Low carbon heating and cooling by combining various technologies with Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage

A transition to a low carbon energy system is needed to respond to global challenge of climate change mitigation. Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) is a technology with worldwide potential to provide sustainable space heating and cooling by (seasonal) storage and recovery of heat in the subsurface. However, adoption of ATES varies strongly...

Re-Natured Economy: From pollutants to productive landscapes

In the light of climate change, ecosystem derangement and debasement of local economies in the name of globalisation and free trade, capitalism has almost exhausted its source of nourishment: Nature. Within today’s globalised urbanisation, cities seem to be better linked to the planetary system of production and trade than to their surrounding...

Internal erosion in dams and dikes: a comparison: (Paper and Abstract)

Dams and dikes are both water-retaining earth embankments. These are vulnerable to internal erosion but specific differences lead to varying vulnerabilities to different types of internal erosion: • Dams are usually zoned, with potential filtering capability to arrest piping if it is initiated, while dikes are more commonly unzoned and incapable...

Operational strategies for HVDC transmission in smart grids: the security versus markets dilemma

Over the last decades, the European transmission system has made many profound changes in the network and has focused on three main concepts: i) flexibility, ii) integration, and iii) sustainability to increase the technological innovations, and to improve the market design. The currently used method<br/>by transmission system operators (TSOs)...

Integration of the subsurface and the surface sectors for a more holistic approach for sustainable redevelopment of urban brownfields

This paper presents a holistic approach to sustainable urban brownfield redevelopment where specific focus is put on the integration of a multitude of subsurface qualities in the early phases of the urban redevelopment process, i.e. in the initiative and plan phases. Achieving sustainability in brownfield redevelopment projects may be...

Reliability modelling in transmission networks: An exploratory study for further EHV underground cabling in the Netherlands

The worldwide demand for electricity, which is steadily increasing, leads to a continuous need for developing and extending the transmission networks. However, the installation of new overhead lines faces many challenges due to social, environmental and technical reasons. One solution that gains widespread public support is the installation of...

Analysis of the Rendezvous Phase of e.deorbit: Guidance, Communication and Illumination

The aim of this thesis is to investigate a debris-remediation technique where a chaser performs a rendezvous with the debris, establishes a rigid-link connection, and actively de-orbits the debris. Remediation of the space environment becomes an increasing urgency, since the continuously growing space debris population in low-Earth orbit...

BALANCE 4P - Balancing decisions for urban brownfield redevelopment: Technical report of the BALANCE 4P project of the SNOWMAN Network coordinated call IV

Land take as a result of urbanization is one of the major soil threats in Europe. One of the key measures to prevent further urban sprawl and additional land take, is redevelopment of urban brownfields: underused urban areas with, in many cases, soil and groundwater pollution. The latter issue can be a bottleneck for redevelopment of brownfields...

(Re)claimed Land, Scenario of democratic landscape in contaminated territories

In the city of Taranto located in south Italy, industrial foul-up is one of the biggest contributors of the high percentage of cancer death. The case of Ilva factory in Taranto is an example of how a wrong interaction among stakeholders became the cause for ecological and social problem. The factory is an integral cycle steel plant, where all...

GC mattress construction tests, testing an execution method for freespan remediation

This reports gives insight in the results of the exerpiments done with Ground Condolidators. This report will focus on the tests that evaluate the proposed execution method. In this execution method, the Ground Condolidators will be placed in batches (with help of a clamshell) on the bed to create a mattress. This mattress will slow down the...

Biogeochemical processes and geotechnical applications: Progress, opportunities and challenges

Consideration of soil as a living ecosystem offers the potential for innovative and sustainable solutions to geotechnical problems. This is a new paradigm for many in geotechnical engineering. Realising the potential of this paradigm requires a multidisciplinary approach that embraces biology and geochemistry to develop techniques for beneficial...

Introducing an approach to access environmental pressures from integrated remediation and landfill mining

The aim of the paper is to introduce an approach for evaluating integrated remediation and landfill mining scenarios. Since completed projects with similar scope and goals mostly have been pilot studies or projects with little emphasis on resource extraction, there is very little real case data to access. Thus, scenarios for three different...

Landfill mining: A review of three decades of research

Landfills have historically been seen as the ultimate solution for storing waste at minimum cost. It is now a well-established fact however that such deposits have related implications such as long-term methane emissions, local pollution concerns and limitations on urban development. Landfill mining has been suggested as a strategy to address...

Electrokinetic salt removal from porous building materials using ion exchange membranes

The removal of salt from porous building materials under the influence of an applied voltage gradient normally results in high pH gradients due to the formation of protons and hydroxyl ions at the electrodes. The formed acidic and alkaline regions not only lead to disintegration of the porous material, but also affect the salt transport. In this...