Technological Innovation in Biomass Energy for the Sustainable Growth of Textile Industry

The impact of high economic growth and technology advancement on extensive energy production in China: evidence using NARDL model

High energy production is the global requirement that is the demand of high economic growth in the country and needs regulators and recent researchers' emphasis. Therefore, the current study examines the impact of economic factors such as gross domestic product (GDP), national income, employment rate, foreign direct investment (FDI), and inflation and technological advancement on energy production in China. The present article has used the secondary data extracted from World Development Indicators (WDIs) from 1976 to 2020. The present research has employed the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lagged (NARDL) model to explore the association among the understudy constricts. The findings revealed that all the economic factors such as GDP, national income, employment rate, FDI, inflation, and technological advancement have a significant and positive association with energy production in China. This article guides the relevant authorities and policymakers in developing and implementing the policies related to generating high energy production using foremost economic factors.

An Internet of Things Embedded Sustainable Supply Chain Management of B2B E-Commerce

Adopting digital technologies in a business can help with sustainable supply chain management. These technologies can make e-commerce development faster and empower the emergence of B2B e-commerce businesses. In this study, our focus was to develop a framework for an Internet of things (IoT) embedded sustainable supply chain to deliver textile items using a B2B e-commerce business model. We formulated a mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP) model to minimize the total supply chain cost, including the B2B orders’ packaging, handling, and transportation, with carbon emission taxation. Furthermore, the purchasing cost of the RFID tags and IoT facilities that were provided on the transport vehicles was high. The proposed model was solved by using the global solver in the LINGO software package and finding the optimized value of the total supply chain network cost. We tested the proposed model in different case scenarios, i.e., small- to significant-sized problems. Then, a sensitivity analysis was performed to observe the variations in the overall cost of the supply chain network when there were changes in the main parameters of the proposed model. The results of the models showed that models can be helpful for efficient logistics planning and supply chain design.

Microwave assisted carbonization and activation of biochar for energy-environment nexus: A review

Conventional thermochemical conversion techniques for biofuel production from lignocellulosic biomass is often non-selective and energy inefficient. Microwave assisted pyrolysis (MAP) is cost and energy-efficient technology aimed for value-added bioproducts recovery from biomass with less environmental impacts. The present review emphasizes the performance of MAP in terms of product yield, characteristics and energy consumption and further it compares it with conventional pyrolysis. The significant role of biochar as catalyst in microwave pyrolysis for enhancing the product selectivity and quality, and the influence of microwave activation on product composition identified through sophisticated techniques has been highlighted. Besides, the application of MAP based biochar as soil conditioner and heavy metal immobilization has been illustrated. MAP accomplished at low temperature creates uniform thermal gradient than conventional mode, thereby producing engineered char with hotspots that could be used as catalysts for gasification, energy storage, etc. The stability, nutrient content, surface properties and adsorption capacity of biochar was enhanced by microwave activation, thus facilitating its use as soil conditioner. Many reviews until now on MAP mostly dealt with operational conditions and product yield with limited focus on comparative energy consumption with conventional mode, analytical techniques for product characterization and end application especially concerning agriculture. Thus, the present review adds on to the current state of art on microwave assisted pyrolysis covering all-round aspects of production followed by characterization and applications as soil amendment for increasing crop productivity in addition to the production of value-added chemicals, thus promoting process sustainability in energy and environment nexus.

The role of information and communication technologies in mitigating carbon emissions: evidence from panel quantile regression

The objective of the study is to analyze the dynamic linkages between technology factors and carbon emission in a panel of 26 selected European countries from 2000 to 2017. The results of the panel fixed-effect regression model show the monotonic increasing function between agriculture technology and carbon emissions. In contrast, panel quantile regression confirmed the inverted U-shaped 'Agriculture Technology Kuznets curve (ATKC)' of carbon emissions at 30th quantile distribution to 80th quantile distribution with the turning points of 12,60,000 tractors to 9,68,000 tractors, respectively. The results further exhibit the negative relationship between high-technology exports and carbon emissions, as high-technology exports have a positive impact on environmental quality in order to reduce carbon emissions across countries. The relationship between ICT goods exports and carbon emissions is complimentary, while R&D expenditures have a negative relationship with carbon emissions in a given period. The study substantiates the 'pollution haven hypothesis (PHH)' that is controlled by trade liberalization policies. The telephone and mobile penetrations have a differential impact on carbon emissions in both of the prescribed statistical techniques, which needs fair economic policies in order to delimit carbon emissions through green ICT infrastructure. The results further exhibit the 'material footprint' that is visible at the earlier stages of economic development while it is substantially decreasing at the later stages to verify 'environmental Kuznets curve (EKC)' hypothesis with a turning point of US$45,700. Finally, the study shows the positive relationship between industry value-added and carbon emissions that sabotaged the process of green development across countries. The study concludes that green ICT infrastructure is imperative for sustainable production and consumption, and climate change protection with cleaner production techniques and environmental regulations that reshape the international policies towards sustained growth.

A Logistics Management System for a Biomass-to-Energy Production Plant Storage Park

The biomass industry is growing due to the current search for greener and more sustainable alternatives to fossil energy sources. However, this industry, due to its singularity, presents several challenges and disadvantages related to the transportation of raw materials, with the large volumes that are usually involved. This project aimed to address this internal logistics situation in torrefied biomass pellets production with two different biomass storage parks, located in Portugal. The main park receives raw material coming directly from the source and stores it in large amounts as a backup and strategic storage park. The second park, with smaller dimensions, precedes the production unit and must be stocked daily. Therefore, a fleet of transport units with self-unloading cranes is required to help to unload the biomass at the main park and transport the raw material from this park to the one preceding the production unit. Thus, the main goal was to determine the dimensions of the fleet used in internal transportation operations to minimize the idle time of the transport units using a methodology already in use in the mining and quarrying industry. This methodology was analyzed and adapted to the situation presented here. The implementation of this study allows the elimination of unnecessary costs in an industry where the profit margins are low.