Life cycle assessment of energy consumption and GHG emissions of olefins production from alternative resources in China

2015 ◽  
Vol 90 ◽  
pp. 12-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong Xiang ◽  
Siyu Yang ◽  
Xiuxi Li ◽  
Yu Qian
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Ghg Emissions

scholarly journals Life cycle analysis of raw milk production in Tunisia

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (10) ◽  
pp. 249-258
Author(s):  
Amira Ghazouani ◽  
Naceur Mhamdi ◽  
Ibrahim-El-Akram Znaidi ◽  
Cyrine Darej ◽  
Norchene Guoiaa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Milk Production ◽  
Life Cycle Analysis ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Raw Milk ◽  
Dairy Production ◽  
Ghg Emission

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool to calculate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of dairy production. A survey was conducted in 20 dairy farms at the governorate of Sousse. The present study aimed to evaluate environmental impact of milk production at the farm regarding GHG emission and energy consumption. In the 20 dairy farms total GHG emissions resulted in a mean of 0.63 +/- 0.2 kg CH4/kg ECM and forage can contribute with a means 0.35 Le kg CO2eq/DM. The main reductions in GHG emissions per kg of FPCM started from 2,347 kg per cow per year and then the reduction slowed down to stabilize at around 6,127 kg FPCM per cow per year.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of electricity generation from Jatropha oil in a short chain in Mali

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leticia MENEGHEL FONSECA ◽  
Nawelle CHAOUKI ◽  
Anthony BENOIST ◽  
Guillaume BUSSET ◽  
Roland PIROT ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Electricity Generation ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Jatropha Oil ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Set Up

Jatropha curcas is an inedible oil crop which can grow under semiarid climatic conditions. Its oil can be used straight as fuel to provide energy in remote areas to improve living conditions. The aim of this study is to assess the environmental impacts of the electricity generation from Jatropha oil under West African conditions, by means of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). These potential impacts are calculated for four crop managements and compared to the ones of a reference electricity generation from conventional diesel. Data used in this work are from Jatropha plantations set up in Mali since 2006.LCA results show that the potential benefits of the Jatropha systems are highly dependent on the crop management, especially for the fertilization strategy and the promotion of the oilcake. However, in all cases, the Jatropha systems have lower impacts than the reference diesel system by 75% to 96% for abiotic depletion, and by 80% to 97% for ozone layer depletion, and higher impacts by 260% to 1000% for eutrophication, and by 26% to 160% for acidification. In the best case, the Jatropha system can also have lower impacts than the reference system by 76% for climate change, and by 88% for photochemical oxidation.A methodological originality of this work is the inclusion of animal and human labour into the LCA framework. A first model is proposed for the accounting of energy consumption and GreenHouse Gases (GHG) emissions due to labour. Concerning energy consumption, labour is not negligible with a share from 14% to 50% of the total impact of the Jatropha systems; however the highest share of 50% corresponds to the scenarios with the lowest energy demand. CH4 emissions from livestock are also not negligible but second-order in this study since they account for 2% to 13% of total GHG emissions.

scholarly journals Life-Cycle Assessment of Carbon Footprint of Bike-Share and Bus Systems in Campus Transit

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 158
Author(s):  
Sishen Wang ◽  
Hao Wang ◽  
Pengyu Xie ◽  
Xiaodan Chen
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Co2 Emission ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Transit System ◽  
Two Systems ◽  
Bus System ◽  
Bike Share

Low-carbon transport system is desired for sustainable cities. The study aims to compare carbon footprint of two transportation modes in campus transit, bus and bike-share systems, using life-cycle assessment (LCA). A case study was conducted for the four-campus (College Ave, Cook/Douglass, Busch, Livingston) transit system at Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ). The life-cycle of two systems were disaggregated into four stages, namely, raw material acquisition and manufacture, transportation, operation and maintenance, and end-of-life. Three uncertain factors—fossil fuel type, number of bikes provided, and bus ridership—were set as variables for sensitivity analysis. Normalization method was used in two impact categories to analyze and compare environmental impacts. The results show that the majority of CO2 emission and energy consumption comes from the raw material stage (extraction and upstream production) of the bike-share system and the operation stage of the campus bus system. The CO2 emission and energy consumption of the current campus bus system are 46 and 13 times of that of the proposed bike-share system, respectively. Three uncertain factors can influence the results: (1) biodiesel can significantly reduce CO2 emission and energy consumption of the current campus bus system; (2) the increased number of bikes increases CO2 emission of the bike-share system; (3) the increase of bus ridership may result in similar impact between two systems. Finally, an alternative hybrid transit system is proposed that uses campus buses to connect four campuses and creates a bike-share system to satisfy travel demands within each campus. The hybrid system reaches the most environmentally friendly state when 70% passenger-miles provided by campus bus and 30% by bike-share system. Further research is needed to consider the uncertainty of biking behavior and travel choice in LCA. Applicable recommendations include increasing ridership of campus buses and building a bike-share in campus to support the current campus bus system. Other strategies such as increasing parking fees and improving biking environment can also be implemented to reduce automobile usage and encourage biking behavior.

scholarly journals Impact of Cycle Time and Payload of an Industrial Robot on Resource Efficiency

Robotics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Florian Stuhlenmiller ◽  
Steffi Weyand ◽  
Jens Jungblut ◽  
Liselotte Schebek ◽  
Debora Clever ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Resource Efficiency ◽  
Life Cycle Costs ◽  
Gas Emissions ◽  
Cycle Times ◽  
The Individual

Modern industry benefits from the automation capabilities and flexibility of robots. Consequently, the performance depends on the individual task, robot and trajectory, while application periods of several years lead to a significant impact of the use phase on the resource efficiency. In this work, simulation models predicting a robot’s energy consumption are extended by an estimation of the reliability, enabling the consideration of maintenance to enhance the assessment of the application’s life cycle costs. Furthermore, a life cycle assessment yields the greenhouse gas emissions for the individual application. Potential benefits of the combination of motion simulation and cost analysis are highlighted by the application to an exemplary system. For the selected application, the consumed energy has a distinct impact on greenhouse gas emissions, while acquisition costs govern life cycle costs. Low cycle times result in reduced costs per workpiece, however, for short cycle times and higher payloads, the probability of required spare parts distinctly increases for two critical robotic joints. Hence, the analysis of energy consumption and reliability, in combination with maintenance, life cycle costing and life cycle assessment, can provide additional information to improve the resource efficiency.

A Life Cycle Assessment of Biofuel Produced From Waste Cooking Oil

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sierra Spencer ◽  
Malia Scott ◽  
Nelson Macken
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Waste Cooking Oil ◽  
Oil Refining ◽  
Soy Oil ◽  
Waste Oil ◽  
Cumulative Energy ◽  
Cooking Oil

Biofuels have received considerable attention as a more sustainable solution for heating applications. Used vegetable oil, normally considered a waste product, has been suggested as a possible candidate. Herein we perform a life cycle assessment to determine the environmental impact of using waste vegetable oil as a fuel. We present a cradle to fuel model that includes the following unit processes: soybean farming, soy oil refining, the cooking process, cleaning/drying waste oil, preheating the oil in a centralized heating facility and transportation when required. For soybean farming, national historical data for yields, energy required for machinery, fertilizers (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium), herbicides, pesticides and nitrous oxide production are considered. In soy oil refining, steam production using natural gas and electricity for machinery are considered inputs. Preprocessing, extraction using hexane and post processing are considered. In order to determine a mass balance for the cooking operation, oil carryout and waste oil removal are estimated. During waste oil processing, oil is filtered and water removed. Data from GREET is used to compute global warming potential (GWP) and energy consumption in terms of cumulative energy demand (CED). Mass allocation is applied to the soy meal produced in refining and oil utilized for cooking. Results are discussed with emphasis on improving sustainability. A comparison is made to traditional fuels, e.g., commercial fuel oil and natural gas. The production of WVO as fuel has significantly less global warming potential but higher cumulative energy consumption than traditional fuels. The study should provide useful information on the sustainability of using waste cooking oil as a fuel for heating.

Incorporating Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Freight Transportation Infrastructure Project Evaluation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soumith Kumar Oduru ◽  
Pasi Lautala
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Freight Transportation ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
Planning Stage ◽  
Simplified Lca ◽  
Modal Route

Transportation industry at large is a major consumer of fossil fuels and contributes heavily to the global greenhouse gas emissions. A significant portion of these emissions come from freight transportation and decisions on mode/route may affect the overall scale of emissions from a specific movement. It is common to consider several alternatives for a new freight activity and compare the alternatives from economic perspective. However, there is a growing emphasis for adding emissions to this evaluation process. One of the approaches to do this is through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA); a method for estimating the emissions, energy consumption and environmental impacts of the project throughout its life cycle. Since modal/route selections are often investigated early in the planning stage of the project, availability of data and resources for analysis may become a challenge for completing a detailed LCA on alternatives. This research builds on such detailed LCA comparison performed on a previous case study by Kalluri et al. (2016), but it also investigates whether a simplified LCA process that only includes emissions from operations phase could be used as a less resource intensive option for the analysis while still providing relevant outcomes. The detailed LCA is performed using SimaPro software and simplified LCA is performed using GREET 2016 model. The results are obtained in terms of Kg CO2 equivalents of GHG emissions. This paper introduces both detailed and simplified methodologies and applies them to a case study of a nickel and copper mine in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The analysis’ are done for three modal alternatives (two truck routes and one rail route) and for multiple mine lives.

Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Autoclaved Concrete Blocks and Fired Blocks in China

2018 ◽  
Vol 913 ◽  
pp. 1018-1026
Author(s):  
Yan Qiong Sun ◽  
Yu Liu ◽  
Su Ping Cui
Keyword(s):  
Sensitivity Analysis ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Data Quality ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Functional Unit ◽  
Cement Production ◽  
Terrestrial Ecotoxicity ◽  
Concrete Blocks

In this paper, a variety of blocks were grouped into the autoclaved blocks and fired blocks as far as the productive technology is concerned. In order to compare the life cycle impacts of the two kinds of the blocks, a life cycle assessment of two products on the functional unit 1m3 was carried out through the exploitation of mineral stage, transportation stage and the production of the blocks stage on the considering of the resource and energy consumption and the pollutant discharges. The results demonstrated that the fired blocks appeared to have less impact than autoclaved concrete blocks on human health, marine ecotoxicity toxicity and terrestrial ecotoxicity toxicity nearly 30%. The raw coal led to the serious impacts on the fossil depletion through the cement production stage of the autoclaved concrete blocks accounting for 45.86% and the gangue exploitation stage of the fired blocks accounting for 42.5%. Assessment of the data quality that the data was of pretty high or within the permission. The sensitivity analysis and contribution analysis assessment showed that the conclusion were robust.

scholarly journals A partial life cycle assessment approach to evaluate the energy intensity and related greenhouse gas emission in dairy farms

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (2s) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lelia Murgia ◽  
Giuseppe Todde ◽  
Maria Caria ◽  
Antonio Pazzona
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Milk Production ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emission ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Dairy Farming ◽  
Feeding Management

Dairy farming is constantly evolving towards more intensive levels of mechanization and automation which demand more energy consumption and result in higher economic and environmental costs. The usage of fossil energy in agricultural processes contributes to climate change both with on-farm emissions from the combustion of fuels, and by off-farm emissions due to the use of grid power. As a consequence, a more efficient use of fossil resources together with an increased use of renewable energies can play a key role for the development of more sustainable production systems. The aims of this study were to evaluate the energy requirements (fuels and electricity) in dairy farms, define the distribution of the energy demands among the different farm operations, identify the critical point of the process and estimate the amount of CO2 associated with the energy consumption. The inventory of the energy uses has been outlined by a partial Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach, setting the system boundaries at the farm level, from cradle to farm gate. All the flows of materials and energy associated to milk production process, including crops cultivation for fodder production, were investigated in 20 dairy commercial farms over a period of one year. Self-produced energy from renewable sources was also accounted as it influence the overall balance of emissions. Data analysis was focused on the calculation of energy and environmental sustainability indicators (EUI, CO2-eq) referred to the functional units. The production of 1 kg of Fat and Protein Corrected Milk (FPCM) required on average 0.044 kWhel and 0.251 kWhth, corresponding to a total emission of 0.085 kg CO2-eq). The farm activities that contribute most to the electricity requirements were milk cooling, milking and slurry management, while feeding management and crop cultivation were the greatest diesel fuel consuming operation and the largest in terms of environmental impact of milk production (73% of energy CO2-eq emissions). The results of the study can assist in the development of dairy farming models based on a more efficient and profitable use of the energy resources.

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