The assessment of life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of motor fuels is important due to the legal obligations and corporate social responsibility of the petroleum industry. Combining the Life-Cycle Assessment with optimization methods can provide valuable support in the decision-making process. In this paper, a mathematical model of a refinery was developed to analyze the impact of process optimization on GHG emissions at the fuel production stage. The model included ten major refinery units. Fuel production costs were minimized by taking into account the number of constraints. The analysis was performed in two steps. First, the model was run for the reference case of fuels composition. Then, more than twelve thousand model runs were performed. In each model, the fuel composition was changed. This change represented the exogenous pressures and resulted in different flows of mass, energy and GHG emission at the refinery. The most favorable results in terms of GHG emissions were then id... [more]

The refurbishment of the building stock is a key strategy towards the achievement of the climate and energy goals of the European Union. This study aims at evaluating the energy and environmental impacts associated with retrofitting a residential apartment to improve its vertical envelope thermal insulation. Two insulation materials, stone wool and cellulose fibers, are compared. The life cycle assessment methodology is applied assuming 1 m2 of retrofitted vertical envelope as functional unit. Moreover, to estimate the net energy and environmental benefits achievable in the retrofitted scenario compared with the non-retrofitted one, a second analysis is performed in which the system boundaries are expanded to include the building operational phase, and 1 m2 of walkable floor per year is assumed as reference. The results show that the use of cellulose fibers involve lower impacts in most of the assessed categories compared to stone wool, except for abiotic resource depletion. In detail,... [more]

Globally, 2.8 billion people still cook with biomass, resulting in health, environmental, and social challenges; electric cooking is a key option for a transition to modern energy cooking services. However, electric cooking is assumed to be too expensive, grids can be unreliable and the connection capacity of mini-grids and solar home systems is widely assumed to be insufficient. Developments in higher performance and lower cost batteries and solar photovoltaics can help, but they raise questions of affordability and environmental impacts. The range of issues is wide, and existing studies do not capture them coherently. A new suite of models is outlined that represents the technical, economic, human, and environmental benefits and impacts of delivering electric cooking services, with a life-cycle perspective. This paper represents the first time this diverse range of approaches has been brought together. The paper illustrates their use through combined application to case studies for t... [more]

LCA analysis with 16 impact categories was used for the comparison of two developed combustion technologies: Scenario I—the combustion of meat bone meal produced from all types of meat waste; Scenario II—the combustion of meat bones from the production of meat products. The key hotspots determined were electricity and natural gas consumption, covering as much as 98.2% of the total influence on the environment in Scenario I and 99.3% in Scenario II. Without taking into account the environmental burdens avoided, the LCA analysis showed that Scenario I was assessed to have 71.2% less environmental impact. The avoided burdens approach changed the relationship between the two scenarios. The absolute value score for the overall environmental impact shows that Scenario II can be more environmentally beneficial than Scenario I; however, Scenario I allowed the elimination of all types of Polish meat waste, and Scenario II could only be carried out in meat production units for the elimination of... [more]

For decades, among other industries, the construction sector has accounted for high energy consumption and emissions. As the energy crisis and climate change have become a growing concern, mitigating energy usage is a significant issue. The operational and end of life phases are all included in the building life cycle stages. Although the operation stage accounts for more energy consumption with higher carbon emissions, the embodied stage occurs in a time-intensive manner. In this paper, an attempt has been made to review the existing methods, aiming to lower the consumption of energy and carbon emission in the construction buildings through optimizing the construction processes, especially with the lean construction approach. First, the energy consumption and emissions for primary construction materials and processes are introduced. It is followed by a review of the structural optimization and lean techniques that seek to improve the construction processes. Then, the influence of thes... [more]

The building sector is responsible for 43% of France’s final energy consumption and is strongly associated with a high environmental impact due to its high consumption of energy and natural resources. These impacts are significant in isolated islands. Due to its geographical isolation and an area of 2512 km2, Reunion Island has a heavily carbon-based economy with a high import rate of raw materials for the building sector. This study aimed to investigate the effect of electricity mix decarbonization on residential house environmental impact. The methodology consists of three parts: (i) evaluating environmental impacts of Single-Family Houses (SFH) using life cyce assessment(LCA), (ii) defining SFH typologies using the K-means clustering algorithm, and (iii) implementing energy scenario in LCA of SFH to assess decarbonization effect. The environmental results were particularly sensitive in the operational phase, with a decrease of 83% between 2020 to 2040 of the global warming potential... [more]

An environmental life cycle assessment was conducted to compare proposed municipal solid waste treatment systems with the existing system in Visakhapatnam, India. Five waste alternative treatment systems, including open dumping of municipal solid waste (S1), landfill without gas recovery [LFWGR] (S2), landfill with gas recovery (S3), anaerobic digestion + LFWGR (S4), and incineration + LFWGR (S5). EASETECHTM was considered for assessment using ReCiPE Midpoint (Heuristic) world environmental impact assessment method. Global warming potential (GWP), terrestrial acidification (TA), freshwater eutrophication (FEW), marine water eutrophication (ME), human toxicity (HTP), terrestrial ecotoxicity (TE), freshwater ecotoxicity (FWT), and marine ecotoxicity (MET) impacts were determined for each option. The existing MSW disposal practice in Visakhapatnam city (baseline scenario, S1) has the highest GWP (1107 kg CO2 eq.), which can potentially be reduced to 68.2%, 81.5%, 98.2%, and 94.5% by alter... [more]

To meet climate change challenges, the UK government is aiming to reach zero emissions by 2050. The heavy-duty transportation sector contributes 17% to the UKs total emissions, so to combat this, alternative power units to traditional fossil fuel-reliant internal combustion engines (ICEs) are being utilized and investigated. Hydrogen fuel cells are a key area of interest to try and reduce these transportation emissions. To gain a true view of the impact that hydrogen fuel cells can have, this study looks at the impact the manufacturing of a fuel cell has upon the environment, from material extraction through to the usage phase. This was done through the use of a lifecycle assessment following ISO 14040 standards, with hydrogen systems being compared to alternative systems. This study has found that whilst fuel cells depend upon energy intensive materials for their construction, it is possible to reduce emissions by 34−87% compared to ICE systems, depending upon the source of hydrogen u... [more]

This research compares the potential environmental impacts of heat pumps with gas boilers and scenario analysis through utilising the life cycle approach. The study analyses the current situation with the baseline model and assesses future applications with Circular Economy (CE), Resource Efficiency (RE) and Limited Growth (LG) scenarios. Then, hybrid applications of low-carbon technologies and different manufacturing scenarios are investigated according to baseline and CE scenarios. Our results show that the use and manufacturing phases are responsible for 74% and 14% of all environmental impacts on average as expected. Even though the electricity mix of the UK has decarbonised substantially during the last decade, heat pumps still have higher lifetime impacts than gas boilers in all environmental categories except climate change impact. The carbon intensity of heat pumps is much lower than gas boilers with 0.111 and 0.097 kg CO2e for air source heat pumps and ground source heat pumps... [more]

So far, a lot of efforts have been put in life cycle assessments (LCA) of bioethanol production. There are many works that have assessed bioethanol production in different points of view to illustrate the environmental impacts. This study reviewed former LCA studies on bioethanol produced from various biomass resources by considering the effect of methodological components, technical pathways and feedstock provision on the result of LCA studies. The review evaluated 48 papers published 2002−2021 with a focus on studies that included a complete set of environmental impact categories. However, due to lack of harmony among studies, comparing the LCA results was challenging but the review indicated that the final results of studies are influenced by LCA methodological components, such as system boundary, functional unit, etc. Around 80% of the reviewed papers show the reduction in global warming potential, while contrary results have been found about increasing acidification, eutrophicatio... [more]

Using information from an experimental planting of non-toxic Jatropha curcas (NTJC) with minimal water and fertilization resources on rural marginal soil the objective of this article is to determine the sustainability of this raw material for producing biodiesel and the possibilities for improving it through life-cycle assessment (LCA). Three production scenarios were studied: minimal resources (MR), which focuses on the obtaining of biodiesel; minimal resources and utilization of sub-products (MRUS), which includes the utilization of the residual products in order to produce food and solid biofuels, as well as biodiesel; and utilization of biofertilizers, flood irrigation, and sub-products (UBIS), which incorporates the use of bio-fertilizers and irrigation in the production system. This study includes the selection of six sustainability indicators, as well as indicators by means of LCA methodology Finally, a sustainability index (SI) for each scenario was determined on the basis of... [more]

While the production costs and logistical benefits of biomass pelleting have been widely discussed in the literature, the downstream economic and environmental benefits of processing pelleted biomass have been largely neglected. To investigate those benefits, we performed a comparative techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment of producing ethanol using loose and pelleted forms of biomass. Analyses of a 2000 metric tons (dry)/d biorefinery showed that using pelleted biomass is more economical than using loose or baled biomass. The lowest minimum ethanol selling price (MESP) for pelleted biomass was USD 0.58/gal less than the lowest MESP for loose biomass. Among all processing conditions analyzed, MESP for ethanol produced with pelleted biomass was always lower than when produced with loose biomass. Shorter pretreatment and hydrolysis times, higher pretreatment solids loadings, lower ammonia requirements, and reduced enzyme loadings were the primary factors contributing to lowe... [more]

Due to the continuous diurnal, seasonal, and annual changes in the German power supply, prospective dynamic emission factors are needed to determine greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from hybrid and flexible electrification measures. For the calculation of average emission factors (AEF) and marginal emission factors (MEF), detailed electricity market data are required to represent electricity trading, energy storage, and the partial load behavior of the power plant park on a unit-by-unit, hourly basis. Using two normative scenarios up to 2050, different emission factors of electricity supply with regard to the degree of decarbonization of power production were developed in a linear optimization model through different GHG emission caps (Business-As-Usual, BAU: −74%; Climate-Action-Plan, CAP: −95%). The mean hourly German AEF drops to 182 gCO2eq/kWhel (2018: 468 gCO2eq/kWhel) in the BAU scenario by the year 2050 and even to 29 gCO2eq/kWhel in the CAP scenario with 3700 almost emission-free... [more]

Cellulosic biorefineries have attracted interest due to the growing energy security and environmental concerns related to fossil fuel-based energy and chemicals. Using pelleted biomass as a biorefinery feedstock can reduce their processing inputs while improving biomass handling and transportation. However, it is still questionable whether energy and emission savings from feedstock transportation and processing can justify pelletization. A life cycle assessment approach was used to compare energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from pelleted and non-pelleted corn stover as a biorefinery feedstock. Operations considered were pelleting, transportation, and soaking in aqueous ammonia (SAA) pretreatment. Despite greater GHG emissions (up to 25 times higher than the transportation) generated from the pelleting process, the model showed a significant opportunity to offset and even reduce overall GHG emissions considering the pretreatment process benefits. Our process energy an... [more]

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to the Farnsworth Unit’s (FWU) carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) operations were accounted for through a gate-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) for a period of about 10 years, since start of injection to 2020, and predictions of 18 additional years of the CO2-EOR operation were made. The CO2 source for the FWU project has been 100% anthropogenically derived from the exhaust of an ethanol plant and a fertilizer plant. A cumulative amount of 5.25 × 106 tonnes of oil has been recovered through the injection of 1.64 × 106 tonnes of purchased CO2, of which 92% was stored during the 10-year period. An LCA analysis conducted on the various unit emissions of the FWU process yielded a net negative (positive storage) of 1.31 × 106 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, representing 79% of purchased CO2. An optimized 18-year forecasted analysis estimated 86% storage of the forecasted 3.21 × 106 tonnes of purchased CO2 with an equivalent 2.90 × 106 tonnes o... [more]

This research emphasizes the analysis and assessment of the environmental impact in the construction sector. It aims to propose a model for analyzing the management of environmental resources in the building process. This specific sector presents a significant potential risk of negatively affecting the environment, through pollution, energy consumption, and waste generation. Environmental responsibility involves analyzing the environmental impact and implementing effective solutions for an adequate governance of the environmental resources. Various life cycle assessment methods are employed to design a new model of management of environmental resources, starting from the factors impacting the environment. The resulting model takes these factors into account and carries several advantages from an organizational point of view. One novel result is that the model can be applied at a microeconomic level as well as at a macroeconomic level. By implementing this model, the preconditions for r... [more]

The Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a concept of a policy instrument particularly pushed by policy circles to contribute to a circular economy. The preliminary design of the DPP is supposed to have product-related information compiled mainly by manufactures and, thus, to provide the basis for more circular products. Given the lack of scientific debate on the DPP, this study seeks to work out design options of the DPP and how these options might benefit stakeholders in a product’s value chain. In so doing, we introduce the concept of the DPP and, then, describe the existing regime of regulated and voluntary product information tools focusing on the role of stakeholders. These initial results are reflected in an actor-centered analysis on potential advantages gained through the DPP. Data is generated through desk research and a stakeholder workshop. In particular, by having explored the role the DPP for different actors, we find substantial demand for further research on a variety of i... [more]

This study proposes a multi-objective approach for the optimal design of a sustainable Integrated Biodiesel/Diesel Supply Chain (IBDSC) based on first- (sunflower and rapeseed) and second-generation (waste cooking oil and animal fat) feedstocks with solid waste use. It includes mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) models of the economic, environmental and social impact of IBDSC, and respective criteria defined in terms of costs. The purpose is to obtain the optimal number, sizes and locations of bio-refineries and solid waste plants; the areas and amounts of feedstocks needed for biodiesel production; and the transportation mode. The approach is applied on a real case study in which the territory of Bulgaria with its 27 districts is considered. Optimization problems are formulated for a 5-year period using either environmental or economic criteria and the remainder are defined as constraints. The obtained results show that in the case of the economic criterion, 14% of the agricultur... [more]

High initial costs hinder innovative technologies for building envelopes. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) should consider energy savings to show relevant economic benefits and potential to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Life Cycle Cost (LCC) and Life Cycle Energy (LCE) should focus on investment, operation, maintenance, dismantling, disposal, and/or recycling for the building. This study compares the LCC and LCE analysis of Water Flow Glazing (WFG) envelopes with traditional double and triple glazing facades. The assessment considers initial, operational, and disposal costs and energy consumption as well as different energy systems for heating and cooling. Real prototypes have been built in two different locations to record real-world data of yearly operational energy. WFG systems consistently showed a higher initial investment than traditional glazing. The final Life Cycle Cost analysis demonstrates that WFG systems are better over the operation phase only when it is compare... [more]

The introduction of stationary storage systems into the Italian electric network is necessary to accommodate the increasing share of energy from non-programmable renewable sources and to reach progressive decarbonization targets. In this framework, a life cycle assessment is a suitable tool to assess environmental impacts during the entire life cycle of stationary storage systems, i.e., their sustainability. A Li-ion battery (lithium−iron−phosphate (LFP), nickel−manganese−cobalt (NMC) 532, and NMC 622) entire life cycle assessment (LCA) based on primary and literature data was performed. The LCA results showed that energy consumption (predominantly during cell production), battery design (particularly binder choice), inventory accuracy, and data quality are key aspects that can strongly affect results. Regarding the battery construction phase, LFP batteries showed better performance than the NMC ones, but when the end-of-life (EoL) stage was included, NMC cell performance became very c... [more]

This paper aims to review one of the least used, but no less important, approaches in the assessment of the environmental implications of electricity generation: the Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA). This methodology is a top-down approach intertwined with the environmental satellite accounts provided by the national statistical office. Through the use of economic input-output (IO) tables and industrial sector-level environmental and energy data, the EIO-LCA analysis allows for broad impact coverage of all sectors directly and indirectly involved with electricity generation. In this study, a brief overview of this methodology and the corresponding assumptions is presented, as well as an updated review of the different applications of the EIO-LCA approach in electricity generation, suggesting a possible classification of the many studies developed in this context. The different ways of overcoming the problem of disaggregation in the electricity sector are also addre... [more]

Owing to residual biomass availability, the share of advanced biofuels produced from secondary biomass is forecasted to increase and significantly contribute towards achieving net-zero emissions. The current work investigates bio-methanol production through a new process configuration designed to improve the environmental performance when compared to the state-of-the art technologies (Base Case). The environmental evaluation is conducted according to the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. ReCiPe was employed as an impact assessment method with the aid of GaBi software. Depending on the plant geographical location, wooden biomass and exhausted olive pomace were evaluated as biomass sources. A scenario analysis targeting different energy sources was performed as well. The outcome of the environmental evaluation highlights a better performance in eight of a total of nine impact categories studied in the wooden biomass scenarios compared to the exhausted olive pomace. Moreover, two o... [more]

An energy production system that combines biomass and fuel cells produces much energy with minimal environmental impact. However, the hydrogen sulfide (H2S) contained in gasified biomass degrades fuel cell performance, thus negating the advantages of this combination. In this study, the removal of H2S by adsorption after biomass gasification was investigated. Metal oxides with high adsorption performance are common H2S adsorbents. However, they have a significant environmental impact in terms of metal depletion, which is an environmental impact indicator. Therefore, neutralized sediment materials from mine drainage treatments can be used as H2S adsorbents. A previous study found that the adsorption performance of H2S adsorbents is equivalent to that of metal oxides, especially in the high-temperature zone (300 °C), and the environmental impact is considerably lower than that of metal oxides. However, because the neutralized sediment is a powder (Φ 4.5 μm on average), there is a possibi... [more]

This paper aims to present the real improvement opportunities of a simple organic Rankine cycle (ORC) as waste heat recovery system (WHRS) from the exhaust gases of a natural gas engine using toluene as the working fluid, based on the exergy and environmental point of view. From the energy and exergy balances, the advanced exergetic analysis was developed to determine the irreversibilities and opportunities for improvement. Since the traditional exergo-environmental analysis, it was found that the component with the greatest potential environmental impact associated with exergy (bF = 0.067 mPts/MJ) and per unit of exergy (ḂD = 8.729 mPts/h) was the condenser, while the exergy-environmental fraction was presented in the turbine (52.51%) and pump-2 (21.12%). The advanced exergo-environmental analysis showed that the environmental impact is more associated with the operational behavior of the components, with 75.33% of the environmental impacts being of endogenous nature, showing that the... [more]

The European Union is moving towards a sustainable, decarbonized, and circular economy. It has identified seven key value chains in which to intervene, with the battery and vehicle value chain being one of them. Thus, actions and strategies for the sustainability of batteries need to be developed. Since Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a strategic tool for evaluating environmental sustainability, this paper investigates its application to two configurations of a sodium−nickel chloride cell (planar and tubular), focusing on the active material and the anode, with the purpose of identifying the configuration characterized by the lowest environmental impacts. The results, based on a “from cradle to gate” approach, showed that the tubular cell performs better for all environmental impact categories measured except for particulate matter, acidification, and resource depletion. With nickel being the main contributor to these impact categories, future sustainable strategies need to be oriented... [more]