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Summary: This paper is concerned with innovative approaches to renewable energy sources computation methodologies, which provide more refined results than the classical alternatives. Such refinements provide additional improvements especially for replacement of fossil energy usages that emit greenhouse gas (GHG) into the atmosphere leading to climate change impact. Current knowledge gap among each renewable energy source calculation is rather missing fundamentals of plausible, rational, and logical explanations for the interpretation of results. In the literature, there are rather complicated and mechanically applicable methodologies, which require input and output measurement data match with missing physical explanations. The view taken in this review paper is to concentrate on quite plausible, logical, rational, and effectively applicable innovative energy calculation methodologies with simplistic fundamentals. For this purpose, a set of renewable energy methodological approaches is revisited with their innovative structures concerning solar, wind, hydro, current, and geothermal energy resources. With the increase in the renewable energy utilizations to combat the undesirable impacts of global warming and climate change, there is a need for better models that will include physical environmental conditions and data properties in the probabilistic, statistical, stochastic, logical, and rational senses leading to refined and more reliable estimations with application examples in the text. Finally, new research directions are also recommended for more refined innovative energy system calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Photocatalytic conversion of CO2 into value‐added hydrocarbon fuels and/or useful chemical products, using solar energy, has been the focus of active research, owing to its tremendous potential to provide a green fuel (eg, methanol) and simultaneously mitigate global warming by reducing CO2 levels in the atmosphere. CO2 photocatalytic reduction yields various hydrocarbon products. In this paper, we focus on methanol as it is an easily transportable energy‐dense fuel with multifarious applications in the automobile, industrial, and petrochemical sector. The photocatalytic conversion rate of CO2 to methanol depends on 3 factors: the photocatalyst used, photoreactor design, and experimental parameters (or variables). The last factor—experimental parameters—forms the basis of this review paper. These parameters include the reaction temperature, CO2 pressure, solvent used, intensity, wavelength, and duration of the incident light, concentration of organic impurities adsorbed on catalytic surface, addition of hole scavengers, type of reductant used, catalyst loading method, catalyst concentration, and the dissolved oxygen concentration. There have been numerous published works aiming to improve the methanol formation rate by optimizing these experimental parameters. In this paper, we consolidate and review these parameters, and investigate how optimizing them can enhance the photocatalytic conversion rate of CO2 into methanol, thus ushering in the era of a green methanol‐based economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of global warming, renewable energy technologies have become more essential currently, with solar energy technology advancing worldwide. Therefore, interdisciplinary integration is an important trend, and building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) is an emerging technology involving the photovoltaic and building fields. The purpose of this study is to understand the technology evolution of BIPV and to determine the R&D planning direction. This paper proposes a hybrid approach to explore the life cycle of BIPV technology and develop the R&D strategy of related industries. The proposed approach comprises the following submodules. First, patent analysis is employed to transform patent documents into structured data. Second, the logistic growth model is used to explore the life cycle of BIPV technology. Third, a patent matrix map analysis is used to develop the R&D strategy of the BIPV industry. Through the analysis by the logistic model, the BIPV technology is transformed from the emerging stage to the growth stage of a long-term life cycle. The other important result is created by the three-dimensional matrix for R&D strategies in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and the wish to reduce the dependence on oil are the incentives for the development of alternative energy sources. The use of lignocellulosic biomass together with cellulosic processing technology provides opportunities to produce fuel ethanol with less competition with food and nature. Many studies on energy analysis and life cycle assessment of second-generation bioethanol have been conducted. However, due to the different methodology used and different system boundary definition, it is difficult to compare their results. To permit a direct comparison of fuel ethanol from different lignocelluloses in terms of energy use and environmental impact, seven studies conducted in our group were summarized in this paper, where the same technologies were used to convert biomass to ethanol, the same system boundaries were defined, and the same allocation procedures were followed. A complete set of environmental impacts ranging from global warming potential to toxicity aspects is used. The results provide an overview on the energy efficiency and environmental performance of using fuel ethanol derived from different feedstocks in comparison with gasoline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the greenhouse gases which cause global warming. The amount of fossil fuels consumed to meet the demands in the areas of power and transportation is projected to increase in the upcoming years. Depending on carbon content, each power plant fuel has its own potential to produce carbon dioxide. Similarly, the humans consume food containing carbohydrates (CH), fat, and protein which emit CO2 due to metabolism. The biology literature uses respiratory quotient (RQ), defined as the ratio of CO2 moles exhausted per mole of O2 consumed within the body, to estimate CO2 loading in the blood stream and CO2 in nasal exhaust. Here, we apply that principle in the field of combustion to relate the RQ to CO2 emitted in tons per GJ of energy released when a fuel is combusted. The RQ value of a fuel can be determined either from fuel chemical formulae (from ultimate analyses for most liquid and solid fuels of known composition) or from exhaust gas analyses. RQ ranges from 0.5 for methane (CH4) to 1 for pure carbon. Based on the results obtained, the lesser the value of “RQ” of a fuel, the lower its global warming potential. This methodology can be further extended for an “online instantaneous measurement of CO2” in automobiles based on actual fuel use irrespective of fuel composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current overall energy situation showed fragility and insecurity of the global energy supply system, where a majority of the produced energy is still based on the utilization of fossil resources. Utilization of clean energy sources is mandatory and it should be followed by an increase in energy efficiency of energy generation technologies and improvement of energy storage technologies. [Extracted from the article]

Polylactide (PLA) latex particle covered with polypeptide chains were prepared by means of solvent exchange method from PLA and PLA-block-polypeptide block copolymer solutions. PLA segment of the block copolymer and PLA homopolymer formed a core of the particle, and the polypeptide segment of the block copolymer, which is designed as tightly fixed biodegradable emulsifier, formed corona around the particle surface. This picture was supported by the fact that zeta-potential of PLA latex particle covered with polypeptide segment was different from that of bare PLA particle because of the presence of the ionizable group in the polypeptide chains. To clarify the effect of the ionizable group on conformation of the polypeptide chain, the relation between the polypeptide chain length and the area occupied by the single block chain was evaluated. The result that the occupied area per a polypeptide chain was linearly increased with the increase in the polypeptide chain length indicates that the polypeptide chains trail on the particle surface and did not take helical structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]