scholarly journals Natural Fibre Polymer Composites – A Game Changer for the Aviation Sector?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandra Gomez-Campos ◽  
Claire Vialle ◽  
Antoine Rouilly ◽  
Lorie Hamelin ◽  
Aline Rogeon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Polymer Composites ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Natural Fibre ◽  
Mitigation Option ◽  
Full Life Cycle ◽  
Marine Eutrophication ◽  
Fire Suppressant ◽  
Biocomposite Material

As part of the efforts to reduce the environmental impacts caused by the aviation sector, the use of bio-based instead of fossil-based materials has been assessed as a possible mitigation option. Natural Fibre Polymer Composites have proven to have a higher environmental performance in the automotive sector and are emerging as an option for weight reduction in aircraft. This study quantifies, though Life Cycle Assessment, the environmental performance of specific flax-based composite panels intended for aircrafts as interior fitting elements (i.e. partition panels, tray tables, baggage compartments) compared to a glass fibre/epoxy composite with a honeycomb core. Through system expansion, the fate of co-products issued from the production of the flax fibre technical textile used as reinforcement in the biocomposite material were considered in the assessment. Results showed that for an application in the aeronautics sector, the weight of the panels is the upmost critical parameter shaping the overall environmental performance of panels. Focusing on the panel production only, the biocomposite panel showed a higher environmental performance in the categories of climate change and marine eutrophication compared to the conventional panel, and the fire suppressant agent was identified as the main contributor to the environmental impacts of the bio-based panel. Yet these gains were negligible when considering the full life cycle of the panels, due to the higher weight (14%) of the bio-based panels; which is linked to the bio-based panel being at a prototype stage.In order to improve the environmental performance of the biocomposite panel and thus reduce its weight, it was shown relevant to optimize geometry of the panel itself, especially its core, so less resin could be used.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Thinking in the Use of Natural Resources

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.J. Koroneos ◽  
Ch. Achillas ◽  
N. Moussiopoulos ◽  
E.A. Nanaki
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Life Cycle Thinking ◽  
Continuous Increase ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Full Life Cycle ◽  
Life Cycle Stages ◽  
Sustainable Consumption And Production

The continuous increase of production and consumption of material in the developed world and the increase of the standard of living of the developing countries leads to the increase of the use of natural resources and the degradation of the environment. Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) is essential to sustainable consumption and production which will impact the use of limited resources. LCT is the process of taking into account in decision making both the resources consumed and the environmental and health pressures associated with the full life cycle of a product. It includes the extraction of resources, production, use, re-use, transport, recycling, and the ultimate waste disposal to provide goods and services and it helps in avoiding shifting the burdens among various life stages of a resource processing. It is important to use the life cycle thinking in analysing products because they may have different environmental impacts at different life cycle stages. It is important to note that some products have very high environmental impacts during the extraction and processing of their original natural resource but they may have minor environmental impacts when they are recycled. A good example is aluminium. The objective of this work is to analyze the importance of the life cycle thinking concept, and show its direct linkage to sustainability.

scholarly journals Evaluation Model of Environmental Impacts of Insulation Building Envelopes

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 2258
Author(s):  
Qianmiao Yang ◽  
Liyao Kong ◽  
Hui Tong ◽  
Xiaolin Wang
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Energy Savings ◽  
Building Envelope ◽  
Building Envelopes ◽  
Entire Life ◽  
Entire Life Cycle

Energy consumption during use is the focus of insulation envelope design, but the environmental impact of other stages in the entire life cycle of building envelopes should be of equal concern. In this paper, a model has been developed based on the life-cycle environmental assessment for calculating the environmental impacts of building envelopes. The model proposed will be useful to evaluate the environmental performance of various envelopes to optimize the design of energy-saving envelopes. Consequently, lots of experiments are conducted for environmental impact assessment and analysis for external windows and filler walls with energy-savings in heating areas of China. Four conclusions can be drawn from the analysis. (1) K of building envelope is the design parameter of the greatest impact on environmental performance and has a critical value, which is the value that has the smallest environmental impact over the entire life cycle. (2) The importance of the environmental impact of the building envelope during the life cycle stages is as follows: usage > production > transportation > disposal > construction. The construction process of the thermal insulation wall could be negligible. (3) The choice of regional building materials should consider the distance of transportation, which may be the key factor determining its life cycle environmental performance. (4) Aerated concrete EPS walls and wooden windows are the first choices for envelope construction from the environmental impact throughout the life cycle.

scholarly journals A Sensitivity Analysis Approach to Identify Key Environmental Performance Factors

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Xi Yu ◽  
Aicha Sekhari ◽  
Antoine Nongaillard ◽  
Abdelaziz Bouras ◽  
Suiran Yu
Keyword(s):  
Sensitivity Analysis ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Product Life Cycle ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Emission ◽  
Circuit Board ◽  
Analysis Approach ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Performance Factors

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is widely used in design phase to reduce the product’s environmental impacts through the whole product life cycle (PLC) during the last two decades. The traditional LCA is restricted to assessing the environmental impacts of a product and the results cannot reflect the effects of changes within the life cycle. In order to improve the quality of ecodesign, it is a growing need to develop an approach which can reflect the changes between the design parameters and product’s environmental impacts. A sensitivity analysis approach based on LCA and ecodesign is proposed in this paper. The key environmental performance factors which have significant influence on the products’ environmental impacts can be identified by analyzing the relationship between environmental impacts and the design parameters. Users without much environmental knowledge can use this approach to determine which design parameter should be first considered when (re)designing a product. A printed circuit board (PCB) case study is conducted; eight design parameters are chosen to be analyzed by our approach. The result shows that the carbon dioxide emission during the PCB manufacture is highly sensitive to the area of PCB panel.

scholarly journals Life-Cycle Assessment of Sector-Coupled National Energy Systems: Environmental Impacts of Electricity, Heat, and Transportation in Germany Till 2050

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nils Baumgärtner ◽  
Sarah Deutz ◽  
Christiane Reinert ◽  
Niklas Nolzen ◽  
Lucas Elias Kuepper ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Mineral Resources ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Transport Processes ◽  
Freshwater Ecotoxicity ◽  
Full Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Models ◽  
High Emission

National energy models provide decarbonization strategies. Most national energy models focus on costs and greenhouse gas emissions only. However, this focus carries the risk that burdens shift to other environmental impacts. Energy models have therefore been extended by life-cycle assessment (LCA). Furthermore, deep decarbonization is only possible by targeting all high-emission sectors. Thus, we present a holistic national energy model that includes high-emission sectors and LCA. The model provides detailed environmental impacts for electricity, heat, and transport processes in Germany for meeting the climate targets up to 2050. Our results show that renewable energies and storage are key technologies for decarbonized energy systems. Furthermore, sector coupling is crucial and doubles electricity demand. Our LCA shows that environmental impacts shift from operation to infrastructure highlighting the importance of an impact assessment over the full life cycle. Decarbonization leads to many environmental cobenefits; however, it also increases freshwater ecotoxicity and depletion of metal and mineral resources. Thus, holistic planning of decarbonization strategies should also consider other environmental impacts.

scholarly journals Environmental Impacts Associated with Intensive Production in Pig Farms in Mexico through Life Cycle Assessment

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 11248
Author(s):  
Mario Rafael Giraldi-Díaz ◽  
Eduardo Castillo-González ◽  
Lorena De Medina-Salas ◽  
Raúl Velásquez-De la Cruz ◽  
Héctor Daniel Huerta-Silva
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Pig Slurry ◽  
Growth Phases ◽  
Product System ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment Methodology ◽  
Intensive Production ◽  
Pig Farm

In this research, environmental impacts associated with the intensive production of pigs on a farm in Mexico were determined through the application of life cycle assessment methodology. The research was focused on the following stages of the product system: (i) pig rearing and growth phases; (ii) production operations in the pig-house; (iii) the supply of feed. The life cycle inventory database was mainly made up of data collected in field visits to local farms. The functional unit was defined as one finished swine weighing 124 kg. The results for the selected impact categories of carbon, water, and energy footprints were 538.62 kg CO2eq, 21.34 m3, and 1773.79 MJ, respectively. The greatest impact was generated in the final stages of pig fattening, mainly due to the large quantity of feed supplied. The impacts caused by operation of the pig farm were less significant, their contribution in all cases was less than a third of the total quantified values. The energy conversion of pig slurry improves the environmental performance of the product system by reducing the carbon footprint.

Ecodesign Applied to Components Based on Sugarcane Fibers Composites

2010 ◽  
Vol 636-637 ◽  
pp. 226-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra M. Luz ◽  
Paulo M.C. Ferrão ◽  
C. Alves ◽  
M. Freitas ◽  
Armand Caldeira-Pires
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Sugarcane Bagasse ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Natural Fiber ◽  
Fiber Composites ◽  
Flexural Properties ◽  
Natural Fiber Composites ◽  
Technical Performance

This work evaluates the technical performance and environmental impacts, when sugarcane bagasse is applied as reinforcement of polypropylene in a component instead neat polypropylene (PP). To achieve the goals of this study, the tensile and flexural properties and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as a function of fiber content were performed. In addition, different end-of-life (EOL) options for natural fiber composites were proposed, including incineration, recycling (with economic reuse) and discharging (landfill). Besides the good mechanical properties, natural fiber composites showed great environmental performance during the entire life cycle, mainly in the cultivation phase, when sugarcane consumes carbon while growing, contributing to global warming decreases. As a conclusion, sugarcane bagasse fibers production results in lower environmental impacts compared to neat PP and the recycling with economic reuse of sugarcane bagasse-PP composite was the best alternative to minimize environmental impacts after the end-of-life.

scholarly journals Environmental Performance of Emerging Photovoltaic Technologies: Assessment of the Status Quo and Future Prospects Based on a Meta-Analysis of Life-Cycle Assessment Studies

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 4228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steffi Weyand ◽  
Carolin Wittich ◽  
Liselotte Schebek
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Functional Unit ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
The Status ◽  
Photovoltaic Technologies

Emerging photovoltaic technologies are expected to have lower environmental impacts during their life cycle due to their extremely thin-film technology and resulting material savings. The environmental impacts of four emerging photovoltaics were investigated based on a meta-analysis of life-cycle assessment (LCA) studies, comprising a systematic review and harmonization approach of five key indicators to describe the environmental status quo and future prospects. The status quo was analyzed based on a material-related functional unit of 1 watt-peak of the photovoltaic cell. For future prospects, the functional unit of 1 kWh of generated electricity was used, including assumptions on the use phase, notably on the lifetime. The results of the status quo show that organic photovoltaic technology is the most mature emerging photovoltaic technology with a competitive environmental performance, while perovskites have a low performance, attributed to the early stage of development and inefficient manufacturing on the laboratory scale. The results of future prospects identified improvements of efficiency, lifetime, and manufacturing with regard to environmental performance based on sensitivity and scenario analyses. The developed harmonization approach supports the use of LCA in the early stages of technology development in a structured way to reduce uncertainty and extract significant information during development.

scholarly journals Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Five Greek Yogurt Production Systems: A Perspective beyond the Plant Boundaries

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Houssard ◽  
Dominique Maxime ◽  
Scott Benoit ◽  
Yves Pouliot ◽  
Manuele Margni
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Dairy Product ◽  
Processing Plant ◽  
Technology Choice ◽  
Complete Life Cycle ◽  
Acid Whey

Greek yogurt (GY), a high-protein-low-fat dairy product, particularly prized for its sensory and nutritional benefits, revolutionized the North American yogurt market in less than a decade, bringing with it new sustainability challenges. The standard production of GY generates large volumes of acid whey, a co-product that is a potential source of environmental pollution if not recovered. This study aims to assess the environmental performance of different technologies and identify the main factors for improving GY production. A complete life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to compare the standard technology (centrifugation) with two new technologies (fortification and ultrafiltration) to reduce acid whey volumes. Three milk protein concentrate alternatives were also assessed. Results show that the technology choice is not a clear discriminant factor. However, minimizing losses and wastage (accounting for 23 to 25% of the environmental impacts for all indicators) beyond the processing plant and selecting milk ingredients (accounting for 63 to 67% of the impacts) with low environmental impacts are key factors in improving the environmental performance of GY systems. From a methodological perspective, the results also highlight a shortcoming in the current International Dairy Federation LCA guidelines (2015) for treating the multifunctionality of GY systems.

scholarly journals Permeable Pavements Life Cycle Assessment: A Literature Review

Water ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas Antunes ◽  
Enedir Ghisi ◽  
Liseane Thives
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Inventory Analysis ◽  
Permeable Pavements ◽  
Great Heterogeneity ◽  
Goal And Scope

The number of studies involving life cycle assessment has increased significantly in recent years. The life cycle assessment has been applied to assess the environmental performance of water infrastructures, including the environmental impacts associated with construction, maintenance and disposal, mainly evaluating the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the consumption of energy and natural resources. The objective of this paper is to present an overview of permeable pavements and show studies of life cycle assessment that compare the environmental performance of permeable pavements with traditional drainage systems. Although the studies found in the literature present an estimate of the sustainability of permeable pavements, the great heterogeneity in the evaluation methods and results is still notable. Therefore, it is necessary to homogenize the phases of goal and scope, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation. It is also necessary to define the phases and processes of the evaluation, as well as the minimum amount of data to be considered in the modelling of life cycle assessment, in order to avoid heterogeneity in the functional units and other components. Thus, more consistent results will lead to a real evaluation of the environmental impacts caused by permeable pavements. Life cycle assessment studies are essential to guide planning and decision-making, leading to systems that consider increasing water resources and reducing natural disasters and environmental impacts.

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