Bio-Based Polyisoprene Can Mitigate Climate Change and Deforestation in Expanding Rubber Production

Biomass is a promising renewable feedstock to produce polyisoprene for the rubber industry. Through metabolic engineering, sugars derived from pretreated and hydrolyzed cellulose and hemicellulose can be directly fermented to isoprene to produce rubber. Here we investigate the life cycle environmental impact of isoprene fermentation to produce bio-polyisoprene from agricultural residues (of Zea mays L.). Results show that the greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of bio-polyisoprene (−4.59 kg CO2e kg−1) is significantly lower than that of natural rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) and synthetic rubber (−0.79 and 2.41 kg CO2e kg−1, respectively), while supporting a circular biogenic carbon economy. We found the land use intensity of bio-polyisoprene to be 0.25 ha metric ton−1, which is 84% lower than that from rubber tree plantations. We compare the direct fermentation to isoprene results with indirect fermentation to isoprene through the intermediate, methyl butyl ether, where dehydration to isoprene is required. The direct fermentation of isoprene reduces reaction steps and unit operations, an expected outcome when employing process intensification, but our results show additional energy conservation and reduced contribution to climate change. Among the ReCiPe life cycle environmental impact metrics evaluated, air emission related impacts are high for bio-polyisoprene compared to those for natural and synthetic rubber. Those impacts can be reduced with air emission controls during production. All other metrics showed an improvement for bio-polyisoprene compared to natural and synthetic rubber.

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Excellent environmental performance of beet sugar production in the Netherlands

Sugar Industry ◽

10.36961/si24156 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 161-165

Author(s):

Bertram de Crom ◽

Jasper Scholten ◽

Janjoris van Diepen

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Land Use ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Water Consumption ◽

Environmental Performance ◽

Cane Sugar ◽

Sugar Production ◽

Beet Sugar ◽

Glucose Syrup

To get more insight in the environmental performance of the Suiker Unie beet sugar, Blonk Consultants performed a comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study on beet sugar, cane sugar and glucose syrup. The system boundaries of the sugar life cycle are set from cradle to regional storage at the Dutch market. For this study 8 different scenarios were evaluated. The first scenario is the actual sugar production at Suiker Unie. Scenario 2 until 7 are different cane sugar scenarios (different countries of origin, surplus electricity production and pre-harvest burning of leaves are considered). Scenario 8 concerns the glucose syrup scenario. An important factor in the environmental impact of 1kg of sugar is the sugar yield per ha. Total sugar yield per ha differs from 9t/ha sugar for sugarcane to 15t/ha sugar for sugar beet (in 2017). Main conclusion is that the production of beet sugar at Suiker Unie has in general a lower impact on climate change, fine particulate matter, land use and water consumption, compared to cane sugar production (in Brazil and India) and glucose syrup. The impact of cane sugar production on climate change and water consumption is highly dependent on the country of origin, especially when land use change is taken into account. The environmental impact of sugar production is highly dependent on the co-production of bioenergy, both for beet and cane sugar.

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An Investigation into the Environmental Impact of Product Recovery Methods to Support Sustainable Manufacturing within Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)

Dynamic Methods and Process Advancements in Mechanical, Manufacturing, and Materials Engineering ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-1867-1.ch004 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 73-90

Author(s):

Michaela R. Appleby ◽

Chris G. Lambert ◽

Allan E. W. Rennie ◽

Adam B. Buckley

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Carbon Footprint ◽

Sustainable Manufacturing ◽

Product Recovery ◽

Waste Hierarchy ◽

Government Legislation ◽

Lower Carbon ◽

Recovery Methods

The effects of climate change and government legislation has changed the way in which manufacturers can dispose of their waste, encouraging SMEs to source alternative disposal methods such as those indicated in the waste hierarchy. It is economically and environmentally beneficial to use product recovery methods to divert waste from landfill. The environmental impact of two product recovery methods, remanufacturing and repairing, has been compared via a carbon footprint calculation for a UK-based SME. The calculation has identified that repairing has a lower carbon footprint than remanufacturing, however this only extends the original life-cycle of the product, whereas remanufacturing provides a new life-cycle and warranty, and therefore seen as the most preferable method of product recovery to support sustainable manufacturing.

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Investigation of the two-decade environmental impact of large-scale agricultural cultivation and its impact on climate change in the Lajta-Project

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-4863 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

András Polgár ◽

Karolina Horváth ◽

Imre Mészáros ◽

Adrienn Horváth ◽

András Bidló ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Winter Wheat ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Crop Production ◽

Large Scale ◽

Winter Barley ◽

Cultivated Plants ◽

Agricultural Activity

Crop production is applied on about half of Hungary&#8217;s land area, which amounts to approximately 4.5 million hectares. The agricultural activity has significant environmental impacts.Our work aims the time series investigation of the impacts of large-scale agricultural cultivation on environment and primarily on climate change in the test area by applying environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) method.The investigated area of Lajta Project can be found in the triangle formed by the settlements Mosonszolnok, J&#225;nossomorja and V&#225;rbalog, in the north-western corner of Hungary, in Gy&#337;r-Moson-Sopron county. The area has intense agri-environment characteristics, almost entirely lacking of grasslands and meadows.We were looking for the answer to the question &#8220;To what extent does agricultural activity on this area impact the environment and how can it contribute to climate change during a given period?&#8221; The selection of the plants included in the analysis was justified by their significant growing area. We analysed the cultivation data of 5 crops: canola, winter barley, winter wheat, green maize and maize. Material flows of arable crop production technologies were defined in time series by the agricultural parcel register data. These covered the size of the area actually cultivated, the operational processes, records on seeds, fertilizer and pesticide use and harvest data by parcels. The examined environmental inventory database contained also the fuel consumption and lubricating oil usage of machine operations, and the water usage of chemical utilization.In the life cycle modelling of cultivation, we examined 13 years of maize, 20 years of green maize, 20 years of winter barley, 18 years of winter wheat and 15 years of canola data calculated on 1 ha unit using GaBi life cycle analysis software.In addition, we also calculated by an average cultivation model for all cultivated plants with reference data to 1 ha and 1 year period.We applied methods and models in our life cycle impact assessment. According to the values of the impact categories, we set up the following increasing environmental ranking of plant cultivation: (1) canola has minimum environmental impacts followed by (2) green maize and (3) maize with slightly higher values, (4) winter barley has 6 times higher values preceded by (5) winter wheat with a slight difference. The previous environmental ranking of the specific cultivated plants&#8217; contribution was also confirmed as regards the overall environmental impact: canola (1.0%) &#8211; green maize (4.9%) &#8211; maize (7.1%) &#8211; winter barley (43.1%) &#8211; winter wheat (44.0%).Environmental impact category indicator results cumulated to total cultivation periods and total crop growing areas (quantitative approach) display the specific environmental footprints by crops. Increasing environmental ranking of environmental impacts resulted from cultivating the sample area is the following: (1) canola &#8211; (2) maize &#8211; (3) green maize &#8211; (4) winter barley &#8211; (5) winter wheat. The slight difference resulted in the rankings in quantitative approach according to the rankings of territorial approach on the investigated area is due to the diversity of cultivation time factor and the crop-growing parameter of the specific crops.Acknowledgement: Our research was supported by the &#8222;Lajta-Project&#8221;.

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Environmental impact, life cycle analysis and battery performance of upcycled carbon anodes

Environmental Science Nano ◽

10.1039/c8en00196k ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 5 (5) ◽

pp. 1237-1250 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Andrea L. Hicks ◽

Arthur D. Dysart ◽

Vilas G. Pol

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Lithium Ion Batteries ◽

Life Cycle Analysis ◽

Lithium Ion ◽

Environmental Costs ◽

Graphite Anodes ◽

Synthetic Graphite ◽

Carbon Anodes ◽

Natural And Synthetic

For rechargeable lithium ion batteries, natural and synthetic graphite anodes come with great economic and environmental costs.

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A Study on Energy Consumption and CO2 Emissions in End-Life Cycle of Residential Buildings

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.689.226 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 689 ◽

pp. 226-229

Author(s):

Gi Wook Cha ◽

Won Hwa Hong ◽

Sung Woo Shin

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Energy Consumption ◽

Quantitative Analysis ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Residential Buildings ◽

Inventory Analysis ◽

Intergovernmental Panel ◽

Ipcc Guidelines

In recent years, demolition work in Korea has been rapidly increasing, and accordingly, its environmental impact has become significant, thus requiring quantitative analysis on energy consumption and CO2 emissions generated during demolition work. This study aims to examine energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the end-life cycle of buildings. In this study, inventory analysis was conducted and basic units of energy consumption and CO2 emissions were calculated in accordance with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines published in 1996. Major findings show that 64% of energy consumption and CO2 emissions in buildings’ end-life cycle is generated in the demolition phase, and 36% in the transportation phase.

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An Investigation into the Environmental Impact of Product Recovery Methods to Support Sustainable Manufacturing Within Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)

International Journal of Manufacturing Materials and Mechanical Engineering ◽

10.4018/ijmmme.2011040101 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

pp. 1-18

Author(s):

Michaela R. Appleby ◽

Chris G. Lambert ◽

Allan E. W. Rennie ◽

Adam B. Buckley

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Carbon Footprint ◽

Sustainable Manufacturing ◽

Product Recovery ◽

Waste Hierarchy ◽

Government Legislation ◽

Lower Carbon ◽

Recovery Methods

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Life Cycle Assessment of Variable Rate Fertilizer Application in a Pear Orchard

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12176893 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (17) ◽

pp. 6893

Author(s):

Anna Vatsanidou ◽

Spyros Fountas ◽

Vasileios Liakos ◽

George Nanos ◽

Nikolaos Katsoulas ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Precision Agriculture ◽

Management System ◽

Primary Data ◽

Variable Rate ◽

Impact Reduction ◽

Pear Orchard

Precision Agriculture (PA) is a crop site-specific management system that aims for sustainability, adopting agricultural practices more friendly to the environment, like the variable rate application (VRA) technique. Many studies have dealt with the effectiveness of VRA to reduce nitrogen (N) fertilizer, while achieving increased profit and productivity. However, only limited attention was given to VRA’s environmental impact. In this study an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) based Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) performed to identify the environmental effects of N VRA on a small pear orchard, compared to the conventional uniform application. A Cradle to Gate system with a functional unit (FU) of 1 kg of pears was analyzed including high quality primary data of two productive years, including also the non-productive years, as well as all the emissions during pear growing and the supply chains of all inputs, projecting them to the lifespan of the orchard. A methodology was adopted, modelling individual years and averaging over the orchard’s lifetime. Results showed that Climate change, Water scarcity, Fossil fuels and Particulate formation were the most contributing impact categories to the overall environmental impact of the pear orchard lifespan, where climate change and particulates were largely determined by CO2, N2O, and NH3 emissions to the air from fertilizer production and application, and as CO2 from tractor use. Concerning fertilization practice, when VRA was combined with a high yield year, this resulted in significantly reduced environmental impact. LCA evaluating an alternative fertilizer management system in a Greek pear orchard revealed the environmental impact reduction potential of that system.

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Life Cycle Assessment of Environmental Impact of Steelmaking Process

Complexity ◽

10.1155/2020/8863941 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2020 ◽

pp. 1-9 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Huimin Liu ◽

Qiqiang Li ◽

Guanguan Li ◽

Ran Ding

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Human Health ◽

Molten Iron ◽

Utilization Efficiency ◽

Environmental Damage ◽

High Resource ◽

The Impact

The steel industry is facing problems such as serious environmental pollution and high resource consumption. At the same time, it lacks effective methods to quantify potential environmental impacts. The purpose of this work is to conduct a specific environmental analysis of steelmaking production in steel plants. The ultimate goal is to discover the main pollution of steelmaking and identify potential options for improving the environment. This paper uses life cycle assessment method to carry out inventory and quantitative analysis on the environmental impact of steelmaking system. Through analysis, the hazards are divided into four major categories, which are human health, climate change, ecosystem quality, and resources. The results show that molten iron has the greatest impact on human health, followed by the greatest impact on resources. The impact of scrap steel on human health ranks third. Molten iron is a key process that affects human health, climate change, ecosystems quality, and resources. In addition, processes such as fuels, working fluids, and auxiliary materials also cause certain environmental damage, accounting for a relatively small proportion. Optimizing the utilization of scrap steel and molten iron resources and improving the utilization efficiency of resources and energy are helpful to reduce the environmental hazards of steelmaking system.

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The impact of the consumer’s decision on the life cycle assessment of organic pasta

SN Applied Sciences ◽

10.1007/s42452-021-04822-y ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 (11) ◽

Author(s):

Anna Elisabeth Gnielka ◽

Christof Menzel

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Grocery Store ◽

Impact Categories ◽

Freshwater Ecotoxicity ◽

Last Mile ◽

The Impact ◽

Freshwater Eutrophication

AbstractEvery consumer’s decision has an impact on the environment, and even basic food products such as pasta have an impact due to their high consumption rates. Factors that can be influenced by the consumer include the preparation (cooking), last mile and packaging phases. The last mile has not been considered in most studies but contributes considerably to the environmental impact of pasta. The three phases and their environmental impact on the life cycle of pasta are analyzed in this cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment. The focus of the study lies on the impact categories climate change, agricultural land occupation, fossil depletion, water depletion, freshwater eutrophication and freshwater ecotoxicity. Inventory data were taken from other studies, were collected in cooperation with a zero-packaging organic grocery store in Germany or were gained in test series. Our results show that the preparation of pasta has the greatest environmental impact (over 40% in the impact categories climate change and fossil depletion and over 50% in the impact category freshwater eutrophication), followed by the last mile (over 20% in the impact categories climate change and fossil depletion) and lastly the packaging (nearly 9% in the impact categories freshwater eutrophication and freshwater ecotoxicity). Based on our study´s results, we provide some recommendations for minimizing the environmental impacts of pasta.

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The potential of South African timber products to reduce the environmental impact of buildings

South African Journal of Science ◽

10.17159/sajs.2017/20160354 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 113 (9/10) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Philip L. Crafford ◽

Melanie Blumentritt ◽

C. Brand Wessels

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

South African ◽

Green Building ◽

Biogenic Carbon ◽

Roof Truss ◽

Timber Products ◽

Steel Trusses

South Africa was the first country in Africa to implement a locally developed green building rating tool and has a growing number of rated green building projects. The method of life-cycle assessment can help to compare and assess the environmental performance of building products. At present, more than 70% of all sawn timber in South Africa is used in buildings, mainly in roof structures. Light gauge steel trusses have recently also been gaining market share. However, to date, no studies have been conducted that quantify and compare the environmental impacts of the different roof truss systems in South Africa. We thus compared several roof truss systems (South African pine, Biligom and light gauge steel) found in low- and medium-income house designs in South Africa using a simplified life-cycle assessment approach. Our results show that the two timber systems had overall the lowest environmental impact. Although the difference between the timber systems was small, light gauge steel had a 40% higher normalised impact over all assessed environmental impact categories. The benefit of biogenic carbon dioxide present in timber proved to play a significant positive role in the global warming potential impact and could even be further reduced if wood were used to generate energy at its end-of-life. This study demonstrates the potential advantage of using local timber products to reduce the environmental impact of the truss and building industry in South Africa.

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