Prospects of Implementing a Solar Water Heating System in a Large Hotel: A case study of Borovoe, Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases (GHG) per capita in the world. Indeed, 89% of power generation in Kazakhstan is based on fossil fuels, mostly burned in coal-fired power plants. However, technological advances in renewable energy offer the opportunity to provide sustainable energy with reduced GHG emissions. One of these mature clean technologies is represented by Solar Water Heating (SWH) systems

Challenges in cost modelling of recycling carbon fiber composites

The use of carbon fiber composites (CFCs) has become broad in many industries due to its superior properties compared to conventional materials. However, the increased demand coupled with environmental regulations has led to the development of different recycling methods for CFCs such as mechanical, thermal and chemical processes. Each recycling method has its own requirements and outputs along with some economic implications which need to be justified through cost modelling. This paper aims to identify current challenges associated with cost modelling of different processes for CFC recycling. The main challenges identified are grouped into three main categories such as technical issues, supply chain and market challenge

Prospects of Implementing a Solar Water Heating System in a Large Hotel: A case study of Borovoe, Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases (GHG) per capita in the world. Indeed, 89% of power generation in Kazakhstan is based on fossil fuels, mostly burned in coal-fired power plants. However, technological advances in renewable energy offer the opportunity to provide sustainable energy with reduced GHG emissions. One of these mature clean technologies is represented by Solar Water Heating (SWH) systems

Cost Modelling for Recycling Fiber-Reinforced Composites: State-of-the-Art and Future Research

Fiber-reinforced composites, such as carbon and glass fibers, are widely used across various industries. This is mainly a result of their outperforming properties in contrast with traditional materials. As a response to the environmental legal enforcement of the recycling of composite materials, several recycling methods such as mechanical, thermal, and chemical recycling, have been developed. Despite various merits, these recycling methods still face challenges, such as the heterogeneity of material, the quality of the recycled product, the high cost of recycling, and a lack of an established market. Since, in many cases, the financial aspect tends to be the major barrier to recycling composites, the appropriate cost modelling of the recycling process requires urgent consideration. To the knowledge of the authors, there is no prior research efforts on the reviewing of cost modelling techniques on composites recycling. Cost modelling research projects for different recycling technologies, with their findings and limitations, are sought from the literature and reported in this paper. It is found that recycling techniques still cannot compete with traditional landfilling in terms of cost, and are dependent on fiber recovery rates and plant capacities. Following a comprehensive literature review, research gaps are identified to formulate the research directions in this field

Environmental assessment of recycling carbon fibre-reinforced composites: current challenges and future opportunities

The increasing application of carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites (CFRP) across different industries raises environmental concerns. It requires focusing on the end-of-life phase of the product/material. The environmental benefits of CFRP recycling over conventional ways of treatment are apparent. However, estimating the environmental impacts is followed up with various challenges. In this study, the aspects of environmental assessment of CFRP recycling and their respective challenges are examined. CFRP recycling methods such as mechanical treatment, pyrolysis, fluidized bed process, and solvolysis have been previously studied in the context of energy and environmental assessment under the Life-Cycle-Assessment (LCA) framework. This study focused on the identification of challenges associated with variability of applied methods used, comparability, scaling results, data, uncertainty, and resource-demanding process of LCA. Recommendations on overcoming the identified challenges are provided and discussed

A COST MODELLING SYSTEM FOR RECYCLING CARBON FIBER-REINFORCED COMPOSITES

Cost-effective and environmentally responsible ways of carbon fiber-reinforced composite (CFRP) recycling are increasingly important, owing to the rapidly increasing use of these materials in many industries such as the aerospace, automotive and energy sectors. Product designers need to consider the costs associated with manufacturing and the end-of-life stage of such materials to make informed decisions. They also need to understand the current methods of composite recycling and disposal and their impact on the end-of-life costs. A comprehensive literature review indicated that there is no such tool to estimate CFRP recycling costs without any prior knowledge and expertise. Therefore, this research paper proposed a novel knowledge-based system for the cost modelling of recycling CFRP that does not require in-depth knowledge from a user. A prototype of a cost estimation system has been developed based on existing CFRP recycling techniques such as mechanical recycling, pyrolysis, fluidized bed, and supercritical water. The proposed system has the ability to select the appropriate recycling techniques based on a user’s needs with the help of an optimization module based on the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). Estimating recycling costs has taken into consideration various factors such as different material types in different industries, transportation, and dismantling costs. The developed system can be employed to support early-stage designers and decision-making stakeholders in terms of understanding and predicting recycling costs easily and quickly

A FUZZY LOGIC-BASED COST MODELLING SYSTEM FOR RECYCLING CARBON FIBRE REINFORCED COMPOSITES

Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymers (CFRPs) are commonly used materials in manufacturing components and products in the automotive, aerospace, and wind energy industries generating thousands of tons of waste, thus creating a threat to the environment if not recycled. Therefore, it is important for both academia and industry to investigate various ways of recycling this material. However, there is an urgent need for a reliable cost predication system to assist in making informed decisions, planning sustainable treatment, and developing pricing strategies for different waste treatment scenarios. This research paper presents the development of a fuzzy logic-based system to perform cost estimation of recycling processes of the CFRP. The developed system has taken into consideration uncertainties such as the characteristics of End of Life (EoL) material including its size and weight, its origin and diversity of existing recycling methods, and quantity of recycling waste. Cost drivers were divided into categories such as dismantling, transportation, operation, and capital cost. The system was developed by creating 243 fuzzy rules and three levels of fuzzy sets. Moreover, an interactive user-friendly interface was developed to enable the user to use the system easily and efficiently. Finally, case study results were examined to compare the whole life recycling cost of four different recycling technologies in various scenarios of waste treatment. The developed fuzzy logic-based system has the capability in evaluating the cost structure of CFRP recycling techniques and take into consideration uncertainty factors. Hence, a major contribution of the developed system is its provision of the heuristic rules that aid the decision-making process for selecting a cost-effective recycling method. The visualisation facility of the developed system is also a useful tool in enabling potential users to forecast the cost of the CFRP recycling techniques upfront