sustainability-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

The Sustainable Fuel Source for Future Development

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (22 November 2023) | Viewed by 9998

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Energy Centre, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal 462003, India
Interests: sustainable alternative fuel; air quality; life cycle assessment; hydrogen generation

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Mechanical Cluster, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES), Dehradun 248007, Uttarakhand, India
Interests: alternative fuel; life cycle assessment; Biodiesel
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
International Laboratory of Air Quality and Health, Queensland University of Technology, 4001 Brisbane, Australia
Interests: air quality; soot particles; sustainable transportation; environmental science
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Center for Energy & Environment, MNIT, Jaipur 302017, India
Interests: solar photovoltaic; wind energy systems; hybrid systems; energy planning and management; energy systems; electic vehicle

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable fuels play a critical role in developing green economies by lowering waste streams, the need for raw materials, associated climate change emissions, and environmental effects. Additionally, the exploration of sustainable fuel sources has been prompted by environmental concerns and the depletion of fossil fuels and supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and climate change agenda. By utilizing sustainable bioenergy sources, one can reduce their reliance on non-renewable energy sources, such as fossil fuels, which are finite and have a negative environmental impact. The search for new energy sources and ways to convert and develop sustainable fuel into usable energy is a priority for scientists, politicians, and the public alike. Research and development into new energy sources and technologies are ongoing, and the hope is that these efforts will lead to a more sustainable future. This Special Issue focuses on the fundamentals and applications of renewable energy sources, sustainable energy production its utilization. It looks at the recent advances in resources, characteristics, conversion processes, optimization, utilization of renewable systems, and life cycle assessment. Furthermore, it provides an opportunity to discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with the development and utilization of sustainable fuel.

Dr. Gaurav Dwivedi
Dr. Siddharth Jain
Dr. Puneet Verma
Dr. Sunanda Sinha
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainability
  • sustainable energy fuel
  • hydrogen generation and storage
  • sustainable mobility
  • electric vehicles
  • life cycle assessment
  • waste to bioenergy
  • policies for sustainable development
  • sustainable development goals
  • role of green energy

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (4 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

21 pages, 7310 KiB  
Article
Selection of a Sustainable Structural Floor System for an Office Building Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process and the Multi-Attribute Utility Theory
by Faris A. AlFaraidy, Kishore Srinivasa Teegala and Gaurav Dwivedi
Sustainability 2023, 15(17), 13087; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151713087 - 30 Aug 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1302
Abstract
The integration of green building technology is currently regarded as a critical step towards a sustainable future because it is a means of attaining sustainable development. It takes skill to combine a sustainable ecosystem with comfortable living areas to create eco-friendly building designs. [...] Read more.
The integration of green building technology is currently regarded as a critical step towards a sustainable future because it is a means of attaining sustainable development. It takes skill to combine a sustainable ecosystem with comfortable living areas to create eco-friendly building designs. The use of modern technologies can also enhance traditional methods for developing greener structures and thereby help maintain sustainable built environments. This research paper is intended to develop a selection framework to evaluate three different structural floor systems for a high-rise office building in Alhasa, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The three structural floor systems are as follows: a two-way ribbed slab system, a post-tension slab system, and a hollow core slab system. The main selection criteria used for the investigation in this paper are as follows: initial cost, running costs (operating and maintenance costs), salvage value, self-structural weight, and the possibility of utilities passage. A questionnaire survey was designed to collect the opinions of experts (project managers) regarding the relative importance of the different selection criteria, and these were used to determine the most suitable structural system for the office building. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was the tool used to determine the weights of the different criteria, and it was applied in combination with an Eigenvector analysis. Another objective of the investigation was to determine the utility preference values of the selection criteria by employing the multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT) technique. The results showed that the most important criterion is utilities passage, which is followed by structural weight and then initial cost, salvage value, and running costs. From the results of this research, we conclude that the system with the highest total value is the post-tension slab system. The limitations of the study include the fact that it only investigated three concrete floor systems commonly used in office buildings in Saudi Arabia, and that it included only five selection criteria that were identified and evaluated by the experts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Sustainable Fuel Source for Future Development)
Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 4281 KiB  
Article
Emission Reduction and Performance Enhancement of CI Engine Propelled by Neem Biodiesel-Neem Oil-Decanol-Diesel Blends at High Injection Pressure
by Md Modassir Khan, Arun Kumar Kadian, Rabindra Prasad Sharma, S M Mozammil Hasnain, Ahmed Mohamed, Adham E. Ragab, Ali Zare and Shatrudhan Pandey
Sustainability 2023, 15(11), 9084; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15119084 - 5 Jun 2023
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1939
Abstract
Diesel emissions have resulted in air pollution, which is harmful to the sustaining of life. The concerns of energy security and poor air quality have propelled researchers to seek alternate and environment-friendly fuels for the transport sector, keeping diesel engines at the core. [...] Read more.
Diesel emissions have resulted in air pollution, which is harmful to the sustaining of life. The concerns of energy security and poor air quality have propelled researchers to seek alternate and environment-friendly fuels for the transport sector, keeping diesel engines at the core. Thus, a quaternary blend (diesel-biodiesel-vegetable oil-alcohol) proves to be a promising key to address the above problems. This experimental work focuses aims on investigating the performance and emissions of a diesel engine powered with quaternary blends by changing the fuel injection pressure. The quaternary blend comprised of diesel, neem biodiesel, pure neem oil, and decanol was used to prepare quaternary blends of varied volumetric proportions. This study involves the testing of quaternary blends at varied fuel injection pressure (IP) ranging from 400–500 bar. The engine load varied from 10 Nm to 20 Nm, and the shaft speed was constant at 2000 rpm. It was evident from the outcomes that the least DBODec45 resulted in minimum carbon monoxide (CO) and un-burnt hydrocarbon (UHC) emissions, which were obtained to be 83.33% and 54.5% less than diesel at 500 bar and at a load of 10 Nm and 20 Nm, respectively. Moreover, the blend containing 45% of decanol led to the lowest NOx and smoke concentrations. The lowest brake-specific fuel consumption (BSFC) was achieved at 500 bar and 20 Nm for the same blend and was found to be 3.22% higher than diesel. Moreover, at the same IP and load, DBODec45 led to highest BTE, which was 3.26% lower than pure diesel. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Sustainable Fuel Source for Future Development)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

18 pages, 4210 KiB  
Article
Performance, Emission, and Spectroscopic Analysis of Diesel Engine Fuelled with Ternary Biofuel Blends
by S M Mozammil Hasnain, Rajeshwari Chatterjee, Prabhat Ranjan, Gaurav Kumar, Shubham Sharma, Abhinav Kumar, Bashir Salah and Syed Sajid Ullah
Sustainability 2023, 15(9), 7415; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15097415 - 29 Apr 2023
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2261
Abstract
The demand for sustainable alternative-fuels in the transportation and agriculture domains is essential due to the quick depletion of petroleum supplies and the growing environmental challenges. The ternary-blends (diesel, biodiesel, and Methyl oleate) have the ability to report the existing challenges in this [...] Read more.
The demand for sustainable alternative-fuels in the transportation and agriculture domains is essential due to the quick depletion of petroleum supplies and the growing environmental challenges. The ternary-blends (diesel, biodiesel, and Methyl oleate) have the ability to report the existing challenges in this area because they offer significant promise for reducing exhaust emissions and improving engine performance. In the current work, soy methyl ester is blended with methyl oleate and diesel. The emissions and performance of blended biodiesel was conducted in common rail direct injection engine (CRDI). The characterization and physical properties were also evaluated by utilizing various methods like Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), UV-vis Spectroscopy (UV-vis), and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. FTIR spectra showed the existence of the strong C=O, indicating the presence of FAME at 1745 cm−1. Again, UV-vis has reported the appearance of conjugated dienes in the oxidized biodiesel. The results indicated all blended samples retained the properties of diesel. The addition of methyl oleate improved brake specific fuel consumption of blended biodiesel almost near to diesel. D50::S80:M20 produced a mean reduction in hydrocarbon 42.64% compared to diesel. The average carbon monoxide emission reduction for D50::S80:M20 was 49.36% as against diesel. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Sustainable Fuel Source for Future Development)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

29 pages, 2638 KiB  
Review
Estimation of Solar Radiation with Consideration of Terrestrial Losses at a Selected Location—A Review
by Shubham Gupta, Amit Kumar Singh, Sachin Mishra, Pradeep Vishnuram, Nagaraju Dharavat, Narayanamoorthi Rajamanickam, Ch. Naga Sai Kalyan, Kareem M. AboRas, Naveen Kumar Sharma and Mohit Bajaj
Sustainability 2023, 15(13), 9962; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15139962 - 22 Jun 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3294
Abstract
The United Nations has set an ambitious goal to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. This objective requires shifting towards green and renewable energy sources instead of conventional fossil fuels to address the global energy crisis without emitting greenhouse gases. While the [...] Read more.
The United Nations has set an ambitious goal to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. This objective requires shifting towards green and renewable energy sources instead of conventional fossil fuels to address the global energy crisis without emitting greenhouse gases. While the energy radiated by the sun is one of the most abundant sources of energy available, its efficient and optimal use remains a significant challenge. To facilitate solar-energy-based applications, estimating the amount of solar energy available is crucial. Empirical and soft computing is the most-used method to estimate solar energy. This paper aims to analyze the existing techniques used in various models for estimating and predicting the quantity and quality of solar radiation using readily available data. Additionally, the study aims to identify the most appropriate techniques for developing prediction models using available explanatory variables. To fully harness the potential of solar energy, it is necessary to limit the terrestrial loss of solar radiation by minimizing the harmful effects of anthropogenic factors that reduce the quantity and quality of solar radiation in the area. This paper provides valuable insights to identify opportunities to maximize the potential of solar energy in different locations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Sustainable Fuel Source for Future Development)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop