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High fuel costs, increasing energy security and concerns with reducing emissions have pushed governments to invest in the use of renewable energies for electricity generation. However, the intermittence of most renewable resources when renewable energy provides a significant share of the energy mix can create problems to electricity grids, which can be minimized by energy storage systems that are usually not available or expensive. An alternative solution consists on the use of demand side management strategies, which can have the double effect of reducing electricity consumption and allowing greater efficiency and flexibility in the grid management, namely by enabling a better match between supply and demand. This work analyzes the impact of demand side management strategies in the evolution of the electricity mix of Flores Island in the Azores archipelago which is characterized by high shares of renewable energy and therefore the introduction of more renewable energy sources makes it an interesting case study for testing innovative solutions. The electricity generation system is modeled in TIMES, a software which optimizes the investment and operation of wind and hydro plants until 2020 based on scenarios for demand growth, deployment of demand response technologies in the domestic sector and promotion of behavioral changes to eliminate standby power. The results show that demand side management strategies can lead to a significant delay in the investment on new generation capacity from renewable resources and improve the operation of the existing installed capacity.

This paper presents the application of a new approach for taking into consideration the variability of the wind resource at different temporal scales (hourly, daily, seasonal, annual) in generating scenarios for energy systems modelling. It is argued that Markov models and auto-regressive models, generally used for synthetic wind speed data generation, do not contain sufficient low-frequency information related to seasonal and diurnal patterns. Under high wind penetration scenarios, the daily pattern of the wind becomes increasingly important to energy system modelling and design. Statistical analysis of various wind locations in the Azores, Portugal, indicates that there are strong seasonal differences in magnitude and shape within a given day that will affect energy system design and performance. The proposed methodology evaluates the frequency of different wind day types, such as afternoon winds or morning winds, along with the magnitude of wind for locations with different quality wind resources. Application of the new methodology indicates that the inclusion of diurnal wind characteristics for the analysis of future energy systems provides better design information, especially as it pertains to generation investment requirements to meet island specific renewable penetration targets, and intra-day surpluses or shortages of wind generation in small energy networks.

Highly Integrated Community Energy Systems (ICES) greatly but not solely dependent on combined heat and power (CHP) sources are a viable approach for dealing effectively with the new set of global threats which Mankind is facing, such as Climate Change, Global Warming and Extreme Poverty. ICES are capable of delivering sustainable electricity, heat and cold to small communities and of working as grid-connected or islanded microgrids, adding technical, economical, environmental and social benefits to populations. The impacts of introducing ICES in current distribution networks can be analyzed at different scales due to the wide range of influence exerted not only at the local but also at regional and global levels. For these reasons, there is increased need for appropriate modeling of ICES for the vital purposes of planning and analysis of these systems. An overview on the available bottom-up tools for the optimization planning and analysis of ICES is done in this paper. The survey shows that DER-CAM can be considered an appropriate tool for the purpose of ICES design modeling due to the robust and flexible three-level optimization algorithm, hourly time step and other scale considerations but particularly due to the several successful applications with modeling microgrid systems. Additionally there is research experience on expanding the objective function for environmental concerns and also with EV battery storage interactions. Finally, GAMS DER-CAM's base language, is a widely known package for allowing changes to be made in model specifications simply and safely. In that sense, there is potential in exploring such tool for the design of ICES. Furthermore, it is found that MARKAL/TIMES, also a GAMS/CPLEX based tool, has scale flexibility which enables it for analyzing the long-term deployment of ICES in time. There is opportunity in this field for further work exploring the sustainability-sound modeling for optimal design of ICES and deployment scenario options evaluation, through long-term time horizons consideration.

Energy policies are often related to the global effort in reducing greenhouse gas emissions through increased use of renewable energies in electricity production. The impact of these policies is usually calculated by energy planning tools. However, the modeling methodologies most currently used are not adequate to simulate long-term scenarios while considering the hourly dynamics of supply and demand. This paper presents an extension of the TIMES energy planning tool for investment decisions in electricity production that considers seasonal, daily and hourly supply and demand dynamics. The inclusion of these dynamics enables the model to produce more accurate results in what concerns the impact of introducing energy efficiency policies and the increased use of renewable energies. The model was validated in Sao Miguel (Azores, Portugal) for the years 2006–2009, where a comparison with real data showed that the model can simulate the supply and demand dynamics. Further, the long-term analysis shows that the inclusion of these dynamics contributes to a better assessment of the renewable energy potential, suggests the postponement of investments in new generation capacity, and demonstrates that using fine time resolution modeling is very valuable for the design of effective policy measures under high renewable penetration energy systems.

An econometric study of the Portuguese residential electricity consumption is presented, with a focus on the influence of dwelling characteristics on consumption. The relationship between the dwelling and household characteristics on per capita residential electricity consumption is estimated at two different scales, involving two distinct databases: the first includes data at the municipality level for 2001, the second is the most recent Portuguese consumer expenditure survey that was collected in 2005 and 2006. The results of the analysis at both scales are consistent and indicate that household and dwelling characteristics have a significant influence on residential electricity consumption. Our results show that in Portugal the direct effect of income on electricity consumption is low and becomes smaller when more relevant control variables are included in the analysis. Future demand of electricity in Portugal will be significantly influenced by trends in socioeconomic factors as well as changes in the building stock. These trends should be taken in consideration in the formulation of policy measures to reduce electricity consumption.

CCS has the potential to act as a bridge reducing CO 2 emissions now as the world moves to renewable sources of energy. Yet questions over the security of CO 2 storage and the cost of large scale deployment remain. This work looks at the key technoeconomical issues which arise in CO 2 storage, including the characterization of possible storage sites - one of the main targets of this work - with the principal focus to describe candidate CO 2 storage reservoirs and the process by which CO 2 could be injected and stored in these formations. A thorough evaluation of these formations and their ability to accept and retain injected CO 2 must be an essential component of site assessment before any CO 2 is injected. Here we take a closer look at these formations in the broad area of Portugal and try to match the potential sites with the greater CO 2 emissions power plants. At a properly designed and well-managed CO 2 storage site, the chance of CO 2 leakage should be small; thus, concerns about catastrophic release are likely unfounded.

In this study, untreated and treated jute fiber composites were investigated as candidates to replace glass fibers as reinforcement to produce structural composites with better environmental performance. The surface of the jute fibers was modified by drying and bleaching/drying treatments to improve the wetting behavior of the apolar polyester, improving the mechanical properties of the composites. The mechanical characterization of the composites was obtained according to the ASTM standards (D-3039/D-790) and dynamic mechanical analysis. The environmental characterization was obtained by life-cycle assessment method. The treatment characterization was obtained by horizontal attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetry. Finally, jute composites were compared with glass composites and results show that the jute fiber treatments imply a significant increase of the mechanical properties of the composites without damaging their environmental performances.

The auto industry is compelled to improve its environmental performance, namely by making use of renewable materials and cleaner manufacturing processes with lower energy intensity, and at the end-of-life of the auto, recyclable products and materials are desirable specifications that need to be considered at an earlier design stage, i.e., promoting the ecodesign. This paper provides an analysis of such a strategy for a material that is used extensively in the auto industry, namely polypropylene composites, as we have quantified the environmental impacts when sugarcane bagasse-reinforced polypropylene substitutes for talc-filled polypropylene (PP). To achieve these goals, a comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was performed for the two alternatives, from raw extractions to the end-of-life (EOL) phase of sugarcane bagasse-PP and talc-PP composite, where data gathered in different industries in Brazil were included in the LCA GaBi software. Our analysis shows that in addition to similar mechanical performance, natural fiber composites showed superior environmental performance throughout the entire life cycle. This superior performance is because: (1) in the cultivation phase, sugarcane absorbs carbon through the photosynthesis process while growing, thus reducing the global warming impact of the materials used; (2) the production process is cleaner; (3) sugarcane bagasse-reinforced composites are lighter for equivalent performance, which reduces the amount of polypropylene used; and (4) the economic reuse proposed for the EOL sugarcane bagasse-PP composite was the best alternative to minimize environmental impacts.

Components based on composites reinforced with vegetable fibers have awaked interest in various industrial fields. The thermal properties of fibers, matrix and composite define the temperature limits for application and processing of these materials. In this work, a thermal analyzer TGA was used to evaluate the degradation and thermal events of vegetable fibers (abaca, curaua, fique, sisal, cellulose and in natura fibers from sugarcane bagasse and straw), polypropylene (PP) and PP composites reinforced with 15 wt% fibers. Samples were studied by using 30 to 600°C at 5°C.min-1 flow rate under helium or air atmosphere. TG curves from fibers showed weight loss in multiple stages. Before the thermal degradation peak, the abaca composite was more thermally stable, followed by fique, curaua and sisal composites. Thermal stability of composites was inferior for neat PP; however, it had a significant increase for the fiber.

Industrial symbiosis (IS) emerged as a collective, multi-industrial approach to improve economic and environmental performance through the use of wastes/by-products as substitutes for raw materials. The development of IS initiatives depends on the context in which they occur, characterised in terms of social, economic, political, spatial and temporal embeddedness. As a consequence, the context can be influenced to become more supportive of IS through a continuous, interactive process, combining top-down governmental directives and bottom-up spontaneous business initiatives. A strategy to develop and enhance this process is explored in this paper and described by the authors as a middle-out approach. Policies and policy instruments introduced by governmental agencies provide objectives and incentives to businesses. The middle-out approach induces the development of a strategy to create positive feedback loops among agents (e.g. government, industries) that may guide their actions into setting the conditions to support IS emergence. This paper provides a case study that discusses a regional development of IS in Portugal that highlights critical factors for success in implementing IS, and shows that the middle-out approach can also be understood as an extension and combination of previous research on context factors and planned/spontaneous approaches to IS development.

Nowadays, the world faces unprecedented challenges in social, environmental and economical dimensions, in which the industrial design has showed an important contribution with solutions that provide positive answers regarding these problems. In particular, due to its relevance, the automotive industry confronts a moment of crises, and based on the ecodesign of products it has been transforming the challenges in opportunities. In this context, the use of natural fiber composites, produced in developing countries, have presented several social, environmental and economical advantages to design “green” automotive components. Thus, this work through LCA method demonstrates the possibility to use natural fibers through a case study design which investigates the environmental improvements related to the replacement of glass fibers for natural jute fibers, to produce a structural frontal bonnet of an off-road vehicle (Buggy). Results pointed out the advantages of applying jute fiber composites in Buggy enclosures.

This work evaluates the technical performance and environmental impacts, when sugarcane bagasse is applied as reinforcement of polypropylene in a component instead neat polypropylene (PP). To achieve the goals of this study, the tensile and flexural properties and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as a function of fiber content were performed. In addition, different end-of-life (EOL) options for natural fiber composites were proposed, including incineration, recycling (with economic reuse) and discharging (landfill). Besides the good mechanical properties, natural fiber composites showed great environmental performance during the entire life cycle, mainly in the cultivation phase, when sugarcane consumes carbon while growing, contributing to global warming decreases. As a conclusion, sugarcane bagasse fibers production results in lower environmental impacts compared to neat PP and the recycling with economic reuse of sugarcane bagasse-PP composite was the best alternative to minimize environmental impacts after the end-of-life.

The improvement of environmental performance of products is the main focus for many companies. Although, methodologies are fundamental in the design process in order to introduce environmental inputs in the development, it has not been a comfortable practice for companies. In this context, this study is concerned with the development of procedural guidelines for how ecodesign concepts may be introduced to the selection of material. The results point out the importance of the introduction of environmental parameters, since the beginning of the project. In regards to composite material, it is possible to note that vegetable fibers are good choice replacements for fiberglass.

Urban metabolism studies have been established for only a few cities worldwide, and difficulties obtaining adequate statistical data are universal. Constraints and peculiarities call for innovative methods to quantify the materials entering and leaving city boundaries. Such methods include the extrapolation of data at the country or the region level based, namely, on sales, population, commuters, workers, and waste produced. The work described in this article offers a new methodology developed specifically for quantifying urban material flows, making possible the regular compilation of data pertinent to the characterization of a city's metabolism. This methodology was tested in a case study that characterized the urban metabolism of the city of Lisbon by quantifying Lisbon's material balance for 2004. With this aim, four variables were characterized and linked to material flows associated with the city: absolute consumption of materials/products per category, throughput of materials in the urban system per material category, material intensity of economic activities, and waste flows per treatment technology. Results show that annual material consumption in Lisbon totals 11.223 million tonnes (20 tonnes per capita), and material outputs sum 2.149 million tonnes. Nonrenewable resources represent almost 80% of the total material consumption, and renewables consumption (biomass) constitutes only 18% of the total consumption. The remaining portion is made up of nonspecified materials. A seemingly excessive consumption amount of nonrenewable materials compared to renewables may be the result of a large investment in building construction and a significant shift toward private car traveling, to the detriment of public transportation.

Built environment is increasingly dependent on the scientific knowledge which integrates urban design and climate. In the work presented here, the canyon thermal conductance which quantifies the heat transported outside of a canyon street, is analyzed to improve on understanding of how to accomplish this integration. A two-dimensional, steady, k – e turbulence model is used to study the influence of a windward heated wall on the air flow circulation in a street canyon with building height-to-street width ratio (aspect ratio) from 0.7 to 1.5. The numerical results presented here suggest that the air flow regime is strongly affected by buoyancy and three configurations are predicted: (I) and (II) with high Froude numbers ( ≈ 10 1 ) result in one or two stable counter-rotating vortices, with an intenser upper vortex; air flow regime (III), with low Froude numbers ( ≈ 10 - 1 ), is dominated by the lower vortex whose intensity is enhanced by a strong upward current close to the heated surface confining the upper vortex to a strict leeward zone of the canyon. Transitional Froude numbers are found as a function of canyon aspect ratio for transitions between regimes. The relevance of the results for urban design are quantified and analyzed in terms of canyon thermal conductance. The main conclusion is that, for one vortex skimming air flow regime, the canyon thermal conductance linearly increases with wind intensity, being larger streets more exposed to thermal losses. Multiple vortices in the air flow regime significantly decrease the canyon thermal conductance and, therefore, narrow streets provide protection from heat losses on windy and cloudy days and nights.

Urban planning has a considerable impact on the future energy efficiency of buildings and planners lack useful tools to support their decisions. This paper is intended to contribute to fill this gap by presenting a new method based on a genetic algorithm which is able to search for optimum urban forms in mid-latitude climates (35−50°). Here, more energy efficient urban forms are defined as those which have high building absorptance in winter and low summer building absorptance. These forms can be designed by choosing among regular tri-dimensional building geometries with fixed floor space index, which can be parameterized by adjusting the following variables: number of floors, building length ratio, grid azimuth, and aspect ratio on both directions. The results obtained show that adequate urban planning, based on the consideration of the local radiation conditions as a function of latitude, may result in significantly better building thermal performance. In particular, it is concluded that the highest latitudes are more restrictive in terms of optimal solutions: pavilions (cross-sectional square blocks) are best solutions for latitude of 50° and terraces (blocks infinite in length) are preferred for 45°. For lower latitudes, all urban forms are possible. In terms of grid angle with the cardinal direction, it is concluded that the angle should stay between −15° and +15°, except for the latitude of 50° where it can ranges from −45° to +45°. For slabs and terraces urban forms, the spacing between blocks in the north–south direction should be maximized, quantified by a building-height-to-street-width (aspect) ratio which decreases with the increase of latitude, ranging from 0.6 for a latitude of 35°, to 0.4 for a latitude of 45°. For pavilions, the north–south aspect ratio is independent of latitude and should stay close to 0.7. The pavilion is the urban form which allows for a larger number of floors.

Summary Disposal of end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) is a relatively new focus of the European policy community. Technical requirements for car design and minimum reuse and recovery rates for end-of-life vehicles are the subject of a recent European Union directive on ELVs. This directive is expected to induce changes in the infrastructure required for ELV processing, and presents a substantial challenge to maintaining such an infrastructure as economically viable. This paper assesses current and emerging ELV recycling technologies, in order to provide guidelines for the development of future ELV recycling strategies. Emphasis is given to technologies dedicated to automobile shredder residue (ASR) recovery, as an alternative/complement to more labor-intensive dismantling activities. The ultimate goal is to develop a vision of the type of ASR processing technology that could emerge in the future. The analysis is based on a model developed to simulate ELV processing infrastructures, and shredding data are taken from full-scale experiments. The results obtained show that ASR mechanical separation and recycling technologies may enable more extensive recycling and contribute to achieving European Union recycling targets, and can thus be considered as far more promising than technologies based on energy recovery.

The European Union introduced several policy instruments based in the extended producer responsibility (EPR) in order to improve the environmental performance of products and services through their life cycles. In this context, the Portuguese government decided to apply the EPR concept to tyres, and producers were obliged to constitute an end-of-life management system to promote the collection, recycling and reuse of end-of-life (EOL) tyres. This required producers, distributors, recyclers and retreaders to be identified and characterized, and local processing infrastructures to be analyzed. The information was used to design an economically optimised EOL tyre management system while promoting the activity of all EOL operators in order for the imposed collecting and recovery targets to be fulfilled. This paper discusses the interaction between the different governmental, private and academic institutions for the creation of the integrated management system for EOL tyres, the approach taken, the technical, political and legal aspects underneath them, as well as the environmental consequences induced by the creation of the management system. The results obtained during the first years of operation are reported and show an increase in the collection and recycling of EOL tyres and the consolidation of the collection and processing infrastructures.

Brazil has a well established ethanol production program based on sugarcane. Sugarcane bagasse and straw are the main by-products that may be used as reinforcement in natural fiber composites. Current work evaluated the influence of fiber insertion within a polypropylene (PP) matrix by tensile, TGA and DSC measurements. Thus, the mechanical properties, weight loss, degradation, melting and crystallization temperatures, heat of melting and crystallization and percentage of crystallinity were attained. Fiber insertion in the matrix improved the tensile modulus and changed the thermal stability of composites (intermediary between neat fibers and PP). The incorporation of natural fibers in PP promoted also apparent T c and ΔH c increases. As a conclusion, the fibers added to polypropylene increased the nucleating ability, accelerating the crystallization process, improving the mechanical properties and consequently the fiber/matrix interaction.

This chapter explores how industrial ecology concepts and tools were used to support the design of waste management systems and policies in Portugal. The focus is on a set of case studies that illustrate the results of a successful cooperation between government, private institutions, and academia to transform waste into a useful resource for socio-economic development.

This chapter gives an overall summary of the challenges faced by European countries regarding the adoption of nZEBs, particularly focusing in the training needs in the Southern Mediterranean countries, and on the experience reached so far by the ongoing SouthZEB Project. Therefore, it first elaborates on the nZEB concept definition framework focusing on the relevance of the topic to local and regional development purposes. Secondly, the chapter gives an overview of the definitions that may be used to the adoption of nZEB across European countries. The perspective presented is first through a top-down approach, based on the policy implementation efforts developed by the European Commission and, after that, based on a bottom-up perspective, including an overview of existent voluntary standards that may be regarded as contributing to the adoption of near zero energy buildings. Thirdly, the chapter reflects on some of the barriers encountered that hamper nZEB adoption, specifically addressing the need for professional training in Southern European countries. Finally, the methodology used by the SouthZEB Project to define the training and certification needs, which is based on the participatory process, is presented along with an overview of the project major results achieved until now and the main difficulties identified so far.

This paper presents novel design for recycling (DfR) strategies that were incorporated in a new software tool, combining the use of emerging technologies dedicated to automobile shredder residue recycling, together with design for dismantling strategies. Extended producer responsibility enforces manufacturers to maintain product responsibility along its life cycle. As a consequence, manufacturers are under pressure to dispose of products in an environmentally responsible manner. The auto industry has been particularly involved in these processes and, in particular, European Union directives stipulate minimum reuse and recovery rates for end-of-life vehicles. This framework provides a motivation for the increasing use of dedicated design for recycling tools and practices. The current end-of-life vehicle processing is embodied by two industries: dismantling and shredding. If until recently dismantling was a key strategy in DfR, the auto industry has been investing in the development of automated technologie...

A new method is developed for solving the shortwave and longwave net radiative balance of a three-dimensional urban structure, represented by parallelepiped blocks uniformly distributed in each direction. The method is based on a novel approach to determine the shape factors among surfaces, which are estimated by Monte Carlo techniques due to the complex geometry associated with the three-dimensional urban structure. Then, a set of linear equations is solved to quantify the radiative balance, in order to obtain their exact solution, considering all the inter-reflections among surfaces. The comparison between the new and the ray-tracing tracking methods resulted in a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.996. However, by integrating the linear equations’ exact solution with Monte Carlo techniques, the new method reduces by a factor of 36 the central processing unit (CPU) time used to perform the calculations of the ray-tracing tracking method. The use of the model for a sensitivity study allows us to verify the effective absorptance and emittance increases with the canyon aspect ratio of the urban layout. An urban structure formed by square cross-sectional blocks absorbs more solar radiation than an urban structure formed by rectangular cross-sectional blocks. The approximation of a specific geometry for an equivalent bi-dimensional infinite street can be applied for rectangular cross-sectional blocks, where the width is 11 times or more greater than the depth dimension.

Innovation, a broad social and economic activity within emerging societies, transcends any specific technology, even if revolutionary, and is tied to attitudes and behaviours oriented towards the exploitation of change by adding value. In this context, we analyse on-going paths towards innovative societies taking into consideration their sustainable development. The solution-space for innovation for sustainability is characterised by three dimensions: 1) the entire lifespan of a product; 2) the entire socio-technic network of which a particular plant is part of, or from which a particular product emerges; and 3) stakeholders and decision processes, including business organisations and strategies; and public institutions, policy and regulatory frameworks. All theses three dimensions are shown to be critically related with the social appropriation of a broad knowledge base, which calls our special attention to the systems of innovation and competence building shaping our societies. Societies and their organisations differ in their approach to sustainability. Distinguishing between different types of stakeholders helps to elucidate barriers to change, and to exploit the solution-space for innovation. The contributions in this Special Issue illustrate various dimensions of the innovation-space and their related knowledge base. The examples addressed support the conclusion that the framework presented has general applicability to analyse and foster innovation for sustainability.

Technical requirements for car design and minimum reuse and recovery rates for end-of-life vehicles (ELV) are the subject of a new EU Directive on ELV. This Directive is expected to induce changes in the infrastructures required for ELV processing, and presents a challenge to maintain such economically viable infrastructure. Technical-cost models of ELV processing operators were developed to interpret the changing economics of auto recycling activities under the new EU Directive on ELV. The results obtained show that the recycling targets defined in the EU Directive for 2006, require the removal of an increased number of plastic parts from an ELV. In particular, removing up to 14% of the ELV mass results in a recycling rate over 80%, even for vehicles with a ferrous content up to about 65%. These operations can be performed economically by dismantlers, provided that they may get a steady flow of ELV hulks, free of charge, and that the international quotation for steel scrap does not come significantly below 120 €/ton. In the long term, developing separation technologies for automotive shredder residues and finding recycling possibilities for the products gained from the separation, might be a valuable scenario to meet the 2015 recycling quotas.

This paper follows a previous work that identifies a consistent pattern of increasing materials consumption associated with economic growth, until a certain income threshold is reached [Canas A, Ferrao P, Conceicao P. A new environmental Kuznets curve? Relationship between direct material input and income per capita: evidence from industrialized countries. Ecol Econ 2003:46;217–29]. Emphasis is given to the analysis of the economy's metabolism along the period of increasing material consumption, which is associated with transitional economies . Here, an empirical analysis is provided, based on the study of the development of the Portuguese economy, which during the last two decades of the 20th century has crossed this development stage. The mechanisms that induced this transition in material consumption for the Portuguese economy are discussed and the analysis is completed by closing the material balance for the year 2000 in order to understand how material flows have crossed the economy and were transformed in products, stocks, or environmental burdens. It is demonstrated that the development model for this transitional economy corresponds to an increase in materials consumption related to strengthening the infrastructures that are required to improve physical infrastructures. Understanding the metabolism of transitional economies is assumed to be particularly relevant to a global sustainable development, as large emerging economies may be entering in this process.

Many studies have focused on the quantification of the input of materials into the economy. However, the insights provided by those studies have generally been limited. This paper attempts to bring analytical value to the discussion on “dematerialization” considering direct material input (DMI) per capita as the dependent variable in a test of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). The explanatory variable is, as usual, gross domestic product per capita. The quadratic and cubic versions of the EKC are tested econometrically, using panel data ranging from 1960 to 1998 for 16 industrialised countries. The results indicate a strong and robust support for both the quadratic and cubic EKC relationships between material input and income, in industrialised economies. While the statistical support to both types of evolution may seem contradictory, it suggests that as industrialised economies grow, the intensity of material consumption first increases, but eventually starts exhibiting a decreasing trend after a certain income threshold is reached. The inverted-U, or quadratic, relationship is confirmed, even though for the ranges of income considered in this study, the trend is mostly on the increasing part of the inverted-U curve. However, the statistical support to the cubic specification suggests that these results need to be regarded with caution. Overall, the statistically stronger models are the quadratic and cubic models with country random effects, and the cubic model with country and year fixed effects.

The thin layer drying kinetics of olive bagasse at relatively high temperatures is characterized. The influences of product granularity, gas velocity and temperature on the kinetics have been experimentally analysed. A laboratory dryer and its data acquisition system were designed and constructed to enable a wide range of operating velocities and temperatures. The drying conditions, investigated in this study, included combustion products of air and propane with dry-bulb temperatures ranging from 125 to 250°C, relative humidity lower than 1% and gas velocities ranging from 0·5 to 2·0 ms −1 . The results of the drying kinetics experiments were fitted to a model based on Fick's law, which allowed for the determination of the effective moisture diffusivity as a function of temperature. Accurate agreement between experimental results and predicted curves was found for gas velocities above a critical velocity , quantified as 1·5 ms −1 .

An optical diagnostic technique for measuring 3D temperature distributions in a flame, making use of new emission tomography reconstruction algorithms, is presented. The new approach aims to overcome the limitations of previous applications of emission tomography to flames, which did not consider radiation absorption inside the flame, mainly because reconstruction algorithms used did not allow for the inclusion of an absorption correction term, and this constituted a major limitation to the accuracy of the technique. In this paper an experimental set-up, together with dedicated tomographic reconstruction algorithms that include a flame radiation absorption model, is developed and tested in non-premixed laboratorial flames. The results indicate that it is possible to reconstruct the 3D-lem-perature fields of either axissymmetric or non-axissymmetric flames, with uncertainties below ±10%, provided that soot is available.

This paper describes recent progress in the analysis of the nature of turbulent premixed flames stabilised behind an axisymmetric baffle which are of fundamental interest in the development of new and cleaner combustion systems. The work includes the use of laser-based diagnostics for velocity and temperature measurements, which are extended to the analysis of turbulence statistics, including the energy spectrum and typical length scales in a reacting shear layer. The results provided experimental evidence of the extension of the flamelet regime beyond the Klimov--Williams criterion. Arguments based on the shape of the weighted-joint-probability distributions of axial velocity and temperature fluctuations show that the counter-gradient nature of heat flux is associated with the preferential deceleration of products of combustion in relation to the cold reactants.

The expert contributors illustrate that sources of regional competitiveness are strongly linked with spatially observable yet increasingly flexible realities, and include building advanced and efficient transport, communications and energy networks, changing urban and rural landscapes, and creating strategic and forward-looking competitiveness policies. They investigate long-term interactions between regional competitiveness and urban mobility, as well as the connections that link global sustainability with local technological and institutional innovations, and the intrinsic diversity of spatially rooted innovation processes. A prospective analysis on networks and innovation infrastructure is presented, global environmental issues such as climate change and energy are explored, and new policy perspectives – relevant world-wide – are prescribed.

The search for materials with better properties, and more stringent environmental legislation, are pushing the automakers to constantly look for products that are lighter, more eco-friendly, and are still adequate for mass production at low cost. This pursuit is leading to the increase in use of composite materials in automotive components. Composite materials from petroleum-based resins and fibres, like carbon, Kevlar or glass, can well deliver the required mechanical and production requirements, but they pose considerable problems, mainly in terms of their end-of-life process. Vegetable fibres, like jute, ramie, coconut, sisal, flax or hemp, are renewable and biodegradable resources with a production requiring little energy, and provide carbon sequestration. Therefore, they present less environmental impact. They also lead to lighter components than those that use others fibres, like fibre glass. However, some shortcomings are present. Vegetable fibres have high moisture absorption, low microbial resistance, low processing temperature and quality variations, depending on growth conditions or processing.The incorporation of vegetable fibres in automotive components, mostly for interior parts, is nowadays a reality. The tendency is to increase their use. Components like door panels, seat backs, headliners or dashboards, with fibres from coconut, flax, sisal or hemp, are incorporated by the major car suppliers. DaimlerChrysler is one of the biggest proponents, using up to 50 components with vegetable fibres in its European vehicles.For “completely green” composites, a bio-based resin also is needed. They come from renewable resources like plant oil, polysaccharides (cellulose and starch) or proteins. Their incorporation in automotive components has already started, but some issues regarding performance and high cost need to be addressed.Undoubtedly, vegetable fibre-reinforced composite materials are effectively applied in automotive components, with increasing frequency and environmental awareness. This increased awareness is also leading to the successful replacement of petroleum-based resins by bio-based ones.

Price forecast is a matter of concern for all participants in electricity markets, from suppliers to consumers through policy makers, which are interested in the accurate forecast of day-ahead electricity prices either for better decisions making or for an improved evaluation of the effectiveness of market rules and structure. This paper describes a methodology to forecast market prices in an electricity market using an ARIMA model applied to the conjectural variations of the firms acting in an electricity market. This methodology is applied to the Iberian electricity market to forecast market prices in the 24 hours of a working day. The methodology was then compared with two other methodologies, one called naive and the other a direct forecast of market prices using also an ARIMA model. Results show that the conjectural variations price forecast performs better than the naive and that it performs slightly better than the direct price forecast.

Nowadays, the world faces unprecedented challenges in the social, environmental and economic dimensions. Industrial design has an important contribution shown in all of these dimensions with solutions that provide positive answers. In particular, due to its relevance, the automotive industry confronts a moment of crisis, and based on the ecodesign of products it has been transforming the challenges in opportunities. In the broad sense of Bertalanffy s (1969) theory, earth and its inhabitants form a single live body in constant evolutive dynamics, in which the human activity influences and is influenced by the environment. Since natural and artificial systems work in holistic relationship, synergy between and self-organization of living organisms maintains the global equilibrium of the systems. According to Uexkull (1982) there are different and tangible environments which depend on the environmental perception of each species. Thus, the activity and influence of each species in nature are directly related to biological scope. In this sense, the human being developed the ability to create goods and tools to ensure its survival in a hostile and unknown world, beginning a new age based, exclusively, on material consumption from local environment, in which societies perceived and recognized themselves as an integral part of nature. Thus, the consumption rate was consistent with the capacity of the natural systems to absorb waste and generate new natural resources. It did not imply large changes in the environment since it was constrained by biological limits of societies to reach so far lands. After the industrial revolution, landmark of human domain over nature, this equilibrium between natural and human (artificial) systems was changed drastically. The industrialized society expanded its natural limits, accelerating the consumption of natural resources hence the environmental impacts, unprecedented in human history. The human activity has reached a scale that resulted in severe perturbation of the nature (Schumacher, 1989) and as a consequence environmental issues constitute a central theme in international policy debates since the 60s. In this context, a group of researchers founded the Rome Club, which pointed out the limits for population and economic growth based on the finiteness of natural resources, through the well-known report “The limits to growth” (Meadows et al., 1972). From that moment, policy changes were perceived in some countries and sustainability became a central point among policy makers, managers, environmental

Urban systems are the locus of consumption and engines of economic growth in a globalized world. Major cities offer then the most striking examples of the environmental and energy problems that accompany intense urbanization: as cities grow the flow of energy and materials increase and pose serious problems to global sustainability. It is therefore critical to understand the interactions between the socio-economic urban development and environmental pressures, and to develop models that may explain these interactions. Early efforts led to conceptual models of cities as urban ecosystems. Ecologists have described the city as a heterotrophic ecosystem highly dependent on large inputs of energy and materials and a vast capacity to absorb emissions and waste [1,3]. Wolman was the first to apply an urban metabolism approach to quantify the flows of energy and materials into and out of a hypothetical American city with a population of one million. Systems ecologists provided formal equations to describe the energy balance and the cycling of materials . Although these efforts have never been translated into operational simulation models, they have laid out the basis for urban-ecological research. A critical challenge in this context is how to balance service levels, asset management (at times with a growing maintenance backlog), and resource efficiency with respect to materials, energy and cost. In this paper the outline of a spatially resolved model of urban systems is described.

Deregulation of the electricity market and electronic metering led to the emergence of retail activity. In particular, the residential sector is the most challenging for demand side management, because the benefits are not immediate for consumers. However, the benefits of the potential increase in efficiency of the residential sector are widely recognized. Fears of the risks for the consumers resulting from tariff deregulation, the lack of widespread infrastructure of individual measurement, but also the intrinsic characteristics of the residential sector explain why the majority of consumers are not exposed to real time pricing or other dynamic economic or technologic schemes of demand side management. The work here presented aims to gather information about how the consumers use electricity. Based upon a small scale quasi-experiment, this paper looks to understand whether it is possible to single-out patterns of consumption, identifiable by the electricity consumption signature consistent across the sample. Fourier analysis puts in evidence common periodicities in the data, while factor decomposition aggregates groups of variables: hours of the day. The information extracted from the analysis will be confronted by consumers for an assessment on how far the interpretation is from the actual behavioral trends.

Energy systems are frequently based on imported fossil fuels, and this is a problem in different dimensions including, the environmental, the economic and the security of supply, the latter being particularly relevant for any isolated system, like Islands. Renewable energy is regarded as a solution to this problem, particularly considering its transformation in electricity but this does not include the impact of the transportation sector, which represents a significant component of the imported fuels consumption. The other main limitations associated to renewable electricity consists on the need to increase the storage capacity that might attenuate the effect of renewable energy sources intermittence and disparity between supply and demand. In both these main problems associated with renewable energy management, the Plug-in Electric Vehicles (EV) could be a part of the solution in that the use of the vehicle to grid (V2G) technology can provide storage of electric energy during low demand times and use it to match the demand in peak hours and/or to avoid fossil fuel consumption. However, could the large scale EV penetration lead to increasing the fraction of electricity from renewable? Is the usage of EV batteries like as a storage system truly the best solution? Is the EV a better solution for the vehicle's owner than the internal combustion vehicle from an economical point of view? This paper analyses a case study in the Island of Sao Miguel in Azores, where energy systems modeling is used to assess how far large scale EV penetration may lead to increasing the potential for the use of renewable electricity, and discusses the possible revenues for EV owners from providing vehicle to grid power.

The energy problem in autonomous systems, such as islands, promotes the use of renewable forms of energy. The transportation sector, which is a significant part of the energy equation, could allow major breakthroughs by using electric vehicles that can be used for energy storage and sustainable mobility. Current technologies can already be used in smaller islands, such as Flores, where mobility needs are small and a large penetration of renewable energy exists. This work analyzes electric vehicles as alternatives to regular vehicles, but also as a way of building base load demand that can support the increase of renewable energy penetration.

The work shows a case study where LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) was used as a tool-driven in the development of a Brazilian vehicle, namely a Buggy. It analyzed the environmental advantages to employ vegetal fibers in development products by LCA focus using the software SIMAPRO V7.1 based on stages of vehicle, from raw material extraction to production. The results are presented by means of confrontation jute fiber and fiberglass based on Eco-Indicator95. They show that materials are both the base of LCA and also too important to build and support an environmental management of products and process.

A new sensor for high spatial resolution scalar dissipation measurements is presented together with a dedicated signal analysis, which enables the compensation for systematic uncertainty inherent to the diagnostics technique. The sensor is based in Laser induced Rayleigh Scattering (LRS), from a pulsed laser, in a coaxial CO2-air jet The light is collected by a linear array sensor, allowing for instantaneous line measurements of the CO2 mass fraction. The main sources of uncertainty are the shot noise caused by photon statistics and Mie scattering from particles in the flow. Improvements in signal quality were achieved by increasing laser intensity, carefully designing the acquisition electronics, and developing data processing strategies.

A mathematical programming decision model — Life Cycle Activity Analysis (LCAA), integrating economics and environment in the optimization of the life cycle of products is presented. LCAA is based on the integration of "activity analysis" with the "life cycle assessment" framework. An illustrative application taken from the Portuguese used tire market is described. The model features two scenarios for tire end-of-life recovery technologies, where the environmental consequences of the prohibition of tire landfill are analyzed, namely in terms of energy use. Alternative end of life strategies such as tire remanufacture (retreading), recycling, heat generation in cement plants is considered in the model. The model shows that, provided the Portuguese constraints on the capacity of the alternative solutions, the prohibition of tire landfill result in a 5% decrease of energy consumption over the total tire life cycle.

A high penetration of renewable electricity generation requires an improved understanding and modelling capability of renewable energy resource dynamics. This paper develops such a capability for wind. Using historical hourly wind speed data, an enhanced methodology for modelling wind, which includes seasonal, daily, hourly, and location related factors, has been developed. The methodology uses a set of day types, evaluating their frequency in real wind data, to generate hourly synthetic wind speed data, which is critical to designing a high wind penetration energy system. The methodology is applied to three different locations and the results compared to a commonly used method for synthetic wind speed data. It is concluded that the new method constitutes an important advance in simulating the occurrence of different types of wind days, which is particularly relevant in energy systems planning, especially in evaluating the frequency and scale of surpluses and shortages of wind power, and the necessity for...

Optical and probe techniques for measurements of velocity and scalar characteristics have been combined and improved to allow the quantification of the turbulent heat flux generated in recirculating flames. The technique consists on the extension of a conventional laser-Doppler velocimeter through its combination with either laser Rayleigh scattering or digitallycompensated fine-wire thermocouples and measurements are presented in a strongly sheared disc-stabilized propane-air flame. The results are used to assess the extent to which turbulence mixing in flames of practical relevance is altered by the accompanying heat release and reveal the existence of large zones in these flames characterized by non-gradient scalar fluxes.

Environmental and economical concerns are stimulating research of new materials for construction, furniture, packaging and automotive industries. Particularly attractive are the new materials. This paper presents results about the properties of composites of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), polypropylene (PP) and High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) reinforced with natural fibres. The composites were prepared through the extrusion with natural fibres, in an ratio of 30% by weight. The quality of samples was tested utilising injection moulded samples, according to ASTM standards. Results showed that natural fibres can act as an excellent reinforcing material, resulting in low cost composites and improving economical and ecological interests.

The aim of this work is to study the replacement of currently used thermoplastics by composites reinforced with vegetable fibers with several advantages, mainly better mechanical properties, low weight and competitive cost compared to its counterparts. Extrusion and injection molding processes were studied using polypropylene (PP) matrix. The raw materials used were sugar cane bagasse, elephant grass, wood, milk cartons and recycled polypropylene. The composites were tested for bending, tension, hardness and impact resistance, following ASTM standards. The results obtained were extremely positive since they proved that natural fibers as reinforcement can be an important alternative to replace talc and other fillers.

A recent EU directive addresses End-of-Life Vehicles (ELV) as a waste-management problem to be faced on the basis of 'extended producer responsibility' and stipulates minimum reuse and recovery rates for end-of-life vehicles. The task of creating an economically robust recycling infrastructure involves a significant effort to develop systems and procedures that will have to meet requirements established by the ELV directive. In particular, recent innovations in automotive-shredder residue-separation technologies and subsequent materials recycling are a candidate to constitute an alternative strategy to classic component-dismantling procedures. This paper makes use of a systems dynamics model, applied to the Portuguese ELV-processing infrastructure, to evaluate how current practices under different recycling strategies depend on recycled materials markets and on car composition. The main objective is to discuss how far recycling technology innovation can be a major driver for technology shift in the automobile industry.

The adoption of the Kyoto Protocol principles and targets at a EU level, is contributing to develop new environmental policy goals at European and national levels. Although in each nation, these goals are to be monitored at a macroeconomic level, reliable sector-based indicators are crucial to promote effective environmental policies. This paper discusses the use of an Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA) framework, which makes use of official data, produced under the National Accounts Matrix including Environmental Accounts (NAMEA), to enable the analysis of the environmental performance of economic sectors. Methodological extensions to this framework, which enable the environmental assessment of processes and products, are also discussed. A Portuguese case study illustrates the use of the methodology for identifying diverse environmental performances across the main economic sectors, and this is relevant for defining new policies oriented towards enabling Portugal to comply with its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.