Article
Engineering, Environmental
Alexandre Charpentier Poncelet, Antoine Beylot, Philippe Loubet, Bertrand Laratte, Stephanie Muller, Jacques Villeneuve, Guido Sonnemann
Summary: This article examines the multiple impact pathways of mineral resource use in life cycle assessment, proposing the consideration of cultural perspectives in determining relevant impact pathways and assessment methods. Analysis reveals that different cultural perspectives prioritize different aspects of resource use, leading to distinct socio-economic objectives. The proposal aims to provide a more holistic assessment of impact pathways and suggests potential development scenarios for method advancements.
RESOURCES CONSERVATION AND RECYCLING
(2022)
Article
Energy & Fuels
Fayas Malik Kanchiralla, Selma Brynolf, Tobias Olsson, Joanne Ellis, Julia Hansson, Maria Grahn
Summary: This study evaluates the feasibility, environmental impacts, and economic viability of different energy carriers for different ship types. It found that battery-electric and compressed hydrogen options are not viable for some ships, while the use of ammonia and methanol in engines has the lowest life cycle cost.
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Ziyue Cheng, Tianzuo Zhang, Xinying Zhou, Ziheng Li, Yuke Jia, Ke Ren, Tianshu Xu, Changting Li, Jinglan Hong
Summary: This study analyzed the environmental impact and optimization potential of prefabricated components through a life cycle assessment method. It found that a prefabrication rate of 50% and 30% could reduce potential global warming impact by 31.78% and 13.94% respectively. However, the production of prefabricated components in China incurred a social cost of up to $4.35 billion, with Shandong and Hubei provinces being the key areas for optimization.
JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION
(2023)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Pooja Yadav, Dimitris Athanassiadis, Io Antonopoulou, Ulrika Rova, Paul Christakopoulos, Mats Tysklind, Leonidas Matsakas
Summary: The study focuses on life cycle and cost assessment of novel organosolv lignin production process from spruce bark, comparing different scenarios to identify the most environmentally and economically suitable option. Results show that the baseline scenario has higher global warming potential and total cost compared to other scenarios, with scenario S2 being the most optimal choice.
JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Civil
Tao Wang, Jiansheng Chen, Chenming Zhang
Summary: The study modified Jasechko's method for groundwater quality assessment by considering endogenic carbon input, revealing the presence of obvious endogenic carbon mixture in California groundwater with little impact on fossil groundwater mass fraction estimation. The average F-fossil calculated by both methods is around 70%, indicating the dominance of fossil groundwater in California groundwater.
JOURNAL OF HYDROLOGY
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Antonio Valente, Diego Iribarren, Javier Dufour
Summary: Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a methodology for evaluating the environmental performance of product systems. A specific LCA harmonisation initiative has been undertaken regarding hydrogen, aiming to improve the robustness of comparative LCAs by developing harmonisation protocols and libraries of life-cycle indicators. This study fills the gap in existing libraries by calculating harmonised carbon and energy footprints of hydrogen for new case studies involving various production pathways.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY
(2021)
Article
Thermodynamics
Yair Schwartz, Rokia Raslan, Dejan Mumovic
Summary: The environmental performance of existing buildings is crucial for achieving significant reductions in CO2 emissions. This study compares the refurbishment and replacement of two housing archetypes in London using Life Cycle Performance approaches. The results demonstrate the benefits of optimal refurbishment and incentivizing re-use for quicker emissions reductions.
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Belkis Cakar
Summary: There is growing international consensus to prioritize food waste prevention. This research evaluates the effectiveness of food waste prevention interventions through the redistribution of surplus food in supermarkets and provides specific data and results.
JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Mohsen Nowrouzi, Hajar Abyar, Sohrab Rohani
Summary: The study compares nitrogen removal systems (NRSs) from various perspectives and finds that the sequential batch reactor (SBR) configuration shows the best efficiency (98.74%) for nitrogen removal. The operation of NRSs has the most impact on human health (63.67%) through CH4 and CO2 emissions. The exergetic efficiency of the system is 69%, predominantly supplied by biogas (around 50.75%).
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Alina Galimshina, Maliki Moustapha, Alexander Hollberg, Pierryves Padey, Sebastien Lasvaux, Bruno Sudret, Guillaume Habert
Summary: This paper determines climate-friendly and cost-effective renovation scenarios for two typical buildings in Switzerland using a methodology of robust optimization. The results show that the replacement of the heating system in the building retrofit process is crucial, and for buildings with already good energy performance, the investments may not be paid off by operational savings.
ENERGY AND BUILDINGS
(2021)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Thomas Mattinzioli, Miguel Sol-Sanchez, Ana Jimenez del Barco Carrion, Fernando Moreno-Navarro, Maria del Carmen Rubio-Gamez, German Martinez
Summary: This study analyzed the use of cleaner practices in the asphalt pavement sector to achieve current sustainability targets, and found that high quantities of reclaimed asphalt and producing mixtures below 100 degrees Celsius would provide the greatest environmental and cost benefits.
JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION
(2021)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Elizabeth M. Alejandre, Simon G. Potts, Jeroen B. Guinee, Peter M. van Bodegom
Summary: This study presents a novel approach to assess the impacts of relative land use on pollinator abundance for life cycle assessment (LCA). The method based on expert knowledge simplifies the complex parameterization of multiple existing models, allowing for practical application in LCA studies. The illustrative characterisation factors demonstrate the potential for reflecting key differences among land use types.
JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION
(2022)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Shiva Saadatian, Carla Rodrigues, Fausto Freire, Nuno Simoes
Summary: A simplified life-cycle assessment method has been developed to support the selection of windows with the lowest environmental impacts and cost, by specifying a small number of window-related attributes. The results show that window-to-wall ratio and orientation are the most influential attributes in terms of cost and environmental LCA.
JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION
(2022)
Article
Thermodynamics
Kexin Yin, Ranran Wei, Jiuxu Ruan, Peizhe Cui, Zhaoyou Zhu, Yinglong Wang, Xinling Zhao
Summary: This study proposes a multi-objective assessment method to evaluate the entire life cycle of medical supplies, focusing on surgical masks, from an environmental and economic perspective. The results show that the energy consumption and environmental impacts are mainly concentrated in the collection, pretreatment, gasification, and waste heat recovery stages. Operating costs have a significant impact and using automatic equipment and improving energy consumption are crucial for reducing system costs.
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Xiaopeng Guo, Yue Sun, Dongfang Ren
Summary: Electric vehicles play a crucial role in energy transition and low-carbon development. Evaluating their energy-saving emissions and cost-effectiveness is crucial. This paper establishes a life cycle carbon emission model and cost model, and combines them with emission inventory and calculated costs to establish a marginal emission reduction cost model. The results show that electric vehicles reduce 47% of life-cycle carbon emissions, mainly in the utilization phase; electric vehicles have lower emission and usage costs, but still cannot compensate for the higher initial purchase costs compared to gasoline vehicles; under current conditions, electric vehicles have higher marginal abatement costs affected by various factors, but with potential for decline; when gasoline prices exceed 9.8 CNY/L (1.372 USD/L), the abatement costs of electric vehicles become negative, making them an effective option for energy saving and emission reduction.
ENERGY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
(2023)