Volume 23 (2019): Issue 2 (November 2019)
Special Issue of Environmental and Climate Technologies Part I: Energy, bioeconomy, climate changes and environment nexus

The reason why the Sick Building Syndrome appears is not enough flow of the fresh air going into the rooms. It could cause various ailments, although it is difficult to determine their source and the symptoms disappear soon after leaving the building. The paper discusses the sources of the indoor air pollution, symptoms of Sick Building Syndrome and shows the solutions how to avoid the phenomena of “sick” buildings. In addition, the results of questionnaire surveys on the well-being of employees, which were carried out in an office building in Warsaw, were presented. The vast majority of respondents in the building spend 8 hours, during which their well-being deteriorates. More than half of the respondents felt typical symptoms of the Sick Building Syndrome. To avoid the formation of “sick building” should be replaced regularly air. The exchange method is not important.

This article presents preliminary analysis of the Latvian national EV fast - charging network after the first year of operation. The first phase of Latvian national EV fast-charging network was launched in 2018 with 70 charging stations on the TEN-T roads and in the largest towns and cities. The article looks at the initial results, both looking at the total capacity utilization for individual charging stations, determining the hourly charging distribution; and to the utilization of the network as a whole. The results present that there is a very large dispersion of the data, most of the charging events happening in a few charging stations in and around the capital of Latvia. However, there have been charging events in all charging stations, even in the most remote ones. Even more skewed distribution was observed analyzing the charging habits of the EV users, with 10 % of users accounting for more than half of the charging events. This should be taken into account when considering applying the results for the future, expecting larger number of electric vehicles in Latvia.

In Russia, the legislative support for the construction and operation of heating systems is permanently developing and improving. The Federal law “On heat supply” adopted in 2010 is the basic and most important document that regulates the work of heating systems. Moreover, the country has more than 10 additional documents that regulate this industry, and a great number of documents that establish rules for building and operating energy systems. The paper presents the main documents that regulate the heat supply industry in the Russian Federation, and a brief description of the main stages of heating system life cycle and problems solved in each of them. Despite the national policy of energy conservation and energy efficiency enhancement, there are still problems related to heat supply management due to large extension, complexity and a variety of types and structures of the systems. The main cause of the poor heat supply efficiency in Russia is explained by a considerable change in the structure of heat loads that has occurred of late years, a decrease in the loading of the main generating equipment and heat networks, which amid other things is fostered by an increasing wear of the systems. Upgrading of generating capacities and heat networks is considered in the framework of long-term investment projects for their modernization and expansion. The obtained solutions are reflected in the Schemes of urban heat supply. This paper proposes solutions aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of decisions made in the field of heat supply. It formulates the proposals on organization and regulation of the activities of all the participants in heat supply in the stage of long-term planning of heating system expansion, because well-founded and rational planning of construction and expansion of the systems is a basis for their efficient operation.

The need for sustainable energy management at the municipal level is growing, in order to meet EU climate goals. Multiple initiatives have been launched to support municipalities in energy planning and strategy development process. Despite available support, research shows mixed results about implementation of plans and strategies. This research paper analyses what targets municipalities set, how they monitor implementation of their sustainable energy action plans (SEAPs) and searches for the most important factors that have enabled or hindered the implementation of local SEAPs at Latvia. The article shows that, in some cases, there is evidence that SEAP development is a project-based activity, supported by external experts. From municipal personnel point of view, it is a project that ends with approved SEAP, but not a part of their future daily routine. Eventually implementation of the plan is difficult, because municipalities lack experience in daily management of energy data, distribution of responsibilities and implementation of procedures. Municipalities also tend to exclude important stakeholders in their SEAPs, like, private sector, household sector and transport sector, which lead to lower targets and lower achievements in GHG reduction.

The development of renewable energy technologies (RET) depends on a wide range of criteria and regulations. To evaluate which RET (solar photovoltaic (PV), wind power plants (WPP), hydroelectric power plants (HPP) or bio-energy plants) have the greatest potential in Latvia, the most suitable approach is a multiple criteria decision making (MCDM). The proposed MCDM methodology involves TOPSIS model based on information entropy, which contributes as a criteria weighting tool. The study investigates seven main criteria from technical, economic, environmental and social aspects. Firstly, each alternative country is analysed due to the chosen RET criteria. Secondly, the assessment is extended, comparing specific data with Latvia’s MCDM of RET results. The research results show that, according to the best available examples of RET, hydro energy plants still play a substantial role for Latvia, the most promising RET development is based on bio-energy and wind renewable energies.

The district heating (DH) system consists of three basic elements – a heat source, heating network and heat consumers. All of these elements have a definite role in the overall development of the DH system. The transition to 4^th generation DH (4GDH) involves changes in each of those elements that interact with each other. Therefore, various related processes form the potential energy savings and reduction of CO2 emissions when introducing 4GDH as whole system in all elements. To estimate the potential outcome from such projects it requires complex engineering calculations, which is not always possible without relevant expertise. The article describes a novel simplified methodology for evaluating the potential GHG emission reduction when implementing 4GDH. Thus, it is proposed to use a simplified calculation formula from linear regression model for the calculation of CO2 reduction.

This paper presents a numerical simulation-based study that evaluates the potential of an active phase change material (PCM) incorporated thermal energy storage (TES) system for space cooling in residential buildings. In the proposed concept, TES system is composed of stand-alone PCM storage units which are installed between the concrete ceiling slab and the ceiling finishing layer. Active control of the thermal energy storage is achieved by night cooling of a phase change material by means of cold water flowing within a capillary pipe system. Effectiveness of the system under the typical summer conditions of the Baltic States is analysed by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software Ansys Fluent. Results showed that installation of the active TES system has a positive effect on thermal comfort, reducing the average indoor air temperature by 6.8 °C. The outcome of this investigation would be helpful in selecting the key characteristics of the system in order to achieve the optimum performance of an active TES system for space cooling of buildings in similar climates.

The European Union’s climate and energy policy for 2030 sets ambitious targets and will challenge current energy use patterns. At the same time, policy objectives are to maintain energy affordable for business and consumers, which means that energy and climate goals should be achieved in the most cost-effective way. There is a well-known energy efficiency gap between effectively implemented energy efficiency measures and potentially economically viable ones. The authors have made a statistical analysis of the energy costs intensity of manufacturing industries in Latvia compared to other Baltic Sea countries and have consented that the three most energy consuming manufacturing industries in Latvia show a higher share of energy costs in total production costs than in their peers over a long period of time, indicating the clearly visible possibilities for energy efficiency improvements. At the same time, Latvian energy policy provides subsidies for energy-intensive manufacturing consumers by reimbursing part of their actual electricity costs. The paper analyses the amounts of reimbursements and their breakdown by manufacturing industries, identifying the most important beneficiaries of subsidies. The authors argue that beneficiaries should direct these subsidies to further energy efficiency improvements.

In the article the issues of establishing and functioning of the zones with special economic activity conditions are addressed and their impact on the environment in Russia and Kazakhstan is assessed. The relevance of the subject of the research is determined, on the one hand, by a qualitative change in the role of the environmental issues in the system of values of population of the post-soviet countries and, on the other hand, by cumulative increase of the negative impact due to the irrational environmental management. Information about the types of special status zones established in these countries is systematized. The key characteristics of these institutional entities are compared, which includes goals and specifics of their development, implemented organizational mechanisms, measures for support of business activities, offered tax incentives and preferences. The authors demonstrate that the adopted accelerated economic growth strategy within the framework of zones with special status is implemented disregarding the environmental effects of their development, which poses serious threats to self-preservation of the society and environment. Common and country-specific risks of functioning of the zones with special economic activity conditions are justified. Factors contributing to inadequate assessment of the negative impact on the environment of industries, created in SEZ were revealed. It is emphasized that the current legal and regulatory framework of these zones in Russia and Kazakhstan is aimed not at the prevention of environmental threats but at the easing of requirements for entities in the field of environmental management. Finally, conclusion is made about the greening opportunities of development of the zones with special economic activity conditions, a necessity to enhance the environmental legislation and mutual “best practices” adoption opportunities in this field in Russia and Kazakhstan. The empirical basis of the analysis is constituted by the results of the studies carried out within the framework of the research work “Enhancement of the State Regulation Policy of Accelerated Clustering of the Industrial Regions” implemented on the grounds of the grant funding of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Waste management system is a complex system involving numerous waste streams, collection schemes, treatment processes and various actors. Bus as well as many other systems, waste management is recently experiencing new and more sustainable development trends including the promotion of circular economy and increased material recycling. Hence there is a need for the implementation of an improved waste management system that requires a significant and thorough planning stage, the results of which will significantly depend on the availability of detailed information of the possible waste flows and waste composition. The aim of this paper is to experimentally determine and analyse the composition of unsorted municipal waste to provide assessment for incorporating waste composition analysis into further planning and modelling of a next generation waste management system in Latvia. The experimental results indicate that the unsorted municipal waste stream comprises of up to 32.9 % of recyclable materials and 29.2 % of biodegradable wastes. Thus almost 60 % of the waste currently being subjected to unsorted waste management system in Latvia could potentially be source separated ensuring higher quality of the recovered materials and promoting circular value chains. The results indicate a slight difference between waste composition in different waste management regions, thus noting that, in addition to the number of inhabitants and their habits, the local system in each waste management region may influence the composition of the collected wastes.

Nowadays government policies to mitigate climate change are of a wide variety and they are evaluated before and after implementation. Much research has been conducted on how climate change policy will affect the climate. However, there is very little research on policies that are not intended to mitigate or reduce climate change and which, from the policy makers’ point of view, have no relation to climate change. The goal of this study is to review the electricity policy in Latvia and the aspects that can be evaluated under this policy, and apply multiple-criteria analysis to determine on what spheres the electricity policy leaves the most positive impact – is it climate or are they consumers and other electricity market players? The outcome of the analysis shows that, at the national level, the most positive impact on climate is provided by the National Energy and Climate Plan, indicating that climate is taken into consideration mostly only under complex multi-sectoral legislation.

Approaches to the organization of management of environmental protection within the framework of introduction of Smart City technologies are reviewed in this article. For this purpose, a retrospective analysis of transformation of the Smart City notion has been carried out and basic characteristics of a modern smart city interpretation have been distinguished: the use of information technology in all functional areas of the city ecosystem, active involvement of residents in the processes of city management through organization of a system of user services, commitment to sustainable development of a city to the benefit of future generations. In the research process the key factors of the environment pollution in cities were reviewed having identified systemic challenges in the environmental field, which can be solved by introduction of the Smart City technology. For each environmental factor promising technologies of the Smart City system and effects that may be reached by means of their introduction are provided. Analysis of the existing technological solutions of the Smart City made it possible to identify the complex nature of environmental problems of cities, the solution of which requires introduction of smart technologies in all the spheres of functioning of the city. In the practical part of the article smart city’s technology development and implementation experience is presented, aimed at environmental protection in the cities of Russia and Kazakhstan. The empirical basis of the analysis is constituted by the results of the studies carried out within the framework of the research work “Enhancement of the State Regulation Policy of Accelerated Clustering of the Industrial Regions” implemented on the grounds of the grant funding of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Since the creation of the European Union’s (EU) Biodiversity Strategy, increased attention has been drawn to the spread of invasive non-native species, their impact on biodiversity, and the economic losses caused. Ensuring compliance with the regulation on the eradication of invasive species requires financial means, therefore a new vision on invasive plant management system is proposed. With a new system, invasive alien plant (IAP) control is ensured as well as a new source of lignocellulosic biomass for product production, that could result in financial gains is presented. This article provides current alien plant situation visualization by Sankey diagram showing invasiveness of alien species and establishment, after which invasive and potentially invasive species are directed further to pre-assessment. A total of 157 invasive plant species are evaluated by multi criteria decision analysis TOPSIS, the case on the national level (Latvia) is presented and a new concept for a IAP management system is provided. The research results and the new concept provide a contribution to policy makers, land owners affected by invasive species and municipalities.

The success of energy efficiency policy depends on a number of factors, however, simultaneous application of more than just one policy instrument, coordination of multiple different policy instruments and a correct sequence of application of policy instruments are identified in research as three key factors related directly to policy making. Energy efficiency policy instruments are about the most appropriate ways of overcoming barriers to energy efficiency. The study adopts a policy analysis approach from social sciences to illustrate the relevance of a correct policy-making process in making energy efficiency policy effective. Analysis of interaction between the modules of decision-making matrix looks at the genesis of the faulty choice of energy efficiency policies. Studies of energy efficiency policy instruments indicate that implementation of a single separate policy instrument will most likely fail to achieve the expected results of overcoming barriers to energy efficiency and simultaneous implementation or combination of several policy instruments is preferable. If more than just one separate policy instrument aiming at improving energy efficiency is employed, then coordination in between two or more policy instruments as well as correct sequence of implementation of policy instruments is essential for achieving success. Lack of or insufficient attention to a full cycle of policy analysis leads to absence of one or more of the three key factors. Decision-making about energy efficiency policy instruments becomes faulty and is based on or influenced by ad hoc decisions and random circumstances, like, for example, availability or unavailability of EU financing. Such an approach contributes to maintaining or amplifying existing or creating new barriers to energy efficiency and leads to a new cycle of faulty decisions unless a proper process of policy analysis is applied in preparing and making decisions.

The problem of determining the effective (optimal) heat supply radius is considered. Heat supply radius is transportation distance of heat energy in the district heating systems (DHS), under which the highest indices of economic efficiency of district heating to consumers are respected. To solve this difficult and multifactorial problem, a bi-level approach has been proposed. This approach allows finding the optimal frameworks of territorial areas of district heating while fulfilling the necessary requirements for thermal-hydraulic modes in heat networks and for reliability of heating to consumers. Methodology for solving the formulated problem is based on bi-level programming methods, models of Theory of hydraulic circuits, nonlinear optimization methods, nodal reliability indices (availability factor, failure-free operation probability), Markov random processes models and other methods and models. A case study has been conducted using the developed methodological apparatus for the actual DHS scheme of the Irkutsk city (Russia, Siberia).

To our knowledge, for the first time in the history of the life cycle assessment, the LCA analysis of the houseboats used for residential purposes has been conducted while testing a new software program eLCA in its Beta version. In cooperation with the Coop Waterhouse GmbH and with the Architektenbüro PlanWerk, the houseboat Swan, due to its extraordinary solutions for energy supply, has been chosen for the first attempt at analysing uncertainty in its LCA with the focus on the energy supply components as well as on the energy input. Results discuss energy usage, being responsible for the half of the total CO2 e-emissions, and its uncertainty with regards to the next 50 years of the houseboat’s lifetime.

The present work aims to analyse the environmental advantages of a production process that applies circular economy. The study examines a product that is generated through the use of a certain percentage of recovered secondary materials, thus helping to avoid impacts related to the disposal of these materials and preserving the ecosystems from indiscriminate excessive natural resources extraction. The product analysed is an ecological detergent (“Ri-Detersivo” – Re-Detergent), produced by the company Tea Natura, mainly composed of regenerated vegetable oils coming from food industry. The methodology used in this paper is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). A partial LCA will be carried out here, arriving at the saponification phase, and comparing the environmental impacts deriving from the Re-Detergent production process with those of a traditional soap, comparable to that studied in terms of function. The analysis of the case study found that the use of regenerated vegetable oils for the production of soap allows to significantly reduce the environmental impacts compared to the use of coconut oil imported from third countries.

Life cycle costs of co-digestion plant of cattle farm manure and locally available freshwater macrophyte C. demersum, marine brown algae F. vesiculosus, and marine green algae U. intestinalis; ratio 5:1) are analysed based on Latvian climatic and economic conditions. Biomass collection from nature and pre-treatment of biomass, biogas production, biogas treatment and utilization in combined heat and power plant are included in the boundaries. The weak points of scenarios are large capital investments, electricity sale price (and the application of feed-in tariff). As naturally grown algae and macrophytes are used, they are also sensitive to weather conditions each year as available amounts of biomass might change and decrease. Net Present Value is positive only for C. demersum with Internal Rate of Return of –14 % and Discounted Payback Period of 11 years.

Sustainable heating solutions involving renewable energy sources and low supply/return temperatures for district heating are evolving. Low temperature use in district heating allows reducing the heating operation costs significantly and at the same time holding the sustainability criteria. However, an in-depth study on environmental impacts during the life cycle of low temperature district heating was not conducted until now. Thus, this study aims to find the best development scenarios for development of local low temperature district heating. For this purpose, a methodology adopts life cycle analysis approach that allows assessing the environmental impacts according to a variety of environmental performance criterions. The results of the study showed an improvement in the overall environmental performance towards the transition of a conventional 3^rd generation district heating to low temperature concept including the effects of reconstruction and modernization of the boiler house. A set of potential development is proposed. Specifically, the scenario implementing low temperature district heating with solar PV showed the best score for environmental performance. The scenario with implementation of low temperature district heating without solar PV did not show significant improvement in environmental performance under operation conditions of a pilot case study.

The paper deals with the problem of processing garment and knitwear production by recycling garment and knitwear. In this research was made a comparative assessment of the methods for producing knitted fabric from recycled yarn using various technological auxiliary equipment for recycling. The author gives a qualitative and environmental-economic assessment of the developed technology for obtaining a cloth of recycled yarn.

The European Union has placed competence-based teaching and competence-based education as one of its highly relevant goals. Due to mass higher education, the assessment of effectiveness and relevance evaluation of environmental engineering study programmes should become an important issue. Presently the focus of the evaluation on multi-disciplinary study programmes varies from the evaluation of attitudes, impacts or effectiveness of utilisation-focused evaluation, summative evaluation and participatory evaluation approaches. The objective of this study was to propose an effective framework to evaluate the Environmental Engineering Master study programmes. During the research, the evaluation of existing study programmes on environmental engineering in Europe was conducted, information about the study courses, teaching methods, assessment methods and competences was used for the analysis. The results obtained showed that lectures, site visits, group coursework, practical laboratories and role-plays allows to reach the necessary knowledge, skills and competences and to provide an effective and relevant education to the Environmental Engineering Master programme students. The proposed evaluation framework was tested and approbated on new Riga Technical University Master study programmes on Environmental Engineering and Bioeconomy.

Single cell oil (SCO) is an attractive alternative source of oil, which, depending on the fatty acid composition, can be used as a feedstock for biodiesel production, as an ingredient for pharmaceuticals or as a source of essential fatty acids for human and animal consumption. However, the use of SCO is limited due to use of relatively expensive food or feed products in the cultivation of SCO producing microorganisms. In order to reduce SCO production costs, the use of cheaper feedstock such as biodegradable agro-industrial wastes are necessary. At the same time, the microbial treatment of biodegradable wastes ensures the neutralization of environmentally harmful compounds and reduces the negative impact on the environment. Oleaginous microorganisms are capable of fermenting a variety of industrial by-products, waste products and wastewaters, however further discussion on properties of the waste materials is necessary to facilitate the selection of the most appropriate waste materials for SCO production. Thus, this review compares various industrial waste products that can be used as cheap feedstock for the cultivation of SCO producing microorganisms. Industrial waste products, by-products and wastewaters are compared according to their global availability, current use in competing industries, required pre-fermentation treatments, oleaginous microorganism cell concentrations and SCO yields.

Various technologies available on the solar photovoltaic cell market have been reviewed. The method of photovoltaic micro-modules implementation on standard roof tiles was shown. The possible roof tiles were chosen. Problems related to micro PV modules design and concept of final product developed at Electrotile Company have been described. It was shown that solar panel modules consisting of 6 two-cell setups on the Tysenia roofing tile generated power of 38.5 W or 42 W, depending on cell type.

The aim of this study is to analyse from the thermodynamic, environmental and economic point of view an ORC for heat recovery from urban waste, using R245fa as a working fluid on the example of Terceira Island (Azores). The proposed ORC system includes two evaporators, two turbines, a condenser, a pump and a generator. The thermodynamic model is created using the Visual Basic programming language. In order to analyse the influence of pressure, temperature and mass flow on net output, efficiency, and mass flow rate of the power plant, the sensibility analysis is carried out. The results show that from the energetic point of view, urban waste recovery (using an ORC) could be a viable solution on Terceira Island, since the maximum net output produced from this system for a mass rate of 19 727 tonnes is 485 kW. The efficiency of the ORC is 25 %. Environmentally, the incineration of the urban waste produced on the island is a positive solution for these residues since it will reduce the amount of waste deposited in the landfill. However, this project is not economically viable. The losses estimated in this study exceed 500 000 EUR (per year).

The upcoming packaging material trend is bio-polymeric materials since it has shown tremendous potential in practical scenarios. Even though there have been experiments performed regarding material developments, there is still no confirmation about how uncertain the developments will be. A few statistical approaches were carried out in this work to identify the role of biopolymers as a packaging material based on their thermo-mechanical and physical properties and potential compared to other packaging materials. To determine the potential of biopolymer, it is compared with other package materials currently in demand. There are three main steps in the research. The first stage is an analysis of selected different packaging materials based on Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) technique. The material properties are analysed through the criteria of TOPSIS analysis. The ideal and negative ideal alternatives have been identified. Biopolymers have an outcome as the final best alternative among others. To confirm the TOPSIS results and its uncertainties, a sensitivity analysis is performed. This sensitivity analysis was performed in two phases. The first step is a regression analysis of the weighted parameters and input variables of the TOPSIS scheme. The second step is the variation of weights in a unitary variation ratio to identify the order of the TOPSIS results at each variation. Finally, all the results have concluded that the research intention has been fulfilled by performing TOPSIS and the sensitivity analysis has also confirmed this decision.