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

2020 ◽  
pp. 49-80
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Production Scale

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

2016 ◽  
Vol 135 ◽  
pp. 1085-1097 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabiano Piccinno ◽  
Roland Hischier ◽  
Stefan Seeger ◽  
Claudia Som
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Chemical Processes ◽  
Industrial Scale

scholarly journals Biogas Production by Pilot-Scale Anaerobic Co-Digestion and Life Cycle Assessment Using a Real Scale Scenario: Independent Parameters and Co-Substrates Influence

Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 1875
Author(s):  
Jhessica Mosquera ◽  
Carol Rangel ◽  
Jogy Thomas ◽  
Angelica Santis ◽  
Paola Acevedo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Biogas Production ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Pilot Scale ◽  
Industrial Sector ◽  
Potential Effect ◽  
Organic Loading Rate ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
Real Scale

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.

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

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1192 ◽  
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.

scholarly journals A Scale-up of Energy-Cycle Analysis on Processing Non-Woven Flax/PLA Tape and Triaxial Glass Fibre Fabric for Composites

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilles Tchana Toffe ◽  
Sikiru Oluwarotimi Ismail ◽  
Diogo Montalvão ◽  
Jason Knight ◽  
Guogang Ren
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Composite Materials ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Glass Fibre ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Processing Condition ◽  
Natural Fibre ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Technical Requirements

In the drive towards a sustainable bio-economy, a growing interest exists in the development of composite materials using renewable natural resources. This paper explores the life cycle assessment of processing of Flax fibre reinforced polylactic acid (PLA), with a comparison of glass fibre triaxial fabric in the production process. The use of hydrocarbon fossil resources and synthetic fibres, such as glass and carbon, have caused severe environmental impacts in their entire life cycles. Whereas, Flax/PLA is one of the cornerstones for the sustainable economic growth of natural fibre composites. In this study, the manufacturing processes for the production of Flax/PLA tape and triaxial glass fibre were evaluated through a gate-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA). The assessment was based on an input-output model to estimate energy demand and environmental impacts. The quality of the natural hybrid composite produced and cost-effectiveness of their LCA was dependent on their roving processing speeds and temperature applied to both the Flax/PLA tape and triaxial glass fabrics during processing. The optimum processing condition was found to be at a maximum of 4 m/min at a constant temperature of 170 °C. In contrast, the optimum for normal triaxial glass fibre production was at a slower speed of 1 m/min using a roving glass fibre laminating machine. The results showed that when the Flax and PLA were combined to produce new composite material in the form of a flax/PLA tape, energy consumption was 0.25 MJ/kg, which is lower than the 0.8 MJ/kg used for glass fibre fabric process. Flax/PLA tape and glass fibre fabric composites have a carbon footprint equivalent to 0.036 kg CO2 and 0.11 kg CO2, respectively, under the same manufacturing conditions. These are within the technical requirements in the composites industry. The manufacturing process adopted to transform Flax/PLA into a similar tape composite was considerably quicker than that of woven glass fibre fabric for composite tape. This work elucidated the relationship of the energy consumptions of the two materials processes by using a standard LCA analytical methodology. The outcomes supported an alternative option for replacement of some conventional composite materials for the automotive industry. Most importantly, the natural fibre composite production is shown to result in an economic benefit and reduced environmental impact.

scholarly journals Non-linearity in the Life Cycle Assessment of Scalable and Emerging Technologies

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Pizzol ◽  
Romain Sacchi ◽  
Susanne Köhler ◽  
Annika Anderson Erjavec
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Emerging Technologies ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Product System ◽  
Linear Relationships ◽  
Non Linear ◽  
Design Activities ◽  
The Impact

Given a fixed product system model, with the current computational framework of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) the potential environmental impacts associated to demanding one thousand units of a product will be one thousand times larger than what results from demanding 1 unit only – a linear relationship. However, due to economies of scale, industrial synergies, efficiency gains, and system design, activities at different scales will perform differently in terms of life cycle impact – in a non-linear way. This study addresses the issue of using the linear framework of LCA to study scalable and emerging technologies, by looking at different examples where technology scale up reflects non-linearly on the impact of a product. First, a computer simulation applied to an entire database is used to quantitatively estimate the effect of assuming activities in a product system are subject to improvements in efficiency. This provides a theoretical but indicative idea of how much uncertainty can be introduced by non-linear relationships between input values and results at the database level. Then the non-linear relations between the environmental burden per tkm of transport on one end, and the cargo mass and range autonomy on the other end is highlighted using a parametrized LCA model for heavy goods vehicles combined with learning scenarios that reflect different load factors and improvement in battery technology. Finally, a last example explores the case of activities related to the mining of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, an emerging technology, and how the impact of scaling the Bitcoin mining production is affected non-linearly by factors such as increase in mining efficiency and geographical distribution of miners. The paper concludes by discussing the relation between non-linearity and uncertainty and by providing recommendations for accounting for non-linearity in prospective LCA studies.

scholarly journals Life-Cycle Assessment of Fly Ash and Cenosphere-Based Geopolymer Material

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 11167
Author(s):  
Weixin Tang ◽  
Gloria Pignatta ◽  
Samad M. E. Sepasgozar
Keyword(s):  
Compressive Strength ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Fly Ash ◽  
Flexural Strength ◽  
Industrial Waste ◽  
Waste Treatment ◽  
Transport Modelling ◽  
Production Scale ◽  
Key Factor

It was widely reported in the early 2000s that geopolymer technology exhibits superior mechanical properties and lower global warming potential (GWP) over the use of ordinary Portland cement (OPC). However, a major limitation observed in the sustainability evaluation is a lack of consideration of environmental impacts from the use of industrial waste. This observation led to the purpose of this study, which is to identify the key factors throughout geopolymer production that contribute to its sustainability performance. In this paper, two geopolymers made of fly ash (G-FA) and cenospheres (G-C) were examined by mechanical testing while their sustainability impacts on a cradle-to-grave approach were investigated. The industrial waste and transport modelling impacts were given special attention in the performed life-cycle assessment. After 28 days of curing, G-FA exhibited 64.56 MPa and 6.03 MPa of compressive strength and flexural strength, respectively. G-C, with ¾ of G-FA bulk density, achieved 19.09 MPa and 3.13 MPa, respectively, with no significant changes observed after 14 days of curing. By upscaling the inventories to 1 m3 of industrial production scale, geopolymers showed a GWP reduction up to 49.7% compared to OPC with natural aggregates and presented benefits on human health damage category by 23.7% (G-FA) to 41.6% (G-C). In conclusion, geopolymer mortars establish compressive strength and flexural strength that are adequate for construction applications and present sustainability benefits in GWP, which suggests them to be potential substitutions for OPC. However, the industrial waste treatment (i.e., preparation of fly ash) will deplete water bodies, and the sodium silicate induces significant environmental burdens during its manufacture, becoming the key factor to enhance the geopolymer’s sustainability.

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