Cleaner Environmental Systems最新文献

The quality of community decisions about the key characteristics of urban services depends on the level of involvement of local stakeholder groups. The identification of the environmental, economic and social impacts of investments to improve urban services is a critical aspect of the decision preparation phase. Assessment of the main stakeholder groups being affected by the impacts of urban services is required to understand what kind of problems they perceive. Based on their demand, different solutions can be provided to create an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) software system to facilitate environmental cooperations. The aim of this research is to propose an ICT system to support citizens’ active involvement in the transformation of the environment with access to essential information, and enable them to make more effective decisions about the investments. Most of the features of the proposed system have the potential to support eco-effective environmental policy implementations and form part of a sustainable policy toolkit. We explore the different interests and what functions should be provided to make access to information easier and more integrated. Our proposed conceptual framework would fulfill the requirements and gives practical examples how to increase eco-efficiency of products, technologies or investments in urban areas.

Plastics are key in the packaging sector, but their widespread use contributes significantly to environmental challenges, such as the short life and high daily production of HDPE milk bottles. This study therefore aims to find a solution to this plastic waste, focusing on mechanical recycling. A comprehensive characterization of this post-consumer recycled HDPE reveals significant PP contamination, which poses a significant barrier due to polyolefin incompatibility, a common challenge in mixed plastics recycling. To mitigate this, blending with virgin HDPE and the use of various compatibilizers were investigated to improve the recyclability of the material. Several extrusion cycles were performed to analyse the thermo-mechanical degradation and to measure the performance and stability of the blends. The environmental impact of incorporating recycled HDPE into new bottles was also evaluated. Comparative evaluations with virgin bottles show that incorporating 25% or 50% recycled HDPE in the bottle yields carbon footprint reductions of 3% and 14%, respectively. These benefits could amplify with a wind-powered supply chain and a 100% recycled content. The findings lay the foundation for future plastic recycling scenarios, including dedicated sorting for this waste stream, providing a pathway to address the environmental impact of HDPE milk bottle disposal through recycling practices.

Cement production is a major consumer of energy and the largest source of industrial CO₂ emissions. This study aims to perform an environmental life cycle assessment of clinker and cement production in Ethiopia, using ReCiPe impact assessment method. Inventory data (material, energy, and transportation) is collected from seven major Ethiopian cement industries. The midpoint analysis identified nine hotspot environmental concerns: global warming, ozone formation (human health and terrestrial ecosystem), particulate matter formation, terrestrial (acidification and ecotoxicity), freshwater eutrophication, human carcinogenic toxicity, and fossil resource scarcity. Human health emerged as the most significantly affected endpoint damage category by the midpoint impacts. Among the process stages included in clinker system boundary, clinker production phase (kiln emissions) is a significant contributor to the total score of the hotspot impacts, ranging from 60.7% to 91.8%. The clinker system is responsible for over 81.03% of the overall environmental burden of cement. The sensitivity analysis reveals that a 5% change in kiln energy consumption and transportation burden could lead to a reduction in hotspot impacts ranging from 1.8% to 5%. To foster reliability of this study, uncertainty analysis is also conducted. Overall, the findings indicate the need to enhance environmental sustainability in Ethiopian cement production.

Integrated organic crop-livestock systems represent a sustainability model on which many environmental, economic and social expectations have been placed, especially in some areas with limited availability of natural resources. In recent years, among the fodder crops in rotation on organic livestock farms, conditions have been created for the emergence of soya (Glycine hispida, M.), also due to the coupled aid granted by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). A generalised spread of soybean, however, may generate unsustainable production patterns, especially in Mediterranean areas characterised by limited irrigation and weed management issues. With respect to the above, the research assessed the holistic sustainability of using field beans (Vicia faba, L.) in rotation for fodder purposes. To this end, a technical-economic and environmental analysis was carried out with economic balances and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), through which a number of synthetic efficiency indices were developed. The results demonstrate the validity of the agronomic choice in achieving environmental efficiency, but also the importance of soil management and reducing the livestock load per unit area in order to simultaneously maintain economic and social efficiency levels.

This review conducts a comprehensive quantitative analysis of the life cycle assessments (LCA) of starch-based products from production inception (biomass and starch production) to final manufacture. More specifically, this analysis synthesizes published LCA data for starch-based films, foams, polylactic acid (PLA), and filaments against typical fossil-based counterparts (polyethylene and polystyrene), revealing PLA’s carbon emissions range from 0.62 to 5.3 kg CO₂eq/kg, films at 3.2–5.8 kg CO₂eq/kg, and foams at 1.3–3.2 kg CO₂eq/kg, contrasted with fossil-based products emitting 0.7–6.7 kg CO₂eq/kg. Despite lower carbon dioxide emissions for starch-based products, the broader environmental impact, including eutrophication and acidification, often exceeds that of fossil-based counterparts, attributed to agricultural inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides.

This review delineates the environmental merits of starch-based products, outlines their optimal applications, and underscores the imperative for future research to address identified knowledge gaps and methodological limitations, particularly in the comprehensive environmental assessment of agricultural inputs and their mitigation strategies.

University laboratories and research institutes are progressively engaging in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from their operations. It can be difficult to target all sources of GHG emissions at once, given the diversity of problems posed by each source individually. However, targeting only one or a subset of emissions sources can lead to reallocation of expenditures and thus transfers between emissions items when the financial budget is constant. A simple toy model with 2 or 3 expenditure items and 2 classes of laboratory personnel allows us to explore the communicating vessels effects associated with the partial decarbonization of research entities in different scenarios. More generally, the model highlights the trade-offs between CO2 emissions, expenditures, and output/research production. Decarbonization measures must be carefully planned based on thorough identification and quantification of direct emissions sources inside and outside the laboratory. Examples pertaining to air travel and use of labware are discussed in detail. Redefining expectations in terms of research production could allow for a greater emphasis on environmental constraints but this requires institutional as well as ethical transformations.

Older urban buses are significant contributors to environmental effects. This study assesses the economic and environmental feasibility of transitioning to cleaner bus fleets by following the concept of early replacement of older buses that are still operational while examining several propulsion alternatives and policy approaches in Israel. Relying on assessments of environmental costs (EC) and the total cost of ownership (TCO), the proposed concept is feasible for all the propulsion systems examined. This feasibility is then reflected in the propulsion systems' marginal social costs (MSC), which are all lower than the MSC of continued reliance on diesel Euro 5 buses that are still operational, as well as in their incremental benefit-cost ratio (IBCR) that is greater than 1.5. Early replacement is an effective measure, reflected primarily in a substantial reduction of air pollution and noise. Electric bus was found to be the best in EC (0.17 USD/vkm) but worst in TCO (1.65 USD/vkm). It was followed by diesel-electric hybrid (EC 0.27 USD/vkm; TCO 1.6 USD/vkm), compressed natural gas (CNG) bus (EC 0.32 USD/vkm; TCO 1.4), and diesel Euro 6 bus (EC 0.33 USD/vkm; TCO 1.61 USD/vkm). Determining which alternative is preferable relies on additional considerations.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of the adoption of precision technologies in dairy cattle farms on environmental impact of milk production, estimated using the Life Cycle Assessment methodology. Primary data were collected from five dairy farms. Based on this information, scenarios were created to evaluate the effect of introducing an Automated Milking System (AMS) and adopting technologies for udder health monitoring and heat detection. Comparisons among scenarios showed that the application of these technologies helps to reduce the environmental impact of milk production at the farm level. The introduction of the AMS resulted in a mitigation of 1.2–5.8% of Global Warming Potential (GWP) per kg Fat and Protein Corrected Milk (FPCM). The implementation of technological systems for udder health monitoring led to a decrease in GWP per kg FPCM of 0.06–0.04% for every 5% increase in the detection of infected cows. The use of automatic systems for heat detection reduced GWP of 1 kg of FPCM by 9.4%, Acidification by more than 10% and Land use 5.65–7.69%. The effectiveness of precision technologies on environmental impact mitigation depends not only on their implementation and reliability but also on how the information provided is used by farmer.

Prefabrication is increasingly recognized as an alternative to conventional on-site construction, offering potential environmental benefits. However, these benefits are context-specific, requiring precise studies for optimal solutions. This paper presents the life-cycle environmental performance of an innovative prefabricated interior partition wall and benchmarks it against a conventional system, providing a replicable model for other novel partition walls. Detailed data collected directly from direct sources were utilized to conduct a cradle-to-gate with options Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), presenting a conveniently described method that can be widely replicated in the construction sector. The adapted LCA method presented in this study contributes to sustainable construction, providing a straightforward and robust approach to assessing the environmental impacts of innovative partition walls compared to conventional walls. For the specific scenario studied, the life-cycle impact assessment results generally indicate a superior environmental performance of the innovative prefabricated interior partition wall compared to the conventional system, resulting in impact reductions ranging from 10 to 60% across evaluated categories. For both systems, the production of materials plays a predominant role in the impact contributions. Furthermore, exploring alternative scenarios yielded significant environmental benefits, particularly in cases considering higher incorporation of recycled materials. Therefore, the direct comparison of the environmental performance of innovative partition walls against traditional solutions emerges as an environmentally sustainable path in the short and medium term. This aligns with the ongoing progress towards decarbonizing the building sector, not only in choosing more environmentally friendly solutions but also in improving the environmental performance of products through assertive changes.

With the current efforts on striving towards sustainable development both Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and circularity have become extremely popular, worldwide. Both are addressing sustainability aspects, yet typically applied separately. LCA counts with dedicated tools and databases, while circularity is commonly calculated with simple tools or even just formulas in excel, ignoring the supply chain. This paper presents a combination of LCA and circularity. The Material Circularity Indicator (MCI) and the Circularity Index (CI) are incorporated into openLCA, and the LCA database Ecoinvent is adapted to trace circularity throughout. This allows to track circularity variables across supply chains and apply circularity indicators in LCA models. Results show that the LCA database mostly presents linear systems, with most datasets having a circularity values close to full linearity. Furthermore, investigations over the cradle-to-grave datasets of a Lithium-ion battery show that the amount of virgin material extracted from earth is actually 43 times bigger than the weight of the battery, and that the overall waste produced is 92 times the weight of the battery. Such high values are overlooked in common circularity indicator calculations. This comprehensive framework aims to contribute to the ongoing dialogue surrounding sustainable practices and circular economy integration within LCA.