Environmental implications of future copper demand and supply in Europe

Copper is the third metal by production volume after iron and aluminium, but its wide use in modern technology can be affected by high vulnerability to supply restriction due to the anticipated mine production peak. Securing access to copper forms is of particular importance for countries highly depending on imports, notably many EU Member States. Recycling of postconsumer scrap can help to reduce Europe’s reliance on natural reserves and to reduce the environmental impacts associated with primary copper production, but end-of-life management of copper scrap is far from perfect recycling performance. In this work, we combined material flow analysis, scenario analysis and life cycle assessment to explore the possible evolution of copper demand in the EU-28 to 2050 and discussed the potentials for energy savings and climate mitigation achievable under the creation of a circular economy in the EU-28

Still edible wasted food from households: A regional Italian case study

A 2-year monitoring campaign was carried out within the Marche Region (Italy) to quantify the potential still edible wasted food (seFW) within the sorted (seFWsorted) and unsorted (seFWunsorted) waste streams. Results were elaborated to estimate the distribution of seFW among the five provinces and the amount per capita. Results in terms of total quantities per inhabitants (seFWindex per capita) depict an important variability between districts but almost constant in years (26–38 kg/inhabitants in 2018 and 26–36 kg/inhabitants in 2019). Scores in Marche were then used to study the national situation, adopting the same percentage factors. Analysis was performed on 2019 data. Gradual colour shade was used to identify the Regions with greater seFW production potential. Worst scores are achieved by Lazio, Lombardia and Sicilia (red), followed by others classified as orange and yellow. More than 1.5 Mt potential seFW was estimated at national level, 29% of which is due to the unsorted fraction. Results at national level were used to assess the potential environmental impact related to seFW in terms of climate change. Carbon footprint indicator was quantified per capita (69 kg equivalent carbon dioxide (CO2e)/inhabitant/year in the case of Marche) and overall (3.5 MtCO2e). In addition, an evaluation of the potential economic implications related to the greenhouse gases emitted was made using the Social Cost of Carbon. Results showed that cost of the tCO2e global damage related to seFW in Italy ranges from 35 to 700 M$

Application of life cycle assessment to high quality-soil conditioner production from biowaste

The recent large-scale urbanization and industrialization resulted in an impressive growth of solid waste generation worldwide. Organic fraction generally constitutes a large fraction of municipal solid waste and its peculiar chemical properties open to various valorization strategies. On this purpose, life cycle assessment is applied to an innovative industrial system that processes 18 kt/y of agricultural and livestock waste into a high-quality soil conditioner. The high-quality soil conditioner production system consists of a series of processes, including anaerobic digestion and vermicomposting, allowing the generation of a peat-like material with high carbon content, porosity, and water-holding capacity. The presence of a photovoltaic plant and a cogeneration plant, fed with the biogas produced in the anaerobic digestion, makes the system entirely self-sufficient from the national grid and generating a surplus of electricity of 1177MWh/y. The high-quality soil conditioner showed better environmental performances in 15 out of 18 impact categories when compared to alternative scenarios. In particular, the high-quality soil conditioner and the related biowaste management resulted in a carbon saving of around 397 kg CO2 eq/ton compared with a scenario involving the employment of peat in place of the high-quality soil conditioner and a traditional biowaste management, and 165 kg CO2 eq/ton compared with a scenario where cogeneration is replaced by biomethane upgrading. This study demonstrates the possibility of using organic waste as an environmentally sustainable and renewable source for energy and carbon to soil conditioning

Material flow analysis of aluminium, copper, and iron in the EU-28

The EC Raw Materials System Analysis (MSA) was carried out in 2015 for 28 materials . The MSA study investigates the flows of materials through the EU economy in terms of entry into the EU, flows through the economy, stock accumulation, and end-of-life management, e.g., through disposal or recovery in the EU-28. The MSA study is a follow-up of the “Study on Data Needs for a Full Raw Materials Flow Analysis” , launched by the European Commission in 2012 within the context of the European Raw Materials Initiative’s (RMI) strategy. This strategy, which is a part of the Europe 2020’s strategy for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth, aims at securing and improving access to raw materials for the EU. The MSA is a key building block of the European Union Raw Materials Knowledge Base (EURMKB). MSAs are an important data provider for a variety of raw material policy knowledge needs, as also reflected in the Raw Materials Information System (RMIS). The RMIS aims to support the broad range of EU policy knowledge needs of, e.g., the EU Raw Materials (RM) Scoreboard, EU Critical Raw Materials (CRM) assessment, and EU trade negotiations. In addition, it also aims to support broader coordination beyond these needs of other EU level data and information on raw materials. For both of these EUKBRM/RMIS roles, MSA is a vital backbone. The MSA data sets contain key, material specific data and information that will support the development of a database for the RMIS. However, currently only 28 MSA studies exist (mostly for CRMs) which are quickly becoming outdated. So far, no MSA studies exist for some of the major metals (e.g., iron, copper, aluminium, zinc, or nickel) which are important to the EU economy, e.g., due to the large quantities in which find use as well as due to their use in special application, e.g., as alloying elements. Against this background, this report presents, firstly, detailed MSA studies for aluminium (Al), copper (Cu), and iron (Fe) and discusses, secondly, possibilities for future MSA update and maintenance in the RMIS. Overall, the results show that the EU-28 has a well-established industrial chain for all the three metals covering the major value chain steps (from extraction to end-of-life). However, modest natural deposits make the region strongly dependent on imports to meet the domestic demand of primary material . Only a small fraction of total primary metal input to processing in the EU-28 is supplied from domestic extraction ranging from 10% (Al) to 13% (Fe). Demand-supply dynamics and product lifetime determine the accumulation of materials as in-use stocks and scrap generation at end-of-life. Iron, aluminium, and copper are used in large quantities (compared to other metals) and their major application segments have relatively long in-use lifetimes (e.g., 50-75 years for building and construction). In-use stock for the three metals in EU-28 were estimated at about 5,300 Tg for iron (or around 10 t per capita), 132 Tg for aluminium (around 260 kg per capita), 73 Tg for copper (around 140 kg per capita). A consolidated recycling industry supplements primary supply of aluminium, copper and iron with inputs from secondary sources (i.e., new scrap and old scrap ). In particular, old scrap recycling performance attests respectable end-of-life recycling rates (EOL-RR) for the three metals (i.e., 69% aluminium, 61% copper, 75% iron), but they are still far from “perfect” recycling. In addition, not all old scrap collected for recycling is processed in the EU-28, with the region being a net-exporter of secondary material. Material loss in products at end-of-life and net-exports of secondary material forms constraint the closure of material cycles and prevent the implementation of a circular economy in the EU-28 requiring the adoption of resource efficiency strategies priority. Because of its system-wide perspective on raw materials issues (encompassing all life-cycle stages of a raw material), the MSA provides an overarching data structure that could be based inside the RMIS database (DB) core to collect, store, and provide data also for other policy knowledge needs (i.e., EU CRM assessment, Circular Economy Monitoring, Trade, Minventory, RM Scoreboard). Flows/stocks parameters of the MSA can also be important to satisfy knowledge needs that may arise as a result of future policy needs, e.g., through resilience, determining urban stocks, and other emerging issues. Equally, complete MSAs can help in the quality assurance of the underlying mass balance/data and increasing harmonization of the various data sources – which cannot be guaranteed if only a partial picture exists. Results from an assessment of data overlaps between MSA and other policy-related outputs show that current policy knowledge needs often require data on various flows related to the early stages of a raw material’s life-cycle. For example, a total of 12 flows (out of 40 in total) of the MSA are also required for the 2017 CRM assessment. Data on secondary raw materials are essential for current circular economy monitoring, but generally difficult to obtain without MSAs. Possibilities for MSA update and maintenance range from partial data updates (harvesting data synergies with current policy-related outputs, e.g., the CRM assessment, Scoreboard, and Trade module in RMIS) to carrying out full/systematic MSAs for most candidate materials of the CRM assessment (through European Commission (EC) internal research projects and outsourcing via external contracts).JRC.D.3-Land Resource

Molecular catalysed Guerbet reaction: Moving to the larger and the Greener through LCA and scale up simulation approaches

Efficient homologation of bio-ethanol can be performed under mild conditions exploiting a catalytic system based of a ruthenium molecular catalyst, benzoquinone and a base as a co-catalysts. Conversions and selectivity can be tuned by changing the head space of the reactor. On this basis, preliminary design of a full-scale process has been developed based on the experimental results. The process has been characterized with specific energy and performance indicators per unit of produced butanol, which have been used as input for the life cycle assessment analysis. The LCA was applied as scientific methodology to address potential burdens of the baseline configuration, 3X catalytic cycles, electricity from Italian grid and heat from natural gas. Hotspots were identified according to a multi-impact approach method (ReCiPe 2016). The usage of dedicated lignocellulosic biomass as a source of EtOH, the synthesis of the catalytic system and the energy requirements were addressed as the major contributors. Thus, further sensitivity scenarios were created. The best configuration was identified in the use of waste biomasses and in an integrated cogeneration unit. In addition, enabling the recovery of the catalytic system up to five cycles to scenario shows a reduction in the impacts higher than 50% for the categories of global warming potential, −41% for the mineral resource scarcity and around −16% for the fine particulate matter formation. The results were also confirmed by an uncertainty analysis with the Monte Carlo method, which demonstrated the major environmental sustainability of the Guerbet route compared to the oxo synthesis from propylene

Material system analysis: Characterization of flows, stocks, and performance indicators of manganese, nickel, and natural graphite in the EU, 2012–2016

Raw materials form an industrial base to provide the wide range of products and services demanded by industry and society. In particular, manganese, nickel, and natural graphite are examples of materials having a globally consolidated supply chain with interlinked use in steelmaking and essential role in clean energy systems and e-mobility. A stable material supply chain is hence a priority for import-dependent regions like the EU and builds upon quantitative system understanding. To this aim, the EU Material System Analysis is applied to analyze the anthropogenic cycle of manganese, nickel, and natural graphite from 2012 to 2016. We provide a detailed characterization of their material stocks, flows, and changes in selected performance indicators including end-of-life recycling rate (51% +/- 3%, 49% +/- 8%, and 8% +/- 0% for manganese, nickel, and natural graphite, respectively), self-sufficiency potential (40% +/- 3%, 32% +/- 5%, and 5% +/- 1%), old scrap ratio (31% +/- 0%, 22% +/- 2%, and 90% +/- 1%), recycling input rate (25% +/- 1%, 38% +/- 2%, and 3% +/- 0%), recycling process efficiency rate (84% +/- 2%, 85% +/- 6%, and 48% +/- 3%), and pre-consumer losses rate (83% +/- 3%, 5% +/- 1%, and 24% +/- 2%). The achieved results may inform decision-makers engaged with raw materials recovery and recycling as well as the strategic securement of a reliable material supply to the EU for resilient industrial ecosystems

Prospective life cycle assessment for the full valorization of anchovy fillet leftovers: The LimoFish process

Prospective life cycle assessment models were developed and applied at the laboratory and industrial scale with the aim to evaluate the environmental burdens associated with the LimoFish process used to produce the fish oil “AnchoiOil”, the new organic fertilizer “AnchoisFert” or biogas (by means of anaerobic digestion) after treatment of anchovy fillet leftovers (AnLeft) with agro-solvent d-limonene. Potential impacts for climate change and freshwater eutrophication were estimated at 29.1 kg CO2 eq/kg AnLeft and 1.7E−07 kg PO4 eq/kg AnLeft at laboratory scale, and at 1.5 kg CO2 eq/kg AnLeft and 2.2E−07 kg PO4 eq/kg AnLeft at industrial scale. Electricity consumption is the main contributor to the environmental impact of the process and plays a significant role in the production of d-limonene, for which cold pressing extraction would reduce the related impacts by ∼ 70 %. The use of the solid by-product as organic fertilizer or input to anaerobic digestion would provide additional environmental benefits to the process. The LimoFish process is a successful example of a low impacting strategy to reduce the demand for natural resources and maximize the application of the circular economy principles in the fishing industry

The role of outdoor and indoor air quality in the spread of SARS-CoV-2: Overview and recommendations by the research group on COVID-19 and particulate matter (RESCOP commission)

There are important questions surrounding the potential contribution of outdoor and indoor air quality in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and perpetuation of COVID-19 epidemic waves. Environmental health may be a critical component of COVID-19 prevention. The public health community and health agencies should consider the evolving evidence in their recommendations and statements, and work to issue occupational guidelines. Evidence coming from the current epidemiological and experimental research is expected to add knowledge about virus diffusion, COVID-19 severity in most polluted areas, inter-personal distance requirements and need for wearing face masks in indoor or outdoor environments. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for maintaining particulate matter concentrations at low levels for multiple health-related reasons, which may also include the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Indoor environments represent even a more crucial challenge to cope with, as it is easier for the SARS-COV2 to spread, remain vital and infect other subjects in closed spaces in the presence of already infected asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic people. The potential merits of preventive measures, such as CO2 monitoring associated with natural or controlled mechanical ventilation and air purification, for schools, indoor public places (restaurants, offices, hotels, museums, theatres/cinemas etc.) and transportations need to be carefully considered. Hospital settings and nursing/retirement homes as well as emergency rooms, infectious diseases divisions and ambulances represent higher risk indoor environments and may require additional monitoring and specific decontamination strategies based on mechanical ventilation or air purificatio