Over the past decades, detailed individual building energy models (BEM) on the one side and regional and country-level building stock models on the other side have become established modes of analysis for building designers and energy policy makers, respectively. More recently, these two toolsets have begun to merge into hybrid methods that are meant to analyze the energy performance of neighborhoods, i.e. several dozens to thousands of buildings. This paper reviews emerging simulation methods and implementation workflows for such bottom-up urban building energy models (UBEM). Simulation input organization, thermal model generation and execution, as well as result validation, are discussed successively and an outlook for future developments is presented.

Urban building energy modeling – A review of a nascent field

The use of cement and concrete, among the most widely used man-made materials, is under scrutiny. Owing to their large-scale use, production of cement and concrete results in substantial emission of greenhouse gases and places strain on the availability of natural resources, such as water. Projected urbanization over the next 50–100 years therefore indicates that the demand for cement and concrete will continue to increase, necessitating strategies to limit their environmental impact. In this Review, we shed light on the available solutions that can be implemented within the next decade and beyond to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cement and concrete production. As the construction sector has proven to be very slow-moving and risk-averse, we focus on minor improvements that can be achieved across the value chain, such as the use of supplementary cementitious materials and optimizing the clinker content of cement. Critically, the combined effect of these marginal gains can have an important impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions by up to 50% if all stakeholders are engaged. In doing so, we reveal credible pathways for sustainable concrete use that balance societal needs, environmental requirements and technical feasibility. Concrete is one of the most widely used man-made materials and is critical for the ongoing urbanization of the global population. However, owing to its widespread use, concrete can have a negative impact on the environment. This Review provides medium-term and long-term solutions to address the environmental concerns surrounding concrete production.

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Environmental impacts and decarbonization strategies in the cement and concrete industries

This news article reports on the events occurring and the views taken at the 1995 UN Conference on Women held in Beijing China and the Nongovernmental Organization (NGO) Forum. The setting in China for this decennially occurring conference was appropriate for the discussion of womens rights. Despite the selective coverage of the conference by Chinese official reports word would trickle out in whispers to Chinese women about some new ideas. Chinese visa restrictions on participants of the NGO Forum forced many women to devise ingenious ways of gaining entrance to the meetings. The alliance between the Holy See and Islam disciples threatened to undermine basic goals of conference to open up access to contraception and to change property rights. The conference chair diplomatically found justification for praise of unpopular views despite the disputes among a majority of delegates. The aim of the conference was to obtain a common understanding of some basic rights and not 100% agreement. Womens economic contributions have not been recognized in gross domestic product calculations. The World Bank has reported that about $13 billion is unaccounted for income and unwaged income of which about $8.5 billion is due to womens productivity. Women expressed the desire for recognition of their economic contribution. Since the last womens conference held in Nairobi in 1985 there has been an increase in world poverty. Uganda expends more on servicing its debt than on health and education. There was general agreement that gender equity was a goal but there was less consensus on how to achieve it.

Gross domestic product.

A multi-regional input–output analysis of domestic virtual water trade and provincial water footprint in China

Dynamic material flow analysis (MFA) is a frequently used method to assess past, present, and future stocks and flows of metals in the anthroposphere. Over the past fifteen years, dynamic MFA has contributed to increased knowledge about the quantities, qualities, and locations of metal-containing goods. This article presents a literature review of the methodologies applied in 60 dynamic MFAs of metals. The review is based on a standardized model description format, the ODD (overview, design concepts, details) protocol. We focus on giving a comprehensive overview of modeling approaches and structure them according to essential aspects, such as their treatment of material dissipation, spatial dimension of flows, or data uncertainty. The reviewed literature features similar basic modeling principles but very diverse extrapolation methods. Basic principles include the calculation of outflows of the in-use stock based on inflow or stock data and a lifetime distribution function. For extrapolating stocks and fl...

Modeling Metal Stocks and Flows: A Review of Dynamic Material Flow Analysis Methods

Understanding the future environmental impacts of lithium-ion batteries is crucial for a sustainable transition to electric vehicles. Here, we build a prospective life cycle assessment (pLCA) model for lithium-ion battery cell production for 8 battery chemistries and 3 production regions (China, US, and EU). The pLCA model includes scenarios for future life cycle inventory data for energy and key materials used in battery cell production. We find that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per kWh of lithium-ion battery cell production could be reduced from 41 to 89 kg CO2-Eq in 2020 to 10–45 kg CO2-Eq in 2050, mainly due to the effect of a low-carbon electricity transition. The Cathode is the biggest contributor (33%-70%) of cell GHG emissions in the period between 2020 and 2050. In 2050, LiOH will be the main contributor to GHG emissions of LFP cathodes, and Ni2SO4 for NCM/NCA cathodes. These results promote discussion on how to reduce battery GHG emissions. 

https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item%3A3484752/view

Future greenhouse gas emissions of automotive lithium-ion battery cell production

Sustainability challenges raised by built environment development are two-folds: on the inflow side these include resource depletion and emission problems due to material production (pre-use); on the outflow side they include problems of construction and demolition waste (after-use) Understanding how the future construction inflow and demolition outflow will develop is essential for early recognition of these problems A traditional approach is through extrapolation, which is risky because changes of trends may occur A Dynamic Material Flow Analysis approach, based on the Law of Mass Preservation, provides a better framework for long-term projection The challenge is to understand the dynamics of the built environment stocks It is especially true for the emerging countries, where the combined influences of rapid economic development and urbanization have to be considered but are yet rarely investigated This thesis develops the currently available approaches by including general socio-economic and specific urbanization-driven factors in China Case studies on Chinese housing stock dynamics indicate: demolition activities in Chinese cities will continue to grow throughout the rest of the 21st century; a shrinking demand for residential steel may be expected over the next few decades, which may lead to a decrease in global steel consumption of up to 10%

https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item%3A2877701/view

Dynamic material flow analysis to support sustainable built environment development

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2022.10.035

Life cycle assessment of material footprint in recycling: A case of concrete recycling.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43246-022-00237-3.pdf

Reply to: Concerns about global phosphorus demand for lithium-iron-phosphate batteries in the light electric vehicle sector

Production of waste materials, via industrial and human activities, creates big environmental and economic problems but also opportunities to recover valuable resources. EU28 currently generates 461 million tons per year of ever more complex Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) with average recycling rates of around 46%. There is still a significant loss of potential valuable minerals, metals and organic materials all over Europe. Considering the fact that public and private sectors have become aware of the urgency and importance of CDW recycling, the European Commission has taken initiatives towards sustainable treatment and recycling of CDW funding three tandem projects focusing on the development of an innovative and sustainable concrete recycling process. To that end, this article will firstly present the main achievements and ongoing activities for developing the innovative concrete recycling technology in the course of the EU C2CA, HISER and VEEP projects. In addition some figures related to the cost of each recycling unit process and the selling price of the recycled products are presented.

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Mingming Hu

Papers

Future greenhouse gas emissions of automotive lithium-ion battery cell production

Dynamic material flow analysis to support sustainable built environment development

Life cycle assessment of material footprint in recycling: A case of concrete recycling.

Reply to: Concerns about global phosphorus demand for lithium-iron-phosphate batteries in the light electric vehicle sector

Closing the loop of EOL concrete