1. The Virtual Special Issue (VSI) presents a selection of presentations from the 24th Conference of Process Integration, Modelling and Optimisation for Energy Saving and Pollution Reduction (PRES'21), covering topics such as sustainable energy systems optimization, energy recovery and integration, and climate and emission neutrality of energy systems.
2. Circular economy has been identified as a viable strategy towards achieving sustainable development, but most technologies that promote circularity necessitate increased energy use to enhance material recovery and recycling. To ensure that advances made in creating a more circular economy are not in conflict with mitigating climate change, a portfolio of technologies and strategies that reduce the carbon emissions intensity of the energy sector should be implemented.
3. Sustainable development could be achieved by successfully integrating sustainable energy within a circular economy through the design and implementation of energy recovery and integration networks, developing more sustainable and renewable energy devices, establishing infrastructure that supports these technologies, and using optimisation models to determine their proper deployment.
The article "Sustainable energy integration within the circular economy" provides an overview of recent developments in sustainable energy integration and their contributions to the circular economy. The article is based on a selection of presentations at the 24th Conference of Process Integration, Modelling and Optimisation for Energy Saving and Pollution Reduction (PRES'21), which was held as a hybrid conference in Brno, Czech Republic.
The article covers various topics related to sustainable energy systems optimization, climate and emission neutrality of energy systems, energy recovery and integration, and sustainable energy materials and technologies. The authors discuss the need for a portfolio of technologies and strategies that reduce carbon emissions intensity to ensure that advances made in creating a more circular economy are not in conflict with mitigating climate change.
While the article provides valuable insights into recent developments in sustainable energy integration, it has some potential biases. For example, the authors focus primarily on renewable energy sources such as solar and geothermal power while neglecting other sources such as nuclear power. Additionally, the article does not explore counterarguments or potential risks associated with renewable energy sources.
Furthermore, the article contains some unsupported claims such as "enabling tools such as quantum computing could also play an important role in the quest for climate neutrality." While quantum computing may have potential applications in renewable energy systems design, its effectiveness is yet to be proven.
Overall, while the article provides valuable insights into recent developments in sustainable energy integration within the circular economy, it would benefit from exploring counterarguments and potential risks associated with renewable energy sources. Additionally, it should avoid making unsupported claims without providing evidence to support them.