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This paper provides an overview of the various processes used in the recovery of platinum group metals (PGMs) from spent catalysts. PGM recovery is interesting due to their vast industrial applications and high market prices. From the use of renewable resources and environmental protection viewpoints, recycling of PGMs receives wide concerns as the amounts of spent catalyst increases dramatically. PGM recovery from spent catalysts is a challenge due to the fact that spent catalysts are diverse and complex in terms of material and component makeup as well as the original catalyst's manufacturing processes. The state of the art recovery of PGMs from spent catalysts by pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy techniques is highlighted and existing advantages and disadvantages of these techniques are analyzed in this paper. This review also pointed out that the promising processes of PGM recovery are economical, environmentally friendly and large-scale means. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Site suitability assessments are at the heart of renewable energy planning. • A collaborative approach enables developing a fit for purpose decision-support tool. • Stakeholder-driven site suitability criteria supports transparent decisions. • The tool supports informed discussions and fosters consensus on deployment areas. • Data and technological limitations signal action areas for advancing practice. Competing land-use demands associated with planning for renewables is resulting in growing social and political challenges. Spatial decision-support tools are being developed and applied to tackle some of these challenges by facilitating systematic identification of suitable development sites based on technical, environmental and socio-economic criteria. Nevertheless, decision-support tools are often developed with limited input from stakeholders affecting participative and accountable planning and decision-making. This paper aims to address this shortcoming and foster greater transparency in the development of support tools for renewable energy planning, and thus in siting decisions. It present and discusses a stakeholder-driven approach to the co-creation of an online decision-support tool that attends to planning policy, technical considerations, environmental protection and social concerns influencing renewable energy planning decisions in Ireland. This bottom-up approach, easily transferable to other jurisdictions, fosters proactive expert input, awareness raising and greater comprehensibility and acceptance of siting decisions. It also enables developing an interface that responds to users' needs. The paper contributes to advancing renewable energy planning practice through effective and meaningful stakeholder engagement that supports transparent and accountable decisions from the outset. It also highlights ongoing data and technological shortcomings affecting the integration and operationalisation of stakeholders demands and needs, which signal priority areas of action to further advance the development of renewable energy decision-support tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the self-declared energy and environmental protection objectives of many car manufacturers responsible companies must use energy-efficient production technologies. The running costs of production sites are a decisive factor in the overhead of automotive production. Therefore, it is important for many operators to reduce those costs in a sustainable way. For this purpose, they attempt to reduce both the energy consumption costs and CO 2 emissions of production systems. However, most components of the energy costs are determined during the very early phases of the product creation process. To achieve an estimation of the energy consumption in this early planning stage, a new suitable forecasting method is required. Therefore, this paper presents an approach for determining the prospective energy consumption by using Methods-Energy Measurement combined with defined energy reference cycles for manufacturing technologies. With this approach, key performance indicators are defined, and the production technologies are divided into basic energy consumers. The average energy values will be determined empirically by using the defined energy reference cycles. With these data, the energy demands for different scenarios are calculated. Thereby, it is possible to estimate the potential energy consumption of complex manufacturing cells. The designed method is validated within a case study of a modern automotive body shop. In summary, the approach contributes to identify and realize sustainable solutions in advance and thus increase the profitability of a factory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dust explosions have accounted for numerous deaths, disappearance of companies, and large financial losses, and yet they are one of the least recognized of industrial fire hazards. They can occur within any process where a combustible dust is handled, produced or stored, and can be triggered by any energy source, including static sparks, friction and incandescent material. The management of dust explosion risk includes the implementation of both preventive and protective measures. Whereas preventive measures may reduce explosion risks efficiently, they rarely are sufficient to eliminate explosions completely. Therefore, explosion protection measures often need to be considered as well. This paper presents dust explosion protection methods, including venting, flameless venting, suppression, and isolation, and describes their application limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the isolated island micro grid, a safe and reliable energy supply system is indispensable. Generally speaking, the power generation modules of an small and medium-sized isolated island energy system with off-grid power supply mode mainly include diesel generator(DIG) and distributed power supply. In order to smooth the power output fluctuation of wind and solar, coordinate the output of multiple energy generation technologies, and increase the penetration rate of distributed energy, it is necessary to develop a flexible and reliable energy system, and an efficient and smart scheduling strategy. In this paper, the power-to-gas (P2G) technology is introduced to construct a multi-energy complementary integrated energy system with deep coupling of power-gas network. Four possible game planning models are proposed by using game theory analysis method, and the energy scheduling strategies under each game mode are obtained by particle swarm optimization(PSO). By comparing the scheduling strategies under the four game modes, it can be found that the synergistic response of hydrogen and methane in the alliance cooperative game mode has absolute advantages in reducing the curtailment rate of wind and solar energy, balancing the income of each participant, improving the total income of the system, and saving energy and environmental protection. • A multi-energy complementary electric-gas coupled model containing five kinds of generators is established. • Four possible game modes are proposed. • Optimization of electrical load and gas load scheduling strategies for an isolated island microgrid. • Uninterrupted electricity and gas supply assured from the analysis. • The penetration rate of distributed renewable energy are improved and the share of diesel generator power is reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]