Life Cycle Assessment for Long-term Production Operation

This paper presents an environmental impact assessment of the entire cycle of existence of the tube-vacuum solar collector prototype. The innovativeness of the solution involved using a phase change material as a heat-storing material, which was placed inside the collector’s tubes-vacuum. The PCM used in this study was paraffin. The system boundaries contained three phases: production, operation (use phase), and disposal. An ecological life cycle assessment was carried out using the SimaPro software. To compare the environmental impact of heat storage, the amount of heat generated for 15 years, starting from the beginning of a solar installation for preparing domestic hot water for a single-family residential building, was considered the functional unit. Assuming comparable production methods for individual elements of the ETC and waste management scenarios, the reduction in harmful effects on the environment by introducing a PCM that stores heat inside the ETC ranges from 17 to 24%. The performed analyses have also shown that the method itself of manufacturing the materials used for the construction of the solar collector and the choice of the scenario of the disposal of waste during decommissioning the solar collector all play an important role in its environmental assessment. With an increase in the application of the advanced technologies of materials manufacturing and an increase in the amount of waste subjected to recycling, the degree of the solar collector’s environmental impact decreased by 82% compared to its standard manufacture and disposal.

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Application of Plastic Wastes in Construction Materials: A Review Using the Concept of Life-Cycle Assessment in the Context of Recent Research for Future Perspectives

Materials ◽

10.3390/ma14133549 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (13) ◽

pp. 3549

Author(s):

Tulane Rodrigues da Silva ◽

Afonso Rangel Garcez de Azevedo ◽

Daiane Cecchin ◽

Markssuel Teixeira Marvila ◽

Mugahed Amran ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Solid Waste ◽

Building Materials ◽

Construction Materials ◽

Plastic Waste ◽

Plastic Wastes ◽

Solid Waste Generation ◽

Alternative Processes

The urbanization process contributes to the growth of solid waste generation and causes an increase in environmental impacts and failures in the management of solid waste. The number of dumps is a concern due to the limited implementation and safe disposal of this waste. The interest in sustainable techniques has been growing in relation to waste management, which is largely absorbed by the civil construction sector. This work aimed to review plastic waste, especially polyethylene terephthalate (PET), that can be incorporated with construction materials, such as concrete, mortars, asphalt mixtures, and paving. The use of life-cycle assessment (LCA) is related, as a tool that allows the sustainability of products and processes to be enhanced in the long term. After analyzing the recent literature, it was identified that studies related to plastic wastes in construction materials concentrate sustainability around the alternative destination of waste. Since the plastic waste from different production chains are obtained, it was possible to affirm the need for a broader assessment, such as the LCA, providing greater quantification of data making the alternative processes and products more sustainable. The study contributes to enhance sustainability in alternative building materials through LCA.

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Environmental Impact of Subsidy Concepts for Stimulating Car Sales in Germany

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su122310037 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (23) ◽

pp. 10037

Author(s):

Malte Scharf ◽

Ludger Heide ◽

Alexander Grahle ◽

Anne Magdalene Syré ◽

Dietmar Göhlich

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Co2 Emissions ◽

Electric Vehicles ◽

Balance Model ◽

Ecological Efficiency ◽

Battery Electric Vehicles ◽

Time Period ◽

Car Sales

In 2020, vehicle sales decreased dramatically due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, several voices have demanded a vehicle subsidy similar to the “environmental subsidy” in Germany in 2009. The ecological efficiency of vehicle subsidies is controversially discussed. This paper establishes a prognosis of the long-term environmental impacts of various car subsidy concepts. The CO2 emissions of the German car fleet impacted by the purchase subsidies are determined. A balance model of the CO2 emissions of the whole car life cycle is developed. The implementation of different subsidy scenarios directly affects the forecasted composition of the vehicle population and, therefore, the resulting life-cycle assessment. All scenarios compensate the additional emissions required by the production pull-in within the considered period and, hence, reduce the accumulated CO2 emissions until 2030. In the time period 2019–2030 and for a total number of 0.72 million subsidized vehicles—compensating the decrease due to the COVID-19 pandemic—savings of between 1.31 and 7.56 million t CO2 eq. are generated compared to the scenario without a subsidy. The exclusive funding of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) is most effective, with an ecological break-even in 2025.

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Reproduction impairment and endocrine disruption in female zebrafish after long-term exposure to MC-LR: A life cycle assessment

Environmental Pollution ◽

10.1016/j.envpol.2015.10.018 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 208 ◽

pp. 477-485 ◽

Cited By ~ 35

Author(s):

Jie Hou ◽

Li Li ◽

Ning Wu ◽

Yujing Su ◽

Wang Lin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Endocrine Disruption ◽

Female Zebrafish

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A Software Tool for a Stochastic Life Cycle Assessment and Costing of Buildings’ Energy Efficiency Measures

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13147975 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (14) ◽

pp. 7975

Author(s):

Edoardo Baldoni ◽

Silvia Coderoni ◽

Elisa Di Giuseppe ◽

Marco D’Orazio ◽

Roberto Esposti ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficiency ◽

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Performance ◽

Software Tool ◽

Investment Projects ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Efficiency Measures ◽

Support Decision Making

This article presents a novel software tool for the assessments of life-cycle environmental impacts and costs, which is aimed to support decision-making in the design phase of retrofit interventions in the building sector. By combining Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) calculations and functionalities, this tool allows evaluating the long-term trade-offs between economic and environmental performance of investment projects in energy efficiency for buildings, while accounting for uncertainties in input parameters and economic scenarios. A major novelty of the software tool is the stochastic nature of both the LCC and LCA dimensions. The LCA is implemented with Monte-Carlo methods, while the LCC accounts for the probabilistic interdependence of macroeconomic variables over time. The software also includes advanced specific tools for parametrization and sensitivity analysis. Exemplary applications are presented in order to illustrate the novelty and the functionalities of the software tool.

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Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Business. An overview on drivers, applications, issues and future perspectives.

Global NEST Journal ◽

10.30955/gnj.000151 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 1 (3) ◽

pp. 185-194

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Research Effort ◽

Life Cycle Thinking ◽

Environmental Aspects ◽

Cultural Approach ◽

Considerable Research ◽

Business Departments ◽

A Company

In recent years, a considerable research effort has been devoted to Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA). However, most of the work has been focusing on improving the methodology as such and providing guidelines for carrying out LCA studies. Much less effort has been dedicated to the exploration and analysis of the applications of LCA within the actual context of business. Which are the drivers for starting LCA activities in a company? Which are the main applications? Which business departments are involved? This is the kind of questions addressed by the present paper. The paper reports the results of a survey about the use of LCA in business in four selected European Countries, namely Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland. 1600 questionnaires have been sent out to selected companies in the four countries. As expected, there are considerable differences between countries because of a different level of environmental awareness. However, there are some main common results. The first one is that the cultural approach of Life-Cycle-Thinking is spreading out, but not yet the tool. LCA is not yet used as a routine tool for assessing environmental aspects of product innovation and it is still rather employed in a retrospective way than in a prospective one. Benefits of LCA are considered to be rather long-term ones. On the other hand, the large majority of firms is optimistic about the future use of LCA, most likely linked together with other instruments.

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