Sustainable Energy and Transportation

Need of energy is continuously increasing with increasing development aspirations and world population. To meet the energy demand, world requires production of more energy from the available limited resources. Technological development is both a cause of many environmental problems as well as a key enabler for solving them. It is a matter of fact that the technologies of the past are still dominating in transport, energy production, industry, and agriculture sector, which are gradually harming our basic life supporting systems—clean water, fresh air, and fertile soil. However, in each of these sectors there are new technologies available or emerging that may essentially solve these environmental problems if used widely and wisely. Thus, new technologies have the potential to contribute in decoupling of economic growth from pressure on natural resources. To address the global challenges of energy security, climate change, and economic growth, it is a global need to develop low-carbon energy technologies such as bioenergy for heat and power, biofuels for transport, solar photovoltaic energy, solar thermal electricity, wind energy, solar heating and cooling, efficient and environment-friendly energy storage. The long-term sustainability of the global energy systems is essential to counter balance of current demographic, economic, social, and technological trends.

Urban form and transport system have an enormous impact on the way people travel. With rapid growing economies and population typically seen in developing countries, there is an increasing trend of expansion of urban sprawl and auto-based mobilization. This has a direct effect on the level and form of transport demand and pattern. In the absence of the implementation of proper policy measures, like parking charges, congestion charging, fare revisions, pedestrianization, it also leads to an increased additional cost for transportation infrastructure and its operation, while at the same time, creating many environmental, economic and social problems. Sustainable transport systems are those which aim to reduce emissions, fossil fuel consumption and the consumption of natural land, while providing easy access to people. This chapter throws light on various issues and challenges related to achieving sustainable urban transportation solutions in Indian cities and how the fundamental focus has shifted from traditional supply centric approaches to demand centric approaches. A case study of steel flyover project in Bangalore, India, is also presented to emphasize this point.

In the year 2008, the world faced one of the worst economic recessions. At this point in time, the idea of a smart city was floated by IBM which was a part of the smarter planet initiative (Paroutis et al. 2013). As per various definitions, a smart city is an urban development that takes the help of technology to manage its assets like its infrastructure, important buildings, community services, transportation. The concept of smart city was welcomed by China, UAE, Korea and others. There are six indicators of a smart city, namely “smart economy, smart governance, smart citizen, smart living, smart environment and smart mobility” (Kumar and Dahiya 2017)—mobility or transportation takes the most important position due to its influence on all the other indicators. Statistics show that millions of dollars are invested in research and development of new sustainable modes of transportation systems all over the globe. There are innumerable examples of sustainable smart transport all over the world like Paris, Boston, Germany, Singapore. Each one of these examples lays emphasis on the fact that a well-designed and efficient transport system contributes to economic growth and helps in refining the quality of life of the people, thereby becoming one of the most important sectors of urban development. Post-studying these examples, one can realize that sustainable transportation system contributes to all the different indicators or aspects of a smart city. It is projected by the United Nations that in the coming 15 years the population of top 100 cities of India will grow by 60%. Also with growth in opportunities and increase in the buying capacity, personal motor-vehicle ownership doubles every decade. Land is a precious resource, and utilizing it for making roads to meet the needs of the motorized vehicles is not a solution. This chapter examines the Indian scenario and smart city dream and various successful models of sustainable transportation addressing issues similar to the existing Indian cities, and makes recommendations for the same.

With increasing pollution in the environment, there is a need of sustainable generation and utilization of energy. Transport is the technologically most challenging major contributor to environmental pollution. With increasing global adaption of renewable energy generation, if somehow, the transportation energy supply can be shifted to renewable sources; then, it will be major leap in mitigating the impact of pollution on human beings. Battery electric vehicle provides the most feasible solution right now, which has a developed and demonstrated infrastructure in terms of technology development and fuel, in this case electricity, distribution network. With decreasing tariffs of renewable energy and new and cheap battery technologies, it is self-evident that the future has electric vehicles and renewable power generation. This chapter provides the insight into the battery electric vehicle technology, needed resources and the economics which is developing around this technology.

The progress and prosperity of a nation like India depends largely upon the fossil fuel-based power production sectors. However, the use of these fuels leads to detrimental effects on the ecosystem because of various pollutants emitted from combustion of fossil fuel. Being the second largest populist country in the globe, India is heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels, thereby making it the major source of global warming and pollutant emission. The fossil energy in India is primarily used in transport and stationary power production sectors. Another problem with these fossil fuels is that it is located in the certain part of the globe which makes oil-deficient countries to depend on them. Therefore, an alternative arrangement is necessitated to reduce these dependencies and oil imports. Alternative renewable energy sources in the form of vegetable oil, biodiesel, biogas, producer gas, and alcohols have good prospects to replace or supplement fossil fuel. Oils derived from vegetables show the most promising fuel for diesel engines. However, vegetable oils have the lower calorific values along with the high viscosity and density as compared to diesel, which are not suitable properties to run the engine. Hence, these properties are improvised through blending, preheating, transesterifications, and emulsifications. Transesterification of vegetable oil yields biodiesel which is the most prominent and popular among the processes. Gaseous fuels such as biogas and producer gas have also been successfully implemented in diesel engine through the dual fuel mode. Stressing the importance of alternative fuel sources for diesel engines, the present study focuses on the effects of these arrangements on engine performance and emission characteristics.

Coal is a fossil fuel and majorly satisfies our energy need. Although coal resources are depleting, it is still to be a sustainable energy source for future in terms of unutilized sources. As per the survey of “Statistical review of world energy,” India stands third position in coal production after China and the USA in the year 2015 with an increase in the growth rate of 4.7% over the last year. According to the current Geological Survey of India 2016, approximately 308.8 billion tons of coal reserves are available in India up to a depth of 1200 m. In India, 70% of the electricity production and 60% of the commercial energy production depend on coal resources. Out of the total coal reserves in India, approximately 39.4% (~121.65 billion tons) of coal lies under a depth more than 300–1200 m, which is out of human reach for exploitation in an economical way by conventional method. To match the current energy demand, there are few other alternative technologies such as underground coal gasification (UCG) and coal bed methane (CBM) to utilize deep coal seams economically. Underground coal gasification (UCG) is a method of converting coal in situ into syngas, which can be used for electricity generation and synthesis of chemicals and liquid fuels. Another energy source from coal is high calorific value CBM gas, which contains 95–98% pure methane. CBM gas formed during the coalification process gets evolved during coal mining process. Capturing this methane gas prior to mining or from unutilized deep coal seams would be a sustainable energy for future demand. In this chapter, we will discuss the estimate of available energy resources and its exploitation through these unconventional technologies for sustainable energy production in India.

Many countries in South Asia are facing serious challenges concerning energy access. Robust infrastructure for generation, transmission and distribution are still lacking. Simultaneously, many of these countries have enormous potential for generating clean energy that can solve the problem of energy provisioning and transform their energy mix. It can further cushion them from dependence on fuel imports. However, investment in clean energy in most South Asian countries is far below what is expected and desired. In this perspective, it is important to investigate the evidences on existing constraints that are limiting investments in clean energy in South Asia. Transition in energy systems is essentially a long-term process—and involves changes in technology, economy (structure, efficiency), active policies, institutions, behaviour and belief systems. Mere formulation of policies and setting targets (policy goals) has been found to be insufficient for attracting investment in clean energy in most of these countries. There exists a gap in the literature regarding evidences on the barriers to investment in clean energy in South Asian countries. Following the Political Economy Analysis framework, in this article, the authors attempt to build up on evidence for answering the following questions:

In the lead up to the Paris Agreement (2015), the Nationally Determined Contribution that India has announced included a reduction in emissions intensity of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 33–35% below 2005 levels and an increased share of non-fossil fuels to 40% with respect to power generation (as compared to 11% in 2010) by 2030. In this respect, solar, wind, biomass and small hydro-based electricity generation have emerged as the most important sources of grid-interactive renewable energy generation in India. However, given the diversity in state-level resource availability and policy implementation, it is difficult to formulate a uniform renewable policy in the country. This paper presents the general policy framework applicable including command and control, price and quantity instruments to boost renewable energy and a review of state-level policies in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan. These policies include solar policy, policy of repowering wind power projects and wind-solar hybrid policy. The major challenges towards the implementation of these policies are identified in terms of demand-supply mismatch, optimum financial strategy to pay for the high-end initial costs in the off-grid applications, high risk perception of using Renewable Energy Certificates, lack of credit available for developers, the lack of coherence between national renewable energy targets set by National Action Plan on Climate Change and state Renewable Purchase Obligation targets, etc.

India’s current water use is around 600 BCM of which 60% is sourced from surface water bodies and 40% from ground. Consumption wise 89% is used by the agricultural sector, 7% by domestic, and 4% by industries. While agricultural sector water use can be considered to be a part of the water cycle, establishing techno-economic treatment systems and wastewater reuse facilities is essential for domestic and industrial sectors. Three stages of wastewater treatment systems are available—primary, secondary, and tertiary. Each stage provides varying qualities of treated water, with the tertiary systems providing the best water quality with total dissolved solids less than 50 parts per million (ppm) permitting its reuse in agriculture and industrial sectors. In India, only primary and secondary treatment systems are widely available. Tertiary systems are retrofitted now, to reuse water. Treated water reuse increases water security by preventing water pollution and decreasing stress on water bodies due to excessive water withdrawals. Preventing water pollution, treating water, and its reuse is vital; similarly, deployment of low-carbon sustainable technologies for water treatment is imperative. Else water pollution prevention efforts would reshape as air pollution issue. Energy consumption by a treatment system correlates to the air pollution potential. Primary, secondary, and tertiary treatment systems consume 2, 3, and 6 kWh/m³ electrical energy, respectively, in addition, the tertiary systems also require thermal energy which is about a kg steam for every 3 kg effluent to concentrate the waste (Tamil Nadu Water Investment Company Ltd. (TWIC), 2014). Environmental policies are therefore necessary to ensure the use of only sustainable treatment systems. Multiple effect evaporators are the widely used tertiary treatment system. It uses steam as a source of heating medium to evaporate wastewater. Steam used in MEE is of process heat quality with temperatures 150–200 °C and 10 bar pressure. The present chapter would discuss how conventional wastewater treatment systems could source their energy requirements sustainably and the policy implications surrounding such a promotion.

It is both a challenge and an opportunity for the Indian power sector to strike a strategic balance between fast-paced economic growth, structural shift and social development without being on high greenhouse gas (GHG) emission pathway. The goal of this paper is to develop alternative scenarios for low GHG emission trajectory for next three decades. It needs to be reiterated that since all the growth will happen in coming decade or two, there are opportunities for India for making the right choices in technology, policy and investment decisions so that faster economic growth does not lock the economy into a high emission trajectory. This has become even more important with India’s commitment as party to Paris Agreement. In this paper, quantitative methods of scenario and trajectory development are followed and assessment is based on review of power sector policy reforms and visions as expressed in various official documents.

Waste heat recovery (WHR), i.e. the recovery and reuse of by-product heat from a process/facility that would be otherwise rejected to the environment, is often a valuable cost-effective approach to improve overall industrial energy efficiency. With the advent of technologies and evolving demands of energy services, the scope, economics and potential for WHR have become increasingly dynamic in nature, particularly in the context of developing countries where both energy-intensive manufacturing and energy demand are increasing. The growth of global WHR market is expected to be 6.8% compound annual growth rate during 2016–2022. WHR has various benefits, including monetary savings, reduced environmental pollution and emission, energy security of the nation, public health. An appropriate WHR policy could provide a framework to channelize the whole process into a win–win situation for all stakeholders, such as the industry/users (e.g. iron and steel, glass, ceramic, textiles, cement, solar PV and thermal systems), the suppliers, the Government and even the public at large. The overall objective of the policy on WHR in various industry sectors is to optimize the benefits, such as mentioned above, by achieving short-, medium- and long-term goals. Some of the technological solutions already in place include cogeneration through WHR, regenerative burner, low-temperature organic Rankine cycle power generation, heat pump, thermo-photovoltaic cells/systems, thermo-chemical systems, high-efficiency recuperate, etc. The success will also depend on various socio-economic parameters, such as availability of land, project finance, research, manpower. The greatest challenge to prepare the WHR policy, as presented in this chapter in a step-by-step approach to overcome the same will be to take all the stakeholders into confidence and device it in harmony with intervening policies in place, in order to attain the mission and vision of this policy to utilize its full potential for public good.

Before the mining of fossil fuels, biomass was the main source of energy for heating and cooking including hot fuel gas production. With rapid industrialization and use of fossil fuels with high calorific values, use of biomass decreased rapidly. However, in the present context of both climate change and energy security, importance of biomass is regaining as a sustainable energy solution. Life cycle of CO₂ emission during the secondary energy production from biomass is lesser than that of the fossil fuels. It is even negative, say for bioenergy with carbon capture. Biomass with good calorific value is abundantly available in countries with rapidly increasing energy demands like India, China, Brazil. Utilization of biomass may increase energy access in rural areas and long-term energy security in India. However, proper selection of biomass, their logistics, and conversion pathways will play an important role. Sustainability of the biomass-based energy system should be assessed for its future feasibility. In this chapter, role of biomass for sustainable energy is assessed specifically for India. Present challenges of energy generation are reviewed. Availability of different types of biomass and logistics are explored. Then, various possible conversion technologies for the conversion of biomass for fuels, electricity are discussed. Possible energy system design for biomass inputs including direct firing, co-firing, gasification and polygeneration are discussed in this chapter. Sustainability assessment of these energy systems is discussed in this chapter. Finally, challenges and prospects related to biomass-based distributed energy solution are presented.

Biomass is not only considered as an important energy career for transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy, this is by far the most sustainable form of energy system. Given its inherent carbon neutrality, biomass-based energy conversion systems have the potential of becoming carbon-negative systems. This feature of biomass, together with its widespread availability, propels the development and deployment of biomass-based distributed energy systems. Among the different pathways of biomass energy conversion, gasification is considered as the most versatile route which can yield multiple end products, ranging from liquid fuels, methane, hydrogen, electricity, process heat and even refrigeration. Several technology options are currently available commercially: some are under different stages of development and some are futuristic, yet seemingly viable. This chapter presents an overview of the different technology options. Their status and potentials as distributed systems are reported and analysed. Socio-economic perspectives favouring or hindering their penetration, with particular reference to Indian and Asian scenario, have also been discussed herein.

The objective of this study is to determine the nature of household consumption of goods and services and its implications in terms of differences in carbon emissions between developed and developing countries. In this study, data on per capita consumption expenditure (PCCE) for 71 countries (37 developed and 34 developing) and 12 consumption categories were used. The average PCCE by each consumption category over both developed and developing countries was estimated for the years 2004–2011 and compared with that of 1995. The twelve consumption categories were ranked (for developed and developing countries) according to CO₂ emission intensities (kg/USD) as well as the percentage share of each category in total PCCE (in USD) in 1995 and for the period 2004–11. The two sets of ranks were matched to compare the implications of household consumption on carbon emissions. The results indicate that there are similarities as well as differences in terms of the burden of responsibility of causing CO₂ emissions between consumption categories. While ‘housing’ and ‘transport’ occupy first and third places, respectively, for both groups, the second place is occupied by ‘food and non-alcoholic beverages’ in developed and ‘clothing and footwear’ in developing countries. Also, consumption categories ‘communication’ in developed and ‘education’ in developing countries are lowest emitting categories. The trends also revealed that changes in the consumption pattern were more significant in developing countries, both in terms of the rate of growth of PCCE and changes in the percentage share of different consumption categories in total PCCE.

Energy is a vital input in achieving rapid economic growth in India and therefore in each of its states. Key policies such as ‘Make in India’ and ‘Smart Cities Mission’ are expected to only contribute to a rapid increase in energy consumption in most Indian States. Yet, India is also committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. Hence, it needs to adopt policies that would achieve growth and, at the same time, reduce carbon emissions. Manufacturing is a significant component of the engine that spurs economic growth, and it is a major consumer of energy. This study aims to identify the core factors that have influenced energy consumption by the manufacturing industries of five eastern states (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal) of India in the period 2010–11 to 2014–15 and also intends to make an interstate comparison of energy consumption. We conduct an index decomposition analysis, more specifically the log mean Divisia index, to identify key factors behind the increase in energy consumption. The findings of the study suggest that besides energy intensity, ‘level of activity’ is a major contributing factor. The findings also indicate that there remains a lot of scope for improving energy-related policies with regard to the manufacturing industries of eastern India.