scholarly journals Dairy Buffalo Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Affected by a Management Choice: The Production of Wheat Crop

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 11108
Author(s):  
Elio Romano ◽  
Pasquale De Palo ◽  
Flavio Tidona ◽  
Aristide Maggiolino ◽  
Andrea Bragaglio
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Wheat Crop ◽  
Land Occupation ◽  
Economic Allocation ◽  
Acidification Potential ◽  
Dairy Buffalo ◽  
Management Choice

Life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed in dairy buffalo farms representative of Southern Italian farming systems, similar due to several characteristics, with the exception of wheat production. This work evaluated the impacts derived from this management choice, comparing farms with wheat crop (WWC) or not (NWC). In agreement with the literature, economic allocation was chosen as a useful strategy to attribute equivalents to by-products, i.e., culled animals; the same criterion was also adopted to assign pollutants to wheat grain, limited to WWC farms. Environmental impacts in terms of Global Warming Potential (GWP, kg CO2 eq), Acidification Potential (AC, g SO2 eq), Eutrophication Potential (EU, g PO43-eq), Agricultural Land Occupation (ALO, m2y) and Water Depletion (WD, m3) were estimated. The production of wheat crop significantly affected (p < 0.05) the Agricultural Land Occupation (ALO) category as WWC farms need adequate land. WWC farms could allow a significant reduction in eutrophication (EU) compared to NWC farms (p < 0.05).

scholarly journals Pig manure treatment with housefly (Musca domestica) rearing – an environmental life cycle assessment

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 195-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Roffeis ◽  
B. Muys ◽  
J. Almeida ◽  
E. Mathijs ◽  
W.M.J. Achten ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Development Stage ◽  
Pig Manure ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Land Occupation ◽  
Manure Treatment ◽  
Conceptual Design Phase ◽  
Depletion Potential

The largest portion of a product’s environmental impacts and costs of manufacturing and use results from decisions taken in the conceptual design phase long before its market entry. To foster sustainable production patterns, applying life cycle assessment in the early product development stage is gaining importance. Following recent scientific studies on using dipteran fly species for waste management, this paper presents an assessment of two insect-based manure treatment systems. Considering the necessity of manure treatment in regions with concentrated animal operations, reducing excess manure volumes with the means of insects presents a potentially convenient method to combine waste reduction and nutrient recovery. An analytical comparison of rearing houseflies on fresh and pre-treated pig manure is reported with reference to agricultural land occupation, water and fossil depletion potential. Based on ex-ante modelled industrial scale rearing systems, the driving factors of performance and environmentally sensitive aspects of the rearing process have been assessed. Expressed per kg manure dry matter reduction, the estimated agricultural land occupation varied between 1.4 and 2.7 m2yr, fossil depletion potential ranged from 1.9 to 3.4 kgoil eq and the obtained water depletion potential was calculated from 36.4 to 65.6 m3. System improvement potential was identified for heating related energy usage and water consumption. The geographical context and the utility of the co-products, i.e. residue substrates and insect products, were determined as influential variables to the application potential of this novel manure treatment concept. The results of this study, applied at the earliest stages of the design of the process, assist evaluation of the feasibility of such a system and provide guidance for future research and development activities.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of Apparel Consumption in Australia

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-111
Author(s):  
Shadia Moazzem ◽  
Enda Crossin ◽  
Fugen Daver ◽  
Lijing Wang
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Resource Depletion ◽  
High Volume ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment Methodology ◽  
Land Occupation ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This study presents the environmental impact of apparel consumption in Australia using life cycle assessment methodology according to ISO14040/14044:2006. Available published references, the Ecoinvent v3 dataset, the Australian life cycle assessment dataset and apparel country-wise import data with the breakdown of apparel type and fibre type were used in this study. The environmental impact assessment results of the functional unit were scaled up to the total apparel consumption. The impact results were also normalized on a per-capita/year basis. The Total Climate Change Potential (CCP) impact from apparel consumption of 2015 was estimated to be 16 607 028 tonnes CO2eq and 698.07 kg CO2eq/per capita-year. This study also assessed the impact of acidification potential (AP), water depletion (WD), abiotic resource depletion potential (ADP) - fossil fuel and agricultural land occupation (ALO) using the same methodology. The market volume of cotton apparel in Australia is 53.97 %, which accounts for 45 %, 96 %, 40 %, 46 % and 79 % of total CCP, WD, ADP, AP and ALO impact, respectively. Apparel broad categories of cotton shirt, cotton trouser, polyester shirt and polyester trouser have a high volume in the apparel market as well as a high environmental impact contribution. These high-volume apparel products can be included in the prioritization list to reduce environmental impact throughout the apparel supply chain. It was estimated that from 2010 to 2018 the per capita apparel consumption and corresponding impact increased by 24 %.

scholarly journals Eco-Investments - Life Cycle Assessment of Different Scenarios of Biomass Combustion

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomasz Nitkiewicz ◽  
Agnieszka Ociepa-Kubicka
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Strategic Decision ◽  
Biomass Combustion ◽  
Steam Boiler ◽  
Land Occupation ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Natural Land

Abstract The article presents the results of life cycle assessment of different scenarios of biomass use to produce energy in a selected company. The study is made on the case of Lesaffre Polska S.A. and its facility in Wolczyn which is one of the most modern biomass plants in Central Europe. The company is one of the leaders of using the environmental criteria in its strategic decision-making. Its goal is to avoid any waste and to form its own circular business system. One of its recent investments is a biomass fired steam boiler that uses agricultural and woody biomass to produce energy. Previously, biomass was sold to power plant and co-fired with coal. The scope of the paper is to assess the actual change in the environmental impact of biomass use in the Wolczyn facility. For that purpose, the life cycle assessment is used with the ReCiPe endpoint indicator. The assessment is based on the comparison of two scenarios: one assuming the biomass combustion in a new boiler, and the second one, assuming co-firing biomass with coal. The results of the study show that the investment is making a significant difference as far as the overall environmental impact is. Through avoiding the co-firing related emissions the company makes a big step ahead towards the decrease of their environmental impacts. The analysis shows that the significant impact in the co-firing scenario is posed in such categories as fossil depletion, climate change with impacts on human health and on ecosystems, particulate matter formation and agricultural land occupation. In the biomass combustion scenario, the above categories are complemented with metal depletion, natural land transformation, urban land occupation and human toxicity categories but with 4 times decrease of the overall impact. The study also shows that the change of the combustion system makes the most significant difference, while all the other factors, like biomass cultivation and processing, biomass transport have much lesser impact.

scholarly journals Life cycle assessment of three bull-fattening systems: effect of impact categories on ranking

2012 ◽  
Vol 150 (6) ◽  
pp. 755-763 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. T. H. NGUYEN ◽  
H. M. G. VAN DER WERF ◽  
M. DOREAU
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Body Weight Gain ◽  
Cumulative Energy ◽  
Cumulative Energy Demand ◽  
Land Occupation ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Acidification Potential ◽  
Maize Grain

SUMMARYThe aim of the current study was to analyse the environmental impacts of fattening bull systems using life cycle assessment (LCA). Three contrasting bull-fattening systems practised in France were compared. Diets H, MS and C differed by the nature of the forage consumed (hay, maize silage and wheat straw, respectively) and the proportion of concentrate, i.e. ground maize grain and soybean meal (0·51, 0·37 and 0·86, respectively) in the diets. Diet MS resulted in the lowest cumulative energy demand and in the highest acidification potential per kg of body weight gain (BWG). Eutrophication potential per kg of BWG was highest for diet C and the lowest for diet H. The relative contribution of eutrophication and acidification impacts by feeds and manure varied according to diet. The system using a hay-based diet resulted in the highest land occupation per kg of BWG and in the lowest impact per ha of land occupied for all impacts. It was found that the use of LCA, involving a multi-criteria assessment allowing the expression of results according to several functional units (kg of BWG and ha of land occupied) is essential to analyse the effectiveness of a pollution reduction strategy.

scholarly journals Comparative Study of a Life Cycle Assessment for Bio-Plastic Straws and Paper Straws: Malaysia’s Perspective

Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 1007
Author(s):  
Chun-Hung Moy ◽  
Lian-See Tan ◽  
Noor Fazliani Shoparwe ◽  
Azmi Mohd Shariff ◽  
Jully Tan
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Plastic Waste ◽  
Beverage Industry ◽  
Food And Beverage Industry ◽  
Food And Beverage ◽  
Acidification Potential ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Process Simulator ◽  
Insight Into

Plastics are used for various applications, including in the food and beverage industry, for the manufacturing of plastic utensils and straws. The higher utilization of plastic straws has indirectly resulted in the significant disposal of plastic waste, which has become a serious environmental issue. Alternatively, bio-plastic and paper straws have been introduced to reduce plastic waste. However, limited studies are available on the environmental assessment of drinking straws. Life cycle assessment (LCA) studies for bio-plastic and paper straws have not been comprehensively performed previously. Therefore, the impact of both bio-plastic and paper straws on the environment are quantified and compared in this study. Parameters, such as the global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP) and eutrophication potential (EP), were evaluated. The input–output data of the bio-plastic and paper straws processes from a gate-to-grave analysis were obtained from the literature and generated using the SuperPro Designer V9 process simulator. The results show that bio-plastic straws, which are also known as polylactic acid (PLA) straws, had reduced environmental impacts compared to paper straws. The outcomes of this work provide an insight into the application of bio-plastic and paper straws in effectively reducing the impact on the environment and in promoting sustainability, especially from the perspective of Malaysia.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment Applications To The Dry Steam Geothermal Power Generation (Case Study: Star Energy Geothermal Wayang Windu, Ltd, Indonesia)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rina Annisa ◽  
Benno Rahardyan
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Power Plant ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Global Warming Potential ◽  
Geothermal Power Plant ◽  
Continual Improvement ◽  
Acidification Potential ◽  
Geothermal Power

Geothermal potential in Indonesia estimate can produced renewable energy 29 GW, and until 2016 it still used 5% or about 1643 MW in. From that result, about 227 MW produced by Wayang Windu geothermal power plant. The Input were raw material, energy and water. These input produced electricity as main product, by product, and also other output that related to environment i.e. emission, solid waste and waste water. All environmental impacts should be controlled to comply with environmental standard, and even go beyond compliance and perform continual improvement.  This research will use Life Cycle Assessment method based on ISO 14040 and use cradle to gate concept with boundary from liquid steam production until electricity produced, and Megawatt Hours as the functional unit. Life Cycle Inventory has been done with direct input and output in the boundary and resulted that subsystem of Non Condensable Gas and condensate production have the largest environmental impact. LCI also show that every MWh electricity produced, it needed 6.87 Ton dry steam or 8.16 Ton liquid steam. Global Warming Potential (GWP) value is 0.155 Ton CO2eq./MWh, Acidification Potential (AP) 1.69 kg SO2eq./MWh, Eutrophication Potential (EP) 5.36 gPO4 eq./MWh and land use impacts 0.000024 PDF/m2. Life Cycle Impact Assessment resulted that AP contribute 78% of environmental impact and 98% resulted from H2S Non Condensable Gas. Comparison results with another dry steam geothermal power plant show that impact potential result of the company in good position and there’s a strong relation between gross production, GWP and AP value.Keywords: Life cycle assessment; Geothermal; Continual Improvement; Global Warming Potential; Acidification Potential

Life cycle assessment of different sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus Selenka) farming systems

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1068-1074 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guodong Wang ◽  
Shuanglin Dong ◽  
Xiangli Tian ◽  
Qinfeng Gao ◽  
Fang Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Sea Cucumber ◽  
Apostichopus Japonicus ◽  
Farming Systems

Life cycle assessment of asphalt pavement maintenance and rehabilitation techniques: a study for the City of St. John’s

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (12) ◽  
pp. 1320-1326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md Rakibul Alam ◽  
Kamal Hossain ◽  
Ali Azhar Butt ◽  
Tim Caudle ◽  
Carlos Bazan
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Impact Category ◽  
Pavement Maintenance ◽  
Environmental Footprints ◽  
Maintenance And Rehabilitation ◽  
Maintenance Techniques ◽  
Acidification Potential ◽  
The City

Although pavement maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R) techniques are usually examined in economic terms, there is a growing need to address their environmental footprints. The objective of this study is to assess the environmental impacts of M&R techniques. Life cycle assessment (LCA) can help in the decision-making process of selecting suitable maintenance techniques based on their environmental impacts. This study investigates: patching, rout & sealing, hot in-place recycling, and cold in-place recycling. Global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential, human health particulate, eutrophication potential, ozone depletion potential, and smog potential are estimated as environmental impacts for each maintenance activity. Materials, equipment use (for construction and M&R), and transportation were the main elements considered. A sensitivity test is performed to identify the significant factors for the LCA. The study concluded that GWP was the most important impact category. Rout & sealing and cold in-place recycling produced the lowest GWP emissions. Notably, pavement patching and hot in-place recycling showed significant detrimental environmental impacts.

Economic Allocation in Life Cycle Assessment

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fulvio Ardente ◽  
Maurizio Cellura
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Economic Allocation
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document