultant Committee of development and Environment (Bibliotheca Alexandrina). Also she is member of Council of Social Service and Environmental Development Affairs (Alexandria University), Board of director of Alexandria Wastewater Treatment Company. 

Journal Reference

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, April 2016, Volume 18, Issue 4, pp 1053-1068.

Ahmed AbdelMonteleb M. Ali , Abdelazim M. Negm, Mahmoud F. Bady, Mona G. E. Ibrahim, Masaaki Suzuki

Environmental Engineering Department, Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology (E-JUST), New Borg El Arab City, P.O. Box 179, Alexandria, 21934, Egypt

Abstract

Egypt in 2015 announced the alteration of the fuels used in cement plants without the least regard to minimizing the environmental burden (EB) excesses. This study conducts a life-cycle assessment (LCA) of Egyptian cement-manufacturing unit, which is considered as the first one on LCA cement analysis to be conducted in Egypt. This study investigates the LCA of the cement industry in Egypt compared to the Swiss industry, using two methodologies. The first one has been done on-site, surveying the most common types of cement used in the construction industry in Egypt. Meanwhile, SimaPro software has been used to assess the environmental impacts, and three different cement plants were selected for this study: an Egyptian cement plant (ECP) which uses electricity, natural gas, and diesel as energy sources; a Swiss cement plant (SCP) which depends mainly on electricity, natural gas, and coal; and an Egyptian hypothetical plant (EHP) in which electricity and coal are assumed to be the main energy feeds, and comparisons of different strategies including midpoint and endpoint methods are outlined. Regarding the midpoint method, ETP recorded higher respiratory inorganics, aquatic acidification, global warming, and nonrenewable energy impacts than ECP, because of using coal, while for SCP, global warming and respiratory inorganics achieved the highest adverse impacts compared to ECP and EHP—due to the different manufacturing technology used. With regard to the endpoint method, the peak possibility of human health deterioration has been recorded due to the use of coal as fuel. This possibility was reduced by 46 % in the case of SCP as a result of the technology applied, which interestingly represents a reasonable reduction in terms of technological application.

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Renewable Energy Global Innovations brings the cream of Renewable Energy research

Top renewable energy research papers (key scientific articles) discuss promising technologies and policy research to improve the efficiency and lower the cost of energy produced from the wind, biomass, sun and solar cells, and geothermal resources.

Renewable energy global innovations highlight the research of scientists and engineers working on cutting edge technology to develop high efficiency photovoltaic devices that are reliable and cost effective, as well novel technologies that exploit both light and heat from the sun.

Renewable Energy Global Innovations top research papers highlight researchers’ work in developing renewable fuels from wastewater, electrochemical catalysts, water-splitting devices, cellulosic biomass and microbial reactors.

Renewable Energy Global Innovations highlights High-Power and High-Energy Hybrid Rechargeable Battery research

Renewable Energy Global Innovations features the research of Dr. Zhongwei Chen is Canada Research Chair Professor in Advanced Materials for Clean Energy at the University of Waterloo. The research team developed Self-Assembled NiO/Ni(OH)2 Nanoflakes as Active Material for High-Power and High-Energy Hybrid Rechargeable Battery,

 With continuous increase in fuel prices and rising concerns of environmental issues, much research and development efforts have been focused on the advancement of energy conversion and storage systems such as fuel-cells, supercapacitors, and metal-air batteries. In particular, rechargeable zinc-air batteries have recently gained tremendous attention due to their extremely high energy density and flat discharge profile. Additionally, zinc-air batteries are considered highly promising as potential replacements for lithium-ion batteries due to the advantages of low cost, safe operation, and environmental benignity.

With electric drive vehicles emerging in the market, the demand for energy systems to efficiently power them has increased tremendously. Typically, energy systems for electric drive vehicles require generation of both high power and energy densities to provide sufficient acceleration and driving range. To address this, previous hybrid energy systems have been developed by simply connecting multiple energy devices through an external circuitry, or by utilizing multiple active materials to obtain both high power and energy densities. These hybrid systems, however, are usually physically much bulkier and are too costly to generate energy in a cost-competitive manner.

Unlike previous hybrid systems, the present work by Prof. Zhongwei Chen’s group at the University of Waterloo introduces a proof-of-concept of a hybrid rechargeable battery, which combines the electrochemical reactions of nickel-zinc and zinc-air batteries at the cell level to harness both high power and high energy densities without increasing system complexity, physical dimensions, and the number of active materials. The single active material used in the hybrid battery is nickel oxide/nickel hydroxide (NiO/Ni(OH)₂) nanoflakes self-assembled into mesoporous spheres, which is affordable, simple to fabricate, and environmentally benign. This cost-effective non-precious transition metal based active material is capable of exhibiting both Faradaic redox and reversible oxygen electrocatalytic reactions, which provide the driving forces to produce high power and energy densities, respectively. Specifically, the hybrid battery is capable of demonstrating extremely high power density (gravimetric: 2700 W kg^-1, and volumetric: 14000 W L^-1), over five times that of the conventional zinc-air battery obtained based on standard Co₃O₄ air electrode. Simultaneously, it is capable of demonstrating very high energy density of 980 W h kg^-1, far exceeding those of commercial primary zinc-air batteries (~470 W h kg^-1), and lithium-ion batteries (~300 W h kg^-1). 

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