ENVIRONMENTAL ENERGY AND ECONOMIC RESEARCH
Year:2021 | Volume:5 | Issue:3|Papers Count:6

In the present study, a model including two robust objective functions to reduce costs related to the location of waste transfer facilities in Bushehr. Using the first objective function not only reduces the selection of collection sites but also ensures the overall cost associated with the collection phase. In addition, the first objective function of this research seeks to optimally allocate citizens to collection sites. Also, this model includes the types of bins required for allocation to collection sites so that the total demand of the area is met. Another result of this objective function is that the landfills allocated to these sites may be of different types, with different distances from citizens' homes and even different capacities. Finally, each citizen receives service through a waste collection site with the shortest distance from home to the collection point. The second robust objective function to minimize total collection distance has been discussed. Waste collection widely depends on the route optimization problem that involves a large amount of expenditure in terms of capital, labor, and variable operational costs. Thus, the more waste collection route is optimized, the more reduction in different costs and environmental effect will be. This study proposes a modified robust optimization in a capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP) model to determine the best waste collection and route optimization solutions. Other results of this research show that the value of the objective functions determined in the robust method is less than the definite method.

Due to urban extension, air pollution is continuously getting to be a vital issue in present day social orders, particularly in metropolitan zones. Owing to the tremendous characteristic gas assets in Iran, a significant number of residential, commercial and industrial sectors use the central heating unit (CHU) as a source for warming. Emission of pollutants from these sources not only increases environmental degradation and energy consumption, but it also decreases the working life of heating systems and the safety factor. Thus, planning and improvement of inventive frameworks in this division can result in noteworthy diminishment of pollution and increment of energy consumption productivity. In this paper, a smart CHU has been designed and implemented, using an innovative intelligent network with the aim of optimizing burner performance in a 2250 square meter residential building. Furthermore, carbon monoxide (CO) emission and fuel consumption were analyzed and reduced simultaneously. The use of software and hardware elements in the design has reduced the working hours of the burner and improved its performance according to the required heat capacity at different times of the day. The result of this innovation showed a reduction in CO emission by 28% and an increment in energy saving by 25%, in comparison to the initial state. This study further indicates how intelligent control can significantly lower the pollution and optimize energy consumption.

CO2 emissions as one of the environmental problems have intensified in the agriculture sector of Iran due to the increase in fossil energy consumption. Increasing the unequal distribution of CO2 emissions and energy consumption requires a deep understanding of the effective and ineffective policies and plans. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the effect of energy-related policies, plans, different kinds of energy (including gasoline, natural gas, and electricity) in the agriculture sector of Iran’, s provinces during 2001-16. To consider the regional differences, the Theil index, used to measure inequalities, and panel data approaches were applied to evaluate the effects of policies, plans, and inequalities on consumption. According to the results, first, the Theil index highlighted inequalities in energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Provinces in a similar population or GDP grouping methodology have not a uniform distribution in energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The estimated Fixed-Effect model for gasoline consumption indicated that some of the gasoline policies were not effective,however some of them could smooth the consumption. Subsidy removal phases had reduction effects on gasoline, but it would have a helpful impact if the difference in energy consumption had been considered. However, in the case of natural gas and electricity, policies were a great motivation to users. In summary, most of the policies were unsuccessful as they were not enough to control consumption and emissions as well, replaced the new non-renewable resources like natural gas and electricity, and intensified the inequalities. However, pricerelated policies could have significant effects on consumption.

Some parts of Iran, especially east and south-east region, have got a suitable potential in generating and using new energies, including wind energy. Studies show that just in 26 windy regions of Iran there is a potential for generating a 6500 megawatt electricity. It is something about 1/6 capacity of power stations in Iran. Continuous winds like Sistan 120 Days Winds and other local winds have made this region suitable for using wind energy. The data related to the average of wind speed in selected stations (Sistan and South Khorasan Province) have been converted from Knot scale to Kilometer per hour. Then, the classification of wind speed has been extracted from American Atlas and has been used for classifying the wind speed in that area. Examination of wind potentials in stations of Zabol, Zahedan, Khoor, Birjand, Qayen and Nehbandan indicated that stations of Zabol, Khoor and Nehbandan have got the highest continuity of wind which is suitable for generating energy. Because of the dispersion of population and high cost of transmitting electricity network and some limitations in generating electricity in future, small and low cost systems of wind have been suggested for the residential and agricultural region of this part of Iran.

Empowering citizens is the most effective way in order to make effective decisions to speed up energy conservation in residential sector. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of economic and financial literacy on energy literacy and energy awareness in the north west of Iran. The study population consisted of employees and professors of universities in the three provinces of East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan and Ardabil that were completed and analyzed 500 questionnaires after sampling. According to the results of Logit model, economic and financial literacy had a significant and positive effect on energy literacy index (selection of heating systems A and B) and energy awareness (energy bills or costs awareness) and the result was confirmed in all the estimation models for three carriers. As the area of the house’, s infrastructure area increases, energy literacy increases. Education and age have a negative and positive effect on energy awareness, respectively. The results suggest that investing in promoting energy-related economic and financial literacy for citizens to stimulate energy savings.

In order to fill the research gap regarding the use of a comprehensive index that includes all dimensions of environmental pollution, this study sought to develop a composite environmental quality index to tackle with the possible bias and remove the possible linearity in the experimental research model. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) methods were used to obtain this composite index. This study used six environmental indicators from two groups of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) during 2008-2019. According to the obtained error criteria related to the two methods, ANN method was used to calculate the weight of environmental indicators due to having the lowest error criteria and therefore reliable results. Finally, using this composite index, the trend of economic growth and environmental quality were analyzed graphically. The results showed that along with the upward trend of economic growth, the quality of environment follows a downward trend in OPEC countries and an upward trend in OECD countries. At the end of this paper, some limitations of study are presented, and some suggestions for future studies are provided as well.