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Background, aim and scope: Regional specificities are a key factor when analyzing the environmental impact of a biofuel pathway through a life cycle assessment (LCA). Due to different energy mixes, transport distances, agricultural practices and land use changes, results can significantly vary from one country to another. The Republic of Argentina is the first exporter of soybean oil and meal and the third largest soybean producer in the world, and therefore, soybean-based biodiesel production is expected to significantly increase in the near future, mostly for exportation. Moreover, Argentinean biodiesel producers will need to evaluate the environmental performances of their product in order to comply with sustainability criteria being developed. However, because of regional specificities, the environmental performances of this biofuel pathway can be expected to be different from those obtained for other countries and feedstocks previously studied. This work aims at analyzing the environmental impact of soybean-based biodiesel production in Argentina for export. The relevant impact categories account for the primary non-renewable energy consumption (CED), the global warming potential (GWP), the eutrophication potential (EP), the acidification potential (AP), the terrestrial ecotoxicity (TE), the aquatic ecotoxicity (AE), the human toxicity (HT) and land use competition (LU). The paper tackles the feedstock and country specificities in biodiesel production by comparing the results of soybean-based biodiesel in Argentina with other reference cases. Emphasis is put on explaining the factors that contribute most to the final results and the regional specificities that lead to different results for each biodiesel pathway. Materials and methods: The Argentinean (AR) biodiesel pathway was modelled through an LCA and was compared with reference cases available in the ecoinvent® 2.01 database, namely, soybean-based biodiesel production in Brazil (BR) and the United States (US), rapeseed-based biodiesel production in the European Union (EU) and Switzerland (CH) and palm-oil-based biodiesel production in Malaysia (MY). In all cases, the systems were modelled from feedstock production to biodiesel use as B100 in a 28t truck in CH. Furthermore, biodiesel pathways were compared with fossil low-sulphur diesel produced and used in CH. The LCA was performed according to the ISO standards. The life cycle inventory and the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) were performed in Excel spreadsheets using the ecoinvent® 2.01 database. The cumulative energy demand (CED) and the GWP were estimated through the CED for fossil and nuclear energy and the IPCC 2001 (climate change) LCIA methods, respectively. Other impact categories were assessed according to CML 2001, as implemented in ecoinvent. As the product is a fuel for transportation (service), the system was defined for one vehicle kilometre (functional unit) and was divided into seven unit processes, namely, agricultural phase, soybean oil extraction and refining, transesterification, transport to port, transport to the destination country border, distribution and utilisation. Results: The Argentinean pathway results in the highest GWP, CED, AE and HT compared with the reference biofuel pathways. Compared with the fossil reference, all impact categories are higher for the AR case, except for the CED. The most significant factor that contributes to the environmental impact in the Argentinean case varies depending on the evaluated category. Land provision through deforestation for soybean cultivation is the most impacting factor of the AR biodiesel pathway for the GWP, the CED and the HT categories. Whilst nitrogen oxide emissions during the fuel use are the main cause of acidification, nitrate leaching during soybean cultivation is the main factor of eutrophication. LU is almost totally affected by arable land occupation for soybean cultivation. Cypermethrin used as pesticide in feedstock production accounts for almost the total impact on TE and AE. Discussion: The sensitivity analysis shows that an increase of 10% in the soybean yield, whilst keeping the same inputs, will reduce the total impact of the system. Avoiding deforestation is the main challenge to improve the environmental performances of soybean-based biodiesel production in AR. If the soybean expansion can be done on marginal and set-aside agricultural land, the negative impact of the system will be significantly reduced. Further implementation of crops' successions, soybean inoculation, reduced tillage and less toxic pesticides will also improve the environmental performances. Using ethanol as alcohol in the transesterification process could significantly improve the energy balance of the Argentinean pathway. Conclusions: The main explaining factors depend on regional specificities of the system that lead to different results from those obtained in the reference cases. Significantly different results can be obtained depending on the level of detail of the input data, the use of punctual or average data and the assumptions made to build up the LCA inventory. Further improvement of the AR biodiesel pathways should be done in order to comply with international sustainability criteria on biofuel production. Recommendations and perspectives: Due to the influence of land use changes in the final results, more efforts should be made to account for land use changes others than deforestation. More data are needed to determine the part of deforestation attributable to soybean cultivation. More efforts should be done to improve modelling of interaction between variables and previous crops in the agricultural phase, future transesterification technologies and market prices evolution. In order to assess more accurately the environmental impact of soybean-based biodiesel production in Argentina, further considerations should be made to account for indirect land use changes, domestic biodiesel consumption and exportation to other regions, production scale and regional georeferenced differentiation of production systems

In recent times, demand for energy has significantly increased due to the depletion of fossil fuels and the fast-industrial revolution. This has created a wide space for the development of sustainable and renewable energy sources. Biodiesel has attained exceptional contemplation among other biofuels due to the use of renewable and low-cost resources. Selection of suitable catalyst plays a vital role in biodiesel production by a catalytic transesterification reaction. Compared to homogeneous catalysts, heterogeneous catalysts are most preferred as they have high selectivity and stability with increased biodiesel yield. Heterogeneous catalyst has made incredible development in biodiesel production under mild operating conditions and has less impact on the environment. Nanocatalysts are the effective heterogeneous catalyst, which has brought a tremendous revolution in biodiesel production in recent years. Thus, present review provides a comprehensive analysis of the use of heterogeneous catalyst, importance and challenges associated in biodiesel production. (c) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Biomass, Biofuels, Biochemicals: Biofuels: Alternative Feedstocks and Conversion Processes for the Production of Liquid and Gaseous Biofuels, Second Edition, provides general information, basic data and knowledge on one of the most promising renewable energy sources—liquid and gaseous biofuels—and their production and application. The book delineates green technologies for abating environmental crisis and enabling the transformation into a sustainable future. It provides date-based scientific information on the most advanced and innovative technology on biofuels, as well as the process scale-up and commercialization of various liquid and gaseous biofuels, detailing the functional mechanisms involved, various operational configurations, influencing factors and integration strategies. All chapters have been updated, with new chapters covering topics of current interest, including sustainability and biohydrogen.

Background, aim and scope. Regional specificities are a key factor when analyzing the environmental impact of a biofuel pathway through a life cycle assessment (LCA). Due to different energy mixes, transport distances, agricultural practices and land use changes, results can significantly vary from one country to another. The Republic of Argentina is the first exporter of soybean oil and meal and the third largest soybean producer in the world, and therefore, soybean-based biodiesel production is expected to significantly increase in the near future, mostly for exportation. Moreover, Argentinean biodiesel producers will need to evaluate the environmental performances of their product in order to comply with sustainability criteria being developed. However, because of regional specificities, the environmental performances of this biofuel pathway can be expected to be different from those obtained for other countries and feedstocks previously studied. This work aims at analyzing the environmental impact of soybean-based biodiesel production in Argentina for export. The relevant impact categories account for the primary non-renewable energy consumption (CED), the global warming potential (GWP), the eutrophication potential (EP), the acidification potential (AP), the terrestrial ecotoxicity (TE), the aquatic ecotoxicity (AE), the human toxicity (HT) and land use competition (LU). The paper tackles the feedstock and country specificities in biodiesel production by comparing the results of soybean-based biodiesel in Argentina with other reference cases. Emphasis is put on explaining the factors that contribute most to the final results and the regional specificities that lead to different results for each biodiesel pathway. Materials and methods. The Argentinean (AR) biodiesel pathway was modelled through an LCA and was compared with reference cases available in the ecoinvent® 2.01 database, namely, soybean-based biodiesel production in Brazil (BR) and the United States (US), rapeseed-based biodiesel production in the European Union (EU) and Switzerland (CH) and palm-oil-based biodiesel production in Malaysia (MY). In all cases, the systems were modelled from feedstock production to biodiesel use as B100 in a 28 t truck in CH. Furthermore, biodiesel pathways were compared with fossil low-sulphur diesel produced and used in CH. The LCA was performed according to the ISO standards. The life cycle inventory and the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) were performed in Excel spreadsheets using the ecoinvent® 2.01 database. The cumulative energy demand (CED) and the GWP were estimated through the CED for fossil and nuclear energy and the IPCC 2001 (climate change) LCIA methods, respectively. Other impact categories were assessed according to CML 2001, as implemented in ecoinvent. As the product is a fuel for transportation (service), the system was defined for one vehicle kilometre (functional unit) and was divided into seven unit processes, namely, agricultural phase, soybean oil extraction and refining, transesterification, transport to port, transport to the destination country border, distribution and utilisation. Results. The Argentinean pathway results in the highest GWP, CED, AE and HT compared with the reference biofuel pathways. Compared with the fossil reference, all impact categories are higher for the AR case, except for the CED. The most significant factor that contributes to the environmental impact in the Argentinean case varies depending on the evaluated category. Land provision through deforestation for soybean cultivation is the most impacting factor of the AR biodiesel pathway for the GWP, the CED and the HT categories. Whilst nitrogen oxide emissions during the fuel use are the main cause of acidification, nitrate leaching during soybean cultivation is the main factor of eutrophication. LU is almost totally affected by arable land occupation for soybean cultivation. Cypermethrin used as pesticide in feedstock production accounts for almost the total impact on TE and AE. Discussion. The sensitivity analysis shows that an increase of 10% in the soybean yield, whilst keeping the same inputs, will reduce the total impact of the system. Avoiding deforestation is the main challenge to improve the environmental performances of soybean-based biodiesel production in AR. If the soybean expansion can be done on marginal and set-aside agricultural land, the negative impact of the system will be significantly reduced. Further implementation of crops’ successions, soybean inoculation, reduced tillage and less toxic pesticides will also improve the environmental performances. Using ethanol as alcohol in the transesterification process could significantly improve the energy balance of the Argentinean pathway. Conclusions. The main explaining factors depend on regional specificities of the system that lead to different results from those obtained in the reference cases. Significantly different results can be obtained depending on the level of detail of the input data, the use of punctual or average data and the assumptions made to build up the LCA inventory. Further improvement of the AR biodiesel pathways should be done in order to comply with international sustainability criteria on biofuel production. Recommendations and perspectives. Due to the influence of land use changes in the final results, more efforts should be made to account for land use changes others than deforestation. More data are needed to determine the part of deforestation attributable to soybean cultivation. More efforts should be done to improve modelling of interaction between variables and previous crops in the agricultural phase, future transesterification technologies and market prices evolution. In order to assess more accurately the environmental impact of soybean-based biodiesel production in Argentina, further considerations should be made to account for indirect land use changes, domestic biodiesel consumption and exportation to other regions, production scale and regional georeferenced differentiation of production systems.

Refining Biomass Residues for Sustainable Energy and Bioproducts: Technology, Advances, Life Cycle Assessment and Economics is a one-stop reference on the biorefinery of various kinds of residue and waste feedstock for the sustainable production of biofuels and biochemicals. Written by a team of global experts, this book introduces the concept of integrated biorefinery systems for waste management, as well as their operation and feedstock sourcing. It explores the specificities, current developments and potential end-products of various types of residue, from industrial and municipal, to agricultural and marine, also discussing residue from food industries. Finally, global case studies examine successful experiences in different regions. Practitioners and consultants in the biorefinery, bioenergy and biochemicals sector, as well as those working on waste management will benefit from this book's well-structured content on the types of waste they may encounter, their processing and pre-processing requirements, possible end-products, and cost and sustainability aspects.

The present Master Thesis is oriented towards the development of a tool for the determination of the improvements to be introduced in a representative Minergie case study with the purpose of meeting the Minergie-P label requirements. The engineered tool enables the assessment of the resultant energy, environmental and economic gains obtained and, therefore, constitutes a useful decision support instrument for the actors involved to make their decisions in the early stages of construction. This project is framed in the current context of energy efficiency in buildings and the design of the tool focuses on the Minergie brand, a Swiss quality and construction standard brand since 1998. The representative Minergie case study corresponds to a residential multi-family building of the Swiss housing stock. The building B10 of the construction project for the Arbora district in the town of Renens, constructed by Losinger Marazzi, with some slight modifications, has been taken as a reference. The solution to the problem has been addressed through the attainment of different phases. The first phases have been exploratory: a study of the state of the art of the energy problem, the national regulations concerning energy efficiency in building construction, the theoretical framework and previous relevant publications, articles and reports in the matter of optimisation of building parameters with energy efficiency criteria. Subsequently, the pertinent variables and indicators have been identified and the case study characteristics have been selected. The next phases have been the design of the tool, followed by the empirical phase of automation of the simulations. Finally, the results obtained have been analysed and assessed, and the overall conclusions of the thesis have been drawn. The project concludes by outlining future applications and improvements of the tool. The work has been accomplished within the Bioenergy and Energy Planning Research Group of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne with the support and technical direction of the Building Physics Section of the Environmental Engineering Department of the company Losinger Marazzi, in Lausanne, Switzerland, from 15-02-2022 to 14-07-2022 Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::11 - Ciutats i Comunitats Sostenibles

Objectif : Le canton de Vaud souhaite affirmer la position du secteur Jonction-Venoge en tant que zone d’activités stratégique de l’agglomération Lausanne-Morges. Le but du travail est de proposer des stratégies énergétiques qui découlent des objectifs de politiques énergétiques et environnementales des communes puis d’évaluer du point de vue économique et environnemental ces stratégies énergétiques. Méthode : L’étude LMLV, « Jonction Ecublens – Venoge, Lignes directrices et stratégie d’aménagement » est le point de départ de ce projet de Master pour établir des scénarios urbanistiques. Les données de base pour l’élaboration des stratégies énergétiques proviennent du canton de Vaud, de l’Ouest Lausannois et des communes de Bussigny et d’Ecublens. Le diagnostic de la situation actuelle (2016) et la prévision de la situation future (2030) sont évalués au niveau de la demande et de l’offre d’énergie. Résultats : Contrairement à la stratégie énergétique business as usual, la stratégie durable permet de satisfaire les objectifs stratégiques de communes au niveau de l’efficacité énergétique et de la part d’énergies renouvelables dans la consommation énergétique. Conclusion : La transformation urbaine proposée par les communes associée à une stratégie énergétique durable permettra de transformer le secteur Jonction-Venge en zone d’activités stratégique exemplaire du canton de Vaud, sous réserve de la vérification des hypothèses du travail et de la volonté des propriétaires.

«Je choisirais [de vivre dans] un logement en terre sous condition que toutes les nécessités de ma vie actuelle soient disponibles.» [Propos extraits d'un dialogue à Casablanca. Dans le passé, la personne a vécu dans un logement en terre crue.] Le patrimoine architectural marocain présente de nombreux exemples d'architecture en terre crue, démontrant que celle-ci est bien adaptée au climat local exposé à de fortes chaleurs en été. Au-delà du côté “sentimental” des traditions, la terre crue n'est pas incompatible avec “confort moderne”. Bien qu'éclipsée par l'arrivée des matériaux industriels, la prise de conscience des enjeux environnementaux lui donne un nouvel intérêt dans l'optique de favoriser des cycles courts et des matériaux renouvelables. Alors que le Maroc vient de mettre en place un règlement thermique pour la construction visant l'efficacité énergétique, le projet propose un modèle de logement bioclimatique redonnant une place à la terre dans la conception du bâtiment. Il se situe à Marrakech et se concentre, à l'échelle d'un quartier, sur un nouveau modèle de “maison marocaine” pour la classe moyenne. Proche de l'architecture traditionnelle par sa forme urbaine à patio, il se différencie par sa matérialité. Les murs périphériques des logements sont en adobe créant une enveloppe massive et lisse protégeant des nuisances extérieures. Un revêtement métallique entrelacé recouvre les autres façades plus légères possédant les ouvertures orientées sur le patio. Il module à la fois la vue et la lumière estompant ainsi la limite entre l'espace intérieur et extérieur.

Les bâtiments résidentiels peuvent générer une plus-value pour autant qu’ils soient compatibles avec la spécificité de leur contexte. En vue des transformations sociales profondes qui caractérisent notre époque, les architectes ne seraient-ils pas incités à s’interroger sur l’organisation spatiale du logement contemporain? Ceci est la question sous-jacente au projet “Mittelhof”. En adoptant une approche de conception globale, un traitement privilégié de l’espace privé est consciemment évité. L’espace de vie, structuré par une séquence spatiale graduée qui mène de la cour centrale – librement accessible – jusqu’aux espaces individuels graciles, répond à la multitude des besoins propres aux communautés de vie contemporaines. Avec la conciliation des besoins individuels et collectifs, le projet met en avant un thème architectural qui a marqué l’histoire de la ville de Berne depuis sa fondation. Des principes localement éprouvés, tels que la conception des espaces de circulation comme espaces extérieurs versatiles dans la vieille-ville, ou l’extension de l’espace individuel par des infrastructures partagées dans la “Siedlung Halen”, ont été traduits dans la réalité actuelle et appliqués au logement social. En plus, la flexibilité prononcée de l’espace résidentiel aspire à une utilisation plus efficace et une répartition plus équitable des ressources, en permettant à chaque individu de librement composer son espace de vie en fonction de ses besoins actuels.

It is necessary to specify that this study is an academic work carried out by a student as part of his master's project. The hypotheses and reasoning made by the student are at the origin of the results obtained. Energy has a crucial role in the economic development of a nation or region. The states of ECOWAS, have decided to come together to unite for this challenge and offer quality services to the population. WAPP, a specialized institution, decides to interconnect networks in order to pool the resources of the electricity market and offers quality access at a competitive price to the population. It is therefore necessary to strengthen production, distribution and transmission capacities to ensure the coordination of electricity exchanges between member countries. This study initially consisted in setting up a methodology explaining the progressive approaches that are applied throughout the project. The strategies for expanding the fleet are each analysed: the self-sufficiency strategy including existing imports and bilateral agreements, the strategy applied by WAPP along with variants involving the share of local production for importing countries. The expansion analysis is done with the support of the PlanElec software. An economic and technical comparison is then made on these two strategies, based on the different costs, the different investments, the installed powers by type and the energy produced. It can be seen that the more the share of local production increases for importing countries, the more interesting the weighted cost of production becomes. But this has a limit demonstrated by the autarkic strategy. Indeed, the countries considered as importers use imports and their weighted cost of production is lower than with a local production share imposed. From a global economic point of view, it is more interesting to rely on the major energy powers of the sub-region. With this study, it has been shown that it is more interesting for countries to turn to an open market policy, dependent on the major powers of the region, although politically no country wishes to be totally dependent on another.

This master thesis is the last part of the master studies in the department of Energy Management and Sustainability, at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne. This work has been performed in collaboration with the company Renenig Energy, in Athens. The reader should note that the report is an academical work. Results and conclusion are influenced by hypothesis and should not be taken as general truths. The case study is a fictive project but it is composed of values adapted from another real but confidential project, which makes the analysis plausible. The owner of a private island in Greece wants to build a luxury resort on his island. Therefore, he will also need an electrical generating system that must cover the future electricity demand. Usually, diesel generators are used in remote areas in order to produce electricity. However, this technology is very expensive, and harmful for the environment. This master thesis covers the estimation of the electricity demand and the technico-economical assessment of different energy systems. The objective is to evaluate the potential of a microgrid composed of different renewable energy technologies and compare it to the a baseline system composed of generators only. The hourly electricity demand of the entire island has been modeled using a bottom-up approach with a list of representative types of locals. The consumption of these locals have been divided into three categories : The appliances, the lighting and the heating/cooling. For the energy system which must produce electricity, supply strategies have been defined based on the type of technology. For all strategies, an optimization of the technology installed capacities is performed with the software HOMERPro. It is used as a tool to minimize the net present cost of the energy system and analyze the microgrid energetic behavior. The yearly electricity demand of the island has been estimated to around 11 GWh, with a peak load of 2,5 MW during the summer. The cost of serving this load with generators is $ 63 million with a levelized cost of electricity of 0.467 $/kWh. When integrating solar panels, the system cost decreases to $ 51.3 million with a LCOE of 0.378 $/kWh. Moreover, wind turbines and a battery storage system are also economically viable. The last strategy consists of distributed PV panels on building roofs, wind turbines and a battery storage system. Results show that this energy system can decrease the cost to $ 39.8 million while emitting half of the carbon dioxide compared with the baseline system. However, the battery bank has a large impact on CO2 emissions due to its manufacturing processes. Further work can be done for this case study, especially on the network stability assessment, which was not part of this master thesis. Moreover, the potential of implementing hydrogen in the microgrid could be interesting. This could bring a good storage alternative to batteries.