Determining the net environmental performance of hydropower: A new methodological approach by combining life cycle and ecosystem services assessment

To get more insight in the environmental performance of the Suiker Unie beet sugar, Blonk Consultants performed a comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study on beet sugar, cane sugar and glucose syrup. The system boundaries of the sugar life cycle are set from cradle to regional storage at the Dutch market. For this study 8 different scenarios were evaluated. The first scenario is the actual sugar production at Suiker Unie. Scenario 2 until 7 are different cane sugar scenarios (different countries of origin, surplus electricity production and pre-harvest burning of leaves are considered). Scenario 8 concerns the glucose syrup scenario. An important factor in the environmental impact of 1kg of sugar is the sugar yield per ha. Total sugar yield per ha differs from 9t/ha sugar for sugarcane to 15t/ha sugar for sugar beet (in 2017). Main conclusion is that the production of beet sugar at Suiker Unie has in general a lower impact on climate change, fine particulate matter, land use and water consumption, compared to cane sugar production (in Brazil and India) and glucose syrup. The impact of cane sugar production on climate change and water consumption is highly dependent on the country of origin, especially when land use change is taken into account. The environmental impact of sugar production is highly dependent on the co-production of bioenergy, both for beet and cane sugar.

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ECO-DESIGN ACTIONS TO IMPROVE LIFE CYCLE ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE OF FACE MASKS IN THE PANDEMIC ERA

Proceedings of the Design Society ◽

10.1017/pds.2021.133 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1 ◽

pp. 1333-1342

Author(s):

Núria Boix Rodríguez ◽

Marco Marconi ◽

Claudio Favi ◽

Giovanni Formentini

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Performance ◽

Climate Changes ◽

Environmental Problem ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Environmental Issues ◽

Design Guidelines ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

Single Use ◽

Near Future

AbstractFace masks are currently considered essential devices that people must wear today and in the near future, until the COVID-19 pandemic will be completely defeated through specific medicines and vaccines. Such devices are generally made of thermoplastic polymers, as polypropylene and polyethylene and are single use products. Even if in this period the sanitary emergency must have the maximum priority, the world society should not completely forget the environmental problem that are causing more and more obvious climate changes with correlated damages to ecosystems and human health. Despite the well-known correlation among anti-COVID protective equipment (or more generally medical devices) and environmental issues, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and eco-design-based studies in this field is very scarce. The present study aims to derive the most important environmental criticalities of such products, by using LCA and product circularity indicators of five different common masks. The final aim is to provide eco-design guidelines, useful to design new face masks by preventing negative impact on the environment.

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Modelling Sustainable Industrial Symbiosis

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14041172 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (4) ◽

pp. 1172

Author(s):

Hafiz Haq ◽

Petri Välisuo ◽

Seppo Niemi

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Waste Management ◽

Environmental Performance ◽

Life Cycle Cost ◽

Economic Assessment ◽

Environmental Benefits ◽

Industrial Symbiosis ◽

Comprehensive Model ◽

Network Connections

Industrial symbiosis networks conventionally provide economic and environmental benefits to participating industries. However, most studies have failed to quantify waste management solutions and identify network connections in addition to methodological variation of assessments. This study provides a comprehensive model to conduct sustainable study of industrial symbiosis, which includes identification of network connections, life cycle assessment of materials, economic assessment, and environmental performance using standard guidelines from the literature. Additionally, a case study of industrial symbiosis network from Sodankylä region of Finland is implemented. Results projected an estimated life cycle cost of €115.20 million. The symbiotic environment would save €6.42 million in waste management cost to the business participants in addition to the projected environmental impact of 0.95 million tonne of CO2, 339.80 tonne of CH4, and 18.20 tonne of N2O. The potential of further cost saving with presented optimal assessment in the current architecture is forecast at €0.63 million every year.

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