Beyond Traditional Energy Sector Coupling: Conserving and Efficient Use of Local Resources

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors of the present study tried to develop an open-source sector coupling optimization model considering all of these resources and their utilization is developed and also analyzed the impact of greywater on energy system operations and system sustainability

The Paper lacks novelty and clear explanation.

Justification needs to be pronounced.

Literature of the last three years to be cited, all old literature was cited in the paper.

A little bit of English editing is needed.

The paper need to have a clear structure. Like 

Introduction

Case Study

Literature Review.

Methods and Material

Methodology

Results

Discussion

Conclusion.

The objective of the paper is also not clear.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Despite having a good structure, this paper does not have a considerable novelty to be published in the journal. There have been several papers which have the same topic and have been published in the past years. Therefore, the paper is not recommended for publication in the journal.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

This paper, entitled Beyond Traditional Energy Sector Coupling: Conserving and Efficient Use of Local Resources, is a scholarly work and can increase knowledge on this domain.

The authors provide a complete overview and approach of energy sector dealing wiwth conservong and efficient use of local resources. The authors provide a very interesting and original approach, the content is from high quality and relevant to Sustainability. The manuscript is from high quality, well written and detailed, and well related to existing literature. The authors propose an important work that is in the spotlight of the current research work and interest about energy. The abstract and keywords are meaningful.

I have few general comments:

• could we apply such method on other different area? This work is focusing on Israeli city, could we obtain similar consideration when considering another area? Is this work dependent on the context or could we apply this method in general? Is there any restriction or limitation due to the Israeli context (regulation, economy, energy sector,...)?
• why not considering organic waste and their valorization with anaerobic digestion or composting process?
• why not considering biogas from anaerobic digestion or from methanation (catalytic or biological) after production of hydrogen from Power-to-gas or other processes? What about pyrolysis, pyrogazeification, ...?
• Figure 1 is very interesting, with the presentation of the case setup Israel, but from my point of view, this figure is too small and very difficult to read due to its size. Please improve if possible easily.
• Equation in Figure 2 are too small, please enlarge if possible.
• Figure 6 is too small, please enlarge if possible, in order to increase the readability. Same comment for Figure A3.

 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

The paper addresses the topic of energy sector coupling by considering simultaneously waste and graywater input resources for energy conversion technologies, especially for transition to hydrogen economy. The proposed approach is complex and the obtained results seem reliable and accurate. The proposed methodology is valuable, it is introduced in a clear and simple manner, and it can be applied in other national contexts. The overview on state of the art and the used English style are also highly appreciated.

 

The following issues are recommended to improve the paper:

1. Several typing mistakes should be solved. E.g., “ Previously mentioned decetral energy”, “digestion as, reported by Mills et al.” (probably digestion, as reported…), etc.
2. “Many works have investigated waste and water energy recovery potential in particular, but a combined investigation and inclusion into the energy system has not been examined yet.”. Please support your statement by emphasizing the importance/complexity of the coupling effect between the two input resources on the output results. Otherwise, if a linear relationship occurs, certainly the scope of the paper becomes less significant.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The author attempted to analyze the impact of energy recovery and resource utilization with regard to greywater and emission. It highlights the need of resource management in a complex scenario of Food, Water and energy Nexus.

The paper is interesting and innovative.

My only observation is the English need to be improved.

After improvement the paper can be approved.

Author Response

Response to the comments of Reviewer 1

Dear Reviewer,

We really appreciate the constructive and valuable comments provided by you to improve the academic quality of this manuscript. We have thoroughly revised the draft with a full consideration of all comments. Our responses can be found below (marked in Red).

Best Regards in behalf of the authors
Matthias Maldet

 

General Comments

The author attempted to analyze the impact of energy recovery and resource utilization with regard to greywater and emission. It highlights the need of resource management in a complex scenario of Food, Water and energy Nexus. The paper is interesting and innovative.

My only observation is the English need to be improved. After improvement the paper can be approved.

To address this issue, the manuscript was sent to the MDPI language editing service. This helped to improve the writing of the paper.