This paper analyzes utilization of renewable energy systems and efficient building envelopes in the semi-arid climate. The proposed model evaluates renewable energy systems solutions as well as economic- and energy-efficient construction materials for the net zero-energy buildings (NZEB) in semi-arid climates. The objective of this paper is to optimize total energy cost and environmental impact...

Telechelic polyesters have successfully been synthesized with lipasecatalyzed polymerization. The produced telechelics had a high degree of difunctionalization, high purity (requiring little or no workup) and controlled degree of polymerization. The syntheses were performed in one-pot one-step reaction systems. Two different types of lipase-catalyzed polymerizations were applied – ring-opening ...

Most recent developments in polymers from renewable resources have focused on thermoplastics, whereas there has been no comparable development of plastics with elastomeric properties. Here we evaluate the possibility of developing renewable elastomers based on starch. Potato starch plasticized with glycerol (called plasticized starch, or PLS) was melt-blended with small quantities (5 wt % or 15...

The use of renewable resources to make various synthetic materials is increasing in order to meet some of our sustainability challenges. Yeast is one of the most common household ingredients, which is cheap and easy to reproduce. Herein we report that yeast cells can be thermally transformed into hollow, core-shell heteroatom-doped carbon microparticles that can effectively electrocatalyze the ...

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) fabricated from all “natural” materials will lead to renewable, sustainable, and potentially inexpensive organic optoelectronics. Achieving this goal will require reimagining all the various aspects of the OLED with natural-based renewable materials. Here, we replace the common substrate, electrode, and hole injection layer in the OLED structure with cellulo...

Hydrogen becomes a promising alternative energy carrier to fossil fuels since it is clean, renewable, contains high energy content and does not contribute to greenhouse effect. Therefore, using cheap or renewable resources, such as lignocellulosic materials, as the feedstock for hydrogen production, in particular, dark fermentative hydrogen production has a great potential to give major contrib...

— This lecture summary provides a short but comprehensive overview on the “energy and buildings” topic. Buildings account for roughly 40% of the global energy demands. Thus, an increased adoption of existing and upcoming materials and solutions for the building sector represents an enormous potential to reduce building related energy demands and greenhouse gas emissions. The central question is...