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Abstract In this study, a spatiotemporal disaggregated simulation model was developed based on water–food–energy (WFE) nexus approach to assess water and food supply security considering ecosystem provisioning services. The main components of the developed model in this study (SD-WFE model) are population, water, agriculture, and energy modules. The model, which was developed using system dynamics (SD) approach, was utilized to simulate effectiveness of sectoral municipal, industrial, and agricultural water and energy consumption management and environmental protection policies in improving ecosystem provisioning services during a 20-year period. Through sensitivity analysis utilizing the Monte Carlo model, the study addresses the formulation of sustainable water resource policies across four main categories: water demand management, water supply management, food resource management, and energy resource demand management. Additionally, it explores the integration of policies within an optimal framework. The simulation of proposed solutions revealed that a combination of water demand management and food resource management yielded the most promising outcome. Specifically, the recommended solution entails enhancing water irrigation efficiency by 18% through the expansion of pressurized irrigation network coverage, adjusting cropping patterns by 14%, reducing agricultural product losses by 8% via improved food supply management, minimizing food demand by 9% due to reduced food consumption losses, and achieving an annual 10% increase in crop performance. These selected policies form the foundation for sustainable water resource management strategies.

Abstract There are two major forms of solar energy that are typically utilized: photovoltaic and concentrated applications. The application of fractal glass texture to photovoltaic solar panels is a cutting-edge technique in the field of solar panels that generate electricity from exposure to light. When it comes to studying the environmental implications of a product during its development and commercialization, the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach is an excellent technique that can be utilized. The purpose of this study is to offer a thorough understanding of the product’s effects on the environment by taking into consideration a wide range of criteria, including environmental, economic, and other evaluations. Through the utilization of the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology and the SimaPro software, this paper presents a comparative analysis of conventional solar panels and fractal glass texture panels. During the course of this research, 18 midpoint indicators and three endpoint indices were investigated. In addition, a sensitivity analysis has been carried out on the fractal property of the panel in order to evaluate the impact that it has on environmental impacts and damages. For the purpose of this study, three distinct levels of fractal coating were applied to the panel surface: one percent, three percent, and five percent. As a result of the data, it was determined that the “Photovoltaic cell single-Si wafer” and the “Transport, freight, sea, transoceanic tanker” had the most significant impact on the midpoint and endpoint indices for both panels, respectively. Furthermore, there is a direct association between the rise in fractal coating on panels and the reduction in environmental repercussions, approximately. This correlation exists because of several factors.

Abstract The challenge of providing water, energy, and managing the environment is widely recognized as a significant barrier to global advancement in light of the increasing population. Based on projections, it is anticipated that the global community will encounter crises pertaining to water, energy and the environment in the foreseeable future. In this research, the application of the hybrid renewable system in a thermal power plant has been assessed based on the approach of analyzing the link between energy, water, and environment. The design of the solar system and the assessment of carbon balance during the power plant lifetime have been conducted in PVsyst application in 2022. Moreover, ReCipe environmental model has been used for assessing the effect of decrease in carbon emission on the ecosystem. The findings of the research indicate that the replacement of at least 2% of the nominal capacity of the fossil fuel power plant with the renewable one, prevents the emission of 1340.37 tons of carbon dioxide yearly. This amount equals to 371.25 m3 of reserve in fossil fuel consumption and 382.64 tons of crude oil. The results also showed that in addition to preserving natural resources, the hybrid cycle design leads to significant water demand reduction which equals to 3751 m3 with the capacity to supply underground water sources. Due to the interests of preserving water and energy resources and decreasing carbon emission in power plant industry, within the framework of nexus approach, management of energy supply by replacing resources and using water and heat recovery technologies and application of energy demand management policies based on energy efficiency and environmental implications is recommended.

Abstract The reduction of fossil energy sources, the harmful environmental effects caused by high energy consumption, and the increase in the share of energy consumption in the building sector have increased the need to pay attention to building energy consumption. This study offers an intricate examination of a residential locality in Florida, with a particular emphasis on the architectural design of a building, issues related to the local environment and several possibilities for enhancing energy efficiency. It examines the influence of the environment in the area on architectural design and investigates two different possibilities for improving energy efficiency. The first scenario focuses on assessing thermal insulation and shading, while the second scenario envisions utilizing photovoltaic cells to achieve a zero-energy building. The proposed initiatives seek to optimize energy efficiency, save expenses, and foster environmental sustainability in the region. In this research, the total energy consumption of a building with residential use in the climate of the case study was validated by DesignBuilder® simulation software, and the results obtained from the software. Then, using the standard of energy consumption of the building, various strategies for optimizing energy consumption have been simulated. Using energy simulation software, solutions for using external horizontal awnings and installing a thermal insulation sheet on the external wall of the building were investigated, which resulted in a reduction of 200 kWh of energy consumption compared to the normal state. Then, the building’s energy consumption intensity was calculated for each of the proposed solutions, and the building’s energy classification was determined with energy star and LEED standards.

It is anticipated that the global community will encounter crises pertaining to water, energy, food, and the environment in the foreseeable future. The objective of this paper is to analyze global research endeavors pertaining to the interconnections among water, energy, food, and the environment. This paper presents critiques on the water–energy–food-environment nexus (WEFEN).Furthermore, this study analyses current innovations on the WEFEN nexus concept, applications, and impacts during the period of 2015–2023. Additionally, it aims to address the challenges and imperatives of investigating this nexus within the context of the world. This review critically analyzes the existing body of research pertaining to the interplay between water, energy, food, and the environment. Additionally, it highlights the challenges encountered in studying this intricate relationship and underscores the imperative for further investigation in this domain. This study reveals that the main barriers to achieving global integration of WEFEN are sector-specific policies and a dearth of integrated management approaches. Also named as big problems were the lack of money for projects that integrate WEFEN, the lack of information sources, and the lack of laws that cover the development of the WEFEN nexus as a whole. The findings of this study encompass recommendations for enhancing the interplay between WEFEN. These measures encompass enhancing collaboration and coordination among various entities, including governmental ministries, councils, universities, associations, and businesses. Additionally, establishing a dedicated policy-making institution and reaching a consensus on a comprehensive plan are crucial steps. By employing effective management strategies and formulating appropriate policies, the research and discoveries presented in this review article possess the potential to address the anticipated challenges that lie ahead for the global community.

The current investigation focuses on analyzing dynamic approaches to sustainable water resource management policies, considering the interconnectedness of water, food and energy resources. This analysis takes into consideration changes in demand resulting from population growth and economic development over a twenty-year timeframe, employing a systems dynamics methodology. Initially, the model was developed and simulated using data from the case province as a macro-scale representation of the water-food-energy resource framework, while also factoring in the continuation of current conditions. Through sensitivity analysis utilizing the Monte Carlo model, the study addresses the formulation of sustainable water resource policies across four main categories: water demand management, water supply management, food resource management, and energy resource demand management. Additionally, it explores the integration of policies within an optimal framework. The simulation of proposed solutions revealed that a combination of water demand management and food resource management yielded the most promising outcome. Specifically, the recommended solution entails enhancing water irrigation efficiency by 17 % through the expansion of pressurized irrigation network coverage, adjusting cropping patterns by 12 %, reducing agricultural product losses by 7 % via improved food supply management, minimizing food demand by 7 % due to reduced food consumption losses, and achieving an annual 8 % increase in crop performance. These selected policies form the foundation for sustainable water resource management strategies.

The basic and key point in the realization of sustainable development is to obtain affordable, reliable, and clean sources of energy. In other words, energy has a fundamental importance in the realization of a sustainable economy, so researchers consider energy as the blood flowing in the veins of modern society. Despite this fundamental importance, the sustainable supply of energy in the world is still facing wide challenges. In recent years, despite the many capacities of fossil and renewable energy, Iran has faced many fundamental challenges in the field of energy. According to what has been said, the realization of sustainable development without overcoming the challenges of sustainable energy supply is out of mind. On the other hand, it is not possible to overcome the challenges of the energy field without innovation and continuous improvements as drivers of change. It is noteworthy that innovation without using an innovation strategy will be fruitless. The reason for this is that the process of innovation is risky and requires difficult decisions. Therefore, the use of an innovation strategy is necessary to create improvements and changes in the system. Therefore, the proposed research is focused on the concept of innovation strategy. The current research was conducted to analyze the content of the documents of the laws of the development program of Iran from the perspective of exploring sustainable development and innovation strategy in the energy industry. This issue is important because the formulation and support of sustainable development policies can be an important issue in achieving sustainable development. On the other hand, the formulation of innovation policies can be the basis for its realization. This research has used the qualitative method to create a deep understanding of the research concepts. This happens while previous researchers have mostly benefited little from qualitative methods in studying the concept of innovation strategy. On the other hand, the current research has studied the innovation strategy with the goal of sustainable development. The alignment of innovation with sustainable development is an important matter that has been less considered in previous studies. Thus, by examining these deficiencies, the proposed research can complement the gaps of previous research in this field in several ways. The importance of this research is in understanding the background conditions of Iran's energy industry. This can facilitate the paths of achieving sustainable development in the energy industry, improving efficiency and economic stability, improving justice and social inclusiveness, and preserving biodiversity and natural resources. Also, the proposed research through the policy recommendations provided can provide an important tool for company managers, policymakers, or in general decision makers of the energy industry in Iran. The current research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of nature. In terms of strategy, this research has used the library strategy. The current research has used the summary content analysis method to analyze the collected data and the inductive-deductive coding approach to reduce and categorize the data. The content analysis in this research was of a quantitative relationship with neighborhood analysis. To perform the coding process, MaxQDA version 20 software was used. The statistical population of the research was the documents of the laws of the development program of Iran. The current research has studied the entire statistical population. Therefore, sampling was not required. The implementation process of the current research started with theoretical studies and analysis of previous research related to the strategy of innovation and sustainable development. This was done to deepen the theoretical knowledge about the studied concepts and also to identify and define the research concepts and categories. In the next step, the research questions were formulated. The next stage of the current research is devoted to the review of the documents and documents of the development program laws. After this, the collected qualitative data was analyzed. In the last stage, summarization and conclusions were made and research proposals were presented. In this research, to ensure the validity and reliability of the research findings, the validity and reliability of the data were examined. For this purpose, data coding was done carefully and in several stages with time intervals. Also, some experts with experience and expertise in the field of energy and sustainable development re-examined the research results. To be more sure of the reliability of the research findings, the calculation of agreement between two coders or reliability between two coders has also been used. The findings of the research show that the writing and formulation of development plans in Iran have been mainly centered around economic growth. In other words, concepts related to social inclusiveness and environmental protection have been neglected in Iran's development plans. The evidence shows that Iran's development plans have paid significant attention to fossil energies as opposed to renewable energies. In addition to environmental hazards, this can be a serious threat to energy security in Iran. The findings show that despite the relatively high attention of Iran's development plans to the concept of technology, the concept of innovation has not been given much attention. In addition, the emphasis on technological innovation can cause neglect the benefits of non-technological innovations. Following the path of the current research, it is suggested that future researchers use quantitative methods to investigate the impact of innovation strategies on sustainable development in the energy industry. In addition, the realization of the country's development plans can be examined with quantitative methods.

Achieving climate change targets requires a massive reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. According to the Paris agreement, this amount should be reached to 30 Gt/year CO2 reduction. Among different energy and environmental technologies, CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies are promising technologies to achieve those goals. Despite different technical, economical, and environmental CCS challenges, process development based on recent advances can significantly facilitate the CCS’s deployment. This study aims to simulate the absorption system of CO2 with Methyl-Diethanolamine (MDEA) and Piperazine (PZ) absorbents. In this study, three different scenarios have been considered for designing the parts of the absorption tower and air blower that have the highest energy consumption to achieve the highest amount of absorption, purity, and CO2 recovery. Compared results from the defined scenarios show that the use of an intercooler in the middle of the adsorption tower (Scenario 3) is the best design for the CO2 capture simulated process where the adsorption rate is 90.1%, the purity is 82.26 (mol%) and CO2 Recovered reaches 28.74 ton/hr. Since energy consumption in high CO2 absorption rate and purity is one of the main challenges of such technologies, this study also evaluates the combination of the organic Rankin cycle (ORC) with air blowers by three refrigerants R290, R227, and R124 to reduce energy in the carbon capture units. The results show that in this cycle, R290 has the highest power output against R227 and R124 refrigerants under the same conditions. Combining ORC with an air blower reduces the cooling load of the whole process to 104.85 MW and the total power consumption to 46.375 MW. Finally, this study concludes that using different designs and combinations, including ORC cycles in high-energy CCS processes, can also reduce the cost of energy required, and its deployment can help prevent climate change.

Besat is a natural gas-fired steam-turbine power plant in Tehran, Iran’s only power station equipped with a monoethanolamine-based post-combustion CO2 capture unit (PCCU). The PCCU operates at a low recovery rate of 4.7% and produces 58 t-CO2/day. Captured CO2 is encapsulated and sold to beverage companies for carbonated soft drink production. Before developing this CO2 capture and utilization (CCU) route, a beverage company like ZamZam produced CO2 on-site, capturing CO2 from flue gas of diesel-fired boilers using a 95%-efficient absorption-refrigeration unit. This paper conducts an attributional, comparative life-cycle assessment/costing of applying the CCU technology to supply the beverage industry with CO2. ReCiPe, cumulative energy demand, and AWARE impact assessment methods are adopted to assess changes in the life-cycle economic, energy, and environmental impacts of electricity, liquid CO2, and carbonated water supply chains with the CCU route. As per findings, the CCU route significantly improves the sustainability profile of liquid CO2 supply for carbonated water production. Compared to on-site production, the CCU route reduces the average economic, energy, and environmental impacts of liquid CO2 supply by 55, 44, and 62%, respectively. However, the figures for carbonated-water production are reduced by only 10.1, 0.85, and 0.77%, respectively, since associated impacts primarily result from citric acid and polyethylene terephthalate value chains rather than liquid CO2. The CCU route, in comparison, increases most environmental burdens of electricity generation. With an efficiency of 4.7%, the PCCU reduces the global warming potential of electricity generation by 6.22% while increasing average toxicity- and eutrophication-related impacts by 55 and 30%, respectively, and production costs by 8%.

The population increase and the demand for water and energy, accompanied by the implications of environment pollution for natural and human resources, indicate the critical necessity for a coherent movement towards nexus between water, energy, and environment. Due to the fact that power generation industry is responsible for a significant proportion of water and fuel consumption and Carbon dioxide emissions within the world, in this research, the application of the hybrid renewable system in a thermal power plant has been assessed based on the approach of analyzing the link between energy, water and environment. The design of the solar system and the assessment of carbon balance during the power plant lifetime have been conducted in PVsyst application in 2022. Moreover, ReCipe environmental model has been used for assessing the effect of decrease in carbon emission on the ecosystem. The findings of the research indicate that the replacement of at least 2 % of the nominal capacity of the fossil fuel power plant with the renewable one, prevents the emission of 1431.28 tons of carbon dioxide yearly. This amount equals to 380.34 cubic meters of reserve in fossil fuel consumption and 391.73 tons of crude oil. The results also showed that in addition to preserving natural resources, the hybrid cycle design leads to significant water demand reduction which equals to 3842 cubic meters with the capacity to supply underground water sources. Due to the interests of preserving water and energy resources and decreasing carbon emission in power plant industry, within the framework of nexus approach, management of energy supply by replacing resources and using water and heat recovery technologies and application of energy demand management policies based on energy efficiency and environmental implications is recommended.

Abstract Along with the main objective of politicians, other economic variables are variously affected by the environmental taxes, policies, and limitations like a price on pollution, clean electricity, the cap on emissions, methane emissions, and nature‐based solutions. The objective of the environmental solutions is to decrease pollutant emissions and energy consumption while reducing labor costs and taxes as the incentives for creating new occupations. An overall equilibrium model was considered in the present study as a nonlinear equations system, which was calibrated for the reference year of 2018 utilizing Canada's economy's data table. The effects of utilizing these environmental policies considered by Canada in COP26 are examined. In all scenarios, minimum, maximum, and optimum values for reducing pollutant emissions are calculated under these policies. According to the simulation results, welfare is reduced by the price of pollution policy. Moreover, the actual consumed budget of the household is reduced by 8%. However, such indices will be incremented by 2% in the nature‐based policy. In all scenarios, the gross domestic product is decreased. However, in the methane emission policy, this reduction is 1.05% in the lowest state. In all scenarios, the consumer price index will be incremented by 3.8%–9.8%. It is concluded that the clean electricity policy is an appropriate policy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and at the same time adhering to international commitments.

While various methods of direct air capture (DAC) technology have been implemented, its widespread effectiveness hinges on achieving optimal design and process improvements, largely owing to the high energy costs involved. Literatures reports a substantial heat demand for high-temperature aqueous solutions DAC (HT DAC), ranging from 1420 to 2250 kWh per ton of CO2, accompanied by electricity consumption rates varying from 366 to 2790 kWh per ton of CO2. The present study adopts the HT DAC method with an aqueous KOH absorbent as its focus, aiming to mitigate energy consumption. Given that a substantial portion of energy consumption in comparable processes can be attributed to the calciner and slaker units, our research centers its attention on the Air Separation Unit (ASU) and the steam cycle unit, investigating their impact on the system's production capacity, the enhancement of CO2 purity, and the augmentation of equipment thermal recovery. Process optimization, results a remarkable increase in heat recovery (21.1 %) and significant reductions in utilities consumption. The outcomes indicate that this facility has the capacity to annually capture around 1.1 million tons of CO2 with a purity of 99 mol% for utilization across various industries. The process design necessitates 5.24 gigajoules (GJ) of heat and 343 kW-hours (kWh) of electricity per ton of captured CO2. Notably, in addition to fulfilling the internal electricity requirements, the facility can export 8 MWh of electricity per ton of captured CO2 to the grid.

The value of reducing energy consumption in buildings has increased worldwide. This is because the consumption of fossil fuels in a building is as much as in other industries, also among buildings, the consumption of commercial-office buildings has a higher energy consumption; Therefore, the adoption of energy efficiency techniques in the construction and operation of buildings will play an essential role in creating sustainable cities in the future, and for this reason, green building standards such as IgCC, ASHRAE 189.1 and LEED are expanding. At the same time the advancement of technologies such as electric cars and solar cells, incredibly transparent solar cells for generating electricity are being witnessed. In this research, based on building energy simulation techniques, a commercial-office building has been investigated based on green building standards, considering the presence of electric cars and transparent solar cells. This research shows that the building with two scenarios of solar panels on the roof will be reduced by 9% and with transparent panels for electricity production by 18%. Also, the return rate of the first scenario is five years and nine months. The return rate of the second scenario is approximately six years and two months, which will decrease to 2 months and 20 days for the first scenario and three years and three months for the second scenario with the implementation of government incentive policies. Another finding was obtained through the intelligentization of electric car charging costs. It showed that if electric car charging stations are used in the building in three different states, including buildings without solar panels, building with the presence of solar panels only on the roof, and building with solar panels on the roof and transparent solar panels on the windows is 10%, 20% and 30% less than the cheapest commercial electric car charging station.

In this research, the simulation and modeling of the energy use for a two-story theoretical building which is equipped with the green roof in three various climates of Iran (Tabriz: cold and dry; Tehran: mild and dry; and Bandar Abbas: tropical and dry) has been done. The purpose of this simulation is to show the impacts of the green roof on reducing thermal loads of a building and also its role in reducing the heat flux passing through the roof of the building. The procedure is that first this building takes its model in one software and then this 3D model is delivered to the Energy Plus simulation engine, then simulation is done in different period of times. For each city, a normal building with an asphalt roof was simulated along with a completely similar building which has the vegetation cover rather than asphalt in the last layer of its roof and the output results are compared with each other. The simulation results show that by applying the green roof, the basic state of annual electricity consumption in the cities of Tehran, Tabriz and Bandar Abbas decrease 16.3%, 12.5% and 23%, respectively. According to the values obtained, using the green roof is more efficient in tropical areas (Bandar Abbas) than cold areas (Tabriz). Bandar Abbas with tropical and dry climate needs much energy to cool the environment in the summer, but due to the balanced temperature in the cold months and no need of energy for heating, the amount of energy consumption in Bandar Abbas is much lower than other cities during the year. Also, the sensitization analysis tests have shown that the energy consumption of building is strongly dependent on the thickness of the soil parameters changes and plant density of the green roof structure, therefore more thickness of the applied soil has better thermal insulation. The economic savings per year based on the use of a green roof for the building, located in Tehran, Tabriz and Bandar Abbas are 562, 660 and 381 $ respectively.

Today, simple electrical energy networks are becoming obsolete and are being replaced by smart networks. One of the advantages of smart grids is to facilitate energy management, so that one of the ideas of this method is to provide local energy sources (photovoltaics, wind turbines, generators, etc.) to consumers and predict the amount of energy production. In this way, not only the consumed electricity is supplied, but also it is determined the time that electricity can be exported to the national grid. For this purpose, it is necessary to predict the production and consumption of each unit in the network. In this article, an urban building complex in the Canadian state of Alberta is investigated. Its consumption is calculated using simulation in the calculation software, and then the amount of electricity produced by photovoltaic panels is also calculated and the result of production and consumption is estimated, then using a machine learning algorithm of energy balance for the following years are expected. The results of this study show that the use of photovoltaic systems and the production of electrical energy from it can have a significant impact on energy management, and not only the building's electricity is supplied in most months of the year, but also additional electricity can be used. Sending this excess energy to the main grid, can be an important step towards peak management of the power grid.

Abstract With the development of different generations of solar cell (photovoltaic) technologies, extensive research has been conducted to evaluate their performances, applications, and cost benefits. Despite these technologies being known as green technologies compared with fossil fuels, however, their environmental problems and damages have not been assessed and compared systematically in their whole life cycle. In this study, the environmental effects of different solar cell generations are assessed and compared using the life cycle assessment approach. Environmentally speaking, the results obtained from the software indicate that the first (polycrystalline) and third (transparent Perovskite) generation panels cause the greatest (1.43 × E−6 Daly) and least (4.56 × E−7 Daly) damage to human health, respectively. In addition, these two generations of photovoltaic panels have the most significant and least negative influence on the ecosystem with 2.18 × E−8 and 7.05 × E−10 Species.Yr, respectively. Regarding the environmental effect of damage to the resources, the third and second (cadmium telluride) panels have the least damage with 0.027 USD2013 and 0.0184 USD2013, respectively. The most negative midpoint effect is associated with the marine ecotoxicity of 0.101 kg 1.4‐DCB by the second generation panels. Concerning global warming as the most critical consequence, all three panels also severely impact increasing the global warming index by 399, 164, and 134 (gCO2 eq), respectively. Based on perovskite technologies that are being rapidly evolved with extensive applications, replacing this technology with the current generations is expected due to its less environmental impacts.

Increasing energy demand along with the environmental effects of fossil fuels have created serious environmental, economic, and social challenges. To respond to these, greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction strategies such as diffusion and adoption of renewable energy (RE) and carbon-capturing techniques are two important solutions. Among different RE sources, the third generation of biomass, microalgae, has absorbed the special attention of researchers. Microalgae uses sunlight and CO2 to grow and produce O2 based on the photosynthesis process. Therefore, it has a great potential for CO2 capturing and utilization directly from the air. However, there are some techno-economic challenges for the wide commercialization of microalgae. On the other hand, Microalgae has the potential to produce different value-added products that can be used in various markets such as food, drug, health, cosmetics, and energy which can be used for commercializing and reducing the costs of CO2 capturing. Therefore, the objective of this research is to give insight about the current status of microalgae research and development as a RE resource with carbon-capturing potential. Data-mining analysis based on the bibliometric method has been used to find the research progresses, trends, and existing gaps to look at microalgae as a carbon-capturing technology. Also, in this paper by using Patent analysis, the commercialization and technological level of carbon-capturing by microalgae technique have been investigated. Results showed that the increase in the number of patents registered by companies points out the commercialization and economization; however, having research gaps in multiple areas shows further investigations should be done in this field.

The construction industry plays a key role in the economic development of countries. The industry faces challenges such as high energy consumption, long construction time, high manufacturing costs. 3D printing technology can solve many problems in this industry. The goal of this research is to find suitable materials for the 3D printing of an energy-efficient building with the least environmental impact. Magnesium potassium phosphate cement (MKPC) was selected for this study. In the next step, energy consumption in the building is simulated and different scenarios are considered to optimize energy consumption and reduce environmental impacts. Then, the life cycle assessment is done for the best scenario. Finally, this scenario is compared to the case where portland cement enters the composition. The simulation results show that PCM (phase change materials) has very little effect on reducing the energy consumption of the building. In contrast, insulation has almost halved energy consumption. Magnesium oxide and monopotassium phosphate have a significant share in the environmental effects of concrete walls. By adding 30% by volume of M20 concrete, the environmental impacts are reduced almost 28%.

Economic development and the comfort-loving nature of human beings in recent years have resulted in increased energy demand. Since energy resources are scarce and should be preserved for future generations, optimizing energy systems is ideal. Still, due to the complexity of integrated energy systems, such a feat is by no means easy. Here is where computer-aided decision-making can be very game-changing in determining the optimum point for supply and demand. The concept of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) was born in the twentieth century to enable computers to simulate humans' learning and decision-making capabilities. Since then, data mining and artificial intelligence have become increasingly essential areas in many different research fields. Naturally, the energy section is one area where artificial intelligence and machine learning can be very beneficial. This paper uses the VOSviewer software to investigate and review the usage of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the energy field and proposes promising yet neglected or unexplored areas in which these concepts can be used. To achieve this, the 2000 most recent papers in addition to the 2000 most cited ones in different energy-related keywords were studied and their relationship to AI- and ML-related keywords was visualized. The results revealed different research trends in recent years from the basic to more cutting-edge topics and revealed many promising areas that are yet to be explored. Results also showed that from the commercial aspect, patents submitted for artificial intelligence and machine learning in energy-related areas had a sharp increase.

This paper studies the techno-economic feasibility of the solar-assisted regeneration process of the largest industrial CO2 removal monoethanolamine-based plant in Iran. The plant incorporating parabolic troughs is modelled using System Advisor Model software and the weather data are derived from the European Commission’s Photovoltaic Geographical Information System. Sensitivity analyses are realized to evaluate the effect of important parameters, i.e., the solar multiple and the hours of storage, and to reveal the optimum case. The studied impacts are linked to the overall net energy generation and the levelized cost of heat (LCOH). The optimum case is found to have a solar multiple of 3.1 and 18-hours of storage, resulting in a solar share of 0.7 and a LCOH of 3.85 (¢/kWh). When compared to the base case (solar multiple of 2 and 6 h of storage), the optimum solution results in a similar LCOH but it achieves the generation of an additional 16,112 MWhthannually. The thermal energy supplied by the solar system leads to an annual reduction in the natural gas consumption of approximately 3.8 million m3that results in a CO2 emission reduction of 7.1 kton.

With increasing environmental problems of fossil fuel-based devices and systems in societies, diffusion and adoption of sustainability solutions such as renewable energy technologies and hybrid/electric vehicles have increased in the residential and commercial sectors. However, energy demand in the buildings and energy supply from renewables are complex, dynamic, and non-linear. This complexity shows itself in cold-climate regions that the supply of required energy from renewables is along with uncertainties and even sometimes stochastic. This paper assesses the energy supply/demand performance of a group of residential buildings in a community in a cold-climate region, St. Albert, Canada. First, all the buildings of the community are modeled and the required energy to respond to the demand and electric vehicles are calculated. Then, the potential of each building for electricity supply via photovoltaic panels is calculated. Finally, the energy supply/demand management of the community is assessed using a machine learning tool. The results show that the community peak heating and cooling loads are 420 kW and 121 kW, respectively and the total annual energy production from photovoltaic system is 14,203 kWh for a single house. Regarding the electric vehicle load, the photovoltaic system can provide 29.23% of the community's total load, annually. Finally by comparing the modeled pattern and the predicted pattern, an accuracy of 88.6% is obtained for the prediction.

Energy carriers as fuel, are one of the essential needs of various industries. The cost of these carriers persuades us to find solutions to prevent waste of energy consumption. Among the various industries, dairy industry is one of the most energy intensive of them. By considering the importance of energy consumption in the dairy sector, in this study first the types of technologies available in the milk drying industry is discussed and then this technology is investigated economically and its disadvantages and advantages are expressed. This paper's main goal is to optimize energy consumption in the process of milk powder production using pinch technology. Therefore, it provides a brief description of pinch technology and after providing data table consist of streams information, the desired cycle (milk spray dryer) is optimized from a technical and economic point of view by Aspen Energy analyzer (AEA). The modeling assumptions and the desired scenario are also given. Finally, four scenarios about how to apply a connection among heat exchangers and discuss about cost of investment for each scenario is presented. The results show that temperature of pinch point, hot utility and cold utility is 85 °C, 25.3 kW and 66.36 kW respectively and MER-3 networking is chosen as the best option in terms of initial cost (81,304.42 $), number of units (7), area (65.27 m2) and final cost (7.28 × 104 $/S) that this amount is close to the target mode but it is not in a good position in terms of the required area, which is a weakness in the desired networking.

A limitation to the wider introduction of personalised dosimetry in theranostics is the relative paucity of imaging radionuclides with suitable physical and chemical properties to be paired with a long-lived therapeutic partner. As most of the beta-emitting therapeutic radionuclides emit gamma radiation as well they could potentially be used as the imaging radionuclide as well as the therapeutic radionuclide. However, the downsides are that the beta radiation will deliver a significant radiation dose as part of the treatment planning procedure, and the gamma radiation branching ratio is often quite low. Gallium-67 has been in use in nuclear medicine for over 50 years. However, the tremendous interest in gallium imaging in theranostics in recent times has focused on the PET radionuclide gallium-68. In this article it is suggested that the longer-lived gallium-67, which has desirable characteristics for imaging with the gamma camera and a suitably long half-life to match biological timescales for drug uptake and turnover, has been overlooked, in particular, for treatment planning with radionuclide therapy. Gallium-67 could also allow non-PET facilities to participate in theranostic imaging prior to treatment or for monitoring response after therapy. Gallium-67 could play a niche role in the future development of personalised medicine with theranostics.

Buildings are responsible for 33% of final energy consumption, and 40% of direct and indirect CO2 emissions globally. While energy consumption is steadily rising globally, managing building energy utilization by on-site renewable energy generation can help responding to this demand. This paper proposes a deep learning method based on a discrete wavelet transformation and long short-term memory method (DWT-LSTM) and a scheduling framework for the integrated modelling and management of energy demand and supply for buildings. This method analyzes several factors including electricity price, uncertainty in climatic factors, availability of renewable energy sources (wind and solar), energy consumption patterns in buildings, and the non-linear relationships between these parameters on hourly, daily, weekly and monthly intervals. The method enables monitoring and controlling renewable energy generation, the share of energy imports from the grid, employment of saving strategy based on the user priority list, and energy storage management to minimize the reliance on the grid and electricity cost, especially during the peak hours. The results demonstrate that the proposed method can forecast building energy demand and energy supply with a high level of accuracy, showing a 3.63-8.57% error range in hourly data prediction for one month ahead. The combination of the deep learning forecasting, energy storage, and scheduling algorithm enables reducing annual energy import from the grid by 84%, which offers electricity cost savings by 87%. Finally, two smart active buildings configurations are financially analyzed for the next thirty years. Based on the results, the proposed smart building with solar Photo-Voltaic (PV), wind turbine, inverter, and 40.5 kWh energy storage has a financial breakeven point after 9 years with wind turbine and 8 years without it. This implies that implementing wind turbines in the proposed building is not financially beneficial.

Abstract Positron (β+) emitting radionuclides have been used for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging in diagnostic medicine since its development in the 1950s. Development of a fluorinated glucose analog, fluorodeoxyglucose, labelled with a β+ emitter fluorine-18 (18F-FDG), made it possible to image cellular targets with high glycolytic metabolism. These targets include cancer cells based on increased aerobic metabolism due to the Warburg effect, and thus, 18F-FDG is a staple in nuclear medicine clinics globally. However, due to its attention in the diagnostic setting, the therapeutic potential of β+ emitters have been overlooked in cancer medicine. Here we show the first in vitro evidence of β+ emitter cytotoxicity on prostate cancer cell line LNCaP C4-2B when treated with 20 Gy of 18F. Monte Carlo simulation revealed thermalized positrons (sub-keV) traversing DNA can be lethal due to highly localized energy deposition during the thermalization and annihilation processes. The computed single and double strand breakages were ~ 55% and 117% respectively, when compared to electrons at 400 eV. Our in vitro and in silico data imply an unexplored therapeutic potential for β+ emitters. These results may also have implications for emerging cancer theranostic strategies, where β+ emitting radionuclides could be utilized as a therapeutic as well as a diagnostic agent once the challenges in radiation safety and protection after patient administration of a radioactive compound are overcome.

Today, the security of energy has become one of the primary concerns of all the countries around the world due to the limited energy sources, increasing population, energy prices fluctuations and limitations in energy supply. Japan is considered as one of the largest energy consumers and energy importers throughout the world which almost 96% of its primary energy supply in national level relies on the imports from other countries. After experiencing several harsh energy supply conditions over the last 40 years, Japan realized the sensitivity of its energy supply and decided to fundamentally restructure its energy supply and rely more on energy mix diversification, renewable energies, energy efficiency improvement, and carbon emissions reduction. In this article the energy security improvement and the government actions to boost diversification of energy by focusing more on renewable energies and reducing energy intensity, increasing energy efficiency and decreasing energy import dependency in Japan is studied. In addition, various renewable energy technologies as a substitute source of energy and promising ways of domestic energy supply as well as the factors to improve the security of energy supply are studied thoroughly. Moreover, it was realized that the most primary energy sources in Japan are biofuel and waste energy followed by hydropower and geothermal energy respectively.

Environmental concerns related to fossil fuels utilization has developed different energy/environmental policy tools that Carbon tax is one of the important ones. There are huge debates among different political parties related to the positive and negative effects of the carbon tax on the energy and environmental policies of the countries. However, carbon tax not only can have effects on the utilization and consumption of energy sources portfolios, but it may also have negative or positive effects on the economy, industry, and social welfare of the countries that should be identified and analyzed, in particular for countries with high energy-intensive industries such as Finland. The purpose of this research is to answer the question: “How does Carbon Tax affect social welfare and emission reduction in Finland?” We use the computable general equilibrium model to analyze the impact of the carbon tax on social welfare and the rate of emission reduction. Considering the fact that Finland has several years of carbon tax policy application background, evaluation of the impact of this policy on Finland’s social-environmental structure is very valuable for other countries, especially newcomers. Our results show that despite carbon tax policy in Finland has been successful in the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, however, it has negative effects on the social welfare of Finns. Therefore, an optimum level of the carbon price is recommended for future policy revision

Nowadays, we are experiencing daily growth in the consumption of non-renewable energy resources such as oil and gas. Utilizing these energy sources leads to the production of large amounts of carbon dioxide. The emission of this greenhouse gas into the atmosphere accelerates the global warming and its irreparable consequences. Therefore, it is vital to overcome this phenomenon through elimination of the generated carbon dioxide. This could be achieved by focusing on the existing research experiences in this field and considering proposed methods for eliminating this emission. In addition, the removed carbon dioxide gas could be used in the over-harvesting process of hydrocarbon reservoirs. This study will use VOSviewer software for Bibliometric analysis of carbon dioxide capture technologies and identify gaps that could help researchers gain insight and determine future research trends. We will also review the registered patents for carbon capture technologies and identify the inventors and companies involved in patents. The results suggest that the supply of energy from renewable energy sources and the application of energy policy, decision-making methods, and commercialization methods can significantly contribute to the development and evolution of carbon capture technologies. Also, the high number of patents filed by companies reveals that carbon capture technologies are on the way to commercialization.

Despite the considerable breakthrough in district heating systems (DHS) globally, there is not yet any policy on developing this technology in Iran. This country has a high range of energy demand, while renewable energies play a minor role in its energy supply chain. Furthermore, the world is going through a transition towards renewable resources, which currently consist of only 10% of the total energy mix. As the first contribution in this area, this paper aims to design a 100% renewable DHS integrated with radiant floor heating for a group of residential buildings in Sarein, Iran. Moreover, the literature proposes a novel approach for combining geothermal energy and Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) to achieve a 100% renewable energy system. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is used for thermal analysis by 3D designing the buildings in SketchUp and OpenStudio and simulating the heat load in EnergyPlus. Three scenarios are presented to better compare the DHS with the decentralized heating system regarding fuel consumption, as well as environmental and economic aspects. The town’s existing heating system that consumes natural gas for both space heating and hot water demand is referred to as the IHS-G scenario. The DHS-G scenario represents an 87% renewable DHS system, working with natural gas and geothermal energy, while the DHS-MSW scenario is a 100% renewable system, consuming both geothermal energy and Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). Finally, findings suggest that DHS-MSW and DHS-G scenarios reduce the annual energy consumption of buildings by about 595 and 33 toes, respectively. Hence, the greenhouse gas effect will alleviate by mitigating the emission of 1403 and 1339 tons of CO2-eq./year, respectively. Moreover, exporting the extra natural gas through both LNG and pipeline provides about 26 million and 28 million USD/year revenue in DHS-G and DHS-MSW scenarios.

Iran has become one of the most CO2 emitting countries during the last decades. The country ranks after Japan and Germany in terms of CO2 emissions. However, from an economic viewpoint, the gross domestic product (GDP) of Iran is lower than the summation of Berlin and Tokyo GDP. Moreover, a large proportion of Iran’s revenue comes from the crude oil export; therefore, this level of CO2 emission cannot be economically driven and is as a result of high energy intensity in this country. This is while the government also has not a clear program in this regard. The Sixth Five-year Development Plan of Iran, in addition, sets a number of ambitious targets mostly regarding the energy intensity, GDP growth, and renewable energies, but does not mention to CO2 emission issue. Therefore, prospects for an early settlement of the dispute are seemingly dim. Our aim is to predict Iran’s CO2 emissions in 2030 under assumptions of two scenarios, i.e. business as usual (BAU) and the Sixth Development Plan (SDP), using multiple linear regression (MLR) and multiple polynomial regression (MPR) analysis. Findings suggest that Iran most likely will not meet its commitment to the Paris Agreement under the BAU’s assumptions; however, full implementation of the ambitiously shaped SDP could have met the target by end 2018. Keywords: Regression, Paris agreement, CO2emission, Energy, Scenario

Wind energy technologies are being developed in order to reduce the costs of the generated electricity and increasing technological performance. Therefore, understanding the technological development paths is an important part of the debates among technology developers and policymakers of energy systems. Due to recognize the wind technology orientation, the published patents in wind technology have been analyzed. Five groups of technology have been found, and the result of technological trends and life cycles for each one has been discussed. In order to clarify the main issues in each technology domain, a cluster dendrogram of frequent keywords in each domain through text analysis has been drawn. Text analysis of all published patents illustrated that controlling pitch and larger blade design are the most frequent words in the “blades and rotor” and “control of turbines” domains respectively. Two main domains of technology have been considered a lot in patents, “blades and rotor” and “control of turbines”. In the next step, the technological life cycles of all five domains have been discussed. In spite of the number of published patents in “blades and rotor” and “control of turbines” domains, “nacelle” is in the maturity stage. Keywords: Technological life cycle, Technology orientation, Wind energy, Patent analysis, Text analysis

Energy accessibility especially electrical energy is considered as one of the most appealing factors to achieve energy sustainability. The purpose of this study is to investigate energy sustainability using renewable energies for two high potential cities in the south-east of Iran until the year 2030. In this regard, Homer software is used to evaluate economic and technical analyses of PV-wind-diesel hybrid system for the two cities by the data gathering which was collected from Iran’s meteorological organization. Therefore, the average of solar radiation per month for Zabol and Zahak were about 9 and 9.1 (h/d). Also, mean wind speeds are calculated 5.35 m/s and 4.7 m/s for Zabol and Zahak respectively which proposed that these cities have high potential in order to electrical production by a hybrid system. Furthermore, the amount of electricity production by PV array for Zabol and Zahak were 1700 (kWh/yr) and 1669 (kWh/yr) respectively, and the amount of electricity production by wind turbine were 9036 (kWh/yr) and 7263(kWh/yr) for Zabol and Zahak respectively. Consequently, it is of elaborated that the investments on solar and wind energy sectors for both cities would be economically justified. Keywords: Renewable energy, Solar energy, Wind energy, Hybrid energy technologies, Technical-economic analysis

Energy supply security and environmental issues have been among the major concerns for most governments. Recently, thanks to technological breakthroughs, utilization of renewable energy (RE) sources is frequently suggested as a solution for declining energy dependency of countries and tackling environmental concerns. Andalusia is one of the fast-growing autonomous communities of Spain in terms of economic, industry, and population. While Andalusia has a high dependency on energy imports, it is the wealthiest autonomous community of Spain from the perspective of RE resources. This research tries to evaluate Andalusia’s RE potential and its impact on the security of energy supply. First, the current energy system of Andalusia is discussed, and the feasibility of RE sources is investigated. Finally, the total level of Andalusia’s energy security is calculated and compared with other countries. The results reveal that solar, on/off-shore wind, and bio-energy (algae production) are the most promising RE sources. Therefore, to elevate Andalusia’s energy system robustness, it is highly recommended to invest in noted RE resources.

Pressure control in water distribution networks (WDNs) reduces leaks and bursting. Thus, it is regarded as a valuable solution to cut costs related to the operation and maintenance of WDNs and it is recommended for use in deteriorated water distribution pipes. However, growing consumer demand for satisfactory performance from faucets, combined with reduced water pressure from water supply companies, has resulted in an increased need for domestic water pressure booster systems (WPBSs) and has led to an increase in the energy demand. This misalignment of interests between water companies and energy consumers highlights the water–energy nexus perspective. This research aims to find a solution for optimizing the pressure of any WDN through the application of WPBSs to simultaneously minimize the cost associated with water leaks, repairs of burst pipes, and energy consumption. This methodology is applied to Baharestan city, where an optimum pressure of 47.6 mH2O is calculated. According to the sensitivity analysis of the inputs, the optimized pressure and cost are most sensitive to water loss and leakage exponent, respectively. Moreover, the hourly optimization of water pressure based on changes in demand and energy prices throughout the day is estimated to cut costs by 41%.

Creating platforms for knowledge, in addition to providing economic value for enterprises, leading to economic and technical growth of community. Since delivering a product to market can guarantee success and survival of the organization, commercialization has been as a vital factor. For this purpose high technology industries such as ICT need to use of technological cooperations. The aim of this study is the Analysis of technological collaborations strategies for commercialization of research achievements in the Institute of Communications and Information Technology. For this purpose, cooperation strategies, commercialization strategies and technological factors affecting technological collaboration strategies were extrexted of literature. In the next step, commonalities of the two areas were determined according to experts and research framework was presented. Then, strategies and factors affecting commercialization were prioritized independently and high-priority strategies and critical factors were extracted, because we need to reduct the factors for FANP analysis in order to reduction of questions and finding of critical factors. The tools of data gathering were 3 questionnaire and those completed by 21 experts of mentioned institute. In the next step regarding the overlap between factors, fuzzy network analysis process (FANP) was used to prioritize strategies for technological cooperation in the commercialization of research achievements. The experts are all researchers of mentioned institute in the field of research and commertialization. The results showed that strategies such as networking, collaborative research and development, and technical and scientific personnel have the highest priority in the Institute of Communications and Information Technology. The results can be used for other similar public research centers both in terms of procedure and practice.

In this work, we will discuss the optical properties of NiO nanoparticles that we have investigated recently by photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. In particular, we will show the blue-shifts of PL, originating from the electron–hole recombination of the self-trapped exciton (STE), observed in smaller-sized NiO nanoparticles. To explain the size effect in relating to the STE PL shift, a question has been raised on whether it is appropriate to apply him quantum confinement (QC) theory usually used for the Mott-Winner type excitons in semiconductors to wide band-gap material, such as silica. Variations in several parameters and their effects on the structural (crystal size and morphology) properties of nanoparticles were investigated. Characterizations were carried out by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermal stability (TGA and DTA), solid state UV and solid state florescent (PL).

Objective(s):Lutetium-177 can be made with high specific activity and with no other isotopes of lutetium present, referred to as “No Carrier Added” (NCA) 177Lu. We have radiolabelled DOTA-conjugated peptide DOTA‐(Tyr3)‐octreotate with NCA 177Lu (“NCA-LuTATE”) and used it in nearly 40 therapeutic administrations for subjects with neuroendocrine tumours or meningiomas. In this paper, we report on our initial studies on aspects of the biodistribution and dosimetry of NCA-LuTATE from gamma camera 2D whole body (WB) and quantitative 3D SPECT (qSPECT) 177Lu imaging. Methods: Thirteen patients received 39 NCA-LuTATE injections. Extensive WB planar and qSPECT imaging was acquired at approximately 0.5, 4, 24 and 96 h to permit estimates of clearance and radiation dose estimation using MIRD-based methodology (OLINDA-EXM). Results:The average amount of NCA-Lutate administered per cycle was 7839±520 MBq. Bi-exponential modelling of whole body clearance showed half lives for the fast & slow components of t½=2.1±0.6 h and t½=58.1±6.6 h respectively. The average effective dose to kidneys was 3.1±1.0 Gy per cycle. In eight patients completing all treatment cycles the average total dose to kidneys was 11.7±3.6 Gy. Conclusions: We have shown that NCA-LuTATE has an acceptable radiation safety profile and is a suitable alternative to Carrier-Added 177Lu formulations. The fast component of the radiopharmaceutical clearance was closely correlated with baseline renal glomerular filtration rate, and this had an impact on radiation dose to the kidneys. In addition, it has less radioactive waste issues and requires less peptide per treatment.

Buildings are one of the primary consumers of energy. In addition to the electricity grids, renewable energies can be used to supply the energy demand of buildings. Intelligent systems such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and wireless sensor technologies can also be applied to manage the energy consumption in buildings. Fortunately, integrating renewable energies with these intelligent systems enables creating nearly zero-energy buildings. In this paper, we present the results of our experimentation to demonstrate forming such a building and showing the benefits for building users and the society. We create a system by integrating photovoltaic (PV) technology with an IoT-based control mechanism to supply and consume energy. We further illustrate “how the integration of IoT and PV technology can bring added value to the users?”. To this end, we evaluate the performance of our system against conventional ways of energy supply and consumption for a lighting use case in a dairy store. We also investigate the environmental and economic impacts of our system. In our implementation, for the IoT-based control system, we have used a set of sensors, a server, and a wireless network to control the energy consumption. We developed a web application for user interaction and software-based settings. To control the lighting system, we developed an algorithm that utilizes the ambient light, users’ movements inside the store and a historical dataset. The historical dataset was collected from the users’ behaviour as a training set for the algorithm for turning on and off the lights. We also designed an electricity management system that computes the energy generation by the PV panels, controls the energy supply, and imports and exports electricity to the grid. The results show that our system is an efficient approach for creating energy-independent buildings by integrating renewable energies with IoT-based control systems. The results also show that our system not only responds to the internal demand by using domestic supply, but it also (i) offers economic benefit by exporting extra renewable electricity to the grid, and (ii) prevents producing huge amounts of CO2. Our system is one of the first works to achieve a nearly zero-energy building in the developing countries with low electricity accessibility.

Energy has a strategic role in the economic and social development of countries. In the last few decades, energy demand has been increasing exponentially across the world, and predicting energy demand has become one of the main concerns in many countries. The residential and commercial sectors constitute about 34.7% of global energy consumption. Anticipating energy demand in these sectors will help governments to supply energy sources and to develop their sustainable energy plans such as using renewable and non-renewable energy potentials for the development of a secure and environmentally friendly energy system. Modeling energy consumption in the residential and commercial sectors enables identification of the influential economic, social, and technological factors, resulting in a secure level of energy supply. In this paper, we forecast residential and commercial energy demands in Iran using three different machine learning methods, including multiple linear regression, logarithmic multiple linear regression methods, and nonlinear autoregressive with exogenous input artificial neural networks. These models are developed based on several factors, including the share of renewable energy sources in final energy consumption, gross domestic production, population, natural gas price, and the electricity price. According to the results of the three machine learning methods applied in our study, by 2040, Iranian residential and commercial energy consumption will be 76.97, 96.42 and 128.09 Mtoe, respectively. Results show that Iran must develop and implement new policies to increase the share of renewable energy supply in final energy consumption.

This study proposes a fuzzy self-organized neural networks (SOM) model for detecting fraud by domestic customers, the major cause of non-technical losses in power distribution networks. Using a bottom-up approach, normal behavior patterns of household loads with and without photovoltaic (PV) sources are determined as normal behavior. Customers suspected of energy theft are distinguished by calculating the anomaly index of each subscriber. The bottom-up method used is validated using measurement data of a real network. The performance of the algorithm in detecting fraud in old electromagnetic meters is evaluated and verified. Types of energy theft methods are introduced in smart meters. The proposed algorithm is tested and evaluated to detect fraud in smart meters also.

Objective(s): Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT) with yttrium-90 (90Y) and lutetium-177 (177Lu)-labelled SST analogues are now therapy option for patients who have failed to respond to conventional medical therapy. In-house production with automated PRRT synthesis systems have clear advantages over manual methods resulting in increasing use in hospital-based radiopharmacies. We report on our one year experience with an automated radiopharmaceutical synthesis system.Methods: All syntheses were carried out using the Eckert & Ziegler Eurotope’s Modular-Lab Pharm Tracer® automated synthesis system. All materials and methods used were followed as instructed by the manufacturer of the system (Eckert & Ziegler Eurotope, Berlin, Germany). Sterile, GMP-certified, no-carrier added (NCA) 177Lu was used with GMPcertifiedpeptide. An audit trail was also produced and saved by the system. The quality of the final product was assessed after each synthesis by ITLCSG and HPLC methods.Results: A total of 17 [177Lu]-DOTATATE syntheses were performed between August 2013 and December 2014. The amount of radioactive [177Lu]-DOTATATE produced by each synthesis varied between 10-40 GBq and was dependant on the number of patients being treated on a given day. Thirteen individuals received a total of 37 individual treatment administrations in this period. There were no issues and failures with the system or the synthesis cassettes. The average radiochemical purity as determined by ITLC was above 99% (99.8 ± 0.05%) and the average radiochemical purity as determined by HPLC technique was above 97% (97.3 ± 1.5%) for this period.Conclusions: The automated synthesis of [177Lu]-DOTATATE using Eckert & Ziegler Eurotope’s Modular-Lab Pharm Tracer® system is a robust, convenient and high yield approach to the radiolabelling of DOTATATE peptide benefiting from the use of NCA 177Lu and almost negligible radiation exposure of the operators.

In order to achieve better antibacterial water insoluble nanoparticles (Nanoparticles) of ZnO and ZnO–Al2O3 were studied. ZnO–Al2O3 mixed oxide nanoparticles were produced from a solution containing Zn(AC)2⋅2H2O and AlCl3 by Solvothermal method. The calcination process of the ZnO–Al2O3 composite nanoparticles brought forth polycrystalline one phase ZnO–Al2O3 nanoparticles of 30–50 nm in diameters. ZnO and ZnO–Al2O3 were crystallized into würtzite and rock salt structures, respectively. The structural properties of this sample were analyzed by XRD and compared with bulk case of these samples. Antibacterial effectiveness of the ZnO and ZnO–Al2O3 nanoparticles were tested against general Escherichia coli (E. coli ATCC 25922) and E. coli O157:H7 by measuring the growth through optical density and digital counting of live–dead cells. Minimum inhibitory concentration values against four representative bacteria along with E. coli O157:H7 were also obtained.

Objective(s): Gallium‐68 (Ga‐68) is an ideal research and hospital‐based PET radioisotope. Currently, the main form of Ga‐68 radiopharmaceutical that is being synthesised in‐house is Ga‐68 conjugated with DOTA based derivatives. The development of automated synthesis systems has increased the reliability, reproducibility and safety of radiopharmaceutical productions. Here we report on our three year, 500 syntheses experience with an automated system for Ga‐68 DOTATATE. Methods: The automated synthesis system we use is divided into three parts of a) servomotor modules, b) single use sterile synthesis cassettes and, c) a computerized system that runs the modules. An audit trail is produced by the system as a requirement for GMP production. The required reagents and chemicals are made in‐. The Germanium breakthrough is determined on a weekly basis. Production yields for each synthesis are calculated to monitor the performance and efficiency of the synthesis. The quality of the final product is assessed after each synthesis by ITLC‐SG and HPLC methods. Results: A total of 500 Ga‐68 DOTATATE syntheses (>800 patient doses) were performed between March 2011 and February 2014. The average generator yield was 81.3±0.2% for 2011, 76.7±0.4% for 2012 and 75.0±0.3% for 2013. Ga‐68 DOTATATE yields for 2011, 2012, and 2013 were 81.8±0.4%, 82.2±0.4% and 87.9±0.4%, respectively. These exceed the manufacturer’s expected value of approximately 70%. Germanium breakthrough averaged 8.6×10‐6% of total activity which is well below the recommended level of 0.001%. The average ITLC‐measured radiochemical purity was above 98.5% and the average HPLC‐measured radiochemical purity was above 99.5%. Although there were some system failures during synthesis, there were only eight occasions where the patient scans needed to be rescheduled. Conclusion: In our experience the automated synthesis system performs reliably with a relatively low incident of failures. Our system had a consistent and reliable Ga‐68 DOTATATE output with high labelling efficiency and purity. There is minimal operator intervention and radiation exposure. The system is GMP‐compliant and has low maintenance and acceptable running costs. This system together with the recommended 68Ge/68Ga generator is well suited for use in a hospital‐based radiopharmacy

The majority of studies in the field of organizational strategies have concentrated on strategy formulation, distinct from strategy implementation. Disunion of these two processes often leads to disappointing results in the implementation of strategy. In such a condition, the creation of a suitable strategy in a way that could resolve the divergence of formulation from implementation is suggested by researchers. This means that the implementers of a strategy turn into the formulators. Therefore, presenting creative ideas and solutions is encouraged between related organizational staff at different levels. Noting that the possibility of emerging creative ideas in organizational meetings between persons from different organizational levels is low, fostering creativity and innovation techniques can be an ideal solution for successful group meetings. In this paper, after introducing the effective criteria that should be considered in the creation of collective action strategies in organizations, the suitable techniques for fostering creativity in this kind of meeting will be ranked based on the Fuzzy MADM approach.