Publications: Journals 2015

Abstract
Housing is not only one of the major sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, but it has been increasingly vulnerable to climate-induced disasters, particularly those sheltering the urban poor. Both mitigation and adaptation measures are therefore required for the design and construction of low-income housing to encourage low carbon development and improve resilience to disasters. As self-help housing—the common type of housing for the urban poor in developing countries—is usually built by ordinary people with participatory approach, it is crucial to develop a low-carbon and disaster-resilient assessment tool for assisting them in making informed decisions during planning process. The objective of this article is to propose a new approach for developing a low-carbon and disaster-resilient assessment tool for self-help housing (LoDAT-SH) by combining opinions from experts and community residents to assign weights, identify indicators, and establish benchmarks with the aim to develop a simple, relevant, and practical tool for non-expert users like self-help residents. The application of the proposed methodology to a case study of a developing country, Thailand, shows the ability of LoDAT-SH, which contains 45 indicators in the four categories of low carbon development, disaster resilience, community participation, and financial consideration, in enabling self-help residents to assess the performance of their housing design, identify potential measures to create a low-carbon and disaster-resilient housing, and prioritize such actions. To support the creation of a low-carbon and disaster-resilient housing as the mitigation and adaptation strategy for urban development at the global level, the study suggests that the methodology of LoDAT-SH should be replicated to develop a more comprehensive assessment tool applicable for the use in self-help housing design in other developing countries, which will house about 900 million of the urban poor by 2020.

In order to plan, manage and use municipal solid waste (MSW) in a sustainable way, accurate forecasting of MSW generation and composition plays a key role. It is difficult to carry out the reliable estimates using the existing models due to the limited data available in the developing countries. This study aims to forecast MSW collected in Thailand with prediction interval in long term period by using the optimized multivariate grey model which is the mathematical approach. For multivariate models, the representative factors of residential and commercial sectors affecting waste collected are identified, classified and quantified based on statistics and mathematics of grey system theory. Results show that GMC (1, 5), the grey model with convolution integral, is the most accurate with the least error of 1.16% MAPE. MSW collected would increase 1.40% per year from 43,435–44,994 tonnes per day in 2013 to 55,177–56,735 tonnes per day in 2030. This model also illustrates that population density is the most important factor affecting MSW collected, followed by urbanization, proportion employment and household size, respectively. These mean that the representative factors of commercial sector may affect more MSW collected than that of residential sector. Results can help decision makers to develop the measures and policies of waste management in long term period.

This study presents the life cycle energy consumption, emissions and environmental impacts of flat plate and evacuated tube domestic solar hot water system manufactured and used in Thailand. The results presented in this paper show that the life cycle energy consumption for the flat plate system is 5% lower than that of evacuated tube system. The application of flat plate system is useful over evacuated tube system for 8 out of 12 emissions are examined. The global warming potential is 3% lower for the flat plate system than that of evacuated tube system. The average reduction of energy consumption and environmental impact by reusing materials are 65% and 50%, respectively for the flat plate and evacuated tube system. A comparative study with other systems available in the literatures based on few performance indicators shows that the energetic and environmental performance of domestic solar hot water system in Thailand is quite attractive. This paper is useful to enhance the local production in line with energy and environmental sustainability in home and Asian neighbouring countries.

Tourism generates employment and contributes to socio-economic development in many cities. It also consumes resources, generates wastes and emits greenhouse gases (GHGs). Taking Hue City in Vietnam as a case, this paper suggests that the dominant approach to sustainable urban tourism, in the context of climate change, is the amalgamation of low-carbon development options with social responsibilities. GHG emissions estimation helps in understanding the scope and magnitude of the impacts of tourism and in designing mitigation options to achieve low-carbon development. Social considerations such as income-generating opportunities for the poor and stakeholder involvement in the planning process strengthen the technical feasibility of GHG mitigation options. Based on a GHG inventory, stakeholder consultation and surveys of income-generating opportunities, the study recommends development of garden houses as a locally appropriate strategy to enhance tourism, provide jobs for the poor and achieve low-carbon development in Hue City. Gender analysis is also recommended in identifying and implementing such strategies.

Photovoltaic micro utility (PV MU) systems are feasible both technically and financially in Bangladesh. This paper presents the user opinions towards photovoltaic micro utilities installed in the rural areas of Bangladesh as user acceptance could lead to the further expansion of these systems to meet electricity requirements at the rural areas. Five point Likert scale is employed to determine the user acceptance of the PV MU system. Impacts of PV MU on the social life of the users are also discussed to elucidate the changes in social life of the users after using these systems. Users were mostly pleased about the systems and were happy to obtain 700 lumens from PV lamps in place of 76 lumens of kerosene lamps. They were also satisfied about the reduction of kerosene consumption and reduced environmental impact, tenure of power supply, systems reliability and safety of the systems. The average kerosene saved by 40, 50, 60-65 and 80-85 Wp systems were around 15.20, 20.16, 22.48,32 liter/month respectively. They agreed that their access to the information, amount of sales and working opportunity increased after installing PV MU system. It also provided them very easy communication with their customers and suppliers, and increased their comfort.

This study presents the optimization of the continuous flow potassium hydroxide-catalyzed synthesis of ethyl ester from palm oil with ultrasonic assistance. The process was optimized by application of factorial design and response surface methodology. The independent variables considered were ethanol to oil molar ratio, catalyst concentration, reaction temperature and ultrasonic amplitude; and the response was ethyl ester yield. The results show that ethanol to oil molar ratio, catalyst concentration, and ultrasonic amplitude have positive effect on ethyl ester yield, whereas reaction temperature has negative influence on ethyl ester yield. Second-order models were developed to predict the responses analyzed as a function of these three variables, and the developed models predicts the results in the experimental ranges studied adequately. This study shows that ultrasonic irradiation improved the ethyl ester production process to achieve ethyl ester yields above 92%.