scholarly journals Environmental Impacts of Experimental Production of Lactic Acid for Bioplastics from Ulva Spp.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roel Helmes ◽  
Ana Lopez-Contreras ◽  
Maud Benoit ◽  
Helena Abreu ◽  
Julie Maguire ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lactic Acid ◽  
Production Process ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Fermentation Broth ◽  
Electricity Consumption ◽  
Experimental Production ◽  
Production Chain ◽  
Material Efficiency ◽  
Green Seaweed

An exploratory Life Cycle Assessment was carried out to provide insight into the environmental impacts of using the green seaweed Ulva spp. as a feedstock for production of bioplastic. The study focused on the production of lactic acid as a precursor of polylactic acid. The studied production process consists of (1) the cultivation of Ulva spp. in Integrated Multitrophic Aquaculture, (2) the processing of the biomass for solubilisation of sugars, (3) the fermentation of the sugars to lactic acid and (4) isolation of lactic acid from the fermentation broth. The study identifies environmental hotspots and compares the experimental seaweed production chain with conventional feedstock. The main hotspot identified is electricity consumption during seaweed cultivation. This impact of electricity consumption can be lowered by reducing energy use and sourcing renewable energy, and by improving the material efficiency in the product chain. To improve understanding of the environmental impacts of the production process, future studies can broaden the system boundaries and broaden the scope of sustainability issues included in the environmental assessment.

scholarly journals Environmental Impacts of Experimental Production of Lactic Acid for Bioplastics from Ulva spp.

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 2462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roel Helmes ◽  
Ana López-Contreras ◽  
Maud Benoit ◽  
Helena Abreu ◽  
Julie Maguire ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lactic Acid ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Fermentation Broth ◽  
Electricity Consumption ◽  
Experimental Production ◽  
Production Chain ◽  
Material Efficiency ◽  
Green Seaweed ◽  
The Impact

An exploratory Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was carried out to provide insight into the environmental impacts of using the green seaweed Ulva spp. as a feedstock, for production of bioplastic. The study focused on the production of lactic acid as a precursor of polylactic acid. The study was on the production process: (1) The cultivation of Ulva spp., in an Integrated Multitrophic Aquaculture system; (2) the processing of the biomass for solubilization of sugars; (3) the fermentation of the sugars to lactic acid; (4) the isolation of lactic acid from fermentation broth. The study identified environmental hotspots and compared an experimental seaweed production chain with conventional feedstocks. The main hotspot is derived from electricity consumption during seaweed cultivation. The impact of electricity consumption can be lowered by reducing energy use and sourcing renewable energy, and by improving the material efficiency in the product chain. To improve understanding of the process of production’s environmental impacts, future studies should broaden the system boundaries and scope of sustainability issues included in the environmental assessment.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment on Different Synthetic Routes of ZIF-8 Nanomaterials

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (16) ◽  
pp. 4998
Author(s):  
Vasileios Ntouros ◽  
Ioannis Kousis ◽  
Dimitra Papadaki ◽  
Anna Laura Pisello ◽  
Margarita Niki Assimakopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Electricity Consumption ◽  
Research Activity ◽  
Synthetic Routes ◽  
The Impact

In the last twenty years, research activity around the environmental applications of metal–organic frameworks has bloomed due to their CO2 capture ability, tunable properties, porosity, and well-defined crystalline structure. Thus, hundreds of MOFs have been developed. However, the impact of their production on the environment has not been investigated as thoroughly as their potential applications. In this work, the environmental performance of various synthetic routes of MOF nanoparticles, in particular ZIF-8, is assessed through a life cycle assessment. For this purpose, five representative synthesis routes were considered, and synthesis data were obtained based on available literature. The synthesis included different solvents (de-ionized water, methanol, dimethylformamide) as well as different synthetic steps (i.e., hours of drying, stirring, precursor). The findings revealed that the main environmental weak points identified during production were: (a) the use of dimethylformamide (DMF) and methanol (MeOH) as substances impacting environmental sustainability, which accounted for more than 85% of the overall environmental impacts in those synthetic routes where they were utilized as solvents and as cleaning agents at the same time; (b) the electricity consumption, especially due to the Greek energy mix which is fossil-fuel dependent, and accounted for up to 13% of the overall environmental impacts in some synthetic routes. Nonetheless, for the optimization of the impacts provided by the energy use, suggestions are made based on the use of alternative, cleaner renewable energy sources, which (for the case of wind energy) will decrease the impacts by up to 2%.

scholarly journals Energy Consumption, Carbon Emissions and Global Warming Potential of Wolfberry Production in Jingtai Oasis, Gansu Province, China

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 772-782 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaolin Wang ◽  
Quanlin Ma ◽  
Yingke Li ◽  
Tao Sun ◽  
Hujia Jin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Global Warming Potential ◽  
Production System ◽  
Energy Input ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Electricity Consumption ◽  
N Fertilizer ◽  
Fertilizer Use ◽  
Use Efficiency

AbstractDuring the last decade, China's agro-food production has increased rapidly and been accompanied by the challenge of increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other environmental pollutants from fertilizers, pesticides, and intensive energy use. Understanding the energy use and environmental impacts of crop production will help identify environmentally damaging hotspots of agro-production, allowing environmental impacts to be assessed and crop management strategies optimized. Conventional farming has been widely employed in wolfberry (Lycium barbarum) cultivation in China, which is an important cash tree crop not only for the rural economy but also from an ecological standpoint. Energy use and global warming potential (GWP) were investigated in a wolfberry production system in the Yellow River irrigated Jingtai region of Gansu. In total, 52 household farms were randomly selected to conduct the investigation using questionnaires. Total energy input and output were 321,800.73 and 166,888.80 MJ ha−1, respectively, in the production system. The highest share of energy inputs was found to be electricity consumption for lifting irrigation water, accounting for 68.52%, followed by chemical fertilizer application (11.37%). Energy use efficiency was 0.52 when considering both fruit and pruned wood. Nonrenewable energy use (88.52%) was far larger than the renewable energy input. The share of GWP of different inputs were 64.52% electricity, 27.72% nitrogen (N) fertilizer, 5.07% phosphate, 2.32% diesel, and 0.37% potassium, respectively. The highest share was related to electricity consumption for irrigation, followed by N fertilizer use. Total GWP in the wolfberry planting system was 26,018.64 kg CO2 eq ha−1 and the share of CO2, N2O, and CH4 were 99.47%, 0.48%, and negligible respectively with CO2 being dominant. Pathways for reducing energy use and GHG emission mitigation include: conversion to low carbon farming to establish a sustainable and cleaner production system with options of raising water use efficiency by adopting a seasonal gradient water pricing system and advanced irrigation techniques; reducing synthetic fertilizer use; and policy support: smallholder farmland transfer (concentration) for scale production, credit (small- and low-interest credit) and tax breaks.

Electricity consumption and economic growth in ASEAN

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Ahmad Ghazali Ismail ◽  
Arlinah Abd Rashid ◽  
Azlina Hanif
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Electricity Consumption ◽  
Panel Estimation ◽  
Real Gdp ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Bidirectional Relationship ◽  
Short Run ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship and causality direction between electricity consumption and economic growth is an important issue in the fields of energy economics and policies towards energy use. Extensive literatures has discussed the issue, but the array of findings provides anything but consensus on either the existence of relations or direction of causality between the variables. This study extends research in this area by studying the long-run and causal relations between economic growth, electricity consumption, labour and capital based on the neo-classical one sector aggregate production technology mode using data of electricity consumption and real GDP for ASEAN from the year 1983 to 2012. The analysis is conducted using advanced panel estimation approaches and found no causality in the short run while in the long-run, the results indicate that there are bidirectional relationship among variables. This study provides supplementary evidences of relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth in ASEAN.

Carbon footprint and water footprint assessment of virgin and recycled polyester textiles

2021 ◽  
pp. 004051752110062
Author(s):  
Weiran Qian ◽  
Xiang Ji ◽  
Pinghua Xu ◽  
Laili Wang
Keyword(s):  
Production Process ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Water Footprint ◽  
Oxygen Demand ◽  
Polyester Fabric ◽  
Total Carbon ◽  
Fabric Production ◽  
Water Eutrophication

Recycled polyester textile fibers stemming from waste polyester material have been applied in the textile industry in recent years. However, there are few studies focusing on the evaluation and comparison of the environmental impacts caused by the production of virgin polyester textiles and recycled polyester textiles. In this study, the carbon footprint and water footprint of virgin polyester textiles and recycled polyester textiles were calculated and compared. The results showed that the carbon footprint of the virgin polyester textiles production was 119.59 kgCO2/100 kg. Terephthalic acid production process occupied the largest proportion, accounting for 45.83%, followed by polyester fabric production process, ethylene production process, paraxylene production process, ethylene glycol production process and polyester fiber production process. The total carbon footprint of waste polyester recycling was 1154.15 kgCO2/100 kg, approximately ten times that of virgin polyester textiles production. As for the water footprint, it showed that virgin polyester fabric production and recycled polyester fabric production both had great impact on water eutrophication and water scarcity. Chemical oxygen demand caused the largest water eutrophication footprint, followed by ammonia-nitrogen and five-day biochemical oxygen demand. The water scarcity footprint of virgin polyester fabric production and recycled polyester fabric production was 5.98 m3 H2Oeq/100 kg and 1.90 m3 H2Oeq/100 kg, respectively. The comprehensive evaluation of carbon footprint and water footprint with the life cycle assessment polygon method indicated that the polyester fabric production process exhibited greater environmental impacts both for virgin polyester and recycled polyester.

scholarly journals Novel Hybrid Reactive Distillation with Extraction and Distillation Processes for Furfural Production from an Actual Xylose Solution

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 1152
Author(s):  
Le Cao Nhien ◽  
Nguyen Van Duc Long ◽  
Moonyong Lee
Keyword(s):  
Production Process ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Reactive Distillation ◽  
Process Efficiency ◽  
Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor ◽  
Butyl Chloride ◽  
Distillation Columns ◽  
Reactive Liquid ◽  
Pharmaceutical Industries ◽  
Furfural Production

Furfural is only derived from lignocellulosic biomass and is an important chemical used in the plastics, agrochemical, and pharmaceutical industries. The existing industrial furfural production process, involving reaction and purification steps, suffers from a low yield and intensive energy use. Hence, major improvements are needed to sustainably upgrade the furfural production process. In this study, the conventional furfural process based on a continuous stirred tank reactor and distillation columns was designed and optimized from an actual aqueous xylose solution via a biomass pretreatment step. Subsequently, a reactive distillation (RD) and extraction/distillation (ED) configuration was proposed for the reaction and purification steps, respectively, to improve the process efficiency. RD can remove furfural instantly from the reactive liquid phase and can separate heavy components from the raw furfural stream, while the ED configuration with toluene and butyl chloride used as extracting solvents can effectively separate furfural from a dilute aqueous stream. The results showed that the hybrid RD-ED process using a butyl chloride solvent saves up to 51.8% and 57.4% of the total investment costs and total annual costs, respectively, compared to the conventional process. Furthermore, environmental impacts were evaluated and compared for all structural alternatives.

Recent advances in the separation and purification of lactic acid from fermentation broth

2021 ◽  
Vol 104 ◽  
pp. 142-151
Author(s):  
Chenglong Li ◽  
Ming Gao ◽  
Wenbin Zhu ◽  
Nuohan Wang ◽  
Xiaoyu Ma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lactic Acid ◽  
Fermentation Broth ◽  
Separation And Purification ◽  
Recent Advances

scholarly journals Critical Determinants of Household Electricity Consumption in a Rapidly Growing City

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4441
Author(s):  
Sharif Shofirun Sharif Ali ◽  
Muhammad Rizal Razman ◽  
Azahan Awang ◽  
M. R. M. Asyraf ◽  
M. R. Ishak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Use ◽  
Urban Expansion ◽  
Electricity Consumption ◽  
Critical Factor ◽  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Monthly Income ◽  
Increase Energy Efficiency ◽  
Resource Sustainability ◽  
Technology Improvement

Despite growing urban electricity consumption, information on actual energy use in the household sector is still limited and causal factors leading to electricity consumption remain speculative due to urban expansion and its growing complexity, particularly in developing countries such as Malaysia. This study aims to examine the critical determinants of household electricity consumption by evaluating the patterns and flows of consumption and analysing relationships and their effects on electricity usage among 620 urban households in Seremban, Malaysia. Results suggest that the average urban household electricity consumption is 648.31 kWh/month; this value continues to grow with the increase in the household monthly income (r = 0.360; p < 0.01) and number of rooms (r = 0.360; p < 0.01) as quality of life improves. A large portion of electricity is allocated for kitchen/home consumption, followed by cooling and lighting. Multiple linear regressions revealed that married households with a high monthly income and living in spacious houses together with three to five people are important predictors of electricity consumption in Seremban. This study empirically identified that the number of rooms is the most critical factor of electricity consumption and strategies to increase energy efficiency, maintain resource sustainability and minimise greenhouse gas threat on the urban ecosystem are vital. Therefore, promoting low carbon initiatives for energy conservation and technology improvement and implementing policies in the domestic sector are essential to achieve the greatest potential energy consumption reduction in urban regions.

scholarly journals Investigating Primary Factors Affecting Electricity Consumption in Non-Residential Buildings Using a Data-Driven Approach

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 4046 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sooyoun Cho ◽  
Jeehang Lee ◽  
Jumi Baek ◽  
Gi-Seok Kim ◽  
Seung-Bok Leigh
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Simulation Analysis ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Electric Energy ◽  
Electricity Consumption ◽  
Building Energy ◽  
Major Effect ◽  
Measuring Instruments ◽  
Building Energy Consumption

Although the latest energy-efficient buildings use a large number of sensors and measuring instruments to predict consumption more accurately, it is generally not possible to identify which data are the most valuable or key for analysis among the tens of thousands of data points. This study selected the electric energy as a subset of total building energy consumption because it accounts for more than 65% of the total building energy consumption, and identified the variables that contribute to electric energy use. However, this study aimed to confirm data from a building using clustering in machine learning, instead of a calculation method from engineering simulation, to examine the variables that were identified and determine whether these variables had a strong correlation with energy consumption. Three different methods confirmed that the major variables related to electric energy consumption were significant. This research has significance because it was able to identify the factors in electric energy, accounting for more than half of the total building energy consumption, that had a major effect on energy consumption and revealed that these key variables alone, not the default values of many different items in simulation analysis, can ensure the reliable prediction of energy consumption.

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