Dielectric-based 3D building-integrated concentrating photovoltaic modules: An environmental life-cycle assessment

The environmental profile of a dielectric-based 3D Building-Integrated Concentrating Photovoltaic(BICPV) device is investigated. Several scenarios and life-cycle impact assessment methods are adopted,including the newly-developed method ReCiPe. Multiple environmental indicators are evaluated fordifferent cities: Barcelona, Seville, Paris, Marseille, London and Aberdeen. The results from the mate-rial manufacturing phase demonstrate that the PV cells and the concentrator are the components withthe highest contribution to the total impact of the BICPV, based on ReCiPe, Eco-indicator 99, USEtox,CED (cumulative energy demand), GWP (global warming potential) according to different time hori-zons (20a, 100a, 500a) and Ecological footprint. Among the studied cities, Barcelona, Marseille andSeville present the lowest GWP and CED: less than 142 g CO2.eq/kWh and less than 2.9 MJprim/kWh,based on all the studied scenarios. Moreover, by considering 30-years lifespan, Barcelona, Marseille andSeville show 0.0107–0.0111 ReCiPe Pts/kWh while London, Paris and Aberdeen present 0.0161-0.0173ReCiPe Pts/kWh. Results about greenhouse-gas-, energy-, ReCiPe-payback times and energy-return-on-investment are also presented and critically discussed. In addition, comparisons with the literature andissues for the improvement of the environmental profile of the proposed system are included.The authors would like to thank “Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad” of Spain for the funding (grant reference ENE2013-48325-R)

Aspects of sustainability and design engineering for the production of interconnected smart food packaging

In the present work, the problem of food wastage and the concept of sustainability are studied. An analysis of Life Cycle Assessment as a tool and of the innovative concept of Cradle to Cradle is also carried out, together with an exhaustive comparison of these two approaches. Based on these concepts, an integrated methodology is proposed for the design of interconnected smart products. The smart packaging systems currently available are studied theoretically and a practical case is analysed using the proposed methodology through the design and Life Cycle Assessment of a smart interconnected container that is able to detect the ethylene emitted by climacteric fruit, thereby minimizing food wastage. For the case under study, a major impact is observed of the selected plastics in the resources category, and of the smart system in the human health category

Life Cycle Assessment of Sweet Sorghum as Feedstock for Second-generation Biofuel Production

There exist few life cycle assessments (LCAs) in the literature that focus on the second-generation biofuel production from sweet sorghum, a non-food-source feedstock that offers several advantages in terms of farming requirements compared to corn or sugarcane. The objective of this LCA study was to evaluate biofuels produced from sweet sorghum to determine the potential environmental benefits of producing sweet sorghum biofuel compared to conventional fossil fuels. The biofuel production process used for this study differed from other LCAs in that, in parallel to stalk juice extraction and fermentation, residual bagasse and vinasse was pyrolyzed and upgraded to a diesel equivalent as opposed to being fermented or combusted for a source of heat or electricity production. The life cycle inventory included data available in the literature regarding mass and energy input requirements for farming, juice extraction, fermenting, pre-treatment, pyrolysis, and steam reforming steps. Experimental data for bio-oil upgrading was obtained from a pilot plant in Huntsville, AR, including hydrogen gas requirements for hydrotreatment and diesel, biochar, and non-condensable gas yields. The functional unit used for this study was the total kilometers driven by standard passenger vehicles using ethanol, gasoline and diesel produced from 1 ha of harvested sweet sorghum (76 wet tons). Total biofuel yields resulting from this basis were 5,122 L of bioethanol, 2,708 L of gasoline and 780 L of diesel. With these yields, distances of 58,500 km, 21,500 km, and 12,070 km were chosen as the functional unit for the combustion of E85, E10, and diesel, respectively based on vehicle fuel efficiencies from the GREET model. Compared to conventional gasoline, this production process resulted in nearly 50% reduction of GHGs and 46% reduction in fossil fuel depletion, in addition to reductions in eutrophication, ecotoxicity, and carcinogenics. However, fossil fuels were lower by 25%, 45%, and 12% in the categories of non-carcinogenics, respiratory effects, and smog, respectively. These lower impacts for fossil fuels are driven by heavy-metal uptake from corn production and the fact that less electricity is used in the supply chain compared to biofuel production. A Monte Carlo simulation showed the comparative impact assessment results were not sensitive to uncertainty in the life cycle inventory. While the impact assessment showed benefits in producing sweet sorghum biofuel compared to fossil fuels, further research must be conducted on land use and water use. A detailed process simulation, coupled with continued experimental studies of the pyrolysis and upgrading processes, is recommended for further process optimization and heat integration, as well as composition analyses of the various co-products resulting from the process. Further studies will provide valuable information in choosing between feedstocks, specifically those which can be used to produce second-generation biofuels

Comparative life cycle assessment of lighting systems and road pavements in an Italian twin- tube road tunnel

This work calculates and discusses the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of four scenarios composed of two types of road pavements and two types of lighting systems to be built in an Italian twin-tube road tunnel. A 20-year time horizon is adopted to assess the burdens of construction and maintenance of both flexible and rigid pavements and high-pressure sodium (HPS) and lightemitting diode (LED) lamps, traffic, and switching on of lamps. All considered scenarios are comparable with each other in terms of technical performances, but significantly differ regarding their environmental consequences. The geometrical and technical characteristics of the examined scenarios comply with current Italian standards for highways. In all the examined cases, LCA is carried out according to the European standard, EN 15804, and includes 19 impact categories (IC). The analysis demonstrates that the use of more reflecting surface pavement materials (i.e., concrete vs. asphalt) and more performing lighting systems (i.e., LED vs. HPS) can effectively mitigate the deleterious burdens related to road construction, maintenance, and use. For most of the examined ICs, the most environment-friendly scenario has LED lamps and concrete pavement

Life cycle assessment of a column supported isostatic beam in high-volume fly ash concrete (HVFA concrete)

Nowadays, a lot of research is being conducted on high-volume fly ash (HVFA) concrete. However, a precise quantification of the environmental benefit is almost never provided. To do this correctly, we adopted a life cycle (LCA) approach. By considering a simple structure and an environment for the material, differences between traditional and HVFA concrete regarding durability and strength were taken into account. This paper presents the LCA results for a column supported isostatic beam made of reinforced HVFA concrete located in a dry environment exposed to carbonation induced corrosion. With a binder content of 425 kg/m3 and a water-to-binder ratio of 0.375, the estimated carbonation depth after 50 years for a 50 % fly ash mixture does not exceed the nominal concrete cover of 20 mm. As a consequence, no additional concrete manufacturing for structure repair needs to be included in the study. Moreover, structure dimensions can be reduced significantly due to a higher strength compared to the reference concrete used in the same environment. In total, about 32 % of cement can be saved this way. The reduction in environmental impact equals 25.8 %, while this is only 11.4 % if the higher material strength is not considered

Life cycle analysis of road construction and use

Both the construction and use of roads have a range of environmental impacts; therefore, it is important to assess the sources of their burdens to adopt correct mitigation policies. Life cycle analysis (LCA) is a useful method to obtain demonstrable, accurate and non-misleading information for decision-making experts. The study presents a "cradle to gate with options" LCA of a provincial road during 60 year-service life. Input data derive from the bill of quantity of the project and their impacts have been evaluated according to the European standard EN 15804. The study considers the impacts of the construction and maintenance stages, lighting, and use of the vehicles on the built road. The results obtained from a SimaPro model highlight that the almost half of impacts took place during the construction stage rather than the use stage. Therefore, the adoption of environmentally friendly road planning procedures, the use of low-impact procedures in the production of materials, and the use of secondary raw materials could have the largest potential for reducing environmental impacts

Life cycle assessment of intensive striped catfish farming in the Mekong Delta for screening hotspots as input to environmental policy and research agenda

Purpose Intensive striped catfish production in the Mekong Delta has, in recent years, raised environmental concerns. We conducted a stakeholder-based screening life cycle assessment (LCA) of the intensive farming system to determine the critical environmental impact and their causative processes in producing striped catfish. Additional to the LCA, we assessed water use and flooding hazards in the Mekong Delta. Materials and methods The goal and scope of the LCA were defined in a stakeholder workshop. It was decided there to include all processes up to the exit-gate of the fish farm in the inventory and to focus life cycle impact assessment on global warming, acidification, eutrophication, human toxicity, and marine (MAET) and freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity (FWET). A survey was used to collect primary inventory data from 28 farms on fish grow-out, and from seven feed mills. Hatching and nursing of striped catfish fingerlings were not included in the assessment due to limited data availability and low estimated impact. Average feed composition for all farms had to be applied due to limitation of budget and data availability. Results and discussion Feed ingredient production, transport and milling dominated most of the impact categories in the LCA except for eutrophication and FWET. Most feed ingredients were produced outside Vietnam, and the impact of transport was important. Because of the screening character of this LCA, generic instead of specific inventory data were used for modelling feed ingredient production. However, the use of generic data is unlikely to have affected the main findings, given the dominance of feed production in all impact categories. Of the feed ingredients, rice bran contributed the most to global warming and acidification, while wheat bran contributed the most to eutrophication. The dominance of both was mainly due to the amounts used. Fishmeal production, transport and energy contributed the most to MAET. The biggest impacts of grow-out farming in Vietnam are on eutrophication and FWET. Water nutrient discharge from grow-out farming was high but negligible compared with the natural nutrient content of the Mekong River. The discharge from all grow-out farms together hardly modified river water quality compared with that before sector expansion. Conclusions Feed production, i.e. ingredient production and transport and milling, remains the main contributor to most impact categories. It contributes indirectly to eutrophication and FWET through the pond effluents. The environmental impact of Pangasius grow-out farming can be reduced by effectively managing sludge and by using feeds with lower feed conversion ratio and lower content of fishery products in the feed. To consider farm variability, a next LCA of aquaculture should enlist closer collaboration from several feed-milling companies and sample farms using their feeds. Future LCAs should also preferably collect specific instead of generic inventory data for feed ingredient production, and include biodiversity and primary production as impact categories

Towards the Assessment of an Ecological Index for Quantifying Sustainability of Day Life. A Case Study of the Environmental Consequences of Dietary and Transport in a Standard Workday

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Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Comparing Disinfection Options for Drinking Water Treatment

Drinking water treatment is essential to obtain a healthy source of water that can be distributed throughout a community. There are various methods to disinfect water, and all have trade-offs regarding public health and the environment. For example, chemical disinfectants that use chlorine can produce disinfection by-products within treated drinking water. The Environmental Protection Agency regulates these disinfection by-products because of their potential to cause cancer. Ultraviolet (UV) light is a physical disinfection method that does not produce these disinfection by-products, which is why it is becoming a preferred method for water treatment. For this research, I conducted a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) for chemical and physical disinfection methods. The main factors considered within this LCA were energy consumption and human toxicity risk. The results from my research support my original hypothesis that the assessed chemical disinfection method had less energy consumption and a higher human toxicity risk compared to the assessed physical disinfection method. The results show that each method has trade-offs and that this LCA can provide extensive knowledge on which disinfection method would work best for the Bethlehem, New Hampshire community based on the stakeholders’ priorities