Innovative Research For Sustainable Energy Systems

This special issue, Innovative Research for Sustainable Energy Systems, is a collection of the selected papers from the proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Applied Energy, held in Suzhou, China from July 1–4, 2012. The ICAE2012 accepted about 500 papers from almost 50 countries. All of the accepted papers were presented in six tracks, with a total of about 60 oral sessions, and two poster sessions. ICAE has grown substantially after the successful conferences in Hong Kong (2009), Singapore (2010), and Italy (2011). It has been firmly established as the one of the premier international forums on a wide range of topics related to energy. The ICAE2012, powered by the International Journal of Applied Energy, seeks to showcase new and exciting energy research and development efforts that offer opportunities for translation into sustainable solutions. With “Energy Innovations for a Sustainable World” being the theme, major topics of the ICAE2012 include renewable energy resources, advanced energy technologies, energy conservation in buildings, advanced energy systems, and environment and climate change in both technology and policy issues. Similar to the previous ICAE conference special issues (Leung, Yang, and Yan 2009; Yang, Leung, and Yan 2010; Leung, Yang, and Yan 2011; Birgersson et al. 2012; Desideri and Yan 2012) and upon successful conclusion of the ICAE2012, 250 papers were selected based on a preliminary evaluation for consideration of further review, 20 of which have been recommended to the International Journal of Green Energy (IJGE). Following the peer review process of IJGE, 12 papers were accepted for inclusion in this special issue. Among the accepted papers, there are broadly three main topics: (i) Renewable Energy; (ii) Energy efficiency improvement in building, industrial, and other sectors; and (iii) Advanced energy technologies. Renewable energy includes technology development and applications in the area of biofuel, waste to energy and solar energy. Pipatmanomai investigated the bio-oil production from vacuum pyrolysis of potential biomass feedstocks in Thailand, Qin and Wang developed a direct-mode untreated sewage source heat pump system, and Wang and Li assessed the feasibility of an integrated solar combined cycle system. Energy efficiency improvements in building, industrial and other sectors is an important topic of the ICAE2012. On the building sector, Thavlov and Bindner presented a heat dynamic model for predicting the indoor temperature in an office building. In order to identify the energy consumption on individual household appliances used in a smart house, an advanced Nonintrusive Load Monitoring technique that integrates an efficient Genetic Programming (GP)-based feature optimizer has been proposed in Lin and Tsai. Advanced energy technologies covers a wide range of new and emerging technologies, such as fuel cells (Li, Zhao and Wang), new machinery (Zhang et al.; Cui, Zhao and Xu et al.), heat pipe (Ali et al.), thermoacoustic engines (Zhang and Luo), and new energy technologies and solutions (Wong, Wong and Cheung). Concerning the new energy storage technologies, Xiong, He and Zhao focused on the accurate estimation of a battery’s inner state for a battery management system. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the authors for their contributions to the ICAE2012 and also this special issue. We would also like to acknowledge our reviewers who have helped us with their insightful reviews to keep up the quality of the accepted papers. Finally, we would like to acknowledge our scientific committee members and other colleagues who have provided significant support for organizing the ICAE2012, chairing the sessions, and reviewing the papers.