scholarly journals Life cycle assessment of opencast lignite mining

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukasz Lelek ◽  
Joanna Kulczycka
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Production Efficiency ◽  
Underground Mining ◽  
Hot Spot ◽  
Calorific Value ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Cycle Phase ◽  
Mining Operations ◽  
Lignite Mining

AbstractThe life cycle phase of fossil fuel extraction is mainly considered in the life cycle assessment (LCA) when evaluating the energy production processes. It is then only one of many unit processes, which contribute to the blurring of mining-relevant results. There are few items in the literature focusing exclusively on the lignite mining phase and analysing the specific mining conditions and associated environmental impacts. The article focuses on the LCA of lignite mining processes on the basis of data coming from a Polish mine. The technology for opencast lignite mining is noted for its high production efficiency, high level of recovery and lower risk as regards the safety of workers when compared with underground mining systems. However, the need to remove large amounts of overburden to uncover the deposit contributes to a much greater degradation of the landscape. Analysing the results obtained, several key (hot spot) elements of the lignite mining operations were distinguished for modelling the environmental impact, i.e.: calorific value, the amount of electricity consumption, the manner in which waste and overburden are managed. As a result there is a high sensitivity of the final indicator to changes in these impacts.

Life Cycle Assessment of opencast lignite mining

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukasz Lelek ◽  
Joanna Kulczycka
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Production Efficiency ◽  
Underground Mining ◽  
Hot Spot ◽  
Electricity Consumption ◽  
Calorific Value ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Cycle Phase ◽  
Mining Operations ◽  
Lignite Mining

Abstract The life cycle phase of fossil fuel extraction is mainly considered in the LCA when evaluating the energy production processes. It is then only one of many unit processes, which contribute to the blurring of mining-relevant results. There are few items in the literature focusing exclusively on the lignite mining phase and analysing the specific mining conditions and associated environmental impacts. The article focuses on the LCA of lignite mining pro-cesses on the basis of data coming from a Polish mine. The technology for opencast lignite mining is noted for its high production efficiency, high level of recovery and lower risk as regards the safety of workers when compared with underground mining systems. However, the need to remove large amounts of overburden to uncover the deposit contributes to a much greater degradation of the landscape. Analysing the results obtained, several key (hot spot) elements of the lignite mining operations were distinguished for modelling the environmental impact, i.e.: calorific value, the amount of electricity consumption, the manner in which waste and overburden are managed. As a result there is a high sensitivity of the final indicator to changes in these impacts.

scholarly journals Applying Harmonised Geothermal Life Cycle Assessment Guidelines to the Rittershoffen Geothermal Heat Plant

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 3820
Author(s):  
Mélanie Douziech ◽  
Lorenzo Tosti ◽  
Nicola Ferrara ◽  
Maria Laura Parisi ◽  
Paula Pérez-López ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Heat Production ◽  
Hot Spot ◽  
Resource Depletion ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Geothermal Systems ◽  
Geothermal Heat ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Impact

Heat production from a geothermal energy source is gaining increasing attention due to its potential contribution to the decarbonization of the European energy sector. Obtaining representative results of the environmental performances of geothermal systems and comparing them with other renewables is of utmost importance in order to ensure an effective energy transition as targeted by Europe. This work presents the outputs of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) performed on the Rittershoffen geothermal heat plant applying guidelines that were developed within the H2020 GEOENVI project. The production of 1 kWhth from the Rittershoffen heat plant was compared to the heat produced from natural gas in Europe. Geothermal heat production performed better than the average heat production in climate change and resource use, fossil categories. The LCA identified the electricity consumption during the operation and maintenance phase as a hot spot for several impact categories. A prospective scenario analysis was therefore performed to assess the evolution of the environmental performances of the Rittershoffen heat plant associated with the future French electricity mixes. The increase of renewable energy shares in the future French electricity mix caused the impact on specific categories (e.g., land use and mineral and metals resource depletion) to grow over the years. However, an overall reduction of the environmental impacts of the Rittershoffen heat plant was observed.

Cumulative Exergy and Life Cycle Assessment of Ethanol Fuel Production From Corn via Dry Milling

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noorie Rajvanshi ◽  
Herbert A. Ingley
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Ethanol Production ◽  
Production Efficiency ◽  
Industrial Process ◽  
Secondary Process ◽  
Corn Ethanol ◽  
Dry Milling ◽  
Fuel Production ◽  
Acidification Potential

This study represents a cumulative exergy and life cycle assessment of corn ethanol production via dry milling. The process under consideration includes the agricultural process for production of corn, transportation of corn and industrial process of ethanol production. The secondary process of production of pesticides and fertilizers is also taken into consideration. It is seen that the exergy content of ethanol produced from this process is 23.3 MJ per liter of ethanol produced. The non-renewable input was 7.5 MJ per liter. The overall production efficiency of the industrial process was found to be 49%. The life cycle assessment results showed that both the global warming potential and acidification potential are positive which means that the production of corn ethanol via dry milling contributes to the increase of greenhouse gases and acidification.

Life Cycle Inventory of Gangue as Alternative Raw Materials

2015 ◽  
Vol 814 ◽  
pp. 533-538
Author(s):  
Zhen Guo Peng ◽  
Xian Zheng Gong ◽  
Yu Liu ◽  
Chen Li ◽  
Xiao Liu
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Coal Mining ◽  
Life Cycle Inventory ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Calorific Value ◽  
Solid Wastes ◽  
Utilization Rate ◽  
Comprehensive Utilization

With the development of science and technology and industry level, solid wastes are fully utilized. Among which gangue is the solid waste generated in the process of coal mining, its comprehensive utilization rate is more than 60%. Environmental pollution in the process of coal mining is one of the typical environmental problems confronted in China. In this paper, the life cycle inventory (LCI) of gangue was acquired by the method of life cycle assessment and further environmental impact assessment was achieved as well. The results showed that environmental impacts based on allocation of calorific value were greater than that of economic value, and it’s about 3.68 times the impacts assigned by economic value. Therefore allocation of economic value was better.

scholarly journals Analysing Temporal Variability in Inventory Data for Life Cycle Assessment: Implications in the Context of Circular Economy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sayyed Shoaib-ul-Hasan ◽  
Malvina Roci ◽  
Farazee Mohammad Abdullah Asif ◽  
Niloufar Salehi ◽  
Amir Rashid
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Temporal Variability ◽  
Emission Intensity ◽  
Supply Chain Design ◽  
Cycle Phase ◽  
Inventory Data ◽  
Inventory Analysis

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used frequently as a decision support tool for evaluating different design choices of products based on their environmental impacts. A life cycle usually comprises several phases of varying timespan. The amount of emissions generated from different life cycle phases of a product could be significantly different from one another. In conventional LCA, the emissions generated from the life cycle phases of a product are aggregated at the inventory analysis stage, which is then used as an input for life cycle impact assessment. However, when the emissions are aggregated, the temporal variability of inventory data is ignored, which may result in inaccurate environmental impact assessment. Besides, the conventional LCA does not consider the environmental impact of circular products with multiple use cycles. It poses difficulties in identifying the hotspots of emission-intensive activities with the potential to mislead conclusions and implications for both practice and policy. To address this issue and to analyse the embedded temporal variations in inventory data in a CE context, the paper proposes to calculate the emission intensity for each life cycle phase. It is argued that calculating and comparing emission intensity, based on the timespan and amount of emissions for individual life cycle phases, at the inventory analysis stage of LCA offers a complementary approach to the traditional aggregate emission-based LCA approach. In a circular scenario, it helps to identify significant issues during different life cycle phases and the relevant environmental performance improvement opportunities through product, business model and supply chain design.

scholarly journals Analyzing Temporal Variability in Inventory Data for Life Cycle Assessment: Implications in the Context of Circular Economy

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 344
Author(s):  
Sayyed Shoaib-ul-Hasan ◽  
Malvina Roci ◽  
Farazee M. A. Asif ◽  
Niloufar Salehi ◽  
Amir Rashid
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Temporal Variability ◽  
Emission Intensity ◽  
Supply Chain Design ◽  
Cycle Phase ◽  
Inventory Data ◽  
Inventory Analysis

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used frequently as a decision support tool for evaluating different design choices for products based on their environmental impacts. A life cycle usually comprises several phases of varying timespans. The amount of emissions generated from different life cycle phases of a product could be significantly different from one another. In conventional LCA, the emissions generated from the life cycle phases of a product are aggregated at the inventory analysis stage, which is then used as an input for life cycle impact assessment. However, when the emissions are aggregated, the temporal variability of inventory data is ignored, which may result in inaccurate environmental impact assessment. Besides, the conventional LCA does not consider the environmental impact of circular products with multiple use cycles. It poses difficulties in identifying the hotspots of emission-intensive activities with the potential to mislead conclusions and implications for both practice and policy. To address this issue and to analyze the embedded temporal variations in inventory data in a CE context, the paper proposes calculating the emission intensity for each life cycle phase. It is argued that calculating and comparing emission intensity, based on the timespan and amount of emissions for individual life cycle phases, at the inventory analysis stage of LCA offers a complementary approach to the traditional aggregate emission-based LCA approach. In a circular scenario, it helps to identify significant issues during different life cycle phases and the relevant environmental performance improvement opportunities through product, business model, and supply chain design.

scholarly journals Energy and Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Sustainable Pavement Materials and Technologies for Urban Roads

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 704 ◽  
Author(s):  
Filippo G. Praticò ◽  
Marinella Giunta ◽  
Marina Mistretta ◽  
Teresa Maria Gulotta
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Crumb Rubber ◽  
Primary Energy ◽  
Cycle Phase ◽  
Reference Case ◽  
Recycled Materials ◽  
Bituminous Mixtures

Recycled and low-temperature materials are promising solutions to reduce the environmental burden deriving from hot mix asphalts. Despite this, there is lack of studies focusing on the assessment of the life-cycle impacts of these promising technologies. Consequently, this study deals with the life cycle assessment (LCA) of different classes of pavement technologies, based on the use of bituminous mixes (hot mix asphalt and warm mix asphalt) with recycled materials (reclaimed asphalt pavements, crumb rubber, and waste plastics), in the pursuit of assessing energy and environmental impacts. Analysis is developed based on the ISO 14040 series. Different scenarios of pavement production, construction, and maintenance are assessed and compared to a reference case involving the use of common paving materials. For all the considered scenarios, the influence of each life-cycle phase on the overall impacts is assessed to the purpose of identifying the phases and processes which produce the greatest impacts. Results show that material production involves the highest contribution (about 60–70%) in all the examined impact categories. Further, the combined use of warm mix asphalts and recycled materials in bituminous mixtures entails lower energy consumption and environmental impacts due to a reduction of virgin bitumen and aggregate consumption, which involves a decrease in the consumption of primary energy and raw materials, and reduced impacts for disposal. LCA results demonstrate that this methodology is able to help set up strategies for eco-design in the pavement sector.

scholarly journals Screening Life Cycle Assessment of Tall Oil-Based Polyols Suitable for Rigid Polyurethane Foams

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 5249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anda Fridrihsone ◽  
Arnis Abolins ◽  
Mikelis Kirpluks
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Hot Spots ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Hot Spot ◽  
Pilot Scale ◽  
Polyurethane Foams ◽  
Polyol Synthesis ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Tall Oil

A screening Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of tall oil-based bio-polyols suitable for rigid polyurethane (PU) foams has been carried out. The goal was to identify the hot-spots and data gaps. The system under investigation is three different tall oil fatty acids (TOFA)-based bio-polyol synthesis with a cradle-to-gate approach, from the production of raw materials to the synthesis of TOFA based bio-polyols at a pilot-scale reactor. The synthesis steps that give the most significant environmental footprint hot-spots were identified. The results showed the bio-based feedstock was the main environmental hot-spot in the bio-polyol production process. Future research directions have been highlighted.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment: A Tool for Determining the Environmental Impact of Horticultural Crop Production

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dewayne L. Ingram ◽  
R. Thomas Fernandez
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Production Efficiency ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
System Level ◽  
Horticultural Crop ◽  
Efficiency Cost

System-level research has resulted in significant advancements in horticultural crop production. Contributions of individual components to production efficiency, cost, and environmental impact have been a focus of such research. Public awareness of the environmental impact of products and services is increasing. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool to study horticultural crop production systems and horticultural services and their individual components on environmental impacts such as the carbon footprint, stated as global warming potential. This manuscript introduces LCA and describes how this tool can be used to generate information important to the industry and consuming public.

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