scholarly journals Life Cycle Analysis of Tissue Paper Manufacturing From Virgin Pulp or Recycled Waste Paper

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 47-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aneta Masternak-Janus ◽  
Magdalena Rybaczewska-Błażejowska
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Waste Paper ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Tissue Paper ◽  
Production Processes ◽  
Virgin Pulp ◽  
Recycled Waste ◽  
Recycled Waste Paper

Abstract The aim of this work is to compare the environmental impacts of two production processes of tissue paper using virgin pulp (virgin fiber) or waste paper pulp (recycled fiber). This comparison is based on the materials and energy used as well as emissions and waste resulting from the production of tissue paper. Life cycle assessment (LCA), ReCiPe method, was chosen as the analysis tool. The results of the research proved that electricity has the most considerable participation in the overall environmental impacts in both production processes, followed by either virgin pulp or heat. Consequently, these two production processes are the greatest contributors to the following midpoint environmental impact categories: human toxicity, climate change, human health and ecosystems, and fossil depletion. The analysis based on endpoint impact categories proved that the production process based on waste paper is more environmentally friendly than the one based on virgin pulp in all impact categories: human health, ecosystems, resources. This is largely because of its lower material and energy requirements in the entire life cycle. Due to the fact that the tissue paper is the final use of fiber, using recycled waste paper is strongly recommended. The obtained research results are a valuable source of management information for the decision makers at both company and national levels required to improve the environmental performance of tissue paper production.

A comparison of the GHG emissions caused by manufacturing tissue paper from virgin pulp or recycled waste paper

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (8) ◽  
pp. 1618-1628 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eskinder Demisse Gemechu ◽  
Isabela Butnar ◽  
Jordi Gomà-Camps ◽  
Alfred Pons ◽  
Francesc Castells
Keyword(s):  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Waste Paper ◽  
Tissue Paper ◽  
Virgin Pulp ◽  
Recycled Waste ◽  
Recycled Waste Paper

scholarly journals Exploring sustainability potentials in vineyards through LCA? Evidence from farming practices in South Africa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Russo ◽  
A. E. Strever ◽  
H. J. Ponstein
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Human Health ◽  
South African ◽  
Wine Grape ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Farming Practices ◽  
Manual Labour ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Purpose Following the urgency to curb environmental impacts across all sectors globally, this is the first life cycle assessment of different wine grape farming practices suitable for commercial conventional production in South Africa, aiming at better understanding the potentials to reduce adverse effects on the environment and on human health. Methods An attributional life cycle assessment was conducted on eight different scenarios that reduce the inputs of herbicides and insecticides compared against a business as usual (BAU) scenario. We assess several impact categories based on ReCiPe, namely global warming potential, terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, terrestrial toxicity, freshwater toxicity, marine toxicity, human carcinogenic toxicity and human non-carcinogenic toxicity, human health and ecosystems. A water footprint assessment based on the AWARE method accounts for potential impacts within the watershed. Results and discussion Results show that in our impact assessment, more sustainable farming practices do not always outperform the BAU scenario, which relies on synthetic fertiliser and agrochemicals. As a main trend, most of the impact categories were dominated by energy requirements of wine grape production in an irrigated vineyard, namely the usage of electricity for irrigation pumps and diesel for agricultural machinery. The most favourable scenario across the impact categories provided a low diesel usage, strongly reduced herbicides and the absence of insecticides as it applied cover crops and an integrated pest management. Pesticides and heavy metals contained in agrochemicals are the main contributors to emissions to soil that affected the toxicity categories and impose a risk on human health, which is particularly relevant for the manual labour-intensive South African wine sector. However, we suggest that impacts of agrochemicals on human health and the environment are undervalued in the assessment. The 70% reduction of toxic agrochemicals such as Glyphosate and Paraquat and the 100% reduction of Chlorpyriphos in vineyards hardly affected the model results for human and ecotoxicity. Our concerns are magnified by the fact that manual labour plays a substantial role in South African vineyards, increasing the exposure of humans to these toxic chemicals at their workplace. Conclusions A more sustainable wine grape production is possible when shifting to integrated grape production practices that reduce the inputs of agrochemicals. Further, improved water and related electricity management through drip irrigation, deficit irrigation and photovoltaic-powered irrigation is recommendable, relieving stress on local water bodies, enhancing drought-preparedness planning and curbing CO2 emissions embodied in products.

scholarly journals Analysis of the Characteristics of Environmental Impacts According to the Cut-Off Criteria Applicable to the Streamlined Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) of Apartment Buildings in South Korea

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2898
Author(s):  
Rakhyun Kim ◽  
Myung-Kwan Lim ◽  
Seungjun Roh ◽  
Won-Jun Park
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Impact Analysis ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Environmental Impact Analysis ◽  
Apartment Buildings ◽  
Environmental Impact Categories ◽  
Weight Percentile

This study analyzed the characteristics of the environmental impacts of apartment buildings, a typical housing type in South Korea, as part of a research project supporting the streamlined life cycle assessment (S-LCA) of buildings within the G-SEED (Green Standard for Energy and Environmental Design) framework. Three recently built apartment building complexes were chosen as study objects for the quantitative evaluation of the buildings in terms of their embodied environmental impacts (global warming potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, ozone layer depletion potential, photochemical oxidant creation potential, and abiotic depletion potential), using the LCA approach. Additionally, we analyzed the emission trends according to the cut-off criteria of the six environmental impact categories by performing an S-LCA with cut-off criteria 90–99% of the cumulative weight percentile. Consequently, we were able to present the cut-off criterion best suited for S-LCA and analyze the effect of the cut-off criteria on the environmental impact analysis results. A comprehensive environmental impact analysis of the characteristics of the six environmental impact categories revealed that the error rate was below 5% when the cut-off criterion of 97.5% of the cumulative weight percentile was applied, thus verifying its validity as the optimal cut-off criterion for S-LCA.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of viticultural technical management routes (TMRs): comparison between an organic and an integrated management route

OENO One ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Rouault ◽  
Sandra Beauchet ◽  
Christel Renaud-Gentie ◽  
Frédérique Jourjon
Keyword(s):  
Heavy Metal ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Plant Protection ◽  
Resource Depletion ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Nitrogen Emissions ◽  
Technical Management ◽  
Lca Results

<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Aims</strong>: Using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), this study aims to compare the environmental impacts of two different viticultural technical management routes (TMRs); integrated and organic) and to identify the operations that contribute the most to the impacts.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Methods and results</strong>: LCA impact scores were expressed in two functional units: 1 ha of cultivated area and 1 kg of collected grape. We studied all operations from field preparation before planting to the end-of-life of the vine. Inputs and outputs were transformed into potential environmental impacts thanks to SALCA™ (V1.02) and USETox™ (V1.03) methods. Plant protection treatments were a major cause of impact for both TMRs for fuel-related impact categories. For both TMRs, the main contributors to natural resource depletion and freshwater ecotoxicity were trellis system installation and background heavy metal emissions, respectively.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Conclusion</strong>: This study shows that the studied organic TMR has higher impact scores than the integrated TMR for all the chosen impact categories except eutrophication. However, the chosen TMRs are only typical of integrated and organic viticulture in Loire Valley and some emission models (heavy metal, fuel-related emissions, and nitrogen emissions) have to be improved in order to better assess the environmental impacts of viticulture. Soil quality should also be integrated to LCA results in viticulture because this lack may be a disadvantage for organic viticulture.</p><strong>Significance and impact of study</strong>: This study is among the first to compare LCA results of an integrated and an organic TMR.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of Maize-Germ Oil Production and The Use of Bioenergy to Mitigate Environmental Impacts: A Gate-To-Gate Case Study

Resources ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattias Gaglio ◽  
Elena Tamburini ◽  
Francesco Lucchesi ◽  
Vassilis Aschonitis ◽  
Anna Atti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Food Industry ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Industrial Processing ◽  
The Impact

The need to reduce the environmental impacts of the food industry is increasing together with the dramatic increment of global food demand. Circulation strategies such as the exploitation of self-produced renewable energy sources can improve ecological performances of industrial processes. However, evidence is needed to demonstrate and characterize such environmental benefits. This study assessed the environmental performances of industrial processing of maize edible oil, whose energy provision is guaranteed by residues biomasses. A gate-to-gate Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach was applied for a large-size factory of Northern Italy to describe: (i) the environmental impacts related to industrial processing and (ii) the contribution of residue-based bioenergy to their mitigation, through the comparison with a reference system based on conventional energy. The results showed that oil refinement is the most impacting phase for almost all the considered impact categories. The use of residue-based bioenergy was found to drastically reduce the emissions for all the impact categories. Moreover, Cumulative Energy Demand analysis revealed that the use of biomass residues increased energy efficiency through a reduction of the total energy demand of the industrial process. The study demonstrates that the exploitation of residue-based bioenergy can be a sustainable solution to improve environmental performances of the food industry, while supporting circular economy.

scholarly journals Environmental impacts of European trade: interpreting results of process-based LCA and environmentally extended input–output analysis towards hotspot identification

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (12) ◽  
pp. 2432-2450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoine Beylot ◽  
Sara Corrado ◽  
Serenella Sala
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Input Output ◽  
Output Analysis ◽  
Input Output Analysis ◽  
European Trade ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Modelling Approaches

Abstract Purpose Trade is increasingly considered a significant contributor to environmental impacts. The assessment of the impacts of trade is usually performed via environmentally extended input–output analysis (EEIOA). However, process-based life cycle assessment (LCA) applied to traded goods allows increasing the granularity of the analysis and may be essential to unveil specific impacts due to traded products. Methods This study assesses the environmental impacts of the European trade, considering two modelling approaches: respectively EEIOA, using EXIOBASE 3 as supporting database, and process-based LCA. The interpretation of the results is pivotal to improve the robustness of the assessment and the identification of hotspots. The hotspot identification focuses on temporal trends and on the contribution of products and substances to the overall impacts. The inventories of elementary flows associated with EU trade, for the period 2000–2010, have been characterized considering 14 impact categories according to the Environmental Footprint (EF2017) Life Cycle Impact Assessment method. Results and discussion The two modelling approaches converge in highlighting that in the period 2000–2010: (i) EU was a net importer of environmental impacts; (ii) impacts of EU trade and EU trade balance (impacts of imports minus impacts of exports) were increasing over time, regarding most impact categories under study; and (iii) similar manufactured products were the main contributors to the impacts of exports from EU, regarding most impact categories. However, some results are discrepant: (i) larger impacts are obtained from IO analysis than from process-based LCA, regarding most impact categories, (ii) a different set of most contributing products is identified by the two approaches in the case of imports, and (iii) large differences in the contributions of substances are observed regarding resource use, toxicity, and ecotoxicity indicators. Conclusions The interpretation step is crucial to unveil the main hotspots, encompassing a comparison of the differences between the two methodologies, the assumptions, the data coverage and sources, the completeness of inventory as basis for impact assessment. The main driver for the observed divergences is identified to be the differences in the impact intensities of goods, both induced by inherent properties of the IO and life cycle inventory databases and by some of this study’s modelling choices. The combination of IO analysis and process-based LCA in a hybrid framework, as performed in other studies but generally not at the macro-scale of the full trade of a country or region, appears a potential important perspective to refine such an assessment in the future.

Life Cycle Assessment of Tungsten Production in China

2019 ◽  
Vol 944 ◽  
pp. 1137-1143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ke Wei Lu ◽  
Xian Zheng Gong ◽  
Bo Xue Sun ◽  
Qing Ding
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Steel Industry ◽  
Smelting Process ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
Total Consumption ◽  
Production Processes ◽  
Annual Total

Tungsten is an important strategic metal, widely used in cemented carbide manufacturing, steel industry, and other economic fields. The amount of tungsten resource consumed in China each year accounts for more than 80% of the world’s annual total consumption. The purpose of this study is to quantify the environmental impact of tungsten production in China through the method of LCA. The result shows that, regarding the contributions of impact categories, the normalized value of HTP is the largest one among various impact categories, which accounts for 35.39% of the total environmental impact, followed by AP, PMFP, GWP, MDP, FDP, and POFP, respectively. The results also show that, regarding the contributions of production processes, smelting process is the largest contributor to the environmental burden of tungsten production due to the crystallization and calcination reduction occurred in the smelting process consumes a large amount of electricity, followed by mining, beneficiation, and transportation, respectively. The major academic contribution of this paper to the existing literatures is that we employed process-based analysis method, which could improve the accuracy of the study and provide practical advices for tungsten enterprises to reduce the environmental impact.

scholarly journals A life cycle environmental sustainability analysis of microbial protein production via power-to-food approaches

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (11) ◽  
pp. 2190-2203 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Sillman ◽  
V. Uusitalo ◽  
V. Ruuskanen ◽  
L. Ojala ◽  
H. Kahiluoto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Protein Production ◽  
Blue Water ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Microbial Protein ◽  
Soybean Production ◽  
Global Food

Abstract Purpose Renewable energy produced from wind turbines and solar photovoltaics (PV) has rapidly increased its share in global energy markets. At the same time, interest in producing hydrocarbons via power-to-X (PtX) approaches using renewables has grown as the technology has matured. However, there exist knowledge gaps related to environmental impacts of some PtX approaches. Power-to-food (PtF) application is one of those approaches. To evaluate the environmental impacts of different PtF approaches, life cycle assessment was performed. Methods The theoretical environmental potential of a novel concept of PtX technologies was investigated. Because PtX approaches have usually multiple technological solutions, such as the studied PtF application can have, several technological setups were chosen for the study. PtF application is seen as potentially being able to alleviate concerns about the sustainability of the global food sector, for example, as regards the land and water use impacts of food production. This study investigated four different environmental impact categories for microbial protein (MP) production via different technological setups of PtF from a cradle-to-gate perspective. The investigated impact categories include global warming potential, blue-water use, land use, and eutrophication. The research was carried out using a life cycle impact assessment method. Results and discussion The results for PtF processes were compared with the impacts of other MP production technologies and soybean production. The results indicate that significantly lower environmental impact can be achieved with PtF compared with the other protein production processes studied. The best-case PtF technology setups cause considerably lower land occupation, eutrophication, and blue-water consumption impacts compared with soybean production. However, the energy source used and the electricity-to-biomass efficiency of the bioreactor greatly affect the sustainability of the PtF approach. Some energy sources and technological choices result in higher environmental impacts than other MP and soybean production. When designing PtF production facilities, special attention should thus be given to the technology used. Conclusions With some qualifications, PtF can be considered an option for improving global food security at minimal environmental impact. If the MP via the introduced application substitutes the most harmful practices of production other protein sources, the saved resources could be used to, for example, mitigation purposes or to improve food security elsewhere. However, there still exist challenges, such as food safety–related issues, to be solved before PtF application can be used for commercial use.

scholarly journals Environmental Impacts of Charging Concepts for Battery Electric Vehicles: A Comparison of On-Board and Off-Board Charging Systems Based on a Life Cycle Assessment

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 6508
Author(s):  
Mona Kabus ◽  
Lars Nolting ◽  
Benedict J. Mortimer ◽  
Jan C. Koj ◽  
Wilhelm Kuckshinrichs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Electric Vehicles ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
System Level ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Dc System ◽  
Battery Electric Vehicles

We investigate the environmental impacts of on-board (based on alternating current, AC) and off-board (based on direct current, DC) charging concepts for electric vehicles using Life Cycle Assessment and considering a maximum charging power of 22 kW (AC) and 50 kW (DC). Our results show that the manufacturing of chargers provokes the highest contribution to environmental impacts of the production phase. Within the chargers, the filters could be identified as main polluters for all power levels. When comparing the results on a system level, the DC system causes less environmental impact than the AC system in all impact categories. In our diffusion scenarios for electric vehicles, annual emission reductions of up to 35 million kg CO2-eq. could be achieved when the DC system is used instead of the AC system. In addition to the environmental assessment, we examine economic effects. Here, we find annual savings of up to 8.5 million euros, when the DC system is used instead of the AC system.

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