LCA

The environmental impact of the tanning industry is generally significant with outputs of wastes, i.e. high concentrations of organics, salts and heavy metals (chromium compounds), both in solid and liquid form, as a result. In order to bring the tanning industry more in line with present environmental thinking, various methods have been devised to reduce impacts. The underlying study proposes a modification of the method for unhairing-liming of hides where the unhairing-liming liquids are reused several times after being recharged by reduced quantities of chemicals. The study, therefore, aims at reducing both the economic and environmental costs of the unhairing-liming process. Experiments were carried out at lab scale with a simulation apparatus designed for the purpose. Life cycle assessment was used to evaluate the net environmental benefits of the modified method. The present value approach was used to evaluate the economic feasibility of the modified method. The quality of the...

This paper presents the LCA-based results of a research programme called Cicle Pell: Industrial ecology in the animal-to-leather chain funded by the EU in the framework of the Community Program Interreg III C, Regional Framework Operation, "Ecosind". The main aim of the Ecosind is to define the basis to implement a new strategy of industrial sustainable development in the Southern Europe regions. In the Ecosind framework, the general aim of the Cicle Pell project is to identify the economic and environmental improvements which can be achieved by companies in the leather industry and the related supply-chain by applying the industrial ecology principles and tools. In this paper the results of the LCA of bovine leather manufactured in Italy and Spain will be described in order to put in evidence the eco-profile of the two systems and to find out if the difference in the adopted technologies and cooperative management solutions have led to significant environmental differences.

Abstract. The goal of this research work was to assist consumers in considering environmental aspects of food consumption. A simplified, modular LCA approach has been used to evaluate the impacts from the consumers ' point of view. Comparative LCA's have been calculated for five single aspects of decisions: type of agricultural practice, origin, packaging material, type of preservation, and consumption. The inventory for one module includes the environmental impacts related to one particular product characteristic. The modular LCA allows one to investigate the trade-offs among different decision parameters. It could be shown that most of the decision parameters might have an influence on the overall impact of a vegetable product. Greenhouse production and vegetables transported by air cause the highest surplus environmental impact. For meat products, the agricultural production determines the overall environmental impact. The total impact for vegetable or meat purchases ma...

Several studies in swine feed composition have demonstrated that protein levels may be modified without significant changes in meat quality in terms of carcass, lean and back fat yield. However, this variation may change certain technical indicators, such as daily weight gain. The aim of this study was to calculate the carbon footprint of the finishing stage in swine production considering four scenarios of feed composition (P18, P16, P15 and P13). The life cycle assessment methodology was applied with a life cycle inventory based on reports in the literature. The feed composition used in P18 (no soybean hulls or maize starch) had the best environmental performance for global warming per kilogram of feed. However, when evaluating the life cycle of finishing swine, P16 (containing soybean hulls, maize starch and synthetic amino acids) exhibited better environmental results; the feed used in this scenario had better technical indicators (in terms of daily weight gain), thereby reducing the feed amount for finishing swine. Using the feed composition for swine P16, the impact may be reduced by an average of 12% compared to P13 (a high level of soybean hulls, maize starch and synthetic amino acids).

Future energy technologies must be based on renewable sources of energy and they must be sustainable. This workshop will provide insight into unintended impacts of renewable energy and how they can be avoided. In order to steer away from the pitfalls and unintended effects it is essential that necessary knowledge is present to the developers and decision makers engaged in renewable energy. This is where this workshop is valuable in its discussion of unintended health and environmental impacts of various renewable energy technologies.
The workshop give the participants an introduction the the concept of unintended consequences, in connection with renewable energy. Furthermore, several approaches to improve the understanding of these consequences and methods for predicting them, will be discussed. This will include the concepts of rebound effects and consequential life cycle assessments (LCA). The workshop will encompass presentations and discussions of results from cross-disciplinary research on implementation of the alternative fuels hydrogen, electricity and biodiesel in the transport sector, as well as the assessment of environmental impacts from the production of solar cells. This will also cover impacts of the use of nanotechnology and nanomaterials in the various energy technologies. In-dept focus will also be on the formation of nanoparticles during combustion of bio-blended diesel, and the toxic effects of these new emission components.

A complete life cycle assessment of hydrogen and gasoline vehicles, from fuel production to its utilization in fuels cells and internal combustion engines is conducted based on energy utilization and greenhouse gases emissions in order to compare its efficiency. Results are provided for two alternative technologies for hydrogen production, namely natural gas reforming and electrolysis (from wind and solar energy). Significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions are predicted from production of hydrogen through renewable energy sources, especially from wind power generation. Nevertheless, the economic feasibility of renewable production of hydrogen strictly depends on the ratio in cost between hydrogen and natural gas

Recent researches on building construction and deconstruction seem to suggest that, from a theoretical point of view, the criteria for buildings' connection selection might lead to scenarios of total material recovery and would allow the closing of the material loop cycle.
This paper presents the first step of a research that aims to create a knowledge base about the relation between buildings' connections and material recovery. As in Architecture were building design is often approached with top-down strategies, main literature consulted also presents a top-down thinking in building connections and joining framing were these themes hardly are the central focus. Therefore, as an alternative, a bottom-up or inductive approach to buildings' connections is necessary in order to obtain a more solid knowledge support on the topic. Connections' classifications need to be linked together in order to form a larger view of connections
complexity and related issues.

Renewable fuels such as rape methyl ester (RME) and ethanol for heavy diesel engines can be produced with different systems solutions regarding e.g. scale of production. The main purpose of this thesis was to assess the environmental load during small-scale production of RME and ethanol. This was achieved by carrying out limited LCAs, including air emissions and energy requirements. The influence of using alternative plant sizes and fuel production strategies, as well as systems for making organic farms self-sufficient in farm-produced RME, ethanol and biogas, was also evaluated.
For using natural resources as efficiently as possible, it is important that the machines for making the fuels are optimised. Therefore, the influence of some press parameters on capacity and oil extraction efficiency of a small rapeseed oil expeller was studied. It was found that to achieve a high capacity and a high oil extraction efficiency, the press was best operated with a small nozzle and a rather high screw speed.
On a systems level, the LCAs showed that the dominating step in the production of RME and ethanol was crop cultivation, in which production of fertilisers, followed by soil emissions and tractive power, made major contributions to the environmental load. The differences in environmental impact and energy requirements between small-, medium- and large-scale plants were small for both fuels. The longer transport distances to a certain degree outweighed the higher oil extraction efficiency, higher energy efficiency and more efficient use of machinery and buildings in the large-scale system. The results were largely dependent on the method used for allocation of the environmental burden between the fuels and the by-products, whereas the influence of uncertainty in input data and of some alternative production strategies was small.
For organic farming, the production and use of RME had a favourable energy balance
and resulted in valuable by-products, but was less positive in other aspects, while the
production of ethanol was very energy consuming. Biogas production had a low relative requirement for arable land and thus lower cultivation and soil emissions. For all fuels studied, the global warming emissions were approximately halved in comparison to conventional farming.

The power sector is contributing more to the global warming potential. Renewable energy technology is one of the alternative to reduce the carbon emission and global warming potential. In the renewable energy, wind and solar cell power are the best methods to produce the power. But the efficiency of the systems are fairly low compared to the conventional method. This paper presents the most important factors that affect the power output of the wind and solar cell system. The efficiency of the system mostly depends on the climate condition of the particular location. This paper discusses about the effect of temperature and irradiation on the solar cell power output. Also a mathematical model is developed to study the parameters that affect the electrical power generated by the wind turbines. The considered parameters are turbine swept area, air density and wind speed. They are tested for the V1.65MW and V1.8MW wind turbines and also for the 124W and 170W solar panel. In this paper, the location has been taken as Gandhigram Rural University, Dindigul, Tamil nadu, India.  KEYWORD: Wind Turbine, Solar cell, Wind speed, Air density, Irradiation, Temperature.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is commonly used for comparing environmental impacts of contrasting farming systems. However, the interpretation of agricultural LCA studies may be flawed when the alternative land use options are not properly taken into account. This study compared energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) balances and biodiversity impacts of different farming systems by using LCA accompanied by an assessment of alternative land uses. Farm area and food product output were set equal across all of the farm models, and any land remaining available after the food crop production requirement had been met was assumed to be used for other purposes. Three different management options for that land area were compared: Miscanthus energy crop production, managed forest and natural forest. The results illustrate the significance of taking into account the alternative land use options and suggest that integrated farming systems have potential to improve the energy and GHG balances and biodiversity compared to both organic and conventional systems. Sensitivity analysis shows that the models are most sensitive for crop and biogas yields and for the nitrous oxide emission factors. This paper provides an approach that can be further developed for identifying land management systems that optimize food production and environmental benefits.

Within this work, life cycle assessment modeling is used to determine top design priorities and quantitatively inform sustainable design decision-making for a prefabricated modular building.  A case-study life-cycle assessment was performed for a 5,000 ft2 prefabricated commercial building constructed in San Francisco, California, and scenario analysis was run examining the life cycle environmental impacts of various energy and material design substitutions, and a structural design change.  Results show that even for a highly energy-efficient modular building, the top design priority is still minimizing operational energy impacts, since this strongly dominates the building life cycle's environmental impacts.  However, as an energy-efficient building approaches net zero energy, manufacturing-phase impacts are dominant, and a new set of design priorities emerges.  Transportation and end-of-life disposal impacts were of low to negligible importance in both cases.

The environmental sustainability of an organic and a conventional lettuce cultivation system, situated at Northern Greece, was investigated. Data from all stages (i.e. irrigation, machinery used, and fertilizing) of lettuce cultivation were collected and their sustainability was assessed by means of the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. Two different functional units, namely per hectare of cultivation and per ton of lettuce produced, were used and the environmental impacts, on mid and endpoint level, and CO2 emissions were estimated by means of the SimaPro 8 LCA software. It was found that the environmental footprint and the CO2 emissions were lower by 11% and 15%, respectively, for organic than for the conventional lettuce cultivation, when sustainability was assessed per area (ha) of cultivation. On the contrary, conventional lettuce cultivation showed a better environmental performance than organic by 51% and 53% in terms of CO2 emissions and total environmental impacts, respectively, when the amount of lettuce produced is used as the functional unit of calculations. This is attributed to the fact that the organic system, due to its lower crop yields, requires significantly larger cultivation area to achieve the same crop production with conventional. Moreover, it was found that in all cases the irrigation stage primarily contributed to most impact categories, due to its high energy demands for ground water pumping and the fossil-dependent Greek electricity grid. In addition, in all cases the conventional lettuce cultivation system yielded a significantly high impact onto freshwater eutrophication, due to the use of chemical fertilizers, thus posing serious stresses on local freshwater ecosystems. A sensitivity analysis was carried out and alternative, more sustainable, scenarios were proposed.

The environmental impacts of two 3D printers were compared to a traditional CNC milling machine to determine which method is the most sustainable for general prototyping, or if such a statement can even be made. A life-cycle assessment was performed, comparing a Haas VF0 CNC mill to a Dimension 1200BST FDM and an Objet Connex 350 “inkjet” / “polyjet”. The functional unit was the manufacture of two specific parts in ABS plastic or similar polymer required by the machines. Several scenarios were considered, all scored using the ReCiPe Endpoint H and IMPACT 2002+ methodologies. Results showed the sustainability of additive manufacturing and CNC machining depends primarily on the percent utilization of each machine; this determines environmental impacts more than which machine is used. For both 3D printers, electricity use is always the dominant impact, but for CNC at maximum utilization, material waste became dominant. At both high and low utilization, the FDM machine had the lowest ecological impacts per part for similar utilization. The inkjet machine sometimes performed better and sometimes worse than CNC, depending on process parameters.

This bibliography covers articles published in journals, conference proceedings or as book chapters that reflect on the role of Infor¬mation and Communication Technology (ICT) in society’s challenge of developing more sustainable patterns of production and consumption. The biblio¬graphy is focused on contributions presenting conceptual frameworks intended to structure this interdisciplinary field of research. Some sources not explicitly pre¬sen¬ting a conceptual framework were included for their contribution to structuring the research field.

Within developing countries, wastewater treatment (WWT) has improved in recent years but remains a
high priority sustainability challenge. Accordingly, life cycle assessment (LCA) studies have recently
started to analyse the environmental impacts of WWT technologies on the specific context of less
developed countries, mainly in China and India. This work presents a comprehensive review of this
knowledge with the aim of critically analysing the main conclusions, gaps and challenges for future
WWT-related LCAs in developing countries. The most commonly assessed technologies in the 43
reviewed articles are different variations of activated sludge and extensive treatments applied in
decentralized systems; however, studies focused on advanced technologies or new sources of pollution
(e.g. micropollutants) are still lacking. Goal and system boundaries are normally clearly defined, but
significant stages for some technologies such as the construction and sludge management are frequently
not included and functional units should be defined accordingly to specific conditions in developing
countries. At the inventory level, a more concise description of sources and technical parameters would
greatly improve the quality of the LCAs along with accountability of direct greenhouse gas emissions.
Eutrophication and global warming are the two most commonly assessed impacts; however, the
calculation of terrestrial ecotoxicity when the sludge is used for agricultural purposes, of water use and of
the land use change impacts associated to extensive technologies should be encouraged. The estimation
of more site-specific databases, characterization factors (especially for eutrophication) or normalization
and weighting values combined with more affordable access to background databases and LCA software,
would deeply increase the accuracy of WWT-related LCAs in developing countries. An increased usage of
the uncertainty analysis should be encouraged to assess the influence of these gaps in the final interpretation of the results. The review finishes with a summary of the main challenges and research gaps
identified and with specific guidelines for future researchers to avoid the most common shortcomings
found in the reviewed studies.

Energy efficiency of vacuum cleaners has been declining over the past decades while at the same time their number in Europe has been increasing. The European Commission has recently adopted an eco-design regulation to improve the environmental performance of vacuum cleaners. In addition to the existing directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), the regulation could potentially have significant effects on the environmental performance of vacuum cleaners. However, the scale of the effects is currently unknown, beyond scant information on greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, this paper considers for the first time life cycle environmental impacts of vacuum cleaners and the effects of the implementation of these regulations at the European level. The effects of electricity decarbonisation, product lifetime and end-of-life disposal options are also considered. The results suggest that the implementation of the eco-design regulation alone will reduce significantly the impacts from vacuum cleaners (37%-44%) by 2020 compared with current situation. If business as usual continued and the regulation was not implemented, the impacts would be 82%-109% higher by 2020 compared to the impacts with the implementation of the regulation. Improvements associated with the implementation of the WEEE directive will be much smaller (<1% in 2020). However, if the WEEE directive did not exist, then the impacts would be 2%-21% higher by 2020 relative to the impacts with the implementation of the directive. Further improvements in most impacts (6%-20%) could be achieved by decarbonising the electricity mix. Therefore, energy efficiency measures must be accompanied by appropriate actions to reduce the environmental impacts of electricity generation; otherwise, the benefits of improved energy efficiency could be limited. Moreover, because of expected lower life expectancy of vacuum cleaners and limited availability of some raw materials, the eco-design regulation should be broadened to reduce the impacts from raw materials, production and end-of-life management.

Recent trends in the proper management of End of Life Vehicles have led some auto recyclers to adopt machine-based dismantling to improve their yield. The machines are modified excavators that allow a greater degree of control and force for vehicle disassembly. We present and discuss the results of a 3-month real world trial conducted at an Australian auto dismantler assessing the environmental impact of using a multi-dismantling machine for material segregation. The results suggest that this process is a better alternative to the current norm used by metal recyclers, shredding followed by shredder output separation, in terms of environmental impact but not energy consumption.

Currently, stakeholders’ increasing attention to quality is driving the wine sector to rethink and change its own production processes. Amongst product quality dimensions, the environment is gaining ever-growing attention at various levels of policy-making and business. Given its soundness, the use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has become widespread in many application contexts. Apart from applications for communication purposes, LCA has also been used in the wine sector to highlight environmental hot spots in supply chains, to compare farming practices and to detect improvement options, inter alia. Case studies whose focus is the wine industry abound in high quality publications. This Chapter has a two-fold focus: firstly, an analysis of the methodologies and standards of the Life Cycle Thinking concept, related to wine, and secondly, a critical analysis of wine LCA case studies in order to compile a list of scientifically-based environmental hot-spots and improvements. The chapte...

As the building sector faces global challenges that affect urban supplies of food, water, and energy, multifaceted sustainability solutions need to be reexamined through the lens of built environments. Aquaponics, a strategy that combines recirculating aquaculture with hydroponics to optimize fish and plant production, has been recognized as one of "ten technologies which could change our lives" by merit of its potential to revolutionize how we feed urban populations. To holistically assess the environmental performance of urban aquaponic farms, impacts generated by aquaponic systems must be combined with impacts generated by host envelopes. This paper outlines the opportunities and challenges of using life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate and design urban aquaponic farms. The methodology described here is part of a larger study of urban integration of aquaponics conducted by the interdisciplinary research consortium CITYFOOD. First, the challenges of applying LCA in architecture and agriculture are outlined. Next, the urban aquaponic farm is described as a series of unit process flows. Using the ISO 14040:2006 framework for developing an LCA, subsequent LCA phases are described, focusing on scenario-specific challenges and tools. Particular attention is given to points of interaction between growing systems and host buildings that can be optimized to serve both. Using a hybrid LCA framework that incorporates methods from the building sector as well as the agricultural sector, built environment professionals can become key players in interdisciplinary solutions for the food-water-energy nexus and the design of sustainable urban food systems.

In recent years, the role of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of products and processes has increased in
importance, since it is the best technique to quantify environmental impacts associated with a process
or product.
The study was carried out in an olive grove located in Central Italy with ‘‘Leccino’’ cultivar. The olive
grove was established in year 2000 with a planting distance of 5.5  5.5 m, trained to the vase system,
under dry conditions. The same methodology used for forestry trees (‘‘model tree’’) was adopted to estimate
the biomass and the respective carbon stock of the below-ground and above-ground parts of the
olive tree as well as quantification of the non-permanent components periodically removed, i.e. fruits
and prunings.
The environmental impacts associated with management processes were evaluated according to LCA
standards (UNI EN ISO 14040 and 14044). In relation to the impact on climate change, the CO2 sources
and sinks were calculated in order to obtain the net carbon stock of the olive grove. These data were confirmed
by experimental measurement of the tree biomass in three representative olive trees. The treatments
and processes that had the greatest impact were identified and the individual phases and materials
were then analysed in order to propose possible actions for reducing emissions throughout the entire
olive grove life cycle. Removals and emissions were compared on a time scale, in order to identify the
break-even point.
The results allow to assess the carbon footprint of an olive grove, at different stages of its life cycle, as a
support tool for creating a sustainable production chain in the olive sector. The paper proposes a methodological
approach that can be adopted also in other olive groves with different horticultural management
models.

As the range of feedstocks, process technologies and products expand, biorefineries will become increasingly complex manufacturing systems. This book presents process modelling and integration, and whole system life cycle analysis tools for the synthesis, design, operation and sustainable development of biorefinery and chemical processes.

One oftheproblemsfacingresearchersintheapplicationofrenewableenergysystemsisthatthe
evaluationofthesustainabilityisextremelyperplex.Decisionmakinginenergyprojectsrequirescon-
sideration oftechnical,economic,environmentalandsocialimpactsandisoftencomplicated.Thispaper
presents areviewofthecurrentstateoftheartindecisionsupportmethodsappliedtorenewableand
sustainable energythroughouttheliteratureinthe field ofenergyplanning.Theselectedpaperswere
classified bytheiryearofpublication,decisionmakingtechnique,energytype,thecriteriaused,geo-
graphic distributionandtheapplicationareas.

Buildings interact with the environment directly or indirectly at their life cycle. There occur various environmental impacts in construction, operation and maintenance of buildings. As a result of these impacts natural balance and human health are badly influenced. In concern with, it is important to reveal environmental impacts of buildings to make an environmental decision. LCA is a method to assess environmental impact of a products  at their whole life cycle or one of the life cycle  stages. LCA is an important decision making support tool applicable for buildings, building materials and components including construction, operation and maintenance stages. The aim of this review is to attract attention to sustainability and environmentally friendly building material selection on using the example of steel structural building components having a high recovery potentiality.  The Steel is a sustainable building material with end of life options just as recycling and reuse. Recycling is a process using a material as an input  to produce a new material at its  end of life cycle. Reuse is an application of disassembly to use component or material without melting This study also reveals the importance of using. recyclable and reusable material in construction sector to reduce environmental impacts.

Soda Ash also known as Sodium Carbonate(Na2CO3) is an alkali chemical refined from the mineral Trona or naturally occurring Sodium Carbonate- bearing brines, the mineral Nahcolite or manufactured from one of several chemical processes. Soda Ash is mainly produced by Solvay Process also called Ammonia Soda Process. During this production process there are various Emissions and Environmental Impact. Recent technologies and advancements are predominant in reducing this Soda Ash Environment Impact. Current scenario shows that LCA is a very Handy tool which can be used to study and track the current status of Soda Ash Environment Impact. It also helps us in conducting Optimization studies and Reducing the Soda Ash Environment Impact.

More than 130 million microwaves are affected by European Union (EU) legislation which is aimed at reducing the consumption of electricity in the standby mode (‘Standby Regulation’) and at more sustainable management of end-of-life electrical and electronic waste (‘WEEE Directive’). While legislation focuses on these two life cycle stages, there is little information on the environmental impacts of the entire life cycle of microwaves. To address this gap, this paper presents a comprehensive life cycle assessment of microwaves and assesses the environmental implications of the Standby Regulation and the WEEE Directive at the EU level. The impacts are first considered at the level of individual appliances and then at the EU level, with the aim of evaluating the potential environmental implications of the full implementation of the above two EU regulations by 2020. The effects of the electricity decarbonisation and the expected increase in the number of microwaves in use have also been considered. The results suggest that implementation of the EU regulation by 2020 will reduce the environmental impacts considered by 4%-9% compared to the current situation. The majority of these reductions is due to the Standby Regulation, with the contribution of the WEEE Directive being small (~0.3%). However, the expected decarbonisation of electricity will result in much higher reductions (6%-24%) for most impact categories. The results also show that materials used to manufacture the microwaves, the manufacturing process and end-of-life disposal are environmental hot-spots for several impacts, including depletion of abiotic elements. Therefore, efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of future electricity mix should be combined with the development of specific eco-design regulations for microwaves that stipulate optimisation of resource consumption. Possible future trends, such as shorter lifetimes and limited availability of some resources, make the development of such product regulations more critical.

Built heritage conservation must face issues of material preservation and problems of sustainability from the economic, environmental and social point of view. Currently the sustainability is very topical, because of recent economic crisis and problems related to the envi-ronmental pollution, but is often limited only to energy aspects. The research suggests a “para-digm shift”: cultural built heritage has not only cultural values, but it could be seen as inherently sustainable: its preservation permits to save raw materials, energy of transportation, production and construction site and to produce less debris. A life-cycle oriented point of view allows to reconsider the management of historical buildings, taking into account new needs (new uses, environmental issue, etc.) and returning a general and more complete panorama, because it makes a balance between positive and negative contributions in the long term, considering all the aspects of sustainability.