scholarly journals Comparative life cycle assessment of four commonly used point-of-use water treatment technologies

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 862-873
Author(s):  
Tara Walsh ◽  
Jonathan Mellor
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Global Warming Potential ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Boiling Water ◽  
Point Of Use

Abstract Across the globe, billions of people lack access to safe drinking water. Many different point-of-use (POU) technologies have been developed that significantly reduce the disease-causing pathogens found in untreated water. With many different technologies available, it can be difficult to choose which technology to implement in specific areas. Beyond the cost of each technology, the environmental impacts could bring additional harm to a community. Life cycle assessments (LCAs) are used to make comparisons across different technologies. This study uses an LCA to compare boiling water, ceramic water filters, BioSand filters and POU chlorination as treatment options in the rural community of Thohoyandou, Limpopo Province, South Africa utilizing previously published, open-access data. Global warming potential, water use, energy use, smog formation, particulate matter and land use are the studied environmental impacts. Results found that boiling had the most impact on energy use, global warming potential, smog and land use; chlorination had the greatest impact on particulate matter and water use. A cost comparison found boiling water to be most expensive at 0.053 USD per liter and chlorination to be least expensive at 0.0005 USD per liter.

scholarly journals Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Steel and Concrete Construction Frames: A Case Study of Two Residential Buildings in Iran

Buildings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Amir Oladazimi ◽  
Saeed Mansour ◽  
Seyed Abbas Hosseinijou
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Global Warming Potential ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Steel Frame ◽  
Complete Analysis ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Concrete Frame

Given the fact that during the recent years the majority of buildings in Iran have been constructed either on steel or concrete frames, it is essential to investigate the environmental impacts of materials used in such constructions. For this purpose, two multi-story residential buildings in Tehran with a similar function have been considered in this study. One building was constructed with a steel frame and the other was constructed with a concrete frame. Using the life cycle assessment tool, a complete analysis of all the stages of a building’s life cycle from raw material acquisition to demolition and recycling of wastes was carried out. In this research, the environmental impacts included global warming potential in 100 years, acidification, eutrophication potential, human toxicity (cancer and non-cancer effects), resource depletion (water and mineral), climate change, fossil fuel consumption, air acidification and biotoxicity. It could be concluded from the results that the total pollution of the concrete frame in all eleven aforementioned impact factors was almost 219,000 tonnes higher than that of the steel frame. Moreover, based on the results, the concrete frame had poorer performance in all but one impact factor. With respect to global warming potential, the findings indicated there were two types of organic and non-organic gases that had an impact on global warming. Among non-organic emissions, CO2 had the biggest contribution to global warming potential, while among organic emissions, methane was the top contributor. These findings suggest the use of steel frames in the building industry in Iran to prevent further environmental damage; however, in the future, more research studies in this area are needed to completely investigate all aspects of decision on the choice of building frames, including economic and social aspects.

scholarly journals Environmental Impacts Evaluation of Sorbitol Production from Glucose

Eksergi ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rifkah Akmalina
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Global Warming Potential ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Electricity Consumption ◽  
Sustainable Improvement ◽  
Photochemical Oxidants ◽  
Main Consumer

A life cycle assessment (LCA) has been performed on sorbitol production from glucose, which aims to quantify and evaluate the environmental impacts that produced from the process. SuperPro Designer software was employed to perform the process simulation, while SimaPro was used to quantify the LCA.Potency of global warming, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical oxidants creation, abiotic depletion, and ozone layer depletion were evaluated. A gate-to-gate LCA study of sorbitol production showed that global warming potential (GWP) had the largest impact to environment with the value of 3.551 kg CO2 eq/kg sorbitol. Glucose and electricity consumption were known as two major contributors to GWP, and hydrogen reactor was the main consumer of electricity. The use of glucose were responsible for more than 50% of total environmentalimpact in each category. Performing heat integration in sorbitol processing is highly recommended for gate-togate system to reduce energy demand, thus decreasing the environmental impacts. Therefore, this LCA study may be applied to perform a sustainable improvement on sorbitol production process.Keywords: sorbitol; life cycle assessment; global warming potential

scholarly journals Disposable Medical Masks: Environmental Costs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
BURÇİN ATILGAN TÜRKMEN
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Global Warming Potential ◽  
Functional Unit ◽  
Environmental Costs ◽  
Inventory Data

Abstract A massive increase in the use and production of masks worldwide has been seen in the current COVID-19 pandemic, which has contributed to reducing the transmission of the virus globally. This paper aims to evaluate the environmental impacts of disposable medical masks using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method, first for the selected functional unit related to the manufacturing of one disposable medical mask and then for the global manufacturing of this type of mask in 2020. The inventory data was constructed directly from the industry. The system boundaries include the fabric, nose wire, and ear loops parts, transportation of materials, body making, ultrasonic vending, and packaging steps. The results suggest that the global warming potential of a disposable medical mask is 0.02 g CO2-Eq. for which the main contributor is the packaging step (44%) followed by the life cycle of fabric (27%), and nose wire (14%) parts. In total, 52 billion disposable medical masks used worldwide consumes 25 TJ of energy in 2020. The global warming potential of disposable medical masks supplied in a year of the COVID-19 pandemic is 1.1 Mt CO2 eq., equivalent to around 1.3 billion return flights from Istanbul to New York. This paper assessed the hotspots in the medical mask, allowing for a significant reduction in the environmental impact of mask use. This can be used as a roadmap for future mask designs.

Comparative process-based life-cycle assessment of bioconcrete and conventional concrete

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 667-688 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milad Soleimani ◽  
Mohsen Shahandashti
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Global Warming Potential ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Human Toxicity ◽  
Conventional Concrete ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cradle To Gate

Purpose Bioconcrete is widely believed to be environmentally beneficial over conventional concrete. However, the process of bioconcrete production involves several steps, such as waste recovery and treatment, that potentially present significant environmental impacts. Existing life-cycle assessments of bioconcrete are limited in the inventory and impact analysis; therefore, they do not consider all the steps involved in concrete production and the corresponding impacts. The purpose of this study is to extensively study the cradle-to-gate environmental impacts of all the production stages of two most common bioconcrete types (i.e. sludge-based bioconcrete and cement kiln dust-rice husk ash (CKD-RHA) bioconcrete) as opposed to conventional concrete. Design/methodology/approach A cradle-to-gate life-cycle assessment process model is implemented to systematically analyze and quantify the resources consumed and the environmental impacts caused by the production of bioconcrete as opposed to the production of conventional concrete. The impacts analyzed in this assessment include global warming potential, ozone depletion potential, eutrophication, acidification, ecotoxicity, smog, fossil fuel use, human toxicity, particulate air and water consumption. Findings The results indicated that sludge-based bioconcrete had higher levels of global warming potential, eutrophication, acidification, ecotoxicity, fossil fuel use, human toxicity and particulate air than both conventional concrete and CKD-RHA bioconcrete. Originality/value The contribution of this study to the state of knowledge is that it sheds light on the hidden impacts of bioconcrete. The contribution to the state of practice is that the results of this study inform the bioconcrete production designers about the production processes with the highest impact.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007: Ethanol—Global Warming Potential and Environmental Emissions

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Garvin A. Heath ◽  
David D. Hsu ◽  
Daniel Inman ◽  
Andy Aden ◽  
Margaret K. Mann
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Global Warming Potential ◽  
Corn Starch ◽  
The United States ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Mitigation ◽  
Energy Independence

Strategies to reduce the dependence of the United States on foreign oil, increase the use of renewable energy, and lessen the contribution to global warming have received significant attention. National adoption of such strategies could significantly impact America’s economy and security as well as global climate change. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) mandates specific renewable energy market penetration targets for the year 2022 [1]. For liquid transportation fuels, the 2022 EISA mandate is 36 billion gallons per year (bgy) of biofuel, of which 21 bgy must come from feedstocks other than corn starch. Despite this legal mandate for renewable biofuels, many questions remain unanswered with regard to the potential environmental effects of such a large increase in the production and use of biofuels. In addition to specifying volumetric standards for these renewable fuels, EISA establishes greenhouse gas mitigation standards. The objective of this study is to use life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate the global warming potential (GWP), water use, and net energy value (NEV) associated with the EISA-mandated 16 bgy cellulosic biofuels target, which is assumed in this study to be met by cellulosic-based ethanol, and the EISA-mandated 15 bgy conventional corn ethanol target. Specifically, this study compares, on a per-kilometer-driven basis, the GWP, water use, and NEV for the year 2022 for several biomass feedstocks.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of Aquaculture Stewardship Council Certified Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar)

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 6079 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Sherry ◽  
Jennifer Koester
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Salmo Salar ◽  
Global Warming Potential ◽  
Ozone Depletion ◽  
Salmon Aquaculture ◽  
Certification Standards

Salmon aquaculture has grown rapidly and is expected to continue to grow to meet consumer demand. Due to concerns about the environmental impacts associated with salmon aquaculture, eco-labeling groups have developed standards intended to hold salmon producers accountable and provide a more sustainable option to consumers. This study utilized life cycle assessment (LCA) to quantify the environmental impacts of salmon raised to Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certification standards in order to determine if ASC certification achieves the intended reductions in impact. We find that environmental impacts, such as global warming potential, do not decrease with certification. We also find that salmon feed, in contrast to the on-site aquaculture practices, dominates the environmental impacts of salmon aquaculture and contributes to over 80% of impacts in ozone depletion, global warming potential, acidification, and ecotoxicity. Based on these findings, we recommend that eco-labeling groups prioritize reducing the environmental impacts of the feed supply chain.

scholarly journals KAJIAN DAMPAK LINGKUNGAN PENERAPAN TEKNOLOGI BIOFLOK PADA KEGIATAN BUDIDAYA UDANG VANAME DENGAN METODE LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 110
Author(s):  
M Ma'in ◽  
Sutrisno Anggoro ◽  
Setia Budi Sasongko
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Global Warming Potential ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Cumulative Energy ◽  
Gate Unit

ABSTRAKPenerapan teknologi bioflok pada kegiatan budidaya vaname perlu dievaluasi, terkaitpenggunaan sumberdaya alam dan energi listrik yang berpotensi mengakibatkan dampaklingkungan disertai biaya investasi yang tinggi. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah menganalisisdampak lingkungan dan menentukan strategi pengelolaan budidaya udang berbasis teknologibioflok. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian deskriptif kuantitatif dengan menggunakanmetode penaksiran daur hidup. Kajian dibatasi pada kegiatan pembesaran di tambak “cradleto farm gate”, unit yang digunakan adalah produksi 1 ton udang vaname. Hasil penelitian inimenunjukkan teknologi bioflok mampu meningkatkan produksi per satuan luas lahan yangdigunakan dengan ukuran panen ± 16,4 gr/ekor, nilai FCR 1,3, SR 86 - 92%, dan SGR 15,6%.Produksi per ton udang vaname menghasilkan dampak: acidification (Acd); 63.39 ± 15.37 kgSO2eq, eutrophication (Eut); 14.10 ± 3.28 kg PO4eq, ; global warming potential (GWP); 7336.77± 1,46 kg CO2eq, ; dan cumulative energy use (CEU) sebesar 101,64 ± 18.84 GJ. Strategipengelolaan perlu dilakukan dengan perbaikan manajemen pemberian pakan berbasis kualitasair, pengurangan konsumsi energi listrik, menerapkan panen bertahap dan menambahkankolam pengolahan limbah.Kata Kunci : kajian, lingkungan, bioflok, budidaya udang,

scholarly journals Modeling Global Warming Potential, Variable Costs, and Water Use of Young Plant Production System Components Using Life Cycle Assessment

HortScience ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (10) ◽  
pp. 1356-1361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dewayne L. Ingram ◽  
Charles R. Hall ◽  
Joshua Knight
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Global Warming Potential ◽  
Natural Ventilation ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Plant Production ◽  
Foliage Plants ◽  
Heating And Cooling

The components for two production systems for young foliage plants in 72-count propagation trays were analyzed using life cycle assessment (LCA) procedures. The systems differed by greenhouse type, bench size and arrangement, rainwater capture, and irrigation/fertilization methods. System A was modeled as a gutter-connected, rounded-arch greenhouse without a ridge vent and covered with double-layer polyethylene, and the plants were fertigated through sprinklers on stationary benches. System B was modeled as a more modern gutter-connected, Dutch-style greenhouse using natural ventilation, and moveable, ebb-flood production tables. Inventories of input products, equipment use, and labor were generated from the protocols for those scenarios and a LCA was conducted to determine impacts on the respective greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and the subsequent carbon footprint (CF) of foliage plants at the farm gate. CF is expressed in global warming potential for a 100-year period (GWP) in units of kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents (kg CO2e). The GWP of the 72-count trays were calculated as 4.225 and 2.276 kg CO2e with variable costs of $25.251 and $24.857 for trays of foliage plants grown using Systems A and B, respectively. The GWP of most inputs and processes were similar between the two systems. Generally, the more modern greenhouse in System B was more efficient in terms of space use for production, heating and cooling, fertilization, and water use. While overhead costs were not measured, these differences in efficiency would also help to offset any increases in overhead costs per square foot associated with higher-cost, more modern greenhouse facilities. Thus, growers should consider the gains in efficiency and their influences on CF, variable costs (and overhead costs) when making future decisions regarding investment in greenhouse structures.

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