Iran, Islamic Republic of

Disposing of plastic waste through burial or burning leads to air pollution issues while also contributing to gas emissions and plastic waste spreading underground into seas via springs. Henceforth this research aims at reducing plastic waste volume while simultaneously generating clean energy. Hydrogen energy is a promising fuel source that holds great value for humanity. However achieving clean hydrogen energy poses challenges including high costs and complex production processes especially on a national scale. This research focuses on Iran as a country capable of producing this energy examining the production process along with related challenges and the general supply chain. These challenges encompass selecting appropriate raw materials based on chosen technologies factory capacities storage methods and transportation flow among different provinces of the country. To deal with these challenges a mixed-integer linear programming model is developed to optimize the hydrogen supply chain and make optimal decisions about the mentioned problems. The supply chain model estimates an average cost—IRR 4 million (approximately USD 8)—per kilogram of hydrogen energy that is available in syngas during the initial period; however subsequent periods may see costs decrease to IRR 1 million (approximately USD 2) factoring in return-on-investment rates.

Hydrogen is gaining prominence as a sustainable energy source in the UK aligning with the country’s commitment to advancing sustainable development across diverse sectors. However a rigorous examination of the interplay between the hydrogen economy and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is imperative. This study addresses this imperative by comprehensively assessing the risks associated with hydrogen production storage transportation and utilization. The overarching aim is to establish a robust framework that ensures the secure deployment and operation of hydrogen-based technologies within the UK’s sustainable development trajectory. Considering the unique characteristics of the UK’s energy landscape infrastructure and policy framework this paper presents practical and viable recommendations to facilitate the safe and effective integration of hydrogen energy into the UK’s SDGs. To facilitate sophisticated decision making it proposes using an advanced Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) tool incorporating regret theory and a 2-tuple spherical linguistic environment. This tool enables a nuanced decision-making process yielding actionable insights. The analysis reveals that Incident Reporting and Learning Robust Regulatory Framework Safety Standards and Codes are pivotal safety factors. At the same time Clean Energy Access Climate Action and Industry Innovation and Infrastructure are identified as the most influential SDGs. This information provides valuable guidance for policymakers industry stakeholders and regulators. It empowers them to make well-informed strategic decisions and prioritize actions that bolster safety and sustainable development as the UK transitions towards a hydrogen-based energy system. Moreover the findings underscore the varying degrees of prominence among different SDGs. Notably SDG 13 (Climate Action) exhibits relatively lower overall distinction at 0.0066 and a Relation value of 0.0512 albeit with a substantial impact. In contrast SDG 7 (Clean Energy Access) and SDG 9 (Industry Innovation and Infrastructure) demonstrate moderate prominence levels (0.0559 and 0.0498 respectively) each with its unique influence emphasizing their critical roles in the UK’s pursuit of a sustainable hydrogen-based energy future.

It is now well established that electrochemical systems can optimally perform only within a narrow range of temperature. Exposure to temperatures outside this range adversely affects the performance and lifetime of these systems. As a result thermal management is an essential consideration during the design and operation of electrochemical equipment and can heavily influence the success of electrochemical energy technologies. Recently significant attempts have been placed on the maturity of cooling technologies for electrochemical devices. Nonetheless the existing reviews on the subject have been primarily focused on battery cooling. Conversely heat transfer in other electrochemical systems commonly used for energy conversion and storage has not been subjected to critical reviews. To address this issue the current study gives an overview of the progress and challenges on the thermal management of different electrochemical energy devices including fuel cells electrolysers and supercapacitors. The physicochemical mechanisms of heat generation in these electrochemical devices are discussed in-depth. Physics of the heat transfer techniques currently employed for temperature control are then exposed and some directions for future studies are provided.

The concerns over food security and protein scarcity driven by population increase and higher standards of living have pushed scientists toward finding new protein sources. A considerable proportion of resources and agricultural lands are currently dedicated to proteinaceous feed production to raise livestock and poultry for human consumption. The 1st generation of microbial protein (MP) came into the market as land-independent proteinaceous feed for livestock and aquaculture. However MP may be a less sustainable alternative to conventional feeds such as soybean meal and fishmeal because this technology currently requires natural gas and synthetic chemicals. These challenges have directed researchers toward the production of 2nd generation MP by integrating renewable energies anaerobic digestion nutrient recovery biogas cleaning and upgrading carbon-capture technologies and fermentation. The fermentation of methane-oxidizing bacteria (MOB) and hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria (HOB) i.e. two protein rich microorganisms has shown a great potential on the one hand to upcycle effluents from anaerobic digestion into protein rich biomass and on the other hand to be coupled to renewable energy systems under the concept of Power-to-X. This work compares various production routes for 2nd generation MP by reviewing the latest studies conducted in this context and introducing the state-of-the-art technologies hoping that the findings can accelerate and facilitate upscaling of MP production. The results show that 2nd generation MP depends on the expansion of renewable energies. In countries with high penetration of renewable electricity such as Nordic countries off-peak surplus electricity can be used within MP-industry by supplying electrolytic H2 which is the driving factor for both MOB and HOB-based MP production. However nutrient recovery technologies are the heart of the 2nd generation MP industry as they determine the process costs and quality of the final product. Although huge attempts have been made to date in this context some bottlenecks such as immature nutrient recovery technologies less efficient fermenters with insufficient gas-to-liquid transfer and costly electrolytic hydrogen production and storage have hindered the scale up of MP production. Furthermore further research into techno-economic feasibility and life cycle assessment (LCA) of coupled technologies is still needed to identify key points for improvement and thereby secure a sustainable production system.

In recent years sustainable development has become a challenge for many societies due to natural or other disruptive events which have disrupted economic environmental and energy infrastructure growth. Developing hydrogen energy infrastructure is crucial for sustainable development because of its numerous benefits over conventional energy sources. However the complexity of hydrogen energy infrastructure including production utilization and storage stages requires accounting for potential vulnerabilities. Therefore resilience needs to be considered along with sustainable development. This paper proposes a decision-making framework to evaluate the resilience of hydrogen energy infrastructure by integrating resilience indicators and sustainability contributing factors. A holistic taxonomy of resilience performance is first developed followed by a qualitative resilience assessment framework using a novel Intuitionistic fuzzy Weighted Influence Nonlinear Gauge System (IFWINGS). The results highlighted that Regulation and legislation Government preparation and Crisis response budget are the most critical resilience indicators in the understudy hydrogen energy infrastructure. A comparative case study demonstrates the practicality capability and effectiveness of the proposed approach. The results suggest that the proposed model can be used for resilience assessment in other areas.

Developing an effective energy transition roadmap is crucial in the face of global commitments to achieve net zero emissions. While renewable power generation systems are expanding challenges such as curtailments and grid constraints can lead to energy loss. To address this surplus electricity can be converted into green hydrogen serving as a key component in the energy transition. This research explores the use of renewable solar energy for powering a proton exchange membrane electrolyser to produce green hydrogen while a downdraft gasifier fed by municipal solid waste generates hydrogen-enriched syngas. The blended fuel is then used to feed a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) system. The study investigates the impact of hydrogen content on the performance of the fuel cell-based power plant from thermodynamics and exergoeconomic perspectives. Multiobjective optimisation using a genetic algorithm identifies optimal operating conditions for the system. Results show that blending hydrogen with syngas increases combined heat and power efficiency by up to 3% but also raises remarkably the unit product cost and reduces carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore the optimal values for hydrogen content current density temperatures and other parameters are determined. These findings contribute to the design and operation of an efficient and sustainable energy generation system.

The most challenging aspect of developing a green hydrogen economy is long-distance oceanic transportation. Hydrogen liquefaction is a transportation alternative. However the cost and energy consumption for liquefaction is currently prohibitively high creating a major barrier to hydrogen supply chains. This paper proposes using solid nitrogen or oxygen as a medium for recycling cold energy across the hydrogen liquefaction supply chain. When a liquid hydrogen (LH2) carrier reaches its destination the regasification process of the hydrogen produces solid nitrogen or oxygen. The solid nitrogen or oxygen is then transported in the LH2 carrier back to the hydrogen liquefaction facility and used to reduce the energy consumption cooling gaseous hydrogen. As a result the energy required to liquefy hydrogen can be reduced by 25.4% using N2 and 27.3% using O2. Solid air hydrogen liquefaction (SAHL) can be the missing link for implementing a global hydrogen economy.

This paper investigates a multi-objective optimal energy planning strategy for a hub incorporating renewable and non-renewable resources like PV tidal turbine fuel-cell CHP boiler micro-turbine reactor reformer electrolyzer and energy storage by utilizing the time of use program (TOU). In this strategy tidal turbine fuel-cell and reformer technologies are considered novel technologies that simultaneously reduce the proposed hub’s cost and pollution. The hub’s total cost and pollution are considered objective functions. To make the results more realistic characteristics of the tidal turbine are investigated by utilizing the manufactory’s company information. The problem is then modeled as real mixed integer programming (RMIP) and is solved in GAMS software using a CPLEX solver. Epsilon constraints method and fuzzy satisfying approach are used to select the optimal solution based on the proposed model. Finally a sensitivity analysis is performed to assess the effective parameters that affect the planning’s results. The results show that the overall pollution is reduced by about 9% by assuming the proposed planning and the total profit is increased by about 30%.

For fast-tracking climate change response green hydrogen is key for achieving greenhouse gas neutral energy systems. Especially Sub-Saharan Africa can benefit from it enabling an increased access to clean energy through utilizing its beneficial conditions for renewable energies. However developing green hydrogen strategies for Sub-Saharan Africa requires highly detailed and consistent information ranging from technical environmental economic and social dimensions which is currently lacking in literature. Therefore this paper provides a comprehensive novel approach embedding the required range of disciplines to analyze green hydrogen costpotentials in Sub-Saharan Africa. This approach stretches from a dedicated land eligibility based on local preferences a location specific renewable energy simulation locally derived sustainable groundwater limitations under climate change an optimization of local hydrogen energy systems and a socio-economic indicator-based impact analysis. The capability of the approach is shown for case study regions in Sub-Saharan Africa highlighting the need for a unified interdisciplinary approach.

Hydrogen globally recognized as the most efficient and clean energy carrier holds the potential to transform future energy systems through its use as a fuel and chemical resource. Although progress has been made in reversible hydrogen adsorption and release challenges in storage continue to impede widespread adoption. This review explores recent advancements in hydrogen storage materials and synthesis methods emphasizing the role of nanotechnology and innovative synthesis techniques in enhancing storage performance and addressing these challenges to drive progress in the field. The review provides a comprehensive overview of various material classes including metal hydrides complex hydrides carbon materials metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and porous materials. Over 60 % of reviewed studies focused on metal hydrides and alloys for hydrogen storage. Additionally the impact of nanotechnology on storage performance and the importance of optimizing synthesis parameters to tailor material properties for specific applications are summarized. Various synthesis methods are evaluated with a special emphasis on the role of nanotechnology in improving storage performance. Mechanical milling emerges as a commonly used and cost-effective method for fabricating intermetallic hydrides capable of adjusting hydrogen storage properties. The review also explores hydrogen storage tank embrittlement mechanisms particularly subcritical crack growth and examines the advantages and limitations of different materials for various applications supported by case studies showcasing real-world implementations. The challenges underscore current limitations in hydrogen storage materials highlighting the need for improved storage capacity and kinetics. The review also explores prospects for developing materials with enhanced performance and safety providing a roadmap for ongoing advancements in the field. Key findings and directions for future research in hydrogen storage materials emphasize their critical role in shaping future energy systems.