scholarly journals Case study of a water bioengineering construction site in Austria. Ecological aspects and application of an environmental life cycle assessment model

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. von der Thannen ◽  
S. Hoerbinger ◽  
C. Muellebner ◽  
H. Biber ◽  
H. P. Rauch
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Construction Site ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Environmental Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Soil And Water

AbstractRecently, applications of soil and water bioengineering constructions using living plants and supplementary materials have become increasingly popular. Besides technical effects, soil and water bioengineering has the advantage of additionally taking into consideration ecological values and the values of landscape aesthetics. When implementing soil and water bioengineering structures, suitable plants must be selected, and the structures must be given a dimension taking into account potential impact loads. A consideration of energy flows and the potential negative impact of construction in terms of energy and greenhouse gas balance has been neglected until now. The current study closes this gap of knowledge by introducing a method for detecting the possible negative effects of installing soil and water bioengineering measures. For this purpose, an environmental life cycle assessment model has been applied. The impact categories global warming potential and cumulative energy demand are used in this paper to describe the type of impacts which a bioengineering construction site causes. Additionally, the water bioengineering measure is contrasted with a conventional civil engineering structure. The results determine that the bioengineering alternative performs slightly better, in terms of energy demand and global warming potential, than the conventional measure. The most relevant factor is shown to be the impact of the running machines at the water bioengineering construction site. Finally, an integral ecological assessment model for applications of soil and water bioengineering structures should point out the potential negative effects caused during installation and, furthermore, integrate the assessment of potential positive effects due to the development of living plants in the use stage of the structures.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment on Electric Moped Scooter Sharing

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8297
Author(s):  
Nora Schelte ◽  
Semih Severengiz ◽  
Jaron Schünemann ◽  
Sebastian Finke ◽  
Oskar Bauer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Electric Vehicles ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Low Energy ◽  
Efficient Operation ◽  
Public Data ◽  
The Impact

Due to their small size and low energy demand, light electric vehicles (LEVs), such as electric moped scooters, are considered as a space efficient and eco-friendly alternative for mobility in cities. However, the growth of electric moped scooter sharing services raises the question of how environmentally friendly this business model is, considering the entire lifecycle. Due to the dynamic market and insufficient availability of public data on the business processes of sharing services only a few studies on the impact of shared electric mopeds are available. Especially there is a lack of research on the impacts of key operational logistic parameters of the sharing system. This paper aims to fill this gap by conducting a life cycle assessment using the example of an electric moped scooter manufactured and used in sharing services in Germany, based on different operating scenarios. The results show that e-moped sharing has a similar environmental impact on global warming potential, in terms of passenger kilometers, as public transport, especially if long product lifetimes as well as efficient operation logistics are realized.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of Households in Santiago, Chile: Environmental Hotspots and Policy Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2525
Author(s):  
Camila López-Eccher ◽  
Elizabeth Garrido-Ramírez ◽  
Iván Franchi-Arzola ◽  
Edmundo Muñoz
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Food Consumption ◽  
Household Income ◽  
Resource Scarcity ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Freshwater Eutrophication

The aim of this study is to assess the environmental impacts of household life cycles in Santiago, Chile, by household income level. The assessment considered scenarios associated with environmental policies. The life cycle assessment was cradle-to-grave, and the functional unit considered all the materials and energy required to meet an inhabitant’s needs for one year (1 inh/year). Using SimaPro 9.1 software, the Recipe Midpoint (H) methodology was used. The impact categories selected were global warming, fine particulate matter formation, terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, freshwater ecotoxicity, mineral resource scarcity, and fossil resource scarcity. The inventory was carried out through the application of 300 household surveys and secondary information. The main environmental sources of households were determined to be food consumption, transport, and electricity. Food consumption is the main source, responsible for 33% of the environmental impacts on global warming, 69% on terrestrial acidification, and 29% on freshwater eutrophication. The second most crucial environmental hotspot is private transport, whose contribution to environmental impact increases as household income rises, while public transport impact increases in the opposite direction. In this sense, both positive and negative environmental effects can be generated by policies. Therefore, life-cycle environmental impacts, the synergy between policies, and households’ socio-economic characteristics must be considered in public policy planning and consumer decisions.

scholarly journals Environmental Life-Cycle Assessment of Arable Crop Production Technologies Compared to Different Harvesting Work Systems in Short Rotation Energy Plantations

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-68
Author(s):  
András Polgár ◽  
Zoltán Kovács ◽  
Veronika Elekné Fodor ◽  
András Bidló
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Short Rotation ◽  
Environmental Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Arable Crop ◽  
Production Technologies ◽  
Energy Plantations ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Rotation Energy

Abstract Environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) was developed as a tool for sustainable, decision-supporting environmental management. Applying agricultural sector-LCA in order to achieve both internal (comparative) and external (efficiency enhancing) benefits is a priority. Since the life-cycle assessment of products and processes attracts great interest, applying the method in agriculture is relevant. Our study undertakes a comparative environmental life-cycle assessment (LCA) of local arable crop production technologies used for the main cultivated plants: maize, sunflower, lucerne, cereals, and canola (environmental data in the territorial approach calculated on a 1 ha unit and in the quantitative approach calculated on 1 t of produce). We prepared an environmental inventory of the arable crop production technologies, constructed the life-cycle models, and executed the impact assessment. We also compiled an environmental ranking of technologies. In the impact interpretation, we compared the results with the values of short rotation energy plantations in each impact category. We analysed carbon footprints closely. The obtained results help better assess environmental impacts, climate risks, and climate change as they pertain to arable crop production technologies, which advances the selection of appropriate technologies adjusted to environmental sensitivities.

scholarly journals Global Warming Impacts Study of Tofu Products in Mampang Prapatan Small and Medium Enterprises with Life Cycle Assessment Methods

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bayu Sukmana ◽  
Isti Surjandari ◽  
Muryanto . ◽  
Arief A. R. Setiawan ◽  
Edi Iswanto Wiloso
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Liquefied Petroleum Gas ◽  
Fuel Wood ◽  
Medium Enterprises ◽  
The Impact

Firstly global warming issue caused by greenhouse gas emissions (CO2) which comes from human activities. Along with increasing of daily need, that humans of activities food produce is also increase, include of tofu. Tofu is a traditional Indonesian specialty made from soybeans and used as a side dish. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of global warming from tofu products on Mampang Prapatan's Small Tofu and Medium Enterprises. The method used in this study is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method with the help of Simapro 8.4 software with a 1 kg tofu functional unit. The data collected in this study is the average data of tofu production for 3 months, namely January - March 2018. The LCA data in this study include the process of soybean cultivation, transportation processes for shipping soybeans, water, fuel wood, and electricity use. The limitations of this study are from cradle (soybean cultivation) to gate (tofu products).The results showed that UKM Mampang Prapatan has the potential impact of global warming with a value of 3.84 kg CO2-eq, while the value of global warming in the production process knows the scenario of wastewater treatment and the use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as fuel for boiling pulp 4.49 kg CO2-eq soybeans. Based on the results of this study, greenhouse gas (CO2) emissions are issued; the intervention that can be done is to optimize the use of raw materials for production to reduce the impact of CO2-eq kg global warming.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of Maize-Germ Oil Production and The Use of Bioenergy to Mitigate Environmental Impacts: A Gate-To-Gate Case Study

Resources ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattias Gaglio ◽  
Elena Tamburini ◽  
Francesco Lucchesi ◽  
Vassilis Aschonitis ◽  
Anna Atti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Food Industry ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Industrial Processing ◽  
The Impact

The need to reduce the environmental impacts of the food industry is increasing together with the dramatic increment of global food demand. Circulation strategies such as the exploitation of self-produced renewable energy sources can improve ecological performances of industrial processes. However, evidence is needed to demonstrate and characterize such environmental benefits. This study assessed the environmental performances of industrial processing of maize edible oil, whose energy provision is guaranteed by residues biomasses. A gate-to-gate Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach was applied for a large-size factory of Northern Italy to describe: (i) the environmental impacts related to industrial processing and (ii) the contribution of residue-based bioenergy to their mitigation, through the comparison with a reference system based on conventional energy. The results showed that oil refinement is the most impacting phase for almost all the considered impact categories. The use of residue-based bioenergy was found to drastically reduce the emissions for all the impact categories. Moreover, Cumulative Energy Demand analysis revealed that the use of biomass residues increased energy efficiency through a reduction of the total energy demand of the industrial process. The study demonstrates that the exploitation of residue-based bioenergy can be a sustainable solution to improve environmental performances of the food industry, while supporting circular economy.

Life cycle assessment of potential municipal solid waste management strategies for Mumbai, India

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhupendra K Sharma ◽  
Munish K Chandel
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Municipal Solid Waste ◽  
Solid Waste ◽  
Solid Waste Management ◽  
Municipal Solid Waste Management ◽  
Human Toxicity ◽  
The Impact

Dumping of municipal solid waste into uncontrolled dumpsites is the most common method of waste disposal in most cities of India. These dumpsites are posing a serious challenge to environmental quality and sustainable development. Mumbai, which generates over 9000 t of municipal solid waste daily, also disposes of most of its waste in open dumps. It is important to analyse the impact of municipal solid waste disposal today and what would be the impact under integrated waste management schemes. In this study, life cycle assessment methodology was used to determine the impact of municipal solid waste management under different scenarios. Six different scenarios were developed as alternatives to the current practice of open dumping and partially bioreactor landfilling. The scenarios include landfill with biogas collection, incineration and different combinations of recycling, landfill, composting, anaerobic digestion and incineration. Global warming, acidification, eutrophication and human toxicity were assessed as environmental impact categories. The sensitivity analysis shows that if the recycling rate is increased from 10% to 90%, the environmental impacts as compared with present scenario would reduce from 998.43 kg CO2 eq t−1 of municipal solid waste, 0.124 kg SO2 eq t−1, 0.46 kg PO4−3 eq t−1, 0.44 kg 1,4-DB eq t−1 to 892.34 kg CO2 eq t−1, 0.121 kg SO2 eq t−1, 0.36 kg PO4−3 eq t−1, 0.40 kg 1,4-DB eq t−1, respectively. An integrated municipal solid waste management approach with a mix of recycling, composting, anaerobic digestion and landfill had the lowest overall environmental impact. The technologies, such as incineration, would reduce the global warming emission because of the highest avoided emissions, however, human toxicity would increase.

scholarly journals Environmental impact of tofu production in West Jakarta using a life cycle assessment approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 896 (1) ◽  
pp. 012050
Author(s):  
I P Sari ◽  
W Kuniawan ◽  
F L Sia
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Ozone Depletion ◽  
Impact Analysis ◽  
Whole Process ◽  
Assessment Approach ◽  
Cradle To Gate ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Tofu is one of the processed soybean foods that are very popular with Indonesian society. Despite the popularity of Tofu, Tofu production in Indonesia is generally small and medium, reaching 500 kg per day, as in the tofu factory in Semanan, West Jakarta. The purpose of this study is to analyze the environmental impact of tofu production in West Jakarta. The life cycle assessment (LCA) approach was used to achieve this goal with SimaPro software for impact calculations. This research applies the LCA cradle to gate, which consists of soybean cultivation, transportation, and tofu production processes. The environmental impacts of tofu production analyzed in this study include global warming, ozone depletion, acidification, and eutrophication. The impact analysis showed that the acquisition of soybeans, which consisted of soybean cultivation and transportation, had the most significant environmental impact with a global warming potential value of 0.882 kg CO2 eq out of a total of 0.978 CO2 eq for the whole process.

scholarly journals Environmental Impacts Evaluation of Sorbitol Production from Glucose

Eksergi ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rifkah Akmalina
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Global Warming Potential ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Electricity Consumption ◽  
Sustainable Improvement ◽  
Photochemical Oxidants ◽  
Main Consumer

A life cycle assessment (LCA) has been performed on sorbitol production from glucose, which aims to quantify and evaluate the environmental impacts that produced from the process. SuperPro Designer software was employed to perform the process simulation, while SimaPro was used to quantify the LCA.Potency of global warming, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical oxidants creation, abiotic depletion, and ozone layer depletion were evaluated. A gate-to-gate LCA study of sorbitol production showed that global warming potential (GWP) had the largest impact to environment with the value of 3.551 kg CO2 eq/kg sorbitol. Glucose and electricity consumption were known as two major contributors to GWP, and hydrogen reactor was the main consumer of electricity. The use of glucose were responsible for more than 50% of total environmentalimpact in each category. Performing heat integration in sorbitol processing is highly recommended for gate-togate system to reduce energy demand, thus decreasing the environmental impacts. Therefore, this LCA study may be applied to perform a sustainable improvement on sorbitol production process.Keywords: sorbitol; life cycle assessment; global warming potential

scholarly journals Environmental life-cycle assessment of waste-coal pellets production

Clean Energy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 765-778
Author(s):  
Dawid P Hanak
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Gas Emissions ◽  
Environmental Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Power And Energy ◽  
Energy Intensive Industries ◽  
Waste Coal

Abstract Industrial decarbonization is crucial to keeping the global mean temperature <1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Although unabated coal use needs to be phased out, coal is still expected to remain an important source of energy in power and energy-intensive industries until the 2030s. Decades of coal exploration, mining and processing have resulted in ~30 billion tonnes of waste-coal tailings being stored in coal impoundments, posing environmental risks. This study presents an environmental life-cycle assessment of a coal-processing technology to produce coal pellets from the waste coal stored in impoundments. It has been shown that the waste-coal pellets would result in the cradle-to-gate global warming of 1.68–3.50 kgCO2,eq/GJch, depending on the source of electricity used to drive the process. In contrast, the corresponding figure for the supply of conventional coal in the US was estimated to be 12.76 kgCO2,eq/GJch. Such a reduction in the global-warming impact confirms that waste-coal pellets can be a viable source of energy that will reduce the environmental impact of the power and energy-intensive industries in the short term. A considered case study showed that complete substitution of conventional coal with the waste-coal pellets in a steelmaking plant would reduce the greenhouse-gas emissions from 2649.80 to 2439.50 kgCO2,eq/tsteel. This, in turn, would reduce the life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions of wind-turbine manufacturing by ≤8.6%. Overall, this study reveals that the use of waste-coal pellets can bring a meaningful reduction in industrial greenhouse-gas emissions, even before these processes are fully decarbonized.

Life Cycle Assessment of Particulate Recycled Low Density Polyethylene and Recycled Polypropylene Reinforced with Talc and Fiberglass

2011 ◽  
Vol 471-472 ◽  
pp. 999-1004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariam Al-Ma'adeed ◽  
Gozde Ozerkan ◽  
Ramazan Kahraman ◽  
Saravanan Rajendran ◽  
Alma Hodzic
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Composite Materials ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Human Toxicity ◽  
Acidification Potential ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Abiotic Depletion

Although recycled polymers and reinforced polymer composites have been in use for many years there is little information available on their environmental impacts. The goal of the present study is to analyze the environmental impact of new composite materials obtained from the combination of recycled thermoplastics (polypropylene [PP] and polyethylene [PE]) with mineral fillers like talc and with glass fiber. The environmental impact of these composite materials is compared to the impact of virgin PP and PE. The recycled and virgin materials were compared using life cycle assessment method according to their environmental effects. Within the scope of the study, GaBi software was used for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analysis. From cradle-to-grave life cycle inventory studies were performed for 1 kg of each of the thermoplastics. Landfilling was considered as reference scenario and compared with filled recycled plastics. A quantitative impact assessment was performed for four environmental impact categories, global warming (GWP) over a hundred years, human toxicity (HTP), abiotic depletion (ADP) and acidification potential (AP) were taken into consideration during LCA. In the comparison of recycled and virgin polymers, it was seen that recycling has lower environmental effect for different impact assessment methods like acidification potential, abiotic depletion, human toxicity and global warming.

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