The importance of industrial ecology in engineering education for sustainable development

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show how industrial ecology can facilitate the achievement of sustainable development through its incorporation into an engineering curriculum. Design/methodology/approach – A model has been developed for assessing sustainability learning outcomes due to the incorporation of the concept of industrial ecology into undergraduate and postgraduate engineering programs. This model assesses how the Engineering Faculty at Curtin University has included a core engineering unit (Engineering for Sustainable Development) and four postgraduate units (Cleaner Production Tools, Eco-efficiency, Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Technology) in its undergraduate and postgraduate engineering program, to enable modern engineering education to reflect the benefits of industrial ecology in the implementation of sustainable engineering solutions and decision-making processes. Using this model, this paper demonstrates how the syllabus, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary assignment tasks, lectures and tutorials have been developed since 2006 in order to develop the concept of industrial ecology in undergraduate and postgraduate engineering education. The paper has also analysed the different teaching methods that have been applied since 2006 to generate increased student satisfaction in these new and challenging subjects.Findings – The university environment can temper the potential outcomes from increasing the sustainability content in engineering education, given the general lack of student maturity in understanding the value of sustainability objectives together with course limitations on sustainability content and the arduous and lengthy processes involved in changing course curricula. Research limitations/implications – Since the Engineering for Sustainable Development unit has been introduced only recently, it was beyond the scope of the research to interview graduate engineers who completed this unit to investigate how they have applied the concept of industrial ecology to achieve sustainability outcomes in their workplaces. Originality/value – This research is distinct in that it investigated the implications of the incorporation of industrial ecology into the engineering curriculum

Improving the carbon footprint of water treatment with renewable energy: a Western Australian case study

A life cycle assessment (LCA) was carried out on three separate drinking water production options—a groundwater treatment plant (GWTP), surface water treatment plant and seawater desalination plant (electrodialysis) in order to calculate the carbon footprint associated with each process and to identify the areas of production with high levels of GHG emissions in order to develop strategies for reducing their carbon footprint. The results obtained from the LCA show that the highest GHG emissions are from the seawater desalination plant via electrodialysis (ED) where the GHG emissions were 2.46 kg CO2 equivalent (eq). By comparison, the GWTP has the lowest carbon footprint emitting some 0.38 kg CO2 eq for water delivery to households. The GHG emission contribution of electricity generation for the GWTP, surface water treatment plant and seawater ED plants was 95, 82 and 98 %, respectively. Furthermore, the GHG emissions associated with this production process can be further reduced by including renewable energy power generation in its operations

Sustainability Implications of the Incorporation of a Biogas Trapping System into a Conventional Crude Palm Oil Supply Chain

This paper presents the sustainability implications of installing biogas trapping systems in palm oil mills of a crude palm oil production supply chains in Malaysia. The study evaluates the impact of this mitigation strategy on the existing supply chains published by Lim and Biswas. The experience of a local palm oil mill installed with the KUBOTA biogas trapping system was incorporated into a typical 60 metric tonne per hour palm oil mill for effluent treatment. This allowed us to assess the changes in sustainability performance of the whole crude palm oil supply chain using the Palm Oil Sustainability Assessment (POSA) framework. Installing the biogas trapping system increased waste recycling and reuse percentage of the mill from 81.81% to 99.99% and the energy ratio (energy output/fossil fuel and biomass energy input) from 2.45 to 2.56; and reduced the Greenhouse Gas emission of the supply chain from 0.814 tonne CO2eq to 0.196 tonne CO2eq per tonne of Crude Palm Oil. This system could also potentially increase the mill’s annual revenue by 2.3%, while sacrificing the sustainability performance of other economic indicators (i.e., a further 3% negative deviation of actual growth rate from sustainable growth rate). Overall, sustainability score of the supply chain improved from 3.47/5 to 3.59/5 on the 5-level-Likert-scale due to environmental improvement strategy consideration. Finally, this paper shows that the POSA framework is capable of capturing changes in the sustainability performance of triple bottom line indicators associated with the use or incorporation of any improvement strategy in the crude palm oil supply chain

De-constructing the sustainability challenge for engineering education: An industrial ecology approach

Engineering for sustainable development involves engineering decision making that provides for today’s production and consumption without endangering the natural resource base on which all of life ultimately depends. Although it is widely accepted as an aspirational goal for business, the public sector and community development worldwide, there is still no widespread agreement on the need for sustainable development approaches to be adopted as the mainstream management norm. Curtin University’s Faculty of Engineering in Perth, Western Australia, has long held the belief that engineering education holds one of the main keys to improving sustainable development outcomes across the modern world and to this end has invested in the development of outreach programs, undergraduate and post-graduate education and the promotion of education leadership in engineering education for sustainable development. These programs have been both facilitated and developed by the Sustainable Engineering Group in the School of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at Curtin University. The School has supported the development of a number of industrial ecology focussed teaching programs to assist in the development of the tools and skills needed to analyse sustainability issues and to encourage change in the engineering performance paradigm. De-constructing the sustainable engineering education challenge has involved programs that start from the first interface with potential young engineers in secondary high schools and continues through to post-graduate education for practicing engineers

Sustainability Assessment of a Residential Building using a Life Cycle Assessment Approach

Building and construction industry is responsible for resource scarcity, global warming impacts, land use changes and the loss of bio-diversity, which have direct and indirect socio-economic implications. Sustainable building design is thus inevitable through the selection of highly durable and less energy intensive-materials that could reduce environmental degradation in an economically viable and socially acceptable manner. This paper presents the life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) framework to assess the environmental, social and economic objectives of residential buildings. Two buildings of different material compositions have been used to test this framework. Firstly, the service life of this building has been calculated as durability of building materials play a key role in enhancing resource conservation for the future generations. A factor method has been used to carry out the service life of each component of the building envelope. The minimum estimated service life of building systems is considered as the overall service life of building components. Secondly, a life cycle assessment framework utilising environmental life cycle assessment, life cycle costing and social life cycle assessment have been utilised to determine environmental, economic and social indicators of the studied buildings. All these triple bottom line indicators in this framework have been calculated on an annual basis in order to capture the advantage of increased service life of buildings. This framework will be applied to assess the sustainability performance of alternative buildings for comparative analysis and to find out the most sustainable building option

An evaluation of integrated spatial technology framework for greenhouse gas mitigation in grain production in Western Australia

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts an increase of 0.2 C per decade for the nexttwo decades in global temperatures and a rise of between 1.5 and 4.5 C by the year 2100. Related to theincrease in world temperatures is the increase in Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) which are primarily made upof carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4) and fluorinated gases. In 2004, the GHGsfrom agriculture contributed 14% of the overall global GHGs made up mainly of methane (CH4) andnitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. In Australia, the dominant source of CH4 and N2O emissions for the yearending June 2012 was found to be from the agricultural sector. With the recent introduction of the CleanEnergy Act 2011, the agricultural sector of Australia is expected to develop appropriate GHG mitigationstrategies to maintain and improve its competitiveness in the green commodity market. This paperproposes the use of Integrated Spatial Technologies (IST) framework by linking Life Cycle Assessment(LCA), Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The IST approach also integratesand highlights the use of Cleaner Production (CP) strategies for the formulation and application of costeffectiveGHG mitigation options for grain production in Western Australia (WA). In this study, the ISTframework was tested using data from an existing study (the baseline study) and two mitigation options.The analysis results revealed production and use of fertiliser as the “hotspot”, and for mitigation purposeswas replaced with pig manure in option 1, whereas option 2 emphasised crop rotation system/s

Personal Computer Life Cycle Assessment Study: The Case of Western Australia

The alarming growth of the information and communication technology (ICT) during the last decade has increased the awareness of environmental impacts associated with the use of personal computers (PC).Energy and materials use and e-waste disposal during the life cycle of ICT products need to be assessed in order to minimize the environmental impacts of ICT devices, particularly personal computer. This research utilizes a life cycle assessment (LCA) tool to identify the process (or processes) or “hotspot(s)” requiring mitigation strategies. The LCA of the PC’s takes into account all the stages from raw material extraction and production, manufacturing, transportation and use to disposal (cradle to grave). A desktop computer has been disassembled to develop a detailed life cycle inventory to carry out a LCA analysis. The LCA is constructed by SimaPro software version 7.3 and express with greenhouse gas and demand energy life cycle assessment method. The LCA shows that the use and manufacturing stages is the largest contributor to embodied energy and carbon footprint. In the manufacturing stage, LCA have been identified that the production of monitor is the greatest significantly in producing carbon footprint and embodied energy

Carbon footprint assessment of Western Australian Groundwater Recycling Scheme

This research has determined the carbon footprint or the carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2 eq) of potable water production from a groundwater recycling scheme, consisting of the Beenyup wastewater treatment plant, the Beenyup groundwater replenishment trial plant and the Wanneroo groundwater treatment plant in Western Australia, using a life cycle assessment approach. It was found that the scheme produces 1300 tonnes of CO2 eq per gigalitre (GL) of water produced, which is 933 tonnes of CO2 eq higher than the desalination plant at Binningup in Western Australia powered by 100% renewable energy generated electricity. A Monte Carlo Simulation uncertainty analysis calculated a Coefficient of Variation value of 5.4%, thus confirming the accuracy of the simulation. Electricity input accounts for 83% of the carbon dioxide equivalent produced during the production of potable water. The chosen mitigation strategy was to consider the use of renewable energy to generate electricity for carbon intensive groundwater replenishment trial plant. Depending on the local situation, a maximum of 93% and a minimum of 21% greenhouse gas saving from electricity use can be attained at groundwater replenishment trial plant by replacing grid electricity with renewable electricity. In addition, the consideration of vibrational separation (V-Sep) that helps reduce wastes generation and chemical use resulted in a 4.03 tonne of CO2 eq saving per GL of water produced by the plant

Sustainable utilization of lime kiln dust as active filler in hot mix asphalt with moisture damage resistance

The Australian flexible road pavement network is experiencing a considerable degree of reveling and stripping damage in association with moisture. The next generation of hot mix asphalt (HMA) mixtures in Australia needs to have excellent engineering properties as well as higher resistance to moisture damage. Hydrated lime (HL) with a relatively high content of active lime is used in HMA mixtures to improve engineering properties, and particularly to enhance the resistance of HMA mixture to moisture. HL is currently considered a superior mineral filler to crushed rock baghouse dust but it is commercially produced and relatively expensive. Lime kiln dust (LKD) is an industrial by-product which has hydrated lime HMA filler-like properties with similar fineness and a relatively high content of active lime. The lime components in LKD assists in promoting resistance to the stripping common in siliceous acidic aggregates. This project aims to determine an optimum proportion of LKD in an LKD-asphalt binder mixture, based on the properties of viscoelasticity and aggregate adhesion. Dynamic shear rheometer testing and rolling bottle tests were used to evaluate the properties of the LKD-asphalt binder mixtures with varying LKD content. The test results indicated that a 50% LKD content in the LKD-HMA binder mixture provided superior viscoelasticity properties., an acceptable adhesion of asphalt to aggregates was also observed. Last but not the least, a ‘cradle to gate’ life cycle assessment was carried out to capture the benefits of the use of LKD by-product. This showed that GHG emissions and embodied energy demand could potentially be reduced by 18.5% and 2.4%, respectively if a 50% LKD asphalt binder by mass mixture was used in the LKD-HMA mix