Session resume: 100 % electricity supply by renewable energies is content of several scientific studies. Nowadays, they exist for many countries or even transnational regions like e.g. the EU-MENA-region combining the electricity markets by large so-called overlay-grids. Today, it is not any more questioned whether it is possible to have a 100 % renewable supply or not. The controversial issue is more the best way on how to arrive there – the best future system configuration.

This special session does not want to answer this question about the best way. But the session wants to highlight the extremes between positions and to illustrate how heat, cold and transport are affected by different approaches to a 100 % electricity supply by renewables and to present current scientific discussions. Among these:

Centralized or decentralized? Renewable resources have the big advantage that they are widely distributed and that electricity could be produced by small and decentralized converters. On the other hand some locations in the world have better renewable resources than other locations and it is proposed to interconnect even continents via grids. What is best? Or is there a compromise inbetween?

Balancing renewables via energy storage, via large interconnected areas or via renewable overproduction? Most renewables are of intermittent nature. Anyhow, basically three ways could lead to stable electricity systems. Renewable electricity could be stored in times of overproduction in order to be used during times of underproduction. Renewable converters could be interconnected in order to better balance weather dependent generation. Or, when renewable generation is continuing with decreasing costs simply renewable overproduction could be the solution. What is the best way?

What are ways to sustainable transport? Electric vehicles? Fuel cell cars? The session will not answer this. But the balancing of future electricity systems requires storage. Depending on the storage requirements from the perspective of electric grid operation different opportunities can be derived for future transport: short-term storages in a day-night cycle might encourage electric vehicles with battery storage in so-called plug-in-hybrid operation mode. Long-term storage on a more seasonal cycle encourages hydrogen production or renewable methane production out of electricity and encourages more fuel-cell cars or (renewable) natural-gas cars. How does the electricity system provoke changes in transport?

With the requirement for seasonal storage in large quantities maybe only hydrogen production and storage or renewable methane production and storage are feasible ways to go. Especially the least one opens the opportunity to mesh electricity system with supplies for heat and cold – and this without changing the current infrastructures. How do storage solutions interact with heat and cold supply?

Session resume: The energy consumed in buildings in industrialized nations represents near half of the global energy consumption and the quarter of greenhouse gases emissions. This consumption could be seriously reduced by acting on the design of the buildings, including more efficient architectural choices, materials and equipments. But it can also be seriously limited by acting on the use of the energy through the energy management adapted to the inhabitants’ behavior.

This session aims at reviewing challenges in designing energy-saving buildings and in using and managing smart buildings. The current scientific discussions among the followings will be presented in this session:

Design of sober buildings: How laws and labels can be decided and implemented to be a tool in order to reach the international commitments about decreasing of the energy consumption? What are the experience feedbacks checking the actual energetic performances of the used buildings? What are the potential energy savings all over the life cycle of a building?

Users’ behavior: How energy efficiency can be improved by taking into account the users’ behavior in the design of buildings? What kind of tools of energy management can be implemented in buildings in order to keep under control the energy consumption in one hand and to satisfy the users’ requirement in the other hand? How to design and implement relevant services for energy savings?

Energy prices on the retail market: How to imagine, decide and implement new energy pricings for the retail market in order to induce the users to have sustainable sober behaviors? Different policies for energy pricing have been experimented. How to analyze the impact of such pricings upon the behaviors and the sustainability of the behaviors’ changes if they exist?

The session is open for presentation of studies and projects dealing with energy in buildings. Technical studies of system design as well as economical and social studies of how to educate and incite changes in inhabitants’ behaviors are welcome.

Session resume:

Industrial production still requires a considerable and continuous supply of energy delivered from natural resources—principally in the form of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas. The increase in our planet human population and its growing nutritional demands have resulted in annual increases in energy consumption. Furthermore, many nations have accelerated their development in the last 10 years, and countries with large populations (such as China and India) have seen even more significant increases in energy demands. This growing energy consumption has also resulted in unsteady climatic and environmental conditions in many areas because of increased emissions of CO₂, NO_x, SO_x, dust, black carbon, and combustion process waste.

It has become increasingly important to ensure that the production and processing industries take advantage of recent developments in energy efficiency and in the use of nontraditional energy sources. The additional environmental cost is related to the amount of emitted carbon dioxide (CO₂) and may take the form of a centrally imposed tax. A workable solution to this problem would be to reduce emissions and effluents by optimizing energy consumption, increasing the efficiency of materials processing, and increasing also the efficiency of energy conversion and consumption.

Although major industry requires large supplies of energy to meet production targets, it is not the only sector of the world economy that is increasing its energy demands. The particular characteristics of these other sectors make optimizing for energy efficiency and cost reduction more difficult than in traditional processing industries, such as oil refining, where continuous mass production concentrated in a few locations offers an obvious potential for large energy savings. In contrast, for example, agricultural production and food processing are distributed over large areas, and these activities are not continuous but rather structured in seasonal campaigns. Energy demands in this sector are related to specific and limited time periods, so the design of efficient energy systems to meet this demand is more problematic than in traditional, steady-state industries.

In recent years there has been increased interest in the development of renewable, noncarbon-based energy sources in order to combat the increasing threat of CO₂ emissions and subsequent climatic change. These sources are characterized by spatial distribution and variations as well as temporal variations with diverse dynamics. More recently, the fluctuations and often large increases in the prices of oil and gas have further increased interest in employing alternative, non-carbon-based energy sources. These cost and environmental concerns have led to increases in the industrial sector efficiency of energy use, although the use of renewable energy sources in major industry has been sporadic at best. In contrast, domestic energy supply has moved more positively toward the integration of renewable energy sources; this movement includes solar heating, heat pumps, and wind turbines. However, there have been only limited and ad hoc attempts to design a combined energy system that includes both industrial and residential buildings, and few systematic design techniques have been marshaled toward the end of producing a symbiotic system.

Another important resource is water – both as raw material and effluent. Water is widely used in various industries as raw material. It is also frequently used in the heating and cooling utility systems (e.g., steam production, cooling water) and as a mass separating agent for various mass transfer operations (e.g., washing, extraction). Strict requirements for product quality and associated safety issues in manufacturing contribute to large amounts of high-quality water being consumed by the industry. In addition, large amounts of aqueous streams are released from the industrial processes, often proportional to the fresh water intake. Stringent environmental regulations coupled with a growing human population that seeks improved quality of life have led to increased demand for quality water. These developments have increased the need for improved water management and wastewater minimization. Adopting techniques to minimize water usage can effectively reduce both the demand for freshwater and the amount of effluents generated by the industry. In addition to this environmental benefit, efficient water management reduces the costs for acquiring freshwater and treating effluents.

This session provides a platform for development of modern technologies for energy and water efficiency and for exchanging ideas in the field. They include, beside the others, the Process Integration and optimisation methodologies and their application to improving the energy and water efficiency of mainly industrial but also nonindustrial users. An additional aim is to evaluate how these methodologies can be adapted to include the integration of waste and renewable energy sources for energy conversion and water supply/purification. The session is outlining the field of energy and water efficiency, including its scope, actors, and main features. The deals with energy and water saving techniques. An increasingly prominent issue is assessing and minimizing emissions and the the environmental footprints: carbon and water footprints. The carbon footprint (CFP) is defined by the U.K. Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology as the total amount of CO₂ and the other greenhouse gases emitted over the full life cycle of a process or product. IN a similar way the water footprint embodies the various water quantities used for the manufacturing and delivery of a product. For energy supply, there have been numerous studies that emphasize the \"carbon neutrality\" of renewable sources of energy. However, even renewable energy sources make some contribution to the overall carbon footprint, and assessment studies frequently do not account for this. The carbon footprint should also be incorporated into any product life-cycle assessment (LCA).

Session resume:

The aim of the proposed Special Session is to highlight the decisive role that utilization of industrial byproducts in new application fields plays to sustainability and exchange experience concerning how innovative research findings may be transferred to industrial scale.

Even though such cases and examples usually address to Coal Combustion Products utilized in the construction sector, the session welcomes scientists and experts from other relative fields.

 CCP’s are a very good example of byproduct’s exploitation since more than 100 million tons are produced every year in Europe. Their application rate differs in relation to the different countries and products but approaches a mean value of 50%. The benefits that arouse from their use encourage the efforts in laboratory and industrial scale for the extension of their uses.

A holistic approach of the subject would also include:

• Development of new managerial methods and strategies for increase of the byproducts’ utilization rate.
• Proposals for new business opportunities.
• Ways to target corresponding legislation towards the sustainable development of the countries.

The session is open to scientists showing new and innovative methods and thoughts for recycling or reusing industrial byproducts in several application fields and also experts from the exploiting industries and companies with their approach to the specific issue.

Session resume:

 Biofuels gain market as an energy source that can increase security of supply, significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions as compared to fossil fuels and provide a new profits flow for farmers. However, many of the biofuels that are currently being supplied have been criticized for their unfavorable impacts on the environment, food security, and land use.

Sustainability of a biofuel needs to be guaranteed in a transparent way; this includes aspects such as the social and economic development of local, rural communities, land use, agricultural practices, competition with food, air quality, water resources, agricultural practices, labor conditions, energy efficiency and GHG emissions, life cycle analysis (LCA), etc.

The challenge is to support sustainable biofuel production, including the development of biorefineries, new second and third generation biofuels technologies as well as bio-hydrogen production systems in the most cost-effective way, with a commitment to improve production efficiency and social and environmental performance in all stages of the biofuel production system, together with responsible economic policies to secure that a biofuel commercialization is also sustainable. The session welcomes papers dedicated to different aspects of biofuels sustainability.