scholarly journals Life-cycle assessment of decentralized solutions for wastewater treatment in small communities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Lourenço ◽  
L. M. Nunes
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Activated Sludge ◽  
Constructed Wetlands ◽  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Standard Life ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This study benchmarks vermifiltration (VF) as secondary wastewater treatment in three nature-based decentralized treatment plants using life-cycle assessment. The comparison is justified by the comparatively easier and cheaper operation of VF when compared to more traditional technologies, including small rate infiltration (SRI), constructed wetlands (CW), and activated sludge (AS). Standard life cycle assessment was used and applied to three case studies located in southern Europe. Material intensity during construction was highest for VF, but impacts during operation were lower, compensating those of the other phases. Impacts during the construction phase far outweigh those of operation and dismantling for facilities using constructed wetlands and activated sludge, when the number of served inhabitants is small, and due to lack of economies of scale. VF used as secondary treatment was shown to contribute to reducing the environmental impacts, mainly in constructed wetlands and activated sludge. The replacement of CW by VF seems to bring important environmental benefits in most impact categories, in particular in the construction phase. The replacement by VF in facilities with SRI seems to result in the improvement of some of the impact categories, in particular in the operation phase. As for dismantling, no conclusive results were obtained.

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 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 Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Valuation of Biochar Production: Two Case Studies in Belgium

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 2166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Rajabi Hamedani ◽  
Tom Kuppens ◽  
Robert Malina ◽  
Enrico Bocci ◽  
Andrea Colantoni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Pig Manure ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Life Cycle Perspective ◽  
The Impact

It is unclear whether the production of biochar is economically feasible. As a consequence, firms do not often invest in biochar production plants. However, biochar production and application might be desirable from a societal perspective as it might entail net environmental benefits. Hence, the aim of this work has been to assess and monetize the environmental impacts of biochar production systems so that the environmental aspects can be integrated with the economic and social ones later on to quantify the total return for society. Therefore, a life cycle analysis (LCA) has been performed for two potential biochar production systems in Belgium based on two different feedstocks: (i) willow and (ii) pig manure. First, the environmental impacts of the two biochar production systems are assessed from a life cycle perspective, assuming one ton of biochar as the functional unit. Therefore, LCA using SimaPro software has been performed both on the midpoint and endpoint level. Biochar production from willow achieves better results compared to biochar from pig manure for all environmental impact categories considered. In a second step, monetary valuation has been applied to the LCA results in order to weigh environmental benefits against environmental costs using the Ecotax, Ecovalue, and Stepwise approach. Consequently, sensitivity analysis investigates the impact of variation in NPK savings and byproducts of the biochar production process on monetized life cycle assessment results. As a result, it is suggested that biochar production from willow is preferred to biochar production from pig manure from an environmental point of view. In future research, those monetized environmental impacts will be integrated within existing techno-economic models that calculate the financial viability from an investor’s point of view, so that the total return for society can be quantified and the preferred biochar production system from a societal point of view can be identified.

Life cycle assessment and costing of wastewater treatment systems coupled to constructed wetlands

2019 ◽  
Vol 148 ◽  
pp. 170-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana Dalia Resende ◽  
Marcelo Antunes Nolasco ◽  
Sérgio Almeida Pacca
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Constructed Wetlands ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Systems

A Life Cycle Assessment Study on a New Countertop Material

2021 ◽  
Vol 897 ◽  
pp. 137-142
Author(s):  
Luiza Silva ◽  
Elisabete Silva ◽  
Isabel Brás ◽  
Idalina Domingos ◽  
Dulcineia Wessel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Photochemical Oxidation ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Product Packaging ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Abiotic Depletion

The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is one of the most important analytical tools available to provide the scientific basis of engineering solutions for sustainability. The focus of this study was a LCA (cradle to gate) of a product intended to be used in countertops. The functional unit chosen was 1 m2 of finished panel (countertop) and the boundary system involved the study of raw materials and product packaging and the panel’s production process. The chosen method for impact assessment was EPD (2018) available in SimaPro PhD software and Acidification, Eutrophication, Global Warming, Photochemical Oxidation, Abiotic Depletion (elements), Abiotic Depletion (fossil fuels), Water Scarcity and Ozone Layer Depletion were the impact categories considered. Results showed that the panel’s manufacturing is the process that presented the highest influence in all categories analyzed ranging from 88% on Abiotic Depletion to approximately 101% on Water Scarcity. Polyvinylchloride (PVC) is the greatest contributors to all impact categories except to Photochemical Oxidation that is the Polyester.

scholarly journals End-of-Life Tyres: Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Treatment Scenarios

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 3599
Author(s):  
Isabella Bianco ◽  
Deborah Panepinto ◽  
Mariachiara Zanetti
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Energy Recovery ◽  
Environmental Concern ◽  
Crumb Rubber ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Bituminous Mixtures ◽  
Waste Tyres ◽  
The Impact

Waste tyres and their accumulation is a global environmental concern; they are not biodegradable, and, globally, an estimated 1.5 billion are generated annually. Every year around 350,000 tons of end-of-life tyres (ELT) are managed in Italy, collected from cars, two-wheeled vehicles, trucks, up to large quarry vehicles and agricultural vehicles. ELTs are collected and sent for material or energy recovery, in line with the circular economy principles. This paper investigates the environmental impacts of two common scenarios of ELT treatments. Specifically, it is analysed the recycling of crumb rubber (CR, deriving from the tyre shredding) for the composition of bituminous mixtures for the wearing course of roads. This scenario is compared with the energy recovery route in a dedicated incinerator. To this aim the standardised methodology of Life Cycle Assessment (ISO 14040-44) is employed. Results shows that for most part of the impact categories analysed, the material recovery presents higher environmental benefits if compared with energy recovery.

scholarly journals Sustainability Estimation of Oat:Pea Intercrops from the Agricultural Life Cycle Assessment Perspective

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 2433
Author(s):  
Jaroslav Bernas ◽  
Tereza Bernasová ◽  
Hans-Peter Kaul ◽  
Helmut Wagentristl ◽  
Gerhard Moitzi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Farming System ◽  
N Fertilization ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Yield Level ◽  
N Yield ◽  
Arable Farming ◽  
The Impact

Winter cereal:legume intercropping is considered a sustainable arable farming system not only in temperate regions but also in Mediterranean environments. Previous studies have shown that with suitable crop stand composition, high grain yield can be achieved. In this study, a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the influence of sowing ratio and nitrogen (N) fertilization on grain nitrogen yield of oat (Avena sativa L.) and pea (Pisum sativum L.) in intercrops was performed to find the optimal design to achieve low environmental impact. This study compared the environmental impact of oat:pea intercrops using agricultural LCA. Monocrops of oat and pea and substitutive intercrops, which were fertilized with different levels of N, were compared. The system boundaries included all the processes from cradle to farm gate. Mass-based (grain N yield) and area-based (land demand for generating the same grain N yield) functional units were used. The results covered the impact categories related to the agricultural LCAs. The ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint and Endpoint characterization model was used for the data expression. According to the results, an unfertilized combination of oat and pea (50%:50%) had the lowest environmental impact in comparison with the other 14 assessed variants and selected impact categories. In the assessed framework, pea monocrops or intensively fertilized oat monocrops can also be considered as alternatives with relatively low impact on the environment. However, an appropriate grain N yield must be reached to balance the environmental impact resulting from the fertilizer inputs. The production and use of fertilizers had the greatest impact on the environment within the impact categories climate change, eutrophication, and ecotoxicity. The results indicated that high fertilizer inputs did not necessarily cause the highest environmental impact. In this respect, the achieved grain N yield level, the choice of allocation approach, the functional unit, and the data expression approach played dominant roles.

scholarly journals Investigating the wastewater treatment system of the Tehran Oil Industry Research Institute using the Life Cycle Assessment Method

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Afsaneh Eskandari Ashgofti ◽  
Maryam Morovati ◽  
Ebrahim Alaiee ◽  
Kamelia Alavi
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Industrial Effluent ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Industrial Effluents ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Research Institute

Introduction: Due to population growth and subsequent limited water resources, the use of treatment plant effluents is of particular importance. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify the environmental effects of the treatment plant and also to identify critical points or weaknesses of the treatment plant system and provide corrective action to reduce the severity of the effects.  Methods: After visiting the research institute and collecting data (during the years 2017-2018), the energy, consuming materials and output of the system were calculated using the life cycle assessment method. Finally, information on the spread of pollution and consumption was included in the list of index effects. To analyze the obtained information, Simapro software (using ILCD 2011 Midpoint V1.03 method) version 8.5.0.0. was applied. Results: Based on the research findings, the software depicted the evaluation of the effects in 13 categories and all the information entered in the software according to the impact, has participated in each category of effects, the most effective factors related to chloride, energy consumption and oil. Conclusion: The results of this study show that the main critical point identified in the treatment plant is related to electricity and the sanitary effluent is in a worse condition than the industrial effluent. However, the environmental impact of industrial effluents should not be neglected. Due to the fact that the MBR method is considered as one of the best methods of wastewater treatment, it is not recommended to change the treatment method, but with continuous monitoring and management of the system, it is possible to reduce the consumption of raw materials.

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