Open Access
Article
26 May 2025Electric Vehicles, Artificial Intelligence, and Climate Policy
This article explores the environmental implications of electrification and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, emphasizing the importance of aligning technological development with climate goals. There is a lack of academic literature that explains and analyses such issues. Section 1 assesses the climate efficacy of promoting electric vehicles (EVs) and electric heating in regions where electricity is primarily coal-based. While electrification offers substantial climate benefits when powered by clean energy, lifecycle analyses reveal that EVs in coal-reliant grids may emit more greenhouse gases than internal combustion engine vehicles. Similarly, the climate performance of electric heat pumps depends on the carbon intensity of electricity sources. The section advocates for integrated policies that simultaneously promote electrification and grid decarbonization, enhancing emissions reductions and public health while mitigating the negative impacts of increased demand on polluting power plants. Section 2 uses Saudi Arabia as a case study and examines the environmental impact of AI data centers in the context of Saudi Arabia’s energy and climate policies. It highlights AI infrastructure’s energy and water intensity and its potential to strain environmental resources. To align AI development with national sustainability goals, the article recommends policies such as siting data centers near renewable energy sources, enforcing environmental efficiency standards, fostering R&D partnerships, mandating sustainability reporting, and expanding power purchase agreements and demand response participation. These measures aim to ensure responsible AI growth within climate-aligned frameworks. The implications of this study are that electrification and AI infrastructure can significantly reduce emissions and improve efficiency if powered by clean energy, but they also risk increasing environmental strain unless technological growth is carefully aligned with climate and sustainability goals.
Open Access
Article
26 May 2025Towards Circular Sustainable Cities: Thoughts and Recommendations for Qatar
Despite the ambitious national visions, Qatar is facing many challenges regarding the notion of sustainability. In this context, a considerable emphasis has been placed on the notion of Circular Economy (CE) to address suitability issues. Despite such an emphasis, the actual implementation of CE notions is still facing several obstacles present in, but not limited to, the Qatari context, such as heavy reliance on landfilling, water scarcity, and a heavy reliance on the oil and gas sectors. Our contention is that CE is an important factor in the sustainability equation and works towards meeting Qatar’s vision of becoming an environmentally sustainable country. by using a qualitative approach, predominantly adopting case study, document and content analysis, this paper explores the notion of CE and its implementation in light of the Qatar National Vision 2030. the challenges facing CE implementation, such as resources, qualified personnel, access to technology, and coordination between different areas of the economy, should be of prime importance for policymakers in Qatar. in order to ensure a sustainable circular city model in Qatar, the challenges related to CE implementation must be addressed accordingly. To this end, the paper suggests several policy recommendations, including the provision of adequate resources and personnel, the use of clean technology to improve the environmental quality of economic activities, in addition to the provision of adequate support and funding for the development of sustainable economic practices. These solutions will help to ensure sustainable economic development based on the concept of CE.
Open Access
Review
12 June 2025Research Progress and Key Technical Barriers in CaO/Ca(OH)2 Based Energy Storage: A Systematic Review
The CaO/Ca(OH)2 thermochemical energy storage system has garnered significant attention due to its cost-effectiveness, abundant raw material availability, optimal decomposition thermodynamics, high energy density, and recyclability as a promising candidate for large-scale renewable energy integration. Significant progress has been made in the research field of the CaO/Ca(OH)2 energy storage system, while there are still key issues that require further investigation. This comprehensive review summarizes recent advancements in CaO/Ca(OH)2 thermochemical energy storage systems, focusing on reaction mechanism and optimization through material engineering strategies, thermal-fluid dynamics in reactor configurations, cyclic degradation mechanisms under operational stresses, and scalability constraints in system integration. Persistent technical bottlenecks requiring resolution are discussed, particularly sintering-induced capacity decay and suboptimal heat transfer efficiency. The reactor design and optimization with advanced material modification techniques targeting enhanced stability are introduced as well. These discussions and derived suggestions provide a potential opportunity to bridge fundamental material science discoveries with engineering implementation for enabling deployment in stable utilization of renewable energy.
Open Access
Article
23 June 2025A Systematic Review of Clean Cooking and to Whom Does the Clean Cooking Agenda Belong? Empirical Evidence from East African Community
Today, about three billion people, including those in Tanzania, still cook using traditional methods and solid fuels. This practice, which primarily affects women and children who cook in many developing nations, contributes to serious health risks and forest degradation. Every year, household air pollution is responsible for over 34.4 million preventable deaths worldwide, with about 346,600 of those deaths occurring in East African Community and the Nile Basin. Even though switching to clean cooking technologies is a global health priority, adoption is still low in the East African community, and little is known about the factors influencing this change. To determine the factors driving East Africa’s energy transition to clean cooking, this study conducts a systematic review and looks at the history of the research agenda. A total of 308 articles were found using the Scopus database; 62 of these were chosen for analysis based on important search terms such as solar, biogas, firewood, charcoal, LPG, and electric stoves. Even though traditional fuels continue to be the most commonly used in the regions, the empirical analysis showed a focus on clean cooking technologies like electricity, improved cookstoves, and LPG. The clean cooking agenda appears to be primarily externally driven by European and USA researchers, which may have an impact on local adoption and relevance. It is noteworthy that authors from outside the region constituted 63.6 percent of publications on clean cooking in the East African Community.
Open Access
Article
24 June 2025Modelling of Thermodynamic and Transport Properties of R452B Refrigerant with Low GWP
Accurate and reliable estimation of the thermodynamic and transport properties of refrigerants is of paramount importance for the effective design and optimization of refrigeration cycles. In the context of growing environmental concerns, there is a pressing need to transition towards more environmentally benign refrigeration systems and applications. This imperative has driven the search for alternative refrigerants with reduced environmental impact. The refrigerant R452B has emerged as a promising candidate, particularly as a suitable replacement for R410A, due to its favorable thermodynamic characteristics and significantly lower Global Warming Potential (GWP). This research addresses the critical need for precise property data by developing mathematical models for key thermodynamic and transport properties of the R452B refrigerant. Specifically, the study focuses on modelling enthalpy, entropy, specific volume, thermal conductivity, viscosity, and thermal diffusivity. These properties are fundamental to understanding the behavior of the refrigerant within refrigeration systems and are essential for accurate system design and performance prediction. To achieve this modelling objective, the genetic expression programming (GEP) methodology, a powerful evolutionary algorithm capable of automatically generating complex mathematical expressions, was employed. GEP was selected for its ability to discover intricate relationships between variables and to produce explicit equations that can be readily implemented. The accuracy and reliability of the developed GEP models were rigorously evaluated. The coefficient of determination (R2) for the predicted thermodynamic and transport properties across a range of temperatures was found to be between 97% and 99%. This high degree of accuracy demonstrates the robustness and predictive power of the generated equations. The strong correlation between the model predictions and the actual property values indicates that these equations are sufficiently sensitive and accurate to be used with confidence in engineering calculations and simulations. The newly developed mathematical models offer a valuable tool for engineers and researchers working with R452B. These models provide a means to accurately estimate the thermodynamic and transport properties of this refrigerant without the need for complex and time-consuming experimental measurements or computationally intensive simulations. By providing dependable equations, this study facilitates more efficient and accurate design, analysis, and optimization of refrigeration systems utilizing the R452B refrigerant.
