Integrating life cycle inventory and process design techniques for the early estimate of energy and material consumption data

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a powerful tool to identify direct and indirect environmental burdens associated with products, processes and services. A critical phase of the LCA methodology is the collection of representative inventory data for the energy and material streams related to the production process. In the evaluation of new and emerging chemical processes, measured data are known only at laboratory scale and may have limited connection to the environmental footprint of the same process implemented at industrial scale. On the other hand, in the evaluation of processes already established at commercial scale, the availability of process data might be hampered by industrial confidentiality. In both cases, the integration of simple process design techniques in the LCA can contribute to overcome the lack of primary data, allowing a more correct quantification of the life cycle inventory. The present paper shows, through the review of case study examples, how simplified process design, modeling and simulation can support the LCA framework to provide a preliminary estimate of energy and material consumption data suitable for environmental assessment purposes. The discussed case studies illustrate the implementation of process design considerations to tackle availability issues of inventory data in different contexts. By evidencing the case-specific nature of the problem of preliminary conceptual process design, the study calls for a closer collaboration of process design experts and life cycle analysts in the green development of new products and processes

Key Performance Indicators for Implementing Sustainability and Environmental Protection in Early Process Design Activities

The adoption of a sustainability perspective in chemical industry shall start from the early phases of process design (e.g. conceptual design, technology selection, process development) where the key drivers in the environmental, economical, and hazard fingerprint of a process are defined. These phases also allow the opportunities for the lower cost of design change. A sound support of design activities requires quantitative tools, allowing for the assessment of the sustainability profile of a process, the identification of possible improvements and supporting informed tradeoffs. Though several tools for process development were proposed in last decades, application is still limited in the current practice because of issues on data requirement, indicator definition and customization to specific application needs (e.g. PFD definition in design of polypropylene production plants). This study focuses on the application to the early process design of environmental and exergy Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to support sustainability-oriented design activities. It was tailored on the specific industrial application of polypropylene production plants. The choice of a specific sector allowed customization of the method, promoting ease of application and allowing the assessment of multiple scenarios (e.g. sensitivity on material and energy supply strategies, comparison of different technologies). Results obtained draw up sustainable guidelines to improve design activities within the scope in a lifecycle perspective

A ciascuno il suo: come fornire un articolo all\u27utente nel rispetto del contratto. Il nuovo progetto di NILDE per la verifica delle licenze online

This paper describes the state of the art of the ALPE-DD project which aims to improve the understanding of the issues raised by license agreements of electronic resources in the Inter-Library Loan Service and to support librarians in the implementation of the right policies

Studio e progettazione di una rete informatica per una biblioteca scientifica basata su tecnologie Open Source

In this paper we present the design and implementation of a computer network to fulfil the needs of a scientific library, making use of Open Source technologies. For a scientific library it is vital to guarantee users to access all the online licensed resources, such as e-journals and e-books, the library subscribes to. However, access through the network and Internet (via a wireless or cable connection) has to comply with the license (for instance: library has to guarantee that users do not perform prohibited activities, such as systematic and programmating downloads, ..) and with the law. In the paper we describe the implemented solutions for authenticating and authorising users, controlling user access and preventing risks or abuses

To each his own: how to provide a library user with an article respecting licensing agreements

This paper describes the state of the art of the Italian ALPE project which aims to improve the understanding of the issues raised by license agreements of electronic resources in the Inter-Library Loan Service and to support librarians in the implementation of the right policies

Sviluppi presenti e futuri di Nilde

Il presente articolo illustra i più recenti sviluppi del sistema NILDE, le prospettive di evoluzione futura e le ricadute positive di un modello di lavoro cooperativo e di condivisione delle esperienze e delle professionalità per la comunità delle biblioteche aderenti. La collaborazione con DoGi e l’integrazione di NILDE con questa importante banca dati, nasce in risposta alle esigenze evidenziate dai bibliotecari dei settori disciplinari umanistico, sociale e giuridico di lingua italiana. La collaborazione tra NILDE e Kronosdoc (biblioteche spagnole) e tra NILDE e ITALE (biblioteche che usano Aleph e Alma) nasce per migliorare i flussi di lavoro di chi utilizza sia NILDE che altri sistemi per la gestione del document delivery, e per evitare la duplicazione manuale di inserimento degli stessi dati in software diversi. Il progetto ALPE per la creazione di un archivio condiviso di licenze dei periodici elettronici relativi alle clausole di document delivery intende supportare i bibliotecari nella corretta applicazione degli usi consentiti e favorire la diffusione delle conoscenze su questi aspetti.This paper presents recent developments of the NILDE system, future plans and positive follow-up for the community of users. The collaboration with DoGi and the integration with NILDE was born to answer librarians needs in the human, social and law sectors. The collaboration between NILDE and Kronosdoc (Spanish libraries) and between NILDE and ITALE was born for improving the workflow of whom uses NILDE and these other systems for document delivery and to avoid duplication of data entry in the two software. ALPE (Archivio Licenze Periodici Elettronici – e-journal licenses database) is a pilot project aiming at building a shared national database of ILL permitted uses about e-resources and to support librarians in the implementation of the correct policies and the understanding of the issues raised by e-licenses

Report on LPG infrastructure impact at the WUI microscale

Preprin

Dynamical p-adaptivity for LES of compressible flows in a high order DG framework

We investigate the possibility of reducing the computational burden of LES models by employing locally and dynamically adaptive polynomial degrees in the framework of a high order DG method. A degree adaptation technique especially featured to be effective for LES applications, that was previously developed by the authors and tested in the statically adaptive case, is applied here in a dynamically adaptive fashion. Two significant benchmarks are considered, comparing the results of adaptive and non adaptive simulations. The proposed dynamically adaptive approach allows for a significant reduction of the computational cost of representative LES computation, while allowing to maintain the level of accuracy guaranteed by LES carried out with constant, maximum polynomial degree values

Cyber Threats in the Chemical and Process Industry

Presentatio

NILDE Reloaded: a New System Open to International Interlibrary Loan

In 2010 we released the NILDE software version 4.0, introducing many innovative features for libraries and end-users. Thanks to the widespread participation in improving the new system, many enhancements have been made during these last 12 months since the software was first launched. Librarians have to face several new challenges in Interlibrary Loan, such as sharing of electronic resources, licensing, and International ILL. In this paper we present the new concepts introduced in the NILDE system and which may contribute to shape a different and more effective way of resource sharing among Italian libraries, including: - The catalogs where libraries expose their holdings: NILDE offers the possibility to link to any union or national catalog to which a library belongs, that can be now searched via Z39.50 and library holdings retrieved in MARC21 and XML format. Print, electronic and consortial holdings are managed. - The ranking of lending libraries: the new rank algorithm suggests the most suitable library to which a request be sent, based on the principle of maintaining the system in equilibrium between borrowing and lending requests. - The multilingual user-interface: the NILDE user-interface has been redesigned and is provided currently in Italian, English and French. These features make NILDE a suitable system to help librarians to face the new challenges, to support other library networks around the world and to support International ILL