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

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.

scholarly journals Effect of Climate Change and Occupant Behaviour on the Environmental Impact of the Heating and Cooling Systems of a Real Apartment. A Parametric Study through Life Cycle Assessment

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (24) ◽  
pp. 8356
Author(s):  
Gianmarco Fajilla ◽  
Emiliano Borri ◽  
Marilena De Simone ◽  
Luisa F. Cabeza ◽  
Luís Bragança
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Occupant Behaviour ◽  
Cooling Systems ◽  
Heating And Cooling ◽  
The Impact

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.

Excellent environmental performance of beet sugar production in the Netherlands

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.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of an Innovative Compact Hybrid Electrical-Thermal Storage System for Residential Buildings in Mediterranean Climate

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5322
Author(s):  
Gabriel Zsembinszki ◽  
Noelia Llantoy ◽  
Valeria Palomba ◽  
Andrea Frazzica ◽  
Mattia Dallapiccola ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Mediterranean Climate ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Storage System ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Electrical Consumption ◽  
The Impact

The buildings sector is one of the least sustainable activities in the world, accounting for around 40% of the total global energy demand. With the aim to reduce the environmental impact of this sector, the use of renewable energy sources coupled with energy storage systems in buildings has been investigated in recent years. Innovative solutions for cooling, heating, and domestic hot water in buildings can contribute to the buildings’ decarbonization by achieving a reduction of building electrical consumption needed to keep comfortable conditions. However, the environmental impact of a new system is not only related to its electrical consumption from the grid, but also to the environmental load produced in the manufacturing and disposal stages of system components. This study investigates the environmental impact of an innovative system proposed for residential buildings in Mediterranean climate through a life cycle assessment. The results show that, due to the complexity of the system, the manufacturing and disposal stages have a high environmental impact, which is not compensated by the reduction of the impact during the operational stage. A parametric study was also performed to investigate the effect of the design of the storage system on the overall system impact.

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 ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Thermoelectric Materials ◽  
Toxic Substances ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Energy Harvesters ◽  
Rare Elements ◽  
Environmental Friendly

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.

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

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.

The use of life cycle assessment for evaluating the sustainability of the Amsterdam water cycle

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Klaversma ◽  
A. W. C. van der Helm ◽  
J. W. N. M. Kappelhof
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Water Distribution ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
Phosphate Removal ◽  
Process Data ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
The Impact

Waternet, the water cycle company of Amsterdam and surrounding areas, uses the life cycle assessment (LCA) method to evaluate the environmental impact of investment decisions and to determine the potential reduction of direct and indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of different alternatives. This approach enables Waternet to fulfil its corporate objective to improve sustainability and to become climate neutral by 2020. Three example studies that give a good overview of the use of LCAs at Waternet and problems encountered are discussed: phosphate removal and recovery from wastewater, pH correction of drinking water with carbon dioxide (CO2) and materials for drinking water distribution pipes. The environmental impact assessments were performed in SimaPro 7 using the ReCiPe method and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Global Warming Potential (IPCC GWP) 100a method. The Ecoinvent 2.0 and 2.2 databases were used for the material and process data. From the examples described, it can be concluded that only the phosphate removal case had a significant effect on the climate footprint. The article discusses applications and limitations of the LCA technique. The most important limitation is that the impact of water consumption and the possible impact of effluent compounds to surface water are not considered within the used methods.

scholarly journals Understanding the Incremental Impact of Built Environment on Climate Change of Metropolitan City Karachi

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 678-685
Author(s):  
Nimra Kanwal ◽  
Nuhzat Khan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Building Design ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Metropolitan City ◽  
Green Area ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

Buildings are the most important part of development activities, consumed over one-thirds of the global energy. Household used the maximum energy around the world, likewise in Pakistan residential buildings consumed about half of total energy (45.9% per year). The study aims to analyze the impact of building design on climate of Metropolitan City Karachi, Pakistan and to evaluate the change in urbanization patterns and energy consumption in the buildings. To have better understanding of the issues correlations was established amongst population, urbanization patterns, green area, number of buildings (residential and commercial), building design, energy consumption and metrological records (climate change parameters) by collecting the data from the respective departments. With the help of the collected data amount of carbon dioxide was estimated. The results reveled that during last 36 years the urban population of Karachi increased exponentially from 5,208,000 (1981) to 14,737,257 (2017) with increase in urbanized area from 8.35 km2 (1946) to 3,640 km2 (2017) that may led to reduce the green area of the city from 495,000 hectors (1971) to 100,000 hectors (2015). Moreover, the building’s design and numbers are being changed from 21 high-rise buildings (2009) to 344 (2017). It may be concluded that change in temperature pattern and climatic variability of the city may be due to increase in population and change in lifestyle that lead to high energy consumption that is prime source of increased in CO2 emission in the environment of Karachi city, However, Greenhouse Gases (GHG) releases are much lower than the levels reported from metropolitan cities around the world.

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

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

<p>Crop production is applied on about half of Hungary’s land area, which amounts to approximately 4.5 million hectares. The agricultural activity has significant environmental impacts.</p><p>Our work aims the time series investigation of the impacts of large-scale agricultural cultivation<strong> </strong>on environment and primarily on climate change in<strong> </strong>the test area by applying environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) method.</p><p>The investigated area of Lajta Project can be found in the triangle formed by the settlements Mosonszolnok, Jánossomorja and Várbalog, in the north-western corner of Hungary, in Győr-Moson-Sopron county. The area has intense agri-environment characteristics, almost entirely lacking of grasslands and meadows.</p><p>We were looking for the answer to the question “To what extent does agricultural activity on this area impact the environment and how can it contribute to climate change during a given period?” 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.</p><p>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.</p><p>In addition, we also calculated by an average cultivation model for all cultivated plants with reference data to 1 ha and 1 year period.</p><p>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’ contribution was also confirmed as regards the overall environmental impact: canola (1.0%) – green maize (4.9%) – maize (7.1%) – winter barley (43.1%) – winter wheat (44.0%).</p><p>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 – (2) maize – (3) green maize – (4) winter barley – (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.</p><p>Acknowledgement: Our research was supported by the „Lajta-Project”.</p>

Mitigating the Environmental Impact of Smartphones with Device Reuse

2012 ◽  
pp. 252-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xun Li ◽  
Pablo Ortiz ◽  
Brandon Kuczenski ◽  
Diana Franklin ◽  
Frederic T. Chong
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Energy Materials ◽  
Societal Benefit ◽  
Life Cycle Stages ◽  
Elementary School Education ◽  
Manufacturing Stage

The rapid growth of information technology has not only brought substantial economic and societal benefit but also led to an unsustainable disposable model in which mobile devices are replaced in a matter of months. The environmental impact of this stream of handsets in terms of manufacturing energy, materials, and disposal costs is alarming. This chapter aims at raising today’s environmental issues of the increasing smartphone market, as well as providing a quantitative analysis on the environmental impact of different life-cycle stages of the smartphones, including the manufacturing stage, using stage, and recycling. To achieve sustainable computing and best utilize the energy consumed during manufacturing the large number of devices, this chapter demonstrates the methodology and techniques towards reusing smartphones by presenting a case study on reusing smartphones for elementary school education.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document