European Energy

The exponential population growth will put great pressure on natural resources, agriculture, energy systems and waste production. New business models and innovative technological approaches are necessary to tackle these challenges and achieve the energy transition targets set by the European Commission. Renewable energy technologies and processes such as solar photovoltaic, solar thermal and anaerobic co-digestion have become a subject of interest and research as a solution that could be fully implemented in industries and solve several environmental and economic problems. This paper discusses the possibility of integrating and complement these technologies to maximize renewable energy production and circularity. The review was performed with a funnel approach aiming to analyze broad to specific subjects. Beginning with a literature review on the various definitions of circular economy, bioeconomy, and circular bioeconomy, ultimately proposing a single definition according to an ind...

Phase change materials (PCMs) are increasingly investigated in the last years as successful in many thermal energy storage applications. In the building sector, PCMs are utilised to improve building efficiency by reducing cooling/heating loads and promoting renewable energy sources, such as solar energy. This paper shows the recent research works on integrating PCMs with building envelope for heating purposes. The main PCM categories and their main characteristics are presented, focusing on PCM types applied for building heating applications. The main methods adopted to incorporate PCMs with building elements and materials are mentioned, and the popular passive and active incorporation techniques are discussed. Lastly, the main contribution to building energy saving is discussed in terms of heating applications. The analysed studies indicated that all PCMs could improve the building energy saving in the cold climates by up to 44.16% regardless of their types and techniques. Several ...

Biogas is the best renewable energy as it can be produced from any biomass for example any plant or living organism. The purpose of this research was to produce biomethane from co-digestion of vegetable and fruit waste with rumen digesta through anaerobic digestion process. In this research, two trials of experiment were conducted. Each trial has three different sample with different mixing ratios. Raw materials used in the experiment was rumen digesta of goat and cow, potato, capsicum, cucumbers, onions, radish, cauliflower, carrot, leafy vegetables, apple, banana, and papaya. In each sample, 1200 gram of raw materials were used. Hydraulic retention time was 30 days. Data was collected by water displacement method. The experiment found that the gas production started from 2nd or 3rd days and stops in 28th or 29th day. Highest production of biogas was 35, 33, 30, 40, 50 and 35 mL/day on the 17th, 14th, 17th, 11th, 12th and 7th day at the mixing ratios of 1:1:2, 1:2:1, 1:1.5:1.5, 1:0...

The exponential population growth will put great pressure on natural resources, agriculture, energy systems and waste production. New business models and innovative technological approaches are necessary to tackle these challenges and achieve the energy transition targets set by the European Commission. Renewable energy technologies and processes such as solar photovoltaic, solar thermal and anaerobic co-digestion have become a subject of interest and research as a solution that could be fully implemented in industries and solve several environmental and economic problems. This paper discusses the possibility of integrating and complement these technologies to maximize renewable energy production and circularity. The review was performed with a funnel approach aiming to analyze broad to specific subjects. Beginning with a literature review on the various definitions of circular economy, bioeconomy, and circular bioeconomy, ultimately proposing a single definition according to an ind...