This book presents the results of the international research project CODALoop: Community Data Loop for Energy Conscious Lifestyles. It dissects the energy practices that make urban households demanding energy in their daily life and reveals the pathway towards reducing this energy demand.To unpack energy practices, the authors of this volume move away from efficiency problems studying the interaction between human and new technologies. Instead, they use a repertoire of different analytical instruments to study how interaction between humans, and between humans and data, change the social norms that shape energy needs.The volume offers a synthesis of a cross-disciplinary study of energy reduction carried out in three different countries through multiple methodological approaches. The project at the source of the book was funded under the Joint Program Initiative 'Urban Europe' and the ERA-net framework.
Prevention of non-communicable diseases through, among other factors, increasing vegetables and fruit (V&F) intake is a cost-effective strategy for risk reduction but requires behavioral change. Such changes in adolescents benefit from their active involvement. The Food Boost Challenge (FBC) was developed using a participatory action research approach to enhance healthy eating behaviors, namely V&F products among adolescents. The FBC is an innovation process, involving adolescents, (peer) researchers, and food system partners, like non-governmental and commercial organizations. In 2021–2022, 34 partners provided both cash and in-kind contributions to join the FBC community. Phase 1 involved 200 students identifying barriers and drivers for consumption of F&V products among 1000 pre-vocational adolescents, aged 12–20 years. In phase 2, student teams submitted innovative ideas, resulting in 25 concepts fitting into ≥1 of 4 routes: (I) innovative technology for a healthy diet, (II) new food products/concepts for adolescents, (III) hotspots improving the F&V product experience, and (IV) new routes to market. In phase 3, consortia of adolescents, students, and partners were formed to develop 10 selected concepts into prototypes, and phase 4 offered teams a national platform. Results show that the FBC resonates with all stakeholders, generating valuable insights to increase F&V intake. Prototypes in all four routes have been developed. Additionally, other regions in the Netherlands have adopted the FBC approach. Overall, the FBC is an approach that transforms ideas into actionable measures and shows potential to be adapted to promote various healthy eating behaviors among school students.
In this study, aviation, energy, exergy, environmental, exergoeconomic, and exergoenvironmental analyses are performed on a CFM56-3 series high by-pass turbofan engine fueled with Jet-A1 fuel. Specific fuel consumption and specific thrust of the engine are found to be 0.01098 kg/kN.s and 0.3178 kN/kg/s, respectively. Engine's energy efficiency is calculated as 35.37%, while waste energy ratio is obtained as 64.63%. Exergy efficiency, waste exergy rate, and fuel exergy waste ratio are forecasted as 33.32%, 33175.03 kW, and 66.68%, respectively. Environmental effect factor and ecological effect factor are computed as 2.001 and 3.001, while ecological objective function and its index are taken into account of −16597.22 kW and −1.001, respectively. Exergetic sustainability index and sustainable efficiency factor are determined as 0.5 and 1.5 for the CFM56-3 engine, respectively. Environmental damage cost rate is determined as 519.753 $/h, while the environmental damage cost index is accounted as 0.0314 $/kWh. Specific exergy cost of the engine production is found as 40.898 $/GJ from exergoeconomic analysis, while specific product exergy cost is expressed as 49.607 $/GJ from exergoenvironmental analysis. From exergoenvironmental economic analysis, specific exergy cost of fuel is computed as 10.103 $/GJ when specific exergy cost of production is determined as 40.898 $/GJ.
The climate change and depletion of the world’s raw materials are commonly acknowledged as the biggest societal challenges. Decreasing the energy use and the related use of fossil fuels and fossil based materials is imperative for the future. Currently 40% of the total European energy consumption and about 45% of the CO2 emissions are related to building construction and utilization (EC, 2015). Almost half of this energy is embodied in materials. Developing sustainable materials to find replacement for traditional building materials is therefore an increasingly important issue. Mycelium biocomposites have a high potential to replace the traditional fossil based building materials. Mycelium is the ‘root network’ of mushrooms, which acts as a natural glue to bind biomass. Mycelium grows through the biomass, which functions simultaneously as a growth substrate and a biocomposite matrix. Different organic residual streams such as straw, sawdust or other agricultural waste can be used as substrate, therefore mycelium biocomposites are totally natural, non-toxic, biological materials which can be grown locally and can be composted after usage (Jones et al., 2018). In the “Building On Mycelium” project Avans University of Applied Sciences, HZ University of Applied Sciences, University of Utrecht and the industrial partners will investigate how the locally available organic waste streams can be used to produce mycelium biocomposites with properties, which make them suitable for the building industry. In this project the focus will be on studying the use of the biocomposite as raw materials for the manufacturing of furniture or interior panels (insulation or acoustic).
The Cashing Cashew project focuses on isolation and purification of Cashew Nut Shell Liquid (CNSL) from Cashew Nut Shells (CNS) in order to fully utilize this valuable by-product of the cashew nut production. Global cashew nut production is about 4 million mt/ tons/yr. Of the cashew nut, about 70 % is shell that is removed in processing and currently typically burned as a dirty and inefficient fuel or discarded as waste. This is not only creating an environmental issue but also wasting valuable by-products. The shell contains circa 20-30 % brown viscous liquid, Cashew Nut Shell Liquid (CNSL). This natural resin contains valuable chemical components, for example, cardanol, cardol, and anacardic acid. CNSL and its derivatives have several industrial uses as for example biobased additives, polymeric building blocks, and biodiesel. Part of the CNSL can be extracted during the roasting process prior to separating the shell and nut kernel. The shell waste still has a high CNSL concentration that can be isolated by solvents or pressing (expeller). Expeller process is simple and not capital-intensive; therefore it is commonly used. The main disadvantages of the method are the high energy consumption and that 3-5 % oil remains in the press-cake producing harmful gases in burning. Also, the resulting cake is too dense to be further processed to charcoal or other useful application. The objective of this project is to study the purification of the CNSL obtained from pyrolytic isolation to find the most efficient way of making use of the CNSL oil and the total Cashew Nut Shell biomass. An initial evaluation of potential applications is also performed.
To reach the European Green Deal by 2050, the target for the road transport sector is set at 30% less CO2 emissions by 2030. Given the fact that heavy-duty commercial vehicles throughout Europe are driven nowadays almost exclusively on fossil fuels it is obvious that transition towards reduced emission targets needs to happen seamlessly by hybridization of the existing fleet, with a continuously increasing share of Zero Emission vehicle units. At present, trailing units such as semitrailers do not possess any form of powertrain, being a missed opportunity. By introduction of electrically driven axles into these units the fuel consumption as well as amount of emissions may be reduced substantially while part of the propulsion forces is being supplied on emission-free basis. Furthermore, the electrification of trailing units enables partial recuperation of kinetic energy while braking. Nevertheless, a number of challenges still exist preventing swift integration of these vehicles to daily operation. One of the dominating ones is the intelligent control of the e-axle so it delivers right amount of propulsion/braking power at the right time without receiving detailed information from the towing vehicle (such as e.g. driver control, engine speed, engine torque, or brake pressure, …etc.). This is required mainly to ensure interoperability of e-Trailers in the fleets, which is a must in the logistics nowadays. Therefore the main mission of CHANGE is to generate a chain of knowledge in developing and implementing data driven AI-based applications enabling SMEs of the Dutch trailer industry to contribute to seamless energetic transition towards zero emission road freight transport. In specific, CHANGE will employ e-Trailers (trailers with electrically driven axle(s) enabling energy recuperation) connected to conventional hauling units as well as trailers for high volume and extreme payload as focal platforms (demonstrators) for deployment of these applications.
