scholarly journals LCA and LCC of Emerging and Incumbent Technologies on Energy Harvesters

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Ada Malagnino ◽  
Maddalena Rostagno ◽  
Giuseppe Gaspare Amaro ◽  
Anestis Vlysidis ◽  
Anastasia Gkika ◽  
...  

In this study, life cycle assessment and life cycle costing results about piezoelectric and thermoelectric materials for energy harvesters (EHs) are extracted from the literature and evaluated. This study serves as a basis for comparing current EHs with innovative EHs that will be developed within the Horizon 2020 FAST SMART project. FAST—SMART aims at increasing the performance of current EHs while reducing at the same time: The use of rare elements and toxic substances; resources and energy consumption; environmental impact and costs; paving the way for the adoption of new and more environmental-friendly systems for energy harvesting.

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-297
Author(s):  
Azzedine Dakhia ◽  
Noureddine Zemmouri

This work assesses the environmental impact generated by an office building in arid region throughout its life cycle (cradle to grave), by means of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). This study focuses on a comparison of different external wall systems that are conventionally used in building. With recycled materials and thermal insulation system, it’s possible to reduce demand of energy consumption, evaluate their environmental indicators impacts, and also reduce them, throughout the building life cycle. In doing so, this work can contribute not only to control energy, long-term economic growth, but also to address pressing social issues, and mainly environmental impacts. We use an environmental analysis with a thermal dynamic simulation, to test the hypothesis on a data base of hot and dry climate of Biskra city. The last part consists of a technical approach, indicating the economy is the use of ecological and recycled materials. The results of this study show that the exterior insulation system, obtained the best environmental scores, being 30% less than the interior insulation system and 50% less than the distributed insulation system. Also, recycled materials save energy in their manufacture, and building energy consumption for its use and have a reduced building impact on the environment throughout its life cycle (cradle to grave). This work shows how LCA application is not only feasible, but recommended because it is a decision support tool in the search for sustainability and make use of recycled materials.


2018 ◽  
Vol 913 ◽  
pp. 1004-1010
Author(s):  
Shu Ya Deng ◽  
Xian Zheng Gong

Nickel is widely used in stainless steel and other industries, while there are a lot of energy consumption and environmental pollution in the process of nickel production. Based on the technical framework of life cycle assessment and evaluation model of ReCiPe, the aim of this paper is to find out the environmental hotspot and make suggestions for improvement by researching the environment inpact of nickel production from the process of mining, beneficiation, smelting and transportation. The result shows that: Smelting is the most important environmental effect stage in which the environmental impact load accounts for 52.18% of total environmental impact, because a lot of electricity is consumed in electrolysis process, while the Fossil Depletion Potential (FDP) is the largest environmental impact type, accounting for 42.32% of total environmental impact, which is due to the consumption of a number of fossil energy in the mining and smelting process of nickel ore. It is necessary to use advanced mining technology and mine backfill technology to reduce the consumption of auxiliary materials, which is of great significance for reducing energy consumption and emission.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sami Ghnimi ◽  
Amin Nikkhah ◽  
Jo Dewulf ◽  
Sam Van Haute

AbstractThe energy balance and life cycle assessment (LCA) of ohmic heating and appertization systems for processing of chopped tomatoes with juice (CTwJ) were evaluated. The data included in the study, such as processing conditions, energy consumption, and water use, were experimentally collected. The functional unit was considered to be 1 kg of packaged CTwJ. Six LCA impact assessment methodologies were evaluated for uncertainty analysis of selection of the impact assessment methodology. The energy requirement evaluation showed the highest energy consumption for appertization (156 kWh/t of product). The energy saving of the ohmic heating line compared to the appertization line is 102 kWh/t of the product (or 65% energy saving). The energy efficiencies of the appertization and ohmic heating lines are 25% and 77%, respectively. Regarding the environmental impact, CTwJ processing and packaging by appertization were higher than those of ohmic heating systems. In other words, CTwJ production by the ohmic heating system was more environmentally efficient. The tin production phase was the environmental hotspot in packaged CTwJ production by the appertization system; however, the agricultural phase of production was the hotspot in ohmic heating processing. The uncertainty analysis results indicated that the global warming potential for appertization of 1 kg of packaged CTwJ ranges from 4.13 to 4.44 kg CO2eq. In addition, the global warming potential of the ohmic heating system ranges from 2.50 to 2.54 kg CO2eq. This study highlights that ohmic heating presents a great alternative to conventional sterilization methods due to its low environmental impact and high energy efficiency.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 7212-7225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhao Xu ◽  
Yang Zhang ◽  
Heng Li ◽  
Qiming Li

Energy consumption by and emissions from buildings contribute greatly to environmental degradation. Currently, an important tool in the study of architectural conservation design is LCA (life-cycle assessment), with the goal of minimizing energy consumption and environmental impact. The research suggests a method to apply LCA analysis and BIM technology to design 3D BIM models and define the relationship between BIM elements and architectural materials. The obvious advantages of combining BIM with LCA have resulted in its wide use for building life cycle assessment. The study propose here quantitative analysis of environmental impact by construction and build an index database for environmental impact assessment of building projects based on analytical hierarchy process. The design plan of the Teaching and Research Building of a University in Nanjing China is taken as the example to calculate energy consumption in response models formed from construction data. From these modeled calculations, then the key environmental impact factors were analyzed. The objective is to suggest an integrated solution to BIM-based environmental impact assessment of building construction and also provide a theoretical support for optimized building design. This case study demonstrates the utility of BIM when performing LCA, providing most of the information needed to perform LCA.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4856
Author(s):  
Xuejie Deng ◽  
Yu Li ◽  
Hao Liu ◽  
Yile Zhao ◽  
Yinchao Yang ◽  
...  

Microbial induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) is a new geotechnical engineering technology used to strengthen soils and other materials. Although it is considered to be environmentally friendly, there is a lack of quantitative data and objective evaluation to support conclusions about its environmental impact. In this paper, the energy consumption and carbon emissions of MICP technology are quantitatively analyzed by using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. The environmental effects of MICP technology are evaluated from the perspectives of resource consumption and environmental impact. The results show that for each tonne of calcium carbonate produced by MICP technology, 1.8 t standard coal is consumed and 3.4 t CO2 is produced, among which 80.4% of the carbon emissions and 96% of the energy consumption come from raw materials. Comparing using MICP with cement, lime, and sintered brick, the current MICP application process consumes less non-renewable resources but has a greater environmental impact. The major environmental impact that MICP has is the production of smoke and ash, with secondary impacts being global warming, photochemical ozone creation, acidification, and eutrophication. In five potential application scenarios of MICP, including concrete, sintered brick, lime mortar, mine cemented backfill, and foundation reinforcement, the carbon emissions of MICP are 3 to 7 times greater than the emissions of traditional technologies. The energy consumption is 15 to 23 times. Based on the energy consumption and carbon emissions characteristics of MICP technology at the current condition, suggestions are given for the future research of MICP.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (24) ◽  
pp. 8356
Author(s):  
Gianmarco Fajilla ◽  
Emiliano Borri ◽  
Marilena De Simone ◽  
Luisa F. Cabeza ◽  
Luís Bragança

Climate change has a strong influence on the energy consumption of buildings, affecting both the heating and cooling demand in the actual and future scenario. In this paper, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to evaluate the influence of both the occupant behaviour and the climate change on the environmental impact of the heating and cooling systems of an apartment located in southern Italy. The analysis was conducted using IPCC GWP and ReCiPe indicators as well as the Ecoinvent database. The influence of occupant behaviour was included in the analysis considering different usage profiles during the operational phase, while the effect of climate change was considered by varying the weather file every thirty years. The adoption of the real usage profiles showed that the impact of the systems was highly influenced by the occupant behaviour. In particular, the environmental impact of the heating system appeared more influenced by the operation hours, while that of the cooling system was more affected by the natural ventilation schedules. Furthermore, the influence of climate change demonstrated that more attention has to be dedicated to the cooling demand that in the future years will play an ever-greater role in the energy consumption of buildings.


2018 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 05005
Author(s):  
Laurence ◽  
Josephine Kasena

Every year, the total of plastic industry in Indonesia grows rapidly. Not only giving positive effects on economic, but industrial development also causing a negative impact on the environment. Those negative impacts are caused by inefficiently using of resources and industrial waste which could pollute the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to calculate the impact itself by using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method. The LCA could help us to take better decision to improve the production process and products which could minimize the energy consumption and resources. PT XYZ is a plastic injection company. This company hasn't collected, calculated and analysed their products and production process which may contribute to environmental damage. Therefore, this study will collect the data about the potential environmental impact which caused by the product of PT XYZ. LCA was performed at plastic car battery container type "X" and type "Y" using IMPACT 2002+ method in SimaPro8 software. The result of data calculation showing that the potential environmental impact is more dominant in these categories: respiratory inorganics, non-renewable energy, and global warming. The component which caused the greatest potential for respiratory inorganics and global warming is coming from electrical energy consumption (lignite).


2013 ◽  
Vol 448-453 ◽  
pp. 1897-1903
Author(s):  
Jia Hua Dong ◽  
Wei Guang Zhu ◽  
Cheng Kang Gao

Wind power is an important type of renewable energy sources. In this passage we will apply Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to analyze the four stages of wind power generation,which are production of raw materials, transportation, build-operate process of wind plants and demolition stages, calculate the energy consumption and the environmental impact, set a contrastive analysis between coal-fired power plants and wind power plants. We will take WangHaiSi Wind Plant in Faku, Shenyang as an example to show the difference between the two ways of getting power. The analysis shows that: in comparison with coal-fired generation, wind power generation saves more energy and reduces emissions of pollutants markedly; the main energy consumption comes from production of raw materials, which takes 79.3% of the total energy consumption throughout the life cycle. In the meantime, the large amount of ecological resources consumption from construction, operation and maintenance of wind plants leads to mass emission of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide, which respectively take 67.3% and 96.6% of total emissions. Besides, wind generation only accounts for 0.93%, 0.89% and 2.72% of energy consumption, global warming potential (GWP) and acid potential (AP) of coal-fired power generation. Thus, it proved that wind power generation has lesser impacts on environment than coal-fired power generation. However, it is still of great necessity to strengthen the environmental protection measures to reduce the consumption and destroy of ecologic resources.


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