SACM - United Kingdom
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://drepo.sdl.edu.sa/handle/20.500.14154/9667
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Item Restricted Sociotechnical Imaginaries and Developing a Secure Energy System for Gaza Abdullah(University of Oxford, 2024) Alkattan, Abdullah; Malcolm, McCullochAs one of the key challenges that need addressing when designing an energy system, energy security has gained global attention in recent years as nations aim to provide affordable, uninterrupted availability of energy sources. Since the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7th, 2023, sparked a war, the fuel and electricity blockade imposed by Israel has left Gaza with largely no access to electricity, bringing their lack of energy security into focus. With the war ongoing, the damage inflicted on infrastructure, and the forcible displacement of people, the energy system needs to be rebuilt in a secure, affordable, and credible way. As energy planning is challenging amidst this uncertainty, the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries was deployed to define and develop the collective visions of the energy future of Gaza. Drawing from interviews with Gaza energy and humanitarian experts, analysis of the region’s energy sources, and drivers of development in Gaza, the three developed imaginaries are Information, Motion, and Heat. Going beyond defining the imaginaries, a framework for achieving each one is outlined through a whole-system approach. Motion captures the need for an affordable, mobile form of energy access to enable recovery in the region, with swarm electrification the recommended methodology to achieve this vision. The limited energy access afforded by swarm electrification drives the development of Motion, which aims to rebuild a gas-centred centralised grid to replace previous diesel-dependence due to its lower cost and carbon footprint. While restoring the grid to depend on gas imports does not immediately address Gaza’s energy security, it allows for the exploration and utilization of the natural gas sources available in the Gaza Marine, the basis of the third imaginary, Heat. Enabling Gaza to explore this gas field will ultimately prove tricky amid geopolitical tensions and uncertainties around the identity of Gaza’s future governance structure. Nevertheless, the importance of gas in the east of the Mediterranean provides a platform for Gaza to build on and secure the necessary resources and agreements to enable its exploration. Gas from the Gaza Marine can help deliver diplomatic breakthroughs, unlock economic and social development, and achieve energy security in Gaza. This thesis thus creates a potential long-term pathway for Gaza to rebuild their energy system based on the developed sociotechnical imaginaries.15 0Item Restricted .INTEGRATING SOLAR PONDS INTO URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT : A CASE STUDY OF NEOM(University of Sheffield, 2024) Alshehri, Maram; Campbel, AlasdairThis comprehensive analysis of an integrated system for upper convective zone (UCZ) thermal energy extraction, turbo-vapor axial compressor, low-pressure steam turbine, and Multi-Stage Flash (MSF) desalination unit reveals significant implications for system operation and efficiency throughout the year. The study highlights the importance of temperature distribution in the UCZ, with temperatures consistently below 70°C from January to March, posing a challenge for system operation during these months. Conversely, temperatures rise above 70°C from April to December, providing a favorable environment for efficient system operation in NEOM. The design parameters of the pond are well-defined, with minimum dimensions of 202 x 202 meters and a depth of 0.7 meters being sufficient to extract 1 kg/s of thermal energy over an 8-hour daily operational period. The specifications of the turbo-vapor axial compressor, including a hub diameter of 0.27 meters, a tip diameter of 0.549 meters, and an operational speed of 3000 RPM, enable efficient compression and transfer of thermal energy. The low-pressure steam turbine is designed with three stages, achieving a net power output of 181.5 kW, converting thermal energy into mechanical energy to support system operations. The MSF desalination unit is capable of producing 28,800 liters of freshwater per day during an 8-hour working period, meeting water demands and demonstrating the system's effectiveness in desalinating seawater. Overall, the integration of these components within the described temperature and operational parameters provides a robust framework for efficient energy conversion and freshwater production throughout most of the year. Addressing the operational challenges during colder months and leveraging the system's design strengths during warmer periods will be crucial to maximizing overall performance and sustainability.29 0Item Restricted Energy Transition Policies and Their Impact on Saudi Arabia(University of Oxford, 2024) Awshan, Nawaf; Imsirovic, Adi; Sen, AnupamaThis dissertation answers how Saudi Arabia, an oil-dependent economy, is tackling the energy transition. Given Saudi Arabia’s economy and its position in the global energy markets, it is crucial to analyse its status in the energy transition. Specifically, this research addresses three research sub-questions concerning: the external and internal drivers that have pushed Saudi Arabia to transform, the leading entity driving the energy transition in Saudi Arabia, and Saudi Arabia’s progression in the energy transition relative to other oil-producing economies, particularly the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Norway. Qualitative and quantitative methods are used: a Multi-Level Perspective framework is analysed, six interviews with energy stakeholders are conducted, and an Energy Transition Advancement Index (ETAI) is developed, in which two main sub-indexes are created with 39 dimensions. The research results show that eight drivers have pushed Saudi Arabia to transition: oil price volatility, global political and environmental pressure, advancement of renewable energy manufacturing, additional fiscal revenue derived from maximising oil exports, growth of domestic energy demand, the fiscal impact of fossil fuel subsidies, successful pilot renewable energy projects, and extensive minerals exploration. Second, the Saudi Ministry of Energy leads the energy transition. Furthermore, the results reveal that the government adopted a state-led energy transition approach where the government sets the policy instruments and initiatives. Lastly, Saudi Arabia lags behind the UAE and Norway in the ETAI. In 2023, Saudi Arabia scored 49.66 out of 100, while the UAE and Norway scored 64.33 and 70.57, respectively. The ETAI reveals that Saudi Arabia has the competence to transition, as indicated by the continuous improvement in the capability sub-index, which increased from 39.75 in 1990 to 57.33 in 2023. However, not enough steps have been taken to transition, as the performance sub-index declined from 48.84 in 1990 to 38.54 in 2023. The study recommends gradually phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, establishing Public-Private Partnerships in all low-carbon investments, enhancing private sector participation, and extending the value chain of the petrochemical industries.34 0Item Restricted Operational Energy, Cost and Carbon Optimisation Pathways for a Newly Constructed Off Grid City in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia(University of Southampton, 2024-02-01) Alsulamy, Sager; Bahaj, Abubakr; James, PatrickSaudi Arabia has committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2060. King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) is a newly built port city comprising residential, retail, leisure and industrial sectors. The long term aim is for the city to reach 1 million residents from its current population of 10,000. It has the potential to serve as a leading model for achieving net-zero carbon emissions. This research was aimed at investigating low-carbon pathways for KAEC to mitigate its current carbon emissions, focusing on energy supply and energy efficiency to reduce consumption and hence emissions. A combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches to assess the transition pathway towards net-zero emissions was undertaken. The top-down approach involved analysing the city's (25MW) electrical supply and (114 GWh per annum) electrical consumption profiles. The bottom-up approach involved using simulation to model the interaction of different building elements, such as HVAC systems, insulation, appliances, and occupancy to assess energy efficiency approaches needed to support the research aim. It was found that actions such as upgrading the coefficient of performance (CoP) of the HVAC system from 2.5 CoP to 5 CoP , increasing AC set temperature (by 3Co) and occupancy change behaviour were predicted to reduce the electrical consumption in buildings by 44%, 8% and 13% respectively. In the absence of a local energy benchmark, the research also developed a building energy benchmarking scheme to evaluate and rank KAEC electrical consumption in relation to other global cities with similar climates. The benchmarking results showed that there is a substantial variation in buildings electrical consumption within KAEC. That is, the city's electrical usage in buildings is notably higher than that of global cities with similar climates, despite being recently constructed. II Commercial sector buildings in the KAEC were found to be around 16% higher on average than in Dubai, Singapore, Orlando and Los Angeles. Residential and education sectors are 57% and 50% higher than the average consumption in the benchmark cities. This contrast prompted an investigation of the identified performance gap and the COVID-19 lockdown provided a natural experiment to identify the reasons for this. The results showed that the operational strategy is occupancy-independent in many sectors in the city (i.e. similar consumption to non-lockdown periods) with the exception of the education sector, where a significant reduction in electricity consumption (80%) was observed during the lockdown. In terms of carbon emissions, the main driver of carbon emissions in KAEC is use of diesel for electricity generation with 90,503 tonne per year. The research analysed a set of scenarios to replace the diesel supplied electricity and identified that a 76.3 MW PV system connected to the national grid (when this connection becomes available) with option to export electricity at (USD 1.8c/kWh) as the most economical and emissions efficient solution for replacing the current diesel generation. This scenario in addition to upgrading HVAC system from 2.5 CoP to 5 CoP , increasing AC set temperature by 3Co and occupancy change in behaviour( to achieve 10% reduction) were found to be the optimum path towards net-zero emissions in KAEC.13 0Item Restricted Novel Lignin from Pine Wood Chips using Microwave-Assisted Organosolv Method(Saudi Digital Library, 2024-01-01) Aljuhani, Abdulhameed Hamed; Laybourn, AndreaThe microwave-assisted Organosolv method for lignin extraction from pine wood chips, conducted in temperatures between 165°C to 205°C, is thoroughly examined in this study. Critical insights emerge as the highest lignin yield, standing at 25.237%, is achieved at 205°C, while purity reaches its pinnacle at 88.3% when operating at 195°C. Moreover, an optimal residence time of 30 minutes was optimised to achieve maximum yields of 1.93% of lignin-rich material. Microwave technology demonstrates advantages such as rapid heating and environmental friendliness, underscoring the need for judicious temperature-energy balance. A robust lignin calibration curve has been established, facilitating the precise determination of lignin concentration, ultimately revealing a lignin content of 19.582% with an STD of ±2.3% in the initial pine wood chips. These insights could be used to promote the utilisation of lignocellulosic biomass sustainably, emphasising the significance of temperature management in practical applications.20 0Item Restricted Gulf Cooperation Council Countries’ Electricity Sector Forecasting: Consumption Growth Issue and Renewable Energy Penetration Progress Challenges(Lancaster University, 0023-10-18) Alharbi, Fahad Radhi; Csala, Denes; Wang, Ziwei; Campobasso, M.SThe Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries depend on substantial fossil fuel consumption to generate electricity which has resulted in significant environmental harm. Fossil fuels also represent the principal source of economic income in the region. Climate change is closely associated with the use of fossil fuels and has thus become the main motivation to search for alternative solutions, including solar and wind energy technologies, to eliminate their reliance on fossil fuels and the associated impacts upon climate. This research provides a comprehensive investigation of the consumption growth issue, together with an exploration of the potential of solar and wind energy resources, a strict follow-up to shed light on the renewable energy projects, as currently implemented in the GCC region, and a critical discussion of their prospects. The projects foreshadow the GCC countries’ ability to comply with future requirements and spearhead the renewable energy transition toward a more sustainable and equitable future. In addition, four forecasting models were developed to analyse the future performance of GCC power sectors, including solar and wind energy resources along with the ambient temperatures, based on 40 years of historical data. These were Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS), Brownian Motion (BM), and a seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average with exogenous factors (SARIMAX) model model-based time series, and bidirectional long short-term memory (BI-LSTM) and gated recurrent unit (GRU) model-based neural networks.24 0Item Restricted Identifying Occupancy Patterns and Profiles and their Influence on Energy Performance in High-Density Higher Education Buildings(Bashar Alfalah, 2022-12-22) Alfalah, Bashar; Shahrestani, Mehdi; Shao, LiBuildings significantly impact the environment as they account for 36% of global final energy consumption and 37% of total carbon emissions. Therefore, reducing energy consumption and mitigating carbon emissions in the building sector is of paramount importance. In order to reduce energy consumption, several factors should be considered. Among them, building occupants are one of the key drivers for the operation of building services that directly influence energy consumption and energy-related emissions in buildings. Providing information regarding building occupancy at different times of day or periods within a year can potentially contribute to finding approaches for the efficient operation of buildings in terms of energy consumption and energy-related carbon emissions. However, educational buildings, known to have high-density occupancy rates, have not been studied as sufficiently as residential and office buildings. This is owing to the paucity of occupancy data and the difficulty of collecting such data accurately. Due to these limitations, previous studies on educational buildings have limited their scope of work to a specific area in buildings during working hours on workdays, such as a classroom, lecture room, or specific floor(s) with a limited number of occupants. Therefore, the contribution of this research to the existing literature is addressing the paucity of detailed occupancy data for higher educational buildings by using high-accuracy infrared video camera sensors, identifying occupancy patterns and profiles in high-density higher education buildings, predicting future occupancy numbers in buildings at any given day by developing prediction models, and assessing the impacts of occupants on building energy consumption through the development of building energy simulation model. In addition, the occupancy data in this research were collected from an entire high-density higher educational building; a type of building that has not been explored adequately in the literature. The use of high-accuracy infrared video camera sensors was to address the issues related to the uncertainties associated with the collected occupancy data. The occupancy data was collected for a period of 12 months with five minutes intervals. The collected data was analysed using a multi-analytical approach to obtain insights, which helped to identify the main four drivers influencing the presence of occupants and identify their three patterns and profiles in a high-density case study library building. The processed data were then used as inputs to develop two machine-learning models. The use of such high-resolution occupancy data for training the prediction models increased the capability of these models to predict occupancy numbers in the building at any given day with high accuracy of over 95%. Additionally, the impact of changing the occupancy numbers, from -30% to +30% of the initial numbers, on energy consumption was assessed through the development of a building energy simulation model for an extended period of one year.18 0