scholarly journals Influence of Waste Management on the Environmental Footprint of Electricity Produced by Photovoltaic Systems

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 2146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sina Herceg ◽  
Sebastián Pinto Bautista ◽  
Karl-Anders Weiß
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Photovoltaic Systems ◽  
Lca Methodology ◽  
Environmental Footprint ◽  
Photovoltaic Technologies

PV waste management will gain relevance proportionally to the amounts of waste that are expected to arise with the phasing-out of old installations in the upcoming years and decades. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology is used here to analyze the environmental performance of photovoltaic systems and the waste management methods that have been developed recently. Several LCA studies have already been performed for PV technologies, but in most cases these do not include the end of life stage, thus there is still uncertainty about the impacts of recycling on the environmental footprint of PV electricity. The present study offers a more detailed analysis of different end-of-life approaches for the main photovoltaic technologies that are found on the market. The results from the analysis demonstrate that recycling has the potential to improve the environmental profile of PV electricity but at the same time there is room for further improvements in developing dedicated recycling technologies.

scholarly journals Reuse of bituminous pavements: A mini-review of research, regulations and modelling

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 357-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joke Anthonissen ◽  
Wim Van den bergh ◽  
Johan Braet
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Asphalt Pavement ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Life Cycle Stage ◽  
Supplementary Information ◽  
Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement ◽  
Reclaimed Asphalt ◽  
Bituminous Mixtures

Bituminous pavement can be recycled – even multiple times – by reusing it in new bituminous mixtures. If the mechanical properties of the binder get worse, this reclaimed asphalt is often used in the sub-structure of the road. Apparently, up till now, no end-of-life phase exists for the material. Actually, defining the end-of-life and the end-of-waste stage of a material is important for life cycle assessment modelling. Various standards and scientific studies on modelling life cycle assessment are known, but the crucial stages are not yet defined for reclaimed asphalt pavement. Unlike for iron, steel and aluminium scrap, at this moment, no legislative end-of-waste criteria for aggregates are formulated by the European Commission. More research is necessary in order to develop valuable end-of-life criteria for aggregates. This contribution is a mini-review article of the current regulations, standards and studies concerning end-of-life and end-of-waste of reclaimed asphalt pavement. The existing methodology in order to define end-of-waste criteria, a case study on aggregates and the argumentation used in finished legislative criteria are the basis to clarify some modelling issues for reclaimed asphalt material. Hence, this contribution elucidates the assignment of process environmental impacts to a life cycle stage as defined by EN15804, that is, end-of-life stage (C) and the supplementary information Module D with benefits and loads beyond the system boundary.

scholarly journals Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Biogas as a Fuel for Transport Compared with Alternative Fuels

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kari-Anne Lyng ◽  
Andreas Brekke
Keyword(s):  
Sensitivity Analysis ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Alternative Fuels ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Lca Methodology ◽  
Environmental Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Environmental Impact Categories ◽  
Bus Transport

Upgraded biogas, also known as biomethane, is increasingly being used as a fuel for transport in several countries and is regarded as an environmentally beneficial option. There are, nevertheless, few studies documenting the environmental impacts of biogas as a transport fuel compared with the alternatives on the market. In this study, life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was applied to compare the environmental performance of biogas used as a fuel for bus transport with natural gas, electricity fueled buses, biodiesel, and fossil diesel. A sensitivity analysis was performed for the biogas alternative to assess the importance of the underlying assumptions. The results show that biogas has a relatively low contribution to the environmental impact categories assessed. Emissions of greenhouse gases are dependent on assumptions such as system boundaries, transport distances and methane leakages.

scholarly journals A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Meat Trays Made of Various Packaging Materials

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (19) ◽  
pp. 5324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Maga ◽  
Markus Hiebel ◽  
Venkat Aryan
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Polyethylene Terephthalate ◽  
Environmental Assessment ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Resource Depletion ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
Ethylene Vinyl Alcohol

In light of the debate on the circular economy, the EU strategy for plastics, and several national regulations, such as the German Packaging Act, polymeric foam materials as well as hybrid packaging (multilayered plastic) are now in focus. To understand the environmental impacts of various tray solutions for meat packaging, a comparative environmental assessment was conducted. As an environmental assessment method, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was applied following the ISO standards 14040/44. The nine packaging solutions investigated were: PS-based trays (extruded polystyrene and extruded polystyrene with five-layered structure containing ethylene vinyl alcohol), PET-based trays (recycled polyethylene terephthalate, with and without polyethylene layer, and amorphous polyethylene terephthalate), polypropylene (PP) and polylactic acid (PLA). The scope of the LCA study included the production of the tray and the end-of-life stage. The production of meat, the filling of the tray with meat and the tray sealing were not taken into account. The results show that the PS-based trays, especially the mono material solutions made of extruded polystyrene (XPS), show the lowest environmental impact across all 12 impact categories except for resource depletion. Multilayer products exhibit higher environmental impacts. The LCA also shows that the end-of-life stage has an important influence on the environmental performance of trays. However, the production of the trays dominates the overall results. Furthermore, the sensitivity analysis illustrates that, even if higher recycling rates were realised in the future, XPS based solutions would still outperform the rest from an environmental perspective.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of biobased packaging solutions for Extended Shelf-Life (ESL) milk

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Cappiello ◽  
Clizia Aversa ◽  
Annalisa Genovesi ◽  
Massimiliano Barletta
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Shelf Life ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Packaging System ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Total Impact ◽  
Glass Packaging ◽  
Freshwater Eutrophication

Abstract The dairy market is one of the most important sectors worldwide and milk packaging contributes to over one third of the global dairy packaging demand. The end-of-life of the disposable packages is a critical stage of their life cycle, as demonstrated by the fact that disposable bottles are one of the litter items that are most found on beach shores. The aim of this paper is to analyse the performance of Bio-plastic bottles compared to other alternatives currently in use in the milk packaging sector, using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. Bio-compostable plastic can be a powerful means to create a circular economy for disposable items. A PLA-based bottle is compared to a PET bottle, a HDPE bottle, a Multilayer carton and a Glass bottle. In the analysis, also secondary and tertiary packaging is included. The functional unit chosen is “the packaging needed to contain 1 litre of ESL milk and to guarantee a shelf life of 30 days”. Two sensitivity analysis are also performed in order to assess the influence of the end-of-life stage on the total impact. The results show that Bioplastic system has a better performance than fossil-based systems and Multilayer carton in the categories of Climate Change, Ozone Depletion, Human toxicity and Freshwater Eutrophication. The recycling scenario strongly changes the impact of the Glass packaging system in the considered categories.

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 lithium-ion capacitors production from primary ore and recycled minerals

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter I. Chigada ◽  
Olivia Wale ◽  
Charlotte Hancox ◽  
Koen Vandaele ◽  
Barbara Breeze ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Product Life Cycle ◽  
Lithium Ion ◽  
Lca Methodology ◽  
Bottom Line ◽  
Recycled Materials ◽  
Lithium Ion Capacitor

The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology which allows quantification of environmental performance of products and processes based on complete product life cycle was utilised to evaluate the environmental burdens associated with manufacturing a 48 V lithium-ion capacitor (LIC) module. The prospective LCA compared the environmental impact of manufacturing a LIC module using primary ore materials and recycled materials from end-of-life LICs. For both the primary ore and recycled materials processes, the anode preparation stage was associated with the majority of the climate change and terrestrial acidification burdens. LIC module production utilising recovered materials from end-of-life LICs reduced the environmental impact compared to utilisation of primary ore resources. Application of the LCA methodology in early phase R&D activities was demonstrated with a case study on reagent choice decision-making process that accounted for environmental impact, technical performance and costs in alignment with the sustainability triple bottom line concept.

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