Preliminary environmental and economic assessment of polyurethane foam produced by microwave-assisted liquefaction of riparian shrubs

The study aims to develop a full-scale plant to produce biobased PU foam from microwave liquefaction of riparian shrubs and to evaluate its environmental burden using a cradle-to-gate, scaled-up LCA approach. Life Cycle Inventory was built on experimental data for polyol synthesis by using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) to maximize the liquefaction yield. Bio-based PU foam was also compared with the petrochemical counterpart. Life Cycle Assessment was carried out using SimaPro 9.0 software and impacts were evaluated with EPD 2007 method. The results indicate that the methylene diphenyl diisocyanate production and the energy consumption for the liquefaction step are the major sources of impacts. Overall, the environmental superiority of biobased polyurethane cannot always be claimed with respect to their fossil counterpart. Finally, a simplified economic assessment showed that for the bio-based PU foam an interesting profitability could be obtained for a market price of 4.5 €/kg.

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Cradle-to-Gate Life Cycle and Economic Assessment of Sustainable Concrete Mixes—Alkali-Activated Concrete (AAC) and Bacterial Concrete (BC)

Infrastructures ◽

10.3390/infrastructures6070104 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (7) ◽

pp. 104

Author(s):

Kruthi Kiran Ramagiri ◽

Ravali Chintha ◽

Radha Kiranmaye Bandlamudi ◽

Patricia Kara De Maeijer ◽

Arkamitra Kar

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Economic Assessment ◽

Sustainable Concrete ◽

Coarse Aggregates ◽

Cradle To Gate ◽

Equivalent Strength ◽

Alkali Activated Concrete ◽

Alkali Activated ◽

Bacterial Concrete

The negative environmental impacts associated with the usage of Portland cement (PC) in concrete induced intensive research into finding sustainable alternative concrete mixes to obtain “green concrete”. Since the principal aim of developing such mixes is to reduce the environmental impact, it is imperative to conduct a comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA). This paper examines three different types of sustainable concrete mixes, viz., alkali-activated concrete (AAC) with natural coarse aggregates, AAC with recycled coarse aggregates (RCA), and bacterial concrete (BC). A detailed environmental impact assessment of AAC with natural coarse aggregates, AAC with RCA, and BC is performed through a cradle-to-gate LCA using openLCA v.1.10.3 and compared versus PC concrete (PCC) of equivalent strength. The results show that transportation and sodium silicate in AAC mixes and PC in BC mixes contribute the most to the environmental impact. The global warming potential (GWP) of PCC is 1.4–2 times higher than other mixes. Bacterial concrete without nutrients had the lowest environmental impact of all the evaluated mixes on all damage categories, both at the midpoint (except GWP) and endpoint assessment levels. AAC and BC mixes are more expensive than PCC by 98.8–159.1% and 21.8–54.3%, respectively.

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A cradle to gate life cycle assessment of Turkish lignite used for electricity generation with site-specific data

Journal of Cleaner Production ◽

10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.04.025 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 129 ◽

pp. 478-490 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Hatice Şengül ◽

Ferda Bayrak ◽

Merih Aydınalp Köksal ◽

Bahtiyar Ünver

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Electricity Generation ◽

Site Specific ◽

Specific Data ◽

Cradle To Gate

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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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