In the face of escalating global climate change and the increasing frequency of extreme heat events, the mitigation of building overheating has become an urgent priority. This comprehensive review converges insights from building science and public health domains to offer a thorough understanding of the multifaceted impacts of indoor overheating on occupants. The paper addresses a significant research gap by offering a holistic exploration of indoor overheating of residential buildings and its consequences, with a specific focus on the United States, an economically diverse nation that has been underrepresented in the literature. The review illuminates the effects of overheating on thermal comfort, health, and socio-economic aspects within the built environment. It emphasizes associated repercussions, including heightened cooling energy consumption, increased peak electricity demand, and elevated vulnerability, leading to exacerbated heat-related mortality and morbidity rates, especially among disadvantaged groups. The study concludes that vulnerabilities to these impacts are intricately tied to regional climatic conditions, highlighting the inadequacy of a one-size-fits-all approach. Tailored interventions for each climate zone are deemed necessary, considering the consistent occurrence of indoor temperatures surpassing outdoor levels, known as superheating, which poses distinct challenges. The research underscores the urgency of addressing indoor overheating as a critical facet of public health, acknowledging direct socioeconomic repercussions. It advocates for further research to inform comprehensive policies that safeguard public health across diverse indoor environments.

For the past three centuries, there has been a very high demand for stainless steel for different applications, due to its corrosion resistance coupled with the good strength and low cost of the metal. Several welding techniques have been adopted in the fabrication of stainless steel, with the choice of welding technique hinged on the desired requirements. Advancement has been made in its dissimilar welding with other metals like aluminum, copper and titanium. While similar welding of stainless steel faces the challenge of weld metal property deterioration, dissimilar welding poses more serious challenges due to the differential in chemical composition and the thermophysical properties of the base metals. A review of the literature reveals that considerable progress has been made in the improvement of the properties of the weld joint by the application of several weld treatment processes. It was discovered that most of the researchers focused on the effect of these weld treatment processes on the properties of the weld joints, with little attempt to establish a relationship between the microstructure and properties. This review paper critically analyzed the effect of weld treatment processes on the properties of stainless steel in light of microstructure-property correlation.

This study’s primary goal is to evaluate the performance of a large thermal energy storage tank installed in a Gas District Cooling (GDC) plant. The performance parameters considered in this study include thermocline thickness (WTc), Cumulated Charge (Q_cum), and Half Figure of Merit (½ FOM). The operation sensor data of a large Thermal Energy Storage (TES) tank was acquired for this analysis. The recorded temperature sensor from the 1st to 7th January and from 12th to 17th October 2019 was considered in this research. GraphPad prism computer software was deployed for analyses, and the temperature distribution data were analyzed to determine the four temperature parameters (hot water temperature (Th), cool water temperature (Tc), cool water depth (C), and slope gradient (S)) using a non-linear regression curve fitting technique and sigmoid Dose Responses function as integrated with the software. At the end of this research, the relationship between the growth of the determined performance parameter with charging hours was analyzed and presented. The research results proved the ability of GraphPad Prism software to assess the temperature distribution in the TES tank and also the corresponding effects on the overall Tank performance. The software offers better advantages in evaluating the performance parameter of the TES tank accurately.

The concept of industrial symbiosis have contributed to the achievement of a circular economy—a production and consumption model that promotes sustainability and also benefits countries economically, socially, and environmentally. There exists a variety of literature that highlights several cases of the application of industrial symbiosis in different geographical locations of the world. However, only a few of these studies have investigated its prevalence in Africa. Therefore, the goal of this study is to analyze the few cases of industrial symbiosis in Africa, highlight the current status, the current regulatory context, the challenges to the implementation of this model, and propose new paths for industrial symbiosis in Africa. The study carried out shows that there exists good potential for industrial symbiosis to thrive in Africa, owing to the type of economic activities and the waste generated in Africa. It also shows that if industrial symbiosis is implemented on a larger scale, it would contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions, reduce waste, and help Africa make more efficient use of its resources. However, for this to become a reality, concrete, well-thought-out actions must be taken at various levels to encourage all organizations to develop great synergy. Providing specific Industrial symbiosis-focused legislative frameworks, funding intervention from the government, and involvement of the government in the implementation of concise action plans are some aspects that can help increase the prospects of industrial symbiosis in African countries.

District cooling (DC) systems have recently proven to be more economically and environmentally viable as compared to conventional cooling techniques. In most DC setups, electric centrifugal chillers (ECCs) are installed to provide chilled water (CW) to charge the thermal energy storage (TES) tank or for direct CW supply to the DC network. The operation of these ECC systems consumes most of the electrical power supplied to the entire DC plant; this therefore strengthens the need to conduct a comprehensive environmental assessment in order to quantify the indirect ecological impact resulting from the energy consumed in the ECC system operation. In order to achieve this, a case study was conducted of four ECC systems with a use-life of 25 years installed in a large DC plant in Malaysia. A gate-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was adopted to analyze the environmental performance of the system setup. The result of the study year reveals that April and June account for the highest and lowest environmental impact, respectively. The influence of climatic temperature conditions on the monthly cooling and environmental load distribution was also observed from the results. Finally, in substantiating the study’s investigation, environmental performance based on the composition of two different electricity fuel mixes is discussed and compared. The results revealed a drastic decrease in environmental load as the ratio of non-renewable energy sources decreased in the composition of the mix, thereby reducing the contribution of the overall environmental impact of the ECC systems’ use phase.