Biomass is an essential pillar of the bioeconomy as it serves as its main resource. Biomass energy plays an important role in energy sector. According to long wave theory, a sharp breakthrough in biotechnology is due over the next few years. As the price for energy wood increases, wood as a resource will not be sustainable in energy sector. In the case of Latvia, the price of energy wood as a resource is predicted to increase from 0.04 EUR/kWh to 0.12 EUR/kWh per unit of energy.
<em>A </em>social life cycle assessment is proposed for the evaluation of the social potential impact in regard to the production and use of biomethane derived from biomass (algae and manure) in Latvia. The Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) is used to evaluate the social performances, which have been selected based on literature, statistics and legislation data. Seven alternatives are evaluated by experts and the best alternative is figured out.
The improvement of air quality is now an issue for all developed countries. In the European Union transportation is the main source of NOx pollution and the second most significant PM10 and PM2, 5 emission sources. The focus of the research is transportation PM10 emissions. The paper introduces a model of system dynamics for analysis of road transportation PM10 emissions. The developed model is then used to compare PM10 emissions in 4 cases, one of which is the baseline, while in the other 3 a variety of road transport emission reduction methods are implemented. The simulation results have shown that the highest daily PM10 emission reductions can be achieved by combining technological and administrative methods. Administrative methods (rush-hour driving tax and heavy vehicle traffic restrictions) turned out to be the most effective.
The Single Energy Sustainability Index combines three key sustainability indicators: environmental, social and economic. The use of indicators makes it possible to create an overall index that shows not only how green the region is, but also includes the well-being and economic situation of its population. The study uses a universal formula that is adapted to the case study of Latvia. The energy sustainability index formula combines 12 weighted indicators. The multi-criteria analysis method AHP was used to determine criteria weights for this purpose. Latvia’s overall sustainability index was calculated at 0.48 and only the Riga region (0.65) exceeds the index value for Latvia as a whole. Using this sustainability development index, it is also possible to analyse possible future development scenarios for energy sustainability in Latvia and its regions. To assess the potential for future development and sustainability of regions in Latvia and other countries, it is necessary to continue the study.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.