ENVIRONMENTAL ENERGY AND ECONOMIC RESEARCH
Year:2017 | Volume:1 | Issue:1|Papers Count:10

Iran as a rapidly developing country, whose economy is enriched by oil and gas exports, has to integrate Green Economy concept into its energy sector. In order to integrate environmental concerns into energy sector, an Energy-Environment Review (EER) was considered as the mainstreaming tool capable of examining the interface between energy and the environment. The results of the EER should be interpreted, in the light of the objective of the Five-Year Development Plan in Iran, to achieve fast and sustainable green growth and accelerate the transition to a market economy. The proposed actions will promote economic efficiency, use of energy resources through a proper allocation of scarce resources, including environmental resources, so as to achieve economic efficiency and environmental and social protection. This article updates trends in Iran and provides: to be stated continuously (i) an analysis of the current situation with regards to energy production and consumption; (ii) an evaluation of the growth prospects; (iii) the identification of environmental issues induced by the generation and use of energy and estimation of the associated costs of damages; (iv) the evaluation of the extent of contribution to the climate change phenomenon through emission of greenhouse gases; (v) the evaluation of the proposed mitigation measures for the previously identified environmental problems; and (vi) conclusions and recommendations. It is assessed that the total health damage from air pollution in 2010 at about to be converted to dollars 160 × 1012Rials (US$ fifteen billion); equivalent to 1. 55% of nominal GDP. The damage cost to the global environment from the flaring of natural gas, assessed on the basis of a carbon price of US$ 17/ton CO2, is found to be approximately US$1. 02billion per year.

Today, the widespread use of fossil fuels is caused many problems in the world, which include: Ozone depletion, the increase carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, growing recognition of climate change impacts and decreasing fossil fuel resources. These issues have led to an increased interest in the mass generation of electricity from renewable sources such tidal energy. The Khowr-e Musa Estuary, located in the west-north of Persian Gulf, has a spring tidal range approaching 5 meters. Doragh estuary branches of Musa estuary are located in the Persian Gulf at a distance of five kilometers from Bandar Imam Khomeini. In this study, a widely used 2D hydrodynamic model, namely MIKE21HD, was applied to estimate the potential of harnessing tidal energy. Therefore, this research provides the hydrodynamic details of the assessments carried out to estimate the potential of electricity generation by using two proposed barrages in the Doragh estuary. The results have shown that the total electricity generated being about 150 MWh for the first barrage and 535. 98 MWh for the second one over a typical mean spring tidal cycle.

The following study is based on a hybrid statistical-deterministic model designed for the assessment of the daily concentration of sulfur dioxide ( 2SO ), carbon monoxide ( CO ) and particulate matter ( 10PM ) as major pollutants in the Greater Tehran Area (GTA): the capital of Iran. The model uses three available or assessable variables including economic, meteorological and environmental in the GTA for the year 2003. Economic sectors which are examined in this study are firstly traffic, secondly residential-commercial heating and thirdly industry. The model determines to what degree each of the aforementioned sectors, in accordance to their associated fuel consumption, is responsible for air pollution. The model also relates emission data from the three sectors whilst taking into consideration meteorological parameters. Thereafter, economic and meteorological parameters as independent explanatory variables opposed to the concentration of pollutants measured at the monitoring network stations which are dependent variables. All data is given in the form of time series for the year 2003 in specified areas discussed. The method adopted for the calculation of the regression coefficients of the model, is based on nonlinear least squares multiple regression analysis. The model has been tested on the available monitoring network stations for aforementioned pollutants in the GTA. Model verification has been carried out spatially in the year 2003 and temporally for the year 2005. Results show that the concentration of pollutants in the GTA can be estimated using this model. Areas of further research are outlined which indicate possible enhancement of this approach and relevant application extensions.

Power networks are among the most important infrastructures that without them, industrial, economic and social procedures will halt. Therefore, they should be planned for the most difficult conditions to provide services with minimum disruption. Power substations are of great importance to a power network, because any disruption in their components can produce extensive problems through the network and result in power failure in a large area. Hence, vulnerability assessment of power substations and planning for reducing their vulnerability is fairly essential. Earthquake can inflict serious damages to power substations. Due to inappropriate anchors, most of the power substation components in Iran are vulnerable to earthquake. There are several methods for seismic vulnerability assessment of substations such as ALA as a qualitative procedure and HAZUS and RISK-UE as quantitative methods. In this paper, seismic vulnerability of the Qazvin 1 and Minoodar substations, located in the city of Qazvin-Iran, is assessed using ALA, HAZUS and RISK-UE methods and the probable damages of earthquake to power substation components are discussed considering two earthquake scenarios. Initially, the target performance and assessment metrics of the mentioned substations are studied with ALA and the necessity of quantitative analysis is determined. Then the quantitative analyses are conducted with HAZUS and RISK-UE methods and the results are compared. Finally, direct economic consequences are determined and risk analyses are performed and the reduction in the risk due to hardening based on implementation of proper seismic anchorage is determined. The results show that the implementation of seismic anchorage reduces the seismic risk about 41. 4 and 34. 2 percent for Qazvin 1 and Minoodar substations respectively. The effects of seismic risk reduction in the studied substations could be more emphasized considering the indirect tangible and intangible losses that are resulted from power outage and interdependency between infrastructures. The study may also be an example of a range of qualitative to quantitative investigations of lifelines for seismic risk reduction studies.

Nowadays, the water supply and water demand management are the main issues in water resources planning. It is more important in a river basin with a complex system facing with droughts, climate changes, inter-basin water transfer and operational and under study dams. In this paper, for water resources planning in a river basin and reducing the difference between water resources and water demands, the river basin conditions are assessed under different scenarios. In order to simulate the water resources and demands in the future, the MODSIM is used for river basin modeling. To calibrate the developed model, historical values of groundwater table fluctuations in different plains and flow changes in different hydrometric stations, are compared with the results of MODSIM. Then some indices based on three criteria including water and environmental resources sustainability, economic sustainability and social equality are defined to evaluate the scenarios. The indices are quantified and explained in current and future conditions. The results show the higher performance of Scenario 4 including the execution of under study projects along with demand management and aquifer restoration.

An environmental impact assessment is an assessment of the possible positive or negative impact that a proposed project may have on the environment, together consisting of the natural, social and economic aspects. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of Masjid-I-Sulaiman desalination and operating unit’ s project in the southern of Iran using Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix (RIAM) method is presented. The field is located between 32° 06' 53. 60'' North and 40° 10' 54. 18'' East, in the Masjid-I-Sulaiman area. It is planned to produce rate of 55, 000 oil barrels per day. In this study, an attempt was made to identify and assess the likely key impacts of desalination and operating units in two phases: Construction and Operation. In the evaluation process, positive and negative environmental impacts of Masjid-I-Sulaiman desalination and operating units were assessed based on the results of multi-disciplinary team approach and the field survey data using RIAM method. In this regard, given that in today’ s world for a closer look at the environmental impact of development projects and achieve a safer reply, using new implementation methods such as MCDM can be appropriate. The results of assessment reveal that the percent volumetric positive effects in alternative 1is more than percent volumetric negative impact on the second alternative, therefore the implementation of the project with some mitigation plans and monitoring program for the alternative 1 was chosen as a best option is accepted. Then on the basis of current evaluation suggest monitoring program and mitigation plans.

The effectiveness of hydrocarbon bioremediation strategies approaches is depending on various issues such as type and volume of pollution, nutrient accessibility in the target ecosystem, time, biodiversity of microorganisms, pollutant bioavailability and many others. In the present research, laboratory studies were carried out on the bioremediation of coastal sediment samples artificially contaminated with weathered crude oil. The efficiency of natural attenuation, bioaugmentation and biostimulation for removal of Total Petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) were compared in 90 days experiments. Three oil concentrations of 3, 30, 60 g oil/kg soil were studied to investigate the effect of oil concentration on the bioremediation process. The average degradation, in biostimulation tests were 52. 11, 58. 36 and 43. 02% whereas in bioaugmentation tests were 73. 89, 73. 76 and 58. 31% for 3, 30 and 60 g oil respectively. The results indicated that excessive crude oil (more than 30 g/kg in this case) is not suitable for bioremediation presumably duo to inhibitory or toxicity to the microorganisms. By supplementation of acclimatized microorganism as well as nitrogen and phosphorus, a satisfactory amount of biodegradation is reachable in two months.

The primary objective of desalination research is the development of a way to produce fresh water at lower cost. The present study investigated two freshwater production methods of Reverse Osmosis (RO) and Multi-Effect Humidification (MEH) (artificial distillation), and analyzed them from an economic standpoint, and subsequently pointed out the important and effective factors in decreasing saltwater desalination expenditure for each one of the mentioned units. Different aspects of these units were investigated as well. However, all the prices are assumed with the current condition and expenses in Sistan Baluchestan province, Iran. The results from economic analyses, obtained employing COMFAR III, showed that, in regions where locals have access to local grid, application of RO unit has no economic justification, while MEH units, powered by solar energy, are more economic in remote regions receiving adequate solar irradiation. However, the water produced by RO can be purchased at 0. 02 $/lit, and by solar MEH unit (Respect to introduced characterization), at 0. 032 $/lit. Although, the sensitive analysis of IRRs’ variation in proportion to three factors namely sales income, fixed capital expenditure and operational expenditure were conducted.

In spite of the past few decades, gasification of waste is being used in the developed countries. Reducing the space for landfill sites, producing fuel from waste, as well as avoiding negative impacts of landfilling, are of advantages of gasification. The research was aimed at feasibility study of application of Tehran municipal solid waste (MSW) gasification in addition to understanding the waste gasification as a stable and economic substitute for generating clean energy. On this basis, the researcher analyzed the required information through library research and by examining different types of available gasifiers in the developed countries. Firstly, the profitability of the project was assessed by using the net present value method and then, the cost-benefit analysis of the project was performed. In this study, three scenarios of the MSW landfilling and two gasification scenarios were analyzed. The research findings indicate that the gasification scenario is more economical than the landfill. Finally, the environmental analysis of all of the three scenarios was reviewed and considering the fact that the gasification scenarios are in line with the Fifth Economic Plan of the Islamic Republic of Iran, they can be proposed as the best scenarios. As to comparison of the two gasification scenarios, it was found out that considering the capacity of the waste produced in Tehran and the volume of the input waste of the two gasifiers and reduction of the operational costs of Termiska TPS Gasifier, the model of Termiska TPS Gasifier is a more suitable option for Tehran.

Effective parameters that can effect on the performance of the separation system consist of operating pressure, operating temperature, reflux ratio, and kind of produce desirable products and different sequences of splits. As take a separation system with optimal performance is dependent on optimization of above mentioned effective parameters. In generally, there are two criteria (as object function) for estimating of the performance of the separation systems. These criteria included of measure of energy consumption and design costs (i. e. capital cost, energy cost and total annual cost). From energy saving outlook our purpose is the design of one separation system that operates at minimum rate of energy consumption. Likewise from money saving outlook our purpose to carry out of the design of one separation system that its design costs becomes minimum. In this paper, concentrate more on optimization of distillation sequencing problem with energy consumption and design costs for a multi-component mixture. Hence we studied the various alternative options to separate a multicomponent feed stream consist of C3, i-C4, n-C4, i-C5, n-C5, C6 and C7. Afer that all of options are compared with each other and ranked based on minimum (or optimum) energy consumption (heating/cooling duties) and design costs. Finally with regard to the effects of operating conditions like operating pressure, temperature and reflux ratio, the optimum separating method has been suggested for this case study.