Records |
Author |
Maes, D.; Van Passel, S. |
Title |
Advantages and limitations of exergy indicators to assess sustainability of bioenergy and biobased materials |
Type |
A1 Journal article |
Year |
2014 |
Publication |
Environmental Impact Assessment Review |
Abbreviated Journal |
Environ Impact Asses |
Volume |
45 |
Issue |
|
Pages |
19-29 |
Keywords |
A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Engineering Management (ENM) |
Abstract |
Innovative bioenergy projects show a growing diversity in biomass pathways, transformation technologies and end-products, leading to complex new processes. Existing energy-based indicators are not designed to include multiple impacts and are too constrained to assess the sustainability of these processes. Alternatively, indicators based on exergy, a measure of “qualitative energy”, could allow a more holistic view. Exergy is increasingly applied in analyses of both technical and biological processes. But sustainability assessments including exergy calculations, are not very common and are not generally applicable to all types of impact. Hence it is important to frame the use of exergy for inclusion in a sustainability assessment. This paper reviews the potentials and the limitations of exergy calculations, and presents solutions for coherent aggregation with other metrics. The resulting approach is illustrated in a case study. Within the context of sustainability assessment of bioenergy, exergy is a suitable metric for the impacts that require an ecocentric interpretation, and it allows aggregation on a physical basis. The use of exergy is limited to a measurement of material and energy exchanges with the sun, biosphere and lithosphere. Exchanges involving services or human choices are to be measured in different metrics. This combination provides a more inclusive and objective sustainability assessment, especially compared to standard energy- or carbon-based indicators. Future applications of this approach in different situations are required to clarify the potential of exergy-based indicators in a sustainability context. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. |
Address |
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Corporate Author |
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Thesis |
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Publisher |
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Place of Publication |
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Editor |
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Language |
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Wos |
000331924600003 |
Publication Date |
2013-12-05 |
Series Editor |
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Series Title |
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Abbreviated Series Title |
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Series Volume |
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Series Issue |
|
Edition |
|
ISSN |
0195-9255 |
ISBN |
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Additional Links |
UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles |
Impact Factor |
3.094 |
Times cited |
18 |
Open Access |
|
Notes |
; ; |
Approved |
Most recent IF: 3.094; 2014 IF: 2.400 |
Call Number |
UA @ admin @ c:irua:127545 |
Serial |
6147 |
Permanent link to this record |
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Author |
Lizin, S.; Leroy, J.; Delvenne, C.; Dijk, M.; De Schepper, E.; Van Passel, S. |
Title |
A patent landscape analysis for organic photovoltaic solar cells : identifying the technology's development phase |
Type |
A1 Journal article |
Year |
2013 |
Publication |
Renewable Energy |
Abbreviated Journal |
Renew Energ |
Volume |
57 |
Issue |
|
Pages |
5-11 |
Keywords |
A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Engineering Management (ENM) |
Abstract |
Organic photovoltaics (OPV) have developed into a vast research area. Progress in various directions has made it difficult to monitor the technology's precise development state. We offer a patent landscape analysis over all OPV devices, their substrates and encapsulation materials to provide an overview of patenting activity from a historical, organizational, geographical and technological point of view. Such an exercise is instrumental for private companies and research institutes aiming at both internal or external technology creation. We discuss our findings in the context of the Industrial Life Cycle model and find OPV still residing in the fluid technology development phase. Technology development is still following an exponential growth path, with the majority of patents coming from the Asian continent and in general private companies. For devices, the main technological focus can be traced back to the “H01L-031” international patent classification (IPC) main group. For the queried substrates, the most attention has gone to glass, but paper and textile have drawn significant interest too. Finally, encapsulation is found to be a less mature research field given the smaller number of patent families. The latter shows that the technology has not matured to the level where processing is carried out on a commercial scale. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
Address |
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Corporate Author |
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Thesis |
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Publisher |
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Place of Publication |
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Editor |
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Language |
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Wos |
000319025000002 |
Publication Date |
2013-02-13 |
Series Editor |
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Series Title |
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Abbreviated Series Title |
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Series Volume |
|
Series Issue |
|
Edition |
|
ISSN |
0960-1481 |
ISBN |
|
Additional Links |
UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles |
Impact Factor |
4.357 |
Times cited |
18 |
Open Access |
|
Notes |
; The authors are much obliged to INTERREG for their financial support of the ORGANEXT project (www.organext.org), without which it would have been impossible to conduct this research. ; |
Approved |
Most recent IF: 4.357; 2013 IF: 3.361 |
Call Number |
UA @ admin @ c:irua:127551 |
Serial |
6143 |
Permanent link to this record |