Structured decision making as a tool for facilitating stakeholder engagement in non-renewable resource management: using the case study of hydraulic fracturing in the Green Point Shale formation in western Newfoundland

This thesis examines the importance of effective stakeholder engagement that complies with the doctrines of social justice in non-renewable resources management decision-making. It uses hydraulic fracturing in the Green Point Shale Formation in Western Newfoundland as a case study. The thesis uses as theoretical background John Rawls’ and David Miller’ theory of social justice, and identifies the social justice principles, which are relevant to stakeholder engagement. The thesis compares the method of stakeholder engagement employed by the Newfoundland and Labrador Hydraulic Fracturing Review Panel (NLHFRP), with the stakeholder engagement techniques recommended by the Structured Decision Making (SDM) model, as applied to a simulated case study involving hydraulic fracturing in the Green Point Shale Formation. Using the already identified social justice principles, the thesis then developed a framework to measure the level of compliance of both stakeholder engagement techniques with social justice principles. The main finding of the thesis is that the engagement techniques prescribed by the SDM model comply more closely with the doctrines of social justice than the engagement techniques applied by the NLHFRP. The thesis concludes by recommending that the SDM model be more widely used in non- renewable resource management decision making in order to ensure that all stakeholders’ concerns are effectively heard, understood and transparently incorporated in the nonrenewable resource policies to make them consistent with local priorities and goals, and with the social justice norms and institutions.

Energia, meio ambiente e economia: o Brasil no contexto mundial

The cycle of fossil fuels as an energy source for mankind is approaching its end. Finite resources, coupled with greenhouse gas, have led to an increased effort in the search for alternative renewable energy sources. Brazil has a leading position, due to a 46% participation of renewable sources in its primary energy supply, compared to the global average of 12%. The expansion of the renewable sources in Brazil depends on medium and long term planning, and a large volume of investments. The present financial crisis will have major effects in the energy market. Despite a negative initial impact, it is expected that the rearrangement of the financial system will ultimately lead to an expansion in the use of renewable energy sources. Brazil is a tropical country, with the largest biodiversity in our planet and excellent conditions to expand the use of all forms of renewable sources.

Lifecycle assessment of fuel ethanol from sugarcane in Brazil

This paper presents the lifecycle assessment (LCA) of fuel ethanol, as 100% of the vehicle fuel, from sugarcane in Brazil. The functional unit is 10,000 km run in an urban area by a car with a 1,600-cm(3) engine running on fuel hydrated ethanol, and the resulting reference flow is 1,000 kg of ethanol. The product system includes agricultural and industrial activities, distribution, cogeneration of electricity and steam, ethanol use during car driving, and industrial by-products recycling to irrigate sugarcane fields. The use of sugarcane by the ethanol agribusiness is one of the foremost financial resources for the economy of the Brazilian rural area, which occupies extensive areas and provides far-reaching potentials for renewable fuel production. But, there are environmental impacts during the fuel ethanol lifecycle, which this paper intents to analyze, including addressing the main activities responsible for such impacts and indicating some suggestions to minimize the impacts. This study is classified as an applied quantitative research, and the technical procedure to achieve the exploratory goal is based on bibliographic revision, documental research, primary data collection, and study cases at sugarcane farms and fuel ethanol industries in the northeast of SA o pound Paulo State, Brazil. The methodological structure for this LCA study is in agreement with the International Standardization Organization, and the method used is the Environmental Design of Industrial Products. The lifecycle impact assessment (LCIA) covers the following emission-related impact categories: global warming, ozone formation, acidification, nutrient enrichment, ecotoxicity, and human toxicity. The results of the fuel ethanol LCI demonstrate that even though alcohol is considered a renewable fuel because it comes from biomass (sugarcane), it uses a high quantity and diversity of nonrenewable resources over its lifecycle. The input of renewable resources is also high mainly because of the water consumption in the industrial phases, due to the sugarcane washing process. During the lifecycle of alcohol, there is a surplus of electric energy due to the cogeneration activity. Another focus point is the quantity of emissions to the atmosphere and the diversity of the substances emitted. Harvesting is the unit process that contributes most to global warming. For photochemical ozone formation, harvesting is also the activity with the strongest contributions due to the burning in harvesting and the emissions from using diesel fuel. The acidification impact potential is mostly due to the NOx emitted by the combustion of ethanol during use, on account of the sulfuric acid use in the industrial process and because of the NOx emitted by the burning in harvesting. The main consequence of the intensive use of fertilizers to the field is the high nutrient enrichment impact potential associated with this activity. The main contributions to the ecotoxicity impact potential come from chemical applications during crop growth. The activity that presents the highest impact potential for human toxicity (HT) via air and via soil is harvesting. Via water, HT potential is high in harvesting due to lubricant use on the machines. The normalization results indicate that nutrient enrichment, acidification, and human toxicity via air and via water are the most significant impact potentials for the lifecycle of fuel ethanol. The fuel ethanol lifecycle contributes negatively to all the impact potentials analyzed: global warming, ozone formation, acidification, nutrient enrichment, ecotoxicity, and human toxicity. Concerning energy consumption, it consumes less energy than its own production largely because of the electricity cogeneration system, but this process is highly dependent on water. The main causes for the biggest impact potential indicated by the normalization is the nutrient application, the burning in harvesting and the use of diesel fuel. The recommendations for the ethanol lifecycle are: harvesting the sugarcane without burning; more environmentally benign agricultural practices; renewable fuel rather than diesel; not washing sugarcane and implementing water recycling systems during the industrial processing; and improving the system of gases emissions control during the use of ethanol in cars, mainly for NOx. Other studies on the fuel ethanol from sugarcane may analyze in more details the social aspects, the biodiversity, and the land use impact.

Initial growth of maize in response to application of rock phosphate, vermicompost and endophytic bacteria

Due to the high energy requirement and demand for non-renewable resources for the production of chemical fertilizers, added also to the environmental impact caused by the use of such products, it is important to intensify research on bio-based agricultural inputs. The use of nitrogen-fixing endophytic and phosphate solubilizing bacteria can provide these nutrients to the plants from the air and poorly soluble phosphorus sources, such as phosphate rock. The objective of this study was to evaluate the nutrition and initial growth of maize (Zea mays L.) in response to the inoculation of nitrogen-fixing and rock phosphate solubilizing endophytic bacteria, in single or mixed formulation, applied with vermicompost. The treatments containing bacteria, both diazotrophic and phosphate solubilizing, when compared to controls, showed higher levels of leaf nitrogen and phosphorus in maize, as well as higher growth characteristics. The application of vermicompost showed synergistic effect when combined with endophytic bacteria. Thus, the innovation of the combination of the studied factors may contribute to the early development of maize.

Light pollution and energy efficiency: a case study of the village of Vialonga

Since industrialization and the formation of larger urban centers in the nineteenth century, pollution of the environment was always present in daily life in various ways, namely in the form of light. Light pollution can cause various consequences, both for humans and for their ecosystem, producing effects on environmental, social, economic and scientific level. In Portugal, the lighting is responsible for 3% of total electricity consumption, energy costs are in some cases more than 50% towards the costs incurred by municipalities with energy, checking-in recent years a trend similar to that improvement of illumination levels in the region (about 4 to 5% per year). Proper use of lighting brings many benefits both to the citizen and environment, since greater energy efficiency can contribute to reducing CO2 emissions, energy costs, as well as to decrease the use of resources not-renewable and/or contamination of renewable resources, which can occurs in the process of obtaining electricity. The present study has a main goal to analyze the illuminance levels associated to the public lighting of the village of Vialonga, Vila Franca de Xira (Portugal), to verify if it is efficient. The aim is also to relate the efficiency of street lighting with the existence of light pollution.

A real time pricing approach to deal with excessive wind power situations

The introduction of wind power generation in several countries around the world, including in European countries, where energy policy directives have encouraged the use of renewables, led to several changes in market and power systems operation. The intensive integration of these sources has led to situations in which the demand is lower than the available renewable resources. In these situations a part of the available generation is wasted if not used for storage or to supply additional demand. This paper proposes a real time demand response methodology based on changing the electricity price for the consumers expecting an increase in the demand in the periods in which that demand is lower than the available renewable generation. The consumers response to the changes in electricity price is characterized by their price elasticity of demand considered distinct for each consumer type. The proposed methodology is applied to the Portuguese power system, in the context of the Iberian electricity market (MIBEL). The renewable-based producers are considered as special producers, with special tariffs, and so it is important to use the energy available as it will be paid anyway. In this context, consumers are entities actively participating in the operation of the market.

Maximum penetration of microgeneration photovoltaic panels in distribution network

In smart grids context, the distributed generation units based in renewable resources, play an important rule. The photovoltaic solar units are a technology in evolution and their prices decrease significantly in recent years due to the high penetration of this technology in the low voltage and medium voltage networks supported by governmental policies and incentives. This paper proposes a methodology to determine the maximum penetration of photovoltaic units in a distribution network. The paper presents a case study, with four different scenarios, that considers a 32-bus medium voltage distribution network and the inclusion storage units.

AI in power systems and energy markets

In a world increasingly conscientious about environmental effects, power and energy systems are undergoing huge transformations. Electric energy produced from power plants is transmitted and distributed to end users through a power grid. The power industry performs the engineering design, installation, operation, and maintenance tasks to provide a high-quality, secure energy supply while accounting for its systems’ abilities to withstand uncertain events, such as weather-related outages. Competitive, deregulated electricity markets and new renewable energy sources, however, have further complicated this already complex infrastructure.Sustainable development has also been a challenge for power systems. Recently, there has been a signifi cant increase in the installation of distributed generations, mainly based on renewable resources such as wind and solar. Integrating these new generation systems leads to more complexity. Indeed, the number of generation sources greatly increases as the grid embraces numerous smaller and distributed resources. In addition, the inherent uncertainties of wind and solar energy lead to technical challenges such as forecasting, scheduling, operation, control, and risk management. In this special issue introductory article, we analyze the key areas in this field that can benefi t most from AI and intelligent systems now and in the future.We also identify new opportunities for cross-fertilization between power systems and energy markets and intelligent systems researchers.

Influence of the pre-treatments on the properties of biodegradable films from bovine hair

The replacement of conventional synthetic films and coatings by biodegradable alternatives reduces the use of non-renewable resources and waste disposal problems. Considering that Portugal is a major producer of leather, and consequently a large producer of related wastes, in this research, bovine hair was tested for the production of biodegradable films directly by thermo-compression, allowing waste valorisation and reduction of environmental pollution. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of the different pre-treatments performed by two processes (removal by mechanical action and removal by chemical process), applied to bovine hair, in order to obtain a biodegradable film with appropriate properties. Mechanical properties for these films were evaluated, namely strain at break, stress at break and Young modulus. Additionally colour, solubility and swelling in water were also studied. The mechanical removal hair only produced films with Na2S treatment. Chemical removed hair (immunization) depends of the pre-treatment and the degreasing with petroleum ether or sodium sulphide pre-treatment leads better mechanical properties. The results obtained indicated that the pre-treatments have an important role in the final properties of biodegradable films.

Análise e optimização dos consumos de utilidades (vapor e energia eléctrica) na Petibol – Embalagens de Plásticos, S.A.

Mestrado em Engenharia Química. Ramo optimização energética na indústria química.

Estudo da implementação de uma central hídrica reversível na Ilha Terceira

Dissertação de Mestrado em Engenharia e Gestão de Sistemas de Água.

Software de apoio à implementação de sistemas híbridos de produção de energia eléctrica baseados em energias renováveis

O aumento da população Mundial, particularmente em Países emergentes como é o caso da China e da Índia, tem-se relevado um problema adicional no que confere às dificuldades associadas ao consumo mundial de energia, pois esta situação limita inequivocamente o acesso destes milhões de pessoas à energia eléctrica para os bens básicos de sobrevivência. Uma das muitas formas de se extinguir esta necessidade, começa a ser desenvolvida recorrendo ao uso de recursos renováveis como fontes de energia. Independentemente do local do mundo onde nos encontremos, essas fontes de energia são abundantes, inesgotáveis e gratuitas. O problema reside na forma como esses recursos renováveis são geridos em função das solicitações de carga que as instalações necessitam. Sistemas híbridos podem ser usados para produzir energia em qualquer parte do mundo. Historicamente este tipo de sistemas eram aplicados em locais isolados, mas nos dias que correm podem ser usados directamente conectados à rede, permitindo que se realize a venda de energia. Foi neste contexto que esta tese foi desenvolvida, com o objectivo de disponibilizar uma ferramenta informática capaz de calcular a rentabilidade de um sistema híbrido ligado à rede ou isolado. Contudo, a complexidade deste problema é muito elevada, pois existe uma extensa panóplia de características e distintos equipamentos que se pode adoptar. Assim, a aplicação informática desenvolvida teve de ser limitada e restringida aos dados disponíveis de forma a poder tornar-se genérica, mas ao mesmo tempo permitir ter uma aplicabilidade prática. O objectivo da ferramenta informática desenvolvida é apresentar de forma imediata os custos da implementação que um sistema híbrido pode acarretar, dependendo apenas de três variáveis distintas. A primeira variável terá de ter em consideração o local de instalação do sistema. Em segundo lugar é o tipo de ligação (isolado ou ligado à rede) e, por fim, o custo dos equipamentos (eólico, solar e restantes componentes) que serão introduzidos. Após a inserção destes dados a aplicação informática apresenta valores estimados de Payback e VAL.

Identificação da combinação ótima das fontes de energia renovável de origem hídrica, eólica e fotovoltaica para a integração no sistema elétrico português

Dissertação para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica Ramo de Energia

Moradia no centro histórico do Montijo: reabilitação vs construção nova

Dissertação para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Civil na Área de Especialização de Edificações

A hybrid genetic algorithm for the multi-mode resource-constrained project scheduling

A construction project is a group of discernible tasks or activities that are conduct-ed in a coordinated effort to accomplish one or more objectives. Construction projects re-quire varying levels of cost, time and other resources. To plan and schedule a construction project, activities must be defined sufficiently. The level of detail determines the number of activities contained within the project plan and schedule. So, finding feasible schedules which efficiently use scarce resources is a challenging task within project management. In this context, the well-known Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP) has been studied during the last decades. In the RCPSP the activities of a project have to be scheduled such that the makespan of the project is minimized. So, the technological precedence constraints have to be observed as well as limitations of the renewable resources required to accomplish the activities. Once started, an activity may not be interrupted. This problem has been extended to a more realistic model, the multi-mode resource con-strained project scheduling problem (MRCPSP), where each activity can be performed in one out of several modes. Each mode of an activity represents an alternative way of combining different levels of resource requirements with a related duration. Each renewable resource has a limited availability for the entire project such as manpower and machines. This paper presents a hybrid genetic algorithm for the multi-mode resource-constrained pro-ject scheduling problem, in which multiple execution modes are available for each of the ac-tivities of the project. The objective function is the minimization of the construction project completion time. To solve the problem, is applied a two-level genetic algorithm, which makes use of two separate levels and extend the parameterized schedule generation scheme. It is evaluated the quality of the schedules and presents detailed comparative computational re-sults for the MRCPSP, which reveal that this approach is a competitive algorithm.