scholarly journals Increasing the Content of Olive Mill Wastewater in Biogas Reactors for a Sustainable Recovery: Methane Productivity and Life Cycle Analyses of the Process

Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 1029
Author(s):  
Souraya Benalia ◽  
Giacomo Falcone ◽  
Teodora Stillitano ◽  
Anna Irene De Luca ◽  
Alfio Strano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Life Cycle Costing ◽  
Olive Mill Wastewater ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Organic Fertilizers ◽  
Batch Reactors ◽  
Farm Sustainability ◽  
Olive Mill

Anaerobic codigestion of olive mill wastewater for renewable energy production constitutes a promising process to overcome management and environmental issues due to their conventional disposal. The present study aims at assessing biogas and biomethane production from olive mill wastewater by performing biochemical methane potential tests. Hence, mixtures containing 0% (blank), 20% and 30% olive mill wastewater, in volume, were experimented on under mesophilic conditions. In addition, life cycle assessment and life cycle costing were performed for sustainability analysis. Particularly, life cycle assessment allowed assessing the potential environmental impact resulting from the tested process, while life cycle costing in conjunction with specific economic indicators allowed performing the economic feasibility analysis. The research highlighted reliable outcomes: higher amounts of biogas (80.22 ± 24.49 NL.kgSV−1) and methane (47.68 ± 17.55 NL.kgSV−1) were obtained when implementing a higher amount of olive mill wastewater (30%) (v/v) in the batch reactors. According to life cycle assessment, the biogas ecoprofile was better when using 20% (v/v) olive mill wastewater. Similarly, the economic results demonstrated the profitability of the process, with better performances when using 20% (v/v) olive mill wastewater. These findings confirm the advantages from using farm and food industry by-products for the production of renewable energy as well as organic fertilizers, which could be used in situ to enhance farm sustainability.

scholarly journals Environmental Impact and Levelised Cost of Energy Analysis of Solar Photovoltaic Systems in Selected Asia Pacific Region: A Cradle-to-Grave Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 396
Author(s):  
Norasikin Ahmad Ludin ◽  
Nurfarhana Alyssa Ahmad Affandi ◽  
Kathleen Purvis-Roberts ◽  
Azah Ahmad ◽  
Mohd Adib Ibrahim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Degradation Rate ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Solar Photovoltaic ◽  
Economic Output ◽  
Cost Of Energy

Sustainability has been greatly impacted by the reality of budgets and available resources as a targeted range of carbon emission reduction greatly increases due to climate change. This study analyses the technical and economic feasibility for three types of solar photovoltaic (PV) renewable energy (RE) systems; (i) solar stand-alone, a non-grid-connected building rooftop-mounted structure, (ii) solar rooftop, a grid-connected building rooftop-mounted structure, (iii) solar farm, a grid-connected land-mounted structure in three tropical climate regions. Technical scientific and economic tools, including life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost assessment (LCCA) with an integrated framework from a Malaysian case study were applied to similar climatic regions, Thailand, and Indonesia. The short-term, future scaled-up scenario was defined using a proxy technology and estimated data. Environmental locations for this scenario were identified, the environmental impacts were compared, and the techno-economic output were analysed. The scope of this study is cradle-to-grave. Levelised cost of energy (LCOE) was greatly affected due to PV performance degradation rate, especially the critical shading issues for large-scale installations. Despite the land use impact, increased CO2 emissions accumulate over time with regard to energy mix of the country, which requires the need for long-term procurement of both carbon and investment return. With regards to profitably, grid-connected roof-mounted systems achieve the lowest LCOE as compared to other types of installation, ranging from 0.0491 USD/kWh to 0.0605 USD/kWh under a 6% discounted rate. A simple payback (SPB) time between 7–10 years on average depends on annual power generated by the system with estimated energy payback of 0.40–0.55 years for common polycrystalline photovoltaic technology. Thus, maintaining the whole system by ensuring a low degradation rate of 0.2% over a long period of time is essential to generate benefits for both investors and the environment. Emerging technologies are progressing at an exponential rate in order to fill the gap of establishing renewable energy as an attractive business plan. Life cycle assessment is considered an excellent tool to assess the environmental impact of renewable energy.

scholarly journals Sustainability Assessment with Integrated Circular Economy Principles: A Toy Case Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3856
Author(s):  
Rebeka Kovačič Lukman ◽  
Vasja Omahne ◽  
Damjan Krajnc
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Product Life Cycle ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Social Impacts ◽  
Life Cycle Costing ◽  
Social Life Cycle Assessment

When considering the sustainability of production processes, research studies usually emphasise environmental impacts and do not adequately address economic and social impacts. Toy production is no exception when it comes to assessing sustainability. Previous research on toys has focused solely on assessing environmental aspects and neglected social and economic aspects. This paper presents a sustainability assessment of a toy using environmental life cycle assessment, life cycle costing, and social life cycle assessment. We conducted an inventory analysis and sustainability impact assessment of the toy to identify the hotspots of the system. The main environmental impacts are eutrophication, followed by terrestrial eco-toxicity, acidification, and global warming. The life cycle costing approach examined the economic aspect of the proposed design options for toys, while the social assessment of the alternative designs revealed social impacts along the product life cycle. In addition, different options based on the principles of the circular economy were analysed and proposed in terms of substitution of materials and shortening of transport distances for the toy studied.

Life cycle assessment of a novel bipolar electrodialysis-based flow battery concept and its potential use to mitigate the intermittency of renewable energy generation

2021 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 102339
Author(s):  
Miguel A. Morales-Mora ◽  
Joep J.H. Pijpers ◽  
Alejandro Castillo Antonio ◽  
Javier de la Cruz Soto ◽  
Agustín Moisés Alcaraz Calderón
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Generation ◽  
Flow Battery ◽  
Renewable Energy Generation ◽  
Potential Use ◽  
Bipolar Electrodialysis

scholarly journals The W Model, a Systematic Engineering for Water Source Clearance, Renewable Energy Production, and Ecological Agricuture Development – A Proposal for Sustainable Development

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 143
Author(s):  
Tongyuan Wang
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Organic Fertilizer ◽  
Water Source ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Organic Fertilizers ◽  
Ecological Agriculture ◽  
Agriculture Development

This article proposes a systematic engineering for sustainable economic and ecologic development. This system is deemed to be applicable in any country of the world. The system aims to realize five important objectives: water source clearance, energy saving and emission reduction, renewable energy and organic fertilizer production, and ecological agriculture development, all in large scale and at low cost. The main conception of the new system to reach these goals is the replacement of the conventional sewage treatment approach with more efficient and more ecological process – the natural fermentation of the mixture of the urban sewage and agrarian wastes, such that water body clearance, including water de-eutrophication, green algae prevention and siltation dredging will all be accomplished at virtually a zero cost. Along with this process, the system can produce a vast amount of renewable energy and organic fertilizers, consequently ecological agriculture development in large scale can be realized. As a result, this system will greatly reduce the use of chemical fertilizers thus largely reduce the consumption of fossil energy and the related polluting emissions. This system is thus fully a circular economy model through full west-reuse processes, which ultimately will enhance our life quality with healthier food and living environment. The system is flexible and adaptable to be implemented in either small towns or megacities. The implementation and operation of this system will also benefits employment growth. Lastly, in terms of economic feasibility and profitability, millions to billions of dollars of annual revenue can be generated from the running of this system in a country.

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