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Renewable Energy: Sources, Conversion and Utilization
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Renewable Energy: Sources, Conversion and Utilization

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (26 March 2023) | Viewed by 8873

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Yaning Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
Interests: biomass; thermochemical; thermodynamics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Abdel Ghaly

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Engineering, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada
Interests: renewable energy; biomass conversion and utilization
Dr. Yoshitaka Sakata

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8628, Japan
Interests: geothermal energy; heat pump
Dr. Wentao Su

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Petroleum Engineering, Liaoning Shihua University, Fushun 113001, China
Interests: fluid mechanics; hydrodynamics
Dr. Muhammad Mubashar Omar

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan
Interests: biomass; thermochemical; biochemical
Dr. Wenke Zhao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
Interests: heat pump system; porous medium; thermodynamics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

World development consolidates that sustainability or sustainable development is a global big issue and it is tightly correlated with not only us but also our future generations.

The WCED (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987) stated that sustainability or sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Up to now, there are around 169 targets, 17 goals, and 304 indicators which were proposed to evaluate or measure sustainability. Generally, sustainability involves economic sustainability, social sustainability, and environmental sustainability, all of which are linked to energy and resource sustainability, since energy/resource sustainability is of great importance to overall sustainability.

Renewable energy is, broadly, the energy generated from renewable natural resources, and it includes biomass energy, geothermal energy, solar energy, etc. Renewable energy not only contributes to meeting the increasing energy needs but is also beneficial in addressing the worsening environmental situation because renewable energy is inexhaustible, diverse, abundantly available, and produces negligible pollution and is environmentally friendly. This Special Issue is focused on the resources, conversion, and utilization of renewable energy.

We invite scientific researchers, engineers, and policy makers to contribute original research articles as well as review articles which will stimulate the continuing efforts toward understanding the fundamentals and applications of renewable energy. All submissions are expected to have original ideas and new approaches. Topics to be covered with respect to renewable energy in this Special Issue include, but are not limited to the following:

  • Biomass resources and the produced value-added bioproducts,
  • Conversion of biomass resources (pyrolysis, gasification, fermentation, etc.),
  • Geothermal energy resources,
  • Thermal energy utilization systems (heat pump, organic Rankine cycle, etc.),
  • The other renewable energy resources (solar energy, wind energy, ocean energy, etc.),
  • Conversion or utilization systems for renewable energy resources,
  • Evaluation and management of renewable energy resources,
  • Other related topics (thermodynamics, fluid flow, heat transfer, hydrodynamics, etc.)

Prof. Dr. Yaning Zhang
Prof. Dr. Abdel Ghaly
Dr. Yoshitaka Sakata
Dr. Wentao Su
Dr. Muhammad Mubashar Omar
Dr. Wenke Zhao
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. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2400 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

  • renewable energy
  • biomass
  • geothermal

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 3137 KiB  
Article
Target Selection for a Space-Energy Driven Laser-Ablation Debris Removal System Based on Ant Colony Optimization
by Wulin Yang, Hongya Fu, Zhongxi Shao, Qiang Wu and Chuan Chen
Sustainability 2023, 15(13), 10380; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su151310380 - 30 Jun 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 861
Abstract
The space-energy driven laser-ablation debris removal technology can remove or detach multiple centimeter-level space debris in a single mission. However, the space-energy driven platform can only rely on its own equipment capabilities to detect and identify space debris. It is necessary to select [...] Read more.
The space-energy driven laser-ablation debris removal technology can remove or detach multiple centimeter-level space debris in a single mission. However, the space-energy driven platform can only rely on its own equipment capabilities to detect and identify space debris. It is necessary to select multiple potentially removable debris targets to improve the removal efficiency. In this paper, target selection for a space-energy driven laser-ablation debris removal system is analyzed based on ant colony optimization. The intersection and interaction periods were given by the optimal driving sequence calculation for multiple debris. Parameters such as the detection range, pulsed energy, repetition frequency of the laser and trajectory of debris have been considered as inputs of the simulation. Target selection and optimal action time have been calculated when a single debris entered the detection range of the laser system. This optimization can significantly improve the overall efficiency and laser energy utilization of the space-based laser platform for the same randomly generated debris group, compared to the mode driven sequentially according to the order of entering the laser action range. The results showed that after being filtered by the ant colony algorithm, the number of removable debris doubled, and the de-orbit altitude increased by 15.9%. The energy utilization rate of the laser removal system has been improved by 74.6%. This optimization algorithm can significantly improve the overall work efficiency and laser energy utilization rate of the space-energy driven system. It can remove more debris or have a larger effective orbit reduction distance value for all debris. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Energy: Sources, Conversion and Utilization)
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11 pages, 2908 KiB  
Article
Exergy Transfer Analysis of Biomass and Microwave Based on Experimental Heating Process
by Longfei Cui, Chaoyue Liu, Hui Liu, Wenke Zhao and Yaning Zhang
Sustainability 2023, 15(1), 388; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15010388 - 26 Dec 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1084
Abstract
Exergy transfer and microwave heating performances of wheat straw particles as affected by microwave power (250, 300, and 350 W), feeding load (10, 30, and 50 g), and particle size (0.058, 0.106, and 0.270 mm) were investigated and detailed in this study. The [...] Read more.
Exergy transfer and microwave heating performances of wheat straw particles as affected by microwave power (250, 300, and 350 W), feeding load (10, 30, and 50 g), and particle size (0.058, 0.106, and 0.270 mm) were investigated and detailed in this study. The results show that when the microwave power increased from 250 to 350 W, the average heating rate increased in the range of 23.41–56.18 °C/min with the exergy transfer efficiency increased in the range of 1.10–1.89%. When the particle size increased from 0.058 to 0.270 mm, the average heating rate decreased in the range of 20.59–56.18 °C/min with the exergy transfer efficiency decreased in the range of 0.70–1.89%. When the feeding load increased from 10 to 50 g, the average heating rate increased first and then decreased in the range of 5.96–56.18 °C/min with the exergy transfer efficiency increased first and then decreased in the range of 0.07–1.89%. The highest exergy transfer efficiency was obtained at a microwave power of 300 W, feeding load of 30 g, and particle size of 0.058 mm. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Energy: Sources, Conversion and Utilization)
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17 pages, 5702 KiB  
Article
Energy Conservation for Indoor Attractions Based on NRBO-LightGBM
by Debin Zhao, Zhengyuan Hu, Yinjian Yang and Qian Chen
Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 11997; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su141911997 - 22 Sep 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1127
Abstract
In the context of COVID-19, energy conservation is becoming increasingly crucial to the overwhelmed tourism industry, and the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system (HVAC) is the most energy-consuming factor in the indoor area of scenic spots. As tourist flows are not constant, [...] Read more.
In the context of COVID-19, energy conservation is becoming increasingly crucial to the overwhelmed tourism industry, and the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system (HVAC) is the most energy-consuming factor in the indoor area of scenic spots. As tourist flows are not constant, the intelligent control of an HVAC system is the key to tourist satisfaction and energy consumption management. This paper proposes a noise-reduced and Bayesian-optimized (NRBO) light-gradient-boosting machine (LightGBM) to predict the probability of tourists entering the next scenic spot, hence adopting the feedforward dynamic adaptive adjustment of the ventilation and air conditioning system. The customized model is more robust and effective, and the experimental results in Luoyang City Hall indicate that the proposed system outperforms the baseline LightGBM model and a random-search based method concerning prediction loss by 5.39% and 4.42%, respectively, and saves energy by 23.51%. The study illustrates a promising step in the advancement of tourism energy consumption management and sustainable tourism in the experimental area by improving tourist experiences and conserving energy efficiently, and the software-based system can also be smoothly applied to other indoor scenic spots. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Energy: Sources, Conversion and Utilization)
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20 pages, 6784 KiB  
Article
Experimental Francis Turbine Cavitation Performances of a Hydro-Energy Plant
by Wen-Tao Su, Wei Zhao, Maxime Binama, Yue Zhao, Jian-Ying Huang and Xue-Ren Chen
Sustainability 2022, 14(6), 3263; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14063263 - 10 Mar 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3188
Abstract
An investigation is conducted on the Francis turbine’s cavitation characteristics and its influence on system hydraulic stability using two experimental methods, namely the flow visualization and acoustic emission methods. The investigated turbine is of Francis type with a 15-blade runner and has a [...] Read more.
An investigation is conducted on the Francis turbine’s cavitation characteristics and its influence on system hydraulic stability using two experimental methods, namely the flow visualization and acoustic emission methods. The investigated turbine is of Francis type with a 15-blade runner and has a specific speed of 202 rpm and a rated head of 30 m. Having tested the machine under a wide range of cavitation conditions, the gap cavitation is the earliest to develop as the cavitation coefficient gradually decreases and has no obvious effect on the machine’s external performance characteristics. The airfoil cavitation follows and causes the increase and decrease in machine flow rate and head, respectively, showing its drag reduction effect, where, at the same time, the pressure pulsation amplitude gets to its peak value. There is also the formation of constant cavitation zones and the involvement of an unsteady surge close to the wall of the draft tube’s cone. Pushing the cavitation coefficient to even lower values, there is the formation of an annular cavitation zone, accompanied by a sharp drop in cone pressure pulsation amplitudes while the former drag reduction effect disappears. The trend of noise is basically the same as that of pressure fluctuation, which confirms its trustworthiness when it comes to cavitation occurrence detection within Francis turbines. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Energy: Sources, Conversion and Utilization)
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14 pages, 2739 KiB  
Article
Energy Analysis of a Space-Energy Driven Laser-Ablation Debris Removal System
by Wulin Yang, Hongya Fu, Zhongxi Shao, Hongquan Zu, Qiang Wu and Chuan Chen
Sustainability 2022, 14(3), 1794; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14031794 - 04 Feb 2022
Viewed by 1417
Abstract
Space-energy driven laser-ablation debris removal is a feasible way to address the worsening space debris environment. Energy analysis is crucial for the design and run of a space-energy driven laser-ablation debris removal system. This study details the energy analysis of a space-energy driven [...] Read more.
Space-energy driven laser-ablation debris removal is a feasible way to address the worsening space debris environment. Energy analysis is crucial for the design and run of a space-energy driven laser-ablation debris removal system. This study details the energy analysis of a space-energy driven laser-ablation debris removal system as affected by laser energy, frequency and range. The results show that the laser irradiation time and energy efficiency are decreased with increases in the laser energy and frequency, and the energy efficiency in the case of different planes is significantly lower than that in the case of coplanar. However, laser range has no effect on the perigee changing and energy efficiency. The results can effectively guide the removal scheme design and evaluation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Energy: Sources, Conversion and Utilization)
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