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The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has contributed a large impact on various economic sectors and the energy sector is no exception. In this paper, we analyze the time-varying correlation between COVID-19 shocks (positive and negative) and energy markets (natural gas, gasoil, heating oil, coal, and crude oil) in the time-varying environment. This study adds to the literature by implementing the Markov-switching dynamic copula with Student-t distribution to explore the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic shock effects on energy markets. Our results revealed that (i) there is evidence of correlation between COVID-19 shocks and all energy markets; (ii) the contributions of COVID-19 shocks on energy markets are not constant along 2020. (iii), there is evidence of a similar response of the energy markets to the positive and negative COVID-19 shocks.

Isolation is a separator between conductors in electrical equipment that prevents flashover, resulting in a short circuit or electrical failure. Isolation is critical in electrical appliances, exceptionally High Voltage Power Equipment (HVPE), to ensure the safety of circuit breakers, capacitors, and transformers. In addition to being an isolator, the insulating liquid material also serves to cool the heat generated by electrical appliances. Isolator with mineral oil-based transformer has various environmental issues, including non-biodegradability, non-renewability, and rarity. Because it is environmentally safe and extensively used, virgin coconut oil (VCO) is an alternative transformer oil insulation. This study aims to determine the properties of Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) breakdown voltage using the IEC 156 standard and oil temperature conditioning. According to the test results, the oil breakdown voltage before heating (at room temperature) is 14 kV, which is much below the IEC 156 standard, and the breakdown voltage after heating at 90 ° is 35 kV, and 110 ° is 40 kV, which is even higher than the IEC 156 requirement

Indoor and outdoor concentrations of PM2.5 were measured for 24 h during heating and non-heating seasons in a rural solid fuel burning Native American community. Household building characteristics were collected during the initial home sampling visit using technician walkthrough questionnaires, and behavioral factors were collected through questionnaires by interviewers. To identify seasonal behavioral factors and household characteristics associated with indoor PM2.5 , data were analyzed separately by heating and non-heating seasons using multivariable regression. Concentrations of PM2.5 were significantly higher during the heating season (indoor: 36.2 μg/m3 ; outdoor: 22.1 μg/m3 ) compared with the non-heating season (indoor: 14.6 μg/m3 ; outdoor: 9.3 μg/m3 ). Heating season indoor PM2.5 was strongly associated with heating fuel type, housing type, indoor pests, use of a climate control unit, number of interior doors, and indoor relative humidity. During the non-heating season, different behavioral and household characteristics were associated with indoor PM2.5 concentrations (indoor smoking and/or burning incense, opening doors and windows, area of surrounding environment, building size and height, and outdoor PM2.5 ). Homes heated with coal and/or wood, or a combination of coal and/or wood with electricity and/or natural gas had elevated indoor PM2.5 concentrations that exceeded both the EPA ambient standard (35 μg/m3 ) and the WHO guideline (25 μg/m3 ).

As one of the three major vegetable oils in the world, rapeseed oil is appreciated for its high nutritional value and characteristic flavor. Flavor is an essential attribute, determining rapeseed oil quality and consumer acceptance. The present manuscript provides a systematic literature review of recent advances and knowledge on the flavor of rapeseed oil, which focuses on aroma-active as well as off-flavor compounds, flavor analysis techniques (i.e., extraction, qualitative, quantitative, sensory, and chemometric methods), and effects of treatments (storage, dehulling, roasting, microwave, flavoring with herbs, refining, and oil heating) on flavor from sensory and molecular perspectives. One hundred thirty-seven odorants found in rapeseed oil from literature are listed and possible formation pathways of some key aroma-active compounds are also proposed. Future flavor analysis techniques will evolve toward time-saving, portability, real-time monitoring, and visualization, which aims to obtain a "complete" flavor profile of rapeseed oil. The changes of volatile compounds in rapeseed oil under different treatments are summarized in this view. Studies to elucidate the influence of different treatments on the formation of aroma-active compounds are needed to get a deeper understanding of factors leading to the variations of rapeseed oil flavor.

Thyme oil, which is an anti-fungicide, was used to increase the physical and mechanical properties of wood as well as improve its strength, especially in outdoor conditions. For this purpose, Stone pine (Pinus pinea L.) wood samples classified according to the annual number of rings were exposed to either the impregnation process or the combined process, which was comprised of impregnation followed by heat treatment. As a result of the study, it was determined that the wood had different physical and mechanical properties based upon the number of annual rings. In addition, it was specified that the thyme oil used in the impregnation process improved the physical properties of the wood and also reduced the water absorption during the combined process. As a general conclusion, the impregnation process and the combined process increased the mechanical properties of the wood in parallel with an increase in the number of annual rings. The process of impregnation of wood materials with thyme oil is promising due to its anti-fungal and antibacterial properties, its ability to be used in small amounts in on-site impregnation, and it being an environmentally friendly product for the wood protection industry.

Using high frequency data and connectedness measures based on a time-varying parameter vector autoregression (TVP-VAR) model, we study dynamic connectedness among the realized volatility of 15 commodity futures (Gold, Heating oil, Light crude oil, Natural gas, Copper, Platinum, Cocoa, Coffee, Corn, Cotton, Orange Juice, Soybean, Soybean meal, Sugar, and Wheat) from September 22, 2008 to May 28, 2020. The results show strong and moderate levels of volatility connectedness among energy and metals and moderate connectedness levels within the group of agricultural commodities. Cross-commodity connectedness can explain a large portion of volatility connectedness in some cases, highlighting the importance of conducting realized volatility connectedness within a model allowing realized volatilities to be endogenously and simultaneously determined. Connectedness is robust to alternative specifications and varies with time. It is mostly driven by macroeconomic variables and uncertainty, including the term spread of interest rates and real economic activity. However, the analysis shows that some of the drivers of connectedness differ between upper and lower quantiles.

According to the US Department of Energy, succinic acid (SA) is a top platform chemical that can be produced from biomass. Bread waste, which has high starch content, is the second most wasted food in the UK and can serve as a potential low cost feedstock for the production of SA. This work evaluates the environmental performance of a proposed biorefinery concept for SA production by fermentation of waste bread using a cradle-to-factory gate life cycle assessment approach. The performance was assessed in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and non-renewable energy use (NREU). Waste bread fermentation demonstrated a better environmental profile compared to the fossil-based system, however, GHG emissions were about 50% higher as compared to processes using other biomass feedstocks such as corn wet mill or sorghum grains. NREU for fermentative SA production using waste bread was significantly lower (~ 46%) than fossil-based system and about the same as that of established biomass-based processes, thus proving the great potential of waste bread as a valuable feedstock for bioproduction of useful chemicals. The results show that steam and heating oil used in the process were the biggest contributors to the NREU and GHG emissions. Sensitivity analyses highlighted the importance of the solid biomass waste generated in the process which can potentially be used as fish feed. The LCA analysis can be used for targeted optimization of SA production from bread waste, thereby enabling the utilization of an otherwise waste stream and leading to the establishment of a circular economy.

At present, steam-assisted gravity drainage technology has failed to meet the requirement for the large-scale development of abundant oil sands resources due to high production cost and serious environmental pollution caused by huge amounts of carbon emissions. Therefore, this paper proposes a radio frequency technology for heating oil sands and establishes a corresponding mathematical model that considers the phase transition of water. Then, a lab-scale experimental setup is designed to experimentally investigate the performance of radio frequency heating based on the phase change. Finally, the influences of phase transition of water on the temperature distribution of oil sand samples are analyzed in detail. The results show that the mathematical model of radio frequency heating can accurately predict the temperature distribution prior to the phase transition of water due to the little effect of phase transition on the thermal properties and density of oil sand samples. The failure to consider the effect of phase transition of water on electrical conductivity of oil sand in the mathematical model accounts for a large deviation between the measured temperature data and numerical results. So, in order to make the calculated temperature results more accurate, this effect should be considered during numerical simulation.

We develop an index of uncertainty, the COVID-19 induced uncertainty (CIU) index, and employ it to empirically examine the vulnerability of energy prices amidst the COVID-19 pandemic using a distributed lag model that jointly accounts for conditional heteroscedasticity, autocorrelation, persistence, and structural breaks, as well as day-of-the-week effect. The nexus between energy returns and uncertainty index is analyzed, using daily price returns of eight energy sources (Brent oil, diesel, gasoline, heating oil, kerosene, natural gas, propane, and WTI oil) and four news/information-based uncertainty proxies [CIU, EPU, Global Fear Index (GFI) and VIX]. The CIU and alternative indexes are used, respectively for the main estimation and sensitivity analysis. We show the outperformance of CIU over alternative news uncertainty proxies in the prediction of energy prices. News (aggregate) and bad news are found to negatively and significantly impact energy returns, while good news has a significantly positive impact. Imperatively, energy variables lack hedging potentials against the uncertainty occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, while we find no strong evidence of asymmetry. Our results are robust to the choice of news variables, forecast horizons employed, with likely sensitivity to energy prices.

Background Household air pollution (HAP) from residential combustion considerably affects human health in rural China. Large-scale population migration and rural lifestyle changes during the Spring Festival are supposed to change the household air pollution and health risks; however, limited field study has determined its impacts on HAP and short-term health outcomes. Methods A field study was conducted in rural areas of Southern China before and during the Spring Festival to explore the associations between HAP and blood pressure considering different factors such as cooking fuel, heating fuel, and smoking. Stationary real-time PM2.5 monitors were used to measure PM2.5 concentrations of the kitchen, living room, and yard of 156 randomly selected households. Personal exposure to PM2.5 was calculated based on the results of stationary samplers and corresponding time local residents spent in different microenvironments, and one adult resident was recruited of each family for the blood pressure measurement. Results Both personal exposure to PM2.5 and blood pressures of local residents increased during Spring Festival compared to the days before the holiday. Based on generalized linear model coupled with dominance analysis approach, it was found that personal PM2.5 exposure was positively associated with the factors of population size and the types of cooking and heating fuels with the relative contributions of approximately 82%, and systolic blood pressure (SBP, 100-120 mmHg as normal range for adults) was positively and significantly associated with personal PM2.5 exposures with the relative contribution of 11%. Conclusion The findings in this study demonstrated that Spring Festival can give rise to increase of HAP and hypertension risks, also related to tremendous solid fuel use, suggesting further policy making on promoting cleaner energy in rural areas and more attention on large population migration during national holidays.

The application progress of oil shale retorting process at home and abroad is mainly introduced, and the advantages and disadvantages of dry distillation furnaces in different countries are compared. The development trend of oil shale retorting process is prospected. At present, several oil shale retorting technologies have been applied and newly appeared in Fushun furnace retorting, fluidized bed retorting and decarbonization processes, convection heating oil shale mining processes, ATP dry distillation furnaces, ICP retorting furnaces, etc. Very mature, but the oil recovery rate using these technologies is relatively low. The industrialized dry distillation technology currently being put into production at home and abroad has been discussed, and the problems in the dry distillation technology have been studied.

This article provides an overview of the methods of managing the primary petroleum refining. To improve separation efficiency was proposed to stabilize the reflux ratio in the rectifying column. Purpose of work. To develop a system for automatic regulation of the reflux ratio of diesel fuel sec-tions in an atmospheric column of the refinery oil. To study the operating modes of an atmospheric column with the participation of the obtained automatic control system. Materials and methods. The article presented the features of the oil rectification process at the atmospheric unit of a small capacity refinery. The features of heat dissipation with intermediate circulation flash compared to a large-capacity unit will be shown in this article. The parameters of the facility were selected and divided into groups. A dynamic model of the section of shell-and-tube heat exchangers for heating oil with diesel fuel at a low-power refinery unit in the form of differential equations of heat balance has been developed to achieve the goal set work. An electrode dehydrator material balance equation has been compiled to find desalted oil consumption and saltwater consumption. The dependence of the reflux ratio of diesel fuel sections of the atmospheric column on the inlet and outlet temperatures of the atmospheric column circulation flash, the acute fractionation con-sumption, circulation flash, and oil fraction selection was obtained. The resulting model of the facili-ty consists of two parts: the linear part of the electric dehydrator and heat exchanger section, which determines the temperatures of the coolants, and the nonlinear output part, which determines the re-flux ratio depending on technological parameters. The proposed model makes it possible to investi-gate the effect of disturbances on the controlled parameters. The MATLAB/Simulink software prod-uct has been chosen as a tool to implement the model. A system of automatic regulation of the re-flux ratio in MATLAB/Simulink has been built with the participation of the developed model of the study object. Conclusion. The results of modeling a system for automatic regulation of the reflux ratio of diesel fuel sections in the atmospheric column of a low-power refinery unit has been ob-tained, taking into account the peculiarities of the process under disturbance conditions.

In moderate climate, broiler chicken houses are important heating energy consumers and hence heating fuel consumption accounts for a large part in operating costs. They can be reduced by constructional measures, which in turn lead to important costs as well. On the other hand, a software solution to reduce energy would lead to considerably less follow-up costs. The main objective of our work was to assess if it is possible to save energy with a software solution and eventually quantify the savings for a given broiler house in the Swiss Plateau. The investigation was carried out in simulation: the particular broiler house was measured, and a dynamical model for it was derived and validated. To actually search for a particular behaviour of the software that would lead to energy savings, model predictive control was used. The idea was not to specify a particular behaviour of the software but rather to let the software itself find the best behaviour in an exhaustive search. The simulations showed that energy savings can be realised mainly by letting the indoor humidity deviate from what usually is used as setpoint and hence take profit of the outdoor climate, which changes naturally during a 24-hour course. We used expert opinions to determine how long and large these setpoint deviations may be without harming the broilers. The simulations showed alsothat the light control and the biological activity of the animals reduced the potential savings.

Purpose This paper aims to examine dynamic equicorrelations (DECO) and directional volatility spillover effects among four energy futures markets, namely, West Texas Intermediate crude oil, heating oil, natural gas and reformulated blendstock for oxygenate blending gasoline, by using a multivariate fractionally integrated asymmetric power ARCH–DECO–generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model and the spillover index technique. Design/methodology/approach The empirical analysis uses the dynamic equicorrelation model of Engle and Kelly (2012) to examine time-varying correlations at equilibrium. The authors further analyze dynamic volatility transmission among energy futures by using Diebold and Yilmaz (2012) dynamic spillover index based on generalized value-at-risk framework. Findings The empirical results provide evidence of heightened equicorrelations at times of financial turmoil. More specifically, the dynamic spillover analysis shows that volatility is transmitted predominantly from crude oil to the other markets and risk transfer among four markets exhibits asymmetries. Spillovers are found to be highly responsive to dramatic events such as the 9/11 terror attack, 2008–2009 global financial crisis and 2014–2016 oil glut. Practical implications The results of this study have important practical implications for investors, portfolio managers and energy policymakers as the presence of time-varying co-movements and spillovers suggests the need for dynamic trading strategies. There are also implications regarding risk management practices, as there is evidence of increased volatility transmission at times of financial turmoil and uncertainty. Finally, the results provide insights to policymakers in a better understanding of the spillover dynamics. Originality/value This paper investigates the DECOs and spillover effects among crude oil, natural gas, heating oil and gasoline futures markets. To the best of the knowledge, this is one of a few studies that examine co-movements and risk transfer in energy futures in a comprehensive framework.

Oil heating has been degraded by thermal, air and moisture penetration leading to the creation of volatile and non-volatile materials serving as active substrate and increasing temperature and mass transmission levels. In this study, Fresh mustard oil was characterized to assess chemical properties like saponification value (SV), iodine value (IV), peroxide value (PV), p-Anisidine value (p-AV), Totox value (TV), acid value (AV),density and viscosity. The oil was reused (thermal process) for three sets of periods at different heat levels 120, 140, 160, 180 and 200 degrees the impact of the thermal process was examined through physicochemical, nutritional and sensory properties and compared with fresh mustard oil. Chemical compounds were identified for selected oils using GC-MS and FT-IR spectroscopy. The effect of spectra reveals there was a significant change in the thermal refined oils band (180 to 200 ° C) and higher temperature changes the band's exact positions and shifts when the fatty acid ratio has shifted. Similarly, the FT-IR study also found the drastic changes in the functional compounds at 180 to 200°C. The chemical property shows that primary and secondary level of rancidity were confirmed through peroxide value and p-Anisidine value respectively; the consistency and the flow rate was reduced due to the deterioration through rancidity.

An assessment of trends in main air pollutant concentrations (including CO, SO2, NO2, O3, PM2.5, and Asbestos) is conducted for the years 2005–2016 for the city of Tehran, Iran. The focus has been on the contribution of anthropogenic emissions to the observed trend, particularly the role of related mitigation plans implemented in the period of interest. A significant decreasing trend (about 50%) was observed in CO and SO2 concentrations during the considered time interval, which was explained by improvement plans in fuel quality and vehicle emission standards. While a substantial elevation (more than 50%) in NO2 levels was detected over the study period, variant trends were observed during different periods that appear to be driven by multiple factors including the increase in the number of vehicles and fuel consumption, changes in residential heating fuel from heavy oil to natural gas, etc. The analysis revealed that the O3 formation in Tehran's atmosphere was converted from NOx-limited to NOx-saturated regime around the years 2012–2013. The overall analysis showed a slight decreasing trend (about 30%) in PM2.5 concentrations between the years 2011–2015; however, a rise in PM2.5 levels was observed between the years 2015–2016. Apart from the contribution of anthropogenic drivers, general drought in Iran has caused a considerable increase in natural dust in total PM2.5 mass. Finally, a decline in annual mean airborne asbestos fibers (more than 60%) was indicated by the current study during the years 2012 and 2015.

Household heating in China has been ignored in the formulation of national energy plans until concerns with severe air pollution emerged. The government has started to implement the clean heating with ambitious targets. However, the specific heating status is not clear, especially in rural areas, thus leading to significant obstacles to policy formulation and air pollution control. In order to understand the current heating conditions and heating behaviors of households in more detail, we conduct a field survey of household heating in towns and villages across northern China from December 2017 to March 2018. The survey results show that more than 75% of rural households still rely on traditional heating methods, such as coal, firewood, kang, and a simple stove. Household income, awareness of using heating fuels, and government subsidies may have a certain impact on heating fuel choice. In addition, approximately 34.6% of rural households do not use any housing insulation measures, which is also of concern when focusing on the heating quality. Lastly, considering the huge cost of rural household clean energy transition, we suggest that only a few regions are encouraged to turn to electricity or natural gas for heating, while most other regions transition to using clean coal and attach more importance to improving the quality of heating stoves.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the contemporaneous link between price volatility and trading volume in the futures markets of energy. Design/methodology/approach Non-parametric (local linear) regression models and formal statistical tests are used to assess monotonicity, linearity and symmetry. The data are daily price and volumes from five futures markets (West Texas Intermediate, Brent, gasoline, heating oil and natural gas) in the USA. Findings Trading volume and price volatility have, in all markets, a strong nonlinear relation to each other. There are violations of monotonicity locally but not globally. The qualitative nature of the price shocks may have implications for the trading activity locally. Originality/value To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first manuscript that investigates simultaneously and formally all the three important issues (i.e. monotonicity, linearity and asymmetry) for the price volatility–volume relationship using a highly flexible nonparametric approach.

The need for new renewable heat transfer fluid (HTF) is in an increasing trend for high-temperature solar applications, and bio-oil synthesized from clean energy sources is considered as one kind of ideal alternative for thermal oil in solar and heat applications. The major merits of employing bio-oil in high-temperature applications are less volatile nature, high availability, non-hazardous, environmentally friendly, and renewable resources. The work’s objective is to explore the potentials of using non-edible Palm kernel oil as a heat transfer fluid for high-temperature applications. Oil derived from the palm kernel for synthesizing heat transfer fluid was used as a feedstock. Chemical conversion using base catalyst reaction was allowed to transform palm kernel oil into heat transfer fluid. The thermo physical properties like dynamic viscosity, specific heat capacity, thermal conductivity, and density were analyzed and compared with the conventional heat transfer fluid. The results showed that the properties are developed gradually with increasing temperature, and all are influenced by the fatty acids of the oil. The EN14214 standards were compared with kernel oil heat transfer fluid characteristics and found within the standards.

Poland can be said to be coal. Fortunately, we are starting to change our worldview when it comes to heating residential buildings. Cities connect their inhabitants to gas networks, in smaller towns, boilers are replaced from typical merchants to more ecological ones. On the other hand, heating with fuel oil is an unattainable means of heating. The main advantages of this method are described in the article.

Ten (10) and fifteen (15) years-old cultivated Tectona grandis (teak) were oil heat-treated to studied their properties improvement. The middle portion of T. grandis was selected and treated at 160oC, 200oC, and 240oC for 2 hours. The study investigated the effectiveness of treated and non-treated T. grandis based on their physical and mechanical properties. The physical tests performed included the moisture content, maximum density, basic density, and volumetric shrinkage. In the mechanical test, the strength in the static bending focused on the modulus of elasticity (MOE) and modulus of rupture (MOR). The compression test carried out based on parallel to the grain (MOR) of the wood. The oil heat-treated T. grandis possess better physical properties than untreated wood, but their mechanical properties decrease slightly. Ten-year-old T. grandis shows better physical and mechanical properties than 15 year’s old T. grandis. The heartwood possesses an overall better physical and mechanical characteristic. Broadly, the oil-heat treatment improves cultivated teak properties and made it suitable for various high-value applications.

Highly viscous fuels present combustion challenges due to poor atomization and consequent inefficient air-fuel mixture, however, due to the demand for cheap heating fuels; burner design and fuel properties are continually optimized to enhance their combustion and emission performance. In this study, used engine oil was drained from the sump of a compression ignition engine; the oil was pre-treated to remove particulate matter, water and ferromagnetic materials. The oil samples were then blended with diesel fuel at different volumetric proportions and were characterized according to ASTM standard. The fuel samples were then combusted using atomizing swirl waste oil burner; flame temperature and flame size were measured using infrared thermometer and direct photography respectively. The burner was then mounted to a combustion chamber and the emission gases and flue gas temperatures were measured using a flue gas analyser and digital thermometer respectively. It was revealed that increasing diesel fuel blend decreases the density and viscosity of the fuel samples. All the blended fuel samples were found to form a homogenous mixture and generated flame temperature higher than the unblended oil sample (B0), B20 generated the highest flame temperature of 1400 °C with flame size of 340 × 210 mm and the lowest carbon monoxide (CO) emission of 0.49 %, unburned hydrocarbon (HC) of 249 ppm and the highest carbon dioxide (CO2) of 12.87 % levels. In view of this, diesel fuel can be used as a good blending candidate to used engine oil to improve flame temperature and decrease emission levels in swirl waste oil burners.

The effect of heavy stock oil heating by ultra-high frequency (microwave) electromagnetic field on oil viscosity changes is investigated in the present work. The influence of the phase state of supramolecular formations on the rheological properties of heavy oil after the application of various dielectric heating schemes is studied. The energy of the intermolecular interaction of asphaltene nanoaggregates of various sizes is estimated based on rheometric studies of heavy oil treated with microwave energy. It has been established that for a stable asphaltene oil, the hybrid microwave processing scheme is most effective.

Recent studies have shown that heating oil to high temperature causes oxidative degradation of the oil, consequently producing characteristics odour, taste, colour and texture. However, this study was conducted to evaluate the stability of four different samples of edible oils. Acid value was found to be 5.22, 3.50, 0.73 and 1.29 mg KOH/g oil in fresh Melon, Bushmango, olive and Palm olein oils samples respectively. When the four oil samples were used for frying, the acid value was found to be; 6.73, 3.90, 2.24 and 2.24 mg KOH/g oil (24 hours after frying), 11.22, 7.86, 4.49 and 3.3 mg KOH/g oil (2 weeks after frying) and 19.17, 13.22, 5.82 and 4.4 mg KOH/g oil (4 weeks after frying), for melon, Bushmango, olive and palm olein oils samples respectively. Saponification values were ranged between 196.70-240.00 mg KOH/g oil in fresh oils of the samples, and between 197.80-252.33 mg KOH/g oil in the oils after using them for frying. Furthermore, Peroxide values ranged from 2.65 to 3.20 Meq/Kg in fresh oils of the samples, and from 2.71 to 24.00 Meq/Kg in frying oils were to exceed the permitted value of 20 meq/Kg for olive oil and 10 meq/Kg for other edible oils in nearly half the analyzed samples. In general, feeding on these kinds of edible oils which have high values of acidity and peroxides is very dangerous because of the destructive effects of peroxide compounds and acidity on the components of the membranes of the living cell.

Switching to natural gas and refinery gas as combustion fuels during refinery modernization, results in a considerable low usage of a medium heavy heating oil, and an open question of the tank function in which such an oil has been stored. There is an idea to make a conversion of such tanks into heat storages and their integration into the cogeneration plant within oil refinery. The analysis of the conversion of two such existing characteristic tanks was made in this paper. Validation of the model is done by comparing the measurement results on the tank that accumulates the cooling energy with the results of the numerical calculation. The results showed that the numerical model provided good results. Validity evaluation of Half cycle figure of merit of charging and discharging process has been analyzed. For both tanks, for all the flows rate it goes over 95%. It was found that during the charging and discharging procesess a significant conduction impact comes up with lower flows, which increases an outlet width of the thermocline. A flow rate impact onto the efficiency of discharge process for Tank 1 and Tank 2 at outlet water temperature 96 °C was analyzed. For Tank 1 ranges from 90.4 to 91.29%, and for Tank 2 ranges between 90.67 and 92.77%, depending on the water flow rate. With both tanks, the results showed that it is better to keep the flow rate low at the beginning of the discharge process.

This study explores the role of social desirability bias in the willingness to pay (WTP)–willingness to accept (WTA) disparity debate. In the context of a valuation scenario involving air quality in Athens, Greece, we examine whether the well-known WTP–WTA disparity is in place and whether social desirability could be related to this gap by introducing different magnitudes of bias on the two welfare measures. To do so, we contrast the results obtained from the contingent valuation method with those from the inferred valuation method that is believed to mitigate social desirability bias. On the policy side, the study shows that estimates of welfare loss associated with the Greek government’s decision to equalize the tax on diesel fuel and heating oil, which had serious side-effects on air quality, vary greatly with respect to the value measure and method of elicitation.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to shed fresh light into whether an energy commodity price index (ENFX) and energy blockchain-based crypto price index (ENCX) can be used to predict movements in the energy commodity and energy crypto market. Design/methodology/approach Using principal component analysis over daily data of crude oil, heating oil, natural gas and energy based cryptos, the ENFX and ENCX indices are constructed, where ENFX (ENCX) represents 94% (88%) of variability in energy commodity (energy crypto) prices. Findings Natural gas price movements were better explained by ENCX, and shared positive (negative) correlations with cryptos (crude oil and heating oil). Using a vector autoregressive model (VAR), while the 1-day lagged ENCX (ENFX) was significant in estimating current ENCX (ENFX) values, only lagged ENCX was significant in estimating current ENFX. Granger causality tests confirmed the two markets do not granger cause each other. One standard deviation shock in ENFX had a negative effect on ENCX. Weak forecasting results of the VAR model, support the two markets are not robust forecasters of each other. Robustness wise, the VAR model ranked lower than an autoregressive model, but higher than a random walk model. Research limitations/implications Significant structural breaks at distinct dates in the two markets reinforce that the two markets do not help to predict each other. The findings are limited by the existence of bubbles (December 2017-January 2018) which were witnessed in energy blockchain-based crypto markets and natural gas, but not in crude oil and heating oil. Originality/value As per the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to analyze the relationship between leading energy commodities and energy blockchain-based crypto markets.

Transformer thermal modelling is a crucial aspect to be considered as this may help the determination of heat capacity of transformer. This paper present, simulation study on Oil Natural Air Natural (ONAN) transformer heat distribution pattern with and without presence of hot spot temperature (HST). This paper aims to compare the effects of different HST value at different locations inside the transformer unit as well as to evaluate the top oil thermal behaviour of corn oil as cooling mechanism in a transformer. To achieve aforementioned objectives, three HSTs were introduced to the 30 MVA transformer winding to find the total heat build-up in the top of the transformer tank. The outcome of thermal properties is examined using x-y temperature plot. From the results found that the location of HST affects overall transformer’s temperature. HST at the top of the winding give a significant effect compared to when HST is at the bottom of the winding. It is also evident that the usage of corn oil reduced the temperature distribution of the transformer. The findings suggest that the temperature distribution study especially on transformer is important to monitor in-service transformer in a non-invasive manner.

The design of and experimental results for a low-power heating oil burner, operating between 1.25 and 5.1 kW with exhaust gas emissions within the normative regulations for domestic usage, ...

In order to meet ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets, the reduction of fuel consumption in the heating sector is necessary. This paper assesses the impact of introducing direct drain water heat recovery systems in commercial kitchens in the UK, based on a commercially available heat exchangers. The recoverable heat from these kitchens was estimated using Monte Carlo simulation, sector consumption data, and data measured in the field. A financial criterion, the Net Present Value calculated over 10 years, was used to estimate feasibility threshold values for the kitchen water consumption, varying with the heating fuel used in each premises. This analysis resulted in a total financially feasible potential for drain water heat recovery in the hospitality and food service sector in the UK of approximately 1.24 TWh/yr, leading to a reduction in GHG emissions of 344 k tons Ce/yr. This could be achieved at a cost of approximately 2.94 p£/kg Cesaved, over a 10-year lifetime, which was several orders of magnitude smaller than traditional renewable heat sources such as heat pumps. Commercially available drain water heat recovery systems could, when installed, exploit around 88% of current potential in drain water heat in commercial kitchens (1.40 TWh/yr) in a manner that is financially profitable. However, this paper assumes the availability of a 2 m vertical drop in the kitchen drain, required to install the heat exchanger, and thus achieve optimal effectiveness. In case this head is not available, the heat recovery potential would be untapped, as in approximately 160 GWh, in kitchens where the hot water consumption is too small for financial profitability. This corresponds to a reduction in GHG emissions of 44 k tons Ce/yr and leaves a gap in the market for inexpensive DWHR devices, which could exploit this potential at lower efficiencies.

Marine oil shale from the Sultani mine was characterized (ultimate and proximate analysis, 13C NMR, differential thermogravimetry (DTG)). The 13C NMR indicated that the shale is highly aliphatic, and the concentration of carbonyl carbon is small. DTG indicated a total weight loss of 21 wt% to 550 °C. The shale was pyrolysed to different final temperatures in the range 360–540 °C under N2 and the shale oils produced characterized by utilization parameters (API, heating value, boiling point distribution) and by chemical properties (1H-NMR and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry GC–MS) as a function of final pyrolysis temperature. Previous studies have only investigated the utilization properties of marine-shale oil at one temperature. The average oil yield increased with pyrolysis temperature to a maximum at 520 °C, and then fell. The oil density was higher at 440–520 °C than at 360–400 °C (0.99–1.00, 0.96−0.97 g/cm3 respectively). Unexpectedly, oil heating value (39.7–40.0 MJ/kg in 360–540 °C) and sulfur content (11.25 wt% in 360–520 °C) were independent of pyrolysis temperature. Oil distillation indicated that up to 90 vol% was in the diesel fraction. 1H-NMR implied that the oil produced at all temperatures was highly aliphatic. GC/MS for the oil indicated the presence of long chain hydrocarbons (C11-C32), both normal and branched, some substituted benzenes, and high concentrations of sulfur compounds, mainly substituted thiophenes with same benzothiophenes. The average molecular weight of the sulfur compounds and proportion of heavier oil were higher at 520 °C than at 460 °C, so that the increased yield of oil at higher temperatures would have to be balanced against the lower quality of the crude shale oil produced. The results emphasized the importance of studying oil properties as a function of pyrolysis temperature, as differences which could be important in practice were noted.

Fuel icing of fuel/oil heat exchange systems has been a troublesome issue. In this study, a de-icing method is proposed to manage the fuel icing problem by switching the fuel flow direction of the systems. This method uses the fuel/oil heat exchanger as a passive heat source, heat and momentum of the fuel are delivered to the ice. A device named FFDSD (Fuel flow direction switching device) has been developed for this method. This device consists of two normally open and two closed type solenoid valves, and the proposed configuration consumes electrical power only when switching fuel flow directions (36 W to 0 W). A control algorithm has been developed as a countermeasure against a large amount of ice inflow that conventional methods cannot cope with. FFDSD was designed and fabricated, and the experimental test was conducted. The experimental results show that the proposed method can successfully achieve the de-icing of the fuel system within 1 s. A numerical de-icing process was attempted. Ice in fuel was numerically modeled as a fluidized quasi-solid material based on descriptions in previous studies. Numerical analysis results show a similar tendency to experimental results. The results of this study would be useful to manage fuel icing problem of heat exchange systems.

This study examines the regional characteristics of energy or fuel poverty in Japan through a new approach, i.e., evaluating energy poverty via the direct measurement of energy service usage. This measure is a kind of relative poverty measure in calorific value, with multiple thresholds reflecting the diverse energy needs of households. The analysis sheds light on several unexplored issues in previous literature. Most notably, the result emphasizes the role of kerosene (heating oil) in securing warmth in winter, especially in the northern regions, and highlights an “energy poverty premium” in Japan on the unit cost of energy (per amount of heat). This study also suggests that the ongoing energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables should be promoted carefully with due consideration to the detrimental impact on the energy poor.

Monitoring of regulated PAHs and metals in PM10 near an industrial area and a new highway was carried out between May 2009 and February 2011. Concentrations of 13 regulated PAHs and three elements (arsenic, cadmium and nickel) associated with PM10 were determined. The results from 72 samples corresponding to 72 calendar weeks (one 24-h sample per week) indicate that the mean concentration value of the mass of PM10 was 39.41 μg m−3, of benzo[a]pyrene 0.060 ng m−3, of cadmium 0.026 ng m−3 and of nickel 0.057 ng m−3. Atmospheric arsenic concentrations in the area were not detectable. The metal and PAH concentrations never exceeded the mean annual levels set by the European legislation. The daily limit of the mass concentration of PM10 exceeded 19 times during the period of sampling. Diagnostic ratios of the PAHs were employed to estimate their source profile. The identified sources were domestic heating fuel and vehicular emissions (petrol and diesel). Back and forward trajectories indicated that the area was not an important source of the abovementioned regulated pollutants and that the transfer of pollutants from the highway to the monitoring station was equally as important as local emissions.

An economic and environmental benefit analysis have been performed using data from the field monitoring of a 25-kW wood pellet boiler heating system with thermal energy storage (TES) tanks installed in a home using a low temperature heat distribution system and radiant heat emitters in northern New York State (NYS). Pellet fuel demand was a linear function of daily average ambient temperature. It was used to predict total seasonal fuel and heat demand from the beginning of October to the end of April. A cost of heat (COH) analysis was performed considering all costs associated with the system including capital cost, operation, maintenance, other costs, and final system disposal (or salvation) cost. Sensitivity analysis showed that initial capital cost, wood pellet fuel price, and boiler heating system seasonal efficiency were the top three key factors determining the final COH with seasonal efficiency becomes more significant when pellet price increases. A life cycle annualized cost method was used to determine and compare the costs of heat using natural gas, No. 2 fuel oil, and propane. The study found that at the current seasonal efficiency of 75.8% (based on gross heating value), pellet fuel price of 240 $/ton, and maximum government incentives of $10,000, wood pellet boiler heating is able to replace intermediate efficiency (83%) propane heating systems in NYS at current fuel price of 2.48 $/gal. With a 3.6% fuel price increase to 2.57 $/gal, wood pellet heating is comparable with high efficiency (95%) propane heating systems. In addition, a heating oil price above 3.22 $/gal would make it economically possible to switch from oil heating to wood pellet heating in NYS. It was found that major emissions reductions can be achieved by switching from inefficient wood heating technology to wood pellet heating in terms of reductions in CO2, particulate matter (PM), and CO emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions reductions are also achieved when switching from fossil fuels to wood pellets, but PM and CO emissions increased significantly.

In recent years, artificial neural networks have been employed a lot in forecasting financial price series. Crude oil and natural gas play the most important role in energy markets. Besides, crude oil price fluctuations are closely linked to financial markets. A novel hybrid neural network, DPFWR neural network, is put forward in this paper. The proposed DPFWR combines double parallel feedforward neural network and wavelet analysis theory with a random time effective function. We apply the DPFWR to forecast the energy futures price time series, including WTI crude oil, Brent crude oil, natural gas, RBOB gasoline, heating oil and Rotterdam coal. In order to compare the accuracy of forecasting results, several error criteria are applied to evaluate the forecasting errors of BP, DPF, LSTM, DPFWR and SARIMA models. A new method for error evaluation, called DS-CID, is developed to evaluate the forecasting errors in an attempt to observe the superiority of DPFWR neural network. Based on the empirical analysis, the forecast performance of DPFWR can be distinguished from other models by its great accuracy in this research.

Oil heat management must be reviewed globally as an integrated function as a consequence of the development of the next generation of aeroengines because of its strong effect on the cooling strateg...

The increased use of wood as a heating fuel in residential and small commercial buildings has increased concern about potential environmental and safety impacts, specifically particulate matter (PM) emissions in the nanometer range. Larger particles (> 2.5 µm) can be effectively removed from exhaust streams by emission control devices. However, nanoparticles (NP), due to their size, are more difficult to capture in exhaust flue gases. In addition, NPs have a higher surface to volume ratio, allowing them to absorb organic compounds, causing them to be more reactive than their larger counterparts. This review focuses on the NPs produced from residential wood heating devices. Current emission regulations do not reflect the NP count or type produced from residential wood combustion, although most published studies show that a significant portion of the particles produced during combustion is in the nano-size range. Fuel type, device type and combustion periods have all shown to impact, at various degrees, the NPs produced. Contrary to common expectations, it appears that modern units may generate a higher count of NPs, although emitting less particulate mass than older units. This investigation supports arguments of needed particle type and count regulations in addition to the current mass based emission regulations. In addition to a critical review and analysis, recommendations are made regarding future testing, monitoring and environmental impact studies that address the significance of NP emissions.

This paper examines the role of structural change in the asymmetric adjustment of retail energy prices following changes in crude oil costs. The paper also examines the pattern of adjustment in retail energy prices when exchange rate is accounted for as part of the marginal cost of importing crude oil in European countries with high oil import dependency ratio. The paper shows that the results of Greenwood-Nimmo and Shin (2013) no longer hold when the structural change in the relationship between retail energy prices and crude oil costs is taken into the consideration. The paper also cautions that studies like Kristoufek and Lunackova (2014) that failed to account for exchange rate as part of the marginal cost of importing oil for countries with high oil import dependency ratio may be misleading. In fact, the results of this paper further indicate that once the exchange rate effect is taken into consideration, the possibility of rent-seeking behaviour in the gasoline markets of Italy and Spain disappears; while the rockets and feathers effect observed in most of the ex-tax gasoline, diesel, domestic heating oil and industrial fuel oil markets vanishes.

Termed a "climate-energy contribution", the carbon tax was introduced in France in 2014 to price energy-related CO2 emissions not covered by the European emissions trading scheme. Its ramp-up is likely to accelerate, at least as far as the rate is concerned, calling for an initial assessment of its actual effects. Such an evaluation is what this edition of Information & Debates provides, concentrating on the sectors most concerned. Evaluating the impact of the tax is not just a matter of comparing emissions before and after the tax came into force, but requires a comparison of the emissions observed over the period with the evolution of a "counterfactual" scenario representing the hypothetical trajectory that emissions would have followed in its absence. In the first part, we look at the contextual elements needed to understand how the price signal of carbon affects economic actors by way of energy prices. In the second and third parts we then evaluate the impacts of the tax by taking an ex ante approach and an ex post approach respectively. The ex-ante approach is based on calculating price and tax elasticities. It is carried out indi-rectly by comparing the carbon tax with an increase in the prices of fossil fuels. Although this raises the question of transmission from the one to the other, it has the advantage of not requiring a temporal distance in relation to the introduction of the tax. The results suggest that the carbon tax led to a reduction in emissions from the transport sector of between 0.6 and 1.7 Mt of CO2 in 2017. Taxation of heating oil for its part reduced emissions from the heating of buildings by 0.7 Mt CO2. For transport and fuel oil, the method leads to the prediction that by the end of the five-year period the tax should lead to a reduction in emissions of between 3 and 5.7 Mt of CO2 compared to 2017. These various estimates likely to be a minimum, since it seems that consumers are more responsive to a price increase resulting from higher taxes than to one induced by a change in the price of fossil raw materials. The ex post approach is based on the "synthetic control" method, and involves reconstructing France’s hypothetical emissions from a group of comparable countries that have not introduced a carbon tax during the period. This approach produces a direct evaluation in that the impact of the tax is estimated is implemented over the period the tax has been in force. Applied to France over the period 2014-2017, it does not allow a robust conclusion to be drawn as to the impact of the introduction of the carbon tax on emissions from the transport or building heating sector over the period concerned. This result may be explained by the small number of observations currently available since the introduction of the tax.

Heat pump technology offers a path towards reducing the use of fossil fuels to heat space, providing energy bill savings and reducing air pollution and GHG emissions. The choice of heating method is based on costs; hence, this study examines the gains from operating heat pump systems in public buildings as well as alternative systems using electricity, LPG, and heating oil. The study focuses on the Ruda-Huta municipality in Poland that, as is common in rural areas, lacks access to a district heating system or piped gas. The empirical analysis includes heat pump installations in eight municipal buildings. The study found that the use of ground source heat pumps proved competitive with existing heating systems in terms of payback time. Calculations for three heating energy source scenarios, i.e., electricity, LPG, and heating oil, used the Simple Pay Back Time (SPBT) and the Levelized Cost of Heat (LCOH) methods and the average prices of the three energy types for the period 2012–2021. The payback period calculations disregarded the EU subsidies for heating systems utilizing renewable energy sources (RES). The payback time for electric, LPG, and heating oil were, respectively, 6.7–7.8 years, 4.1–6.1 years, and 6.7–6.9 years. Much larger spreads favoring heat pumps were calculated using the LCOH, and the costs in the case of electric heating were nearly three times higher and doubled when using heating oil and LPG. The gains from investing in heat pump systems have been offset by the increase in electricity, LPH, and heating oil prices, which have been predicted to continue to increase in the foreseeable future supporting the use of heat pumps in rural areas lacking access to, for example, district heating systems. The switch to heat pumps reduced local air pollution by eliminating the burning of fossil fuels to heat space in public buildings.

We examine factors underlying hunting productivity among Inuit in Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada. Specifically, we focus on the role of gasoline use as the main variable of interest—commonly cited as a crucial determinant of hunting participation. Over the course of 12 months, 10 hunters recorded their on-the-land activities using a GPS tracking system, participatory mapping sessions, and bi-weekly interviews. A multivariable linear regression model (MvLRM) was applied to assess whether factors such as consumables used (i.e. heating fuel, gasoline, oil, food), distances traveled, or the number of companions on a trip were associated with the mass of edible foods returned to the community. Results indicate that, despite being positively associated with hunting trip productivity when assessed through a univariable linear regression model, gasoline is not a statistically significant determinant of standalone trip yield when adjusting for other variables in a multivariable linear regression. Instead, factors relating to seasonality, number of companions, and days on the land emerged as more significant and substantive drivers of productivity while out on the land. The findings do not suggest that access to, or the availability of, gasoline does not affect whether a hunting trip commences or is planned, nor that an increase in the amount of gasoline available to a hunter might increase the frequency of trips (and therefore annual productivity). Rather, this work demonstrates that the volume of gasoline used by harvesters on standalone hunting trips represent a poor a priori predictor of the edible weight that harvesters are likely to return to the community.

The purpose of this article is to investigate technique for finding the best model for estimating wood fuel need in Greece for the years 2020, 2025, and 2030, with the aim of making forest bioenergy decisions. A complete time series of historical data exists that concerns a) the consumption of fuelwood and b) the six most important from the independent variables that could influence the consumption of fuelwood, which data cover the time period 1989-2010. The evaluation and choice of the best model was realized with the help of the following six statistical criteria: a) the size of standard error of theoretical values of dependant variable, S.E., b) the value of adjusted R square, , c) the non-existence of autocorrelation among the residuals (εi) through the criterion Durbin-Watson, d) the statistical significance of models coefficients through t criterion, e) the statistical significance of models through F criterion and f) the non-existence of multicolinearity through the values of Variance Inflation Factor. The price of fuelwood influences negatively the consumption of fuelwood, namely as the price of fuelwood increases the consumption of fuelwood decreases. The price of heating oil influences positively the consumption of fuelwood, namely as the price of heating oil increases the consumption of fuelwood increases.

The fuel economic and emission performance of an innovative electric hybrid vehicle (HEV), Dualhybrid, with two internal combustion engines (ICEs) under cold start conditions was studied. Sub-models including powertrain, lubrication and cooling system as well as exhaust system were built and integrated into the models of Dualhybrid and two other reference models: Base model and Fullhybrid model. Coupled lubrication and the exhaust systems of the two ICEs are proposed. The effect of the combination of oil heating and electric heating on the fuel consumption of Dualhybrid was investigated. The results show that the coupled lubricating system of Dualhybrid is beneficial to improve the fuel economy in cold start. The method of hybrid heating can provide a sufficient heating power of the cabin in the initial stage of cold start without declining the fuel economic performance significantly. Coupling of exhaust systems shortens the cold start process of the catalysts, allowing Dualhybrid to achieve a better emission performance in cold start. Through the study, Dualhybrid proves to be a clean and efficient HEV concept.

The aim of this work is to develop dual purposes solar heating system using a heat pipe evacuated tube solar collector. The heat transfer fluid between the thermal loads and the solar collector loop was heating oil. The study provided two thermal loads; a solar water heating system and a solar baking/cooking system that had experimentally investigated under various weather conditions. The experimental pilot unit was installed in the Solar Energy Department, National Research Centre, Giza, Egypt. Several test runs were performed to measure all assigned parameters that affect the system performance. The system is designed to provide hot oil surrounding the inner vessel of the baker with a temperature up to 250o C while the raw food can be baked/cooked and the outlet thermal energy can be used for heating water via an immersed coil in the hot water storage tank; then the relatively cooled oil is returned to the solar collector via hot oil circulating pump. The tested system can be positively contributed to baking and cooking purposes and providing hot water as well. It is considered an environmentally friendly system and can significantly enhance sustainable communities. The system is capable to produce hot water temperature up to 85 oC and an average temperature of about 60 oC during the day which is suitable for residential purposes and industrial process as well The auxiliary heating system can be an electric source in case of using in urban areas and can be renewable energy source like biogas or hydrogen fuels in rural and isolated areas.

This paper investigates the connectedness, in time and frequency domain, between daily returns series of crude oil and petroleum products for the period 2003/01/11-2018/03/12. In doing so, we have applied DY (2012) and BK (2018) spillover method. The overall spillover index value obtained from DY (2012) method is 62.29% and from BK method index value fluctuates with frequency. Further empirical evidence shows that the total connectedness, in time and frequency domain, as measured by a rolling-window approach, has dynamic and volatile characteristics. Our overall results show that there is a high level of partial contemporaneous relationship between jet fuel, heating oil, US gasoline as well as diesel. Furthermore, results from the Wavelet multiple correlations and cross-correlation show that heating oil act as a leader for a short time horizon, whereas gasoline at medium and longer time scale. The results from the DY spillover analysis suggest that among the series analysed heating oil has the highest contribution to others, which is confirmed across frequencies by BK spillover method (and the Brent contributes least to others at all frequency bands). These findings have important implications for a wide range of market participants, including investors, hedge funds, speculators, as well as for energy policy, with different temporal horizons.

Since the industrial revolution, the geopolitics of energy has been a driver of global prosperity and security, and determines the survival of life on our planet. This study examines the nonlinear structure and multifractal behavior of the cross-correlation between geopolitical risk and energy markets (West Texas Intermediate (WTI), Brent, natural gas and heating oil), using the multifractal detrended cross-correlation analysis. Furthermore, an in-depth analysis reveals different associations of the indices of overall geopolitical risk, geopolitical acts, and geopolitical threats against the four energy products. Based on daily data ranging from 1 January 1985 to 30 August 2021, the findings confirm the presence of nonlinear dependencies, suggesting that geopolitical risk and energy markets are interlinked. Furthermore, significant multifractal characteristics are found and the degree of multifractality is stronger between the overall geopolitical risk and WTI while the lowest degree of multifractality is with Brent. Overall, for the WTI and heating-oil markets, the influence of geopolitical threats is more pronounced rather than their fulfilment. Contrarily, the Brent and natural gas are more correlated to geopolitical acts. Energy products exhibit heterogeneous persistence levels of cross-correlation with all the indicators of geopolitical risk, being more persistent in the case of small fluctuations compared to large fluctuations.