Search

This study aimed to address the challenges of energy consumption and environmental emissions in the mushroom production sector through an energy audit analysis and life cycle assessment approach. The main objective of the study was to estimate energy and environmental indicators, optimize their outputs using multi-objective genetic algorithm and data envelopment analysis methods, and identify opportunities for energy savings in the mushroom production process. The energy flow analysis revealed that the total input energy for mushroom production was 1022537.82 MJ/m2, while the total output energy was only 11125.94 MJ/m2, resulting in an energy use efficiency rate of 0.01, indicating significant energy imbalance and inefficiency. Electrical energy consumption had the largest share of total consumed energy, approximately 80.6%. The life cycle assessment results showed that the mushroom production chain emits about 8.50 × 10+3 kg of CO2GHG. The results of energy optimization demonstrate that between 6.5% and 25% reductions in energy utilization can be achieved during mushroom production. Among the input energies, compost had the largest quota in energy savings of almost 7% and 26% by data envelopment analysis and multi-objective genetic algorithm techniques, respectively. Thus, it is recommended to implement the multi-objective genetic algorithm technique to identify opportunities for energy savings and reduce environmental emissions in the mushroom production sector, which can lead to significant energy savings and contribute to environmental sustainability while reducing operating costs.

This study aims to assess the energy audit and environmental impact of barley production throughout its life cycle under different irrigation systems. The case study focuses on the comparison of three irrigation systems: flood (FI), sprinkler (SI) and drip (DI). Data for the study will be collected from a barley farm in a representative region. Field measurements, interviews with farmers, and literature reviews will be conducted to gather the necessary information. Life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology will be used to analyze the energy audit and environmental impacts of each irrigation system. The energy audit will analyze the energy inputs and outputs at each stage of barley production, including land preparation, planting, irrigation, fertilization, pest control, harvesting, and transportation. The energy inputs will be quantified in terms of fossil fuel consumption, electricity usage, and other energy sources. The energy outputs will be measured in terms of barley yield and energy content. The environmental impacts assessment will consider various environmental indicators, such as greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, soil erosion, and pesticide use. These indicators will be quantified for each irrigation system to determine their environmental footprint. The results of this study will provide valuable insights into the energy efficiency and environmental sustainability of different irrigation systems. It will help farmers, policymakers, and stakeholders make informed decisions regarding irrigation practices and promote sustainable agriculture. The findings can also be used to identify areas for improvement and develop strategies to save energy and reduce environmental impacts in barley production.

Installation layout of wind turbines plays a prominent role in the design of every wind farm. Thus, the wind farm layout optimization problem is proposed to maximize the total power output with the minimum cost. In this research, Kahrizak region in Tehran province of Iran is selected as a windy region and its real wind speed data are gleaned. Three different scenarios are also considered, with various number of generations and populations for GA parameters, effective distances, and longitude and latitude distances of turbines from each other. Among these scenarios, the best result is obtained for the one in which the longitudinal distance between turbines is greater than the latitudinal distance. By observing the wind rose of Kahrizak region, it is observed that the dominant wind direction of the region is toward the east and south–east. Therefore, by increasing the longitudinal distance of the turbines from each other, the efficiency can be improved and the turbine layout becomes more realistic. In this case, the efficiency rate and normalized cost of turbines are 89.5% and 37.4, respectively, and also 56 turbines are needed. The amounts of efficiency and power output are very convenient for real wind speed data of a region.

Exergy analysis of rough rice drying process in laboratory–scale plug flow fluidised bed dryer was carried out. The drying experiments were conducted to assess the effects of inlet drying air temperature, feed mass flow rate and weir height on energy efficiency, exergy destruction, exergy efficiency, entropy generation, improvement potential rate and sustainability index. The energy and exergy efficiency values were found to be in the ranges of 7.97-31.32% and 4.18-12.00%, respectively. Results showed that the magnitude of exergetic parameters strongly depend on the drying variables. It was also confirmed that exergy analysis presented in this study could be applied to minimise the irreversibilities and losses occurring in the industrial fluidised bed drying systems and enhance the sustainability of fluidised bed drying processes.