Economic and environmental assessment of lithium‐ion battery recycling processes for electric vehicles

Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) are the best practice for e-mobility applications due to their power and energy densities. The capacity of automotive batteries decreases with usage and time and the life of lithium ion batteries is recently estimated longer, until about ten years. Even considering the following “second life” applications, in which batteries are reused for static energy storage systems (ESS), an End of Life (EoL) must be considered to recover the high value material (such as copper, cobalt, aluminum, iron, nickel and seldom lithium and manganese) still available inside. Different recycling main routes can be used to recover the valuable materials: the pyrometallurgical process, the hydrometallurgical process and the direct recycling method. At this moment it is not clear which batteries recycling route should exhibit a lower impact on climate change, because the single steps of the recycling processes are described inaccurately, probably because many technical information are confidential. From a general point of view, the pyrometallurgical route uses high temperature to reduce metal oxide components to a metallic alloy made of copper, cobalt, iron and nickel. Being the pyrometallurgical process used for other types of batteries, it is already well commercially established. The hydrometallurgical route uses aqueous solutions to leach material from cathode. The most used leaching combination is H2SO4/H2O2. The hydrometallurgical process is still under development and not yet commercial diffuse. The direct recycling route ensure the removal of cathode or anode material for repurposing in lithium ion batteries manufacturing processes. Despite being one of the possible recycling routes for the lithium ion batteries there are few information available. In fact, among the three-recycling route the direct recycling one is the least developed technology. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Life Cycle Assessment and economic evaluation of the recovery of materials in an urban waste management system

The main aim of this study was to perform a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as well as an economic evaluation of the recovery of recyclable materials in an urban waste management system. Urban waste is mainly composed of three fractions: 1) putrescible materials, 2) recyclables materials, and 3) residual waste. The putrescible materials have to be collected separately and sent to composting and/or anaerobic digestion plants. The recyclables materials have to be sorted and sent to the proper industrial facilities. Finally, the residual waste could be further selected to be sent to energy recovery plants. If citizens separate erroneously urban waste fractions, they produce both environmental and economic damages. In fact, on the base of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), a municipality receives an economic amount for each kilogram of packaging waste collected. In Italy, this activity is managed by CONAI (a private system, created and designed by companies). The “CONAI system” is based on the activities of six consortia each dedicated to promoting and control the most used materials in the packaging production i.e. steel, aluminum, paper, wood, plastics and glass. Packaging waste that goes into the dry residue represents an economic damage (a loss of the “CONAI contribution” and the payment of the disposal fees) as well as an environmental burden. The environmental and economic evaluation was performed for the case study of Nola (39.19 km², 34.349 inhabitants, and 876.47 ab./km²) in the Province on Naples, in the Campania Region of Southern Italy. Nola has a kerbside system which assured a percentage of separate collection of 61% in 2015. The LCA analysis included the treatment and disposal phases as well as the collection and transport phases. The LCA software tool SimaPro and the following three impact assessment methods were used: ReCiPe 2008 (for the medium-term perspective Hierarchist both for midpoint and endpoint levels), Ecological footprint, and IPCC 2013 (100 years). The environmental (Figure 1a) and economic (Figure 1b) analysis were developed for several real and hypothetical scenarios based on increasing percentages of separate collection and different composition analyses of the residual waste (RW). The obtained results confirmed that recovering materials from residual waste is a benefits both in environmental and economic terms. Finally, it is also a social potential benefit because the municipality could invest the economic saving in environmental campaigns entrusted to young people in an area with a high rate of youth unemployment. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

How to choose the best tertiary treatment for pulp and paper wastewater? Life cycle assessment and economic analysis as guidance tools

Pulp and paper wastewater (P&P WW) often requires tertiary treatment to remove refractory compounds not eliminated by conventional biological treatment, ensuring compliance with high-quality effluent discharge or reuse standards. This study employs a life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology to compare alternative tertiary treatment technologies for P&P WW and rank them accordingly. The evaluated technologies in the scenarios include inorganic (S1) and organic (S2) coagulation-flocculation, ozonation (O3) (S3), O3+granular activated carbon (GAC) (S4), and ultrafiltration (UF)+reverse osmosis (RO) (S5). The analysis focuses on a P&P wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Northeastern Italy. The LCA is complemented by an economic analysis considering each technology's capital and operating costs, as well as potential revenues from internal effluent reuse. Results indicate that S4 (O3+GAC) outranks all the other scenarios in terms of both environmental performance and economic viability, primarily due to the advantages associated with effluent reuse. S5 (UF+RO), which also involves reuse, is limited by the high energy consumption of UF+RO, resulting in increased environmental impacts and costs. The physicochemical scenario S2 (Chem Or), currently utilized in the WWTP under study, remains the best-performing technology in the absence of effluent reuse. In contrast, S3 (O3 alone) exhibits the poorest environmental and economic outcomes due to substantial energy requirements for O3 generation and the inability to reuse the treated effluent directly. Lastly, a sensitivity analysis underscores the strong influence of chemical dosages in S1 and S2 on environmental and economic impacts, which is more significant than the impact of water reuse percentages in S4 and S5. The high electricity cost observed during 2022 negatively affects the energy-intensive scenarios (S3-S5), making coagulation-flocculation (S1-S2) even more convenient

Thyroid nodule morphology affects the efficacy of ultrasound-guided interstitial laser ablation: a nested case-control study.

AbstractPurpose: The literature reports a wide range of percentages of ablation in the treatment of thyroid nodules. The aim of this nested case-control study was to evaluate whether the different morphological (well-defined vs. agglomerate) characteristics of nodules affect the success rate. Materials and methods: We selected 20 patients with a single and /or dominant well-defined nodule (group 1) and 20 with a nodular formation resulting from the fusion of multiple nodules (group 2). All the nodules were treated by the laser method receiving the same energy. Results: At 6 months, patients in group 1 showed a greater decrease in volume than those in group 2. These differences were more evident after 12 months. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates that the efficacy of laser treatment can be predicted by nodule morphology and contributes to explaining the wide differences in the percentages of ablation reported in literature

Integrated environmental analysis of urban waste separate collection in the Sorrento peninsula, in Italy

The main aim of this work was to study the kerbside collection system of two municipalities in the Sorrento peninsula (in Italy) with an integrated approach based on the three pillars of sustainability: society, environment and economy. The studied municipality are Sorrento (16,745 inhabitants, 1,681 inhabitants/km²) and Piano di Sorrento (13,159 inhabitants, 1,793 inhabitants/km2). Piano di Sorrento and especially Sorrento are tourist towns and this obviously has an impact on the quantity and quality of urban waste. In 2014, the percentage of separate collection was 63.3% in Piano di Sorrento with a per capita production of 465.7 kg/inhabitant/year, and 63.8% in Sorrento with 775 kg/inhabitant/day. In every municipality, there is a separate collection centre (SCC). In the SCC, the citizens can deliver the recyclables from urban waste obtaining economic benefits similarly to the system described in De Feo and Polito (2015). The sociological analysis was developed by means of a structured questionnaire similar to that developed by De Feo and Polito (2015). The economic analysis was conducted in the light of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system, evaluating the money recovery from the recyclable materials theoretically contained in the residual waste. The analysis was carried out considering three real scenarios: (1) 2000, without separate collection; (2) 2008, when the Campania region of Southern Italy was suffering serious problems with the management of urban waste because the region did not have enough waste management facilities; (3) 2014, when there was an effective kerbside collection system in the two municipalities. The environmental analysis was performed for scenarios (1), (2) and (3) applying the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach to the urban waste management, internal collection and external transport systems. As shown in Figure 1, in 2014, the increasing percentages of separate collection allowed to avoid the production of environmental impacts, with greater benefits for the citizens of Piano di Sorrento. On the other hand, for Sorrento it was calculated the number of theoretical additional touristic bus/day in the case of a “Zero Waste” management of the hotels in terms of avoided production of equivalent CO2. The result was obtained as the ratio between the difference of the impact produced by the hotels all operated in a normal way and the hotels all managed with a Zero Waste approach, and the impact of a single bus (as a function of the distance). Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

The historical development of sewers worldwide

Open Access articleAlthough there is evidence of surface-based storm drainage systems in early Babylonian and Mesopotamian Empires in Iraq (ca. 4000-2500 BC), it is not until after ca. 3000 BC that we find evidence of the well organized and operated sewer and drainage systems of the Minoans and Harappans in Crete and the Indus valley, respectively. The Minoans and Indus valley civilizations originally, and the Hellenes and Romans thereafter, are considered pioneers in developing basic sewerage and drainage technologies, with emphasis on sanitation in the urban environment. The Hellenes and Romans further developed these techniques and greatly increased the scale of these systems. Although other ancient civilizations also contributed, notably some of the Chinese dynasties, very little progress was made during the Dark ages from ca. 300 AD through to the middle of the 18th century. It was only from 1850 onwards that that modern sewerage was "reborn", but many of the principles grasped by the ancients are still in use today. This paper traces the development of the sewer from those earliest of civilizations through to the present day and beyond. A 6000 year technological history is a powerful validation of the vital contribution of sewers to human history. © 2014 by the authors

Alteration of serotonin transporter density and activity in fibromyalgia

The aim of the study was to evaluate the kinetic parameters of a specific serotonin transporter (SERT) and serotonin uptake in a mentally healthy subset of patients with fibromyalgia. Platelets were obtained from 40 patients and 38 healthy controls. SERT expression and functionality were evaluated through the measurement of [(3)H]paroxetine binding and the [(3)H]serotonin uptake itself. The values of maximal membrane binding capacity (B(max)) were statistically lower in the patients than in the healthy volunteers, whereas the dissociation constant (K(d)) did not show any statistically significant variations. Moreover, a decrease in the maximal uptake rate of SERT (V(max)) was demonstrated in the platelets of patients, whereas the Michaelis constant (K(m)) did not show any statistically significant variations. Symptom severity score (tiredness, tender points index and Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire) were negatively correlated with B(max )and with V(max), and positively correlated with K(m). A change in SERT seems to occur in fibromyalgic patients, and it seems to be related to the severity of fibromyalgic symptoms

Description of the EUROBIS Program: A Combination of an Epode Community-Based and a Clinical Care Intervention to Improve the Lifestyles of Children and Adolescents with Overweight or Obesity

The present paper describes the Epode Umbria Region Obesity Prevention Study (EUROBIS) and aims to implement the C.U.R.I.A.MO. model through the EPODE methodology. The main goal of the EUROBIS is to change the pendency of slope of the actual trend towards the increase in the yearly rates of childhood overweight and obesity in Umbria and to improve healthy lifestyles of children and their parents. The project is the first EPODE program to be performed in Italy. The aims of the Italian EUROBIS study are: (1) a community-based intervention program (CBP) carrying out activities in all primary schools of the Umbria Region and family settings as first step, to reverse the current obesity trend on a long-term basis, and (2) a clinical care program for childhood and adolescent by C.U.R.I.A.MO. model. C.U.R.I.A.MO. model is a multidisciplinary approach to improve three key aspects of healthy lifestyles: nutrition, exercise, and psychological aspects with the strategy of a family-based approach. The community-based intervention and clinical trial provide an innovative valuable model to address the childhood obesity prevention and treatment in Italy

Mapping a Sex Hormone–Sensitive Gene Determining Female Resistance to Liver Carcinogenesis in a Congenic F344.BN-Hcs4 Rat

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is prevalent in human and rodent males. Hepatocarcinogenesis is controlled by various genes in susceptible F344 and resistant Brown Norway (BN) rats. B alleles at Hcs4 locus, on RNO16, control neoplastic nodule volume. We constructed the F344.BN-Hcs4 recombinant congenic strain (RCS) by introgressing a 4.41-cM portion of Hcs4 from BN strain in an isogenic F344 background. Preneoplastic and neoplastic lesions were induced by the ''resistant hepatocyte'' protocol. Eight weeks after initiation, lesion volume and positivity for proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) were much higher in lesions of F344 than BN rats of both sexes. These variables were lower in females than in males. Lesion volume and PCNA values of male RCS were similar to those of F344 rats, but in females corresponded to those of BN females. Carcinomatous nodules and HCC developed at 32 and 60 weeks, respectively, in male F344 and congenics and, rarely, in F344 females. BN and congenic females developed only eosinophilic/clear cells nodules. Gonadectomy of congenic males, followed by B-estradiol administration, caused a decrease in Ar expression, an increase in Er-a expression, and development of preneoplastic lesions comparable to those from BN females. Administration of testosterone to gonadectomized females led to Ar increase and development of preneoplastic lesions as in F344 males. This indicates a role of homozygous B alleles at Hcs4 in the determination of phenotypic patterns of female RCS and presence at Hcs4 locus of a high penetrance gene(s), activated by estrogens and inhibited/unaffected by testosterone, conferring resistance to females in which the B alleles provide higher resistance. (Cancer Res 2006; 66(21): 10384-90