Impact assessment modelling of the matter-less stressors in the context of Life Cycle Assessment

In the last three decades, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) framework has grown to establish itself as the leading tool for the assessment of the environmental impacts of product systems.LCA studies are now conducted globally both in and outside the academia and also used as a basis for policy making.Now that the science behind existing and established impact assessment models is more solid, LCA modellers may work on deepening and broadening LCA, and on tackling the issues that make the framework incomplete or uncertain.This work of thesis deals with the complete modelling of stressors that are not related to the standard extraction/emission pattern, thus that do not relate to the extraction of a certain quantity of matter or to the emission of matter to the environment.These stressors may be defined in this acceptation as matter-less.The thesis analyses the development of impact assessment models for the case of sound emissions determining noise impacts, radio-frequency electromagnetic emissions leading to electromagnetic pollution, and light emissions determining ecological light pollution.Through the study of these matter-less stressors the computational structure and other methodological topics of the LCA framework are put to the test.Industrial Ecolog

Three-Dimensional CFD Simulation of a Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolysis Cell

The energy shift towards carbon-free solutions is creating an ever-growing engineering interest in electrolytic cells, i.e., devices to produce hydrogen from water-splitting reactions. Among the available technologies, Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolysis is the most promising candidate for coping with the intermittency of renewable energy sources, thanks to the short transient period granted by the solid thin electrolyte. The well-known principle of PEM electrolysers is still unsupported by advanced engineering practices, such as the use of multidimensional simulations able to elucidate the interacting fluid dynamics, electrochemistry, and heat transport. A methodology for PEM electrolysis simulation is therefore needed. In this study, a model for the multidimensional simulation of PEM electrolysers is presented and validated against a recent literature case. The study analyses the impact of temperature and gas phase distribution on the cell performance, providing valuable insights into the understanding of the physical phenomena occurring inside the cell at the basis of the formation rate of hydrogen and oxygen. The simulations regard two temperature levels (333 K and 353 K) and the complete polarization curve is numerically predicted, allowing the analysis of the overpotentials break-up and the multi-phase flow in the PEM cell. An in-house developed model for macro-homogeneous catalyst layers is applied to PEM electrolysis, allowing independent analysis of overpotentials, investigation into their dependency on temperature and analysis of the cathodic gas–liquid stratification. The study validates a comprehensive multi-dimensional model for PEM electrolysis, relevantly proposing a methodology for the ever-growing urgency for engineering optimization of such devices

Digesting the alphabet soup of LCA

Article / Letter to editorCentrum voor Milieuwetenschappen LeidenCML/Industriele Ecologi

Practical solutions for ex-ante LCA illustrated by emerging PV technologies

In this paper, we discuss practical challenges in ex-ante life cycle assessment (LCA) of emerging technologies, i.e., barriers to hands-on implementation, as opposed to the conceptual challenges that recent contributions to the literature have been focusing on (see Giesen et al., 2020; Thonemann et al., 2020; Villares et al., 2017). We will illustrate the discussion with the case of emerging photovoltaics (PV), namely multijunction III-V/silicon tandem cell (III-V/Si). This case application helps structure the ex-ante LCA exercise and highlights the challenges of applying LCA early on in technology development, while providing sufficient general elements that apply to other emerging technologies.Written from the perspective of LCA analysts, the paper is organized around the LCA method. LCAs can be conducted at various stages of a technology development process, requiring different types of information at the various stages. By illustrating with the case study of emerging photovoltaics, the paper explores the importance of product performance optimization during technological development, and how it is directly linked to environmental performance during the use phase. It also demonstrates how the design and manufacturing choices that technology developers are confronted with can greatly influence environmental performance over the future product’s life cycle. The approach that emerges is one in which the LCA method remains flexible throughout the technology development process to accommodate its dynamic nature and the numerous uncertainties inherent in it.Industrial Ecolog

Perceived uncertainties of characterization in LCA: a survey

Industrial Ecolog

This city is not a bin: crowdmapping the distribution of urban litter

Industrial Ecolog

Sustainable local development and environmental governance: a strategic planning experience

The emphasis on learning and adaptation among different actors at various political administrative levels and on various geographic scales has become a precondition for the emergence of sustainable development. It is possible to find the essential form of collaborative management by using a Strategic Plan, designed to determine a local model of sustainable competitiveness in economic, social and environmental terms. The adoption of a Strategic Plan stimulates a process of shared knowledge, through which it is possible to generate a new environmental governance (EG) that is truly representative of a local system. This paper presents, as a case study representative of the Italian context, the Strategic Plan of the Nebrodi area (SP), and assesses the structure of a new form of public and private environmental governance focused on sustainable concern. Finally, the SP could be considered a guideline for managing the local territorial and environmental system from a long-term perspective

Approaches to implement safe by design in early product design through combining risk assessment and Life Cycle Assessment

The Safe by Design (SbD) concept aims to ensure the production, use and disposal of materials and products safely. While there is a growing interest in the potential of SbD to support policy commitments, such as the EU Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plan in Europe, methodological approaches and practical guidelines on SbD are, however, largely missing. The combined use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Risk Assessment (RA) is considered suitable to operationalize SbD over the whole life-cycle of a product. Here, we explore the potential of the combined use of LCA and RA at Technological Readiness Level (TRL) 1–6. We perform a review of the literature presenting and/or developing approaches that combine LCA and RA at early stages of product design. We identify that basic early-on-evaluations of safety (e.g., apply lifecycle thinking to assess risk hotspots, avoid use of hazardous chemicals, minimize other environmental impacts from chemicals) are more common, while more complex assessments (e.g., ex-ante LCA, control banding, predictive (eco)toxicology) require specialized expertise. The application of these simplified approaches and guidelines aims to avoid some obvious sources of risks and impacts at early stages. Critical gaps need to be addressed for wider application of SbD, including more studies in the product design context, developing tools and databases containing collated information on risk, greater collaboration between RA/LCA researchers and companies, and policy discussion on the expansion from SbD to Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD).Horizon 2020(H2020)875637Industrial EcologyEnvironmental Biolog

Analisi PCR del locus polimorfico D17S30 (YNZ22) in un campione popolazionistico parmense

E' stata eseguita un'indagine del sistema polimorfico YNZ22 (locus D17S30) su un campione popolazionistico della Provincia di Parma. Dopo amplificazione PCR è stata effettuata elettroforesi in gel di agarosio e colorazione con etidio-bromuro, che ha consentito l'evidenziazione di 13 varianti alleliche. Il calcolo del X(2) non ha evidenziato deviazioni rispetto all'equilibrio di Hardy-Weinberg. Il Potere Discriminativo (Pd) del sistema indagato è risultato pari a 0,94. La distribuzione delle frequenze alleliche è risultata simile a quella di altre popolazioni caucasiche. L'elevato Potere Discriminativo e l'assenza di evidenti pressioni selettive rendono il sistema polimorfico indagato suscettibile di efficace utilizzo in campo medico-legale