Call for papers for Special Volume of the Journal of Cleaner Production: Smart technologies to promote energy efficiency, sustainable resources utilization and waste management
摘要截稿:
全文截稿: 2018-10-31
影响因子: 7.246
期刊难度:
CCF分类: 无
中科院JCR分区:
• 大类 : 环境科学与生态学 - 1区
• 小类 : 工程:环境 - 1区
• 小类 : 环境科学 - 1区
• 小类 : 绿色可持续发展技术 - 1区
Overview
1. Introduction
The dramatic increase of global population and urbanization are two dominant phenomena of the 21stcentury. Current world population is about 7.6 billion, whilst one hundred years ago, it was about 2.0 billion, and more than half of humanity now lives in urban areas. What is more interesting is that by 2050, about 64% of the developing world and 86% of the developed world will be living in cities. It is therefore evident, that the upcoming impact of human activities will be more severe and have a more complex nature than we have known so far. This applies to the whole supply chain of resources, from sustainable use of raw materials and primary resources to the elimination of waste, and from optimizing the use of conventional energy sources to the incorporation of renewables, as part of an intelligent energy optimization scheme. Furthermore, to achieve sustainable and socially fair economic growth, we need to achieve a delicate balance between the limited resources and demands but also ensure smart cycling of resources and a circular economy. These objectives have to be pursued in the context of the Paris climate agreement (unfccc.int, 2015) which provides clear goals related to the reduction of the GHG emissions, adaptation and with cost constraints that should ensure sustainable economic growth.
This Special Volume (SV) deals with the critical issues that affect population, mainly in urban areas, but are in fact important for the survival of humanity. The SV will address recent progress and developments related to the use of clean and inexhaustible energy resources, coupled with the increase in energy efficiency and also with overall optimization of energy management, emphasizing some key aspects like efficient waste heat utilization. The building sector is of particular importance, as it accounts for more than 40% of the overall energy consumption and approximately for the same amount of the carbon dioxide emissions, whilst buildings also provide the environment where people spend more than 80% of their lifetime. Furthermore, the progress made in the smart city concept as well as development in IoT technologies will also be addressed within the SV, as this holistic and interdisciplinary approach is necessary if cities are to become sustainable (Amsterdam pact, Urban Agenda for EU, 2016). The waste elimination would also be one of the crucial topics of the SV as it is one of the key sectors towards the sustainable development and the reduction of the GHG and harmful impacts to the environment.
Different engineering disciplines are called upon to provide their input, ensure diffusion of fundamental and applied knowledge, and to respond to the present and upcoming challenges, which are typically complex and intertwined.
The Special Volume will include invited extended papers from theSpliTech2018(3rdInternational Conference on Smart and Sustainable Technologies), that was held from 26 to June 29 in Split, Croatia. SpliTech conference is a multidisciplinary conference covering a range of topics, but with a focus on smart and sustainable technologies towards the smart and low-carbon development. Participants at theSpliTech2018are highly encouraged to submit papers to this Special Volume for possible publication in JCLP. Authors who have not attended conference but have suitable papers in hands are also welcome to submit a paper for this Special Volume.
This SV is open to all engineering disciplines and a wide range of research topics addressing sustainable development, balanced economic growth and efficient waste elimination. Review papers are also accepted where the main focused is on energy efficient technologies and improvement of the life quality in general. The key topics cover smart and sustainable technologies in all energy sectors with special attention to the environment and decarbonization.
The Journal of Cleaner Production is a well-known and important platform for sharing multidisciplinary knowledge, innovations directed to cleaner production and sustainable development. Therefore, this SV encourages submission of cross-disciplinary research work addressing major contemporary issues and exploring solutions to build a sustainable future.
2. Topical areas
This “Call for Papers” (CfPs) for the SV of the Journal of Cleaner Production (JCLP) provides opportunities for scholars, industrial researchers, business and governmental officers to collaborate and accelerate the transition towards a smart and sustainable society. Papers should include comprehensive, up-to-date literature reviews, combined with novel theoretical and experimental investigations.
Potential topics for this SV include, but will not be limited to, the following topics:
(1) Green Buildings, Energy Use and Consumption
The necessity to improve the building sector energy and efficiency became indispensable as a consequence of the two oil crises in the 1970’s, and led primarily to efforts to reduce the demand for heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, whilst improving the rather modest indoor environmental conditions standards of the time. Objectives have moved a long since to the Zero and Near Zero Energy Buildings required by contemporary regulations. The way has been paved by intensified, systematic developments, of an advanced, and experimentally validated, interdisciplinary theoretical tools, and by incorporation in the syllabi of most engineering and architectural university courses and a legislative framework that transcends national regulations and standards offering European directives and harmonized European standards (Papadopoulos, 2016).
There is a bi-directional relationship between the aforementioned developments and the progress made in the field of building materials and systems. The ever stricter regulations act as driving forces for the development of effective insulating materials, airtight buildings and smart façades, not to mention the Micro-CHP, high performance HVAC systems, the smart-grids and predictive BAC systems. It is the availability of these building elements and materials that enables the implementation of ambitious and innovative designs towards NZEB (Nižetić et al., 2017; Tsitoura et al., 2017 ).
Furthermore, the use of highly efficient renewable energy systems, integrated in buildings, can contribute significantly towards the net positive energy buildings, which will be the mainstay of 21stcentury prosumers, blurring the line between energy consumers and producers of the 20thcentury (Baljit et al., 2016; Costanzo et al., 2018; Labanca et al., 2015). This new role, however, has to go hand in hand with new, ambivalent, smart electricity distribution grids and smart metering systems.
(2) Solar Energy utilization
Utilization of solar energy is a major driver in the necessary energy transition, where utilization is primarily focused on heat and electricity production from the Sun. Electricity production is ensured by the deployment of commercially available photovoltaic (PV) technologies which primarily silicon based. For instance, annual compound growth of photovoltaics was about 40% from 2010 to 2016, (ise.fraunhofer.de, 2018). Successful integration of the photovoltaics technologies is still a challenge (Wu et al. 2015), and various solutions need to be examined to ensure growth in installed PV capacities towards sustainable development (Mauleón, et al., 2017). Analysis of solar-based hybrid energy systems is especially interesting for residential as well as other applications, as they can provide both electricity and hot water (solar thermal, i.e. PV/T system). Investigations of these solutions in the context of case studies are especially valuable (Stamatakis, et al., 2016, Savvakis et al., 2015). One of the major challenges is also efficiency improvement of solar thermal and photovoltaic technologies in general. Polices for more efficient promotion of renewables are also crucial to increase renewable energy capacities in general with a focus on solar-based renewable energy technologies. Beside commercially available solar-based energy technologies, development of novel alternative energy solutions is also crucial to promote energy transition. Cross-disciplinary research is crucial in this topic to promote novel, energy efficient and economically viable systems or technologies.
(3) Efficiency and Waste Elimination
Efficiency is especially critical to achieve general energy sustainability goals and cleaner production, i.e. one of the key features in all life aspects. Definition and analysis of the general efficiency indicators is important for different applications, systems and processes, i.e. from the production to transmission to consumption. Energy efficiency in buildings, industry and transportation are all-important to goals of clean and sustainable production, consumption and utilization (Dhar et al., 2017, Tgarguifa et al. 2018). More efficient grids, power converters, innovative and intelligent electric distribution grids, increased sensing capabilities, improved static voltage stability and efficient tools for electric load forecasting are also important features related to general efficiency improvement. More intensive adoption of electric vehicles is expected in the upcoming years, and there is thus necessity for development of more efficient hybrid solutions (vehicles), advances in more efficient charging infrastructure, addressing consumers preferences, and developing more efficient batteries and energy storage technologies (Sun et al., 2018; Amjad et al., 2018). Development of energy efficiency tools in industry, more efficient biogas production and biomass treatment methods will also play a role in meeting sustainability milestones, and are interesting topics for discussion.
Problems in waste elimination, wastewater treatment and in general more efficient waste management (towards the circular economy) have important environmental impacts (Lipczynska-Kochany, et al. 2018; Li, et al. 2018). Development and improvement of energy intensive solid waste and wastewater treatment methods is crucial, as it affects the energy sector and the environment, especially in large urban centers (Casazza et al. 2018). LCA considerations in the context of the circular economy are especially relevant and useful, as well as more accurate tools to predict emissions. Challenges related to the waste disposal are a key concern together with the development of innovative technologies for wastewater treatment.
Authors are encouraged to present different strategies and solutions that could lead to efficiency improvement, novel solutions or improvements of existing technologies.
(4) Smart Cities and Internet of Things
Growing global requirements are creating needs for more comfortable and efficient urban spaces; moreover, global population is expected to double by 2050. To serve these needs, the concept of smart cities has been recently promoted (Zanella et al. 2014), and significant efforts are required to develop the concepts and explore opportunities related to the economic growth, health, efficient information exchange, wellness, energy efficiency, and transportation, all with the aim of promoting sustainable development of cities, and pave the way for significant reduction in environmental pollution (Deakin et al. 2018). Complementary fundamental research is also needed to achieve effective integration of computing systems, physical systems, data sources, and infrastructure, which have a major impact on quality of life. In this context, the Internet of Things paradigm (Atzori et al. 2010) provides a framework to explore different solutions that contribute to the development of smart and sustainable cities.
The SV section devoted to smart and sustainable cities will include contributions ranging from hardware needed to establish core-sensing infrastructure, to the upper communication layers responsible for efficient data delivery, finally with applications where users can visualize services, and properly interpret gathered data.