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Search results for: water footprint
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Comparison of the water footprint in Poland and Ukraine
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Analysis of the Water Footprint of Central and Eastern Europe Countries
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Water Footprint Index (WFTP) for Poznań as a Tool for Assessing Water Management in Urban Areas
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Water Footprint Assessment of Selected Polymers, Polymer Blends, Composites, and Biocomposites for Industrial Application
PublicationThis paper presents a water footprint assessment of polymers, polymer blends, composites, and biocomposites based on a standardized EUR-pallet case study. The water footprint analysis is based on life cycle assessment (LCA). The study investigates six variants of EUR-pallet production depending on the materials used. The system boundary included the production of each material and the injection molding to obtain a standardized...
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Comparative Analysis of Carbon, Ecological, and Water Footprints of Polypropylene-Based Composites Filled with Cotton, Jute and Kenaf Fibers
PublicationComposites containing natural fibers are considered environmentally friendly materials which is related to the reduced use of fossil fuels and the emission of carbon dioxide compared to petroleum-based polymers. Nevertheless, a complete evaluation of their environmental impact requires a broader view. This paper presents a carbon, ecological, and water footprints assessment of polypropylene-based composites filled with cotton,...
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Ecological footprint of Rawalpindi; Pakistan's first footprint analysis from urbanization perspective
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Evaluating the effect of different operational strategies on the carbon footprint of wastewater treatment plants – case studies from northern Poland
PublicationNowadays, low greenhouse gas (GHG) emission is expected at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). However, emission quantification and evaluation still faces difficulties related to data availability and uncertainty. The objective of this study was to perform carbon footprint (CF) analysis for two municipal WWTPs located in northern Poland. Slupsk WWTP is a large biological nutrient removal (BNR) facility (250,000 PE) which benefits...
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Strategies for mitigating nitrous oxide production and decreasing the carbon footprint of a full-scale combined nitrogen and phosphorus removal activated sludge system
PublicationNitrous oxide (N2O) emitted from biological nutrient removal activated sludge systems contributes significantly to the total carbon footprint of modern wastewater treatment plants. In the present study, N2O production and emissions were experimentally determined in a large-scale plant (220,000 PE) employing combined nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) removal. As a modelling tool, the Activated Sludge Model 2d (ASM2d) was extended...
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A Broadband Circularly Polarized Wide-Slot Antenna with a Miniaturized Footprint
PublicationThis letter presents a novel and simple feeding technique for exciting orthogonal components in a wide-slot antenna. In this technique, a rectangular bracket-shape parasitic strip is placed at the open end of the straight microstrip line to excite the fundamental horizontal and vertical components of the circular polarization (CP). The proposed technique—when employed in conjunction with the asymmetrical geometry of coplanar waveguide...
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Resource productivity and environmental degradation in EU-27 countries: context of material footprint
PublicationThis study explores the relationship between the resource productivity and environmental degradation in European Union-27 countries. This study tests this relationship in context of high, moderate, and low material footprint sub-samples; these samples are formed utilizing the expectation–maximization machine learning algorithm. Using the panel data set of EU-27 countries from 2000 to 2020, linear and non-linear autoregressive distributed...
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Energy Neutrality Versus Carbon Footprint Minimization In Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants
PublicationThe study presents analysis of the carbon footprint (CF) in six medium and large-size municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) located across Poland. The novelty of the presented study is searching the relationship between level of energy neutrality and CF in the case studies. Although energy and CF go hand-in-hand to some degree but moving towards energy neutrality in WWTPs might also lead to an increase in the total CF of...
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Energy neutrality versus carbon footprint minimization in municipal wastewater treatment plants
PublicationThis work aimed to compare the carbon footprint (CF) of six full-scale wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The CF was estimated in the range of 23–100 kg CO2e per population equivalent. In the total CF, the direct emissions held the highest share (62–74%) for the plants with energy recovery from biogas. In the plants depending entirely on the power grid, the indirect emissions due to energy consumption dominated the total CF (69–72%)....
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Reducing Carbon Footprint of Agriculture—Can Organic Farming Help to Mitigate Climate Change?
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Comprehensive evaluation of the carbon footprint components of wastewater treatment plants located in the Baltic Sea region
PublicationFinland and Poland share similar environmental interests with regard to their wastewater effluents eventually being discharged to the Baltic Sea. However, differences in the influent wastewater characteristics, treatment processes, operational conditions, and carbon intensities of energy mixes in both countries make these two countries interesting for carbon footprint (CF) comparison. This study aimed at proposing a functional...
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The effect of agro-waste co-digestion and sludge disposal on carbon footprint in municipal wastewater treatment plants
PublicationThe study presents analysis of the carbon footprint (CF) in 6 wastewater treatment plants in northern Poland with a special focus on the effect of co digestion of sewage sludge and food waste. Although co-digestion increases the on-site energy production, but it has a negative effect on the total CF. To overcome the negative effect, several sludge disposal scenarios were analysed and their effect on the CF reduction was determined....
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Integrated plant-wide modelling for evaluation of the energy balance and greenhouse gas footprint in large wastewater treatment plants
PublicationModern wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) should maintain a balance between three combined sustainability criteria, including effluent quality, energy performance and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. All of these criteria were considered in the integrated plant-wide model developed in this study. The proposed model incorporates new features, including: (i) the addition of associated facilities to the overall energy balance and...
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The Co-Culture of Staphylococcal Biofilm and Fibroblast Cell Line: The Correlation of Biological Phenomena with Metabolic NMR1 Footprint
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Measurement of Seafloor Acoustic Backscatter Angular Dependence at 150 kHz Using a Multibeam Echosounder
PublicationAcoustic seafloor measurements with multibeam echosounders (MBESs) are currently often used for submarine habitat mapping, but the MBESs are usually not acoustically calibrated for backscattering strength (BBS) and cannot be used to infer absolute seafloor angular dependence. We present a study outlining the calibration and showing absolute backscattering strength values measured at a frequency of 150 kHz at around 10–20 m water...
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Net-zero carbon condition in wastewater treatment plants: A systematic review of mitigation strategies and challenges
PublicationThe wastewater sector accounts for up to 7 and 10% of anthropogenic CH4 and N2O emissions, respectively. Nowadays wastewater treatment plants are going through a paradigm shift to approach a net-zero carbon condition. Numerous ongoing measures have taken place to identify the sources of greenhouse gases and minimize the carbon footprint. This paper systematically reviews all known practices leading towards net-zero carbon wastewater...
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An algorithm for selecting a machine learning method for predicting nitrous oxide emissions in municipal wastewater treatment plants
PublicationThis study presents an advanced algorithm for selecting machine learning (ML) models for nitrous oxide (N2O) emission prediction in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) employing the activated sludge process. The examined ML models comprised multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS), support vector machines (SVM), and extreme gradient boosting (XGboost). The study explores the concept that involves new criteria to select the...
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The Dilemmas of Choosing a Suitable Technology for Low Energy and Passive Houses in the Context of their Overheating Issues
PublicationIn compliance with European Union directives, numerous countries are introducing increasingly stricter legal limits on the estimated energy consumption of newly designed residential buildings. However, the fact, that regulations and designers' efforts are focused on decreasing energy consumption (and consequently carbon dioxide emissions) only at the post-occupancy stage, may lead to a significant increase in the carbon footprint...
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Novel structure and design of compact UWB slot antenna
PublicationIn this paper, a novel structure of a compact UWB slot antenna is presented along with a simulation-driven design optimization algorithm for adjusting geometry parameters of the device. Our primary objective is to obtain small footprint of the structure while maintaining its acceptable electrical performance. It is achieved by introducing sufficiently large number of geometry degrees of freedom, including increased number of parameterized...
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Objective relaxation algorithm for reliable simulation-driven size reduction of antenna structure
PublicationThis letter investigates reliable size reduction of antennas through electromagnetic-driven optimization. It is demonstrated that conventional formulation of the design task by direct footprint miniaturization with imposing constraints on electrical performance parameters may not lead to optimum results. The reason is that—in a typical antenna structure—only a few geometry parameters explicitly determine the antenna footprint,...
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Size-Reduction-Oriented Design of Compact CPW-Fed UWB Monopole Antenna
PublicationA structure and design optimization of compact CPW-fed UWB monopole antenna is presented. Explicit size reduction through constrained numerical optimization of all relevant geometry parameters of the structure leads to a very small footprint of only 321 mm2. At the same time, a very wide antenna bandwidth is achieved from 3.1 GHz to 17 GHz.
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The Way One Defines Specification Matters: On the Performance Criteria for Efficient Antenna Optimization in Aggregated Bi-Objective Setups
PublicationDesign of antenna structures for real-world applications is a challenging task that often involves addressing multiple design requirements at a time. Popular solution approaches to this class of problems include utilization of composite objectives. Although configuration of such functions has a significant effect on the cost and performance of the optimization, their specific structure is normally determined based on engineering...
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Novel structure and size-reduction-oriented design of microstrip compact rat-race coupler
PublicationIn this paper, a novel structure of a miniaturized microstrip rat-race coupler has been proposed. Surrogate-based optimization procedures are applied to explicitly reduce the coupler size while maintaining equal power split at the operating frequency of 1 GHz and sufficient bandwidth for return loss and isolation characteristics. The optimization is performed using the objective function with four penalty components. The footprint...
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Environmental impact of construction. Methods of conscious shaping architecture in terms of ecological solutions
PublicationShaping an ecologically conscious society is a process that also affects architecture. Currently, designers are eagerly looking for solutions that are beneficial in terms of carbon footprint. For the proper multi-criteria assessment and selection of adequate solutions, it is necessary to use appropriate tools such as, for example, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method or the rules of ecological certification (BREEAM and LEED)....
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Size reduction of ultra-wideband antennas with efficiency and matching constraints
PublicationAntenna design is a multifaceted task that involves handling of various performance figures concerning both electrical performance of the structure as well as its geometry. Simultaneous control of several objectives through rigorous optimization is very challenging and virtually impossible through conventional approaches such as parameter sweeping. In this work, we investigate size reduction of ultra‐wideband antenna structures...
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Novel Structure and EM-Driven Design of Small UWB Monopole Antenna
PublicationA novel structure of a small UWB monopole antenna is presented. In our approach, a compact size is achieved by means of a meander line for current path enlargement as well as the two parameterized slits that introduce additional degrees of freedom helping to ensure good impedance matching. The antenna design is carried out using surrogate-based optimization involving variable-fidelity EM simulations. This allows us to simultaneously...
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A Concept and Design Optimization of Compact Planar UWB Monopole Antenna
PublicationA novel structure concept of a compact UWB monopole antenna is introduced together with a low-cost design optimization procedure. Reduced footprint is achieved by introduction of a protruded ground plane for current path increase and a matching transformer to ensure wideband impedance matching. All geometrical parameters of the structure are optimized simultaneously by means of surrogate based optimization involving variable-fidelity...
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A structure and design of a novel compact UWB MIMO antenna
PublicationIn the paper, a concept and design procedure of a novel compact MIMO slot antenna is presented. In order to achieve a better filling of available space, individual antennas are constrained to a triangular shape and optimized for a reduced size. The MIMO structure is then assembled using the two of previously designed antennas in orthogonal arrangement. Surrogate-assisted numerical optimization involving variable-fidelity electromagnetic...
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Design optimization of novel compact circular polarization antenna
PublicationThe paper describes a structure and a design optimization procedure of a miniaturized circular polarization antenna with elliptical ground plane slots and feed line with stepped-impedance stubs. Constrained optimization of all antenna parameters is executed in order to explicitly reduce the antenna size while maintaining required impedance axial ratio bandwidth of 5 GHz to 7 GHz at the same time. The size of the optimized antenna...
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Miniaturized bandpass substrate integrated waveguide filter with frequency-dependent coupling realized using asymmetric GCPW discontinuity
PublicationAn asymmetric GCPW discontinuity is proposed to provide frequency-dependent coupling in microwave bandpass filters. Wider and narrow sections introduce, respectively, the capacitive and inductive component to the equivalent circuit representing coupling. By selecting the dimensions of the discontinuity and width of the inductive window in substrate integrated waveguide, an additional transmission zero can be introduced at prescribed...
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Miniaturized uniplanar triple-band slot dipole antenna with folded radiator
PublicationA miniaturized uniplanar slot dipole for triple-frequency operation is presented. The antenna consists of a folded slot radiator with an increased number of degrees of freedom that allow for efficient size reduction. Rigorous electromagnetic (EM)-driven design optimization is applied in order to achieve the smallest possible size while maintaining acceptable levels of antenna reflection at the required operating frequencies. The...
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Novel structure and design of enhanced-bandwidth hybrid quadrature patch coupler
PublicationA novel structure and design optimization procedure of an enhanced-bandwidth hybrid quadrature patch coupler is proposed. Improved performance of the circuit has been obtained by parameterizing the coupler sections using splines, which introduces additional degrees of freedom. Due to computational complexity of the parameter adjustment problem, a sequential design procedure is applied. In each iteration, a selected number of spline...
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Excitation of Circularly Polarized Wave via Single-Feed Metasurface-Integrated Compact Antenna for Internet of Things
PublicationA compact circularly polarized (CP) quasi-omnidirectional antenna is introduced for internet of things (IoT). The structure consists of two components implemented on FR-4 substrates, and sep-arated by an air gap: one printed with a rectangular patch fed through a matching network, and another with a metasurface and a ground plane. Two different methods for impedance matching are employed. An equivalent circuit model of the antenna...
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Size Reduction of Microwave Couplers by EM-Driven Optimization
PublicationThis work addresses simulation-driven design optimization of compact microwave couplers that explicitly aims at circuit footprint area reduction. The penalty function approach allows us to minimize the area of the circuit while ensuring a proper power division between the output ports and providing a sufficient bandwidth with respect to return loss and isolation around the operating frequency. Computational cost of the optimization...
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Design and optimization of a novel compact broadband linearly/circularly polarized wide-slot antenna for WLAN and Wi-MAX applications
PublicationA novel topologically modified structure of a compact low profile wide-slot antenna for broadband applications is presented. The antenna comprises a modified E-shaped slot with unequal arm lengths in the ground plane, and a parasitic quasi-rectangular loop placed coplanar with the feedline. For exciting orthogonal modes with equal amplitude, a single-point feeding technique with an asymmetrical geometry of the coplanar waveguide...
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Novel structure and EM-driven design of miniaturized microstrip rat-race coupler
PublicationIn this paper, a novel structure and design procedure of a miniaturized microstrip rat-race coupler (RRC) is described. Small size of the RRC is achieved by folding the transmission lines of the conventional circuit into its interior, as well as by implementation of the structure on three layers. The final size of the coupler realized for the operating frequency of 1 GHz is only 220 mm2, which gives over 95% footprint reduction...
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Design and Optimization of a Compact Planar Radiator for UWB Applications and Beyond
PublicationA compact monopole antenna for ultra-wideband (UWB) and beyond applications has been proposed. The radiator is based on the monopole topology. The super-wideband behavior has been achieved using a combination of spline-based modifications applied to the driven element, as well as utilization of a tapered feed and a slot-modified ground plane. The electrical performance of the structure has been tuned using a numerical optimization...
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Structure and computationally-efficient simulation-driven design of compact UWB monopole antenna
PublicationIn this letter, a structure of a small ultra-wideband (UWB) monopole antenna, its design optimization procedure as well as experimental validation are presented. According to our approach, antenna compactness is achieved by means of a meander line for current path enlargement as well as the two parameterized slits providing additional degrees of freedom that help to ensure good impedance matching. For the sake of reliability, the...
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Green Chemistry Metrics with Special Reference to Green Analytical Chemistry
PublicationThe concept of green chemistry is widely recognized in chemical laboratories. To properly measure an environmental impact of chemical processes, dedicated assessment tools are required. This paper summarizes the current state of knowledge in the field of development of green chemistry and green analytical chemistry metrics. The diverse methods used for evaluation of the greenness of organic synthesis, such as eco-footprint, E-Factor,...
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Leveraging spatio-temporal features for joint deblurring and segmentation of instruments in dental video microscopy
PublicationIn dentistry, microscopes have become indispensable optical devices for high-quality treatment and micro-invasive surgery, especially in the field of endodontics. Recent machine vision advances enable more advanced, real-time applications including but not limited to dental video deblurring and workflow analysis through relevant metadata obtained by instrument motion trajectories. To this end, the proposed work addresses dental...
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A novel microstrip dual-layer rat-race coupler with compact size and enhanced bandwidth
PublicationMicrowave hybrid couplers are crucial components of mixers, phase shifters, amplifiers and other high-frequency systems. Conventional couplers are characterized by large size which limits their usefulness in modern applications. In this work, a novel compact rat-race coupler with enhanced bandwidth has been proposed. The structure consists of six compact microstrip resonant cells. It is implemented on two separate layers which permits...
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Validation of Interpolation Algorithms for Multiscale UV-VIS Imaging Using UAV Spectrometer
PublicationIn this study, we present a comparison of popular methods for the interpolation of irregular spatial data in order to determine the applicability of each algorithm for hyperspectral reflectance estimation. The algorithms were benchmarked against a very high-resolution orthoimage from an RGB camera and medium-resolution satellite imagery from Sentinel-2A. We tested five interpolation algorithms: Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN),...
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A model, design, and implementation of an efficient multithreaded workflow execution engine with data streaming, caching, and storage constraints
PublicationThe paper proposes a model, design, and implementation of an efficient multithreaded engine for execution of distributed service-based workflows with data streaming defined on a per task basis. The implementation takes into account capacity constraints of the servers on which services are installed and the workflow data footprint if needed. Furthermore, it also considers storage space of the workflow execution engine and its cost....
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A new relevant membrane application: CO2 direct air capture (DAC)
PublicationSince carbon dioxide (CO2) is the primary greenhouse gas emitted into the atmosphere due to human activities, strong research efforts have been developed towards capturing and decreasing its production. Unfortunately, specific processes and activities make it impossible to avoid CO2 emissions. Among the different strategies scientists propose for CO2 reduction, direct CO2 capture from the atmosphere, also known as direct air capture...
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Design of a compact planar transmission line for miniaturized rat-race coupler with harmonics suppression
PublicationThis paper presents an elegant yet straightforward design procedure for a compact rat-race coupler (RRC) with an extended harmonic suppression. The coupler’s conventional λ/4 transmission lines (TLs) are replaced by a specialized TL that offers significant size reduction and harmonic elimination capabilities in the proposed approach. The design procedure is verified through the theoretical, circuit, and electromagnetic (EM) analyses,...
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A Simple-Topology Compact Broadband Circularly Polarized Antenna With Unidirectional Radiation Pattern
PublicationIn this letter, a geometrically simple, reflector-backed single-point-fed circularly polarized (CP) antenna with unidirectional radiation pattern is presented. The structure comprises a simple coplanar waveguide (CPW) feeding circuit with an open slot etched on one side of the coplanar ground. The enhanced CP bandwidth is obtained by combining the loop mode, the slot mode, and the asymmetrical configuration of the coplanar ground...
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Ultrafast high-temperature sintering (UHS) of cerium oxide-based compound
PublicationUltrafast high-temperature sintering (UHS) is an innovative sintering technique that can densify ceramics in a few seconds, dramatically reducing the carbon footprint and firing costs. In this work, the feasibility of applying UHS in Gd-doped ceria (GDC) and GDC-Er-stabilized bismuth oxide (ESB) composite powders was investigated. At high UHS currents (22-24 A), a fully dense GDC sample with a large grain size was obtained. Nonetheless,...