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This paper elaborates design scenarios for a sports complex in Croatia from a technical and economic aspect. Different energy options are analysed and two are additionally addressed and discussed as the most viable ones. The possibilities of sports complex renovation are shown by properly choosing the appropriate energy concept and thus reducing the overall cost for produced thermal energy by around 33% and reducing the carbon dioxide emission by a factor of 1.8 in comparison with its present state. Finally, this study presents an example of good practice, where renewable energy solutions can be proposed and where it is possible to cover around 70–80% of overall yearly costs from achieved energy savings for the novel plant that is assumed to be financed through a bank loan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the existence of environmental Kuznets curve in Croatia for the period of 1992Q1-2011Q1. To fulfil to goals of the paper, Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and VECM method has been applied. Results show the existence of inverted U-shape relation between CO 2 emissions and economic growth in long run that is the validity of EKC. Granger causality based on VECM approach shows bi-directional causality between CO 2 emissions and economic growth in short run and uni-directional causality from economic growth to CO 2 emissions in long run. DOLS and FMOLS results confirm the robustness of long run results. Variance decomposition and Impulse response also show similar results. Beauty of the paper is the consistency of results from different techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Cement industry is one of the largest carbon emitting industrial sectors. It is responsible for about 5% of anthropogenic CO2 in the world. Therefore, it is a relevant industrial sector for CO2 emission regulation strategies. Bearing in mind the importance of cement industry in Croatia, and because of the fact that Croatia will soon become an EU member state, the present paper analyses the potential to reduce CO2 emission in the Croatian cement industry. There are several measures that can reduce CO2 emissions from the cement manufacturing process: the use of waste heat as an alternative source of energy; CO2 capture and storage technologies; reduction of clinker to cement ratio; the use of alternative and biomass fuels; the use of alternative raw materials; an energy efficient combustion process. The most energy efficient technology for cement manufacturing today is the use of a rotary kiln together with a multi-stage preheater and a calciner. Since the use of cement calciners is a relatively new technology, further improvement of their operating conditions is still needed. This paper also highlights the results of research in the field of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations that are used for the investigation of process and combustion emissions. The above mentioned measures together with numerical investigations can reduce the effect of cement manufacturing in Croatia on the environment and can make it more competitive with cement manufacturers from the EU. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]