New Life Cycle Assessment Process for Strategic Reduction of Environmental Burdens

2012 ◽  
pp. 280-283
Author(s):  
Shigeki Nitta ◽  
Yoshihisa Moriguchi
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Environmental Burdens

scholarly journals Impacts of Nanosilver-Based Textile Products Using a Life Cycle Assessment

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3436
Author(s):  
Hani A. Abu-Qdais ◽  
Muna A. Abu-Dalo ◽  
Yazan Y. Hajeer
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Consumer Products ◽  
Alternative Methods ◽  
Health Impacts ◽  
Synthesis Methods ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Environmental Burdens ◽  
Manufacturing Stage ◽  
Textile Products

Due to their properties, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are widely used in consumer products. The widespread use of these products leads to the release of such nanoparticles into the environment, during manufacturing, use, and disposal stages. Currently there is a high margin of uncertainty about the impacts of nano products on the environment and human health. Therefore, different approaches including life cycle assessment (LCA) are being used to evaluate the environmental and health impacts of these products. In this paper, a comparison between four different AgNP synthesis methods was conducted. In addition, four textile products that contain AgNPs were subjected to comparison using LCA analysis to assess their environmental and public health impacts using SimaPro modeling platform. Study results indicate that using alternative methods (green) to AgNPs synthesis will not necessarily reduce the environmental impacts of the synthesizing process. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that has compared and assessed the environmental burdens associated with different nanosilver-based textile products at different disposal scenarios. The synthesis of 1 kg of AgNPs using modified Tollens’ method resulted in 580 kg CO2 eq, while 531 kg CO2 eq resulted from the chemical approach. Furthermore, the manufacturing stage had the highest overall impacts as compared to other processes during the life cycle of the product, while the product utilization and disposal stages had the highest impacts on ecotoxicity. Sensitivity analysis revealed that under the two disposal scenarios of incineration and landfilling, the impacts were sensitive to the amount of AgNPs.

scholarly journals Ontology based social life cycle assessment for product development

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 168781401881227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhen Shang ◽  
Meidan Wang ◽  
Daizhong Su ◽  
Qinhui Liu ◽  
Shifan Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Product Development ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Design Method ◽  
Data Access ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Social Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Aided Design

Social life cycle assessment is an important method to assess products’ social impacts throughout their life cycles. There are already some indicators and software to assist conducting social life cycle assessment. However, it is hard for users to share or reuse assessment results because of different application data structures. To resolve this problem, a knowledge-based social life cycle assessment–aided design method is developed in this research. With this method, all elements in the social life cycle assessment process are analyzed and represented as classes, their relationships are described as object properties, and the data structure is represented as data properties to construct an ontology system for social life cycle assessment. Based on the ontology, a social life cycle assessment–aided product development web is developed. According to the data property structure, a bidirectional mapping between database and ontology is realized using JENA and ontology-based data access, which enables the result data to be automatically inputted into ontology individuals. Thus, the result data can be accumulated, shared, and reused among users. A case study with a floor product as well as a user test is carried out to prove the feasibility and usability of the web. The ontology-based social life cycle assessment–aided design method provides users with a new high-efficiency approach, setting the foundation for the intellectualization of life cycle assessment.

ASSESSMENT OF ADDITIVE AND CONVENTIONAL MANUFACTURING: CASE STUDIES FROM THE AEC INDUSTRY

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nataša Mrazovic ◽  
Danijel Mocibob ◽  
Michael Lepech ◽  
Martin Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Manufacturing Cost ◽  
Foreseeable Future ◽  
Assessment Approach ◽  
Building Components ◽  
Future Work

Given the development of Additive Manufacturing (AM), popularly known as 3D Printing, the coexistence of AM and conventional manufacturing (CM) in AEC will be a reality for the foreseeable future. Case studies on two AM metallic building components demonstrated that AM for building components is technologically feasible but cost-prohibitive today, and, in some cases, has lower environmental impacts than CM. Firstly, a feasibility study was conducted to assess the applicability, time to manufacture, and manufacturing cost of AM vs. CM of specific metallic building components. Secondly, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was used to assess environmental impacts of AM and CM for those two cases. The case studies were the first well-documented comparative analyses of AM vs. CM for building components, and they contribute to the emerging "AM-in-AEC" knowledge base with their assessment approach, findings and documented baseline efforts for the analyses. The studies also revealed that AEC practitioners lack a systematic way to rapidly and consistently assess the applicability (A), schedule (S), environmental impacts (E), and cost (C) of AM compared with CM to produce building components. Future work includes formalization of such an ASEC multi-criteria framework and impact assessment of the formalized assessment process on the effort and the consistency of the assessment between different assessors.

scholarly journals Emission of toxic components as a factor of the best practice options for waste management: Application of LCA (Life Cycle Assessment)

2011 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hristina Stevanovic-Carapina ◽  
Jasna Stepanov ◽  
Dunja Savic ◽  
Andjelka Mihajlov
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Municipal Solid Waste ◽  
Solid Waste ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Landfill Gas ◽  
Leachate Collection ◽  
Integrated Waste Management ◽  
Environmental Burdens

Health and safety have been the major concerns in waste management. Waste must be managed in a way that minimizes risk to human health. Environmental concerns over the management and disposal of waste can be divided into two major areas: conservation of resources and pollution of the environment. Integrated Waste Management (IWM) systems combine waste streams, waste collection, treatment and disposal methods, with the objective of achieving environmental benefits, economic optimization and societal acceptability. Integrated waste management using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) attempts to offer the most benign options for waste management. LCA is a compilation and evaluation of the inputs, the outputs and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle. It can be successfully applied to municipal solid waste management systems to identify the overall environmental burdens and to assess the potential environmental impacts. This paper deals with the LCA of the two waste management options for final disposal of municipal waste, landfilling (landfill without landfill gas collection or leachate collection) and sanitary landfilling (landfill with landfill gas collection and recovery and leachate collection and treatments) analyzed for town Sombor, Serbia. The research is conducted with the use of the Software Package IWM-2. The indicators which are used in the assessment are air and water emissions of toxic compounds. The results indicated that waste disposal practice has a significant effect on the emission of the toxic components and environmental burdens. Sanitary landfilling of municipal solid waste significantly reduces toxic emission and negative influence on the environment.

Environmental assessment of different dewatering and drying methods on the basis of life cycle assessment

2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 783-788 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Stefaniak ◽  
A. Żelazna ◽  
A. Pawłowski
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Municipal Wastewater ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Drying Methods ◽  
Drying Process ◽  
Energy Consuming ◽  
Environmental Burdens ◽  
Sewage Systems

Sewage sludge is an inevitable product of wastewater treatment in municipal wastewater plants and its amount has increased dramatically due to the growing number of sewage systems users. This sludge needs to be adequately treated in order to decrease its hazardous properties and any negative influence on the environment. In this paper, gate to gate analysis, on the basis of life cycle assessment (LCA), was carried out in order to compare the environmental impact of alternative ways of sludge processing employing a dewatering press and three different kinds of dryers – belt dryer, container dryer and batch dryer. SimaPro 7.2 software and Ecoinvent 2.2 database were used to estimate the carbon footprint and energy balance of these processes. The main energy consumption in the scenarios analyzed is caused by the drying process. The solution based on application of the batch dryer allows a saving of 39.6% of energy compared with the most energy-consuming solution using a belt dryer. Sludge processing using belt and container dryers cause greater environmental burdens.

Life-cycle assessment as an environmental management tool in the production of potable water

2002 ◽  
Vol 46 (9) ◽  
pp. 29-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Friedrich
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Ozone Depletion ◽  
Membrane Filtration ◽  
Potable Water ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Life Cycle Assessments ◽  
Environmental Burdens ◽  
By Products

The environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was used in this study to calculate and compare the environmental burdens resulting from two different methods employed in the production of potable water in South Africa. One method employs conventional processes for the treatment of water and the other one is based on membrane filtration. All inputs (raw materials and energy) and outputs (products, by-products and emissions to air, water and soil) from the two methods were listed and quantified. These inputs and outputs cause different environmental impacts (global warming, ozone depletion, smog formation, acidification, nutrient enrichment, ecotoxicity and human toxicity) and the contribution of each method to each of these impact categories has been quantified, resulting in a score. The ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) methodological framework for life cycle assessments guided this study. By using these methodologies and by tracing all the processes involved in the production of potable water to the interface with the environment, it was found that the main contributor to the overall environmental burden is the generation of electricity. This conclusion is valid for both methods investigated and in order to increase the environmental performance in the production of potable water the energy efficiency of waterworks should be increased.

scholarly journals Environmental impact of bamboo laminated flooring and bamboo scrimber flooring investigated via life cycle assessment

BioResources ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 9132-9145
Author(s):  
Xiang Yu ◽  
Lizhen Zeng ◽  
Guofang Zhang ◽  
Hankun Wang
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Loads ◽  
Input And Output ◽  
Bamboo Scrimber ◽  
Whole Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Burdens ◽  
Strip Production

Bamboo floorings are the most important industrial products in the bamboo sector. With the aim of providing a useful guide for the development of bamboo floorings, this study quantitatively assessed the environmental impacts of the two primary types of bamboo floorings, laminated flooring and scrimber flooring, using life cycle assessment (LCA) software SimaPro. The purpose of this study was to find out which type of bamboo flooring is more environmentally friendly through quantitatively analyzing the input and output of materials and energy during the whole life cycle of the two types of flooring products. The present study demonstrated that the majority of the environmental burdens were associated with the process of bamboo strip production for bamboo laminated flooring (59.3%), and the process of panel processing for bamboo scrimber floorings (56.9%). In terms of environmental loads, bamboo laminated flooring was considered more sustainable than bamboo scrimber flooring, as the total environmental loads of bamboo scrimber flooring was approximately 1.6 times that of bamboo laminated flooring.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document