Circular economy: comparative life cycle assessment of fossil polyethylene terephthalate (PET)and its recycled and bio-based counterparts

The transition to circular economy requires diversifying material sources, improving secondary raw materials management, including recycling, and finally finding sustainable alternative materials. Both recycled and bio-based plastics are often regarded as promising alternatives to conventional fossil-based plastics. Their broad application instead of fossil based plastics is, however, frequently the subject of criticism because of offering limited environmental benefits. The study presents a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) of fossil-based polyethylene terephthalate (PET) versus its recycled and bio-based counterparts. The system boundary covers the plastics manufacturing and end-of-life plastic management stages (cradle-to-cradle/grave variant). Based on the data and assumptions set out in the research, recycled PET (rPET) demonstrates the best environmental profile out of the evaluated plastics in all impact categories. The study contributes to circular economy in plastics by providing transparent and consistent knowledge on their environmental portfolio

An study of the driving forces of CO2 emissions in the member states of the European Union (EU-28)

Seminario impartido en la XXXVII Reunión Bienal de la RSEF. Zaragoza, julio de 2019An study of the driving forces of CO2 emissions in the member states of the European Union (EU-28

A method for obtaining the preventive maintenance interval in the absence of failure time data

One of the ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other polluting gases caused by ships is to improve their maintenance operations through their life cycle. The maintenance manager usually does not modify the preventive intervals that the equipment manufacturer has designed to reduce the failure. Conditions of use and maintenance often change from design conditions. In these cases, continuing using the manufacturer's preventive intervals can lead to non-optimal management situations. This article proposes a new method to calculate the preventive interval when the hours of failure of the assets are unavailable. Two scenarios were created to test the effectiveness and usefulness of this new method, one without the failure hours and the other with the failure hours corresponding to a bypass valve installed in the engine of a maritime transport surveillance vessel. In an easy and fast way, the proposed method allows the maintenance manager to calculate the preventive interval of equipment that does not have installed an instrument for measuring operating hours installed.This research was funded by the “Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades de la Junta de Andalucía” and by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), within the framework of the FEDER of Andalusia 2014-2020 Project Reference UHU-202031, and by the grant Ref. RTI2018-094614-B-I00 (SMASHING Project) into the “Programa Estatal de I+D+i Orientada a los Retos de la Sociedad” funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/497 501100011033

Is India on the right pathway to reduce CO 2 emissions? Decomposing an enlarged Kaya identity using the LMDI method for the period 1990-2016

Nowadays, India is the third-largest CO2 emitter and energy consumer in the world, and, it is soon expected to surpass China as the most populated country. Therefore, it is of great interest to analyse how India is developing its energy transition to a lower-carbon economy. This work analyses the evolution of the main driving forces of CO2 emissions in India during the period $1990-2016$ through the use of an enlarged version of the Kaya identity, which establishes a link between CO2 emissions, types of energy sources (16), size of the economic sectors (3) and value of the Gross Domestic Product. India's CO2 emissions increased by 276% in the period under study, due to the rapid economic growth of India, which has been the dominating driving force contributing to the increase in CO2 emissions by 241%, while the energy intensity has been the main one reducing them by approximately 47%. So far, the use of coal has supported the rapid economic growth and the contribution of renewable energy, although significant, is still short compared to the total amount of energy employed. Remarkably, the estimated value of the emission intensity for 2020 supposes a 26% reduction concerning the value in 2005. According to this result, India is on the right pathway to fulfill its Nationally Determined Contribution but not to reduce its net CO2 emissions

Learning FCMs with multi-local and balanced memetic algorithms for forecasting industrial drying processes

In this paper, we propose a Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM) learning approach with a multi-local search in balanced memetic algorithms for forecasting industrial drying processes. The first contribution of this paper is to propose a FCM model by an Evolutionary Algorithm (EA), but the resulted FCM model is improved by a multi-local and balanced local search algorithm. Memetic algorithms can be tuned with different local search strategies (CMA-ES, SW, SSW and Simplex) and the balance of the effort between global and local search. To do this, we applied the proposed approach to the forecasting of moisture loss in industrial drying process. The thermal drying process is a relevant one used in many industrial processes such as food industry, biofuels production, detergents and dyes in powder production, pharmaceutical industry, reprography applications, textile industries, and others. This research also shows that exploration of the search space is more relevant than finding local optima in the FCM models tested

Use of semantic technologies in the development of an ontology for the management of urban projects. the case of the Seville city council

The implementation and start-up of economic activities that generate wealth and employment in any municipality require obtaining municipal licenses and authorizations for which the drafting of a technical activity project is mandatory. All the interested parties benefit from the regulatory compliance with the urban and environmental legal requirements established by the municipalities for this type of projects. However, the numerous non-compliances detected in the "a posteriori" inspections carried out by the municipal technicians are causing that in many Spanish municipalities a high percentage of these projects are not viable and are paralyzed due to non-compliances in aspects such as accessibility for people with disabilities, incorrect location of the machines of the different facilities, smoke and gas outlets, lack of acoustic insulation, etc. The consequence of this situation is the enormous delay in the opening of the establishments, or even that some of the promoters of these projects desist from undertaking the activity. In response to this serious problem, a Knowledge-Based System (KBS) is proposed that would significantly improve the legalization system of economic activity projects processed by a responsible declaration in Spanish municipalities

Thermal applications of biomass in hospitals

The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of using renewable energy from biomass for the production of heat and cold in hospitals, examining the feasibility of establishing such facilities in Extremadura (Spain). In its development, has been taken into account the technical aspects related to the operation of this type of heating, including reliability and maintainability of them, assessing the problems generated by the introduction of renewable energy from biomass in publics buildings. It has been shown that high consumption of hot water and heating systems consume annually make the hospital a great place for the installation of thermal production systems based on biomass, because the necessary demand and its continued operation, promotes amortization. In addition, it was found that promoting the use of renewable energy through biomass, can help create and consolidate a native biomass market, emerging at the beginning of this project and in the consolidation phase at the present time, that eventually will get an economic improvement in rural areas, promoting its development

A quantitative analysis of cold water for human consumption in hospitals in Spain

An estimation of the water used for human consumption in hospitals is essential to determine possible savings and to fix criteria to improve the design of new water consumption models.The present work reports on cold water for human consumption (CWHC) in hospitals in Spain and determines the possible savings. In the period of 2005–2012, 80 Eco-Management and Audit Schemes (EMAS) from20 hospitals were analysed. The results conclude that the average annual consumption of CWHC is 1.59m3/m2 (with a standard deviation of 0.48 m3/m2), 195.85 m3/bed (standard deviation 70.07 m3/bed), or 53.69 m3/worker (standard deviation 16.64 m3/worker). The results demonstrate the possibility of saving 5,600,000m3 of water per year. Assuming the cost of water as approximately 1.22 €/m3, annual savings are estimated as 6,832,000 €. Furthermore, 2,912MWh of energy could be saved, and the emission of 22,400 annual tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere could be avoided

Emisiones de CO2 , energía y actividad económica en la Unión Europea: 1995-2015

Seminario impartido en la "Reunión de Alto Nivel en materia de Cambio Climático", Facultad de Derecho, UHU, octubre 2017Emisiones de CO2 , energía y actividad económica en la Unión Europea: 1995-201

Improving municipal licenses management forced by the services directive : a case study in the Council of Seville, Spain

Introducción. Se presentan los resultados de una investigación, emprendida para mejorar la eficiencia del sistema de tramitación y autorización administrativa de licencias de actividades en los ayuntamientos españoles, motivada por los cambios en la legislación española debido a la Directiva de Servicios. Material y Métodos. Tras comparar el cumplimiento de la Directiva en una muestra de los diez ayuntamientos con más población de Andalucía, se emplea como caso de estudio el ayuntamiento de Sevilla, analizando sus procedimientos y flujos de información e identificando problemas y carencias. Resultados. Tal y como exige la Directiva, se proponen nuevos procedimientos de administración electrónica, mejoras e innovaciones organizacionales en el sistema de tramitación municipal actual, incluyendo un prototipo de sistema basado en el conocimiento para apoyar las consultas técnicas previas para la implantación de actividades. Discusión. Los resultados son útiles para más de ocho mil ayuntamientos españoles.Introduction. We present the results of an investigation undertaken to improve the efficiency in the administrative permits management system for new economical activities in the Spanish municipalities, caused by the changes in the Spanish law emerged after the Services Directive Material and methods After comparing the Directive fulfilment in a sample of the ten most populated municipalities of Andalusia, the council of Seville is used as study case, analysing its procedures and information flows, and identifying problems and deficiencies. Results Such as is required by the Directive, new e-government procedures, organizational improvements and innovations in the current municipal management system are proposed, including a knowledge based system prototype for supporting technical consultations prior to the implementation of activities. Discussion. The results are useful for more than eight thousand Spanish municipalitie