Can sustainability be enhanced by maximizing the sum of private and social benefits from an industry? This might take place, for example, by identifying production options that increase profitability side-by-side with societal goals such as renewable energy production and carbon sequestration,...

Can sustainability be enhanced by maximizing the sum of private and social benefits from an industry? This might take place, for example, by identifying production options that increase profitability side-by-side with societal goals such as renewable energy production and carbon sequestration,...

The quest for a European energy policy has been at the heart of the European integration since World War II. Since the aftermaths of the two oil shocks, all attempts to create a Common Energy Policy failed so far. The paper seeks to identify why Europe needs to define a coherent and ambitious...

Biomass gasification has the potential to produce renewable fuels, chemicals and power at large utility scale facilities. In these plants catalysts would likely be used to reform and clean the generated biomass syngas. Traditional catalysts are made from transition metals, while catalysts made...

Energy consumption is a matter of common concern in the world today. Research demonstrates that as a consequence of the constantly evolving and expanding field of information technology, data centers are now major consumers of electrical energy. Such high electrical energy consumption emphasizes...

Data centers have evolved dramatically in recent years, due to the advent of social networking services, e-commerce and cloud computing. The conflicting requirements are the high availability levels demanded against the low sustainability impact and cost values. The approaches that evaluate and...

There is a strong interest in the EU to promote the bioeconomy sector within the EU 2020 strategy. It is thus necessary to assure a sound sustainability framework. This paper reviews international and European sustainability initiatives mainly for biomass for bioenergy. The basic and advanced...

The quest for a European energy policy has been at the heart of the European integration since World War II. Since the aftermaths of the two oil shocks, all attempts to create a Common Energy Policy failed so far. The paper seeks to identify why Europe needs to define a coherent and ambitious...

Microalgae represent a sustainable energy source because of their high biomass productivity and ability to remove air and water born pollutants. This paper reviews the current status of production and conversion of microalgae, including the advantages of microalgae biodiesel, high density...

Combined Heat and Power (CHP) production using renewable energy sources is gaining importance because of its flexibility and high-energy efficiency. Biomass materials, such as corn stover and forestry residues, are potential sources for renewable energy for CHP production. In Mississippi,...