Enhancement of sustainable road design towards compatibility between pavement materials

The need for correctly made comparisons of different pavement materials, regarding cost-efficiency to reduce the climate impact, is increasing, especially in connection with new types of climate-neutral materials, so that sub-optimizations and oblique competition do not arise. Both the Swedish and USA's authorities are beginning to demand the Environmental Product Declaration (EPDs) as a certificate of the pavements' environmental performances from the contractors. There are some methodological difficulties to use the EPDs for comparison of the environmental impacts between different asphalt mixes or between the asphalt- and concrete pavements. This paper has analyzed two new standards which propose to extend the declaration to several aspects of sustainability: technical, environmental and economic performance. In this article, we have investigated if these standards can be used to form a framework to create an extended sustainability declaration of road pavements allowed a multidisciplinary comparison of different materials based on technical performance, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA).

LCA and LCCA Methods in Apple Orchard Management, Conventional and Organic

The paper aims to establish a framework based on the method of LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) and LCCA (Life Cycle Cost Analysis) in order to select the best parameters of apple technology by identifying the particularities of fruit production technologies and providing practical recommendations on how to approach the two methods. The methodology of the paper is the use of LCA and LCCA methods, as techniques for assessing the environmental elements associated with the technological process and the economic indicators. The paper was meant to be part of a project whose purpose is to develop a decision and management instrument for the fruit farm Istrița, USAMV of Bucharest. The results consist in a technological and economic structure suitable for application to the selected apple tree technologies, in conventional and ecological system.

Logistics Chain and Cost Assessment of Pruning-to-Energy Value Chains: Application of Life Cycle Cost Analysis Approach

Biomass from agricultural residue has significant potential as renewable energy resource. Therefore, cost-efficient processing and supply of agricultural residues are important to strategically plan and utilize this energy resource. This chapter describes the agricultural pruning to energy (PtE) value chains and presents the life cycle cost analysis (LCCA)-based cost assessment results, focusing on almond and peach tree pruning data obtained from Spain during 2015–2016. Along the main life cycle stages of PtE system, costs of harvesting, off-farm storage, transport, biomass loss, and management of biomass supply chain were considered. In terms of functional unit cost, the life cycle cost (LCC) was calculated to be about 126 €/t for almond PtE and 115 €/t for peach PtE value chain. In both cases, the harvesting stage was found to be cost at hot stage followed by the storage stage. The cost at harvesting stage was about 83% (of 126 €/t) and 82% (of 115 €/t) in the case of almond and peach cases, respectively. Similarly, the share of operational cost was about 74% and 76% for almond and peach cases, respectively. Therefore, more efforts should be made to improve the performance of logistics operations and management of such PtE initiatives.