Advanced composting technologies promotes environmental benefits and eco-efficiency: a life cycle assessment

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.

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Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Valuation of Biochar Production: Two Case Studies in Belgium

Energies ◽

10.3390/en12112166 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 12 (11) ◽

pp. 2166 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Sara Rajabi Hamedani ◽

Tom Kuppens ◽

Robert Malina ◽

Enrico Bocci ◽

Andrea Colantoni ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Production Systems ◽

Point Of View ◽

Environmental Benefits ◽

Pig Manure ◽

Future Research ◽

Life Cycle Perspective ◽

The Impact

It is unclear whether the production of biochar is economically feasible. As a consequence, firms do not often invest in biochar production plants. However, biochar production and application might be desirable from a societal perspective as it might entail net environmental benefits. Hence, the aim of this work has been to assess and monetize the environmental impacts of biochar production systems so that the environmental aspects can be integrated with the economic and social ones later on to quantify the total return for society. Therefore, a life cycle analysis (LCA) has been performed for two potential biochar production systems in Belgium based on two different feedstocks: (i) willow and (ii) pig manure. First, the environmental impacts of the two biochar production systems are assessed from a life cycle perspective, assuming one ton of biochar as the functional unit. Therefore, LCA using SimaPro software has been performed both on the midpoint and endpoint level. Biochar production from willow achieves better results compared to biochar from pig manure for all environmental impact categories considered. In a second step, monetary valuation has been applied to the LCA results in order to weigh environmental benefits against environmental costs using the Ecotax, Ecovalue, and Stepwise approach. Consequently, sensitivity analysis investigates the impact of variation in NPK savings and byproducts of the biochar production process on monetized life cycle assessment results. As a result, it is suggested that biochar production from willow is preferred to biochar production from pig manure from an environmental point of view. In future research, those monetized environmental impacts will be integrated within existing techno-economic models that calculate the financial viability from an investor’s point of view, so that the total return for society can be quantified and the preferred biochar production system from a societal point of view can be identified.

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Prospective Life Cycle Assessment of a Structural Battery

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11205679 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (20) ◽

pp. 5679 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Zackrisson ◽

Jönsson ◽

Johannisson ◽

Fransson ◽

Posner ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Electric Vehicle ◽

Mechanical Load ◽

Climate Impacts ◽

The Body ◽

Environmental Benefits ◽

Environmental Implications ◽

Main Challenge ◽

Structural Battery

With increasing interest in reducing fossil fuel emissions, more and more development is focused on electric mobility. For electric vehicles, the main challenge is the mass of the batteries, which significantly increase the mass of the vehicles and limits their range. One possible concept to solve this is incorporating structural batteries; a structural material that both stores electrical energy and carries mechanical load. The concept envisions constructing the body of an electric vehicle with this material and thus reducing the need for further energy storage. This research is investigating a future structural battery that is incorporated in the roof of an electric vehicle. The structural battery is replacing the original steel roof of the vehicle, and part of the original traction battery. The environmental implications of this structural battery roof are investigated with a life cycle assessment, which shows that a structural battery roof can avoid climate impacts in substantive quantities. The main emissions for the structural battery stem from its production and efforts should be focused there to further improve the environmental benefits of the structural battery. Toxicity is investigated with a novel chemical risk assessment from a life cycle perspective, which shows that two chemicals should be targeted for substitution.

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Reuse of carbon black from end-of-life tires in new pneumatic formulations and life-cycle assessment of the thermolysis process

Journal of Elastomers & Plastics ◽

10.1177/0095244318819242 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 51 (7-8) ◽

pp. 740-754

Author(s):

AD La Rosa ◽

E Pergolizzi ◽

D Maragna ◽

G Recca ◽

G Cicala

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Carbon Black ◽

End Of Life ◽

Market Price ◽

Environmental Benefits ◽

The Other ◽

Assessment Methodology ◽

Life Cycle Assessment Methodology ◽

Main Attraction

Carbon black derived from end-of-life tires (ELTs) through thermolysis process was studied. The main attraction of this material is the low market price (€450 ton−1) compared with virgin carbon black (about €700 ton−1). Investigation was focused on the vulcanization reaction of rubber with the addition of both types of carbon black, that is, carbon black recycled (CBr) from the thermolysis of ELTs and carbon black virgin (CBv) from traditional oil process. The aim of the research was to verify that CBr has similar reactivity than CBv when blended with rubber and vulcanized. Furthermore, environmental benefits of recovering CBr and the other coproducts were evaluated by means of the life-cycle assessment methodology.

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Life Cycle Assessment of Silicate Cementitious Material Production Using Calcium Carbide Sludge

Key Engineering Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/kem.599.324 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 599 ◽

pp. 324-327 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jia Ping Cui ◽

Yu Liu ◽

Zhi Hong Wang ◽

Li Li Zhao ◽

Fei Fei Shi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Energy Consumption ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Waste Heat ◽

Calcium Carbide ◽

Cementitious Material ◽

Environmental Benefits ◽

Drying Process ◽

Cement Production

The environmental impacts of cement production using two pre-drying processes, i.e., coal-fired pre-drying process and pre-drying process by waste heat from kiln tail process were analyzed and compared through life cycle assessment (LCA). The results show that the energy consumption, GWP, AP, POCP, HT and EP of pre-drying process by waste heat from kiln tail are about 1%, 2%, 5.2%, 5% ,3.5% and 3.8% lower than coal-fired process; therefore the application of pre-drying process by waste heat from kiln tail has obvious environmental benefits.

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Life-cycle assessment of decentralized solutions for wastewater treatment in small communities

Water Science & Technology ◽

10.2166/wst.2021.379 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

N. Lourenço ◽

L. M. Nunes

Keyword(s):

Wastewater Treatment ◽

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Activated Sludge ◽

Constructed Wetlands ◽

Economies Of Scale ◽

Environmental Benefits ◽

Impact Categories ◽

Standard Life ◽

The Impact

Abstract This study benchmarks vermifiltration (VF) as secondary wastewater treatment in three nature-based decentralized treatment plants using life-cycle assessment. The comparison is justified by the comparatively easier and cheaper operation of VF when compared to more traditional technologies, including small rate infiltration (SRI), constructed wetlands (CW), and activated sludge (AS). Standard life cycle assessment was used and applied to three case studies located in southern Europe. Material intensity during construction was highest for VF, but impacts during operation were lower, compensating those of the other phases. Impacts during the construction phase far outweigh those of operation and dismantling for facilities using constructed wetlands and activated sludge, when the number of served inhabitants is small, and due to lack of economies of scale. VF used as secondary treatment was shown to contribute to reducing the environmental impacts, mainly in constructed wetlands and activated sludge. The replacement of CW by VF seems to bring important environmental benefits in most impact categories, in particular in the construction phase. The replacement by VF in facilities with SRI seems to result in the improvement of some of the impact categories, in particular in the operation phase. As for dismantling, no conclusive results were obtained.

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A case based, combined LCA and S-ROI methodology for sustainable mining in the Suceava County, Romania

Present Environment and Sustainable Development ◽

10.15551/pesd2021152017 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 209-2020

Author(s):

Ruxandra Ionce ◽

Iuliana Gabriela Breaban

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Value Chain ◽

Return On Investment ◽

Environmental Benefits ◽

Great Opportunity ◽

Mining Sites ◽

North East ◽

The North ◽

Impact Reduction

LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) is a useful tool in decision-making for most businesses that opt for sustainability and offers the possibility to compare different products, processes, and value chain scenarios, both real and hypothetical. Coupled with S-ROI (Sustainable Return on Investment), the LCA has a great potential in using available data for existing mining sites in the North-East Region of Romania to assess the economic, social and environmental benefits of certain sustainability measures on a local and regional level. The article will explore this approach of combining the two methodologies: LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) and S-ROI (Sustainable Return on Investment), with necessary adjustments according to the characteristics of the local mining activities, to show key investment areas that can improve the value chain of copper exploitation and preparation in the mining perimeter Mănăila. The case of the copper mine in Mănăila offers a great opportunity to apply the current LICYMIN (Life Cycle of Mining) research and to use available Ecoinvent data for the copper ore by comparing the current value chain scenario with a proposed scenario that includes a different location for a mining ore preparation unit, closer to the quarry. The results will give an insight into the potential social and economic impact (the measure can translate into a higher local employment rate, better social stability, lower transportation costs, etc.) as well as the environmental impact (reduction of GHG emission, pollution, and energy efficiency) of the suggested changes.

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Life Cycle Assessment of Modern Wind Power Plants

Volume 6: 15th Design for Manufacturing and the Lifecycle Conference; 7th Symposium on International Design and Design Education ◽

10.1115/detc2010-28749 ◽

2010 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Hannes M. Hapke ◽

Karl R. Haapala ◽

Zhaohui Wu ◽

Ted K. A. Brekken

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Wind Power ◽

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Power Plants ◽

Wind Farm ◽

Fossil Fuels ◽

Environmental Benefits ◽

Electricity Production ◽

Wind Power Plants

Power generation for the existing electrical grid is largely based on the combustion of fossil fuels. Global concerns have been raised regarding the environmental sustainability of the system due to life cycle impacts, including land losses from fuel extraction and impacts of combustion emissions. An approach to reduce carbon emissions of fossil fuel-based energy employs the conversion of wind energy to electrical energy. The work presented describes modern wind power plants and provides an environmental assessment of a representative wind park from a life cycle perspective. The empirical analysis uses commercially available data, as well as information from an existing wind power plant. The life cycle assessment (LCA) study for a modern wind farm in the northwestern U.S. found that environmental benefits of avoiding typical electricity production greatly outweigh the impacts due to wind turbine construction and maintenance. Effects of component reliability, varying capacity factors, and energy portfolio are explored.

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