From laboratory to industrial scale: a scale-up framework for chemical processes in life cycle assessment studies

This study evaluates the performance of different agricultural by-products to identify the potential effect of independent variables, using as the dependent variable the biogas production. A Box–Behnken experimental design was carried out in a pilot-scale plant of four stirred stainless-steel digesters under mesophilic semi-continuous digestion. The results obtained support the creation of a technical framework to scale up the process and further evaluation of the potential environmental impacts through life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. A stable behaviour was achieved in 12 of the 13 experiments proposed. The highest value of daily biogas production was 2200.15 mL day−1 with a stabilization time of 14 days, an organic loading rate of 4 g VS feed daily, low C/N ratio and a 1:1 relation of nitrogen providers. The concentrations of CH4 remained stable after the production stabilization and an average biogas composition of 60.6% CH4, 40.1% CO2 and 0.3% O2 was obtained for the conditions mentioned above. Therefore, the real scale plant was estimated to manage 2.67 tonnes of residual biomass per day, generating 369.69 kWh day−1 of electricity. The LCA analysis confirms that the co-digestion process evaluated is a feasible and environmentally sustainable option for the diversification of the Colombian energy matrix and the development of the agro-industrial sector.

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5 Life-cycle assessment and technology scale-up

10.1515/9783110713985-005 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 125-146

Author(s):

Guillaume Majeau-Bettez

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Scale Up

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Technological Demonstration and Life Cycle Assessment of a Negative Emission Value Chain in the Swiss Concrete Sector

Frontiers in Climate ◽

10.3389/fclim.2021.729259 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

Author(s):

Johannes Tiefenthaler ◽

Lisa Braune ◽

Christian Bauer ◽

Romain Sacchi ◽

Marco Mazzotti

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Value Chain ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Waste Incineration ◽

Industrial Scale ◽

Concrete Aggregate ◽

Full Potential ◽

Industrial Sectors ◽

Negative Emission

Switzerland, such as most of the other countries which are part of the Paris agreement, decided to reduce GHG emissions to zero by 2050. The ambition of net-zero GHG emission across all industrial sectors can only be achieved by rapid decarbonization and the deployment of negative emission technologies to compensate residual emissions from for example agriculture. In the scope of this work, the proof of technology of a negative emission value chain at industrial scale in the concrete sector is presented. The core of the system is a mineralization technology, which fixes biogenic CO2 permanently as calcium carbonate in concrete aggregate. In addition, the net-negativity in terms of GHG emissions and environmental burdens beyond these are quantified in a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). It could be shown that an industrial-scale mineral carbonation process can be seamlessly integrated in today's concrete recycling processes and that it can process relevant amounts of concrete aggregate while storing on average 7.2 kg CO2 per ton of concrete aggregate. Moreover, material tests revealed that the carbonated concrete aggregate fulfills the same service as the regular one—thus no significant effects on the concrete properties could be observed. The LCA shows that every processing step requires materials and energy, and thus generates associated emissions. However, from a cradle to gate perspective, the carbon removal efficiency is 93.6%. Thus, 1,000 kg of CO2 stored generate 64 kg of CO2-eq. emissions. Furthermore, it could be shown that biogas upgrading can supply sufficient amounts of CO2 until 2030 in Switzerland. From 2030 on, more and more CO2 from other emission sources, such as waste incineration, need to be utilized to exploit the full potential of the value chain, which is going to be 560 kt of negative CO2 emissions in Switzerland in 2050, corresponding to 30% of the projected demand within the national borders.

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3. Benchmarking nanocellulose production: scale-up strategies and life-cycle assessment

Cellulose Nanocrystals ◽

10.1515/9783110648010-003 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 49-80

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Scale Up ◽

Production Scale

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Coupling life cycle assessment with process simulation for ecodesign of chemical processes

Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy ◽

10.1002/ep.12723 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 37 (2) ◽

pp. 777-796 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Luis Fernando Morales-Mendoza ◽

Catherine Azzaro-Pantel ◽

Jean-Pierre Belaud ◽

Adama Ouattara

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Process Simulation ◽

Chemical Processes

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Review of Life Cycle Assessment in Agro-Chemical Processes

Chemical Product and Process Modeling ◽

10.2202/1934-2659.1496 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Sayed Tamizuddin Gillani ◽

Jean-Pierre Belaud ◽

Caroline Sablayrolles ◽

Mireille Vignoles ◽

Jean-Marc Le Lann

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Chemical Engineering ◽

Food Products ◽

Chemical Processes ◽

Design Tool ◽

Life Cycle Assessment Methodology ◽

Environmentally Conscious ◽

Analysis And Design ◽

Sustainable Products

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a method used to evaluate the potential impacts on the environment of a product, process, or activity throughout its life cycle. Todays LCA users are a mixture of individuals with skills in different disciplines who want to evaluate their products, processes, or activities in a life cycle context. This study attempts to present some of the LCA studies on agro-chemical processes, recent advances in LCA and their application on food products and non-food products. Due to the recent development of LCA methodologies and dissemination programs by international and local bodies, use of LCA is rapidly increasing in agricultural and industrial products. The literatures suggest that LCA coupled with other environmental approaches provides much more reliable and comprehensive information to environmentally conscious policy makers, producers, and consumers in selecting sustainable products and production processes. For this purpose, a field study of LCA of biodiesel from Jatropha curcas has been taken as an example in the study. In the past, LCA has been applied primarily to products but recent literature suggests that it has also the potential as an analysis and design tool for processes and services. In general, all primary industries use energy and water resources and emit pollutants gases. LCA is a method to report on and analyze these resource issues across the life cycle of agro-chemical processes. This review has the importance as a first part of a research project to develop a life cycle assessment methodology for agro-chemical industries. It presents the findings of a literature review that focuses on LCA of agriculture and chemical engineering literature.

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How to Conduct Prospective Life Cycle Assessment for Emerging Technologies? A Systematic Review and Methodological Guidance

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12031192 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 1192 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Nils Thonemann ◽

Anna Schulte ◽

Daniel Maga

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Case Studies ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Emerging Technologies ◽

Early Stage ◽

Scale Up ◽

Data Availability ◽

Novel Technologies ◽

Stage Of Development

Emerging technologies are expected to contribute to environmental sustainable development. However, throughout the development of novel technologies, it is unknown whether emerging technologies can lead to reduced environmental impacts compared to a potentially displaced mature technology. Additionally, process steps suspected to be environmental hotspots can be improved by process engineers early in the development of the emerging technology. In order to determine the environmental impacts of emerging technologies at an early stage of development, prospective life cycle assessment (LCA) should be performed. However, consistency in prospective LCA methodology is lacking. Therefore, this article develops a framework for a prospective LCA in order to overcome the methodological inconsistencies regarding prospective LCAs. The methodological framework was developed using literature on prospective LCAs of emerging technologies, and therefore, a literature review on prospective LCAs was conducted. We found 44 case studies, four review papers, and 17 papers on methodological guidance. Three main challenges for conducting prospective LCAs are identified: Comparability, data, and uncertainty challenges. The issues in defining the aim, functionality, and system boundaries of the prospective LCAs, as well as problems with specifying LCIA methodologies, comprise the comparability challenge. Data availability, quality, and scaling are issues within the data challenge. Finally, uncertainty exists as an overarching challenge when applying a prospective LCA. These three challenges are especially crucial for the prospective assessment of emerging technologies. However, this review also shows that within the methodological papers and case studies, several approaches exist to tackle these challenges. These approaches were systematically summarized within a framework to give guidance on how to overcome the issues when conducting prospective LCAs of emerging technologies. Accordingly, this framework is useful for LCA practitioners who are analyzing early-stage technologies. Nevertheless, further research is needed to develop appropriate scale-up schemes and to include uncertainty analyses for a more in-depth interpretation of results.

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